#team heard fans ask 'where's the red ranger' now you got a team where the red is damn clear

[mofffun]

gay sentai going to brunch

[aliaology]

NEW JERSEY RED

summary: reader finds herself falling for the new jersey devil’s center even if her heart is supposed to lie with the new york rangers.

pairings: jack hughes x fem!reader

warnings: none..? just yn getting sappy as hell bc she fell for jack!! use of ‘daddy’ but not in a sexual way.

lowercase intended.

BASED ON “tennessee orange” by megan moroney

living in new jersey wasn’t much of a difference than living in new york, at least, not to you. at times it just felt less chaotic, in a way that made you miss the chaotic streets of nyc. but moving to new jersey to become a media manager for the new jersey devils was a pro and a con.

growing up in new york city, meant you and your family were very big rangers fans. your father had seasonal tickets, every year. you went to every game with him that you could.

when your family heard you now worked for the new jersey devils, it felt like hell broke loose. working for the.. enemy? now thats foul play, you just betrayed your home team! but you didn’t regret it.

see, there was this boy. specifically number 86, a center for the new jersey devils. jack hughes. he was cute, scratch that— he was hot. you, like many other girls, fell right at his feet. of course you didn’t out right do so or show that.

but he as well— fell hard for you, maybe even harder.

not only did you work for the ‘enemy’ but now you were fraternizing with one?

you had the day off, sitting at your now shared apartment with your current boyfriend of nine months. you didn’t tell your family about him, he didn’t tell his about you. the media had no idea that the jack hughes had a girlfriend either.

your thumb hovers over the call button. the stool under you creaked as you shifted your weight. you clicked the bright green button.

it rang until it didn’t, “hello?” the sound of your mother’s voice filled the room.

“hi mama.” you spoke gently. “ive got some news for you” you told.

“finally! i havent heard from you in so long sweet girl, please tell me everything!” you could hear her smile from the other end of the phone.

you smile. “just don’t tell daddy, okay? he’ll blow a fuse.” you chuckle.

your fingers tap against the counter as you anxiously listen to her laugh. “okay, sweetie. are you okay?”

“dont worry— im doing okay. listen— i know you raised me to know right from wrong, it aint what you think, promise.” you start.

“honey, you’re kind of scaring me.” your mother nervously chuckles.

“listen, okay? i um— i never thought i’d honestly see this day, seeing how scared i was with my past relationships—“ you cut yourself off with a nervous laugh.

“i met somebody.” you told. you heard a quiet gasp on her end.

“really? honey thats amazing! tell me about him— about your relationship.”

you let out a breath. “hes got blue eyes, the prettiest eyes ive ever seen, mama. hes so good to me too, he always holds the door open, he never makes me cry. there has never been a moment where he’s made me upset.”

“oh honey..” she trailed off, sounding happy.

“im not done, mama. last weekend he took me to michigan, where his family lives. we watched a football game, a college one. his brothers used to go there. he let me wear his cap that has been on his dash forever— mama i swear i fell even more for him under those stadium lights. hes perfect.”

“but..” you trailed off.

“but? there’s a but? honey… whats wrong?” your mother sounded concerned.

“mama, you cannot tell daddy— he’s gonna think its a sin. but mama hes a player on the new jersey devils— but forgive me, i really like him, mom. hell, im learning how to golf for him mama. hes perfect, hes got a smile, mama his smile is killer. ive never seen one like it.”

“honey… you’re dad is right here, listening.” you clamped your mouth shut. just your luck.

“does he make you happy?” you heard your father ask.

“yes he does, daddy. i know hes a devil but god you would love him! i know he aint where we are from, but he feels like home. hes got me doing things ive never done. he makes my stomach burst into butterflies, he makes me blush, he makes me feel loved.” you explained.

“and you know i still want the rangers to win, daddy” you told.

you heard him chuckle. “as long as he makes you happy, sweetheart.”

you grin. you stay on the call for what felt like hours, talking about jack. when you finally end it, you feel arms wrap around your shoulders and your chest. a kiss is pressed to your temple.

“i hope you know how much i love you” jack mumbled, trailing small kisses from your forehead to your cheek and your jaw.

“and just so you know, you look better in new jersey red than new york blue.”

i #hope this wasnt shit LMAO first time posting on tumblr 😻🤘

[lumosinlove]

Sweater Weather

WARNING: struggles with homophobia and past abuse.

part xv

Remus had his head in Lily’s lap, the TV on a commercial break from the All-Stars game, when there was a knock at the door. Remus’ head ached, but he raised it anyway at the delusional thought that it might be Sirius, despite knowing exactly where he was. He remembered a similar knock, one that had actually revealed Sirius, who had fallen straight into his arms. And Remus had been there for him.

“Do you want me to get it?” Lily asked gently, her hands in Remus’ hair.

“I will,” Remus sighed, and sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Sorry that’s probably not a comfortable position for you and the baby.”

James appeared from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. “Do you want me to get it?”

“I’ll do it,” Remus smiled a little, standing. “Thanks for getting the dishes, Pots, really.”

“No problem,” James shrugged.

Another knock sounded and Remus called out that he was coming.

“Probably just one of those salespeople,” Remus sighed as he turned the lock. “Someone always falls for it and lets them in—”

Remus’ words died in his mouth in surprise.

Finn sent him a hesitant smile from the other side of the door, Leo mirroring it.

“Sup, Loops,” Finn said.

“I…Hi, boys.”

James poked his head around Remus to see.

“Cubs?” James questioned.

“Pots?” Leo said.

“And Lily!” Lily called from the living room.

Remus stared at them. “What are you doing here? Are you…”

And Remus realized. How could he have forgotten? Logan.

He didn’t know what was going on with these three, but maybe he was about to find out.

Finn held up a bag. “We brought tacos.”

“You just missed it, I made dinner,” James said.

“Oh,” Finn lowered the bag slowly. “Well…phew.”

James scoffed. “Thankless little rookie babies.”

“I’m not a rookie,” Finn pointed out. “More tacos for us.”

“Still.”

Remus blinked back to life. “Jeez, sorry, come in, guys.”

Finn walked past him only to receive a slug on the arm from James, and Leo put his hand on Remus’ shoulder as they followed James and Finn back into the living room.

“How are you?”

Remus looked up at him with a shaky smile and raised a shoulder. Leo nodded, understanding.

“We haven’t talked,” Remus found himself saying, throat closing a little at just the words. “I don’t really—Things are really just…busy right now.”

“I’m so sorry, Loops,” Leo said quietly.

“Don’t make excuses for him,” Finn said as he unpacked the take-out containers.

Lily spread her hands. “Thank you, O’Hara.”

“I’m not,” Remus said. “I didn’t expect smooth sailing, alright? Look, it’s…” Remus sat down. “It’s more complicated than that. Is there a point where I’m going to stop cutting him slack? Of course. But I need you guys to trust that I know when that point is. That point isn’t now, when he got brutally outed, which he was terrified of, and then had to go to one of the most public events in hockey in the same fucking breath.”

Remus stared around at them all. Finn was still holding the same take-out box.

“Okay?” Remus said.

“You got outed, too,” Leo said quietly.

“Yes,” Remus said over an exhale. “But I was ready. Not the way I would have chose, but I was. That’s the difference.”

The room got quiet again. Remus glanced at the television, but a commercial was still playing.

So,” Finn began slowly. “Is this a good time to say that me and Leo—”

Lily gasped, clapping her hands to her chest. “I knew it. Wait—”

“…are dating Logan?”

Lily’s gasp turned to one of surprise, slow and drawn out. She put her hand on her belly, eyes wide as she looked between them.

“Oh,” she breathed. “Yes.”

James put his towel on his head, pulling at it by his ears. “The cubs?”

Finn gave James a confused look. “Yes? What are you doing?”

“How did that happen?”

“Lots of misunderstanding,” Leo sighed. “And time.”

“Eight years in some cases,” Finn added.

Lily cooed. “Since college, aw, babies. Nut, are you wearing Logan’s hat? I’m going to cry. I’m pregnant so I’m allowed to cry at this.”

Everything Remus wanted to say felt lodged in his chest. He blinked and he saw Sirius’ haunted expression.

“Re?” Leo said hesitantly.

Remus snapped his head up. “Hm?”

“I know this is probably the last thing you’d want to hear,” Leo continued with a glance at Finn. Through the glass coffee table, Remus saw Finn put a hand on Leo’s thigh. “But we really have you to thank. Logan was sort of our missing link, you know? He was…” Scared, Remus knew Leo was about to say. Just like Sirius. But he shifted at the last second. “You really got through to him.”

What Remus couldn’t do for Sirius.

Remus smiled at them, knowing it was probably shadowed with everything bouncing around in his head and chest right now.

“I’m so happy you guys worked it out,” he said, and it was true. “Really, that’s…”

Sirius turning away, disappearing.

“That’s amazing.”

Sirius, the morning after.

Who I love has nothing to—

“Sorry,” Finn said. “Maybe that was…”

“No,” Remus said. “No, I’m glad you told us. I’m glad you’re comfortable, of course I am. I don’t want any of this making you feel like you can’t be yourself.”

“I think it did the opposite, Re,” Lily said gently.

Remus nodded. “Exactly.”

There was another knock on the door. Remus turned around.

“Um,” he said. “I’ll get it? Again, I guess?”

“What’s up, Fruit-loop,” Natalie said when Remus opened the door. Her blonde hair was pulled into a high, messy bun and she was wearing pajamas. “I brought face masks.”

“I brought alcohol,” Kasey said from behind her. He held up a bag. “And candy.”

Remus stared. “I…”

“We brought tacos!” Finn yelled from the living room.

Natalie clicked her tongue, smiling. “I knew I liked that red-head.”

“Sup, Nat,” Remus heard Finn say as he and Kasey watched Natalie walk into the living room from the door.

“You are a walking freckle, O’Hara, but you brought tacos, so it’s okay.”

Finn snorted, and Remus turned back to meet Kasey’s dark eyes.

“Hey, Bliz,” Remus said softly. “Uh, thanks for bringing—”

“He was selfish,” Kasey interrupted him. “And you’re allowed to think that and love him at the same time.”

Remus almost laughed. It seemed that everyone knew Remus loved Sirius except Sirius. Kasey’s words hit like stone, but they were soothing, too. The ache of pressing on a paper cut.

Kasey smiled a little, just a closed upturn of his lips.

“Come on,” he said, and nudged Remus inside the door, closing it behind him. “I make mean cocktails.”

Walking back into the living room, Remus stared around at them all. They were spread out, Kasey in the kitchen unloading what seemed like ten bottles, Natalie and Lily with their arms around each other on the couch. James and Finn seemed to be seeing who could build the biggest taco, Finn leaning back into Leo’s chest and feeding him chips.

Natalie pointed between them. “When?”

“A while,” Finn said. “Logan, too.”

Natalie’s smile was approving. “Hot.”

Leo pressed his finger over his lips, and Natalie pretended to zip her mouth closed.

Remus let out a breath. He had thought he would want to be alone, but this felt—better. The chatter, the laughter…it distracted him. Sirius wasn’t his entire world, no matter how big a part of it he occupied. Remus liked being reminded of that.

He took his place back on Lily’s other side and leaned into her.

“And welcome back to all our viewers,” the television said. “To our 2020 All-Star Weekend, where you can see your favorites present their best skills, and dream lines compete against each other.”

Remus sucked in a breath.

“You gonna be okay?” Lily said quietly. “Watching this?”

“Yes,” Remus said firmly. He wanted to see Sirius’ face.

It was true, Remus did have a point when he would stop cutting Sirius slack.

He would wait, but not forever. And not for the wrong reasons.

He had told Sirius that himself.

“Red carpet first, right?” Finn asked through a mouthful of chips.

“Yep,” Leo said.

“Okay,” James said, staring at Finn and Leo. “I love this. Where would Logan be sitting right now? Like, does it get crowded?”

“Imagine if you had two Lilys, James,” Finn said with a raised eyebrow.

James blinked for a moment, then flushed behind his glasses. “Fuck.”

Finn grinned. “Yeah.”

James took another bite of taco and chewed slowly. “That’s so much love.”

“Yeah,” Leo said softly, and pressed his cheek to the top of Finn’s head.

“What we’ll be doing tonight is welcoming all of our players, who were voted in by the fans, of course,” said the announcer. “And there is our nice red carpet. We’ll see who arrives first shortly, I’m sure.”

“I am so excited to see Crosby,” Lily sighed. “That man’s butt, my god.”

James made a disgruntled sound.

“Love you, Potter,” Lily smiled.

“It is a legendary ass,” Kasey said.

“Me and Kase rate asses every year,” Natalie said. “I think Crosby won.”

“He wins every year,” Kasey said. “Deservingly so.”

“That’s true.”

They watched the Stars arrive, then the Bruins. Zibanejad  and Panarin came from the Rangers.

Sirius and Logan were one of the last team members to show up and, ironically, they did so at the same time as the Snakes.

“Oh, Jesus fuck,” Finn breathed. They had finished their tacos and Finn was still sitting against Leo’s chest while Leo leant back against the couch, their hands laced on Finn’s stomach.

Remus watched, holding his breath, as Sirius and Logan got out of the car.

“Our boys,” Kasey said. “And…”

From just beside them, Snape and Regulus emerged, straightening their suit.

James and Finn hissed loudly.

“The snakes,” Leo finished.

Remus only half heard them, too focused on the camera flashing to a close up of Sirius’ face. His heart positively yearned.

Sirius looked exhausted. His eyes were a dull gray, hair curling agonizingly soft over his forehead. He was wearing a black suit, lapels velvet.

“Sirius Black with the fashion statement,” one of the announcers laughed. Remus couldn’t even tell them apart. “I guess we should expect that now.”

“Oh, fuck you!” Natalie yelled. “Fuck you, you stereotyping ass-hat.”

It rolled Remus’ stomach, but not as much as Sirius’ expression when he saw his brother and Snape. It was only on the screen for a second, his clenched jaw and unsteady eyes, before it switched to Logan.

“Oh, baby,” Finn sighed. “Look at that glare.”

It was true. Logan’s stare, aimed at Snape, was menacing.

“And there’s the League’s oldest and most famous rivalry right there,” the commentators said with a laugh. “Arriving at the same time. And, of course, Sirius Black who, as you all might know, has made a bit of a splash in the news recently when photos of him kissing another man were leaked to the media and turned out a major Twitter trend. That man is Remus Lupin.”

Remus’ stomach clenched. He had known they might bring him up, but he didn’t really think—

“Now, what do we know about Remus Lupin?” the announcer continued. “Not much. He’s on the Lions training staff, working, shall we say, closely with the players. And, well, the man was one heck of a hockey player himself. Let us play you the tapes we dredged up from Lupin’s college days at the University of Wisconsin.”

“What the hell,” Remus breathed, tucking his knees to his chest and hugging them. He felt Lily glance at him.

The screen faded away from the carpet and suddenly Remus was staring at an old memory. The footage was a little grainy, but he saw himself—could remember the feeling of himself—sprinting up the ice, skates cutting in. He took one player down, another, and scored. The tape cut and he won a Face-off, knocking it back to—

“Is that Greyback?” Finn leaned forward. “Fenrir Greyback?”

Remus swallowed. “Yes.”

“You played with—”

The announcers came back into view, grinning at each other.

“Pretty great. Unfortunately, Lupin was injured just before his draft eligibility, but, rumor has it, he was set for first. Would you look at that, Rob?”

“I know, John. Well, looks like he found another way to get some fame, eh?”

The two laughed. The living room was dead silent.

“Up next, we’ll get to talk to some of the stars. We’ll be right back after this break.”

“Excuse me,” Remus managed.

“Remus,” James called.

But Remus was already up, walking quickly out of the living room and into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Remus squeezed his eyes shut, then open. He fumbled for his phone, sinking down to the floor against the door with his knees against his chest. His thumb missed the call button twice, but finally the screen went dark with the call display.

It rang and rang. And rang. Remus rubbed his thumb along his neck. Of course, Sirius wouldn’t answer. Look what he was in the middle of.

“Hey.”

Remus closed his eyes.

“You’ve reached the Sirius Black,” James’ voice said on Sirius’ voicemail. “I can’t come to the phone because either girls are proposing marriage, or I’m scorning a hat trick. Maybe both! Leave a message!”

The beep was piercing, for the thirty-seventh time. He’d never left a message before.

“Sirius,” Remus whispered into the speaker. He pressed his forehead to his knees. “I know you’re—busy and I’m not going to beg you to talk to me, I…”

Remus took a breath.

“Just re-watch your arrival. I’m not going to beg, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight for you to see. See if you really care what those sort of people think about you.”

Remus hung up.

“Remus?”

It was Leo’s voice through the door.

Remus let out a steadying breath, scrubbing his face before standing and opening the door.

“Sorry,” Remus said. “I’m good, I just—I haven’t seen those in a long time, and then the two guys… I just needed a second.”

Leo had his hands in the front pocket of his sweatshirt, Logan’s hat backwards on his head, his blond hair fluffing out over the adjustment strap.

Leo nodded. “Do you want us all to clear out?”

Remus shook his head. “No.” He looked to the living room where the soft faces of his friends were peering at him. “No, I really don’t. C’mon let’s watch. I—Crosby does have a good ass and, you know…at least I can say that out loud now.”

Kasey laughed, pumping his fist in the air.

Remus settled himself on the couch again as they waited for the commercials to end.

“We’re cuddling too much,” Remus heard Finn whisper to Leo.

“No,” Remus said, hands out. “Please cuddle. Really, that’s not what’s wrong, I’m so happy for you guys.”

“It’s so cute,” James mumbled. “Lily, can we cuddle?”

“No, I’m cuddling Remus. We’ll cuddle later, baby.”

James nodded. “Kasey?”

Kasey raised an eyebrow from his chair. “You want to sit in this chair with me?”

James shrugged. “You can come on the floor.”

“I am a net minder,” Kasey said. “We do not sit on the floor.”

Natalie laughed, peeling a face mask out of its package. “Snob.”

Kasey winked at her.

Remus let out a breath, and smiled at Lily when she smiled at him. Things would happen, one way or another.

The ball was in Sirius’ court, the puck in his zone.

~

Sirius eyed the photographers and interviewers. His stomach churned. He had barely said two words to Logan, who had basically gotten right off the plane, into his suit, and into the car with Sirius, Minnie, and Logan’s agent, Clyde. They’d bumped fist, but the most Sirius had received from Logan was a hello and a serious of unreadable looks. It was those looks that disquieted Sirius more than the reporters. If Logan hated him—

“Hey,” Logan said as they were ushered forward onto the red carpet. Sirius was tense with Snape and his brother at their backs.

He looked at Logan.

“We’re talking later, okay? If we get split up, text me when you’re back at the hotel.”

Sirius blinked. It was—harsh for Logan. It was the way he spoke on the ice.

“I—okay. Yeah, let’s talk.”

Dread pooled in Sirius’ gut. But Logan wouldn’t want to talk if he didn’t like who Sirius was anymore, right?

Logan clapped him on the shoulder. “I have your back, Cap,” he said, and then he was pulled away to do his own run of interviews before Sirius could respond. Minnie approached him while Sirius was still standing there, mouth open, expression still changing.

“Right,” she sighed. “Well, here we are.”

Sirius shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m sorry, Minnie. I’m such a headache.”

“Stop that nonsense, Sirius,” Minnie said, patting his arm. “You are the most real person I have ever met. Snapping at stupid questions instead of being a drone. It was unfair how the world thanked you for it, but I believe in you. You have a game plan, I’m assuming, although you refuse to tell me anything about it?”

Sirius sighed. “Sirius Black being gay is news. Sirius Black telling the media to go fuck themselves isn’t.”

“Excuse me,” an aid came up to them, headset on. “We’re ready for you on the carpet now.

“Thank you,” Sirius said, and he had just started forward when Minnie lay a gentle hand on his chest.

She pressed her lips together. “You remember what Alice said. This could be important to a lot of people. That includes yourself, my boy.”

Sirius swallowed hard. He nodded, quiet, and then followed the aid into the camera fray.

~

“Logan Tremblay, holding his fucking own,” Kasey slow clapped.

“You mean holding his fucking tongue,” Natalie said. “That’s kid’s a fire cracker.”

Finn, gestured to the television with his ice cream. “He was the perfect medium between civil and simmer. And now I can tell you all that I bought him that suit when we were eighteen. Well, I was eighteen. He was seventeen.”

“Does Tremz know we all know?” James questioned.

Leo nodded. “His plan was just to start making out in the locker room. I thought we should go for more of a verbal approach first.”

“I was okay with either,” Finn added, then looked at Remus. “I’m sorry I’m eating all your ice cream.”

Remus waved him off, heart still ringing with Logan’s words to the third interview he had.

You guys wouldn’t care if he had a girlfriend, Logan had said with a shrug. Why are you asking me that question with such a crazy look on your face? And then, finally. I support my Captain.

Sirius had been too far away to hear. He hoped Minnie played it for him later.

“But if that was one of Logan’s first interviews, that means…” Lily trailed off.

Sirius.

“I hope he knows what’s coming,” he said instead. By the looks of him, shoulders hunched, eyes guarded, he did.

All Remus wanted was for Sirius to talk to him about it. It was like a single, hooked claw dragging its way through him.

The screen flipped to Sirius, his gray eyes focused on the reporter’s grin. His own smile was small. The reporter threw him softball after softball, and Sirius answered them shortly. Remus waited, waited for it to happen, for the interview to take the turn they all expected.

But the reporter held out his hand. “Great to have you in the League, my friend. Have a great weekend, eh?”

Sirius stared at the hand, the camera zooming in a little.

“Ah, yes,” Sirius said haltingly, and took his hand. “Thank you.”

Remus sat forward.

“Well, that was okay,” Leo said, sounding out of breath.

“Yeah…” Remus said. He wasn’t ready to believe it was over yet, though.

“So, Sirius,” another reporter said. “You’ve been in the news lately, huh?”

“Oh, here we fucking go, eh?” Kasey gestured angrily at the screen.

“I’m in the news a lot,” Sirius said blankly. “More than I’d like.”

She laughed. “But first openly gay NHL player. That’s got to feel good?”

Sirius stared at her.

“He wasn’t,” Remus sat back again, cheeks hot as he stared at the microphone that was being held closer and closer to Sirius’ mouth. “You fucking lunatic, what is open about this to you?”

“Preach, Loops,” Natalie said, leaning over to pat his knee.

“I’m looking forward to a good weekend,” Sirius said. “Playing some good hockey.”

“I—”

But Sirius was already walking away, in fact, walking past all the cameras. The television camera caught some reporters staring at Minnie with alarmed eyes, angry at missing their interview with Sirius Black.

They could just see a glimpse of Minnie’s head following Sirius as the camera tracked his back all the way into the building.

Commercials filled the room.

“Wowza,” Finn said. “Okay.”

“I think it’s good he didn’t stick around for those guys,” Leo said. “I mean, he shouldn’t be made to talk about it like that, you know?”

“Yeah, maybe he should talk to me first,” Remus grumbled and took a long sip of his cocktail.

“Yes, Lupin,” Natalie clapped. “Bitch all you want, we know we all love him. It’s all good.”

Remus did want that, at least a little. It even made him smile, Natalie’s words. But most of him was longing for Sirius, for his phone to ring. He kept it close, even as the screen played another two hours of Sirius and all the other All-Stars signing puck after puck, doing stupid game after stupid game, preparing for the skills competitions tomorrow, and the three-on-three games the day after that.

~

Sirius was exhausted. The day had been camera after camera, signature after signature. He could have fallen asleep on his feet, but Logan’s promise kept his adrenaline up. Remus’ text, too.

Thankfully, he and Logan had shared a car back to the hotel.

“Your room,” Logan said simply, and pressed the elevator button.

They were mostly quiet on their way up, and Sirius’ hands fumbled a little with the keycard as he let Logan in. His suitcase was still zipped up where the bell-boy had left it, and Logan took his jacket off, tossing it onto the bed. Sirius heard the door shut behind them, and then it was quiet.

“Là,” Logan sighed, crossing the room and then turning around to face Sirius. “Straight to it, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Sirius breathed.

“I don’t want to sound like I know more than you. Because I don’t. I really, really don’t, but, this is just something I think you should know.”

Sirius looked at Logan carefully, wondering what he meant.

“Knowing about you, knowing that you’re…” Logan raised an eyebrow.

“Gay,” Sirius said.

“Gay,” Logan finished. “Cap, it,” he looked around, but they were alone. He took a step forward. “Sirius, it did more for me than I could ever tell you.”

Sirius felt the words sink in slowly. He looked at Logan. Really looked at him. Brighter. He stood straighter. He looked more focused.

“You mean you’re…”

“I get that you think you’re the only one, that you’re alone in all of this,” Logan said. “I thought that. I felt that. It nearly crushed me. But you aren’t. I’m not alone, either. Neither of us are alone, but…but you’re on one hell of a precipice.” 

Sirius knew what he meant.

“I ran from him.”

“Yeah,” Logan said. “What the fuck, Sirius?”

“I know,” Sirius felt like the air was leaving the room. “I’m horrible.”

“You aren’t,” Logan said, and looked up at Sirius. “But, that was. That was horrible. But you must have talked, I mean, it’s been…what? Two days?”

Shame burned Sirius through and through. “No,” he choked out. “We haven’t. He’s—he’s waiting for me—”

The words hurt. Remus seemed always to be waiting for Sirius, and Sirius always asking Remus to wait. It had seemed romantic, under the veil of Christmas and gifts. It didn’t feel that way now. Sirius felt selfish and cruel. He was.

“I left—” Logan reached up, as if to take off his hat that wasn’t there, and then smoothed his unruly hair instead. “I left Finn so many times.”

Sirius jerked his head up. Finn.

“And I was so scared and guilty because of that, that I left Leo, too.”

“Leo?” Sirius said, confused. “You…wait, I don’t—”

“Both of them,” Logan said simply. “Yeah, it’s…” despite everything, Logan smiled. “It’s…yeah. It’s us.”

Three, Sirius thought. On his own team, and he—he had thought—

“How could you do that?” Logan said softly. “How could you do that to him?”

Sirius stared at Logan, throat closed. He swallowed over the bile.

A mistake. He had made a mistake, of course he had made a mistake, he always made—

“Cap, I saw you,” Logan stepped forward. “I saw you every day and I didn’t know why, but you were happy. You were so fucking happy and I thought maybe you were just…I don’t know. I was jealous, to be honest,” Logan let out a short laugh. “I wanted to know how you did it. And now I see because I did it. I found my…” Logan took a breath, as if this was the first time he was saying it aloud. “I found my two.”

I lost my one, Sirius thought.

“You’re like my brother,” Logan said. “And, growing up with three sisters, I’ve always wanted a brother. I’ve looked up to you since I was, what, in high school? And you deserve that, Cap. You’re good, and you’re kind, and you’re a hell of a hockey player.” Logan shook his head. “But fuck what you did to Remus.”

“I don’t know what to say!” Sirius shouted, and Logan blinked at the suddenness. It had burst out of Sirius, the words hiding until he couldn’t, he couldn’t—

Sirius sat on the end of his bed. He was exhausted, and Logan hated him, and—

The bed dipped beside him and Logan’s arm wrapped around his shoulder. The sudden warmth at his side made Sirius close his eyes, dropping his head.

