#thankfully we're well ahead of schedule

[midnight-mourning]

I need y'all to know I chose violence with this next chapter, and by violence I mean I had a rare spark of brilliance while writing the secondary outline today and it's SO GOOD I am SO excited for this next chapter fr fr

[ftmsteveraglan]

daddy's boy (trans bear william x amab reader)

back for another round! seems like you guys really enjoyed the first trans bear will fic, so here i am for part two of that first one! once again, inspired by keikoyume's fanart, go check out her page if you haven't yet!

contains: trans bear william, bottom william, service top reader, praise kink, daddy kink, pet names, unprotected vaginal sex, fingering, office sex

the wait until the end of the shift was hell.

normally, you were able to fly through your work without much issue, given how long you'd done this job up to now. you had a set routine you'd developed for deep cleaning his office, which left you with enough time to get his scheduling in order with a few minutes left to spare to shoot the breeze.

now, however, you knew you'd be staying late. mr. raglan had promised a continuation of the fun the two of you had earlier in your shift, and if how fervently you'd eaten him out was any indication of things to come... well, no one could blame you for being eager for the workday to end.

his last client seemed to take forever. in reality, it probably only took a few minutes, just some guy with a shoddy record in need of work, but as your eyes ticked over to the clock, watching the minutes go down, you found yourself willing the man to get up and leave already. thankfully, he went on his way before very long, leaving you and mr. raglan alone.

your boss' tired, stoic demeanor didn't change as you finished the last bit of cleaning. watching him, you noticed that he kept looking out the window into the parking lot. you guessed that he was probably checking to make sure that no one else was there, and you were grateful for it. the last thing you needed was someone interrupting your fun.

ellen, the elderly secretary who normally manned the waiting room, stuck her head in through the door. "do you need anything before i go, sir?"

"we'll be alright," mr. raglan said with a curt nod. "we'll lock up. you go on ahead."

"suit yourself," ellen said, pulling away and closing the door. a minute later, mr. raglan went to look out the window again. this time, a small smile turned the corners of his lips.

"looks like we won't have to worry about anybody else," he said, turning to face you. "you about done?"

with an awkward smile, you admitted, "i've been done for a while, actually. i've just been waiting for you."

"awww, aren't you cute," mr. raglan teased, making his way over to you. "come here, baby..."

tilting your head up to meet his eye, mr. raglan pulled you in for a kiss, unusually gentle for someone as big and domineering as him. this gentleness quickly faded, giving way to excitement as he lifted you up in his arms as if you weighed nothing at all. you eagerly leaned into the kiss, wrapping your arms around him as he carried you over to his office chair. mr. raglan sat down in his office chair, lifting you so you rested on his thigh.

"you've been so good for me, baby," he cooed, moving one hand down to the zipper on your pants.

"i've been waiting all day for this, sir," you admitted, gasping softly as his hand pressed into your erection.

"i can tell, baby boy," mr. raglan chuckled, "you're all worked up. now, let's see what we're working with..."

desperate for him to touch you already, you quickly unzipped your pants and pulled your half hard cock out of your boxers. glancing up at mr. raglan, you could've sworn the man was salivating as he wrapped one meaty hand around your dick.

"you've been holding out on me, baby," he teased as he slowly jerked you off. "who could've guessed such a cute thing like you would be this big?"

your hips bucked into his fist, groaning as your cock throbbed in his grip. "fuck, daddy, don't tease me," you whined, which only made mr. raglan chuckle.

"i know, sweet boy, i know," he crooned, releasing his grip around your dick. you huffed in frustration as he lazily unbuckled his pants, tossing his belt aside. he started to pull his pants down, so you climbed down from his lap so he could take his pants off. you could clearly see a wet patch spreading on his boxers, strings of slick sticking to the fabric as he pulled his boxers down.

"you might have to stretch me open a little, baby," he chuckled. "with how big you are, it might be a tight fit..."

you didn't hesitate to move your hand down to his pussy, already soaking wet as you slid in a finger. mr. raglan sighed and leaned his head back against his headrest, relaxing at your touch as you crooked your finger inside him. after a minute, you slipped in a second finger, pumping the both of them in and out. one well timed press of your finger against a particular spot had mr. raglan exclaiming, "oh fuck! that's it, right there, baby!"

heat rose to your cheeks as you realized that you must've found his g spot. you kept massaging that spot with your fingertips, soon adding a third. mr. raglan's breathing sped up into sharp panting, his fingers digging into his armrests as he tried to compose himself.

eventually, he rested one hand on your shoulder, lightly pushing you back. "alright, that's good, that's good. i'm ready for you now, baby."

"are you sure?" you asked, looking back up for confirmation. "do you need me to wear a condom or-"

mr. raglan chuckled softly and pulled you in for a kiss. "go ahead, baby boy," he purred, spreading his thighs for you. "daddy's all yours."

that was all the permission you needed. carefully slotting yourself between his legs, you held onto his shoulders as you slid your cock into his hole, moaning at just how wet and tight his pussy was around you.

"ohhh, fuck, baby, that feels so good," mr. raglan groaned. "so good for me, sweet boy..."

cupping your face in his broad hand, he leaned down to kiss you, and you moved up a bit to meet his lips. as you rose to kiss him, you pushed a bit deeper into him, causing him to moan into the kiss.

"are you ok?" you asked him nervously, causing him to laugh.

"baby, you don't have to worry about me," he grinned. "you can get rough with me if you like, i can take it."

"a-are you sure?" you stammered, though admittedly, the idea turned you on.

"sure as anything," mr. raglan reassured you. "i'm a big boy, i can handle it."

eager for some friction, you pulled out almost all the way before slamming back into him, making mr. raglan cry out your name in a broken moan. the sound of his voice cracking spurred you on as you thrust back into him, eventually setting an even pace.

mr. raglan couldn't keep his hands off of you. with one leg wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer to him, he was free to bring one arm around your back, using his free hand to tug on your hair, forcing your head up. his shaky moans and whimpers were muffled by your kisses, each one more desperate than the last. one particularly well timed thrust had him crying out and cursing, so you adjusted your position, one hand on his shoulder, the other on his chest, and rammed into that spot over and over. you could feel yourself getting close, but mr. raglan sounded like he might come at any moment. the sight of your boss, this huge, looming bear of a man falling apart before you turned you on more than you ever thought possible.

"i'm so close," you whined, your thrusts becoming uneven and sloppy. "daddy, i'm so close-"

"that's it, baby," mr. raglan whimpered in between thrusts. "come inside me, sweet boy, fill daddy's pussy up, please, please, please-"

mr. raglan's begging was enough to send you over the edge. sinking your fingers into his shoulder, you gritted your teeth as you came inside him, your vision nearly going white. mr. raglan's grip around you tightened, pressing you against his belly as he cried out your name, coming so hard that tears pricked at the corners of his eyes.

the both of you stayed there in each other's embrace, taking a minute to catch your breath. eventually, mr. raglan lowered his leg and loosened his grip around you, leaning down to kiss you, which you eagerly returned.

"thank you, baby," he rasped, his voice nearly gone. "fuck, that felt so good..."

leaning back a bit, he patted his thigh, motioning for you to climb up. you pulled your softening cock from his hole, making him whimper quietly at the sudden emptiness and the squelching of come. you climbed onto his leg and leaned against him, and he pulled you closer to him with one arm.

after a minute of silence, you decided to speak up. "sir," you asked, "what does this make us?"

mr. raglan looked down at you with one eyebrow raised. "are you seeing anyone?"

"not right now," you responded. "what about you?"

"divorced," mr. raglan replied. with a nonchalant shrug, he added, "my, uh... my ex wife left me for a younger guy. she didn't want much to do with an old, fat man like me."

"she's missing out," you said with a laugh. mr. raglan smiled down at you, something more genuine and heartfelt, before bringing you in for another kiss.

"well," he said, "i wouldn't mind if we kept this up." with a chuckle, he said, "maybe next time, we could take this back to my place. if that's alright with you, baby."

"i'd love that, daddy," you smiled, bringing him in for another kiss. "thank you."

i wrote this thing while watching bl dramas. happy valentine's say, simps.

[sunshineblondiewrites]

The First of Us - Chapter 4

14 vs 54

Joel Miller x f!reader (no use of y/n)

Series summary: you and your father meet Joel and Tommy 6 years after outbreak day. You join their group trying to make it to the Boston QZ not realizing all that joining would entail. You eventually make it to the QZ but not without suffering many losses. Tommy decides to join the Fireflies and you and Joel are left with your smuggling partner, Tess, when years later you meet a teenage girl that will bring you and Joel across the country, and maybe together.

Summary: Years of being in the QZ has worn you out and with Tommy not contacting in weeks Joel is itching to get out as well. Your team's plan in place seems unbreakable until a deal goes bad and a 14 year old girl appears.

Warnings: death, outbreak day, friends to lovers, reader has a sister, minor physical descriptions of reader, grieving, FFM threeway (does not include reader, cannon typical violence, (if I miss any please lmk)

a/n: Hello, hello hello, SO SORRY this took ages!! This has been written for forever I just like to stay one chapter ahead of posting anddd I got very busy very fast, BUT thankfully due to thanksgiving break I've caught up a bit. We're finally in TV show cannon! WOO! As always thank you so much for reading, it genuinely means so much to me and brings me so much joy!

ps: lmk if you spot the very depressing easter egg in the beginning of this chapter, blink and you'll miss it! (hint: involves one of the bodies in a truck)

word count 4.2k

Ch3 Masterlist

Boston QZ, present day, 2023

You readjusted your face covering and wiped sweat from your brow with the peek of exposed skin between your glove and your dark purple linen button up. You had paired it with a black tank top underneath and some worn jeans as always. Today’s task was body burning. FEDRA had taken on more bodies than usual because of the bombings going on and therefore reviving this job in your schedule for the first time in about a month, which was pretty good all things considered. Less bodies equaled less death. There were quite a lot of bodies to burn today, and of course the FEDRA officers watching you all expected the bodies to be burned by the time the work hours ended. It wasn’t a completely unattainable goal, but it did require zero breaks and speed. Typical.

Most of the corpses you could haul into the fire by yourself, but still often needed help with the larger corpses. Joel was here, but since you and Joel were hardly ever on the same service, you had never partnered together before. It was usually you and a woman named Mary. You knew literally nothing about her except for her name and that she had a dead husband and son. You didn’t know how they died, you never asked, and honestly the two of you had had maybe 10 real conversations, but you still considered her a friend.

You grabbed what looked to be the body of a teenage girl out of the back of the truck bed–the last one for this truck. She had a bag over her head but a large braid still stuck through the bottom of it and from the looks of it she’d been bitten. You chucked her body into the fire and was met with the overwhelming stench that was burning flesh, hair, rubber from shoes, and clothes combined with the sickeningly sweet smell of cooking meat. It made you want to gag thinking about how it reminded you of a Kentucky cookout back home.

As you walked over to the next truck you noticed Mary staring at the bodies with Joel walking next to her.

“I can’t,” Mary said. Wordlessly Joel reached into the truck and turned with a small child in his arms. It had been months since a child that small had been in one of these trucks. While you made your way over to the truck you watched him carry the poor kid over to the pit and toss them into the fire. When he turned away from the pit he made eye contact with you and you paused for a second trying to push back the thoughts of how that kid was no bigger than…

“THERE A PROBLEM?” an officer shouted. Of course you stop for less than ten seconds and ta da Officer Matthews over here has a problem with it.

“Nope,” you said to Matthews who had come around to the side of the truck you were at.

“Then get back to work,” he snarled. You grabbed another body and threw it over your shoulder, this one a woman who looked to be only skin and bones, and began your march over to the pit. Joel passed you, locking eyes with you as he went by, silently asking if you were fine. To which you nodded shortly. 

After you’d thrown in all the bodies you had maybe 20 minutes to sift through the ashes and keep the burning pile active and so that you could begin to shovel them away. Eventually the buzzer sounded at 4:00 to end the day and you and Joel met up at the line to receive your cards for the day’s work. 

“You got anything else?” Joel asked.

“Not today. Tomorrow, we got street sweeping, or sewer maintenance” the soldier responded.

“Which one pays more?”

“That would be the one with the shit,” the soldier responded sarcastically. Joel nodded. “Late crew, 4pm start,” he stamped Joel’s paper and Joel moved aside so that you could get your cards.

“I’ll do a double on the street cleaning tomorrow,” you said.

“Ah the pretty lady doesn’t like the shit huh?”

“No, I just know I can get more at other places.” It was true, some men liked to tip you a card or two or more while you “worked the streets” and if you could get a double shift in, it would be even better.

“Early and midday crew, 6am start.” You took the stamped paper from him and left with Joel to the QZ’s town square where an execution was taking place.

“... violation of EMC 342.3, unauthorized exit from a Quarantine Zone, Maria Elisiano, violation of EMC 342.7, unauthorized entry into a Quarantine Zone. Each of you have been tried in a military court of justice and each of you having been found guilty by the court martial panel and with a sentence of death by execution…" You felt Joel’s eye’s leave Boston’s gallows and you followed his gaze to the side wall where Lee, a FEDRA soldier, stood and nodded at him before slipping away.

“I’ll be right back, wait here,” Joel said.

“Yes sir,” you said, saluting unenthusiastically. He shot you a glare before following Lee into the back alleyway. You turned back just as the ground beneath the death rowers disappeared and the collective sound of three snapping necks filled your ears and you grimaced. You couldn’t be more grateful you’d convinced Tommy and Joel to just walk through the front door those 7 years ago or those three may have ended up being you. 

Tommy hadn’t radioed in two weeks. Joel mentioned it casually that he hadn’t responded in a few days last week but now it was really beginning to worry him. You started going with him to the radio station, if you could even call it that, as moral support for your friend or maybe just because you, too, were worried. It wasn’t like Tommy to not respond for so long. 

You looked around the crowd of people and spotted Jake, who you still hadn’t managed to completely cut ties with. You’d been making up excuses for months now of why you couldn’t have sex with him. Headache, you’re on your period, smuggling run, stomach ache, late shift, whatever you could come up with. And besides, you’d noticed him flirting with some chick named Rebecca last week so he’s got a new pretty doll anyway. 

*snap*

Another woman’s neck wringed, who you looked up to see was actually Rebecca, so Jake wasn’t completely off your hands now. You eavesdropped on the whispers of the people beside you and heard that she was a Firefly and was hanged for treason not just violation of whatever law like the officer said. This was FEDRA’s new tactic. Whenever they captured a Firefly they would come up with some violation other than treason to try to show that they weren’t scared of them and that they had no value. So they were being hanged with only their fellow Fireflies knowing. Another senseless FEDRA plan. 

Is this what happened to Tommy in another QZ? You wondered. He was smarter than that, you hoped anyway.

Tess was supposed to be securing your battery today. You were finally taking steps to get out of here and find Tommy. Joel is a lot of things, but when it comes to his family, patient is not one of them. You heard children’s laughter behind you and noticed two boys and a girl chasing each other around, completely oblivious to the fact people are being killed 30 feet in front of them. It was sad the way the world had ended up. You had so much life ahead of you back then, but now, you were a 34 year old with no family, hardly any friends, and honestly, the apocalypse was lonely. 

Now, you were a young, headstrong woman and you’d had your fair share of female teenage fans who looked up to you, but they only met a cold shoulder. You didn’t want them to end up like you, and if that meant FEDRA academy so be it. It was better than what you had. Never having to worry about food or a place to sleep, getting an education. A shitty one you’re sure, but still an education.  It hurt to push them away–you had always loved kids, but it was for their own good.

You couldn’t say that you completely regret going into the QZ. It gave you a sense of security, Tess–despite her obvious love for Joel–had become a mentor for you. You thought back to a night not long after Tommy left you had rolled over to see in the moonlight that Joel was still wide awake, staring at the ceiling with his hands linked across his chest. Maybe it was your sleepy state that made you do it, but you reached out and slipped your hand into his and squeezed. He looked at you quizzically but all you did was give him a soft smile and closed your eyes to go back to sleep. In the morning, your fingers were still interlaced.

 You were startled out of your thoughts and back to reality by Joel. 

“Hey,” he said, grumpy as always.

“Hey, is everything set?”

“Yeah, he said stay off the streets the next couple nights, guys are jumpy.”

“Makes sense, we done?” you asked.

“No,” Joel said gruffly, “one more stop.” He then turned in the direction of the radio station and started walking.

“Joel,” you said slowly and he turned around, “you’ve been there everyday. You can’t keep trading cards and whatnot to get stuff for this guy. He didn’t answer yesterday, or the day before that. It’s almost 5:15, we need to get back.”

“He could answer today,” Joel said and turned to start walking again. You kicked a rock on the ground in his direction and begrudgingly followed after him. 

—

You hated the radio station. Hallways filled with people writing notes to family members, some of them crying softly, some giving looks of panic, all of them just quietly depressed. It was things like this that made you glad you didn’t have family out there to call, but now there was Tommy.

Joel, as usual, walks past everyone in the line to the front. There’s a man in there talking to the Radio man, Greg–something about a new baby. Sometimes you forget people still get pregnant in the apocalypse. You’d been lucky, Jake knew how to pull out and you weren’t dumb and tracked your cycle.

Joel sat down across from Greg and tossed him a few cigarettes. Greg took one and lit it before shaking his head at Joel.

“Nothing?” Joel asks, “Is there any chance it's coming in at night? You're asleep and you miss it?”

“When I'm sleeping, Gabriela listens or my son, the smart one, not the other one, God bless him. If Tommy responded we'd know.” You watched as Joel tried to sort through options in his head.

“And you're talking to the tower?”

“Every day. They gave him your message. They haven't seen or heard from him since and that's it. It hasn't been that long.” Greg was right, as things go at the station it really hadn’t been that long. It wasn’t like before where you could just leave a voicemail and get back to them later when you or they weren’t busy. And if Tommy had to move again then maybe he hadn’t found a station there yet.

“It's been three weeks. It's never taken him more than a day to respond.”

“I'm sure he's okay.” Wrong move Greg, wrong move.

Joel pulls out a map you hadn’t realized he brought to work with him today. “Show me where the tower is,” he said firmly.

“Joel…” you piped in.

“You can't be serious.” Oh he is very fucking serious., “Joel it's in Wyoming. All this open country? You guys are capable people, but there are worse things than infected out there. I hear everything on this. There are raiders, there are slavers…” Wrong move again, Greg.

“But you're 'sure' Tommy is okay?” Joel says sarcastically. And you look at him again and you see a broken man, who just wants to know if after all this his brother is still alive.

“It's... it's the Cody Tower,” he circles a spot on the map, defeated. “Q-Bar 4, but I don't know exactly where…” Joel gets up to leave, and you follow him with your eyes out the door before turning back to Greg. 

“Thanks,” you say quickly.

Greg nods at you with a flick of his cigarette and goes back to his smoking while shouting, “NEXT!”

