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xofanfics · 6 years

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Dawn - Part 3

Genre: angst, fluff

Pairing: Reader x Mingyu / Reader x Junhui

Word Count: 1.9k

Summary: You find out you’re pregnant after you and your boyfriend break up.

A couple weeks passed and you were happy. You’d decided to date Jun after two more dates. He was just so caring and you felt loved by him even though you weren’t exactly in love just yet. You weren’t sad about the fact that Mingyu broke up with you; not anymore. Those negative feelings no longer harbored over you.

Jun was the man that you were concerned about now. Things were going well so far. You liked him a lot, much more than you thought you would. Any time his name popped up on your phone screen, you created a wide grin that just wouldn’t go away. Your heart fluttered any time his name was mentioned.

Your friends even saw the difference in you. Michelle said that you were “glowing” these days, even without contouring and highlighter. They noticed you were happier and smiling more. You and Jun weren’t super affectionate in front of them but you did do subtle things. You knew what it was like to be with a couple while hanging out in a group. You definitely didn’t want to be known as that couple.

You walked into the gynecologist’s office nervously. You had to get a pap smear; you’d been putting it off for a while. Michelle convinced you, though. She’d said, “What if your cervix is dying and you don’t know it?” That being said, you made your appointment.

Your name was called shortly after arriving. They took your vitals. Your pressure and temperature were good and your height didn’t change much. You noticed that you gained three pounds though, much to your dismay. The assistant handed you one of those paper robes, telling you to put it on and that the doctor would be there soon.

The doctor came a few minutes later. You were told to position yourself before she picked and probed at your vagina and cervix with that uncomfortable, plastic device.

After removing it, she said, “I think you may be pregnant…”

Your eyes widened in horror. “Pregnant?”

The doctor nodded. “By the looks of your cervix, you could be pregnant. We will do a blood and urine test to confirm it.”

You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t think. You couldn’t...do anything. Pregnant? How far? Most importantly, how did this happen?

The hour you had to wait for results was pure agony. You wouldn’t wish something like this on your own worst enemy.

Then you remembered. The day after Mingyu broke up with you, you got drunk and ended up throwing up because you thought it was a good idea to drink the alcohol quickly. You thought, I’ll get drunk faster if I chug it... Unfortunately, you had taken the pill just before that. You had spotting around two weeks later and you assumed that it was just a really light period. And you hadn’t gotten your period since then. You’d made the decision to skip the last week this month because you didn’t want to be cramping and miserable during the trip you took to the mountains a couple weeks ago. Because of that you technically hadn’t had a period.

Had you really gotten pregnant for missing one stupid pill? Well, for throwing it up?

There was hope that maybe you were pregnant by Jun. You’d had your first time three weeks ago and had sex a couple times since then. Were you two weeks pregnant? You’d rather be pregnant by Jun than be pregnant by Mingyu—definitely.

“Y/N?”

You stood up and followed the doctor back into the examination room. You sat down, fearful of the results. You prayed that it wasn’t true. You prayed that your doctor didn’t see it right. You prayed that your blood and urine would come back negative for pregnancy.

“The blood and urine came back positive for hCG. You are about seven weeks pregnant.”

Your heart dropped at the news. Tears built up in your eyes.

Seeing your tears, your doctor added, “I know this is a confusing time, but you have options…”

What options? You thought. You only had two options and they were to either give birth and raise a baby or give birth and give the baby up for adoption. Abortion was illegal in South Korea. There were probably some places to do it illegally but you didn’t trust it. You didn’t want to be painted as a criminal by society.

You couldn’t be pregnant, not now, and certainly not by Mingyu. It was embarrassing. You hadn’t spoken since your breakup. How could you tell him that you’re pregnant? And, how could you tell Jun that you were pregnant by your ex-boyfriend? You weren’t ready to have a baby. You had savings in your bank account but, still, you weren’t ready for the burden of having a child.

Having Mingyu’s baby would complicate things. No, it will complicate things. Your parents would call you irresponsible. Your friends would judge you. And Jun might even break up with you if he knew.

You were finally happy after your ex-boyfriend stomped all over your heart. You were finally happy yet, in a way, he ruined your life. He didn’t mean to get you pregnant, you were sure, but here you were, seven weeks pregnant because of him. He wasn’t all to blame, though. You shouldn’t have drank that night. You should’ve found another way to cope with your feelings rather than drink . If you hadn’t drank, you wouldn’t have thrown up your pill. Everything would’ve been fine if you hadn’t done that.

You shouldn’t have had sex with him in the first place. You knew where things were going, yet you did it anyway. You knew better, yet you did it anyway. You knew that you shouldn’t have gotten in bed with him and you knew that you shouldn’t have let him finish inside you. Yet you did it anyway.

Your doctor didn’t know your situation. She didn’t know that this was your ex-boyfriend’s baby. She didn’t know that you had a new boyfriend that you’d started a relationship with recently. And she certainly didn’t know that you didn’t know how to deal with it all. Either way, everything was ruined.

Should you just break up with Jun now and get it over with? Should you call Mingyu and tell him the truth? Had he moved on, dating someone new? Would he care? Would he want to be a dad?

You couldn��t answer, not even in your thoughts.

Your world was a blur. You took the bus home and almost missed your stop because you were so out of it.

As you opened the door to your apartment, your phone vibrated in your pocket. You held the phone out and your boyfriend’s name was coming up across it. Part of you didn’t even want to answer but you couldn’t hide from him forever.

“Hello?” you answered.

“Hey babe,” he said. “I just got off of work. How was your appointment?”

Horrible. “It was good. I think everything is okay.”

“That’s good. Do you want to eat dinner together tonight?”

“I actually don’t feel so good,” you said. “Can we do it another time?”

“Of course. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. I just think I need to lie down.”

“Okay. Get some rest. I’ll check on you later.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later...”

You hung up the phone and started taking your clothes off. You didn’t want to decline dinner with him. Your stomach growled as you lie on the couch but you didn’t think you’d be able to stomach a meal. You were no longer eating for yourself but eating for you and your baby.

You put a palm to your stomach. You weren’t much bigger. You definitely weren’t showing. What if you hadn’t made a gynecologist appointment? Would you have even known that you were pregnant? Would you have not known until it was too late and someone noticed. Then again, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. You would still be pregnant and you would still have to tell both Mingyu and Jun before deciding what you were going to do.

You couldn’t see yourself being a mother. You couldn’t see yourself being pregnant in the first place. Things had been going so well for you and this was such an unplanned obstacle. This pregnancy was throwing you off-course. All you could feel was a mixture of sadness and anger, mostly directed at yourself. How could you be so stupid?

You hated this new life inside of you. You couldn’t help it. You didn’t want to feel this way but you couldn’t help feeling like your life was over. Your relationship with Mingyu was over and your relationship with Jun would probably be over soon, too.

Your doorbell rang, waking you from your sleep. You sat up with a yawn and went to look through the peephole. It was Jun.

You didn’t want to open the door but you figured that you should anyway. It was better to get it over with now, right? You opened the door, met with Jun’s bright smile. But you didn’t return his smile and he knew something was wrong as he came in.

“Are you not happy to see me? I can leave, if that’s what you want…”

You were happy to see him, deep down, just like you always were. But the news of your pregnancy was too much to handle. You were angry but you were scared too. You were scared of being pregnant. What if there were complications? What if you had a miscarriage? Did giving birth hurt as much as they said? You were still young and you were nowhere near ready to raise a child.

You wanted to be with Jun, you did. But how could you be with someone who was having a baby by someone else? How could anyone cope with something like that?

“I brought you some food,” he said, placing the plastic bag on the counter. “It’s the seafood soup that you like…” It was your favorite. You appreciated the kind gesture.