“Cap,” Logan’s voice was soft. “Merde, this is coming for someone who didn’t say a word about how they felt to the boy the loved for eight fucking years, but, yes, you do know what to say. I always knew what to say, I just couldn’t.”

“I can’t,” Sirius said.

“Sirius, fucking think for yourself,” Logan said, taking hold of Sirius’ shoulders and turning him to the side to face each other. “I said I couldn’t, that doesn’t mean you can’t. We can now. Who the fuck knows what your fucking family said to you all your life, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. All the shitty things Twitter said are wrong—everyone is allowed to be wrong but what the fuck are you doing if you can’t fix things?”

Logan was breathing hard by the end. He swallowed over a dry throat and Sirius watched, stunned. Logan shook his head, eyes bright.

“I saw what happened to you and I got angry and scared. You saw what happened to you and you got scared. You need to get angry. Drop the fucking gloves a little, Black, lose your temper. I’ve seen it before. It’s like a dead point streak mid-season. You fucking accept that you can’t score anymore? No.”

I don’t know how many times you’ve heard that you aren’t good enough. But I’m going to make you forget each one.

“I’m fucking mad at you,” Logan said. “But it’s because I love you. Not because you’re bad or because you’re hopeless, or because you made a mistake. You aren’t a bad person. And you’re allowed to make mistakes.”

Do not make any mistakes, his mother had said.

Logan let go of him, then, and the sat there shoulder to shoulder, quiet. Sirius felt—lighter. He’d never felt that after being yelled at before.

“Tremz,” he began shakily, then cleared his scratchy throat. “I’m…I’m proud of you, you know? If that means anything right now.”

Logan’s voice was thick, too. “Of course it does.”

“You’re right,” Sirius whispered. “You’re right, I…I made a horrible mistake. I had never been so terrified in my life. If I lost the team, I—I don’t know what…” Sirius pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. “You all are the only family I ever…”

Logan was quiet for a moment, and then his hand replaced itself on Sirius’ back.

“It’s not just about Remus, huh?”

Sirius let out a sob, let it tear through him, and shook his head.

“Cap,” Logan hushed, and Sirius felt him press his forehead to Sirius’ temple, like they did after a goal sometimes, in a scrimmage, only there was no helmet. No hockey. This was his friend. “You’re our Captain. We gave you that, and we keep you there. We want you there, you’re our leader. You’re our friend.”

“Have you talked to the boys?” Sirius wiped at his eyes, looking at Logan. “Have they said anything?”

“No one’s texted you because Leo thought we should all let you tell us in the way you wanted to,” Logan said. “Not because no one supports you. To be honest, we didn’t think you’d go radio silent for this long when we made that decision, but… And after you didn’t let James in…”

“I have a lot of people to talk to, huh?”

Logan smiled. “Not right now. Right now, you have one person to talk to.”

Sirius smiled, too. “Yeah.”

Fuck, he hadn’t looked at his phone all day.

Logan got up and stretched with a groan. “That media run was hell. Fuck this weekend. If I so much as pull a muscle tomorrow I’m going to murder someone.”

“That’s what we all say,” Sirius stood too. “Tremzy.”

Logan looked up at him.

“I’m really happy for you. You and Finn…and Leo,” Sirius laughed a little. “How did that work out?”

“So much drama,” Logan rolled his eyes. “And moping. And, what’s the word, destin?”

“Fate,” Sirius said.

“Right, fate,” Logan smiled. “See? Not so different from you.”

“Guess not, no.”

“I’m going to call my boys,” Logan said, and held up his phone, shaking it at Sirius. “You call yours.”

Sirius’ heart lurched with guilt, but he nodded. “I will. Really, though, I…I don’t know what I’d be doing now if you weren’t here.”

“Spiraling, like you did after that failed cup run?”

Sirius laughed. “Yes.”

Logan swung his jacket over his shoulder. “See you tomorrow, Cap. I’ll be ready to defend your honor.”

“No, you aren’t allowed to fight because of this.”

“D’accord, d’accord,” Logan waved him off and shut the door.

Sirius stood there, feeling strangely light, given everything. He blinked after Logan for a moment, and vowed to call James, too, who had pounded on his door for hours. He felt stupid and selfish still, but he wanted to apologize. Not hide. But only after. After Remus.

Sirius took his phone from his pocket.

He had a voicemail. Remus hadn’t left a voicemail before. Sirius thought of the cold, formal text. He didn’t know if he could bare to hear that in Remus’ voice, but he clicked listen anyway.

“Sirius,” Remus’ voice came after a second, and Sirius sat down heavily.

I know you’re—busy and I’m not going to beg you to talk to me, I… Just re-watch your arrival. I’m not going to beg, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight for you to see. See if you really care what those sort of people think about you.

The phone went dead and Sirius scrambled for his remote.

~

Everyone had left for the night, but the apartment still felt warm from their presence. Remus decided to make himself a bowl of ice cream, but found himself eating straight from the carton instead. Finn really had made all-gone.

He was watching the melted part pool in his spoon when his phone rang. Everything, even the air, seemed to still and cool.

Sirius.

The name flashed at him. He hadn’t dared to put a contact photo, a picture of him that Remus had taken, bare in bed, sleepy eyed and smiling—

Now, maybe he could. One day. Soon. 

Remus pushed himself up to sit on his kitchen counter. He set his ice cream down, feet swinging nervously against the cupboards, and answered the call.

“Hi,” Remus’ voice was shot.

“I didn’t have my phone,” Sirius sounded desperate. Remus’ heart broke. “No, that’s not an excuse, I…Remus—”

“For the last thirty calls, or…”

“I know,” Sirius whispered. “I know, I know, Re, oh god, what they said about you—”

“I’ve been defending you to—to everyone,” Remus’ voice was thick. “Everyone, but I don’t…I can’t…”

“I’m coming home,” Sirius said. “Fuck these games, Remus, I’m coming home.”

Remus didn’t say anything for a long moment. He could picture Sirius there, alone in his hotel room. “I don’t know what to tell you right now, I’m… It hurt, Sirius. You left. You left and then you ignored me.”

“I know I did,” Sirius whispered. “But—”

“You aren’t the only one who this happened to,” Remus said, hushed, and then, even surprising himself, let out a sudden sob. He tried to reign it back in, but he couldn’t. It burned now, hearing Sirius’ voice, being alone. It hurt more than it had. He didn’t know if he had been ignoring it, or pushing through it, or if it was just hearing Sirius know that he had been wrong.

“I know that,” Sirius said. “I do, Remus, I know that. I made a mistake. I made a mistake. The meeting. I should have taken a later flight, too, I should have talked to you. I shouldn’t have run out, that was—I’m—”

“I don’t want to do this over the phone,” Remus replied with a hitch in his words. He stirred the spoon in the melted ice cream, just for something to do, then gave up and fisted his sweatshirt by his neck. “I know I said call me, but I really—I really want it to be us together talking, okay?”

“You mean…after the games?”

Remus took a slow breath. “I’m not just going to say everything’s okay, Sirius. It fucking hurt. All of it. And I know you’re hurting, too. I hate that you’re hurting, too, but…”

“You don’t have to explain,” Sirius felt guilt like it was something crawling inside of him. “I’ll—let me wait for you now.”

Remus let out a breath, remembering the words.

“I…I understand why what happened happened,” Remus said. “I do. Of course, I understand. And all I want is for you to be okay. For us to be okay. I just need my own time, too.”

“I want that. Please, just—let me tell you one thing,” Sirius said. “Is it okay?”

“Yeah,” Remus said softly, curious. “Go for it.”

“I talked to Logan. Well—he also talked to me. Really gave it to me. I deserved it.”

“Don’t put yourself down to me right now,” Remus began, but Sirius cut him off.

“I’m not, no, I’m not,” there was a sound like Sirius sitting down on the bed. “I…I won’t explain it all to you now, but I just need you to know that things are clearer for me. I’m…I’m not alone.”

“You never were,” Remus managed.

Remus listened as Sirius’ breathing changed into cries. Remus wanted to hold him tight.

“It’s so good to hear your voice,” Remus said softly. “Be careful, okay? With everyone this weekend. Snape. Regulus.”

Your mother, Remus thought.

“Logan will be with me,” Sirius said, and then added, as if remembering, “and I’ll be with Logan.”

Remus nodded. So Logan had told him.

“Protect each other.”

Sirius nodded. “And everyone else who needs it.”

Remus sucked in a breath, and cradled the phone closer, eyes soft.

“Yeah,” Remus said. “Yeah, baby, everyone else, too.”

At the name, Sirius sounded all but torn apart. He let it out, lungs out racing his heart.

“I miss you,” he choked out. “Am I allowed to say that?”

“Yes,” Remus hushed him. “Sirius, I’m mad, yeah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you. Of course I want you, you’re mine. You’re my wish, okay? This happened because we’re each other’s. We can be—we can be something good that comes out of this, can’t we?”

“Oui, yes, yes,” Sirius said. “I’ll tell you everything, okay?” He sniffed, taking a moment to breathe. “It’s different, hearing these things from my friends. From you.”

“You haven’t had a lot of support, Sirius. I…I get that it’s going to take a second. And so…I’m here, okay? But I’m not here to run back to if you keep leaving me. That wasn’t good. That was…” Remus would never forget that feeling.

“I’ll be better,” Sirius said, and then sucked in a breath. “I mean…for myself. For you.”

Remus nodded, even though he knew Sirius couldn’t see him.

“I’m going to try and sleep,” Sirius said.

“I miss you,” Remus replied.

“I miss you, too,” Sirius said. “So much.”

~

Sirius stepped out of the tunnel and immediately his eyes were drawn by flashes of color near the glass. There were six teenagers standing there. Their cheeks were decked out in painted on rainbow flags, and they were wrapped in them, too, holding paper versions up to the glass with the words HERE FOR #12 on them.

All Sirius could think about was going over there and maybe crying. Instead, he picked up a few pucks to sign.

The locker room had been—intense. There was no way Sirius could have missed the way some guys had moved away from him, avoided him. But others came up and shook his hand. They didn’t say much, but Sirius didn’t really want to be congratulated. The support, even quiet, was enough to keep him on his feet and focused enough to feel like, sure, he could perform some hockey tricks today.

And Remus’ words. We’re each other’s.

“Sometimes I think hockey just isn’t colorful enough, you know?”

When the voice spoke, Sirius’ eyes found the stick that had come into his vision first. The tape wasn’t the usual white or black, but all colors, neatly wrapped and waxed off.

Sirius looked up to find Alex O’Hara grinning widely at him.

“What’s up, Lion?”

“Hi, Alex,” Sirius said faintly, as they tapped helmets.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he gestured to the tape.

Sirius, to his own surprise, let out a laugh. “Of course I don’t, I… I should have thought of it, maybe.”

“You want some?”

Sirius looked at the pucks he was holding, then back at the kids at the glass.

“Yeah,” he nodded, setting the pucks aside for a moment. “Yeah, I do.”

“Alex,” Logan stopped hard in front of them with a spray of ice. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

Alex laughed, and then leaned in close. “Oh, yeah? More than my brother?”

Logan flushed pink beneath his tan skin. Then, he grinned and punched his arm. “How long have you known?”

Alex scoffed. “Please.”

And so Sirius found himself, sitting beside Logan as they re-taped their sticks with rainbow tape, while millions of cameras and cell-phones watched.

It was terrifying. And wonderful. It was something that went along with the phrase never in a million years, in Sirius’ mind. Only, it was happening now.

“Could I get some of that maybe?”

It was Mika Zibanejad, his hair pulled back beneath his helmet, dark eyes kind and soft.

It was the flood gates.

Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang. Braden Holtby, Nate MacKinnon.

Not every player did it, not by far, but they did have to ask for another roll.

Sirius’ breathing was working against his pounding heart when he took to the ice again, throwing a puck down and watching it bounce darkly between the colors. He smiled, and looked up at the kids behind the glass again.

Silver sharpies were not in short supply, and he fired off six signatures before skating over with them balanced within his arms. They began to pound on the glass as he approached, and he nodded to them. They were hard to hear over the crowd and the announcer’s noise, but he smiled and mouthed thank you, and they seemed to understand. He flipped the pucks over the glass easily, and bumped his fisted glove to it.

They loved him for who he was.

And Logan had been right. His team would, too. The thought that they wouldn’t still chilled him, but there were two sides of the coin now.

It even made him forget about—

“Stop this,” Regulus was there, hissing at him and grabbing him by the arm as he skated back with Logan, who had wandered over to a little boy with a Tremblay sign and jersey.

Sirius stared at his brother, surprised that he’d even approached.

“What are you—” he began, but Logan cut him off.

“Back off,” Logan growled, and gave him a little push. Sirius cursed internally. He didn’t want to start a fight right now.

Regulus ignored him.

“Sirius—” Regulus said quietly. “Think about—”

“Don’t tell me to think about the family,” Sirius practically snarled. “I’m thinking about myself for once. What I want.”

“Think about what you’re doing,” Regulus said, glancing at Logan desperately, like he wanted him to leave. “This is it, if you really—”

Sirius shook his head, yanking out of his brother’s grip. “I tried to take you with me, Reg. I tried so hard. And what did you do?”

“Fuck you,” Logan spat in Regulus’ face. “You call yourself his brother? When was the last fucking time you acted like that? Oh, right, was it when you trashed talked him?”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Regulus growled. He had switched to French now.

“Rookie,” Snape said in English from the outskirts of their triad, eyes on Regulus. “Come on.”

“Daddy’s calling,” Logan snarled.“La marionnette.”

Sirius watched his brother swallow, pale eyes wide and fierce.

Puppet, Logan had said.

“Tremz,” Sirius said, and put a hand on his shoulder.

Regulus looked to Sirius, then.

“Microphone?” he asked.

Regulus was asking if he was mic’d up. Sirius shook his head, and Logan scoffed.

“Little late,” Logan said.

Regulus, once again, ignored him. “Maman est là.”

“Je l’ai deviné,” Sirius had guessed as much.

Logan was still standing between them, but he looked like he wasn’t sure if he should be now.

Regulus pushed forward one stride, and Logan’s glove pressed against his chest. Regulus glared down at him, then turned back to Sirius. He was nearly as tall as him now, but for a single moment, Regulus’ expression flickered. Sirius saw his brother again, his little brother, the boy who had snuck him a Lions hat and hugged him and told him he’d miss him more than anything, and please don’t leave me alone in this house, with them—

“Fais attention,” Regulus bit out.

Be careful.

Regulus shoved Logan with his stick and Logan cursed again, but Sirius barely heard. He watched Regulus skate away, back to Snape’s side. Sirius and Snape looked at each other, across the ice, for a brief moment.

Sirius didn’t think Regulus would ever forgive him for leaving. Especially not with Snape at his side.

Snape’s lip curled, and he turned away, over the boards.

~

“That’s my big brother!” Finn shouted.

Remus laughed, hand on his throat as he stared at the screen, at Sirius, sitting on the bench beside Logan and Alex O’Hara, Zibanejad, Panarin, Crosby, Letang, Holtby…

Sirius, camera honing in on his focused face as he scribbled the signature that Remus knew well. The camera had been showing the fans wrapped in rainbow flags off and on, and it showed them now, too, as Sirius skated over with a wide, if not a little shy, smile on his face. He sort of talked to them, mostly just nodding and bumping fists as he passed the pucks over.

The camera saw Regulus coming before Sirius did.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Finn sat up in Leo’s arms, pulling him with him. “Black brothers, Black brothers.”

“Fuck,” Remus said, and felt Lily grab his wrist nervously.

Regulus and Sirius were talking furiously at each other, at least until Logan got between them.

“I swear to god, someone’s gotta get that kid out of Slytherin,” Kasey grumbled. “He’s like the Captain was, but on steroids.”

Remus nodded slowly, eyes on Regulus’, or at least what sliver of his face the camera was able to get.

Kasey hit Remus’ couch with his fist when they showed a long shot of Snape and Sirius. They were practically staring each other down.

“Can I just,” Kasey gestured at the television. “Can I kill him? Or shave his head?”

“Fine with it,” James nodded.

Leo glanced at Kasey. “I like that that’s your next worst fate after death.”

The cameras moved on relatively quickly as the skill events began. Hardest shot, accuracy, puck handling…

“So, Cap is accuracy, and Lo’s hardest shot,” Leo said, staring at his phone as he scrolled through the website.

“I wanna see how hard Logan can shoot,” Finn mumbled, and Leo whacked him on the head. Natalie nearly cackled and gave Finn a pat on the head.

Remus couldn’t stop looking at the tape on Sirius’ stick.

“Quite a display of camaraderie, seemingly begun by Alex O’Hara, older brother of Finn O’Hara who is Black’s teammate,” one of the commentators began. He was a new voice from yesterday’s red carpet. “It’s good to see that, eh, Tom?”

Remus liked him.

“Sure is, Nate,” replied Tom. “Sure is.”

“Well, that’s more like it,” Remus sighed.

No matter how fun it was to watch Sirius execute a perfect score as he dangled a puck between tight cones and flipped it through tiny slots, Remus itched to talk to him. He itched to see him.

He loved seeing the sticks tap for him, see other boys knock helmets with him like nothing had changed, but still. Remus wanted him home. He wanted him away from Regulus and Snape, and here in Gryffindor, or anywhere where support was strong. Remus had spent hours last night after the team had left scrolling through articles and Twitter. His mind was filled with the messages telling Sirius that he’d changed their life.

He couldn’t believe he had to sit through another entire day of this, watching Sirius play three-on-three games—possibly against Snape.

“Hey, Leo, did they announce the lines for tomorrow yet?” Remus asked. “Would you look it up for me?”

“Sure,” Leo said, looking around Finn’s head to get at his phone.

“The boys aren’t going for fastest?” Lily said disappointedly.

James snorted. “Um, I think we know Remus wins that one, Lils.”

Finn shook his head. “I’m still like, at family skate…I fucking fell over. I haven’t fallen over since, like, I don’t even know.”

Remus smiled. “Sorry about that, Harzy.”

“You really tore Kasey up, Fruit-Loop,” Natalie laughed, reaching up to push her hand through Kasey’s hair.

“Look, he’s really good, I was surprised, and I hadn’t warmed up, okay? I was surprised.”

Remus laughed. “I did have that up on you, Bliz. I’ll admit it, and give you a free pass.”

“No,” Kasey huffed. “I don’t want a free pass, I want to play again and stop your shot.”

“Fuck,” Leo breathed, and Remus stopped laughing.

“What? Is it Snape? Did they put them on the same line?”

Remus knew they liked to do that at All-Stars, put rivals on the same line. Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux were frequent victims.

Leo looked back at him, then up at the television where Regulus was taking his mark for the fasted skater loop.

“Not Snape,” Leo said. “Regulus.”

As if on cue, the announcer spoke up.

“And here’s Regulus Black getting ready to skate. We’ll be getting a real treat tomorrow, Nate. We’ll be getting to see Sirius and Regulus Black, hockey’s most famous brothers right now, play on the same line with Mathew Barzal. That should be quite some hockey.”

“Oh my god,” Remus heard someone breathe.

Quite some hockey.

Remus wondered if Sirius knew.

On everyone’s way out, Lily squeezed him in a hug. “You seem better today. Did you guys…”

Remus nodded. “We talked. It was…you know, it’s hard. It was good.”

“Yeah…”

“But I said I want to talk about it mostly face to face and so…all I can really do is wait now. I’m probably going to call him again now. See if he wants to talk about Regulus.”

Remus was absolutely going to call him again now.

“Okay,” Lily sent him a smile. “See you tomorrow for three-on-three?”

“Hang out at Lupin’s,” Finn hollered in the hallway and was immediately shushed by Leo.

“Jesus, Harzy,” Kasey groaned as he hit the button on the elevator.

Remus was in the middle of doing dishes when his phone rang. He wiped his hands quickly and picked up, nearly fumbling his phone into the sink.

“Hi,” Remus sounded breathless even to himself.

“Hey,” Sirius said. “Do you want to FaceTime?”

“Yeah,” Remus said. “Yeah, yeah, one second.”

Remus more or less ran to the couch, socks sliding on the floor, and sat down just in time for his phone to light up. Sirius’ face filled the screen. His hair was wet from a shower, and Remus didn’t know if it was the light, but the bags under his eyes looked worse than Remus had thought.

“Hi,” Remus said softly, smiling. “God, I’ve been staring at your face all day on TV but I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

Sirius smiled, rubbing one of his eyes before stretching back on the bed. “Wish I could stare at your face all day.”

“You’ll be home soon,” Remus said. “Hey, I…today was pretty amazing.”

Sirius laughed and reached out of frame for something. His hand came back swinging a roll of rainbow tape around his finger. “A fan gave me this.”

Remus grinned. “I’m so proud of you.”

Sirius looked at him for a moment, like he wasn’t sure what to say. Then, he smiled again, but it was quieter this time, less at Remus and more at himself.

“Me too. Today was—good. I mean…you probably saw Reg, but…”

Remus nodded. “Did you see your lines for tomorrow?”

Sirius shook his head. “Not yet. Why, are they up?”

Remus took a breath. “Yeah. They’re up.”

~

The All-Stars management seemed to enjoy the idea of putting Sirius and his brother together as much as possible, even going so far as moving their lockers beside each other. It felt like there was always a camera trained on the two of them, and Sirius had never been more on edge. The only good take away from this, it seemed, was that people weren’t asking him about his sexuality anymore.

“You’re welcome,” Minnie had said when Sirius had mentioned it to her in the car over to the arena that morning with Logan and Clyde.

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“I had to give them something, Sirius,” Minnie said. “They need their publicity. I hate it as much as you, but I thought this would be better.”

Sirius had to give Minnie some credit for that PR move, actually. At least with his brother, Sirius was used to dealing with the hounding.

“As Harzy would say,” Logan said from his seat, headphones on one ear and making his hair stick up. He raised his sickly-sweet coffee at her. “Bitch-ass move, Minnie.”

“Why, thank you for that assessment, Mr. Tremblay.” 

Sirius was just as thankful for Remus’ heads up about the game lines, even though he would have found out this morning anyway.

He only wished he had had one about Greyback. Sirius’ line, consisting of himself, Regulus, and Barzal, were set to face off against Greyback, Tom Wilson from the Washington Capitals, and Tony DeAngelo from the New York Rangers.

There was no fighting in All-Stars, which was a shame.

Cameras had followed him all the way into the locker room, where Regulus had cleared his throat awkwardly as he sat down beside Sirius and started dressing. Sirius felt a strong pang in his heart. They had done this with each other a million times. He hated that it felt so strange.

“Maman—”

“I don’t give a damn,” Sirius whispered lowly, using French so there were at least fewer people around them who could keep up. “And you shouldn’t either.”

Regulus laughed, and he made it look mirthful for the sake of the cameras. So, he was learning. There was no humor in his eyes.

“Do I have a choice?” he said.

“I did.”

“Yeah, well, I think we all know how you chose.”

“Regulus,” Sirius sighed.

“Drop it,” his brother bit back.

But this was the longest they had been and would be together in probably months. Maybe years, if Sirius counted his family. He didn’t want to drop it.

Sirius pulled him aside in the locker room while the cameras had to follow the stream of players leaving for the tunnel. It was a brief moment of privacy.

“I would have done anything to get you out with me,” Sirius whispered intently, and pressed his glove to his little brother’s helmet, keeping them close. “Anything. But I couldn’t help you if I was trapped there with you. Maman’s, the Snakes, either one. I had to get out. And then—”

“You don’t know what it was like,” Regulus’ voice came out shaky, and Sirius realized he had tears in his eyes. Regulus closed them quickly, head bowed so that their helmets tapped together. “You left, they lost you, and so they doubled down. I couldn’t—I couldn’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

Sirius stared at him. In some ways, this hurt more than anything that had happened in the past few days. This hurt more, his little brother, his to protect.

“Reg…” Sirius began.

“You don’t know what he’s like,” Regulus whispered, and then, like he was afraid to say the words aloud. “Snape. Malfoy.” He swallowed, and added, even quieter so that Sirius could barely hear. “Riddle.”

“Mon étoile…” Sirius said. He hadn’t said the old nickname since they were little, and Regulus jolted to look at him. Stars, the two of them. “I’m sorry. Please, let me help you.”

“They made me hate you,” Regulus said. “But I never did.”

They both looked up when the locker room was beginning to empty out. Their moment was over.

“Let’s play,” Sirius said. “Let’s play, and then let’s talk, d’accord?”

“They made me delete your number, but I memorized it,” Regulus said. “Is it the same?”

Sirius closed his eyes, then nodded. “Oui.”

“D’accord,” Regulus said, then jerked his head towards the tunnel.

Sirius tapped Regulus’ chest with his glove. “Allez.”

Sirius followed him towards the tunnel, going out last. People would play it off as a strange superstition, but Sirius knew there would be pictures of him and Regulus talking anyway. He felt different this weekend. For obvious reasons, and not.

His life had always had a path, and that path had always been set. If it changed, the breaks had been slow. A trade deal. A contract. Longing for Remus. Everything had happened with time.

Not this. He was out. He was proud. It was an earthquake, a fault slipping. Regulus needed him, he didn’t hate him, after so long believing otherwise. An aftershock.

He was half way to the tunnel when he saw her.

Another slip.

His mother stood against the wall, her too thin body all in black, hair inky. She spared a short look to Regulus, but followed Sirius with her eyes. Minnie was standing beside her.

Sirius stopped walking.

Regulus, seeming to sense that Sirius wasn’t behind him anymore, stopped, too. Sirius held out his stick, telling him to stay put, and made his way over to the two women.

Sirius’ mother’s lip curled in what maybe appeared to be a smile. “Sirius,” she held out her arms. “I have so much to say to my son—”

Sirius turned at the last minute, minutely. It was a classic play, a fake out right in front of the net. He watched his mother realize his side-step at the last moment when it was too late.

Sirius hugged Minnie close to his chest.

“Regulus,” he whispered, and let go.

“Sirius?” Walburga’s laugh was high. “I beg your pardon?”

“You can’t have it,” Sirius said, and looked her straight in the eye. He towered over her. He didn’t know how he hadn’t realized that before. He looked to Regulus, then at Minnie, and then back at the dark woman.

“Never contact us again,” he said, and then turned towards the tunnel and into the bright lights, eyes on his brightly colored stick tape, and on his brother walking ahead of him.

~

“Welcome back to the 2020 All-Star weekend, everyone! As you can see, the players are out on the ice and this news has just reached us. It seems that Sirius Black has just thrown his own mother out of the arena.”

“Say what?” Natalie yelled.

The commentator laughed. “I know, Nate, this is very…well, there have been rumors about the Black family. I really thought they were, you know, classic hockey parents. Sirius seems to have taken matters into his own hands. He deserves to, honestly, after what he’s been through these past days. What a kid, I—oh, man, hold on everyone, we’ve got a fight!”

Remus and Lily both yelped when the camera cut away quickly from where Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin had been joking around, and to Sirius—beside Fenrir Greyback, to Remus’ horror—throwing a punch.

~

“Sirius Black,” a voice said, and Sirius took a long breath through his nose, and turned.

Fenrir Greyback, American, had perfectly straight, light brown hair, cropped short and sticking up in the front. His face was scruffy, and when he smiled, his thin lips revealed sharp canine teeth. The teeth beside his jolly laugh made for an eerie sight. Knowing he was the same age as Remus unsettled Sirius. He didn’t look it. He had the timeless look of a corpse, skin waxy and smooth safe for a bad scar, a skate cut, raking over his left cheek. Greyback leaned against his stick, smile in place.

