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collecting-stories · 4 years ago

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Jealous - Luke Patterson

Summary: You bring a friend to a concert with you and Luke gets the wrong idea.

A/N: this it like, alive!Luke, it’s also like 3k long 😭😭

Julie and the Phantoms Masterlist

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Luke pouted, leg twitching as he looked around the small venue that Alex had booked them that night. The doors had only just opened and people were beginning to stream in. They’d played shows before but Luke was still surprised watching people come through the doors. He honestly couldn’t believe anyone had bought tickets. There was no doubt in Luke’s mind that they were the greatest band ever but seeing other people agree with that sentiment always made him feel like he was on cloud nine. Hanging a little over the second-floor balcony of the venue, watching every person that walked through the door, he wanted to be excited but his nerves had nothing to do with the show tonight.

“Would you chill man?” Alex chided, tapping Luke’s arm with a bottle of water. “She’ll be here.”

“She hasn’t missed a performance yet.” Reggie pointed out, spinning on a stool that he’d nabbed from the bar.

“Yeah, I know that.” Luke insisted, standing up but glancing back over his shoulder, “she said she’d make it before doors though...”

Ever since Julie had started playing with the guys, you had started hanging around more. You were embarrassed to say but you and Julie had been little more than friendly neighbors before she’d starting renting out her garage for band practice. The first time you’d heard the loud music coming from the Molina’s yard you’d gone to inspect and found the doors open and a band rehearsing inside. Needless to say, it was that first meeting that had cemented yours and Luke’s relationship. Not exactly more than friends but certainly not just friends. The more you came around the more the two of you danced around your feelings for each other and the more you neglected your other friends.

“Just, don’t say anything to the guys-”

“You mean, don’t say anything to Luke.” Julie countered, standing at her locker with you in between classes. Tonight, was the show at the Voltage Lounge and they’d been stoked about it since they got the gig. You would’ve been equally stoked, and you were, until you realized it was also your best friend’s birthday and you had promised to get dinner together.

“Look, I’ll be there, before doors, I promise. But I’ve kinda been ditching my other friends lately and I promised Mikey that we’d get dinner for his birthday.” You replied, shutting your locker and walking with Julie toward the music room.

“Don’t you think not telling Luke you’re going out with another guy would be worse than saying you’re gonna be a little late to the show?” Julie countered. She grabbed a seat by Flynn and you sat on the other side, leaning forward to keep the conversation going.

“I just don’t want him thinking I’m ditching the performance okay, me and Mikey are just friends...as are me and Luke.” You replied, though even saying it sounded like a lie. You knew as well as Julie and Flynn that you were avoiding mentioning the dinner because you didn’t want Luke to get the wrong idea.

“You tell yourself that.” Flynn chided, pulling a face at you, clearly not believing you at all.

“We are.”

“Yeah, and anytime he sings anything even slightly romantic he looks right at you.”

“It’s true,” Julie piped up, “he’s been coming up with a lot more love songs recently. Whenever I ask him about it he just says he wants us to have a balanced song pool or something.”

“We’re not a thing.” You insisted. “I’m going to dinner and then I’ll be at the show...simple as that. Just, don’t say anything.”

Julie agreed, throwing out some lame excuse about you having to go over your grandparents’ house before the show as a reason that you weren’t going to the venue with them like you usually did. Getting booked somewhere as a headliner was still fairly new to them and you always liked to be there in the moments before the show started, an extra person to reassure them that they completely and totally deserved all of this.

While you didn’t think your absence would be felt too exponentially, it definitely was. Luke had been unusually antsy since they’d gotten there. He was always eager to get onstage but this was different, he kept looking over the railing as if he was going to hurl and rush out of the venue. Reggie tried reassuring him that everything was fine but nothing seemed to calm his nerves.

“Hey, ten minutes alright, start getting ready,” one of the crew said, scribbling something on his clipboard.

“Okay, thanks.” Julie nodded, looking back over the railing as he left, the calm she was trying to portray immediately washing away when she saw you walk into the venue. Any other time she would’ve been jumping for joy but you weren’t alone and she could only assume that the guy with you was the Mikey you had mentioned earlier in the day. “So we should-” as she turned to address them, hopefully distract Luke, Reggie caught sight of you in the crowd.

“Look!” He nudged Luke’s arm, pointing you out, “she made it.”

Julie grimaced as Luke looked over the balcony and down into the crowd. It took him a moment to find you but Julie and Alex could pinpoint the exact moment that he did. A flicker of happiness at the sight of you, quickly washed away and turned into, first confusion, and then something akin to anger. He frowned, eyebrows furrowing as he watched you get a spot on his side, talking the whole time to the guy with you.

“Who the fuck is that?” He asked.

You had told Julie that your plan was to go, get through dinner with Mikey, and then come straight to the venue for the show. A simple enough evening, and you’d expected it to go off without a hitch except Mikey got curious about who you were texting and guilted you into inviting him along.

“So, this band?” Mikey asked, looking around the small venue, “how’d you become a groupie?”

“I’m not a groupie. Julie and I are friends.” You stressed, scrunching your nose up as the lights dimmed and the people around you screamed in excitement.

The anticipation was palpable and, truthfully, you were right there with the other concert goers around you, excited by the prospect of seeing Julie and the Phantoms perform live. It wasn’t something that was new for you, a front row seat to all their rehearsals was part of your everyday life and yet, something about seeing them perform live like this, with a crowd that so responsive to them, only added to the adrenaline coursing through you.

As the guys ran out on stage, Alex, then Reggie, then Luke, and finally Julie, the noise level around you seemed to pick up. But there was something off, something that didn’t quite sync with you that settled as the first chords sounded. You frowned, realizing, as Luke purposely missed you when he scanned the crowd, exactly what it was that you were feeling. It wasn’t accidental in the slightest, Julie met your gaze more than once and so did Reggie and Alex but Luke was ignoring you. He was very intentionally ignoring you standing there in the very front row, pressed against the barricade in front of him.

It was as if someone had knocked all the air out of your chest. Somehow that loud, crowded venue where you could feel the bass pounding in your stomach, felt empty. You felt small and invisible and even when Mikey shouted in your ear that they were actually an awesome band you lacked the excitement to tell him that they were the best band ever. You just nodded. And as much as you wanted to look away from Luke, a silent “two can play at this game”, you didn’t. Instead, you just kept watching him, waiting for him to look your way and somehow explain what was going on that had him acting like you didn’t exist.

The encore ended, the boys each running off the stage before Julie, Luke standing at the side waiting for her as she waved one last time to the crowd before setting the mic back in its stand and running off. The mass of people who had been screaming lulled into a buzz, some of them leaving as others lingered, waiting for the band to come back out to sign autographs and take pictures.

You walked Mikey to the merch table while other people hung around chatting with each other, the house lights up so that you could actually see as you walked. Flynn stood behind the table and she waved when she saw you.

“I’ll catch you later, thanks for letting me tag along.” He said, hanging at the door for a minute.

“Yeah totally, thanks for coming. Happy birthday,” you hugged him and then circled back to Flynn, stepping behind the table and sitting down on the stool.

“Girl, you do not seem happy.” Flynn commented as she grabbed a sweatshirt from one of the boxes and handed it across the table to a fan.

“I’m just...” you shrugged, looking back down toward the stage, “confused?”

“Did something happen with Mikey?” She asked.

You handed a shirt from one of the bins to her as she rung up a sale, jumping in to ask a few people what they needed as she waited on a group of girls. When they had all finally dispersed, the line lulling for a moment, you turned back to Flynn, “no...I mean other than him inviting himself along. No, it was Luke...he was like, it sounds dumb to say it but, it was like he was ignoring me.”

“Maybe he didn’t see you?” She suggested, attempting to be reassuring.

“He saw me. Then he just, acted like he didn’t the whole rest of the night.” You replied, “I don’t know...it felt shitty.”

“You know who you should tell that to?”

“Luke?” You asked, already knowing her answer. Flynn was the queen of confrontation.

“Exactly.”

You frowned, the last thing you wanted to do was talk to Luke. If he was going to ignore you the way he had on stage, Flynn had been trying to make you feel better but you knew he was avoiding you for some reason. He always made it a point to find you in the crowd but tonight he had looked anywhere but you.

A few straggling fans shouted excitedly and you looked passed the table to see that the guys and Julie had come out from backstage for meet and greets. As they spread out to talk to people, Reggie moved toward the merch stand, parking himself close enough to you that he could chat with you without drawing too much attention. You knew it was on purpose, that was usually Luke’s spot but tonight he stayed all the way down by the stage, almost reluctant to be out on the floor.

“Hey, great job.” You mentioned, grabbing a water bottle from under the table and handing it to Reggie. He took it gratefully, taking a sip before setting it on the floor beside him and beginning to greet the group of fans that had hung back to say hello to him.

When there was a spare minute between signing and taking pictures, he moved down the table, closer to you then before, leaning against a bare patch of wood where Flynn had already cleared away shirts. “Who was that guy you came with?” Reggie asked, looking back at you as you took one of the larger hoodies out of a box and pulled it on. Without the people, the venue had started to get cold.

“My friend Mikey, it was his birthday and he’s been bugging me to hang out. He tagged along really and I didn’t wanna ditch him...” you replied, coming around the side of the table, “I didn’t really think it’d be an issue.”

“Oh, it's not with me. We need all the fans we can get right?” Reggie joked, “did he like our music?”

“Yeah, totally loved it.”

The last of the concert goers finally made it to the door, waving to Reggie one last time as they walked passed the closed down merch stand. He waved back and you turned to watch them leave, back to the stage.

“Hey, can we talk?” Luke’s voice came from behind you and you looked over your shoulder to him, standing there with his plaid jacket over a black band tee. His hair was pushed off his forehead from sweat and he was frowning already, not exactly the version of him you wanted to talk to. You couldn’t help that longing feeling for the Luke that would come off stage and wrap you in a sweaty hug guaranteed to piss of fans.

“Uh yeah, of course...I need to talk to you too.” You replied, turning fully toward him as Reggie stood up, grabbing his water and heading back down toward the stage. Flynn came around the merch stand, following after him, leaving you and Luke alone.

A beat passed between you and he ran his hand through his hair, trying and failing to fix the sweaty mess. Unable to stand the silence, you started talking, “you guys were awesome...as usual.”

“Yeah, thanks.” He had asked to talk to you but he wasn’t really sure how to start the conversation he wanted to have and he couldn’t bring himself to really meet your eyes, his gaze flickering passed you every few seconds.

“Would’ve been even better if you weren’t ignoring me all night,” you blurted.

That seemed to be the push he needed to react, “yeah well, you brought some date with you? After the other night...” he trailed off for a moment, meeting your eyes finally, “I mean, that wasn’t nothing.”

Band practice had ended earlier than usual and, while you sat on the couch trying to win a particularly difficult level of candy crush on Luke’s phone, everybody else discussed a pizza run for dinner. You raised your hand to vote for extra cheese but didn’t look up when Julie left to go and Reggie and Alex walked out onto the driveway to play basketball. You didn’t look up until Luke dropped down on the couch next to you, putting his chin on your shoulder.

“How’s it going?” He asked, keeping his eyes on his phone screen as you turned your head, so close that your nose almost brushed his cheek.

“Good?” You said, drawing the word out as you looked at him skeptically, “can I ask why you’re so close to me?”

“So, you can bask in my awesomeness?” Luke teased, wrapping his arm around your waist.

“I think the only thing I’m basking in is your post-rehearsal sweat.” You joked, shifting a little so that his chin fell off your shoulder and you were facing him. You set his phone down on the coffee table, giving your whole attention to Luke.

He smiled at you, eyes searching yours. There was no denying that very specific look that Luke seemed to get, one you could never quite name but always recognized. He would smile, a soft sort of piercing look that you couldn’t look away from on his face. And you were always hypnotized by it, feeling like maybe you should distract yourself from it but never really wanting to.

“What are we doing?” You chanced asking, meeting his gaze and holding it.

“What’da ya mean?” He asked, grin still on his face and you felt like he’d gotten closer but you didn’t move.

“You’re staring at me.”

“You’re staring at me.” He echoed.

“Luke.” You wanted to roll your eyes but you also didn’t want to look away, even for a split second.

He leaned closer, the joking air that had been dissipating completely gone now. You licked your lips, trying to keep yourself calm as Luke moved in. One second, he was looking at you and the next your eyes were closing, his lips pressed against yours and his grip on your waist tightening.

The kiss didn’t last long. The doors to the garage creaked open and you both pulled away, looking anywhere but at each other as Julie walked in with pizza. Alex and Reggie came in behind her and Luke stood up, grabbing a stack of magazines off the coffee table and moving them out of the way. You picked up his phone, unlocking it and opening candy crush again to distract yourself.

Neither of you had discussed the kiss, mostly because you were too afraid that if you brought it up he would tell you that it was just a mistake. Some spur of the moment thing that happened but that he didn’t really mean. You hadn’t even told Julie or Flynn about it.

But now you were standing at the empty merch table with him and he was acting like you had purposely tried to hurt him. A ‘date’ he had called it and all at once you realized exactly what he thought had happened.

“No, no,” you shook your head, “Mikey wasn’t a date.”

“You didn’t say you were bringing Mikey with you to our show.” Luke replied, your best friend’s name rolling off his tongue like a curse.

“He was bugging me about not hanging out recently and it’s his birthday so we were supposed to go out for dinner but I kept mentioning you…the band…and he wanted to come to the show.” You tried to explain.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” It was stupid to ask, technically you didn’t owe him any explanation at all. You could bring whoever you wanted but he couldn’t help feeling affronted by it.

“I didn’t want you to think I was gonna ditch the show. And…I didn’t want you to think it was a date.” You replied. “The kiss wasn’t nothing and I should’ve talked to you about it sooner cause…I really like you and it felt really shitty to be ignored tonight.”

Luke rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m sorry, I was just pissed when I saw you with some other guy.”

“Mikey’s just a friend.” You replied, “I like you Luke, I like when you pretend to play the guitar badly to make me laugh and I like when we hang out without everyone else and just do nothing or go to the beach and I like going out with you at midnight to get ice cream cause neither of us can sleep and I don’t want to date anyone else…I want you.”

“I want you too.” Luke said, stepping closer to you. When he reached for your hands, you laced your fingers with his. He leaned forward, pressing his lips against yours again, the salty taste of sweat from playing a show still there on his mouth as you kissed him back.

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tangledstarlight · 3 years ago

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oh all of this silence and patience (oh im pining in anticipation)

listen it’s still august in some timezones so this totally counts as posting something in august okay? okay! i hope people like this, it took me far too long to finish, but also special shoutout to the wonderful @ourstarscollided who really helped me with the whole first section of this fic, without her i truly would still be working on it, so thank you eunice, you’re the best!💜 okay enjoy!

the first firefighter!luke fic for anyone who wants to read that first, though it can be read alone: ao3 / tumblr

also on ao3!

lil disclaimer: i’m still not a firefighter and i also know that they dont use fire poles anymore but lets just ✨pretend✨ for the visual okay. this takes place between part 4 and 5 in the original fic!

trigger warnings! lots of swearing, implied sexual content.

RATED T –– there’s no graphic scenes but there’s a lot of kissing and fading to black, so rating might change if anyone needs me to 😬

Word count: 6,072

“Look who it is!”

Julie feels a grin pull up on the corners of her mouth as she spots Luke’s station captain coming around the end of one of the fire trucks Julie is walking between, sending her a wave of the clipboard she’s holding. “You’re here early.”

“Yeah, class ended early and I thought I'd pop over to see if I could get some extra time with Luke,” Julie shrugs, holding up the pale grey burlap bag that Alex had packed their food into.

And there’s a sympathetic look that crosses over Harrison’s face, because she knows that the younger woman knows she’s in charge of Luke’s shifts and the reason why Julie comes over every Tuesday to have lunch with her boyfriend.

Because that’s why she was here. To have lunch with him like she did every Tuesday between her classes and when the fires of LA would allow. Sometimes Alex would text her to stop by to pick up a packed lunch for them, sometimes she made something herself, sometimes they just ordered in. The food wasn’t really the point, it was just getting to spend some time together. Julie had never really thought about it before, but there was always something, someone, somewhere, trapped or hurt or on fire. Luke was a very busy person, and it meant sometimes their lunches got interrupted by blaring alarms and him pressing a quick kiss to her lips before rushing off.

Tuesdays were apparently very busy days for a firefighter.

“What’s the master chef prepared for you this week then?” Harrison asks, crossing her arms and clipboard across her chest and lifting one brow, “Y’know Alex used to cook for us, he’d send Luke in every Saturday he was on shift with all sorts of goodies.”

Julie bites her lip to try not to laugh at the exaggerated sigh that leaves the older woman's lips as she shakes her head sadly. There was something about Vivian Harrison that just— put people at ease. The first time Julie had officially met her there had been a warm hug and teasing remarks and there was just something that had viscerally reminding Julie of her aunt Victoria that it was kind of impossible not to like the station captain after that.

“He was pretty busy so it’s just some sandwiches,” she wrinkles her nose a little before smiling, “I’ll tell him how much you’re missing his cooking though, I’m sure the blame will fall completely on Luke.”

Harrison laughs, and tilts her head slightly as she shrugs, “That boy of yours is just very easy to blame.”

She feels a sudden flush to her cheeks at ‘that boy of yours’ that she hopes can be played off by how warm it always is in the station. She can see Harrison’s lips twitching, like she’s about to say something teasing, but Julie is saved from it by two people walking past them and a change of mind.

“Morales, can you tell Patterson his lunch is here.”

“Sure thing Cap,” one of the guys says, shooting her a wide smile that Julie feels compelled to return quickly before he’s rushing off, past the fire engines and up some stairs. And Julie’s about to ask Harrison if they’ve been busy today and if she’d found time to visit the farmers market they’d talked about last time, but another voice interrupts, and Julie hadn’t even realised the other guy hadn’t followed his friend.

“So you’re Patterson’s girl, right?” The blonde asks, eyes scanning her up and down in a way that makes her want to hide behind someone. There’s something vaguely familiar about him, probably because she’s seen him in passing for the last couple of months but never talked to him. Which wouldn’t have been weird if most of the other people in the station hadn’t introduced themselves the first time Luke had invited her to one of their station parties, and made an effort to talk to her whenever she'd stopped by since.

“Yeah, I’m Julie,” she smiles politely, trying to put emphasis on her name. She doesn't mind being known as Luke's girl by people at the station who have actually made an effort to get to know her.

“Right, right, nice to meet you Julie. I’m Nick, I’m sure Luke’s mentioned me,” he grins, teeth showing and shoulders pulling back like he’s expecting her to — what? Clap? A small furrow works its way between her brows as Nick starts up a conversation without even waiting for her response and she suddenly understands what Luke means about him. Because he has mentioned the condescending, stereotypical blonde frat boy before, and never in a good way. It was mostly followed by some very creative swear words and a mumbled ‘he’s going to get either himself or one of us really hurt one day’.

She tries to follow along with the conversation, nodding politely and laughing whenever Harrison forces one out, but Nick only seems interested in talking about himself, and normally she can feign interest, but right now all she wants is to talk to one person in particular.

There’s the sound of too many voices heading in their direction and Julie turns around, eyes searching for one person, but all she’s met with is a collection of firefighters she vaguely knows and tries not to let her disappointment show too clearly on her face.

“Wow Molina, don’t look so excited to see us!” An elbow nudges her side and Julie glances up to see Carrie Wilson has appeared in the place that Nick had just stood, eyebrows raised and a blinding smile as the other blonde frowns from behind her, still trying to carry on his conversation.

“No! I am glad to see you all it’s just—” Julie starts, eyes a little wide as she looks at the other girl because Carrie had only ever been nice to her, but Luke had a lot of stories about the blonde being ruthless and rude to people she was mildly inconvenienced by.

(One of Luke’s favourite stories was about Carrie loudly telling some girl that Nick was flirting with how he had used the same lines on her two months before. Luke told it every chance he could get, sparing no details on the look of horror that has taken over Nick’s face.)

“You’re here for Patterson,” Carrie cuts her off with a wink, elbow nudging her lightly again, “Don’t worry, we all know. He should be down soon.” There’s something about how she says it that raises more questions than answers for Julie, furrow between her brows and mouth opening to comment when Carrie just nods her head behind her, and Julie turns around to spot Luke.

It’s impossible, Julie knows it’s impossible, but she could swear time slows down. Like she’s in some rom-com movie where the main character sees their love interest for the first time.

Only she’s not in a film, she’s stood next to a fire engine and trying to care about what the people around her are talking about and it’s far from the first time she’s seen the love interest. But the world still feels like it’s in slow motion all the same as she looks up as Luke calls her name from the second floor, grinning at her from over the banister and holding up one hand in that universal signal for ‘wait’.

And Julie waits, not that she could really do anything else with the firehouse blurring at the edges and Nick's voice fading into the background. Focus entirely on Luke.

She’s never seen someone slide down the pole before, didn’t even know that they still used them in firehouses, but Julie’s pretty sure it shouldn’t be as hot as it is. Though, she supposes, it could just be Luke. His hand wraps around the metal and Julie swallows as her eyes are drawn to his arms, to where his top pulls tight and his forearms are on show. If this was a film, there’d be some stereotypical song about sex playing in the background right about now. All her slightly hazy brain can supply is the chorus to Lady Marmalade on repeat. His legs wrapped around the pole, ankles crossed and thighs pressed together, comes into view as he slides down the metal, all cool and in control, and Julie's throat goes dry.

She knows how much strength it takes to slide down a pole. Her and Flynn had taken a few pole dancing classes a few years ago in an attempt to add some sort of exercise into their day. Julie can still remember how much her arms ached and the bruises that littered the insides of her thighs after even the simplest of moves.

It was hard, and Luke was making it look so easy.

His feet hit the ground, and even though she’s too far away to actually hear it, she’s pretty sure they must make some sort of thudding sound. Because that’s what happens, right? You slide down the pole and your feet hit the floor with a thud that shows you’re ready for action. Only Luke isn’t going off to put on his uniform and fight a fire or save a life.

He’s walking towards her, suspenders swaying and smile widening and eyes never leaving her face.

And look, she knows that she’s seen Luke fully naked, fresh out of a shower or panting on his back. But seeing him slide down that fucking pole in his white t-shirt, suspenders by his knees and hair a mess? Hottest thing she has ever seen. And he knows it if the way his teeth sink into his bottom lip as he gets closer is anything to go by.

“How long did it take you to practice all that, Patterson?” Carrie asks, and Julie can hear the teasing tone in her voice and would normally enjoy seeing Luke stammer and blush, but right now she’s the one feeling too warm and is pretty sure if she started speaking right now all that would come out would be a high pitched noise.

“About the same amount of time it takes you to do your hair,” is his easy reply and Julie watches as Carrie rolls her eyes, hair flipping over her shoulder, and because he’s momentarily not looking at her, Julie tries to pull her thoughts together. To get a hold of herself. This is not the first time she has seen him in his uniform, she has seen in him in far less, and she will not turn into a blushing mess right now!

“Alright you lot, back to work!” Harrison interrupts before anyone can say anything else, and everyone starts walking away, some nudging Luke as they go, some giving her a wave, and she thinks she must smile back, at least she hopes she does. Her brain is still very much focused on Luke and how his thighs probably looked coming down that pole without the heavy duty trousers. “You tell Alex I’m still a fan of the flapjack he makes,” Harrison says as she walks past, dropping an eye into a wink and giving Luke a look she doesn’t understand.

A tense smile pulls at Julie’s lips that she hopes comes across as genuine and not just her unable to speak because of her incredibly hot and infuriatingly knows it boyfriend.

“You alright, Jules? Looking a little flushed, need me to get one of the EMT’s?” Luke asks, all innocence and anything but subtle as he rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet, teeth still chewing on his damn lip.

“Just—” she clears her throat, trying to glare up at him, but already knowing it’s ruined by the heat in her cheeks and how she can’t stop staring at his arms. God, she hasn’t been this distracted by his arms since their first date. Blowing out a breath, Julie drags her eyes away from where his arms are crossed across his chest — which, she’s like, 80% sure he’s doing on purpose right now, the little shit — and up to his face just as he raises an eyebrow at her.

“It’s just a little warm,” she finally manages to get out, raising her hand that’s clutching the reusable grocery bag too tight, “Alex sent me with lunch.”

Luke’s eyes light up at the mention of Alex and food, hands dropping from his chest to eagerly reach for the bag and Julie can’t help but giggle at how quickly he can switch from cocky to cute.

“Swee-et! Alex is best,” he grins down at her, drawing out the first syllable of the word and bobbing his head at her. “You wanna eat outside?”

Julie doesn’t respond, just nods her head and links her fingers through his empty hand, letting Luke lead her out of the fire station and to the little grassy area outside. There’s already a blanket on the ground, two bottles of water and a warmth spreads through her for a different reason as Luke pulls her down to the ground and spreads out the food Alex has given them.

They get an hour.

An hour to eat lunch and curl up together to talk and giggle and try to keep their hands visible at all times. It’s both her favourite and the most tortuous hour of her week so far. And Luke’s just leaning in to whisper something in her ear, his breath against her cheek sending shivers down her spine when the alarm starts blaring from inside and his head drops to her shoulder with a sigh that mingles with her own groan.

“I gotta go,” he mutters into the fabric of her t-shirt, and she can imagine how his lips would feel brushing against her skin if they were somewhere else right now.

“I know,” she sighs and carefully moves her shoulder so he has to lift his head up, eyes apologetic as they meet hers. “Be careful?”

“Always am,” Luke smiles gently at her and then he’s getting up and leaving her on the blanket and feeling the loss. Julie watches him go, knees pulled up to her chest and blowing him a kiss when he turns around to wave one last time like he always does when the alarm inevitably ends their lunch date early.

Which normally Julie was fine with.

He was at work. He had a job. He had an important job.

Running out in the middle of lunch was fine. And it would have been fine today, if he hadn’t slid down that damn pole and filled her head with all sorts of ideas and left her fidgeting in her seat. It doesn’t help that Luke clearly knows, if the way he presses a kiss to her forehead and mutters a sorry, eyes a little wide and promises to see her later.

Which is all well and good, but Julie can’t help but feel like he did it on purpose and wonders if there’s a way for her to make him feel just as flustered as she had an hour earlier.

It takes her a while to form a plan of revenge, and then it takes a while longer for her to gather all the things she needs. And okay, maybe at some point she forgets why she’s doing all this, and then Luke mentions the pole at the station and how it makes his muscles ache sometimes as he says he’s going for a shower and Julie remembers the sight of him coming down and redoubles her planning.

The hard part comes when she has to pick a day. Because she can’t lure him to her house, not while her dad is working odd hours and her brother is home and Victoria still has a tendency to show up unannounced. Which leaves finding a time when his apartment is empty.