Jun was always so sweet and you definitely didn’t deserve him, not after this. You knew that your pregnancy has nothing to do with him. Yet, if he continued being with you, he would get involved. You didn’t want to place that burden on him.

You said, “Thank you.”

“What’s wrong babe? Tell me...”

“I can’t do this anymore…”

“Do what?”

“Us,” you said. “I can’t do it. We shouldn’t have got into a relationship...”

Jun flinched, as if you hit him. You could see the sadness in his eyes. “What? Why?”

“It wasn’t a good idea. I thought I could do it,” you explained, “but I can’t. I can’t Jun.”

“So why did you tell me that you wanted this? Why lead me on?”

You looked down at the ground. You couldn’t face him and make eye contact. “I thought I wanted this.”

“Why the sudden change? Did you talk to your ex?”

“I didn’t…”

You bit your lip. He said, “Look at me. Look me in the eyes and break up with me.”

You looked up at him, finally meeting his eyes. Your eyes were wet with tears. “Why can’t you just accept it? Just let me break up with you!”

Jun shook his head. “You can’t just break up with me...”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m falling for you...”

#seventeen #svt #seventeen fluff #seventeen angst #seventeen smut #junhui #jun smut #jun angst #jun fluff #mingyu #mingyu smut #mingyu angst #mingyu fluff #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios

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its-abroad-world · 5 years

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Adventure #4: June 6, St. Petersburg Day 2: all the art you could ever desire

Our morning began with a quick breakfast on the ship and then Olga and Sergei picked us up at 8:30 am to take us on a driving tour of the Neva river before we followed it with a river cruise. Our first stop of the day was along the banks of the Neva where there were two large sphinxes. It didn’t seem like much until Olga told us that the sphinxes were original sphinxes from ancient Egypt that were about 3,500 years old. Of all the places I thought that I would see a relic from ancient Egypt, outside in Russia was the last place I would think of. They were bought by Nicholas I in the 1830s and they have sat there since. There is a discussion about bringing them to be displayed in the Hermitage to protect them from the harsh weather of Russia but as of now they still reside outside.

After the sphinxes, we headed to where we were going to board a river cruise on the Neva River. The boat was tiny and most of the seating were metal chairs sitting under the sun and I was the only one in my family that opted to see the cruise outside. Taking the river cruise was an awesome way to see St. Petersburg because the river runs through a lot of the main parts of the city and has hundreds of bridges connecting various parts of the city. St. Petersburg is considered the Venice of the North. There are many small canals and one of the bridges that we went under, we actually had to duck lest we hit our heads. Most of these bridges were built during the time of Imperial Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. On the cruise, our guide pointed out various landmarks that you could see along the banks of the river; she even pointed out people that were sunbathing along the banks, which was uncommon since it was rare that the weather was in the 90s in Russia.

Neva River - 10 am

Once our river cruise was over, we headed to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which used to be the main church and largest cathedral in Russia. It was built in 1818 and took 40 years to complete. It is most impressive because of its large golden dome. The dome, 21.8 meters high, took more than 100 kilos of gold leaf to cover. The large pillars, weighing about 80 tons each, on the outside of the cathedral were erected using a special pulley system. Everything about this church was massive: the dome, pillars, doorways, windows, and even the artwork. Many of the carvings on the columns inside were gilded and the walls and ceilings were decorated with large mosaics and paintings depicting different saints and scenes in the Bible. While it is still a church, it mostly serves as a museum and has services only on significant religious holidays.

Under the main dome - 11:30 am

As we were leaving the Hermitage our group joked with Olga that she was a magical tour guide with perfect time because while we walked to meet our tour bus, 3 large tour buses were arriving to join the already massive line to enter the museum. While all those people waited to go inside the museum, we went to go have a typical Russian lunch. We were served a cabbage salad paired with borscht, a soup usually made from beets and cabbage, for our appetizer. Our main course was chicken kiev, a flattened piece of chicken breast that is breaded and fried, with mashed potatoes. My favorite was the borscht, which was surprising to me because I detest beets, but you could hardly taste them in this soup. We finished our meal up with some Russian coffee which was super strong.

Borscht soup with brown bread - 12:30 pm

The State Hermitage Museum along the Palace Embankment was right after lunch. This museum is the second largest one after the Lourve and is a highly respected art museum, housing roughly 3 million items of priceless art from all over the world over many different centuries. The collection of the Hermitage began in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased 255 paintings from Berlin and continued to grow her collection. The main facade of the Hermitage is the Winter Palace, which used to be the home of the royal families of Russia for almost 200 years. However, the whole museum is made up of six buildings, 5 of which are open to the public: the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre. It was opened to the public in 1852 and became public property after the October Revolution of 1917, after which its collections were expanded in the 1920s and again after WWII. Because this museum was created using the old homes of royals, of course, many parts of the museum were ornately decorated and still maintained to look like how it did before, like the throne room and ballrooms.

This museum is one of the busiest with thousands of people visiting every day; of the five open buildings, we went to the Small Hermitage and the New Hermitage. The New Hermitage houses paintings, sculptures, and other art from 15th and 16th century Italy, including the Raphael Hall where they have many of Raphael’s works ranging from the beginning of his career to the end of it.

I would say that going to the Hermitage was the highlight of my day. I’ve always loved art and going to museums to see them, and to think that so many centuries and cultures were compiled and put on display is simply amazing. What shocked me the most was that none of the priceless paintings were properly protected. There was light streaming in from the open windows directly on the paintings and the air was not controlled so the paintings were exposed to the humidity outside. People could step as close to painting as they wanted; the palaces were better protected and maintained than the artwork here! For a place that houses thousands of paintings by renowned artists, I just couldn’t believe that the artwork wasn’t very cared for. Although the collection of paintings was stunning, my favorite exhibit was the Peacock Clock, built in 1777 and still working today. The golden clock is housed in a gold and glass cage with a peacock perched on a tree with a rooster and an owl on either side of it as well as various small animals scattered around. When the clock chimes on the hour, it begins with the owl turns its head and the peacock turns and opens its tail feathers to display a fan of gold and ends with the rooster crowing; this display is supposed to represent the end of the night and the rise of the sun to show the continuity of life. The clock is only winded once a week and unfortunately, we missed the show by just one day so we only saw the display in a short video the museum provides.

Peacock Clock - 1 pm

As we were leaving the museum, we joked with Olga that she was magical and timed everything perfectly because there was a ginormous crowd waiting to enter the museum as more tour buses arrived to join the line. While those people waited in that monstrous line, we stopped by a souvenir store before heading to The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, also known as The Church of Resurrection or “Savior on Spilled Blood”.

The church was built in memory of Tsar Alexander II and was named so because the church stands where he was murdered in 1881 when a bomb was thrown into his carriage. It took 24 years to complete the church and is best known for having jeweled-looking domes that are colorful; this decorative style is much like the Kremlin in Moscow. Unfortunately, the main dome was under renovation while we were there, so we couldn’t see the building in its full beauty.

Just like all of the other places we’d seen in St. Petersburg, the inside of the church was opulent. There were saints and religious reliefs, mosaics, and paintings everywhere: the columns, the arches, the ceilings, the walls, and of course, everything was accented with gold.

Interior of The Savior on Spilled Blood - 4 pm

After leaving the church, we headed back to the port to say our goodbyes to Olga (in the stripes) and Sergei (not pictured).

After a long day in the hot sun, we unwinded in the room and then prepared for our nightly dinner at the fine dining with our waiter Alberto. Almost every single night of the cruise we sat in his section, getting to know him well, as well as a couple, Nina and Wade, and their church friend Fred. Wade has Alzheimers and Fred is an old widower and both were hard of hearing, so during dinner, Nina kept leaning over to tell us stories of her having to wrangle two old men both during the tours and around the ship. It was such a fun dinner. Afterward, my sister and I enjoyed the rest of the night in the karaoke room, bumping into Isabella and Lousie, before heading to bed.