—

It was a wordless walk back to the apartment. As soon as you entered, Joel made his way to the floorboards where you kept your supplies and then made his way to the table to spread out all his maps to go over routes with his pencil. You grabbed an old bottle of whiskey and two glasses, filling them and giving one to Joel and sitting at the table with him. 

He starts to sip his whiskey and you sit in silence for a bit before speaking up, “So we’re really doing this?” You asked cautiously.

Joel grunted in reply before responding, “We were always doing this.”

“We were always going west, this is fucking Wyoming.”

Joel paused his cartography session to look at you in confusion, “Yeah? Wyoming is west, what the hell did you think it was going to be?” Joel countered defensively.

“We live in fucking Boston, everything is fucking west of here. I was imaging something more like Iowa or Illinois or some shit. Everyone knows how stingy the Chicago QZ is,” you shot back at him. Did he actually think the three of you would be able to make it across the country?

Joel scoffs and pops a few pills and downs the rest of his whiskey, slamming it onto the table. “I’m taking a nap,” he grumbles, “you should too. You didn’t sleep well,” he adds walking away from the table.

As he walks you turn in the chair to look at him, “what makes you think I didn’t sleep well?”

Flopping onto the bed he says, “you were yawning a lot today on shift and I heard you toss and turn all night.”

“I wasn’t yawning,” you argue but he just grunts from the bed. You roll your eyes and start looking at the maps. On paper it doesn’t look that far, but you know how deceiving that is. You finish off the last of your whiskey and get up from the chair to stretch and pop your body. Joel was right, the body of your twenties wasn’t around anymore. You were still a fit and muscular woman, but nothing stops age. Sitting on the couch you grab an old beaten up book from the shelf and try to read it, but succumb to sleep by the second page. At some point in the night Tess comes in and gets in bed with Joel but you don’t look up. It’s dark outside now and sleep is calling you in again.

—

You wake up to Tess making coffee in the kitchen, and apparently so did Joel because you walk into the kitchen at the same time. Joel sits at the table and Tess sits next to him. Since Tess only has two hands, you don’t have a mug of morning drug and you move to the counter to grab one. 

You take your cup to the table when you notice Tess’s face was swollen and bruised with a black eye.

“What the fuck happened to your face?!” you rush towards her and Joel looks up, with a slimmer of worry in his stoic features, reaching for her face to get a closer look.

“I got jumped by a couple guys,” she says indifferently.

“What guys?” you and Joel demand in unison. 

“Just a couple teenagers. Said some shit I probably shouldn’t have.”

Joel stands up quickly, ready to fight, and you begin to grab a fresh towel to clean her up.

Tess grabs his hand and pulls him back to sit down, “no no, I’m fine,” she says, “come on. You know these guys were born after the outbreak. Never learned how to argue. They just start swinging. Fucking 19-year-old pieces of shit.” You ignore her and begin dabbing at her wounds with what was left of the whiskey from the night before. 

“It’s a miracle you’re alive,” Joel huffs.

“It’s a miracle any of us are alive,” she retorts. 

“These aren’t new…” Joel says, annoyed, examining her face.

“No. I was in FEDRA lockup all day,” you and Joel look at each other but before you could say anything, she adds, “Anyway it doesn't matter. I need you both to take a breath.”

“What?” Joel questions.

“Joel…” Tess says slowly.

“What?” you say back to her, this time leaning against the back of Joel’s chair and crossing your arms.

“The guys who jumped me were with Robert. He sold our battery to someone else. Nothing's lost. Shit like this is gonna happen. Now we just shake it off, and we go get our cards back or the battery.”

“That little piece of small dick shit!” you shout.

“I need that battery Tess,” Joel gets up aggressively, almost knocking his chair over.“The truck's no good without one and if I don't get to Tommy soon, he's gonna die out there!”

“Well fuck it, we get our battery and the money back,” Tess suggests, “Joel, listen. Robert is terrified of you. So, you march out of here all Clint Eastwood, especially with Miss Hot Stuff with you, he's going to get wind of it and skip. I need you to take a breath,” Tess stands up in front of him.

“Who’d he sell it to?” Joel asks.

“Don’t know,” Tess says.

“Well where is he?” you ask now.

“Don't know...yet. But we're gonna find out quietly. Understand?” Joel nods curtly, “Now I promised Robert that you wouldn't hurt him. But I would very much like for you to hurt him.”

You laugh from the table and take a swig of the whiskey, “you and me both sister.”

“So let's go hunt that motherfucker down and get our battery and our truck. And then we'll go find Tommy. Alright?” 

You and Joel both nod and grab the supplies out of the floorboards. Your timeline may have been set back, but that wasn’t going to stop you. Guess you won't be making it to your street crew shifts today.

—

Joel stood behind where you and Tess were talking with Dave, one of Robert’s “men.” Dave may be on Robert’s “payroll”, but it isn’t enough to buy his loyalty. Especially when it involved you in a low cut black tank top. 

The conversation didn’t last long. As you and Tess get up from the table and walk towards Joel as another man scurries away from him. You raise your eyebrow at him and he rolls his eyes shortly, nodding towards the white Fireflies symbol being painted over on a wall not too far down.

“Well, I mean, it cost us a couple of cards, but we got him. He’s supposedly taking the battery to a red-tagged building. But get this, the corner of Stillman and Cross,” Tess said.

“The one Miguel used to use?” Joel says confusingly.

“Yeah, I’m thinking so,” Tess agrees.

“I mean, couldn’t we take the subway tunnel under Haymarket and get into the building from below?” you ask.

“Take Robert by surprise…” Tess wonders aloud.

“Pay this fucker back,” Joel agrees.

“Then let's do this.”

—

Joel uses a set of large bolt cutters and snaps the rusting chain keeping the building closed off. You and Tess each have your guns and flashlights out already, wrists crossed.

“Ready?” Tess asks. You and Joel nod. You walk until you come across a door with a U and a dot painted above it. “This is it.”

You walk into an old office looking type room. This must have been some type of office building before the outbreak. Suddenly Tess lets out a yelp,  causing you and Joel to whirl around, guns up. Tess shines her flashlight on the wall revealing a dead infected, glued to the wall by cordyceps, frozen by its own flesh. 

“Shit,” you say under your breath.

“This one’s done,” Joel says, lowering his gun.

“Yeah, I know,” Tess huffs, “just wasn’t expecting it.”

“You never do,” you say slowly, taking in the magnitude of the horrendously beautiful display of nature on the wall. The poor victim forever trapped in a scream. You’d learned over the years how deadly cordyceps was, but you couldn’t help but have a horrified admiration for what it creates. The fungal flowers that sprout from the infected heads are a display of nature’s beauty surrounded by danger and death. 

“Let's keep moving,” Joel says to you, bringing you out of your daze and directing you forward. He, like you, took a last look at the infected and then followed behind you to a ladder Tess had begun climbing.

“It’s like they reframed the whole structure,” Joel starts and you’re already smiling and rolling your eyes, the infectious wall art quickly leaving your mind, “Probably in the ‘80s.. Everyone was cutting down on apartment sizes to sell more condos.”

“Oh,” you laugh, “and this has been…”

“Construction Corner with Joel Miller,” Tess finishes for you. “Construction Corner” had become a running joke between the two of you that Joel just absolutely adored and showed so by completely ignoring you and Tess’s comments.

“How far up are we going,” he says begrudgingly. 

“Uh, this far,” Tess says hopping off the ladder, “this door opens into the hallway and… the fuck? They put a piano in front of this thing?” Tess frustratingly tries to pry the door open.

“You smell that?” Joel asks.

“Gunpowder,” you say looking around until your eyes find something trickling out from the cracks in the door, “guys…”

“Blood,” Tess breathes and brings up her gun. You and Tess push the door open together and a body falls, it’s Robert, along with several other bodies around him. Tess spots the battery and bends down to inspect it.

“Well, the battery’s no good. And he still tried to sell it,” Tess shines her light on Robert’s face, “Twice.”

“That greedy fuck,” you say. You hear groaning around a corner in the hallway and Joel goes around the corner gun in position. He creeps fully around the corner and after a few steps you hear a door fly open and SLAM. 

“Joel?” you hear from a faintly recognizable voice.

“Marlene?” you hear Joel say. Here we fucking go. There’s some more conversation going on between two parties as you and Tess round the corner as well.

“So this is who Robert screwed us over with? The Che Guevara of Boston? I mean, war must be going pretty shitty for you to be buying from scumbags like him.” You could almost kiss Tess. You hated Marlene. For multiple reasons. The obvious one being that she convinced Tommy to leave, and the second being that she and her little rebel gang made everything harder. For smuggling, for working, for fucking existing. Her people were everywhere, bombing, attacking, causing disruptions. It was ridiculous and they could hardly be considered rebels at this point–just nuisances.

“Yeah. It kind of has been. The merch was bad and he obviously didn’t take “fuck off” for an answer,” Marlene responds.

“Give me my knife,” your attention is brought to some kid on the ground. She looks 12. 

“What do you need a car battery for?” Joel says. The girl is wearing a white shirt with burgundy sleeves and worn jeans, with her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, and looking with big, brown eyes from her knife to Joel and back and forth. She makes a move to grab the knife causing Joel to point his gun at her resulting in a reaction from Marlene and some other woman. Kat? Kit? Kim? Something with a K.

“Don’t,” the woman says, causing you to tear your eyes away from the girl and to the two beaten up women down the hall from you.

“Not at her. Point it at me,” Marlene says. Joel looks back at the kid and raises his eyebrows at her before moving his gun back to Marlene, you and Tess follow suit. It’d be a pretty unbalanced fight, 3 vs 2 injured.

“And to answer your question, I need it for a better reason than you do. No offense, but Tommy’s just one man,” Marlene says, “ It’s our business to know things.”

Joel laughs, “To know things? You’re the cause of it. You turned my own brother against me.”

Suddenly… the assistant? speaks up again, “That was a lot of gunfire. FEDRA’s gonna be on the way.”

“I know,” Marlene says quickly, “We were gonna move Ellie out of the zone tonight. But we won’t make it anywhere like this. Not for a while anyway. So now I’m thinking… you’re gonna do it.”

What the fuck?

tags: @orcasoul @who-has-my-green-banana

thank you for reading and wanting to be tagged :) 🩷

[askarcanamagnus]

Arcana Magnus: for our first post, we thought we'd get some help from the Earth we post on! Transformers media in your world is to sell toys after all (aside from people wanting to tell a story) and we thought some the customs in this photo would help set the tone even though talking via toys won't usually happen (and well, the unofficial Ask Vector Prime 2 has done digibashes paired with prose storytelling, so not new ground really). Please feel free to send us asks, even for things canon hasn't answered! :3

We're talking about canon here besides touching on those two. Here's the alt text/dialogue so people can read it this way, its a bit lengthy because of the amount of dialogue:

Alt text: A photo of transforming toys on a windowsill, with a trans flag for the background flooring, and a dark blue / purple night-time cardboard backdrop of a scifi city of cybertronian inspiration. The figures are engaged in combat and talking:

Titan Returns Arcee has her pistols out and is firing one into Siege Ion Storm's chest point blank, which has a blast effect there representing the impact, with a KABLAM orange-pink sound description above. TR Arcee is looking at Legends Arcee and saying: "So, you used to have a human body and then because you wanted to be a transformer from seeing the toys you became one? That’s so cool. I’m both a gal from Cybertron and binary bonded with a human who’s a dear friend of mine at this point- and our writing has now and my design is inspired from our trans iterations."

Ion Storm: "GAH- yeah your toy is cool as hell, it’s nice that things came full circle and car TTRPG Arcee can use her car hood as a shield.

Legends Arcee meanwhile stands on top of a collapsing Beast Hunters Shockwave, cutting his cannon in twain with a sword while stabbing Shockwave through his mono-optic face with her other sword: "Indeed! And yeah, my writing isn’t too great and I’m sexualized in a way that isn’t very tasteful or about me having agency in that regard, but as a concept me becoming a bot is fantastic, it’s a sentiment that resonates with the nonhuman community particularly human-bodied robot folk. Hopefully I’ll get better writing in a new iteration someday…"

Her attacks have similarly pink-orange sound effects of CLANG and CRUNCH.

Shockwave: Urk- I would hope for more logic…  bleh

Behind her, Studio Series 86 Arcee is kneeling, with her pistol on her thigh, and Generations Selects Galvatron's fusion cannon held over her shoulder, firing it with blast effects into staggered Kingdom Cyclonus's shoulder and a SKWOMP sound effect: "Funny that we’re talking about this, besides my binary bond with Daniel, I did have a synthoid human body briefly, though I didn’t sign up for that. I think I wore overalls pretty well and certainly have a better understanding from my binary bond that was voluntary."

Nearby, a T30 Arcee painted in trans and lesbian flag patterns and guns on her backstacks has beheaded a falling T30 Jhiaxus with her sword. Jhiaxus's neck socket has a blast effect exploding upwards like pressured blood/fuel. T30 Arcee is looking at an Arcee customized from Legacy Elita-1 to resemble IDW1 Arcee, and T30 Arcee's speech bubble says: "Hmm, I mean, Transformers has always danced around that with the ‘transformers are humans in robot bodies with alien context’ concept in terms of writing- the toy design two of you are retooled from, me minus my custom pride flag paint job, though, definitely hits that sexualization thing. My concept design was going to be the basis for IDW1 Arcee over there in 4th reformat with a surgery that she was happy with as part of her gender journey, but the comics were so ahead from schedule that there wasn’t much of me to go on. Thankfully the artist wanted to keep in line with the comic aesthetic, so she looks different."

The IDW1 Arcee custom, erstwhile, who has cut into Jhiaxus's wing with her flaming orange blade with a pink and cyan FWOOSH sound and a fiery blast effect on top of her blade, is glancing at Legacy Arcee, and saying: "Yeah, that loops back around to the basis of Titan Returns Arcee, although I’m not sure that’s why she’s a Blurr retool. I mean, I feel like a Legacy Elita retool to Arcee with swords is fairly obvious route to go and it seems there are other people who think that, given the robust look I have from 2014-2018 (and that’s not even counting how other Arcee iterations drawn in Transformers vs. GIJOE, or IDW2, or Transformers vs. Terminator). I dunno, there’s something to be said for how root designs that look ‘overly human’ can work, my second reformat is in that category and outside of one cover with Galvatron that hasn’t aged well it’s not really focused on, which I think is interesting in retrospect even though it wasn’t intentional for a trans narrative. But yeah it is funny to see you on covers sometimes given the difference."

Legacy Arcee, who unlike her pink car bot companions, is a blue motorcycle, is in point blank contact with an unlicensed toy based on Airachnid (APC Night Countess), while Arcee's forearm blades are out, and she has 3D print blasters pointed at Airachnid's chest and head, taking a headshot with a blast effect over Airachnid's face, and Arcee is saying: "It’s still absurd to me that the only appearance of my Legacy form in canon media outside of toy stuff is me in a leotard or a swimsuit. Clothing is cool and all but am I hiding, and if it’s for fun why aren’t any of the guys doing the same thing too? I’m more partial to the fact that most of the time we are all basically walking around nude save for a few of us, and those who do wear clothes don’t do so on a basis of being a gal. I would much rather take being curvy with metal boobs while living sweetly and ferociously."

Airachnid: "You- guess fanfic and art will do…"

End Alt text.

[risu5waffles]

High TENsion Hazard

Oh what? A TEN spot on time?

Oh my gods... i came across this collab project mentioned in some article on some gaming site i'm not going to bother looking up. i thought "hey! That looks neat!", and it was just so much pain. Now, i don't want to discount the ambition of the project; an 8 level adventure spread between 6 creators, it must have been just awful to organize. And it must be said, some of what they pulled off is really pretty impressive for fairly early-on LBP1. But even taking all that into account, these levels have not been at all kindly treated by the various updates, bugfixes, and engine changes; and they're all broken in sometimes fundamental ways, that just makes the experience a chore. Plus, two of the levels are missing, and the last level is mistitled, so it doesn't come up wiv the others when you do a search for LittleBig Contra. This first one does a pretty good job recreating the look and feel of the OG's first stage, and that is legitimately really cool. Unfortunately, they put all these sticker interactables in the level, i'm guessing there were supposed to be guns behind them, like in the NES game. Well, they're not there anymore. And your only spawn & paintinator pedestal is on the helicopter, so if you try to pick any of the boxes up, you have to die or you won't be able to do anything against the enemies. Also, did i mention the base version is a five life checkpoint? Ope. Thankfully they give you a sticker wiv the Konami Code on it for an infinite life one, which you will probably need against the boss. Who is very cool, but also kind of bullshite if you don't know what you're doing.

There's a stage missing between these, so you have to do the fuckers back-to-back. Well, you don't have to. You could be sensible and say nuts to them and skip ahead. Or you could be like me and locked into archiving the lot of these damned things. Which is why one of us has a life, and i don't. The concept here is pretty cool. A camera-behind-the-player forward scrolling level. The way they pulled off the effect of proceeding through the halls is really quite cute and inventive. However... Let's start wiv you can miss the jetpack you're supposed to auto-equip that will let you control the character, which throws you onto electricity, which ends the stage instantly. Well, not instantly. You'll spawn in a chute that leads to a flaming pit until you run out of lives, but you'll have no chance to actually play. i'm still not certain if that was a purposeful design choice, the one chance thing, or if something's gone fucky. You can only take one hit, you maneuver like a boat that's been dipped in concrete, and sometimes your character/puppet/thing just dies, but you don't. They don't respawn either. There's no feedback on if you're actually hitting anything until it just blows up, so you just kinda have to spray and pray (the mooks only take one hit, so they're not a big problem at least). Also, after the boss fight, it just ends, but it keeps on spawning bullets, so you don't know it's ended. You have to pop yourself, which usually sends you to the fiery pit, except this time it will take you to the exit hall. i figured that out by accident. i kept quitting back to pod from the menu 'cause i didn't want to sit through the pit death. i probably beat the first one three times before i figured out what to do, and i think i only did that because i said "fuck it, some of our archive episodes are uncompleteable, and that's life" and popped myself just to get a game over screen. Did i mention you have to beat these wivout taking a single hit?

A break from our regularly scheduled whinging for a level we talked about last week. Bask in the simple joys.

And we're back! All i remember about this one was the electrified tanks would not die, and i had to pull some weird-ass trick jump off a mob spawn to get up on a wall i wasn't supposed to be on, so i could get enough breathing room to kill a boss i wasn't even sure if i was dealing damage to.

i... don't remember anything anymore aside from the fact this one looked kind of neat? And there was a giant guy? i think they were buggy? Or maybe there were two giant guys, and only one of them was fucked up? At this point i was in the homestretch, and i purely had my eyes on the prize of never fucking having to play any of these levels again.

