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shirohige-pirates · 10 months ago

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Birds of a Feather

CisFem Reader x Marco

CW: Violence, blood, language, adult themes and scenes. 18+ only

Summary: Life has not been kind to you. After a string of bad relationships, you're a little jaded and a little depressed in all honestly. The worst day of your life seems to be the turning point, but the roller coaster ride that follows could either throw you soaring free, or have you caged forever?

Tag List: @clumsyraccoon @mfreedomstuff

Chapter 34: Pretty Bird

You called Ivankov, explaining everything to him that you were comfortable bringing up over the phone. You almost had a secret language between the two of you, with all the ways you’d danced around his business’ true uses. Even so, you were extra careful with your conversation, and promised to tell him everything else once it was all sorted and done.

“Alright, we will talk more later,” Ivan says, relief in his voice. “I will come by Tuesday, so -.”

“Tuesday?”

“Is that too soon?”

“I… will be in the office Monday?”

“You absolutely will not!” It was hard to say if your boss or your father was talking at that moment, but you didn’t get a chance to clarify. “You have been through an ordeal, you will take at least a week off.”

“A week!?” You nearly drop the phone. “Wait, no, just a-.”

“TWO WEEKS!” Ivan’s voice booms so loudly that everyone in the living room turns to look at you. Except Marco. He is pointedly trying his best to stay out of the conversation. For your benefit or his, you’re not sure, but you are certain he’d be taking Ivankov’s side at this point.

“… I’ll see you Tuesday then.” You say after a moment. “Around lunch time?”

“Yes, I’ll bring something with me.”

“Yes ma’am.” You respond a little sarcastically, a smile on your lips even as you say it.

You say your farewells to Ivankov and let out a heavy breath as you hang up the phone. You turn to Marco to say something when the phone vibrates in your hand. Looking down you see Kid’s number come up on the screen and groan. You’re tempted to let it go to voice mail, but it’s noon on a Sunday, and you know Kid’s been as patient as he could ever hope to be waiting this long.

You hit the button. “I’m alive.” You say in place of your usual greeting.

“Who cut your gas line?” Kid questions. His voice is calm, and he’s not swearing. You feel your blood run so cold you almost shiver. If the gods are merciful Teach should hope he was eaten by the Library.

“I can’t say right now,” you answer honestly. You might know who it is, but you’re not about to utter a dead man’s name over an unsecure line.

“… Can you come to the shop?”

“Not today.” You turn a little too fast to accept a cup of tea from Izou hissing against the sudden pain, and hear Kid growl.

“(Y/N).” If you could see him right now you’re pretty sure he’d look terrifying.

“Kid. I’m alive.” You reiterate. “I’ll be by tomorrow.”

“After work?”

“No… I…” You pause realizing your error a second too late. “I’m taking the week off.” Closing your eyes you hold the phone away from your ear a little, having learned an important lesson just one phone call ago.

There’s a pause, and then Kid delivers, practically bellowing into the phone. “ARE YOU IN A FUCKING HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW? How many of your godsdamned bones are fucking broken?!” There’s a break and then a still loud, though far quieter statement. “Are you dying?”

“Wha- no! No I’m not dyin’, fuckin’ hells Red, I’ve taken time off work before!” You shout back, holding the phone in front of your face to get your whole voice into the mic. “You asshole, I’m fine. I mean, I’m going to be fine. Nothing feels broken and I’m… getting medical attention.” You nearly growl the words feeling your face heat up like you were being obtuse even though you weren’t.

“Medi- oh. Right. Yeah.” Kid heaves a sigh and you can almost hear him pinch the bridge of his nose to calm himself down. “The vet doc. I’d like to see him on Monday too.”

You flinch, looking over at Marco before looking away. “It’s not his fault.”

“Not the point.” Kid asserts. “If you’re not up for it tomorrow, text me.”

“… Yeah, sure. How’s Tori-chan?”

“Fine. I had to replace a whole section of gas line. It looked like it had a catastrophic failure. Anyone else wouldn’t’ah known.” He grumbles the words, but you can hear the genuine relief in his voice. “Tori’s already done.”

“Ah… thanks.” You say your farewell a little awkwardly before hanging up the phone, setting it down as Marco comes over to sit with you. He picks up the tea Izou brought, drinking it himself as he hands you a fresh cup. You grin. “Izou’s tea not good enough for me?”

Marco shakes his head. “Izou made both cups, but I know you like yours hot.” He explains, kissing the top of your head carefully. “So, Kid wants to talk to me tomorrow, eh?”

“Yeah, I imagine it has to do with-.” You stop, freezing entirely and turn to look at Marco. He’s not looking at you, just sipping his tea. “The… promise.” You manage to finish.

“Heightened senses, huh?” He murmurs, hooded eyes looking over at you.

“…Yeah. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hear anything, and I… I really did want you to decide when to tell me.” You almost wish you could disappear into your cup of tea for a moment.

“I should’ve said something before then anyway.”

“I’m sure we both knew even before either of us said anything,” you say quietly. “For more than one thing.”

“Yeah.” He sighs the word, leaning over and kissing your cheek.

You and Marco get a few quiet moments before there’s some bustle in the house. Thatch announces that lunch is ready, and just as the words are leaving him a few people meander into the common area. You recognize Ace, and Izou had already been around.

Marco introduced you to Haruta and Vista who lived off the family estate, but had come over for the birthday party last night. Then there was Jozu and Namur, Fossa who everyone else yelled at to not light up a cigar first thing in the morning. A blue haired man named Deuce introduced himself and then spent most of the time keeping Ace conscious while he ate. Names and faces started to blur after that.

Most of them kept the conversation light. A couple asked a few questions, and then the conversation took a turn and they all started picking on Marco. They teased him in ways only siblings can, and while the tone was something you could follow, sometimes the jokes were a little too obscure for you to really get. He took it all in stride though, managing to keep a straight face through most of it, even if his ears were visibly pink the entire time.

Once the teasing settled down they started talking about the looming issue of the day: Who was, and was not, going to go on the caravel to Drop Island.

Marco and Izou were going. Thatch decided to stay behind, citing his position and legal responsibility for the family. Vista and Jozu decided to go, but Haruta declined since his spouse was due soon and he’d be distracted. Especially since he was distracted about it right then and excused himself to go pack.

Namur offered to be a scout and look out, staying in the water to watch for and turn away any ships that got too close. Another fishman with an impressive set of tusks offered to help and that seemed to settle that matter.

“I’ll go.” Ace states.

“Absolutely not.” Deuce says, and three other people agree.

“Why the hell not?” Ace growls, orange fire flickering along his skin.

“Because you can’t even control your temper right now!” Deuce barks back.

“Teach has more years fightin’ than you do livin’.” Vista says evenly. “You heard Marco too, this is a first generation problem, we’re not going to risk family that joined after we stopped bein’ pirates.”

You could see Ace’s anger start to bubble up worse. Marco exchanged glances with Deuce and Thatch and the two moved Ace out of the kitchen.

“It could be a good experience for him.” Jozu says after a moment. “He is a good fighter, and well, Teach did beat him up pretty bad a few years back, I get why he’d want to go.”

“I do too, but the anger’s going to make him a liability, yoi.” Marco sighs, and goes silent for a bit before he gets up. “I’m going to go talk to him. There might be a way he can come along after all.” Leaning down he gives your cheek a quick kiss. “I’ll be right back, pretty bird.”

“Sure,” you say as he walks out of the kitchen and you realize there are a lot of eyes on you. It’s like being seen by a bunch of cats.

Izou slides a little closer, and you’re sure the neutral look on his face is taking tremendous will power. “So… pretty bird.” He smirks putting his elbows on the counter and putting his chin in his hands. You can feel the heat rushing to your face and look away. “Are there any other adorable names my brother has for you?”

You smile. “Yeah,” you admit looking back at Izou. “Though I don’t know what it means, so I don’t know if I should share it.”

“Thanks to the vast collective of islands represented on Pops’ crew,” Izou begins. “There was a sort of Ship Cant that we all had. A mash of old island languages smashed in with some of the common tongue of the World Government.” The catty smile turns into a devious grin and you start to think that you should have followed Marco. “So we might be the only ones who can tell you what it means.”

“I could just ask Marco.” You reply.

“Mm, but then he would know you know.” Izou retorts, sly smile on his face. “Plus I could give you a name to call him.”

You look away and consider it, and Izou presses a little more. “I can’t imagine a better way to knock him off his game.”

Looking back up at him you smile. “Mi cielo,” you say quietly.

Izou’s eyes widen a little before he grins. “It means ‘my sky’. Quite the statement for someone who spent more time flying about as the Phoenix than he did with two feet on the ground when we were younger.”

Izou considers for a long moment. “You could call him mi estrella, or if you really want to mess with him call him kawaii tori.”

You blink. “Tori?”

“Means bird. His devil fruit is a bird model, obviously, but with the marines hurling The Phoenix around like some curse, we didn’t use it for him much. Instead we called him Tori. Big brother Tori.”

“Oh.” You put your hand over your mouth, remembering the day that Marco went to the shop with you. What you’d named your car, the colors you’d used, the colors you’d seen from him. The fruit in the book had to be the same one he had. It wasn’t like you thought there would be more than one mythical bird in the world, but you’d never really put the two together. “Oh no.”

You put your entire face in your hands. “My caaaaar.” You almost whimper the word, looking over at Izou from behind your fingers. “Everything I said.”

Izou can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, we heard about that. I almost made 10,000 berri from it.” You look at him inquisitively and he shrugs, straightening up and no longer leaning on the counter. “My curiosity at the time wasn’t going to be sated by money.”

“We’re just glad to see him happy.” Haruta says, finishing off a cup of coffee, his packed back nearby. “He spent so many years putting the entire crew ahead of himself, we were worried he’d never prioritize himself. Half the reason Thatch took over as head of the estate was to take pressure off Marco.” There’s a pause and he looks a little embarrassed. “I was worried at first, like he was moving fast just to outpace his own insecurities.”

He gives you a smile. “But not anymore. I’m glad we got to meet you.”

You nod a little, certain that if you could burst into flames you would. It wasn’t like you needed his family’s approval or anything, but it still made you emotional. You’d blame it on the weight of everything else currently going on, if anyone asked, but it was honestly a relief just knowing you had such support.

“Alright, we have a plan,” Marco says, coming back into the kitchen with Ace, Thatch and Deuce. “We’re - … pretty bird?”

You block his view with an arm, hunching against the counter. You hadn’t thought anything of the pet name until Izou had pointed it out, and for some reason hearing him say it now in front of all his brothers was akin to him kissing you.

“I’m okay!” You insist, eyes shifting up to Jozu who looks away and sips his own drink. “P-please continue.” You can see Namur smiling widely.

“… Izou.” You hear a little growl in Marco’s voice despite his attempts to sound neutral.

“Don’t use that tone of face with me,” Izou teases. “I’m not the one that called her pretty bird, kissed her, and then left her alone in a room full of brothers.”

“I -.” Marco stammers, and you turn enough to watch his face and neck flush.

“Oh ho ho,” Izou muses. “So comfortable together you didn’t even realize.” He savors the last word so well you can almost taste it yourself. Your eyes find Marco’s before you turn back away.

There’s a brief silence, and you can feel the pleased grins coming from just about everyone else in the room. It’s not teasing in a bad way, but it is terribly embarrassing. You haven’t learned enough about everyone else in order to put up any kind of resistance, but you aren’t sure you would anyway.

A warm hand on your back is comforting as Marco sits down next to you. He pulls the conversation back to the task at hand, his voice easy and even as he lays out the plan. The only real change from earlier is that Ace will be joining them, specifically as your guard. Marco, Izou, Jozu and Vista need to be able to focus on Teach without any background concerns. Marco especially.

Ace’s devil fruit lends him a lot of options and utility, and if things turn for the worst he can traverse the ocean quickly on Striker. With Namur and Islewan in the ocean as support, it would allow you to stay off the World Government’s radar until they could handle Teach.

All of this was on the condition Teach was even still alive, and that the four brothers were unable to deal with him. Marco’s hand was entwined in yours as he spoke, giving you a reassuring squeeze whenever he was covering worst-case contingencies in the plan. Even with his support, it was sobering to realize that the only reason Teach would leave his brothers alive was because you were his target.

Which was why every plan they came up with was to ensure Teach didn’t get his hands on you.

With all the details sorted, you left the manor, heading to an isolated port at one of the smaller fishing towns along the coast. Marco left Izou to drive, and Ace in the passenger seat, sitting back in the converted portion of the van, letting you sleep against him. You slept most of the way, the conversion van was a smoother ride than you expected, and, well, he was comfortable.

#Birds of a Feather #Marco x reader #x reader #reader insert #marco the phoenix #marco the pineapple #modern au

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theunstuffedpepper · 1 year ago

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My fave thing to do with pep lately - my happy place, if you will. Set up the splash pad and water table in the yard, bring some drinks and maybe ice cream, set up our chairs, and play. Aaand keep my ears open for approaching bears. 😅

Seems as though the worst of the nausea is over (for now at least) and I’m so grateful. These final weeks of pregnancy are already so hard on the body - it’s very pleasing to at least be able to eat meals without feeling like puking all the time. Little things.

I’m starting to think about maybe just taking the weeks off work once I hit the 38-week mark. Both my first and second boys came in week 38, just a day apart from one another, so I’m kinda convinced this little dude will do the same. Why not, right? And if not, my OB wants to induce once I hit week 39. So, either way, at least I won’t have to worry about going late.

This tiny baby is the most active out of my 3, that’s for sure. Sometimes I swear he’s trying to tunnel out of my belly button.

The house we’re buying for MIL to live in? They had to do some work on the septic and the seller agreed to pay for it, so that’s still on track. We’re supposed to close tomorrow, Monday, and it seems like way too tight of a timeline since they were still wrapping up repairs Friday. Either way, should be soon. MIL stayed with us for two nights this past week and it was fine. She goes above and beyond to not impose, so much so that it kinda makes me feel uncomfortable. Like, if both me and B are sitting on the couch watching tv with her, she won’t join us on the couch and sits on the floor “just in case we want to stretch out.” I’m glad she’s considerate, but I also want her to be able to be comfortable at our house. Hopefully we strike that balance eventually.

Here’s to the last few weeks before we start a new chapter, in a few different ways.

#momblr #pregblr #35w4d #07092023

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myloveforhergoeson · 1 year ago

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That's All She Wrote - Chapter 23

Chapter index

Find me on wattpad and ao3!

Chapter 23: Morning Glory (2.4) ~ 13k

The same person who invented Mondays, homework, and mayonnaise invented ending a second-first date, Roxy thought, walking through the front doors of the Palm Woods, hand in hand with James.

She had done everything in her power to slow down time once the actors took their final bows - Taking the long way home from the theater, pretending like the Pontiac had almost run out of gas so they had to stop at a gas station for slushies, kissing her date more than a few times in the dark Palm Woods parking lot - but still, the night had to come to an end, even as she reluctantly dragged her feet along the ancient hotel carpet.

Though she pretty sure James had caught on, seeing as he wasn’t walking all that fast either, and that made her feel better but still didn’t change the reality that all good things must come to an end.

Once they reached the theater, they inadvertently run into a pair of siblings who struck out at the box office, so they happily passed off their extra tickets before making their way to their balcony seats.

American Idiot had been phenomenal, a harrowing tale filled with all her favorite songs from the Green Day album of the same name and a couple of twists and turns she hadn’t been expecting. Roxy even cried at the end, which would have been embarrassing under any other circumstances, but James simply wrapped his arm around her and let her silently weep on his shoulder until she was ready to leave the darkness of the theater.

Live music could be so inspiring.

Throughout the night, he had told her a thousand different times how beautiful she looked in her thematically red and black outfit, held her bag patiently when she ran to the bathroom to fix her makeup after the show, and graciously paid for her gas tank and cherry slushie.

Everything had been perfect, but now they were standing at the door to 2-H and Roxy was fiddling with her keys trying to stall for even a few precious seconds longer.

“I had a great time tonight,” James shared, watching her hands intently as she flipped a few of the keys around the ring, the cheesy I Heart L.A. keychain clamoring the loudest. “But I’ve got to admit this is a really awkward way to drop you off.”

“Right? Like, how are we even supposed to end this?”

Hands gently grabbing her waist to pull her closer, James pressed a slow kiss to Roxy’s lips before mumbling, “Like any other date, I guess… Call me?”

All she could manage was a nod in response, looking up at him. It didn’t matter how much he had kissed her over the last few days of their relationship, her brain still managed to short-circuit every single time.

As her boyfriend made his way over to 2-J with a final wave, she quickly pulled out her phone.

Buzz buzz

Hearing his small exhale of a chuckle as he removed his phone from his pocket and checked the caller ID, Roxy bit into her lip when he pressed the accept call button.

“When can I see you again?” She giggled through the microphone as she watched his back, barely hearing her own voice come through the receiver on his phone a few paces down.

James’ reply took a moment as cradled the phone between his shoulder and ear while he slid his key into 2-J’s lock. “Tomorrow morning if I’m lucky.”

“You’re not that lucky,” His assistant shot back before she could stop herself, closing and locking the door to 2-H once she was inside.

“Wait!” She could practically hear his cheeks flush. “I didn’t mean-”

“Goodnight, James. Thanks for showing me a good time.”

“My pleasure, Rox. Goodnight.”

As she hung up the phone, a grin plastered across her face, her finger hovered over Jo’s contact information, and for a moment she wondered if she should call her to dish out all the juicy details of her night out. Regardless of what she told the actress, it would eventually end up making its way to Camille, and as selfish as it was, Roxy didn’t want her to know anything about her perfect date. Besides, to tell Jo and ask that she would exclude it from their other friend was just cruel, so she sighed and locked her phone.

I’ll just tell someone in the morning.

That didn’t dispel the feeling of sadness deflating her chest as she shuffled into her bedroom, wishing Camille would come to speak with her about everything that had gone down between her and James. The actress had managed to work it out with Logan, though they were trying their “Just Friends” relationship and miserably failing, but for some reason, she was avoiding bringing the subject up to Roxy.

Getting ready for her date tonight without Jo and Camille just felt wrong.

It bothered her beyond belief, but she was a stubborn girl - She had just waited months for the boy she liked to ask her out based on a non-important conversation they had within the first two months of knowing each other. If Camille was interested in playing the long game, Roxy had no trouble willing to wait her out.

***

Buzz buzz

A few hours later, after the most sleepless night of Roxy’s life, as she kept replaying her date with James over and over again in her head, she received a phone call around 3 a.m. according to her bedside clock.

Electing to ignore it, she rolled over to the other side of her bed, snuggling into her covers and giant stuffy puppy, letting it buzz a few more times before finally deciding to try and drift off to sleep.

The best part about the night, she decided, was how openly physical they could be with each other. Going from friends to partners certainly had it’s merits - including a long established comfort level with the boy who just couldn’t keep his hands off of her. There was no awkward instances of her going for the handshake while he went for the hug or mental debate over kissing at the front door… Everything was just perfect.

Just as she was on the verge of slumber, pretending it was James’ arms wrapped around her and not her plush duvet, her phone rang again and the girl ducked under her pillow to escape the annoying sound.

She knew that because someone had called twice, it was probably important information, and due to the lateness of the hour, she couldn’t imagine that the news was good.

That thought raked a bit of panic into her heart, uncomfortably skipping a few beats as she finally reached over to her nightstand and pulled her phone off the charger.

Buzz buzz

Incoming Call: Kelly Wainwright

Pressing accept, her “Hello?” came out a bit more strained than she had anticipated.

“Good morning!” Chipper as ever, the talent scout’s voice carried through the phone. “Gustavo landed us a spot on the local news. I need you to get the boys to the station by 5 a.m.”

Roxy groaned, rolling over so her phone was perfectly balanced on her cheek. “Kelly…”

“Think about it! Millions of people watch the L.A. morning news! It’s a great exposure opportunity.”

“As true as that is, couldn’t you have given us a little warning?”

A few waves of laughter rolled through the receiver. “If we don’t pick the slot up someone else will. Now come on! I’ll call to wake the boys if it makes it easier - We just need your shining faces in the studio at 5.”

“You’ve got it.” The assistant grumbled, fumbling onto her back and staring up at the bits of moonlight bleeding into her ceiling. “Studio. Boys. 5 a.m… Do I need my guitar?”

“Nope. We just need you on assistant duty today. Gustavo will bring the music track from the studio.”

With a click, the line went dead, leaving the girl alone in silence as she decided between dressing in a camera-ready outfit or her oldest, comfiest tracksuit.

I just never know with those boys, She thought, rolling out of bed and opening her closet, digging out a nice, long skirt and top. So, dress my best… Just in case.

***

“Can you believe this?” Carlos cried through a stifled yawn, prancing around the set Gustavo and Kelly had managed to ship to the news studio from Rocque Records.

The same backdrop they had used on tour - A smooth, red velvet curtain behind a gigantic light-up “Big Time Rush” sign and their signature swirl logo splashed across the linoleum floor - had been set up at the station long before the teens, Katie, and Mrs. Knight had even arrived.

Lazily swinging his hand laced through his assistant’s back and forth as he took in the set, James exclaimed, “We’re performing on live TV!” while the girl sent a quick text message to her dad to see if he could potentially tune into the broadcast.

“You say that like it’s more impressive than a nationwide tour…” Roxy trailed off, slipping her phone back into her backpack and taking in all the behind-the-scenes crew hustling around them, getting set up for the beginning of the program.

She still had yet to tell her father she and James were seeing each other, but that would be a problem to solve at a far later time.

“Can you believe it’s 5 a.m.?” Logan cut in, who had the entire ride there been more than vocal about his disdain for the early hour.

Kendall had it the worst, however, towing his half-asleep mother through the building to their green room. It seemed as though early rising wasn’t a genetic trait the eldest of the Knight Family possessed. “Why do early morning shows have to shoot so early in the morning?”

Gently reaching up to tap his mother on the shoulder, Katie stopped him by letting out a sharp, “Uh, uh! Don’t wake her! She hasn’t had her eight hours of sleep yet,” despite her nose being buried in her DS game.

“Like any of us have,” The assistant whined, leaning into James’ side for support as the group stopped walking in the middle of the set. “But this is a good thing for us. Lots of exposure and whatnot.”

She said that more for herself than the band. It had been nearly nine months since her last 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. radio show, so she was no stranger to being up so early in the morning, but since coming to L.A., her 9 to 5 job sleep schedule had gotten her body back into a traditional rhythm. The early hour was hitting her hard, but she was doing her best to keep morale high so her band could put on the best performance they could.

“Big Time Rush! Huge fan!” From their left, a woman dressed in a black power suit approached the group, a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. Her black glasses matched the darkness of her outfit and the headset attached to her ear suggested she was someone essential to the morning production team. Behind her trailed another, taller woman, carrying a similar clipboard. “I’m Jane Kennedy, the producer, and welcome to A.M. L.A. Los Angeles’ number one morning show. Come on!”

So cheerful despite the time of day, her personality shone as bright as the sun as she beckoned the group over to the set with a few giggles.

Following her, everyone made their way over to the part of the set containing the news anchor desk, where a man in a charcoal suit was having his hair and makeup done while sipping from a cup of coffee. All around them, staff members whizzed by with different pieces of camera equipment and cue cards, ready to start production at a moment’s notice.

“That’s L.A.’s number one morning host, Miles Bainbridge, warming up L.A.’s number one teleprompter…”

Reading from the screen as his hair was being brushed back, Miles proclaimed, “No, I’m pretty sure Los Angeles is just one word.”