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lids-flutter-open · 7 years

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more character development for an evil teacher from my book under the cut, sorry if ur on mobile

Okay tv show

Open on JULES VERNON HOLMES, at home in his kitchen. JULES is 36, with thinning brown curly hair. He has a pinched look to his face, because he recently lost eighteen pounds in three months. He wears glasses when he teaches high school history, but he is not wearing them now. The kitchen is cramped and made of a series of brown uniform prefab cabinets. There are no dishes in the sink and the counters are clean except for a piece of buttered toast without a napkin that sits next to the sink with one bite taken out of it. A long garland of garlic and onions hangs over the window like a party decoration. It is dark outside, and rain spatters the glass. JULES is standing on one leg in his kitchen, bracing his hip against the edge of the formica counter while he scratches at his calf with his bare right foot. He is wearing underwear and a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of a diner. He is struggling to open a pickle jar.

The phone rings from the next room. JULES starts, and his hand slips on the lid. He looks over at the oven. The clock on the oven displays the time as 12:18. JULES glances in the direction of the next room and scowls. He runs his tongue over his top teeth inside his lip, and does not move towards the ringing phone. JULES puts new effort into opening the jar of pickles. Across the room, there is a framed group photograph of college-age men standing with oars on the bank of a river. It includes JULES sixteen years before, when he was a member of his university’s rowing team. He is smiling; his arms are larger in the photo than they are in real life.

JULES opens the pickle jar with a pop. The phone is still ringing. There is only one pickle and a number of garlic cloves left at the bottom of the jar. He digs into the jar with his fingers, stretching his hand, and puts a garlic clove into his mouth.

EXERCISE 2

Jules was caught again by the display of different kinds of canned soup. He stood with his shopping basket on the linoleum tiles and held two cans of tomato soup in front of his face, studying the ingredients. One had cream and one had milk. There was another can of tomato soup on the shelf before him that had lentils in it, too. When he was younger there had only been one kind of canned tomato soup in every grocery store, or two. There were eighteen different things in front of him, all with different caloric and fat content. Jules was paralyzed. He put the soup with cream back on the shelf, and then picked it up again. It had higher fat content. Jules measured his blood pressure every morning before he ate breakfast. He threw the can into the cart, thinking that it would be better to eat real food than to find some watery diet version and be dissatisfied and end up binging on chips and peanut butter in the middle of the night. He would get the low sugar juice to compensate.

A man approached Jules in the aisle. He was older, and wore a gray sweatshirt and gym shorts. His shoes were dirty sneakers.

“Excuse me,” he said to Jules. “Sir I don’t mean to bother you, but I’ve got no way else to do this, my daughter has a baby at home and we’re here to buy formula but it’s 37 dollars and they don’t let me put that on my credit card and I’m out of my EBT for the month.”

Jules, whose mind had been in an alternate dimension of calories and aspartame and ideal blood pressure, jumped when he realized the man was speaking to him.

“I’m sorry?”

“Sir, it’s like a thing at this store, they don’t let you buy the formula with credit cards because some people just charge it on a stolen card, and I don’t have enough cash, and my EBT is all out for the month. But we have a baby at home and we need the formula, we’re all out. It’s my daughter. I wouldn’t ask for anything normally, I’m not that kind of man. Sir, I’m a military veteran, I served in Vietnam.”

“Uh,” Jules said. He was not sure whether to look at the man’s eyes or not. “I don’t know what you’re asking me. I don’t have a lot of cash on me. I can give you a couple dollars.” He remembered he had only a fifty and a ten in his wallet, and tried to change tacks. “I think there’s an ATM outside the store to get money from a bank account.”

“I don’t get paid till Friday,” the man said. “I don’t have money in my account.”

“Oh,” Jules said. “Well, that’s—I’m sorry. And your daughter doesn’t have cash either?”

“She’s at home with the baby,” the man said. “I didn’t want to ask her to come. Her husband left her and she’s saving as much as she can. Please, I just have to buy some infant formula for her.”

Jules glanced desperately back at the soup, and then accidentally made eye contact with the man. He hated the way it made him feel to think of moving away down the empty aisle. He looked in his wallet and dug in it. His fingers hesitated on the ten and then took the fifty and thrust it at the man. “Good luck, sir,” he found himself saying. He couldn’t look into the man’s eyes. Jules already felt the sweat dripping down his back and a pillow of guilt emerging in his solar plexus, simultaneously related to giving the man too much money and at the same time to not being able to look in his eyes.

“Thank you, sir, god bless you,” the man said. “I’m Boris. My name’s Boris. You’re a good man, you know that? Thank you, this means a lot. I won’t forget it.”

“It’s no,” Jules said, and stopped, because it really was a problem. “I’m Jules. I hope you’re okay and the baby’s okay.”

“We’re all getting by,” the man said.

Night came. Jules’ cupboards were lined with the cans of tomato soup. He took an Ambien to sleep and then wandered around the house, looking out the windows.

Jules is holding the receiver of the phone up to his ear.

“How have you been, then?” Jules says into the phone. He is still wearing the collared shirt and tie he wore to work. The papers he is grading are spread out on the table in front of him. He wants to make the kids excited about the grimy parts of history and he wants to make them understand the reasons their state developed the way it did.

“Well, after the crash I’ve been just eating like frozen dinners,” Michelle says on the other end. “My arm is in the sling and all.”

“Crash?” Jules tries to remember anything about a crash from the last time he and Michelle talked two weeks ago.

“Mom said she called you. She didn’t?”

“No,” Jules says. “Well, maybe if I was at work, but she didn’t call back.”

“You don’t ever check your messages. I got in a motorcycle accident, isn’t that funny? Okay, it doesn’t sound funny, but here’s the context: I ran into an ice cream truck that didn’t signal and I literally flew over the top of the truck into the street and there were like four kids staring with their mouths open and one dropped his ice cream. I love like the mental image of everyone’s faces, it’s gonna bring me joy till the day I die.”

“Michelle! Jesus!”

“My boss let me have the time off, it’s one of the good things about working as a nanny for a nice family, there’s no regular hassle about taking sick leave cuz she knows me. She’s even giving me a week’s pay, which like, must be nice to be rich, right? She’s so sweet though, and the baby’s so sweet.”

“I warned you about that motorcycle,” Jules says. “Didn’t you already crash on a motorcycle a year ago?”

“That time was worse. I got thrown into a tree! I mean, I was on more a path than a road. It was dumb. This time it wasn’t my fault, the ice cream company is even gonna give me compensation maybe if I can figure out a lawyer.”

“You could seriously die, Michelle. Just get a car.”

“I mean, I may have to. For now I’m using Mom’s.”

“How is she getting around? Are you driving with, what, a broken arm? Why does nobody ever catch me up on this shit?”

“Because you’re like this,” Michelle says. “And you don’t call, either. If you called Mom once a week you’d know what’s going on with everyone.”

“You know how I feel about Mom,” Jules says. “I know you’ve sort of mended your relationship with her, but I still can’t forgive her. Especially after how she treated you and Ed when we were kids.”

“Whatever, Jules,” Michelle says. Jules can see her rolling her eyes. “She’s here now and who knows for how long we’ll have her, you know? She’s a good person. I know she and you fought last month again, but just let it slide. She is how she is, and anyway she’s a lot better now. She just has her weird manias sometimes. She didn’t mean it about the nose job. She’s working at a paper here, you know. Or a gazette I guess. It’s about seafood restaurants. She’s working and getting up every day and she’s a decent, pleasant person. You can’t hold a grudge forever. She has all kinds of fun friends now too from her weird weed group. They’re really fun, there’s this gay truck driver who drops in whenever he’s in the city and has a ton of stories.”

“This is crazy. I’m not going to talk to her. You said last year—do you remember what you said? Do you remember Mima’s funeral?”