This one's honestly the best of the lot, and to think i almost missed out on playing it. That probably sounds like i'm being snarky, but i honestly liked this one a fair deal. The inside the alien biome was pulled off pretty effectively. i really liked the creature designs. Nothing was too broken, tho' i definitely could have used a few more lives. i feel like i struggled a bit telling what layer the projectiles were going to be in, but that's pretty small potatoes compared to all the bullshite i put up wiv getting here. The alien heart was really cool, and the little scorpions it spawned were real cuties. And i never. Ever. Have to go back to Stage 2 or 4. Ever again. But you know, i never did beat Contra as a kid. A friend and i rented it, like, a dozen times from the local mom and pop, but i don't think we got past stage three. That was... 1987? Sweet Sonny Chiba. i was fucking 9yrs old? Can you imagine little 9yr old me, getting her ass handed to her up and down the block by fucking Contra. Fuck you Contra! i finally beat you! Take that motherfucker!

This one was cute enough, if a little overmuch for a race. i think if you know the layout well enough, you can probably finish wiv a few points on the timer, but it'll be tight. The swimming sections do it, really. Swimming always, always slows things to a crawl. Or maybe a backstroke. Not that kind. The swimming kind. Get your mind out of the gutter.

i really wound up enjoying this one. Clean, straight-forward presentation. Good momentum. A little challenging, but nothing that's really going to make you sing for your supper. Lots of little mechanicals and level interactions too. The giant crate bounce pads really worked for me. Dunno why, but i've always loved homebrew bounce pads, even if they're hella fiddly to get working right (i've yet to make a set myself that really felt satisfying).

Oh. Right. The glass/grass glitch. i forgot how that was pulled off. The level's a touch overbright in presentation, but i did find myself enjoying the gameplay a fair bit. Aside from the glitch, there isn't that much to write home about, but it was fun, and it's hard to ask for too much more than that.

So there you have it. On time and under budget. And i've got to hop into the shower right now if i want one before stream, so, you know, there's that.

[mediciean]

UNDERESTIMATE chapter 2

The first week of school was hell.

Maybe I'm overthinking, and maybe I'm just not used to it since summer break but it feels as if I'm in jail every time I walk through my school doors.

Here I am now, doodling on my notebook cover. I had drowned out whatever Ms Porter was saying and instead started day dreaming about finally graduating and leaving this place.

Thankfully, they haven't pounded us with homework so I was free mostly during class. However, I still had a lengthy schedule that included extracurricular activities, one of those being gym. So when the bell rang to sixth period I knew exactly where I was headed.

A large thump is hit against my shoulder, I turn my head around to see Tristan walking with his friends. His eyes dull and his lips downturned. This is how it has been this week. He acts like he hates me.

He won't even acknowledge my existence.

When I get to gym the coach immediately states we'll be running laps. Just my luck! See the thing with locs, they're heavy and when you're exercising they get hot. So the last thing you wanted was to run with waist length locs that sweat your scalp out. However, there wasn't like I had a choice so I swallowed my nerves and my pride and pulled my hair up into a tight low bun.

The run began and I was behind everyone. I tried my best to keep up but it was only a matter of time before my legs couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey! Fellow slow runner?", A voice comes from behind me as I was trying to catch my breath.

"Huh?", I pant before looking up to see another girl, light skin with full lips and sister locs smiling down on me, also trying to catch her breath, "Oh yeah I've never been good at running.. or exercising.. or anything athletic".

We laugh together as she runs beside me, the rest of the class far ahead of us.

"Same here. I don't even know why I chose gym. Maybe I was missing a credit or something", she laughs, "I'm Vanessa".

"Esmé", I reply back with a smile, "I don't think I've seen you around here before?".

"That's a pretty name. I'm new. My dad's an entrepreneur and an engineer so we move around a lot. Hopefully we don't leave during the school year like last time, I'd really like to graduate on time".

"Oh I see! So you must see a lot of different cities and stuff", I exclaim, Vanessa nodding with a grin.

"More like different countries. I'm originally from Canada but the best place to live in? Gotta be London".

"London?", she's been to London?! Now that's crazy, "Let me guess you're an expert tea drinker", I ask with a butchered English accent.

"Well I'll have you know, darling, that tea enthusiasts have nothing on the gallons I drank that year", she replies in an equally butchered English accent that causes both of us to laugh.

But we're rudely cut off by our coach screeching a whistle from the bleachers and screaming, "Come on ladies! Move it move it move it!".

"Uh oh coach might make us to sit up's if we don't catch up", I joke, Vanessa giggling with a nod.

"Yea you're right. Hey weird question though, do you happen to sit with anyone at lunch?".

I sigh and shake my head, "Unfortunately no. Besides the Lord. I am a complete and utter loser with no friends".

"Well.. so am I! Wanna be complete and utter losers with no friends together?".

A smile spreads on my face and in that moment I knew; I had just found my new best friend.

The rest of gym passed by more smoothly now that I actually had someone to talk to. Vanessa was sweet and kind, she told me about her adventures in different parts of the world. Like learning to skydive in Florida. Or petting animals in Alaska. It was shocking to hear just how many places she had lived in. 

We were now walking side by side to lunch, Vanessa telling me a story on the time she had gotten bitten by a rattlesnake and they rushed to the hospital.

"What did it feel like?", I ask, astonished.

"It hurt like I don't know what", she giggles, "But after a while the pain kinda went away and it just went numb. Thank God a clinic was on the other side of the road I don't know what would've happened if it wasn't".

We made it to the lunch room where we grabbed our trays and took our seats at one of the tables.

"Enough about me, let's move on to you. Where do you plan on attending college?", Vanessa asks with genuine interest that catches me off guard.

Truth was the idea of college wasn't exactly appealing. But I knew that if I wanted to leave this town and finally be free from the past it would have to be my only option. I brought a cold fry to my mouth and chew it slowly, "Maybe somewhere overseas. I'd love to be around the ocean".

"Oh yeah the ocean is beautiful", the woman sighs as she lays her head in an open palm, "You'll love it, the smell, the look the— woah.. who is that?". Suddenly Vanessa's eyes widen and her body perks up as the culprit of who sparks her interest walks across our table.

My eyebrows furrow as I watched Tristan walk with his group of boys who were laughing and slapping one another on the back. Tristan being the only one to have a straight face even when his friend told him to "lighten up".

"That's Tristan", I mumble, picking up my fork and playing with my Mac and cheese.

"Girl he is fine. Did you see those eyes? I wonder if they're real".

They are. I shrug and take a slow sip of my chocolate milk, "He's okay I guess".

Vanessa turns to be with a gasp escaping her lips, "Oh is he your ex or something? I'm sorry—".

"No no", I quickly usher while waving my hands back and forth, "It's not like that. We.. we used to know each other.. when we were kids".

"Ah I see", Vanessa replies, "Sucks though, you two would make cute couple".

Ha. Yea right.

Tristan couldn't stand me.

But I guess I couldn't blame him.

After school Vanessa gave me her number before promptly and sort-of scarily demanding that I call her. I promised her I would as we separated our ways. The walk to the parking lot was hefty so I slung my bag over my shoulder as I made my way towards Justin's car.

That is until I stopped in my tracks upon seeing a familiar face leaning against my step-brother's car.

When I met eyes with Tristan it was as if my heart began to beat out of my chest. Time seemed to move in slow motion as his mouth dropped open before shutting tightly and looking away. But just as soon as the butterflies came I immediately felt a sense of hatred as Justin came around the car.

"Are you coming or not?! I have to drop you off, we have to study", he exclaims before throwing an arm over Tristan.

I stared at the boys for a while before chucking angrily and rolling my eyes, "Yeah no", I turn on my heel and walk away.

"Wait— where are you going, Esmé?!", Justin called behind me but I promptly ignored him.

Just my luck. So now he's friends with Justin. He hates me and now he's friends with my MORTAL enemy.

Just. My. Luck.

I had made it about a few feet from the school when I felt the hot air from an engine graze my leg. It didn't take long for me to realize that Justin had drove beside me on the road and began to roll his window down.

"Yo get in the car", he states but I only cross my arms over my chest harder.

"Leave me alone".

"Esmé cut it out, I told dad I'd bring you home before 5".

"Leave me alone, Justin".

"Dude—

"I said LEAVE ME ALONE!", I scream, catching Justin and Tristan, who was sitting in the passenger seat, off gaurd, "I'm walking to work!".

"Geez, fine".

After my outburst I guessed Justin had taken the hint because his car came to an abrupt halt. Both the boys watching me swiftly walk away till I turned the corner, completely out of sight.

"Lord give me strength", I sniffle as I aggressively wipe away the tears that spilled from the feelings of dread filling me instantly. I knew Tristan wouldn't be able to forgive me but seeing him now, seeing how much he despised me, it was definitely hurting more than I thought it would.

We used to be so close.

Him, Eli, and I.

[gucciwins]

Are you Angel?

Harry gets hurt while on the job and Y/N gets a phone call she was not prepared for.

Word count: 7413

A/N: hello friends, it's been a while :) this is a continuation to my story Trouble Follows. You don't have to read but it will give you an insight of how Y/N and Harry met. I am thrilled to share more of firefighter harry with you. I adore him and I hope you do as well.

please do let me know what you thought of the story and please reblog! <333

Warnings: angst, breakups, hospitals

A firefighter will always run into a burning building with not a hint of hesitation. All their focus is on saving the people stuck inside.

Running towards trouble is second nature to them.

She knew that.

She also knew what it meant to date a firefighter.

The unreliable hours, the non-frequent communication, the many failed dinner dates. The twenty-four hours shifts when he would then arrive home to just sleep.

Harry had begun to give her a constant comfort that he would eventually come home and climb into bed behind her. He would then gently nuzzle his face in her neck, taking in her sweet honey scent. In contrast, she took in the woody ashy smell that seems to be permanently stained on him.

So trust her when she said she knew what she was in for when Harry asked her to be his girlfriend.

Four months in, she knew she would be here for a long time, maybe forever, if life would allow it.

She was sure; she knew what to expect.

But she didn't, not until she got the call.

The call that would shatter her heart.

The call that would lead her to be sitting in this uncomfortable, ugly brown hospital chair, holding tightly onto his ashy hand. As she prayed on and on to a God, she no longer held close but wished for Harry they were real and would bring Harry back to her.

Y/N prayed for Harry to finally open his eyes and give her a reassuring smile that he would be okay.

That they would be okay.

Until then, she'll wait.

Harry being Lieutenant allowed him to have a consistent schedule. That did not mean there weren't days where he had to pull a double shift or stay back to finish paperwork; he let it pile up.

The one day that was Y/N's was Sunday.

She got him an entire day to lay in bed together and eat all the baked goods she baked for him to try. It was becoming their day. Everyone at the station knew Harry could not be disturbed on Sundays unless it was the end of the world, and even then, they'd have to pry him away from Y/N.

He feels safe in her arms. Harry had never felt that before. Sure, he was surrounded by his firehouse family, but he had never felt so loved in two arms as if she could take all his problems and stresses away. Still, she did exactly that when she would flash him her gorgeous smile and hold her arms open for him to fall into at the end of every day.

Harry knows he's never felt this way, and he won't ever take it for granted.

This Sunday will be different, and she feels it as soon as she wakes up because, in her queen-sized bed, she's alone. No arms wrapped around her waist; no head tucked into her necks as he places soft open kisses to wake her from her sleep gently.

Already, she knows this is going to be a bad day. She feels it in her bones. Having been around trouble for so long, she knows the difference between good and bad. The feelings she has made her want to find Harry and pull him back into bed where she can keep him safe.

Y/N gets out of bed, throwing the warm sheets off her body going to the bathroom to do her morning skin routine, wanting to feel refreshed for when Harry breaks the news; he's going to leave her alone on their day. She knows him well enough; he's cooking her breakfast to make up for leaving her so early in the morning.

She walks out of her bathroom, going straight to her closet and taking out the first sweater she saw. It's a baby blue color and stitched on the left side on top of her heart is: "love me please?" It's Harry's favorite sweater of hers because it's an oversized sweater that fits him well. The only reason she has it back is that he wanted her to wash it and wear it until it got her smell again. Y/N kissed him silly when he told her that, plus she loves that it smells like him now.

Y/N takes one look at her unmade bed and walks away, knowing she's going to crawl back in after Harry leaves her. She walks out and, from the hallway, can hear Harry humming away. If she's honest, she doesn't recognize the song. As she has come to learn, Harry has an interesting taste in music; he has basically heard every song ever to exist. It's a reason they are so good at Four Clovers Thursday Trivia night. She dominates pop culture and films, and Harry takes on music. She's also better at history than him. Their friends love trivia night because their winning always gets them free drinks. It's something she looks forward to each week.

"Morning, H," Y/N says as she approaches him from behind and wraps her arms around his waist. Harry smiles, instantly feeling warm with her arms around him.

"Morning, firebug. Sleep well?"

She mumbles a no, causing Harry to laugh, and she feels it vibrate through her.

"Awe, upset I wasn't wrapped around you." He teases. "I'm making up to you by making breakfast."

She pulls away, spotting blackberries on the counter. "Sure, Jan."

Harry can hear the change in her tone and knows she's still goofing off with him but knows she's upset.

"Angel, come sit. Coffee is ready."

She shakes her head but makes her way over to the chair he pulled out for her. "No coffee. I'll be going back to bed soon." Y/N waits to see if he'll correct her, but he doesn't.

"I'm sorry." He begins.

"No apologies."

"Please let me. I'm leaving you on our day." He pouts.

"As much as I don't want you to go, I'm sure they need you more than I do."

Harry frowns, "I hope you'll never stop needing me." He whispers against her lips before closing the gap. Y/N hums against his soft lips allowing herself to get lost in the moment; she loves his kisses, soft and gentle just as he is despite what his sharp eyes might have one believe.

Harry pulls away after pressing one final kiss on her pouted lips. "I'm sorry I have to go to work, but I know for certain that I can meet you for a late lunch."

"Lunch?" She repeats, arms wrapped around his waist, hoping he was serious with his offer.

He hums. "Yes, 2:30, that bistro with that avocado dressing you like for your sandwich."

"It's a date." She grins, laying her head on his chest letting him hold her tight. He unwraps his arms, letting her go.

"I've got to get going, firebug, but I'll see you later."

"Stay safe, Styles." She tells him as she does every time he leaves.

"Try my best, angel."

With that, he slips his beat-up white Vans with lilac laces and walks out the door; it shuts it behind him. Just as Y/N steps towards it to lock up, it opens back up, startling her. Harry steps back in, and before she can question him, he places both faces on the side of her face and kisses her breathless. Y/N is quick to react, allowing their lips to move in perfect harmony, not as smooth but perfect, nonetheless.

"I--" Harry begins before he clears his throat. "I'll miss you, angel."

Y/N feels the heat rush to her cheeks because, for a moment, she thought he'd say another three words. "And I'll miss you, H. Now get out of here; I don't need you showing up late to our lunch date."

Harry smiles, dimples on full display, hugging her before walking out a skip in his step. She peaks her head out, making sure he gets in the car safely before he drives off. He sits there for a moment, and she knows he is letting his Bluetooth connect as he waits for his drive-to-work playlist titled "it's time" to start playing. He takes a look at his mirrors before backing out and driving. That's when Y/N closes and locks the door.

Time to go back to bed for a few more hours; what else is there to do on a Sunday when she's left alone.

Harry genuinely did not want to go to work today, but it's not like he could say no to his Chief. His Chief was never one to call in favor unless it was an emergency. He didn't ask, knowing he'd get the full story Monday, but for now, he gets on his pants, t-shirt, and boots and hopes there are no fires today.

The only thing is that Harry isn't used to working with the B-shift, sure he knows everyone's name and a little of their lives, but they aren't his usual team. He shakes that off because he knows he would do anything to help a team member and knows they would do the same in return.

Harry is lost in thought, wondering what Y/N was going to do today. He knows she planned to take him to a butterfly pavilion today even told him the outfit she had planned out for it. A pair of jeans that had flowers embroidered all over something she added, saying she thought they looked a bit plain, pairing it with a pastel pink top. Harry was surprised with her style after meeting her various times in different outfits. He was surprised at how soft she dressed in pastels. She may have a bold personality, but her fashion was delicate and warm. It was a nice balance.

He nearly runs into Carols as he made his way to his office, too busy thinking of the girl he left at home. "Sorry, bud."

"No problem, Harry. Surprised to see you here," Carols tells him, everyone knowing Sunday was Harry's day off.

"Chief had something come up and asked me to come in. I should be out of here by eight tonight if we're lucky."

Carlos smiles, "with you around, we usually are."

Harry chuckles, telling him he'll be in his office if he needs anything. He looks around his desk and sighs at how much has piled up already.

Might as well get ahead.

It's a few hours when Harry realizes the house is quiet. He peaks around the window and figures they are all in the common room. It's only one, and thankfully there have been no calls, and if it continues, then he will make it to lunch with his angel.

He shoots her a text.

Angel

13:24 PM

I miss you. Counting down the minutes until I get to see you xxx

Harry clicks send and smiles down at his phone. 2:30 couldn't come fast enough.

As he gets up to stretch and go for a snack in the kitchen, he takes a deep breath because as confident as he may seem, he isn't around the second shift. They don't know him so well, and Harry ultimately is shy. He may be able to hide it, but he has small quicks that others pick up on. Something he knows Y/N spotted quickly, like when he toes his foot into the ground or when he begins to chip at his nails, and Y/N's favorite is when he moves his hands behind his back and sways side to side. She finds it endearing, but others might not think it's leadership material.

He walks into the lounge to cross to the kitchen when a few heads turn to him, but before they can say a word, the alarm rings, and Harry is literally saved by the bell.

Not a second to waste, everyone heads over to the rig and quickly suits up. Harry is Lieutenant meaning he's in charge of the scene today, seeing as their captain and Chief aren't here today. Harry respects all the firefighters and knows this will go well if everyone carries out their job.

It's a factory fire, and as soon as they arrive, Harry can see it's burning fast. He's not sure how many people are there, but he calls in for reinforcements knowing they will need all the manpower they can get.

"This is House 102; please send more units available. The factory fire is burning at a faster rate than we can control. My team is going in now. There are five people unaccounted for; the left side of the building is clear." Harry speaks into his two-way radio.

"Carlos," the young firefighter jogs over, eyes on Harry, no longer staring at the roaring fire. "You're going in with Baz. Stay close and don't go up the second floor; you need to be quick in and out."

"Who's going with you, Lieutenant?" Carlos asks, clearly worried.

"Jameson and Rey are coming with me; stay safe, and if anything happens, just radio in."

"You got it!" Harry pats his shoulder and walks off towards the two waiting men.