“We have a game soon, don’t we? You and your cubs will be coming to Vegas.”

“Looks like.”

“Ready to lose?”

Sirius smiled wryly. “What sort of question is that?”

Fenrir shrugged. “How is Lupin these days? He was quite a player.”

Sirius could feel the cameras on them, but decided he didn’t care if they were mic’d. The crowd was roaring, he had seen Vegas fans taking pictures with Fenrir. They deserved to know who they were supporting.

“Before you destroyed his career, you mean?” Sirius said evenly.

Logan looked up, eyes wide, from where he had been re-lacing his skate.

Fenrir laughed. “Still pushing that story, huh? Look, man, if you watch the tape it was a clean hit.”

“How the fuck could it have been clean? You ruined his shoulder.”

“Oh, his shoulder. Well, that’s a different story,” Fenrir nodded, as if remembering, and then looked at Sirius, his sick grin still in place. “And there’s no video of that.”

Sirius’ entire bloodstream went cold. He thought of Remus. His panicked expression whenever any conversation got close to his hockey career, his mom’s worried one. But Remus had said, a bad hit, Fenrir…

“No proof,” Fenrir shrugged, and then gripped Sirius’ shoulder, fingers digging into his pads. Louder, so that the other players around them could hear, he said, “Really sorry that he had to stop playing, though. I heard it was one hell of a car accident.”

A fourth shock-wave, rocking his Earth.

~

“Holy fuck,” Finn said loudly. “What is happening? What is happening?”

Remus couldn’t look away from the screen, from where Sirius basically had Fenrir in a choke hold, the momentum of their swings propelling them in a slow, oblong circle as the other players backed away from the sudden fight.

“Jesus, what do you think he said?” Finn asked.

Kuny, who had decided to join them today, shook his head. “Shit-head player, doesn’t matter. Go Cap. I punch him also, when we play Vegas.”

“Remus, you said you played together?” Leo questioned. “Was he a shit-head in college, too?”

“I…” Remus began, and the whistles blew on screens, refs skating forward to pull the two players off of each other.

“Well, man-oh-man, Rob,” one of the commentators said. “I wonder what he said.”

“One could guess,” replied Rob.

Remus felt dread swirling in his stomach. They couldn’t guess, but Remus could. Remus was the only one who knew aside from Greyback.

Remus could still taste the bile from the biting pain of Greyback’s fingers, ripping into the muscle between his neck and shoulder. His hand covered it instinctively.

You hurt it in the game and didn’t tell anyone, Greyback had spat at him. That’s your lie. Remember, I know about you.

He hadn’t, of course. Remus knew that now. It was a bluff, an easy sentence that could mean anything to anyone. Everyone had secrets. Greyback had simply put faith in just how powerfully Remus’ secret would hold him.

Enough for Remus to tell his training staff that he had been hiding a very serious shoulder  injury. Festering muscle tears, dislocated, would heal wrong for sure, not a worthy investment, not anymore—

“Remus?” Kasey said.

Well. Remus’ secret was out now. Fenrir’s could be, too.

“He’s the reason I don’t play anymore,” Remus said quietly.

Lily sat forward, hand on her belly. “What do you mean, Re?”

“He was your bad hit?” Finn asked in a hushed voice. “Was it—on purpose?”

Remus pressed his lips together, trying to steady his breath. “It wasn’t even on the ice. He cornered me in one of the recovery rooms. My routine used to be long, I would stay after the other guys, cool down, stretch, you guys know.” Remus kept his gaze steady on the television where they were zoomed in on Logan and Sirius speaking with their heads close together. Sirius would no doubt have a black eye in a few hours.

“Ripped my shoulder apart,” Remus said softly. “Told me if I told anyone he’d tell my secret.”

“He knew?” Leo said. He sounded horrified. “And that’s what he did?”

Remus shook his head. “He didn’t know. I was too careful. But everyone has secrets, don’t they? I guess he just put his bets in the right place. Some people do.”

“And you never said anything,” Kasey said. “Jesus, Loops.”

“Well, now everyone knows my secret, eh? And I didn’t want to be that guy, blaming the end of their career on someone, some other player. No one would have believed me. And now, it’s so long ago, what does it matter?”

“It matters,” James said urgently. “It does. We can—we should do something.”

“Maybe,” Remus said. “But not now. Not with all of this.”

“And Sirius? He know?” Kuny asked.

Remus looked at the television. ““I think he just found out.”

Which was stupid of Greyback, really. What did he expect Sirius to do? Laugh along?

The game had resumed. Greyback, Wilson, and DeAngelo were lined against Sirius, Regulus, and Barzal. Sirius and Regulus were talking. They bumped fists before taking position. Remus blinked. That was new.

“What the fuck, are we friends now?” Kasey mumbled, intent on the screen.

Sirius scored easily, like a fire was at his heels. Remus loved that look he got in his eyes. The camera zoomed in on their celebration. Sirius wasn’t smiling, but he clutched Regulus and Barzal to him. Barzal looked a little hesitant, like he could sense he was in the middle of something that he knew nothing about.

As Sirius skated towards the bench for glove taps, he found a camera and stopped. The camera held, of course. Sirius Black was looking right at it. Sirius wedge his glove under his arm and reached for his neck.

“What’s happening,” Finn whispered again. He had his hands in his hair, like everything was too suspenseful.

Meanwhile, Remus’ heart was clattering down his ribs.

Sirius withdrew the silver and gold number twelve necklace, gray eyes steely.

He pressed the numbers to his lips.

“Oh…” Remus whispered, hand over his neck.

Sirius’ eyes grew soft as he tucked the necklace, Remus’ gift, safely back into his jersey. Like he knew Remus was gazing at him, too. Remus felt his entire world zero in on this moment. That was for him. Sirius was defending him.

An animal sound came from James.

“Necklace,” James shouted. “Fuck me!”

“Yeah, you’re the only one who was still working on that, sweetheart,” Natalie said.

Lily laughed. “But we love you.”

“We do.”

Remus gripped his watch, thumb rubbing over the face.

I love you. I love you IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou.

He would be home tomorrow.

Remus’ chest was a scrap of feeling. His heart was warm, his blood cool, his neck hot, his hands shaky.

Home tomorrow.

~

The cameras that had swarmed Sirius a moment ago now swarmed Regulus’ stall. Regulus had a towel around his neck, sweat dripping into his eyes. They were lighter though. He kept looking at Sirius, and Sirius remained seated in his stall, showing him that he was staying right where he was. He wasn’t leaving him.

“Regulus, do you have any…” the reporter glanced at Sirius and seemed smart enough to make his question vague. “…thoughts on your brother? Or, what was it like playing with him today? How long has it been?”

Regulus was slow in answering. He wiped his face, adjusted the hat he had on backwards. They look so much alike it’s scary, Sirius heard a reporter whisper to her friend. Finally, Regulus cleared his throat, and looked up from where he had been picking at the label of his water bottle.

“I’m very proud of my brother,” Regulus’ voice was steady and deep. He was unblinking. “It was very brave what he did, especially given the—the intrusive situation. No one deserves that. I wish him all the best, and Lupin, too. I look forward to spending time with him this summer in Gryffindor.”

Sirius’ smiled. And he knew the cameras caught it.

Sirius was sitting in Regulus’ stall this time when his brother got out of the showers. He stayed seated, the two of them silent among the other changing players, while Regulus got dressed. Sirius slipped his phone out of his pocket.

Call you in twenty, he shot a text to Remus.

“Hey, Cap,” Logan said from the doorway. “I’m going out with some of the guys. You’re…” he glanced at Regulus.

“See you on the plane,” Sirius said, and Logan nodded, understanding.

Regulus sat in Sirius’ stall. He had a Snakes sweatshirt on, and the sleeves were picked practically to pieces, fraying and ratty. It hurt to look at them.

They were alone.

“Alors,” Regulus said hesitantly.

Sirius turned to him. “Come back to Gryffindor with me. Minnie got you a seat with me and Logan. Tomorrow.”

An expression of relief so pure crossed Regulus’ face, that Sirius watched him ache with it. Sirius stood and pulled his brother into a hug. The first in a long, long time.

“Okay,” Regulus said into Sirius’ neck, voice thick. “Okay."

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 41

THE ROAD SO FAR

One step closer to the end.

FIVE Seconds

John 'Soap' MacTavish

Task Force 141 Base - Infirmary

We overcame Ultranationalists, chopper crashes, danger close with gunships but a goddamn dog is what'll get me into an infirmary? Rabies, ridiculous. What a waste of time. 

John wrote down his anger in his black journal. It housed all his thoughts ever since being recruited at the Task Force regarding mission briefings, regrets and training schedules. It was his outlet on all the things going on around the world.

He noticed that Captain Price also slept by the other bed, his eyes looked tired from staying up late, he never gave up on Volt that he tired himself out.

He winced at the pain of the bruise the rotten dog gave him. He was never really a fan of them as most dogs tend to chase him wherever he went. Yesterday was another proof. Luckily, France seemed to catch up on his body language, how he didn't want anyone to know that a dog was the reason he's in the infirmary. The way she knew it without telling her was starting to convince the Scotsman that he got himself a keeper. Someone who understands.

Speaking of which, the same gorgeous blonde girl entered the infirmary, greeting Soap with a very genuine smile of relief. 

"Hi." She smiled quietly as Price was still asleep. 

"Aye. Hello there." He greeted, his voice was low and rough as he attempted to catch the lady off guard. She may look tough wearing her 141 training uniform, but Soap knows how to make her lose her composure. 

"How's the wound?" She asked, her face was already turning red as she approached him. She looked so cute right now, Soap won't mind kissing her amidst the Captain being there along with some CCTVs.

"Getting better. Hopefully enough to join the fight. How about you?" he replied, smiling at the female soldier. The general mood of the room quickly shifted and the two of them were pretty aware about it.

"I'm fine. I'm just here to thank you for saving me back then. But you didn't have to… I deserved that bite for not being careful." She muttered.

Soap sighed. 

"Eh, you know full well that I care for you, France. For once let me be the hero." He chuckled and France laughed.

"You already know that you are my hero, dummy." She winked as she started to leave.

"I gotta go. It's my turn to clean up the comms. Wish you'd help me though, Hero." she teased as she left the room, Soap was left staring at her beautiful figure exit the room.

"You sure got yourself a tough lass there, lad." Price grumbled as he woke up, commenting on the two.

"Aye. She's definitely a keeper. I just hope I don't mess up. Because I think she's the one." Soap finally admitted, to Price of all people. The captain just chuckled.

"Yeah. My word of advice. Go with what your heart and mind says." He said with full sincerity, as if he didn't want Soap to regret everything. There was flavor in his words that made Soap wonder if such advice came from experience. Though he did hear rumors that he and Laswell had some sort of history, and he got that from France.

"Aye, Captain… Will do." Soap nodded and Price got up.

"I'm giving Volt a final visit." He grumbled and went off, leaving Soap alone in his thoughts once again.

The next day, Soap was cleared from the infirmary and was immediately tasked on the mission. Last night, Nero started his assault on the capital and thousands of rangers were struggling to keep them off the country. With Volt finally given up, he relayed information regarding one of Nero's allies.

They were going to Havana, the home base of the mind manipulation and the command center of Nero's forces. How it managed to stay hidden, nobody knows but the team was eager to find out soon. Especially that another nuke is ready for launch.

Abandoned Building, Cuba, Havana

Soap could hear France hum the song Havana quietly as she crossed her arms just before the plane started. She was nervous and Soap knew that so he tried to hold her hand in secrecy, showing him a face that assured her that everything will be alright.

In this mission, time was of the essence so stealth wasn't an option. They were headed to the base guns blazing, all in hopes to disable the second nuke launch.

The helo flew dangerously low as metal clanged on it's base as soon as enemies fired at it. It was a risky move but the squad needed to drop by the rooftops to get a clear vantage point.

Soap immediately seeked for cover by the edge of the rooftop, eyeing the door that led to the lower floors where the command center should be.

"We'll hold them off! You go!" Alex yelled as Soap, Price, Roach and France breached the door, descending to the second floor of the building. 

The place was abandoned and very open, enemies' footsteps echoed across the halls, making the team aware of their positions.

"Soap, focus on getting to the control room. We'll take care of them. France, cover his six. Roach and I will make a grand distraction." Price said, popping a grenade on the main hall and Roach assisted him, drawing all the attention towards them.

"Alex, when you're done sweeping up the yard, I need your team down here asap." Price muttered over comms.

"Roger that." he replied.

"Looks like it's you and me against the clock now." Soap managed to chuckle at their situation. France just chuckled and cleared the location so Soap could advance. This was her forte. Stealth and close quarters.

"You're good to go, John." She said as she took the stairs down. Soap cautiously followed as he heard gunshots from France's location.

"Two tangos down." She declared, clearing the staircase to the basement.

"Multiple tangos in the basement. Looks like we're in the right place." France nodded and Soap followed, pulling the pin of a grenade and tossing it to the narrow hallway.

"GRANADA!!" One yelled and an explosion followed, signaling the couple to press on the narrow hallway while they're dazed.

They shot down the enemies until more emerged from behind, trapping the two of them.

"Shite! At this rate we'll never push forward. We're pinned!" Soap called for help.

"Someone's escaping! Reinforcements are arriving!" Alex warned as the team was now overwhelmed with hostiles. Time was running out.

"John! Watch my six and I'll clear a path for you." France said and left without letting him reply. This worried Soap but he had to trust her and so he covered her six. Shooting at enemies dumb enough to dive on to the narrow hallway. He did his best to retaliate by firing back and tossing any grenades back to its source.

It felt like the longest two minutes of his life. France fought her way to the command center and him, defending the entrance while his ammo slowly ran out. Then after what seemed like forever, he heard her go signal.

Soap ran as fast as he could, and just before he lost sight of the entrance, he saw Price immediately follow him. They did it. They cleared the entrance.

He fished out his journal for the cryllic translator, decoding every letter just so he could stop the launch. They only had five seconds left. 

Soap furiously typed the code Volt gave them and pressed enter as soon as it's done. The launch didn't stop. Soap figured that they were too late, but Price's face never looked worried.

"Captain. The launch didn't stop! What are we going to do?" France said, worried.

"It's all according to plan." He muttered as he signaled his head to head back to the rooftop.

"Let's burn this place down." He added and they all ran back to the rooftops for exfil.

"Dropping the skyhook now! Latch yourselves in!" Eagle Two Four yelled as the thick rope dropped from the sky, Soap quickly latched himself in and looked behind him. France was a few meters away from the final hook as a stray bullet grazed her thigh.

"France! Hang on!" Soap quickly detached himself almost automatically, without thinking. The rest of the team were already being hoisted up when they noticed the two members still on the rooftops.

Soap's body felt the rush as he quickly carried her up and held her tight, running toward the last hook and quickly attaching himself in, all while holding her tight in his arms.

"Why didn't you call out to me? You know I'm going to save you whatever it takes." he whispered as he felt France already in tears. If it wasn't for him always checking out on her, she would've been left alone in that abandoned building.

"Is she going to be fine?" The worried Scotsman asked the nurse. His voice was almost loud enough to disturb everyone else.

"She got hit twice. One on the chest and one on the thigh. They're both minor but she just passed out from the panic and exhaustion. We found this on her chest. The thing practically saved her life." The nurse handed over his journal. Soap's eyes widened at the hole that pierced through the whole book. He must've left it when he typed the abort codes and she must've grabbed it from there.

"The bullet barely pierced through her armor thanks to that book." She said as Soap looked up and silently thanked that she was safe. He quickly flipped through the pages until he found the page where he drew her. The bullet hole on the page was where her heart was. It was funny because it was the other way around. That woman was the one that fired a bullet straight to his heart. And he wasn't a big fan of metaphors at this rate.

"So is she okay?" Roach quickly ran to Soap's side, a worried look on his face. Alex and Price were behind him.

"The journal saved her." He said, raising the pierced black book as proof.

"She's lucky enough you got her on time. I couldn't think of any other way she could be saved from there." Price commented as she looked at her through the glass.

"She's a tough lad. But sometimes she needs to understand that she isn't alone." Price added and Alex nodded. 

"She'll wake up soon." Alex tapped Soap's shoulder and he nodded, as they left the infirmary for another briefing.

On the way to the briefing room, they caught up with Ghost and Alexandra bringing an unknown man to the interrogation area, which prompted the team to follow.

Inside the interrogation room's observation area, the team sat while Price and Jack talked to the man.

"Nice to see ya, Jack. Thought Nero got rid of you." He smugly said with a wide annoying grin on his mouth.

"Who is this prick, anyway?!" Roach hissed.

"That's Gabriel Lannister. CIA's Research and Development Head." Alex said nonchalantly, Soap could see the disbelief in his eyes. There was more than just one mole in his previous department.

"He was the one in charge with the mass manipulation of the missing persons cases." Ryder added.

"While you lot launched the nuke, he went off running with four convoys of protection. Luckily we were able to intercept them by the bridge." Ghost informed.

"What about the nuke?" Soap asked, completely forgetting about it. It was his responsibility, as he typed the whole command on it.

"Blasted at Nero's fleet not too far from the White House. If you were five seconds later, the war would've ended differently." Ryder supplied the information.

"And the capital?" Roach asked.

"Mostly damaged, but it will recover. Turns out Nero did really burn the place down." Ghost answered. 

"What about Nero?" Alex asked, eyes not leaving the whole interrogation.

"No one knows where he is. We were hoping this guy would give information about him." Ryder pointed to Gabriel, who was having a fun time at the interrogation.

The tension inside the room was different. Each person had their own little realizations and this pushed them to end the war as soon as possible.

Soap immediately exited the area and went back to the infirmary.

"Hey." He was greeted by France, who was already up.

"How are you holding up?" He asked, his tone more concerned than ever.

"Well, It doesn't hurt right now but… I'm… I almost died out there, John… What if I died?" Her voice croaked and tears started falling from her eyes. John quickly approached her and hugged her gently close to his chest.

"Don't say that… What's important is you're alive… I got you and you're safe…" He whispered.

"Thank you." She croaked. John just rubbed her back assuring her everything will be alright.

"No. Thank you. You changed me, France. You made me realize a lot of things. I know that this isn't the most perfect place right now, but… Will you be my girlfriend? Because I can't help thinking about how every single day of my life since I met you, I can't stop thinking about you. Your smile, your face, the things you say, the way you hide what you really feel. I want all of those and after that last mission, I realized that I shouldn't have left you waiting. There was no better time than as soon as possible." He said, offering his notebook as replacement for flowers.

France nodded with tears in her eyes, accepting the journal with confusion.

"Turn it on the last page." Soap said as she did it, showing a sketch of her and him together happily smiling. She wore the clothes she wore when they were out together in that coffee shop.

"This is beautiful." She said, tracing a finger on the paper.

"I love you, John MacTavish." She said as she leaned in for a kiss, not letting him reply.

Next Chapter : FOUR Weeks of Silence

Notification Squad my Beloved

@smokeywhalee @enderio @samatedeansbroccoli @ricinbach @whimsywispsblog @bumblingbee1

[knamjooned]

ECHOES: Team Nocturna - KNJ

pairing: ranger! namjoon x ??? reader

genre: pokemon au, fantasy au, psychic au, smut

tropes: strangers to lovers, love at first sight, amnesia

words: 10K

notes: if you don’t know anything about pokemon, i think you can read this and not be lost. if you are a fan, basically the first movie is all you need to know.

SUMMARY: While hiking, Namjoon finds a mysterious woman lost in the woods. Since she has no memories of her past, he takes it upon himself to help find them.

thanks to @blushingatyou​ & @samros95​ for reading through this, giving me lovely ideas to make it even better <3 I appreciate you taking that time for this!

TEAM: [ info graphic here ]

Virizion (FABLE) - Namjoon was found by Virizion as a young adult. A bond formed when he helped rescue several pokemon from poachers.

Calyrex (CALY) - This pokemon enjoys deep conversations with Namjoon, although it still insists it’s smarter than him by a long shot.

Exeggutor (TORI) - When visiting Alola, Namjoon mistook this pokemon as a simple tree. He tried to climb it, but fell when it shook in surprise.

Tapu Bulu (OTIS) - The pokemon was intrigued when Namjoon put himself between two pokemon fighting. It healed Namjoon after he got hurt.

Flapple (LOBO) - Namjoon tried to evolve Applin into Flapple, but the pokemon refused at the time. It did it by itself.

Celebi (SPRITZ) - Namjoon purposefully sought this pokemon as he explored Ilex Forest. He is still amazed by the fact it wasn’t to stay with him.

Namjoon took a sip of water from the container he kept attached to his backpack and wiped his brow. It was a warm day in the forest, and even with the shade it did little to cool his skin. Rolling his shoulders, Namjoon leaned against a large boulder a few feet from a beautiful, sparkling lake, surrounded by trees on all sides. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the scent of the spring air.

“Bi bi!”

The call of one of his partners made Namjoon stand straight and open his eyes, alert. He quickly scanned his area and saw Spritz floating excitedly toward him. Relaxing his shoulders a bit, he smiled with amusement, entertained by the creature's innocent grin.

“What’d you find, my friend? Anything interesting?” He hoisted his pack back onto his body and adjusted the load to continue on his hike. Namjoon’s patrol was almost over, and his stomach started to growl with happiness. “I hope it’s food.”

“Not so much,” came a telepathic voice. Celebi used it only when it had much to speak about. Spritz fluttered in front of Namjoon, guiding the way toward whatever it had found. “Something is wrong with her.”

“That’s not good,” Namjoon replied, moving faster. He stepped with ease over the ground, used to walking among broken branches, rocks, and other scattered things that were on the forest floor. “What kind of pokemon is it?”

“Not a pokemon,” came another voice in his head. He glanced to his left and saw Fable, another pokemon that was on his team. Virizion tilted their head toward the eastern part of the area. “A... human woman.”

“Bi bi,” Spritz agreed, nodding solemnly. The mythical and legendary pokemon lead a curious Namjoon through the trees some more, coming to a tiny clearing with enough room to place a tent at the side of a brook. “Cel...” Spritz hesitated at the edge of clearing, unsure of the woman there.

“Stay at the edge of the clearing, yeah?” Namjoon murmured toward his friends. “I don’t want to scare her. You’re right, something is wrong.”

She was a young woman, dressed in generic jeans and a t-shirt, sitting on the ground cross-legged. In her arms was a small silver backpack, not made for hiking like his, held tightly to her chest. Tears silently fell from her eyes as she gazed forward. Namjoon cleared his throat, slowly approaching from the side.

“Is everything alright?” he asked as gently as he could, hands up to show he meant no harm. His voice still startled her, causing her to grasp the bag even tighter and jerk her head toward him. Her eyes were wide with confusion and fear. He stopped six feet away. “My name is Namjoon. I’m a Pokemon Ranger in this forest. Can I help with anything?”

----

The last thing you remembered was... excitement? Anticipation? For what, you couldn’t say, but something you had been wanting to do for a while. You couldn’t grasp anything else from your memories, only the emotions that had spread through your body at the time. Now, you opened your eyes to find yourself on the grass near a brook, on your back. The tree branches shaded you from the high sun, while a breeze rustled their leaves. 

Sitting up, you furrowed your brows as you looked around, taking in the peaceful scene around you. Inside, though, panic caused your chest to tighten and questions flooded your mind.

Where am I? How did I get here? What am I doing here? Who am I?

The last question repeated rapidly in your mind. Frightened, you grabbed your bag that was at your side and held it to your chest. Tears started to fall as you struggled to understand what was going on. Who am I? You couldn’t answer, and that was what frightened you the most.

You heard the sound of someone approaching, but pretended not to hear, hoping they would just leave. There was too much going on in your mind, adding a stranger to that would only make it more difficult to process. Unfortunately, he spoke and startled you, making you gasp and turn to look at him abruptly. He spoke gently, as if afraid of making you run, which was a good intuition, honestly. Taking a shaky breath, you gathered emotional strength to move past the panic.

“I... I don’t know,” you answer truthfully. You licked your dry lips, realizing you were incredibly thirsty. How long had you been out here? “May I have some water?”

“Of course! May I... come closer?” He waited for you to respond, and you did with a nod. He was being cautious, and that helped you trust his motives. Why were you so suspicious? Again, another answer you couldn’t find. “Fantastic. Here you go.” Namjoon dug a water bottle out of his pack and handed it over. You grabbed and opened it, forcing yourself to sip instead of gulping down the whole thing. It was cool and delicious, the most wonderful thing you had ever tasted at the moment.

“Thank you... Namjoon.” When you said his name, he grinned. “I.. I don’t know my name. I’m sorry, I wish I could tell you.” You grimaced, sipping some more water as you blinked back tears. You wouldn’t let the panic take over, not at the moment. That would be something to do when you were alone.

“I see,” he replied, much calmer than you expected. “My pokemon partners found you. Would you like to meet them?”

“Pokemon partners?” The excitement from right before your memory loss returned, and it made you briefly wonder if this was a clue. Before you could go any deeper into that idea, Virizion and Celebi came toward you from the edges of the clearing. Sucking in a breath, you stared, amazed. You knew these both were legendary and mythical, respectively. How had this ranger convinced such awesome pokemon to work with him?

“This is Fable and Spritz.” Namjoon pointed first to Fable and then Spritz as he introduced them. Each pokemon dipped their head in a light bow and then settled next to Namjoon, who sat in front of you. Fable laid on the ground, head held regally, gazing softly at you. You thought you saw a gentle smile. Spritz fluttered close to Namjoon, but then slowly came toward you. It had an innocent vibe, with it’s big eyes and curious gaze.

“H-hello, Fable and Spritz.” You held out a hand, palm up, and Spritz lightly tapped it with his hand-like appendage. It giggled as it fluttered back to Namjoon and sat on his lap. “How did you become partners with such... pokemon as these?”

“Well,” he chuckled, shrugging with embarrassment. “It’s kind of a long story. I wasn’t expecting to be partnered with Fable, but I guess they saw something good in me.”

“He saved a group of spinarak from poachers.” The smooth, female-like voice in your head made you jump, but when you looked toward Fable, you realized it was from them. They nodded when you locked eyes. “Namjoon is a wise and good soul, very few can be found in humans.”

Namjoon’s face reddened. He tried to look busy as he dug through his backpack, hiding his face. You chuckled as Spritz agreed by flying up a few inches and squeaking happily. When he put his pack down, Namjoon’s ears were still red.

“And Spritz?” You gestured toward Spritz, who had come to a rest next to you. It tapped your leg and looked at you with it’s big eyes. You hesitantly patted your leg in the same spot. Spritz let out a squeak and settled onto your lap.

“I admit to actively searching for them,” Namjoon replied, looking apologetically at Fable. “I wasn’t planning on having them be part of my team, I just wanted to find them. I got lucky that Spritz wanted to come back with me.”

“Fascinating,” you murmured, looking down at the creature in your lap. A thought occurred to you, and you jumped up, causing Spritz to tumble out of your lap. You gasped and crouched, patting it’s head apologetically. “Sorry, Spritz. I just... Do I have pokemon? Have I abandoned them somewhere?” You stood, heart beginning to race. You grabbed your bag and shakily unzipped it. The zipper wouldn’t work, and tears began to well up in your eyes. Namjoon quickly came over and took your hands.