“So she got a little drunk. You can’t expect her to be well behaved at her ex husband’s mother’s funeral.”

“So why did she even go?”

“She just likes to have some fun. Like me. She’s just a little more messed up. Think about it this way, Jules, at least she left Scientology. Imagine if she’d stayed in it and we’d been raised like that. She’s gonna deal with this stuff the rest of her life but she’s like, in general a functional person. And she paints. It’s nice to have a mom who paints.”

“She paints aliens.”

“How are your students? Are you teaching them about how to be good little mini George Bushies?”

“Michelle, so, I’m going to get off the phone now. I have papers to grade and I’m not having this conversation. I will say that I love you and I am asking you to please get a car, or take the bus, or something. I’m going to have nightmares about you on that motorcycle.”

“I could get a little quad. You know, four wheels.”

“Are you able to shop for yourself? Do you need anything?”

“Jules, we’re really all right here.” Michelle takes a thin breath and Jules hears her exhale and imagines her smoking a cigarette on the balcony of his mother’s apartment in Seattle.

#long post #long text #out of salem #text

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writingevil · 7 years

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A Circle part 2

Part One

By Evil

Amelia stared at the girls mark with mixed emotions. Thya continued to undress and Amelia looked away to not seem rude. After a few minutes the water around her stirred. Thya looked at her worried and embarrassed.

“I was born with it. My camp made me cover it in order to keep bad spirits away.” She said.

“It’s strange but beautiful.” Amelia said softly. “You should be proud of it.”

“Oddities are not something to be proud of. If I had been born to a marked woman she would have smothered me.”

“But you weren’t. You were born to a loving mother who loves you no matter what shape you have.” Amelia rested her hand on the girls bare shoulder. “Be proud.”

“Hilla has given me the option to choose whether or not I cover. I think it will be easier to cover to avoid the people who don’t think as openly as you do.”

Amelia nodded. “If that is your choice then you may bathe with me whenever you like. I could even allow you and your family to come to the river with me. It is farther so no one from camp uses it.”

“Thank you for your kindness, Amelia.” Thya said shyly.

“While we wash we should discuss what our tasks will be.” Amelia said seriously beginning to wash the dirt from her arms. “Tomorrow I will wake you at dawn and we will walk to the city. We will paint rectangles on our arms and begin to sneak meat and bread and whatever else we think the camp may need.”

“I’ve done such things before. You may be shocked at what I am able to steal. Don’t underestimate me.” Thya responded dunking her head into the water and beginning to rinse her long flowing hair.

“Your covering won’t be questioned. Their are a few religious women that wear it that way in order to preserve modesty.” Amelia said and Thya nodded.

They finished cleaning themselves and dried off. Amelia tried to keep her eyes from traveling down the beautiful girls body. She awkwardly cleared her throat and looked towards the sky finding the Orion constellation that she was fond of. She smiled and recalled the story Hilla had told her.

Orion was a hunter and killed one of Artemis’ sacred deer. The goddess of the moon in a rage of fury turned Orion, himself, into a deer. He was killed by his own hunting dogs. Amelia liked how it told a tale of respect for the gods. She supposed now she was Orion, stealing from others.

The next day she crawled out of her tent and was greeted by a fully dressed Thya. The two grabbed a handful of berries and a flask of water to share through the day. Amelia bound her chest down and put on some of the male clothes so that if people asked she could claim to be Thya’s husband. Her hair had always been sheared short out of convenience. They began their journey toward the city stopping to carefully paint the rectangles. They wandered through the city. Thya stole the change purse of a rhombus so the two of them could actually pay for most of the food. Amelia saw Thya staring at a bottle of clear liquid.

“Whats that?” She whispered in Thya’s ear.

Thya was startled. “It’s nothing. It’s just a bottle of alcohol. Our old medicine woman kept a bottle to give to mothers during the birthing process and to clean her tools.”

“Shyra doesn’t have any of that. She uses only herbal methods. It’s healthier for the babies.”

Thya nodded and took Amelia’s hand. “We should head out soon. But grab a basket from the weaver by the edge of the city. It will look normal the next time we come.”

Amelia grabbed a basket and paid for it with her remaining coins. The weaver was very thankful. She was a rectangle with a deformed leg. Amelia smiled to the woman before taking Thya’s hand and heading out of the city. They continued holding hands. Both of them scared of what it entailed but neither wanted to let go. Thya was the one to pull away as they entered camp. They dropped of the food and the woman cooed over the flour they’d been able to buy. Thya went to her family and Amelia went to Cal.

Cal was in the middle of treating one of the children with a scraped knee. He looked up at her and flashed a quick half smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Thya sat in the corner of the large med tent until her friend sent the child away.

“How’d it go?” Cal asked wiping his hands clean.

“Really well, Thya knows what she’s doing.” Amelia said. “Will you be helping Shyra with the birth?”

“Yes. In the words of Shyra I ‘need to get over it and steal myself because one day I’ll have to do it all on my own’. She always talks like she’s going to die tomorrow.” Cal said rolling his eyes.

“Yeah.” An awkward silence fell over the two.

“I’m going to miss him.” Cal said softly.

“Me too. He was like our brother.”

Cal blushed. “He was a very different thing for me.”

Amelia turned to her embarrassed friend, “You two...”

“It wasn’t serious. Just the occasional kiss and moonlit walk.” Cal said looking at his hands.

“And neither of you told me?” She said before realizing. “I thought Opus was shagging Francis?”

Cal’s face changed to one of fury. “He never told me. I caught them together one night and he just claimed what we had was nothing, just petty fun.”

“I should have hit him harder.”

“I’ll still miss that rotten bastard.” Cal said.

“Sometimes you have to end something even if it breaks your heart.” Amelia said.

Cal nodded. “So the new girl?”

“Yeah, she’s really ...” Amelia trailed off and Cal smirked.

“Alluring? Interesting? Beautiful?” He suggested playfully.

“Piss off.” Amelia smiled.

“What’s with the head covering?”

“Just modesty. A woman at her old camp taught her 3how to tie and she believes it protects her from evil.”

Cal nodded and shrugged. “To each their own. Send someone when dinners ready.” He laid on the woven rug on the ground.

Amelia made her way to the men and women cooking and began to help one of the women make dumplings. It was a delicacy she and most of the others had never had before but now they had the four to make them. The entire camp had two milk cows and five chickens some rhombus donated to them. The eggs would some times be added into soups because there was never enough for everyone to get a satisfying portion.

She brought a large bowl of the dumplings and meat to Thya’s mother.

“There’s no need to thank me. You should rest as much as possible.” Amelia said and the woman gave her a tired but thankful smile.

Amelia returned grabbing herself and Cal smaller bowls. She dropped his off with minimum teasing and sat next to Thya and her family for dinner. Amelia was tackled by one of the small children.

“Darwin?” She guessed. The small boy giggled and climbed off her before sitting next to her.

“Miss. Amelia? Who are these people?” The boy asked her quietly.

“They just traveled here. This is Thya, her brother Lance and her pregnant mother...” Amelia trailed off.

“Grace.” The woman smiled.

“You’re a kid like me!” Darwin said pointing at Lance who nodded.

“Excellent observation there, squirt.” Amelia teased.

“You know one day I’m gonna be taller than you!” Darwin said sticking out his tongue.

“Is that before or after you get married to Yani?” Amelia smiled.

“Ew girls are gross! I’m going to live alone!”

“I’m gross?” Amelia said pretending to be hurt.

“Not you.”

“Thanks, shorty. Go back to your father and help clean the dishes. Take Lance with you.”

As the child ran away Amelia turned to the mother daughter duo. “His mother died during the labor of his twin sister. He was the only one who made it. His sister was a ghost child.” The women nodded somberly.