Not an easy feat when Reggie works from home part time, and can’t actually be trusted to stick to his word when he says he’ll be out and Alex has a weekend routine he’s hard pressed to change and likes to get home from work and relax. Plus she has to check when Luke isn’t working on a weekend, which turns out to be the easiest part, because it turns out Harrison really likes her and was happy to schedule Luke a weekend off when she asked.

Sure, she could have enacted her plan while one or both of them were home too but, well Julie knows the boys are all very close, and she knows that they’ve accepted her into the closeness with welcome arms. But she’s not sure she wants to have sex while they’re eating leftover lasagna down the hall. Feels a little too close for her liking. Plus, she has a plan that might end up involving their bath and she’s not sure they’d want to be there for that.

So Julie bides her time. Changes her mind on what clothes she wants and practices different poses on her bed at night and drops little hints about a weekend alone together.

Alex makes plans first, announces that he’s going with Willie to an out of state kids skateboarding competition to help cheer on Willie’s little proteges. He makes a big deal out telling them all the dates and how they had plans to go to some couples spa on their way back and how his restaurant would be ‘more than happy to supply any meals for two that you two might want’.

It had gone over Luke’s head, just nodding and asking about the competition. But Julie had gotten the hint.

And then a few days later Reggie said he had ‘big plans’ with her dad and brother of all people. He’d said it one afternoon when she’d stopped by to see Luke before his week of night shifts, how they were going to go camping so her dad could take some photos for a project and Reggie could teach Carlos to fish, and then he’d dropped his eye in a dramatic wink when she’d asked if that was the same weekend Alex was also away.

(Julie knew that she probably should have found it a little weird how often Reggie seemed to talk and hang out with her family, but the first time she’d gotten home to find him sitting at the dining room table, helping her dad edit photos and offering to order pizza, had felt strangely right.

Like he had always been a part of their family.

Luke had asked her once, a few weeks after they first started dating if it was okay. If she didn’t mind that Reggie had seemed to attach himself to her family. He never explicitly said anything, but she’d known him long enough by then to see the hints, the secrets she wasn’t aware of yet. Of lonely childhoods and something lacking. The hints that he’d found that with her family. And even if she hadn’t been fine with it already, she wasn’t about to stop Reggie. The Molina’s had never been shy about taking in lost souls.)

So apparently she hadn’t been quite as subtle as she thought she’d been with her hints. Both boys clearly conspiring to get her a weekend alone with their best friend. Julie’s just glad that Luke clearly hasn’t noticed. Or if he hadn’t, hadn’t teased her about it.

And that their apartment is empty when she uses her key to let herself in on Friday evening, Hotdog already waiting by the shoes for Luke, head tilted as she looks up mewling softly in disappointment.

“Sorry sweetie, he’ll be home soon though,” Julie mummers, bending down to scratch behind the cat's ears before stepping out of her shoes, which Hotdog happily moves to sit on top of instead. “Be sure to make a big fuss when he gets in so I know, alright?”

Hotdog doesn’t respond, just fixes her eyes back on the front door to wait for Luke, and Julie moves further into the apartment, laughing quietly at the plate of brownies Alex or Willie have clearly left out for them on the counter, blushing slight as she reads the short message scrawled on a post-it note,

‘Don’t mess up my kitchen ;)’

She tries not to let herself think too hard or long about how clearly they all knew about her grand plans for the night. And the next day, and hopefully the whole weekend if things went according to plan.

Picking up the plate on her way through the kitchen, Julie shrugs out of her coat to leave on the back of one of the kitchen stools, because if Luke missed her shoes in the hall, he won't miss this, and she’s really hoping he’ll get the hint to head towards his bedroom. By the time she’s made it to Luke’s room she’s lifted the cellophane off the plate and taken a bite from one of the brownies. Definitely Willie who’d baked them, he was always doubling up the chocolate content. Where Alex was experimental in the kitchen, Willie was a traditionalist who believed chocolate was the best way to set a mood. Julie couldn’t really fault his logic as she moves into Luke’s room.

His room looks the same as it had the first time she’d seen it. Only now there’s a bottle of her perfume on his dresser, and some of her clothes on his ‘laundry’ chair, and polaroids of the two of them stuck in the corners of the photo frames of him and the boys. And Julie knows if she thinks about it, that her room at her dad's house is also littered with pieces of him as well, and she knows it’s only been a few months, but it feels like years. Like her life had been full of all these little gaps she’d never noticed until they were filled with Luke.

Putting the plate down, she starts moving around his room. Pulling out the firefighting coat he’d brought home a few weeks ago because he’d found a rip in the shoulder, rooting through his wardrobe for the plain blue cut off she’d seen the last time she was over and laying them out on his bed. Tilting her head, Julie mentally puts together her outfit one more time. Shorts, suspenders, Luke’s cut-off, coat, maybe the shoes? She bites her lip and decides to come back to it, to see how everything looks on.

It’s strange, Julie thinks as she clips one side of her suspenders to her shorts, how nervous she is about this. It’s not like this is the first time they’ll have slept together, but it is the first time she’s done anything like this. Dressed up in something other than a pretty dress for dinner that he’d taken great care of taking off her.

What if he didn’t like it? What if he thought it was weird? What if he got home and was too tired to do anything? He’d been at work all day, after a long week of working, maybe she should change her plans and do it tomorrow night? What if—

She cuts her own thoughts off with a groan, sitting down on the end of Luke’s bed to take a breath and fiddle with knee high sheer socks dotted with little stars that she’d ordered online. Logically, Julie knows that Luke will like this, that he’ll look at her with those eyes of his that can’t hide a single emotion and smile at her slowly and call her beautiful.

Because he’d been complimenting her since their first date, and every day since. Little things and big changes and all the between. He really did seem to like her just as much dressed up and with make-up on as he did when she’d just woken up on a morning with her hair a mess and pillow creases still on her cheeks.

And that in itself was scary.

Because he liked her for her and didn’t need her to change. She’d never really dated anyone before who didn’t want her to be less invested in music or spend less time with her family or who didn’t like Flynn or even one guy who thought she should try a different scent of shampoo. They’d all been relationships littered with red flags, big and small.

But not even Flynn could find a real warning sign about Luke. Maybe he was a little co-dependant on his friends, but neither of them could say anything because they were a little co-dependant too. And maybe he could be a little over enthusiastic, but he also knew when to give her space. He had a stable job and good friends and was cute and lived in a nice area and he had a cat.

And, once upon a time, he had had a similar dream to her.

One of the things Flynn had managed to dig up on him during her ‘background’ check was an old low quality video on youtube of three boys in a garage playing instruments that looked too big for them but taking the whole thing seriously. Voices cracking on the cover of Summer of ‘69 they were playing, but Julie had seen the way they grinned at each other, at the way a younger Luke had bounced around the small space and Reggie had rocked on his feet and Alex had thrown a drumstick in the air and caught it again. They were kids, but they were talented and it's at that moment that Julie realises Luke was right. They could have made it.

She wonders what would have happened if fate hadn’t intervened in the form of a fire. She’s pretty sure Luke has wondered the same thing too. He doesn’t talk about it much and Julie’s never sure how much to push because he seems happy in his life and choices. And plus, if it hadn’t been for a fire in a record store, there’s a chance they wouldn’t have met.

Julie frowns a little at that thought as she rolls on her second sock over her knee and stands up, straightening out her shorts and twisting the side of Luke’s cut off up and tying it into a knot. She’s never been the biggest believer in fate since her mom died but she thinks there’s something a little like fate that’s pulled them together. And she thinks they’d have met with a fire or without a fire, with music or without.

She wrinkles her nose at herself in the mirror at that thought, rolling her eyes at how cheesy it sounds even to herself. Fate and destiny, who did she think she was? They were just two people lucky enough to find each other.

An alarm goes off on her phone to tell her she’s got half an hour before Luke is due home and this is her last chance if she wants to change her mind.

Tilting her head a slightly to the side, Julie takes in her high waisted shorts, red suspenders dangling by her thighs, the way her t-shirt cinches at her waist and reveals just a strip of skin above her shorts where she knows Luke likes to rest his hands when he pulls her close. She’d taken extra care with her curls and all she had to do was apply some lipstick and touch up her eyeliner and she’d be ready.

It’s Flynn’s voice in the back of her head as she tucks curls behind her ears to lean a little closer to her reflection and, as she pulls back, smacking her lips once before letting them rest in a pout, she can’t help but reiterate it, “I do look hot.”

The front door shuts and Julie can hear Hotdog meowing and Luke’s muffled voice down the corridor as she’s pulling his coat over her shoulders. It’s far too big for her, hanging below her knees and she has to roll the sleeves up three times to free her hands, but the collar smells like smoke and metal and Luke and his last name is written across the right hand side and his station across her back.

That was the part that Flynn had said would really get him — his name on her. Luke wasn’t exactly possessive, but she and Flynn had agreed there was just something about it that was A Lot, in a good way. (Unlike buying a pole and installing it in Luke’s room for a weekend, that was A Lot, in a bad way. Her plan had gone through many different phases before settling on this one. Luckily, it was also the cheapest.)

“Jules?” Luke calls and Julie bites her lip as she carefully climbs on to his bed, and kneels in the middle before changing her mind and crawling off the other side to stand next to it instead.

“I’m in here,” she calls back and she hears something dropping to the floor, probably his bag she guesses, and then his footsteps sounding down the hall.

Julie’s glad she opted for the shoes, just simple black heels, but they give her an extra lift and something more for Luke to look at as he opens his bedroom door. She has one knee slightly bent and resting on her toes, coat sleeves hiding the way her hands are balled up at her sides and one shoulder raised a little higher than the other as she tilts her head at him, biting her lip.

He freezes in the doorway, mouth partly open like he’d been about to say something only to get lost somewhere between his brain and vocal chords as his eyes seem to lock on to the coat she’s wearing before traveling down to her bare legs and Julie watches him swallow, adam's apple bobbing. Just as his eyes get back up to her face she moves one hand to tuck her coat behind her hip and hook her thumb under her suspenders in a way she’s seen him do countless times.

And it gets the reaction she wants, his eyes zeroing in on her hand and tracing up the line of red that covers her chest. Luke’s tongue darts out to swipe across his bottom lip as he blinks and finally drags his eyes back up to her face, pupils blown wide and she watches as he lets out a heavy breath.

“Hi,” she breathes out, and almost immediately regrets it. She's trying for sexy but thinks it just comes across as gasping. Which she hopes she’ll be eventually at some point tonight, but would at least like to be touched a little first.

“You—” Luke starts, and his voice is rough like he’s not used it in hours so he swallows again and Julie’s momentarily distracted by the way his throat moves before his speaking again, “Is that my coat?”

“Maybe,” Julie shrugs, turning slightly so she can pull at the collar of the coat to peer down at the name stitched in the fabric, “Oh look, it does say your name. Would you like me to take it off?” She blinks up at him with a soft smile.

Julie doesn’t know if it’s the smile or her words or just everything about the moment, but Luke lets out a low groan and before she can even blink he’s stood in front of her, hands on her hips and fingers brushing against her strip of visible skin, just like she knew he would. And she’s thankful for the heels all over again when it gives her the little extra height that means Luke doesn’t have to bend down quite so far to brush his lips across her cheek.

“You’re fucking gorgeous,” he mutters, lips ghosting along her jaw and Julie has to rest her hands against his chest to steady herself as her legs already feel wobbly. If she didn’t love him, she’d almost hate him for how easily he can affect her.

“Luke,” she whines as he continues to avoid her lips and trails one hand up his chest to wrap around his neck, fingers winding into his hair to tug lightly which only results in making him huff a laugh against the skin below her ear before giving in and pulling back.

“So,” he starts, press a light kiss to her cheek again again, “fucking,” he kisses the corner of her lips, “beautiful.” And he finally presses his lips to hers, soft at first and then she nips lightly at his top lip and he flexes his fingers against her hip, tugging her a closer with her suspenders to deepen the kiss.

Julie walks them backwards until the backs of her knees hit the edge of his bed and Luke takes the lead from there, lowering her down without breaking the kiss. He pulls away just enough to gasp for a breath, and she looks up at him, chest heaving and takes her chance to start her own teasing trail of kisses up his neck and across his jaw.

“Fuck,” he mutters and Julie smiles as she sucks lightly at his neck and sees the red mark her lipstick has left behind. She just hopes it lasts long enough for her full plan.

“This was because of the pole thing a few weeks ago, right?” Luke asks a few hours later as they lie in the middle of his bed, blankets half pushed to the floor and Julie’s spent the last five minutes kicking her legs back and forth to try and dislodge the reminder from covering her legs without having to turn around or sit up. She’s perfectly comfortably lying on her front, licking chocolate off her fingers from one of the brownies that Alex and Willie had been correct in leaving for them.

“Maybe,” she tries to shrug, but it’s awkward in this position and she quickly gives up to just look at him from under her lashes with a smile.

Luke laughs, his fingers trailing up and down her arm and over her shoulder a few times before he sits up slightly and leans over to press a kiss to her shoulder, “If I’d known it would cause such a reaction I would have slid down that pole in front of you months ago.”

“It might have still taken us months to get to this. Your roommates have very annoying schedules,” she shakes her head sadly and she thinks her hair has to be hitting him in the face, but he doesn’t say anything, just carefully gathers it in one hand to drape over her other shoulder, his lips still brushing soft kisses across her skin.

“Yeah. I’d get rid of them if Alex didn’t feed me for free and Reggie didn’t get us so many free tickets to stuff,” he sighs, breath blowing against her skin as his nose nudges over her shoulder blade until his lips follow and his rest his chin on her shoulder, and all she has to do is turn her head a little to find his eyes on her lips. “Though it would be so worth it for weekends like this.”

“Guess we should just make the most of this one first, huh?”

It’s a little awkward, and Luke must be uncomfortable with his torso twisted like it is, but it’s easy to kiss Luke, and to roll over until she can push him back down until his back hits the mattress and she can hover over him instead.

“You sound like you have a plan,” Luke comments, and his hands rest on her hips, fingers tapping against her as he looks up at her with those damn eyes of his. The ones that can’t hide a single thought or emotion. And all she can see is love, and okay yeah, probably a lot of lust.

“There might have been some bullet point list involved,” she shrugs one shoulder, her hair slipping over as she moves and Luke’s fingers flex against her, squeezing one hip as he lets out something that sounds halfway between a laugh and a groan.

“That shouldn’t be this hot,” he shakes his head, but his eyes are still shining and Julie loves him.

So she tells him. And kisses him. And wonders if it’s too soon to suggest they spend all their weekends together forever.

#julie and the phantoms #jatp fics #julie molina #luke patterson #jukebox #jatp #firefighter!luke au #serioulsy what else am i supposed to tag fics on here ghfj #*fics #i post this then i go to bed. enjoy and goodnight 😌

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pink-flame · 4 years ago

Text

Like You Could Love Me

So...the Angry Flower Squad was making me SO soft over gifs and @mamirugbee wanted porch fluff with kissing and I remembered that @thedeathdeelers and @missjoolee liked my idea of using this post as a Juke prompt and here we are. I wrote this from 12-2am so it’s quite possibly incoherent and I’m not checking for mistakes until tomorrow so take it for what it is, a late night labor of love. Enjoy! 💜

Julie hadn’t slept for almost 48 hours.

Her school was hosting a Los Feliz High After Dark event for the lower grades who didn’t get to attend prom. It was pitched as being just as exciting as the dance but in practice was known to be little more than a glorified sleepover in the school gym with PTA members for chaperones. Flynn had been determined that that year would be different, and had talked Julie into joining her on the planning committee.

The good news was that Flynn had a real flair for party planning and decorating when she was actually invested (see the difference between the dance they tried to forget and the way she had helped Julie’s dad throw together an epic garage party in less than 24 hours). So by the time Julie and Flynn and the other volunteers were done the gym was fully immersed in a carnival theme full of cute booths filled with potential activities and cute backgrounds to take pictures in front of. It was definitely an improvement over the year before which had been an under the sea theme which had consisted mostly of a few blue streamers and Mr. Weaver walking around in an inflatable Nemo costume.

The bad news was that it had taken a lot longer than they had anticipated and they hadn’t fallen into bed the night before the event until close to 2am. Julie hadn’t been able to sleep even after she slipped into bed next to Flynn and heard her best friend start making the small whistling noises that indicated she was out cold. Julie had been kept up with thoughts of what her bandmates were up to without her and if they had lingered a little longer on what Luke in particular was doing right then, well that wasn’t that surprising.

She loved Alex and Reggie but neither of them had attempted to hold her hand and remarked on their “interesting little relationship” or suddenly developed the ability to touch her and instinctively joined her in reaching out to gently cradle the other’s face.

No, Luke was different, not that she wanted to say that in front of him unless she was sure he felt the same overwhelming feelings she did Oddly enough she was much more concerned about the possibility that he didn’t than she was about the fact that he was still..well, a ghost. It wasn’t that she was unaware that his ghostly status could lead to heartache for her later on, of course she was. It just didn’t seem so important suddenly. After what had happened with her mom, what had almost happened with the guys only a couple of months ago...anything could happen at any time. Tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed anyway so why deny herself happiness now if she could have it? If she could have it. Because that was still the question.

Because Luke obviously liked her but did he like her? That sounded so juvenile but to call it anything else...well, that was really scary. Evil ghosts and the looming possibility of their return had nothing on the insecurity that came with not knowing exactly how the boy you lo...liked felt about you.

So Julie didn’t get much sleep that night, Flynn’s alarm seeming to go off only moments after she finally drifted off. She had dragged through school that day, trying to match Flynn’s excitement for the night’s upcoming festivities though her own enthusiasm had quickly drained out of her altogether along with her energy. In the end it had been as fun a night as it could be with Julie spending most of it in a semi-exhausted haze. She and Flynn had played some of the games they had set up, and danced to the music they both agreed would have been better if it had been either DJ’d by Flynn or performed by Julie’s band, and when Carrie had sneered something about how tacky the theme was even that had been half hearted and without any real bite.

So it was a pretty good night all things considered and Julie was in a good mood despite her complete exhaustion by the time Flynn’s mom dropped her off early the next morning. Ok, so maybe part of her good mood was actually because of her exhausted state by that point as she found herself feeling giddy and her mind had gone sort of pleasantly fuzzy. That was her excuse for how she found herself half-skipping up the path towards her front door, singing to herself.

We create...perfect harmony

“Somebody had a good time.”

Julie’s head snapped up to take in the figure of the boy who leaned against the pillar of the porch in front of her, a small smile bordering on a smirk tugging at his lips.

Luke.

What was he doing there?

Was he waiting for her?

She had to play it cool.

She had to be normal.

She had to not give away all the feelings that had been swirling around inside of her for the last couple of months since they first gained the ability to touch each other whenever they wanted and promptly both became too awkward to touch each other at all.

She had to…

“I missed you,” She blurted.

One of Julie’s hands flew up to cover her mouth as she took the last few steps up onto the porch, trying and failing to ignore the way Luke’s eyes widened even as that vaguely infuriating smirk grew larger.

“I didn’t mean that,” She insisted once her hand had dropped back to her side. “I mean...I didn’t not mean it but...I just meant it would have been fun if you could have come. Any of you. All of you. Um...yeah.”

Luke let her dig herself deeper, waiting until her stream of words had come to a complete stop. When they finally dried up he pushed off of the pillar with one of his signature little bounces, letting his momentum carry him to within a step of where she stood awkwardly on the porch.

“Did someone spike the punch at this dance?” He asked her, amusement clear in his tone.

Julie shook her head a little too fiercely, indignant despite the fact that she couldn’t exactly blame him for suspecting that she was drunk.

She felt a little drunk.

Not that she knew what it was like to be drunk but she was pretty sure it was similar to this.

Not the point.

“It wasn’t a dance it was a school sanctioned slumber party,” She corrected, focusing all of her energy on not slurring her words or otherwise embarrassing herself. “And nobody spiked anything. And actually nobody drinks punch anymore. Just so you know.”

Luke held up both hands as though he were surrendering but that smirk of his was impossible to deny at this point, a fact that both made Julie incredibly irritated and simultaneously fighting the urge to lean up and kiss it right off his stupid face.

Ok, that was not helpful.

“Not a dance, no punch. Got it,” Luke said, his voice just soft enough to keep her annoyance more or less at bay.

“Why are you out here anyway?”

Julie hadn’t meant to ask that but it felt like any filter her brain generally had was long gone at this point.

Luke tilted his head slightly and reached up to scratch at the back of his neck.

“Oh, you know, just taking in the view.”

Julie frowned skeptically.

“Taking in the view?”

“Yeah,” Luke said, gesturing out at the plant filled yard. “Just communing with nature you know? Honestly, I forgot you were even out last night.”

“Oh.”

Julie dipped her head a little so she didn’t have to look directly at Luke as disappointment rushed through her. She was pretty sure she was too tired to keep the evidence of that emotion from being completely visible. She was so frustrated with herself for caring at all. He wasn’t her boyfriend after all. Why would be be waiting for her?

“Julie.”

She reluctantly raised her head to meet Luke’s gaze which was fixed insistently on her. His smirk had fallen away leaving behind a look at once more open and somehow harder to read at the same time.

“I’m kidding,” He told her as he took a half-step closer to her, so close that she had to tilt her head up further to maintain eye contact. “I was waiting for you.”

“Oh,” She said again, very aware that she seemed to have lost the ability to say anything else.

She reached deep down inside and mustered up the strength to pull out one further word.

“Why?”

His eyes somehow managed to soften even more and his voice was oddly breathy when he answered.

“Because I missed you too.”

And Julie knew that the most prudent thing to do was tuck that phrase away as something warm, and happy and precious to examine more closely when she had slept and had the mental prowess to actually determine what it meant for their interesting little relationship.

She knew that.

But she was exhausted not only from lack of sleep but from months spent questioning where they stood. She was happy to hear him say that he had missed her, of course she was. But she also found herself feeling strangely...angry.

How dare he look at her with those big soft eyes and stare at her like that if he wasn’t ever planning on actually putting her out of her misery by telling her how he felt or didn’t feel?

“I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that,” The words burst out of her without her permission.

Luke was clearly taken aback by her words, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,’ She hesitated, just enough awareness seeping back in to make her realize what a truly stupid thing she was about to say. “Like you could love me.”

She watched as a whole range of emotions rushed over his face too quickly for her to decipher exactly what all of them were.

“Julie…”

“Forget I said anything,” Julie interrupted, turning towards the front door with every intention to flee the situation. “I’m just really tired.”

“Julie!”

He said her name more forcefully that time and she froze. She didn’t turn back to face him though, the pounding in her chest and the heat spreading across her face giving her all the incentive she needed to keep her head facing away.

Luke wasn’t having any of that though.

He reached out to gently tug her back towards him, one hand settling on her cheek while the other rested on her waist.

If she hadn’t been blushing before she certainly was now.

“Do you not want me to look at you like that because...because you don’t feel the same?”

Luke’s voice shook a little as he gave voice to that question, his thumb seeming to stroke across her cheek without his permission.

Julie was reeling, everything feeling surreal and dreamlike anyway because of her lack of sleep but when combined with Luke’s gentle actions it felt more and more unreal. She couldn’t help but remember the last time he had touched her face, how they had clutched at each other thinking it was the only chance they would ever have. Now they had new chances every day and they had been wasting them.

Why had they been wasting them?

“Wait...feel the same as what? Feel the same as who?” She asked as her brain finally caught up with what he had actually said.

He visibly swallowed and she took some comfort in the fact that apparently he was nervous too.

“The same as I feel,” He paused. “About you. I...I love you, Julie. And if that makes you uncomfortable I never have to say it again, ok? But it’s how I feel and I just wanted to say it. Once or whatever.”

“But…” Julie felt a giggle rising up inside of her as exhaustion and the pure absurdity of the moment settled in. “But I love you too.”

Luke’s thumb froze on her face as his eyes lit up with something close to hope.

“You do?”

Julie nodded, the giggle finally bursting out of her only to be met with a grin from Luke so radiant she wished she could capture it in a photo to look at later.

“You love me,” Luke said again as though he needed to confirm beyond any shadow of doubt.

“I love you,” Julie repeated agreeably. “And you love me?”

Luke nodded, bouncing a little on his heels as he somehow managed to step even more into her space.

“I love you.”

“Well…” Julie sighed happily. “Well, that’s great then.”

Luke let out a bark of laughter that probably would have been loud enough to bring her dad to the porch if anyone but her had been able to hear it.

Before she had time to remark on how obnoxiously loud he could be he was crowding her back until she bumped into the pillar he had been leaning against when she got home. The moment her back made contact with its firm surface he was bringing his other hand up until he was cupping both of her cheeks. She barely had time to adjust to that very much welcome sensation before he was lowering his head and aligning his lips with hers, pressing them together in a chaste peck that was still enough to send her heart racing. He started to pull back as if to gauge her reaction but she was having none of that. She had been waiting for this for so long and as previously established she had absolutely none of her usual ability to deny herself what she wanted.

And what she wanted was her hands on Luke Patterson right then.

She reached up and latched one hand on the back of his neck and the other threaded deep into his hair giving it a little tug just because she could. She had been wanting to touch him so badly ever since that night in the garage when she’d almost lost him and she’d been wanting to touch his dumb, messy hair ever since “I’m Luke by the way”. So she did.

He let out a little pleased sound that was cut off when she stretched up to press her mouth back to his, this time with twice as much force and no intention of separating anytime soon. To his credit he took the hint pretty fast, his hands dropping from her face to wrap around her waist tugging her body to press against his as he moved his lips insistently against hers. And wow...that was something, the sensation of almost all of her pressed up against almost all of him.

He wasn’t warm, not exactly, but he wasn’t cold either like she had feared he would be. It was more like his body was mirroring back exactly her own temperature, leaving it hard to determine where one of them began and the other ended when her eyes were closed as they currently were.

Or maybe that was just them.

Maybe it was like that quote she always saw floating around online about souls being made of the same stuff.

When she was well rested and thinking rationally she had always rolled her eyes a bit at stuff like that but now...she was beginning to see the appeal.

Julie massaged absentmindedly at the back of his neck as she drew his lower lip into her mouth, the sound he made in response enough to have her pulling back with a giggle.

“Come back here,” He mumbled, his lips chasing hers even as she turned her face away leaving him to press soft, wet kisses to her cheek.

“Now you sound drunk,” She told him, turning back to face him and looping both arms around his shoulders. “My dad will be up soon and I have no idea how I’d explain...this...when he can’t even see you.”

Luke groaned as he leaned down to rest his forehead against hers.

“You’re right.”

“I’m right,” Julie echoed.

It was true but that didn’t mean she was happy about it.

They stayed like that for another minute or so, just enjoying being this close to each other with nothing to hide. They might have stayed like that longer but Julie suddenly let out a yawn she couldn’t contain directly into Luke’s face.

Luke pulled back sharply but the soft smile that seemed to always be reserved just for her remained in place.