“Breath. In... out... good. One more time.” You followed his directions, and the panic you felt dissipated enough for you to open the pack with ease. No pokeballs or any other items related to such creatures were found. Instead, you found a tube of lip balm, a swiss army knife, a hairbrush, elastic hair ties, a pen, and a USB drive.

“This must be something important.” You held up the USB. Namjoon nodded in agreement. 

“If you’re comfortable with it, we can go back to base camp, I have a laptop we can use to see what’s on it.”

“Is.. is there a bathroom, too?” You asked shyly.

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

Thankfully, Namjoon knew where a camping area was that offered a basic bathroom with a shower to campers. While you were cleaning up, he brought out the rest of his pokemon to quietly warn them of your predicament. 

“How interesting,” Caly the Calyrex murmured, floating above the ground. Namjoon raised an eyebrow at the contemplation on its face. “I can search her mind to gather information, to see if she is a threat, or on the run.”

“Is this your ego speaking?” Fable asked flatly. Caly shot the other pokemon a glare, but it didn’t faze them. Namjoon sighed, readying himself to break up a fight of words between the two once again. Instead, Lobo the flapple and Tori the alolan exeggutor interrupted as they jumped out of their pokeballs.

“Just... be gentle, okay? She seems a bit fragile, like anything could spook her.” Namjoon looked at each of them for a long moment. They all nodded and went their own way, settling into what they had been doing before. Lobo fluttered happily next to Tori, who swayed happily in the breeze. Their heads were just above the forest canopy, and they loved to just look out to see what others couldn’t.

“Otis, you good?” Namjoon asked Tapu Bulu, who floated on the edge of the camp, examining a tree that seemed to be damaged by a human tool. It huffed and jingled it’s bell, and Namjoon took that as a positive response. Spritz giggled next to him and stayed near as you finally appeared at the edge of Namjoon’s camp.

“How are you feeling?” Namjoon asked gently, walking to meet you. He studied your face for any indication of your memories coming back, but the same shy smile and confused eyes looked back at him.

“Much better, mostly,” you replied with a shrug. You wore the same clothes, but the dirt was washed off your body and out of your hair. You peered over his shoulder at the six pokemon entertaining themselves. “Wait, more legendary pokemon? What kind of ranger are you?”

“Ah... well...” Namjoon had no answer to that, but was relieved to see some form of happiness on your face. Your eyes lit up as you gazed at each of his partners. Otis ignored you and Tori just swayed with a grin when you caught their eye, while Lobo circled you with Spritz. Caly and Fable approached you cautiously, trying to keep what Namjoon had said in mind.

“Namjoon is a very special ranger,” Caly said in your head. “Almost as intelligent as myself.” Fable snorted at that, but Caly ignored them. 

“I see you two are best friends,” you commented, eyeing Namjoon. He shrugged helplessly as Caly and Fable glared at one another. “It’s nice to meet all of you. Thank you for letting me into your camp.”

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

A few minutes later, you were biting your lip with anxiety as Namjoon attached the USB to his laptop. You shut your eyes tightly, unable to look at anything that would suddenly come up. You sat next to Namjoon at the picnic table with your hand on his knee. Trembling, you squeezed it.

“Open your eyes,” he murmured, covering your hand. You took a deep breath, the warmth of his touch soothing some of your panic. Slowly, you opened your eyes and saw a file folder open on the screen. There was a folder labeled “NOCTURNA”. You feel Namjoon’s eyes on your as you stare forward, brows furrowed.

What is this? What does this have to do with me?

“Shall we open it?” he asked quietly. You swallowed, your throat dry, suddenly frightened by what this may mean, how ominous it sounded. Shaking your head, you stood and walked away from the bench, turning your back to it. You found a water bottle near your bag, so you opened it quickly and took a large gulp. 

“Please, don’t open it,” you replied shakily. “I just... it feels... dark. Please,” you repeat, turning toward him once again. You forced yourself to ignore the laptop screen, the word that seemed to overwhelm your senses.

NOCTURNA.

----------

Over the next week, you focused on working in the camp and forest with Namjoon. You became close to Spritz, who had taken to fluttering around you at all times. At first, you felt guilty for taking the attention of such a pokemon from your rescuer, but he quickly assured you he had no ill feelings toward you. 

You learned you had no talent for camping, but Namjoon made no complaints as you struggled with making a fire or building a tent. He kindly offered to help, but you were determined to figure it out on your own. Otis began to come around you more, apparently finding respect in your determination. It didn’t take long for the legendary Alolan pokemon to venture away from his tasks in the trees to watch you. Another watcher of yours, Namjoon, escaped your attention.

Caly tried a few times to get you to speak about your amnesia, but you refused and bluntly told the pokemon to stop. It seemed to take this negatively, and refused to even look at you since then. You ignored Caly, not entirely bothered by the distance. Namjoon scolded the pokemon, but you didn’t notice that. Tori and Lobo were the comedians of the group, constantly doing things that made everyone laugh.

Tori enjoyed telling everyone what she saw above the canopy, which led to a few rescues of forest pokemon, including a flock of bird pokemon from traps set by poachers. Lobo brought different items it found in the woods, and became attached to a small. stuffed jigglypuff meant for a baby. When Lobo lost the item, Namjoon and you searched for three hours, finally finding it under a stack of wood Otis had cut and brought. You were so exhausted, you took a nap in the shade with Lobo. Namjoon sat beside you as you slept, blocking the sun as it moved in the sky, but was gone before you woke.

As the sun set on the 6th day of your camping journey, Fable trotted to your side and laid in the grass. You were laid on a blanket, face up, looking at the darkening sky. The stars were starting to come out. 

“I’ve been meaning to speak with you, but after what happened with the High King, I didn’t want to push it. But, it has been almost a full week, my new friend.” You quirked your lips in a smile at the sarcastic tone in their voice when Calyrex was mentioned. 

“I know,” you sighed, swallowing down the usual fear that began to crawl into your mind when your predicament was brought up. “Is there anything new you can tell me? If not, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Actually... I might.” At those words in your mind, you sat up quickly, looking over at the green pokemon. They raised their eyebrows and stared at you, patiently waiting for you to respond.

“Really?” you exclaimed. At your shout, Namjoon appeared out of nowhere, brows furrowed with concern.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, sitting next to you.

“Ah, yeah, I was just... Fable said they may have new information about me.” As you said the words, you felt excitement bubble up in your stomach. Namjoon took your hand, squeezed it with a grin, and looked back to Fable. “What is it? What information do you have?”

“And how did you get it?” Namjoon interjected as he laced his finger with yours. You didn’t seem to notice as you held onto his hand tightly.

“I’m not sure how to say it delicately, so I will be blunt.”

“That’s ominous,” Namjoon muttered, frowning. You elbowed him in the side and took a deep breath.

“You are a hybrid. Part human.... and part pokemon.”

----------

The past week had built up a lot of feelings toward you for Namjoon, and that made the bombshell Fable had just said even more powerful. You sat quietly, staring at the pokemon, and Namjoon let it sink in for you. His own head was spinning with questions, which would only mean you had so much more going on. He studied your face, like he had many times over the week, and saw the hints of shock, confusion, fear, and even a bit of excitement. 

“Can you say that again?” you finally replied. 

“Fable, how can you even know this?” Namjoon interrupted. It was so outlandish, couldn’t connect any of the dots the pokemon was throwing at them.

“To put it simply, your aura. Everyone has them, and each is just different enough to be unique. You have a unique human aura, but also a pokemon aura.”

“... that isn’t unique. You know the pokemon DNA I have inside my blood,” you state quietly. At your shuddering breath, Namjoon put his arms around your shoulders and pulled you into his chest. You went willingly, your head laying close to his chest.

“Can this even be true?” he asked. Namjoon focused on clearing his mind, pulling out the more scientific knowledge he had learned over the years as a ranger. Pokemon biology quickly went through his mind, the basics taught while he was in public school. Pokemon DNA was so different from human DNA, how could it even be possible to do this?

“I only know what I know. And I know you have the DNA of Mewtwo,” Fable answered gently. Namjoon felt you pulling away, and was tempted to hold you longer, but he ignored the urge and let you put distance between the two of you. When you had sat up completely, he saw that your eyes turned blank, staring forward at something that wasn’t there. Namjoon called your name, then waved a hand in front of your face. You made no move.

“Fable, what’s happening?” Namjoon barked, finding it hard to breathe through the pain of panic gripping him. He turned to the pokemon, eyes wide. “What did you do?”

“I.. I do not know! I swear, I only spoke the truth!” The pokemon stood, obviously worried themselves about you. Still, you sat there, in your own world, staring blankly off into the distance. “Maybe when the truth was spoken... her memories came back.”

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

As soon as the knowledge of your origins was spoken, you felt yourself fall into a trance. The forest around you faded and disappeared, and a laboratory replaced it. There were many people in lab coats working, some at tables, some looking at screens, some studying clipboards full of papers and charts. It seemed you were invisible to them because no one was reacting as you looked around the room. 

“This is where you were born.” The low, gentle male voice entered your mind. It was comforting, as if you knew it well. When a light purple pokemon appeared beside you, you weren’t startled in the least.

“Mewtwo,” you replied breathlessly. “Who am I? What am I?” The desperation of finding answers laid heavy on your chest. “Is this a memory? Or is this present time?” Questions swirled in your mind, but when Mewtwo held up his three-fingered hand, it calmed.

“I understand the chaos in your mind, very well, in fact. Do you know how I came to be?”

“Yes,” you replied automatically. Pausing, you realized it was something you had always known, which was frustrating. Why didn’t you know anything about yourself, but you knew about this pokemon? “Giovanni, the leader of team rocket, contributed his DNA to mix with Mew to create something new and powerful. You.”

“Exactly. And they took my DNA and a human female’s DNA to do the same thing, which made you. Their goal was to make a human with my powers. It seems they have achieved it.”

“Powers?” You couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “I have no powers.”

“I must go.” Mewtwo looked behind him. You were sure he was looking at something that wasn’t in this memory... or vision... or whatever this was. “I will contact you soon, I promise.”

Before you could say anything else, the pokemon faded, as well as the laboratory. You came back to the real world quickly, your stomach rolling as Namjoon and his pokemon came back into view. You leaned to the side and vomited all over the grass. As you empty your stomach, you realized the sun was down and the stars were fully out.

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

Namjoon held back panic as you suddenly blinked and started to retch. The pokemon stepped back, giving you space, as Namjoon held your hair and rubbed your back. You must have seen something awful to be reacting like this. He believed you had been in a trance, probably having to do with where you came from. It was the only thing that made sense. After whispering soothing words, he offered you water to rinse out of your mouth.

“Are you okay? Do you need anything?” He had no idea what he could do. He kept a hand on your back, resisting the urge to pull you close and cross the line he had drawn for himself over the past week. You smiled shakily and finally sat the half empty water bottle on the blanket.

“We shall leave, give you some space. If you need anything, we will be here.” Fable gave a nod, then prodded Caly with their snout. The kingly pokemon reluctantly followed Virizion toward the center of camp. Namjoon was left sitting next to you, wanting nothing more than to comfort you as much as you would let him.

“I... it’s true. I think. I’m sure,” you added with more conviction. You took a deep breath and leaned into him. Namjoon immediately accepted, closing his eyes as you snuggled against his chest. He ran a hand through your hair as you gripped him tightly around the waist. After a long while. you pulled back. 

“Better?” After you nodded, he started to pull his hands away from your shoulders, but you leaned forward once more. His heart beat faster as you returned to your spot, head nestled into his chest. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I have Mewtwo’s DNA.”

The words caused Namjoon to freeze. He hoped you hadn’t noticed, and he forced himself to relax immediately afterward. Clearing his throat, he tried his best to work through the shock of the famous man made pokemon being mentioned.

“What.. what did you see?” He put his chin on top of your head. 

“Mewtwo contacted me through our minds. Maybe the DNA made it easier? I was in a lab. Well, shown a lab.” You paused, then continued. “He said I had powers.”

“Powers? I... suppose it would be the next logical thought...” How else was he supposed to respond? Nothing like this had ever happened before. What if the mixture of the different DNA’s had caused something awful inside you? Namjoon squeezed you tighter. You returned it, unaware of him closing his eyes in fear. He opened them quickly, though, not wanting to dwell.

“Powers could mean so many things,” you stated with a sigh, pulling back. Namjoon studied your face and saw how tired you look.

“Why don’t we sleep on it? You look exhausted.”

“Can.. can I sleep with you tonight?” Your words left him speechless. He opened his mouth once, then shut it. Namjoon felt his cheeks turn red as he cleared his throat. It took a few moments for you to realize what you had said, and lifted your hands to frantically wave it off. “I didn’t mean it that way! I was wondering if I could sleep next to you! In your tent! In my own bedroll!”

“Obviously!” he replied, his voice a little higher than normal. He pretended nothing was awkward as he stood and held out his hand for you. You took it, letting him pull you up. Still a bit unsteady, you put your arm around his waist, and Namjoon took a bit of your weight as you both made your way to his tent.

Namjoon caught Fable watching, and immediately cut off eye contact, face still red. 

“You’re becoming more and more obvious with your feelings,” Fable said in his mind. Namjoon ignored it and the amused chuckle that followed.

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

You couldn’t sleep because of the acute knowledge of Namjoon sleeping beside you. He was inches away, and it felt like sparks were coursing through your body. At first you thought it might be whatever power Mewtwo had mentioned, but you would be a fool to deny the attraction between Namjoon and yourself. Still, you were too focused on what had just happened. Did he see you differently, now? Your relationship had grown into something nice and comfortable, and you didn’t want to ruin that. 

As you nibbled your lip with worry, you heard Namjoon turn in his sleep to wrap his body around yours, throwing his arm across your waist. He pulled you into his chest, and your back hit a solid wall of muscle. Your breath caught in your throat as lust slammed into you. Had you ever felt lust before? You tried to recall a moment of your past that included sex, but nothing came to the surface.

“Oh my god, I’m a virgin,” you muttered to yourself. You snorted and brought a hand to your mouth to keep your laughter in. It was an absurd thought, honestly, and it calmed your charged nerves. You sighed and wiggled back against him. His warmth surrounded you and built a wall of comfort you couldn’t remember feeling before you met him.

Apparently you had finally gone to sleep, because your eyes fluttered open as the sun was coming up, the night bugs singing their last notes. The first thing you noticed was the warmth still around you. The second thing was the large, bare hand against your skin just under your shirt. 

“Joon?” you whispered, body still. You waited a moment, then said his name again. The only response was a soft snore. With a shaky breath, you began to gently pull his arm off you. Once you knew he was still asleep, you slipped out of the tent and into the clearing lit by the sunrise.

“May I speak with you?” You were startled by Caly, the rabbit-like pokemon. You placed a hand over your chest, taking a breath to calm your jumping heart. “I... owe you an apology. I was very rude.”

“Thank you for apologizing.” You moved to lean against a tree trunk, watching the orange sky. Caly floated next to you. After some silence, he continued to speak to you through telepathy.

“It seems you and I have more in common than we both thought,” Caly stated. “Have your powers developed, yet?”

“Does speaking to Mewtwo in my mind count as a power?”

“I think it does. Would you like me to help you explore what kind of powers you may have inherited?”

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

Reaching out, Namjoon ran his hand over the sleeping bag next to him. His eyes were still closed, but it was immediately easy to tell you were not there anymore. He knew he hadn’t been dreaming of your body close to his, of his hand running along your skin. Had it made you run away? Frustrated with himself and his inability to just admit certain things, Namjoon let out a heavy sigh and sat up. 

When he emerged from the tent, he was surprised to see you and Caly staring at one another. The pokemon was floating at eye-level with you, with a light purple and pink aura around you both. Your eyebrows were furrowed, body in a position that seemed sturdy. Confused, he walked closer, but was stopped by Lobo the flapple fluttering to his shoulder. 

“Is.. she okay?” Namjoon wondered out loud, watching as a bead of sweat run from your hairline and down your cheek. Flapple chirped his own confusion, tilting its head.

“She wanted to learn.” Fable gracefully came to his side. “I think this aura is all her doing. I’m surprised Caly has decided to let her take over their body.”

“What?” Namjoon wasn’t sure he heard right. He pulled his eyes away from the scene and toward the green pokemon. “She’s... she’s holding Caly up on her own....”

“It’s a simple skill, but it gets more difficult to hold it for long periods of time. They have been like this for a good twenty minutes.”

Suddenly, you gasped and slid to the ground, eyes closed, just as the aura disappeared immediately. Calyrex caught themselves before they hit the ground, and floated over your still body. Namjoon called your name, tripping over himself to get to you. He dropped to sit on the ground and pulled you into his lap. You groaned and let yourself be pressed sideways against him. 

He held you close as you trembled, your skin glowing with sweat. Calyrex looked cool and collected, like always, as they watched Namjoon run his hands over your body. Relieved nothing was physically wrong, he let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. His chest ached with worry as he leaned forward, his lips near your ear.

“Can you hear me?” He called your name once more, and your eyelids fluttered open. 

------

The power had been intense, although Calyrex has assured you it was only a simple skill any pokemon that was psychic mastered as a young. Floating yourself was one thing, but focusing on manipulating others energies to keep them off the ground? It didn’t take long for you to feel yourself straining, sweat from the mental effort covering your skin. As you concentrated, you saw the swirling purple and pink aura surrounding yourself and Caly, the pressure against your skin oddly comforting, yet frightening. 

The next thing you knew, you were in Namjoon’s lap, so weak you could barely keep your eyes open. You stared into his brown ones, wide with concern. His large, gentle hands roamed your body, checking joints and bones and anything else that could have gotten hurt. You closed your eyes once again, comforted by his presence, but the small shake he gave you made you fling them open once more.

“Stay awake, just for a moment. Speak to me. Does anything hurt?” His arms tightened, bringing you to lean against his chest. You felt and heard his heartbeat slamming through his chest. 

“I’m ... okay,” you whispered. “Just tired. Let me rest. Caly said this was normal.” Your eyes closed once more as you were placed on the ground. After a moment, Namjoon lifted you, bridal style, and carried you to a large blanket Lobo and Tori had spread out as a makeshift bed. The rising sun didn’t penetrate your eyelids as you rested, hand on Namjoon’s knee. He sat beside you as you slept.

--------

Spritz was the one to pull a reluctant Namjoon away from your side when they chirped and pulled him toward the trees. Fable realized there were some trainers and their pokemon trapped on a cliff with no way down. As this part of Namjoon’s job, he couldn’t just ignore it. He put Otis in charge of staying with you, which the apathetic pokemon did so with a snort. 

After the three kids and pokemon were helped down the cliff, a couple hours had passed. Namjoon had been distracted a few times with you, almost slipping himself as he scaled the rocks. Caly scolded him even as Namjoon gulped down water on the way back to the camp.

“You could have killed yourself, Namjoon. I don’t understand what happened. You’re usually so careful! Humans are so confusing...”

“Bi..bibi!” Spritz giggled as it fluttered around Fable and then near Namjoon. It seemed highly amused with the situation, and patted his head sympathetically. Namjoon wasn’t sure what the mythical pokemon found so hilarious - Calyrex was right, he could have really gotten hurt.

“It’s because he’s in love.” Fable said, so casually Namjoon almost missed the teasing lilt in the telepathic voice. He choked on water he had just swallowed, having to stop his steps and lean forward, coughing violently. 

“Bi! Cel-Cel...!” Spritz frowned as they patted his back again.

“I’m okay, just swallowed wrong,” Namjoon gasped, wiping his mouth. Finally, he got his breathing under control enough to begin walking once more. Tori leaned her head down and grinned her usual goofy grin, grunting her concern. Namjoon reached up, patted the huge body of the tree-like pokemon, and continued walking. Lobo rested on Fable’s back.

“Love, romance, a purely human invention,” Caly scoffed. The party crossed into the small clearing where the camp was, and Namjoon felt his breath catch as he stopped in his tracks. Otis was creating music with his body, his shield opened to expose the center part of himself. You were happily hopping around, laughing and spinning as you danced in a circle.

“Well, that’s something I never thought I’d see,” Fable muttered in as much awe as everyone else in the group. “All I’ve known Otis to be is grumpy.”

As the group entered the camp and interrupted your dancing, Namjoon’s head was filled with what Fable has said. Love. Was he in love with you? He had been in relationships before, but it wasn’t like he was an expert in that emotion. Still, it was easy to see as soon as it was noticed. 

The nervousness when he spoke to you or thought about you, the flush he always felt when you were near, the awkward situations he found himself in when only you were there or in his mind. It was clearly obvious - he had feelings for you and it was getting strong. 

You smiled at him as the pokemon worked together to build a fire to cook lunch, coming to sit on a log that had been a bench for the last week. You scooted close to his side, the sunshine raining down on everything. He resisted the urge to grab your hand.

“Fable told me about the kids on the cliff. You’re amazing, you know that?” Namjoon chuckled, bashful with the compliments, especially as it came from you. You knocked his shoulder with yours. “I’m serious! It’s a dangerous thing to do, be a ranger, but you put your heart and soul into it. You care about people and pokemon and the earth we live on.”

“Someone has to,” he replied. “I think the fire’s ready, I’m going to make us some lunch.” As he focused on cooking, his thoughts were sprinkled with you, as they always were lately. A small smile was stuck on his face, and Namjoon didn’t even notice. Unfortunately, the facts of your origin snuck in with the other thoughts. 

You were a pokemon. Could a human feel this way for a pokemon? But were you really? Sure you had the DNA of Mewtwo, which was made from Mew and a human, but... you looked human. Nothing about you was out of ordinary, at least from an objective perspective. To him, though, you were extraordinary, a beautiful soul and a pretty face all rolled into one.

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

That evening, after a week of avoidance, you stared at the screen of Namjoon’s laptop. The folder named NOCTURNA stared back at you, taunting you with answers and more questions. The sun was almost below the horizon, and everything was quiet, settling down to sleep. You felt the comforting presence of Namjoon dozing in his sleeping bag next to the bench, where he had insisted on staying while you did this.

You glanced toward him, taking in his softened features and gentle breathing. On his back, one hand was under his head while the other was on his stomach atop the cover. The realization of your feelings came to you rather quickly, as your stomach jumped and rolled with nerves. You had never been in love, but it seemed obvious this was it. How did you know without... knowing?  Maybe a part of you that you didn’t remember had experienced it before. 

After taking a deep breath, you opened the file. There was one PDF file labeled JOURNALS, and one text document labeled “READ FIRST”. Whoever had given this USB to you had left a note, it seemed. You lifted your hand from the touchpad and placed them on your lap. The arrow hovered over the text document, waiting for you to give it instructions with the double tap of your fingers. The butterflies in your stomach turned into a storm, a happy feeling changing into one of anxiety and fear. This was it, this was where some answers would be.

Swallowing hard, you lifted your trembling hand and double tapped the touchpad. The text document took a few seconds to open.

Let me begin by apologizing for my actions that have led to your mistreatment. I understand that these are merely words that you are reading, so I don’t expect you to completely forgive me. I will not apologize for the reason, though, as that pertains to more than just myself. The reasons for your creation were for good, I promise you that.

My life had turned toward good, giving back to those I had wronged and focusing on making the world a better place. During that time, my partner gave birth to a child, a little girl, who had a tremendous duty ahead of her. Unfortunately, my partner had been a part of a group called Nocturna.

Unknowingly, they had used her as an experiment. I did not know they had added the genetics of Mewtwo to my wife, but once you were born, the group made sure I knew. They took you.

It has taken me years to find you, but here you are, a grown woman that these wretched people had poked and prodded so thoroughly there wasn’t anything alive inside you. When I finally got you out, I made sure to take this USB, as well as wipe your memory with their technology.

I am too old to continue my deeds, good or bad, so now it’s up to you. This USB is proof to my successor in Viridian City that you are my daughter. Go there, and everything that was mine will be yours.

Be safe, be kind, and don’t make my mistakes.

Giovanni Sakaki

By the end of the letter, tears were flowing down your cheeks. Unable to hold back, you put your face in your hands and sobbed. Your memories may be gone, but the pain, confusion, and fear that had been most of your life was thrown back into you. It was hard to breathe, you cried so hard. You didn’t even flinch when someone sat beside you and held you close, his deep, calming voice telling you it was going to be okay.

You didn’t know how long you sat there, him holding you, but the stars were high in the sky when you finally pulled away. Suddenly, you were self-conscious about the state you were in - puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Namjoon took your face in his hands, though, and leaned close. His lips touched your forehead, staying for a moment, then pulled back.

“The letter... there’s a lot of things in it. Do you want to talk about it?” You shook your head immediately. “What about the journals?” You repeated the action, placing your head against his chest and wrapping your arms around his waist. His arms seemed to shelter you from all the frightening emotions and unanswered questions swirling in your mind. “Let’s get some rest, then.”

----------

He wasn’t sure what else to do, so he held you close as you two settled into one sleeping bag inside the tent. You had been silent this whole time, but he couldn’t blame you. He had read through the letter as you sobbed earlier. Namjoon was shocked and confused, but he could only imagine how much more emotions you were feeling. Had your memories returned? Was the amnesia permanent? It was clear now was not the time to ask these questions, especially when you were finally calm.

“Namjoon?” you asked, your hands between your bodies, your face pressed against his chest. He kissed your hair, just under his chin. “Namjoon, I...” You trailed off.

“What is it?” He pulled away just enough to see you move your eyes from his chest to his face. Something was in there that he hadn’t expected to see. Lust. He swallowed as his body started to react, starting to feel every inch of you pressing against his body, no matter the sweatpants and tshirt he was wearing.

“It hurts. Not physically, but.... emotionally? I don’t feel good. I want to feel good.” You stopped, biting your lip as your eyes closed for a moment. You opened them and continued. “Can I feel good with you?”

“You mean...? You’re emotionally hurting right now, maybe this isn’t the best way to deal with it right now...” Namjoon trailed off as you placed a hand on his cheek, and scooted up enough to press your lips against his. He closed his eyes, the soft touch electrifying everything. He kissed you back, barely, then pulled back. Your noses stayed close enough to touch.

“Before the letter, it was on my mind,” you admitted, a bashful smile on your lips as you avoided his eyes. “Last night, when we were lying together. I didn’t want to interrupt your sleep, though, so I left and practiced with Caly.”

“Oh,” he replied, swallowing hard. Namjoon placed a soft kiss on your lips in response, hesitating for only a moment before opening his mouth to kiss you deeper. You showed no hesitation as you opened your mouth and teased his lips with your tongue.

Limbs wrapped around one another, and he found himself rolling to be on top, your thighs opening desperately as he pressed himself against you. Lips and tongue tangled as you both rocked your clothed hips desperately. The sleeping bag gave little room to pull away, and everything seemed heat even more as you nibbled on his lips.

“Are you sure?” Namjoon asked, whispering your name as your hands ran down his chest. He hovered over you, body trembling as your roaming hands touched the skin at the edge of his shirt. 

“Definitely sure. I want to feel you, all of you.” You smirked at him, a playful twinkle in your eye. He returned it with a smile, then caught your lips again with his. He rocked his hips and you let out a delicious groan. “I don’t want to wait. Pull down your pants.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Namjoon rasped. It was difficult to maneuver your bodies to disrobe, but you both managed to discard the items with giggles and stolen kisses. Finally, you were skin to skin, with him large and aching between your thighs.

