#the things he texted me last night?? yeah i need 2-3 business days to recover from that

[niallandtommo]

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[exovapor]

I'm OBSESSED with your writing. Can you try.. Maybe, Donnie being a filthy boy being an 'stalker-ish' of his long time crush? Be checks their FB for new posts, saves every picture of them he finds? He doesn't mean to be a creep, feels guilty, but just doesn't know how to ask for more than friendship?

Good afternoon Anon. Here is my short story in relation to your ask.

I wasn't sure where you wanted me to take this, so I had to do a bit of guessing on my part. I hope this something like you were wanting.

I will admit that this ask was a bit of a struggle for me, not knowing a clear direction to take it outcome made me a little unsure of my writing and guessing abilities LOL. However, I will admit to crying along with the characters in this story more than once.

Thanks again for the ask and the initial compliment. I hope to continue to earn your favor in future posts.

· Stalker [noun]: 1a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention. 2a person who hunts game stealthily.

· Donnie stared at the definition on his one of his monitor screens while his various other screens were busy flashing receipts of files downloaded, text trail streams from your phone, notices of any social media post/update/like/heart/emoji, a GPS line grid of your routes today (overlayed over the routes you’d taken previously), and data search hits of anything and everything that pertained to you.

· At this point, the boy had literally every picture you had ever posted, anywhere, of yourself. In fact, he had all the pictures that other people posted of you in them. He had even gone through the effort of designing a face recognition program that picks you out of the background of total strangers’ pictures and, yeah, he had those in a file too.

· He has special file folders that compile things that you like, things you don’t like, things that make you happy, things that make you sad. He is your own personal Pinterest and you didn’t even know it… and maybe that is the part that keeps bothering him so much.

· He sits staring at that word and definition and chewing his bottom lip. True, he knows the word and the meaning, but he needed to LOOK at it, analyze it, mull it over in his guilt ridden brain.

· He just KNEW the word Stalker couldn’t apply to him.

· After all, he isn’t harassing or persecuting you, you don’t know! So, it isn’t necessarily ‘unwanted attention’. It is just…unknown attention.

· Stealthily, hmmmm, did that part apply to him? Well, He isn’t EXACTLY being stealthy.

· If you knew about technology like him, then you would probably see his programs running on your devices and be alerted to his activities. AND, if you shared his love and view of technology, then you would probably be more understanding of his activities and not consider them stealthy…just data mining. In fact, you might applaud him.

· ‘Ok, that was taking it a bit too far’, Donnie thinks to himself and he feels a band tighten and squeeze around his infatuated heart.

· He is almost certain that you would be shocked to learn of his extra curricular activities and how they revolve around every aspect of you.

· Regardless of how he tried to spin the truth and wiggle out of the definition of stalker, Donnie still felt guilty for invading your privacy. However, he honestly couldn’t help himself…at least not anymore.

· He has fought the urge, the nagging thoughts and the burning need, to know more about you for what seemed like an eternity.

· Listen to him, he is starting to sound dramatic like Mikey! What is his turning into? He is losing his rational edge!

· To be accurate, it hasn’t been an eternity. In fact, he has known you 1 year, 36 days, 14 hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds to be exact. However, you started occupying space in his mind 2 minutes into meeting you and your claim over his mind has grown exponentially over time.

· You were quiet and reserved during that first meeting, so there wasn’t much to go on. It started as a simple visual interest with a thought of ‘Oh. She’s pretty’.

· However, then you started talking and that changed everything.

· You opened up more and more each time you hung out with their little group, revealing layers and layers of interests and personality. You were fascinating…and that’s when his thoughts about you really started to snowball and spiral out of control.

· You went from being a simple pretty face to being a walking embodiment of everything he seriously ever dreamed of having in a mate.

· Early on, there were three sticking points that really made Donnie’s feelings problematic. 1. He was a nearly seven foot tall walking talking turtle and you weren’t. 2. You had a boyfriend that you were deeply in love with and adored. 3. Donnie was too insecure about #1 and how you felt about inter-species dating to let you know that you had started to OWN his heart.

· Now, thanks to his surveillance, there were only two sticking points….#1 and #3.

· He still remembers the feelings of that day, 44 days ago, when the blip of information popped up on this screen alerting him to the fact that your boyfriend was starting to stray.

· Donnie had severely conflicting feelings bombard him at once and it was overwhelming.

· The initial knee jerk reaction was elation, one of the problems blocking him from you may soon be null.

· However, the feeling of elation only lasted for a second or two before the intense anger and sadness set in. Donnie was honestly shocked at the depth of his anger, he didn’t even know he had that level of malice in him. Had he been in physical proximity to your boyfriend at that moment in time, Donnie isn’t sure that he wouldn’t have hurt your guy…or worse.

· How COULD this guy do this? WHY would he? He HAD YOU! What the heck was this guy thinking? Not only did he have you, but you thought the world of him. When you spoke about him you would smile so genuinely, your eyes would shine and gaze off into a bright imagined future. Donnie was always so jealous to watch it happen, he wondered what it would be like to be THAT GUY. And here the idiot was throwing it all away and meeting up with another girl!

· WHAT THE…(yes, this called for a curse) HELL…IS WRONG WITH HUMAN MEN?

· As the anger set root in his heart, the sadness engulfed Donnie like an all-consuming wave. He realized he was going to have to share this information with you, somehow, and that he was going to have to watch as it destroyed you.

· At first, Donnie had a plan to try and save you both from that fate. True, it would hurt him more to save your relationship, but he would rather be the one facing the pain and not you.

· He TRIED to circumvent the situation. He sent anonymous messages to your boyfriend stating that he knew about the infidelity and that he would tell you if needed. However, it didn’t seem like your boyfriend cared because he sent messages back stating Donnie could, basically, go fuck himself.

· Life had cruel sense of irony, thought Donnie, that is exactly what I do since this moron has the woman that I love.

· So, after trying for nearly two weeks to stop what was happening behind your back, Donnie had no choice but to let you in on the secret.

· Donnie couldn’t come right out and tell you that he caught your boyfriend cheating by hijacking your data streams and the data streams of those around you. So, Donnie intercepted some texts between your boyfriend and his mistress and he then sent you a text, under the guise of your boyfriend, telling you to meet him at a specified restaurant for a date.

· It had been a gut wrenching night for Donnie. He remembered watching it all play out on camera feeds from around the restaurant and street outside. He watched you dressed up in your pretty dress get out of your cab in front of the restaurant. You had such a lovely smile on your face, you must have thought you were in for a romantic evening.

· He watched as you walked inside and how the hostess got flustered and confused by a 2nd girl showing up for your boyfriend’s seated-for-two table.

· Donnie stopped breathing as your eyes found the new couple holding hands and giving each other sweet kisses across the table. Hands and lips that were supposed to be yours were touching some stranger.

· Donnie watched your smile and eyes die…the light of your inner sun go out…

· …and it killed him.

· He’s not sure who was crying the hardest, you standing there in that restaurant witnessing the scene or him back at the lair watching your world crush around you on his monitor.

· It had taken a while for you both to recover from that night.

· His brothers noticed his melancholy mood for a couple of weeks but Donnie wouldn’t tell them what was bothering him. And you stayed in your bed, refusing to face the world, for nearly as long.

· Eventually, the group began to notice your silence and absence, so April stopped by your apartment to check on you. She was the one to pull you out of bed, get you to shower and eat. She visited everyday and made sure you had someone to vent to and a shoulder to cry on.

· Donnie was glad that April could be there for you when he couldn’t. He didn’t think it was appropriate for him, a male, to be your confidant at that time. Especially since he felt so much guilt over having to be the one to expose you to that pain.

· No, he didn’t CAUSE the pain, but he did have to make you face it and he didn’t like not being able to protect you from it. You were such a rare, precious creature and watching you in pain felt like he was suffocating slowly.

· There were some points during those first few weeks that he questioned if he did the right thing, but logic told him it would have eventually come to pass with or without his involvement. It was better to rip the bandage of quickly and let you start to heal than it was to let you linger and drag out the inevitable.

· Donnie did secretly check on you every single night during patrol. And, of course, his surveillance feeds were always running. He watched from a distance as his beautiful phoenix burn down to ashes and, eventually, started to rise again.

· Now, it’s been over 3 months and you’ve begun to be more like your old self. Donnie can tell there is a silent sadness there, but you are able to laugh and smile with the group during your get togethers. And each time you two are left alone, his mind nags at him about those last two sticking points.

· Would you be at all interested in him? And HOW does he go about telling you that you have become the center of his world?

· Still staring at the monitor and the Stalker definition, Donnie sighs and rubs the bridge of his snout to release of the pressure now pushing against the inside of his head. The memories of what has happened, the emotions of what was and what is, it was all starting to be too much.

· “Bro, what’s all this?”, Mikey says standing behind Donnie’s chair, talking around a mouth full of pizza.

· “NOTHING!”, says Donnie, voice breaking from the stress of being caught. A startled Donnie quickly taps some keys on his keyboard and the screens revert back to the standard lair camera feeds.

· Mikey may look or even come off as naïve at times, but he’s no fool, he can sense that his older brother is trying to hide something. “Dude, seriously, what was that? I’ve been standing back here reading the screens. I saw Y/N’s name and that looked like her phone number on that other file…, you know the file that looks like texts messages. And why is there a plotted map of the area around her apartment, her work, and to the lair? What’s up?”, Mikey said giving a disapproving look at being thought a pushover.

· “Just standard surveillance, Mikey, nothing to worry about.”, Donnie says trying to placate Mikey’s curiosity. Donnie hates lying, especially to Mikey, but he’s feeling so guilty about being such a…(inward sigh)…stalking creep that admitting the truth is hard to do.

· Mikey stands there staring at Donnie and, as he does, Donnie begins to fidget with his computer chair armrests.

· Mikey stuffs the remnants of the pizza slice into his mouth and does his best Leo impersonation by crosses his arms and staring down at Donnie as sternly as his jolly face can achieve, “Dude, I’m not going to ask you again. You’ve been weird for months. We’ve let it go for the most part but now you are hiding things from me…from ME, dude! You and I, we’re like peanut butter and jelly, we’re ice cream and chocolate fudge, we young dudes have got to stick together. Trust me, bro, I’ve got you!”.

· Donnie stared at the floor, too ashamed to meet Mikey’s eyes any longer. He gave a heavy sigh and reluctantly started to speak, “Sorry Mike, I…I honestly don’t know what’s come over me lately. I’m doing things I never thought I would do, I’m feeling so guilty about it, but I don’t know if I can stop doing it either. I feel…lost.”.

· Mike relaxed his leader stance and leaned against one of Donnie’s lab tables, “Bro, I can tell you’ve been carrying some heavy stuff lately. You need to let it out.”

· Donnie felt the heat rise up through his body like he was suddenly being consumed by a fire and he ripped his glasses off his face and drew them down on the desk in frustration, “Mikey, I’m in love with Y/N. I have been for a while. I have been…”, Donnie hangs his head in shame, “…tracking all her digital foot prints and watching her. In fact, I’m the reason she found out that asshole boyfriend of her's cheated.”

· Mikey’s mouth drops open at Donnie’s demeanor and use of the word ‘asshole’, “Whoa, dude, why didn’t you say something earlier?”.

· Donnie can feel a stinging at the corners of his eyes, this was so embarrassing, so frustrating, so…..so many things at a once. He didn’t have a response for Mikey, all he could do was shake his head.

· Still with his head hung down and staring at the floor, Donnie starts to hear Mikey chuckle. Donnie looks up to see Mikey’s eyes on him and for some reason they are full of merriment at his painful dilemma. Donnie stares at his, normally, very considerate brother in astonishment, this isn’t like Mikey at all!

· “Mikey, I’m more than serious here, now is not the time to make fun of me. What is so funny?”, Donnie asks exasperatedly.

· Mikey shakes his bald head and claps his brother on the shoulder with his green hand, “Bro, she thinks you’re cute.”.

· “W-What?!”, Donnie stammers out.

· Mikey, still chuckling, says, “Yeah, dude, that’s why I asked WHY you didn’t say something about liking her sooner, she’s always thought you were cute. She and I talk about it all the time.”.

· Donnie just stares at his jolly brother in silence. His mind is too blown to form a sentence.

· Mikey turns to leave stating, “And by the way, dude, stop watching her like that…that’s just creepy.”.

@turtle-babe83 @tmntspidergirl @kokokatsworld @nittleboo @the-second-circle-of-shell

[jovialluminaryalpaca]

True Beauty | Little by Little | Han Seojun x Kang Soojin fanfic series | part 2

Part 1 , Part 3

Hey, hey, I hope y'all are doing good, this will probably be a 3 part series and I hope I'll wrap it up by the next part. Anyhow, I hope y'all will like this part, don't forget to leave a like and reblog and feel free to share your views via ask or text, thank you 💛

No major warnings, very slight cursing (not edited)

Soojin sighed as she looked at her phone and waited for Seojun to come out of the studio. She was seated on one of the tables in the cafeteria at Move Entertainment. She tapped her feet impatiently as she sat there, it had been 2 days since Seojun witnessed her breakdown and decided to give her space to recover like he said. She felt embarrassed, not because she ruined one of his favourite jackets with her tears but because media had caught him holding her hand on a busy sidewalk that night. There were numerous stories and rumours around them and she was bombarded with calls from Jugyeong and Soo ah. She decided to ignore those calls because she knew they will only ask her questions she didn't wanna answer especially when she was recovering from her father's visit and her realisation of having feelings for Seojun.

If it was in her hands, she would've continued to avoid Seojun, but she had to come to the office to clear the rumours and make a statement that Seojun was just her friend and he was helping her out. It hurt her to say something like that but she couldn't really do anything about it, it was for Seojun's good and she knew that one sided love was all that was written in her fate.

In the past two days, she couldn't help but wonder when was it that it happened? When was the moment she started getting attached to Seojun and was dumb enough to not realise it? Was it when he made fun of her need to set everything in an order or was it when they bickered over almost any topic they could find? Was it when he called her everytime he was free and they would go to her favourite restaurant go grab a meal or was it when he stayed up late and planned a birthday surprise for a kid by performing a little concert at the orphanage the kid stayed in and the one her company helped? Was it when he casually called her pretty and bossy at the same time or was it when he apologized to her for calling her a piece of trash?

She remembered the time he did.

It was one of those nights, he walked her home after they hung out. They were both laughing at how a random old woman on the road mistook Seojun to be her grandson and dragged both of them along with her to come with her and have some dinner or tea at her place. Neither of them had the heart to refuse the old woman and it clearly looked like she missed her young grandson, so they decided to join her and much to their dismay, her real son approached them and apologised for the inconvenience she caused, she apologised and both of them told her it was not much of a big deal.

"Ya. Do you think we would've got free dinner if her son didn't come?" He asked her.

"Really? You are thinking about dinner? Oh My God." She exclaimed as he burst into laughter.

"No, no, no, I mean, food is everything you know." He said as she chuckled.

"You are such a goofball, I swear." She responded as he smiled at her. They both kept walking till they reached her apartment, they always took the route which less crowded and where he could freely roam without the mask.

"Next time, don't remove your mask in public, otherwise some other grandma will make you her grandson." She said as she nudged him.

He rolled his eyes but eventually laughed it off and shook his head as they finally reached her apartment.

"Don't worry, I won't." He replied as she nodded.

"Get home safe and try to stay as far as possible from groups of girls." She said as he smiled.

"Why? Are you jealous?" He asked as she laughed at his stupid question.