Harry knows the men well, he trained them when they came into the house, but they preferred B-shift instead of being with him. One spot was available, and he knew they didn't want to be separated. Rey and Jameson have been dating for two years, but that's a secret only very few know. It's not prohibited, but if it gets more serious, one will have to relocate to a new station. They simply aren't ready for that, and indeed Harry would be sad not to have them around the house or hearing their stories. It just adds a more considerable risk because, at the end of the day, the job is first.

Rey walks towards the entrance with Harry following right behind. Jameson, a few feet back, calling out for anyone in there that needs help.

"Fire department, call out." Echoes out as much as it can as the fire begins to roar louder.

The heat gets worse the further they walk in; they turn right at the edge of a desk labeled "Torres."

"H, there!" Rey shouts, rushing over to a man knocked unconscious and had heavy storage struck over his legs, pinning him down. Harry and Jameson run over, assessing the man before making any sudden moves.

Jameson finds a pulse, weak but there. He gets the extra mask over the man's face hoping it'll wake him up soon.

"On the count of three, we lift," Harry tells the two men standing to a stand as the others do the same.

They nod. "One, two, three." They grunt in unison, pushing the container to a standing position. Harry looks over the man's legs and is thankful there is no blood, but there will be swelling and bruises. "Right, Rey, take him out. We'll keep searching."

Rey nods, lifting the man over his shoulder as he was trained to do, and rushes out of the burning building. Harry and Jameson have just learned a new area when the radio comes on. "Lieutenant Styles, it's Carlos. We found two men; only one remains unaccounted for."

Harry nods. "Got it, no one comes back in. We'll be out soon."

He now leads the way, making his way towards a stairway. There's no fire here, but it's moving faster, and smoke is thick. Whoever is in here might not last much longer without oxygen.

"Fire department, call out," Harry shouts, voice firm.

"Here.." a whisper is heard, both Harry and Jameson freeze. Once more, "here" is yelled but sounds muffled.

Harry looks around, not seeing anything but fire, and fears the structure will collapse soon. Just as he was about to yell again, he sees a can knocked, and a man hidden under a black rag is seen. Jameson rushes over, helping the man sit up. He's older, well into his sixties. He doesn't look too well; he has a few scapes.

"Right, we need to head out," Jameson tells Harry, helping the man stand up who is fighting consciousness.

"This is Lieutenant Styles; on our way out found the last man. Have paramedics on standby."

"Got it, Styles. Get out quick."

Jameson and Harry get the man up and head to exit. Harry can see the light of day and knows he will be late for lunch, but thankful Y/N is understanding and very forgiving. He'll make it up to her by buying dessert.

Just as they almost reach the door, a piece of dry wood comes falling down, separating Harry and Jameson; luckily, it did not hit them, but now Harry has to find a new way out. It's not looking good.

"Harry," Jameson looks panicked, but Harry stays calm.

"Get him out, now," Harry tells him, looking in every direction for what to do.

"No, I won't-" Harry cuts him off.

"Jameson, get this man out. He needs medical attention. That's an order." Voice full of authority with no room to argue.

Jameson nods and heads out. "I'm coming back for you."

Harry chuckles. He sees a small path, but it'd be a more extended way out. He debates what to do. He could wait, but the longer he stays, the quicker this building is beginning to collapse.

It takes him two seconds to decide to go right and find a new route out instead of staying put. He walks and only gets hotter as the fire begins to surround him. He's good at not panicking, always thinks better under pressure, but this is getting intense. Harry climbs over a crate and bends low to go through this tight space. He sees the exit, it's still a bit away, but he knows he is in the clear.

That's when he hears a big explosion knocking him forward. His oxygen masks flys off, landing a few feet away. As Harry reaches his hand out to get it, he's pulled back. He looks behind and sees he's stuck. There are crates stacked on top of him. The air is thick of smoke, and with no oxygen, it seems like the fire will soon enough engulf him.

Shit.

He's really in trouble now.

Harry presses his radio, holding it, hoping it's still working. "This is Harry," He coughs. "I'm trapped under a few crates. I can't reach my ask. I'm west of the building."

"Harry, hold on. We're going in." Harry hears Jameson reply, but he's fading quickly.

He shakes his head. "Can't go to sleep, but this smoke is too thick to actually see anything, let alone for his team to find him.

"Tell…" He coughs again, and this time doesn't stop for what feels like five minutes but is only a few seconds. "Tell angel, I'm sorry."

A voice comes over the speaker, but Harry's eyelids are fluttering shut, the weight of the crates is too much, and the smoke only gets deeper in his lungs if he keeps speaking.

Harry welcomes the darkness as he sees the one person he was supposed to meet for lunch. She's holding an outstretched hand for him to take and who is he to ever say no to her.

Real or not, he goes to her, and soon enough, he falls unconscious, not feeling when his team lifts him out and puts him in the back of an ambulance.

Y/N decided to show up a bit earlier for their lunch date, putting in their order early, wanting to maximize all their time together. She wouldn't see him until late that night, and honestly, she wasn't a fan of being separated on her favorite day of the week.

She sits on a bench right outside, both sandwiches wrapped tucked away in a brown paper bag and a lemonade sitting next to her untouched. It was his favorite, too sweet in her opinion. Still, Harry loved it, especially since he wasn't one to indulge in sweets unless they were hers.

Knowing Harry could be running late, she pulls out a book from her orange tote bag that Harry gifted to her. The book was Beach Read, Frankie recommended it to her then gave her the book saying she needed to read more romance books and not just poetry and nonfiction books. She actually enjoyed it, which surprised her, but even if she didn't, she's too invested to not find out the ending.

She was just starting chapter five when she feels too much time has passed and glances down at her phone.

2:55

25 minutes late isn't bad or unusual even; she decides to put the book away and keep an eye out for him. Usually, when he keeps her waiting, he makes up for it with a long kiss that never fails to take her breath away; she's excited about it now.

Time seems to go slower when she just sits waiting. She debates beginning to eat her sandwich when her stomach starts to growl. It's low, but she would feel bad if she began to eat, and that's when he shows up. She settles for waiting and instead takes a drink of the sweet lemonade.

As Y/N sits waiting for Harry, her phone begins to ring and displays an unknown number but the city's area code. Every bone in her body tells her to prepare for the worst but hopes she's paranoid.

She takes a deep breath before answering and bringing the phone up to her ear.

"Hello, are you angel?" A deep voice man asks.

"It's Y/N. Actually, can I ask who's calling?" She's holding her breath; only one person calls her angel.

"I'm calling on behalf of Lieutenant Harry Styles. Harry has been in an accident and was taken to the hospital. He asked us to call an angel on his way to the hospital. We assumed you were one of his emergency contacts."

Y/N feels her hands begin to shake. "What hospital?"

The man on the phone rattles the information, and she lets it all sink in. He hangs up, and she sits there waiting on the bench for her date that will not be showing up.

Her phone rings again, she answers without looking at the caller.

"Y/N," she recognized the voice; it's Mitch, and if he's calling, then it must be true.

"Mitch," she whispers, not recognizing her own voice. It's shaky, tears beginning to well up.

"Where are you?"

"At the bistro a street down from the station." She replies, hoping he's coming for her.

"I'm close; we'll pick you up and go see him, darling." She nods but remembers he can't see her.

Y/N isn't sure why she's not crying. She feels the tears, but it's like they are stuck; her heart hurts, and she knows that says enough. "We were supposed to meet for lunch. I got worried when he didn't show up, but I didn't think--" he interrupts her.

"Harry is going to be fine, trust me. He's okay, and he needs us there."

Y/N doesn't reply because she sees him pulling in. Mitch is in the passenger seat, Sarah is driving. She doesn't say a word as she swings open the door and settles in the back.

She sets her hands in her lap; she can feel herself trembling. She can feel herself breaking because she won't know if he's okay until she sees him. Mitch can say he's fine, but she needs to see for herself.

Sarah and Mitch share a concerned look; Y/N doesn't notice her eyes looking out the window.

"Y/N?" Mitch begins, voice full of concern. "Do you- are you okay to go see him?"

"Of course." She replies quickly. "He needs me; well, I hope he does."

"Course he needs you. Needs his angel by his side." Sarah tells her calmly, wanting to see her smile, but it doesn't work because only Harry should be calling her that. She shouldn't be on her way to see him in a hospital bed. She should have seen him next to her on that bench as he ate his sandwich and gave her kiss and kiss as she told him stories.

They are silent the rest of the way. Sarah pulls into an empty parking space, and she rushes after Mitch, who seems to know exactly where Harry is as he rushes past the front desk. The only thing that slows them down is waiting for the elevator; she gladly would have taken the stairs if Mitch didn't tell her that he's on the sixth floor. Instead, she waits impatiently for the old elevator that will take her to see her love.

He is going to be okay. He has to be okay. Y/N keeps those thoughts running through her head as Mitch and Sarah guide her to room 613.

Mitch walks in first, holding the door open, Sarah places a comforting hand on her back, and Y/N feels supported and loved, but nothing prepares her for what she is about to walk into.

The constant beep of Harry's heart monitor is the only thing that can be heard in his private room. The beep is steady; it makes her let out a deep breath. The monitor already calming her down, she approaches slowly as if he'd wake if she'd walk any faster.

She sits in the uncomfortable chair next to his bed and pulls it as close as she can.

Y/N just stares at him, taking it all in. He looks like he's resting peacefully like he should originally have been when they started this day together. His curls are disheveled, his face dirty with smoke stains and a few gauzes wrapped around his arms. She can't see much else but knows he's got a road of recovery still ahead of him.

"Hi, Harry," she whispers, her hand slowly reaching under the white sheet to grab hold of his right hand. "I'm right here, okay. Take your time waking up; there's no rush. Just know that I'm not going anywhere."

She pauses, hoping for a reply even though she knows she won't get one. "We can also discuss how I'm sort of one of your emergency contacts."

Y/N presses her lips to his hand. "Need you to wake up, want to see those Rapunzal eyes." She sits back, not removing her hand from his. Sarah has not taken her eyes off of her, Sarah might feel like she might blow up soon, but being at his side, she has begun to feel better.

"Harry, we're here for you. The whole team is outside in the lobby, probably why they sent us to the floor with the biggest waiting area. Even young Carlos is out there, saying you gave them a scare but really hopes you never pick up another B-shift again." Mitch sniffles before stepping out of the room. Sarah walks over to where he was standing.

"Hey Harold, it's trivia night in a few days, and kind of counting on you to get us those free drinks." Sarah chuckles. "It's been a while since we've been in the hospital. I think it was when I made you all donate blood for that ambulance competition. Fun times, now you rest and get better. The good thing is you have the best nurse looking out for you." Sarah glances at Y/N, sending her a small smile.

Y/N sits back in her chair as Sarah sits in one by the window. She knows she's in for a long afternoon and an even longer night.

Harry's head is throbbing.

He's not sure why. The last he remembers is leaving Y/N's house to go for his shift at the station.

They were meeting for lunch; he's sure she wouldn't let him drink any alcohol on the job.

Harry slowly opens his eyes and is blinded by the bright light. He sees a photo of the sunset right in front of him, and a tv hung up; if he's not mistaken, he's in a hospital room, primarily due to being in an uncomfortable bed. The oxygen mask over his face is also a dead giveaway he was in an accident.

He looks around, and he sees he is not alone. His angel is sleeping, a tight grip on his right hand; she looks exhausted. Mitch walks in just as Harry was about to wake her. Y/N mumbles and sits up, pulling her hand away from his to rub the sleep away. Harry wants to tell her to stop knowing how much it actually irritates her eyes, especially when she tubs a little harsher than usual.

"Were you able to find tea, Mitch?" Y/N asks, looking over at him.

"Sarah's bringing it over." Mitch's gaze never turns to her staying on Harry; this confuses Y/N and turns back around in her seat to look at a resting Harry but instead finds his eyes on her.

"Harry!" Y/N scoots forward, grasps his hand in hers. "You're awake. Mitch, the nurse, please."

Harry raises his free hand to take off the mask. He wants to speak, but this won't allow him. "No, love. Got to keep it on."

Harry's eyes close, then flutter open. He stares at Y/N, his eyes kind but defiant. He takes the mask off, coughing a bit; it makes Y/N feel nauseous, knowing he's not doing so well.

"I think you need to keep it on, Harry." She says, "the nurse needs to see it when she comes in soon."

"Hey, angel," he says in a raspy voice. It sounds like he's in pain when he talks.

"Yes?" She asks.

"I'm sorry for scaring you."

Y/N shrugs, "no big deal. I wasn't even scared."

Harry smiles, showering her his dimples since she last saw him this morning. He begins to laugh but stops when it causes him to cough. Y/N lets him settle down before bending down to gently kiss him.

"Now, let that hold you over, and put the mask pack on."

Harry nods. "Anything for you, my angel."

It's a half-hour before the doctor comes in, and by that time, Harry had fallen back asleep, only just waking up a few minutes before the man walked through the door. Mitch alerted everyone outside he was awake and doing good.

Dr. Vazquez walked white coat open, displaying a purple button-up and a bright yellow tie. It puts a smile on Y/N's face.

"Hello, Mr. Styles. Glad you're awake."

"Me too, Doc. Nice tie."

Dr. Vaquez smiles, looking down at himself, "Thank you, my wife picks out my tie every morning before she heads off to work."

"Lucky man," Harry tells him.

"That I am." Dr. Vazquez replies. "You've got a mild concussion, nothing serious, but you are allowed to sleep while you're here. We've got a good team looking out for you. You've got a few burns, but those will heal nicely if properly cared for. A few deep bruises on your leg and one on your rib cage, no blood clots. It will hurt to walk for a few days."

"Nothing too bad, then," Harry sighs, relaxing in bed.

"I've looked at your charts, and it looks like you will be making a full recovery and should be back on the job in three or four weeks. In the meantime, you will need to stay overnight and keep taking in oxygen. I see the nurse changed your mask. Please don't remove this one." Harry nods. "Any questions?"

Harry shakes his head no, "Not at the moment."

"Alright, I'll be off then. I'll come to see you tomorrow midday, and we'll talk about going home. I hear you have a waiting room full of people dying to see; just be aware that visiting hours end at nine, but if you're kind to Nurse Lucy, she'll be lenient to ten."

"Thank you, Dr. Vazquez." Mitch and Y/N say in unison as the man exits the room.

"That's the quietest I've ever seen you, firebug." Harry teases.

"You hush." She lightly pats his arm.

Mitch laughs, "going to go tell them you're allowed, visitors."

Y/N and Harry sit in silence. He can tell she has something on her mind, a slight frown on her face. He wonders if it's about him if she won't be able to handle dating someone who can be hurt by the job. Harry honestly does not want to lose her.

"I'm going to step out," Y/N tells him, looking down at their joined hands, not wanting to meet his eyes.

"Y/N," Harry sighs.

"You've got lots of people waiting to see you and roughly have an hour to see them all. I'll be close by." She leans down, presses a kiss to his cheek, and walks out before he can reach out to stop her.

She steps out while a few members of his team come in to see him offering her a smile as she passes them. As much as she didn't want to leave him, she needed a moment away, and he needed a moment with his family.

God, Y/N has never felt so scared, and now a minute alone, everything is beginning to set in. She has no idea where the restroom is, and the next thing she knows, she's running into someone, but it seems they recognize her because they say her name, and the next thing she knows, she's crying, sinking to the floor. She feels arms wrap around her.

Shushes in her ear, brushing the ends of her hair. It's calming, but she needs to let all the tears she's been holding in.

"Y/N," she can now recognize the voice as Sarah's, "I'm going to help you stand and sit you in the chair.

Y/N feels herself nod.

She begins taking deep breaths, never letting Sarah pull her hand away. It is the only thing keeping her grounded.

"I got her some water." Y/N hears Frankie whisper handing it to Sarah before taking the seat to the left of her.

"I'm okay," she repeats. "I'm okay."

"Y/N," Sarah begins.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, sweetie." Frankie brushes her hair back.

"I'm supposed to be strong; I have to be strong to do this to stand by his side," Y/N tells them, beginning to let her emotions out.

"No one is expecting you not to cry."

"Bu-" Sarah interrupts her.

"No. stop. Accidents happen, and so do injuries. It's okay to be scared and hurt."

"I want to be strong for him." She whispers.

"You are. You never left his side; you talked to him. You're crying now because you care."

She wipes her eyes with her sweater sleeves. "I love him, and I was so scared that when I got the call, I'd never get to tell Harry."

"Then you tell him as soon as you walk back into his room."

"Thank you."

"Nothing to thank, I care about you, and I know Harry would be grateful to know you're not alone. You've always got us. Now let's grab something to eat, and we'll come back in an hour once all of them go home."

She chuckles. "Alright."

"Text me where you're sitting. I'll pop in to see Harry, then meet you."

"You don't have to," Y/N tells Frankie because she knows she is just as concerned about her friend.

"Are you kidding me? You're my friend first, always."

Sarah and Y/N walk down to the cafeteria. She knows she isn't okay but is feeling better, finally letting emotion out. It was only a matter of time before she let the dam break; she's just happy it was not in front of Harry.

The girls sit in the cafeteria munching on snacks for well over an hour. Mitch sends them a message letting them know all the crew has left and it's time to say goodbye for the night. Frankie wishes her goodnight downstairs with promises to come to see her tomorrow and bring her a change of clothes.

"Let's walk you back," Sarah tells her, linking their arms together.

"Do you think he'll know?" Sarah takes a good look at her and grimaces. "I'll just say I tripped, and it made me cry." Y/N jokes.

"I don't think he'll believe that."

"Yeah, me either." The girls walk out of the elevator as their laughter dies down.

They settle in silence as they make their way to his room, Sarah holding her hand leading the way. Mitch is in the chair she was in for so many hours before waiting for him to wake up. Mitch hears their footsteps and turns his head, but Harry is frowning, looking out the window at the dark sky.

Y/N doesn't know what to say, but one look at him has her heart filling up with relief; he's okay.

He's fine, and he gets to go home soon, and she gets to love him all she wants.

Harry turns his head as she steps forward. "Angel," he breathes out.

It makes her eyes well up with tears again. "I love you," she just lets it out, as if she's told Harry this every day as if she never went a moment not saying it.

"Oh my angel," Harry begins to cry, feeling overwhelmed and incredibly happy. His angel loves him, and although this isn't a perfect day, the moment is.

Mitch and Sarah sneak out quietly, shutting the door behind them to give them their privacy.

"I love you so much. Please come here." Harry replies, voice shaky.

In the next second, she's moving forward, pulling the chair as close as she can as he grabs her hands, squeezing them tightly. She leans down and presses her lips to his chapped pink lips. They move gently, pouring all their love and fears into the kiss. Telling each other that the worst is over and they are together, and they are fine. Y/N pulls back, knowing she can't kiss him as long as she'd like due to his sensitive lungs.

"Harry, I love you, and I was so scared I'd never get to say it."

"I'm sorry, angel; I never wanted you to get a call like this, at least not before talking about it."

"Me either," She sniffles, no longer able to control her tears, "but it happened, and I'm just happy you're okay."