He couldn’t resist the urge to kiss your skin, so he trailed his lips over your neck and to your breasts, swirling his tongue around the nipples as you arched your back and whimpered. Your hand reached between your bodies, wrapping around his cock. Namjoon gasped and brought his lips back to yours, kissing you hard as he shuddered. 

“Fuck, that feels too good,” he groaned. You removed your hand and wrapped your legs around his hips. This caused the head to press against your slick heat. Namjoon’s head spun as he flexed, coating himself in you as the head of his cock hit your clit. 

“Don’t stop,” you whimpered into his ear. He buried his face into your neck, biting, kissing, and licking as you rutted against one another. He kept moving, ignoring the way he was getting closer and closer to his climax. You writhed beneath him. Namjoon reached down and circled your clit with his fingers.

You gasped and bucked, surprising both of you as you cried out and climaxed at his hand. His cock pulsed against your opening, covering your mound with his release. It was so unexpected, his hand was almost splashed.

Breathing hard, he placed hands on either side of your head, looking down at your face, clearly showing content and pleasure. His arms trembled, but he focused on catching his breath and staring into your eyes. His own eyes widened as a purple and pink aura began to glow around the two of you.

-----------

You had not felt such bliss, such pleasure, and you didn’t want to let it end. You hadn’t paid attention to Namjoon, and when you realized that fact as you stared into his eyes, guilt ascended. He hovered over you, breathing heavily, watching you with wide eyes filled with surprise, lust, and care. You felt his sticky cum between your bodies. He had climaxed as you had, but you hadn’t done anything to help him along. 

“I’m sorry, Joonie, I wasn’t paying attention to what you needed,” you purred, feeling confident even without practice. His mouth tried to form words as you pulled the hand that was still covered in his release from beside your head and to your mouth. He leaned heavily on his other forearm as you licked his fingers, sighing with pleasure at the taste of him on your tongue. “Can we do that again?”

“I may need a few minutes,” he answered roughly, rolling to his side. “Um... you’re glowing?” he pointed out, confused. It took a moment, but you then noticed the pink and purple power aura swirling around you and partially around him. You also felt more powerful than you had ever felt before. You didn’t know if it was the climax, or the fact you had finally given into your feelings.

“I see. I think I can use this,” you stated with a grin. Namjoon raised his eyebrows as you pushed against his chest. “Lay on your back, Joonie.” He did as you asked, and you settled yourself between his thighs, hands on his skin. He sucked in a breath as you studied his soft cock.

“Use your powers?” he asked breathlessly, putting his hands behind his head. 

“Maybe,” you replied, winking.

You leaned forward and placed a kiss on the tip of his cock, causing it to start growing. A low growl came from Namjoon’s throat. You appreciated him letting you experiment. You took a breath in and blew lightly against him. Smoky purple and pink energy swirled around his member, and you heard him gasp loudly as it began to grow even more. He whimpered, and you felt a hand fall into your hair, His hips flex upward, his cock twitching.

You did it once again, this time circling your fingers around him. Your fingertips didn’t touch anymore, and you knew he was growing even larger. Namjoon cursed and whispered your name, his body starting to tremble. The purple and pink energy swelled to encompass the tent, heightening the arousal of Namjoon and yourself.

“You're so big, I don’t know how you’ll fit inside me. I suppose that’s the fun of it,” you added. You leaned forward and placed your lips on his cock, slowly sliding down. Namjoon placed both hands into your hair, tightening his hold as you took him halfway into your mouth. Your tongue swirled around his member as much as possible, a bit of saliva running down onto your hand gripping him.

You took your time to taste him, moving your head and hand together to pull moans and gasps from Namjoon.

“Baby, please, I’m so close, Where do you want me?” Namjoon’s voice was choppy, the pleasure clear as he shook with pleasure. You lowered even more on his cock, just an inch or two from the bottom, and he cried out, gently pulling your hair. You knew he was climaxing, so you used your psychic aura to stop it just before he let himself go. “Fuck, what was that?” he whimpered.

You pulled off his member slowly, letting the saliva lubricate your hand as you pumped him. You felt powerful and sexy as you saw his face, eyes half-lidded and mouth open. He was covered in sweat, his eyes staring lovingly at you. 

“I used my power. Did you like it?” Suddenly, you weren’t so sure that had been the right choice. Your own body pulsed with desire, nipples hard and your entrance weeping. You stopped moving your hand.

“Oh, yeah, that was... amazing,” he answered, trying to catch his breath. His cock twitched in your hand, bringing back your sexual confidence. You began to stimulate him again, using your hand on his cock and your energy to stroke against his skin, especially the places he seemed to enjoy the touch.

“Do you want me to continue? I want to but...” you trailed off and let some spit dribble onto his throbbing cock. He grunted, hips lifting, as he nodded quickly.

“God, yes, don’t stop.” He placed his hands under his head once more. You watched as he shut his eyes tightly, a shaky breath leaving his lips. “Fuck, I want to be inside you... can I?”

“Yes,” you immediately answered, letting him go. He watched as if you were the most beautiful and precious thing as you climbed on top, lining his member up with your slick opening. You rubbed yourself over his cock, your mound still sticky with his release before. His eyes zeroed in between your thighs. “Help me,” you requested with a whimper, unsure how to get him to fit inside you.

“Okay, okay,” he rasped, putting his hands on your hips. He flexed his hips as you shifted, and suddenly he was inside. You both gasped at the same time, the aura around the tent brightening. Trembling, you felt yourself being stretched to the point of pleasurable pain. He cursed, gripping your hips tightly. “Baby, you okay? Shit, you're tighter than I thought...” His dirty words, which he never said before, caused a rush of wetness to slide around him inside of you. It helped him move deeper inside you.

“It hurts, but in a good way,” you groaned, shifting slightly. “I didn’t realize it would feel so good.” You placed your hands on his chest, lowering yourself the rest of the way. After he was buried completely inside, you caught the look on his face.

“You’ve never done this.” It was a statement filled with emotion. The energy pulsed around you in time with his cock flexing against your inner walls. You controlled some energy around him, stroking his body again the way he enjoyed moments ago. He grunted as he pulled you off of him half way. You went to protest, but he lifted his hips and slammed you back downward.

“Joon!” you cried, clenching around him. He did it once more, like he was testing your reaction. His eyes glittered with arousal now, remembering what made you cry out, what made you shudder in pleasure. “No, I haven’t,” you replied as you gasped for air. “I’m sure of that.”

“Thank you,” he whispered, starting to repeat his thrusting slowly, over and over again. With each movement, you felt the amazing climax from before coming closer and closer to you. Eyes closed, you let yourself give him control, moving your body the way he wanted. “Thank you for trusting me, thank you for this.” His words confused you, but the tenderness made tears come to your eyes.

“Joon,” you murmured, eyes opening. You bent over, capturing his lips, as you matched his thrusts. The kisses turned sloppy, only wanting to taste more and more of each other. “Do that again,” you demanded at a particularly pleasurable thrust. Namjoon did as you asked, and you cried out. “I’m almost there!”

“Me too, baby. Can you ride me? Fuck,” he added when you took his hands and slammed them on either side of his head. 

You took control, slamming down onto his cock at a rapid pace. You focused on him, taking the energy once again and stroking his skin, this time moving down to stimulate his balls. His eyes opened wide, curses leaving his mouth. After a few moments, you slammed down and grinded your clit against his pelvis, clenching his cock, as you orgasmed harder than before. You felt him release inside you, the warmth and fullness of him making you shudder even harder. Purple and pink clouds of energy brightened even more, then shuddered along with you into uncountable falling stars.

You fell onto his chest and gasped for air, eyes closed tightly, as you kept yourself in the mental high of orgasm as long as possible. You felt strong arms wrap around you, sticky with sweat, and breathed in the heady smells of sex. The psychic energy that had floated in the tent slowly dissipated into nothing, and all that was left was the sound of Namjoon and you breathing deeply.

-------

After a nervous start the morning after, Namjoon and you stumbled through the beginnings of a new relationship as the days passed. Another week went by before you made a decision, and Namjoon supported you completely. It didn’t take long for you to establish yourself with the Pokemon Ranger program as a supportive ranger, with your psychic abilities suited for healing and soothing wounded pokemon and people. Still, you knew you would eventually make your way to Viridian City, where your father’s legacy awaited your return.

In time, you had a team of your own that helped in your newly acquired duties as Namjoon’s support and medic. Even though it wasn’t his official title, Namjoon was the same for you. Nightmares would come and go, and he would stay there, holding you close as you cried. Every loving kiss, every gentle touch, allowed your emotional wounds to heal. You even conversed with Mewtwo a handful of times over the year, learning a few offensive psychic techniques that you hoped to never have to use. The pokemon insisted you would never meet in person, but it was always in the back of your mind. You did have his DNA inside of you.

It was Namjoon’s idea to set up a traveling clinic, and you expanded that into specializing in abandoned psychic pokemon. The type was as misunderstood as ever, and the aftermaths of abusive, greedy groups were always going to be there. Just as Namjoon and his pokemon team allowed you to grow and heal, you would be there for these pokemon. Sleeping under the stars was one of your favorite things to do when you and Namjoon spent time together outside of work, which would include deep conversations and heated touches. Eventually, your memories returned, and a year later, all was clear. That was when you decided it was time to face your past, your family legacy, and create something new and wonderful out of something as dark as Nocturna

During one of those times, just over a year since you had met him, Namjoon held you close as you sat between his thighs, back pressed against his chest. You felt his relaxed breathing near your ear, and found your own breath matching his. With a blanket wrapped around both of you, everything was comfortable and warm.

“I love you,” Namjoon said quietly, lips touching the top of your ear in a light kiss. You let out a soft sigh and closed your eyes, the sincere and beautiful words flowing through your skin and into your soul. Everytime he said it, it was almost unbelievable, but he would always prove himself.

“I love you, too,” you replied, eyes opening. You leaned to the side, turned your head, and kissed the corner of his lips. It was an awkward position, and you both giggled and returned to your previous position. “I contacted the Viridian City gym leader today.”

“What?” Namjoon froze, shocked at the news. He squeezed you tighter. The note of concern in his voice was sweet, but you patted the arm that was around your waist.

“I’m not changing my path in life, just adding another part. I’m going to meet him and maybe make a business deal. We need donations to keep the clinic going and up to date, might as well start using what was left to me, right?”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“I… yeah, that might help, I’m nervous to meet the famous rock trainer and gym leader, Jeon Jungkook.”

EVERLAST CLINIC TEAM

[factual-fantasy]

20 more asks! ♡٩(●ᴗ●)۶♡

Well.. I don’t know, there’s plenty of kinds of candy that I’ve never liked.

I don’t like butterfingers, I don’t like snickers, jelly beans or most licorice.. But if I had to come out and say one specifically, I really don’t like butter fingers. The taste is fine, its the nasty texture that gets to me. ( >﹏<;)

I asked around to a few family members and got 9s and 10s out of 10. I myself think I go above and beyond to imagine and build up every little tiny detail to my stories so.. 10/10 I suppose? <:D

Hmm.. I think I’m going to put this ask into 3 category's.

1. Who likes candy corn?

U.M.Dragster

Jeepy

White Truck

Green Truck

2. Who would eat some of it if it was given to them, but would not buy it with their own money?

Brown Suburban

Beluga

Ranger

Miata

Escort

Vega

3. Doesn’t like candy corn.

Red Van

A.T.Dragster

Suburban

Honda

Unique category's. 

Volvo doesn’t eat candy and has never tried it. But he would like it if he did.

Bash Buggy also doesn’t eat candy. But if he tried it he probably wouldn’t like it too much.. He’d eat some of it if someone offered it to him though.

1. I’ve watched all the Bayverse movies and the Bumblebee movie. I liked them a lot. :}  However I am not into, nor have I seen any other adaptions other than Prime..

2. Hoo boy, here we go. XD

Suburban is a literal beast in the snow. The best of the best. The snow is no trouble at all and the cold never bothered him anyway. He may not like the snow all that much because it makes him wet and a little cold.. but he certainly doesn’t hate it and will play in it with the kids if they want him too. He also never passes up the opportunity to have a snowball fight or build a snowman.

Miata really struggles with handling the cold physically, because she’s so small, light, and rear wheel drive.. but she really does enjoy it. She likes to help the kids build giant snow men and loves making snow angels, she doesn’t mind the cold or snow at all.

Escort? Uhg. The cold isn’t enough to shut him down, but it sure darn FEELS like it. I mean sure, okay, he’s front wheel drive so actually driving in the snow and cold is fine.. buuut, if he stops moving? Its game over. He’ll start shaking and sputtering and pretty soon he’ll shut down. He does like to hang out with the kids sometimes, although normally the cold nips at him enough that he doesn’t go outside.

Brown Suburban isn’t a big fan of snow because his body struggles to start up enough already, having the cold on top of it makes it just that much harder. But honestly its not too bad. He’s heavy enough that he can drive through snow decently so that’s a plus. However, his starting up issues with snow aside, he does actually like snowball fights. One time, it was Jeepy, Wheeljack, Suburban and Bulkhead vs Brown Suburban. Brown Suburban won. The goal was to knock your opponent down. 

U.M.Dragster and his sister H A T E the cold with a burning passion... heh, burning, anyway. They just.. cant handle it at all. Like, not at all. Their joints lock up and they just shut down. One time, they both sat at the entrance of the base huddled up together and watching everyone else.. When A.T suddenly froze up and just fell over. They’re sad that they cant join everyone else. But they’re just too thin, the cold gets right under their plating and freezes their cores. <:{

Green Truck struggles with cold and snow, he really does. He’s old and has a bad shivering problem. His alt form is also a truck, meaning he’s light and doesn't get good traction in the snow and ice. Now if the kiddos want him to, he’ll go out and play with them. But otherwise he really isn’t a fan and would rather be cooped up in the base where its warm and dry.

Vega? Heck nah he don’t like the cold or snow! You kidding?? Vega is a total base hermit. Because of his age, his body really doesn't handle cold well at all, despite the size of his engine. He normally doesn’t leave the base when its cold. But in all honesty? He’s a big ol’ softie when it comes to kids. If they catch him in a decent mood he’ll go outside and endure the conditions to hang out with them.

Red Van would usually be pretty good all around when it comes to handling the cold and snow.. if it wasn't for her knees. Because of the damage they have sustained, she cant really go out in the snow all that much. The internal wiring in her knees is mostly exposed and it doesn’t react to cold well, making her sore and achy. She usually just spends her time huddled up in the base with heated straps wrapped around her legs.. <:{

White Truck is, well, a not-so-strong truck. So driving in the snow is pretty difficult. He’s decent with handling the cold and doesn’t mind goofing around with the kiddos in the cold, but I don't think he’d really want to go out on his own in it.

Beluga is pretty good at handling both and likes to goof around in the snow with the kids. She doesn't mind the cold or the wetness so honestly the winter months are no problem for her. She actually probably enjoys the winter months more than any of the others do.

Honda is mostly fine handling the cold and snow, but she’s not exactly a fan. She’ll goof around in the snow if the kids want her too, but she won’t go out on her own.

Ranger can handle the cold just fine, but being a truck an all.. driving through the snow is a little difficult at times. She’s a softie at her core but is usually not persuaded to go outside and play unless a lot of older bots are out there too. She doesn’t like to go out in the snow but she likes to keep an eye on her team when a lot of them are out in cold conditions.

Volvo can handle the cold very well because he’s so dense. His arms, legs, chest, back and every where else has many, many layers of metal. That doesn’t mean he likes it though. Driving wise he’s fine and temperature wise he’s fine, but he just doesn't like getting wet. He also has no time for “snowball fights” and “building snowmen” and what not. He’s a base hermit when it snow comes to that’s for sure.

The cold nips at Jeepy a little bit, but boy is the snow fun. Drivin, slidin, ridin, all of it is just a blast for him. He doesn’t mind the cold one bit while he’s ripping around and having fun.

Bash Buggy might just be the worst in the snow. Bash is basically 100% blind because snow screws up all 3 of his vision modes. Everything and everyone is cold and wet, so thermal doesn’t work. Grid cant latch on to the shapes around him because everything is round and the same color. And then Night vision doesn't work in the day time anyway, but the snow makes it worse none the less. His body is so severely stripped of his armor and insulation, that the cold just... uhhg, it just eats him up. His body tries so hard to keep him warm that he looses all of his energy being in it. He hates this. All of it. He just wants to be outside and hang out with his buddies, but.. he just cant. It’d probably kill him to be out there too long, so he’s stuck just being a base hermit all winter. <:{

♡♡Winterrrr~~~~♡♡ mmmm snooooowww ♡♡~~~ ♡(*´ o `*)♡ The season I was born in~~♡♡

Sadly it doesn’t snow much where I live, and when it does its only around for like 3 days. ╥﹏╥

And yes it makes me happy! I love getting asks, of all kinds! (excluding mean ones of course XD)

I like Alfred Pennyworth more, but Batman is cool too. :}

WHEEZE I-- BRuH, this is the best thing ever! XD I don’t know how quickly Doritos burst into flames but lets just pretend its pretty fast.

Escort and Vega are huddled up in a corner of the base in front of the only tiny space heater they have. They’re both shivering and quietly chatting when, I feel like Jeepy, comes up to them with this giant box.

“Is that heater helping at all?“ Jeepy asks genuinely and worried.

They pause for a moment, but then Vega shrugs and Escort makes a face and shakes his head. Jeepy then grins from ear to ear.

“WELL!“ He says kicking the heater aside and pouring out the contents of the box into the floor in front of them. Out of the box came several hundred bags of Dorito chips. 

“What are..“ Escort starts. But Jeepy is already grabbing a blowtorch out of no where and attempting to light the Doritos on fire. The Doritos quickly burst into flames, causing immediate panic. 

Escort quickly pulls Vega up from the ground and they dip. Ratchet and the other medics start freaking out. Everyone scatters and are scrambling to find the kids and a way to put out the fire. Brown suburban scoops up Jeepy and gets him away from the fire while other bots manage to find all three kids. 

Someone manages to stomp out the fire, maybe Ranger. After assuring no one was hurt and everyone is okay, they just look at Jeepy like?? WhY did you do that?? Jeepy’s like a clueless kid and was like, “Well they were cold and I heard these things were flammable soo...?”

Sigh, Jeepy’s got a few screws loose but they love him anyway. XD

Replace “Blue Suburban’s” with “my” and you just quoted Suburban.

Hmmm... Well lets see.. maybe like, if they wore clothes, what you be their iconic clothing of choice? Hmm..

Miata would have a lanyard of some kind, not sure what design it would have but I think it would be black and grey.

Escort would probably have a thin black jacket that doesn’t have a zipper. He’d wear all the time, even in summer. Its just enough to keep the chill off of him but not enough to make him overheat.

Brown Suburban would have a poorly made bracelet made of pony beads that he wears everywhere. He never talks about it and no one knows where he got it. As far as anyone knows, he doesn’t have any children..

U.M.Dragster and his sister would probably have bracelets too. Mostly likely matching ones that are souvenirs from the races.

Vega would have an old black leather baseball cap that he wears everywhere.

White Truck would have a pair of black flip flops that he wears all the time.

Beluga wouldn’t have an article of clothing, she’d have a galaxy print backpack that she takes with her when ever she has the chance.

Honda doesn’t have an article of clothing that she wears all year round. But she does have a scarf that she wears every day of winter and fall

Jeepy would have some kind of beanie that he wears all year round.

Bash Buggy might have some really small article of clothing. Like a small piece of torn fabric that he keeps in his wallet. It would be a piece of a shirt or something that he had a sentimental connection to before it was destroyed. He keeps it with him at all times, its his way of coping with the past and keeping a piece of his memories with him.

I’m not sure about the rest of them. They may have something too but I cant really think of anything..   

Cat people?

Escort Brown Suburban A.T.Dragster Honda Beluga

Dog People?

Green Truck Suburban U.M.Dragster Red Van White Truck Bash Buggy Jeepy

Doesn’t like animals?

Volvo Vega

Bird people? 

Miata.

Fish people?

Ranger

It would probably be Suburban. He’s very gentle with humans and would be very careful if he picked me up. 

I’d probably freak out a little being that high up in the air, but I know that Suburban would keep me safe.

For some reason, that felt super weird to type out.

Hmm.. lets say you said you loved him romantically.

If you managed to convince him, he’d go pretty quiet. Just looking from side to side and thinking.. He’d be fidgeting with his hands and look like he’s trying to say something but cant form the words.

“D-Do you really?“ He’d ask. If you said yes with certainty.. he’d begin to tear up.

“..Y-You can do better.. you c-can so much better than me..” 

He’d probably begin to cry. “You d-deserve so much better than me..”

Hmm... a certain funny or weird ask?.. Hm.. Well, I’m not sure about funny or weird, but this ask? 👇 

Was very well worded and S T U N G. I’ve been thinking about it recently. I really need to replace those windows, Suburban didn’t deserve that.

Yeah, they’ve both lost a lot and unfortunately relate to each other in that regard. Miata has a big heart, and seeing someone so sad and alone just really made her sad. She wanted to talk to him to try and make him feel better, but she ended up actually becoming good friends with him. He’s even her mentor now actually. :}

You missed it? :} Its about time I backed away from the red and eased my way into the blue~

I figure I should probably clear this up real quick. Miata is single too, but I said she isn’t because she just got out of a relationship with the Decepticon Zippy. So she’s not looking for love at the moment.

As for Volvo, good luck. Legit, even I don’t know what it would take to woo him, and I MADE him for crying out loud!! 

Ah my name, Factual Fantasy. I was wondering when I’d get this question. Fair warning, long explanation pending.

So you see, I have this thing I like to do with my drawings and stories. I like to incorporate truths and facts into them. I like things to function realistically, and have an explanation for everything. I’ll give you some examples.

Lets say there’s this show, and due to the storyline there's a polar bear guy that spends most of his time in warm water and in the sun. The show never addresses the fact that this would kill the polar bear due to his blubber and two layers of fur making him overheat and die.

So, how can I make this work? How can a polar bear survive comfortably in warm climates? How about this, he shaves his fur down as short as he can possibly go. So that way his winter coat is thinned out greatly and he can at least decently handle most warm weather? That’s a good explanation for something that doesn't make sense.

How about another example?

I want Gaster to be Sans and Papyrus’s dad in my AU, but there’s a lot that needs explaining. Why does Sans and Papyrus look so extremely different in so many different ways if they’re brothers? How could they have been born if there are no other skeletons to speak of in the game? Well, how about this.

Gaster wanted kids, but no longer had his wife. So he turned to science and cut a hole out of his left hand to take its DNA. He does lots of experiments on the bone piece and manages to make Sans from it. Unfortunately a lot of mistakes happened along the way which messed up Sans’s body pretty bad. Sans’s growth was messed up and he stopped growing at age 15. His magic is unstable and comes out in strong bursts when he attempts to use it.

After Sans was successful he tried again with the other hand and made Papyrus. Papyrus was made with way fewer mistakes and thus, Papyrus grew up normally and resembles his father.

This would explain where they came from and how Gaster could be their dad without the presence of a mom. This would explain why Sans looks so different from Paps and Gaster as well. It could also be the reason why Sans never usually uses his powers much. Not just because he’s lazy, but because its dangerous too.

How about one more example.. just in case..

Okay. Lets say I want to make an AU where Stanley has Bills powers but doesn't know it. How can I make that make sense? How can Stan have powers but not know it?

So I think okay, first, the powers. I want him to have Bills powers but I want Bill to be dead, So, Instead of Bill being erased, I make it that the memory gun shattered him. Making Bill dead, but his pieces remain. Giving Stanley his powers. That’s reasonable, that makes sense.

Now, how can he not know that he has these powers? Well, perhaps he only has some of Bills pieces. Maybe Bill was shattered so severely that most of him is just dust, while some of his pieces remain mostly intact. So this could mean his powers aren’t as strong and don’t really show up. So if he cant really see or feel his powers, he wouldn't know he has them.

Okay. Now of course, sooner or later Stan is going to accidentally use them right? How can he still not know he has them after he uses them? Well what if Bills activated powers + Stanley’s Human mind = black outs? Like, his mind cant handle the power so the power just takes over him, making him black out. So he uses his power, blacks out and then comes back to himself and doesn't remember anything. 

Well what about Ford? Ford would surly be around Stan when he uses his powers and remember them right? Well, what if the only times that Stan’s power has flared up strong enough to become visible was when Ford has been attacked and knocked unconscious? That way, both twins black out when the powers are used and neither of them remember it. Simple!

I took a crazy unreasonable world and made it all makes sense. It all has an explanation, an answer, facts that connect it to a realistic build. I always build my worlds on facts and reasons. Another good example is my Transformer OCs. Nearly everything about them is something related to the real cars, just shifted a little bit. Vega’s overheating, Red Vans knees, Escorts heart attack, Green Trucks leg, Bash Buggy’s blindness, the Dragsters being siblings, etc, etc, etc.

Do you get the picture..? I like to explain things. Put facts into my fiction. Make things and characters feel more real and connected to reality on a different level.

I like to, and always have, added reasoning and facts to my fantasies.

Factual, Fantasy.

[ivyglow]

break a leg - but not literally - Mat Barzal NYI

Author notes: Better late than never, huh?! Thank you for the like and reblogs in the Up all night one shot, hope you guys like this one as much. Tell me if there are some grammar mistakes so I can correct, requests are open and feedback is always appreciated! 

Word count: 1.531

Request/summary: Could you write about Barzy breaking his leg? Poor bby is in a ton of pain but his gf is there for him and helps him with everything? Thanks so much

When Mat woke up that morning he was on cloud nine to look at his side and see y/n. The season had started and so the away games which made the contact between the couple a little less than the usual. But being in this relationship for 2 years teach them some tricks to be together like the one in this week, where y/n was able to get the most part of her stuff done at college and some days off from work to travel with the team at least for one game.

And that’s the game where Mat was giving all his effort, coming from a loss against the Maple Leafs he was decided to win tonight and so far things were doing OK since whenever he felt nervous he would spot her pretty smile in the middle of the crowd. 

Y/n was wearing the orange and blue shirt with Mathew’s number in the back, curly strands of hair eventually coming to her face, although never taking away her attention, so when Mat and Anders got close to the net she and some of the others Isles fans were already up. What they were not expecting was to things got out of control when a player from the Rangers bumped into Mat and suddenly his body was shoved in the direction of the boards, half of him taking the net from the place, puck getting lost in the mess of people around the ice and then the dead silence from everyone including the crowd. 

She can almost count the seconds after when everything looks like a slow-motion movie scene and her boyfriend doesn’t get up. His body facing the ground, his stick not even close to his hands and everyone knew he wasn’t asking for it when his palm hit the ice repeatedly and he takes off his helmet. 

Just like this, the game comes to a stop. 

Anders crouching down beside his teammate and screaming for people to bring the doctors, voice being heard easily throw the dead silence in the arena while two Rangers players skate do the bench and bring their own doctor as fast as they can. It turns almost impossible to see Mat in the sea of players and staff members around him, she doesn’t know how much time passed until he was being lifted and placed in a stretcher. Y/n’s eyes start to glisten with tears and before she could give one more step out of her seat space Tito is in the glass making a sign for her to go to the dressing room. 