"No, because I want you to stay alive and not choke yourself to death when you get smothered by thousands of girls." She said as a matter of fact and he simply shook his head and she shrugged it off.

"Ya, Kang Soojin." He said as she looked at him.

"I'm sorry." He said out of nowhere and she looked at him blankly.

Why was he apologising to her?

"For what?" She asked as she studied his expression.

"I'm sorry for being a jerk to you back in school and for calling all those awful things." He said as she opened her mouth to say something but closed it back again.

"I know it's out of nowhere, but I just felt like I should apologise, so I did." He continued as she looked at him wordlessly.

Something about his apology was sincere even when she knew what she did was worth way worse than the words he chose to call her back then. Honestly, she deserved those words to be slapped on her and there was no justification for what she did except for it being a mean of escape which she found in Suho back then but she didn't anymore when she realized that what she did led to loosing one thing she cherished so dearly, her friendship with everyone including Suho.

"Why are you apologising? I deserved it." She said and scoffed at herself.

"Maybe, that version of you did, but I wanted to apologise to this version of you and not let her hold on to what I said back then." He explained as she looked at him with a smile.

"You don't have anything to apologise for, it's all in the past, it's like a closed back, I've moved past it, those words don't bother me that much anymore but it's the guilt that bothers me, it's always there whenever I'm around Jugyeong." She replied as he looked at her with a slight frown.

"Suho wasn't worth all that, honestly." He added as she chuckled.

"Yeah." She said as he looked at her and she looked back at him. There was just silence as they looked at each other.

"Don't you have rehearsals tomorrow for your concert?" She cleared her throat and asked him, his eyes widened as he remembered the rehearsal timings for the next day.

"Oh, no, I do. Oh, no, no. Heegyeong is gonna kill me if I don't reach the studio on time. I'll see you this weekend?" He asked as he checked his pocket for the bus pass.

"Yeah, you will, if I don't any event or work that is." She said as he smiled.

"Good, then, I'll see you later. Good night." He said and turned around to leave.

"Ya, Han Seojun!" She called out.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Why don't get a car for yourself?" She asked as his eyes widened to realise that he was rich now and he scratched the back of his neck and looked down.

"It will save you the hustle." She continued as he nodded.

"I'll look into it." He responded and turned his back to walk ahead.

"Good Night!" She called out as he waved his hand one last time and so did she as he  walked away. She stood there as she smiled to her self wondering when will Seojun finally learn to organize himself and then walked towards the elevator.

"Soojin?" Heegyeong's voice pulled her out of the trance as she looked at her and smiled.

"Yeah. Should I come now?" She asked as Heegyeong sat beside her.

"No, don't worry, it's handled. You don't have to make a statement, we cleared it out and warned Seojun to not be so careless." She replied and looked at Soojin.

"It's not his fault. I was the one who was in a hurry. I'm sorry for this mess." She said as Heegyeong looked at her with a small smile.

"You don't have to apologise Soojin, I understand, everyone has good and bad days and it's completely okay to have them." She said as Soojin nodded.

On the other side, Han Seojun ruffled his hair as he walked out of one of the studios and looked around to find Soojin. He was glad that she was doing alright and then he felt a sudden flutter in his chest as he looked at her smile at Heegyeong. He gulped not knowing why he felt that. He stopped as he admired her from the distance and a goofy smile appeared on his face.

Honestly, he would be lying if he didn't admit that Soojin effected him, her happiness and just her presence made him happy in ways he couldn't define, at first he felt like she was more of a replacement for Jugyeong and maybe her presence acted like some kind of a rebound for him but now he was sure that she was different and unique and maybe that's why he liked her presence around him. He weirdly felt comfort in the way she scolded him when she looked at the mess he made most of the time and the times she explained what certain words and references meant in fan letters. There was another tug on his heart's strings when she smiled and turned around to look at him. He smiled as he felt a gush of flutters in his stomach and she waved at him. He wasn't a fool to not realise what these feelings were but he was reluctant to accept that he started to feel them around someone who wasn't Jugyeong.

Did he finally move on from Jugyeong?

His heart whispered a yes as he walked towards Soojin, stood in front of her and ruffled her hair and she scowled at his action and that scowl on her face as she set her hair right and the rapid beating of his heart was enough for him to know that yes, he was finally over Jugyeong and that, yes, he definitely developed feelings for his school's ex top mark securing girl.

_

"We have something to tell y'all." Jugyeong said as she tapped the table and everyone looked at her.

It was weekend after the whole mess that happened with Seojun and the media, He apologised to Soojin for not being careful and she gave him a lecture on how he should be more careful with all of this and how risky it was to expose his face especially when they are teenagers around and how no one knows what their intentions can be, some might be innocent but what if someone was looking for some revenge or was an obsessed psychopath. He couldn't help but laugh at her theories only to get a silencing glare from her. They made up irrespective of the fact that neither of them were aware about the feelings they developed for the other.

They were now seated at the same table they sat months ago in the same position but it was dinner now, Jugyeong called all of them to gather here and they did because no one wanted to hear Jugyeong get mad at them for skipping the dinner.

"Don't tell me you are pregnant." Tae hoon blurted out as Soo ah burst into laughter.

Suho just shook his head at them and observed everyone.

Jugyeong glared at Soo ah but shrugged it off eventually as Soo ah let out a nervous chuckle. Jugyeong smiled at everyone who looked at her and then put her left hand up showing the sparkling diamond ring on her ring finger.

"Suho proposed and I said yes." She exclaimed happily as Suho smiled at her and wrapped his arm around to pull her close while the girls gushed at the news. Soo ah squealed at the news with happiness and Soojin smiled at her best friend. Suho observed Seojun's reaction but much to his surprise, he didn't feel his heart clench, like all the times before and he gave them a genuine smile and clapped along with the others congratulating the pair. Suho thanked them with a smile as Soojin looked at Seojun smile and felt happy that he finally moved on from Jugyeong.

After a while, Cho rong and Tae hoon decided to go explore something which opened down the street while Suho and Seojun walked out of the restaurant to let the girls to gush over details and spend their time alone without their partners or friends.

"You like Soojin?" Suho asked Seojun as they looked at the street view. Seojun choked on his drink as Suho shook his head at him.

"What? No." He said and shrugged.

"After all these years, you must know better than lying to my face." Suho said as he observed his friend's reaction. Seojun was silent as he contemplated the idea of telling Suho and eventually gave in.

"I...I do." Seojun said after a while as he cleared his throat.

"Then, why didn't you tell her?" He asked him.

"Do you think I'm ready for another heartbreak?" He asked as Suho looked at him.

"How will you know without confessing?" Suho asked instead.

"I guess, I just know how is it when the person I like looks at me as a friend." He said and shrugged.

"Maybe she doesn't." Suho said as he turned around to look at the girls from the window.

And much to his surprise, he found Soojin throw a glance towards Seojun and it confirmed his suspicions.

"Let it be. Will you?" Seojun asked with a mixture of scowl and frown on his face.

"As you wish." Suho said as he looked at him.

"Honestly, I still can't believe that you found a girl and fell in love." Seojun said as Suho raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? Have you looked at yourself? With those death glares and eyebrow raises you give, it's hard to believe that someone fell in love with you." Seojun explained as Suho smiled at his best friend.

"You are really a dumbass." Suho said as Seojun widened his eyes.

"Who are you calling dumbass, dumbass?" He asked as Suho shrugged and decided to walk ahead.

"I asked Jugyeong to call us when they are done talking, wanna join me for a walk?" Suho asked Seojun. Seojun stopped for a while and looked at Soojin smile and talk to her friends and he couldn't help but smile at the sight, he sighed and looked at Suho who stood there waiting for his response. He could definitely use a bit of fresh air to clear his head.

"Alright. Let's go." He said and covered his face with a mask and joined Suho.

[adamruz]

Thinking 'Bout You

Summary: a fic inspired by this song. What if Kim moved to San Diego with Roman?

It had been almost half a year since Kim moved to San Diego with Roman. At first she loved the idea because she was in a relationship with a man she loved and was starting over in a new city with no reminders of her ex-fíance. But the relationship lasted only 3 months in the new city after she realized what a jackass Roman was when he drunkenly admitted one night to purposely screwing with her and Adam's relationship because he just wanted to sleep with her.

She missed her friends, her coworkers, patrolling the streets of Chicago, the wind off of the lake, and even though she wouldn't admit it to anyone who'd ask, she missed Adam. The only contact she had with her old life was occasional texts to and from her first partner, Kevin. It took her an entire month to tell Kevin her and Roman broke up because she was afraid to admit she made the wrong decision so soon and that he'd judge her for it.

I messed up. was the text she sent to Kevin.

With Ruz or Roman?

Adam.

Call him.

Kim didn't need Kevin to tell her that. She's thought about calling Adam everyday since the break-up, hell since the first day she arrived in San Diego. But she's the one who ended things, who gave back the ring, all because of her jealous partner who couldn't watch her be happy with someone else. She knew Adam was an amazing guy and some lucky girl was probably already dating him. She had drafted many texts to him, but they never got sent including a happy birthday one, but she just wasn't ready to admit her mistake.

Meanwhile back in Chicago, Intelligence was down a member after Antonio left and everyone knew that spot would've gone to Kim, but she was no longer there. Detective Hailey Upton was brought in and Voight mixed up the partnerships, putting her and Adam together. On the outside, it looked like Adam was holding it together ever since him and Kim broke up and she moved away, but he was falling apart inside. Kevin and Jay tried to get him to join them at Molly's a couple times a week, but Adam always refused. He wasn't in the mood to laugh or have a good time while dealing with a broken heart. Adam had brought up Kim's contact information so many times he lost count, but he could never go through with hitting the call button, not even on his drunkest nights. He was too stubborn and too full of pride to go crawling back to her even though she was still the last thing he thought about at night.

An undercover gig popped up on Voight's radar and he asked the unit for any volunteers. Adam immediately jumped at the opportunity. "I'll go boss." Maybe this would take his mind off Kim, get out of the building where so many of his good and bad memories with her happened. "It's yours Ruzek," Voight said.

Two weeks had passed since Adam went undercover when Jay received a call from his brother at Med. "Jay, Ruzek just stumbled in here with a bullet wound to his left shoulder."

"What's his status, Will?"

"He's ok. Lost a lot of blood, but he's stable. The bullet just missed hitting the bone."

"Ok, we're on our way." Jay rounded up the rest of Intelligence and they all headed to the hospital.

Adam barely remembered what happened, but it was a drug deal gone bad and somehow he had worked up enough energy to walk his way to the hospital. Now, he was lying in an uncomfortable hospital bed, on pain meds, and the only thing he could think about was Kim. What if he had died without her knowing that he was sorry for how things ended and how much he still loved her. He reached for his UC phone and started dialing the 10 digit number he still knew by heart, but then his nurse appeared with some familiar faces.

"Geez Ruzek, did you miss us so much you had to get shot before your assignment ended," Al joked.

"Haha very funny, Al." The team took turns giving Adam a hug and saying how glad they were he was going to be ok.

Dr. Halstead interrupted the reunions, "Adam, you're going to need to stay overnight for a few days, but then you can go home and recover. I recommend 2 weeks off of work and then you can return to desk duty. After that we'll do another check-up and see where you're at." Adam knew it was coming, but he still rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for coming guys, but I think it's best I get some sleep." Kevin handed Adam over his regular cellphone and mouthed "call her" before walking out the door. Kevin hated being the middle man between his two friends, but he just wanted them back together and knew how they each felt about the other.

That night before bed, Kev texted Kim - Adam was shot today on an UC assignment. He lost a lot of blood, but he's gonna be ok.

OMG Kev. How is he doing really?

Just call him Burgess. You know you want to.

Kim couldn't believe it. Adam was shot and she couldn't help but think it was her fault. Maybe if she wouldn't have broken up with him, dated Roman, or moved away, he wouldn't have put himself in this situation. What would she even say if she called him. Sorry didn't feel like enough she thought. She mulled over it for the next 3 days until she decided to just go for it.

It was Adam's first night back home and Kevin and Hailey had come over to help him get situated along with some pizza and beer. Adam's phone buzzed on the table and a familiar, but unexpected name popped up on the screen. Kim. He couldn't believe it. He picked up after only the first ring. "Hey stranger." Crap, Adam thought. He should've let it ring a couple times and not make it seem like he was desperate and longing for her call. And stranger? Really? He thought long and hard about what he wanted to say to Kim when they talked again and that was not it.

"Hi Adam. I know it's been a long time, but I heard you got shot and I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

"I'm doing ok. It hurts, but I'm home now and resting up until I can go back to work. How are you? How's San Diego?" He refused to ask how things were with the piece of shit Roman.

"G..g...good," Kim stumbled as she didn't want to say she ended things with Roman just yet. "Adam, I'm s..," she trailed off as she heard a female laughing in the background. "Oh am I interrupting you on a date?"

"Haha no," Adam chuckled. "That's my new partner, Hailey Upton. She replaced Antonio."

"Adam, you don't have to hide things from me. You can date whoever you want." Kim was trying to keep it together, but she wasn't shocked he had already moved on.

"Kim, I'm serious. She's just my partner. I wouldn't lie to you."

"Uh sorry, I gotta go. Sean just got home and we have dinner plans. I'm glad you're doing ok though. Bye." Kim hoped he hadn't heard her breaking down because tears were streaming down her face before she hung up. Why didn't Kevin tell her Adam had started dating? That would've been helpful information.

Why didn't you tell me he was dating? Kim texted Kev.

He's not Burgess. She really is just his partner. If you want the truth, he's still hung up on you.

Shit. Not only did she mess things up with their engagement and when she moved away and cut off all contact with him, but now again. Tonight of all nights, after he had just been shot a few days ago. How would he ever forgive her.

The two week recovery period for Adam had passed and he was so eager to get back to work, even if it was just desk duty at first. He needed something to keep him busy and his mind off of Kim and that awkward last conversation over the phone. To Adam's surprise, the day absolutely flew by and he was exhausted. Who knew you could get so tired just answering phones and doing computer work all day, but he had to get back in the swing of things.

"Ruz, you coming to Molly's tonight?"

"Yeah Kev, I'll meet you there!"

Adam packed up his stuff and headed down the steps and out into the parking lot. He noticed a shadow hovering over by his driver's side door. It was dark and he couldn't make out who it was at first. Was it someone coming to finish the job from his UC gig? As he got closer, he recognized that smile and the long brown hair.

"Hey Adam."

"What are you doing here? Where's Roman?"

"We broke up, almost 2 months ago."

Adam bit his tongue to prevent the biggest smile he wanted to appear on his face. "Oh, but you said just two weeks ago..."

"I know, I lied because I thought you were dating someone and I couldn't bear the thought of you being with someone else and didn't want you to think I was alone."

"I haven't even thought of dating someone since that day in the locker room. But Kim, you broke things off. You're the one who moved on first."

"It was a mistake," she muttered as she moved closer to him. "It was all Roman. The push test, everything. He just wanted to be with me. I should've talked to you, my fíance, instead of talking to him. I'm sorry." Kim's eyes quickly filled with water.

Adam was so full of rage at Roman and what he did to screw up the best relationship he ever had, but he could tell Kim was hurting and he didn't want to lash out at her. "Come here," he pleaded as he wrapped her up in a hug. All he wanted to do was feel her lips on his, but it wasn't the right time for that. The smell of her shampoo would have to be enough for now.

"I don't know if you're up for it, but would you want to go to Molly's tonight and catch up with everyone?"

"I'd love that actually," Kim said as she backed away from his grace with a slight grin on her face.