Ghost children were children that were born dead, whether they were early or not. Whenever the camp had a ghost child born everyone pitched in to help the family grieve. The men would gather around a bonfire where the body of the child would burn and they would sit until dawn singing a hollow tune. The children made leaf toys that were thrown in the fire so the child had something to play with. The women slept altogether and stared at the stars. Amelia remembered tying the tiny doll made of twigs and dried grass. She remembered watching it burn and hoping the spirit of the child enjoyed playing with it.

Thya spoke up, “There was the birth of a ghost child at our old camp. Our custom had the entire camp singing into the night.”

“I’m sure the child’s spirit appreciated it.” Amelia said softly resting her hand on top of the other girls.

Thya nodded her covering shifting and moving along with the movement. The group ate dinner quietly and Amelia was the first to leave heading to get a verbal list of items from one of the elder woman that knew what could easily be made. She eventually fell asleep to the smell of burning wood and the feeling of hard earth on her back.

The days bled into each other. Amelia became closer with Thya as they continued working together. They brought back enough food that some days they didn’t have to go out. Those days they stayed behind and helped a few women with laundry or planting as the camp had begun to try farming and gathering it’s own food from that. One day as Amelia and Thya were heading back from the city, Lance came sprinting down the path.

“Ma’s in labor!!” He shouted repeatedly.

Thya dropped the baskets she was carrying and sprinted past him, holding her covering so it didn’t blow off. Amelia scooped up her baskets and walked back to camp with the boy.

Camp was silent except for the screams and shouting coming from Shyra’s tent. Amelia kept Lance occupied. She watched him and Darwin play together but she kept glancing at the tent. She prayed to her ancestors that everything would go okay.

Come nightfall Thya walked out of the tent holding a small baby wrapped in a blanket. Tears ran down her face. Amelia’s breath caught fearing the babe was a Ghost Child. Then the baby let out a tiny wail. Tears continued to flow down Thya’s face.

Amelia strode towards the girl. “What’s wrong?”

“It- she- We- Look!” Thya pushed the child into Amelia’s arms.

The baby squirmed and cried. “She’s fine, Thya.”

“Look at her arm!”

Amelia gently picked up the flabby arm and saw the small clear square on the child’s skin. The breath was knocked out of her.

The peacemakers searched the camp once a year for any babies of rank. They would steal the baby and give it to a family in the city. Thya’s sister would be stolen from her family.

Part 3

#writing #fantasy #gay #alternate universe

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pen-masta · 7 years

Text

Old Habits New Sparks

Just some cute fluff. Enjoy.

Mikey smiles over the counter at his little brother, Castel, playing with his friend of one year. They both lie on the floor, on their bellies, facing each other. Castel, the mini baby nerd he is, is reading his space book. While Joy on the other hand swings her feet back and forth in the air, humming loudly as she scribbles in her art book with her crayon—she’s actually got a lot of talent for a six-year-old.

Considering he won’t go back to school until February, Mikey has been babysitting his baby brother and Joy after they get out of school for the past few weeks. But today is Sunday and he’s not the only one watching after the two little tikes today. His mom sits on the couch watching her youngest son and his friend entertain themselves. Zack is helping their dad shovel the newly fallen snow from the driveway, while Mikey cooks up a warm lunch to have on such an icy day.

Mikey smiles and sprinkles in some more brown sugar into the bubbling creamy tomato soup, before flipping the sandwiches on his skillet. He’s glad Castel and Joy hit it off right away after they met that day in the park, Joy is the perfect counterpart for his dorky baby brother. Even at their young ages they each have shown so much personality and interests.

Joy loves art—finger painting, coloring, drawing, she even brought over a bunch of colored clay one time to model. She’s quite the quirky little tike, she’s silly and goofy, sweet and kind, a little bossy sometimes but she’s never mean. And even at her young age she seems to have a great sense of humor. She always tries to make you laugh—most of the time she’s very successful. Not only does she have a colorful personality she also has a colorful…everything else. She always wears mismatched clothes of all different kinds and colors; she looks like a little gypsy.

Even now as she draws in her art book she’s wearing a bright pink t-shirt, a lime green hoody, bright colored mismatched knee high socks, light up sneakers, beaded necklaces from their latest arts and crafts at school, a raspberry burette sits among her brown curly braid, and a big frilly rainbow tutu. Mikey chuckles a little at the splattered paint on her cheeks from their early morning finger painting project. And he smiles guessing her parents probably let her dress herself…and judging by the determination in the little sprout no one was going to get her to change.

He glances over his shoulder at his baby brother. An unruly mop of brown curls bounces ever so slightly when the boy turns his head to read the next page in his book. Dawning his favorite jean overalls with the little tiger on the front pocket, his favorite red flannel shirt, and his slightly muddy and untied red sneakers, the little boy lies on the floor next to a stack of books—each a reading level higher than the standard first grade books.

Castel wasn’t much for art on his own, although if it was something Joy wanted to do he’d join in. But he prefers reading over paint brushes. Castel also loves his Legos and his building blocks. He loves creating all kinds of things with his various blocks and connecting cubes. Even though he’s only been in school for a year now, his teacher has already seen a great deal of intelligence in him. He reads much faster than his peers, he has a great understanding and grasp on the information he reads, and he’s always the first one done his work—hardly ever having any answers incorrect.

After talking with his parents, the teacher decided to give Castel some second-grade work to see how he’d do. And to everyone’s amazement the work wasn’t hard at all for Castel, and since then she’s been giving him second grade level work and has let him borrow some second-grade level books from the school’s library. He had even asked their mom to teach him “that funny language she always talks in right before daddy’s cheeks turn red” as Castel had put it from his seven-year-old observations.

Castel is a sweet little boy and always has fun with Joy and his brothers. But when he’s alone he keeps to himself; engrossed in his book about cars, or computers, or dinosaurs. One thing that has grabbed the little boy’s attention is mysteries and monsters.

Often times when he and Joy go out in the yard to play he takes her around the yard scouring around for footprints of giants, or hairs of werewolves, or any signs of bats. But he always makes sure they go out with scarfs around their necks in case some stray vampire finds them. Joy doesn’t seem to mind the imaginary hunts; she always joins in helping him hunt around the yard following whatever trail he’s on.

Although most of their monster hunts come up empty—much to Castel’s dismay—they did however catch a creature one time. Castel has found some footprints in the dirt that lead to the garage where a greasy wrinkled monster was hunkered behind the opened door of the fridge. The two had screamed and charged the beast tackling him to the ground. Joy had thrown her sand pail over the monster’s head while Castel tied the beast’s ankles together with his jump rope. It wasn’t until everyone had run out into the garage that the two realizes the greasy wrinkled monster was Castel’s dad working on his car.

Mikey laughed at how disheveled their dad looked and how their mom teased him about how easily the big bad cop was taken down by two first graders. Mikey shakes his head at the memory as he cuts the sandwiches and puts them on their designated plates.

“Lunch is ready,” he announces as he takes the soup off of the stove.

Castel and Joy both spring up and race each other to the table while Mrs. Cubs goes outside to get Zack and Mr. Cubs. Joy kneels on the seat next to Castel and they both sit patiently waiting for the rest of the family. Once everyone is seated at the table Mikey brings over a stack of grilled cheese sandwiches and the pot of soup. He then brings over a green and orange plastic plates and bowls.

“Cheddar, Swiss, Mozzarella, ham, and tomato grilled cheese sandwiches with hot tomato soup.” He smiles and places the plates in front of Joy and Castel, “Cut into dinosaurs as requested.”

“Thanks Mikey,” Joy smiles a front-toothless grin up at him.

Joy goes to take her dinosaur shaped sandwich into her hands, but Castel grabs her tiny hand before she can. She looks at him a little surprised, but she quickly smiles watching Castel examine both of their sandwiches. Castel’s brow furrows in concentration and the little boy wiggles in his seat a moment and fidgets while he stares at their food. After a second he turns to his big brother and opens his mouth to speak, but Mikey beats him to it.