Dizzy and almost crying she starts walking towards the entrance of the place already listening to Mat frantic sounds of pain. 

“Mathew!!” she whisper-screamed stopping by his side. The doctor and staff taking off his shin pads while he sighed. 

“This shit hurts so much” he was able to speak properly while reaching for her hand to hold. 

“I’m here, I won’t leave, It’s okay” she tried to calm him down, his eyes were as glisten as hers and thought he was the one feeling the pain she could sense the ache in her heart. 

But right now y/n knew she needed to pass some kind of confidence to her boyfriend, everyone around was already losing their heads and they weren’t even sure what the hell of injury was. 

His face was red and the veins could be seen through his neck. 

“It’s broken, we’ve gotta run the hospital as fast as possible” the old man finally said receiving a nod from the other doctor in the room.  

 “Fuck!” Mat muttered. “Don’t leave, don’t leave, please” he begged while gripping her hand tighter. 

Y/n wasn’t aware of how much it hurts, but she would easily change place with him so that she wouldn’t need to look at his painful face. 

“Babe, I won’t leave. Breathe, you need to breathe, ok?” 

He nods and it takes less than five minutes to the room starts to empty once the ambulance was already waiting for them. Once again she was by his side while paramedics work their magic so Mat would feel less pain. 

…

The next day when Mat woke up he wasn’t that happy with the image around. His leg was held up in the air with a white cast around it, he was dressed in hospital clothes and y/n wasn’t sleeping by his side as obvious. She was sitting in an uncomfortable position at the small couch in the room. 

She spent the night?! He questions himself before trying and failing to sit, letting out a groan of pain. 

“Mathew?! You’re awake. Want me to call the doctor? Are you feeling better??” y/n’s light sleep were interrupted and she was fast to jump beside his bed. 

“I...I’m okay, yeah, it still hurts like hell but not as bad as last night..” he reached for her hand and before she could say something else he started again “speaking of night, you slept on that couch?! Babe, you should have just laid here with me or I don’t know, went to the hotel and get back early in the morning.” 

She shakes her head no and bends down to plant a kiss in his cheekbones. 

“I told you I would not leave you alone. Also, it’s impossible to sleep in peace knowing you’re in the hospital, c’mon” 

He wasn’t able to contradict her knowing she was right.

“You’re hungry??”

“Starving” he sighs and she smiles.

“I’m gonna call the nurse so she can bring your meds and breakfast and buy something for me in the canteen” 

“No Cheetos and Soda...actually, you ate something last night, babe?!” Mat asks and y/n looks away dodging the question and leaving the room, she knew he would flip if she told him she wasn’t capable of eating nor drinking anything. 

Y/n called the nurse and bought her breakfast (some fruit salad and a big cup of coffee), eating a little too fast and right after walking back to his room.

They spent the rest of the day at the hospital, Mat occasionally watching the game he was supposed to attend today and pouting about the loss of the other night. Quoting him “I broke my leg and we didn’t even win”. It was almost midnight when he received permission to go home and so as tiring as it sounds they went to the hotel only to get their stuff and head straight to the airport, Mat needed the comfort of his home and so did y/n and since the doctor was okay with the short flight there was nothing holding the couple back. 

…

One week into the healing process and Mathew was already wanting to stand up, do stuff, give y/n some headache of worry. In the first days, he enjoyed to stay in bed as long as his girl was with him, but when y/n needed to work and go to classes he would be like a lonely puppy requesting her the second she stepped in the door. 

Their favorite playlist was playing while y/n prepared dinner and his meds, Mat had an appointment the next morning so he could start physiotherapy and have a better clue about his healing time process. He was supposed to be in bed and don’t put his foot in the ground at any cost, but there was Mathew jumping in one foot to the kitchen until he reaches the stools. 

“Mathew Barzal!! You know you can’t keep walking around like his, damn babe…” she sighs.

“I didn’t want to be alone in the bedroom” he looks at her cutting onions and gives his best smile.

“You’re such a baby” 

“I’m not into this kind o kinky, but we could try...I mean, I always thought you would prefer me as dominant you know, that daddy kinky stuff.” he jokes.

Y/n laughs out loud and he feels warm inside being the reason for her happiness and finally able to see her relax.

“You’re a walking joke!”

“Still you love me”

She rolls her eyes playfully and keeps preparing dinner.

“You know, I was wondering…” Y/n starts out of the blue.

“Mhmm”

“Last week when I told you ‘break a leg’ at the game, I didn’t mean it literally” 

“C’mon, you’ve gotta be kidding me” he suppresses the laugh at her terrible joke and huffs.

“I’m gonna have to remember myself not to use expressions with you, I mean just imagine I’m telling you that I killed two birds with one stone and you actually believing I killed innocent animals.” 

“Who’s the walking joke now huh?!!” he rolled his eyes and she ran to plant a kiss into his rosy lips. 

They laugh softly between the kiss and y/n holds his face close. The atmosphere got hot, but before y/n could say something Mat was faster to notice it was the food in the pan. 

“If you didn’t check the stove now we’re probably burning this place down and I mean it like literally” is his turn to joke.

[slapshot-to-the-heart]

Flatbush & Atlantic: part iii

Part iii is here! Read it, reblog it, text your friends about it, talk to ME about it, everything. 

part i part ii

part iii

November 13

From: Mat 

The tickets should be at will call! Let me know if you have any trouble, we’re headed out for warmups in a few 

Cass shoved her phone back into the back pocket of her pants, turning to Samaira. “He put them at will call, which is,” she scanned the front of Barclay’s, “right there.” Samaira followed her to the counter. “Hi,” she said as the ticketing agent called for the next in line, sliding her license under the glass. “There should be two for Cassidy Shaw.” The agent nodded, reaching over to leaf through a filing box and pulling out the envelope. “Enjoy the game!”

Samaira looked over as Cass handed her her ticket, eyeing the long line to get through the metal detectors. “What kind of seats did he get you?” 

Cass shrugged. “I’m not sure. He said they were good ones? Somewhere lower bowl, mid-ice I think.” Just got them, be in in a few! See you soon, she sent back to Mat. 

She tugged on the collar of her Rangers jersey, ignoring the occasional dirty look thrown her way. It was only one borough over, so she was far from the only fan in blue and red, and she couldn’t deny that there was a part of her that was looking forward to seeing Mat’s reaction when he saw her in their rival’s colors. It was too early into her and Mat’s relationship for her to be wearing his jersey to games; she wouldn’t want to curse anything prematurely, but jerseys could run upwards of two hundred dollars, and she didn’t exactly have that kind of money to go spending on just anybody. Not that Mat was “just anybody,” but Cass was someone who thrived on stability and she wanted to be sure. 

The usher at the doors scanned their tickets, and it was only then that Cass bothered to look down at hers to see where they were headed. She was familiar enough with the layout, it wasn’t her first Rangers-Islanders game and had been to a Lorde concert her first year in law school. Walking down the stairs, they kept going, and kept going, and kept going. Until they were right at the glass behind the home bench. Samaira whistled. “Boy came through.”

Cass nodded, smiling apologetically as the pair squeezed past the others in their row. “I’m not sure how he got them, these ones are usually sold out months in advance. Or some rich guy has them for season tickets.” 

Samaira raised an eyebrow. “As much as you hate to admit it, he’s kinda a big deal around here, Cass,” she said, leaning over to her. “I don’t think it’s that hard for him to get seats on a week’s notice.” Not only was Samaira one of her best friends at school and the only one who had the night free, but she was also a born-and-raised New Yorker — and a huge Islanders fan. Mat told her that he’d set aside two tickets, and it didn’t take Samaira more than a minute to respond in all caps when Cass asked if she’d be interested. The guys were nearly done with warmups, and it only took a minute or so for Mat to notice her, raising his eyebrows and looking pointedly at her jersey. 

“Sorry,” Cass mouthed, shrugging her shoulders. Smiling, he shook his head, skating back to the blue line to take another shot. Cass excused herself to go to the bathroom after warmups had finished, her phone lighting up with yet another text right as she finished drying her hands. Traitor. She laughed. You knew what you were getting yourself into, Barzal 🤷🏽‍♀️

She got back to her seat just as the players were skating back out, handing Samaira one of the two beers she had picked up on the way. “Don’t spill,” she said ruefully. “These were like ten bucks each.”

After lineups and the national anthem, they sat back down, and the puck dropped. 

---

Much to her chagrin, the Islanders had won 3-2, but Mat had netted two points, one of which was an absolute beauty over Lundqvist’s left shoulder. So she really couldn’t be that mad. As much as Cass would have loved to stay and congratulate Mat on the win, it was ten o’clock and she really needed to head home if she wanted to get back anytime before midnight. Walking back to the train, she figured Mat would be done with postgame interviews and risked a call. He picked up on the first ring. 

“What’s up?”

Cass smiled. “Hey, Mat. I’m sorry I couldn’t stay and see you after,”

“Don’t worry about it, babe, I know you’ve got a long ride home.” The pet name slipped easily from his lips, and Cass felt her heart skip a beat. “It means a lot that you wanted to come.”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I? You had a great game, that goal was incredible. I’m fine with you winning against my team if you’ll do it like that every time.”

“I’ll convert you if it’s the last thing I ever do.” He deadpanned. They talked for as long as they could, until Cass had to swipe her metrocard and was about to lose reception. “Talk to you later?” Mat asked hopefully.

Cass giggled. “If I’m not passed out, sure. Promise me you’ll get some sleep too?”

“Promise.”

Samaira lived on the same line as her, getting off with a hug and a promise to meet up for lunch on Monday. Cass had taken the route at night a hundred times, but it was just as much second nature for her to keep a hand on her pepper spray as it was to keep refreshing her Instagram feed. 

As soon as she made her way up the stairs into the cool Bronx air and back to the land of cell reception, a text from her dad popped up. It had entirely escaped her mind that sitting right behind the bench meant that she and Samaira would have had plenty of airtime on the networks broadcasting the game, or that there was a 100% chance her dad was watching. He had taken a picture of the TV when she just so happened to be smack-dab in the middle of the screen, grimacing at what she guessed must have been another Islanders goal. And how did you get those tickets? Were they from the internship?

Cass let herself into the apartment, waving goodnight to Ryanne, who was watching Netflix in the living room, and tried to formulate an answer. No, not from work. They were a gift.

From?

The person I’m seeing. Cass hadn’t told her family about Mat yet. It’s not that she thought they would disapprove, but she wanted to make sure that it was real, really real, before she let her family in on it. 

She could imagine her dad scratching his head. What kind of law student would have that kind of money? For that matter, what kind of person? Are you and Samaira together? Cass let out a laugh. Her parents knew Samaira and loved her to pieces, and she doubted they would have had any issue if she was dating her. But she wasn’t. 

“Rip the bandaid off,” Cass whispered to herself as she shucked her coat off, leaving her in the jersey and leggings. Hahaha no, not her. They were from Mat. She added as an afterthought, Barzal. 

You’re dating Mat Barzal?

I am. 

Huh. 

Guess the cat’s out of the bag?

Nov. 17 (tues)

Cass’s seminar leader for Native Law, Professor Davidson, had just emailed the class, cancelling that afternoon’s meeting. My daughter came down with the flu, she had said. It wasn’t the cancellation that bothered her; obviously, if you have a sick kid, take care of your sick kid. It was the fact that now she had four hours to kill and no idea how to spend them. If she went home, that was an hour’s trip either way, so what was the point? And as much as she genuinely did love the library (and she really loved libraries), she knew those chairs and knew that her ass would start hurting somewhere midway through hour 3. As if on cue, Mat called. He had left for a West Coast roadie a few days earlier, and wouldn’t be back for almost a week. 

“Hey!” She said brightly. “Congrats on the win last night, I would have called but I definitely fell asleep somewhere during the second intermission.” The Islanders had beaten the Ducks 4-2 the night before, but the time difference meant that it finished well past midnight, and Cass had been up early. 

She heard him laugh on the other end. “Nah, no problem. I’m glad you caught it though. How has your day been?” One of the things Cass had grown to appreciate the most about Mat, even in their short time together, was how deliberate he was. He didn’t just ask her how she was or how her day was going because that was the standard “boyfriend” question of the day, he asked because he genuinely wanted to know. Because he cared. 

So she was honest with him. “So-so. Yoga was great, they had my favorite instructor which was pretty nice. Good meeting after. Got a croissant. But then one of my classes got cancelled, so I’ve got to either find some coffee shop to work at or park myself at the library, neither of which is sounding too appealing at the moment.”

“Why don’t you just crash at my place?” Mat asked, like it was the most obvious question in the world. “It’s closer, I’ve got coffee and stuff if you want.”

Cass was taken aback for a moment. It wasn’t like the thought hadn’t crossed her mind, momentarily, but she didn’t think that they were there yet. She had been to his apartment before, once, under very different circumstances. Mat had tried, valiantly, to cook pasta and roasted veggies for dinner. Tried being the key word. The vegetables had all been burnt to a crisp, and he had thought the pasta was supposed to be cooked for 18 minutes, not 8, causing it to more closely resemble pudding than pasta. They ended up ordering Italian from the place down the street. But having a stay-in date at someone’s apartment and letting them crash there alone were two very different things, and Cass was touched not only by the offer, but by the fact that he trusted her enough to extend it. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, of course, Cass. I want you to be comfortable. My spare key’s left with the front office, I’ll call them and let them know you’ll be picking it up. Shouldn’t be a problem. You remember how to get up there, yeah?”

“Mhm. Thanks, Mat, for real. You totally didn’t have to do this.” 

“But I wanted to. Listen, morning skate’s about to start so I’ve got to go, but text me if you have an issue getting up. Or, like, if you forget where the bathroom is or something,” Mat added as an afterthought. 

Cass laughed. “I think I can manage to find it, but thank you for the offer? Talk to you later.”

“Later.”

Half an hour later, Cass was curled up on his living room couch, a pot of coffee brewing in the kitchen and her books sprawled haphazardly on the coffee table. She spotted one of his hoodies slung over the armchair on the other side of the room. I don’t think he’ll mind if I steal it. 

---

Nov 23 (mon)

The team had gotten back from the roadie around noon, and Mat had insisted on taking Cass out for dinner after she got off from work. “It’s been almost a week since I’ve seen you,” he had bemoaned on the phone earlier. Shaking her head and laughing internally at how needy her boyfriend was, she agreed to meet him at a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. 

She arrived just a few minutes before him, kissing him as they sat down. Grabbing a basket of chips, she headed over to the salsa bar. “How good are you with spice?” She asked Mat.

“I can hold my own, as long as it’s not like a Carolina Reaper or something crazy like that,” he answered, cracking a smile. 

She laughed in response, setting the cups down on the table. Her enchiladas and his pozole came later, and Cass blushed at the knowing glance their waitress gave her as she slid the dishes onto the table. “How does it stack up?” Mat asked after she had taken a few bites. 

Cass nodded happily. “It’s good. Really good. Obviously, I’d be disowned if I didn’t say that my grandma’s is better, but this is a close second.” Mat sipped his horchata. Cass had balked when he said he’d never tried the drink before, and his glass was now near-empty. 

“Yeah, glad to hear it. This is super good too,” he said, eating another spoonful. She could tell something else was on his mind. 

“What is it, chou?” Cass asked.

Mat bit his lip. “You’re still good to come to the game against the Canes tomorrow, yeah?” She nodded. “How would you feel about sitting up in the box?” Her brow furrowed. The box? Sensing her confusion, Mat continued. “Up with the other girls.” Cass knew that there was a box for the WAGs, obviously, but it hadn’t quite hit her that she was one now. She had met Paige, Beau’s girlfriend of six months, a few weeks prior, but that had really been more of an accident than anything. They had been walking around the Central Park Zoo one weekend, one of their first official dates, and happened to run into the other couple somewhere around the lemurs. It being lunch and the boys being boys, the group stopped for some sandwiches. Cass and Paige got to talking, chirping the boys for their sub-par “disguises” — “Since when has sunglasses and a baseball cap fooled anyone?” Paige had asked. Cass had laughed, they had exchanged numbers, and been talking ever since. 

So, there was going to be at least one person she knew there. Why not, then? “Yeah, sure, sounds fun!” Cass said, nodding and tapping her fingers on the table, trying to get her nerves out. 

Mat ran a hand through his hair, smiling nervously as if he hadn’t been too sure of what her answer would be. “Good,” he said, leaning down to pick up a bag. “Would have made this pretty awkward if you said no.” He handed it to her; she hefted it, trying to tell what was inside. 

“Ooooh,” she said, “I didn’t know we were at the ‘presents’ stage of our relationship yet.” Mat blushed. 

“Didn’t really cost me anything,” he mumbled. 

“It’s got some weight to it. Soft. I’m going to go with...a mink stole.”

Mat looked baffled. “I’m not even going to pretend to know what that is.”

Cass laughed, untying the piece of ribbon that held the handles together. She pulled out a navy and orange jersey. “It’s one of the ones from my rookie season, figured I couldn’t have you going up there wearing another Rangers jersey. Didn’t want to throw you out to the wolves.” It was only then that she shook it out and turned it over. Barzal - 13. 

Cass beamed, leaning over the table and kissing him on the cheek. “I love it, chou.”

---

Nov. 24 (tues)

Cass glanced at her watch. 6:38. The train was running on schedule, so she still had a little bit of time before she was supposed to meet Paige up in the box. She had offered to wait for her outside of the arena and walk her up, but she had driven Tito earlier and Cass didn’t want her to be stuck outside waiting for her. The car was packed with orange, blue, and white-clad fans, so nobody paid her any mind as she pulled out Mat’s jersey from her bag, switching out from the fleece she had been in all day. Are you sure it won’t be weird if I wear a jersey? Don’t most of the others show up to these things in dresses and shit? Cass had frantically texted Paige late last night. 

Don’t worry! She had responded. Some do, yeah, but it’s def not uncommon to be in a jersey. I’ll be wearing Beau’s :)

It didn’t take long to get through security, showing her pass to the employee at the elevator and shooting Mat a good luck text, she let Paige know she was on her way up. Mat had given her the box number, so she made her way up to the suite, nervously smiling at the usher. “Hi,” she said.

The usher gave her a quick once-over and a curt smile. “Hi. Name?” 

“Cassidy Cabrera Shaw, um, Mat Barzal should have added me.” She scanned the clipboard, making a tiny checkmark next to her name.

“Enjoy the game.” Cass tentatively made her way in, searching for Paige but still a little thrown off. It hadn’t escaped Cass the way the usher had looked at her, like there was something just a little off about her, like she didn’t quite belong.

It was a good thing that she didn’t have enough time to get too into her head, because Paige came barreling at her, wrapping her in a massive bear hug. “You came!!” She said, squeezing Cass’s hand once she finally released her.

Cass laughed. “Did you think I’d skip out on you?”

Paige shook her head. “No, I knew you’d come through.” She pointed to the hooks on the wall, where a mixed bunch of purses, scarves, and coats were hanging. “You can leave your bag there, let me get you a drink and introduce you to the other girls.” Cass followed Paige into the main room, where a dozen or so women milled about, sitting on couches and keeping an eye on the warmups below. Paige nodded at the bar. “What are you feeling? White? Red? Sparkling? I can make a mojito if you want. It won't be good, but if you’re desperate,” she shrugged her shoulders. 

Cass threw her head back, laughing. “If they’re picking up the tab?” She replied, tilting her head towards the ice, “Give me the best champagne you’ve got.”

Paige grabbed a flute. “Yes, ma’am.”Pouring the champagne, she handed it to Cass, leading her over to where a group was hanging by the window. “Hey guys!” She said brightly, one hand touching the back of Cass’s shoulder reassuringly. “Girls, this is Cass. Cass, this is Lauren, Kerry, and Karley,” she said, pointing to each woman in turn. Lauren pulled her into a tight hug. 

“Lauren Rodych Eberle,” she said, “Paige told us you’d be coming along. It’s great to have you.” The other girls introduced themselves, leading her over to a corner of the room. “These are the comfiest couches,” Kerry noted. “You always want to grab them as soon as you get up, they’re a hot commodity.”

Cass laughed. “Good to know.”

“So you’re Mat’s girl, yeah?” Kerry asked. 

“Yep,” Cass replied, trying and failing to roll up the sleeves on Mat’s — her? — jersey. 

She smiled. “I’m happy. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but could use a girl to balance him out. Bit of a himbo, but,” she lowered her voice conspiratorially, “almost every hockey guy is.” 

Cass nearly snorted out her champagne. “Fair statement.”

Kerry took a sip of her own wine. “So, Paige said you’re in law school, yeah?” Cass nodded. “What’s that like?” If Mat could talk about hockey for hours on end and still not get through half of what he wanted to say, that was Cass with the law. It was refreshing to talk with a person who wouldn’t constantly try to interject with their own theory of jurisprudence or Constitutional interpretation, just someone who was genuinely interested in what she had to say. 

---

The team had managed to extend their win streak to 3, a wraparound from Nelson that just squeaked past Reimer clinching the 2-1 win in the third minute of overtime. Everyone let out a collective cheer, some gathering their things and others hanging back to mingle. Cass meandered back over towards where Paige was waiting by the door; they didn’t have to rush since the guys probably hadn’t even finished showering yet, but the plan was to meet them down by the locker room. 

“How’d you like it?” Paige enquired.

“It was really nice,” Cass answered genuinely. “I love going to these things with friends, but it’s nice to be around people who know the game and know the guys.”

“That’s the whole point,” Paige said easily. “We’re all in the same boat, even if some peoples’ home or work lives look different, nobody quite ‘gets’ this whole thing like each other.” Paige led her down elevators and corridors until they were nearly at the home team locker room. “Oh!” She exclaimed, causing Cass’s to snap around and look at her, startled. “No, nothing bad,” she added hastily. “Usually once or twice a roadie, the wives of a veteran or captain will host a family watch party. A lot of the partners and kids will come over, it’s really cute. Obviously don’t blow off work or something to come, but I’ll let you know.”

Cass smiled. “That would be nice.” The locker room door opened, players starting to filter out. 

Anthony came out before Mat, giving Paige a kiss on the top of her head and smiling at Cass. “Mat should be out in a minute,” he added. She thanked him, congratulating him on his first-period goal. 

True to Tito’s word, Mat appeared soon after, embracing Cass. “What’s that dumb look on your face?” She asked, seeing Mat’s satisfied grin. 

“You’re wearing my jersey.”

“Well, yeah,” Cass said slowly. “You gave it to me.”

Saying their goodbyes to Tito and Paige, Mat tangled his hand with hers. “Nothing. You look good in it.”

---

Nov. 25 (wed)

The coffee tasted bitter in her mouth, but the much-needed caffeine jolt it gave her was enough for Cass to choke it down, shoving her cup  — the white-and-blue one Mat had given her  — into its spot on the center console of her white Escape. Cheryl had been with her since just before her freshman year of high school, the culmination of summer jobs, graduation gifts, and a used car lot. It wasn’t practical nor economical for her to drive most places in New York, so she usually sat in the parking lot of their apartment building unless one of the girls needed to run out at night or Cass was driving back home, as was the current case. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and she had a two hour drive (if she was lucky) and hours of cooking ahead of her before the clock ever struck Thursday. 

Digging into the CD holder, she handed over the toll to the attendant at the station, giving as grateful a smile as she could muster when the toll arm lifted. Mat was going to call after practice, promising to keep her company on the drive up. He had been a little pouty about her leaving for the better part of a week so soon after he had gotten home, but one reminder from her about how long his roadies could run had shut him up quickly. 

Cass loved family, so Thanksgiving had always been one of her favorite holidays. Their house was hosting this year, and if Cass had any money to bet, she’d guess that as she drove, her mom was frantically running around the house, pulling out napkins and silverware and trying to figure out how to fit fifteen people in a two-thousand square foot house. While her mom’s side rarely made the trip up from Texas and Hermosillo, her dad was from a big New England Irish Catholic family that never let a single holiday pass by without celebration. Her dad’s parents meant Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Joe, which meant an inevitable barrage of questions as soon as anyone let slip that she wasn’t single anymore. Cass loved her grandma to pieces; really, she did. But she was going to want to know his name, where he worked, where he went to school, and his mother’s damn maiden name before she would give it a rest. 

Her phone was hooked up to the car, so Mat’s call came straight through, interrupting her preferred driving music, a mid-2000s playlist starring copious amounts of early Lady Gaga. “How’s the drive going?” He asked.

“Uh, pretty good,” Cass replied, changing lanes to pass the sluggish Honda ahead of her. “Just crossed into Connecticut, I’m thinking it’ll be another hour or so? How was practice?”

Cass heard the door to his apartment close behind him. “Good, Coach had us run a lot of passing drills, so it’ll hopefully pay off next game.”

“Friday, right?” She asked. “Against the Caps?”

“Yeah, should be a good game. They’re doing really well this season, hopefully the boys come through, extend the streak a little bit.”

Cass smiled. “You’ll be great. I’m sorry I won’t be there to see you, but —”

She could imagine him shaking his head on the other end of the line. “Babe, you don’t need to apologize. Thanksgiving’s a big thing here, and I know it’s been awhile since you’ve really spent much time with your family.”

“Yeah,” Cass said, chewing her lip, “that’s true. Pretty much my dad’s whole side is going to be there though, so I’m prepared to spend a solid hour fielding questions about you and my whole ‘new relationship’ I’ve got going on. I think they’ll be disappointed you’re not there.”

Mat chuckled. “It’s fine, Cass,” he said, reassuring her. “Just promise them you’ll bring me next year.” Cass couldn’t stop a big, dumb grin from spreading on her face. Next year. 

“I promise.”

[youarejesting]

BTS365 Prompts.Week 46

[Full Masterlist] [Prompt Masterlist] [Tag yourself here]

Please tag me in your work if you use my prompts. I want to see your work. Ever your Jester. Tell me your birthday and I will tag you on your special day!

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        Nov 12th - 18th

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Kim Seokjin - bitter

Kim Seokjin was a model student, as well as both a model and a student. He excelled in everything and was loved by all, the only problem was you. You were always there either ahead, beside, or behind and you didn’t even try. Here he was trying his hardest with his studies and taking care of his appearance, skin, diet, and fitness. Not to mention struggling to get modeling gigs around the school, he would fight tooth and nail and you were rocking up last minute getting calls to join his photo shoots. He couldn’t escape you.

But the fans loved you together, they had started to ship you both bringing up your intertwined paths and he felt guilty for reading some of the fanfictions written about you, both because he hated and loved them. They always painted him as a gentleman that helps and protects you and has swag and you are sweet and attentive.

He wishes that were more like you. When you spill coffee on him in fanfics you help him dry and change maybe sneaking a kiss in the change room. In real life, you just give an ‘oops sorry’ and move on leaving him in a stained shirt.

That is until he wants to check the time but is too lazy to get his phone from his bag so he gets yours off the desk. Your background is a picture of the two of you from your first photoshoot. He feels kind of warm and soft at the thought. When a notification pops up, [Underwear: by JinxReader4life has updated chapter 15] A smile spread across Seokjin’s face as he placed down the phone and went to his bag for his own.

Searching for the fic, he found himself blushing, this was a heavy romance and he was kind of a jerk. He had to stop reading ready for the photoshoot, which funnily enough was an underwear and pajama company. After the pajama shots together laying and sitting on a bed. Jin was soon only wearing boxer briefs and you were in bra’s and underwear.