[fandomsandwritings]

Distant

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x GenderNeutral!Reader (if there are any mistakes feel free to message me!) 

Requested: No

Summary: You don't want to bother the team with something personal happening in you life so you begin to pull away from them until you can’t hide it anymore.

Word Count: 2,689

Warnings: a little angst but mostly fluff, literally just Hotch being super sweet and supportive and caring

A/N: This took me too long to finish but here we go! As always my requests are open! 

You’d been distancing yourself from the team more and more lately. At first it was just saying no to drinks or dinner every once and awhile to them having stopped asking you all together. You knew it was for the best though. You didn’t need them to pity you. The truth of the matter was that your mother was very sick, and you’d been taking her to as many appointments as you could or simply hanging out with her when you were home. It had been just you and her for a while now. Your father having passed some years ago. You’d always been a little stubborn and always insisted you could do things on your own. You didn’t need help or for others to feel sorry for you, so you distanced yourself from them and focused solely on helping your mother feel better.

This morning you’d gotten up early to go over to her place to check on her and bring her breakfast.

“Hi mom, I brought you food!” You announced as you walked in her house.

“We’re in here dear.” She yelled back from the living room. You walked in to see her sitting in her favorite chair as her nurse helped her with her medicine for the day. You’d decided to hire a nurse to come by daily to check on her when you’d come home from a case and saw that she’d forgotten to take her medications while you were gone. This allowed you some comfort when you had to leave knowing she’d have someone here daily to be with her or take her to her appointments.

“Hi Alice, how’re you?” You asked the nurse while sitting on the couch

“Doing good, your mother is arguing with me on how much she moves in a day. I’ve been telling her that she needs to wait for me to come over before coming down the stairs in the morning and also wait for me to come back by and help her in the evenings when you’re away.”

“I’m not that old, I think I can get up and down the stairs on my own.” Was her argument back.

“Alice is right mom, with how your joints are and the medication you’re on, you should really wait for her to help.” You spoke while you and Alice gave each other a look knowing she wasn’t going to listen.

“Whatever.” was your mother’s only response as your phone pinged with a message.

“I have to go to work now but I love you mom and listen to Alice!” you said as you stood and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

--

“Hey guys sorry I’m late.” You announced as you walked in and Penelope stood up to give the briefing. You guys were headed to a rural town in Nebraska where 3 unidentified bodies had shown up. As you all stood up to grab your bags and head to the plane JJ stopped you.

“You okay Y/N? You look tired.” She asked caringly but you also knew that she was being a little nosey since you too had been the closest before you made the decision to push them all away.

“Oh yeah I’m fine. Just had to wake up earlier today.” You answered as you walked out, not a lie but also not the whole truth.

--

You sat across from Hotch as you guys individually looked over the files after y’all decided who would do what after you all land.

“What did you have to do this morning?” He asked you suddenly

“Excuse me?” You asked kind of annoyed

“I heard you tell JJ that you had to wake up early for something and I was just curious as to what it was.” He spoke quietly and calmly, and you could tell how much he cared in his eyes. They were all worried about you, you could tell but you didn’t need to bother them with your problems, so you just blew off their intrusive questions.

“I just had some errands to run.”

“On the other side of town?” He questioned and you just gave him a confused look. “The coffee cup you had this morning is from a coffee shop that’s at least 20 min from your apartment with traffic at that time in the morning.”

“Don’t.” was your only response.

“Don’t what?” he asked a little confused.

“Don’t try to profile me Aaron.” He was honestly one of the hardest ones not to talk to about everything that was going on. All you wanted to do was confide in him about how you were feeling and have him tell you that it was going to be okay. But he was already so busy with running the team and raising Jack that you couldn’t add your problems to his life too.

“Ok. Just know that we all miss having you around more outside of working cases.”

You just sighed and you both went back to look at your cases.

--

It had taken you and the team 2 days to track down the killer and apprehend him. As you began to take the pictures down and put them into the boxes you phone began to ring. Your heart began to race when you saw that it was Alice calling. There was no one else in the conference room with you, so you subtly closed the door and you answered the call. You didn’t realize that Hotch had noticed the change in your demeanor as he watched you through the window and made his way over to the room.

“Alice what’s happened?” you question because it was late and there was no way that she was calling you with good news.

“I was running a little late tonight and I guess your mom got impatient and tried to go up the stairs by herself, but her leg gave out and she fell down the stairs. I’m so sorry Y/N.”

You felt the earth shift beneath you as you grabbed the back of a chair to steady yourself. You didn’t hear Hotch come into the room when you went to answer.

“Is she okay?” you asked as your voice broke a little.

“They’re not sure, we’re in the ambulance now on the way to the hospital. She was unconscious when I got there, and I don’t know how long it had been before I arrived.” She answered frantically.

“Okay, keep me updated with what they say. We just finished here so I’ll be flying back tonight so text me which hospital you are going to and I’ll meet you there after I land.” You spoke calmly as a single tear rolled down your face.

“Okay I will. I’m so sorry Y/N, I should have gotten there sooner but my other patient didn’t want to take her night meds so I had to- ”

“It’s okay Alice,” you began as you interrupted her and took a deep breath. “It’s not your fault. She’s stubborn and we’ve been fighting her on this for a while. All we can do now is wait and hope for good results.”

“Okay you’re right. I’ll text you any updates and I’ll see you when you get here.”

“Thank you.” Was the only responds you could give before hanging up and letting the tears fall.

“Y/N” you heard Hotch speak up behind you

“Oh, hey I’m just finishing up in here and we should be good to go soon.” You spoke trying to even out your tone and casually wipe the tears from your face before turning around. You didn’t know how long he’d been in the room but judging from the furrowed brow and the concern in his eyes you knew he’d at least heard some of your phone call.

“Please tell me what’s going on.” He spoke softly as he stepped closer to you.

“That was my mom’s nurse, she fell at home and they’re taking her to the hospital now.” You managed to get out.

“Nurse?” He asked clearly confused

You just shook your head “It’s a long story.” You said as the tears began to fall.

Hotch brought you into his chest and wrapped his arms around you. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. We’ll get you home and it’ll be okay.” he whispered into your ear as he gently rubbed his hands up and down your back.

The rest of the team watch this exchange through the open window, and you were met with curious looks as you walked out of the conference room with tear stained eyes. You knew you finally had to tell them.

--

“So basically, the last few months they’ve just been trying her on different medications to try and ease her pain but her fall tonight could be a big setback if she recovers from it.” You spoke quietly while the team sat around you on the plane. You sat next to Hotch and while you two weren’t explicitly touching his leg was pressing into yours and the warmth from him beside you was a comfort.

“Y/N, why didn’t you tell us that this was happening?” Derek questioned quietly.

You just let out a deep sigh, “I’ve always handled things on my own and I didn’t want to burden you guys with my family problems.” You stared at your hands instead of looking at any of the concerned faces around you.

“But you are a part of our family Y/N, we would have been there for you.” Rossi spoke up after a moment.

“I’m sorry. I’ve never been good at sharing.” You let out a strained laugh trying to lighten the mood, but everyone just remained quiet. “I didn’t mean to hurt you guys by pushing you away, I thought I was doing what was best.” More tears began to fall, and you hated being this vulnerable in front of everyone, but you didn’t have the energy to hide it anymore. These last few months had been really hard for you.

“What’s best is you not trying to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders when you have all of us here to help carry it for you.” JJ said while reaching across the table to grab your hand.

“Thank you” was all you could manage to say before the plane fell silent again, the emotions in the air too heavy.

“I think we should let Y/N get some sleep before we land.” Hotch spoke after a while and everyone dispersed to their respect spots on the plane to rest too.

Hotch began to stand up too but you reached for his hand.

“Please stay.” You spoke quietly as a soft smile spread on his face.

“I’ll be right back; I was just going to make you some tea.”

“Oh, thank you.” You felt a small blush on your cheeks as he walked away.

You were asleep before he got back.

--

You felt a small nudge and immediately opened your eyes. You were pulled into Hotch’s side with his arm around you and your head resting on his chest. You leaned your head back to see Hotch looking down at you.

“Hey, we’re landing soon.” he whispered to you before he went back to looking over other case files.

“Aaron?” you ask softly not wanting to break this intimate bubble you two had at the moment.

“Mhm?” was his only response

“Thank you” you moved your head back down and snuggled closer into his side. He just softly kissed the top of your head.

The plane landed shortly after that and you made your way to the hospital. Alice immediately made her way to you when you walked in.

“She’s still in surgery. She has a broken leg and some bleeding in her brain but from the last update they sounded hopeful.” She stated all in one breath and not meeting your eyes.

“Thank you, Alice, for staying but you should go home and get some rest now that I’m here.” You gave her a soft smile.

“Okay, text me any updates.” She said while gathering her things

“I will.” You answered softly but all you could think about were the words “bleeding” and “brain”.

You heard a soft “excuse me” come from her as she walked out of the small private waiting room, but you didn’t look up as she left.

“How is she?” you head a familiar male voice ask from behind you and you spun around.

“Aaron?” I guess you shouldn’t have been surprised but you guys had just gotten back from a long case and you were sure Hotch was dying to see Jack so you wouldn’t have even thought to ask him to go to the hospital with you instead of seeing his son.

“After everything we said on the plane you didn’t think we’d let you go through this alone right?” he spoke as he came closer to you.

“We?” was all you managed to say before the rest of the team came in, including Penelope.

“Seriously Y/N, we just talked about how we’re here for you.” Emily spoke as she came to your side.

“I know but we just got home and y’all are probably tired, so I didn’t want to ask any of you to stay here in a hospital for who knows how long.” A single tear rolled down your cheek because you felt so damn loved by these 7 people.

“We all got a little sleep on the plane and there’s nowhere else any of us would rather be right now.” JJ spoke from in front of you as the team had gathered into a circle in the middle of the waiting room.

“Any updates?” Spencer spoke up after a minute.

“Yes, Alice was here and said that she was in surgery. She broke her leg and I guess there was some ble-” your breath caught in your throat as you began to really digest the information, Hotch grabbed your hand and lightly squeezed it as you took a deep breath before continuing, “um some bleeding in her brain but I don’t know how recent that was.” You finished while trying to keep the tears that threaten to reappear from falling.

“I’m on it!” Garcia said while stepping away to go track down some poor nurse.

“I’m going to go with her, so she doesn’t get kicked out of the hospital.” Morgan said before following her out.

The room fell silent again as you looked up at Aaron, who was still holding your hand, and he used his other hand to brush some hair out of your face. The two of you just stood there looking into each other’s eyes before you heard Rossi clear his throat. You broke the eye contact and looked towards the floor with a blush. Your hand stayed firmly in his though.

“Emily and JJ do you think you could find some coffee for everyone?” They both nodded, looking at the two of you with soft smiles before leaving. “Reid and I will go find snacks.”

“I’d actually like to stay here to hear what the doctor says.” Reid responded, not understanding that Dave was actually trying to give the two of you some privacy. Dave just sighed.

“Then go find Garcia and learn what you can.” He said while lightly shoving him out of the room. After he got Spencer out, her turned in the doorway.

“I approve of this.” He said while winking and pointing between the two of you causing you to blush even harder and step away from Aaron.

You made your way to one of the two-person bench seats and Hotch sat beside you. He place his arm behind you and you snuggled into his side, still exhausted from the case and travel you closed your eyes and focused on the sound of Hotch’s heartbeat.

You both stayed there for several minutes and Aaron probably thought you had fallen asleep when he pressed a kiss to the top of your head and spoke so softly you weren’t actually sure he had spoken.

“I love you Y/N.”

[ramblinganthropologist]

MER Week Day 2 - Long time no see

Summary: It’s been a while since Alistair Shepard and Garrus Vakarian have seen each other. They’ve been busy on their separate planets, helping in whatever ways they can to get things back to as normal as they’re going to get. However, with some free time, they’re finally getting to meet back up. Problem is... somebody forgot to mention the testosterone. Whoops. Well, at least Shepard’s got a free offer of carapace ripping from his sister if things go south.

(Set after ME3, enjoy your t4t shakarian lol)

---

Babe: See you at 3 then.

The message still glowed on his screen, burned into his retinas from the night before. It was the last message in a long conversation that had lasted well into hours he should have been sleeping, but it had been worth it. After all, it was important to hash out details when your fiancé was coming to visit.

It was even more important to do so in his circumstances.

“Fuck…”

The words leaked out from between Alistair’s teeth as he glanced around – the time said it was sometime after 2:40. Like always, campus was busy, full of his fellow students going from one class to another. Most of them look tired – and he understood that fully. Between med school and fighting the reapers… some days it could be a toss-up, depending on what he was doing.

Most days, med school won. Maybe that was a good thing? Or maybe he was just a sadist.

Regardless, campus was busy. It was easy to blend into the crowd like this as he sought a seat on a bench under a tree. All he could do was look at the screen of his omni-tool, frowning as he read through the messages.

He shouldn’t have been nervous… but he was.

Maybe that was why he clicked onto a new message window, just as busy as the one with the one he had been glancing at. Even better, the other person was online. Something like hope sprung into his chest as he started typing, fingers flying with the speed of an ex-Alliance officer.

Some things were fading with time – this probably never would.

Al: Where are my anxiety meds when I need them?

Bo: Relax, he’s going to love it. And if he doesn’t, there won’t be anything left to bury afterwards.

Bo: Or whatever turians do when they die.

“Nothing like threatening my fiancé to get me to calm down.” He chuckled despite himself, shoulders relaxing ever so slightly. However, a beeping drew his attention. Bo was attempting to video call him, which he was more than happy to accept.

Rannoch was as busy as ever on the other side of the line. He could see quarians and geth in the background, going about their business as his adopted sister focused her camera. Even after tweaking it, she was still a little skewed and not completely in the frame. However, she was allowed to be – her analogue sense of direction had saved his ass. She could be as out of focus as she wanted.

“I mean it, Al.”

He chuckled again. “I know, Bo. I guess I’m just nervous. I mean… we haven’t seen each other before…”

With his free hand, he gestured towards his body. Some days, especially in the early morning when he was half asleep, he was still unable to believe what was actually happened. It seemed more like a dream… at least until his voice cracked. It was doing that far less as his range settled, but still. At his age, it was kind of embarrassing.

Oh well, puberty was rough, especially when it was triggered for a second time in his 30’s.

“Told you that you should’ve sent him more dick pics.” Bo’s tone was flat as a pancake as she adjusted her camera – still out of focus. Now he was getting a view of Rannoch’s currently cloudless sky. Last time he had seen it, it had been full of Reapers. Honestly, he preferred it without them. Much friendlier. “Just relax. You know he thinks you’re hot as hell. All you have to do is use your commander Shepard voice and he’ll be eating out of your hand.”

Alistair felt his face color a little as he looked to the side. “I’m not going to use that in public…”

“You know what I mean. An Adam’s apple isn’t going to turn him off, so no sense worrying about it.” She paused, and he swore her eyes glowed. Maybe that was the camera angle? “And if it does…”

He could already see the threat – beating him with his own carapace was one of her favorites. He had never actually seen someone do it, but it was a classic at that point.

“Yeah, I know - death and calamity upon his head like you’ve only reigned down on the last guy who tried to take your crown.”

“He’s still recovering.” There was pride in her voice at that, and she should have it. After all, it wasn’t every day a human went undefeated in Omega’s underground Krogan wrestling tournaments. Surviving the reapers only brought better challengers, and it seemed to keep her well supplied with cannon fodder. “But anyway, just go for it.”

There was a pause, and her camera focused momentarily. “Also, since when did you start growing a beard?”