“You need to get some sleep,” He told her firmly.

She wanted to argue but all that came out was another yawn.

Ok, so there was no arguing with that.

“Goodnight,” She told him, suddenly feeling shy as she backed towards the front door wanting to keep him in her sight just a little longer.

Luke gestured around them to the soft light spilling around her yard.

“Good morning,” He corrected with a grin.

Never one to let him have the last word, certainly not when she was too tired to be embarrassed, Julie leapt forward to press one final lingering kiss on his lips, retreating before he could do more than return the pressure.

Julie backed towards the front door, the grin now firmly on her face and a rather dumbstruck one adorning his.

“Band practice later,” She reminded him. “Don’t be late.”

Then she slipped into the house and up to her bed, incredibly tired and pretty sure of exactly what she would be dreaming of.

#I blame the #angry flower squad #for this #and also my other friends who encourage me to see juke everywhere #you know you are #and I love you for it #feels so good to write dumb fluff honestly #Juke #Jatp #my fics #fanfiction

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adhd-disaster-willie · 4 years ago

Text

home is wherever you are tonight

summary: Alex and Willie are suffocating beneath their respective parental figures, so, barely 20 and scrambling to just breathe, they leave LA. And they also slow dance.

notes: this was gonna just be a like 800 word fic of them dancing but I have no self control so I ended up with this monstrosity. (also, maybe listen to apple pie by lizzy mcalpine while reading)

word count: 2,600

---

“I been runnin' 'round

Try'na find a place where I can breathe

But me oh my

I found you

Under an april sky

And you feel like

City life, apple pie baked just right

Home is wherever you are tonight”

---

The early morning tastes like coffee and Willie’s breath mints, gentle laughter lingering on his lips. And Alex has never been a morning person, but with the first rays of sun in his eyes and boxes crammed into every empty space in his car, he thinks that maybe he should wake up early more often.

The road seems to stretch endlessly ahead of them, but Alex can’t tell if the tension in his chest is anxiety or anticipation. Willie squeezes his hand in reassurance as he starts the car and they take a deep breath in unison, realizing it’s maybe the first time they’ve ever been able to truly breathe.

They’re several miles down the highway, shoved in between cardboard boxes and the dry August heat; and Alex’s car is cramped and smells of fast food and summer and Willie Willie Willie. Alex adjusts his grip on the steering wheel, mumbling the words to whatever song is playing on the clunky, staticky radio. The whole world seems softer, with the sun dipping just below the horizon, the last dregs of light sticking to the clouds and painting them pink. Alex sighs contentedly, a grin tugging at the ends of his lips. Willie has their hand stuck out the open window, giggling into the rushing air like it’s telling him the whole world’s secrets. And with their other hand gripped in his own, no reason to let go ever, Alex thinks that the secrets of the universe are laid right out on the dashboard for him to hold.

“What’s so funny?” Alex asks, although it’s less of a question and more a reason to hear Willie’s voice.

“We’re running away together,” Willie replies breathlessly. He laughs again, throwing his head back and stretching his arm farther out the window like he’s trying to touch the clouds.

“Well I wouldn’t quite say we’re running- oh okay.” The last part is in response to Willie putting their index finger over Alex’s lips and looking at him like he’s crazy.

“Yes we totally are. Buzzkill.”

Alex huffs, but it doesn’t hold any weight and is laced with a smile. “I’m driving, idiot. Stop- okay move your hand please.”

“Make me.”

“Willie.” Alex’s fixes a stern gaze on him, just long enough to send them into a fit of giggles before he turns back to face the road. It’s several minutes of comfortable, soft silence before Alex sighs in resignation. “I guess you can say we’re running away.”

“Ha!” Willie pumps his fist, narrowly avoiding smashing the ceiling. And really, considering the age of Alex’s rickety car, smashing would probably be the right word.

Alex raises their intertwined hands briefly. “Here’s to running away.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Willie cheers. They crinkle their nose and kiss Alex’s knuckles, hugging their hands to his chest.

“That’s…” Alex shakes off the crimson tint to his cheeks. “You’re not drinking anything.”

“Not yet,” Willie replies, waggling his eyebrows mischievously.

Willie falls asleep with the sun, something that’s baffled Alex for years. The sky is twinkling with stars and the horizon with city lights, and Willie’s curled up around a pillow, their cheek pressed against the window, breath fogging up the glass. Alex shifts slightly to turn down the music, maneuvering around cautiously to reach the knob without letting go of Willie’s hand. He can’t help from humming under his breath, it’s an older Queen song, one Alex remembers listening to with tangled headphones, huddled in the corner of the gym to avoid the atrocity of dodgeball.

“Love of my life…” Alex trails off, mouthing the lyrics. Beside him, Willie stirs slightly, mumbling something incoherent.

“Hmm?” Alex likes having conversations with a mostly asleep Willie, it’s incredibly entertaining.

“Love you more.” Eyes still closed, Willie pats Alex’s cheek and nods decidedly. “Mostest.”

“Is that so?”

“Love of my life!” Willie sings along loud and off-key, voice slurred with sleep. “M gonna love you forever.” They fall back, last bits of consciousness gone, and Alex blinks back surprised tears.

“And ever,” he finishes softly, squeezing Willie’s hand. Forever sounds nice.

The rest of the drive floats by like a spring breeze snaking through a field of long grass. Willie wakes up at some point, eats an ungodly amount of popcorn and screams the lyrics of American Idiot out the window at the bustling city, like it’s the last time he’ll ever get to hear the song. Alex can’t help but laugh loudly when a conservative looking old lady glares at them, utterly scandalized.

“I think you just ruined her night,” Alex quips with mock seriousness.

“As I should!” Willie flops back into the seat, adjusting their tangled seatbelt and looking at Alex with a lopsided grin.

Alex laughs for what’s maybe the millionth time today, and it hits him that this is the most he’s ever involuntarily smiled in a day. It’s half past 8 and he’s settled at the base of a tree with Willie perched on a branch just above his head, rambling on about color theory or something equally as confusing. The drive would’ve taken 4 hours without Willie pulling on Alex’s elbow and squealing for him to stop at everything mildly interesting, but Alex isn’t entirely complaining, even if his back is sore.

It’s odd, to be leaving LA, but Alex thinks that everyone knew he couldn’t stay there his whole life, not with the church on his drive to work and the streets full of too many people that know him too well. And maybe he didn’t like change, but it can’t be that much of a change if Willie is still there with him. Willie grounds him. So do Luke and Reggie and Julie and Flynn, but in a different way. His parents tied him to the floor, his friends root him, let him grow and have a place to come home to at the same time. And Willie? Willie is the ground. He is the soil and the curling grass to Alex’s timid tree. Willie is home, wherever they may be.

“2 miles,” Alex states, pulling gently on Willie’s ankle, letting them know that he wants to look at them. Willie hops down and Alex winces even when they land safe and sound on their feet.

“Why do you do that?” Alex questions huffily, crossing his arms over his chest.

Willie gives a half shrug. “ ‘S fun.”

“For you, maybe.”

“Hmm.” Willie drapes their arms around Alex’s neck, pulling him into into a gentle kiss. Kissing Willie feels like rain after months of drought, sun breaking through a canopy of trees, and Alex is sure that it always will, until they’re old and grey. Alex smiles against his lips, pulls apart and rests his forehead against Willie’s, biting his lip in a soft smile. “C’mon.” He clasps Willie’s hand and sticks it in the pocket of his hoodie, bumping their shoulders together. “Lets go home.”

“Home.” Willie breaks out in a grin that glows like the full moon on a clear night. “Yea.”

---

The apartment complex is wedged in between a suspicious looking butchery and a quaint little antique shop with butterflies painted on the dusty windows that Alex reminds himself to take Julie to at some point, when his friends all inevitably visit in the whirlwind that they are. The pale yellow wall paint is peeling and the stairs are much more wobbly than Alex is comfortable with, but he lets out a breathless, bubbly laugh at the sight of it. His parents aren’t there, nor is Caleb, or any of the things back in LA that were suffocating them both to the point that they booked it, half-broke and with only 2 months of warning.

Alex swings their hands, looking at a very bouncy Willie with his eyes blown wide from excitement. “Hey, we’re home.”

“We’re home!” Willie grabs Alex’s face roughly, fumbling to kiss him with their hands shaking and lips curled up in a giddy beam. They settle for holding him in a crushing hug, swaying them back and forth gleefully.

“You’re excited,” Alex chuckles, brushing at his crumpled hoodie when Willie breaks away.

Willie sticks his tongue out childishly. “So are you, admit it.”

Softening, Alex cups Willie’s cheek and exhales softly. “Of course I am.” He crinkles his nose affectionately as Willie leans up to peck his cheek. “Now-” Alex stacks as many boxes as he can fit in his arms. “Lets do this.”

---

It’s 2am and Alex is completely and utterly exhausted. Half the boxes are open, they unpacked most of it just looking for the air mattress. His record player is resting on the counter, there’s a pile of books in one corner and several trashbags of clothes in another. Willie is sitting crosslegged on the floor trying to work the portable air pump and scowling at the still deflated mattress like it stole his wallet.

“Y’know, you’d think they would provide some sort of instruction book,” Willie says poutingly. They fall back onto the wooden floor with an annoyed sigh.

Alex looks up from where his head is buried in his arms, sitting on the single bar stool they’d managed to fit in the car. “There was an instruction book, speed bump. You threw it out because you claimed that ‘everyone knows how to work an air pump!’”

“But I’m not everyone!” Willie whines. “You should’ve warned me.”

“I… okay.” Alex bows his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Lets blow up the mattress and call it a night, okay?” He lowers himself to the floor, hovering over Willie and tucking a strand of hair behind their ear. “Give me the pump, I’ll figure it out.”

“Hmm.” Willie hauls themself up, yawning loudly. They settle themselves in Alex’s lap, head tucked into his shoulder while Alex wraps his arms around them and fiddles with the mattress.

“M gonna fall sleep here,” Willie mumbles into Alex’s shoulder.

“Yea?”

“Mhm, g’night.” Willie burrows further into Alex, tucking his hands into his hoodie pockets.

Alex exhales, a fond smile tracing his face. He lifts one hand to card his fingers through Willie’s long hair, using the other to blow up the mattress. Willie groans in frustration at the loud noise and Alex has to fight a laugh.

“Alright get up, we have to- Willie.” Willie’s latched himself onto Alex like some sort of leech, pretending to be asleep despite the soft giggling escaping his lips.

“William,” Alex says, snickering. Willie doesn’t budge. “Pretty boy,” Alex tries. That always works.

Willie melts, lifting their head and flushing bright red. “Stop taking advantage of me,” He grumbles as he stands, pulling Alex up with him.

“Stop letting me,” Alex retorts with a teasing chuckle.

But instead of flopping unceremoniously onto the mattress like Alex expects, Willie pads tentatively to the wide window facing the flickering city and lets out a breath of awe. He hugs himself firmly, brushing his thumb over his bicep. Alex approaches them and snakes his arms around their torso, perching his chin on their shoulder and humming in question.

“I’m okay,” Willie answers the unspoken question, nudging Alex’s head lightly. “It’s just overwhelming but like…” he pauses, eyebrow furrowed in thought. “In a good way. It’s a lot, but it’s all good.”

Alex nods in understanding. “Yea, I agree.” He intertwines their fingers, rocking back and forth. “Lots of good.” He presses a kiss to the top of Willie’s head, lingering for a moment to relish in his presence.

“It’s beautiful,” Willie remarks, eyes raking over the bright city lights. It looks so distant and yet so familiar at the same time.

“You’ve seen the city a million times.”

“Ok, but this is a different city,” Willie responds. It’s true. It’s like the same puzzle with all the pieces arranged differently, except for one in the middle that the whole rest of the world revolves around.

Willie wriggles in Alex’s grip and spins around, tossing their arms over his shoulders and fidgeting with the hood of his sweatshirt. “Dance with me,” he says, voice soft and silvery, a whisper of cloud waltzing across the moon. Alex raises a doubtful eyebrow.

“You wanna dance… Willie, we’re exhausted.”

“No, no, no,” Willie shakes his head slowly, eyes squeezed shut for a moment. “Just-” They settle one hand one Alex’s shoulder and the other on his hip. Humming a gentle, lilting tune, they begin swaying side to side, drumming his fingers to a beat only in his head. “Dance with me.” He presses an idle kiss to Alex’s lips, chapped from the wind and laced with fresh apples . “Please.”

Alex hums in consideration, moving Willie’s hands to hold them in his own. “One second.” He ducks out of Willie’s arms, earning a squeak of protest.

Alex has had his record player for years now, Ray gave it to him as a Christmas present when he was 15 and he definitely cried. He’d gone through 3 boxes packing his records and Willie had looked… mildly concerned. But ha, who’s laughing now? The vinyl starts, popping occasionally in the way that makes Alex giggle with joy. Alex steps back proudly, floating back over to Willie and mimicking their previous position, one hand on their hip and the other on their shoulder. Willie smiles fondly at the song choice, Apple Pie by Lizzy Mcalpine, though he knows that nothing else would’ve fit.

“Remember the first time we listened to this song together?” Alex asks as Willie stumbles over his feet.

Willie nods. “Course I do, hotdog. You got sooo blushy.”

Alex shrugs nonchalantly. “Well, you kissed me so it worked out.”

“It did,” Willie whispers.

Alex spins them messily, laughing aloud when they slam into his chest without warning. "Very graceful," he remarks sarcastically.

Willie scrunches his face affectionately, pecking the tip of Alex's nose, singing gently as he draws back. "Home is wherever you are tonight."

It’s a tender moment, until Willie steps on Alex’s foot and snickers an apology. “Oops-”

“Ow, Willie. You don’t know how to slow dance do you?” Alex teases.

“Ok-”

Alex sighs warmly, god sometimes all the feelings were just so big and overwhelming. “Just, c'mere-” He draws Willie closer to him, embracing them like he’s the only thing in the world. And maybe, for the moment, he is. Willie tucks his head into Alex’s shoulder, breathing in his scent, lavender and dust; and Alex follows suit. His eyes flutter shut and he hums contentedly, heart giving a leap at the sheer domesticity of dancing in the empty living room in their pajamas, Willie tracing slow, sleepy circles on his back.

They’re hardly dancing anymore, really, wrapped up in each other like the sea and the shore at high tide, swaying to their synced heartbeats. The unfamiliar walls and creaky floorboards, cold beneath their socked feet, suddenly begin to look like home beneath all the strangeness and Alex can’t help but grin.

Alex’s home is in the crook of Willie’s neck and the light curve of his spine; the scent of rainstorms and cotton holding him close like he’s prone to break. And perhaps one day he will break, fall apart in Willie’s arms. But with the scratchy record humming in the background, and Willie’s body melting into his own, he thinks that their arms would be the best place to fall apart in.

---

art i made :)))

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp fic #willex #willex fic #willie jatp #willie wilbur williamson #willie nolastname #alex mercer #netflixwewantjatp2 #julie molina #willow writes

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bluefirewrites · 4 years ago

Note

i gotta Juke AU story

————

this is inspired by this one filipino movie i watched “para sa hopeless romantic” but julie and luke go to the same uni and julie writes a random line of lyrics on a schools desk and luke writes the next lines when he’s in his class. the next day julie sees someone finished her lyrics and they end up having a finished song throughout the week. they obviously end up falling in love with each other’s words but one day the desks in that classroom were thrown out so julie and luke try and find the desk and run into each other only for Luke to find out it’s Julie, his crush since the beginning of school, and Julie finds out it’s Luke, they boy who she’s been eyeing ever since she’s first seen him. honestly this is all over the place. this is just another random college au. tehe

I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS FROM A FILIPINO MOVIE!

I have much more pride in my culture now you have no idea haha! But no really, Filipino movies can be the cheesiest, silliest, most cliche things I’ve ever seen. And I mean that endearingly.

So it makes total sense that this super cute trope that I see popping up in different fandoms came from a Filipino movie.

I think I’ve seen an iteration of this on AO3 and it was super cute! (But I think it was more like leaving a piece of paper on a desk).

But yes, yes , YES.

Juke is the perfect ship for this.

Hmm... I think it would be an interesting take, because my mind went to Luke first, if it was Julie who would start it- yes I agree with you.

It is canon that Luke helped Julie finish the song that she had been working on with her mom (’Stand Tall’), so might as well run with it.

Maybe during her quiet year, where she didn’t sing or play piano, she often found herself doodling a lot. She kinda threw herself into drawing. It was her creative outlet that brought her comfort during these rough times.

She’d have trouble paying attention in class sometimes, and so she would end up doodling.

Now, I used to have a history class that frowned upon doodling in notebooks. The notebooks would be graded, and if there is a non-history, non-relevant doodle in the margins or anything- you get points docked off.

So Julie, like me, tried remedying this by doodling on post it notes to avoid getting in trouble.

But one day, Julie forgets or runs out of post it notes, and she’s only got her history notebook and textbook with her. And since she has no qualms marking up her jeans and shoes, she thought she’d be discrete and doodle on the desks.

Not like anyone would have a problem with that anyway. These desks are old af and scratched up and had doodles on them already.

She would start drawing her usual stuff- funky creatures, bubble letter-ed profanities, etc.

But then she starts thinking about her mom, she starts doodling dahlias and even a rose in one corner. Memories start flooding back and she starts absentmindedly writing down a lyric of a song they never finished, just bits of pieces figured out:

‘Don’t blink...no, I don’t want to miss it’

She didn’t think to erase it. Just grabbed her stuff and went to her next class.

The following day however, she pulls out her post-notes (after getting more) and is about to doodle when she sees a new scribble on the corner of the desk where she wrote her lyrics.

Squinting, she realizes those are words (geez, the penmanship sucks). But she was able to make it out:

‘One thing, and it's back to the beginning’

It’s written right under her line. And she reads them together-

Wow. This sounds... pretty good.

She quickly jots this mysterious new addition to the song in her post-notes, but not before giving writing another shot and provide another line. Curious, if she would get another response.

She does.

And it’s perfect.

It’s been a year, a year since she felt the urge to write, to think about music- but, when all the lyrics fall into place, Julie is suddenly inspired to continue.

She spends the entire class thinking about how to reply, how to keep the momentum of this song going.

When she gets it, she writes it down underneath the new line. And waits.

And like clockwork, next day she sits down and there’s a new addition.

First verse done- Julie couldn’t believe it.

Smiling, she records it all and had to erase everything from before to make more room.

‘Thanks’ she writes ‘Keep going?’

The reply the next day has her grinning from ear to ear:

‘I’m game :)’

And that’s how it goes: Another day, Another killer line.

Julie would rush from her next class, confusing Flynn who did not think she would be so excited going to history, smile on her face, anticipating another message from this mystery writing partner.

Sometimes, she gets too caught up in her head, eagerly thinking up new lines that she often doesn’t watch where she’s going. One time, she pretty much embarrassed herself while bumping into the cute Luke Patterson in her rush to History.

(She practically fell on him and he tried to talk to her after, but she jumped out of his arms before whatever awkward conversation that was bound to happen if she stayed).

Julie and her pen pal would keep working on the song, even came up with a system to let each other know if they’ve finished a verse.

And sometimes it’s not just lyrics. Julie draws her normal doodles next to her lines, and she’s delighted to find even more ridiculous ones waiting for her when she gets back.

There was one time when she’s had to stifle a laugh because a crude caricature of their History teacher in their corner, yelling out the next lyric:

‘I'm goin’ out of my mind!’

(Glad to know someone else shares the same sentiments about their strict history teacher.)

They finish her mom’s song and Julie’s glad... grateful even. But she couldn’t help but feel disappointed... assuming it’s over.

But come Monday the following weekend, her pen pal decided to leave another line-

‘Running from the past... Tripping on the now’

and a new comment:

‘My turn now?’

A new song, and Julie grins, already coming up with ideas...

She loves writing again, especially music. Sparked by this exchange, she eases herself back into listening to music again, looking for inspiration to use for the song she and her mysterious partner are working on.

And writing with this person... is really something else.

But Julie’s favorite part of the whole experience really is the comments written on the upper corner. Stuff like:

‘This part is killer!’

‘Mindreader, much? :P’

‘Wrecking ball at it again. So talented :)’

and her favorite:

‘You make me a better writer...’

She ducks down so no one can see her blush as she writes back:

‘I think we make each other better...’

Flynn one day tells her straight up she’s got a crush on her pen pal, to which Julie denies because how could she have a crush on someone she doesn’t even know.

But as she thinks about it.. she feels like she does. Or at least know enough to establish this sort of connection that feels like they’re in each other’s heads, know how the other person thinks, inspiring the other.

It was... special.

Flynn suggests that she needs to figure out who is leaving these notes. But it’s hard seeing as though Julie has the class in an earlier period, a bunch of other classes are held in the same room after she leaves.

(Flynn tries a sting operation, but ends up getting caught ditching class before she could solve the mystery).

Julie’s worried though. As much as she wants to figure out who this great pen pal is, she wonders if they would be disappointed to find out they’ve been writing her. And not someone as cool and as pretty as Carrie Wilson or her friend Kayla. It’s hard to live up to those expectations.

In the end, she wants to know. At least so she could maybe thank them in person, for helping bring music back into her life and for making history class the highlight of her day.

She decides this right before they break for Thanksgiving. She writes down:

‘I wanna meet you. Can we talk?’

And she’s on pins and needles the entire break, just wondering what her pen pal would say back. ‘Yes’, ‘no?’.

But what she finds when she comes back from break is so much worse than the fear of rejection.

They got new desks.

Their school finally got their shit together and replaced their old, worn down desks.

‘No, no, no, no, no’.

That means she’ll never know what her penpal end up replying...

She runs out of class and finds Flynn, panicked, she tells her what happened. And Flynn does some digging, and she’s able to find out where the janitors dumped the old desks.

Julie totally underestimates just how desperate she is in finding out the identity of her pen pal because she finds herself sneaking back to school at night with Flynn, seeking out the lot behind school where the dumpsters were piled high with the old desks.

Flynn, the ride or die she is, armed with a flashlight, starts taking out the desks along with Julie, and there are... a lot of desks.

They go at it for an hour, and the situation starts to look hopeless, especially when Flynn discovers a whole new set of dumpsters with desks that they haven’t even checked yet.

They’re about to throw in the towel-

But then they hear voices.

Quickly, they hide behind a dumpster right when three guys, with flashlights, come onto the scene.

“Dude, I can’t believe we’re here at this hour-”

“Oh my god. There’s like a boatload of stuff here-”

“Guys. Can you not? And please help me? It’s gotta be here somewhere”.

They sound... familiar. They were definitely not the custodians.

Risking it, Julie leaves her hiding spot-

“Luke?”

Luke Patterson jumps and whips around to face her, “Julie?”

Behind him are his bandmates, Alex and Reggie. Everyone looks at each other confused.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

“I...uh, I’m-” Julie stammers, “Well-”

Flynn cuts in, “She’s looking for something,”

Luke nods, “Really? So are we.”

Alex scoffs, “Nope. Just you, dude. But we’re helping.”

“Maybe we can help you too?” Reggie offers, “What are you looking for?”

Julie sighs, “... a desk?”

“Well... you came to the right place...” Luke laughs, shining his flashlight on the dumpsters, “Funny enough that’s what we’re looking for too.”

“One in particular?”

Then the guy gets all clammed up, “Uh... yeah. I think... I might have... left something... in it. Something important.”

“How about we all look together?” suggests Flynn, “Help each other out?”

And so they exchange the descriptions on the desk, with Julie leaving out the glaring obvious detail of the note.

They’re surprised to find out that they’re looking for the same kind of desk. The ones they used in a particular building at school, the same one her history class is in.

So they break off and search. And she ends up in the same dumpster as Luke.

“So what’s in your desk?” he ends up asking.

“Huh?”

“You know... that’s so important that you’re here on a Friday night, digging through a dumpster,”

“Right... uh,” Julie scrambles for an answer, “There’s something on- I mean, in the desk... that really helped me. I was going through a hard time. Lost my mom last year-”

Luke stops his search, “Oh, I’m so sorry-”

“It’s okay. I just...” she sighs, finding another desk that looks like hers but not quite, “I just want to find it...”

“I get it. Hopefully we can find your desk.”

“Hopefully we’ll find yours too,”

After another 20 minutes searching, Julie finds it. At the very bottom of the dumpster. Luke’s face lights up once she brings it out.

“Oh my god, you found it!” He exclaims, hands gripping the edge to take it off her hands.

She tugs it back, “Yeah... I found it... my desk,”

“Your desk? But this is my-” he breaks off, eyes widening, “Wait. Are you...?”

“Am I what?”

Luke drops the desk, clears his throat, and starts reciting:

‘I believe... I believe that we're just one dream...’

Julie gasps, then continues:

“Away from who we're meant to be...”

Then together: “That we're standing on the edge of...”

“...great.” Luke finishes, in awe, “You! You’re ‘Lyric Girl’!”

“You’re my pen pal?” Julie says in disbelief.

Luke Patterson has been her pen pal this entire time? The cutie with the cutoffs? It makes total sense. He’s in a rock band and the songs she’s heard from them have amazing lyrics.

Wait... she has been lowkey crushing on Luke Patterson through his words...

“Wow, it’s you! Luke... wow...” she honestly has no words. They used to come easy to her when she talks to him via the desk, but now, after finding out that the local heartthrob is her writing partner, she’s super nervous.

“Look... if you’re disappointed that it’s me... I get it. I’ll give you an out, and you won’t ever have to talk to me again-”

“Julie-”

“-like this is weird- this is weird right? But I mean what we had was nice and all-”

“Julie, can you-?”

“-we don’t ever have to talk about this if you don’t-”

“Julie!” He reaches for her hands and intertwines their fingers, shutting her up.

“Yeah...?”

He takes a deep breath before saying: “Why would I ever be disappointed that it’s you? I’ve... got like a mad crush on you since freshman year...”

Julie choked, “Wait, what?”

“Voice of an angel and wicked beauty to boot? How could I not?” he smiles, “And... finding out that you’re my mystery muse is just... you don’t know how happy that makes me.”

His smile drops and he’s all the sudden bashful, “Wait... are you disappointed that it’s me?”

She shakes her head, “No, no! That’s not why! It’s just... you’re this rockstar in the making! I didn’t think- I didn’t think you’d ever pay attention to me.”

“I do... I do pay attention,” he looks down at their desk, “Well... maybe not enough attention, otherwise we would have met sooner.”

She laughs, “Totally,”

They stand there for a while, grinning at each other like idiots.

“So...” Julie decides to jump the gun, “Do you... maybe wanna grab something to eat?”

Luke raises an eyebrow, “Are you asking me out, Julie?”

She blushes, “Maybe,”

“Interesting,”

“So what’s your answer?”

He leans in, “Might wanna look down,” he whispers.

She does, right on their desk and finally reads the reply she’s spent weeks thinking about.