He was supposed to sit with you on his lap looking kind of sexy when he posed exactly how the fic described and he whispered in your ear the exact line from the fic. “We have to stop meeting like this, someone might think you have a crush on me”

Your cheeks were bright red and you buried your face in his chest, in embarrassment. Maybe he didn’t feel so bitter after all, maybe he enjoyed your unexpected company.

Min Yoongi - almond

It was getting cold, you shivered when your feet touched the bare wooden floors. “Where are my slippers, Holly?”

“Wait, I will get your slippers?” Yoongi laughed getting out of bed and racing around to locate and help you put on your slippers. You scuffed through the house freezing. “Why am I so cold?”

“How big are we today my love?” Yoongi opened his dressing gown and letting you snuggle against his chest.

“Um…” You checked your phone before slipping from his embrace to the cupboard. “Today marks the middle of week nine and today, the baby is the size of this almond”

“Wow you are growing so fast, I remember when you were just a little grain of rice?” He whispered to your belly.

Jung Hoseok - Tongue 

“Hey Y/n,” Namjoon called, “someone named Tongue emoji is calling?”

You raced for the phone and snatched it from Namjoon cheeks heating up, “Hello baby, is everything okay?”

The boys were all watching you and you tried to avoid their eye contact “I will let them know, okay bye”

“Who was that?” Seokjin and Taehyung grinned poking your sides with teasing laughter.

“Hoseok says he is going to be five minutes late he is just picking up some things”

They teased you to no end and just as you thought the teasing died down, Hoseok walked in grabbing you by the back of the head and kissing you fiercely. “Ah so that’s why”

“Why what?” Hoseok asked with a smile

“Why you are named tongue emoji in Y/n’s phone” Jimin nodded

“That’s not why Jiminie” Hoseok grinned cheekily and got ready for dance practice.

Kim Namjoon - twister

“Ha ha ha” Heavy panting from Namjoon was all that could be heard in the moment, as beads of sweat rolled slowly down his neck.

“Namjoon you have to loosen up, you aren’t loosing this for us” You shouted “We have to win come on”

“Yeah I get that but you try to put left foot red while you’re bending backward of Jungkook and under Seokjin” He hissed his foot almost slipping as he slid it behind him. “Who’s idea was it to choose the rooms with a game of twister?”

“Come on Namjoon, think of the master bedroom” You laughed, you didn’t really mind what room you got, you just liked to cheer Namjoon on, knowing he preferred the push and encouragement to when you were indecisive or dismissive. He liked to work hard to accomplish things for you.

Park Jimin - chaos

Namjoon dropped Jimin off at day care with a small smile watching him run off to his best friend Taehyung, the two hugged before they shared the dinosaurs amongst the two of them. Namjoon loved nothing more than being a dad, and was glad that when he started back at work he would still receive updates from the Day care centre with pictures and stories of how Jimin’s day was going. Today started the same breakfast and playing with toys and music inside and then it moved to playing outside. 

The next picture had Namjoon in stitches it seems Jimin had upturned the massive sunscreen dispenser and he and Taehyung were covered in a thick layer of the uv protecting cream.

Kim Taehyung - never

You were playing a game of never, Taehyung said the dreaded “Never have I ever kissed someone,” putting a finger down himself but getting two other people out. It seems he would risk his own fate to get the others out. He turned to see you with all five fingers up and frowned. 

“What do you mean you have never kissed someone?”

“I just, no one really looks at me that way, I am not really the person people want to kiss” You shrugged and he surprised leaning in his lips brushing your softly and as he pulled away he realized.

“Oh I am so sorry, I didn’t even ask?” He pulled you into a hug apologizing and you laughed.

“It was fine, it felt nice thank you for being someone I trust to give me my first kiss” You thanked him.

“That wasn’t a real kiss, people kiss there loved ones like that” Namjoon hissed feeling slightly annoyed he had gotten out.

Taehyung leaned in whispering gently, so close you could taste the sweet wine on his breath, “Can I kiss you again?”

Jeon Jungkook - voices

(I know I have done something like this before but the new RUNBTS ep got me wanting to write a series like this)

Jungkook started playing the latest online mmorpg, meeting some of the best players and slowly becoming the top guild within the game Pillage of Power known by the youth as POP! The guild Castle Bangtan was run by some really smart young man that Jungkook looked up to. His name was Ramon of destruction and he was their brains. 

Next was WWH, he was the Cleric a full of bad puns but the best buffer, had really quick protection spells and an odd animal companion. Suga/r was their lazy wizard who had so much skill and yet never used it unless they needed it. HobiHobi was there champion he was a great ranger, he had a sharp shot and rarely ever missed.

Chimmy was a Barbarian and he was always ready to fight, he put in a lot of effort so as not to let the team down. Vante was a Rogue, the most sneaky of the group always sharpening his skills when he could. And that Left Jungkook known as Kookie the Bard he could charm anyone if he tried. They were the top guild but they were being challenged by the rising guild T1 there members Faker, Teddy, Effort, Cuzz, and Canna. 

The tournament began everyone who had a guild had the chance to compete to rank in the game and Castle Bangtan was rising quickly up the ranks. The POP! Tournament came down to the last four teams the Semi finals and the finals were to be broadcasted in the large stadium, The other teams were professional gamers in teams and here they were just a group of nobodies from different towns and cities in South Korea.

Jungkook was handed the purple jumpsuit he was to wear during the broadcast, they had their names on the back. He slipped into the suit he had been sized for over email and he grinned. He felt so cool. Stepping out into the waiting room out back he saw a broad shouldered gentleman, “You must be Chimmy the barbarian?”

“No, I am WWH” He laughed his squeaky laugh.

Jungkook looked around and saw a tall figure, his black jumpsuit with the purple trims had the words Ramon of destruction. Trying so hard not to freak out he stood by the refreshments. “Try the lamb skewers, they are nice” a drawl said from the couch. 

“Suga” Jungkook said grinning

 “Kookie” He gave a soft smile back and shook his hands.

“Don’t get nervous now” Suga sat up and patted the younger boys back, “Chimmy has already drank his weight in water and is in the bathroom again.

“I am back, does anyone else think the legs of the jump suit are super tight, I can barely walk, feels like I am going to bust them”

Jungkook saw the young man and smiled, he knew that voice anywhere this was Chimmy the Barbarian and yet he looked too delicate in person for the part.

[hockeyjrk]

He’s Covered in Blue

Heey! This is the last part! Hope you guys liked and you can find me on twitter at @hockeyjrk​ too

Summary: She’s not into hockey. But she’s into him. The worlds of a professional hockey player and a book editor seems to keep colliding. But when they decide to really meet, it seems that the world has other plans.

Part 3 (Part 1 / Part 2)

Two weeks later I knew Mat was in New York because the Isles had a game. They will play Nashville at home tomorrow night and I wish I could go. Mat asked me, but I refused. I wasn't ready to be seen with him and he wouldn’t allow me to watch the game from a regular sit. I knew it because we talked about it.

After that day we talked almost every day. Started with him asking me if I saw the game and his goals. We talked a little bit about hockey but I didn’t understand much. The Isles was my team because of my dad and, well, now because of Mat. 

I didn’t know what was going on. Why I wanted to tell him everything. I was always worried when he was travelling and watching games was becoming a regular thing. He always wanted to know what I was reading and he did read Pucked. Complain about a few thing but in the end, he liked it. 

It was incredible that it was only mid-January. Since I met Mat my life seems to have changed. It was weird because nothing was different. I still have to go to work, read a lot of books, deal with my brother and every other simple thing in my life. But now everything seems a little bit brighter. I knew I was being innocent thinking Mat was the reason why I was this way. I shouldn’t let him make me feel like this. But he did.

Talking to him at lunchtime was one of the bests moments of my day. Our lives were confusing and it was almost impossible to find time to meet. And that was the reason why I didn’t see him since the airport. Of course, I want to go to Brooklyn, maybe try to catch him after practice. But to be honest, I have no idea what to say to him.

One thing is spending all night talking on the phone, or texting. But take the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn was different. I wanted to see him, but I’m pretty sure I’ll just start stuttering or something more embarrassing. 

But when I got home that day, Liam was mumbling about something on the phone.

— I asked you to buy the Rangers ticket Javi. You bought the Isles? What the fuck will I do with an Islanders ticket? 

Liam was mad. It was even funnier to look at him, face all red, eyes kinda blurry and I thought he was going to break his phone by the way he was holding it. 

— Are you sure you can’t change? — He asked whoever he was talking to with the softer voice I ever heard him use. — really?

I open the fridge to get something to drink. I wasn’t thirsty but I needed to know the end of that phone call. 

— Fine. I’ll give it to someone else. But you're buying the right one. 

I open the soda can slowly, looking at my brother trying to understand if it was okay to talk. 

— Are you okay? — I finally asked, still a bit afraid. 

— Yeah. Just some jackass that bought tickets for the wrong hockey game. — It was his time to take a soda from the fridge. — Hey, Liv, you like the Islanders, right? I know you’re not a huge fan of hockey, but I don’t want to throw this away. I paid for it. Do you have plans for tomorrow night? 

I smiled. The only answer I had was a pretty and stupid smile on my face. I took the tickets from his hand and thanked him. First, because I’ll be able to go to my teams game after all. And second, because I’ll be able to surprise Mat. 

I should think this through. It wasn’t my first time at a game but was my first time all by myself. Hockey fans can be intimidating even if you’re wearing the same jersey as they are. 

The arena was crowded. My sit was somewhere in the middle and it was a pretty good sit. I could see the players faces but I also can see the big picture of the game. Nashville was winning by one goal and that means nothing in hockey. It was still the 2nd period and everything could change in seconds.

Mat was on fire. After a not so great start on the season for him, he was beginning to play the way I knew Mat Barzal could play. Well, at least the way I read he could play.

The arena was full of puck bunnies and of course, he was one of their desires. One of the bests single players in the league and yet, he rather keep talking to me on a Friday night.

 Even now, I had no idea what I was supposed to say to him. Or even if he’d be able to see me when the game was over. I guess I’ll have to take my chances.

When the break started, the players went back to the locker room. From where I stand, I could see their faces, and all of Mat’s teammates weren’t happy. But they still had time to change that,

— Come on, guys. — I whisper, more for myself then for then.

When the 3rd period started, I couldn’t take my eyes off the rink. It seems the Islanders came back with anger, wanting to win at home. Mat almost started a fight with Nashville’s captain. When was still 10 minutes on the clock, Islanders scored tying the game. I got myself screaming on the arena. Cheering more than I was before. 

Maybe I was starting to actually like hockey, not only for my dad but because this game was something else. Or maybe, I was just really into a hockey player. The one who was skating faster than the other. The one wearing the number 13 which, curiously, was my lucky number. And, while I was still following him on the ice, Mat makes a shot to the goal. Islanders were now in front of the board. 

I was screaming louder than before and I just took my eyes off the ice to check the clock. 2 minutes. We just have to hold Nashville back for two minutes. They can do it, I know they can. 

Nashville tried. But they only tried and, when the clock finished, the Islanders took the two points.

I look at Mat when they were celebrating the wining and he was staring right at me. Everyone left the ice and he stayed there, looking at me trying to understand. He put a big smile on his face and walked his way through the tunnel. Before he disappeared, he told something for the security and, a couple of minutes later, a girl came on my way.

— Hey, you’re Olivia, right?

— Yeah…

— Hi. I’m Hayle. Barzal asked me to take you to the press box. He will meet you thereafter the shower.

What? How the hell he knew I was here? Clearly, I said that out loud because Hayle answered me.

— Oh, I thought he knew you were here. 

— No. I took my brothers ticket and didn’t tell him I was coming. He might’ve seen me from the ice.

— Those are pretty good eyes. 

Yes, they were. How did he know I was here? 

I waited in one of the press rooms. Luckily, I was alone. Had no idea how I would explain that If someone else were here. I picked up my phone and Liam had sent me some text.

“R U Okay?”

“Yeah. Just going to find a friend before going home.”

“K”. 

I was lucky to have a brother. Sometimes he annoyed me, but I knew I would always have a friend. Liam and I were best friends since he was born, even if sometimes we got a bit distant and we were always pissing each other off, but in the end, I knew he was the one I could count on. 

 — There you are! — Mat entered the room with a big smile on his face. I couldn’t help but smile back.

— Hey. Yeah, here I am. And how the hell did you know that? 

He came a little bit closer, without taking his eyes off mine. 

— When I scored, I just looked to the bleachers and I thought I had seen you. But it couldn’t be. I thought you would have told me if you were coming to my game. But then, when It was over, I looked back and there you were. Standing there looking beautiful. Then I just knew I had to keep you here or you would’ve just run away. 

I laughed. How was he supposed to know me so well? 

— Am I wrong?

— No. I was already picking up my stuff to go home when Hayle approached me. 

— Glad she did. — He got very close.

— Yeah? Me too. 

I don’t know who kissed who, but somehow, I ended up in his arms. The kiss was soft, he hugged me close, aware that we were still in the arena, even if alone at the press box. I could try to describe the kiss, but I wasn’t one of the writers from my books and, in real life, things sometimes can be more about magic than words. Right now, I just knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be: in Mat Barzal’s arms. 

[savvyqueen18]

SilveeLocke | Let's Go Eevee ZombieLocke | Pt.3

This features one of my friend’s characters, he enjoyed seeing him when he read it. Tambien, feliz Cinco de Mayo! AND TACO TUESDAY!!!

♡♡♡

Part 3: Bee-tween Cities

♡♡♡

>Next Part

>Previous Part

>Part 1

>Meet Silviana

>Meet Xander

The forest was lush and green at this time of year. As Silviana walked into the beautiful forrest, she felt the soft grass squish beneath her feet. The sounds of many different pokémon could be heard throughout the forrest. If she listened closely she could make out the distinct joyful squeals of Butterfree, the buzzing of Beedrill, and the tiny cries of the Caterpie and Wurmple.

"Wow," Silviana breathed, "I didn't know my pokémon journey would bring me to such beautiful locations. Being out here," she breathed slowly, "it just makes you forget doesn't it?" She looked at Junipur who was walking alongside her.

Junipur had a look on her face that Silviana couldn't entirely comprehend. Its little brows were furrowed and one ear was flat, the other ear was open to Silviana's voice. She walked along silently beside the young girl.

I know she doesn't like me, but trust has to be earned right? Mom said trust between pokémon and trainers is a mutual thing, so maybe I don't trust her enough.

Silviana looked down solemnly as she thought. Klunk

She blinked a couple times as something hollow hit her head. In front of her was a yellow pokémon dangling from a string.

"Oh hello!" Silviana gently held up her hands, the pokémon lowered itself to them. It's eyes shown happily and its hard shell shimmered brightly even in the dim light of the forrest. Silviana smiled, "You're so pretty, I'd love to have you on my team. We're going to tour around the entire Kanto region."

The little yellow pokémon made a noise that Silviana could only interpret as happy. Pulling out a pokéball, she genty tapped the pokémon. A bright flash sucked it up and the ball moved three times before stopping.

"Wow that was easier than I–" Silviana paused midway through her sentence, a hard buzzing sounded behind her. She turned swiftly around to come face to face with a large group of Beedrill. She took a slow step back, "J-J-Junipur, do something."

Catching the Beedrills attention, Junipur walked confidently up to the first Beedrill. It began to growl, from the little spots of sunlight on the ground, little stars began to shoot up at the buzzing pokémon. A majority of them scattered, but some of them stood their ground and withstood the attack.

Junipur backed up a couple of steps and took off.

"Hey Junipur!" Silviana turned around and called to her. She glanced back to see the Beedrill shaking off the attack, "No, no you're right. Run!"

As quickly as she could, she chased after the little Eevee, she was out of breath within seconds as she followed Junipur through paths that were ultimately made for small pokémon. She was scratched as prickly bushes and branches clawed at her. Still she kept running, until she didn't hear the buzz of the Beedrill she would keep running. Silviana looked down to see where Junipur had went. Gone, the brown pokémon was gone.

Oh no, Oh No, OH NO! This can't be happening!

Silviana looked back to see if Junipur had somehow fallen behind, something on the forrest floor caught her foot.

With a yell, she tumbled to the floor and rolled halfway under the cover a bush. Groaning, she clutched her arm. She made a move to try and slide out from her half cover when Junipur came flying at her, the little pokémon tried to push her further into the bush, and when Silviana opened her mouth to object, Junipur’s tail was quickly shoved into it. Silviana saw Junipur swing her head around, her ears flicked all over. When Silviana really tried to listen, she could hear the buzzing of the Beedrill’s wings fade.

When there was nothing but the ambient sounds of the forrest, she put her hand on Junipur. The little brown pokémon shuffled Silviana’s hand off and slowly walked from where they were hidden.

Silviana achingly got up from where she had tripped, feeling around she sighed with relief that nothing was too badly hurt or broken. She looked about her, they had been run off of the path by the Beedrill, she pulled out the map she had gotten from the forrest rangers.

“Okay, if we entered from this way,” she examined the map further, “but did they chase us this way? Or that way?” She looked around to see if there was any markers, seeing nothing but the lush green forrest aorund her, she sighed, “We’ll just have to find our way out of this mess by ourselves Junipur.” She looked at the Eevee. It was glaring back at her, “Don’t think you can blame me for this,” Silviana crossed her arms, “you’re the one that thought using swift on all of them was a smart idea.”

Junipur just flicked her ear and proceeded to walk off. Slapping her hands on her sides Silviana walked to catch up with her.

After a long hour, they had finally made their way to one of the main paths. Silviana glanced down one end of the path, she was surprised by a voice calling out to her in the opposite direction.

“Hey girl! Are you lost?” A friendly voice called to her. The young man looked much older than her and was dressed casually in a black tee-shirt and jeans. He had a red cap that covered his green hair and a red and white jacket. He smiled at her, “You a trainer? Is this your first time out?” He threw a few more questions in her direction.

Silviana’s head spun, “I, ummm… I am lost,” she said at last, “If you could help lead me out, I’m on my way to Pewter and–”

“VEE!” Junipur yelled at her, hopping up onto Siviana’s backpack, she stared the stranger down from Silviana’s shoulder.

“Wow, that’s a spunky little Eevee you have there,” The man smiled.

“Oh please tell me you don’t want to battle,” Silviana gave him a defeated look.

The young man just let out a bellowing laugh, “I’m not going to battle a trainer that’s just started on her journey!” He laughed in between each of his words, composing himself after a moment he said, “I’m way too strong for you, I’ve already completed my badge challenge,” he opened his coat to reveal many more than the eight Gym badges for this region.

“Oh wow! There’s so many!” Silviana gasped.

He chuckled and turned around, “Well let’s get you started on some then, Pewter should be your first gym battle right?” He asked as he began to lead her.

“Yes that’s right.”

He thought for a split second, “Have you caught any grass types yet?”

“Umm,” She pulled out the pokémon she just caught and released it, “I have a Bellsprout and this one,” she held the yellow pokémon in her arms, “I’m sure once it turns into a Butterfree I will have–"

She was interrupted by more laughing from the other man, "That's a Kakuna! it's not going to turn into a Butterfree, it will turn into a Beedrill!"

Silviana looked at the Kakuna, "A B-B-Beedrill," holding it out with a defeated sigh, "I guess I know what to call you now... Steng." The yellow pokémon smiled at its new name.

"Nice name," the boy said as she put her pokémon away, "you said you had a Bellsprout? I'd use that and train them up a little more." He kept talking as he walked, he sometimes told stories of his adventures as examples for her.

"Wow, you've been all over the world haven't you?" Silviana gazed at him admirably. She then looked at him questioningly, "Why are you headed back to Pallet Town if you're on a journey to travel the world?"

His look changed then, his smile disappeared and there was a hard emotion flickering in his eyes, "Just for... Hireath, you could say." He gave her a solemn look, his half smile didn't cover what emotion was swirling in his eyes.

"Ah, right," She felt like she should drop the conversation right there. She awkwardly rubbed her arm. She stopped when the man's hand stretched out to stop her. Junipur tried to swat at it, but Silviana stepped back before she could scratch him. Looking at him, he had one finger over his lips and pointed forward.

Coming out of the bushes was a little green pokémon, its round head with dark spots was looking around cautiously. It waddled out to a patch of sunlight and the big bulb on its back began to shift as it soaked up the sunlight. Silviana smiled.

◇◇◇

She walked up the little flight of stairs to the route gate, she turned and happily addressed her forest guide, "That was amazing! I thought Bulbasaur were really rare!"

"Well the professor must be doing something right if they are being seen in the wild," he looked back to the forrest and with a smirk he pulled out a pokéball, "besides, I'm a Squirtle fan at heart." He turned and waved as he walked away.

Silviana waved back. She looked at Junipur as she hopped off Silviana's shoulder. The little pokémon shook out its fur, it turned to look at where the man left and flicked one of it's ears.

"Oh man, I never got his name," Silviana pouted slightly, "Oh well, I'm sure we will run into each other again," she smiled at Junipur, the Eevee turned and started walking into the building behind her, "Oh now someone wants to get moving," Silviana chuckled and walked after her.

[tokupedia]

Japan World Heroes II: Day 1 part 1

After waking up and getting ready, I entered the hall to discover a swarm of autograph hound crazed fans lining up to meet their chosen targets.

Much like last time, Mr. Matt Frank, comic book artist and G-Fan extraordinaire was at his booth. This time with copies of his recent Redman comic as well as art prints and other merch. 

Mr. Kenichi Muraeda was in the building, using his talented artistry to dazzle fans by making drawings of Showa Riders as well as custom request pieces for a healthy $100+ a pop. I saw a few lucky people take home drawings of Kuuga, Dekared with Kamen Rider Blade, and Kamen Rider Brave Taddle Fantasy Form. He then advertised his skill to patrons by making art of Kamen Riders ZX, 1, Riderman, V3, Stronger and X and letting people watch.

He even blessed the Toei prop booth with a drawing of Black RX! 

I timidly approached his booth, wallet in hand. To my surprise, he saw my Kamen Rider art book, told me to put my wallet away and not only signed it, but illustrated it with a drawing of Kamen Rider 1!  

(Yes, I know the date is wrong, but chalk that up to him being tired as an overworked manga artist. I feel so honored and unworthy of such a gift and will treasure it always.)

I felt really bad and wanted to pay him, but he was flattered that someone in America loved his art so much he purchased a book just for the artist who illustrated those drawings to sign it. What a nice guy!

Before the panels, I got in as many signatures as I could. Mr. Kitagawa was happy to have his signature next to Furuya-san in my Godzilla book and I indulged in a photo op and autograph the day before with an Undead Spade King...

Second time standing next to a Heisei Rider actor, never stops being a humbling experience. Yes, that is the shirt I wore, it was comfy and it was a balmy 98 degrees in L.A., light colors and fabrics mean less solar flesh roasting.

First panel I attended was Mr. Kitagawa’s, whom in the photo is doing an out of suit performance of his incarnation of Godzilla. He was a funny and interesting guy, having a career in toku that spans all the way back to the early 1970s with suit acting in Battle Fever J and Shotaro Ishinomori’s Akumaizer 3 as a teenager.  He also talked a bit about working with Kenji Ohba and Sonny Chiba and when asked, he described that his most intense stunt was in Dengeki Sentai Changeman, where he had to do fight choreography on top of a moving car while fighting an enemy monster. Apparently he had to do multiple takes because the director wasn’t satisfied with his performance which stressed him out as he was in real danger of getting hurt. (Back in the day, they didn’t have as many safety devices to protect stuntmen and actors from accidents.) 

He did some examples of martial arts demonstrations and how they work in film and described what it was like to be a kaiju suit actor. Humorously, he said it was something he would never wish on anyone, given that the suits are restrictive, hot and hard to breathe in when he wore them and took 20 minutes to put on and take off. He was King Ghidorah in the Mothra films of the 1990s and revealed it took 20 people to operate the suit, some to move the three heads, some to move the tail and wings and others to operate the animatronics and a wire team to keep Mr. Kitagawa in the air during scenes where King Ghidorah was flying. All of them had to coordinate in time to do a scene properly.

Later, he did poses of Sentai Rangers he portrayed and revealed he now worked in the video game industry as a motion capture suit actor, the industry has recorded so much data on Mr. Kitagawa’s movements they can just program said movements into the coding without calling him into the studio and he still gets paid. He was contractually obligated not to say which games he was in, but stated they were mostly action and ninja games and we may have heard of some of them if he did disclose them, but he won’t. He, much like Kazuo Niibori, is now a mentor for the next generation of suit actors. Mr. Kitagawa is happy now, as he has more freedom than ever before to work how he wishes and is excited for the next generation as they have more than he did as a kid in terms of work opportunities.

The panel was briefly interrupted by one of the convention coordinators, who asked Mr. Kitagawa if he wanted Chicken for lunch. Mr. Kitagawa responded “NO CHICKEN! HAMBURGER PLEASE!”, then confessed he is terrified of chickens as he lived on a farm with his uncle and was traumatized as a child seeing his uncle behead chickens. Some fans in the audience wondered if Mr. Kitagawa was the inspiration for Red Buster’s fear of chickens. Mr. Kitagawa also said he hates turkey for the same reason.

His lifelong dream was to be Ultraman, a dream he never realized, but he did close out by giving the audience a heartfelt speech about never giving up on your dreams, even if they don’t turn out exactly how you want them to. He then surprised us with a Specium Ray pose and a really good cry of “Shuwatch!”, saying he’s still got it even if he’s too old to be Ultraman.

[loopy777]

You've got me curious now as to what anime youve seen, enjoyed and why.

Oof, I don’t track that type of thing. I’ve been asked about anime I like previously, and I feel like I always forget something. I suppose I should start a MyAnimeList one of these days, just for reference.

So let’s list everything I can remember, as well as a pithy reaction.

Baccano!This one is just so much fun. It’s violent and crass in a classy way, it’s funny in a weird way, and it’s a great example of a non-linear narrative. I love it.

Code Geass (Season 1)Ugh, I only watched this one because people solicited my opinion on it. Well, my opinion is that it’s not as smart as it wants to be, there’s too much contrived melodrama (and considering the wild premise, that’s saying something), and Kallen would be a wonderful and interesting character if she wasn’t always being demeaned for fan-service. I quit when the first season finale kicked off, because I felt things were just getting too contrived. I hear it really fell apart in the second season.

Cowboy BebopI found this a bit pretentious. It had good episodes and bad episodes. The production quality is good. But I'm not sure why it's legendary. Still, I liked its sense of humor, and enjoyed it when it wasn’t trying to be super serious. My favorite character is Ed.

Demon SlayerI'm mainly watching this because my brother wanted to give it a try on Toonami, but I kind of checked out when it unceremoniously removed everything difficult about the sister being a demon and made her into an order-following sidekick that fits in a suitcase. Now the latest episode introduced a loud annoying side character, so we may quit. I have no idea why this one is so popular.

Fullmetal AlchemistCovered

Gatchaman CrowdsI was asked to watch this one, as well, but it went a lot better than Code Geass. It’s a bit weird, and I think it's naively optimistic about the internet in many ways, but I still found it's exploration of Internet-age superheroes to be interesting, and it's the best, most mature take on the Power Rangers-style ‘sentai’ genre that I've seen. I don't know how well it matches up with its Gatchaman legacy, but as its own thing, it's pretty good.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (including 2nd Gig)This is another legendary one that I think is good but a bit over-rated. It's a good piece of modern Cyberpunk, but it's very talky, and very jargon-filled. I'm almost convinced that the viewer is not meant to follow half of the conversations, that they're just part of the ambiance. I tended to like the stand-alone episodes better than the storyline episodes. Still, it’s a very smart series, and probably the best thing in the franchise, from what I’ve heard.