His comment made the assistant chuckle a bit as she thought he was trying to liven up the groggy crew with a joke, but she quickly realized he had meant it as Jane hissed, “This way!” and ushered the group in a new direction.

“And this is the green room!” She shared, walking into a well-lit room toward the back of the studio. It was quite spacious and featured an array of snacks, drinks, and pop culture magazines Roxy couldn’t wait to get her hands on. “You can relax, eat, and meet our other guests like actor environmentalist Ed Begley Jr.”

Dragging his girlfriend over to the refreshments table, along with the rest of the band, James and the boys were quick to break into the provided goodies.

Seeing Ed Begley Jr. unnerved the assistant a bit, seeing as the last time he had been involved in their lives, Griffin had shipped them back to Minnesota without a second thought in favor of the actor environmentalist reading out children’s books. However, if that hadn’t happened, she might not have fully realized her feelings toward James, so she overlooked his presence for now and politely returned the man’s wave.

“Hey, everyone, I’m here to promote my new line of environmentally friendly-”

“Keep it fresh for the show, Ed!” Jane cut him off just as he held up an “environmentally friendly” saw.

Surprised they let him in here with that…

“Anyway,” The woman continued, “We are so excited to have BTR at A.M. L.A., and I just know that our 3 million viewers will be excited too!”

As the production assistant following Jane around from before entered the room and whispered something to her boss, Logan was already three bites deep in a bagel sandwich, Carlos had grabbed a bowl of Fruit Smackers, Kendall - still deliriously tired - held a pitcher of orange juice, and James was crunching down on some biscotti as he held the container out to Roxy.

Everyone was comfortable in the inviting space A.M. L.A. had created, even Katie and Mrs. Knight; As the younger girl continued playing her game her mother was fast asleep on the couch beside her.

In true boy band style, Kendall flashed her his winning smile, “Well, we are very excited to be here.”

Roxy watched, picking some biscotti from the container, as Jane’s eyes flicked over the schedule, darkening.

“Yeah, the show’s running long.” Her entire demeanor changed unexpectedly, like a sudden rainstorm on a perfectly cloudless day. “You guys are cut. Wake up Mommy and get out!”

“Well… That was rude,” The girl mumbled, mouth half full right as the women exited the room. “Aren’t Gustavo and Kelly supposed to be here by now to deal with things like this?”

Nodding in agreement, Logan let his bagel haphazardly fall to the floor.

“What just happened?” Kendall asked, turning to his friends in panic. The question was more rhetorical than anything, but he was just sleepy enough that his assistant couldn’t tell if he needed the clarification or not.

Piping up from the couch, Ed shared, “The official term is you got bumped.”

Yeah, he’s definitely our bad luck charm…

Roxy was really starting to dislike the guy despite his admirable dedication to reducing his carbon footprint.

“Leave me out of this!” Katie said from beside the actor environmentalist even though no one had brought her into it. “I'm on level 12 of ‘Castle Bashers,’ and I have to get my four knights to the ring of fire.”

It only took a few moments for Roxy’s friends to grab her wrist and drag her out of the green room with them, no doubt on their way to find the cranky producer and see if anything could be done about their place on the show. There was almost no doubt that if they weren’t able to retain their spot, Gustavo would find some way to blame the five for such a missed opportunity. Playing a tour across the United States had been great exposure, but the combined number of audience ticket sales didn’t even total close to three million.

After a few seconds of chasing, the five were finally able to stop Jane in the hallway with a chorus of, “Wait, wait, wait, wait!”

“What do you mean ‘cut?’” Logan asked, trying to play it as dumb as possible. Maybe if the woman had to explain it, she’d feel bad and let them play anyway.

Holding up a long schedule with the day’s date at the top of the page, Jane waved it around a few times. “It means I have to cut time from my show, and you were it.”

“But being on live TV is number seven on my list of things to do before I’m 20!” Shared James, pulling nervously on the tie he had fashioned around the collar of his button-up for his televised debut.

Sticking out her bottom lip, Roxy placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “We’ll figure it out! Plus, you’ve still got three whole years!”

That seemed to cheer the boy up a bit, until Logan chuckled a bit and jabbed a thumb in James’ direction, “You don’t have a list…”

Chuckling right back, the long-haired boy whipped a small notebook out of his back pocket. “Oh, I have a list!”

“Look, you just said that you were excited to have us!” Carlos cut in, bringing their conversation back on track as he addressed the woman.

Her response was simple: “I’m a producer. I lie. And my show is four minutes too long.”

Taking a few steps forward, she squished her schedule not-so-nicely into Logan’s chest.

“And L.A. needs their traffic, weather, stock reports, celebrity interviews, and cooking tips. What they don’t need to see is a stupid boy band singing their stupid pop songs.”

James and Roxy both gasped at her words for very similar reasons.

“All due respect, Ms. Kennedy, but don’t you think you could combine the performance with the celebrity interview portion? Members of boy bands are celebrities after all… Like Justin Timberlake!” The assistant tried before the producer let out a shrill, dry, laugh.

Before the assistant could say something she’d regret at Jane’s abrasive response, Logan hopped in with, “‘Vocal group’ is a term that could also be used.”

“So is, ‘You were cut from my show, so get off my set!’” Jane yelled before turning around and storming out of the hallway.

If she really wanted us gone she could have at least tried being kinder.

Plucking the schedule out of his friend’s hands, Kendall squinted in the producer’s direction. “I did not get up at 4 a.m. to be treated like this.”

“Kelly called you at 4?” His assistant repeated, shooting him some nasty side-eye.

Ignoring Roxy’s complaint comment, the rest of the band murmured their agreement with the frontman. Leaning back into James, she whispered a few curses under her breath about her more than obvious eye bags before listening into the boys’ plan.

Reading over the schedule in front of them, Logan mused a moment before asking, “Rox, can I borrow a pen?”

It didn’t take her long to dig around in her mini backpack to find her favorite red pen and hand it off the the awaiting boy.

His markups of the schedule reminded her a lot of the nonsensical scribbling she did in her notebook to try and find the perfect order for her song lyrics. Arrows were drawn from section to section, whittling down time here and there as the sets were changed to be closer to one another, a few symbols in the margins denoted sections that were far longer than they needed to be - like Ed’s interview.

In a few moments, he had done all the necessary calculations in his head to shave the time off the show and get Big Time Rush back on the air.

Then, of course, Roxy was once again dragged around the studio to find Jane. Since the show was close to starting soon, it didn’t take long for Carlos to spot her by the newsroom set.

All at once, the five stormed the podium she was standing by, giving her the pitch they hadn’t practiced at all to keep them on the show.

“So, um, we looked at the schedule…” Kendall shared, gesturing to Logan who was eager to share his corrections.

“...And if you trim just a little time from the weather, the chef dude’s weekend recipe, the market update, and cut just one Hollywood minute…”

“...You’ll have time for Big Time Rush!” Carlos finished, taking the schedule she had drafted up on her stand and replacing it with the one Logan had edited.

Pulling out his list from his pocket once more and holding it out to Jane, James was quick to add, “And I can check ‘live TV face time’ off my list.”

“And Big Time Rush gains three million new fans from L.A.’s number one morning show!” The assistant tacked on, attempting to butter up the producer just in case she wasn’t already convinced.

Taking the schedule from Carlos’ hands, Jane read it over for a few seconds. “This is good. No, this- this works. I think I owe you guys an apology. Follow me!”

“Sweet!” Carlos cried, trailing after the woman as she walked off.

Soon the other four were right behind him as Jane continued to take in the corrections. “I’m gonna tell the director to make these changes right now. But, I need you guys to wait in our special waiting room.”

Stopping in front of a large, cream-colored door labeled, “Special Waiting Room” the producer pointed to her left.

Immediately, the four boys were rushing toward the handle to push it open, practically breaking it off its hinges to get inside.

Unfortunately for Jane, Roxy was quite suspicious of specifically labeled rooms after their incident at the Music Box Theater the night of their first concert. As Logan, Kendall, and Carlos barrelled through the door, James caught wind of her hesitation and stopped in front of her to make sure she was okay. Carefully running a hand down her arm, he threaded his fingers between hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. With his other hand, he held the door open, which proved to be a fatal mistake as the woman roughly shoved the assistant forward in an attempt to get her off the set.

With force similar to that her friends had used to run through the door, Roxy was sent hurtling into James’ arms as he stumbled backward out of the studio into the room Jane had pushed them into. Only, once the two were able to catch their bearings, they realized it wasn’t even a room at all - It was the back alley of the studio lot.

“Get out of my face, you stupid singing teens!” Jane called over the intercom and the distinct sound of a lock emanated from the metal door.

Arms still wrapped around her boyfriend, Roxy roughly kicked the door with the flat of her foot, “I don’t even sing, you hag!”

Heart fluttering, be it from her ire or her cheek pressed to James’ chest, she thought of some much meaner things to say until Kendall and the boys began to devise a plan to get back inside.

“Of course, you realize…” He started.

“This means war!” The other band members chorused, as if rehearsed.

It didn’t take long for Kendall to whip out his phone and shoot a message to Katie, who was still miraculously in the green room with her mother and Ed Begley Jr, to let her know to come get them as soon as possible.

Creaking door hinges from behind the five let them know she had made her way to the studio’s back entrance, and the young girl soon emerged with her head still buried in her DS game. “I thought I told you to leave me out of this! I have to defeat the she-beast before she destroys the dwarf people!”

None of the teens really registered what she meant, but they all let out a smattering of “thank you!” and “won’t happen again!’ to appease her.

Now, their challenge was two-fold: Get themselves onto A.M. L.A. and avoid being seen by the wicked producer. A challenge that felt nearly impossible.

Thankfully, Jane was busy rushing from set to set, getting everyone on her crew ready for the show to begin instead of looking for five nosy teenagers barging back onto her studio.

They stuck close to the outer walls of the studio, which were quite dark from the contrast of the bright, white lights being used to illuminate the sets on the opposite side of the building. Since most of the unnecessary tools of production had been pushed away from where the cameras were pointing, they also had the advantage of nearly full body coverage as they slunk past a few clothing and prop racks.

Noticing too late that her friends had all snatched matching black bandanas and sunglasses from their makeshift cover, Roxy rolled her eyes as Kendall whispered, “Okay, operation ‘Cut Out Time From A.M. L.A. So Big Time Rush Can Perform On Live TV’ is underway.”

“That’s a really long operation name!” Logan hissed from the other side of the pack.

“Ooh!” Cooed Carlos, “How about something cool like ‘Operation Winter Blitz.’”

“It’s catcher, but it’s not winter.”

James’ words were true, but they mostly dragged Roxy’s attention to the mysterious vibe the sunglasses and dark bandana combo were giving him. Without thinking, her hand snaked around his arm as she unabashedly stared him down. “You look really good right now.”

“I look really good all the time.” He leaned down to whisper into her hair before pressing his lips to her temple. “But thank you.”

Kendall, Carlos, and Logan audibly groaned, not bothering to hide their annoyance at the couple.

“Just move out!” The frontman finally commanded before the pair could do anything else to gross him out.

Still continuing along the wall, the group found a supply closet large enough to house all of them, so for now that served as their cover.

On the way in, Logan swiped one of the laptops that controlled the teleprompter for the news segment of the show, which he waved back and forth to show off to his friends with a wicked smile.

“I think I’ve figured out the first part of our plan.” The boy shared, squatting down and balancing the computer on his thighs as he easily accessed the script for the day’s show. “We just need someone to run this chord into the prompter.”

For a moment, there was silence as the boys looked at each other before their eyes landed on their assistant.

Wildly shaking her head, she didn’t even want to dignify them with a response but threw out an irrefutable argument: “I’m not wearing stealth gear like the rest of you.”

Judging from their grumbles of disappointment, they really couldn’t argue with her on that point, and soon made their decision with a game of rock paper scissors.

This wasn’t a common occurrence among the boys, they were pretty good about settling their scores on their own, but when necessary, they’d square up to each other as they held one hand flat and one in a fist above it.

As far as she could gather, James always lost their rock, paper, scissors games, because he was very fond of throwing scissors first. If that was easy for her to notice in the time she had known them, she was sure the other three had caught on years earlier.

To her credit, she was going to warn him, but when he swept a hand through his hair and shot a wink in her direction before joining the small square his friends had formed, she had completely forgotten what she was going to say.

So, James lost.

Not long after, he took the connecting blue cable between his teeth and dropped to the floor, crawling out of the closet, closer and closer to the teleprompter across the studio as stealthily as he could.

While his friends watched from a small crack in the closet door, they lost sight of him for a moment as he ducked behind a large crate, but knew he had completed his task when news anchor, Miles Bainbridge began his monologue.

“Good morning, Los Angeles!”

With a strong pop of his knuckles, Logan flopped down to the floor again, “We’re in! The teleprompter is ours!”

Joining him on the ground, Roxy and Kendall peered over the schedule again to try and find some time to shave out of any of the segments while Carlos clapped a reassuring hand on his buddy’s shoulder as they figured out what to write.

“Give us a good intro!” Carlos advised, and Logan’s fingers shot off, flying across the keyboard.

He’d make a good guitar player… Roxy absentmindedly thought as James made his way back into the room and shuffled over to sit beside her.

Miles’ voice was just loud enough to hear, even behind the door as the typing sounds from the keyboard continued. “Also joining us live in the studio, celebrity environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., and a musical performance by the greatest band in the history of the world, Big Time Rush!”

Roxy’s “Don’t you think that’s overkill?” fell on deaf ears as James pulled his list out of his back pocket and crossed one of the items off.

“Being the greatest band in the history of the world? Check!”

As someone who appreciated a special, private place to write down one’s thoughts and feelings, the assistant refrained from peeking at the other things he had written down - even if she wanted to know very, very badly all the things James wanted to do before he turned twenty years old.

Be a ‘Cuda model… Go to a red carpet movie premier… Get a driver’s license… He’ll tell me one day. She thought, trying to get into his head before she thought about a few of her own aspirations.

Like her boyfriend, she pulled her pen out of her bag fully intending to write them all down on the back cover of her journal, but Kendall nudged her shoulder, “Time to shave some time off morning update!”

Knocking her out of her thoughts, she made an offhand comment to speed up the rate at which the words were being shown to the anchor, and Logan’s fingers danced across the keys once more.

When that wasn’t enough, Kendall advised, “Faster!” a few more times, until the white words on the black background went by in such a blur, it was actually impressive that Miles was able to keep up with everything. From behind the door, they could hear his voice grow speedier and speedier with every passing line.

And their plan had worked, taking the five-minute news update into a segment nearly a quarter of its length, and might have been even shorter had they not heard the distinct bang! of a heed shoe on hardwood breaking down the entrance to the closet.

Blue chord in hand, Jane stood in the doorway, chest heaving as she looked down at the five teens who let out a few involuntary screams of their own. She was quite the scary lady.

“Hey, there… you.” The frontman tried, but his words only further pissed the producer off as she aggressively tugged on the cable and disconnected it from Logan’s stolen laptop.

From the studio set behind her, they could all hear the news anchor take a long breath, before resuming his updates as usual.

Taking a step forward, James flashed a sparkling smile to try and calm her down. “Great news!”

“We shaved a whole minute off your show,” Roxy shared, pointing to the schedule in the blond’s hands.

“De nada!” Added the helmet wearer, waving his hand nonchalantly, as if they had done something kind for Jane, like getting her a nice bouquet of flowers.

In return, she whipped out a walkie-talkie from her back pocket and called for security, lifeless eyes never leaving the teens in front of her.

Jane’s cold stare was enough to make Roxy feel like her own skin was slowly crawling, chills radiating down her spine. The five were practically frozen with fear until Logan astutely declared, “We should run.”

“Right!” Cried Carlos, as he ducked and ran Jane’s way helmet first.

He was an excellent battering ram, charging nearly straight into her before she managed to dive out of the way at the last second. As a result, he had cleared a very nice pathway, which the other four were glad to run through.

Always so much running! Their assistant silently reflected, moving as fast as her legs would carry her through the studio. At least James holds my hand instead of my wrist.

Security was hot on their tails, ugly yellow jackets, nightsticks, and all. Roxy dreaded the thought of what they might do if they managed to their hands on her - she didn’t have a great track record with being physically removed from places. Just the thought of it made her heart pound in fear, enough to stumble over her own feet a bit, but her friends behind her managed to keep her steady as they continued snaking through the winding hallways of A.M. L.A.

After a few rights, a few lefts, and a straight shot hallway, the band and their assistant managed to shake their followers for a moment and took a second to pause in front of a large, green screen and catch their breath. The boys shed their silly stealth gear, while Roxy bent over, hands resting on her knees as she greedily gulped as much air as she could possibly manage into her lungs.

It wasn’t fair her friends were both taller and more athletic than her and then demanded she keep up with them.

“And the traffic is backed up on the 134 and it continues to bleed to the 101… and the… congestion?”

Someone’s voice trailing off from another part of the room alerted them to the fact their resting place was not so secret. In fact, it was the screen the news anchor had been attempting to give his report on. A moment later they heard a distinct, “Get them!” from one of the security guards and once again the chase was on.

There was another clear pathway that led them away from the guards but landed them right in front of the poor traffic reporter who found himself unexpectedly mowed down by a group of strangers during his airtime.

Roxy’s sheepish “Sorry!” as she accidentally stepped on one of the flaps of his suit jacket didn’t make up for the trampling, but it would have to do for now.

Once again, the teens were running through the never-ending back hallways of the studio, and when she was brave enough to look behind her to check on Logan and Carlos, Roxy noticed a third guard had joined the mix.

Two guards probably couldn’t restrain all of them, but three? She wasn’t interested in finding out.

Legs feeling as though they would turn into jelly at any moment now, the assistant was reminded of the day she met the boys of Big Time Rush. They had found themselves in a similar situation, trying to fend off two security guards who had caught Kendall in their grasp. That was a fight the five had won until the police showed up at the entrance of the theater to physically restrain her and her friends.

That was the first and last time I’ll ever be in handcuffs. The assistant promised herself before a newfound burst of energy wedged its way into her chest, squeezing James’ hand in hers just a bit tighter.

Toward the end of the hallway, Kendall reached a door which he quickly threw open and the rest of his friends piled in after him. Managing to wedge the door shut, the five of them pressed their backs against it in order to keep any unwanted intruders out until Carlos managed to throw a nervous hand out and flip the lock.

So focused on the door behind them, no one recognized that there was a door in front of them until it slowly creaked open to reveal a set of three new guards headed their way.

Surrounded on all sides, the teens had nowhere left to run.

“We got the perps.” The guard in the middle spoke into his walkie-talkie, presumably to Jane, eyes never leaving the offenders he had been sent out to capture. “Are we authorized to use force?”

Knees knocking together so hard they were practically rattling, the assistant didn’t even take notice of her friends taking one step forward to keep her out of the tussle as best they could.

After a moment that felt closer to eternity, Jane’s voice menacingly radiated out of the speaker. “Absolutely.”

Whether it was a stalling tactic, or James was simply terrified, he pulled his list out of his back pocket once more. His shaking fingers turned a few pages as he thought aloud, “Get beat up by security guards? Nope, not on my list!”

Whatever his plan was hadn’t worked and the security guards grew nearer, happily showing off their solid nightsticks as they smacked them up and down in their palms.

“Logan. Options. Now!” Roxy heard Kendall beg, though her primary focus was on getting her heart rate under control and not passing out from sheer terror.

The boy’s words came out shaky, panicked even, “Well, there’s five of us and just three of them, but they’re huge, so… Scream?”

Logan’s suggestion felt just right, and his four friends followed suit and began howling their heads off.

It was shocking enough to the security guards to hear five people wailing all at once, but after a moment their bodies began violently convulsing as if they were caught up in a terrifying exorcism movie.

Stopping his screaming to hesitantly ask, “It’s working?” Carlos cocked his head to the side.

Falling forward, the security guards face-planted in front of the teens they had been hunting down to reveal Katie, two tasers in her hands she had fired directly into their backs.

Oh my God…

“Katie?”

“Thanks!” She cried sarcastically before anyone was able to say anything else, pulling her DS game back out. Someone less than five feet tall in a pink blouse and Converse had never been more intimidating. “I was just about to beat the castle guards so I could get to the final boss level.”

There was a small mumble of “Sorry” among the five, mostly because they were afraid if they didn’t she’d tase them.

Where did she even find those? The assistant wondered as the young girl began to walk away like she hadn’t just taken out three grown men with two incredibly dangerous weapons.

“Oh, Katie!” Her brother called out, causing the girl to whip back around with an angry glare. “Could you keep Mom asleep? She doesn’t need to see any of this, right?”

A response came in the form of an eye roll as she trailed back off in the way she had come.

No choice but to follow her, considering they didn’t want to figure out if the other guards were still waiting behind the locked door, Big Time Rush and their assistant soon found themselves back in the main A.M. L.A. studio.

The focus of the show had shifted away from the news and traffic reports and was now setting up for the celebrity interview portion. Miles and Ed stood on the opposite side of the room behind a table decorated with all the environmentally friendly products the actor had brought to showcase during his time on the show.

Since their plan of sticking to the darker outer walls had worked so well last time, the group quickly moved around the room to the cover of three large clothing racks.

“I could’ve sworn I brought my solar-powered tasers…” Ed trailed off, patting the sides of his hips absentmindedly.

Ah.

In the time it had taken the assistant to register how close they were to Jane and try to formulate a plan to get some more time for her band, her friends had, for some reason, helped themselves to the costumes on the rack they were using for cover.

“Are you serious?” She balked, half-impressed they had changed so quickly and half-angry they were focused on other, sillier things than getting on the morning show.

Grinning back at her was Kendall, dressed like Abraham Lincoln, Carlos, dressed in a similar uniform to his policeman father, Logan, headdress making him look like Egyptian royalty, and James, dressed in a less than fashionable fisherman hat.

How does he manage to look good in everything-

Before any of them said anything, her boyfriend reached out and plopped a bedazzled tiara on her head and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

“Kiss a princess! Check!” He bragged, checking something off on his notepad list - ignoring the grips of objection from the rest of the three and the slacking of Roxy’s jaw.

Suddenly, the writer began to understand the whole dress-up thing as a bit of heat crept up her neck. Had there been a beautiful pink ballgown out on the rack, she’d do everything in her power to change into it if it meant he’d keep kissing her.

“Focus please!” Carlos begged, though it was hard to take him seriously in his fake mustache and new, oversized cop helmet. Pointing toward the evil producer, the five parted many of the hangers and poked their heads through the open slots to get a better view of the studio in front of them. “We got to cut three more minutes from the show to perform.”

“Then operation ‘We Love Ed Begley Jr., But We Have to Cut His Segment Short to Perform’ is underway!” Abe Lincoln shared, pumping his fist into the air at the ridiculous title he had come up with.

From the bottom of the rack, Logan let out a bit of protest. “Next time, I’m in charge of operation naming!”

At the top of the rack, James nudged his girlfriend with his elbow, a cheeky grin spreading on his lips before reaching down and smacking Logan’s cheek.

“Ow!” The boy cried, squeezing his eyes shut as he realized how loud his expression had been. “What’d you do that for?”

“Slap a pharaoh! Check!”

Roxy had a lot of questions about that one, but she wasn’t able to ask any before Kendall called, “Move out!”

Had any of them actually discussed the operation beforehand, she might know where she was supposed to have moved out too, but for now, she followed James as he climbed up an exposed staircase toward the edge of the studio walls.

They had a good vantage point from there, able to see and hear everyone on the floor below - including their hidden friends.

In front of the podium where Jane stood, a man counted backward from five, and just like that the show was back from commercial. On a new set, Miles and Ed stood in front of the camera for their interview on the products the actor environmentalist had designed in order to keep daily carbon emissions low.