"I'm okay," he repeats. She smiles, taking one of her hands out of his hold to wipe his tears away; Harry can't help but lean his head into her gentle touch. "I'm okay because my angel is always looking after me.

"Harry."

"It's true. I've never been luckier and safer since you came into my life." She smiles. "But there's something we have to talk about." He continues, and by the tone of his voice, it's going to be serious.

"Are you okay?"

"What? I'm fine. You're the one in a hospital bed." Her tone is defensive.

"There's something wrong. I can see it."

Y/n sighs, taking a deep breath. She takes her hand out of his hold.

Harry is quick to mask his hurt.

"I don't like that you're hurt. I hate that we aren't at home in the kitchen dancing around to your Sunday playlist as I bake you a new treat." She says in a rush.

"Hey, love, relax," he says and gestures for her to move in closer. She does so, allowing him to take hold of her hands with a firm grip this time.

"You're upset because I got hurt?" She nods in reply to his question. It's stupid because, of course, he's going to get hurt; it'd be naive to think he wouldn't in his job.

"It's part of the job." He says simply. It's something he wants her to accept and remember. She thinks back to a month into dating when he told her about his ex-girlfriend and how she couldn't handle the unknown of the job each day he left her. Y/N thought she'd be fine, but she loves him, and losing him would be something she could never recover from.

"I know. It's just not easy to see." Her voice was quiet and defeated.

"What do we do?" Harry asks, and Y/N freezes; she can feel her heart beating in her ears.

What do we do?

"What do you mean?" She can feel her hands begin to shake.

"This can happen again." He gestures to him in the hospital bed.

"I know." She says softly.

"Is this something you can handle or not?" He asks very direct. She knows this might not be the first time he's had the conversation, but she just told him she loved him, and he's questioning her. She's allowed to feel this way, but it doesn't mean she can't handle it.

"Y/N," he begins, "I'm incredibly happy with you. I see you and me together for a long time. You're it for me, but this job is my life."

"I know," she repeats. "I would never ask you to give up your job."

Harry stares at her; heartbreak passes through his eyes. "Are you asking me to give you up?

She shakes her and begs for the tears not to fall, but it's no use. She feels them falling and can't wipe them as Harry has a hold of her hands.

"Harry, I love you." He frowns as if fearing the worst. "I love you, and I'd rather love you every moment I have you than let you go now and never know what could have been."

"Oh, thank god." Harry lets out a deep breath. She giggles. "I'm sorry we couldn't have this conversation earlier; honestly, I feared if I brought it up, you could possibly break up with me, and I selfishly wanted to have you longer."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere, not if it's up to me. Seeing you laid up is hard but knowing I get to be there for you makes up for it. Also helps that I'm a nurse."

"That it does."

Y/n grins at Harry, leaning in to kiss him, short and sweet for now. Each kiss never fails to make her heart race, and due to Harry's heart monitor, she knows it does the same to him. They sit in silence, staring at each other as Harry traces small shapes against Y/N's cheeks, loving the feeling of her in his hand. Especially when she lets out a soft giggle when he hits a sensitive spot.

"Move in with me," Y/N blurts out after a while of silence.

It shocks Harry. "What?"

"Until you're better. That way, I can be your in-home nurse."

"Only until I'm better?" She nods. "So, you'll give me the boot after." Harry teases.

Y/N can feel her cheeks warming up but pushes through, "Only if you're a bad patient."

Harry smiles, dimples on full display for her, always for her. "Okay, I can be good and naughty only when you ask."

"Harry!" She gasps.

He throws his head back, laughing.

"God, I'm so lucky to love you." His words warm her heart, and she promises to tell him every day from now on.

"Now get up here and cuddle me. I got Mitch to cue up Netflix."

"Are you sure?" She stands slipping her shoes off, knowing he won't be taking no for an answer.

"Going to deprive an injured man of what he wants most?"

"Guess not."

"Good."

Y/N crawls on and lays on his side, carefully resting her head on his chest. Harry presses kiss after kiss for his comfort, knowing he will be okay and has his favorite person by his side. She chooses Legally Blonde knowing it's Harry's comfort movie as much as he tries to deny it.

For an unusual start to their Sunday, it ends right; together in bed, a hospital bed but nonetheless a bed, together arms wrapped tight around each other.

Y/N might not have liked that Harry got hurt, but he's okay, and he will recover.

That's all she could ever ask for.

thank you so much for reading!

please send me a message of what you thought or if you'd like to see more firefighter harry

I adore you. take care xx

[sagau-my-beloved]

Hello how are you doing? :P

Alive and kicking, for now at least—

I do currently have an absolutely inhuman amount of work dangling above me, threatening to crush me whenever it so chooses

Since I don't have anybody in my actual real life I can complain about this too, let me go over the full magnitude of exactly what I have to get done, so you can understand the sheer amount of bullshittery that's been thrusted upon me

I have to write 3 essays before Friday on Greek, Roman, and Egyptian architecture and statues, because I need to submit one of them for my western survey midterm but my professor has which one set at random, he also won't allow you to simply copy and paste whichever essay it turns out to be, you have to rewrite the entire thing in the text box provided

So that midterm is due Friday and is also composed of 9 short response questions that I don't know anything about before going into it, I have a staggering 90 minutes to do all of that 👌

Then I have a continuation of a semester long graphic design project, which requires me to create 25 unique logos based on a fictional environmental activism corporation, due Friday as well

Also on the graphic design schedule we have a completely different project, due Sunday, which specifically says in the header "Don't wait until the last minute to start working on this", which requires me to design four stamps based on social issues, with no less than 12 different steps of criteria for each, and then, of course, a formal analysis for the set

And then ending it off strong we have a discussion post which thankfully only requires about 3 paragraphs worth of work, one paragraph due Friday and the other two on Sunday

After that 3 psychology assignments due Friday, I'm really kind of scared to look at that class because I know I have this really big grade hanging over my head, but I don't know much about it or when it's due, and every week that passes I tell myself I'll deal with it next week—

Then moving ahead a bit, I have to fully shade an 11 × 14 in fantasy based architecture drawing, with a fine liner, before Monday, because that's when we're critiquing

Have to finish a landscape charcoal drawing that I've worked like 4 hours on and I'm only about 15℅ done with before Tuesday, because that's when we're critiquing

And then I have a western survey research paper due on Wednesday, that I have not started, roughly 5 pages and requires me to find 4 peer reviewed sources and properly cite them 😀

On top of that I'm completely losing tomorrow afternoon because I agreed to go to an event with a family member out of obligation, which I only learned about this morning, because if I don't go then a different family member of mine would go in my place, and having the two of them in a room together might actually lead to the final nail in the coffin of their multi decade long relationship

And I think that's about it—

So I'm just a tad bit stressed, but I assure you that I'm handling this with the utmost of optimism I am physically capable of, and no matter how all of this plays out I'm not going to die nor is it the end of the world, which is what I have to keep telling myself

So I apologize for kind of rambling for something that required a short concise answer, but honestly writing all that out was kind of therapeutic and it might actually help me keep better track of everything—

So thank you for the check in, I needed it, and I hope you aren't suffering the same fate

And maybe send a prayer to Lord Barbatos for me cause I'm gonna need it

[qianoir]

IT3D 2 - Galaga vs. ET

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: college students!WayV x Chinese fem!reader

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: non-idol au, college au

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 18+ (Do not interact if you are under 18)

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: heavy cursing (censored), mentions of sex, nudity, love octogon, foreign humor, overbearing parents

♡ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2.2k

𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭: @eggbutnotyolk @d1nne @fanficbitchwhowriteskpop @staysstrays

Preview < 1 < 2 < 3

Your stomach started to churn during the lesson so you pulled out a handful of white rabbit candy from the front pocket of your bag. There was more candy than school supplies in your bag so you generously handed a few each to Xiaojun and Kun, whose empty tummies thanked you greatly. The professor soon closed the lecture and the three of you headed out together.

"I don't suppose either of you guys have dance next?" You ask the two boys with a slight laugh.

Both shook their heads. Kun pulled out his schedule, "I have biology." Xiaojun was searching for something or someone behind you as he spoke, "My next class isn't until 2. I'm gonna go try to find one of my other friends. I'll see you guys later?" Kun and you farewelled Xiaojun’s take off.

"Come on, I'll walk you to the dance studio." Kun offered his arm, which you accepted. "You know where dance class is, but you aren't in it?" Kun shook his head, "One of my friends takes dance, as well. He got so lost this morning, I had to help him find the hall."

"Wow I wish I had a friend like you four hours ago.." You told him, remembering Xuejiao and her useless a.ss. Kun smiled, "He should still be in there. He has like 3 dance classes mixed in his schedule." You took note of this and unlinked your arm from Kun's as he delivered you to the dance hall. "Thank you for walking me."

"No problem. I'll catch you around. Good luck!" Kun waved good-bye as you walked into the studio. Immediately, you were hit with shocking sound waves and saw a few very skilled dancers performing some contemporary urban routine. You walked along the far wall to the back corner of the room to put your stuff down then unpacked your dance clothes and walked into the dressing rooms.

Dressing rooms in China are usually very strictly organized to separate genders. The room you walked into did not clearly decipher what gender it was made for, so you could only hope you chose the correct one. You turned a corner housing unoccupied lockers and.. a man fully clothed in ballet attire.. thankfully. The beautiful Asian man looked up from fixing his tights.

"I'm so sorry I thought this was the women's dressing room!" You stuttered, blushing in uncomfy embarrassment.

The man chuckled at you and stood up straight. "You're fine. Everything on this campus is co-ed." He said with a small eye roll. "Oh.. that's a little.. discomforting.." You said, dragging your eyes to the floor to avoid staring at the beautiful man's beautiful body.

He pointed to your dance clothes. "You're taking ballet?" You nodded. "So am I. The class is about to start.. you should get ready quickly." He walked past you, out into the studio.

The strange encounter gave you chills. You wondered if he was the friend Kun mentioned. After all, he was the fourth Asian guy you had seen today. Am I just like a magnet for cute Asian boys?

Taking his advice, you quickly got dressed and slipped out into the dance room where the instructor was already giving his new term speech. You tried to attract as little attention as possible as you walked to sit in an empty space on the floor, which was a little further ahead from the boy you previously met.

"So enough about myself, let's go around the room and have each of you introduce yourself and tell us about your dance background. Starting with blondie over there." The instructor points to a pretty girl with dyed blonde hair.

"Hi, I'm Hyo Yeon Kim, I'm from Incheon, South Korea and I have been dancing mainly hip hop since I was seven years old."

The class claps and this continues for every student. Then it's his turn. He sits up straight and waves around the room as he introduces himself.

"Hi, I'm Sicheng Dong. I'm from Wenzhou, China and I have specialized in traditional Chinese dance since I was 10 years old."

So Sicheng is his name..

Suddenly, the studio door bursts open with a petite Asian boy panting like he just ran the Great Wall.

"S.. sorry.. I'm late.. I slept through the alarms.. I never set." The boy fixes his dance clothes which were thrown carelessly over his body.

"That's ok, son. Come in and introduce yourself and tell us about your dance history." The instructor motions for him to join the group. The boy suddenly has so much energy and brightly greets us, waving his hand high in the air.

"Hi everyone!! My name is Chittaphon “Ten" Leechaiyapornkul! I'm from Bangkok, Thailand and I have been dancing since the womb!!" Everyone laughs at his personality, except Sicheng, who just rolls his eyes, but still smiles at the bubbly boy. Ten takes a seat on the floor next to Sicheng who offers him a hi-five. I guess all the Asians keep it tight here, huh?

"We're almost done, you there, go ahead." The instructor points to you and you straighten your spine before speaking.

"Hi, I'm Y/N. I'm from Hong Kong and I have been dancing contemporary ballet since I was eight years old."

"Very good, Y/N. I think you will fit in nicely with our ballet class." The instructor nods at you before addressing the whole class, "Right, so we will continue to get into actual dancing in the next class. Thank you all for showing up, even if not on time." Everyone turns to Ten who just smiles cheekily in return. "Class dismissed."

You pick yourself up from the floor and decide to wait until everyone has changed to change yourself, since the idea of co-ed dressing rooms still doesn't sit well in your mind. While you wait in the corner, Ten and Sicheng walk towards you.

“Y/N, right?" Ten asks. "Yes, that's me." You smile. "We should hang out sometime! We have a whole clique of native Chinese friends you could be a part of."

"Actually I think I may have already met some of them. Do you know Dejun Xiao and Kun Qian?"

Ten nods enthusiastically. "Wow small world! I'll add you to a group chat with all of us. Give me your phone!" Ten takes your phone from your hands and starts typing your number on his own. The device is suddenly buzzing with new message notifications as it is returned to your hands.

"I can't be late to my next class- we can meet up later! See you, Y/N!!” Ten rushes out of the studio, leaving you and Sicheng alone in the corner.

"Sorry if he scared you. He can be a bit hyper." Sicheng says with a small grin. You wave him off, "It's fine. You should go change now."

"Are you waiting for me to change so you can be alone in the dressing room?" You stay silent. "If you've been taking dance classes since you were eight, you should learn that going out of your comfort zone is essential." Sicheng teases, but offers another option, "There is a better place to change if you're that uncomfortable with it, come on."

Sicheng leads you into the dressing room where you are met with various colors of boobs and a.ss cracks. You just look up and let Sicheng guide the rest of the way. You hear him giggle at your flushed face. You arrive at a spatial closet that is filled with hi-tech film equipment. "This is one of the theatre storage closets. Xiaojun and I hang out here a lot."

Sicheng looks around the room while you stand there, bag in hand and ready to change. His eyes land on you awaiting awkwardly in front of him and he realizes, "Oh sorry! I'll leave you to change." Sicheng apologizes and rushes out of the closet. You laugh at the quirkiness of the cute boy and start getting dressed up again.

Walking out of the storage closet, you see Sicheng waiting in the empty dressing room. He holds up your schedule as he notices you coming out. "You dropped this and I couldn't help but see you're free for a couple of hours. I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me and the rest of the guys in the group chat Ten added you to? My treat." He says, handing back your schedule.

You stuff the paper back into your bag, "I would love to."

"Awesome. Let's go."

The two of you walked around the campus and met up with five other Asian guys by the sculpted fountains, three of them being Xiaojun, Kun, and Ten. Xiaojun and Kun noticed you immediately. "Hey nice to see you again. I see you've met Winwin and Ten." You look at Xiaojun confused. "Winwin?"

"That's my nickname." Sicheng blushes. "You can call me 'Win.' It sounds manlier." He puffs his chest a little.

“Y/N, this is Lucas and Hendery. Hendery is from Macau and Lucas is from Hong Kong, like you!" Kun introduced you and Lucas gave you a hi-five, "Waaah what's up, little Hong Konger!?" You laugh as his hi-five pulls you into a bro-hug, where your face painfully smacks into his hard chest. "It's been a while since I've met someone from my hometown. What are you doing in America?" Lucas asked you.

"My parents wanted me to attend an Ivy League to become the best doctor in Hong Kong, so here I am with painful irony." You answered. "Cool, cool. I'm studying animal biology. I love animals, especially puppies."

"You are a puppy!" Ten calls out and everyone agrees. "We actually have a dog and two cats hidden in our dorm, but don't tell the DA." Lucas puts a finger to his lips.

"GUYS LOOK WHAT I JUST SCORED! THEY'RE GIVING OUT FREE CONDOMS!!"

The annoying, orange-haired, Taiwanese kid from your chem class ran to all of you with like 20 unopened condoms in his hands. All of the guys facepalmed and you just rolled your eyes at more of his immature behavior. Yangyang’s eyes fell on you and hid all of the condoms behind his back as he screeched, "What the hell guys!? Why did you invite a chick to hang out with us?? We can't have a girl knowing our manly secrets!"

"B!tch, you and I both know those aren't going to fit your 5’8” a.ss." You motioned to the golden X-tra large rubbers hiding behind his back. The guys except Yangyang laughed when his face started turning red, proving the accuracy of your assumptions.

"You two know each other?" Asked Xiaojun. "We have a.. history." Yangyang narrowed his eyes at you, stuffing the condoms into his backpack without breaking visual contact. "Get over yourself. We only met this morning." You scoffed. The young boy stuck his tongue out at me like he had done once before.

"Let's go eat. I'm starving." Hendery groans.

The group walks to the dining hall where different restaurants are catered to the students and staff. It was decided to eat at a Hawaiian rooftop grill. You sat near the edge with a great view of Manhattan. Winwin sat on your right with Lucas and Kun next to him. Xiaojun sat across from you with Hendery and Yangyang on his side, and Ten at the front of the long table. You looked over the menu placed in your hands.

"Get whatever you want, ok?" Win told you and you complied with thanks. The guys ordered a bunch of food for the table as well as for themselves; you ordered a simple ahi tuna poke bowl.

Upon the food’s arrival, Kun starts a conversation. "How is everyone's first day going?"

"My professor hit my wrist with a ruler because I said Galaga sucked." Yangyang answered. "You had it coming. You think ET: The Video Game should have made a comeback." Xiaojun attacked.

"None of you fools gave ET a chance." Yangyang crossed his arms and looked away.

"My calc professor ate an egg and bacon biscuit from Tim Hortons, then fell asleep." Win said as he stuffed his cheeks with macaroni salad.

"Did he ever wake up?" You wheezed and asked him.

"No."

"Hendery what's on your neck?"

"He got that good-good on the first day- my man!" Yangyang said with his cheeks full.

"Some kid in my aerophysics class launched a bottle rocket into my neck. It really hurts." Hendery replied, rubbing the sore area.

"D.amn."

...

"This dude in my psych class kinda packing no homo." Everyone groaned at Xiaojun’s comment, Ten just smiled and beamed him up.

Everyone finished eating and you offered to pay for yourself, but Winwin wouldn't allow it. You all walked back to the fountains you had met up. Yangyang, Hendery, and Kun left for their next class together. "What do you have next?" Win asked you. "I have biology." You replied.

"Oh you're with us!" You looked over at Lucas and Ten. Turning back to Winwin, "I'll see you later. Maybe we could have a movie night sometime this week, just you and me?" He proposed. "Sure. That sounds fun. Also thank you for buying me lunch, it was yummy." Win smiled at you. "No problem. I'll text you tonight." You nodded and parted ways with the lovely boy who walked with Xiaojun- the other lovely boy.

You walked off with the three Chinese boys, not looking forward to biology, but glad to spend the hour with your cool new friends.