Log Horizon (first season only)I’ll tell you what- I think it’s possible to make a good anime with the premise of people from the modern, real world entering a fantasy realm (either another dimension or a VR video game). Log Horizon did not end up being that ideal. The main character is a Gary Stu, his romances with girls who are either ten years old or just look like they’re ten years old are creepy, and it got boring seeing the protagonists’ plans always succeed without much of a hitch.

Lupin III (series 4 and 5)I like this franchise when it's being clever, when it's springing a twist while playing fair. Sometimes, though, it doesn't play fair with its twists, leaving me underwhelmed. And while the regular cast is amusing, they're fairly shallow characters; this isn't always a bad thing, as that allows them to slot into all kinds of genre fare, but does limit the storytelling ambitions. It’s fine.

Macross franchiseSuper Dimensional Fortress MacrossI still like the original, despite how dated it is. It's probably the best possible implementation of 'soap opera in space.'

Macross PlusI'm not sure why this one is so revered. I feel like it doesn't play fair with its mystery, despite being such a short story, and whole thing with the killer popstar AI just left me cold.

Macross 7I like the music, but the story really drags for the first half with a formula that’s repeated far too long, and then falls apart in the end. The love triangle isn’t resolved, and in fact I’m of the opinion that two of the participants didn’t even know they were in competition. The bad guys are allowed to sail off into the sunset, forgiven, despite still inhabiting the bodies of kidnapped humans. But this isn't a series you watch for the story; this is a series you watch because you like the idea of a rockstar flying into space in a transforming mecha, controlled by an electric guitar, to sing at alien invaders. Personally, I think the idea is dumb. Plus, this ruins the premise of the original series by adding in what is effectively magic.

Macross ZeroThis is pretty good and has the best dogfights in the series, but it has one of those weird arty endings that anime sometimes likes to do where no one can tell what actually happened and we need to find translated interviews with the creative team to get it explained.

Macross FrontierBy this point, I was wondering why everyone is so eager for the Macross franchise to get American distribution. It’s better than Macross 7, but feels like a first draft of the intended story, and the creative team lost track of their own subplots. The two AU movies do a more satisfying take on the same basic story, but sometimes they come across like an abridged recap of the series, so you really need to watch everything to get a satisfying experience. That said, the final experience was indeed fairly satisfying, making this the second best thing in the franchise for me. Still, I wouldn’t say it lives up to the original in any way.

Macross DeltaBoy, this one was dumb. Everything wrong with Frontier is worse here, with none of the good stuff.

The Melancholy of Haruhi SuzumiyaI still want an ending for this, despite nothing worthwhile coming from it since 2011. It wouldn't even be hard to pick it up again; set it in modern times, and explain the fact that everyone has smartphones now to be a result of some weird off-screen Haruhi antics.

Mobile Suit Gundam franchiseMobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded OrphansI've only ever experienced the Gundam franchise because my brother wants to get into it and he keeps trying to find a vector. This was my first experience with it, and I found it very 'teenage boy,' in both tone and story. I was underwhelmed.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096Another case where the storytellers reached the end only to have forgotten the rest of the story. Why does that happen so often in anime? And I think it assumes the viewer is familiar with the whole rest of the franchise, because there was a lot that just went straight over my head but didn't seem like it was supposed to. Nice animation and art style, though.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin - Advent of the Red CometEverything I said about Unicorn, only more.

My Hero AcademiaCovered

NichijouThis thing is still hilarious, even after a rewatch. Stick with the sub, as the new dub's voice-acting doesn't have the same range and power of the original, losing a lot of the humor.

Outlaw Star I'm struggling to remember a lot of this one. it’s another I watched because my brother was interested in it. I do recall that it was a fairly standard Space Western that ends in a way that's more like serious science fiction, and that for some reason a Japanese swordswoman in classic clothing was part of the cast. Now I wonder if that was an homage to Lupin III. Or maybe Japan just really loves throwing classic samurai into everything, regardless of setting or genre.

Pokemon (part of first series)I was in high school when this franchise first came to America, and for some reason all the geeks in my high school thought it was the greatest thing. The games were good, yeah, but the anime? I don't think it's bad for a kiddie cartoon, but it obviously has no greater ambitions than pleasantly occupying the kids for 22 minutes. Personally, what I really want is a series about Team Rocket done in the style of Cowboy Bebop.

Princess TutuCo-owner of the Best Magical Girl designation. I forget who asked me to watch this, but I owe them.

Puella Magi Madoka MagicaCo-owner of the Best Magical Girl designation. I still haven't bothered with anything but the original series, and I continue to be happy with that choice.

Samurai ChamplooI liked this better than Cowboy Bebop, but only because its ambitions were lower. It leaned more into its genre, had fun with its style more even when being serious, and as a result became more enjoyable. I overall liked going on a journey with these rascals, but I think it ended at a good point. I don’t need more.

Spice & Wolf (first season)I watched this on someone's suggestion, and found it a little underwhelming. What I really appreciated were the two main characters, especially that they seem to be into each other, romantically and sexually, and aren't freaked out by it while at the same time not being in a hurry to become a couple. It was just a kind of, "Yeah, this could really be something if we ever find the time." It was so amazingly mature and real. Too bad the main Economics plotlines just wound up being tepid.

Tekkaman BladeMy thoughts haven't changed on this.

Tiger & BunnyI'm still fond of this one, and I'm actually kind of curious to revisit it in light of My Hero Academia.

Transformers ‘Unicron Trilogy’These three cartoons are true anime, produced by and for Japan. (The other cartoons in the franchise were written, and sometimes animated, in the west.) It's garbage that assumes its child audience are morons, and on top of that the first two series wound up with laughably bad dubs. How this trilogy revitalized the franchise, I have no idea, and thankfully I'll never have to worry about it.

Volton (original)Either this or Robotech/Macross was my first anime; I was too young to say which I discovered first. I'll admit that the original Voltron isn't good, despite the toy being neat, but I have a soft spot for it. I tried the Netflix reboot, watching the first three episodes, and found it to be vacuous junk. Maybe some day a version of this will come along that will do justice to the toy.

And I think that’s it. If I remember anything I left off, I’ll reblog with the addition.

[zettersberg]

Crossing the Line: Part 2 ~ Sidney Crosby

Requested: Yes Warnings: None Word Count: 1.6k+ A/N: This took way longer than it should’ve cause of the way my brain works when it comes to planning storylines, and this is more just a part getting me to where I wanna take this story. I don’t know why it was so hard for me to write. That’s why it’s so short. But the next part should hopefully be coming quicker! Thanks for all the positive feedback on the first part! Summary: Chirping continues face to face.

Part 1 - Playlist

You and your best friend followed the trainer down through the arena to a sort of family waiting room. There were only a few other people in the room, presumably some friends and family of players. It didn't seem like you were in trouble for your chirping like you thought.

In fact you were feeling kinda nervous. You saw Alex Letang chasing around Nikita Malkin, much to the dismay of their mothers, and you suddenly felt like you didn’t belong in that room.

“Okay, ladies,” the trainer started, “if it’s okay with you, and you have the time, your pal from the penalty box would love to meet with you once he’s done with the media. Says he owes you for a good game.”

“Oh, we’re definitely gonna wait,” your friend said.

“Great! Can I get your names?”

“I’m Elle and this is Y/N,” she said while gesturing to you. You were starting to feel very small and nervous. You thought your chirping would just get you a stick. You never expected any of this.

“Well Elle and Y/N, can I get you anything before I go? You’re welcome to any of the drinks and snacks in here and the captain will be in as soon as he can.”

“We’re great, thank you,” Elle beamed. The trainer said a quick goodbye and was on their way. Elle turned to you still smiling a little too enthusiastically. “What? Aren’t you excited? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“Uhhh… No, not exactly.” You took in your surroundings again. No one was really paying much attention to you, but were probably wondering who on earth you were, standing there wearing your Sidney Crosby jersey and a beet red look on your face. You sunk into a corner with Elle and tried to even your breathing.

“Come on, Y/N, everything’s gonna be fine.”

“Is it? Pretty sure that that Rangers fan wasn’t brought down to the bowels of an arena to meet one of the biggest stars hockey’s ever seen.”

“Yeah, well, he wasn’t an attractive woman in the big star’s jersey,” she wagged her eyebrows at you and you rolled your eyes.

“Elle, stop it. That’s not what this is about. Everyone knows he has a girlfriend.”

“And you have a boyfriend, yet here we are.” You smacked her on the shoulder. “Ouch,” she feigned as she rubbed the spot of impact.

“You need to stop. You’re acting ridiculous. I don’t need anybody in here to hear you and your hyperbolic accusations.”

“Big word alert. Means I’m right.” She shifted her stance and crossed her arms while looking at you. You rolled eyes again. “It’s okay to admit it. I mean come on. Why did you invite me here instead of Aidan? He’s probably a bigger Penguins fan than most of Pittsburgh combined.”

“Yeah that’s exactly why,” you muttered. Your boyfriend was a little intense when it came to hockey, and you didn’t think he’d care much for your reasoning behind going to the game. “I invited you cause you’re my best friend and I knew you’d be more fun company than Aidan. He was fine with it anyway. I may have failed to mention the amazing seats we had, but I told him we just wanted a little girls’ night out to see a game. He said we could go to a different game just me and him some other time. All good.”

“Have you heard from him? What if he saw us on TV? We were in pretty obvious view if you ask me…”

“Well lucky for us, he flew out of town on business today, so no he probably didn’t even watch at all.”

“Wait shut up… He’s not even in town? This is too perfect. Please tell me Sidney Crosby is your hall pass.” You shot her a death glare.

“We don’t do that.”

“Disappointing for me and Crosby.”

You and Elle eventually took a seat off to the side away from everyone else in the room. You both sat mostly in silence outside of a few muffled awes as a few players shuffled in and out of the room to greet their families. Elle was probably a little too obvious with her gawking at Kris Letang as he picked up his son and left a kiss on his wife’s lips.

After forty-five minutes of waiting, it was just you and Elle left in the room and it left you wondering if maybe you’d been punked.

“This was clearly a mistake. We should just go,” you announced to Elle. Right as you got up the door opened and through it finally came Sidney Crosby. He’d put his game day suit back on. Shit. He looked incredible.

He brought a stick in with him. That had to be for you, right?

“Hey, sorry for the wait, had to take care of some stuff first,” he said as he walked towards you. “I’m Sidney.” You took the hand he offered for a handshake.

“I’m sorry, who?” Apparently you weren’t as nervous you thought. Or maybe it was just a defense mechanism. You had to keep up the shtick right? It’s what got you here in the first place.

A goofy grin grew on his face at your response as he went to shake Elle’s hand too. “The name on the back of that jersey you’re wearing will give you your answer.” You couldn’t help but smile right back at him. “Now it’s your turn. The trainer I sent to show you down here gave me your names, but uhh I’m not really sure who’s who.”

Once again you let Elle make the introductions. “I’m Elle and your friend here is Y/N.” She winks at you. All you could do is look at him, wordlessly.

“Well, Y/N,” your heart fluttered at the sound of your name leaving his lips. Uh oh. You probably shouldn’t be watching his lips. “I brought you down here cause I think I owe you for the little pep talk you gave me in the box.”

“Oh that? That was nothing. Didn’t you hear? I’m the team’s new official Crosby chirper. Just doing my job.”

“Or good luck charm. Four points outta the box isn’t nothing,” Elle interjected.

“Or maybe it was just a coincidence,” he countered, trying to be cocky.

“Oh no that was definitely all me. You need all the help you can get. You’re not that good.” That got a good laugh out of him, and Elle, and you couldn’t help but crack up a little too.

“You’re probably right. Like I said, I owe you.” He motioned in your direction with the stick he’d brought. “I wanted to deliver this in person, considering you’re actually a fan just giving me a hard time.”

“Someone has to, right?” you say. You thought you saw his cheeks flush a little bit.

He held out the stick to you with one hand and you reached for it with both of yours. You felt heat rising at the back of your neck being this close to him. You looked the stick over to distract yourself and read the inscription he left on the blade:

Thanks for keeping me company for two “rough” minutes! - SC87

You’re pretty sure if he had thought to doodle a winky face ;) he would have.

“Here, while I’ve got you, let me sign your jersey too.” He moved to grab a marker from somewhere in the room.

You didn’t think you’d want him near you and actually touching you in order to sign the jersey cause it might cause you to explode, so you decided to take the jersey off and hand it to him.

Bad idea because you forgot just how revealing of a shirt you were wearing underneath. He noticed. Now it was your turn for your cheeks to flush. You slunk back towards Elle a little bit as he took the jersey and signed it. This time he just left his signature and nothing else.

He handed it back to you, probably a little too slowly, as he looked at you. You snatched the jersey close to your body, feeling a little exposed. Elle coughed to break you and Sidney out of your awkward exchange. He looked down in embarrassment.

“We’d hate to keep you any longer,” Elle broke the silence.

“It’s no trouble really. But if you have to go, it was great meeting you both.” He went to shake your’s and Elle’s hands again.

“Well then, Squidney, thank you so much for everything,” you said as you shook his hand back. “Four points is more than I could’ve hoped for,” you quipped. “It’s been a pleasure.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” he smirked. The heat at the back of your neck was back. You swallowed hard, trying to refocus.

“I’d ask you to follow me on insta (that’s short for instagram), but you’re at least 85 years-old and have no idea what social media is, so this is it.” You flashed him an overzealous smile to seal your sarcastic deal.

“Ha. I’m actually 73, so that means I have a cellphone if you ever wanna text me. I could get you girls tickets if you ever need them…” he trailed off.

“You sure you want that?”

“I’ll make sure to put you somewhere I can’t hear you.” That genuinely made you smile.

“That sounds great, Sid,” you said in a softer tone than you’d used before. You unlocked your phone and handed it to him so he could put in his information.

“Sid?” He asked as he typed away.

“It’s either that or Squidney. Take your pick.” He handed you your phone back.

His number was under the contact name Sid.

[hockeygods14]

Tyler Seguin - Boston to Dallas

Masterlist

Word count: 1,389

Requested: May you please write an imagine of Segs? Maybe you're buddies with Julian Edelman and he introduced you guys? Thank you!

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to write this. I’m not a fan of the New England Patriots. I’m a Buffalo Bills fan so it was kinda hard for me to write Julian Edelman because he’s on the Patriots. I have rewritten this so many times. I hope you like it. 

Walking the cold streets of Boston. I hug my jacket tight around my body. I should have worn something warmer but I didn’t have much time to pick something to wear when Julian calls and asked if I wanted to meet him for dinner. It was very last minute like always with him during the offseason. 

Once I walked into the restaurant Julian said he was going to meet me at. I looked around trying to him could find him. I was about to call him when I heard my name being called I looked up and saw Julian stand up waving at me. I smiled and made my way over to him. 

“Hey sorry I’m late you didn’t give me much time to get ready.” I hugged him and noticed we weren’t alone. I turned to the man that was now standing too. “Hi,” I look up at the stranger and give him a small smile.

“Y/N this is Tyler, he’s in town for a day and a half. I thought I would invite him here too. Plus I have been wanted you both to meet for a while now but it seems you both are never here at the same time.”

“In my defense, I am here maybe two times a year.” I looked over at Tyler trying to figure out why he looks so familiar and why he was only in town two times a year.

“Well you both are here now I guess that’s all that matters.” Julian had a huge smile on his face. I could tell that something was going on. 

“So Tyler why are you only here times a year?” I was curious. 

Tyler looked over at Julian. Maybe to see if I was serious. I was being dead serious. I’m still trying to figure out where I know him from. 

“She doesn’t really watch hockey she’s more a baseball girl.” 

“I play for the Dallas Stars, a hockey team. So I come here to play the Bruins a couple times a year.” I have seen people wear Bruins gear but I have never watched a game. 

Dallas. I haven’t told Julian yet but I’m moving to Dallas for a job, it a great opportunity. I know he’s going to be happy for me but Julian has been there for me through so much. He has helped so many times. I meet him my first week living alone after I just moved into my place. This might be the best time to tell him since Tyler brought up Dallas. 

“Oh okay, that’s cool.” I looked down at my menu looking for something to eat. 

“That’s it?” I looked up at Julian. “When I told you I played football I got bombed with questions. Tyler tells you he plays hockey and all he gets is that’s cool? I wanted him to see what I went through a little.” I looked down at my lap. It's now or never I guess. 

“I have other things on my mind Julian I’m sorry. Plus I really don’t know anything about hockey. When you told me you played football I knew things about football I watch it. I don’t watch hockey.” But that was kinda a lie. Something I haven’t told Julian yet. 

“What’s on your mind then Y/N?” I took a deep breath.

“You know that job interview I had?”

“The one that you had to do a video chat?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. Well, I got that job.”

“Y/N that’s great we should celebrate,” Julian called our waiter over and order three drinks. I’m not sure what he ordered I just kept quiet.

“Are someone that got a new job you don’t seem too happy.” I looked up at Tyler. He could tell there was something else.

“There’s more.” Julian looked back at me waiting for me to say something. “I’m moving to Texas.” Tyler’s eyes went wide and Julian’s smiled faded. 

“What team? Houston Astros? Texas Rangers?” I knew he was going to guess Baseball teams because I working on the marketing team for the Boston Red Sox’s.

“It’s not a baseball team.”

“Then who? The Houston Texans? Dallas Cowboys?” Julian went on before I was able to tell him. I looked over at Tyler and I think he figured out where I was going to be working now. I saw a smile on his face. I wasn’t the only one that saw the smile. “And what are you smiling at?”

“Just shut up and let her tell you where she is going to be working.” I gave Tyler a smile and looked at Julian. 

“I’m going to to be working with the Dallas Stars.” 

“But you don’t watch hockey.” 

“Well, I have been lately since I had the interview I wanted to be prepared so I started watching it and learning the rules and such. After the interview I continued to watch it just in case I got it. Truth be told I actually kinda liked watching it.”

“So you're moving to Dallas?” I nodded my head. “Well this sucks but we should still celebrate.” The waiter set our drinks down in front of us.  “At least you will know someone when you move to Dallas.” Julian looked over to Tyler.

“Don’t worry I will look after her.”

“I bet you will.” Tyler gave Julian as look which made Julian laugh. I was confused but didn’t ask about it I was just happy that Julian was okay with me moving. 

I have been in Dallas for about a week and a half now. Right now I am walking into day two of my new job with the Dallas Stars. I haven’t seen Tyler the whole time since benign here. I was kinda hoping to see him because I advent been able to get him off my mind since I had dinner with him and Julian. That night after dinner Tyler and I exchanged number and would text ever so often. When moving I really didn’t really pick up my phone or even look at it. I was too busy packing. 

I was sitting at my desk doing some paperwork when I looked at the time and noticed it was almost lunchtime. I googled to see what there was around here to eat since I haven’t been able to look around yet. With unpacking and the new job, there just hasn’t been any time. 

I jumped at the sounds of a knock at my door. 

“Come in,” I wait for them to walk in. The door slowly opens. The first thing I see is an arm with tattoos all over. They come in fully and I see Tyler walk in with a smile on his face. 

“Lunch break?” It’s almost like he read my mind. 

“You have perfect timing. I was just looking at didn’t place around here to go eat.”

“Well good thing I couldn’t let you go eat lunch all by yourself. I told someone I would look at for you.” I walked around my desk and grabbed my purse. 

“Oh, you're looking out for me? There is no other reason for you taking me to lunch?” Julian told me a little secret before I left and I was actually really happy about. 

“Did Julian say something?”

“Don’t worry Tyler because I feel the same way so why don’t we get lunch I only have an hour.” I walked passed him and went to the elevator. 

I glanced behind me to see if Tyler was coming and I saw him walking out my office smiling. Once the doors opened I got in along with Tyler and some of my other coworkers. Tyler was standing behind me but I could feel his body right behind mine. I felt his warm breath against my ear. 

“Glad to know you feel the same way. Remind me to thank Julian later.” Tyler whispered in my ear and leaned forward a bit to kiss my cheek. I could already feel my cheeks start to blush.

Once the elevator doors opened I wanted for mostly everyone to get out and once I started walking I felt a hand go on my lower back. I looked up and saw Tyler next to me but he wasn’t looking at me he was just looking straight ahead smiling. 

[hockeyfanficblog]

I’ll see you soon

Requested? Yes  Hello, I was wondering if you could do Auston Matthews and where some guy starts to fight the reader at a hockey game and Auston tries to step in?

AN: There some cursing and mentions of alcohol. 

This was the first maple leafs you had ever been to. You lived in New York so when the Leafs visited you made sure to make it to the game. You had been given season tickets and the seats were really good. You were right by the Leafs bench. You sat down and watched them do their warm ups. As you were looking at different players your eyes connect with someone else’s. It was Auston Matthews. He quickly looked away and seemed a little embarrassed to be caught staring.

The game started out great. But by the time the 2nd period was coming to a close the Maple Leafs tied it at 2. It was a Matthews goal. You stood up and cheered along with a few other people. You were booed by some people but you didn’t care.

“I don’t even think he’s that good.” You heard the drunk man sitting next to you slur. He looked up at you. “Why don’t you go back to Cananda, girl?” you rolled your eyes. You weren’t even born there, you just liked the team. Matthews and his teammates were celebrating in front of you. As he went to high five his teammates he looked at you and smiled. You could feel your cheeks start to get red hot and had to look away. As the second period close you had to run to the bathroom and try to calm yourself down. Auston Matthews smiled at me! You thought.

“That’s the thing about these chicks.” The drunk guy who was sitting next to you motioned to you as you were sitting back down. “They don’t know decent teams when they seem them. She probably only likes this team ‘cause she thinks the players are hot.” He waved his hands around as he talked to his friend who was laughing, you just rolled your eyes. “What? Am I wrong?” he said to you.

“I just happen to like this team.” You said simply, not wanting to start anything. But the smell of alcohol on this guy was getting on your last nerve. The teams were starting to come out of the locker rooms.

“Yeah yeah, you’re probably just some groupie.” He pointed at you with the same hand that held his beer and it spilled all over your lap. You stood up quickly and pushed off all the ice that was on you. The guy and his friend were just laughing at you.

“Are you serious??” you yelled at him.

“Aw looks like you’re not gonna get to go home with one of the players now.”

“Asshole.” You said.

“Listen bitch.” He stood up.

“HEY get away from her!” you heard somebody yell. You turned around to face the hallway were the players come out. It was Matthews. He looked pissed.

“Yeah what’re you gonna do boy?” the drunk man yelled as he pushed you out of the way. Auston tried to get in the stands after he seen that but the guard stopped him. He was yelling at the drunk guy. He was actually standing up for you. You remembered that you were drenched in beer and ran to the bathroom again to try and clean yourself up. You were embarrassed that Matthews had seen you looking like such a mess. But you were also in shock that he was about to beat that guy up for you. As you were heading back to your seat a guard stopped you.

“Ma’am can you come with me?” He asked. Oh no were you getting in trouble for what the guy did? Or for Matthews standing up for you? Were you getting kicked from the game?

“He started it!” was all you could say. The guard smiled.

“No ma’am it’s nothing bad, just come with me.” He motioned, you walked with him. “Mr. Matthews said he didn’t feel like you were safe so he asked us to bring you up to one of the V.I.P. boxes at his expense.”

“Oh.” You said. Matthews paid for a V.I.P. box for you? He didn’t feel like you were safe. You replayed that in your head.

“You’ll also need this.” He handed you something. “It’s a pass. You’ll need it to get to the locker rooms.”

“Locker rooms?” you asked.

“Oh yeah, he said he would like to speak with you after the game if you wouldn’t mind.” He said. He wants to talk to me??

“Thank you.” You said, and the guard nodded and left. You scanned the room. It looked very expensive. 

You looked out the window and had a perfect view of the whole arena. You were still in complete shock at everything that had just unfolded in the last 20 minutes. Your favorite hockey player just bought out a V.I.P. box for you and now he wants to talk to you. This is not how you imagined the night to go but hey, who were you to complain. You smiled and got a plate of dessert and sat down to watch the remainder of the game.

As the leafs scored in OT you stood up to cheer. Rangers fans quickly exited the arena and you made your way down to the locker rooms showing your pass to the guards who gave you a quick nod and led you to the way.

“Just wait here he should be out shortly.” You nodded your head. There weren’t many people in the hallway considering this was the visiting locker room, they were a few Leafs fans.

“You still trying to shoot your chance with one of the guys??” you heard that same disgusting voice.

“I’m not talking to you.” You turned your back to him.

“Whatever all you puck bunnies are the same.” He shook his head.

“Fuck you.” You said back, you weren’t going to let some drunk talk to you like that.

“What did you just say to me?” he got closer to you and you started to feel a little scared.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave her alone?” Matthews said from behind you.

“You’re not gonna do shit.” He approached Auston but Matthews was clearly a lot bigger than him. He got the attention of the guards.

“Can you escort this man out? He’s had too much to drink and he’s harassing my girl here.” Matthews said. MY GIRL?! The guards led him out. “Are you alright?” he asked you.

“Uhm yeah.” You were a little star struck. “He kind of scared me though.”

“He’s just a drunk and he’s mad his team lost.” You both laughed. “But I was watching you and seen he was causing problems for you.”

“You were watching me?” you asked. He got a little flushed.

“Well… yeah. Uhm.” Now he was the one who was nervous. You couldn’t help but smile a little. “I mean I seen you when we went out to do warm ups and I thought you were... uhm, very beautiful.” He said has hand behind his neck, trying to think of the right words to say. “What’s your name?”

“Y/N, and thank you.” You laughed.

“Y/N” He repeated.

Just then another player came out of the locker room, it was Marner, he spotted Auston and came up to him.

“Hey Mats did you ask her yet?” he said.

“Uhm no.” Auston said. “Shut up, I will.”

“He hasn’t stopped talking about you since warm ups.” Mitch said smiling, but that quickly faded when Auston elbowed him. “Ow! What was that for?” Auston gave him a look and Marner threw his hands up in defeat. “Whatever! Just tell us when you finally ask her.”

“Finally ask who what?” you asked as Mitch walked back.

“You.” He said looking at the ground, overall just nervous.

“Ask me what?”

“Uhm… I don’t know.” He said. “Do you want to maybe go out sometime?”

“Okay.” You said trying to keep your composure. He looked at you.

“Really?” he acted surprised.

“Yeah!” you said.

“I thought you were gonna say no.” he said. “Can I have your number?” you nodded and took his phone from his huge hands and typed in your number and handed it back to him. “I’ll call you.”

“Okay.” You smiled.

“Aw Mats finally did it guys!” Marner said. Matthews turned around and you could see about five or six Leafs players watching you guys.

“Finally! He’s only been talking about her from like 2 hours.” Another one said.

“Shut up!” Auston said, you laughed. “Ignore them. I’ll seen you soon, Y/N. Okay?”

“Yeah I can’t wait.” You said, “Bye Auston.”

“See you.” He turned to head back into the locker room where more heckling would take place from his teammates.