‘Tell me where and when...

I’ll be there...’

Needless to say, but that from that day on- they don’t need to use their desk to talk anymore...

#this... has been sitting in my inbox #and finally I have answered!#I LOVE THIS CONCEPT #giving me the same vibes as my imaginary friends penpal juke idea #i guess this means i just... love Dash & Lily #julie and the phantoms #jatp #julie and the himbos #juke #palina #juke-box #julie x luke #luke x julie #julie molina #luke patterson #how many times am i gonna sneak in 'wicked beauty' in whatever I write?

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thebladeblaster · 3 years ago

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SMT4: The Legendary Adventure of Issachar

Summary: Basically what if Issachar survived with a twist

I just realized I never re-released the concept chapter as chapter 1😅. I noticed people liking chapter 2 and not chapter 1 which confused me until I realized I never put chapter 1…My bad I thought I did when I released chapter 2 I guess I forgot.

Chapter 1 The Descent

Today was the day of the gauntlet rite. The young Casualry man Issachar was excited at the prospect of becoming a samurai as he strode confidently forward in spite of the words of the Luxuror he and his best friend Flynn talked to. Issachar had brown hair in a ponytail and brown eyes. He had brown peasant clothes and an elaborate poncho that mimics the kind Luxurors wear. He had brown furry gloves as well. His friend Flynn had black hair in a more neat ponytail with triangle bangs and green eyes which has always made him stand out as much as he didn’t want to. Green eyes were quite the oddity in Mikado which naturally drew attention to him. He wore long sleeved brown peasant clothes and a much more simple poncho.

He lingered behind Issachar trying his best to avoid too much unwanted attention. There had been some gossip around the village for the longest time that his parents were formerly Luxurors though it's never been proven. The only real evidence towards the claim besides his family’s more exotic looks was the fact that they weren’t always in Kiccigiori and instead moved there when Flynn was young.

Flynn was a man who would shoulder the burden of deciding the fate of the world. He will grow through the tragedies he will face to become a legendary samurai. No matter which road he picks he is always for his enemies a man to fear…however this is not his story.

Issachar Pov

Dang, Flynn I know you're shy, but you’re acting like a mouse. If he gets chosen he’s going to have a lot of toughening up to do hopefully...no I’ll definitely be there to help!

I can’t wait to see the look on Maria’s face when we both become samurai! Oh wait, I won’t because of the duty I’ll never have to see that priss again. Up ahead he could see a crowd of people in Aquila Plaza. That must be where the gauntlet rite is!

“Those who have come for the Gauntlet Rite, form up here. You must abide to your turn”, a samurai called out.

I quickly grabbed Flynn’s arm and ran to the crowd. I could see samurai with weird white cloth on their heads which looked a bit ominous. There was a member of the church holding out a gauntlet.

“This is it...We’re finally here...Do you know, I heard a curious thing from the elders at our village. Those who pass the Rite and become samurai must live in Mikado Castle. As I heard it, they can’t even go back their hometown, unless it’s for a mission. This could be farewell for us, Flynn...”, I said.

As I said the last part Flynn squeezed my hand and smiled at me.

“We won’t let it be the end. We’ll definitely stick together when all of this is done. You’ve got to believe.”, Flynn said, which made me smile back at him.

“Definitely.”, I replied, bumping fists with him.

I could see the nervousness in his eyes though he put up a brave front. As they did, a man left complaining about the rite after failing.

“I will become a samurai...I’m definitely going to be a samurai...A samurai and a Luxuror at that…”, I assured himself.

“Next candidate, step forth!”, the samurai said.

“That’s my cue. Here I go to become a samurai! Just know, Flynn...you’ll always be my friend.”, I said.

“Always.”, Flynn said, nodding in agreement.

I am going to become the greatest samurai ever! I have been praying to God weeks in advance to be chosen! I trained so much with Flynn to get ready for this day! They sword fought everyday for years in preparation and it won’t go to waste!

My breath hitched when THE gauntlet of the samurai was placed on my arm. I honestly hardly heard what they said and in my excitement I mimicked the actions of the others before me to activate the gauntlet. I touched the glass-like part of it waiting in anticipation for it to light up with God’s light. I waited...I waited…

I waited…

“Next candidate, come forth! I’m talking to you there. Hurry up to the square. ”, the samurai said to Flynn as I grew pale.

It didn’t. I fell to my knees in despair. There’s no way after all of that work he’s going to be a farm boy forever! Me and Flynn locked eyes. I could see his nervousness soared through the roof when I wasn’t chosen. His gaze lingered on my crumpled form before obeying the samurai.

At least this way we won’t be separated.

Flynn was silent as he walked into the center of the plaza. All eyes were on him, effectively the worst nightmare of a timid person like him. He was sweating bullets as he walked past the samurai lined up.

They were definitely both going home.

“Oh……”, I walked away past Flynn wistfully.

“What’s the matter? It’s your turn next, isn’t it? Go on.”, a sharp eyed veteran samurai said, seeing Flynn’s nervousness.

He knew of his status from his white coat as opposed to the normal blue coat. He looked rather old, having short white hair and a goatee. Around his neck he wore a blue scarf. Not that it matters since he’ll probably never see this guy again.

He toned out the rest as he walked out of the crowd in disgrace waiting for Flynn to join him. He waited...and waited for Flynn to walk back to him.

“The gauntlet has accepted this man as its owner…!”, I jumped up gaping as the monk spoke those words.

“Ahh...the birth of a new samurai.”, I heard someone say.

There’s no way…! I pushed past the crowd of people to confirm it for myself .

“Congratulations, Flynn. You are now a samurai.”, the monk said.

A look of complete disbelief formed on my face. Flynn was accepted over him?! Why?! He could see a bright light radiating from the gauntlet on Flynn’s arm.

“Sir Hope, please show Flynn to the residence hall...I am sorry? Do you not understand that I am here on Abbot Hugo’s behalf?”, the monk questioned.

Flynn turned to him, noticing his presence looking guilty. He looked like he wanted to say something. My gaze was locked on the gauntlet on his arm. The mark of a samurai...Why was it on his arm? Him of all people? I can imagine Maria stomping her way down here to drag her precious little boy home. Flynn has a family that loves him! Why is God taking Flynn away from them and leaving me with a family I hate?! It’s like some cruel joke.

“There’s no need to cross. I have heard you. Follow me.”, Hope the veteran samurai replied.

“Why…!?”, slipped from my lips.

Flynn looked at Hope before looking back at me. His eyes were full of pity. I don’t need your pity, Flynn! He followed the veteran samurai out of the crowd.

What happened to sticking together, Flynn?! Always! Come back here! Come back! Don’t leave me alone in that cruel village!

This is...the worst outcome. He wasn’t a samurai and Flynn, the one bright light he had in his life till now, was gone from his life forever.

Flashback

I was never accepted back home. Between my dreams of rising above my station to become something greater and my curiosity. No one wanted you to question anything just to obey and listen like everyone else. “Shut up and tend the fields like good Casualry!” “Don’t think beyond your station!” “God put you into this life for a reason!” I heard it all. Even his own parents lectured him all the time about this.

“Issachar, you idiot boy! Cease your wickedness or I’ll beat you harder next time!”, the voice of his father growled as he whipped him.

I remember running out of the village after that particularly severe beating for being ‘wicked’. In other words, different. I was very young then. I sniffed as pain roared through my nerves. I ran into the forest as I got judging looks and whispers from the other villagers.

“He’s done it again.”

“That Issachar is seriously no good. When will he learn?”

“If he was my kid I would have disowned him by now.”

I shut my eyes trying to block out their whispers by covering my ears. I hate this place! Why does everyone treat me like a freak?

I didn’t notice at the time that I ran past a family which was moving into Kiccigiorgi. The family was made up of a man, woman, and a child around my age. He had short black hair and the same dopey triangle bangs as he does now which seemingly covered his eyes. He was wearing a simple brown shirt and shorts.

I ran into Kiccigiorgi forest to get away from everyone. I curled up leaning against a tree. I buried my head into my arms and sobbed. I raised my head as I could hear something approaching. Hopefully, it’s not a wolf! I looked around for a stick nearby to defend myself.

To my surprise it was a young boy I had never seen before. The one who I passed without noticing.

“Are you alright?”, he asked quietly, bending down and outstretching his hand to him.

I looked at the boy stunned. Who was this kid? None of the other kids ever wanted to associate with him.

“Who are you?!”, I asked, sounding like a cornered animal.

“I am Flynn. My family just moved here.”, the child Flynn replied.

I turned away from him. As soon as he knows I’m no good he’ll scorn me too like the others.

“Go away!”, I said.

I peeked back to see him still there holding out his hand.

“But, you look so sad. No one sad should be left alone. They need to be comforted. That’s what Dad says.”, Flynn replied.

My eye twitched at his stubbornness. He wore a goofy smile on his face to try and sell himself as trustworthy. If he did hang around me he would surely garner a bad reputation as well.

“I said go! Nothing good will come to you from being involved with me!”, I yelled.

“Well...you don’t do good to get anything back. You do it because it’s good.”, Flynn replied.

I gawked at the undeterred kid and started mumbling incoherently about his stubbornness.

“Flynn, where have you gone?!”, they heard a concerned voice from outside the forest.

“I’m fine.”, Flynn assured, before turning back to Issachar.

Knowing he couldn’t get through to the idiot he just took his hand.

Flashback over

That was the day he met Flynn and they have been glued to the hip ever since. He remembered all the good times they had exploring Kiccigiorgi forest, play fighting, and getting into hijinks. Despite how different they were, they got along well. I wish others could see that people can get along despite being very different. That being different isn’t bad.

I walked along the streets not having the heart to go back to Kiccigiorgi without at least saying goodbye to Flynn for the last time. I don’t think I’ll have any ounce of closure on this whole situation till I can at least do that. I wonder how Flynn’s doing as a samurai? Holding a real blade must be different from a practice sword. Has he had to slay anything? Could he with how gentle he could be?

I lingered near the area around the Aquila Plaza though I was barred from entering.

“The samurai are doing important work. A Casualry like yourself shouldn’t bother them.”, a master samurai said arrogantly.

“But, my friend is a Casualry and a samurai! He just became one today!”, I argued, holding up my fist.

“Pfft. Your friend is a samurai. So, he is a Casualry no longer. He is a Luxuror now. And as a part of his training to become a samurai he will be purged of such lowliness. As such he can’t mingle with lowborn filith such as yourself.”, the master samurai said, as he looked down at him as if he was less than garbage.

“His training?”, I questioned.

Weren’t samurai just trained to defend the people with honor?

“Of course he must be taught how to be a proper Luxuror.”, the master samurai replied.

No! No! No! They were going to make Flynn like them! An arrogant jerk who looks down on others like this guy. I...I can’t just let this happen!

I growled at the master samurai who wore an arrogant smirk.

“Now, scram filth before you pollute the air with more of your breath.”, the master samurai said, touching the handle of his blade.

My fists shook in anger. The nerve of this guy threatening a civilian that he should be protecting with violence. All Luxurors were like this! They were all arrogant jerks! I stormed off hoping for another opportunity to see Flynn.

As it started to get dark I wondered what I should do. I don’t have any money to go to an inn. Should I just sit on the streets? Where do I go? I can’t go back to Kiccigiorgi or I’ll have to make a long trek back here.

“Hoy, you lost lad?”, a baker said, looking out through his door at him.

“No...I just...It’s a long story.”, I replied.

“I quite enjoy stories. Say you shouldn’t be out in the cold like this. Want to come in?”, the baker offered.

“Thank you!”, I thanked, relieved that I wouldn't have to make another trip.

Who knows if he would have another time to come back here. Especially before those depraved Luxurors pollute pure Flynn’s soul!

“It’s nothing. We Casualry ought to stick together.”, the baker chuckled, letting him in.

I explained to him everything that happened today.

“That’s just tragic... To separate two best friends like that over something so trivial.”, the baker commented.

“Yeah, they think my presence will taint him or something. Or maybe foil their schemes to turn him into one of them.”, I replied.

“Right...things really do need to change around here. Say, have you ever heard of literature?”, the baker said.

He explained literature to him as a story unlike fairytales. They were stories of people going through great struggles. Interested, I accepted the literature he offered me.

“Oh wait...I can’t read.”, I remembered.

“No problem. You see, literature is special.”, he said as I looked down at the book astounded that I could read it despite never learning how to.

“Woah, this is amazing!”, I gasped.

All the information seemed to enter his mind like magic without even flipping the page. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced. And the words in this book make so much sense! The Luxurors were just extorting the Casualry’s for their own benefit! They were oppressing them and they needed to rise up! I’ve got to bring these back with me! So, everyone can see!

“You're welcome to keep them. I’ve been distributing these books in hopes of spreading knowledge across Mikado.”, the baker reveals.

“Really, thank you so much! The guys in my village need to see this!”, I said.

“When you return you should hold a sabbath to discuss the literature. Then hopefully you can convince the others in the village to see the truth.”, the baker replied.

This must be what God wanted me to do! I need to open up everyone’s eyes so they can see the Luxurors were lying to them! I should show this to Fl-...Oh right...One day when the Luxurors are overthrown I will show this to Flynn.

I rested at the baker’s home till the morning. I walked off to lake Mikado to think of what I’ll do next. It doesn’t seem like I can even get near Flynn. I won’t be able to rescue him until I can overthrow the whole system.

The two of them would often come here just to hang out and sometimes fish. Though, Flynn was hilariously awful at fishing. As I looked at the water I heard murmuring of people approaching.

“I would always go to this spot with-“, my eyes widened as I recognized that voice it was Flynn who gasped in surprise seeing him.

Flynn looked a lot cleaner than before. All the dirt and grime from his time tending the fields were washed away. His hair looked perfect except it still had those dopey bangs. He wore the apprentice samurai garb with a pristine white cloth tied around his neck like a bandanna. Flynn’s eyes lit up seeing him. He was stunning...He looked all fancy and proper as if he had always been a Luxuror. Looking at him now he would have never guessed he was formerly a Casualry. He even smelled good! Just like springtime rather than sweat.

With him were two other apprentices. One had unruly black spiky hair and strangely enough purple eyes. He wore his robes more loosely allowing for his toned chest to show and even piercings in his ears. So, scandalous showing that much skin... How was that even allowed by those Luxuror toads?! He was probably a Casualry like Flynn was. Around his neck was a blue cloth haphazardly wrapped around his neck. The other was much more like how he imagined a samurai all prim and proper. He had fluffy brown hair and golden brown eyes. He had a yellow cloth tied like how you would expect for a gentleman.

I locked eyes with Flynn who looked extremely surprised and relieved. I looked away from him. He looks like he belongs here. He never seemed to quite fit at the village despite the fact everyone loved him.

“Ah...Flynn…!”, I said awkwardly.

“Is this a friend of yours, Flynn?”, the proper samurai asked.

“Yes it is.”, Flynn replied, sounding a bit excited to see him which made him bashful.

Flynn still looked at him as if he was the most amazing person ever. Even though he was the samurai living the dream and he was...a nobody.

“I didn’t recognize you there at first. Which is natural, since you're in samurai garb now...”, I admitted, still stunned by his friend’s natural transition into being a samurai.

“Well, this is a happy coincidence. Why don’t you join us for breakfast?”, the unruly samurai invited.

He already has new friends now...he had a feeling it would be easy for him. He always had a charisma in him despite his normally timid demeanor. This was Flynn’s life now...They lived in separate worlds. Flynn was better off here in luxury rather than toiling away in the fields till he got sick.

“...Sorry but I have to decline…”, I said, feeling guilty as Flynn's expression dropped.

Flynn looked like a kicked puppy and he wanted to reach out to him. But...But I can’t! That samurai was right! I would only taint him now and cause him trouble by sticking around. Without me around Flynn will have an easy life. It’s what he deserves after putting up with me for so long.

“I can’t leave the fields alone forever. More than that , though, I got an intriguing gift to bring home. I want to hurry and show it to everyone.”, I replied.

We’ll be reunited one day when Mikado is liberated. For now they must be separated from each other.

“And where is home for you?”, the proper samurai asked.

“Kiccigiorgi.”, I replied.

“That’s quite a long journey.”, the Casualry? Samurai commented.

“Less than you think. If I keep walking without rest , I should reach my destination before night falls. I trained myself to be a samurai after all I’m confident these legs can make the trip. Well then... I’ll be going home. From one Kiccigiorgi boy to another...I pray that your endeavors are successful, Flynn.”, I replied.

“Issachar…?”, Flynn said, sounding so sad and pathetic…

He looked like a lost puppy still wanting to follow after me.

“Goodbye Flynn.”, I said.

“...Goodbye...but it’s not for good right? I’m sure we’ll see each other again one day.”, Flynn replied.

“I hope so…”, I replied, before leaving wearily.

Flynn looked down, seeing to not like that answer.

“Hoy, are you going to be alright?”, I heard the former Casualry samurai say.

“...I’m fine.”, Flynn replied quietly.

I tried not to look back as I left Flynn so he can become his own man and a great samurai. Now, I’m going to have to be the bearer of bad news for his parents and pray that Maria doesn’t try to shoot the messenger.

It was a long lonely walk back to Kiccigiorgi. It was indeed nightfall as I returned. I could see an ember in Flynn’s home still burning. I jumped as Maria practically jumped me as she saw me.

You see she’s Flynn’s mother. She was a woman with long golden blonde hair and the same green eyes as Flynn. She wore a simple brown dress and a white headdress.

“Where’s Flynn?! You have some serious nerve keeping him away this long!”, Maria questioned angrily.

My head sunk. Normally I would fire back fiercely about what a controlling mother she was for Flynn, but...he just didn’t feel it in him. I just felt tapped and depressed from today and yesterday’s events.

“Flynn’s not coming home...ever. He’s a samurai and by extension a Luxuror now.”, I replied, hearing his friend’s mother gasp in disbelief.

“That can’t be! My little Flynn…”, Maria said sadly realizing she was never going to see her son again.

Seeing her right now as much as I don’t like her I can’t help, but feel bad.

“Flynn’s gone? Don’t worry dear. Even if we can’t see him anymore. He’ll have a very comfortable life as a Luxuror.”, Flynn’s father, David said.

He was a rather big and burly man with tanned skin from his hard work in the fields. He had black hair like Flynn and blue eyes. He wore a simple short sleeved brown shirt and pants. He put his hand on his wife’s shoulder comforting her as she sobbed.

“This is the worst outcome…”, she mumbled, and he couldn’t help but agree.

Everyone in Kiccigiorgi would probably be very happy if me and Flynn’s positions were reversed. If Flynn stayed here and I the ‘troublemaker’ went off away from their lives forever.

“I saw him...one last time in samurai garb. Heh...I couldn’t help, but think of how perfect he looked in it...Like it was made for him. As if he was always intended to be a samurai.”, I said, warily.

Something about Flynn had always been different hadn’t it? He could feel a quality within him that was different from everyone else in the village. Rather than that difference making him ‘wicked’ it made him shine more and draw people to him. When he saw them with those two prentices it seemed as if they had always been together despite meeting only yesterday. They were to be his comrades in the future. He was to be a samurai...that was the fate God decided for Flynn. Maybe that quality was meant to draw others to him during his duty as samurai. Something that he would do a lot of good with. Perhaps it would help him change the unjust system from within?

“If it’s what God wills…”, she said solemnly, simply accepting it.

It wasn’t God’s will. It was the will of those corrupt Luxurors.

I went around the village spreading word of literature and that I’ll hold a sabbath tonight in Kiccigiorgi forest. Honestly, I didn’t expect anyone to come as I sat down on the forest floor with the books around me and a lantern to my side. To my surprise a few people came, mostly younger folk in the village.

“Don’t tell anyone I was here.”, one of them named Nathan said.

“Hoy, it looks like Flynn really is gone. He would be here with you if he hadn’t become a samurai.”, another one named Vincent said.

“Yes he would. Unfortunately, that’s not the case...we’ve been separated.”, I replied, surprised by the sympathetic look on the others face.

“I’m sorry to hear that. You two got along well. I’m sorry for giving you a hard time all these years. You know how it is, man. We can’t admit to being interested in anything beyond our station or…”, Vincent trailed off.

“You’ll be treated like me. I understand.”, I replied, never realizing others felt the way he did.

They were just too scared to speak up and believed like him they were the minority, but there were actually quite a few people here. Some shifted nervously, probably worried about being caught here like Nathan. I cracked open one of the books, passing one and a time onto the others. Out of the corner I could see an unfamiliar figure approaching in a bizarre black and red suit that covered her whole body. Her helmet had menacing red glass over the eyes.

“Hello, I am the black samurai. The one who brought literature to Mikado. I heard you were holding a sabbath here.”, the mysterious woman said.

“Yes, we are. Do you want to join us?”, I asked.

“Yes I would like that…”, the black samurai replied.

The woman gave off this eerie almost otherworldly chill. I’m not sure if it’s because I couldn’t see her face but something about her felt...inhuman. As I read more of the books everything became clearer to him.

The Luxurors were just using God as an excuse to control them. Like he thought it was their will not God’s. They abused their innocence to get their way. They were all bastards! To control them like this! To have them work while they reaped the rewards of their effort! It was their back breaking labor that turned society’s wheel! Why should they be subservient to them?!

From deep within me I could feel bile rise up within me as I read more. I need to destroy those rotten Luxurors and their whole system! All I’ve suffered till now is because of them! Even after all the pain they caused me by forcing me into this position they...they...took Flynn from me! Pain roared within me as if my insides were engulfed in flames. I heard a sickening crack as everything went black for a moment before I woke up feeling better than ever…!

One thing led to another and suddenly everyone’s bodies shifted and distorted taking on a more monstrous appearance. They had become demons and Kiccigiori burned. I heard screams from the still human villagers ringing throughout. I sniffed out the ones I wanted to kill the most for all they’ve put me through all these years. My parents…

I could smell smoke in the air as I walked through the village. My mother ran by me suddenly stopping as she saw me. She had short brown hair and brown eyes along with a brown dress and headdress.

“Where have you been? We have to leave! There’s demons everywhere!”, his mother scolded.

I turned to her as the whites of his eyes turned blood red and I smiled. Fear entered her eyes as she backed away from him.

“I-Issachar you’ve become a monster!”, she stuttered.

Hehehaha! I knew it! She believes I’m a monster! That’s right you all made me one!

“That’s right I’m a monster. You and the Luxurors made me one...now I’m going to kill you all.”, I replied, with a distorted voice smirking.

She let out a fearful gasp as with a mere swipe only using a fraction of my power she easily killed. Her body clattered to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Blood leaked from her fresh corpse. Humans are so fragile and pitiful. I had never noticed as a human, but now I see. I’ve become something much more!

Eventually I found him, my father stabbing one of the weaker demons with a sharp pitchfork. The man was bald and had brown eyes as well. He had a long beard and wore similar clothes with very short sleeves. He jumped as he heard someone approaching, holding out his pitchfork to strike.

“Issachar you idiot boy! What are you doing here? Run you moron! Even someone with a head as empty as yours should understand that!”, my father barked, making me snicker.

“I don’t take orders from you anymore old man! I’ve been waiting for this for so long…”, I said as I changed again to his shock.

“Y-You really were a demon this whole time?! That’s why you acted as you did?!”, my father questioned fearfully.

“No...your abuse made me a demon!”, I growled, swiping at his father as he shakily held up his weapon.

Strangely, he hesitated to stab him. What was the problem?! He never had trouble hurting him before. Due to his hesitation I easily ran him through and I felt unsatisfied. Maybe it was because there is one person left who wronged me?! Once he was dead I’ll feel satisfied! I sat in the spot I was before in the forest waiting.

“He will arrive soon. Your dear friend.”, the black samurai told him before leaving.

I wasn’t quite sure how she knew that, but like she said Flynn appeared with the prentice samurai from before along with a female one with short brown hair and brown eyes with a red scarf. Flynn looked relieved to see me alive and well not realizing what I’ve become. Still thinking I was a mere human when I’ve become something far greater! Greater than even a samurai!

“I’m so glad you’re alive Issachar! Do you know what happened to my parents? Are they around here somewhere? Arthur was saying something that implied something bad…”, Flynn said, looking down towards the end, worry evident in his voice.

“Flynn... You’re here.”, I said.

“He’s the one from that morning...”, the former Casualry samurai said.

“It’s quite a relief to see you unharmed. You must join the others at the forest entrance where it’s safe.”, the proper samurai said.

“So...you rushed to save your hometown in crisis. You’ve certainly risen to greatness, haven’t you? You who couldn’t even bait a fishhook. I, on the contrary, will forever be a Casualry in a remote village. Though it must be said, I’m not who I once was either. The black samurai’s books have opened my eyes.”, I questioned, earning a perplexed look from Flynn.

That’s right he rose while I fell! What made him different from me? Why did God choose him over me? Why? Why?

“What are you on about Issachar? You need to get out of here like Jonathan said.”, Flynn replied, still oblivious.

“Who is this ‘black samurai’...?”, the female samurai asked.

“Unfortunately, the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado belongs to the Luxuror toads. They establish practices convenient for themselves while starving us of any knowledge or learning...They use our innocence to drive us to hard work. But we don’t need the Luxurors no? After all, our backbreaking labor turns society’s wheel.”, I said, as Flynn looked more confused.

“There’s no time for this Issachar! We can talk later when it’s safe!”, Flynn replied, worriedly.

“You don’t understand Flynn! I’ve risen above humanity with this power which I’ll use to destroy those Luxuror toads!”, I replied.

“Risen above humanity…? Are you out of your mind? You don’t sound like yourself at all.”, Flynn replied.

“Sorry to interrupt this conversation...But I’m detecting a demon extremely close by. Watch out.”, a female voice said from Flynn’s gauntlet making his eyes widen.

A gasp came from Flynn as time seemed to slow down. He became notably pale after hearing those words. The look in Flynn’s eyes when he looked at him was different now. Fear was in his eyes. That’s right he should be scared! I’m way better than him now! Better than he’ll ever be as a weak human!

“No…”, Jonathan said in a low tone.

“I-Issachar?! What’s going on?”, Flynn questioned, scared and confused.

“I’m telling you this, Flynn, because you’re you. Now that I’ve seen the light…I’ve embraced the demonic.”, I said, making Flynn shake with a look of complete disbelief on his face.

“N-No!”, Flynn said, as if he wanted this to all be a dream.

I growled as the whites of my eyes turned blood red. The samurai around Flynn touched their gauntlets summoning various demons as he looked around frantically.

“Wait!”, Flynn said, looking very hesitant to fight me.

“Flynn...It was mortifying the way I was passed over to become a samurai...But the books the Black Samurai brought me were greatly cheering. It was such fun...for the first time in life. I was thoroughly absorbed in something... And then, bile rose within me. I realized that it was all the fault of the Luxurors that I turned out this way!”, I explained, my voice distorted from my transformation.