“Yes, I made them with garlic bread to keep away the vampires,” he chuckles down at his little brother.

Castel closes his mouth into a smile and nods. Mikey grins and tickles the little boy’s sides for a moment making the smaller male giggle and squirm in his seat—which in turn causes Joy to giggle as well and everyone else to smile. Mikey then places a kiss on top of the mop of curls before taking his seat next to his mom.

She puts her hand on his and smiles, “Thank you for cooking Michael.” She whispers to him, “He’s been so picky lately your sandwiches are among the few foods he’s willing to eat.”

Mikey smiles brightly, “It’s no problem Ma I love cooking. Especially for little Cassie,” he chuckles a little. “He’s very picky I know, but he’s my best customer.”

She smiles at her oldest son as everyone begins to eat. Castel picks up the warm sandwich with his chubby little hands, and bites into it. He smiles at how the cheese gushes out the sides as he does so. The table is quiet for all of ten seconds before Joy pipes up.

“Cassie and I are getting married!” She says smiling brightly.

Everyone at the table giggles and smiles at the two youngest of the group.

“Is that so?” Mrs. Cubs asks smiling brightly and folding her hands under her chin.

Joy nods, “Uh huh.” She grins and dunks her sandwich dinosaur’s head into the hot red soup. “See Mrs. Nikki gives the good kids a prize every Friday.” Joy explains and bites off the head of the now soggy dinosaur shaped sandwich. “You can either have a piece of candy from the candy bag or get a toy from the treasure chest.”

She swallows her half masticated mushed up cheesy meaty sandwich, before beaming. “Cassie always gets on the good list and he always gets a toy from the treasure chest. So when he gets a prize this week he’s gonna get one of those bubble container thingy-ma-bobs with the ring inside.”

She explains and dunks her sandwich again, “And I want to have one for him so I’m going to be extra good this week, so I can be on the good list.”

“You’re not on the good list?” Mr. Cubs smirks and raises a brow at the little girl.

Joy looks down bashfully and her cheeks turn pink, “Not always. Mrs. Nikki says I talk too much when I’m not supposed to.” Her smile brightens again, “But I’m gonna be good this whole week so I can get a prize for Cassie.”

“Another ring?” Zack asks stirring his soup.

“Nope,” Joy shakes her head popping her P. “Cassie likes ring pops so when Mrs. Nikki asks if I want candy bag or the treasure chest I’m going to say the candy bag. Then I’m gonna pick out a ring pop.”

“Sounds very thought out,” Mikey chuckles and bites into his sandwich.

“Where is the wedding happening?”

“At recess this Friday,” Joy says jubilantly. “It’s gonna be me and Cassie and my friends Jenny, and Bethany, and Holly, and Amber.” She bounces on her knees as she takes another bite of her sandwich, “We’re gonna get married under the jungle jim and Amber is gonna be the marrying person thingy.”

“Very thought out indeed,” Mr. Cubs chuckles. “So whose idea was all of this?”

“Mine,” Joy smiles. “Well mine and Holly and Jenny and Bethany and Amber’s…I guess it was all of us.”

“I see,” Zack smiles and nudges Mikey with his elbow. The two brothers giggle for a moment before they smile at their kid brother.

“And Cassie,” Mikey grins. “How do you feel about this?”

“Ready to not be single anymore?” Zack laughs.

Castel puts down his sandwich and opts to stir his soup. The little boy doesn’t take his eyes off his dalmatian puppy spoon as it circles around in his soup. But he does acknowledge his brothers’ questions with a shrug.

“You’re all set to get hitched?” Zack teases, “Eerr married I mean.”

Castel just shrugs again, “I don’t mind really.” He looks up at his brothers and his eyes sparkle, “I’ve been searching the playground for weeks and I’m almost positive I’ve found where the abominable snowman lives.” His little face brightens, “Everyone is gonna help me look after the wedding. They all promised. We’re gonna catch him!” The little boy says happily and slurps up his soup.

Mr. and Mrs. Cubs exchange a worried glance about the same time Zack and Mikey do. But then they all smile again and go back to eating their lunch. Joy starts singing aloud and dunks her sandwich in her soup continuously; causing waves to ripple through her bowl, splashing out of the bowl. Mikey chuckles and watches the two little kids eat their lunches. Castel slurps his soup watching Joy play in her soup.

Joy stops and holds her sandwich in the bowl until the bread starts to fall apart in the red liquid. Castel watches for a moment as her sandwich descending down into the hot liquid. Just before Joy’s fingers touch the soup, Castel grabs her hand and yanks it away from the bowl. Joy makes a surprised yipping sound before looking at Castel. The two children narrow their eyes at one another, both glaring at the other with their lips in the same tight line. There is silence between them while they stare each other down—the only sound is some light snickering from the rest of the family. After a moment Castel picks up his napkin and hands it to Joy for her hand. She takes it and cleans herself up, while watching him take her splatter painted spoon into his hand. Carefully he scoops out the huge chunk out of her bowl and plops the mushy, nasty glob onto her plate.

They look at each other again and after another moment of glares their faces brighten and Castel smiles at her. Joy grins, grabs the straps of his overalls, and pulls him towards her. She plants a big sloppy, wet, cheesy, tomato soup-y kiss on his cheek with a very loud and acute ‘mwah!’ sound.

Castel whines noisily and wipes his cheek clean, “Gross!”

Joy bursts into giggles along with the rest of the family. After they finish eating Joy and Castel decide to go outside for a while. After Mrs. Cubs makes sure they are both bundled up so much they can hardly put their arms down, the two disappear into the frozen wonderland that fills the backyard. Mrs. Cubs watches them play for a few minutes before her smile falters and she looks down at the floor.

“What’s wrong, Felicity?” Mr. Cubs asks seeing the worried look in her face.

She smiles weakly, “I’m just…” she sighs and looks up at her husband. “Cassie hasn’t made any friends other than Joy. He’s been in school for a year now almost two, and he is still alone.”

“He’s not alone,” Mikey chimes in from his spot at the sink. “He has Joy.”

“I know that bébé,” Mrs. Cubs sighs. “And I’m grateful he has her it’s just…Joy has so many other friends than just Cassie.”

“He’s certainly not the social butterfly you two were,” Mr. Cubs chuckles and looks at his older sons. He smiles back at his wife, “Don’t worry sweetheart he’s only seven.”

“He’s got his entire life to make friends,” Zack nods. “And for now he’s got Joy.”

“And she seems to be enough for Cassie,” Mikey smiles.

“He looks happy yes?” Mr. Cubs asks and looks out at the two children playing in the yard. They are chasing each other with snowballs and laughing when they both fall. Mr. and Mrs. Cubs both smile warmly at the sight.

“Yes he is happy,” Mrs. Cubs nods. “As long as he at least has Joy he’ll be fine.”

“Yes,” Mr. Cubs smiles and kisses her cheek.

“Well apparently on Friday they’ll be bound together for life,” Zack snorts. And the kitchen fills with laughter.

That Friday Joy had made it to the good list as she had been determined to and picked a blue raspberry ring pop out of the candy bag. Castel got the little toy ring from the treasure chest and soon the two were standing under the jungle jim for the wedding. They exchanged their rings and Castel wiped his mouth after Joy has pecked his lips with little kiss, followed by her signature ‘mwah!’ sound—similar to the way she kissed his cheek on Sunday. Castel didn’t mind humoring the girls in their marriage game. He’s played house with Joy before and he didn’t see that much of a difference—except this time they’d follow her game up with a monster hunt.