The first in his long line of products was a “Wind-Powered Spinning Tie Rack.” Why anyone would need that was beyond Roxy, but James took that as his cue to aim and cast the fishing line onto the table below. Not only was his aim spot on, hitting the mark on his first try, but the hook was also strong enough to catch one of the product’s edges and be dragged upward as he turned the small hand crank over and over again.

“James, that was incredible!” Roxy praised, reaching over the railing to pull the item off the line and onto the stairs with them. “Where did you learn how to do that?”

Had it not been for the darkness of the outer edges of the studio, she might have seen how red his cheeks grew at her amazement. “My dad liked to fish.”

There was something off about the way he said that, as if there was a bit more to the statement than he was letting on, but now certainly wasn’t the time to pry. Instead, the writer nodded, “So does mine! He took me with him once when I was little, but I cried when I learned he used live worms as bait.”

“Aww,” He voiced sympathetically, before taking his pointer finger and wiggling it around right before her very eyes. “Little Roxy couldn’t stand to see the worms?”

With her free hand, she knocked his out of the way and failed at concealing her laughter. “No! I couldn’t then and I can’t now! All they do is dig around in the dirt and poop and-”

Boom!

James and Roxy didn’t even need their high vantage point to see what had caused the ridiculously loud noise to bounce around the soundstage, ringing obnoxiously in their ears.

One of the large digital screens A.M. L.A. used for their Hollywood Minute segment had been knocked to the floor - Completely ruining the set and destroying the massive piece of equipment. As the screen lay flat on the floor, a pixelated image of the show’s logo flashed every few seconds.

Whatever their friends on the ground floor had done would shave off at least another two minutes from the show, and the pair noticed Kendall - top hat and fake, bushy beard - make his way over to a very agitated Jane to tell her just that.

It wasn’t long after, the rest of his friends rushed to join him at the podium to see what the producer might say, just in case she decided to change her mind.

As the woman looked over the schedule the frontman presented her, she tore off her black headset with a shriek.

“You will never perform on my show!” As she had done before, she pulled a radio from her back pocket and screamed into it, “Security! I need security!”

In a flash, the five were off running again, dumping their costumes onto the woman’s head to keep her distracted for just a bit while they made their daring escape.

By now, they were running out of places to hide, but that didn’t stop them from charging down the hall toward the green room to see if they had any small spaces or storage closets left to duck into.

As she had been all morning, Mrs. Knight was curled up on the couch as the five teens came to a screeching halt in the doorway. Still gaming, Katie watched over her, holding a finger to her lips to warn her friends not to say anything too loud and wake the woman up.

“You know that producer lady is gonna have every security guard on the lot after you.” The girl whispered, though the sounds from her game made it very hard to hear what she was saying.

Crouching down a bit to meet her eye level, Kendall raised his brows. “Not if my baby sister, whom I love, creates a distraction!”

“Please, please, please!” The other four whisper-begged, placing their palms together.

Another eye roll came from the girl, but she snapped her DS shut and stalked out of the green room muttering some irrepeatable words under her breath.

Without missing a beat, Big Time Rush and their assistant were sure to clear out of the green room before security could find them. However, there was still one major issue: They had nowhere left to go.

Racking her brain as she tried to remember every twist and turn they had taken that day, it was hard to concentrate with the rhythmic pumping of her sore legs being her primary focus.

I feel so bad for the people on the floor below us… She thought, listening to the pounding of their shoes on the ancient blue-black carpet.

“Wait!” She called, coming to a dead stop in the middle of the hallway. Thankfully, her friends were able to come to a stop as well, not colliding with her at full force. “A different floor! They won’t be looking for us in a different studio!”

“Yes!” Carlos cheered, jumping up and pumping his fist. “Where’s the closest stairwell?”

Each of them looked in a different direction, trying to find any hint of a staircase or elevator, when Kendall noticed a building directory on the wall behind his assistant. “Wanna go upstairs to the Times or downstairs to F.M. L.A.?”

“Radio?” Roxy thought aloud, still trying to recover from their marathon. “Radio!”

“F.M. L.A. it is,” Declared James and the five followed the map around the corner to the door marked stairwell. Running down the steps was certainly much easier than running up the stairs would have been, and for that, the assistant was completely grateful.

Entering the floor for F.M. L.A. took Roxy straight back to her radio days at Project Pop back in Minnesota. Each station under the company moniker had its own large, soundproof booths, and large panes of glass allowed the teens to look in and see the anchors doing the news or watch the DJs spin their tracks.

The substations had the names painted out over the doorframes, boasting a country station, a news station, and her favorite local station - No Requests Granted.

She hadn’t meant to geek out, they had far more important things to be worrying about right now, but when she saw the show's two hosts behind the glass, she felt like a kid at the zoo gawking at their favorite animal. Their show was largely interview-based, talking to some of the most prominent up-and-comers in the L.A. music scene.

“Now this is a show we need to get on!” She told her friends, glancing back and forth between them and the hosts who were too busy buried in their notes to notice the girl in their window. “They’re fascinating! Though, they’re normally interviewing a band around this time - I wonder who’s on today.”

Too engrossed in her fangirling to hear two pairs of footsteps approaching the door from the other side of the hallway, she jumped a bit when someone shared, “Why, that would be us.”

Immediately, the excitement that had taken hold of her was knocked straight out of her body.

Out of all the people in Los Angeles, California, it just had to be them.

It was stupid, but Roxy just shut her eyes, not turning around and not moving from her spot, and hoped to no avail that Mag McAllister and Dani Huron wouldn’t be in the hall when she opened them again. After everything bad that had happened today, things were finally starting to look up for her and Big Time Rush, until this very moment.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friends, Roxanne?”

When Mag said her name, her eyes shot open and she could see the looks of confusion written all over her friend’s faces. It had been six, maybe seven months since she had told them about her old band, Brand New Day, and how the two of them had stolen one of her first songbooks. She’d casually mentioned a few weeks earlier that Brand New Day played before them on the Rocktober lineup, but they never ended up crossing paths that day since the festival was so large; She didn’t blame her band for not remembering what they looked like.

They were the reason she had to move schools in the middle of the year back home; They were the reason she had such trouble sharing her incomplete songs with other people.

After all the running and hiding they had done that day, how much she had complained to herself as they evaded security guards and mean Hollywood producers, she hadn’t backed down from the challenge. Big Time Rush had a goal that day and she wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of that, just like a good assistant would.

Even though all she wanted to do was run away, she slowly took a few steps closer to her band before turning around to face the two people she had been trying to avoid for years.

“Mag. Dani.” She didn’t even dignify them with a greeting, seeing as it wasn’t at all a pleasure to run into them. “This is Kendall, James, Carlos, and Logan. The four of them make up the band Big Time Rush.”

Green eyes lighting up as she pointed down the line and introduced her friends, Mag smiled innocently. The skin around his green eyes branched out into lines of crow's feet - a trait she had always found peculiar about the 17-year-old - though his curly black hair soon fell over the sides of his face to hide the lines. “No way! I’m a huge fan. This is such an honor, isn’t it Dani?”

Beside him, Dani absentmindedly twirled a finger through their long, straight brown locks, red nail polish popping out, and nodded their head with a simple, “What’s up?”

She knew that Mag was lying, he used to trash on mainstream pop music any chance he got, but his tone sure left the Big Time Rush boys convinced. One by one, they shook his hand and exchanged simple greetings.

Normally, she’d think it funny Mag and Kendall had dressed in almost the same exact way, but she was too busy trying to hide her quivering lip as she watched her friends interact with the strange pair.

“Radio shows are so fun!” Carlos stated, gesturing toward the booth. “But we’re upstairs at A.M. L.A. today… What kind of music do you guys make?”

“Oh, Roxy didn’t tell you about us? That isn’t like her at all! What happened to Miss I Wear My Heart On My Sleeve? Don’t tell me Hollywood has changed you that much,” Mag laughed, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder.

Very obviously, she flinched at the contact, but did her best not to cause a scene right in the middle of the hallway.

Though she felt utterly sick to her stomach she fought the bile rising in her throat as Mag’s hand lingered on her body for a bit too long. Sucking a breath in, the writer calmly reached one hand up, plucking the newcomer’s off her shoulder with her thumb and forefinger.

Dani took a step toward the door, leaning onto the frame as they watched the interaction, and answered Carlos’ question, “We’re an alt band from Duluth, Minnesota - Brand New Day. Check us out sometime.”

“Oh… We don’t associate with thieves.” James shared, first to catch onto his girlfriend’s sour mood once Dani had shared the band’s name.

As the air in the room shifted at his words, she could just about die of embarassment.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Carlos and Logan take a step forward, joining her where she stood. Finally, everything began to connect for the rest of them - why their assistant had gone so pale, her blunt responses in place of her normal cheery words, and the way she shied away from Mag’s touch…

With a whistle, Mag chuckled and tossed a bit of his curls out of his face, “Woah, big accusations there, man! It’s not really wise for up-and-coming pop stars to pick fights with others, right?”

“Only when it’s not true,” Kendall chimed in, “Which we know for a fact it is.”

“Who knew boy band dudes were so uptight?” Dani asked from the doorway, buffing a few of their nails out on their beat-up Good Charlotte tour t-shirt. “Don’t you have a corny ass ballad or something to go sing?”

Logan took another step, knuckles practically white at his sides, as his assistant croaked out, “You’re going to be late for your interview… No Requests Granted starts at 6:30 on the dot.”

Hoping that it was somewhere around 6:30, the girl held her breath again, worried if she said something else it would only make the situation worse. Right now, all she was focused on was getting her band out of this deeply uncomfortable situation. It wasn’t fair of her to drag them into all her past drama, yet there they were, standing right in the middle of it.

“Right! Right!” Mag said, glancing at the watch around his wrist. Lazily, he turned back to Dani and pointed a thumb toward the booth, “Let’s get in there before the hosts start to worry. Thanks, Roxy.”

“It’s Roxanne.”

“Oof!” The boy joked, stumbling backward and throwing his hands over his heart. “That’s going to be so hard to get used to considering…” Not at all trying to hide the way his eyes flickered between her and her friends, Mag cracked a smile. “...Everything we’ve been through, Roxanne.”

And just like that, the two of them headed into the radio booth, putting their best P.R. faces on as they greeted their hosts before sitting down to start the interview.

Not even bothering to check in with her friends about the next phase of their plan, Roxy shot off down the hallway, looking for a different entrance to the A.M. L. A. studio where the guards or Jane wouldn’t bust them.

Big Time Rush quickly followed after her, lost for words at their unexpected encounter with people from their assistant’s past.

“Um, Roxy, do you want to-”

“No.”

“Can we please-”

“No.”

“Was that really-”

“Yes.”

“What about-” “I hate Good Charlotte.”

“That’s not what I was going to-”

“Drop it!”

A few beats of silence followed her last statement, which would have been quite awkward, had it not led to them overhearing a conversation taking place on the floor above them through an air duct on the ceiling.

It seemed as though the five of them had stumbled into a wing of the building that was under renovation for the time being - presumably to add a few more booths to the F.M. L. A. floor. Lucky for Roxy and the boys, there were plenty of construction tools lying around, waiting to be taken advantage of.

Looks like we found our way in.

From above, the voice of the famous Chef Hollandaise was slightly muffled, “Now, this recipe will take a long time to prepare, but it’s worth it!”

Accepting their assistant’s request to drop their previous topic of conversation, the boys stopped interrogating her and began looking for a solution to their time-crunch problem. The Hollywood minute was gone, leaving the cooking segment to run a bit longer than normal.

“What’s a better way to end the culinary demonstration than to get rid of the chef?” Logan’s idea was brilliant, though quite menacing as his friends watched him pick up an abandoned saw from the construction site.

Eyes widening in fear, Carlos brought a hand to his helmet, “Dude… We can’t…”

The two of them bickered back and forth, Logan trying to defend his statement despite its sinister implications, and Carlos trying to figure out why he would bother to phrase it that way.

This left some time for Kendall to scout around for a ladder, considering he had understood Logan’s plan perfectly while Roxy took a breather, leaning into her boyfriend for a few moments.

There was a lot to be said about their previous encounter with Brand New Day, but no one brought anything up when the frontman trailed back into the room with the equipment he had been searching for.

Hurriedly scurrying up the ladder and using the sound of Chef Hollaindaise’s voice, Kendall used his best guessing skills to approximate his location on the floor above them, before sticking the sharp metal through the ceiling tile and cutting out a comically large hole.

While she certainly didn’t approve of the boy’s actions, Roxy couldn’t come up with a better solution herself, so she let James continue to hold her as the blond let out a small chuckle, nearly completing his circle.

“Sorry, Chef, but we have to cut this segment short.”

She presumed he was trying to lighten the mood, but the five of them were so high-strung from both anxiety and adrenaline that the joke didn’t land.

A few seconds, and some major cracking from the ceiling tiles, later, the chef fell straight through the ceiling and onto the floor below, landing a bit awkwardly at the band’s feet. The fall hadn’t been enough to cause any lasting damage to the man’s body, but it certainly had to have hurt.

“He’ll be fine!” Logan assured his friends, and his medical knowledge was enough to put their minds at ease before Carlos grabbed Hollaindaise’s apron and chef’s hat and shimmied his way up the ladder into the kitchen set.

There was no time wasted as the boy quickly derailed the segment, turning it into a large ad for fishsticks instead of whatever complicated meal Chef Hollandaise had come up with. While Carlos kept the cameras distracted, the rest of the band and their assistant climbed the ladder to the A.M. L.A. floor and managed to use the kitchen set as their cover as they crawled to the dark outer edges of the studio.

Once Carlos’ fishsticks were in the oven, security was barreling onto the set after him, though he was quick to evade them. Now that the guards had been chasing the five of them so much, it was getting easier to predict their moves and therefore getting easier to slip through their fingers.

Jane let out an exasperated scream, throwing a handful of the paper schedules she had prepared for the day up in the air.

While she was busy figuring out what segment to place on the air next, the writer noticed a large stack of unattended cue cards. From her spot along the wall, it looked as though they contained boring financial information, so she dared to creep forward and pull them into the shadows with her and her band.

Pulling a pen from her bag, she didn’t hesitate to change up some of the wording, and throw some of the boards away completely - Anything to help cut a few more seconds of precious time from the show.

“Logan, how good are you with stocks and investments and all that stuff?” The frown that had been permanently fixed on her face since their encounter with Brand New Day slowly grew into a small smile as she pointed toward the words on the newly edited cue card. “And, James, feel like being the cutest weatherman in the world?”

Both of them shot off to their respective new sets wordlessly, eager to play a part in her plan.

It was just her luck, she heard Jane yell, “Move the financial update!” before passing off the boards to Kendall to hold up for the news anchor.

Better for him to get chased by security than me.

Easily blending into the small crowd of workers on the A.M. L.A. set, the frontman had no trouble holding up the cue cards for Miles Bainbridge behind the camera. The moment he held the first one up, the news anchor flashed a dazzling smile.

“And here’s the financial report with new correspondent, Logan.”

Popping up behind the financial update set’s desk, Logan, sporting a spiffy new suit jacket and gripping the saw they had used to cut through the ceiling addressed the camera right on cue. “Today, I recommend buying stock in Begley’s Own Green Products! The tasers are excellent… The energy drinks?”

From across the way, Roxy grabbed one off the refreshment table and gave it her best aim, hurtling it right into his hands. The sounds of Janes' breathing growing more and more labored were quite amusing, especially as the women tried to keep it quiet since the camera was rolling.

“They really work! And his organic saws can cut through the toughest studio floors! Now over to James Diamond with the weather!”

Like before, the cameras turned to the new set, revealing James in a beautiful black suit jacket with a matching pink tie and pocket square combo behind the green screen showing the weather for the week. How it was still in the 80s in October baffled the Minnesotan girl, but she was a bit more focused on making sure he cut down the report as best he could.

As he glanced over in her direction, she ran a finger across her throat making her statement about the segment clear. Kill it!

“Do we really need a weather report?” Her boyfriend asked into the camera, using a silver metal pointer to show off the 4-day forecast. “It’s L.A.! It’s gonna be bright and sunny all year long.”

Somehow he had still saved his sunglasses from his stealth costume earlier and popped those on for good measure as Jane breathed in and out of a paper bag.

Then, James took a few steps toward the camera and pulled out his list, “Be the cutest weatherman in the world, check! Because my girlfriend said so! Ha!”

His hands flew to the sides of his face, wiggling his fingers from his temple to his chin as he gave the camera a goofy grin.

“Go back to Miles! Back to Miles!” The producer screamed and Roxy felt someone grab her wrist and pull her out of the shadows.

Carlos, along with his tray of baked fishsticks, dragged her to the news set and popped the try on the table in front of the shocked anchor. Pulling out a chair for her to sit down in, he offered her one of his creations before kicking back in his own seat and offering one over to Miles.

When the cameras cut back, Roxy felt all the eyes in the studio on her, her friend, and the grown man sitting between them. Normally, she had no issue with that considering how many times she’d taken the stage that summer, but this made her and Carlos a prime target for security.

Anxiously, she took a few bites of her fishstick and chewed slowly, scanning her field of vision for any men in yellow jackets.

“These are really excellent, Chef Carlos!” Miles complimented, dipping his snack into a bit of ketchup and tapping it against the younger boy’s.

With a nod, Roxy simply had to agree. “Mr. Bainbridge, if you like his cooking, you’d just love his music, don’t you think? Why don’t you tell us about it, Carlos?”

All their hours of media training had prepared the boy well as he launched into his typical explanation to advertise the band’s first album BTR.

From her podium, Jane was in full-on crisis mode, pulling out a red corded rotary phone from seemingly nowhere, screaming into it, “Get me every security officer on the KULA lot and destroy Big Time Rush!”

That seems a bit dramatic-

The assistant’s thoughts were cut off as the tell-tale chime of a new breaking news update flooded the studio.

“This just in!” Miles immediately snapped into work mode, listening to the message flooding into his clear, plastic earpiece as a piece of footage from the studio backlot popped up on the teleprompter screen, “Every security guard on the KULA lot is currently involved in a low-speed chase!”

“Let’s go live!” Carlos added while Roxy did her best to keep from snorting her fishstick from how hard the footage was making her laugh.

Clips she could only assume came from the news chopper showed one of Ed Begley Jr.’s solar-powered vehicles, driven by none other than Katie Knight, slowly chugging down an alleyway. Meanwhile, four other studio golf carts were in hot pursuit of her, each carrying around four to five security guards.

No wonder we haven’t run into trouble recently…

“Do you want me to go to commercial?” Miles asked, so lost without any more cue cards as he picked up another fishstick.

In response, Jane began gripping the sides of her head so hard the assistant feared she might tear some great chunks of her hair out.

“Roxy, gotta go!”

From the other side of the set, Carlos erupted from his seat once he caught wind of three security guards heading their way, catching her wrist once again and pulling her out of her chair. Even though she managed to grab one more fishstick for the road, it was hard to run and eat at the same time.

At least this time, as the pair caught up with Kendall, Logan, and James, they didn’t have far to go before the security guards got a call over their radios stating that they were needed to deal with Katie’s rampage immediately.

During the chaos of Roxy and Carlos’ on-air time, the other boys were able to change back into their performance outfits. Now all they had left to do was wait and see if their segment cuts had worked in their favor.

By this time, most of the crew had left since there were too many things to deal with going on at once, so Miles, Jane, and her production assistant were incredibly lost. When the cameras switched back on once the commercial break was over, faming the anchor in the preview screen, he blinked a few times, completely confused.

“Are we back?”

That got Jane to pick her head up off her desk, hair in such a state of disarray after ripping her headset off. “We’re back? Why are we back? We don’t have any more segments!”

“We’re four minutes short!” The P.A. informed her, terror filling her eyes as the woman continued to scream into her face.

This felt like the perfect time for her band to wedge their way into the schedule, so Roxy gave them each a little shove toward the podium as Jane broke down in tears. Her sobs were so loud they almost drowned out Kendall’s voice as he waved the paper schedule around. “Oh, if only there was something that could be done to fill that time…”

“Never! Do you hear me?” The woman growled, so loudly and violently that her face was slowly becoming the deepest shade of red the assistant had ever seen. “I’d rather have four minutes of dead air and get fired than to lose to you!”

From the table behind her, she managed to grab two of Ed’s tasers that had still been laying aorund and trained them right on Kendall and James. This, of couse, sent the pair into a panic, trying to find ways to block the red tracking light of the weapons with the schedule, and in James’ case, Carlos.

“As long as I’m standing here, Big Time Rush will never perform on live TV!”

Jane didn’t hear the sound of screeching tires until it was far too late.

Incoming from the studio lot was Katie and her slow, solar powered machine which she was only half paying attention to steering. Most of her focus was on her DS game, leading her to ram right into the crazed woman and knock her to the ground. At least she was able to hit the breaks before the tires rolled over her body and the vehicle was going slow enough, it couldn’t cause any real damage.

“I did it!” The young girl cried, eyes trained on the screens in front of her. “I defeated the evil she-beast!”

You can say that again.

On the ground, Jane let out a weak groan that let everyone know she was still alive.

That seemed like the perfect time to draw the attention away from the scene her band had inadvertently caused.

Rushing over to where she had left her last cue card, Roxy broke away from her friends before running back toward the camera. Holding it up for the anchor to see, she called, “Miles!” and pointed to her script before glancing at her friends and pointing to the stage.

“Oh! Words to read!” He smiled at the caard, training his eyes into the lens as he shared his new line. “Let’s give it up for Big Time Rush!”

Turning to the soundboard beside her, which thankfully looked identical to the one Gustavo had at Rocque Records, Roxy was able to turn a few dials, push a few buttons, and boost the microphone audio on her friends before starting the instrumental track to “Til I Forget About You.”

Some of the crew had even been kind enough to return to the set and adjust the cameras to the boy’s set, displaying their logo behind them in big, flashing blue letters. Her job was done, and she let out a sigh of relief as she gripped the sides of the podium Jane had previously stood at, now it was up to the boys to nail their performance for A.M. L.A.’s audience of three million.

Over the course of their time in Los Angeles, there had only been a few Big Time Rush performances where Roxy hadn’t taken the stage with them. Especially over the course of their tour, it had been a very long time since she was lucky enough to see the four perform while she was in the audience.

Their stage presence always captivated her, though there was something about this performance in particular that had her paying extra attention. Was it a bit strange her new boyfriend was singing a song she had written about her ex? Sure. But that was all part of the job.

As he struck his poses and hit his dance cues before ultimately raising his mic to sing, James kept glancing her way, as if he was checking if she was still paying attention.

Maybe she was a bit selfish for shooting him a wink, for being just crazy enough to imagine he was performing for her instead of the greater Los Angeles area, but the way he moved was just different and she couldn’t put her finger on why.

As they began the last verse, Roxy realized it had been quite some time since she had last thought about Dak Zevon, and she’d certainly like to keep it that way.

So, she watched on, trying to commit every movement and ad-lib the boys brought to the song she had written, to memory so she could think of this moment every time they’d play this song in the future instead of the loser who had broken her heart all those months ago.

Maybe it’s time to forget Mag and Dani too, she thought for a fleeting second, just as the song came to a close.

Applause broke out through the studio, her clapping being some of the loudest, as Miles ended the broadcast with an enthusiastic, “This just in, Big Time Rush rocks!”

As the credits rolled and the cameras pulled away, Roxy took off running for the final time that day and practically launched herself into James’ open arms.

Easily, he caught her, spinning her around a few times as he held her around the waist. The metal from the microphone cut into her back just a bit, but she didn’t mind as her arms circled his neck and she peppered a few kisses across his cheeks.