“It’s no use Flynn. Words won’t work, we need to fight him.”, the former Casualry samurai said.

“Master...you must fight.”, the voice in Flynn’s gauntlet said, drawing his attention as he shook.

Flynn reluctantly summoned his own demons: a muscular grey man with a spear and a snake tail. A woman with blue skin and white robes. And finally a dark skinned woman with strange black pottery on her head.

He shakily raised his blade to him.

“Stand down Issachar! I don’t want to fight you!”, Flynn said.

“Well that’s too bad Flynn...because I want to fight you!”, I said as I pounced on him.

Yes, I must prove I’m better than him by killing him! Flynn blocked my claws with his blade. I jumped back as various elements were hurled in my direction by the other samurai and demons. I narrowly dodged some of them with a few getting me good.

“What’s the matter, you Luxuror toads? Is this the best you can muster? Trample me underfoot like the refuse you believe me to be! Flynn...Don’t look away...Keep your eyes fixated on my pitiable state…!”, I questioned.

“Issachar, you idiot!”, Flynn said, with fire in his words the blood within me boiled from the intensity.

It felt so good! This fire! He never wanted it to stop! The thrill of this battle for their lives far surpassed their sparring matches.

I rushed at Flynn again, claws clashing with his blade. They clashed harder and faster each time.

“What made us so different? Why were you always better than me? My own parents liked you more than me!”, I growled

“That’s not true! I’m sure they love you dearly! That’s why they’re so harsh on you! And who said I was better than you?! You are better than me at tons of stuff!”, Flynn questioned.

“You were always better in everything that mattered! You were better at working the fields! Tending the sheep! Sparing! And you were loved while I was reviled! You were always just too damn perfect!”, I replied angrily.

My words seemed to very visually unnerve Flynn. They clashed against each other repeatedly till they were locked with one trying to overpower the other. As they fought he couldn’t help, but remember those matches.

“Flynn...tell me how you truly feel. Now that you are a samurai has your soul become tainted like the Luxurors? Or...do you still consider yourself to be a Casualry?”, I asked.

That’s right...you’ve become tainted too haven’t you? That’s why you're mindlessly following their orders like a dog!

“I’m a Casualry.”, Flynn replied, with the utmost seriousness as my eyes widened.

“Th-That can’t be! You’re merely saying that to assuage your conscience! But no...Then I...What have I done…?”, I questioned, before roaring in pain.

I start writing in pain. No! No! This must be a lie! The Luxurors were evil! They tainted everything they touched! Not even Flynn can be immune to that corruption?!

I was out on the back foot as more magic attacks nailed me. Flynn pushed me on the backfoot and I struggled to defend myself from his strikes. His sword cuts stung me. It hurt so much! Blood spilled from my open wounds.

“I-It hurts...The bleeding won’t stop...I’m begging you Flynn...end my pain...Won’t you put an end to me...with a samurai’s hands...your hands…?”, I begged which made Flynn shake again.

Flynn lowered his blade.

“Are you mad, Flynn? He’s not human anymore. He’s become a demon through and through...Your pretense of kindness is merely masking your unwillingness to face the truth. Wouldn’t putting him out of his misery be a far kinder act?”, the Casualry samurai questioned.

I growled in pain. Why won’t Flynn end me? He’s so indecisive! I should have been the samurai!

“Flynn...why do you prolong my suffering…!?”, I questioned, making a guilty look form on Flynn’s face.

I was puzzled as Flynn stopped attacking and held up his gauntlet.

“Please Issachar! Don’t ask me to do something like that...You can join me and redeem anything you might have done as a demon. Just please...D-Don’t make me kill you…”, Flynn begged.

“You can’t reason with him, Flynn!”, the Casualry samurai yelled at him again.

“Walter, show some compassion! I’m sure you would feel the same if it was your best friend! If this conflict can end without more lives needlessly lost we must try it!”, Jonathan yelled.

Flynn got to his knees, lowering his head and placing his sword on the ground. He held up his gauntlet to me. My eye twitched at the offer. He wanted to make him his subordinate? As if I would accept being subordinate to someone with a will as weak as his! His teammates stood close to Flynn with their weapons raised prepared to stop him if he attacked Flynn.

“I can heal you! Just agree to stop this madness, to not hurt anyone and I’ll do it!”, Flynn said.

I shook in anger as I saw pity in Flynn’s eyes once again.

“Shut up! I don’t always need your help! Or your pity! Just end me already!”, I begged.

No, I didn’t want to live with any of this. Knowing that so many of the others died because of him! Flynn’s parents even my own as much as I hated them! So, many people are dead because of my jealousy towards Flynn. The second I didn’t get what I wanted I jumped to becoming a monster! I was just as wicked as everyone thought I was!

Flynn shook at my words, but still stubbornly held his position.

“Join me.”, Flynn replied stubbornly.

“Master, I’m afraid you can’t recruit a demon of his-“, the female voice from his gauntlet said.

“Shut up! I don’t care! I’ll make it work! He’s my best friend!”, Flynn replied, taking them aback.

“Flynn, you're being foolish! You're only going to get yourself killed!”, Walter told him.

He’s so stupid! Who drops their sword in front of an enemy?! Much less a demon!?

“That’s right...we were friends. The very best of friends. But that was all in the past. You understand, yes, Flynn?”, I replied, denying him.

“No, I don’t! What happened, Issachar?! W-Why are you asking me to do this? Do you realize how cruel that is for you to ask me to kill you? After we’ve been friends since we were small. You want me to taint my hands with your blood? The blood of my best friend.”, Flynn questioned.

Maybe, asking Flynn to kill him was too much. He doesn’t understand any of this the full scope of what I’ve become or done. He was too gentle and kind to carry out such an act. I’ve become a monster so many people are dead because of me. But...carrying out such an act would undoubtedly taint Flynn’s soul. What am I to do then? End it myself? My hands shook. I wasn't sure I had it in me to end it myself...as much as I berated Flynn for his indecisiveness he couldn’t do it himself…

“He won’t listen, Flynn! If you don’t have what it takes I’ll kill him myself.”, Walter said.

“That has not been decided yet, Walter!”, Jonathan replied, angrily.

“You idiots stop fighting! Don’t you see you're making things worse?!”, the female samurai questioned, gesturing Flynn.

His head was hung low and his shoulders shook like a leaf. His bangs cast a shadow over his eyes. Unable to do anything while they were distracted...I ran. I couldn’t get Flynn to kill me and I couldn’t off myself so I ran deeper into the forest. I heard angered and distressed cries behind me as I ran.

“Come back here!!! Issachar, come back!”, Flynn yelled, running after me.

The other samurai followed him. In the distance I saw the Black Samurai who I ran to. Seeing she was obviously the Black Samurai the samurai drew their blades on her. I hid behind her as she talked to the samurai trying to convince them to her side.

“Don’t give me that knowledge nonsense! You turned people into demons…you…You did all of this!”, Flynn yelled, taking me aback especially at how low his voice got.

I have never heard Flynn sound so enraged before. It was like something inside him snapped. The pressure of everything really getting to him. Flynn readied his sword to attack the Black Samurai, his eyes full of rage. Seeing this anger made the Black Samurai chuckle eerily.

“You really want to kill me don’t you? Good...let that murderous intent in you grow and fester…”, the Black Samurai said, chilling me to the bone.

She set her hand on my shoulder making me jump.

“Get away from him you, witch!”, Flynn yelled with venom.

“If you want to fight me you're going to have to get stronger and come to the underground.”, the Black Samurai said.

Before I knew it, succubi flooded the area and they escaped leaving the samurai alone…The last thing I heard was Flynn yelling my name.

“Issachar!!!!!!!!!!”, Flynn yelled, in fury and distress.

To be continued…

#shin megami tensei #smt4 #smt iv #issachar smt #smt flynn #smt isabeau #jonathan smt #walter smt #hikaru #the black samurai #lilith #yuriko smt #toki smt #kaga smt #navarre smt #my crappy edit #my crappy writing

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onetoomanyfilms · 4 years ago

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My Heart’s Always Yours - Part Four

Luke Patterson x FemaleOC!Character - Soulmate AU

Thank you for all the support everyone! I’m so excited with what’s about to happen in the story... this one’s short but sweet! x

Teaser Part One Part Two Part Three Part Five Masterlist

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Her legs were moving before her brain could comprehend what was happening. Mya knew Alex was right. She knew it. But she couldn’t believe it.

“Mya!” Julie ran out the garage after her friend leaving a dumbstruck 90s ghost band by themselves. Simultaneously, Alex and Reggie turned towards Luke who was stuck staring at the empty seat Mya once sat in. “You okay buddy?” It seemed to snap him out of his daze, bringing him back to the reality he was in. “I’ll… It’s nothing. I mean…” Alex usually knew how Luke was feeling. They were close, their previous relationship was proof of it. But in this exact moment, Alex couldn’t tell what Luke was about to do. Was he going to scream? Run after her?

“Let’s just get on with it, yeah?”

He’d made his decision. He’d forget it existed until there was a time it needed to be spoken about. There was part of Luke that wanted to run after her, he really was. But she obviously needed space and he needed to think. And he always did his best thinking whilst making music.

————————

“Mya!” Julie ran up to the girl, placing a hand on her cardigan-covered shoulder. “Where are you going? You can’t possibly think it’s best to be alone right now.”

“I do.” Mya wasn’t really aware of what she was saying. The words were coming out but there was no emotion behind it. She couldn’t feel anything, it was like she was numb. She did this when her emotions became too much. She learnt to do it when her dad had told her crying was for wimps. ‘When in public, shut them off.’ That’s what he used to say. But part of her saw the terrified look on Julie’s face. “I’ll be fine. I just need to think.”

“I’ll be here whenever you need me.”

“I know. I won’t be long. I promise.” There wasn’t the usual skip in Mya’s step as she walked away from the garage, but all Julie could do now was leave her be. Let her do what she needed to do, no matter how much Julie hated the thought of it. So she turned around, making her way back to the boys.

But the boys weren’t much better. She sauntered over towards where Reggie stood, staring at Luke as he manically flipped through his songbook. “Ah, Julie! We had a band meeting earlier and we wanted to ask you something…” Even his movements were wild, as he stood up from crouching, the papers of his songbook began to fly around the garage. “Ummmm, where did Alex go?”

“He had need to ‘clear his head’ apparently.” Luke’s tone was covered in sarcasm. He was angry, everyone could see it. But no one wanted to bring it up. “Anyway,” Reggie began as he tried to deviate from the situation in front of him, “we had a band meeting earlier and…”

“We wanted to ask you to join Sunset Curve. And no, you’re not dreaming.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? Uh, she said no.” Was that all she was going to say? “That’s what you say when you get socks for your birthday. Not when you’re invited to join the most epic band ever.”

Julie knew saying ‘oh’ was the wrong move, seeing Luke angrier than he was then was not on her bucket list. But she found herself saying it cause what else could she say. “Sorry, I’m honoured it’s just Flynn’s mad at me for lying and hasn’t text me back and then Mya…” She trailed off, the flash of pain lingering on Luke’s face warned her that saying her name was enough. Maybe even too much right now.

“Yeah you’re in a tough spot.” There was a pause but Reggie knew Luke was about to push his luck. He just didn’t know how. “So, you wanna join the band?” There it was.

“Read the room dude!”

“Oh come on! We need you and you need us because you need music!” Unfortunately, Reggie wasn’t anticipating just how much he would push his luck in the next five minutes. And that he’d be brought down with him too. “We found this poem you wrote and Reggie and I, we added this really cool melody to it. It sounds awesome.”

“Where’d you find that?” Oops.

————————————————

Whilst Luke was acting in complete denial of the whole situation, Mya couldn’t keep her mind off of it. How they met. The song. How he caught her. His eyes. Damn, his eyes. His smile. How he walked with such swagger but just seemed like a complete and utter goofball. When had she noticed all this?

She stopped, taking in her surroundings. She had walked to the beach. Of course she did. Where else would she have gone. She couldn’t go home as her mom was on shift at the hospital. She was at Julie’s when everything happened. So, here she was. Standing against a railing, breathing in the salty, ocean air as if it would make everything go away.

But she didn’t want it to go away. Deep down she knew that. She had met her soulmate. Not many people get that chance in their lifetime and yet, she was 17 and had met the person she could spend the rest of her life with, even if he wasn’t technically alive. It was what happened with her dad that held her back. How does she know this is real? What if it’s all just presumed, they fall in love and they were wrong? Mya didn’t think she’d be strong enough. Her Mom only just got through it all and she was the strongest person she knew, besides Julie, her family and Flynn. Her mind kept wandering back to the song. She’d written it because she was calling out for someone; her soulmate. The universe brought him to her. It answered her call.

And who was she to ignore that?

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‘my heart’s always yours’ taglist: @starjane312 @fangirlangioma @sha-banks106 @ashleyleblancx @ellavalentine1844 @suvnsets @thesweetestsinner @dylanstilinskiposts @2eggsandtoast @random1dstuff

if you wanna be on the ‘my heart’s always yours’ taglist interact with this post -> taglist

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ultraglittercat · 4 years ago

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Drabble 135

Meeting The Baby

Everyone in Corona was excited. After months of anticipation, the Royal baby was finally born at the end of February. Nigel had won the birthday pool and was exceedingly smug about it.

“C'mon, let us see the baby!” Lance pleaded as he and his friends lined up in the hallway.

“You mean the baby whose birth I predicted?” Nigel gloated.

“Yes, that baby! What other baby could it be?!” Lance was frustrated.

Nigel consulted a scroll. “I'm sorry, you're not on the list.” he said.

“What?!” exclaimed Kiera and Catalina.

“There must be a mistake. We're definitely on the list.” Varian tried to be hopeful.

“Let me see about it!” Lance snatched the scroll from Nigel's hands and was dismayed when he saw the only names were foreign dignitaries. “I don't believe it. We have just as much right to see the baby as these nobodies!”

“Those nobodies are of Royal pedigree.” Nigel smirked.

“And what are we, mutts?” snarled Kiera.

“If the description fits...” murmured Nigel.

Kiera moved to tackle him and had to be forcibly held back by Lance.

Varian sighed. “I bet Frederic made that list.” he grumbled.

“King Father Frederic. Get it right.” corrected Nigel. “He may have abdicated the throne, but he's certainly of higher standing than you, and I am proud to carry out his orders.”

All four of them glared at Nigel. Kiera was still squirming and Catalina was starting to shift into a wolf. Things might have gotten ugly if a tired-looking Eugene hadn't poked his head into the hallway.

“Lance! Girls! Varian! Did you come to see my son?” Eugene said happily.

“We were trying to.” Varian shot Nigel a dark look.

“Well, come on in. Rapunzel and baby Bastion are in the nursery. I gotta warn you, he's a pretty loud crier.” Eugene chuckled.

“It's okay. We got used to crying children when we lived in the orphanage. We won't mind.” Lance assured him. Eugene beckoned and the group followed him into the nursery, Kiera stomping on Nigel's foot as she walked past.

Rapunzel was seated in a rocking chair, holding baby Bastion and humming.

“Sunshine, I brought visitors!” Eugene announced.

“Shh-hh. Not so loud, honey. He's nearly asleep.” Rapunzel whispered.

“Oh, did we come at a bad time?” Catalina worried.

“Not at all, newborns just sleep a lot. This is baby Bastion or Bas for short.” Rapunzel introduced everyone to her tiny bundle of joy. Bas had dark brown hair and eyes, like his father, but he had his mother's freckles. He was unbelievably cute and the girls squealed with delight.

“He looks just like Eugene, except for the nose.” Kiera teased.

“Ha ha. I'll have you know he's just as handsome as I was at that age.” Eugene bragged.

“How would you know if you were a handsome baby? You don't even remember what you were like back then!” Kiera argued.

“I remember him. He was nearly as good looking as me.” Lance recalled.

“And nearly as bald.” joked Kiera and everyone laughed.

“He looks cute.” said Catalina.

“He looks smart, too. Did you see him turn towards us?” Varian noted with excitement.

“He's a wonderful baby.” Rapunzel cooed. “It was worth every minute of my pregnancy to meet you, my sweet baby Bas.” She kissed the baby's forehead and Bas gurgled.

“When can we hold the baby?” Catalina asked.

“In another week. Right now, I'm being extra careful with him.” Rapunzel answered.

“I've barely held him. It's hard waiting, though.” Eugene said.

“But this first week is very important for the mother-child bond. I know, I've read the books.” Rapunzel replied.

“If Eugene's being patient, we will be too.” Lance said.

“Thank you. I promise, you'll all get to hold him soon.” Rapunzel spoke reassuringly. “I'm going to put him to bed in a minute, but you can all come up and brush his cheek if you like. Gentle touches make him happy.”

The group nodded, and one by one they went up to meet Bas. After Lance, who was last in line, finished greeting the baby, Rapunzel carried Bas to his crib and carefully put him down for a nap.

“He's a nice, healthy baby. You did good, Eugene.” praised Lance.

“Why are you complimenting him? I thought Rapunzel had the baby.” puzzled Kiera.

Lance looked a little uncomfortable. “I'll, uh, tell you later Angry.” he replied.

“You might want to give the girls one of the baby books. We've got several you can borrow.” offered Eugene.

“Yeah, I think we'll need them. Thanks.” said Lance.

“I wouldn't mind borrowing a book, too.” added Varian.

“It was wonderful seeing you guys. Until now, Bas had only meet my parents and some of the castle staff. He'll be meeting his Grandpa Edmund soon, when he comes to visit from Umbra, the revamped Dark Kingdom.” Rapunzel smiled.

“We just have to make sure he's careful with the baby. You know how excitable my Dad is.” chuckled Eugene.

“Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine.” Rapunzel said, yawning slightly.

“Sounds like you're ready for a nap, too. You should get some rest, it's a lot of work being a parent, but very rewarding.” Lance told her.

“It really is.” Eugene and Rapunzel agreed.

“We'll come back next week, and maybe we can hold the baby then.” said Varian.

“Yes, he should be big enough then.” Rapunzel judged.

“Okay, everyone. Time to let mother and son rest.” Eugene ushered them out of the nursery, and handed baby books to everyone as a parting gift. Varian was pleased that his book was the most scientific, the other books were geared more towards introducing children and teens to babies. With a good book, the week would go by quickly and soon they'd be able to see Bas again.

The End

Bastion's name comes from the original Disney plans to name the hero character that, instead of Flynn/Eugene. I just borrowed the concept for the baby's name. He's adorable. :)

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my-major-is-k-howard · 5 years ago

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Lover

Inspired by “Lover” by Taylor Swift. I’ll be posting chapters every other day until the final chapter (7). Hope you guys enjoy this one!

Word Count: 2315

Ch. 1

————————————————————

Ch. 2 - We Make the Call

That Christmas Polaroid filled Anne with so much nostalgia. She remembered how she and Cathy actually had waited until Valentine’s Day to put away all of the Christmas decorations they had set up together. It had even been Cathy who insisted they leave them up despite Anne’s efforts to put them away after Christmas was over. It had in turn made the house feel so much more like their house. Their home.

Anne also recalled that a few months after Christmas she and Cathy had decided to splurge on their very own Polaroid camera. They would never admit it but they were slightly jealous of how cute the pictures of Kat and Anna were and wanted that for themselves.