Oh, hail the mighty power of testosterone…

“Like two months ago, shaving sucks.” A beeping drew his attention – his heart raced at the sight of a new message. “Gotta go… I think that’s him.”

“Remember, just call me if you need his carapace ripped off.”

After the offer of violent assault, the call disconnected and left Alistair alone with his thoughts as he switched back over to his messages. Just like he thought, the message was from a certain someone he was waiting for. His heart jumped into his throat as he glanced around – nope, not there yet.

Babe: Almost there, got a little lost. I’ll never understand human city planning.

He always said that. Still, it made the ex-marine chuckle as he stood, waiting. Soon enough, they would be together again. It had been far too long, and the distance achingly wide. But now that the relays were working again, it was possible.

Note to self: maybe don’t take out the relays next time he saved the universe. It made travel a nightmare to say the least.

At least it wasn’t a long wait. Out of the corner of his eye, Alistair spotted movement that didn’t quite track for tired med student. It was too focused for that, and the pace was all wrong anyway. Plus, the whole carapace and being like seven feet tall thing helped, but it didn’t sound nearly as cool as the former.

“Alright, just… relax. Like Bo said…”

Of course, that didn’t help the butterflies in his stomach as he stood, adjusting his shirt. All the logic in the world couldn’t have saved him then as he watched the turian approach, clearly scanning the crowd for familiar markers. His heart stopped when their eyes met in the crowd, blue into blue.

Garrus was looking good for someone who had nearly died killing Reapers.

“Al?”

There was no mistaking the surprise in the turian’s voice as he made his way over to the tree. When he finally got there, his mandibles flapped like flags in the wind. The gears were turning in his brain, no doubt running countless calibrations. In a weird way, it was kind of cute.

At the same time, it was fucking nerve wracking. Talk about a conflict of interest.

Still, it was Garrus, and he was finally there. That was enough to put a smile on Alistair’s face as he reached out to take the turian’s taloned hand. It was just as rough and warm as he remembered, and his fingers still stretched as they laced together. It might have been a little sore, but muscle memory wasn’t letting him down.

“Hey, babe. Good to see you got here in one piece.”

Thank the universe his voice didn’t crack with that one. Maybe this was the thanks he got for saving it.

At least Garrus had the good grace to not look as though his jaws had stopped working. Alistair did get to watch his eyes travel downward in the classic once-over, though. All the while, his stomach bubbled. It felt as though a heavy weight was poised to drop on his head, and all he could do was stand there and wait.

Eventually, the turian squeezed back carefully, the blunt side of his talons sliding down his fingers. “So, I guess this is why you’ve been so shy about video calling me lately?”

“My voice was cracking really badly up until about a month ago, you were saved a lot of translator feedback.” He smiled, sheepish. “But… yeah. I didn’t really know how things were going to turn out and…”

His voice trailed off as he felt heat leak into his cheeks. “Here’s hoping you still think I’m hot?”

Yep, his voice definitely cracked at the end there. Maybe the universe had it in for him after all. At least Garrus didn’t wince too hard at the sudden shift – good old turian military training there. Still, he hadn’t said anything yet. That… wasn’t promising.

Maybe he should have sent those dick pics?

“You… what’s that called again?” Garrus cocked his head to the side in a gesture that always made him look cute and kind of bird-like. “On your face. Joker was always talking about his.”

Right, turian…

“Beard. And mine’s not quite as good as his yet I’m afraid but give me a few months and I’ll see what I can do.” He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, fingers ghosting over his amp. It hadn’t seen action in almost a year now, and it was still odd to feel it cool to the touch.

Much to his relief, Garrus nodded. “It looks good now. I mean, you look good in general and all… I thought turian reactions to hormones were impressive, but humans are something else.”

“Gotta love those secondary sexual characteristics, babe.” Relief flooded through Alistair’s system as he sighed in relief. “And I think you just saved yourself getting your carapace ripped off by my sister.”

Hooray – that would have been a nightmare to fix.

Now it was the turian chuckling as he reached down to press his faceplates to his forehead in an alien version of a kiss. It was a gesture that always got his heart racing, even if it was just a quick peck. He had missed that in their time apart – texting just couldn’t beat actual contact.

“That’s probably for the best. I’ve not had a lot of practice lately, might be getting a little rusty.”

Alistair chuckled as they started to walk through the crowd. “You, rusty? I find that hard to believe.”

“Oh, no, it’s true. Barely had any time to run calibrations even, I’m starting to worry I’ll forget.”

That time, they shared a laugh between them. Maybe this was what Alistair had missed the most in the time spent on different planets – there was just something about the interplay between human and turian laughter that made his insides feel warm. Or maybe that was just his reaction to Garrus in general. Right then, anything was possible.

Still, he felt his face color a little as he looked to the side. “I’m sorry I didn’t send any in-progress shots. Bo could confirm any embarrassing details if you asked her.”

“Trust me, I get it. Remind me when we get back to your place to tell you about how I didn’t tell my sister I was going on hormones until after she came back from basic.” Another squeeze. “Of course, if you wanted to test that new vocal range out in some more strenuous conditions first…”

Oh, there was nothing friendly about that gaze. And it was something Alistair could appreciate as he squeezed back. Home was well prepped for what they both had in mind – they just had to get there first. Lucky for him, he lived within walking distance of campus.

The chuckle that escaped his lips was definitely not of the innocent afternoon type as he leaned in so only the turian could hear him. “I think that can be arranged, Vakarian. Better pick up the pace, though.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

With that, it was off they went at a faster rate, not quite a run but definitely quick. With the sun shining and thoughts about what was waiting for him when he got home, Alistair was once again glad the whole universe saving thing had worked out for the better.

Now… what exactly was he going to do with the turian when he got home? The options were endless…

[hesmygolden]

we said forever (ch.3)

ch.1 - ch.2 

A/N: thank u so much for reading!! I hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think. I cannot wait to write about Y/N’s interaction with Harry after the breakup...

CHAPTER 3

It was hard to sleep without the image of Harry and Camille coming into your thoughts every few seconds. You tried your best to distract your mind from it and focus on something else, like the upcoming release of your movie, but it just wasn’t enough to drift your mind away from the blonde woman holding the man who was still the love of your life.

You probably managed to get around four hours of sleep before your alarm woke you up. You felt tired and wanted to sleep some more but remembered that today was the day you were meeting with your manager to get your life back on track again.

As you looked at yourself in the mirror, you noticed how different you looked now and thought about how real it is when people say that breakups change you.

Your face looked sad.

There was just something about it that made you look so sad and empty, which made you tear up. You wanted to stop feeling this way and you wanted even more to look better than before.

You covered up what you thought looked bad with some makeup and managed to feel a bit better about yourself. You made yourself a cup of coffee and decided to order bagels once you arrived at your office.

Once you arrived at your office, you were greeted by a very optimistic and happy Andrew, your manager, which was followed by a tight hug.

“So happy you’re back!”

“Glad to be here.”

You smiled and stared at him. You could tell he was genuinely happy you were ready to get back to business and he was also relieved the press for the movie could start now.

“Francesca is arriving in about 20 minutes,” Andrew sighed as he picked up his phone to violently type something, “your bagels are on their way too.”

“Good, I’m starving.”

“You look…” He paused as he stared at you, a look of confusion and surprise all over his face, “different.”

“Yeah that’s probably because I lost a little weight and haven’t been getting any sleep.” You cracked a smile to cover up the mess you had become.

“Oh dear,” he shook his head, “you’ll be alright, you just need to get back to your routine and you’ll recover your power.”

You nodded silently and grabbed your phone, trying your best to not open Twitter in case that picture of Harry and Camille popped up.

busy tonight?

You thought it would be a good idea to hang out with Saoirse to get back in track with the world, have a good chat with a friend and get excited about your movie, so you texted her.

Hey Y/N!! Good to hear from ya… I’m free tonight, what’s on your mind? :)

You smiled at the text from your friend, this was going to help you a lot.

let’s grab something to eat at the Beachwood Cafe.

Sounds good! See you at 6?

see you Saoirse!

The smell of the bagels inside the office made your stomach grumble and you were quick to stand up from the sofa and grab your breakfast. The taste of the cream cheese and salmon making you remember how good life could be sometimes.

“Francesca is here!” Andrew said a little too loud and opened the door to greet the tall, platinum blonde haired woman.

Francesca was your hairstylist, she had been doing your hair ever since your career started and you were always happy with the results. Not that you’d ever done something crazy to your hair (unless it was for a movie, which was usually a wig), but you always loved the results.

“Hello sweetheart.” Andrew kissed her on the cheek.

“How’s life treating you Andrew?” She said with a big smile on her face.

“A bit better now that Y/N’s back to work.”

“Y/N dear!”, she squealed as she walked towards you with a look of adoration on her face, you were like a daughter to her, “I’m glad you’re back!”

You helped her set everything up after finishing your breakfast and heard Francesca and Andrew talk about some recent gossip from Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik. You were so lost with what was going around in the entertainment industry and you honestly didn’t care that much, unless it involved any of your friends.

“So what do you have on mind for me?” You asked Francesca as she mixed colours and grabbed hair brushes.

“I’m bringing back your power dear.” She giggled.

“Francesca-“

“Nothing too different honey, don’t you trust me?”

You sighed and looked at her before nodding and relaxing on the chair. You did not want her to give you a drastic change since you didn’t want to seem like a cry for attention after going through a breakup, it just wasn’t you.

While Francesca did your hair, you went through your schedule for the press release of the movie with Andrew and couldn’t help but feel excited to go back to work even if things were going to be a little different now.

Time went by and you received a text message from Saoirse.

Hey is it okay if Timothée joins us tonight?

yeah, no problem :)

You didn’t think much about it. You had met Timothée Chalamet a few times before and he was a nice guy and a really good actor, but you wouldn’t really call him a friend so you were excited to get to know him better.

“Y/N, I don’t want to bring up this conversation but eventually we’re going to have to talk about this so it’s better to do it now.” Andrew’s words made your heart skip a beat, since you knew exactly what he wanted to talk about.

“Yeah, it’s alright.” You sighed.

“So the press is going to be all over you and they might ask you about Harry, “ he looked straight into your eyes, afraid you would break anytime soon, “do you know.. uh you know…”

“Have I talked to him? No, I haven’t.” You cut him off.

“But do y-“

“Know that he’s with Camille now?” You asked coldly.

Francesca bit her lips and focused on drying your hair while Andrew cleared his throat and nodded.

“I saw something on Twitter last night so I can only assume they’re a thing.” You said and took a sip of your coffee, trying your hardest to not cry.

“Well, they are.”

You knew what Andrew’s response was going to be but it still hit you like a thousand knives.

“They went public a month and a half after your breakup.” He finished.

“What do you mean they went public?” you raised your voice, which caught Andrew and Francesca by surprise, “Did Harry tweet or post something about her or what do you mean by that huh? Because he is not the type to make a relationship public.”

Andrew scratched his neck as he grabbed his phone, trying his best to not make eye contact with you since he did not want to see you cry.

“She posted a picture with him and later he confirmed it on a radio interview.” He said quietly.

You just nodded and felt your eyes getting teary.

“Well,” you fake laughed, “it’s what he and his team wanted anyway right?”

Andrew remained quiet and Francesca noticing the awkward silence, decided to join the conversation.

“Oh honey,” she exclaimed, “who needs a man anyway?”

You smiled at her in a thankful way and stared at your finished hair.

You let a tear fall down your face and brushed it off with a smile as you touched your hair.

You looked really great.

She had darkened up your hair a bit and given it a better form as well as a special keratin treatment which ended up looking amazing. You felt like a new woman and you were definitely ready to get back your life.

After saying goodbye to your manager and thanking Francesca for helping your self esteem get back on track, you headed to the Beachwood Cafe to meet Saoirse and Timothée, clearly not expecting to run into the one and only Harry Styles with his new girlfriend.

[imagining-supernatural]

The First Date

Part 2 of Seventy Percent

Series Summary: When you left on your trip to Vegas, you’d planned on letting loose for one last weekend before heading back to reality and getting your affairs in order so your best friend wouldn’t be left cleaning up your mess when your cancer finally ended your life. What you hadn’t counted on was waking up married to a celebrity who has a knight-in-shining-armor complex, connections with an oncologist, and amazing insurance…

Chapter Summary: Your first date with Sebastian is breakfast, then off to the courthouse for an annulment!

Word Count: 1571

“So, uh, according to this website,” you started as soon as Sebastian walked out of the bathroom with a towel secured around his waist. And you definitely did not check him out. You had to stay focused on the annulment. “Um, we should be able to file what’s called a, uh, complaint for annulment at the courthouse if we’re actually married.”

“What’s this?” He sauntered over to the bed and picked up the marriage certificate you’d set on the corner of the bed. “Well, looks official.”

You nodded. “It could also just be a paper, you know? My best friend took a calligraphy class one summer because of that one Relient K song about college kids. She could write this. I figured I’d wait for your input before calling the courthouse to see if it’s legit. You know, didn’t want someone to see your name and get Twitter-excited.”

“Good call.” His voice was soft, as if surprised.

“If it is legit,” you continued with your findings as he searched around the room for his clothes. “Then I’m pretty sure we meet all of the requirements for annulment…” he bent over to pick up his pants and you trailed off at the muscles that flexed in his calves and the—Nope! Annulment. You turned your attention back to the website. “We got married in Nevada, which is one. And considering we don’t remember it, I’d say we were drunk enough that we meet the mentally incompetent or unable to understand what we were consenting to standard. It might be kind of hard to prove that, though,” you muttered.

He laughed. “I don’t know about that. I was looking through my phone and I’ve got some great drunk texts I sent and some pretty blurry pictures of us. One in front of Elvis.”

“Oh god. I got married by Elvis? Drunk? In Vegas? How much more fucking cliché can this get?”

He just shook his head and grinned. “Why don’t you take your turn in the bathroom. I’ll call my lawyer and see what he can do.”

With a nod, you stood up. “Feel free to use my laptop. I have everything secure I need. Oh, and I have a charge cord for Apple and Android over on the desk, so if your phone needs a charge, go for it.”

“You talk a lot, you know that?”

“Yeah. I’ve been told that. It gets worse when I’m nervous or stressed. I’d apologize for that, but it’s not really a character flaw. Just you know, what makes me me.” You made the conscious effort to keep your mouth shut for three seconds. “So, yeah. Feel free to the laptop and charge cords. I’m gonna put a door between us before I embarrass myself more.”

The door closed on his laughter and you took a deep breath. As you let out your breath, you whispered, “Shit.”

You tried to enjoy your shower. You really did. Usually you could shut your brain down and relax.

Not fucking today.

By the time you were done, you could have sworn you were even more stressed out than before.

In an attempt to calm your nerves, you sat down on the toilet seat and unlocked your phone. Sebastian mentioned pictures from the previous night. Maybe you had a few. But, your first order of business was making sure you didn’t drunk text anyone something that you would regret. You weren’t much of a drunk texter, but last night was anything but normal.

Luckily, you’d only texted your friend, Jasmine, a few times.

*Girl these mojitos are fuxking expensive

*hella good tho

*so mdndu hit ppl here

*gon get some f real

She’d texted back that she was glad you were having a good time and reminded you to drink water and be safe, and that was the end of your conversation. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Next up: pictures.

And, boy, did you take pictures. The first few were of you and random people in a club. You had vague memories of those people. You had bonded over… something? Something told you it was mojitos, since all of you had a glass of mint and lime in your hands.

Then you got to the ones with Sebastian. Horribly taken selfies mixed in with blurry photos of whoever was performing on the stage. The background in your selfies changed from the club to a restaurant to some sort of brightly lit up sculpture. Finally you got to your own Elvis pictures.