“Hey, hey!” He managed, waiting for her to finish her assault before setting her back down on the ground. “What’s all that for?”

“You’re so talented,” Roxy managed, looking him right in the eye. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that.”

In return, James smiled before shifting his gaze to the side as though he were embarrassed. “You did. Once. When Hawk… You know.”

“Well then… Sounds like I need to say it more.”

“I’m certainly not complaining.”

The two of them were so caught up in their own little world, it startled the pair when Carlos cleared his throat behind them. “Do you not think we’re talented?”

Reluctantly Roxy let go of her boyfriend before turning around, biting back a grin. “Come on, of course I think that!”

Both Logan and Kendall stuck out their bottom lips, pretending to guilt her with their pouty stares, “We didn’t get spinny hugs and pretty girl kisses…”

Their assistant’s, “There’s plenty waiting for you at the Palm Woods,” overlapped with James incredibly threatening, “Don’t you even think about it, dudes.”

The other boys’ teasing sent them into a fit of giggles as James slung an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulers, giving her some massive stink eye as she brought her fingers to her lips and blew the other three imaginary kisses.

Concluding their first live TV debut, Roxy wished she could write a song about their picture perfect moment, but couldn’t formulate anything catchy enough. It did, however, remind her of James’ ultimate goal.

“Oh, James, your list!” She brought a hand to his chest to catch his attention.

Eyes lighting up, he removed his arm from around her shoulders and popped the checklist out of his back pocket. “Perform on live TV?”

All of his friends took pleasure in their chorus of, “Check!”

After marking off the small box he had written next to his goal, he shuffled a few pages before turning them over and handing the pen and paper off to Roxy. “Wanna check that one off for me?”Slightly confused, she followed his finger as he pointed to the middle of the page. Though she had to squint a bit to make out his script, she was more than pleased to cross out the empty space right in front of Make Roxanne Somerset my girlfriend.

#thats all she wrote fic #big time rush #james diamond #kendall knight #logan mitchell #carlos garcia #kendall schmidt #james maslow #logan henderson #carlos penavega #btr

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thetinylittlespider · 2 years ago

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Introduction to the first chapter of the first season of my main OC story. (Because I might need 2 seasons to cook this up).

For context: The place in this story is a completely fictional one, a dystopia with slightly better technological development than our current world, it will be elaborated further in the progress of the story.

Tearing Up: Season 1.

Chapter 1: Routine.

CW: Blood, violence, mature language, abuse, horror and hard moments for at least the first 3 or 5 chapters.

KU-M9's POV:

"We fight today for a brighter tomorrow."

Those words were the only thing that used to greet me every morning. A poster of what seemed to be a person in a black elegant suit, with no human feature that I could recognize since their face was covered in a white mask, rising up a hand in the air, pointing at the sky with the index finger, which provided the people from the picture a bright light of what I supposed meant...hope.

It took me a while to catch the meaning of those words, it was almost a year since I learned to speak correctly, it helped me to understand the commands I was given clearly, and to finally be able to talk with my siblings in a more civilized conversation.

"He still needs to develop a few key characteristics. Today he is turning 15 and we are running out of time, if we rush it he may not survive."

I heard thunderous voices outside my enclosure, yeah, did I forgot to mention? My room was a 10 x 10 cm box made out of reinforced glass, located in such way over a desk that I can only see the same wall with the same poster every morning if there is not a human sitting in front of me, sometimes observing, sometimes picking me up with metal clamps so they can take me to a test room, or other times, they just sat there giving compliments about how cute I was, how "docile" I was in contrast to my other siblings, or check up my fangs with no care if they caused me harm.

I took some unstable and painful steps closer to the invisible wall of my room, as usual, there was a piece of tape on that side with something written on it. "KU-M9" a short for "Killer Unit, Mutation of 9th generation". That was my name, and it had been like that as far as I can remember, with time I got used to it.

"Even the little one from next generation has completed her development already. But we've been trying to wake his nature for almost 10 years now...This should not take as long."

Oh, right, they were talking about me just a second ago, they seemed to be dissapointed of me. Since I was 5 they've tried to unlock some mutations in my body, if I remember correctly my instincts had to bring up the adrenaline necessary to unlock them, with that reasoning, they had to expose me to several trials, tests, and my word of choice, "tortures", so I could fully get my abilities. But as casual as those events sound...It scared me to my core when I was taken out from that crystal box. The docile nature that those scientist mentioned before was only my pure fear manifesting itself freezing my body, containing tears and screams while they performed my tests, not even able to open my mouth to beg for them to stop, unable to act on my own, I was at the mercy of those godlike beings that towered over me every single day, giving ideas and trying out new things that could work for me, at some point it became a hobby of them to toy with me, and they only stopped if I was at the brink of death, situation that came often in this laboratory.

My body was decorated with scars, wounds that still needed time to heal, burns that were result of either fire or liquid nitrogen, my face had some bruises too, near my eyes, and my legs kept shaking even after 1 week of them being almost crushed because of high pressure. And to top all of that, sleeping was impossible when all of that was just a monday and I had to get ready for more, the pain was my only thought when I tried to close my sore eyes, and moving to a more comfortable position in the soil of my box caused a horrible and unpleasant feeling to every part of my damaged body.

Lucky me, all those horrible things were behind a thin orange cloth that was my "uniform" if we may call it that. But for the view of the scientist, I looked more like a prisoner with that outfit, not like they were wrong, this place was an absolute prison.

Maybe the next test will be the one to end it all...

As soon as I took air to prepare myself mentally, contain the tears of fear, and tense my body to be tortured again, a gigantic mountain of human flesh interrupted me, a woman's face, casting a shadow that devoured the light of my room, now everything I could see was her.

"Hey, little one, how are we doing today? We are going to skip the usual routine this time. I know you are excited to get your abilities like the rest, but we are running late, so, we are making a leap of faith with you! All the products must be ready by now, and you are the last one and still having development problems...This presentation might be your last chance to wake up your abilities, social pressure is the only thing we never thought about, and who knows, it might work and you will get to see the world outside for once!"

At that, only a few words came out of my mouth in a low volume and weak tone of voice.

ーI...Hungryー That's not quite what I was trying to say, but I believe my stomach is blocking my brain functions to control my body and speech. And I noticed just now how much my stomach hurt, how much it had been since I didn't got any food? Felt like almost a week.

Also...Outside? Was that a prank? Why would they take me outside if I perform well? Wouldn't it be the opposite? She took a step back, now moving her arm at the top of my box, the ceiling...With one hand she managed to open with ease what I had been trying to do for all my childhood since I have memory. This time, she didn't bother to use a tool to pick me up like any other day, she used her bare hand for once, taking for granted that my nature was docile, unlike the others, I never had a record of biting people, or showing any big attempts of resisting after I was 12, the age I understood it was useless to fight back. That idea was supported by the moment she hold my head between her index finger and her thumb, using a moderate amount of force to pull me out of my "cage" without dropping me.

But...It felt different...without their gloves, the equipment or metal tools, her skin was soft, warm at the touch, my head was engulfed by her fingers, and I could hear her heartbeat, the flow of her blood inside her veins, a composition of sounds I never experienced before.

Was I afraid? My muscles were tense, I froze again, she was carrying my body in a painful way, and it was getting really hard to breath as she used more pressure in between her fingers, but it was far from the worst those hands had done to me. For the first time in my life, even if it gave me a slight sense of pain...I felt warmth from another living being, I don't recall this sensation not even when I was about to sleep on the soil of glass back on my room.

But that experience was shut down quickly as she dropped me in another surface, the fall had quite the distance for a creature who was only 2 inches tall, and I stood up slowly trying to clear my vision, regain oxygen and focus on what this crazy idea was about, ignoring the pain in my body once again. I gave a try on my senses to explore my surroundings, but what I heard, smelled, and saw was the last thing I was expecting to see for today...And I was not looking forward to it.

#first time #g/t #please give me feedback #im nervous #trying to do better

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frogsandfries · 1 year ago

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It only took me actually all freaking day

But I finally got merely most of this body of work organized across several documents.

Thousands. And. Thousands.

No. Literally. Thousands. Of (okay, admittedly horribly formatted) pages. Just for this one collection of work. Whhhyyyyyyyyyyyy

I somehow missed a chunk? Deleted it? I'm not really positive. So I do have to go back through and locate those items.

Anyway, so I get to have tomorrow off, and luckily my boss stopped in and reminded me that my schedule change came through or I would've missed work Sunday. They changed my schedule finally; it's fine. It'll honestly be nice to have Mondays and Tuesdays off. It can be hard to get shit done when I'm on the phones 9-5 M-F. Plus, there's this all-you-can-eat sushi place that I've been dying to give a second chance, and the best day to do that is Tuesday. Oddly enough, yes.

I get to chill out tomorrow, work Sunday, and then have my first Monday and Tuesday off. So......bleh. Could be worse. One time, in another job, long, long ago, on third shift, I had to work something like eight days in a row. That. Was awful. Awful, awful.

I'm absolutely dying of exhaustion. I actually want to go back through the chapters I haven't yet and get the tables of contents set up in each of the documents, just to be absolutely positive that I got everything saved. Blehhhh I should go back through the fics off AO3 and set up their tables of contentses, but.......it's honestly kind of a nightmare and I'd honestly rather save it for a) the really, really long fics, and b) later. Like, absolutely the last minute. Admittedly though, I do not know what I would do without the table of contents for Debt of Time. Probably split each of the books into their own, multiple documents so I don't have to spend ages and ages scrolling and scrolling and scrolling.

I wish I had something to do tomorrow, somewhere to go. I could go to the cafe up the hill. Or the other....is that one a cafe? Meh, I'll probably go to that one the next time I'm over at the post office. Now that I get Mondays and Tuesdays off, I could save the almost hour walk when I finally go over to take my sister's gift to ship, but....where's the fun in that? I could go over that way and check this place out that I think I've walked past several times. I want something more social, though, than just sitting at a cafe and prodding at fanfic.

Ugh, I guess I have enough paper presently to print some more textblocks, which I'll get to the first press and then neglect. Again, even if I bought one book cloth each paycheck, with the number of books that I have to cover at this point, it's going to take a long time to cover each of them, even if I don't do any kind of embroidery or embellishment (I keep thinking about a) 15/0 seed beads and b) that bead place in town). Even longer if the stack keeps growing. Oh, and don't forget that I haven't been able to squeeze more cover boards out of my budget, so there's a bit of a bottleneck there too.

What's the real hurry though? It's not like I have a bookshelf--still, yet.

But hey, I could and should be kinder to myself. I'm finally getting a vacuum, and also, I rather need my vices. Mine are not the most dangerous vices that were ever had by a socially isolated human. Also, I should finally be able to devote the necessary energy to trimming and punching the other half of my fic catalogue; that'll be......fun? Pleasant to fill up. I'm still struggling to think up an expandable enough spine. Maybe I should just not even worry about it and set up either a basic long-stitch or criss-cross spine. Well, actually, the long-stitch style spine might be a bit of a......poor match for what I have going on with the stab-type spine. An adapted criss-cross type spine could be good. If I break the initial volume into two parts and use two or three spines per volume, initially, that should give plenty of breathing room.

Honestly, now that I'm elbows deep into this random ramble, my mind keeps returning to a criss-cross binding as really the best option for a sturdy, expandable spine. Think about it: You could undo the spine, and either replace it, weave in another, or attach another spine and/or cover on the 'outside'. All you need is for the threads to pass through the signatures in some fashion.

Although, even a long-stitch isn't necessarily a bad idea. You'd have to set it up a little more like a travel journal, and even the only thing wrong with something like a travel journal is the poor way elastic ages. If it weren't for the matter of covering them, I think I'd be leaning more toward just weaving the booklets together by their spine stitching.

Maybe a softer, wrap-around style cover, to make up for any expansion? Maybe I'm too worried about expansion that I know will happen. I'm not just going to be like "well, section 'b' is full up; no more fics with titles that start with 'b'".

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stressedlawsecretary · 3 months ago

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Today's Focus

Source unknown; Google was not helpful as all images of this appeared stolen in the first place.

09.20.24 - It is a beautiful sunny Friday and I'm so happy I've made it to the end of the week, even if they are threatening rain. Tomorrow I think I'm going out to a local plaza to see if I can get some house stuff, but my weekend is mostly going to be filled with cuddling my hunny.

Work - I did not leave anything for myself from yesterday; I should probably do my mandatory training. There's a distinct possibility I'll get email responses from what I sent out yesterday but I don't expect them to be difficult emails.

Background Noise - I am at home, so I have a bunch of stuff on the DVR to get through, but that will just let me power through livestreams on my Watch Later. I got through 16 videos yesterday, including finishing up that 7 hr stream, which almost matches my numbers from Wednesday. So I'm holding onto that energy.

Study - Friday and the weekend are for weeding through the mountain of Wikipedia pages I have saved (I always wanted to own and read an entire encyclopedia as a kid, okay?) Plenty there to read. Yesterday was not a bust either; I did a chapter of Twin Terror and a chapter of a book called All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave. I got halfway through a second chapter of that book but had to stop at one of the subchapters because it got too long. I also read a long article on the Jefferson-Hemings controversy, and like five other articles including like three press releases.

Extras - Friday means I clean the catbox and prep it for the weekend; I have extra chores to be doing, which I should have time for, considering dinner is an easy fish meal: tilapia florentine. A couple more episodes of Kamen Rider W tonight and then I think I want to split the Garo six-episode mini-series up along the weekend so I'm going to try and fit in two episodes of that before Whose Line tonight. This is because I'd like some time over the weekend to play video games with hunny, so not binging the 3hr mini-series on one day should help with that, even if I do still want to watch Kung Fu Panda 4 tomorrow.

Mini-essay got done quick today; I had most of it drafted when I posted a different one instead yesterday. Finished that up and posted it, now I'm working on a second one for posting on Monday. I'll probably color later on since I'm so ahead of myself but I have to like. Get up and move because I can feel my neck and shoulders suffering right now.

#my study stuff #studyblr #today's focus #talking

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purplepatton · 6 years ago

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heading straight for the castle - one

summary: logan sanders is a prince who wants nothing to do with the responsibilities the throne gives him. roman prince is a civilian who would give anything to be royalty. when an odd twist of fate leads them to meet, the pair realize something remarkable: they look exactly alike. from there they decide to switch places, wanting to see how the other lives. but a simple switch quickly becomes something more as things spiral out of control in the kingdom

trigger warnings: none for this chapter, but if you need something tagged let me know!

artist: the stellar @keuwibird (find her amazing art here if you haven’t seen it yet,,, trust me it’s amazing)

beta: the amazing @logically-sided!! i want a give her a big shoutout because she helped me so much with this fic,, without her this fic would be shoved somewhere in the back of my wip folder lol. she was such a big help with everything, from fixing my grammer and giving me suggestions when i got stuck. she’s the real mvp,,, thank you again liz!!!

notes: so this is my big bang fic! i know i’m a little late posting (sorry about that) but better late than never! i’ve decided that instead of posting the story all at once, i’m just going to post a chapter every day (or every couple of days) because with school starting and work i don’t have much time to sit down and format everything properly lol (plus this gives me more time to make sure everything is ok lol) but, yeah! hope you enjoy it, because i had so much fun writing this story :))))

If there is one thing that Logan hates more than anything in the world, it would have to be sitting in on the council meetings.

Maybe it’s the way the members drone in pompous tones about issues that rarely hold value. Maybe it’s the way the members take ages to decide the proper course of action, when in reality it should only take them a few days. Or maybe it’s just because the meetings always seemed to happen when Logan was doing something he enjoyed, therefore taking away the precious moments he had to himself, which were few and far between these days.

Whatever the reason, Logan can feel his attention slipping as two of the council members begin an argument about taxes and the possibilities of raising them. It’s been the same argument all week; although this time the two decided to add insulting each other into the mix.

Logan can feel the disgust curling up in his stomach. He clenches his fist, and tries his best not to scowl outwardly because these people are supposed to be professionals. Yet here they are arguing like children. No wonder nothing ever gets done around here; everyone is too busy focusing on their own petty differences to make any significant changes.

Pushing himself to his feet, Logan storms out of the room and leaves the council to argue among themselves. Once he’s outside the doors, he leans against the wall and tries to bring his emotions under control. He needs to think clearly, and his emotions are only clouding his thoughts. He breathes out slowly and forces himself to relax.

“Wow.” A voice next to him says, sounding amused. “You lasted forty minutes in there. That’s got to be a new record or something.”

Logan has long gotten used to Joan’s habit of popping up out of nowhere, so this new appearance does little to phase him. Instead he turns towards his aide standing beside him and raises an eyebrow. “Only forty? I could have sworn it was longer.”

“Well, you know what they say,” Joan says, falling into step alongside of Logan. They head down the hall and away from the muffled voices of the council room. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

Logan snorts, catching the sarcasm in their voice. Joan grins widely at Logan’s slip in composure, and Logan has to resist the urge to blame the council for his lapse in control. Instead, he rolls his shoulders back and asks, “Where to now?” Because even he can’t keep his schedule straight in his head; not when there is so much to do and so much is changed at least five times a day.

“It’s one in the afternoon.” Joan says in reply, not answering Logan’s question at all.

That means that whatever is on Logan’s schedule next is something he should remember, and is probably something he’s been looking forward to. He furrows his brow and tries to think.

It hits him a few moments later, as they’re walking down the hall that eventually makes its way to the back of the castle. “Oh!” He says a bit too loudly, drawing the attention of a maid who happens to be hurrying past. He flashes her his smile usually reserved for the reporters before lowering his voice and addressing Joan. “I nearly forgot. I guess I really do need a break.”

“The great Logan forgetting something? Looks like it’s the beginning of the end.” Joan says with a faux expression of pity. “Best get your affairs in order because it’s all downhill from here.”

This time Logan manages to school his expression into something more neutral, although his lip twitches and betrays his amusement.

The pair follows the hallway until they stop in front of a rather plain door. It’s nothing special, just wood with a simple design carved into it. It’s rather out of the way from the other places in the castle, in a region that’s only really used by servants. Which makes it the ideal location for Logan and Joan.

Logan knocks on the door while Joan keeps an eye out for anybody who might happen to walk by. There is a slight pause before the door is swung open by a women with long brown hair and sparkling eyes.

She’s happy to see them, if not impatient. “It’s about time!” She huffs, dragging both Logan and Joan into the room and closing the door firmly behind them. “I was beginning to think the two of you would never show up!”

It is quite possible that Valerie Torres is an actual goddess.

She had worked in the palace as the head seamstress for many years, and had been with Logan for a good number of them. She was kind, hardworking and a rather good listener. Logan had spent so much time with her - what with all the suits and fittings he needed for the meetings and parties and interviews he needed to attend - that she quickly became one of the few people Logan actually trusted.

And when Logan had approached her with a half formed plan to gain some freedom, she had immediately offered her help.

Now she shoves a bundle of clothes into Logan’s arms and instructs him to change into them. He takes them and dutifully walks to the small corner of the room that’s sectioned off by a hanging sheet to change. He quickly swaps out his lavish clothes for the more ordinary polo shirt and jeans. He finishes adjusting his tie around his neck (an accessory he insisted on despite of Valerie's protests, because he is a serious person and serious people wear neckties) and steps back into the main section of the room where Joan and Valerie are waiting.

He stretches out his arms. “Well?” He asks. “How do I look?”

“Completely ordinary.” Joan drawls from where they are lounging on a chair.

Valerie frowns, walks over and musses up his hair out of it’s carefully styled position into a more casual and relaxed style. It’s not a complete change, but Logan knows from past experience that it’s enough of a change that people will need a second look to identify him. And the time it takes them to take a second look is just the amount of time he needs to slip away.

“There you go.” Valerie says, content with her work. She crosses her arms and narrows her eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want Joan come? I’d feel a lot better if they were with you.”

Logan rolls his eyes. Every time he goes out of the castle it’s the same song and dance. He’s had this exact conversation with Valerie many times, and each time it goes the same way. He doesn’t understand why Valerie expects his answer to change.

“I just want an hour to myself.” He says, frustration creeping into his voice. “I understand your concerns, but I’ve been doing this for so long now that the odds of something going wrong are infinitesimal.”

Valerie frowns because it’s not the answer she wants to hear, but there’s really nothing she can do to stop him. “Fine. Be careful.”

“You know me.” Logan says with another one of his faked smiles. “I’m always careful.”

The afternoon rush was in full swing, but Logan doesn’t mind the way people are swarming around him and pushing to get to where they want to go. He lets the flow of traffic push him along with the crowd, not caring where he ends up.

It’s a nice sort of feeling, just wandering around and not worrying about where he has to be.

He’s visited this part of the city so many times that he could probably walk it blindfolded. As he rounds a corner in the crowd, he spies a small bookshop that’s a favorite of his. It looks rather empty, but Logan can’t remember a time when it had actually been full. It’s always half empty like this, which Logan likes because it means the store is quiet enough for him to focus on whatever he happens to be reading.

With his eyes locked onto the store’s sign Logan starts towards the store, not paying attention to where he’s actually walking.

Logan immediately regrets this decision as he proceeds to run headfirst into someone. It’s a painful collision, and Logan falls back onto the ground with a grunt. His glasses had fallen off in the process, and the world around him has melted into a blur of color and movement. He reaches around him, trying to find his glasses so he could see what was going on.

Someone is standing over him, and even though Logan can’t see a foot in front of his face, he assumes that this is the person he ran into because a steady stream of apologies is being directed at him.

“-wasn’t looking where I was going, are you okay?” A hand grabs his and hauls Logan to his feet. Logan was not ready for the sudden change of position and he wobbles slightly before regaining his balance.

Logan tries to assure the person that he’s fine, but he can’t get a word in edgewise as the person babbles on. “You don’t look hurt, that’s good. I swear I didn’t mean to run into you, I was just in a hurry and you just sort of appeared and I-”

The voice cuts off for a reason Logan isn’t exactly sure of and he takes the opportunity to say, “I’m fine, thank you. I just need my glasses. You wouldn’t happen to see them lying around, would you? I’m afraid I can’t see anything.”

His glasses are shoved into his hand rather roughly and he pushes them onto his nose, feeling the tension that had been building up in his shoulders relax as soon as he was able to see. He looks at the person in front of him and the first thing he notices is the person’s expression.

He’s looking at Logan in shock and alarm. For a moment Logan doesn’t understand what could possibly be so worrying to this boy (who on a second glance looked around Logan’s age). Then he sees what the boy sees and his jaw drops.

The boy looks exactly like him.

Taglist (let me know if you want to be added/taken off): @basilstorm@artistfromthestars@storytellerofuntoldlegends@romananalogicality@verymuchanidiot @istolelittleredshoodie @dont-cry-croft @speechless-angel@thefamouszombiebouquet @wolfwalker100 @datonerougecookeh@virgilient @virgil-is-verge@impatentpending@zaisling@trixie85592 @sillysandersides @hamster-corn @adventurousplatypus @unring-this-bell @mymiddlenameisunderscore

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missmeasured · 2 years ago

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Halloween Candy Day Two

So for the second day of Halloween weekend I am giving out the second bonus chapter of The Stars on The Staircase. It's called Bunny and I'm gonna warn you now, it's a shade more daddy kink heavy than other chapters. My Covid was the daddy variant I'm not kidding.

Tomorrow's post is maybe the most unique one though because it's from Severus's POV! So stay tuned on Monday for that.

Read below the cut or on Ao3 for some Severus/Reader - Explicit Daddy fun

Bunny

Late one night I go through the fireplace uninvited. Already well after bedtime, I wore an oversized careworn t-shirt with a picture of a blue bunny on it I had inherited at an unexpected sleepover with my muggeborn friend. Under it, I wore only a pair of lace knickers. One of the ones he had given me for Christmas. The kind that showed off the lower half of my bum.