To be continued…

*DA = dorm advisor

𝘲𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘳

[myhockeyworld87]

Ruined - Jamie Benn - Part 4

Word Count: 8,133

POV: Jamie and then switches to reader

Warnings: Language, small amount of smut so we will say NSFW

Notes: This is hell long, I’m sorry. I don’t normally write chapter/parts this long, so don’t get used to it, because I’m sure it won’t last...haha! At any rate here we go with Part 4. As always I love your feedback, both good and bad, so hit me with it. Happy Reading! Also (Y/NN) = Your Nickname (Y/LN) = Your Last Name

Ruined Masterlist

 JAMIE POV

 Five days, that's how long it was until you saw (Y/N) again. Well, it was four days, sixteen hours, twenty-two minutes, and forty-two seconds, give or take a second or two. And why did you know the exact time, only because you'd been counting the hours since she left Jordie and Jessi's house. The dinner party had gone great, at least you thought it had, but then you hadn't seen her since then; not even a glimpse of her outside in the backyard or pulling into the driveway. It was maddening or maybe it was just you slowly going insane as every little noise outside had you wandering over to the window to check and see if it was her. It hadn't taken much to convince your brother to throw a dinner party on short notice, in an excuse so you could see (Y/N), but now that you had, there was just this overwhelming need to see more and more of her.

 Now, here you were, just four days, sixteen hours, twenty-four minutes, and sixteen seconds from seeing her again. She was to be at the practice center at four-thirty today, so that someone, that someone being you, of course, could show her around the facility. You stood back a bit, staring at the entrance doors just waiting for her to walk in. And then she did. She looked radiant. Dressed in a simple navy pantsuit with a pair of high heels that clicked across the floor, she made her way to the front desk. Instead of rushing out to greet her, you headed back to the locker room, where you knew the receptionist would usher her back to you.

 Your palms were sweating and suddenly you felt unsure of yourself. What if she was only playing nice at Jordie's and really didn't want to be around you? But that didn't explain how she'd laughed and reminisced with you about different things. That laugh, you knew it was a genuine one, for you heard it so many times in your dreams you had it memorized. God, you hoped you could make her laugh like that again today.

 You could hear her heels on the floor, so you busied yourself with one of your sticks retaping the blade, even though it didn't need it. "The team captain is in there, Miss. If you need anything just let me know." You heard the door open and then turned around.

 "Jamie?"

 "Oh hey (Y/NN)," you tried to sound casual as if her simply being in the same room as you didn't send your heart beating into overdrive.

 "I guess I didn't realize you were the team's captain."

 "Yeah, have been for a few years now." Your heart sank a bit in the knowledge that she hadn't really followed your career except to know where you were, so she could avoid you.

 "Well that's…," she stumbled on her words which was unusual for her and you wondered if she was as affected by you as you were by her, or if it was just her disdain for you, and that she hated to give you any amount of praise. "That's really amazing. Your coaches and team must really hold you in high regard."

 "I'd like to think so." You finally abandoned the stick that didn't need taping, leaning it against the wall before turning your attention back to (Y/N). "Anyhow, I guess I'm your tour guide today." She gave a weak smile and a simple head nod, which was not encouraging to say the least. "So, how about we get started? If you want you can leave your stuff in here, no one will bother it." She'd been carrying her medical bag and a few other things, but she handed them over to you and you set them in your stall. "Well, as you can see this is our practice locker room, pretty basic. I thought we'd start with a tour of the entire place before I show you the training room."

 The two of you headed down the hallway and back out to the lobby. "Obviously, you came in this way, but I'll show you the entrance you can use in the future. We're pretty much contained to this side of the building as you can see, but when practices are open, people can come and watch." You showed her the rink, from seat level, then headed back out. "This is the club lounge, if there's ever an event here where we aren't skating we use one of the boxes up there. You're more than welcome to as well."

 "I have to say this is kind of elaborate for a practice rink."

 "A bit."

 "I was expecting metal bleachers and…well, I don't know. I feel like this is more like the arena and then a practice rink."

 You chuckled, for you kind of thought the same thing, the first time you came here. Now you barely even noticed it. "Well, the boards are the same as the AAC, but other than that it's very different."

 "AAC?"

 "American Airlines Center," you hadn't realized you shortened the name. "Sorry about that. I think we're scheduled to tour that on Wednesday." It gave you another opportunity to be with her.

 "Yes, I have that on my calendar, but was going to see if we could change that." You supposed there was your answer about her wanting to be in the same room as you. "Dr. Ellis has a patient that needs a knee arthroplasty and he asked if I'd show him the technique I've been using. Less evasive and I'm having great success with cutting the healing time by half." Oh, so it was a medical thing, whatever an arthroplasty was. "If we could push it back a bit that would be great, if not maybe we could look at another time."

 "I'll work around your schedule, it's not a problem." If it meant spending more time with her you'd go to any lengths that you had to.

 "Thanks, if we could maybe make for like three in the afternoon instead of noon that will give me plenty of time because I have a feeling, he'll want me to sit in on his other two surgeries he has scheduled that day."

 "Not a problem." You took out your phone and made the change in your calendar. Thankfully, you didn't really have anything after practice that day but giving her the tour. "Shall we continue then?" She smiled, and it made your heart feel light. You took her to the offices next. "Down this hallway is pretty much everyone that works for the Stars; PR, accounting, our GM, our owner. You'll pretty much find them here." You stopped in front of a door and then opened it up. "This office is for you." It had a great view, well as much of a view as any of them had, but it really was a nice place for her to work.

 "Umm…this won't do."

 You blinked at her a couple times, there was really nothing wrong with the room. Everything in there was modern with state-of-the-art equipment. "What's wrong with it?" The words came out a little harsher than you intended but you really couldn't see her problem.

 "Well for starters, we're on the what, the third floor? And I believe the locker room and training room are on the first." You gave a confused look as this was Dr. Lundin's old office and he never been concerned about it being where it was. "It's just if I'm going to be working on you…well not you, but any of you. I need to be near you. I can be at ice level during practices, but if I'm treating you, my office should be closer to the ice." Well, you couldn't really argue with that. "Also, there's no exam table in here. I get that I'll be doing most things in your training room, but there may be times when I'll need you to stop in to look over something, or what if one of you need to see me about something private."

 She had a point, though none of you had ever really gone to Dr. Lundin like that. Come to think of it, he wasn't really around that much. He more or less made recommendations on where you should go if you had a problem. He wasn't necessarily the doctor to fix you. Seems like (Y/N) planned on being more hands-on, and you were ok with that. "You make a good point. Give me a second." You stepped out of the room and called the Jim Nill, the general manager. You weren't sure he was the man to go to, but you knew he'd be there in the building at least and could possibly offer a solution. It was a short phone call, as you expressed (Y/N)'s concerns. Jim was happy to help and said that he'd get someone on moving her downstairs to one of the spare rooms that housed equipment at the moment. "All set. They're going to move you down next to the training room. It might take a few days to get in the stuff you want, but if you make a list, we'll leave it at the front desk and make sure it gets taken care of."

 "Thank you, Jamie. I really appreciate you doing that."

 Her praise was like music to your ears, you could remember the days when you'd have a good game and she would go on and on about how well you played and you'd literally soak up every word that came out of her mouth. "No problem, guess we should head down there then." You showed her the room, which she seemed pleased with, then took her over to the training room. A couple of the trainers were still in there from practice, so you introduced her to them.

 "I hate to be a pain in the ass but would any of you mind if I changed the set up here. I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I just see a few things that could make this more efficient."

 "Sure, go ahead," Dave, the head trainer told her.

 "So, see these units right here. They would work so much better if you had them in between the training tables. That way two guys can be on the machine at the same time."

 "Oh, I see what you're saying." They went to move the equipment, it looked heavy so you helped as well. (Y/N) was opening up cabinets and taking things out, then moving them to other ones.

 "Is the AAC," she looked over as you to confirm she'd said that right. "Setup like this as well."

 "Pretty much," Dave told her.

 "Could we make these changes there as well?" They seemed to be a bit annoyed, but she wasn't deterred. "Bear with me for a moment. Say Jamie has a cut to his eye that needs to be stitched." She looked at you to play the part.

 "Ow my eye," your acting was horrible and they all laughed.

 "When he comes into the room, we take him right to the nearest table, which is here." You sat down where she gestured. "It's obvious, he needs stitches, but the medical cabinet is all the way over on the other side of the room, and by the time we get there, look for what we need then come back we've waist two minutes of playing time and we don't even have a single stitch that we need in." She was making a lot of sense. "If we had our sterile supplies here, and then individually marked and put in like this." She rearranged the cabinet as she talked. "Then when Jame comes in with the cut. We can assess it and stitch him up in no time."

 "Makes sense," Dave agreed. "I'll get to work on changing the AAC as well." He and the other trainer were done for the day and said their goodbyes before heading out.

 "Hey Jame," you noticed she'd started using your nickname and you weren't upset about it. "Could you move this table over to here?"

 "No problem."

 "Is something wrong?"

 Quite the opposite actually, you thought today was going pretty well. "Um, no why?"

 "You're favoring your right shoulder. I saw you do it earlier."

 "Oh, I think I just slept wrong on it or something." Well tossed and turned on it was more like it, as thoughts of her pervaded your mind.

 "Sit." It was a command and one that you were not to argue with. She came up behind you then, her hands going on your shoulders, kneading and massaging your shoulders and for a moment it felt like heaven, just having her hands on you again. Then she pushed down hard on a particular spot and you winced. "Tender?"

 "A bit."

 She came around in front of you and stepped in between your legs. "This might hurt a little." Hurt? God, she was killing you at the moment, as her body was almost pressed intimately up against yours. You willed your growing erection to calmed down, but apparently, it had a mind of its own. She moved your arm in a weird position, then pressed down almost under your armpit but not quite. (Y/N) was right, it did hurt a tiny bit, and you grunted at the pain. "Sorry." She went back to kneading your muscles, while you caught the scent of her perfume, or maybe it was just her, either way, it intoxicated you. You closed your eyes inhaling deeply, willing your body under control. You'd give anything at that moment to just wrap her in your arms and press her lips to yours. Would her lips be as sweet as they once were? Would she kiss you back with the same abandonment as she had that first time so long ago? There were so many questions swirling in your head, and you wanted to know the answers, but it was too soon. If you attempted any of this now, you'd take the chance of losing her for good and it was not a risk you were willing to make. All too soon for your liking, she stepped back. "Does that feel any better?"

 You rotated your shoulder and neck a few times. "Yeah, it actually feels amazing."

 "Excellent," a huge satisfied grin on her face, which only made you smile back. You felt it then, a shift in the air, almost as if her heart was giving way to you in some small manner. Maybe it was just you, but there was something in the way that her eyes held yours, the way they softened as she gazed at you. You remembered that look, had only dreamt of seeing it in her eyes again but now here you were, afraid to blink for if you did it would break the spell. Her watch chimed then, like the clock striking midnight in a fairytale. "I really should be going," she told you, and just like Cinderella, she was running away only this time you knew she wouldn't get far. "So, Wednesday, then right?"

 "Yeah, three o'clock."

 "Ok, I'll see you then."

 "Hey (Y/NN)," she turned back around. "Since we're heading downtown, why don't I just drive us both down. I'll show you the shortcut." She seemed to mull that over a bit.

 "Sounds good." She made a move to leave again, only this time, she stopped herself. "Thank you for today Jame. I really appreciate you showing me around."

 She called you Jame again, another step in the right direction. "Anytime, (Y/NN)." You sighed happily as she walked out of the training room. You were one step closer to winning the girl of your dreams back.

  READER'S POV

 What was wrong with you? You seriously needed to get ahold of yourself. That moment in the training room could not happen again. For god's sake, your watch had to chime to tell you to breathe, because you were pretty sure you'd stopped. There had been something in Jamie's eyes. Those big beautiful brown ones of his, that you could spend hours looking into. People always said the eyes were like windows into your soul, and if that were true you saw your own reflected in Jamie's. The shocking thing was, it didn't frighten you like it should. There was this small part of you that wanted to fall headfirst straight into him, but you couldn't. This time it wasn't just your reputation as being easy riding on the line. It would be your reputation as a doctor and a professional as well, and that was something you would not let him ruin.

 You turned over yet again in what felt like the most enormous bed at the moment. You couldn't seem to get comfortable and sleep was evading you, as thoughts of Jamie filled your head. Every time you closed your eyes there he was, smiling as he took another bite of cake in his mouth, laughing when you least expected it. It was all quite maddening and thrilling at the same time. This time you sat up in bed. Grabbing your iPad, you opened your one guilty pleasure and started reading the romance novel you'd started on the plane here. You hadn't picked it up, since the day you saw Jamie. It would provide the perfect distraction from him.

 You were about three chapters in when things started to turn a bit steamy, and as you read each line you found your hands wandering over your body. Your hands snuck up your shirt, wishing that it was our hero's gliding over your breasts the way he caressed the main characters. As the dialogue went on, you got more and more turned on, until you abandon the book for your own pleasure. Closing your eyes, you pictured the protagonist with his dark locks, kissing his way down your body. Your hands would thread into his hair, as he kissed above your panty line, before slowly shimming them down your legs. It was almost as if you could feel his warm breath against your thigh making you shiver. You let your fingers mimic his, as they slid between your folds, your pussy already wet with desire for him. He softly kisses you there then, his beard somewhat scratchy against your sensitive skin, but it was a feeling you yearned for. His long fingers would slip inside, moving in and out of you slowly at first driving you mad. Your hips flexed up, as you gave over to the fantasy, craving the faceless man's touch. You could see the muscles of his back stretch across his skin and you longed to rake your nailed down them as he thrust his cock inside you, though it was his torturous fingers driving you wild at the moment. You were close now, just teetering on the edge with the need to cum.  Rubbing your clit with your other hand, you thrust your fingers in out of you in a motion that you knew would take you to the heights you sought. Only your mind told you it was his fingers, his tattooed arm, his wicked tongue that was taking you there. Eyes closing tighter, as you fully emersed yourself in the fantasy, you felt the orgasm begin to build. Your legs started to tremble and your breathing was erratic, and then it hit and you were screaming out his name. "YES…JAMIE…YES!" Your eyes flew open, at the sound of his name echoing off the bedroom walls. It was Jamie you were picturing the entire time. He was the man giving you such exquisite pleasure. The realization had you spinning and throwing the covers over your head, too bad you couldn't hide from yourself. How were you ever going to face him in a couple days?

 Sleep was something that evaded you that night and the next, well not entirely you did get a few hours here and there. The only problem was Jamie seemed to creep into your dreams as well. There were ones where the two of you were laughing and joking and having the most amazing time, and ones that had you calling out his name in pleasure again as well. But the ones that got to you the most, were where he was with Caitlyn. They would be holding hands or kissing right in front of you. You'd wake up so angry that you wanted to punch something or someone, namely Caitlyn. It had you questioning why though. If you didn't have feelings for Jamie, then why were you so angry at some college girl who threw herself at him. The deeper you dug into that, the more you didn't like the answer, for it meant there was still something there between you.

 Thankfully, Wednesday came and so did your teaching surgeries, which meant you had something else to think about other than Jamie Benn. It was an early morning as most days in the operating room were, so at five, you grabbed a coffee and headed to the hospital. As you suspected, Dr. Ellis had you tag along on his other three knee arthroplasties, which meant you were walking out of the OR just before noon. If you timed it right, you could grab a quick bite to eat before going over charts and then be at Jamie's before three to tour the AAC.

 "I've got to say your method in that replacement was impeccable," Dr. Ellis told you as you headed down the hallway to the doctor's lounge.

 "Thanks, it took a little time for me to get things right, but as I said when you take that ligament…"

 "Dr. Ellis, you're needed in the ER for a consult; car versus pedestrian," the nurse told him, and immediately your heart sank. You always hated seeing these kinds of accidents come through the hospital. "It's a twelve-year-old, his leg is in bad shape. I'm not sure it can be saved."

 "Dr. (Y/LN), would you join me?"

 "Of course." The two of you quickened your pace as you rushed to the wounded child. "I thought you said this wasn't a trauma hospital?"

 "It's not. I'm not sure how this case got here."

 The moment you got to the ER, you didn't have to be directed as to where to go. Doctors and nurses rushed in and out of the room at a frenzied pace. It had honestly been a good year since you'd done any extensive trauma work, but the adrenaline came rushing back through your veins with a force of a good slap shot. When you entered the room, it was worse than you expected, you'd only seen one other case that was this bad. You rattled off a flurry of questions, to those around you, trying to assess the damage. "I think we're going to have to amputate," the chief emergency physician said.

 "Only as a last resort." You looked at Dr. Ellis. "If you're willing, I'd like to try and save this child's leg, but we need to get him in the OR now."

 Not even a second ticked by, before he said, "You heard her people, let's move." Everyone started rushing to get him prepped for surgery.

 "I'll need your assistance," you told him as the two of you made your way back, nurses following close behind.

 "Of course, anything you need."

 "Oh, I need someone to call Jamie Benn." Dr. Ellis gave you a funny expression. "He was to show me around the arena today in a couple hours. I need to push that back." He nodded to the nurse who jotted down the information before the two of you went to scrub up.

 The surgery was grueling, your feet hurt and your back ached from standing in the OR for over twelve hours, but it was worth it. You were able to save young Noah's leg. And while most of those that had joined you in the operating room were headed out for drinks, which they wanted you to join, you were putting back on the dress that you'd chosen this morning to wear for your tour with Jamie. Admittedly, you may have decided on it because it showed a little more cleavage than usual and that it was Jamie's favorite color, but right now you'd give anything to not have to wear it for another couple of hours as you walked around an arena trying to remember where the entrance and exit were. Though still you, glided it over your body and headed out the door.

 You thought about pulling into your driveway, but decide to go straight to Jamie's instead. Your feet already hurt from standing all day, and the heels that you'd brought earlier now felt like they were twenty inches high instead of the three that they were. No point in walking extra steps from your place to his. You rang the doorbell and almost immediately Jamie answered. "You look…"

 "Like hell." You finished for him as he stepped aside you let you inside his house and even through your exhaustion you realized this was the first time you were seeing the inside of his home.

 "I wasn't going to say that."

 "Oh, well I feel like it," you added. "But anyhow, are you ready to go?" You were standing in the entranceway taking everything in, the vaulted ceilings, the winding staircase, even the glass doors were things that you'd talked about with him when you were younger. It was almost a carbon copy of your dream home that you two talked about.

 "Um…well, I kind of didn't think you'd be up for it tonight."

 "Oh, thank god."

 He chuckled as you sagged in relief of knowing that you wouldn't have to put another ten thousand steps in. "I have an alternative if that's alright." You had no idea what he could be thinking, but anything other than a thirty to forty-minute drive downtown would be better. Just then your stomach growled, the sound seemed to fill the room and Jamie's eyebrow shot up.

 "Sorry, I haven't eaten since six this morning."

 "Well, then I think you're going to like my idea. Follow me." He headed into the open concept, kitchen, and living room, which was decorated all in white. "I kind of figured you'd be hungry, so I cooked us dinner. You still like salmon, right?"