It wasn’t the wedding you’d ever pictured for yourself, but it was the only one you would get. Even though it would last for less than a day, ideally, you were strangely glad that it had happened. Once you found out about the tumor, you put your love life on the back burner. Not that you ever really put much focus on your love life to begin with. You had plenty of other shit to sort through before you pulled anyone else into your toxic mess of a life. And then, once the chemo didn’t work and reality set in, you made peace with the fact that you would never get married.

If you had a bucket list, one more item would have just gotten crossed off.

Your eyes drifted over to the ring you’d set on the counter while you were in the shower and reached over. It was so much bigger than any ring you’d seen in real life. A huge diamond was nestled in diamond encrusted halo knots, set atop a braided band of yet more diamonds.

It was beautiful.

With a hard swallow, you slipped the ring back onto your finger, admiring it. There were only a few minutes left that you would have it. Only a few minutes to soak this in. This ring was far too expensive to keep.

You took a breath before standing and opening the door to rejoin your temporary husband.

“Hey.”

Sebastian looked up from where he was seated on the bed with your laptop in front of him. “Hey. So I called my lawyer and he called a colleague who found out that we are legally married.”

“Awesome. He give you tips on annulment, then?”

While Sebastian filled you in on what he’d learned, you started picking through the mess of your hotel room to fill your purse with the necessities. His voice was soothing, helping to calm your nerves.

“Alright,” you said, once he was finished. “So we just need to head over to the courthouse?”

He nodded shallowly. “Let’s grab something to eat first. What kind of a husband would I be to not take my wife out the morning after we got married?”

“Breakfast then annulment.” You nodded thoughtfully. “Have to give you props, Seb. This has got to be the most creative first date I’ve ever gone on.”

You fiddled with the ring in your pocket while you waited for Sebastian to show up outside of the hotel. Leaving the room ten minutes apart just added to the strange feeling of this whole thing, but it was necessary to try and keep everything out of the press. The two of you walked down the street once he joined you.

Mundane chat of everything you saw filled the space between you until you arrived at the restaurant where you were quickly led to a private table.

Then came the awkward small talk. You found it easier to hold a conversation when you were walking. Something about the motion was calming. Once you stopped moving, you had two switches. One was talk until the other person put duct tape over your mouth and the other was to not say a single word. After your babbles this morning, it seemed you were all talked out, so you looked over the menu in near silence. You two would throw out a comment here or there about a certain dish, but that was it.

Then the waiter came with water and coffee, then left with your orders and menus.

“Coffee,” you breathed, adding your cream and sugar as quickly as you could so you could burn your tongue by drinking it too soon. After the first sip, you nearly moaned at the feeling of caffeine waking up your every atom. “Fuck, I love caffeine.”

After a moment more of awkward silence, Sebastian broke it. “I don’t think I ever asked what you do. Where you work.”

“I work at data security firm.”

“That’s why you let me at your computer. You had all your private stuff hidden away.”

Your coffee cup was lingering at your lips when you smirked. “I think you saw enough of my private stuff last night, don’t you?”

The blush and sputtering that resulted from your risky joke was well worth it. But he recovered quickly and a spark flickered in his eye. “Does it really count if I don’t remember? It’s too bad that the only thing we’ll remember from our marriage is trying to end it.”

“That’s what makes us special.”

Now that the ice was broken, conversation flowed easier. The topic of your cancer didn’t come up again, and you got away from talk of your upcoming annulment. By the time you were finished eating, you felt more like you were talking to a friend. Not a celebrity. Not a one night stand. Not your soon to be ex-husband.

A friend.

Time for them to head to the courthouse and end their marriage...

Part 3: The Burning Question

[marueonmain]

WINDFLOWER

part three ~ without the dolphin ~

(part one) (part two) (part three)

A/N: Thank you all so so much for reading! I never thought people would care about my writing and I am so appreciative. I’ve got messages/asks open for comments or questions.

Summary: Y/N warms up to Alex. George advises him to not be an idiot. 

Pairing: imallexx x reader

Warning: Secondhand Embarrassment. Mild Language.

Word Count: 2.3k

There was no music in the lift. There was no music to interrupt Alex's music blaring into his ears. If there were someone around, they would have heard his questionable song choice for the four-minute trip from his apartment to meet the deliveryman and back again. Not that that trip required music.

However, consider that the brain could think thousands of thoughts in four minutes, and the chances of those all being pleasant thoughts are minuscule. Why take that chance? Why not drown them all out?

DING the sliding doors opened. Alex stepped out with a bounce in his step set in-time with the backbeat of the chorus playing in his ears.

Coming from around the corner where the mailroom was, Y/N brushed past him in a flash of blue clothing. She did not seem to see him.

But he saw her, like a Where's Wally game he was not aware he was playing. He took out one of his earbuds, slipping it in his pocket. Alex was determined to be normal: to make up for the initial awkwardness of their first meeting.

Y/N walked past the lift and started for the stairs. She was on the fifth or sixth step.

"Red!" called Alex.

"Hmm? Oh, hello," she said, smiling.

"How are you doing?" It was uncomfortable for him to be on a lower plane than to whom he was speaking, but Y/N was not moving, so neither was he.

"Tired."

"For tired, you don't look too bad. No I didn’t—you don't look bad. You look good!" Amidst recovering from his slip, Alex noticed how different Y/N was then last time. Different in appearance, with her softer expression and relaxed shoulders, and in her aurora. It was calmer, more open.

"You look good too. That shade of yellow—" she pointed to his sweatshirt, "—compliments your hair."

"Really? You think?" He thought he might just melt or spill open in front of her.

"I'm not a liar. What are you up to?" Y/N looked around, keeping her head on a slight swivel. She returned to meet Alex's gaze with something like concern shining, hiding behind her animated expression.

"I'm meeting a deliveryman. If you want, you could come and eat pizza with George and me." After a short beat, he added, "Invite Sammy too."

"Is George your flatmate or..." Y/N intentionally trailed off.

"Flatmate." Alex thought he might have seen Y/N's smile widen more so for a second at his answer. But he could not be sure what he saw was real or just a manifestation of what he wished to see.

"He sounds nice."

"George? Yeah, he's lovely. Not as lovely as me, of course."

Nodding in mock seriousness, Y/N confirmed, "Of course."

It was a simple conversation, but it felt so alive: so real: so this is happening right now and Alex felt so present. Like looking at himself in the mirror late at night and being hit with the conscious recognition of I am a person. Here I am this corporeal being. Not made of words or thoughts, what I find funny or opinions I like, my mental state or view count.

Alex was real talking to Y/N. Words were free-flowing out of him as he processed and reacted simultaneously. Such an understanding – if harnessable – could lead to solutions for world hunger or maybe even get him to three million subscribers within the year.

"So, you'll come along?"

"I can't." Y/N frowned a slight frown. Her nervous nature returned as she cleared her throat and began to fiddle with her fingers.

"Come on, Red," his voice whined with the plea before stabilizing, "It'll be fun. It's not just pizza. I was planning on throwing together a salad as well to go with it."

"How healthy."

"Oh? Do you not know?" Alex paused so Y/N could shake her head. "I'm only buying a pizza to support local businesses; I'm really an expert in the kitchen."

"Is that right?" She raised an eyebrow.

"World-renowned."

"You know what? I see it now. Better than Ramsey, aren't you?"

"Leagues better. I'd challenge any chef to rival my bagged salad mix. It's spectacular – delicious."

Y/N giggled, and Alex joined.

Music had continued to blare from the earbud he left in, but he had been able to ignore it during the conversation. Until a particular song came on – one he downloaded as a joke – and he heard the line: got our song...up and ready

Did Alex wish Y/N and he had a song? No, that was dumb. An unrealistic expectation the romance genre shoved upon its (generally) female audience. But did he? Kind of. It would be cute. Men can want to be cute, too, right?

"So, you'll come?" he asked...again.

Y/N fiddled with the collar of her chin-hugging top. "I would, but I can't. Sam would—don't you think you've made your deliveryman wait long enough?"

"Probably. You have some time to change your mind; just ring me if you do."

"I don't have your number."

"Alright," he made a give it here gesture, "I'll plug it in."

Y/N's bright expression faltered a smidge as she relinquished her phone to him. It was an older model but still a smartphone: no passcode: no apps other than those built-in. Her wallpaper was a picture of Sammy and her on a nature walk. 

Alex’s prominent adam's apple jumped. A pain like indigestion or like guilt stabbed him in the stomach. After plugging in his number, he took an extra second to double-check it and add some personal flair.

Y/N took her phone back. "Why the emoji? I think I'll know who you are without the..." Y/N squinted at the screen. "...without the dolphin."

"Never know. It could be a good reminder."

"I suppose, it does match your eyes," she muttered, still focused on the phone. Y/N froze for a second, clearly not having meant to say that out loud.

"There you go, it's perfect. Don't be afraid to call or text me; I'm on that thing 24/7, and I promise to reply in at least one-to-two business days. Guaranteed."

She scoffed, "You should go get your pizza."

It would not be the first or fifth time Alex had forgotten about a deliveryman, and – while he would let his extra-large go stone-cold before willingly break off a conversation with her – it was apparent Y/N was itching to get somewhere.

"True." Alex gave a short wave, maintaining his distance. "I'll see you later."

"Bye.” Y/N disappeared up the stairs.

~LATER~

Alex balanced the extra-large pizza box in one hand. Never having worked in food service, his confidence in doing so was even lower than his regular self-confidence. With his other hand, he patted himself down, looking for the key to his apartment. He cursed at himself for having locked it out of habit when he left.

There was muffled shouting coming from inside – sounding both playful and angry. It took a single step through the door for Alex to recognize the source of the shouting.

George was in his bedroom watching a video back without his headphones on. 

A great grief. A true unseen struggle for all youtubers – headphones were uncomfortable. Constant low-pressure squeezing developed into the biggest hazard of the job: chronic headaches. Both flatmates had expressed how they sometimes woke up to the feeling like they needed to relieve a phantom pressure and take off their headphones despite not wearing them to bed.

"Take high ground," a familiar voice commanded. "You have to down this guy."

Pre-recorded George asked, "Where is he?"

"Left. LEFT! Your left! Goddammit George, you dyslexic bitch."

It was with bitch that Alex recognized the other voice in the recording– it was Joshy, and it was a fortnite video from the sound of it.

"This gun is so weak it's hitting nine damage," pre-recorded George complained.

Joshy screamed, "Let's go; we got to go!"

"You do your thing. I'll be over there in a bit."

Their bickering continued sounding identical in tone to that of a couple outside divorce court. Viewers loved how shit George was at fortnite and how increasingly frustrated that made Joshy: the shouting, the swearing, the idle threats and name-calling. Pairing up together for these types of gameplay videos would often have them banging out a quarter to half a million views per video.

Meanwhile. Alex placed the pizza box on the coffee table and fell onto the sofa with an exhausted sigh. Sitting up, he grabbed at the box lid and started claiming the best-looking slices in his head.

Eyes flickered to the closed-door: George had not heard him come in – surely not. And he would not be mad if Alex started in on devouring the pizza without him – surely not. Right?

Stacking two slices on top of one another, Alex crammed them into his mouth quick, as if scared they would be taken away from him, and burned his tongue.

"Help me," pleaded the pre-recorded George, "Help me. Help me."

"Nah. Don't think I will."

"Josh, if you don't revive me right now. I swear to god, I will piss in your mouth while you sleep."

Alex snorted, choking on the third slice of pizza he had fit in his big mouth; he had been on the receiving end of that piss threat before, several times. Most recently because he left a plate in the sink and George swore if Alex did not clean it that second, he would...well...piss in his mouth.

"That's not very nice." Joshy mimicked genuine sadness. "I got you."

1/3 of the pizza was gone, and Alex decided it fair to call George in before he scranned it all himself. "George! Pizza's here!"

"Alright!" George (the real not the pre-recorded) shouted back. There was the sound of his door closing and the padding of his socked feet down the short hall before he appeared around the corner. Met with Alex and the 2/3 of a room temperature pizza, he asked the appropriate, "What the fuck?"

"I was starved."

"And here I was thinking the one excuse I would accept for taking twenty years to get the pizza was that you'd run into the street and got hit.”

Alex spoke around his mouth being full, "Sorry."

"Whatever." He snuck in a quick smack against the side of Alex's head as he joined him on the sofa.

Both men sat in silence, shoving slices of pizza into their mouth like it was a competition. Like there was no other food in their apartment. Like they could not order another pizza. Like it proved something.

Breaking the silence, Alex swiped the sleeve of his sweatshirt across his mouth and asked, "Are we still filming that opening pokemon cards video tomorrow?"

"Yes. Just need someone to film the over-the-shoulder angle. Lewis is sick."

"Sick with what?"

"Not the bug." George rolled his eyes mockingly. His eating had slowed down after hitting the wall, half-way through his fifth slice. "It's like a cold or something. Could you ask your new mate Sammy to do it?"

"Why not ask Will to come down?"

"Don't trust him," he said, shrugging.

"Fair enough. I'll ask him when we hit the pub later." Alex stood and walked to the kitchen. At the sink, he washed his hands with dish detergent and, cupping his hands into a bowl, washed around his mouth with the soapy water. Satisfied, he took a towel to his hands and face before returning to see George shutting the lid on the pizza box. "What do you think of Sammy?"

"How do you mean?"

"Just in general."

George shrugged. "He's cool."

"Yeah," Alex agreed – because he did agree with the statement; he liked Sammy.

There was a pause, and, in the interlude, George stood and grabbed the pizza box. He brought it to the kitchen bin; balancing it on top the overflowing rubbish. Curious and perhaps thinking he heard a tonal shift in their dialogue, George settled himself to be pressing his shoulder against the wall nearest where Alex stood. Leaning like he was in a how do you do fellow kids meme.

Alex felt very much 'squared up' to. He turned to be met with a quick tilt of the head and a scrutinizing near-glare from his flatmate. It was not unlike George to stick his nose in where it does not belong; could this be considered that type of situation? Alex did ask for his opinion.

Clearing his throat, George asked, "Is this about Y/N?"

"I was talking to her earlier and—"

"Why were you talking to her?"

"—and I got the sense that Sammy might be like a tad controlling. I don't know."

"Are you serious?" George asked harshly before continuing in a softer voice – with a hint of hesitation, of caution, "You know what happens when you jump to conclusions like that. You shouldn't be chatting up Y/N behind Sammy's back."

"It wasn't like I cornered her. We ran into each other." Alex tugged on his sleeves, pulling them past his shaking fingers – seconds away from crawling into himself.

It was not playful bullying between friends anymore; it was a telling off. And neither was comfortable. George's eyes pleaded for Alex to look up and meet them, and for Alex to understand. Alex held no negative feelings toward George. But Alex hated himself for reacting as he was; he hated being human and having sensitive moments. Though he could not stop it.

"You have got to back off. Ok?" George confirmed, "If it means we can't have Sammy in the friend group, then that's what it means. We'll find someone else to film for us tomorrow."

"No, it's fine. I'll ask him," Alex said as he pulled up and straightened his posture. He smiled at George's concerned expression and added, "I'm not interested in Y/N."

[shigarakis-fifth-hand]

Bakugo x Reader; Catch Ya Later

Enjoy the series! <3 one two three

   Bakugo sat upright in the hospital chair, sleeping soundlessly with small, light snores. “Katsuki…” A nurturing voice interrupted his dreams, someone trying to wake him. “Ugh, fuck this kid. Katsuki!” Bakugo’s shoulder was grabbed and shook, waking him suddenly. 