However, all of Joy’s friends disappeared after the wedding leaving Castel on his own for the hunt; breaking their promise. They tried to get Joy to come play some silly game with them, but she insisted that she would much rather go on a monster hunt adventure with her ‘husband’ than play some silly little game. Castel smiled when she took his glove covered hand into her mitten covered one and ran off with him.

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

Joy smiles and chuckles a little to herself at the memory. The now twenty-five-year-old sits on the red shag carpet of the living room. It’s been about two years since Castel and Martha broke up; after Castel saw Martha’s true colors he was tore apart for several weeks. When Joy had found him he was curled up on the floor of his kitchen, his hair a disheveled mess, his clothes wrinkled, tear streaks stained his cheeks, and his eyes puffy and red. Very similar to how she’d find him after some girl rejected him in high school, or laughed in his face—except this time he had drunk himself silly. Which was a shock for Joy because Castel was no alcoholic in fact he hadn’t had more than a glass of wine since his twenty-first birthday.

Joy had stayed with him in the big empty house to make sure he could take care of himself again. After he was stable again she had planned to leave, but Castel had asked her to stay. She had her own wing of the mansion now, which was great since she had gotten thrown out of her apartment. Castel was happy to have his best friend with him again and now that it’s been two years since the horrendous break up he’s finally feeling like his old self again.

“What are you laughing at?” Castel asks and pokes her cheek.

She looks at him and it takes her a moment to focus on his face—the alcohol they’ve been drinking affecting her vision. She smiles at him loving how curly his hair has become again, his beard is nothing more than stubble lining his face, and his chocolate eyes are shinning bright again—though something tells her that sparkle is influenced by the alcohol in his system…but she likes to think it’s the happy sparkle that normally fills his eyes. She’s happy that Martha is finally gone, although she never said it so bluntly to him before she never really liked how Martha acted or treated him. She tried to change so much about him and Joy couldn’t stand it. If anything as far as Joy is concerned Castel got at least three things out of their break up. He’s learned how to say ‘no’—which is what caused most of their fights when Martha was being a diva. He’s so much more confident now, knowing he is worth more than the way Martha had treated him.

And finally he no longer has the food police in his house. Martha had always been on him about his body for the press and how he had to look like he just came out of a modeling ad. She was the definition of a health freak—no gluten, no sugar, no BPA, no MSG, no GMOs, no anything. Now free from his chains Castel was final able to go on not caring about what the press would say. He finally doesn’t look like a walking twig branch anymore, sure he always had his muscles but he was so thin. Now he’s got a fuller face and he looks like himself again physically; and Joy is so happy for that.

“Joy,” he chuckles and pokes her nose. “You here with us?”

Joy giggles, “I’m here.”

He grins and sways a little until he leans back against the coffee table. “So why are you laughing?”

“No reason,” she smiles and looks around at the scattered empty bottles of champagne, strawberry wine, and hard cherry sodas.

It’s New Years Eve and they had planned to have a big party with their families, but Mrs. Cubs insisted they have a party at their house. So the families had gathered and played games and danced and had fun, more fun than Joy could even remember having in a long time. After the ball had dropped they had their toast and everyone headed back to their own homes. When Joy and Castel had gotten back to the house they both felt…well happy. Neither wanted the night to end so Castel offered the idea to relax by the fire and break into his cellar. Joy had agreed and now here they sit in front of the roaring fire, her favorite soundtrack playing in the background from her Iphone, and both feeling slightly tipsy and yet comfortable.

Castel smiles, “Come on sharing is caring.” He chuckles his head starting to swim from the two bottles of soda and half…ok a little more than half the bottle of strawberry wine.

Joy smiles softly at him before she pushes her heels off to side along with her sweater jacket. She slides down onto the carpet and is a little taken back by how soft the shag material feels. Castel smiles and looks at the wooden clock that sits on the mantel above the fire place. It reads two thirty in the morning. He chuckles a little and shoves his dress shoes out of the way along with his blazer. He unbuttons his vest and loosens his neck-tie before lying on the floor next to her. The sweet tasting liquor pooling in his gut, the sweet tangy taste of the nectar slowly sliding down from his throat like sap on tree bark. He smiles and hums a little feeling very content where he’s at right now—not just his life but this moment right now. He feels happy and warm and so pleased to be here with Joy. It’s just them again, him and his best friend and he’s so grateful she’s still here with him after all this time she’s still his friend. A fun night with his loved ones, a warm fire, good music, sweet drinks, this amazingly soft carpet, and Joy laying next to him. This moment of bliss feels so…perfect.

They are both silent for a while listening to the soft melody of Someone In The Crowd and the faint crackling of the fire. Joy slurs out that it sounds like that rice cereal that pops. Castel agrees and grins as she sings, “Snap, crackle, pop!” And he finishes with, “Rice Krispies!” They both laugh for a while at that—probably longer than they should have, but neither cares.

Silence falls again but it’s comfortable, it’s always comfortable. The music changes and shift into A Lovely Night the quick upbeat tune filling the air between them. Joy sighs a little and she stares up at the ceiling, still feeling the bubbly tingle of the alcohol but a kind of bittersweet feeling gnaws in her belly.

“Do you remember when we got married?” She asks not looking away from the ceiling.

He chuckles and nods, “Yes I do.” He turns on his side and smiles at her, “Is that what you’ve been thinking about?”

She smiles and looks at him now, “Yes.” She giggles a little, “It was so silly you know.”

“Not really,” he shrugs. “It was kind of sweet.” He chuckles, “I remember you were trying so hard to get onto the good list so you could get a prize.”

She giggles and nods, “Yes I wanted to get you a ring pop instead of that plastic little ring. And then we stood under the jungle jim and traded the two. The plastic one you got and the strawberry ring pop I got.”

“Blue raspberry,” he corrects. She looks at him with a quizzical expression and he smiles. “It was a blue raspberry ring pop you gave me, not strawberry.”

She blinks at him before she smiles, “Oh my gosh you’re right! How could I forget?”

He chuckles and shrugs, “I also remember everyone promising to go on some monster hunt after our little wedding.” He shakes his head.

“Not just any monster hunt Cassie,” she grins and turns on her side facing him. “A hunt for the illusive abominable snowman.” Her face falls into a crest-fallen look, “They all left afterwards.”

“Yeah they did,” he shrugs and looks down at the carpet. “But you didn’t.”

She smiles a little, “That’s cause I loved going on adventures with you.” He looks up at her and her eyes seem to twinkle, “I thought you’d always be a monster hunter.” She giggles, “Have your own paranormal hunting shows.”

He grins again, “Well it’s still a passion of mine.” He runs his hand through his hair kind of sloppily due to the alcohol messing with his sense of direction. “I got so engrossed with my projects I nearly forgot all about those creatures…but I kept it as a side hobby.” He laughs loudly, “I mean if I could leave the business to Amy I would leave right now and head out to West Virgin.”

Joy smiles at how his face brightens as he talks about his love for mysteries. His eyes seem to almost turn into a light brown; filled with excitement. She loves that look.

“The first one I’d hunt down would be Mothman,” he chuckles and lies on his back. “Then the Sheepsquatch and then the Devil Dog and then…well those are my top three.” He says feeling a bit bashful at how nerdy and crazy he must sound.

But Joy smiles, “I hope you’re not planning to run off on these adventures without me.”

He looks at her and sees the kind smile on her face, the same one she always wore when he would go on rants about monster hunts and anomalies when they were children. The look in her eyes he can only read as excitement and awe. She’s serious. She would want to run off into the woods with him hunting down monsters from old folklores. And honestly…there’s no one else he’d want by his side.

She never once thought he was crazy or weird for liking these things, or having theory upon theory about how these creatures came into existence. Or how he can prove their existence, or anything. She would always listen and give input or help him piece clues together, she didn’t care about the weird looks the other kids would give them as they hunted around the playground in search of signs of monsters. She never cared about anything other than having fun with him. Even now years later she still gets just as excited as he does.