The moment I step into his room I know that surprising him like this cannot always be welcomed with utter joy. He isn’t in bed yet, he is in the middle of unbuttoning his cassock and his cravat hangs freshly untied from around his neck. He looks exhausted. He looks me up and down then looks over at his clock.

His lips are slightly open and his eyes slightly narrowed as he calculates what to make of my presence as well as my different than usual choice of sleeping apparel. “It's late, bunny.” He says, and I thrill he has enough energy to at least tease about what’s on my shirt. He does not dismiss me. “You should be in bed.” He sighs as he goes back to undressing.

I walk over to his and climb in. I hear him take in a deep breath before he tightly informs “I’ve had a very long day. There will be no delights to be had in there tonight” as he shrugs out of his black wool and heads to the loo for his evening ablutions.

I lay still and listen to him brushing his teeth. I’m hoping if I stay quiet he won’t mind me here. Finally he comes back and finishes changing into his nightshirt. I am sort of holding my breath, praying not to be sent away. When he gets in bed and extinguishes the candles I wait a beat before I ask in the dark “Can I lay my head on your chest?”

“Come.” He answers quietly. I slide over, wrapping my leg over him and nestling my face on his chest. He is still at first then he starts rubbing my back. I hum a little happy noise into him.

“Goodnight.” I whisper.