“M-Mom?!” Katsuki looked up to see his parents, a terrible sight to see at 2 am. “What are you doing here?!” He asked loudly, picking himself up and dusting off his knees and hands. “Your teachers called us. Apparently you refused to leave and threatened a nurse.” Mitsuki explained as Bakugo rolled his eyes annoyingly. 

“Listen, Y/n is in surgery because of me. I can’t just… not be here when she gets out. I need her to see that I waited for her, and I need to be there for her. It’s my fault she’s here, it’d be terrible to sleep at the dorms while she’s here, alone and terrified.” Bakugo expressed, feeling guilt weighing down his stomach.

   “She’s not alone Katsuki, plus…” Mitsuki looked around at the nurses walking around the hospital, giving the boy the side-eye. “I’m pretty sure you’ve overused your welcome. You can come back to see your little crush tomorrow.” She smiled at her flustered son. 

“Now, let’s go.” Katsuki stood up and looked over at his two teachers who sat together. Aizawa nodded, giving the okay. Katsuki finally walked out, feeling his heartache with every step. He just wanted to see you again.

   Shoto and Shinso luckily got to stay, sitting across from each other in the uncomfortable hallway chairs. “So you and Bakugo are… fighting tomorrow night if I heard right?” Shinso asked curiously as Shoto nodded. “Uh, yeah. He said that Y/n confessed that she liked him or whatever. I think it’s time someone put him in his place.” He explained as Shinso nodded. “Hmm, I see. Where will you be fighting?” Shinso once again asked as Shoto chuckled.

 “The field outside of the dormitories just past the woods. Why?” Sho asked as the other laughed in return. “I just… I find this love triangle of yours so amusing. I didn’t know things like this happened in real life. No offense to you of course. I just never understood it.” Shinso kept talking as Shoto sat there next to him, unamused. This was no tv-show or story line.

   This was Shoto’s life. Y/n was his world, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “Well it does. And it is. And I’m going to win.” Shoto leaned against the wall and shut his eyes, liking the silence of the hospital hallways compared to the dorms. There was no yelling, no laughing, and nobody getting up to get water in the middle of the night.

   Just as Sho was about to get relaxed though, Endeavor stormed through the doors. “Shoto! What are you doing here?”  He yelled, his loud voice making everything shake around him. “My friend just got out of surgery. What are you doing here?” He asked his father who glared at him angrily. “I just got a very angry text from your teacher’s phone saying that you weren’t going back to the dormitory. Do you know how important it is to get a good night’s sleep? If I stayed up all night whenever a fellow hero got injured, do you think I’d be the top hero? NO!” Shoto rolled his eyes as his father kept yelling.

 “Shoto, just go. He’s going to wake up everyone if he keeps going on like this. Don’t worry, I’ll tell her you wanted to stay.” Shinso comforted the red-and-white-haired boy. “F-Fine. Tell her I’ll be right back in the morning.” Sho told the boy across from him before walking alongside his dad out the door.

   “Like hell, I will.” Shinso laughing lightly, getting up and going inside of your hospital room. She sat there, mindlessly spacing out at the wall before he came in. “Shinso.” She smiled, fully opening her eyes. “How are you feeling?” He asked, hating the look of all the wires connected to you after your surgery. “I’ve felt better.” You grabbed his hand and smiled warmly at him. 

“Thank you for staying with me. I always get so lonely. Your dads are great, but they have classes tomorrow to teach and I know they need to be at least somewhat awake at their job.

   “Yeah, except let’s be honest. Aizawa is never fully awake.” Shinso joked, making you giggle. “Anyways, thank you.” You pulled his hand down, making him lean into you. You gave him a kiss on the cheek and ruffled his purple, fuzzy hair. “I know. I tried to make the other guys stay too, but neither wanted to stay the whole night as I did.. You know how insensitive teenage boys can be.” Shinso lied, trying his best not to smile. 

Little did any of them know that Shinso had sent all of the adults messages saying to come to get their child, hoping it would help his plan even more. He was going to make Y/n fall in love with him if it was the last thing he did, and not those two idiots that were going to physically fight over her.

   “Every boy except you Shinso. Thank you.” You mumbled, before closing your eyes, your hand tightly intertwined with his as you fell asleep. “I love you,” Shinso whispered as softly as he could, running his hand down your beautiful face. “So… much.” 

   The next morning, you recovered smoothly from your surgery and were allowed to heal at the dorms until further notice. Shinso and his fathers were more than happy to help you move some of your stuff there, and you were excited to be out of the hospital. Shinso sat at your side the entire time, only leaving to go to a few of his more important classes, and get you your homework that Aizawa left aside for his son to take to you. 

You appreciated it but noticed how neither Sho nor Bakugo came to see you, no matter even though you texted them that day. Maybe they were just busy, yes. That had to be it.

    Unknowing to you, the two boys you were thinking about were preparing themselves to fight. Just downstairs, Bakugo worked out in the gym, collecting sweat and lifting weights and warming up his muscles to the max.

   Todoroki sat in his room, finishing up the homework while he had the chance. He had been ignoring his phone all day, getting prepared for that night. He stretched out his muscles, warmed up with push-ups, and now was cleaning his room. He knew that the fight would get violent and that it was probably both would be leaving with injuries, especially since neither was the type to quit. Sho knew he had to win, not just the fight, but the ability to confess his love to you without Bakugo trying to mess everything up.

 That way, Shoto would be the only guy who had a crush on you, and he would be able to fully get into a relationship. At least… that’s what he thought.

   Shinso sat on the floor of his room, laying on the fuzzy carpet as he texted you. All he had to do was give the boys enough time to stir up trouble, and then he would bring you out to see the disaster. You’d get mad at both, end up running back to your room, and you’d be all Shinso’s. He planned what he would say, and how he would confess. Surprisingly, he wasn’t nervous like usual. He was excited.

   A few hours passed, the sun began to set, and it was time. Todoroki showed up early, leaning against the wall as he waited for his opponent to show. Bakugo, on the other hand, showed up late. He had a bad idea about this. At first, Shoto wasn’t even sure Katsuki was coming until he saw the spiky blonde hair approach him under the street lights.

   “Now, let’s handle the basics. Nothing too powerful or noisy, since we aren’t even supp-“ Todoroki was interrupted by Bakugo laughing. “You scared Half-and-Half? Or just stalling for time? You know… we could skip all the basics and you can just back out now.” Katsuki grunted as Todoroki shook hs head. “Fine, you say when and we start.” Bakugo chuckled, very aware now about how serious Shoto was. “Fine then. I say now.” And their long fight began.

   Shinso got up out of his room and walked down the long hallways connecting the 1-A and 2-A dorm rooms. Finally, he arrived at your door. A cute little whiteboard on the door that said ‘Hiii! Please knock!’ Now, the fight would be happening blocks down the road where it wouldn’t be so loud, so Shinso needed a good excuse to get you there.

   You opened the door to see your best friend standing there, smiling sleeping. “Hey Shin, what’s up?” You questioned him as he shook his head, wiping away a fake tear. “I just had a bad dream and need to take a walk. Want to join me?” He invited, extending his hand. Not wanting to leave your friend in a state of crisis, and also wanting to break some rules, you nodded. “Let me grab my shoes.” 

   Down the block, Katsuki and Shoto thrashed around, using their quirks to bruise, blister, break, and burn each other. It was nothing but painful for the both of them. Katsuki could feel his insides shaking due to the cold, and Todoroki winced at an explosion he took to the face, causing a very mild burn on his cheek. “Why are you doing this? You don’t have the connection I have with her!” Todoroki yelled at him from across the field. 

“Yes I do. I love her. I hurt her, and now I need to fight to get her back. It’s necessary.” Katsuki explained, heavily breathing and panting, about to pass out. “No you don't. Be her friend, be her best friend even. I don’t care. Just stay away from her romantically. I like her too much to let her go.” Todoroki tried to reason before a random explosion shot near his head. 

   “Shut up!! Shut!! Up!! I’m obsessed with her. The moment she walked in, my life changed. She finds the good in me. She makes me happy. I’m in college now, and I have yet to feel anything for anyone besides her. No celebrity crushes. No girlfriends. She proved to me that I can feel emotions. I’m never going to lose her to anyone.” Bakugo confessed, leaving Todoroki speechless. 

“Well then, I guess we will have to play the long game.” Bakugo prepared, watching the flames emerge from Shoto’s backside. He knew now that Todoroki was dead serious, but good thing that he was too. 

   Shinso and you made your way down the sidewalk slowly, just talking. You told him about how recovery was going, and even made sure to tell him how lonely you were. “Todoroki and Bakugo haven’t even talked to me since I began staying in the dormitories. It is nice though, everyone else has dropped by gifts and stuff in the mornings before school.” You smiled softly at the ground, reminded of all the flowers, gift cards, and food left at your doorstep.

 “They have been acting weird lately since the hospital. I guess you’ll have to talk to them, I’m not that close to them. Too annoying for my taste personally.” Shinso confessed as you giggled, thinking he was joking.

 “They can be a little much, but Shoto is always dying to help me with my homework, and take me shopping. Bakugo, on the other hand…” Shinso looked over to see your eyes sparkling as you smiled like an idiot, and clenched his fist.

   “He has anger issues, and can act like a jerk sometimes. Everyone has their own issues, some more than less. But he means well, and he tries. I think that’s all that matters really.” You thought out loud before you felt a hand on your shoulder. “What about me? What would you say I am?” He asked, turning you towards him as you noticed how close he was suddenly. “You’re nice, and friendly. I don’t know, you’re one of the bros. You were so welcoming into your home, and you’ve really treated me like a sister. You’re like a brother to me. Actually, I’d say you were my best friend.” You grinned at him as he smiled back. You were so naïve and innocent.

   “Best friend? Well…” Before Shinso could say anything, you heard a large explosion in the background. Turning, you saw familiar explosions and ice everywhere. Before you knew it, your legs picked up and you were sprinting towards the crash. “Hey, Y/n wait!” Shinso yelled, running after you, but unable to keep up. You ran blocks, full-on sprinting, until you turned to see a horrid image. Todoroki holding Bakugo’s body, Bakugo knocked out cold. “Oh my god! Shinso! Shinso!” You screamed at the top of your lungs before running to him. “We… We were training, and we went too hard. I hit him at a bad angel and he hit his head.” Sho explained as you examined Katsuki. 

Sure enough, a small stream of blood came from his arm, and another deep gash was on his leg. “Go get Aizawa.” You murmured, beginning to get your phone out of your back pocket. You looked up to see Shoto, still frozen as he stared at Katsuki’s body. “Go!” You screamed, now angry at Shoto.

   Finally, Shinso caught up with you, and froze as he saw Katsuki on the ground. “Help me!” You screamed before turning back to Katsuki. You ripped off a piece of your shirt and brought it to his arm. You made Shinso hold down the small strip of cloth while you dialed the paramedics. After calling, you began to shake the blonde. “Katsuki? Are you okay?” You tried shaking him, or smacking his face slightly, but he had no response. 

“Katsuki… please… please…” You began crying, not even noticing as Aizawa appeared next to you. “Y/n, get away from the body.” He instructed, beginning to pull you away before you pushed his arm away. “No! Please!” You kept staring at Bakugou as Shinso and then Sho had to pull you away from the body. “Please don’t take me away from him! Please!” You began sobbing, before you turned and hugged Shoto, desperate for some attention.

 “Please. Please.” You continued to cry, shutting your eyes tight as the sound of an ambulance filled your ears, but you didn’t care. Bakugo was hurt.

Taglist:  @turkeydinner-jpeg @fourteenow @cookednoodlez @fluffymarshmellowcat @toobsessedsstuff @michikomalandrosworld

[jade4813]

The Lies We Tell Ourselves, Chapter 3

Fandom: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

Title: The Lies We Tell Ourselves

Rating: PG (I’m assuming it’ll stay there?)

Pairing: Zoey/Max

Synopsis: Max would do anything for Zoey. Including posing as her fake boyfriend to give her father one last “big moment” to celebrate with her. Nothing could possibly go wrong. After all, it’s only his heart that stands to be broken. Right?

Chapter: 3/?

Author’s Notes: Takes place after Zoey’s Extraordinary Glitch.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

What would she do without Max? It was a question she’d asked herself several times over the years, but never as often or with as much heartfelt gratitude as over the last few days. He couldn’t heal her father or take away her pain, but he had made her laugh over dinner and offered her silent support and unrelenting strength for the conversation that followed. And when she told him she wanted to spend the weekend alone in her apartment, processing her grief, he didn’t try to convince her to go out and be social. Instead, he spent the weekend sending her ridiculous memes and corny jokes that made her laugh and, for a few minutes at least, took her mind off her sorrow.

She was stepping out of the café, fortifying cup of coffee and lemon poppyseed muffin in hand, when her phone beeped to notify her of an incoming text. Zoey was smiling before she even grabbed her phone, already knowing who it would be. Her smile turned into a snort of laughter when she saw Max pick up their conversation from where they’d left it off the night before.

“I think we really need to get everyone at work in on this because it’s really important to me that you accept that you’re wrong. In fact, you’re so wrong, I’m a little worried about how you could think you were right about this.”

“You’re out of your mind! I’m totally right about this!” she wrote back quickly. “A T-Rex would totally take the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!”

Three ellipses appeared at the bottom of the screen, followed by Max’s response. “A T-Rex is 20 feet tall. Tops. Mr. Stay Puft was 112.5 feet. There’s no competition! One step and it’s over!”

Zoey had to veer to the edge of the sidewalk to perch on a concrete barrier was she typed out her reply. “Did you honestly just Google that?”

She didn’t have to wait long for his response. “Of course I did! This is serious business!”

“Dork.”

A few ellipses briefly showed up at the bottom of the screen, but when they disappeared, no message followed. She continued, “You’re forgetting that, according to Jurassic Park, the T-Rex is so much faster than the marshmallow man. AND he was a finely honed murderbeast. He gets a few lucky bites in on the legs, and it’s over!”

“T-Rex may be faster, but how wide is Stay Puft’s gait?”

She shook her head, looking around to make sure nobody saw the goofy smile on her face as she teased him over text, “I’m surprised you didn’t Google it.”

His response made her laugh out loud. “I tried, but I couldn’t find anything. The geeks of the Internet have really let me down.”

Zoey shot off one last quick text before picking up her coffee and muffin and resuming her walk to work. She was going to be late if she didn’t hurry. “Is this really what you think about in the morning when you’re getting ready for work? It’s a wonder you aren’t late more often.”

“I multitask.” A few minutes later, her phone chirped again. She paused long enough to throw her empty muffin bag into the trash and then read the message on the screen. “Can we at least agree that Godzilla could take both of them?”

“How tall is Godzilla?” she asked, absolutely certain he’d already looked it up.

“164 feet originally. The new Godzilla is about 984 feet tall. And, let’s face it. That’s ridiculous.” He was such an adorable dork.

“Oh, yeah. Totally. And Godzilla would toast them both.”

“Was that a pun? Did you actually just text me a pun??? If we weren’t already fake-dating, I’d fake-ask you out just for that.”

“I couldn’t help myself!”

Her self-satisfied smile morphed into a soft “aww” when she received his next text, with an attached photo. “Also, I saw puppy yesterday and thought of you. It’s in boots. BOOTS!”

Zoey was so distracted by Max’s texts that she was stepping on the elevator leading up to the SPRQ Point offices before she realized she hadn’t thought about her dad’s condition once that morning. She had absolutely no doubt that had been his purpose all along, but he was once again touched by his quiet thoughtfulness.