“You are so not Martha,” he blurts out smiling. He had meant it as a positive but the slight contortion in her face proves that it didn’t come out that way. “No no I mean I’m glad you’re not.” He says trying to backtrack. He sits up and rubs the back of his neck, “Martha would always tell me to stop going on about non-sense about monsters. She made me feel like I was a freak because I found it interesting.” He sighs a little the pain stabbing his heart, “She never really wanted to share in any of my interests. She only ever wanted to do what she wanted…we could never compromise.”

“Well then I’m glad she’s gone,” Joy says bluntly and sits up. She blinks realizing what she just said and looks at him. “I mean…I’m sorry you didn’t get the happy ending you were hoping for but—”

“I was never happy with her,” he says and smiles at her. “I know what you meant. It’s ok Joy.” He chuckles, “I’m kind of glad it didn’t work out, can you imagine how controlling she’d be if we were married?” He laughs loudly, “It’d be more of a nightmare than when we were dating!

Joy giggles joining in his mirth, knowing that although the pain Martha caused him to feel is still there slightly; he is healing. He’s moving on, he is happy without her in his life. He can finally be himself and not the person she was trying to force him to be. They giggle for a moment before each taking another sip from the almost empty champagne bottle. The giggling continues and soon neither can clearly remember what it is they are laughing about.

Castel smiles and shrugs as a silly thought pops into his head, “Hey maybe it didn’t work out because I was already betrothed to someone else.” He grins at her and winks.

She giggles and shrugs, “Maybe so I mean we were bound together for life that day.”

He chuckles, “You called me your husband for several weeks after that.”

Joy giggles and nods, “I did.”

He smiles as they lay back down , and he’s starting to feel like they are lying a lot closer together than they probably should. He doesn’t say anything though; he just stares up at the ceiling one hand lying on his stomach the other on the floor. He knows her hand is somewhere near his because he can feel the faint warmth it gives off. As they lie there in silence he thinks back to when he first started dating Martha, how he struggled to really love her. How he could never shake the other feelings he had for Joy, feelings that are still very much alive. He rolls through his memories from the time he met her until now, he’s always loved her more than just friends. But he never thought she would ever feel the same and he didn’t want to risk ruining their friendship. But now Martha is gone, she’s been gone for almost two years now and he’s the happiest he’s been in a long time.

“Did it bother you?” Joy asks not looking at him.

“Did what bother me?” He asks still looking at the ceiling.

Joy fidgets on the floor for a moment, “That I called you my husband.”

They both look at each other. The look in her face is cross between love and fear, her cheeks are pink and her eyes are wide. Although he doesn’t understand the fear he smiles a tiny little grin and shakes his head, “Not at all.”

The fear is gone in an instant and her face brightens as she smiles, “I always wanted to ask you if it did, but it just seemed so long ago it was pointless to ask.

He smiles softly and shakes his head, “It never bothered me. I really kind of liked it.” He says before he can stop himself.

Her eyes sparkle a little and her cheeks flush a little more, “So you liked the idea of…us?” She asks in a hushed tone, just above a whisper. And now it’s his turn to blush.

The look in her eyes is so full of love and the fire’s glow highlights her face, making her hair glimmer. She looks beautiful lying next to him and her voice is so soft. It’s so gentle and sweet it’s like a feather trailing down his spine. An electric tingle fills his body, goose bumps to spread over his skin, and his hand twitches involuntarily on the floor. In that one little move he’s managed to find her hand, his pinkie finger now colliding with hers.

His stomach is swirling like mad and his heart is pounding so hard in his chest he’s certain it’s going to burst. He loves the idea of them, he loved that game they played—even if it seemed a little silly to him at the time. He loved being close to her, he’s always loved being with her, he loves her. Could she love him? More than just friends? Could he tell her how much he loves her? He could do it…if he had enough courage to do so; putting their friendship on the line. He doesn’t have that much courage, even with the fair amount of liquor in his system wouldn’t help him out at all. He’s never had liquid courage, he’s only ever gotta the buzz no courage. He swallows a little, wanting to take her hand in his but he can’t seem to get his fingers to work. So their hands remain on the floor just barley touching. Just one step at a time Cubs, he thinks to himself.

He gives her a tiny smile as he manages to finally get his lips moving. “Yes I did.” He says.

Her eyes light up again and she giggles a little, “I did too.” She smiles, “I always wanted to ask you if you did but...”

“It was so far in the past?” He asks and she shakes her head.

“No I was scared.” She says through an airy giggle.

She was scared! She was afraid his answer would be that he didn’t like it! Why else would she be scared? Could she really love him back? He could ask. He wants to ask. But he can’t seem to form any words. Time feels like it has stopped as they lie there smiling at each other, the only thing letting them know that time wasn’t frozen was the soft melody of Here’s To The Hearts mixed with little crackles from the fire playing in the background. His heart hammers in his chest as he smiles feeling her fingers slide under his hand until he clasps her hand; their fingers intertwining.

He could do it! He could jump, he could risk it. He could do it! He can! He opens his mouth just ever so slightly to spew out the words that have been boiling in him since he was a teenager. How much he loves her, how he’s always loved her, even when he was with Martha he loved her. How she’s all he thinks about, how she’s the only one he wants, how if it was just them, just the two of them, the rest of his life and no one else at all he’d be the happiest man on earth. He could do it; he could say it all. But he doesn’t get the chance to because her lips cut him off. His eyes flutter closed as her soft warm lips press against his briefly. She hadn’t meant to kiss him first, but fueled by the alcohol in her tipsy giggly state she couldn’t stop herself. She realizes what she’s doing and her head screams that it was the wrong thing to do. She didn’t know if that’s how he felt to and jumping in like that was not the best way to go.

So she’s pulling away, preparing to see the shock in his eyes. But she doesn’t get to because she never gets away from his face. As soon as he felt her leaning and pulling away his brain went into overdrive.

Forget talking, forget confession, that can come later. Right now in this moment he can tell her how much he loves her without a single word. Before she gets too far away he captures her lips again. He moves his hand from his stomach to cup her cheek as he kisses her. Her naturally sweet taste now has a tang to it from their drinks, and he smiles at the mixed flavors of cherry, strawberry, and her own flavor.

He feels her press back against him, snaking her tongue into his mouth exploring and becoming reacquainted with the contours of his mouth. She smiles into the kiss as fireworks burst in her mind, flashes of millions of colors fill her brain as he devours her lips. Her heart is pounding so fast it feels as though it’s going to jump right out of her chest.

She loves him, she always has. When he was with Martha she forced herself to be happy for him, all she wanted was for him to be happy and if it wasn’t with her she would still be happy for him. She would always love him. And now Martha is gone, gone for good. And he’s hers.

He runs his hand through her hair until he finds her shoulder, where he rests his hand. He kisses her feverishly and deeply, holding her closer. Wow maybe he does have liquid courage. He feels her move her free hand to his shirt, gripping the material on his chest. He slides his hand down from her shoulder to her hip and pulls her close against him.

His heart pounds hard in his ears, and it’s becoming a real challenge to keep breathing steadily but he doesn’t care. His mind has gone into tunnel mode with his only focus on her. Several minutes have past before they break apart.

His cheeks are flushed just as red as hers. Her eyes almost have a dazed glaze over them as she smiles at him, her lips slightly parted as she breaths heavily. His eyes become lidded and smiles panting every so slightly, trying to catch his breath. The faint melody of City Of Stars plays in his ear as he chuckles a little, which causes her to giggle lightly.

“I love you, Joy.” He breaths out and he hears her breath hitch.

Her lips stretch into a wide smile before they are against his again. She pushes back against him kissing him again, before she lets out a breathy, “I love you too, Castel.”

He smiles and kisses her forehead, “Happy new year Joy.” He says before their lips are together again.

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