 "Love it." You couldn't believe that he went to all this trouble. You could see the table set perfectly, and that he had a couple pots on the stove, which smelled divine. "This is so much better than the drive-thru I was going to beg you to go to."

 "Fast food, really? Come on (Y/NN) I would've sworn you'd go for pizza at least."

 "I mean well, obviously, but when you're crunched on time."

 "So, does this mean you're staying for dinner?" It wasn't in your original plans, but he'd gone to all this trouble, and well, you did have to eat.

 "I'd love to."

 "Great, I just need to get the grill going. How about a glass of wine while we wait?" You nodded, after the day you had, wine sounded perfect. "Red or white."

 "A dry white since we're having fish." His walk-in wine cellar was to die for and filled from head to toe, you couldn't help sneaking a peek behind him. "I didn't realize you were a wine drinker."

 He shrugged, the movement careless and carefree. "From time to time, I enjoy a glass. It's always better to share it with someone though." God, you'd said the exact words almost a hundred times. You loved your wine, but it was almost self-indulgent to just open a bottle and drink it yourself, so you rarely did it. He chose one, then came back out to the kitchen to uncork it. "I almost hate to ask, but how did the surgery go?"

 "It was long, but we ended up saving Noah's leg."

 "Oh my god, that's amazing."

 "Well, I don't know…"

 He didn't let you finish, just scooped you up in a hug. One that literally lifted you off the ground. It took your breath away not only from the shock of it but because of the way it made you feel. There were so many times you'd completed something successful in the OR only to come home to an empty house and no one to share it with, sure you had your family to call, who were always thrilled, but this, this was different. It was someone sharing in your joy and happiness, and you could feel it in the way that he held you that he was just as excited as you were. All too soon he put you down as if he realized he'd overstepped his bounds. "Sorry," Jamie told you taking a step back, yet still wearing a huge grin. "But you freaking saved a kid's leg. Like who does that." Again, he didn't give you time to answer. "You're truly amazing, (Y/N)."

 A blush rose to your cheeks at his compliments or maybe it was from the way he held you and you longed to feel his arms back around you. Either way, the room suddenly got a bit warm. "Thank you."

 He poured you both a glass of wine, then lifted his. "To the most amazing doctor. Dallas is lucky to have you." You clinked your glass with his then took a sip of the crisp chardonnay.

 "This is good," you sighed as you took another drink. "Would it be terribly rude of me, if I took these shoes off? My feet are killing me."

 "God no, make yourself at home," he chuckled.

 "What I should really do is run home and change into some sweats. If only my feet didn't hurt so bad."

 "You can wear mine."

 "Oh no, I couldn't." Because really, you couldn't wear his sweats, that would just be going too far.

 "Please, you used to do it all the time." Ok well, he had you there. "I think you had more of my sweatshirts than I did at one point."

 "Hey, I couldn't help it, they were just so….cozy." He laughed again and you found yourself joining in.

 "Well, you're more than welcome to steal some. It's not like I don't have a ton from the organization. Which reminds me, I'll make sure they send you over some stuff."

 "Oh, that would be nice."

 "Until then just go put mine on. You know you'll be more comfortable." He was right, but it felt a little awkward and you hoped he wouldn't read into it.

 "You're sure?" He gave you that look, the one that told you if you didn't get your ass into his sweats, he might kick it, and you had to laugh. "Ok, ok." It kind of felt like old times, only without all the bad stuff that happened, and god help you; you liked it.

 "Upstairs go to the left. They are in my closet on the right-hand side. Bottoms are in the third drawer and the sweatshirts are hanging up. I'm going to go throw the salmon on."

 He headed out to the grill, and you made your way upstairs. The bedroom had pristine white walls, like the majority of the house. A massive four-poster king-size bed was done in shades of gray; it reminded of you the bed you shared long ago once. You shook yourself, as memories of that first time with Jamie came flooding back. There was no point in dwelling on that; you told yourself as you made your way into the huge walk-in closet. It was neatly arranged and you had to wonder if it was Jamie being meticulous or if he had a housekeeper that did all this for him. A shelf on the left side caught your eye. There were photos there nestled with his colognes. A picture of when he was drafted sat there, along with one from when he won his gold medal playing for Team Canada. At that moment, you realized you'd missed so much of his life. All these major life-changing events, that had things gone differently, you would've been part of, or at least you told yourself you would've. You sighed, feeling a heaviness in your chest that you didn't want to explore at the moment.

 Turning to the right, you went to grab the sweats like you were supposed to instead of digging around in Jamie's closet. You found them easily then moved down to grab a sweatshirt off the rack. You didn't really pay too much attention, just grabbed a Stars hoodie then started to head toward the bathroom to change. Again, photos caught your eye. These more personal. There was one of him with his mom and dad, that brought a smile to your face. You'd always loved his parents. Another was him with Jordie and Jenny, and still another with just him and Jenny's daughter. It was the one next to that, that made your breath hitch and your heart beat faster. It was a picture of the two of you, one of your favorites from Canada Day. You'd been out at the lake house with his family, and someone had candidly captured the two of you just staring happily into each other's eyes, a smile playing across both your faces. You remembered the moment like it was yesterday. That he would still have this picture was just….well, it was a lot to digest. You'd burned yours in a moment of anger weeks after what had happened, but Jamie, well apparently he kept his and still had it on display. What did this mean? Did he still have feelings for you? Did he still love you? Moreover, how did you feel about him now, after all this time? There were so many questions in your head, it was making you dizzy.

 You rushed into the bathroom and splashed some cold water on your face. Part of you wanted to run the two houses down to your home and lock the door behind you, but that would solve nothing. So instead, you inhaled deeply, getting control of your emotions just as you would before you entered the operating room. There was nothing between you and Jamie anymore, the two of you were just…well, you were trying to be friends, that's all this was. You quickly changed into his clothes, throwing your dress across the huge soaking tub, then you plopped your hair on top of your head in a messy bun. It was only then that you looked at yourself in the mirror. It was a reflection of your teenage self, the one that loved Jamie with her whole heart, but you weren't that girl. You were older and wiser, and you were not about to let your heart get trampled on by one Jamie Benn again. Squaring your shoulders, you headed back downstairs, where you'd pretend as if you hadn't seen the picture of the two of you that set your heart aflutter.

 When you entered the kitchen, Jamie's jaw dropped and you knew he was seeing that same version of your teenage self that you saw moments ago, though he recovered quickly. "You look more…comfortable."

 "I am. Thanks again for letting me borrow these." You decided to not mention, how they made you look, or feel for that matter. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

 "I've got it pretty much under control. Just prop up your feet, it'll be ready in a few."

 "It smells delicious."

 "Thanks."

 "When did you learn how to cook? Because from what I remember, you could barely boil water." It was true, he was never that great in the kitchen, but from the aroma, his skills had definitely improved.

 "Well, when you're on your own as long as I've been, you learn quick." He finished mixing, what looked like some sort of sauce before drizzling it over the asparagus that he'd broiled. "Besides, I can't burn off a large pizza the way I used. If I indulged in that every night, I'd have even more of a dad bod than I do now."

 "Oh stop, you do not have a dad bod. Trust me I've seen plenty of those and you're not it." With his toned arms and legs, he seemed more in shape than when he was sixteen years old. Well at least more defined. In fact, just looking at his thighs brought all sorts of wild fantasies to your mind. Oh my god, you needed to stop thinking of Jamie like this or there was going to be another sleepless night in your future.

 "Thanks," he answered back to your compliment. "Though I will never live down the nickname Chubbs."

 You laughed, like full-on belly laugh. "Oh my god, tell me that did not follow you around."

 "With Jordie on the same team," he said while rolling his eyes and joining in your laughter. "Of course, it did. It's fine though, actually, it'd be weird if people didn't call me that."

 "I'll have to remember that, Chubbs." He raised his eyebrow at you before stepping out to grab the salmon. This really was nice, the two of you just laughing and joking, maybe you could be friends after all.

 "Your dinner, madam," he said as he placed what looked like something out of a five-star restaurant in front of you, before sitting down in the chair beside you.

 "Wow, this looks amazing."

 "Well, it's not the celebration dinner you deserve for saving a kid's leg, but it will have to do." He raised his glass again towards you. "To an amazing doctor." He needed to stop making these toasts to you, as they made you blush every time.

 The conversation at dinner flowed easily, like two old friends who hadn't seen each other in ages, instead of two exes. You reminisced about old times and caught up on gossip from back home. It was all really refreshing, and you realized that you'd worried about moving to Dallas for no reason at all. You helped him clean up the dishes, then you both moved into the living room to finish up the bottle of wine. "I was thinking," Jamie told you. "I drew out the AAC a bit, that way if you're schedule gets too packed, you'd have somewhat of a map to get you around."

 There he went again, being all kind and sweet. A complete contrast to the man that you'd hated for the past fourteen years. "That's really nice of you. Let's have a look." He laid it out on the table and started to explain what parking garage to use and where that entrance would put you once you were inside. He was about midway through when the knot in your neck from surgery today, decided to stiffen a bit. You tilted your head to the right, then to the left; in an attempt to work it out.

 "Little stiff?"

 "Yeah, sometimes long hours in the OR, make my neck not want to hold my head up anymore."

 He chuckled then moved back against the side of the couch so that he could rub your shoulders. "Here let me."

 "You know, I'm supposed to be the one helping you out, not the other way around."

 "Yeah, well humor me." You turned, giving him your back. His hands were gentle as they kneaded the muscles there and you had to admit it felt really good. You could feel yourself relaxing back against him. "Scoot up for a second." You did as he asked and then he swung his one leg up so that you were now seated in between his legs, then he went back to working on your muscles. "Better?"

 "Mmm," you sighed out and let your eyes drift shut. It had been a long time since anyone had taken care of you the way that Jamie had tonight; cooking you dinner first and now this. He gently nudged you back against him, as your body grew heavy. Slowly, you drifted off to sleep. What you didn't know, was how Jamie settled you fully against his body, then grabbed the blanket that was strewn across the back of the couch to cover you up. Nor did you know how he pressed a kiss to your head, as his arms slid around your waist. He knew that he should probably wake you up, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to hold you in his arms even if it was for just a little bit. Jamie told himself that he'd just lay with you here for a little bit, let you rest for just a few minutes, but what he didn't plan on was falling asleep with you.

 You weren't sure what woke you, maybe it was the light snoring in your ear, but you found it hard to rouse yourself out of slumber. You were just too comfortable, too cozy, too content, to want to wake up. There was just this safe and secure feeling that you had that just kept lulling you back to sleep. But slowly, you came alive. You blinked a few times, trying to figure out where you were. This wasn't anything new, when you were an intern, you'd wake up all over the hospital depending upon where you fell asleep, and moving to Dallas you still weren't used to your new home, but nothing here looked at all familiar. It was then that you noticed, someone's arms around your midsection, and that you were sleeping on said person's chest. A light bulb went off in your head, and you realized that person was Jamie. Obviously, you'd fallen asleep at some point, you just didn't know why Jamie hadn't woken you up. Instead, he chose to fall asleep as well.

 You should be in a panic, but for some reason, your not. It just all feels so…right. Only it shouldn't feel that way at all. You shouldn't want his arms wrapped around you like they are, and you shouldn't like the gentle rise and fall of his chest as you lay against him, and you definitely shouldn't have your fingers interlaced with his, but you do. You actually could stay like this…well if you're being honest…forever, and that scares the living hell out of you. It's then you decide you have to get out there and you start to untangle your limbs from him. The movement waking Jamie. "Mmhmm," he hums sleepily and for some reason, your heart flutters at the sound. His hands tighten around your waist and you don't cringe like you should, but if you stay here any longer, you don't know what will happen.

 "Jamie," you whisper. "Jame."

 His eyes peek open as you turn and look at him. There's a slow smile that comes to his lips, that just sends heat to your core. Fuck, you need to get out of here. Then realization dawns on him, "Oh shit, I must have fallen asleep." He's scrambling now and so are you. "I'm sorry….I only meant to let you sleep for a bit." Oh, so he didn't mean to hold you all night and make you feel cherished? Why does your heart sink at that knowledge?

 "It's ok, but I should really be going." You're a little stiff as you get up off the couch and look around the kitchen for your purse, noticing that it's five in the morning. "I need to get ready for rounds at the hospital."

 His hands go to the back of his neck, then comes around the rake down the front of his face. "I'm really sorry…"

 "Jamie, it's fine. I'm the one who's sorry. I shouldn't have fallen asleep on you like that." You slip back into your heels then head towards the front door. "Thank you again for dinner."

 "Anytime," he mumbles and there's this look of confusion on his face. You can't decide if it's about waking up with you in his arms or if he's still not fully awake yet, but you're not going to ask, as you open the door and slip out. "Hey (Y/NN)." You turn back around the minute you hear his voice. "I'll call you," he tells you, and damnit if your heart isn't beating faster again, like your fifteen and the prospect of this hot hockey player calling you is just doing weird things to your insides that medical science can't explain. "About rescheduling the tour."

 "Right, the tour," you muttered and suddenly, it's not as romantic as it all seemed a moment ago. "Yeah, we definitely need to do that. Thanks again." You shut the car door so fast and drive the two houses down, which looks completely stupid, as Jamie stands on his front porch watching you, making sure you get inside ok.

 What the hell just happened? It's the only question you can think of as you drag yourself up to the ensuite in your bedroom, so you can wash your face. You grab a cloth and turn the water on, your mind trying to digest the last ten minutes. You just spent the night with Jamie Benn, and you're not mad about it. You're not mad about it at all and that's frightening. A week ago, you didn't want to be in the same room with him for five minutes. Now, you were laughing over dinner and falling asleep in his arms. Jesus, what were you thinking? You look up at yourself in the mirror and all you can see is his damn hoodie and sweats on you. You take a deep breath, trying to calm yourself, but instead, all you can do is smell him. He's on your clothes, well of course he is, they're his, you idiot. You swear when you pull your hair all the way down from its even messier bun that your hair smells of him too. And when you close your eyes you can feel him; his arms wrapped around you holding you close, and damn if you don't want that again.

 "NO," you yell out to yourself in the mirror. "No, no, no." He's not good for you. He'll break your heart. Your mind knows all these things and still, your heart is trying to open the door and let him in. This can't happen, you need a plan. No, what you need is someone to remind you how he broke your heart.

 You pick up your phone and dial your best friend, Emma. She'd been with you through the whole breakup with Jamie and remained by your side through every dumb mistake you made afterward. Emma had even moved to the east coast, when you went to John Hopkins, though she'd met the love of her life there and was now engaged. You knew it was early, but you also knew that your best friend would answer the phone if it was you who was calling. "Hello, sunshine," she answered all cheerful and it only put you in a fouler mood.

 "Really? How are you this happy in the morning?"

 "You know I've always been a morning person. Now, please tell me what happened with Jamie."

 "How do you know something happened with him?" It was truly baffling how she could just read you like an open book.

 "Why else would you call me at six-thirty in the morning? Tell me he's not breaking your heart already?"

 "It's worse." You pause trying to figure out the best way to tell her. "I think I'm falling for him again."

 "Get out!" She shouted at you through the telephone. "It's been like what ten days?"

 "God, when you put it like that, it sounds insane."

 "It's not insane (Y/N)." At least Emma didn't think you were crazy for possibly falling back in love with Jamie. "You two have history, like big-time history, and that just doesn't go away overnight. The question is what do you want to do about it?"

 "I don't know, Em." It was true, you were so conflicted about whether you should just shut Jamie out completely, or open your heart just one more time. You were hoping your best friend could shed some light on the situation.

 "Well, then I think I have your solution." You waited patiently for her to tell you what it was. "You know what they say, in order to get over someone, you need to get under someone." Had you heard her right, did she really just tell you to go out and have sex with someone random?  

.

[anaise]

A Short but Unforgettable Trip

Photo Source: M.studio - stock.adobe.com

Note: Pictures aren't mine because the camera that was used on this trip was burned when we experienced a fire accident way back in 2018.

It's been so long since I last travelled but I can still remember the trip that I had enjoyed. It was February, me and my aunt decided to visit Baguio, this wasn't my first time going to Baguio, in fact I've went there with my family way back. I picked this trip because I've barely remember the trip that I first had in Baguio and my memories from this trip is more fresh in my mind.

It was dawn, so early in the morning. Me and my aunt are getting ready so we're not late for our long ride. Its very important not to miss this because we are to ride a public transportation for our trip, and there's only two bad things that could happen if you miss your allotted schedule: first is you completely miss the chance of going on a trip and second you made it late but find yourself stuck on an unmoving bus because of traffic. The moment we arrived at the bus station (Victory liner) the ticket line was so long, thankfully we had already reserved our bus beforehand, that way our trip will be less hassle and it would go smoothly.

Being in the bus I remembered that listening to music and watching outside the window had kept me distracted and not bored. I'm a type of person who feel nauseous in moving vehicles that's why I'm really thankful I had prepared a long playlist while we're on the road. There are some stops for bathroom breaks in between the trip. I can't fully count how many stops we've had before arriving but every time we have to go out of the bus I always make sure to make the most out of it because the ride is very long.

At exactly lunch time we've arrived at Baguio, as I remembered, it took us 7-8 hours of travel just to get there. Since the same bus terminal that we rode was near the hotel, in fact there's even a shortcut from the bus terminal to the hotel's open restaurant, I just knew that fact by the time we're off to go back home so this information will be much of help on your first day. While leaving the bus, outside there will be people who will offer you a place to stay, I can't entirely suggest what best place to stay but our stay in the hotel was comfortable and there's a buffet every morning.

Photo Source: https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/microtel/baguio-city-philippines/microtel-by-wyndham-baguio/overview

Accommodations aside, as a person who grew familiar of Manila's climate, Baguio feels so new and so different, it made me feel the same chills I had when I first arrived there. It was sunny but the temperature was not as hot as it looks, it's cold enough to compare to Manila's temperature when it's raining. Aside from a greener environment, uphill and downhill roads the scenery was not so different from the bustling environment of Manila's everyday look, maybe it's because we stayed on Baguio's more "modernized" part, where there are buildings, restaurants and shops everywhere, making it all too familiar and not so different.

Our first destination was Burnham Park , we decided to go there after eating our dinner in the hotel. The park at night was as lively as i expected it to be in daylight. It's a fun place to stay together with your family and friends, the park was full of people but not too crowded, a perfect place for picnics and night walks! There are also some entertaining stuff you can do in the park like riding a mini boat on the lake or riding a small car. We also stumbled upon a vendor who is selling taho, what really amazed me was that they sell strawberry flavored taho, and it is delicious, what tops it is that they sell it hot even if it's already night time, making it a perfect treat to eat when strolling in the cold night park in Baguio.