She was trying to think of the words to text him to express her gratitude when the elevator doors started to slide closed. At the last second, Simon darted through the opening and joined her on the elevator. “Hey,” he greeted her warmly, meeting her eyes briefly before their gazes darted away. “Listen, I was hoping that the two of us could talk. About what happened in my office the other day.”

She shifted her weight, edging away from him as she looked down at her feet and slipped her phone back into her pocket. “Yeah, I know. Look, I know that I made things complicated when I sang to you. I wish I could explain what happened to me that day, but I can’t.” She’d briefly considered telling him about her powers, but she doubted that would help the situation much. If anything, telling him their friendship started after she heard him singing about his sorrow when he was alone in the office would only complicate things. More than she had already. “I know this is going to be hard to believe, particularly given my behavior the other day. But I’m not trying to get between you and Jessica.”

He nodded slowly. “I know, and I appreciate that. I hope I haven’t given you the wrong impression. Ever since I lost my dad, it’s been nice to have someone to talk to who understands what I’ve been going through. You’re a good friend, Zoey. I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” she reassured him with a smile. “I will always be your friend, Simon. I think we just need time, you know?” Before he could point out the obvious, she winced and let out an apologetic little laugh, trying to cover her embarrassment with a joke. “Okay, I know I said that before, but this time, lap dances are totally off the table. I promise.”

He grinned over at her. “So that’s not something you do with all your friends? That’s a shame.”

“Not really. I was trying something new. I wouldn’t recommend it.” The elevator doors slid open, and she stepped through, expecting that Simon would turn immediately towards his office. Instead, he followed her.

“Can I ask you a question? You and Max. Are the two of you…?”

She hesitated, looking around to make sure they weren’t being overheard. In all honesty, she wasn’t entirely sure what to say. They’d talked about maintaining the fiction for her family, but they’d failed to address whether their lie would carry over into work. Or maybe they’d deliberately avoided it. Either way, she wasn’t sure what she should tell Simon now. She wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to tell him. “Me and Max?” She glanced around the office, but it appeared she’d beaten Max to the office.

At a loss, she shook her head. “No, we’re friends. Just friends.” But even though she knew it was the truth, the words tasted like a lie. Or a betrayal. She was Max’s boss, so it was entirely possible that their unusual arrangement could cause problems for them at work. It was possible he would prefer to keep it between them. On the other hand, if he didn’t, it would undoubtedly hurt him to know she was denying it – particularly to Simon. “Well, I mean…I guess we’re kind of dating. Maybe?”

His eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Maybe kind of dating? What does that mean?”

Heaving a heavy sigh, she mumbled, “It means…it’s complicated?” If her life was going to continue being so convoluted, she was going to have to find different ways to describe it or quantify it on a sliding scale of difficulty or something. She should buy a thesaurus, at the very least. “The thing is, we haven’t been dating for very long, I guess? And I’m not even sure if that’s how we would describe it! Or that Max would describe it that way. As dating, I mean.” Did it sound too much like she assumed he wouldn’t want to admit it, like she thought he’d be embarrassed by their relationship? She scrambled to recover. Waving one hand helplessly in the air, she blurted, “Or maybe he would! You should ask him.” Wait. What if Simon asked him before she’d had a chance to warn him, and Max panicked and said the wrong thing? “Later. Or not!” For crying out loud, this was getting ridiculous. She had to stop. She was only making it worse.

Simon didn’t seem put off by her ridiculous rambling. “Well, whatever’s going on with you two, he’s a very lucky guy.”

“Thanks,” she told his retreating back as he headed toward his office. She couldn’t waste time reliving her conversation with Simon, picking apart every sentence to torture herself with thoughts of what she should have done differently. She had to catch Max before anything else happened.

She tried to find reasons to casually lurk near the elevators. She was pretending to examine some chipped paint near the baseboard when she saw him enter. “Max!” she hissed, jumping to her feet.

He let out a small yelp of surprise, spinning around to face her. “Zoey! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

She didn’t wait for him to catch his breath. “I need to talk to you. Meet me in the meditation room in five minutes. Act natural! Oh, and don’t talk to anyone.” Without waiting for him to respond, she walked back to her desk, projecting such a forced air of nonchalance that she felt she might as well hold up a neon sign saying she was up to no good.

Still, when she snuck into the meditation room a few minutes later, she found him already waiting for her there. He rushed up to her, framing her shoulders in his hands. “Zoey, what’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“It’s funny you ask me that, because you’re going to have to tell me. The thing is – and I know I should have talk to you about this first – but we have to pretend to be dating here. At work.”

Whatever he’d expected, she could tell by the expression on his face it hadn’t been that. “Okay. I guess that’s…okay.” She saw a line form between his brows as he tried to process the ramifications of what she was saying. “Why? What happened?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and stepped out of his reach, burning off some nervous energy by pacing back and forth. “I kind of panicked when I was talking to Simon this morning.”

“Simon? You told Simon? Why – how did it come up?”

She didn’t even need to look at him to hear the astonishment in his voice. In fact, not looking at him was easier. “He sort of…asked me if there was something going on between us, and I said we were maybe kind of dating.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Max shake his head, as though trying to clear away some mental cobwebs. “Simon asked you if there was something between us. And you told him – Simon – that we were dating,” he reiterated.

Rolling her eyes, Zoey turned on him. “Are you planning on repeating everything I say? Because we don’t have a lot of time before people realize we’re hiding out in here and get suspicious!”

“I seriously doubt anyone has noticed we’re missing,” he reassured her. “And, no, I won’t repeat everything you say. I’m just…processing. Making sure I’m clear about what happened. You know, to make sure I have our story straight.” But he didn’t look like he was overly concerned with nailing down the details. In fact, he looked overjoyed. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear he was practically glowing from the grin on his face.

Her eyes narrowing in suspicion, she said, “I hope you’re not getting the wrong idea. This doesn’t really change anything.” She remembered how he’d reacted when she’d unwillingly sung him a love song, and she didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. Again.

“I know,” he agreed, a little too readily.

“And you’re okay with keeping up our act here at work? It might cause some problems with Joan.”

His smile didn’t so much as falter. “I can honestly say, whatever happens with Joan, I’m totally fine with it.”

Zoey stared at Max for a long moment, wondering if she should ask why he wasn’t upset that their personal fiction was going to interfere with their professional lives. He seemed to be in an inordinately good mood, given she’d just lobbed a bomb at him. But maybe it was a better idea to leave well enough alone. From his texts throughout the morning, he’d seemed to be in a good mood. Maybe she was just being paranoid.

While she wrestled with whether or not to press him on the issue, he rubbed his hand together and said, “Anyway, I should probably get back to work before I get in trouble with The Boss for goofing off.”

Somewhat reassured that he’d taken the decision out of her hands, she gestured toward the door. “Oh, yeah. We wouldn’t want that! I hear your boss is a real task master!”

“She can be,” he agreed, and though he’d been the one to suggest he take his leave, he lingered by her side. “But I have a soft spot for her anyway.”

He leaned down, and for a second, she could have sworn he was about to kiss her. Her breath caught in her throat and she froze, staring at him with wide eyes as she waited to see what he would do. After a moment’s hesitation, he turned his head and brushed his lips across her cheek. Bewildered by an unexpected sense of disappointment, Zoey didn’t move and found herself entirely unable to speak as she watched him leave, humming merrily to himself as he walked out the door.

She had told Simon about their fake-relationship. She had told Simon about their fake-relationship! Of all people, she had told Simon about their fake-relationship!

Barely able to believe it, he kept repeating the words to himself, over and over. Of course, he knew it didn’t really matter. It certainly didn’t mean anything. It didn’t mean that she might have decided that she wanted to choose love over attraction, after all. It didn’t mean that she would want to pursue a relationship with him at some point. It didn’t even mean that she’d made a decision about what she really wanted. It didn’t mean anything.

But it felt like it meant something – or like it could mean something, at least. It felt like it could mean a lot.

It didn’t matter what happened with the rest of his day. He doubted his mood would be brought down, even if Joan fired him for his supposed relationship. Simon had asked Zoey what was going on between the two of them – and Max would love to know what had prompted that question – and she could have said anything. She could have denied it. She could have evaded the question. She could have even told him the truth, that it was all pretend. Instead, she’d told him they were dating.

Nope. Nothing could possibly bring down his day. He was in such a good mood, he found himself singing softly as he headed back to his desk. In fact, he was having a hard time resisting the urge to break out into an impromptu dance. “I used to think maybe you loved me, now baby I’m sure. And I just can’t wait ‘til the day when you knock on my door. Now every time I go to the mailbox, gotta hold myself down. Cause I just can’t wait ‘til you write me you’re coming around.

“I’m walking on sunshine, whoa! I’m walking on sunshine, whoa! I’m walking on sunshine, whoa! And don’t it feel good?”

[too-old-for-fangirling-but-idc]

My little Squeaky Toy Pt.3 (Tom Hiddleston x reader)

Title: My little Squeaky Toy Pt.3

Summary: What happens when Tom and you exchange numbers after having met in the art gallery? Of course, he promises to call you, to send a message. But will he keep that promise?

Warnings: hinted fluff, no romance in this part (I’m sorry), pillow fights, mild swearing, angst, Tom Hiddleston is a ridiculous gentleman and sweetheart, embarrassing situations

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Reader

Notes: I listened to dramatic music while writing this, maybe that will show, I just hope it won’t. (again: repost from my old blog)

(Y/F) = your (best) friend’s name, she’s female.

Word Count: 2075

(Part 1; Part 2)

 You held your phone pressed to your chest as if it was the most valuable thing all over the world. Well, maybe it was. At least, Tom had touched it while typing in his number. The smile that had lingered on his face just then had turned your world upside down. How could one man be so stunningly beautiful and so incredibly handsome at the same time? At that moment you hadn’t even realized when he had raised his voice again. He had had to nudge you to get your attention from his body and smile back to what came out of his mouth.

And then he had leaned down and had hugged you for what had felt like an eternity. An eternity that had been over way too fast. You could still feel his strong arms wrapped around your waist and shoulder, the sweet but masculine scent that had lingered in the air, the warmth of his body as he had literally crushed you in your hug. It had been so simple, yet it had just felt right. Tight, but not too tight and oh so gentle. He had held you as if you might have broken if he had clutched too hard.

“I will text you, then.” He had said as you two had separated again. “Be careful on your way home. Don’t let anyone hurt you.” You had blushed at his words but nodded quickly.

Waiting for your phone to vibrate, signalizing that it had received a message, you sat in your living room.

Shortly after you had arrived back home, you had called your best friend because, hell yes, of course you needed to tell her. Desperately. The positivity and all the stupid wonderful feelings inside wanted to be released and shared. But only with someone who you could definitely and absolutely trust. And maybe, but just perhaps, you hoped for a bit of support while waiting for Tom’s first message.

You weren’t even sure if you were able to answer should he finally text you. There was the great possibility that you would merely stare at your phone, too mesmerized by whatever he would have written.

Maybe he was busy right now. A meeting with people of his agency or perhaps he had to read through a new script. You couldn’t help but find the thought of Tom, sitting on a couch and flicking through papers over papers while continuously highlighting and noting things down, more than just a little bit endearing.

The doorbell made you cringe at first, but you were quick to recover from the initial shock and put your phone down. It had rung a second time until you had made your way to the door and opened it to welcome your friend.

“Finally! I nearly thought you fell asleep on your way.” (Y/F) beamed with joy. “How was the art gallery?”

“Don’t you want to come in before asking all the questions?”

She laughed and bounced into your apartment, pulling off her jacket and shoes to toss them carelessly on your wardrobe.

“Now come on, let’s get comfortable.” Without waiting for your response, she already headed towards your living room. “And get some glasses. I brought red wine with me because I know you have to tell me something important.” She wiggled her eyebrows at you and put the bottle on the table.

“Yes, sort of…” You fumbled a bit too long with the glasses, to hide the consistent blush on your cheeks and face. It was not a “I’m standing right in front of Tom”-blush, nevertheless it was eye-catching.

“Stop fumbling with those glasses now and get your ass over here.”

“Stop mocking me!” It was with her that you could somehow speak more freely, and not had to feel anxious and worried about what you were saying.

With two glasses in your hands you walked over to (Y/F) and put them down onto the table, before finally sitting down.

“So, what happened?” Seemingly proficient she let the cork of the bottle pop and poured a good amount of wine in both her and your glass. “It can’t be something bad, right?”

“Guess who I met today?” You took your glass and glanced at your hands. By the short silence that followed your words you were almost able to know exactly what she would say next.

“Oh no you did not!” Her voice sounded outraged, but you knew you were still moving in a safe zone. “That Tom? The Tom you met in London?”

“Yes, and now a second time.” You bit your lower lip in a faint attempt to not smile that stupid grin that had lingered on your face since the first day Tom and you had met in the middle of the night.

“Don’t tell me you gave him another one of your squeaky toys again.” Obviously, it was a joke, but you could not restrain yourself from at least trying to look offended at her words.

“I did not. We talked. And he gave me his number… and his business card.” A slightly uneasy feeling started to tingle within you, yet you brushed it aside as good as possible and handed the small card over to (Y/F). All of a sudden you were happy that the card didn’t give away information about where Tom lived. Although you didn’t quite know why that should be worrying you.

“How dare you?! How dare you didn’t tell me who he really is!” One of the cushions of your couch landed in your face and you hurried to put the wine glass down before it could break.

“You knew the whole time and didn’t say one word?! What kind of friend are you?!” She hit you again with the pillow she had picked up from your couch.

“Sorry.” You muttered through slightly gritted teeth. You knew that she wasn’t actually mad.

“It’s okay. Just tell me the f***ing truth right from the beginning next time.” Another playful bash with the soft pillow. “You know, I’m your best friend. You shouldn’t be scared to trust me with something like that.”

“I do trust you. I just had to sort myself out before I could talk to anyone, I guess.”

Her sharp gaze softened at that. You had known each other for years now. That was why she was indeed aware of why you behaved how and when. She wouldn’t make a fuzz about it, because she understood that your intention hadn’t been to upset or hurt her.

“Hon’, come here. You know that I will always be here for you, don’t you?” Instead of hitting you again, (Y/F) dropped the pillow and pulled you in for a hug. “So, what exactly happened?”

“He asked me out for dinner.”

“Then why are you still here?” She raised one of her eyebrows, her tone skeptical.

“Because I had a train to catch, that’s why we exchanged numbers.”

“God damnit. It’s a pity that London isn’t in our neighborhood.”

At that moment, your phone, which you had placed on the table earlier, vibrated a few times and then went still again. Your heart skipped a beat and all your attention was momentarily on the small device.

“He hasn’t written yet, huh? Go on, then. I want to know, too.” (Y/F) giggled and scooted closer, so she would be able to easily glimpse at your screen, too.

Hesitant, you reached for your phone and opened your inbox. It couldn’t possibly be, could it? So soon? Did he really care about you?

The name glowed in black letters on your screen, but you felt unable to move, unable to do anything more than simply staring at your phone.

“What are you waiting for? Open it!”

Startled, you tipped on the message.

<Hello, this is Tom. I just wanted to ask if you arrived safely and if you are well. Love.>

“Oh my god, he’s cute. How can you be so lucky? Jeez.”

You didn’t really listen to her at first, too busy staring at the words in front of you. ‘Love’. He hadn’t used ‘greetings’, but instead of that ‘love’. Should you pay attention to that? Or was it just his usual gentleman-self showing?