Anne looked at a few more of the hanging pictures before her eyes landed on another one of her favorites. Both she and Cathy were under a blanket on their couch, bathed in the blue light of the movie they were watching. Cathy’s head was resting on Anne’s chest while Anne’s head rested comfortably on top of Cathy’s. Both of them had dopey smiles on their faces, clearly not anticipating the flash of a camera. It was raw and unfiltered, a beautiful reflection of who they were when no one was watching. And they were deeply in love with each other, that much was obvious.

~~~~~

“The pizza guy should be here soon,” Anne announced to Cathy as she sat down next to her on the couch.

“The girls said they were almost here a few minutes ago,” Cathy responded, her focus on the Polaroid camera she was fiddling with in her hands. “I can’t figure out how to get the film in. Kat makes it look so easy!” Cathy exclaimed, setting down the film and the camera on the table next to her.

“We’ll just ask her when she arrives then,” Anne commented, as her leg began to bounce. Anne was having trouble concealing her excitement for the queens’ girls night that would commence soon. They had made it a tradition to have a girls night three times a month, each time at a different couple’s house. This week, Cathy and Anne were hosting, causing the latter to nearly burst at the seams with enthusiasm.

Cathy began giggling and Anne turned to her with a confused look on her face. “What?”

“Nothing! It’s just you’re acting like an overexcited puppy right now,” Cathy responded, gesturing to Anne’s bouncing leg.

“Oh. Sorry.” Anne forced her leg to stop bouncing.

“Don’t be sorry! It’s actually really adorable.” Anne blushed at that and leaned in to kiss Cathy, only to be cut off by the loud ring of the doorbell.

“I swear that always happens!” Anne whined as Cathy got up to answer the door. The four other queens poured in through the door and made their way to the living room behind Cathy.

Cathy returned to her spot beside Anne as the other queens got comfortable. “Pizza should be here soon,” Cathy commented as she put her arms around Anne’s neck.

“Yay!” Kat shouted, before her eyes locked on the Polaroid camera that was still laying on the table beside the couch. “You got one too?” Kat questioned excitedly already making her way over to the camera.

“Yeah! Your pictures inspired us to get one,” Anne explained. “Cathy had some trouble getting the film in, though. Kat, could you help her?”

“Of course!” Kat walked Cathy through the steps of inserting the film, slow enough for Cathy to fully grasp the process before the camera was returned to its place on the side table.

Not long after, the pizza arrived and all of the girls began eating.

“Hey Cathy! How’s the book process coming along?” Catherine asked.

Cathy had been working on her first novel for the better part of the last year and she smiled widely at its mention. “It’s going great actually! It’s almost through the editing process. We’re hoping to get a physical copy sometime in the next few months.”

“You’ll have to invite us over when that happens,” Jane said. “We can celebrate together!”

All the queens expressed their agreement and Anne smiled at their support. Cathy had worked so hard on her book and she was glad that their closest friends were willing to celebrate her huge achievement with her.

The queens finished off their pizza while catching up on each other’s lives.

“I swear I have not been able to separate Kat from her camera! She takes it everywhere. To the park. To the movies. To the mall. Literally everywhere. I’ve had to hide it from her but she always manages to find it,” Cleves rambled to the other queens, feigning anger but everyone noticed the way her fingers interlocked with Kat’s as she talked.

“Hey! I’ll find my camera soon. It’s finally spring and everything is so pretty now! I have to take pictures to survive!!” The other queens giggled at Kat’s dramatic response. Anne was pleased that the camera made Kat so happy, even if it was at Anna’s expense. Her cousin deserved all the joy in the world and the camera was a good start.

“We should start the movie night!” Cathy piped up. The other queens nodded in agreement before she continued. “Anne, would you go get some of the extra blankets and pillows from the closet?”

“Of course, my love,” Anne responded and got up to fetch the requested items from their hallway closet. She grabbed as many blankets and pillows as she could before returning to the chaos of the living room.

“A horror film!” Anna shouted.

“No! We should do a rom-com!” Jane shouted back.

“No, that’s too cheesy, babe! Adventure!” Catherine interjected.

Anne locked eyes with Cathy in confusion. Cathy looked back with wide eyes, not knowing how to appease all of them at once. Anne dropped all of the blankets and pillows she was holding before addressing the arguing queens.

“Why don’t we just watch a Disney movie. Can we all agree on Disney?”

The queens exchanged glances before shrugging. “Sure. But which movie?” Cleves questioned.

“Tangled!” Cathy suggested. “I love that movie!”

No queens objected to the movie selection so Anne considered it the winner. “Tangled it is, then.”

The queens got the movie ready, while Cathy escaped to the kitchen to make some popcorn. Anne passed out the remaining blankets and pillows to the other queens before settling back on the couch with a blanket of her own. Cathy returned with a few bowls of popcorn and moved to turn off the lights.

The movie started as Anne opened her arms for Cathy to cuddle into her. Cathy squeaked in excitement and pulled the blanket over both of them before finally resting her head on Anne’s chest. Anne felt a million butterflies release in her stomach at that moment. Anne knew she would never grow tired of that feeling. Cathy was her everything and getting to hold her in her arms made her feel complete and at peace.

Words failed to express Anne’s emotions, so she resorted to pressing a loving kiss to the top of Cathy’s head. She felt Cathy snuggle deeper into her at that and she smiled widely. Anne’s focus finally shifted to the movie in front of them and she rested her head on top of Cathy’s to watch the scenes unfold.

After a few minutes, the movie was interrupted by the sound of a Polaroid picture being ejected from a camera. Anne looked up, confused by the abrupt sound. One of the queens paused the movie as her eyes scanned the room before she found the culprit. Kat was sheepishly holding the Polaroid camera and grabbing the ejected picture before she looked up to meet the eyes of the five other queens staring at her quizzically.

“What?” Kat asked, feigning innocence.

“You know what,” Aragon responded.

“When did you even grab that?” Cathy asked, puzzled that she hadn’t noticed her girlfriend’s cousin snatch her camera.

“I picked it up and hid it under my blanket while you guys were arguing about which movie to watch. I didn’t want you to notice because candid pictures are always the best pictures,” Kat stated matter-of-factly. “And you guys were too cute! I had to capture the moment!”

Now, Anne was blushing. She never meant to. It was just, the very thought of Cathy sometimes made her blush subconsciously. She often felt like a teenager falling in love for the first time, with everything feeling so new and exciting. It didn’t matter that she had been with Cathy for a few years now; she still got giddy thinking about how they were actually together and would maybe spend the rest of their lives together too…

“Ooh! Anne, you’re blushing,” Cleves teased, throwing a kernel of popcorn in her direction.

“Anne, it’s almost like you blush at the mention of Cathy’s name!” Catherine exclaimed, causing Anne to blush even harder. “See?”

“Okay, that’s enough! Stop teasing my Annie,” Cathy quipped before snuggling deeper in Anne’s chest then sticking out her tongue at Anne’s accusers.

Anne smiled and joked back. “Yeah, don’t mock my love for Cathy!” To further her point, she gently lifted Cathy’s head until their lips touched. It was soft but filled with so much love. They pulled away as Anna made gagging sounds in the background.

“Please, someone play the movie before they start heading to second base,” Cleves shouted, earning an eruption of laughter from the other queens, Anne included. Jane reached for the remote and the movie resumed.

All the queens finished watching the movie in comfortable silence. The queens of course joined in singing “I See the Light” when the song came on, belting out each lyric and trying to be the loudest voice. But for Anne, she was singing for Cathy. Her girlfriend, as cheesy as it was, really was her light. Everything in her life seemed so much brighter, so much more vivid with Cathy in it. She brought so much meaning to Anne’s life, and Anne could barely imagine living without her.

Cathy pulled away from Anne, breaking the latter queen out of her thoughts. “I really love that movie,” Cathy whispered to no one in particular.

“Of course you do, Cathy! Flynn is basically the male version of Anne,” Kat commented. “By the way, here’s the Polaroid from earlier.” Kat handed the picture to Cathy while putting the camera back on the side table.

Cathy grabbed the picture from Kat and Anne leaned over to get a better look at it. Anne swooned at how cute she and Cathy looked together, realizing she would probably never get over how perfectly they were made for each other.

“Aw, babe, we’re so cute,” Anne whispered, earning a quick kiss on her cheek from Cathy.

“You bet we are, love.” Cathy smiled before checking her phone to see what time it was. “When did it get so late?” The time on her phone showed 11:28 p.m.

Jane yawned before announcing, “We should probably get going then. Sorry for staying so late, loves.” Jane flashed a sympathetic smile before shuffling to get her things together. The other three queens mimicked her actions.

Anne felt her heart sink at the thought of her friends leaving. She glanced to her side and it seemed Cathy was feeling the same way as a slight frown appeared on her face. The two looked at each other and shared a knowing look.

Cathy spoke up first. “Why don’t you all spend the night? We can have a little impromptu slumber party!”

Kat was the first to respond. “Really?! Like, how we used to?”

Anne answered her cousin’s question. “Yeah! We can play truth or dare and then tell embarrassing secrets about our girlfriends!”

“That sounds horrifying! I’m in,” Anna smirked.

Jane and Catherine shared a quick glance before accepting the invitation as well. Cathy ran off to collect even more pillows and blankets to make the living room a more comfortable place for the queens to rest for the night.

A few rounds of truth or dare and several embarrassing stories later, the queens slowly began to drift off to sleep, starting with Kat of course. Anne soon realized that she was the only one awake. She looked around the living room at the sleeping queens and a smile spread across her face.

Kat’s head was resting on Anna’s chest and Cleves had her arms wrapped protectively around Kat. Jane and Catherine spooning, surprisingly with Jane being the big spoon. Anne smirked and promised herself to never let Aragon live that down.

Then, her eyes landed on Cathy. Her sweet, lovely Cathy. Anne swore she could spend the rest of her life admiring her girlfriend’s sleeping form. She looked so peaceful, like nothing could ever disturb her. And she was endlessly beautiful. Her curls were sprawled across the pillows and floor and her lips were slightly parted. Anne had a sudden urge to capture the moment forever in a picture. Speaking of which…

Anne glanced to the side table briefly, making a mental note to hang up the new Polaroid Kat had taken and return the camera to their bedroom in the morning. She slowly crawled next to Cathy on the floor, doing her best not to disturb her in her sleep. She pulled the blanket over herself and adjusted it so that it covered Cathy’s shoulders. Finally she wrapped her arm loosely around Cathy’s waist and laid her head down on her pillow.

“Took you long enough,” Cathy whispered tiredly to Anne.

“Shh. Baby, go back to sleep,” Anne whispered back and placed a soft kiss on Cathy’s forehead. Cathy smiled at the gesture, shifted her head to Anne’s chest, and promptly fell back asleep. Anne held Cathy a little closer before drifting off to sleep herself.

#parrlyn #parrleyn #anne boleyn #catherine parr #anne boleyn x catherine parr #parrlyn fanfic #six the musical #six the musical fanfic

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hersheyotaku · 5 years ago

Text

Cloaked Feelings

Fandom: Tangled Characters: Varian, Ruddiger, Rapunzel Pairings: One-sided Varipunzel, heavily implied New Dream Tags: post series, before wedding, minor fluff, minor angst, unrequited love, pining, Varian being a dork, also starring Eugene’s face

Summary: Stumbling across the shapeshifting cloak was a complete accident. But with a bright and inquisitive mind like his, Varian can’t help but want to study it. However, a case of mistaken identity soon forces him to choose between doing what’s right…or falling further into a tangled web of deception and selfish impulses.

Read on Ao3 here

“Ruddiger!” Varian called in exasperation. “Get out of there! You can eat your apples after we finish sorting through this stuff.”

With a grumbling chitter, the pudgy raccoon abandoned the bucket of apples he’d been rooting through and ambled over to where Varian was sitting cross-legged on the floor. The young alchemist gave his friend a quick scratch behind the ear before nodding his head at a nearby basket, and the raccoon dutifully clambered up the side and disappeared over the rim.

Satisfied that Ruddiger was doing his part, Varian went back to rifling through his own box, which was filled with an assortment of unclaimed goods that had been salvaged from the wreckage of Corona a few months back.

Rapunzel had told him that since no one had come forward to claim any of the items, he was free to sift through and see if there was anything he could use for his experiments. He may be a fully-funded royal engineer now, but he still had personal projects that he liked to work on.

Besides, he enjoyed the thrill of the hunt! Back in Old Corona, he and Ruddiger had spent many days together digging through scrap piles for hidden treasures, though Ruddiger was usually more interested in gobbling down the remains of someone’s half-eaten sandwich than extracting metal bedsprings from a mattress to be melted down later.

Lance had helped him haul half a dozen boxes and baskets full of odds and ends down to his lab in the basement of the castle, but he’d paid the price for the help by spending the next half-hour cleaning up the minor explosion the larger man had caused during the five minutes he’d spent in the lab, touching everything Varian told him not to. Once the exasperated alchemist had contained the globulous purple fire and sent Lance on his way, he had finally been able to start sorting his haul.

Varian had just dropped a dented pocket watch into his pile of useful objects when he heard a hissing sound from Ruddiger’s basket. Brow furrowed, he stood and leaned forward to peer inside.

An orange tabby cat lunged out at him, and Varian let out a startled yelp. “Gah! What the—?!” He ducked his head as the strange cat clawed its way up his vest and curled around his shoulders. Where had it come from?! And where was Ruddiger? Grabbing the edge of the basket, he tipped it towards him, searching for his friend.

“Ruddiger?” he asked, then winced when the cat yowled right into his ear. He reached up to grab it, but instead of fur he got a fistful of fabric. Baffled, he pulled at the material, and in a shower of sparkling light a dark piece of cloth slid off of the cat and revealed Ruddiger instead.

They stared at each for a moment, then both of their gazes darted down to the cloth hanging from the alchemist’s hand. What…had just happened?

—

To Varian’s utter astonishment, he discovered that the large piece of cloth was actually a cloak. A hooded cloak with a chameleon-shaped brooch that could change a person’s physical features and was apparently controlled by neural oscillation or…something close to it. Essentially—as he’d had to explain to Ruddiger when the raccoon had tilted his furry head in confusion—you think of the person you want to look like, and boom! Instant change! And just as astounding, the cloak itself shifted into whatever outfit the wearer willed it to, making it the perfect disguise!

Remarkably, the cloak wasn’t simply bending light to create an illusion; it changed the physiological structure of whoever was wearing it. While experimenting, Varian had shifted to look like Quirin, and his head had collided with a high shelf that normally wouldn’t have posed a risk. Aside from the forming bump on his forehead, it was an exciting discovery!

He’d also found that the cloak only functioned correctly if the brooch was attached. Separated, the two items lost their transformative properties, and even when Varian tried attaching the brooch to other materials, it never yielded any results. But if he could find a way to replicate the materials, the scientific possibilities could be endless!

To that end, he’d laid the cloak out on a workbench that he’d hastily cleared of beakers and books. One corner of the fabric lay under the lens of a microscope, while the chameleon brooch floated in a beaker of chemical solution that Varian planned to test to see what properties it contained. He also had a few stray pieces of thread from the cloak floating in their own solution. He was going to find out exactly what these things were made of!

Plucking the brooch from the solution with a pair of sterilized tweezers, he carefully cleaned it before reattaching it to the cloak. Then he took the two chemical compounds and poured them into labelled test tubes. Since the day he’d tried to test Rapunzel’s hair, he’d improved on the process and come up with an alternate method in the form of a chemical solution that could analyze the composition and properties of whatever he soaked in it.

Once he’d placed the test tubes into the chamber of a small centrifuge machine of his own design and set it to run, the teen alchemist placed his hands on his hips and took a step back, letting out a satisfied huff. That should do it!

But it would be a few hours until the results were ready, so now he had some time to kill.

Glancing around his lab, his eyes landed on his bookmarked copy of Flynn Rider and the Cursed Isle of Sairaag. He grinned. He knew just how to pass the time.

—

“Ha! You think a few scurvy pirates can stop the great Flynn Rider?” Varian goaded his invisible foe, brandishing his prototype electromagnetic sword. Wearing the face of one Eugene Fitzherbert, he swiped at the rubber ball that came flying towards him, envisioning it as a savage pirate charging him at the command of the Dread Pirate Ruby-Eyed Rick.

While Eugene might not be the Flynn Rider from The Tales of Flynnigan Rider, his was still the face Varian associated with his favorite fictional character. And with the help of one totally non-magical cloak, he now had the chance to be his childhood hero!

“Is that the best you’ve got, you flea-bitten rapscallion?” he taunted, hopping from one foot to the other in anticipation of the next round.

Dropping the ball he’d been about to load into the Varian’s homemade launching machine, Ruddiger gave an indignant chitter and planted his paws on his sides.

“No, Ruddiger—I know you don’t actually have fleas,” Varian reassured his friend with a touch of exasperation. “It’s just a line from the book!”

Ruddiger didn’t seem entirely convinced, but nonetheless, he picked up the ball and dropped it into the machine.

“Ha-ha!” Varian crowed triumphantly as he cut through the projectile. “Give it up, Ruby Eye! Your two-bit lackeys are no match for—”

He froze at the sound of the door creaking open. Shoot, he hadn’t been expecting anyone!

“Hey Varian, have you seen—oh there you are, Eugene!” Rapunzel stepped into the lab, a wide grin on her freckled features.

“O-oh, no, I’m not—” Varian stammered, his cheeks flushing at being caught in what was essentially an elaborate game of make-believe. Why did he have to give in to his childish impulses without locking the door first? And why did it have to be Rapunzel of all people to catch him?

But apparently Rapunzel had drawn a completely different conclusion, and she let out a light laugh as she approached him. “Were you playing with Varian’s inventions again?” She took the sword from his hand and placed it on the nearest table. “You know how he feels about people touching his stuff. Remember how you crashed his Flynnoleum-powered cart into the city fountain?”

Wait, that had been Eugene?! Varian knew he hadn’t forgotten to set the emergency brake when he’d—

The alchemist was jolted from his thoughts when Rapunzel gave his nose a light tap. “Don’t worry!” she told him, before leaning in close and whispering conspiratorially, “I don’t think Varian has it out for you the same way he does for Lance.”

With Rapunzel so close, her large emerald eyes and cute freckled nose mere inches from his own, Varian was finding it extremely hard to articulate any of the thoughts tumbling around in his head, and that gave the princess time to move on to the very reason she’d come looking for Eugene.

“Now, who’s ready for our date~?” she practically sang, bouncing on her heels.

“Date?” Varian echoed, before realization dawned on him and he held up his hands in alarm. “Rapunzel, I’m not—”

“Oh very funny, Eugene,” Rapunzel smirked. Then her fingers curled into the material of his shirt to pull him down—a foreign feeling for the normally short-statured teen—and she pressed a kiss to his mouth.

Time ground to a complete standstill for Varian, his every sense zeroing in on the feeling of Rapunzel’s soft lips pressing against his own. She—she was kissing him!

Then her lips began to move against his, and Varian couldn’t help himself.

He kissed her back.

He had no idea how long the kiss lasted—it felt like an eternity and a split second all rolled into one—before Rapunzel pulled away with that shining smile of hers.

As Varian slowly came back to his senses, he realized that his arms had wound around the princess and pulled her into a tight embrace. But it was unlike any embrace they’d ever shared before. It was intimate, and Varian could feel a hot flush creeping up his back and neck as his heart pounded fiercely, keenly aware of the feel of Rapunzel’s body pressed against his.

He wasn’t given too much more time to think about it before Rapunzel expertly twirled out of his hold and grabbed his hand. “C’mon, let’s go! We don’t want to miss the sunset!”

Before Varian could ask ‘what sunset?’ he was being pulled towards the door.

Turning his head to look over his shoulder, he caught sight of Ruddiger watching from atop his workbench. ‘Help!’ he mouthed to the raccoon. Ruddiger tipped his head, seeming to consider the idea before giving him a toothy grin and curling his small raccoon hands into double thumbs up.

What…that little traitor! Varian didn’t even have time to glare at the raccoon before Rapunzel towed him down the hall, chatting excitedly about their date.

Now, Varian’s first instinct was to protest and tell her he wasn’t Eugene and that she was mistaken. But the fresh memory of what had just transpired between them kept his lips sealed as his pulse thundered in his burning ears.

He couldn’t let her know that he wasn’t Eugene now! What would she think if she found out she’d kissed him and…oh geez, he’d kissed her back! If he hadn’t been an idiot and gotten swept away in the moment he could probably play this all off as the huge misunderstanding it was.

But he had kissed her back and even wrapped his arms around her, which had just prolonged it. There was no explaining that away! She’d find out—she’d know how he…how he felt about her, and then what would happen? She was engaged! To Eugene! One of his best friends!

If Varian’s hands had been free he would have tangled them in his hair in frustration. What was he gonna do? The kiss had been wonderful, everything he’d ever imagined it could be, but he couldn’t let Rapunzel find out!

The best thing he could do now was escape before things got out of hand.

“Oh hey, um…s-sunshine?” The nickname tasted foreign on his tongue. He was so used to calling her Rapunzel or princess, but Eugene usually reserved the first for more serious occasions and never used the second. This was going to be tricky.

“Hm?” Rapunzel glanced back at him curiously.

“Uh, I forgot that I had a…a thing that I need to do. Y’know, captain of the guard stuff and…uh…” Varian trailed off as Rapunzel’s face fell, his chest constricting uncomfortably.

“Oh…does that mean we have to cancel our date?” Her large green eyes stared into his sadly, and suddenly Varian felt very small, despite his magically-enhanced height. Well…it wasn’t like one little date would hurt anything. It would make Rapunzel happy and—if he was honest—the idea of actually going on a date with her was pretty thrilling.

“No,” he finally said, giving her a lop-sided grin. “It can wait.”

The beaming smile that lit Rapunzel’s face effectively washed away all of Varian’s doubts about his decision, and he willingly allowed himself to be whisked down the hall.

—

Varian glanced around the docks uneasily, his doubts resurfacing now that they were actually here. Eugene had apparently made arrangements for a romantic sunset boat ride, which made the teen alchemist wonder where the real Eugene was. Shouldn’t he be here if he was the one who set up this date?

Rapunzel hopped down into the boat and held out an inviting hand. “Ready?” she asked, her smile drawing Varian in like a moth to a flame.

Well, the fact of the matter was that Eugene wasn’t here. And someone had to take Rapunzel on this date! “You bet!” he said, taking her hand and joining her. She untied the mooring rope while he grabbed the oars, and soon they were headed out towards the open water.

They found a spot where Rapunzel insisted they would have the absolute best view of the sunset. Already the darkening sky was turning a dusky pink, and Varian had to admit that it was probably going to be a spectacular view when the sun dipped below the horizon.

But until that happened…he had no clue what he was supposed to do. What were they going to talk about? What did she and Eugene talk about when they were alone like this?

Fortunately for him Rapunzel was a take-charge kind of girl, and she was all too happy to snuggle right up into his side, resting her head on his shoulder. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she sighed, gazing up at the pink and purple streaks coloring the sky.

A response popped into Varian’s head and, emboldened by his concealed identity, he decided to voice it.

“Not as beautiful as you.” Then he held his breath, not knowing how she would respond. Was that too cheesy? Too forward? Too out of character?

Rapunzel pulled away from his shoulder, and Varian felt his heart jump into his throat. He’d messed up, he’d definitely messed up! Slowly turning his head, he was shocked to see Rapunzel looking at him with a soft smile, her cheeks lightly tinted pink. “Aw, that is so sweet!” she cooed, and this time Varian’s heart skipped a beat for an entirely different reason.

With his confidence boosted and nerves soothed by Rapunzel’s positive response, Varian committed himself to the task of enjoying his time with the bubbly princess.

Amidst amiable chatter, he gave her compliments, enjoying how she’d flush with happiness. He took her hands and softly rubbed his thumb over her knuckles, brushed her hair back from her face, gently pressed his forehead to hers. No matter how small, each touch was absolutely electrifying to him, charged with an emotion that Varian could only describe as…well, love.

This was a side of Rapunzel that only Eugene got to experience, and while it wasn’t like the couple hid their affection in front of others, there was just something about being the direct recipient of Rapunzel’s coy looks—how she would bite her bottom lip while looking at him from beneath her thick eyelashes—that stole his breath and made his stomach do somersaults.

He relished each small romantic gesture—both given and taken—that he’d otherwise never dare to indulge in, and committed each and every one to memory.

This was both the best and worst idea he’d ever had.

Then Rapunzel leaned in, her eyes slipping closed, and Varian’s heart beat a million miles a minute. It was happening! She was going to kiss him again!

Varian was no stranger to physical affection from Rapunzel. She was the type to give out hugs like candy, and she had no qualms about holding hands with Varian or even snuggling up to him if they were sitting next to each other. But it was always platonic in nature, and while Varian enjoyed it, he hadn’t realized how different those innocent gestures of affection were compared to what Rapunzel shared with Eugene. Even if it was the exact same physical action, it was the emotion and intent behind it that made it special.

And none of it was truly intended for him.

Then her lips were on his, and Varian allowed himself to forget that crucial little detail and be swept away. One hand tangled itself in her hair while the other settled at the small of her back, pulling her closer. He could feel the light pressure of her hand on his chest, and the sensation of her thumb brushing along his jaw sent a delightful jolt up his spine.

By the time Rapunzel pulled back, Varian’s head was buzzing pleasantly and he felt lighter than air, like he could just float away on the slightest breeze.

“Th-that was great, thanks…” he mumbled dazedly, a goofy grin on his face.

Rapunzel giggled at his dazed expression. Then she tipped her head to the side, studying him. “Y’know, you’ve been acting a bit funny, Eugene. Is something wrong?”

Panic sliced through Varian’s euphoria, and he quickly shook his head. “N-no! Of course not! Why would—why would something be wrong? Nope, ev-everything’s cool, we’re cool!” Chuckling nervously, he made to lean on the side of the boat, but his elbow missed and he nearly tumbled into the water.

“Woah!” Rapunzel exclaimed, grabbing his wrist and yanking him back before he could fall overboard. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? Should we head back?”

Varian took a second to calm his rapidly beating heart, which felt like it was about to pound his ribs to dust. “I-I guess maybe that would be a good idea,” he conceded reluctantly, almost shakily. As much as he was enjoying spending time out here with Rapunzel like this, on an actual date, he was also painfully aware of what a charade it was. And the longer it continued, the more likely he’d be found out.

Taking both of his hands in hers, Rapunzel locked eyes with him, gazing at him so intently that Varian’s previous attempt to calm his heart became an effort in futility. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Completely entranced by her soft tone and those vivid green eyes filled with understanding and concern, Varian’s mouth automatically opened to confide in her. But at the last second he caught himself and snapped it shut.

He loved her. He’d loved her since the day she’d offered him forgiveness and the chance of redemption, from the moment she’d refused to let him kill himself to clean up the mess he’d made. But he couldn’t tell her that, and he couldn’t tell her that he’d selfishly taken advantage of her to see how it would feel if…if she returned his feelings.

But it was a pale imitation. She thought she was with Eugene, not him.

Taking a deep breath through his nose, Varian gave her a weak smile. This was something he couldn’t share even with her.

So instead, he told her, “I think I might’ve had some…bad fish for lunch. Didn’t um…taste right, y’know?”

Sighing, he lifted his hand and cupped her cheek. Maybe it was wrong, and she certainly wouldn’t know the true meaning behind his words, but this might be the only opportunity he had to tell her without potentially ruining their friendship.

“I love you, Rapunzel,” he told her gently, combing his fingers through her soft brown hair reverently.

Rapunzel’s eyes lit with a warmth that made Varian’s heart ache, and she reached up to rest her hand on his cheek in turn. “And I love you, Eugene.”

It felt like she’d slapped him. Even with her tender touch, and even when she leaned in and pressed her mouth to his once more, Varian felt the sharp ache of Eugene’s name on her lips. He hadn’t even been expecting anything, he’d just wanted to finally tell her, but…it was too much.

The feeling of something warm and wet sliding down his cheek made Varian’s eyes snap open. To his horror, he realized that his vision was swimming. No, he couldn’t cry, Eugene wouldn’t cry!

Breaking the kiss, he was thankful that Rapunzel’s eyes were closed as he swiped his sleeve across his face. What was he doing, he’d known all along that he had no place with Rapunzel. Not like Eugene did.

“Eugene?” she asked, utterly confused when she opened her eyes to the sight of her fiancé vehemently swiping at his eyes with his sleeve.

“All-allergies” was his weak excuse. Leaning down, he picked up the oars and attempted a reassuring smile. “Let’s head back, we can…we can do this again some other time. When there’s less…pollen.”

A lie. She would do this again with Eugene, but not him.

Varian could tell that Rapunzel suspected something was off, judging by the concerned looks she kept shooting him as he rowed them back to shore. So he did his best to buck up and make light small talk, for her sake. He didn’t want her to worry…or to question Eugene about it later.

That thought sent a jolt of horrified realization down his spine. Eugene. There was no way Rapunzel wouldn’t mention the date to him later, probably to ask what he’d been hiding from her. Stupid stupid stupid! They were going to find out!

It took a lot of effort to not let his panic show as he helped Rapunzel out of the boat, a wide smile plastered onto his face that probably looked a bit manic, if Rapunzel’s raised brow was any indication. “Eugene…maybe you should go see a doctor?”

“No!” Varian exclaimed hastily, before clearing his throat. “It’s just that I uh…I need to…need to go.” He stood there for a brief moment, his overly wide smile still in place. Then he ducked away and booked it down the street.

“Wha—Eugene!” Rapunzel exclaimed in surprise, reaching after him. “Where are you going?!”

Somewhere he could take off this stupid cloak and try to figure out a way to salvage this whole situation! But Varian thought back to his ‘bad fish’ excuse and decided to roll with that. “Bathroom!” he shouted back.

As he disappeared around the corner of a building, Rapunzel’s hand slowly lowered. Well that was…weird.

—

Back in the relative safety of his lab, Varian took a moment to lean against the door and catch his breath. Initially he’d wanted nothing more than to rip off the cloak as soon as he was out of Rapunzel’s sight, but had thought better of it. He couldn’t risk someone seeing him go into a building as Eugene and come out as himself, especially while carrying such an incriminating piece of evidence.

So instead, the citizens of Corona got to witness their illustrious captain of the guard tearing through the streets like his tail was on fire. Which…really wasn’t all that rare of an occurrence, but still.

Varian grabbed the cloth at his shoulder and pulled the cloak off, his body returning to normal in a sparkling flash of light. With a heaving sigh, he ran his fingers through his bangs. He had a lot to think about.