Photo Source : https://makanpamore.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/taho/

My aunt had some business to do in Baguio so we mostly stroll when its afternoon and night time, on our second day we decided to check the night market, it's not my first time visiting the night market but it definitely feels like a first time experience once again. True to its name the night market only exists when the sun is out, there's this big street that become a place bustling with tents and carts by the time vehicles aren't permitted to use the road. Seeing once again how people wait for that time and as they started to build this market one by one never seizes to amuse me. The night market is a good place to go if you're thinking of buying any items you need or taken a liking in because the prices there are very affordable.

Photo Source: https://baguiocityguide.com/after-re-opening-yesterday-baguio-city-mayor-suspends-night-market-operations/

On the third day my aunt and I decided to make the most out of that day, because by the next day we'll be going back home. Our first itinerary was to visit a rose farm but we hadn't had the chance to, because it rained and public transportation was a lot harder to find, it might took a lot of our time for that day so we change our plan and decided to wait for the rain to stop and walk on the streets of Baguio instead. While walking we stumbled upon book stores, art stores and of course souvenir shops. I know these stores aren't that different from what people are used to seeing in Manila but the stores there has that authenticity feel to them, and despite of being a common shop it feels as fascinating as Baguio itself. The book shop (Mt. Cloud Bookshop) has stacks and stock piled of books in them and that familiar smell of books and their pages is pungent, oddly enough it feels inviting and cozy.

Photo Source: https://lemiapp.com/card/5cf6a27d3c3db042273206d9

As afternoon came me and my aunt went to a famous place (Good Shepherd) that sells well known peanut brittles, Lengua and best selling jams, flavored in strawberry and ube. Even though we have to wait for our order (because the line was so long) it was worth it and its perfect for gifts! I also suggest that you should buy as many strawberries and honey if you happen to visit Baguio because they sell them fresh and cheap there.

Photo Source: https://shopee.ph/atsiiscd

By night time we ate on a restaurant called Good Taste it's a very famous restaurant recommended to us as well, as the restaurant's name suggest the food there was not just good but amazing. For our dinner we ordered Baguio's delicacy Bulalo Steak and Buttered Chicken (the restaurant's best selling food) The food was superb! The food wrapped up our day happy and feeling good.

Photo Source: https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2021/05/14/good-taste-founder-dies/

By the time we have to take our leave the same measures are done, we scheduled our departure ahead of time and wait patiently for our bus. The trip in Baguio was quite short , not all too many tourist spots mentioned in my travelogue and that's because our trip there was not really for visiting tourists spots but to unwind and feel a new environment for a change. I really wanted to share the common and everyday places in Baguio because I had felt a different sentiment out of all the supposedly common places there. It all felt familiar but different at the same time, it's not as grand or as long but its unforgettable. This trip was a fun trip for me and every time I reminisce about it I can't help but be happy and feel satisfied.

[staandreamteam]

“YO, SOMEONE CLIP THAT!” (1)

Excitement

a feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness.

"YES! I WENT TO THE SECOND STRONGHOLD, HA HA!"

(In this Minecraft fanfiction, you actually spawn INTO the game of Minecraft, and feel pain and damage, adding to the tension.)

"Hey, you lovely degenerates! Star here, and today we're going to be playing Minecraft Manhunt, based on the ever-popular YouTuber Dream, along with his friends! No, I don't have anyone to play with, so today, it's Minecraft Youtuber vs. Terminator! Woo-Hoo!" The chat erupted into claps, or well, saying claps as you adjusted the (favorite color) headset on your head. It wasn't normal for them to get this much attention, more or less 700 viewers on their stream. You gave a small chuckle at it, as you loaded up the famous Minecraft screen, the soft glowing of the screen illuminating your (skin color) face as you gave your most signature grin. Loading a random world and updating some of your other platforming games, you found yourself in a mushroom biome, one of the rarest biomes in the games. No trees, which meant that you had to make a literal break for it after you spawned the terminator in. 

Pulling up the chat, everyone was spamming "RUN" "GO" or something along those lines. Giving a small chuckle, and flirting your (eye color) eyes around the surroundings, you found that there was a shipwreck, maybe 100 blocks off from the spawn.

"You guys ready?"

Spawning the terminator in, you found yourself quickly running off towards the shipwreck, while you heard heavy footsteps behind yourself. Moving towards the mushroom biomes, you took the time to actually get some of the mushrooms from the ground and giant ones above, making sure that the terminator was always one step behind you as you took off towards the water. Dirt sounds were being built as you dove into the water, the small bubble of airs popping in front of you as you swam your way towards the shipwreck. Thankfully, it was on land, so you didn't have to worry about swimming all the way down towards the bottom of the ocean in hopes of trying not to drown.

Seeing that it was capsized, you quickly got onto the ship, searching around for the chest. Enchanted leather boots and helmet, iron and gold ingots, and some emeralds. Not a good find, but at least it offered some protection in the ways that you could protect yourself from the terminator. 

"Oh boy.. I need wood."

Mumbling to yourself, you didn't realize that you were way behind on your normal schedule and that the terminator was getting closer than you had expected. Collecting only two pieces of wood from the shipwreck, you dove back off, but nothing was around. Seaweed and everything else yes, but nothing was really around for you to get past this guy without having to go and try to fight him off. You knew he did about 5 hearts of damage, so a combo on yourself would definitely kill you right here and there. You couldn't fight him off with a stick, no less than you had enough iron nuggets to only make two ingots.

Thinking about it, you started to realize you heard dolphins. Dolphins, by the shore? Well, that was a bit surprising. Seeing the dolphin to the side, you swam quickly up to the shore, seeing that the dolphin had already given you the effect of fast swimming. Letting out a chuckle, and flipping the terminator off, you swam off quickly, and in a little of given time, you were very far away from them, the dolphin finally leaving you as you made your way to shore. Grabbing some of the sand and throwing it into the water after you hauled yourself from it, you made your way through the birch forest, grabbing whatever you could to make a crafting table and an iron sword for protection. Making some gold ingots as well and cutting down some more leaves for apples, you decided to check in on your chat, and boy were they going wild.

THEY DID A DREAM SFKDLSAJFKDAS DREAM IS LITERALLY QUAKING ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE NOT DREAM'S ALTER EGO, BECAUSE-

Literally, all you could do was laugh, trying to convince them that no, they weren't Dream's alter ego, and two, it was just pure luck, not a Dream move. If they hadn't noticed the shipwreck earlier, you wouldn't have even made it this far in the game. Now knowing that you had at least a crazy lead on him, and you can respond to some of the donations (which you literally told them not to, but thanks anyway for the crazy donations) and pulled them up, starting to get to work on how they should get to the nether while mining in a cave.

"Since we're so far ahead, let's go ahead and read some donations from our lovely degenerates! Fluffy123 says 'That was such a dream move, poggers', with 5 dollars! What have I told you guys about donations up to 5 dollars?! I don't need it! But thanks anyways Fluffy, I didn't know I can pull off such a Dream move!"

"DreamTeamSimp says 'When are you going to collab with Pixel again?' Well, after a bit! She's currently moving into her own house, so maybe in a week or so, you're going to see some more Minecraft and Fall Guys collabs with us! And 3 dollars! Thank you so much!"

"TommyPoggers says 'If you could have any wish, what would it be?' for 4 dollars! Thank you, and to answer your question Tommy, for us to stop having COVID-19. I don't REALLY want everything to go back to the way it was, but if I had to choose, it would be that, even though the earth does well without us, and it's beautiful anyway!"

"DreamWasTakenToMars says 'Would you actually do a collab with Sapnap if you could?' for 99 cents! Awww, thank you! And yeah, I would! Y'all, he even said 'Baka' on a stream, causing all of us weebs and geeks to go wild, so heck if I could, I definitely would if I could!"

After reading the donations, you continued to talk with your chat, making sure that everyone was doing okay before you started to go back to concentrating on the game at hand, yelling a small yes in triumph as you found diamonds, RIGHT above the diamond level.

"well, at least I'll die happily!"

"POGGERS! LET'S FREAKING GO!"

You had knocked the terminator in the void, and right before you could fall in too, you placed a water bucket on the end stone above you, climbing up the water before quickly grabbing it back into the bucket. Running back to where you had the beds ready, you dodged the nearby endermen as you placed down the water in the small end hole, blocking yourself with stone as you placed the final bed. Watching everything unfold, your viewers had grown from 700 to at least 1,000 in the span of the 3 hours you were playing. 

The bed blew up, the dragon unleashing a growl of pain before exploding in a nearby light, causing you to look down as the portal below you showed the purple glowing of the end, as you fell through. The end of Minecraft, as you found yourself back in the real world, watching your chat say so much loving stuff you couldn't help but laugh. Donations were flooding, hearts were booming, people were actually subscribing as you gave another laugh, adjusting the microphone in front of your mouth, giving your favorite viewers a salute.

"Pog. We did it, we beat Minecraft, with a literal robot on our tail. Poggers! And thanks to everyone that donated during the stream, I hope I read all of yours! Now, let's get to naming some of the last donations that actually happened during the final moments!"

"Jason says 'that was absolutely incredible! Dream has competition.' Jason, no. I will never be as good as the Minecraft speedrunner himself, but thanks for saying that! Oh! And thank you for the 2 dollar donation, it really means a lot!"

"SappyNappy says 'don't you just love it when you get to the end' with a TEN DOLLAR DONATION?! HOLY MAN, YOU'RE LIKE THE TOP DONATOR! THANK YOU! And yeah! It's the feeling of you ending out of that relation that makes it feel so good!"

Everyone was still celebrating in the chat as you read the chat to them out loud, laughing, smiling, fussing, whatever came your way, you would try and answer it as quickly as possible to get to the next person with a question. You had gone by Star for at least a month now, gaining some sizable attention for playing Minecraft colorblind like George, half the world was missing plus blocks had gravity like Sapnap and Minecraft Manhunts but with some special twist on them like Dream. You didn't mean to accidentally copy what they were doing, you were just doing it for fun, for your viewers, and for your enjoyment!

"Alright alright, you lovely degenerates! That is it for this stream of "Minecraft Youtuber vs. Terminator! As always, poggers, simps, and everyone else in between have a lovely day, and I'll see you, IN THE NIGHT-TIME SKY!"

You gave a small wave, with a closed eye smile before going offline, many people saying bye before you closed down your twitch stream. Now, to any of you wondering, yes you do have a twitch account, with at least 1k people who are really much the best people you could ever ask for. You found your phone buzzing on your bed, as you pulled up the shut down button for your computer, seeing that your phone was going absolutely bonkers.

Giving a small groan, you got up, and just flopped on your bed as you looked at your twitter, and boy oh boy, it was going INSANE with clips of you outsmarting a computer once again, and again, and you had to chuckle at everyone, throwing your phone to a nearby charging station, and flopping into your bed, you silently started to doze off, the fan above you slightly moving your (hair color) (hair length) hair as you snored slightly. You never did really check all of your messages though.

.

.

.

WiblurSoot: Damn, Dream has competition now, do we?

DreamWasTaken: Stfu @WiblurSoot, you bully your Minecraft fans in your bird videos.

--

5.1 pages, 1,760 words

[luckyruinsdonut]

''–~~~~'''New Year's Resolution Ideas That Will Make 2022 Your Best Year Yet'''–~~~~''

''–~~~~'''New Year's Resolution Ideas That Will Make 2022 Your Best Year Yet'''–~~~~''

1-Get a full night's sleep:

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get an average of seven to eight hours of sleep per night. If you have trouble falling asleep (or wanting to go to bed), outfitting your sleep space with the coziest bedding can help.

2-Join a gym:

As cliché as it may sound, making a resolution to join a gym in the new year can prove incredibly beneficial for both your body and mind. If you have trouble getting yourself to the gym or knowing what to do once you're there, consider trying a membership with an instructor-led studio.

3-Reduce your single-use plastic consumption:

Plastic is part of many people's daily lives, but it's not great for the environment. Thankfully, you can do your part to help reduce carbon emissions and curb (or at least slightly slow down) global warming—it's as simple as using reusable bottles, bags, cutlery, and bowls.

4-Create a savings plan:

Even if you only have a few spare dollars every week, setting them aside in a savings plan can benefit you in the long term. The good news is—and especially if math isn't your thing—saving doesn't have to be complicated. Apps like Digit monitor your spending and automatically set aside small amounts of money that you won't even notice are missing. Before you know it, you'll have created a nice little nest egg for the future.

5-Get in the habit of checking your bank account daily:

Speaking of money, it's good to get in a habit of checking your bank accounts regularly. In addition to helping you stay on top of your spending and any deposits, it can also alert you to any fraudulent charges, which are always important to get ahead of.

6-Become an early bird:

As much as you may hate waking up early, Sleep Advisor suggests that doing so could be the trick to ushering in a healthier, happier life. In addition to giving you more time to exercise before work, waking up earlier is said to improve diet and quality of sleep, both of which have an immediate impact on mood.

7-Read more, scroll less:

In a world where new electronic devices are always coming out, it can be easy to get swept up in the act of scrolling. The problem is, the blue light that these devices emit can inhibit sleep and promote feelings of dread due to the tendency of comparison. In an effort to boost your sleep schedule and your mood, put down your electronics and reach for a book!

8-Make time to catch up with friends and family:

The less time you spend on your electronics, the more time you'll have to catch up with family and friends. (Unless you're connecting virtually!) In 2022, try to make a concentrated effort of showing up for those you love. You'll be blown away by how much that simple connection can improve your mood and overall feelings of satisfaction with life.

9-Don't let your laundry build up:

We all know what it feels like to let clothes pile up for weeks, only to then be overwhelmed by the idea of washing them. By creating a more regular laundry schedule, you can avoid these feelings of stress—and always ensure that you're well dressed.

10-Choose the stairs:

Living in the fast-paced world that we do, elevators, escalators, and even the conveyor belt-style walkways at airports seem like the best option to get from point A to point B. In reality, with so many people trying to hop on, they can often delay you on your way to your destination. They also rob you of some quality cardio, so—as long as your body is physically able—opt for the stairs.

11-Drink more water:

We're all guilty of reaching for coffee, soda, tea—anything more exciting than plain water. However, upping your H20 consumption might be the key to radiant skin, a more balanced diet, improving the body's ability to bounce back after a tough workout, and so much more. Suffice it to say, drinking more water is always a good New Year's resolution to have.

12-Be more mindful about your health:

This year, don't add "diet" to your list of resolutions. Instead, try to think about what you consume more so as a way of life than as a restrictive regimen. If you need help getting started, apps like WW and Happy Scale can help you reach your goals and achieve a healthier, happier life.

13-Commit to a cleaning schedule:

As with doing your laundry regularly, cleaning regularly can help mitigate stress. There's something to be said about the effect a clean home has on a person's mind. The first step is securing the tools to set yourself up for success!

14-Begin each day with a nutritious breakfast:

Even if you're not starving come morning, it's important to make time for breakfast. It is, after all, the most important meal of the day! Rather than reaching for an over-processed breakfast bar, consider whipping up something with fresh, wholesome ingredients, like a tasty smoothie or veggie-filled omelet. Your body will thank you.

15-Hop on the bread-making trend:

In case you missed it, just about everyone tried their hand at baking fresh bread during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you've yet to knead some dough, there's no time like 2022 to get hands-on. You'll be shocked by the tasty treats you can make from scratch. Homemade zucchini bread, anyone!

16-Clean out your closet:

You've likely heard that if you haven't worn an item in six months, you should remove it from your closet. That's not always the most accurate way to pare down your wardrobe though, as what you wear often depends on weather and events. With that in mind, the best closet cleaning advice I've ever been given is this: If you wouldn't buy it today, toss it. So often we hold onto things for the wrong reason and this method helps to really differentiate what's worth keeping.

17-Book your doctor's and dentist appointments for the year:

How long has it been since your last dentist appointment? What about your last visit with your PCP? And what about with your dermatologist or OBGYN? To save yourself from having to think about it, book your appointments at the start of the year and place them on your calendar from the get-go.

18-Take a hike:

Spending time outside is the best way to feel more grounded. With that in mind, make a point of getting outside more often and exploring terrains you may have once been hesitant to visit. You'll be surprised how transformative a hike can feel.

19-Eat more veggies:

We've been told this since we were itty-bitty children, but so many of us could use hearing it again. So let us repeat ourselves: Eat. More. Veggies. Whether you get them from your local grocery store or the farmer's market, they're better than constantly reaching for processed fast food and other heavy meal items.

20-Take more walks:

If you're not much of a hiker, you'll be glad to know that simply walking can be beneficial for your health and well-being. Why do you think so many people started taking walks during the pandemic? While some experts would have you believe that 10,000 steps are a must (that's about five miles a day, BTW), simply starting to get those steps in is something worth celebrating.

21-Do your dishes immediately:

This falls into the tidy category of New Year resolution ideas. No matter how tired you may feel, take the extra 30 seconds to rinse your dishes and place them in the wash or on the drying rack—your future self will thank you immensely. After all, no one enjoys tackling stacks of stinky dishes days after they've been used.

22-Start investing:

From a financial standpoint, it's never too early to invest. Even if you don't think you have enough disposable income to invest, apps like Acorns will likely teach you otherwise. Point being, investing is more approachable than you might think—you just have to start.

23-Try new healthy recipes each week:

In addition to starting your mornings with nutritious meals and taking the time to fill your diet with an abundance of veggies, finding ways to cook healthier ingredients is a great step toward a healthier, happier life. Nowadays, so many dupe recipes exist that you might even find you can whip up your favorite comfort foods in better-for-you ways. What's not to love about that?

24-Schedule monthly car washes:

How often do you wash your car? Is it something you plan or something that pops up spur of the moment? Now, imagine if your car always looked sparkling clean. With regularly-scheduled car washes, it can. The trick is to plan them in advance and slate them on your calendar so that you actually make the time.

25-Donate your time:

Volunteer work is not only necessary to help important organizations continue their life-changing work, it's personally rewarding, too. Whether you choose to volunteer your time to an animal rescue, beach clean-up, or soup kitchen, you're unlikely to ever regret it.

26-Make time to meditate:

Mental health and wellbeing is just as—if not even more—important than physical health. In the new year, make an effort to put as much TLC into your mind as you do your body. Apps like Calm and Headspace can help you get started!

27-Drink less alcohol:

Alcohol is a depressant and can lead to a number of habits that make living your best life more difficult. (Hello, hangovers, decreased sleep, and elevated stress!) This year, try subbing some tasty mocktails for the drink you'd normally have.

28-Travel somewhere new Same EGYPT:

If you've been keeping your getaways on the backburner, now's the time to book the trip of a lifetime—or, at the very least, start saving for it.

29-Consider therapy:

Everybody needs help sometimes. Even if you don't feel like you're in a rut or going through something major, finding a therapist can do you a world of good. Not sure where to start? Sesh, an online group support network, is a great place to begin your search.

30-Check an item off your bucket list:

Last but not least, think big—bucket-list big. What's something you've always wanted to do but never made the time or had the funds to make happen until now? Do that thing. Go all out. Relish in it. You deserve it.