“Goodnight, Bunny.” I hear a little smile in it and I grin into his chest, snuggle in and close my eyes.

~~~+~~~

Waking up together was always a little odd, either there was a panicked rush to awareness, a feeling of terror at the possibility of being caught, or a slowly dawning happiness at realizing where one was, and the delight of starting the day with a pinch of illicit secrets.

This morning I found I was still on his chest, somehow I had stayed curled up there all night. This was pretty unusual, I slipped my hand under my face to make sure I hadn’t drooled on him. It was a tiny bit damp, I tried to keep this fact to myself, nuzzling in closer to his neck.

He had been rubbing my back through my soft shirt. My slow ascent to wakefulness soothed by the heavy warmth of his hand as it moved from the nape of my neck to the hem of my shirt. I cooed softly at his petting and pressed my forehead against his jaw. On his next trip down my back the hand went lower, sliding around and grabbing my bum. I breathed a laugh against him.

His fingers trailed over the lace knickers that arched over each cheek before grabbing them in turn, squeezing and kneading me. I hum happily as he does this, delighting in him being playful and sexual with me on a weekday morning.

I’m not sure how he even got it in hand, as my eyes are still closed while I nuzzle in, hesitant to allow myself to wake up and find this lovely encounter to be ending, but suddenly he has a vibrating object. I hear it rumble to life just a second before he pulls my legs apart and nestles it against my mound before closing my thighs together again. He was always summoning things that made my toes curl. I certainly had not expected him to place something so arousing between my thighs this morning.

His right hand skims down my back once more and tucks around my bottom, fingers exploring playfully and pressing into the tender flesh at the tops of my thighs. My happy hums turn sexual in nature as the vibration makes these tender touches so much more arousing.

“Did you come see daddy last night for this?” He asked.

“I just missed you.” I groan. I’m not lying, I had come for cuddles.

“I don’t believe you, you’re so needy for me.” He teased as I groaned while he trailed his fingertips over the rapidly dampening centre of my panties.

“Only because you're touching me. And this toy is… uuhhh…” I can’t believeably make my case for my lack of sexual urges while he is toying with my sexual urges.

“Tell me more.” He can hear the smirk.

“I didn’t think you liked to do this on weekdays.” I grind out between whimpers at his touch.

“Need and want are different things, my darling. I need not to lose every morning to lust and sex. I must stay disciplined but every once and a while the rules can be broken. Guess what daddy wants to do this morning.”

“Have lustful sex?” I asked a little breathy as the toy was getting me riled up and his prodding fingers were making me squirm in his arms.

“No. I want to make you come. Give you what you came for my needy little little nymph.” He begins and suddenly he is slipping under the edge of my only covering and pressing inside me. I groan into his neck. My thighs together force me to feel him acutely as he works that single digit into the lubrication I had begun to get slick with. I moan into his shoulder. “But I don’t just want you to come…” He purred. “I want you to come so hard that you can barely look at me later. I want you to be unable to look up at me in class as you remember how hard you came this morning. I want to see the evidence of it in your eyes.”

I groan at his words mixed with his touch and I knew that if that’s what he wanted, I had little chance of resisting. Merlin, I already was halfway desperate for release. He presses into me again and again and then he gives me another finger and I groan through my clenched teeth, panting through my nose and clutching at his shirt with my fist. Then he slows down and I whimper in frustration as that growing climax back away from me.

“Not yet, bunny….” He teases and I grunt in frustration. The way he is positioned is so arousing, he has two fingers inside me while his palm rests against the bottom of my bum. I feel myself jigging as he crashes that palm into me repeatedly like a soft spanking. Before I know it I’m very close to that release again, getting riled from the combination of sweetly being curled up on his chest but also being fingered relentlessly while that toy rumbles away between my legs. I’m panting into his ear with desperate sighs of passion when he slips out of me and shifts me, pressing my legs open and releasing his arms from around me so he can get up on an elbow and lean over me where he can watch my face. With my legs spread it falls to me to hold the toy in place.

“Eyes up here.” He scolds and I flick my eyes back up to his face from where they were aimed between our bodies at the toy and the fingers now circling my entrance once more. “Ask me for what you want, Bunny.” He smirks

“More please.” I feel heated, shameful arousal in my face as I asked him, looking into his eyes as he had demanded.

“That’s not very specific, dearest. But I think I understand.” He made me wait, pulling his fingers up to his mouth and sliding them inside. He knows it always makes me squirm to watch him lick his fingers when they’d been inside me. It’s the way he looks at me while he does it, he makes a meal out of liberally coating them in his saliva before returning them between my legs.

I can’t help my moan as he slips back inside me. He goes back into it with a fierce rhythm and pushes me back toward the peak I had been creating moments ago with his finger plunging in at a different angle. In seconds I’m squeaking out little peels of pleasure.

I’m so close again, but I know he is going to stop again so I beg him “Please daddy. Please let me come.”

He stops, withdraws and smirks. “Just once more, little dove. You can take one more walk around the garden.” I pout as he makes me wait to have his fingers again. He trails feather light touches all over me and I can’t help but clench at it all, whimpering uncontrollably when he finally touches me again.

“Is this what you wanted when you came to my room uninvited little minx?” He asked and I whimpered and nodded as he filled me up once more. “Do you like it when daddy teases you, sweetness?” He asked as he began fucking me with his skillfull appendages.

“No, you’re so mean.” I pout half heartedly momentarily before my face contorts again as I clench around him praying this time he would not stop, that this building wave of pleasure wasn’t once again pushed back.

“Awe you don’t like it? But you moan so nicely for daddy. Are you going to come for me?”

“Yes.” I groaned. I was struggling to keep my eyes on his as I had the urge to clamp my eyes shut like I was clamping myself around him trying to grind back against him in the same place.

Now that he was seemingly allowing me to build up, I kept thinking I was on the edge of climax, then he would press those fingers deep into the right spot and I kept finding a new level of pleasure, every step made me feel like I was about to come but then the next thrust of his fingers and I was held in suspension of the edge of it once more. All this starting and stopping and now my body kept holding off of falling into the abyss of climax. The friction of his attentions made me feel so hot, I was palpably ready to explode but I couldn’t seem to find the path that would take me there.

“I don’t know why I can’t seem to-“ I start to try to tell him to give up.

“Oh I’m not giving up my pet, you will come for me. I can see in your mind how close you are. You like being fucked by my fingers, don’t you? Why don’t you think about how in just an hour or so when you’re in my classroom I bet you will still be sore from me. You’re taking them so hard as you chase this climax, dearest. You will ache. And you will take every step in my class extra carefully because you know I’ll be watching you. I want to see you wiggle in your chair as your body clenches, finding itself empty of me. I want to feel you in your body, having come so hard for me that you feel like it’s written on your skin. Like everyone who looks at you will know who you belong to.”

His dirty talk winds something up inside of me and suddenly I’m right at the precipice, every insertion an elation. “Yes…daddy… yes. Yes! Oh gods…” I feel I’ve gone quite feral with grunting high pitched keening as he finally forces me over that edge. I know he is right, I will be sore later but my body seemed to enjoy his fingers fucking me a touch too aggressively. I almost want to scream at those last few hard pumps of his hand.

My whimpered moaning is uncontrolled as I spasm around his fingers, he gently moves them inside me, keeping me roiling in it for a few seconds more. I feel like a woman possessed, my body arches off the bed without my input.

My body continues to clench and squeeze as he withdraws and comes leans down to kiss me. The twitching in my body while he kisses me is unreal. I do not know how I will face him after breakfast. My first class of the day is going to be taught by the man that has made my whole body convulse against my will.

“Good girl.” He praises. “You came so hard for me, even I couldn’t have imagined how much. You’re going to keep me hard all day remembering that.”

“Thank you.” I breathed into his mouth as he came in to kiss me some more. Who can go to breakfast when their body is an unresponsive puddle?

“Come back in this shirt tonight. I can’t wait until Friday to fuck you in it.”

“What is it about this shirt?”

“You look so naughty in it. How could I say no to having you in my bed in this? Not that I can think of anything you might wear that would make me want to say no to you. You do something to me, it’s quite maddening.”

“Arouse you?”

“Yes, it’s the constant arousal that perturbs me. I can’t take a glimpse of you and not think naughty thoughts.” I reach over and pet him through his nightshirt.

“Do you want some help with this?” I inquire, running my fingers over the hard length.

“Saving it for later. I hope you’re not too sore from this morning to play my naughty girl for me later.”

“You’ll have to be gentle with me, daddy.” I tease.

“You say that now, but later you’ll beg me to do it harder.”

“It's my prerogative to change my mind.” I smile.

“As long as you don’t let McGonagall see you wincing on Thursday when you sit.” He warns.

“I’ll give her a wink so she knows I’ve earned it.”

“You need to get to breakfast, Darling.” He kissed my forehead, before getting up and leading me out of bed. “I want you to eat a big breakfast for me, and I can’t wait to see you in class. You will look at me every time I’m speaking and take excellent notes, yes?”

“Yes, sir.” I promised. His kiss before he steered me to the fireplace practically made my knees wobble and I knew that today I was going to be hopeless for several seconds every time he looked at me. I only hoped he wasn’t in a sadistic mood. I imagined him making an example of me and criticising my stirring technique in front of everyone. I imagined him touching me by the elbows to correct me. I felt like I would have another aftershock if he so much as brushed against me.

“Careful with those thoughts, Bunny. You’re giving me ideas.” He grinned. I realised I was holding onto him and I couldn’t floo to my room until I let go of his arm. My thoughts were slipping out, my legs were wobbly, I didn’t even know if I could handle getting dressed and getting to breakfast like this.

“I really did only come to your room to cuddle, you know.” I say as I test letting him go.

“I’m glad you did. I woke up in a great mood. Now I want to see you at your table eating in fifteen minutes or I shall have to use your own day dreamed torture methods against you in class. Unless you want me to hold onto your hands in front of everyone to refresh you on how to use your blade to dissect a beetle wing…”

“No I don’t!” I cry and I throw in the floo power to zip to my room. The image does make me smile though, the idea of his chin coming over my head or around my shoulder in front of everyone. His hands on my hands, the long slow, delicate work of dissecting the fragile parts of a beetle wing. How on earth would I control my face for that length of time with his body pressed against my back, the blood rushing through me as the memory of this morning’s events played behind my eyes? The threat had me dressing at lightning speed.

I rushed to the Great Hall and was surprised to run into Severus at the doors to it. His eyes raked up and down me and I shivered involuntarily. “You have mis-buttoned your shirt. That’s a ten point loss to your house for your sloppy attention to dressing.” He drawls and walks away from me.

I follow close enough behind him so he will hear my thoughts. “You’re being awfully mean to someone you wanted to come back to your room tonight.”

“Oh Bunny. Come or don’t. You can’t pretend you’ll stay away for long.”

“I can and I will.”

“Then I can and will torture you today by touching you at every available opportunity. You will come through that fireplace in your bunny shirt because you like being toyed with and I am going to wind you up.” He spun around suddenly and I almost walked into him. “Do you need something?” He asks out loud and I realise I have followed him almost all the way to the teacher’s table.

The way he looks at me with his full imperious glare like I was a student behaving badly melts my resolve instantly. “No, sir.” I answer, people are looking. The juxtaposition of having to answer him in the formal way after having just been in his bed convulsing minutes earlier is a little extra spicy today. It is going to be a very, very interesting day. I’m terrified I am going to fuck up and let something slip on my face but I also cannot deny that there is nothing in this world that excites me more than being toyed with by Professor Snape.

#The Stars on The Staircase #SOTS #missmeasured #severus snape fanfiction #severus snape #severus snape fic #severus x reader #professor severus snape #professor snape #professor/student #pro snape #snape fanfiction #snapedom #snape community #snape love #snape content

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rowanaelinn · 3 years ago

Text

Fire on Fire - Chapter Six

this is finally going somewhere! i had to cut this chapter in two otherwise it would have been six thousand words so… sorry for the cut😬

Warning for sucidal thoughts in this chapter.

chapter five // chapter seven

“She did not!” Aelin laughed loudly, still in her nightclothes. “Why do we always miss that?”

“Miss what?” Sam asked as he entered the room, two bowls of cereals in his hands. He gave one to Lysandra and brought two spoons so Aelin could eat in his bowl. Lysandra and Aelin just woke up, it was four in the afternoon and Aelin didn’t eat anything since last night, so she was starving.

Aelin, Lysandra, Nehemia, and Sam might have partied a little too hard last night. So this morning, Aelin and Lysandra decided to stay home. Sam didn’t look happy about Aelin missing class but he didn’t say anything, knowing Aelin’s mind was made. He came back from school an hour ago and woke them up.“Gods, I love these cereals,” she moaned at the taste. Aelin loved food, and it showed on her body. The only good thing about her injury is that now she didn’t have to pay attention to everything she ate to fit in stupid costumes. She might miss dancing but she loved food more.

“I finished the last box, by the way.”

Aelin nodded, making a mental note she’ll have to ask Quinn to go grocery shopping as soon as she could.

“Leave me some, Lys,” Nehemia said as she threw herself on Aelin’s bed. She was glad to have a gigantic bed when the four of them were home, which is almost all the time lately. Nehemia threw her hair behind her shoulder, silently asking her friends to pay attention to them.

“That color suits you, Mia,” Aelin smiled and it was genuine. Nehemia had fresh new braids, they started black but ended in a deep ocean blue. The girl never wanted boring colors in her hair and almost everything suited her. Lysandra and Sam agreed with her, making Nehemia smile arrogantly. But Aelin knew that Nehemia was hiding a real smile behind that.

“Might dye my hair blue to match you,” Aelin said and Nehemia looked thrilled.

“Don’t you dare!” Sam said, turning to Aelin and almost spilling the cereals and milk on her bed. “Your hair is so pretty. Buy a wig but don’t you dare dye it.”

“Excuse me?”

He pouted, “Please?” Even with this ridiculous face, he stayed beautiful. She loved the twinkle of mischief, the hint of exasperation at her, and the kindness that made her feel good, the kindness that made her want to be the best person she could be.

“Okay,” She sighed and he had a victorious smile drawn on his face. “Let’s go for the wig.”

He smiled and kissed her, pout-ring all his love for her in it. She could spend years kissing him. “You two are gross,” Lysandra complained, Sam and Aelin pulled apart and Aelin sent her best friend a vulgar gesture.

“Anyway, Lys, what did we miss?” Sam asked again, this boy was the most curious of the four. He liked to hear gossip about everyone.

“Ansel was high at Nox’s party two days ago.” Aelin was sad they missed a party just to be at a Gala, but her parents were home for once and demanded that she was with them.

“You’re joking?” Nehemia asked and laughed as she took Lysandra’s spoon to eat some cereals. The brunette threw the dark-skinned girl a look that promised violence.

“You’ll never see me taking drugs, that’s for sure,” Aelin sighed and rested her head on Sam’s shoulder. “God, I already regret drinking twice in a week.”

“Good,” Sam said and she rolled her eyes.

The four friends spent hours talking and laughing together. They practically all lived at her home, anyway. Sam and Lysandra’s families were fucked up enough, so they spent their time here. Nehemia’s parents worked too much to notice that she didn’t come home most nights. Aelin’s parents were never here either, so she welcomed the company.

When it started getting dark outside, Aelin’s phone rang. She had no idea who called her but it could be one of her parents, calling her from wherever they were now or even Aedion who had a habit to lose his phone.

“Hello?”

“Aelin?” A deep voice asked and Aelin thought she recognized it in the back of her brain but she couldn’t put a name on who it belonged to.

“I’m not trying to be rude but, who are you?”

The man laughed and the sound gave her chills. “It’s Arobynn Hamel. Your mother was supposed to give you my phone number but I guess she forgot.”

Her body froze. Arobynnn Hamel. Of course, she knew that voice, she had watched enough interviews of him to become familiar with it, she even met him two days ago. She sat straighter in her bed, attracting the worried gaze of her three friends. With a more serious face than they had ever seen, Aelin motioned for them to remain silent.

“Oh gods, I’m sorry, Mister Hamel. She didn’t give me your number, I’m very sorry.” She was so embarrassed, Mala knew how much Aelin would be mad at her mom for it. Her friends looked surprised at who called her.

“Calm down, Aelin. It’s okay.” He comforted her as he laughed softly. “And call me Arobynn.”

“Alright.” She said and waited for him to explain why he was calling her, not that she wasn’t happy about it because she was. She just knew she would embarrass herself if she opened her mouth and started talking.

“Are you doing anything tomorrow night?” He asked and Aelin furrowed her brows. That was weird but exciting at the same time.

“No, I am free. Why?”

“We didn’t have a lot of time to talk Saturday and I think it’s a shame. I am still in Orynth for two days and would like to talk with you. Your mother told me you wanted to be an author or work in the publishing industry, is it true?”

“Yes,” it was the fastest answer of her life. Yes, she had always dreamed of working around books.

“From what I’ve heard, Aelin Galathynius, you are special. I’d like to see that by myself. Allow me to take you out for dinner tomorrow and we can talk about your future.”

If Arobynn Hamel helped her… She could become a successful author. She could picture it, a small house, Sam at her side, a study full of books she wrote, a life away from the spotlight, a happy life. It’s exactly what she wanted. Special, he thought she was special.

“Dress code?”

He laughed again and Aelin couldn’t help but smile. “Something like the dress you had on Saturday should be good. I’ll pick you up at seven, is it good for you?”

“Perfect.”

They hung up and she looked at her friend, still surprised, and smile. She was thoughtfully happy.

“Aelin?” Aedion asked, tearing her from her daydream. “You there?”

“Sorry. What is it?” She was tired and hungover, she didn’t get lots of sleep last night and she was feeling the effects. Dorian had left early this morning, long before anyone woke up. It was better than having to face Aedion’s judgmental looks.

“I asked if your scholarship got renewed for next year, Lysandra got the answer in the mail yesterday so you’re supposed to have yours too, right?” She looked up from her bowl of cereals, confused for a second. When she met Rowan Whitethorn’s face, with the same confused expression as her, she remembered.

Lysandra, Aedion, and everyone else believed she got a scholarship, frankly, she had no idea how they believed her. But they never had a reason to distrust her, that’s probably the reason.

Most of her relation with Arobynn was secret and the money he spent on her was part of the lie.

“Yeah, everything is taken care of.” She smiled, it was the truth in a way. She dared to look at Rowan and she didn’t why, didn’t know how, but she knew he didn’t believe her. She could see it in his frown and eyes.

“Good,” her cousin smiled as he drank his coffee.

She smiled back, he was worried for her, she knew it. It’s exactly why she didn’t tell him anything, he didn’t need the stress. “I’ve got everything under control.”

---------

“What are you still doing here?” Arobynn asked, startling Aelin. She had been too busy on her computer to hear him coming. “It’s past nine, we finished hours ago.”

They both had worked for hours today and she was tired. “What are you still doing here?” She asked.

“I asked first, darling.” He sat in his chair in front of her. She was still in her seat, the chair almost belonged to her for all the time she spent on it. She wanted to be annoyed at him but today had been different. He had been different. He wasn’t the Arobynn she had known years ago but he was close, closer than he usually was lately. Aelin was pretty sure he hadn’t had a drink all day, which could explain his mood. That was a good thing.

“I’m writing and waiting for my cousin to check his damn phone so he can pick me up.”

“Where’s your car?”

“Broken,” she grilled through her teeth. The damn truck had decided not to work this morning, causing Aelin to have a nervous breakdown. “A friend of mine had a look at it and told me it would cost me more to repair it than to buy a new one, so here I am, depending on my cousin.” She hated it, hated to depend on someone. But it seemed to happen a lot lately, so she might have to get used to it. “What are you doing here?” She repeated.

“My meeting lasted two hours,” he said, his voice hard.

“Ah, sucks when you have to actually do your job, right?” She remarked and didn’t know if it was a reproach for the way he over-worked her or a teasing. Maybe both, she didn’t want to wonder about it too much.

“Someone’s feisty today,” he joked and she fought a small smile. “Ready for Monday?”

“I already told you no, Arobynn.”

“Why not? You finish the school year in four days.”

“I have a job, Arobynn. I can’t just-”

“Everything’s taken care of.” He cut her off with a smile. It was the kind of smile that told her he had done something and was feeling rather proud of it.

“What.”

“Did you know Rofle was my friend? After a drink or two, he agreed to let you come back in September, right after your internship at Hamel Publishing.”

“And you did that after I told you no?” Her tone was rising. “And are you friends with everyone here?”

He rose from his seat to stand right before her. She had to raise her head to look him in the eye. One of his calloused hands rested on her cheek, caressing her cheekbone. "You know how powerful I am." She did, Arobynn wasn’t just a successful author or the CEO of a publishing company, those were just hobbies for him. He had grown up in a rich family, had been raised to be like every rich people. He had learned how fake smiles and words were weapons, how to manipulate people. He had a way to manipulate everyone he called his friends, whether it was a picture, a video, or a letter. He had something on everyone. “I once promised you I would make you shine, Aelin. I won’t let a shitty job ruin that promise.” For years he had told her she was special, he had told her she could reach the stars should she just let him help her. And for years she had believed him, so she decided to do it again. She only nodded and it seemed to be enough for him.“I’m calling a cab for you.”

“No.”

“No?” His voice was surprised. “Is it because of the money?”

“For fuck sake Arobynn I can afford a cab ride,” that was a total lie, but he didn’t need to know that. “I just… can’t.”

Understanding and pity flashed on Arobynn’s face and she had to keep herself from yelling at him for it. “You still can’t?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” She said voice hard that didn’t let room for questions.

“Pack your things, I’ll drive you.” This was what Arobynn from four years ago would have said, what the Arobynn she had come to know would have said. In a flicker of hope, she said yes. Hope that she could erase what happened between them, that she would forget like Arobynn repeatedly asked her to, and just start again because she didn’t know how to survive another person leaving her.

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

It was the middle of the night when Rowan heard her cries.

At first, he had ignored them, trying to give her privacy. It was unusual of her to let someone hear her, so Rowan thought it might be very bad. But after five minutes of cries, he couldn’t stay in his bed anymore.

When he walked into her room, his heart broke a little. She was in bed, sleeping, trashing against the sheets, crying, and trying to talk. Even with only the light from the bathroom, he could see the pain written all over her face.

He couldn’t take it, he couldn’t just walk back to his room and ignore her. So, he shook her shoulder, trying to wake her up but it didn’t work. She kept jerking in her bed as if she was fighting with the pillows and her blanket.

“Aelin,” he said, using both his hands to shake her. “Aelin,” he repeated louder. Her eyes jerked open, she turned her head several times, trying to figure out where she was. Her whole body shook and a second later she leaned over the bed and vomited her guts out. Rowan held her hair back, avoiding touching her directly so as not to overwhelm her.

When she lay back down in bed, she was still crying, her limbs shaking as if she were hypothermic even though Rowan could see the sweat glistening on her skin.

Rowan had only seen one person look so wrecked in his entire life, himself. He saw it every time he woke up and looked into the mirror. It was worse ten years ago because he had no idea how to hide it, in a decade he learned how to conceal everything. How to recognize which night was most likely to give him a nightmare, learned how to stay quiet while he felt like dying inside.

“You should take a shower,” Rowan said, voice softer than he has ever used with her. He had been wrong, so wrong.

“I don’t think I have the strength.”

“To shower?” He asked but there was no judgment, he only wanted to make sure.

“To live.” Her small voice broke and his heart did too. When she looked up at him, eyes filled with tears, Rowan didn’t see anything but desperation and loathing. He knew it wasn’t directed at him but at herself.

“Come here,” he said as he slid his arms under her body. “We’re gonna clean you up, okay?” He lifted her up from her bed, avoiding the content of her stomach on the floor as her weak arms curled around his neck and he guided her to the bathroom.

————

@sheharahu // @morganofthewildfire // @thestoriesyoutell // @fromthelibraryofemilyj // @swankii-art-teacher // @itsforeverinnocent-blog // @becarefuloflove // @imnotsogoodatthis // @rowaelinismyotp // @a-court-of-milkandhoney // @feysand-loml // @surielandiareendgame // @live-the-fangirl-life // @story-scribbler // @loves-books // @fangirlprincess09 // @theysayitscrazy

#rowaelin fanfiction #rowan whitethorn #rowaelin #rowan x aelin #aelin galathynius #fire on fire

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migilini · 4 years ago

Note

Hi!! Can you do another request for Charlie Gillespie? Can it be the 5 times he tries to propose and the one time he actually does? Thank you!!

Fifth Time Works A Charm - Charlie Gillespie

a/n: I loved writing this, especially because I’m procastinating to write the next Chapter for my Luke ff. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Requests are open!

Words: 3k

Masterlist

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He knew from the moment he kissed you goodnight on your second date that you were the one he was gonna marry one day. He loved the way you always complained about back pain, yet you never sat normally in any chair and the way you still paid attention to him when he talked about a topic you had no clue on. The spark in your eyes and the curve of your lips when you laughed at one of his awful jokes. Every Morning he woke up next to you was a good one and he loved you more and more everyday. He was totally and completely whipped for you that wasn't the hard part, finding the right moment to propose was.

The two of you were on vacation in Hawaii at the same resort the two of you accidentally met a couple years ago and learned that you actually only lived 30 minutes away from each other. You were laying on the beach, the soft towel brushing your skin slightly, a big sun hat shielding your eyes and face from the hot sun.

Cold drops of water hit your exposed stomach “Baby look, the water is so nice!” more water hit your warm skin. Screeching you sat up and saw your boyfriend standing over you, with a big smile while he wrenched out his hair, letting all the cold water hit you.

“It's cold.” you giggled. “And you're warm!” He dropped on top of you, instantly cooling you down with his cold skin. You tried to protest but he was faster and stronger than you are. Putting his elbows around your face, he lifted some weight off of your chest then he stared at you.

“Hmm? What are you staring at me for?” you asked, amusement evident in your voice. “You just look very beautiful right now. You look relaxed.”

Blushing, you cupped one of his cheeks and responded “Thank you handsome. I am relaxed, really needed this getaway.” He smiled and leaned down a bit to kiss your forehead, your nose and then your lips. You savoured the saltines that lingered on your lips for a second longer before he pulled away. He got off of you and rested on his own towel.

Sitting up a bit more, you pulled out your book and read for a bit, when suddenly something made your toe wiggle. Looking over the border of the book, you noticed that Charlie wanted your attention. You looked at him for a moment, taking in his small smile.

“I have something planned for tonight.” He said and buried your foot in the sand. “Yeah? Care to tell me what it is?”

“Nope that's gonna be a surprise! Let's get back to the room and get ready.”

He told you to get dressed casually yet fancy so you wore your hair up in a bun, light makeup with a bold red lip and a flowy maxi dress. You were sitting on the hotel bed when you heard someone vomiting.

“Babe? You okay?” you questioned and walked to the bathroom door. “Did you eat something weird?” the door opened and you were faced with a pale Charlie. “Oh baby.” a small frown sat on your face when you saw him. “Let's stay in. We can do your surprise tomorrow when you feel better, okay?” Pouting, he shook his head “No. I feel fine, let's go.” he went to grab your hand but you took a small step back.

“Charlie, you're sick. There's no harm in staying in today. Health first, adventures second okay?” His shoulders dropped in defeat, there was no way he could convince you to still go out, so he nodded and followed you back to the bed. But before, in a second that you went to grab a water bottle, he pulled a small black box from his pockets and stuffed it back into his suitcase.

Unfortunately he was sick for the rest of your trip.

You and your boyfriend Charlie were chilling on the couch in the living room. Charlie was responding to some emails while you scrolled through instagram. The radio was on in the background, filling the room with soft music. It was late evening and you put some candles on and turned up your little lights that were scattered all over the place to make it cozy.

Your ears picked up the familiar tune of ‘It's been a long long time by Harry James’ and a big smile spread on your lips. You jumped up, throwing your phone somewhere on the couch and started pulling on Charlie's arm. “Dance with me.”

“Baby I’m working.” he said with a grin, already closing his laptop.

“Please just dance to this song. It's our song babe! Then I won't annoy you the whole day.” you pleaded, jumping from one foot to the other, while still pulling on his arm.

“Okay. Just this song. I know how much you love it.” He stood up, his arms finding your waist as you interlaced your hands behind his back. Your manicured fingers immediately start playing with his longer hair. The two of you swayed to the music, he was humming along to the music, while you closed your eyes. He dipped you, waking you laugh. Then you twirled him around your arm. The song came to your favorite part and you wholeheartedly sang along, beaming up at your boyfriend.

‘Kiss me once’ You gave him a kiss on the shoulder and he kissed the top of your head, pulling you closer into his chest.

‘Then, kiss me twice’ You stood on your tiptoes and kissed his forehead and the tip of his nose.

‘Then, kiss me once again’ finally you kissed his lips. Charlie hummed in approval, tightening his grip on your waist.

Slowly the song came to an end when your phone started to ring. Charlie looked at your expectantly, waiting for you to pick it up.

“If it's important they'll call again.” you muttered with your face pressed against his shoulder. Sadly for you both a second later it began to ring again. Groaning the two of you left your little bubble as you picked up your phone.

“Oh hi grandma. How have you been?” You excused yourself with a swift kiss on his cheek and left the living room, leaving behind a lonely boyfriend.

“We got a special request to play this song today.” The radio host announced “I hope she said yes man!”

You just finished your last exam of the last semester of college. You were done. Finished. Now you only have to wait and see if you're actually gonna graduate or if you have to repeat the semester. Still, you felt like celebrating. Charlie had interview after interview scheduled for today so you didn't tell him right of the bat. You spent the day doing some mundane household tasks and grocery shopping. The moment your boyfriend was finished for the day, he ran out of your office to search for you.

You laid on the couch, watching a new netflix series when you heard footsteps approach. “You’ve done it baby!” he pulled you off the couch and twirled you around. Giggling you answered “I haven't graduated yet.”

“And? You will, I'm sure of it because I have the smartest girlfriend in the world and she just finished her last test. This needs celebration!” he left small kisses all over your face.

Due to the pandemic, you had to stay in the appartement to party. You didn't care though. Charlie ordered something from your favourite italian place and you pulled out the wine from your kitchen cabinet. Somehow the food took ages to arrive and to pass the time you decided to open the bottle.

Wine always had an interesting effect on the two of you, especially on an empty stomach. Charlie got very needy and you always blacked out during the night (He does too but he won't admit it). But the one thing both of you had in common was the touchyness. It wasn't like you two were not always touching when you were sober, it was just that wine drunk Charlie and you took it to a whole other level. By the time you were on your third glass, you wondered if Charlie even ordered the food.