Dragging the cloak with him, he sat down at his desk and let his head fall on top of the scattered blueprints and schematics with a thunk.

On the one hand, he’d never imagined he’d get the chance to be with Rapunzel like that, and it had been amazing. But any joy he might derive from the memory was tainted by his gnawing guilt at the false pretense those stolen moments had been under. And he still had to figure out what he was going to do when Rapunzel inevitably talked to Eugene…

A knock at the door nearly made Varian jump out of his skin, and he frantically stuffed the cloak under his desk, kicking it against the wall and nearly tripping as he scrambled from his seat. He’d locked the door this time, but it’d be suspicious if it took him too long to answer it.

“C-coming!” he called, heart pounding as he undid the lock and cracked open the door.

A cold sweat broke out on the back of Varian’s neck when he saw who it was.

“Rapunzel?” he squeaked, before clearing his throat and opening the door fully. “I mean uh, h-hi!”

“Hi Varian!” she grinned, then tilted her head as she took in his frazzled appearance. “Are you…busy?”

“Busy…um, no!” Varian stepped back and gestured for her to come inside, making a valiant effort to keep his hand from shaking as she moved past him. “What—” He paused, wetting his suddenly dry lips as he struggled to maintain eye contact. “What brings you here?”

“Well, I wanted to ask you something.” The princess twirled a strand of brunette hair in front of her ear while Varian held his breath, dreading her next words. “Earlier, I went on a date with Eugene and…he was acting kind of funny.”

Varian’s mouth went completely dry. She knew.

“But,” Rapunzel continued, clearly not reading into Varian’s wide-eyed expression. “it turns out he was just having indigestion from eating some bad fish for lunch.”

Varian’s fight or flight instinct had been about to kick into overdrive, but just like that it vanished, leaving him somewhat numb as he tried to comprehend this turn of events. “…what?”

“Yeah, I think he came here earlier to see if you could help him, but you weren’t around and I might have dragged him off before he could get something to fix it,” Rapunzel explained sheepishly. “So I was wondering…do you have anything that could help with an upset stomach?”

Varian blinked. “Upset stomach?” he echoed. That’s why she was here? Not to force him to give her an explanation for his actions, or chew him out for tricking her, or kick him out of the castle? “Uh I…don’t really do much with medicine, though I could probably whip something up if you need me to.”

It’d have to be something with no potency whatsoever, since he doubted Eugene—wherever he was—had actually had bad fish for lunch.

Rapunzel’s smile was dazzling. “Oh, thank you, Varian!” she said, grabbing his hand and giving it a quick squeeze that made the young alchemist’s heart flutter. Then she was out the door, giving him a lighthearted wave. “I’ll be back once I find where Eugene went!” And she was gone.

Varian slowly let out the breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding as he closed the door behind her. He meandered over to the cabinet where he kept his alchemical supplies, absentmindedly plucking a few colorful vials before moving to his workbench.

So he hadn’t been found out. And really, if nobody knew he had the cloak, they couldn’t possibly pin him as the fake Eugene, even if Eugene and Rapunzel did talk. But the thought of Rapunzel worrying about who the stranger in the boat had been, touching her, kissing her—Varian didn’t want to imagine the distress that would cause her.

…should he come clean? Before Eugene could confirm that he hadn’t been the one in the boat with Rapunzel?

The very idea made Varian’s gut twist into an anxious knot. Telling Rapunzel would keep her from worrying about being molested by a stranger, but would she forgive him? Be able to trust him again? Understand why, in his prolonged moment of weakness, he’d done it?

Well. She’d been able to forgive Cassandra but…somehow that felt different. Cassandra hadn’t tricked Rapunzel into kissing her. And he hadn’t had an ancient demon manipulating him.

The sound of squeaking door hinges jerked Varian from his spiraling thoughts, and he whirled around. Then he let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was just Ruddiger coming through the special door flap he’d installed for him. “Oh, it’s just you,” he breathed. Then he noticed the raccoon had something in his mouth, and he kneeled down to get a better look. Was that…an empty vial?

Ruddiger deposited the vial into his waiting hand, and Varian’s breath caught as he read the label.

Quirinian 2.0

Ironically, in his attempt to help Rapunzel’s parents regain their memories, he’d actually managed to create a weaker version of what the Quirinian was originally supposed to be: a memory-erase serum. The effects of the serum caused whoever drank it to forget everything they’d experienced in the last 24 hours. But since it didn’t help people regain their memories, and the king and queen had managed to remember their lives without his help anyway, he’d shelved the serum and moved on to other projects.

His eyes darted back to Ruddiger. “Did you…” He swallowed weakly, afraid of the answer. “Did you give this t-to Eugene?”

Ruddiger nodded, looking immensely pleased with himself.

Varian’s heart dropped. So this was why Eugene hadn’t shown up? Because he’d forgotten about the date altogether? Varian had no idea how recently they’d made their plans, but apparently it had been fairly impromptu, probably something they’d decided last night or this morning.

Oh no. Ruddiger must have interpreted his plea for help when Rapunzel had taken him from the lab as asking for help with the date, not getting out of it! No no no, he hadn’t wanted this!

“Ruddiger…no,” Varian said, his voice cracking as he clutched at his hair with both hands. “No, you went too far! I—” Slowly, his hands fell to his lap. “No…I went too far,” he admitted miserably.

Dimly, he was aware of Ruddiger’s concerned chitter, how his friend patted his leg in a gesture of comfort. But that left Varian to wonder just why he was so upset. Was it because he’d tricked Rapunzel? Broken her trust so he could live out a fantasy for a few hours? Indirectly drugged Eugene? Or was it because…

He swallowed thickly. Because he knew that he’d never experience that sort of happiness, that sort of thrill, with Rapunzel again?

Varian’s eyes darted to the cloak, and he chewed his lip, torn. There was a chance, just a small one, that he could experience that happiness again. But it wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be fair. To Rapunzel, to Eugene, to himself.

All he had to do was get rid of it and no one would ever know. Rapunzel might even blame the bad fish thing for Eugene’s memory. But…

Shaking his head, Varian tore his eyes away from the shimmering fabric. He shouldn’t even be tempted to use it again. He should just move on, cherish the memory of his short time with Rapunzel, let everything go back to the way it was.

But there was a dark, desperate part of himself that wanted to experience being with Rapunzel again, regardless of the cost...and it scared him. If he kept the cloak, the temptation would be too great.

He couldn’t let that happen. He’d made enough mistakes in his life—he had to get rid of the cloak before he made any more.

Resolve hardened, but afraid it wouldn’t last, Varian moved to where the cloak lay crumpled on the ground and snatched it up. “C’mon Ruddiger, let’s get rid of this thing.”

With a chitter of agreement, Ruddiger climbed to his shoulders and the alchemist strode from his lab to dispose of the magical cloak.

Not a moment after the door shut behind them, a high-pitched ‘ding’ echoed through the lab as the centrifuge machine came to a stop, and the spectrometric press hooked to it printed out two sheets of data.

The test results were ready.

#varian #rapunzel #tangled the series #rapunzel’s tangled adventure #tangled #tts #rta #fanfic #varipunzel #hershey’s written works

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villainanders · 5 years ago

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Mid-Year Book Tag 2020

tagged by @augustales

Best book you’ve read so far in 2020:

I don’t know......... I read a lot of disappointing books this year tbh. Sawkill Girls maybe? Or Gone Girl. One of the two

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2020:

The Two Towers!! It was fun I loved the Sam and Frodo antics it was probs my favorite of the LOTR books

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to:

Does the Priory of an Orange Tree still count as a new release?

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

Omg I actually don’t think I have any anticipated releases for this year unless I’m forgetting something... maybe Lindsay Ellis’ book because I am kind of excited to check that out and see if she’s a good writer?

Favorite new author (debut or new to you):

Gillian Flynn! I had been assured she was good but never actually read anything by her but BOY did Gone Girl kick my ass

Biggest disappointment:

Daisy Jones and the Six! I LOOVED the 7 husbands of evelyn hugo so i was so excited to read what else she’s written but this was massive dud

Biggest surprise:

Red White and Royal Blue!! I thought it sounded really dumb and tactless, which like... it was, but I could tell that the writer seemed to Get It for the most part and it was just really cute and fun??

Book that made you happy:

I have the Homestuck Epilogues logged on Goodreads, so, legally, I can list them here. They were fun ok! Sometimes weird pondering on the nature of authorial power but like... with aliens sparks joy

Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character:

Val from Sawkill Girls and Harrow from Gideon the Ninth. You guys know why

Book that made you cry:

I went through the entire Hunger Games trilogy without shedding a tear and then burst into sobbing at the end of Mockingjay. It’s fine I’m fine

Favorite book to film adaptation you saw this year:

Gone Girl Again lmao

Most beautiful book you’ve bought or received this year so far:

I read LOTR with my dad’s fancy collector’s editions so those

Book you need to read by the end of the year:

Priory of the Orange Tree again lol

Tagging: I have almost all of my mutuals from book fandoms but I s2g only 2 of you read books still so I’m just taking shots in the dark here. Anyone who wants to do this say i tagged you @femmethem @calmdownthehawk @sophelstien @wuzzyletoastermac @pyropian @angelatwell @jonsatin @sansajeyne @foxmulders

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pink-flame · 4 years ago

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You know, we did not get an official first Juke Bodyguard AU kiss. Did they kiss after Julie's show? I'd like to know how their first kiss was

I mean technically you did get their first kiss, it was just brief and apparently unsatisfying. So...let’s try this again. 😂 Have their second kiss.

Julie was pretty sure that her Orpheum concert was the best show she had ever done.

There was the fact that she had been dreaming of performing there for practically her entire life, ever since Reggie and Alex had taken her to her first concert ever in that very same club. There was the fact that for the first time in a long time almost everyone she cared about was gathered to watch her, her dad, and her brothers, and Alex and Flynn. There was the fact that every single note seemed to fall exactly where it was meant to, her voice soaring like never before in a way that felt...easy.

But she would have been lying if she said that any of those factors were the real reason why it was her best show ever.

The truth was a lot simpler.

The truth was she performed the whole concert with a permanent smile stretching across her lips, lips that still tingled from where they had all too briefly pressed against Luke’s. They had exchanged I love yous. They had finally stopped dancing around each other and wondering if the other felt the same.

And they had kissed.

Even if it had been cut frustratingly short.

Still.

There would be plenty of time for that. Like. The second her show ended.

Only it didn’t turn out to be quite that simple.

Luke had clearly had the same idea because he was waiting for her in the wings, hovering even closer to the edge of the stage than he would on a normal night, those big eyes and that distracting grin fixed on her until her final bow. As soon as Julie practically ran off of the stage she was in his personal space, struggling to maintain some small semblance of professionalism by not immediately latching her lips onto his. It was a struggle though and one that he seemed to be feeling too.

“Hi,” She said, looking up at him, as her lip slipped between her teeth.

“Hi,” He echoed, one of his hands coming up to touch lightly at her elbow and usher her slightly farther into the wings.

And that was ok, that was normal, in fact before she had started trying to ignore him they regularly touched way more than this in front of anyone and everyone. Only now her skin practically burned where his fingers rested on it and she found herself unintentionally swaying even closer to him. He must have been feeling it too because the next thing she knew his head was dipping down towards hers, and hers was tilting up and…

Oh.

“Luke,” She whispered, her hands coming up to press against his chest and halt his progress. “Let’s go somewhere more private, ok?”

He didn’t respond right away, his body seeming prepared to fight to continue its journey towards hers for a split second before her words pierced the haze around his mind. He jolted and took a half step back, one hand coming up to rub at the back of his head sheepishly.

“Right, yeah, good idea.”

He recovered from his embarrassment quickly, shooting her another grin and using his grip on her elbow to guide her out into the hall and towards her green room.

Julie wasn’t exactly proud of the way she spent the short walk counting the seconds until she and Luke could be alone and more properly express their happiness at finally confessing to each other but...that didn’t mean she wasn’t counting them. Unfortunately when Luke finally gripped the door handle and ushered them inside they were very much not alone.

In fact the room was packed with just about everyone she had previously been so excited were there to see her play. Oh. Yeah.

“Julie, that was phenomenal!”

Before she could react, Julie’s dad was striding across the room and sweeping her up into her arms, jostling her away from a frowning Luke in the process.

“Thanks, Dad,” Julie said genuinely, returning his hug before pulling away with a smile.

Her dad wasn’t the only one who wanted her attention and to congratulate her, Flynn, Reggie, Alex and even Carlos all stepping forward to take their turn, the room quickly becoming an impromptu celebration of Julie finally achieving one of her lifelong dreams to perform at the Orpheum. And she appreciated it, she did. So much.

But she was also incredibly aware of Luke hovering at the outskirts of the gathering, Reggie and Alex doing their best to keep him involved in conversation, but his energy practically bouncing around the room and blasting into her with its intensity. She was pretty sure she was matching it if she was being honest. It had been the better part of a year spent thinking that their respective feelings were unrequited and now that the unrequited part had been proved to very much not be true they were both practically vibrating with anticipation of what came next.

So when Julie glanced over her shoulder and locked eyes with Luke as they each did their best to keep up a conversation with different people, she knew the exact moment that both of them decided they were done waiting.

Luke was suddenly pulling out his phone and making a big show of reading a supposed message that had come through before hurrying over to her and practically tugging her towards the door.

“Sorry everyone, need to borrow Julie just for a minute, official business.”

Julie did her best to ignore the knowing looks Alex, Reggie and Flynn all sent them and the way her dad’s forehead furrowed in confusion, following Luke out into the hall and pausing just long enough to make sure the door was shut securely behind them. That turned out to be all she had time to do before Luke was swinging her gently against the wall and bracketing her body with both of his inescapably muscular arms.

“Sorry,” He murmured, his face once again starting to dip towards hers. “I got impatient.”

“No, yeah, same,” Julie said a little breathlessly, reaching up to rest a hand on each of his shoulders.

“Ok, that’s good then,” He said, his voice dropping by at least an octave as one of his hands slipped off of the wall to rest on her lower back, tugging her even closer to him and wrenching a gasp from her without her permission.

Their lips were just about to connect when Alex’s voice suddenly sounded from just on the other side of the green room door.

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you, I’m on my way.”

Julie’s eyes widened in panic with the knowledge that Alex was about to step out and catch them in a somewhat compromising position. She knew that it wasn’t like they were doing anything wrong, and they certainly weren’t doing anything Alex hadn’t already probably guessed they were somewhere doing. But that didn’t mean she was ready for her best friend and assistant to see with his own eyes the way she and Luke simply couldn’t keep their hands off of each other at the moment. Luke clearly felt the same, only luckily for her his bodyguard instincts seemed to kick in. Just as the handle on the door started to move he tugged her down the hallway and through the next door they came to.

Julie’s first observation was only that it seemed that they had succeeded in avoiding Alex and she let a rush of relief flow through her. But her second observation was that she and Luke were pressed up against each other in what appeared to be a small closet.

Again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” She said quietly.

“I guess this is going to be our thing,” Luke answered with another one of those heat fluttering grins. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out.”

“Oh yeah?” Julie chuckled. “How long do you think it will be?”

“Hmmm…” Luke wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body even more flush against his. “Hard to say. Better safe than sorry.”

Julie giggled at that, she couldn’t help it. She was happy and she loved him and he loved her and they were finally alone and they were back in a closet and…

Luke’s mouth pressed against hers, at first softly than more insistently, his fingers curling into the soft skin of her waist as she melted fully against him. Julie could hardly process the actual sensation of the kiss through all of the fireworks that felt like they were exploding in her mind as her brain practically sang in elation at the rightness of being Luke and Julie, together. Of course that didn’t last long as her lips parted of their own accord and he instantly deepened the kiss with a little groan of satisfaction that sent tingles from her head to her toes. She brought up one hand to rest on the back of his neck while she couldn’t resist letting the other work its way into that stupid, messy hair. She curled her fingers around a few strands of his hair, her nails scraping lightly against his scalp. His reaction was immediate, seeming to lose his balance at the sensation as he stumbled pushing both of them against the wall knocking over what she was pretty sure was a stand containing cleaning supplies.

Julie broke away from the kiss, laughing uncontrollably as Luke struggled to regain his balance, push away a mop that had landed on his shoulder and reconnect their lips all at the same time.

“I’m going to be honest, I’m thinking it’s probably a good thing I’m getting a new bodyguard soon,” She teased, stroking gently at the patch of skin on his neck she could still reach. “Apparently all it takes to take you out is a scalp massage.”

Luke smirked down at her.

“Oh, so what I’m hearing is you want me to show you my skills,” He said in that soft, low voice that made it really hard for her to focus on anything, even teasing him. “Observing...detecting...physical intervention…”

Julie wanted very badly to make fun of the way he was trying to use bodyguard lingo to get under her skin but the problem was it was absolutely working, which meant it was safer just to say nothing. Instead she let her eyes slide closed, and her head tilt up and could just feel the slightest brush of his lips against hers when a loud knock had them springing apart.

“Are you two done because Julie’s dad would really like to take his daughter to a celebratory dinner and I don’t want to have to be the one who tells him she’s engaged in steamy activities in a random closet.”

Luke groaned and Julie chuckled.

“We’ll be right there, Alex,” She called out.

“Will we?” Luke grumbled.

“Yes,” Julie said with a smile, before leaning up to press one last quick kiss to his mouth. “I love you.”

That seemed to ease some of his disappointment, a sappy, pleased smile spreading onto his face instantly.

“I love you too.”

“Now come on,” Julie said, tugging him towards the door with a grin. “The sooner we get dinner with my dad the sooner you can do one last security sweep of my apartment.”

#500 followers #prompt game #juke #jatp #bodyguard au #my fics

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sonicfanj · 4 years ago

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Hi! I saw your response from a post related to idw! Amy from the last number of the comic. For some reason I don't feel satisfied with the way idw is handling amy and your response got my interest cause you mentioned really good points. I don't know if you want to continue to talk about the topic but if you do I would love to read more about your point of view Thanks for reading

I rant quite a bit about how IDW Amy has been handled as a good deal of it is a betrayal to her character concept which you can hear Kazuyuki Hoshino explain himself here.

https://youtu.be/0nzxRoIX4QU?t=2315

Sorry I can’t embed in an “Answer”, but the general gist of it is, Amy was created as a character who was to be the Minnie Mouse to Sonic’s Mickey Mouse, but as Sonic is not that type of character they needed to mix it up. As was very true of the early franchise where traditions were turned upside down for the time such as Tails being a nerd and athletic enough to keep up with Sonic while Amy was both a girly-girl and a tomboy at the same time, Sonic and Amy’s relationship was inverted from guy chasing after the girl to much less commonly seen girl chases after guy trope. So Amy could actually survive in a role as the love interest of the main character where she had to the chasing of a character always seeking out his next adventure and challenge she needed to have the energy, good cheer, and optimism to never give up chasing him and the willingness to partake in and love his lifestyle.

Early on you would see this in the Japanese manuals so naturally they were missed outside of Japan, but localization and not bringing content out of Japan (no less cases of Amy erasure by SEGA of America with her even having several scenes cut from the western airing of Sonic X removing a lot of her humanizing scenes showing she was a well meaning girl but acts on a foundation based on having the necessary energy to keep chasing Sonic unendingl) still did not stop that foundation from appearing in the games that brought her into the forefront of Sonic stories. The Sonic Adventure games.

Now there is a lot here that could be unpacked, but I’m going to focus on two moments.

1) At the beginning of her story Amy laments her boredom and pines for Sonic to be in her life again so she can enjoy excitement again like she did back when he was around. This out of the gate shows you that Amy detests being bored, yet IDW has her actively announce it at one point while doing Restoration paperwork, and also has Sonic have to practically drag her out on an adventure.

So not only is she betraying her character by refusing to do what she was created to do, with even her great handling in issue 2 has her actively reject her own character function, but when she is pulled out onto an adventure what is her reward? Well of course the start of the Zombot crisis, in which she gets to see herself maim someone and then see Sonic infected with the same stuff. From there her role in the entire arc is to just be a mouthpiece for how bad the crisis is on a global scale. Yet her character foundation states this should not be the case.

At one point during the Zombat arc we see Cream after losing Cheese and Chocola have to cheer up Amy who can’t herself understand how Cream is able to smile. Yet before this point, Amy’s history has always shown her to be the one who keeps people optimistic, who doesn’t let people get down, who always has the energy and ability to believe in Sonic saving the day in the end and is able to smile because of that. So again, not only is her character down and betraying who she is supposed to be, but a character she should be cheering up is instead cheering her up. Who Amy is and the foundation for her character is completely absent, and again, Amy is sitting still instead of taking action and going out into the world and doing her best in her way. Her adventurous spirit and get out and do something attitude are completely absent.

2) Now, the other line from the Adventure games which shows a problem with Amy just growing lifeless in a dark room is from Adventure 2 where aboard the Arc she complains about how the boys always leave her behind. She’s there because she wants to be and has done everything she can throughout the game to keep up, and started by infiltrating Prison Island and acquiring a key card to Sonic’s cell. She is demonstrated to be proactive and again has a love for adventure and a desire to travel with Sonic. Yet again this is actively ignored in IDW to plug her into a role in the Zombot Arc meant for Sally Acorn during the Archie New 252 run.

Ian Flynn has on record stated that the Metal Virus Arc was originally meant for Archie starting at or a little after issue 300. It was inspired by the “Metal” skins from Sonic Heroes and would have seen the Freedom Fighters tested against the horror of the Arhieverse version of Eggman like never before. At this point though a problem becomes abundantly clear, and that’s that you have a role to fill where Sally Acorn is absent in a more gamecentric setting. How Amy ended up in the roll is in part due to Ian Flynn typically righting characters and only really being able to use Amy, though he has admitted it’s not a role he believes she should have. Yet SEGA OKed it and for the Zombot Arc Amy has had to become Sally Acorn. Instead of being the cheerful girl who chases after Sonic and does her best to keep up with and help Sonic she has become the girl in charge he checks in on. Instead of being out in the field leading through motivation, encouragement, and example, she has become a war room tactician. These roles all fit Sally to a tee and she is a character designed to be able to serve the purposes of those roles and thrive in them. It is what she was made to do after all; lead a desperate group of mismatched people through an impossible situation. That is her core role and part of why she doesn’t work for the games where the narrative is simply where is Sonic now and what is he getting involved in. But for the Zombot Arc she was perfect, yet Archie’s bunglings put an end to that and to force his story into only the second story arc of a new comic before the characters had room to grow and become established with distinct identities in IDW, he took Amy and shoved her into Sally’s skin in what is one of the worst ill fitting results I’ve ever seen. She is at almost no point in the arc given even a single moment that speaks from the foundation of her character as she can’t for the sake of he plot. The plot needed Sally Acorn, but Amy was the only one available to fill the role, and as is typical when Sally is needed, Amy gets mistreated, misused, and winds up getting nothing in the end except more comfortless stress and worries with none of her actual character there to show she can actually smile through it all.

The funny thing is though, Amy’s actual character makes it into the Zombot Arc. It’s one of the best written scenes in the whole arc and occurs at a point when Sonic really needs that traditional Amy spunk to put the spring back in his step. In fact, the way the whole scene is written it is likely had the story been told in Archie it would have been the moment when Amy fell to the Metal Virus. And I would not have been mad in the least. In fact, I would have been eagerly anticipating Sonic’s eventual victory to see her faith rewarded and her sacrifice rewarded. Unfortunately though the scene was handed off to someone else, and I have had a hard time appreciating the character since as a result.

You see, in IDW there is a very energetic character who shares most of Amy’s core traits. Energetic, optimistic, and almost always full of good cheer. Where they differ is in their secondary traits, or more accurately the traits they don’t share with Amy. Being romantic, in love with Sonic, childish, occasionally bratty, and very old-fashioned girly. Those five secondary traits are completely absent from this character, and as a result, anytime they do something Amy would based on the otherwise same foundation they get praised where Amy would have been derided simply for being Amy. But the peak of it is again a moment that felt 100% like it was meant for Amy but as she was assigned to be Sally couldn’t have it. And yet, no one seems to notice, but rather cheers the entire scenario because Sonic needed that hug and physical contact. He needed those words of a faith that is placed solely in him. He needed to see that ability to smile and stay optimistic even when infected, and keep giving their all with boundless energy, good cheer and optimism. He needed Amy Rosy, Rosy the Rascal, the pink hedgehog girl who has followed him as best she can since Sonic CD. But instead, Amy’s very foundation and role was cheered not when carried out by Amy, but instead when carried out by relative new comer with none of the history or even reason to have faith in Sonic like he needed in that scene, Tangle the Lemur. And the scene was cheered even more due to the love that Whisper the Wolf has as her despair at losing the first friend she allowed herself to have since she lost everything just drove it completely home for everyone. And don’t get me wrong, the issue was brilliant written. Just enough was done to make sure you knew it was Tangle and not Amy at a casual glance. But I don’t look at scenes that scream Amy at me from the start casually. Her and Sonic are easily my favorite characters, so when I see her role being played by someone else you can bet I notice. And Tangle played it brilliantly.

But what did Amy get as a reward for playing Sally’s role in this issue? What else? She had to play the role of the incompetent villain. They barely saved anyone. Another town was lost on her watch. She had hold Whisper back from going out to try in vain to save Tangle. It would have been quite engaging to see Sally challenged as a leader of people and crisis manager as she specializes in it and this arc would have been great to see her character deconstructed and see what really makes her work. Instead, Amy was given her role when she has no business having it, and is shown to be completely worthless after a scene that reads like it was handcrafted for was played out by another character. And of course, that other character when finally cured even gets another huge hug, while Amy is left watching the skies to despair.

It’s hard to see Amy as being treated well by IDW when you really break it down, but because she has been stripped of her character and generally sidelined, her detractors are pleased and as new fans don’t know any better they can’t see what is wrong no less call it out. She played her role in the plot as written so time to move on. She doesn’t matter beyond that, though fans of Amy Acorn/Sally Rose have surely been born as a result, and as an actual Amy Rose/Rosy the Rascal fan that hurts as one of my favorite characters will continue to be slowly killed off as her heart and sole is siphoned out of her and only a shallow doppelganger is left in her place.

Thanks for the Ask anon. I hope that rant and breakdown wasn’t too long or cynical, and that it clearly illustrates why at least I’m not happy with IDW Amy. Maybe even it will help you reflect and see why you aren’t satisfied with her either.

Of course though I rant quite a bit about the franchise in general and have a whole list of other rants of mine you can track down by dropping ‘rant’ into my blog’s search bar. Though that won’t connect you to these four from twitter (though one is kind of segmented)

https://twitter.com/kokoloko45/status/1284905784531398661 (Quite a bit of ranting in here though you have to fish around through the replies to find it)

https://twitter.com/JoshTarwater/status/1283088147576795137 (this one I go off quite a bit about the depreciating meta narrative of the IP)

https://twitter.com/JoshTarwater/status/1254439910422925312 (And this one I go into where I see Amy’s character as mishandled and the necessary steps as I see it to put her back on track)

Thank you again anon, it was a pleasure to answer, even if it did get me riled up again XD

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lisetterosegilbert · 4 years ago

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Birds of a Feather

Tagging: Lisette Gilbert and Yas Puckerman @yas-puckerman

Date: October 14

Contains: Sensory play, Orgasms

Summary: Yas explores Lisette, and they both enjoy the process

While she'd never let it show, Lisette was nervous. Her entire plan at Devereux was contingent on putting herself out there more: being more involved in school activities, clubs, and scenes. That didn't make the nerves and fear that accompanied starting over vanish though, nor did it erase some of the unpleasant things that Flynn had told her about herself when she'd returned his collar. Those sort of things stuck with her in ways that she wished weren't so, especially the ones about being no fun to scene with and his critiques of her performance in the bedroom. But she was determined to make this the fresh start she craved. She was going to head to Yas' door, kneel, and she was going to enjoy what came next. And make sure that Yas enjoyed herself as well. Tucked behind Lisette's ear, standing out against her dark hair, was a brightly colored feather of just the texture that Yas had requested - firm, but flexible. What the other woman might have in store for it, only time would tell. Reaching the door and double checking the number, Lisette sank to her knees and knocked, holding picture perfect position as she waited - hands behind her, head up, eyes forward. She would start off on the right foot.