“Could I have this dance with you ma lady?” Charlie held out his hand and bowled a little. You put down your now fifth glass of wine and stood up, taking his hand in yours.

“Oh, yes of course.” This dance was different from the dance you had a couple of nights ago. It was more of a makeout session than a dance. At some point he picked you up, so your legs were wrapped around his torso, yet he still swayed to the non existing music.

“I love you.” You murmured against his lips.

“I love you more.” he said and pulled away slightly.

“No way that's possible.”

“Oh really?” he raised his eyebrow.

“Marry me then.” he whispered looking you in the eyes with a spark in his.

“Yes! I do!” You slurred and kissed him harshly. A smile spreading on both of your lips.

You woke up the next morning with an aching headache and practically no memory of the evening before. You turned over to see Charlie sleeping next to you. You slowly traced the outline of his face. He opened his eyes and smiled at you.

“Hi” he croaked out in his morning voice that still made butterflies rise in your stomach. “Hey. How much do you remember?” You asked him sheepishly. He pulled you in with his arms, hiding his face in the crook of your neck.

“Not much to be honest and i'm guessing you don’t either?” You only shook your head.

“I remember that our food somehow didn't arrive.”

Next time Charlie should really read the text of the restaurant he orders from, because there was a perfectly cooked meal waiting in front of your door.

Charlie missed his best friend and you knew this. So you arranged a little get together with Owen and Jeremy at Owen’s new apartment. Your plan was to drive down from Canada, make a quick weekend stop at Owens and then make your way to your apartment in LA.

Currently it was a monday morning and you were still at Owens. His guest bed was just so comfortable it was harder than normal to get out of bed. On this particular morning, you woke up to an empty side of the bed and some talking from the living room.

Lazily, you put on one of Charlie's hoodies, some cozy socks and a beany. You shuffled to the living room where you assumed the boys would be sitting, not realising that you interrupted a conversation.

“I don't know man. Everytime I have something planned it goes wrong.”

“Look Char, In my experience the chance will… morning y/n.” Jeremy was quick to notice your figure shuffling towards them, your eyes scanning your phone. The boys tensed up and quickly tried to do a normal activity.

“Morning everybody.” You smiled at them. “Am I the last to be up?” you asked and only got noods in return. Still too sleepy to notice the atmosphere, you made your way over to your boyfriend, who was standing at the kitchen aisle, wrapping your arms around him from behind and nuzzling your head into his back. Your hands instantly go under his hoodie and on his bare skin to warm your hands.

“Kofe…” you mumbled into his back, barely audible.

“What?” Owen asked, confused while he sat on the kitchen counter, eating a toast.

“She wants some coffee.” Your boyfriend translated with a smile.

“Oh.. I just used the last capsule... I’m so sorry” Jeremy apologized and offered you the last sip of his cup of coffee.

“I’m fine, I'll survive thank you though Jer.” You yawned, releasing yourself from cuddling Charlie, knowing you're not gonna be fully awake without a cup of coffee. Your boyfriend also knew this and eyed you closely, then he leaned over to whisper in your ear that he's gonna get you a coffee after his workout. He looked at you lovingly and pressed a kiss to your temple.

“Jesus Christ man, you're whipped. Just ask her.” Owen said while rolling his eyes. The second the last words left his lips all the boys looked at eachother with wide eyes. Owen went to cover his mouth with his hands.

“Ask me what?” You asked in a soft tone and turned to your boyfriend who had a really panicked look on his face.

“I- I-uhm…” he stuttered, fiddling with his fingers.

“Charlie here wanted to ask you if you would mind staying one more day.” Jeremy came to the rescue and sent Owen a mad look, while he pulled one of his arms over Charlie's shoulder, who gave him a thankful nudge.

Your face softened “Of course bubby! If it's okay with Owen it's okay with me, we have no hurry to head to LA. I love spending time here. Gotta teach Owen a few tips and tricks of living alone.” you sent a wink in the blonde boys direction.

At this point Charlie nearly gave up on asking you to marry him, maybe it was a sign from the universe that the two of you weren’t ready for that commitment yet. You were both still so young and just started with your careers.

He looked over at your mess of curls that spread all over the pillow case. The peaceful up and down from your chest and the small smile on your slightly opened lips as you slept. He had to ask you to marry him, there was no way he wouldn't.

The sunlight peeked through the curtains and illuminated the bedroom on this sunday morning in a pretty yellow. You opened your eyes as you heard something shift beside you.

“Where are you going?” You asked, squinting your eyes that still needed to get used to the light.

“Just for a walk baby. Go back to sleep.” He pushed some hairs back that touched your face. Pouting, you put your much smaller hand on his hand that laid on your face.

“Noo. Don't go. Come back to bed.” you whined, leaving kisses on his hand. He sat there for a while, contemplating if he could say no to your face. In the end he sighed and you felt the mattress next to you go down.

“Thank you for staying.” you whispered and pulled him closer, letting your head rest on his chest. His arms wrapped around you and he shifted in a comfortable position, so that you were basically laying on top of him. With the tip of your fingers you drew little constellations on his chest and he played with the strands of your hair.

“Charlie?” You broke the silence and went to look at his face, propping your chin on your hand.

“What's on your pretty mind?”

“When will you ask me to marry you? Or should I ask you?” You finally asked the questions that have been running through your mind for months now.

He stopped breathing for a second, stunned at your declaration. A wide smile broke out on his lips and he started laughing. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion.

“Is that such a funny concept?” You asked, slightly hurt. “I thought you wanted to do it in Hawaii but then you were sick and I also heard you and the boys talking about something. Plus I found the ring.” you admitted.

Charlie shifted again so you were both sitting up and facing each other. “You found the ring?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah I put some of your stuff into the drawer and it fell out. I didn't look at it though! I still wanted that part to be a surprise. But you never asked, so im gonna do it, fuck the gender norms. Charlie Jeffrey Gillespie will you...”

“Oh my god. Baby no.” he chuckled and cupped your face, making you stop in the middle of the sentence. “I had so many different ideas planned but something always came in between me actually asking you. So let me do it right.”

He got up from the bed and pulled out the little black box from one of the drawers in your bedroom.

“Uhm… could you maybe stand up?”

You obliged eagerly, your hands shaking like crazy.

And then it was finally happening. Your boyfriend got down on one knee and looked up at you with tears in his eyes.

“This wasn't at all how I originally wanted to do it but now thinking about it, it's just perfect. I knew pretty early on that you were gonna be the girl I marry one day. I know we’re both still very young but I couldn't imagine myself spending my life with anybody else other than you. You're the person I want to wake up next to every morning and the person I miss the most when I’m away. So would you do me the honours and make me the happiest man alive by marrying me?” he took out the ring with shaking hands, while you tried to stop the sobbing. You got on your knees as well and cupped his face, whipping away some tears.

“Yes! One million times yes!” You kissed him softly, afraid that this was all a dream. Charlie pushed the ring on your finger and lifted you up, kissing you again and again with a tear soaked face and a smile that hurt his cheeks.

#charlie gillespie #charlie gillespie x reader #charlie gillespie imagine #charlie gillespie fanfic #charlie gillespie fic #charlie gillespie fanfiction #charlie gillespie fluff #charlie gillespie images #charlie gillespie x y/n #charlie gillespie x oc #jatp #jatp fanfic

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princessphilly · 4 years ago

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Word Count: 5118

CW: angst, smut but not super filthy smut (medium filth?), bad language

Dress and shoes that Nina wore in this chapter

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Only three more chapters and an epilogue left

Nina fidgeted as dug into her pocketbook for her keys to her parents’ house. It was time for Sunday dinner, the one meal a week that she wasn’t responsible for cooking and therefore, Nina never missed it. Cooking was not her forte and Nina had no problems with that. However, this Sunday dinner, she needed to talk to her family about their lives changing.

The smell of roast chicken filled the house and Nina took a deep sniff as she opened and closed the door. Aryanna and Dad were watching the late game aka hate-watching the Ravens vs Saints. The Steelers were playing on Monday night this week.

“Heey sweettart,” Vernon said, getting up to give his oldest daughter a hug.

Nina hugged her father back, holding him close for a second. “Hi Dad.”

“Oh no!”

Nina ended the hug, turning with her father towards the tv. Lamar Jackson had just run for a 20-yard touchdown. They all groaned; the Steelers needed the Ravens to lose as both teams were running neck to neck for the AFC North crown. As Nina got absorbed into the game, the situation with Sidney was still in the back of her mind.

Nina had talked to her mom earlier in the day, explaining everything to her mother, well everything but the sex. Tracey had listened with an open ear before telling her daughter not to make a decision over her potential happiness just because of how it could affect her family. Tracey had reminded Nina that Jason, while he was at UNC now, had been a 5-star tight end prospect and they dealt with the media when it was time for him to sign with a college.

After talking to her mom, Nina had taken a nap before coming to sunday dinner. As she watched the game, waiting to eat, Nina hoped for courage. However, she kept it to herself when it was time to eat, instead listening to Aryanna talk about school, her dad talk about his new position at work which meant that he wasn’t going to be going out on the road as much anymore. Nina shared some stories about her clients while Tracey talked about the switch to travel nursing over working in the hospital. But when it was over, Nina gulped and summoned her courage.

“So, I got news,” Nina started once dinner was over and dessert was served. She looked down at her glass of water. Before she could continue, Aryanna piped up. “Let me guess, you’re breaking up with Sidney Crosby because you’re a punk.”

“Aryanna!”

Nina glared at her little sister while Tracey reprimanded, “That was rude, little girl.”

“Sorry,” Aryanna muttered.

“Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted,” Nina said, “I have news. After thinking about it, talking to Sidney, and going over the pros and cons, I’ve decided to give him another chance.”

Tracey smiled as Aryanna shouted yes. Vernon looked at his daughter and carefully said, “Are you ready for it?”

Nina grimaced. “As ready as I can possibly. Are y’all?”

“We only want you to be happy, sweetie,” Tracey consoled. “Plus, I saw those pics of you two. He’s smitten.”

Nina groaned while Aryanna laughed. Vernon added, “We were already planning to move soon anyway. We’ve been looking at homes in South HIlls and we just closed on a house in Mt. Lebanon.”

“Oh wow. When was I going to find out,” Nina said with a smirk. She knew her parents had been thinking of moving for a while but the market had been super hot for a long time. Before she had moved into her current apartment, Nina had heard of the different arguments her parents had about moving to different areas. But before they could find somewhere, someone else would snap it up.

Tracey grinned. “We weren’t going to say anything until we closed because of how long it took to find somewhere. It’s taken almost two years and we even saved enough to offer forty percent as a down payment. It’s a fixer-upper though but it has a bigger backyard for my garden and the schools are better.”

“What are you going to do with this house,” Nina asked before taking a bite of her sweet potato pie. Fuck, she wished she could bake and cook just so she could make herself sweet potato pie all of the time.

Vernon replied, “Probably sell. There are people looking to buy even though this area isn’t that great. ”

“I guess it’s settled. This is exciting though.”

Tracey snickered before looking at her husband. “I hope you are still excited when we need you to help pack, Ni-ni.”

Nina looked to her right before taking out her phone and sending a quick message. Free monday? 12pm?

She received a quick response. Yup, just tell me where to meet

Vernon casually commented, “I’m also looking at it this way; this is a practice for when Jason is in the NFL and becomes famous.”

“Good point,” Tracey said. “I can start practicing telling people no even more now.”

Nina laughed. “Looks like I have nothing to worry about then.”

The conversation switched to the Steelers game tomorrow night as they finished dessert.

Honestly, Sidney was a bit surprised to get a message from Nina so quickly. He had fully expected her to wait until Wednesday and he had been preparing himself for the worst possible outcome. As a competitor, prepping for each game meant learning his opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. Nina wasn’t his opponent but Sidney was now very aware of the power she had over him with just one look, let alone her touch or words.

Nina had asked to meet somewhere that wasn’t at their homes. Sidney suggested lunch but after looking at his schedule, he asked if Nina could maybe meet him at the Pens offices and then get lunch after. Fidgeting in the smaller conference room, Sidney began to worry that Nina wouldn’t show up when the clock showed that it was already five minutes past the time they agreed to. But then, Nina wasn’t the most on time person either so Sidney rationalized to himself, he should worry if it was fifteen minutes passed and she still wasn’t here.

Then outside the door, Sidney saw Nina talking with Evelyn, one of their PR mavens. They were having an animated discussion and Sidney smiled softly. Nina opened the door and grinned at him. “Hi Sid, sorry for being late.”

Evelyn waved at Sidney and he waved back. After Nina walked in, Evelyn peeped in and said, “I was just catching up with Nina since it’s been a while since she’s been here.”

Sidney nodded as Nina replied, “thank you so much for the advice, Evelyn, I will definitely use it!”

Evelyn waved goodbye before closing the door firmly. Nina chose a chair directly across from Sidney and sat down. There was a brief pause before Nina giggled. “Oh my God, you looked like you were about to die before I showed up.”

“Well, I had to remind myself that you’d show up but part of me still was worried because of everything in our last conversations,” Sidney replied.

The aura in the room turned serious as Nina bit her lip and folded her hands together. “Yeah, those conversations,” Nina started. “I like you a lot, Sidney Crosby, but… I hate this circus that surrounds you. I know that it’s something you can’t control but I hate it. But I realized, especially after talking to my mom, there’s nothing I can do about it now. My life’s forever changed.”

Sidney cleared his throat but Nina stopped him. “Let me finish, Sid because I can already tell you’re ready to make promises you can’t keep. So let me save both of us the headache.”

Sitting back, Sidney leaned in his chair. “What are your plans, pretty girl?”

“You have to get over being super private and claim me publicly. You want me to be yours, Mr. Crosby? Then you have to let the world know we are together. No are they or aren’t they bullshit.”

Nina glared at Sidney when she was done. Sidney flushed; part of him hated the idea of letting the world know more than they really needed to know about his personal life. At the same time, he already knew he was going to do whatever Nina asked him to, in his own way. “You know I don’t use social media,” Sidney began before trailing off. Then he smirked.

Nina casually said, “you’ll find a way.”

“I already figured it out,” Sidney drawled. “What else do you want, pretty girl?”

“No more surprise meet ups with people from the team, let me know ahead of time. Just like I’ll let you know ahead of time whenever I decide you should meet my fam.”

Sidney actually blushed while Nina arched an eyebrow. “I know I’m amazing but that was a bit uncomfortable when I think back. At least you didn’t abandon me to talk to your teammates and let me fend for myself.”

“I’m sorry, Nina,” Sidney apologized. He felt really bad now: he had been so excited that he really didn’t think about how Nina would have felt. Nina shrugged; it wasn’t that bad to be honest because Sidney stayed at her side, introduced her to everyone, and made sure she was included. But that didn’t mean she wanted him to continue doing that.

Nina smiled at Sidney and asked, “what do you think, Sid?”

Sidney scratched his jaw as he thought of his reply. It was relatively simple but it would also be life-changing for him. He finally said, “Yes, it all sounds good. But I have one thing?”

“What’s that?”

Sidney smirked as he looked Nina up and down. Nina rolled her eyes as she smiled. She could guess where his mind was, right in the gutter. But Sidney surprised her when he said, “Then let me spoil you. I have no problem claiming you publicly, but I want you to let me treat you like I’ve been wanting to treat you.”

Nina gave Sidney a bashful smile before looking to the side. “I’ll never say no to purses and shoes but I don’t want you to buy out the store-“

“I already know that, sweetheart,” Sidney firmly said, “but let me treat you like you deserve.”

“Okay, okay,” Nina conceded.

Sidney pushed his chair back, making space. Then he patted his lap. “Come ‘ere.”

Nina got out of her chair and sat on Sidney’s lap. “You know where we are,” she hissed even though she had obeyed him.

Wrapping an arm around her waist, Sidney smiled. Smelling her coconut-vanilla scent, he realized how much he had missed her. “I know, I’m not going to do anything inappropriate, pretty girl. Just missed having you close to me.”

Sidney kissed the back of Nina’s neck, causing her to shiver. “Watch the postgame of our next game, Nina. Now, what do you want for lunch?”

“Um, honestly, I want Chipotle. I have to get back to work in about an hour so nothing fancy,” Nina replied.

Turning so that she was facing Sidney, she placed her index finger over his lips when he opened his mouth. “I forgot to add this earlier but I’m also going to say this now. I’m not quitting my job anytime soon. I’m going to finish my Ph.D. and if I decide to stop working, it’s because I plan to teach full-time. So, if you expect I’ll be waiting at home and living for you, now you know that’s not going to happen,” Nina stated.

Sidney opened his mouth to reply but the door opened. “Hey, I’ve been looking for you, Sidney!”

Nina squeaked in surprise and Sidney sighed. It was Brian Burke and Sidney was sure that it was probably something important but this wasn’t quite the moment where he wanted to see him.

Brian smiled. “It looks like you two have made up.”

Nina weakly waved. At first, she was going to move off of Sidney’s lap but his hand around her waist made that impossible. “I’d introduce myself but I figure I interrupted,” Brian continued.

“It’s okay, I was on my way to get lunch,” Nina replied.

Sidney added, “With me.”

“Don’t forget, you said you wanted to help with more planning for our pride game this season,” Brian reminded Sidney.

“Ohh, the pride game! You’re getting more involved in it? That’s awesome,” Nina exclaimed.

Sidney blushed as he smiled under Nina’s praise.

“Would you be interested in being involved, Nina,” Brian asked.

Nina paused for a second, her eyes wide. “Um, sure.”

“I can get your contact information from Sidney,” Brian asked.

Nina nodded as Sidney rubbed his hand up and down her back. Sidney said, “I’ll let you know,” as Brian closed the door.

Placing a hand over her face, Nina sighed. “Wow.”

“It’s fine. Look, your first volunteer project,” Sidney kidded.

“I need to eat.”

The game against the Isles had gone well. Sidney had tallied two assists and a goal in a 4-2 win after having a four game slump. Normally post-game interviews were a necessary evil but he was a bit nervous this time. Not because he knew they were going to ask about getting out of his slump, but because of what he was going to say.

The first couple of questions were easy softballs. Then Sidney was hit with the question that opened the door.

“Sidney, great breaking your slump. There were rumors that your personal life was affecting your game on the ice. What do you think about that?”

Sidney looked at the reporters, all ready for him to give a cliche. Instead, Sidney admitted the truth. “My personal life was affecting my game on the ice. But we’ve fixed our issues and I’m glad.”

There was a pause, as if the reporters didn’t know where to start. Sidney looked at one of the PR interns to the side. The intern gave him a slight smile and a quick thumbs up. Sidney decided to continue, “We prefer to keep our relationship private for now but she means a lot to me and is very important to my life. I will not be answering any more questions about my relationship at this moment.”

Luckily, the rest of the questions were about hockey but Sidney knew that his statement was going to be a big part of what everyone was going to talk about. Once back in the locker room, Geno gave Sidney a big grin. Tanger said, “You did it?”

“Yeah but I’m serious, I’m not going to answer a bunch of questions about my personal life,” Sidney replied. “Now though, every time we struggle, the dumbasses will start talking about it.”

Tanger grimaced as Geno said, “Fuck them.”

Guentzy laughed as he stated, “I agree with Geno. Fuck them.”

Sidney laughed as he pulled his shirt off before pulling off his pads. Sitting in his crocs, hockey pants and pads, Sidney pulled out his phone. There was just one message from the only person who’s opinion mattered to him, wow😍 .

Sidney replied back, made it official for u but in the way u wanted 😁😏

😘🥰 part of me can’t believe it but i’m happy u listened to me, was Nina’s reply.

Sidney texted, only 4 u, before finishing getting undressed so he could take a shower.

To be totally honest, Nina thought her life would have exploded the minute that Sidney admitted that he was seeing someone in the post-game conference after the Isles game. It wouldn’t take much to put 2 and 2 together, especially when she went out with Sidney and the Malkins to a popular Shadyside restaurant the day after. But things were relatively calmer.

There were still the nasty looks from other people, especially women when Nina was out by herself, running her everyday errands. But there were also people who seemed to defer to her and it felt so fucking weird. Like, if she wanted to, Nina felt like people were ready to let her do whatever she wanted because she was now Sidney Crosby’s girlfriend.

Nina bit her lip as she waited in line to pay for her groceries. Then someone bumped into her and it was Ron. “Hey Nina, long time no see.”

“Hi Ron,” Nina replied with a strained smile.

“Not everyday one sees their ex. Look at you, shopping like the rest of us. Your man ain’t ordering groceries for you.”

Nina resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She could feel the eyes of other people at Weis and she knew there were people looking for something to gossip about. Nina definitely didn’t want to give Ron the satisfaction of a reaction. She merely replied, “I have my own life I have to take care of on my own.”

“Oh wow, because I remember the way you two were looking at each other that time we went out on a date. Makes me think you were cheating on me with him,” Ron goaded.

Nina gave him a blank look. “We were long over, for almost three years, before I went out with Sidney. But you had two other women when we were a couple,” Nina stated with a shrug. “Anyway, it’s my turn to check out. Bye.”

Nina tuned Ron out as she checked out. The cashier commented, “That guy seems like a dick.”

“You live and you learn,” Nina replied with a smile as she paid, unaware that someone had uploaded video of that encounter to the internet.

Sidney gulped down his protein shake, home after practice. The season was starting well but he felt like the team could be better. Sidney wanted another cup, one more cup and he felt like this was the year. Then his phone buzzed and he saw it was his mom.

“Hi Mom,” Sidney said, sitting on his sofa. He had some time before he needed to get ready for tonight and it was always good to talk to his mother.

Trina chirped, “Hi Sidney, how are you?”

“I’m doing good, short practice today before our game against New Jersey tomorrow,” Sidney idly replied as he turned his tv on. Flipping through Netflix, he chose an episode of How I Met Your Mother.

He could hear his mother’s smile through the phone when she teased, “Your father told me you told the press that you are seeing someone last week. Is it that girl you kept talking about over the years?”

Sidney giggle-honked before admitting, “Yes, it is. I’m finally dating Nina.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea? This is something totally different for you,” Trina asked, concerned. Her son had a relationship with Kathy but this situation with this new girl was something totally different. Part of her was worried that since Sidney had wanted this girl for so long, that he was diving into this without really thinking about it.

Sidney replied, “You sound like Nina.”

“Hmm, I do?”

“Yep, Mom, you did,” Sidney said, “Nina wasn’t sure if it was a good idea for a long time but I managed to convince her it was.”

Trina was still feeling skeptical. From what she knew, this girl was from the area, a fan of the team, a different race, and had worked for the team for a period of time. It was possible she could be playing the long game. “Is she there with you now?”

Knowing her son, Trina was convinced that Nina was already living with her son. Her son, when he decided he wanted something, went all out to get it. She was surprised when Sidney said, “No, she’s at work, then she has class.”

“Class,” Trina asked, her tone perking up. This sounded interesting.

Sidney informed his mother, “Nina decided to get a PhD in rehabilitation science this year. She works as a physical therapist.”

“That sounds interesting, isn’t that how you met her,” Trina idly said. The door opened and Troy stepped in. Trina put her finger to her mouth to shush her husband.

Sidney scratched his head, wondering where his mother was going with these questions. “Yes. Nina works somewhere else totally different now. But she’s looking into becoming a professor after guest lecturing at, I think, Pitt.”

Trina raised her eyebrows. That was interesting information. Switching the conversation to more mundane subjects, Trina filed that information in the back of her head. It sounded like this Nina was a bit more well-rounded than she thought.

Sidney sighed when he hung up on his mother. That conversation felt like one thing but he could sense there was another undercurrent. Then he received a picture message from Nina and his mind went straight to the gutter. Sidney sighed; it was going to be a long night.

“You look very nice.”

Nina smiled as she replied, “Thank you,” to the guest.

It was kind of last minute, this dinner that Nina found herself invited to. It was thrown by Nathalie and most of the top brass of the Penguins were here as well as Sidney, the Letangs, and the Malkins. Because Sidney had gone public with their relationship, Nina had found herself suddenly invited. Luckily for her, Nina already had an appropriate cocktail dress for the occasion.

Her dress was black with an asymmetrical one shoulder with a bow but it came to just above knee level. Nina’s heels were gold, an impulse purchase several months ago that she was happy to have. The outfit was classy, understated, and definitely Penguins colors.

Sidney seemed to like it as well from the way his arm stayed possessively around Nina’s waist whenever possible. At least it wasn’t a public event; the possessiveness would have looked bad. But because it was informal and in a private room at PPG arena, Sidney was able to get away with it.

The length was a blessing and a curse. A blessing that it meant that Sidney couldn’t try to do any funny business during dinner but a curse in that the more he touched her, the more Nina wanted him. By the end of the night, it was obvious that Sidney was getting close to losing his cool and Nina was loving it.

As soon as they got into the car at the end of the night, Sidney pounced. His lips touched hers, demanding and devouring as he kissed her. Then abruptly, Sidney let go. “You'd been torturing me all night in that little black dress. So sexy, the way it showed off my pretty girl’s body.”

Sidney already knew that Nina was perfect in every way anyway. However, as soon as he saw her step in with that black dress and gold heels, it took every ounce of media training and self-control for Sidney not to strip it off of her and fuck her right there. Right now, he was glad that he hired a car after this event.

Sidney didn’t even do anything in the car other than keep his hand on Nina’s thigh. The difference was that he told Nina every filthy thing he planned to do to her once he got her home. Nina wiggled on the seat, her legs shifting as Sidney whispered what he planned to do to her. It was insane, what he could do to her with his words.

Nina had expected Sidney to push her against the wall when they got back to his place but instead, he just guided Nina to the kitchen before taking out two glasses. Picking out a wine, Sidney poured two glasses.

“I’ve missed you in my bed but I’m patient,” Sidney stated, his hands palming Nina’s ass before giving both cheeks a smack. Then Sidney picked up the glasses of wine and passed one to Nina.

Nina smirked. “I’m not,” she said as she took a sip.

“Can’t be patient for me, pretty girl?”

Nina shrugged as she took another sip. Then she delicately licked a drop that was on her lower lip, causing Sidney to visibly grunt and shudder. “Maybe,” Nina finally replied.

“Good.”

Sidney sat down in a chair and patted his lap. Nina sat on his lap, the hem of her dress riding up. “Did you have a good time?”

“I actually did for something that was pretty last minute. Don’t ask me if I remember everyone’s name yet.”

“That’s okay,” Sidney reassured Nina. “No one expects you to remember everyone, yet.”

Nina snorted before taking another sip of her wine. Idly, Sidney added, “Fuck, I love this dress.”

“Maybe if you move your hands higher underneath it, you’ll get a surprise,” Nina taunted. Licking her lips, she winked.

Unable to resist a challenge, Sidney moved his hand higher and higher. Then he whistled when he realized Nina’s surprise. “You went commando all night and didn’t tell me?”

“I’m lucky this dress was lined so well that no one could tell,” Nina admitted. “But it was worth it.”

“How,” Sidney asked as his hand touched Nina’s pussy. She was already wet.

Nina smirked. “Because I knew if you found out tonight, the look on your face would have been priceless.”

Sidney ignored that statement as he stroked Nina’s core with his fingers. Rolling her clit with his fingers, Sidney hissed at the idea that Nina was here, with him tonight. His pretty girl, perfect in his lap. "I love how wet you get for me, pretty girl."

"Only for you, daddy," Nina moaned as she clutched his shoulders. Sidney growled at her words, her pussy clenching harder on his fingers.

Suddenly, Sidney picked Nina up and placed her on the table. Nina smiled as she hiked up her dress and spread her legs. Sidney licked his lips. “We’re gonna see how many times you cum for me tonight, pretty girl.”

“Fuck, I can’t wait,” Nina moaned as his mouth met her core.

Sidney woke, at first disoriented because someone else was in his bed and curled up on top of him. Then he realized it was Nina and he relaxed. Her head was on top of his chest, one arm on him as she slept on her side. Carefully extracting himself, Sidney went to the bathroom. After relieving himself, he watched Nina continue to sleep, now curled into herself. Sidney took a quick picture, it was so cute. However, after taking the picture, he checked his messages. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he chanted.

Nina opened her eyes slowly, her body deliciously sore after last night. Stretching out her arms, she sleepily asked, “What’s wrong, Sid?”

“Seems like someone has something against you, pretty girl,” Sidney said, suppressing his fury.

Nina’s eyes snapped open, sleep now forgotten. Sitting up, she queried, “What happened?”

“There's a video of you with some guy at a market.”

Grimacing, Nina sighed. “I ran into Ron while getting groceries. He was being a jagoff asshole.”

“You don’t look bad at all, PR thinks you handled it perfectly.”

Nina got off the bed and walked over to Sidney. Wrapping her arms around him, she pleaded, “Fuck him and fuck whoever took video.”

Snuggling into Sidney’s chest, Nina nipped one of his nipples. “Plot your revenge later, Sid. It’s eight am and I know you have a maintenance day today. Come back to bed.”

“‘Come back to bed?’ You know this is my bed,” Sidney joked. His anger was going away each second that Nina was pressed against him, her lips giving him little kisses and bites on his upper body.

Nina looked up at Sidney, giving him soulful eyes. “Please, daddy?”

Trailing her hands around his neck, Nina murmured, “I’ve been so good. Please?”

“Fuck, how can I say no,” Sidney groaned as Nina giggled. Picking her up, he tossed her on the bed.

Scooting back, Nina spread her legs as Sidney settled in the middle of them. “I love the way you fuck me, Sidney.”

Sidney smirked, his brown eyes smoldering as he crouched over Nina. “Oh do you?”

“Yes, I do,” Nina hummed, her fingers tugging on his chain. “You should do it again.”

Sidney settled between Nina’s thighs, pulling her legs around his waist. His lips lowered to hers in a gentle kiss. Slow and drugging, enough to make both of them red hot for each other, full of promise. Pulling away, Sidney nipped Nina’s lower lip. Nina sucked her lip into her mouth, her brown eyes meeting Sidney’s. Cupping Nina’s chin, Sidney reminded her, “How do you ask, pretty girl?”

“Please fuck me, daddy,” Nina asked, her body arching towards his. “Make me yours.”

“Good girl.”

Nina tried hard not to feel self-conscious as she made her way to the ice-level with Aryanna, Catherine and her children, and Anna with Nikita. It had been a week since that awful article with video from her interaction with Ron. It had been set up to make Nina look like a gold digging whore and it hurt to have guys, guys she had only gone out with once or twice, say things that made her seem horrible. Nina hadn’t admitted that part to Sid when he was in a fury about it. Lauren had reminded Nina that men tend to be assholes about women that they couldn’t have and that Nina was way beyond their level even before her current relationship.

Even though Nina had distracted Sidney that morning, by the afternoon, that article was off the internet. A radio host had mentioned it and then within an hour, issued an apology for talking about it. However, it was forgotten pretty quickly as more people cared about the Steelers potentially staying undefeated with a game coming up against the Browns.

Nina smiled as they reached the ice. The team was doing warm-ups and Sidney was in the midst of his pregame rituals. She actually had more enjoyment from watching Aryanna react to watching the guys on the ice. Tanev gave the glass near them an ice shower while Geno and Kris had greeted Nina and Aryanna while saying hi to their families. Then, very unexpectedly, Sidney broke one of his traditions and came over. Giving the glass a small shower, Sidney waved at Aryanna before smirking at Nina. Nina smirked back before giving Sid a little wave.

As people took pictures of Sid waving to her, Nina smiled. She could live with this, maybe. ‘No, that was a lie’, Nina thought as they made their way to the family box. She was going to have to live with this now, it was too far gone to go back. And she didn’t want to.

164 notes · View notes

garbagevanfleet · 4 years ago

Text

Brightest Blue (series)

SURPRISE VALENTINE’S DAY UPDATE!

PART FIVE

Pairing: Josh x reader Warnings: flirting, alcohol, mentions of smoking Summary: Things are changing. New state. New school. New roommate. You just pray things are going to click into place. Notes: This chapter is so cute to me. Pajama party anyone? As always, thanks to the actual best editor alive today, @lantern-inthenight

MASTER POST

taglist: @valleyd0ll @satingrass-maidensfair @guitarfingers @thebohemianpenguin @peaceisouranthem @oblvions @hansonobsessed

@bigblack-catattack @myownparadise96 @lara-gvf @anditsmywholeheart @kill-fear-the-power-of-lies

It was undeniable that winter was on its way. The weekend brought predictions for temps in the lower 40’s and, even in the warmth of the apartment, you felt perpetually chilled.

Kate had messaged you late on Friday asking if you wanted to get coffee Saturday morning, and you had excitedly agreed to meet her at the local cafe called The Daily Grind (which, admittedly, you chose because of the cute name).

She had seen you bundled up like a burrito in two sweatshirts and a long-sleeved tee underneath and laughed, but you explained to her how you had never really been in temps this cold before.

Your fingers were wrapped as tight as they could go around your mocha as you watched her sip her black coffee, her maroon-painted lips leaving a mark on the white mug.

“When we’re done here, would you want to go with me to a thrift store? My mom sent some money for me to buy warmer clothes when she saw the weather for this area,” you said with an excited tone. “She’s afraid I’m going to get pneumonia.”

She hummed in an interested tone. “That sounds like fun. Which one do you wanna check out first?”

“You’ve been around here longer, so I’ll let you pick.”

“The one on Maple is the one where all the rich sorority girls go, so I bet you’d find some good stuff there,” she informed, tapping her nails against the ceramic.

You beamed a smile, relishing in the sunny feeling that only spending time with other girls gave you. “You wanna drive or me?”

+++

“Do you think if I buy a pair of jeans a size too big I could get away with wearing leggings under them?” you asked, flicking through the hangers. “I feel like the wind here cuts right through my denim.”

“Maybe two sizes bigger so you can wear sweatpants.” You knew she was teasing you by her playful tone, but that was actually kind of brilliant, you thought. “You should try this one.”

You had to get onto your tippy toes to see her over the long rack. She was holding up a soft-looking sweater, multicolored horizontal stripes running across the fabric. The color pattern reminded you of Twiggy from the ’60s.

“It’s cute,” you agreed, taking it as she handed it to you. By the time you were ready for a fitting room, you had a pile of things and the employee on duty looked not very excited to have to put them back when you were done, but luckily she wouldn’t have to. Pretty much everything fit perfectly.

You were shocked to see the total - where you were from, all of that would have been well over $60, even second hand, but you ended up forking over a measly $35, and you figured most of that total was from the nearly new jacket you had found.

As she was driving you back to the coffee shop, you exclaimed giddily, “I’m so excited to have warm clothes. Now Josh can finally have his sweatshirts back.”

She looked over at you surprisedly. “That’s Josh’s?”

“Yeah, he gave me three and I’ve been alternating between them.” You reached forward to turn her radio up a notch, Janet Jackson’s “All For You” perking your ears.

“Are you sure he wants them back?” she asked, giving you a coy smile that you didn’t understand.

You adopted a puzzled look. If she was alluding to something, it was lost on you. “Why wouldn’t he? They’re still perfectly fine - I was even careful not to get my perfume on them.”

Now stopped at a red light, she turned to give you a squinty look until she seemed to realize you were serious. “Nevermind,” she relented, smirking forward at the road.

When you got back home, Josh was gone. You shot him a message inquiring as to his whereabouts and started snipping the tags off of your new clothes with a pair of pruning shears. You were exponentially grateful for the fact that the washing machine in your building had been repaired - and with a shocking amount of haste too.

The smell of the laundry room down the hall was pleasant. It reminded you of the times when your mom would wash all the towels and blankets in the house, and that was a job that either required a laundromat, or an entire day switching loads.

At the end of your shopping day, you made out with three new sweaters, two pairs of thicker jeans, a new coat, a winter hat, and an actual pajama set, which would be infinitely warmer than the shorts and tank top you’d moved in with.

You cheerily popped your new clothes into the washer, along with a tide pod, some of your bras and underwear, and closed the lid.

Around 1 pm, Josh still wasn’t back and hadn’t replied, so you decided it was a perfect time to work on some self-care. The yoga mat you had packed had yet to see the light of day in Michigan, so you dug it out, unrolled it in your room, changed into some easy clothing, and pulled up a beginner’s tutorial on your phone. By the thirty-minute mark, you were sweating and tired, but the stretch in your muscles was oddly pleasant on top of the discomfort, so you pushed yourself to keep going until the video was done. The cute blonde running the tutorial suggested you take some time in your cool down to look inward, as she thought that was a big part of yoga. So, you laid there on the mat, staring up at your ceiling for a good, long while, just taking time to reflect and enjoying it.

Your room, and the whole apartment really, had become home so quickly. You hadn’t ever had the opportunity to test the theory before, but you had always imagined that leaving home would make you feel out of place.

But you didn’t.

Sure, you missed home in the way that any human that came from a loving and supporting family would, but you were expecting to ache for it. You had taken a long time in your backyard and in your favorite spot back home, just so you could have a final fix, but all that was to you now was a fond memory.

After a few moments of being alone with your thoughts, you were going to get up and take a shower, but you had decided to postpone it. While you were staring up at the ceiling, you realized that there was a lot of unused space that the sun hit toward the top of the room. Wasted sun was a felony in your book. You spent about an hour pulling down your curtain rod, removing the fabric, and replacing it with hanging pots of all sizes and lengths.

Your string of hearts, your pearls, your golden pothos - the thought of them being the first thing you saw when you opened your eyes in the morning was one that made you feel sentimental. You’d just have to be careful with watering.

Once you were satisfied with the placements, you made your way to the bathroom. As you waited for the shower to heat up to a tolerable temperature, you took some time to pluck any stray hairs around your eyebrows and gently brush the knots out of your hair. Self-care had always felt like a long term investment to you - one well worth it.

The warm spray of the shower felt amazing on your tired muscles, so you took your sweet time getting clean and enjoying it, then blow-drying your hair on low heat when you were finished. After, you excitedly got out your new pajama set, clipped the tags, and put it on.

Shortly thereafter, you heard a key slip into the lock on the front door. You were cuddled up on the couch, enjoying the feel of the soft fabric on your freshly scrubbed skin as you watched through the complete second season of the Simpsons, popcorn in your lap.

When he stepped into the house, he raised his eyebrows at you, surveying the area.

“What?” you asked, giving him a confused look.

“Just looking for the books and the homework.” You rolled your eyes at him before he continued on with, “I just always assumed that when I wasn’t around, you were doing boring, adult things.”

You gave him a playful shrug as you gestured to the noticeably book free space around you.

He squinted at you suddenly. “Are you in your pajamas? You know it’s like 3:30 in the afternoon, right?”

“They’re new!” you quipped. “And I was excited to wear them. You don’t have to be jealous, you could go get yours on and join me.”

The offer seemed to be tempting him. “I have a better idea. How about you go change, and we’re going to go to a party tonight.”

You scowled at him, crossing your arms over your chest. “Are you crazy? I’m already in my pajamas. I’ve already taken my bra off! Once it’s off, it doesn’t go back on.”

He laughed, loud and unabashed, showing you all of his teeth. The sound made your cheeks flush.

“C’mon, I bet Kate will be there,” he reasoned. “And I obviously will be. And I’m positive Jake will be too. This might be your chance to get them to hook up.”

You bit your bottom lip in consideration. “The timing would be kinda perfect; she could have the whole day tomorrow to process it and then tell me about it on Monday.”

He was smirking at you when you looked back up at him, making you tuck your hair behind your ear anxiously. “If I come, do you promise not to leave me alone?”

He nodded at you confidently. “I will not leave you.”

The very first thing you did was message Kate. It was vital that she was there, just in case Josh got too drunk to remember his promise. You didn’t have a hard time socializing, per-say. You were just nervous about your first real social event here.

Josh was right though - it wouldn’t kill you to make some more friends.

When you were in the bathroom brushing your teeth, Kate messaged back saying that she would never miss getting to see you drunk, and you didn’t have the heart to tell her you had to drive, so you opted to leave that part out. You worked on picking out a good, sensible outfit and took your time to put on makeup again. Admittedly, it felt kind of nice - you used to wear a full beat all the time, but somewhere along the line it started to feel tedious, which is something you never wanted any of your favorite things to feel, so you put the whole idea of it on the shelf for a while.

When you finally emerged from your room around 8, Josh was sitting on the kitchen counter, phone in his hands as he furiously typed out a message. You listened to the pleasant sound of his fingers tapping on the glass screen for a moment before speaking.

“Who are you messaging?” you asked, but it didn’t grab his full attention right away.

“Just one of the other theater guys,” he said through a near sneer. The only time you ever saw him looking distressed was when it came to his production. “Trying to tell me what I can and can’t do with my own production-”

When he looked up at you the rest of his thoughts seemed to escape him, all the emotion in his face and posture crumbling away.

You folded your hands together, giving him a concerned look. “Are you okay?”

He tucked his phone into the pocket of his pants, abandoning whatever he had been so intent on doing just seconds ago.

“Yeah, I just haven’t ever seen you dressed up before.”

The extra attention made you slump back against the hallway wall, giving him a nervous grimace. Through pursed lips, you asked, “Is it too much?”

His eyes popped open, along with his mouth. It took him a moment to speak actual words - like he wanted to say a lot all at once. “What? No! I’m just stupid,” he assured, running his fingers through his curls. “It took my brain a moment to process.”

You gave him a forgiving smile, opening the fridge and grabbing out a carton of juice. He watched as you took a swig, letting you swallow before asking, “Do you want me to drive?”

Your eyebrows raised in surprise, finger swiping away a stray droplet. “Can you?”

“Drive?” he laughed. “Yes. I can drive.”

“Legally?” you pressed, handing over the carton to him when you caught him eyeing it. He took a drink right from the spout as well, giving you a wink that made you lovingly roll your eyes.

+++

You two seemed to unintentionally match. He was in a pair of khaki pants, a black long-sleeved shirt, and a denim jacket on top. You were positive he was going to freeze solid one of these days because he always seemed to be way underdressed for the weather.

As you went to get out of the car, he stopped you with a touch to your knee. “You should take off your jacket and hat and leave them in here; I wouldn’t ever trust leaving them unattended at a party.” He paused before speaking again. “Not that anyone would necessarily steal them, just that people get drunk and think stuff is theirs.”

“Like you did with the wallet?” you teased, making him rub at the back of his neck.

“Yes,” he said pointedly through a grin. “Like that.”

He held the sleeve of your jacket as you shrugged out of it, abandoning it into the back seat. You took just a second to mourn the fact that it would be cold when you went to put it back on.

In the rearview mirror, you fixed your hair, having been mussed by the removal of your hat, and then stepped out. He ushered you along first, reaching past you and pushing the door open for you when you had reached it. The music hit you like a wall, loud and energetic - followed quickly by the smell of alcohol. A cloud of smoke hung subtly near the ceiling, giving the room an air of mystery. You realized you hadn’t made a move to enter the house when you felt his hand on the middle of your back.

“Everything okay?” he asked, just above the volume of the music. You nodded, feeling silly for holding him up, and stepped inside.

People were moving to the music like blood reacting to a heartbeat, swaying around to the rhythms all in a pleasant unison. The scene was oddly hypnotic as the colors danced around.

The second that people could see Josh behind you, they started calling his name. Your stomach lurched for a second, scared that he was either going to leave you or drag you to a group that you didn’t know, but he waved them off instead.

“I’ll catch you guys in a minute,” he shouted through a grin so charming they couldn’t seem to muster up a shred of annoyance toward him. Then, he spoke the next part right against your ear. “You want a drink?”

“Just one,” you agreed with a nod, shivering ever so slightly as his breath hit your cheek.

In the kitchen, huddled around an island covered by bottles, was a group of people, all very visibly drunk. One of those people was Kate, dressed in a crisp looking pair of jeans, a white crop top, and a red checkered flannel shirt, left open to expose her midriff.

When she caught sight of you, she gave you a big, toothy smile. The sharp fringe of her bob moved just enough to sometimes expose a pair of gold disk earrings.

“Need a drink?” she asked as she broke away from the rest of the crowd. “I’ll make it for you.”

You put your hands up, laughing at her enthusiasm. “I’m going to let Josh make it for me,” you informed, knowing full well that she would make it strong enough to get you drunk and keep you in that state for the whole evening.

The one that Josh ended up making for you was, undeniably, a rum and Coke. Not your most favorite thing ever, but then again, this one was mostly just Coke. You made a mental note to thank him for being so considerate.

The three of you ended up in the living room, right in the throws of all the action. You’d been to a few parties back home, but this felt kind of different. Back home, it was always hot, so the parties usually spilled out into the yard in all directions. Come to think of it, you’d never been to a party where the guests weren’t making prominent use of the pool. But here everyone was packed in tightly, making a large house feel tiny.

Kate found you all a nice little corner with a love seat and some kind of weird puff you think you were meant to put your feet on. Settling in there meant you’d have to share the space with a couple of other people, but it felt worth it to not be standing in the middle of the room. Being out in the open made you feel nervous - like you were being circled by sharks.

The songs changed, but the beat seemed to stay pretty much the same, making it easy for the time to slip by without your acknowledgment. By the time you checked your watch, it was nearly eleven.

True to his word, Josh didn’t leave your side the whole night. People kept popping in and out to get a word with him. You couldn’t hear them well because he was sat across from you, but he was laughing quite a bit. Some of it looked kind of forced, but most of it seemed genuine - like he was actually having a nice time.

It wasn’t until you were close to getting ready to leave that you saw Jake making his way down the stairs, one hand on the wooden railing to steady himself and the other wrapped around a red cup. You flashed him a smile when his eyes landed on you, and he gave you one back, giving you a feather-light punch to your shoulder when he reached you.

“Move over,” he demanded in Josh’s direction, sitting nearly on top of him on the couch, with only light complaints from his twin.

“You smell like sex,” Josh said through a fake grimace, pressing his elbow into Jake’s ribs.

“Can’t imagine why,” Jake responded with a smirk, lifting the cup to his lips as you giggled at him.

The realization struck you as his eyes landed on Kate next. “Oh, Jake, this is my friend Kate. Kate, Jake Kiszka.”

She reached out and took his hand to shake and at the same moment, Josh laid his hand on your leg and through a grin, asked, “Should we take off?”

You laughed, giving him a nod.

“Kathrine, Jacob,” Josh started, clapping his hands together in front of him. “We are leaving. See you guys soon?”

“We should actually get tacos,” Kate stated seriously to the group as a whole, and then just to Josh said, “And my name is Kathleen.”

#brightest blue fic #josh kiszka fic #josh gvf #Greta Van Fleet #greta van fleet fic #greta van fleet fan fiction #josh gvf fic

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whatifxwereyou · 4 years ago

Text

The Oncoming Storm Part 11: Gamble and Gossip

Liu Kang x Reader and Kung Lao x Reader (gonna do both, two paths!)

Some scene setting, and fun teasing. Who doesn't like to be teased about the two hot guys that are begging for their attention? And I mean, I sure do love writing these boys! Thanks for reading. I appreciate you guys so much. It's made this experience SO much fun. Will update again tomorrow... and also maybe Monday if all goes well ;D

Part 10 Part 12 Chapter Index

Liu Kang was seated amongst a handful of other monks, undoubtedly leading them in meditation. It was afternoon and Kung Lao had some time to think over what you had said the night before. He’d since made a few decisions on the matter. Before doing anything, he had to run it by his ‘brother’. Liu Kang had always been more level-headed than he was- more careful, more studious. Kung Lao knew that Liu Kang was going to hate his idea but it had to be said. He didn’t see another way out.

Leaning against the wall near the door, he tilted his hat and waited for the monks to finish their meditation. He’d never been big on meditating either. He’d done it, obviously, but his thoughts had always run amok throughout. Liu Kang spoke with the other monks and then waited for them to leave the room before stopping in front of Kung Lao, arms folded over his chest expectantly.

“All done?”

“You could have joined in. Less distracting.”

“I’ll pass.”

“How’s she doing?”

“Later.”

“What?”

“We’ll talk about that later. It’s not why I’m here.”

“Then…?” Liu Kang sighed expectantly, bowing his head as one of the monks peeked inside to thank him for the meditation. “What?”

“I want a fair chance.”

“What does that mean, Lao?” The sigh Liu Kang gave him was a familiar one and it made Kung Lao laugh under his breath.

“It means that we should order takeout. What do you think it means, Liu? For Y/N, obviously. You knew exactly what I meant. Why waste time and make me explain it?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

He knew that Liu Kang was going to hate this. Even talking about you had made him uncomfortable.

“Don’t be sorry.”

“You know that I wasn’t actually apologizing, Lao. Get to your point.”

“We’re going to make it interesting.”

“I thought we’d already talked about this.”

“Did you think we were actually done talking?”

“I had hoped.” Liu frowned. “She can do whatever she wants, Kung Lao. You and I don’t have any say in what she does. She’s an adult. I’m not going to fight with you over her. That’s ridiculous. We’re not schoolboys.”

“Who said anything about fighting?” Kung Lao chuckled and Liu couldn’t have looked less approving.

“This is feeling very childish.”

“Oh, come on. You like her. Right?” Liu Kang said nothing in response but then when Kung Lao gave him a knowing look, Liu nodded.

“Well, so do I.” Kung Lao shrugged. It was simple. They had a problem so he had come up with a creative solution. “To be fair? I saw her first…”

“…I’m coming back to that we’re-not-schoolboys thing and find I’m having to remind you that we’re not children.”

“Fine, fine. I’m just saying that there’s no reason we shouldn’t make this interesting. We’re both vying for her attention and whoever wins? Wins.”

“Why do I feel like I’m about to call you an asshole?”

“We bet on it.”

“I was right. You’re an asshole.” Liu Kang silenced him with a look and Kung Lao smiled. “I’m not betting on someone else’s choices, Kung Lao.”

“Hear me out, Liu!” Kung Lao followed his brother out of the room and down the hall. Liu Kang stopped and turned to face him expectantly. “It could be fun?”

“Ugh. Isn’t she going through enough right now without us and… you being the way you are?”

“I’m just saying, Liu. This is happening one way or another so why not have a harmless little game on the side?” Kung Lao joined him in his walk, amused by both his brother’s disgust and curiosity.

“And what would the stakes be in this hypothetical bet?”

“That’s more like it.” Kung Lao clapped his hands together and stretched them in front of him. “Chores? Errands? Something harmless. For like a month.”

“And the other backs off. Bows out. No hard feelings.” Liu Kang suggested and stopped his walk, tapping his thumb against his prayer beads in thought.

“Finally, you’re part of the fun.” Kung Lao laughed. “Chores too, though.”

“So, what exactly would the terms be? Also, I’m throwing it out there that I do not feel terribly good about this. It feels manipulative.”

“It’s not. You like her. I like her. Neither one of us is leading her on. No one’s lying.”

“And yet now there are stakes. We’re betting over the decisions of another human. It feels… morally gray at the least.”

“What? Are you worried that I’m going to steal your girl? Who was my girl to begin with, just as a reminder.”

“No.” Liu Kang was instantly defensive. “And she doesn’t belong to anyone. I need you to stop phrasing it that way.”

“You’re worried that she’s going to kiss me first and not know what to do.” Kung Lao teased. “Worried that you might lose all that extra ground you covered while I was gone.” Kung Lao enjoyed making Liu Kang uncomfortable and was happy to see him considering his game. He wanted a fair shot and it seemed the only way without arguing with his brother. Liu Kang averted his gaze and looked far past Kung Lao who followed his gaze and then scoffed in surprise. He’d already kissed you. Well, that certainly changed things. “Interesting. So, I’m working at a bigger disadvantage than I thought.”

“Disadvantage?” Liu rolled his eyes. “You grew up together. She holds you in deep reverence. She asks about you all the time. That’s not a disadvantage.”

“Don’t pretend that being made of fire isn’t working in your favor. Neither of our standings are fair so… that makes it kind of fair, right?”

Liu Kang rolled his eyes again. “What are the terms, Kung Lao?”

“Well, first we agree not to be angry with each other no matter what comes of it.”

“Annoyed is acceptable, right? Because I’m already annoyed.”

“Of course.” Kung Lao swatted him on the back. “Well, then the only terms are her choosing one of us. Like you said. It’s not really up to us.”

“So, I’m supposed to be fine wondering what the two of you are up to. Is that the real reason you’re doing this?”

“I said that being annoyed was fine, remember? Besides, it’ll make you work harder.” Kung Lao teased, though he didn’t love the mental image of Liu kissing you either. That ship had sailed apparently and he had ground to regain. “So when she chooses, then one of us wins.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. No strings attached. I’m not going to even brag.”

“I don’t believe that for a single second.”

“No, really. I’m just trying to cut the air between us over it. This way we can be honest. I know that she’s attached to you and while she’s attached to me, that’s in a different sense. Also, I want you to do my chores and errands for a month.”

“Well, aren’t you confident?”

“I’m the descendant of the Great Kung Lao. What makes you think that I won’t?”

“Fine. We can have this little bet. You are, however, an asshole to think of this. When she inevitably gets angry about it? I’m deferring to you.”

“Defer away. I’m extremely charming.” Kung Lao clasped his shoulder and then gestured down the hall. “Spar? It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, sure. Why not?”

***

You slept into the next afternoon, something that you had sorely needed. When you woke up, you were alone and grateful for it. You adored Liu Kang and Kung Lao but the air had become thick with them around. It felt nice not to have to have your guard up for a few minutes. For now, you could lay in bed, curled up in your blanket like a burrito, and procrastinate on getting on with your day.

Your side was sore and you were exhausted despite the extra sleep. That was to be expected considering the blood loss and trauma of the night before. After a few minutes spent rolling around in bed, you got up, got cleaned up, and dressed. Then you made your way down to the infirmary, stopping only once to help a monk who had their hands full. You figured it was better to go make sure that your side was doing okay rather than have to break the promise you’d made to Chen the night before.

You walked into the infirmary and speak of the devil, there was Chen. You smiled and waved in greeting to you. You returned the wave shyly and stepped further inside. Chen offered you a hug, then urged you to take a seat on the bench you’d sat upon more times than you could count now. Chen took the seat next to you.

“I was hoping that you’d check in with us today before getting yourself into more trouble.” Chen looked to you disapprovingly and you pouted. “You know, it was pretty peaceful before you arrived.”

“I find that difficult to believe.”

“Okay, so it’s not much less chaotic, but still. It’s been much bloodier the last few weeks with you around. Come on, shirt up, let me see.” Chen was a few years older than you, you suspected. You hadn’t asked but the way Chen spoke led you to believe that there was a small age gap. You had worn the tank top from the night before. It was so much easier to maneuver around than the gi or the hanfu. You put it in the back of your mind to ask Lao or Liu if you could leave the temple at some point to buy some other clothing. You liked the hanfu and the gi but they were antiquated and inconvenient at times.

You tugged up your shirt and Chen pulled the gauze away from the wound. The skin around it was tender but you didn’t flinch. Chen wasn’t gentle with you anymore either. In fact, she’d told you several times that the best way for you to heal would be for you to be treated normally. You’d even heard Chen scold Liu Kang once for pampering you and had a good laugh about it.

Chen tended to the wound. You didn’t look at it. It was very sore even though it had been cauterized. It made your whole torso ache, even sitting upright was a chore. Still, at least you weren’t bleeding out anymore. You could recover from the blood loss at least. Chen rattled on about her day while she worked, talking about the walk she’d taken that morning and a delivery of medicine that had come with one of the other monks returning from a long journey.

You struggled to focus. It wasn’t that Chen was boring, just that you were exhausted and the pulling and tugging of the wound didn’t help.

“So, yesterday was interesting.” Chen shoved your shoulder when it was clear you were no longer paying attention to her stories. You pouted again.

“That’s one word for it. Miserable? That’s a pretty good word for it too.”

“Oh, I suppose that was interesting too but I meant with Kung Lao.”

You rolled your eyes so hard that Chen laughed and smacked the back of your head. “Ow! He felt guilty, okay? Your brain is constantly in the gutter.”

“I thought you were sweet on Liu Kang.”

“Could you lower your voice if you’re going to talk like that? Jeez.” You hushed her and Chen laughed.

“We all thought you were sweet on Liu Kang.” Chen lowered her voice.

“I didn’t come here to talk about this. I came here to keep my no-bleeding-in-the-temple promise. So please, please let all of that go and do the thing where you tell me to be careful but go about my day.”

“Okay, okay.” Chen continued to clean the wound and was quiet only for a second. “…but you know? That was interesting. Kung Lao doesn’t come down here often. Avoids us like the plague. Yet, he stayed here nearly all night long for you.”

“You can’t agree to let it go and then keep yammering on about it. That’s lying. You’re a lying monk. That’s probably bad. Morally gray at the very least.”

“You’re being awfully evasive.”

“Not evasive I just don’t really want to talk about it.” You laughed. You had dwelled about these things enough on your own. It was nice, at least, to know that the tension wasn’t in your head. The others had noticed it too, so you weren’t going crazy. Was that good or bad? You had no idea.

“Like hell!”

“Again? Probably bad for a monk.” You laughed nervously as others stopped to look at you with Chen’s outburst. Chen waved the other monks off and they returned to their tasks.

“This is the juiciest gossip we’ve had in so long, Y/N.”

“I thought that you were supposed to be humble and all that.”

“We’re not perfect. That’s part of the deal.”

“I’m just saying that it feels like someone somewhere is probably judging you for this.”

“We’re still allowed to experience fun and excitement, Y/N. And this is very fun. And exciting.”

“Making me uncomfortable? That’s what’s fun and exciting?”

“Yes, Y/N. So, Kung Lao. What’s going on with that?”

“It’s complicated.”

“What about it is so complicated?”

“I knew him when we were kids. Old friends, I guess? Like I said, it’s complicated.” It was so much more complicated than you let on.

“Oh, come on.” Chen laughed and you couldn’t help but laugh with her. It really was ridiculous. The whole situation was absurd. You were glad for Chen then, who brought you back down to earth. You got so into your head about everything the past few days that hearing someone else’s voice on the matter was a reprieve, even if it was terribly embarrassing. “Please tell me that you two went and had some fun.”

“Chen!” Your face turned red.

“You’ve had nothing but pain since you got here, well except for that time I caught you and Liu Kang snuggling. Sue me for hoping you got to have a bit of the opposite.” Chen considered it and then shrugged. “Well, or a lot of the opposite. With at least one of them.”

“You can’t possibly be a monk. Someone has lied to me.”

“Your face is so red. I’ve never seen it that red.”

“You’re killing me.”

“It’s delightful.”

“My face can’t handle much more of this, I swear. Are we done here? Can I go throw my head in cold water and think pure thoughts?” You dared to peek at the wound and winced at the sight of it. It was ugly but still better than it looked the night before. Chen fanned the wound with the gauze in her hand.

“You should come meet us later so that we can catch up.”

“You mean gossip. You want me to meet you to gossip.”

“Yes, that is exactly what I mean.” Chen covered the wound with the gauze and you pulled your shirt back down over it.

“We’ll see. The day’s already half over and I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing today. If I have free time, I’ll consider coming to bother you.” You weren’t sure you’d get the chance but if it ended the torturous teasing for the time being then you would at least consider it. Besides, even with the teasing, Chen was good company.

“I could find us some wine.”

“You are the worst monk,” you whispered.

“I expect a juicy story in return.”

“I don’t have any juicy stories.” You lied. You lied right through your teeth.

“Before you run off, please just give me a few details of…”

“Y/N?” Kung Lao’s voice interrupted and Chen sat upright and pretended to be working on cleaning up the mess she’d made taking care of your wound. Your face was still red and you shot daggers at Chen with your eyes but Chen was smiling brightly and avoiding your eyes. Chen stood up and allowed Kung Lao to take the spot where she’d been seated. You took calming breaths to try and will the redness away from your face.

“What are you doing here?” You cleared your throat and Kung Lao placed his hand to your cheek. His hand was cold in comparison but took up the entire side of your face.

“Are you having a reaction? Your face is on fire.”

“Just overheated. It’s warm out today.” You urged his hand away from your cheek but his fingertips still lingered. This was the worst timing. It was as though he’d planned with Chen to embarrass you. He didn’t seem to think you were embarrassed though, instead, he was concerned.

“How are you feeling? Wound still closed up?” Kung Lao reached to tug up your shirt and you gasped in surprise and swatted his hand away. He looked wounded as he pulled his hand back then grinned playfully.

“Don’t be so grabby. It’s fine. I just wanted to check in on it before going about my day.”

“Probably hurts something fierce still.”

“Yeah, it’s weighing on me.” You breathed a sigh of relief as you managed to relieve the burning in your face.

“Can I see it?”

“Why?”

“I’m curious.”

“No.” You stuck your tongue out at him. “Not a good enough reason.”

“Wow, okay.” He patted your leg with a laugh and rested his hand there. You did your best not to stare at it and also tried to ignore Chen spying on you. “If you’re done here then why don’t we get up and practice a bit?”

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea, Kung Lao.” You stared at his hand on your leg.

“You won’t get any better if you don’t keep it up. Nothing too crazy. Won’t even use my hat.” He tapped the brim and then brushed his fingers along the side of it.

“I’m nervous.” You hated that you’d admitted it and regretted saying it immediately. Kung Lao urged his hand from your leg, tilted his posture toward you, and brushed his fingertips over your jaw and beneath your chin. You fought off another shiver and he scooted closer to you, knees just barely pressed against yours.

“I promise to protect you. Don’t worry so much.”

“I uh…” Your voice, once again, felt small, something that was becoming much more common this close to him. He smirked as if realizing you were uncomfortable. “I’m more nervous for you than me. I attacked Liu without knowing.”

“I can handle myself, Y/N.”

“Oh?”

“I’m happy to prove it to you,” he whispered in your ear. You felt your heart stop dead in its tracks. His breath was hot on your ear then suddenly he stood up and left you seated alone. “Come on. Let’s go.” He walked out of the infirmary and you watched him go, stupefied. Chen grabbed your arm and urged you to your feet and mouthed for you to go.

“This is such a mess. A complete and total mess.” You followed after Kung Lao and Chen made a joking kissy face as you walked out of the infirmary.

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