It was the middle of the week and Yas was starting to feel burned out. Between classes and trying to find things to keep her moving at her usual pace on an unfamiliar campus, she needed a pick-me-up. Her phone pinged an alert sometime after she'd dragged herself back to her room reminding her of the plans she had that day. Pretty Lisette, it said, with the smiling horn face emoji beside it. And couldn't of come sooner because the Switch was entirely ready to take her board out and ride around until the sunset. This was much better. Yas took it as an opportunity to get pretty and broke out a leather outfit she hadn't gotten to wear yet. Corset, heels, and curls hanging in all directions above her shoulders. Yas opened the door and looked down at the submissive with a grin. "Hey babygirl." She said, leaning against the door frame and taking in the kneeling girl before her. She plucked the feather from behind her ear, inspecting it. "Perfect." She said, approving, then stepped aside to let Lisette in. "We're gonna head straight to my room. You need a drink or somethin?"

For a moment Lisette was honestly speechless. Yas looked beyond gorgeous, and she suddenly felt very plain in her blue dress and heels. The only upside, she supposed, was that she likely wouldn't be wearing her outfit for very long. "Good evening, Miss - you look absolutely lovely tonight." When the feather was pulled from behind her ear she blushed and smiled, having completely forgotten it was there at the sight of Yas in her leather. Lisette hesitated at the door for a moment, trying to decide whether to stay on her knees or not - it hadn't been ordered, but she hadn't been given any orders the other way either. For just a heartbeat the choice made her panic, but she tried to remember all she'd been taught and took the choice on herself, getting to her feet and following Yas inside. "I would love a bottle of water if you have one handy, Miss, thank you."

"Got you." Yas said, she gave a hand signal toward the door to her room as she took off toward the kitchenette. She grabbed a few bottles of water and, impulsively, the open bag of Swedish fish she had left on the counter earlier in the day. "How was your day and shit?" Yas asked as she joined Lisette in her room. It was a little messy but seeing as she'd just recently moved in it was probably as together as it was ever going to be. She put her items down, save for passing one of the bottles over to her guest and a handful of fishes she snatched up for herself. "We can get the small talk out of the way before getting dirty." Yas said, accentuating it with a waggle of her eyebrows. She sat down in an arm chair by the bed, popped a candy fish in her mouth, and crossed her legs.

Taking the unspoken instruction, Lisette made her way into the bedroom, taking a quick look around to orient herself before sitting primly on the end of the bed . One of the things she loved about Devereux was the beds - incredibly comfortable for school dormitories. She was still looking around when Yas rejoined her and she accepted the water with a polite thanks. "That sounds like a fair plan, Miss," Lisette laughed. It was nice to see that their senses of humor meshed, because that was always a help in making conversation. "My day was very good," Lisette smiled. "Classes are going well so far, and even though I'm pretty certain joining the cheerleading team is going to be the death of me, that's been fun too. I'm worked ahead on most of my homework, so things are coming up Lisette," she joked. "How was your day, Miss?" she asked before taking a few swallows from her water.

"Coming up Lisette." Yas repeated with a snort of a laugh. The submissive was pretty cute, she'd give her that for sure. Yas leaned forward and offered a single swedish fish from her fingertips. "That's cool." It all actually sounded really boring. Yas didn't care at all about cheerleading, except for maybe the length their skirts. "It was." She sat back again, waving a hand. "Wednesday." She shrugged, then took to looking over Lisette, really studying her. "Better now that I've got a good girl to get to know."

Leaning forward, Lisette was bold enough to take the fish from Yas' fingers with her mouth rather than her own hand. There was a cheeky little grin on her face as she sat back, focusing on what Yas had to say rather than how damn attractive she was - not an easy task. "That makes sense. Middle of the week, everybody gets a little bored and tired." Reaching up, she brushed a bit of her hair behind her ear as she flushed. "I'm happy to help in that case, Miss Yas."

Yas smiled at Lisette's boldness, she thought the submissive would be more bashful, but maybe she was wrong about that. Maybe things would go a lot smoother than expected. "I'm hella glad to hear it." She said, standing and circling around in front of the submissive. She offered Lisette her last piece of candy, this time directly to her lips, and stared down at her as she ate it. Yas pushed long hair off the girls shoulder, brushing it down along her back, mindful not to touch her. "What's your safeword babygirl?" She asked, her tone lowering and softening.

Lisette kept her eyes fixed on Yas as she moved, but made no move herself - she hadn't been asked to, and until she had an order she'd remain right where she was. The next offered candy was accepted with a smile, pulled between her teeth and chewed slowly. A shiver of anticipation ran up the length of her spine as Yas played with her hair, only for the question to force her attention to return to the present. "Torchwood, Miss," Lisette replied clearly. It was the one she'd settled on during her time in Belfast, and it still sounded right to her ears - definitely not something she'd say accidentally.

Yas' brow ticked quickly with confusion at the word, she'd never heard it. But she stored it away anyway. "Cool." She said, repeating it three times in her head as to not let it slip her mind. Yas was sure they wouldn't need it, not this time. She wasn't planning on pushing Lisette very much. "Stand up for me." Yas said finally, after she took a step back to make space between them. The Switch was starting to change gears. She was slipping into a different part of herself, the shift came easily. "And strip." She commanded. "No clothes. You alright with that babygirl?"

"Of course, Miss," Lisette complied instantly, getting to her feet and crossing her arms behind her to present herself for inspection. "Absolutely, Miss Yas, that's not a problem." Unzipping her stress, she stepped out of it and let her panties drop to the floor as well. Following old habits she reached down to collect both and folded them carefully, setting them on a nightstand before resuming her inspection position. She was completely comfortable being naked, even though it was the first time being in the same room as the Switch. That fear had been drilled out of her long ago.

The submissive was out of her clothes in a flash. Yas has watched every moment of it. Especially when Lisette had bent to retrieve her clothes. Yas traced the expanse of the submissive's body with her eyes, momentarily wishing she had chosen to go a different route with their scene. Yas got the sudden urge to rush Lisette, pepper each other with kisses and fuck for as long as they wanted but, it wasn't what the girl was there for. "Good girl." She commended, glad there weren't any barriers left between her and the sub's body. "Now lay back on the bed." She instructed. "Right in the center, arms above your head, legs out. Just straight up starfish it."

Lisette smiled. "Thank you, Miss." The praise felt good, and the more of it that she got in her first scene the easier it would be to sink into the right headspace to enjoy the scene. "I understand, Miss." She backed up into the bed, wriggling into the center of it before putting her arms above her head. The last step was the most challenging, but Lisette was pleased to find that she was very comfortable doing it. Spreading her legs as widely as she could, she looked up at Yas to offer a smile. "Is that acceptable, Miss?"

Yas stood at the end of the bed, enjoying the view. As soon as Lisette had begin moving, bending to her words, the Switch felt the twinge of excitement start to build. Something that sat pridefully in her chest, swelling in the company of someone so easily compliant. "You look good like that, babygirl." Yas said, still glued to one spot. "Waiting for me." Goosebumps spread over her own skin and she shook her shoulders, shaking off the chill that shot up her back. Yas turned to retrieve the bright feather, the only thing they'd need for the night, and she ran it between her fingers. Yas began circling the bed, walking the length of one side, by the bottom, then up the other side twice over, admiring the submissive and trying to decide where it was she wanted to start. "You're sexy as hell." She complimented, and grazed the very tip of the feather over Lisette's side, stopping above her hip and moving it away. Yas found the submissive's eyes, making sure she had her focus. "Your legs stay open, and your hands stay up there. Got it?" The Switch lay the feather on its flat side and ran it over Lisette's stomach with the barest amount of pressure. "You move, I stop."

"Thank you, Miss," Lisette smiled. "I will wait right here for you." She was blessed with an almost infinite patience, especially when it came to making others happy, and that was at the forefront of her behavior as she relaxed her muscles to remain as still as humanly possible while the Switch walked around the bed to inspect her. If she moved at all, it was only to offer the best angle of the light for the display of her body. Her whole body went slightly red at the compliment, but she resisted the urge to curl inward as she blushed. There was the slightest flinch as the feather brushed her side and she inhaled sharply in lieu of admonishing herself for the movement. When Yas caught her eyes it was clear where her attention was meant to be, and Lisette's gaze locked firmly on hers - not easy, as the feather brushed across her stomach. "Legs open," she repeated in a slightly dazed voice. "And arms up. Or you stop. I understand, Miss, I promise."

"Good girl." the switch praised. Yas didn't know how long this would take, or how far she'd decide to take it but the anticipation was building. It was easy to imagine Lisette shaking beneath her fingertips, especially now that she was on display for Yas and it was hard to pace herself and stay focus on the task she'd already set. "Lets get you relaxed." She said, raising the feather to wisp past Lisette's cheek. She followed the tip over an eyebrow, and then the other, tracing each line of the submissive's face. Yas dragged it down the column of her neck twice, barely allowing the feather to make contact either time. She made swirling circles over the submissive's shoulder and then continued down her arm, pausing at the sensitive crook of Lisette's elbow to take her time. "I want you to keep telling me how you feel. What feels good, what you're thinking about." Yas said. "You can talk as much as you want babygirl. Just keep remembering to be still, aight?"

Lisette's grin was unmistakable when Yas showered more praise on her. It had been a very long time since someone had called her a good girl, and she was eager to hear it again - to comply as best as humanly possible with instructions and give the Switch anything and everything that she asked for. Her nose wrinkled playfully as the feather dragged past her cheek and up over her eyebrow. The spots weren't ticklish, per se, but they left her with a slightly squirmy feeling all the same. She resisted, though, letting out a soft noise as the feather travelled across the more sensitive skin of her throat. She hadn't had any trouble remaining still, at least until the attention lavished on the crook of her elbow. At that point her arm jerked slightly, although she remedied the problem by grabbing her wrist with her other hand. "Talk, just don't move," Lisette confirmed. "I've got it, Miss, thank you. I had no idea that it would be ticklish there. The touches on my face felt really good though."

The first softs hums and sounds the submissive made were exactly what Yas was chasing. The more she could draw out of her the better. Yas quirked a smile at the way Lisette's fingers circled around her opposite wrist and though Yas didn't need to reprimand her for it, she did remove the touch of the feather from the subs skin. "Are you ticklish other places?" Yas asked, allowing herself to get distracted soaking in the places she suspected. After a moment, Yas began on the opposite arm, starting up at Lisette's wrist and continuing down to flick the feather quickly over the inside of her elbow, knowing the submissive would be prepared this time. Yas went quickly down the rest of her arm and traced the feather fully over a collarbone before descending to a flush chest.

The removal of the feather made Lisette whine softly, but she quickly realized the issue and released the grip on her arm. It was cheating, after all, and Yas had been right to call her on it. "Um - the bottom of my feet for sure, Miss. And..." she hesitated a little, "under my breasts, but if we could...not linger there I'd really appreciate it. On my breasts is fine, just not under them." It had been a favorite torture of Flynn, to wrap his arms around her and tickle her there until she cried, and she didn't want to be thinking of him. "Other than that, I don't know of any other places - but I look forward to finding out." This time when the feather came down over the same spot, Lisette let out a pleased noise and managed to keep from jerking away. "Ooh," she murmured as it passed her collarbone. "That feels really nice, actually, on the collarbone." Her breathing picked up a little as the feather moved onto her chest, a smile tugging at her lips. "These should be some of the best parts, Miss."

"Yeah?" Yas asked, her eyes lighting up with intrigue. "Good job babygirl, that's what I'm tryin to hear." She praised again, and began backtracking back across Lisette's chest. Her collarbone, up and around her ear, and back again. Yas went slow, paying special attention to the spot the submissive called out specifically. "I understand." She promised, getting back to their conversation. The feather swept the long way over Lisette's chest, the tip dancing delicately around her collar. No underboob, that was fine. The Switch continued downward, slowly beginning to trace over the areas of the submissive's breasts that were in the clear. "I'm excited to find every curve and dip that makes you whimper." Yas said, then flicked the feather over a hardened nipple. She paused, watching Lisette respond then didn't hesitate to do the same to the other.

The light in Yas' eyes made Lisette feel almost as good as the praise - scenes were only good if they were as fun and interesting for the Dominant party as they were for her, and she was determined to make what they were doing special for the Switch as well. "Mmm," her eyes fell shut as the feather reversed its course, and the urge to squirm on the bed became nearly overpowering as it traced her collarbone. "Thank you, Miss," she murmured, glad that Yas was understanding. And then the feather was on her collar again and she jerked slightly, willing her muscles to still themselves. Lisette was warming pleasantly as she was teased, and the soft promise in Yas' voice went straight to her core. "I'm looking forward to it," she promised." Her head fell back against the pillow as the feather brushed one nipple, body rising just slightly from the bed before falling back into place. "Oh god," she whimpered as the process was repeated on her other side, leaving her breathless.

Watching Lisette arch off the bed, helpless to react to her efforts, Yas was loving this. There was temptation to lean down and envelope each nipple between her lips but she stayed focused. The sub's breast's were quickly abandoned, in favor of the side of her torso. Tracing down once, twice, three times before the Switch settled for trails of small circles. "Are you ticklish here?" She wondered aloud. Yas was, but she would never admit it.

Lisette's back was only just reaching the bed again when Yas' attentions moved to her sides, and she lost all ability to keep from moving. Her arms and legs pulled in toward herself as she squealed laughter, and she tried to curl into a ball in response to the stimulus. For a second, just a second, she almost panicked - but she had a safeword. If she needed Yas to stop then the Switch would, and she was not back with someone who'd ignore her pleas. So she willed herself to relax and enjoy. "Maybe a little," she managed through her laughter.

Yas wanted to keep going, to make the sub squeal and writhe more. She momentarily wished she had tied her down. But this wasn't about that, not yet anyway, not this time. The Switch pulled the feather away and clicked her tongue a few times. "Nuh-uh." She said, flicking her instrument in the air like a symphony conductor. "Back into position." She guided with her words. Yas could feel it start thrumming in her now, the air in the room seemed thinner suddenly, and her leather garments far too warm.

In her enthusiastic reaction to the feather, Lisette had let her instructions slip from her head. And again, just as with the laughter, her first response had to be held down - fear, that she'd messed up and earned a punishment. But this wasn't that kind of scene. Yas wasn't that kind of person. So she blew out a short breath between her teeth and nodded instead. "Yes, Miss." She slowly straightened back out, arms out and legs spread widely.

Yas watched Lisette closely, for her own pleasure and to check in. There was some hesitation, the submissive's movements seemed careful, and although Lisette had laughed a moment before, she wasn't smiling anymore. The Switch waited until she was still again, took a step closer to the bed so that she was above her, not hovering but unavoidable, and found her eyes. Yas reached out and ran her knuckles over the submissive's side, not hard but much firmer than a feather. She settled her palm over the top of Lisette's stomach, paused for a few moments, then took a deep breath in and out, only exaggerated enough for Lisette to notice.

"Thank you, babygirl." The Switch cooed and turned to begin again. This time she set the feather on a steady path down the side of Lisette's leg, only slowing to dip behind the bend of her knee.

The eye contact was a perfect decision, something that Lisette could draw some stillness from. There was no anger in those eyes, nothing suggesting that Yas was upset with her or wanted to do anything to retaliate for her mistake, and that set her at ease. But the Switch didn't stop there, and with a firm touch and a deep breath that Lisette tried to match, she communicated more effectively than she ever could with words. Lisette's absent smile returned to her face, and she took another deep breath before she replied to the praise. "Of course, Miss Yas." Now settled and focused, she hummed softly as the feather traced down her leg, giggling and flinching when it dipped behind her knee. This time, though, she didn't curl up, and managed to keep herself in position. "That's a good spot. I don't think I even knew about that one," she mused to both herself and Yas.

Yas hummed at the response, then praised Lisette again for voicing it. "I can think of a few positions I can get you in to make use of that..." Yas did say it out loud and toward the submissive but she was mainly talking to herself. "I'll make sure to get the other side better." She promised, this time speaking directly to Lisette with a smirk. When Yas got to the submissive's ankle she slowed, rounded the flat size along where she could reach and then slipped beneath her foot to flick the feather up from her heel to her toes and away.

Lisette's eyes widened a little - not in fear or hesitation now, but in anticipation. She wasn't sure whether she was meant to reply to the comment or not, but she made sure to give voice to a soft moan at the idea of Yas finding positions for her. "I'll look forward to that, Miss Yas," she replied, more certain that she was meant to when the words were directed right at her. When the feather found her second most sensitive spot she squealed laughter again, but tried to lock her limbs in place and only shook the bed as she giggled. There might have been some subtle movements, but she hoped she'd reacted a little better than she had to the tickling of her sides.

"Good girl." Yas praised, pleased. The position wasn't held perfectly but perfection took practice and that wasn't really what she was asking of Lisette. On to the other side, Yas crossed the foot of the bed slowly, taking in the view of the submissive laid out for her from that angle. "You're hot as fuck." She said, as she dragged the feather over the arch Lisette's opposite foot while she walked. As promised Yas took her time around the back of the submissive's knee and instead of stroking the feather along her outside leg, Yas opted for her inner thigh the rest of the way up. "How does it feel here?" She asked in a hushed voice, moving as slowly as she could manage, higher and higher up toward Lisette's waist.

"Right back at you, Miss, if you don't mind me saying." Lisette's nerves and arousal were rising and falling in unpredictable waves as Yas played with her, and she didn't mind that one bit. It was an intoxicating mix, never knowing exactly what she could expect to feel at any given moment. She did her best to watch as Yas took her time crossing the foot of the bed, but when the feather found her other foot she squealed softly again and tried not to move. Making any kind of coherent noise grew more and more difficult as the feather tickled the spot behind her inner thigh that made her whimper, and it proved all but impossible when it scraped up her inner thigh. Lisette's chest rose and fell in rapid shallow breaths, her eyes looked slightly glassy, and she had to clear her throat a few times before words came out. "Good, Miss," she mumbled. "So so good."

The Switch couldn't stop her laugh if she wanted to, which, she didn't. Yas was unguarded, feeding off the submissive's energy and vulnerability. She felt herself humming along with some of the sounds Lisette made, fully vibing. The compliment was cute, sweet. Lisette seemed like the perfect person to shop around a mall with, enthusiastic and eager. "How about this side?" Yas asked, turning her attention to the opposite thigh. Back up slowly to her waist. "And here?" The switch dragged the feather at a painstakingly slow pace over the junction of the girl's pelvis, twice for each side. Then, without warning, she flicked the tip over Lisette's exposed clit.

Lisette's fragile self-control was done no favors as Yas pulled the feather up her other thigh, and the moans and gasps that slipped between her lips only grew more desperate. Everything from her hips on down jumped as the delicate touches crossed increasingly sensitive skin, and when it hit her clit there was no chance of staying still any longer. "Fuck," she gasped, clutching the headboard with both hands in a desperate attempt to at least keep part of herself grounded. "God that feels good, Miss..."

Emboldened by the unexpected curse Yas immediately repeated the action, this time swiping upward. "Good girl." spoken clear and direct through Yas's own growing haze of arousal and adrenalin in appreciation for the verbal feedback. She set to small circles around the submissive's labia, but quickly passed over her lower stomach in route to an assault on Lisette's side once more, this time, the opposite side of her body.

If she were teased the way Yas was teasing her for too long, Lisette was almost positive that she'd actually pass out right there. Everything, every sensation felt like too much now, like her skin was so electric that it was trying to move on its own. Hooking her feet to try and hold her position, Lisette moaned helplessly until the Switch moved to her side, at which point the moans were interspersed with squeals of laughter until she wasn't sure what sound she was making.

"You're even cuter when you moan for me babygirl." Yas all but groaned herself. The air was charged now, Yas could feel it, she could see it coiling in Lisette's body. She took pitty on the submissive and replaced the feather with her fingertips for a moment. Down her side, over her stomach, up between her breasts and to Lisette's chin, gripping her there at the end of her jaw to turn her face. "How'd you keep it cool through that one? I'm impressed." She said with earnest. With one hand Yas held Lisette's chin, with the other she returned attention to her clit, delicate feathers brushing across her hip on the way there. "You did hella good." Her smile warm but wicked. Yas's heart was pumping, eyes darkened as she watched Lisette. "Mapping your body was really fun." The Switch informed, going on as if she weren't applying the barest amount of pressure to the most sensitive spot on Lisette's body. "Do you want a reward?"

Lisette couldn't muster a response to that, at least not a verbal one, and so she moaned again in response. As fingers replaced feathers she inhaled sharply, the soft press of skin against skin making her crazy in the best of ways. "I think," she licked her lips, looking up at Yas though wide eyes, "I was afraid that if I moved I was going to cum on the spot," she admitted honestly. "That's the only reason I managed." Shit, was her only thought as Yas continued to touch her while still holding her chin - subtle control that she loved without ever becoming more than she could take. "Thank you, Miss," her voice pitched high on the last syllable, the pressure on her clit overloading her other senses. "I had a v-very nice time." Yas' question only had one answer, in her mind. "I would if you...fuck...if you feel like I deserve one, Miss Yas."

Her jaw dropped at the frank response. She loved it. Her gut reaction was to demand Lisette say it again, just to see if it would set off the same rush of chills in her body a second time. But she ignored it herself. "Oh you definitely deserve it." Yas said with a few appreciative nods. She released Lisette's chin, letting her eyes travel down between her legs instead. "As long as you keep, keeping still." The switch hummed in approval. "I'll let you cum twice if you wanted." She confessed, slipping the feather away from Lisette in contrary to her words. Yas only took a step from the bed to produce a vibrator from the nightstand. She turned it on and set it to Lisette's skin, moving it over her chest and stomach wantonly. "You needa keep those arms and legs in place." She repeated, then simultaneously brought the vibrator to the submissive's clit and the feather to her side.

There weren't words for how much Lisette loved Yas' slack-jawed disbelief. She felt so completely free to be herself, in a way she'd never been before, and so she held nothing back in her answers or her behavior. If she was going to scene, she was going to make sure it was good for them both. "I'm very glad you think so, Miss," she murmured, eyes still wide and wanting. "Twice?" she repeated, wanting to confirm what she was being offered. "That's very generous of you, Miss, and I will work very hard at keeping still for you." She had no idea if she could manage what was being asked of her, but damned if she wasn't going to make every effort. The vibrator was a surprise and she immediately wanted to arch into the toy's touch, but Lisette turned her feet once more and tried to find a way to dig in. "Holy...hell," she whimpered, just in time for the toy and the feather to hit her full force. The noises that escaped her were some combination of moan and laugh that she couldn't classify, and her legs spasmed just a little, but she tried to give herself at least a second to show she could behave before she gave in. "Oh, oh, oh," was the most she could verbalize.

Yas pulled the vibrator away but the feather continued light broad movements over Lisette's body. The Switch distracted herself circling around the submissive's shoulder and then hip as she allowed her to calm down. "You're good, almost had it." She encouraged. "Now come on, I wanna see you cum for me." Yas insisted, nudging at Lisette to get back into position. "One for me, and then one for you."

Lisette let out a choked sob, trying to force herself to breathe. "I'm sorry," she forced out, slowing her breath and stilling her limbs in the hopes that she'd be able to get the rewards that she'd been offered. Her legs were spread wider now, if that was even possible, and she squeezed her hands into fists as she made sure her arms were straight up above her head. She needed this.

Yas grinned, Lisette was definitely sexy but she was also undeniably adorable and all of it coming at Yas at once was hard to take with a straight face. "You can get there." Yas encouraged. The toy was put back in place and the feather made a lazy way back toward her side. Yas alternated between the submissive's revealed ticklish spots, sometimes lightly, sometimes more firm, all aimed at teasing, distracting, and begging Lisette's focus in all directions. She turned the toy up, ready to push Lisette over the edge.

Lisette needed the encouragement almost as much as she needed the orgasm. Yas was proving spectacularly proficient at somehow being everywhere at once, and she was sure she was flying apart. Her arms and legs quivered with exertion as she tried to hold them in place, and when the toy was turned up everything in her brain seemed to short-circuit all at once. Hanging on the edge with a ragged grip her mouth fell open in desperation. "N-Need...please," she begged brokenly. "Please!"

Yas swallowed a few times, her mouth going dry as she watched. "Let go." The Switch demanded. "Give in." She couldn't take her eyes off her. So much so that as soon as Lisette's climax began, the feather was all but forgotten. She held it prone in the air, her focus only on guiding the submissive through her orgasm and every sound Lisette made Yas' hunger for them grew. When her orgasm seemed to slow she didn't let up. "Good girl." She praised, repeating it a few times for good measure. She wanted to coax more from her. They'd spent at least an hour together, Yas discovering Lisette's body in stages as she teased her. Now Yas wanted to deliver on a very serious previous suggestion. "Fuck, babygirl..." She shook her head and strung her thoughts into words. "I got mine, now you get yours. No distractions. No instructions. Just..." Yas reached the feather out, flicking it over an earlier abandoned pink and hardened nipple. "You can move all you want. No more holding."

There was a moment of absolute serene stillness that followed Yas' permission, where Lisette seemed to be drifting somewhere between what had been said and what was about to happen. And then her body finally got the instruction from her brain, and serenity was replaced with an explosion behind her eyes. She cried out in some frantic mix of pain and pleasure, but even in the midst of it she locked her arms together and tried to dig in her heels, not wanting to give the Switch any reason to change her mind. When the feeling receded and she came down again, she was looking up at Yas from behind a curtain of damp curls, anticipation in her eyes when there was no letting up. Embracing the fact that she was free to move, Lisette simply let her body go, following its own rhythm and instinct as she flew back towards the next high. She hadn't come down from the first, not completely, and she knew that the second might even hit faster. Her hands, now down at her sides, twisted themselves into the bedsheets for leverage as she tried to bear down, to feel everything at once. Begging was out, replaced by a series of keening cries that grew higher pitched and more frequent as her second climax built. When it hit, the world burned white behind her eyes and her mouth formed Yas' name - she didn't know, though, whether she'd actually made the sound. It lasted even longer, took her even higher, and as she rode it out she all but collapsed into the mattress as every muscle seemed to loosen and relax at the same time.

It all took Yas' breath away. She barely had control of herself in her actions. There were so many things Yas wanted to be doing instead, getting down between the submissive's legs to taste her, straddle above her, strip free from her own clothes. But she didn't, she let Lisette finished. Yas took in every sound and pride bubbled deep in her belly knowing that she was the cause of them. The vibrator and the feather was set aside and Yas took a moment to take in the submissive's sweet post orgasmic look. Disheveled. Dazed. She sat down beside her on the bed and smoothed back dark hair from her face. "Feelin good, babygirl?"

It had been so long since Lisette had been with anyone who lavished attention on her body, who not only let her cum but made sure she enjoyed it, that she could have cried. But the energy went into her smile instead, satisfied and sated as Yas smoothed her hair back. "So good, Miss Yas," she murmured. "Thank you so much." Even in her blissful state, though, a thought still struck her and she tried to focus her gaze on the Switch. "What do you need, though, Miss? What can I do for you?" A reward like that meant doing something in return, at least in her prior experience.

Yas traced her fingers over Lisette's jaw and then smoothed her palm down over her chest where she left it rest at the center. "I think I'm good." She said, though she would be dead lying if she wasn't considering it. The Switch preferred not to lead submissive's in touching her after they'd moved so far through the steps of a scene, it felt kinda weird. Especially for someone she'd never scened with before. It wasn't out of the question always, but not this time. "Whata bout you?" She asked, although she was already reaching for the submissive's forgotten water bottle by the bedside. "Here."

Yas' touch was something Lisette had learned to crave through the course of the scene. The memory of her jaw being held in place and directing her gaze was one that she knew she'd reflect on pleasantly, and even the more gentle touch felt wonderful. "As long as you're sure, Miss." She wouldn't question Yas beyond that, but she did need the Switch to know that no matter how tired and sated she was, she was willing to do anything required. "Thank you," she accepted the bottle and took a long sip that drained it at least halfway. "Honestly, Miss, I am spent. I don't know what you enjoy or prefer in terms of aftercare, but all I really need right now is a cuddle and some rest."

Yas gave a chuckle at the rate Lisette sucked down the water but it made her reach for her own, stealing a few quick sips to wet her dry mouth. "Love a good post play cuddle." Yas immediately agreed. She took their bottles, setting them aside. "You can stay over." She offered, already up and digging into her drawer for a big tshirt and pj pants that she set at the edge of the bed, just incase Lisette needed clothes later and dimmed the lights. She got into bed, tossing a blanket over them. "If you stay and we wake up later we can watch power rangers, that's been my go to." Yas yawned and slid up beside Lisette, immediately spooning her. "but if you want to go you let me know."

Lisette couldn't help quiet relief when Yas agreed to some cuddling. It was her go to, something she found grounded her and made her feel safe and appreciated after a scene, and it was nice that Yas was on board with the idea. "Thank you so much, Miss Yas - I would love nothing more than to stay over. I've never actually seen Power Rangers, so that sounds wonderful." As soon as she felt a warm body against hers Lisette got in as closely and tightly as she could manage and let her eyes slip shut. Her first scene at Devereux felt like a victory, and an exorcism. She could do this. She could trust people, and she could enjoy herself. "I hope you can rest a little, Miss," she murmured softly.

#thread: birds of a feather #char: yas puckerman

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