“You have to answer him like right now.” (Y/F) seemed to be giddier than before, but you couldn’t blame her for that, because you felt similar, you just simply didn’t know what to say. You wanted to scream, to cry and to laugh all at the same time.

“But he will know that I have spent the last hours waiting for his message.” Uncertainty and excitement both lingered in your voice, making it throaty in the process.

“No excuses. Plus, it sounds like he is really worried about you. So, answer.”

Of course, you could ask her for advice on what to exactly write, but you wanted your answer to sound like yourself and not like a combination of two persons.

<Hello! Thank you for your message! I’m fine, and safe at home, thank you. How are you? – Love.>

Oh gosh. That sounded way too formal, way too stiff, but you had already pressed the button to send it.

“That sounds like a teenager writing a mail to his teacher.” Bluntly, (Y/F) stared at what you had just texted back. “But I wouldn’t have done any better myself.”

That reassured you a bit that you weren’t completely incapable of human interaction and communication. “It’s too stiff, isn’t it?”

“It’s not that bad, honestly. Perhaps a tiny little bit, but I’m sure he will understand.”

Tom didn’t give you a chance to properly answer to (Y/F)’s statement, before your phone vibrated again, signalizing yet another message that he had sent you.

“See, he’s as fast to respond as you are.” (Y/F) soothed you and leaned back on the couch, obviously pleased with the current situation.

<I’m relieved to hear that. I have been worrying for a while, to be truly honest.>

<There is no need to be worried. But thank you.>

“Yeah, I guess I’ll leave you two alone then.” Pulling herself up, (Y/F) flashed on a cheeky grin, before heading towards the wardrobe and dressing up again.

“What? No – you don’t have to!” You hurried into the corridor and watched her put on her jacket with a pang of guilt.

“It’s okay, really. Talk to him now. I’ll question you about every detail tomorrow.” She winked and turned to leave, but paused in the doorway. “You can keep the red wine. I’m sure you will need it.” And with that she went down the staircase of the building. You could hear her humming until the door of the ground floor fell shut.

Deciding that everything was fine and that you definitely hadn’t just kicked her out, you turned and went back into your living room, curling up on your couch and clutching your phone as if it was the most precious thing you had ever seen.

<There is plenty to worry about. First, you travelled all by yourself with the train and that for several hours. And secondly, there could have been an accident. I’m glad you are home.>

You chuckled. He let it sound like you had just fought a war without any help, although you had merely sat in a train for a few hours and read and listened to music most of the time.

<Sorry. I may have overreacted.> Came his next message only seconds later.

<It’s okay. I’m still alive, if that knowledge soothes your nerves.> Writing was so much easier than actually talking to him. Though you definitely preferred the latter, just because you loved looking at his face and the bright smile that would show up every now and then.

You spent the entire evening sitting on the couch, occasionally sipping a bit of red wine, watching TV (on which you could barely focus) and waiting for his replies. The phone ever present and within reach next to you, so you would notice every new text that you received.

You had never been someone to answer especially quickly, but at that evening everything was different. Tom had successfully managed to not only change your feelings and emotions, but everything else as well. You felt more enthusiastic, more beautiful, more inspired and so much happier than ever before. You didn’t know what it was like for Tom, but for you it had become a small miracle that brightened up your life.

Tag List:  @fiammablade3466 @zainab2 @the-lululemon @superanimenatural @blackirisposts @thejemersoninferno @nwmtagsb @signalnotfound0 @emyhonny @kimanne723 @alexakeyloveloki @spookycatqueen @disneyoncerlover815 @aaminah12 @mrshiddleston-uk @loobnknoob @lykaonimagines @caticorndancingonpainbows @finney13s @alexxandra-the-great @lilyrosebae @sarahivi @michellearel1 @eye106

[watchmegetobsessed]

Crush // Shawn Mendes mini-series part 4

okaaay so this is the final part of this mini-series, i hope you enjoyed it! hopefully i’ll come with the next part of boundaries very soon, im working on it, promise! take care xx

part 1 - part 2 - part 3

masterlist

I keep my word. I try my best to forget about all my worries and just… chill. I spend some quality time with my family in the remaining time of the year. I mostly just help Mom with everything around the house, I go grocery shopping with Dad on the evenings and I go ice-skating with Eric once. My nerves calm down, I don’t think too much about Shawn. We keep in touch in text though, I ask him if Maddi can come along and he assures I can bring anyone I would like.

Maddi returns on the 30th and I go back to the apartment that day too. I say goodbye to everyone at home and promise to visit sometime in January as well. Maddi is already there when I arrive, her suitcase is wide open in the middle of the living room.

“Hey!” she greets me with a wide smile when she walks out of her room. We exchange a quick hug before I bring everything into my room and just leave the bags on the floor. “So, are you excited?”

“Um, a bit, but it’s fine,” I shrug.

“Cool, I’m happy you are not stressing about spending New Year’s Eve with your future boyfriend.”

I roll my eyes at her, but she just giggles to herself poking my side gently. “Okay, I promise I won’t nag you about it, let’s just have a great time tomorrow.”

“That’s a plan,” I nod agreeing.

 We sleep until noon the next day knowing we wouldn’t be getting any sleep on the last night of the year. Getting ready with Maddi is like one big party. She has a playlist she always puts on, it’s full of jumpy, dynamic songs that are perfect to get you in the mood. She does my makeup using her magic skills and I end up with the most dramatic and perfect cat-eye I’ve ever seen. While she does her own I curl some light waves into my hair leaving it less bold, I definitely don’t want to look ridiculous with a too flashy look.

It’s past five when we get to the outfit part and by the time we are ready it’s surely time to leave. Shawn sent me the address earlier and it’s almost as far from our place as my home. So dressed in our partly fancy, partly cozy outfits we pile up into my car and leave.

I’m driving and Maddi is in charge of the music from my phone, so when I get a text she sees it before me.

“Oh, Popstar just texted!” She sings happily and I glance to her for a moment. “Can I open it?”

“Yeah, read it to me would you?”

“Okay, it says… Hey, just wanted to make sure you are still coming. You can park in the garage, can’t wait to see you. Ah, he is such a cutie!” She grunts in excitement but I just chuckle.

“Charlie, why are you so sceptic about him?” Twisting her body she looks at me questioning. I’m glad I have to focus on the road so I don’t have to look her in the eyes.

“I’m not sceptic,” I object, but I wouldn’t be able to say what I’m really doing.

“You are sabotaging yourself and I’m not a fan of it,” she continues. “I know Dylan screwed you over, but it has been years. Now this handsome, nice, successful Adonis is basically running after you, but I feel like you are ready to shut the door on him. Promise me you’ll be open tonight. Just go with the flow, let him charm you and let yourself fall for him a bit.”

I keep my mouth shut as a painful feeling wraps around my body, pulling me into my deep anxiety.

“But if I let myself fall for him a bit, I will fall hard. And I won’t be able to recover.”

“Recover from what? Charlie, if this guy screws you over I’m gonna do your laundry until one of us moves. I’m a hundred percent sure he is pure and perfect and I haven’t even met him!”

I don’t say anything, just keep my eyes on the road, escaping Maddi’s examining gaze.

“Charlie?” she calls out.

“What?” I snap letting out a tired sigh.

“Promise me! Please!”

“Okay, I promise. I promise that I will let him charm me,” I say grudgingly earning a round of applause from her.

Not that he hasn’t already charmed me, I think to myself, but decide to keep this small little detail to myself.

  Shawn’s place is… amazing, but I don’t know what I was expecting, he has the money to have a home like in a catalogue. It’s modern, has a lot of rooms, a huge kitchen and his TV could fit our TV in it like ten times. And the view is the most amazing thing about the whole place. I can clearly see the CN Tower through the window and there is a nice and comfy sitting area right at the window. I imagine him sitting there in the night, watching the lights of Toronto and playing the guitar.

I don’t actually meet Shawn in the first twenty minutes, but I do see some people from my high school and it’s making me feel weird at first. My high school years weren’t the best and because of Dylan I was quite a controversial person. Half of the people hated me for dating him and then the other half tried to be friends with me so they could get to Dylan, but since Dylan was such an asshole I never really made friends with anyone. Now they are weirdly staring at me from the distance, only a few of them actually dare to come up to me.

Maddi is having a blast, but I’m not even surprised. She has always been great at making friends, her nature is just simply so easy-going and open, she can charm anyone in a minute. We are chatting with a guy who graduated a year before me, I think his name is Chris, when I go to get a drink and actually look for Shawn. I make my way into the spacious kitchen that is filled with people, I look around but I don’t see him anywhere. I lean against the counter and pulling my phone out of my pocket I start typing a message to him, but I don’t get to finish it.

“Well, hello there, Charlie!”

Glancing up I find a smiley Shawn right in front of me, a Corona in his hand, his eyes beaming at me. I quickly forget about the message and curl my arms around his neck pulling him into a hug.

“Hey! I thought you are not even here!” I giggle sliding my phone into my back pocket and turning all my attention to him. He is looking amazing, as always wearing a khaki long sleeved shirt with black skinny jeans, his curls are messily framing his face and for a moment I feel like I need to run my fingers through them, but I control myself.

“Sorry, I’ve been all around the place.”

“It’s fine, you are the host,” I smile at him.

To his suggestion we take a shot as a welcome drink and then he hands me a beer just to start my evening properly. We stay in the corner of the kitchen talking, but mainly it’s just me listening to him and getting lost in his features.

I completely forget about Maddi and the drink I promised to get her and only remember it when she shows up in the kitchen. Her face is a bit upset at first but the moment she lays her eyes on the tall guy next to me she forgets about that drink completely.

“Hey there!” she chirps smiling, eyeing Shawn from head to toe.

“Um, Shawn this is my roomie, Maddi. Maddi this is-“

“Shawn Mendes,” she chimes in holding out a hand for him that he takes grinning.

“Nice to meet you, Maddi. I hope you are having a good time,” Shawn says handing her a beer as well which she takes gladly.

“It’s nice, you got an amazing place gotta admit.”

“Thank you. Though I’m not here that much.”

“I can housesit for you sometime. Anyway, I heard a lot about you lately.” Her eyes turn to me and I immediately feel myself blushing. She is not gonna bust my crush on him, right?

“Really?” Shawn’s eyebrows raise and he glances at me playfully.

“You know, I told her about our stressing reuniting,” I chuckle nervously and think about having another shot to make my anxiety go away. I’m truly fearing that Maddi will say something awkward in front of him and I really don’t want that.

“It was… surprising, yeah,” he chuckles nodding his head, causing a curl of hair to fall to his forehead. My eyes follow the shape of it until he combs it back with his fingers and catches me staring. I quickly turn away feeling my cheeks turn even redder than before, but luckily he doesn’t mention it.

“Mhm, and I heard about other stuff too,” she adds with a knowing look and God, I just want her to stop talking even though I love her to death. Shawn’s eyes shift between us as I dart her a deathly stare and she finally gives in. “Alright, I’ll look for that cute guy I’ve been eyeing, you two have fun. Charlie, text me if you need me,” she shrugs already turning away to search the place for the guy.

Shawn mumbles a bye to her before she disappears and we are alone, well, as much as you can be alone in a crowded apartment.

We stay in the kitchen, but privacy is not really a thing when you are hosting a party. People keep coming up to Shawn and being the sweet person that he is he doesn’t turn anyone down, but because of this I feel like I’m keeping him up. After all, I’m also just a guest and I shouldn’t own him from all his friends.

When he is talking to this guy he used to work with I decide it’s better if I look for Maddi and let him do his business for a while, hoping to get back to him around midnight, which is only an hour away. I grab my drink, a vodka soda he made for me and with an excusing smile I’m about to leave the conversation I wasn’t even part of, but his hand finds my wrist and he pulls me back. The force of the pull smacks me against his body a bit, giving him the chance to put his arm around my waist and giving it a gentle squeeze and honest to God, this is the smoothest move I’ve ever seen.

I’m blushing like a school girl, standing close to him with his arm around my waist and my smile is so wide I probably look like a fool. He keeps me by his side until the guy leaves and his hand doesn’t move even after that. Not like I would want it to, or like I would want to leave him, I’m feeling better than ever with him and at first I thought it’s just the alcohol, but I’m barely just tipsy, it’s all him.

Not much before midnight I excuse myself to the bathroom. We are sitting on his couch and he unwillingly but takes his hand off my waist so I can stand up, but before I could slip out of his hold he grabs my wrist and holds me back.

“You’re coming back, right? We only have twenty minutes until midnight.” His eyes are fixed on my face and I smile at him kindly as I place my free hand on his on my wrist and give it a squeeze.

“I’m coming back,” I tell him and he finally lets go of me.

There are two people waiting for the bathroom so I stand in line patiently. I keep checking the time making sure I don’t run out of it. I’m excited for midnight and I can’t even lie, I’m hoping Shawn feels the same. From the last few hours I’m guessing he is, but first I have to make sure to be there when the clock hits midnight.

When I finally finish my business I only have five minutes left. I make my way back to the living area looking for Shawn. Soon I spot him on the couch, almost where I left him and a smile spreads across my lips, but as I’m approaching it soon fades away when I see that he is not alone, and I know exactly who is sitting next to him, laughing along with him on something.

Lauren seems comfortable next to him, her long legs are crossed and her whole body is tilting in his direction. I remember what Shawn told me about their relationship, that he only dated her just to distract him, but seeing them so close and smiley is more painful that I would have expected it.

Suddenly I feel like I don’t belong here. Looking around I see all these people I used to see every day but I don’t even know them, and maybe I don’t know Shawn at all either.

The guests start buzzing as everyone realizes how close midnight is. The excitement is rising and everyone is finding the person they want to celebrate with while I push my way through them and with a glass of champagne someone hands me I exit to the balcony seeking some privacy.

As the glass door shuts behind me the chattering and music fades and the cold Toronto air hugs me around. The lights are still breath-taking, I step to the railing and stare at the CN Tower in the distance. I wrap my arms around my body trying to keep my heat, but it’s useless, though I don’t want to go inside just yet. Maybe I’ll just freeze to death here until Maddi finds me and we go home. Standing there I contemplate on everything that has happened to me in the past years. Seeing Shawn with Lauren really hit me hard, I guess I should have just listened to my brain. Maybe I’m upset because I feel like he lied to me when he said his relationship with Lauren was nothing. Maybe he said the truth but he has been rekindling it lately and it is something to him now. I never really knew Shawn and there is a chance I read the signs incorrectly, maybe he has been just extremely friendly all along. After all, he himself said that he is over his crush on me, I shouldn’t have let Maddi make me believe there could be something between us.

I can hear as the people start the countdown inside and I bring my glass to my mouth, getting ready to start the new year with the champagne, totally alone.

“Four!... Three!... Two!... One! Happy New Year!” Everyone chants inside as screaming and laughter follows the wishes.

I take a sip from my drink and just when I’m about to turn around and go back to escape the cold I hear he door opening and closing, then a familiar voice speaks up.

“You said you’d come back.”

When I turn around Shawn is standing there, his hands are in his pocket and he doesn’t seem too happy. I’m lacking the right words, I’m not sure why he is standing here, he should be making out with Lauren on the couch.

“I um… I just wanted some fresh air,” I say not really sure about what should be said. He walks closer and stops two steps away from me. He is so tall, but his features still amaze me even in the dim lighting. His silhouette is shining as the light is coming from behind.

“At midnight? Who wants to be alone at midnight?” he shakes his head with a confused chuckle. I just shrug my shoulder. No one wants to be alone at midnight, and that includes me as well.

“Charlie I-“ he starts but then just ends it with a sigh as his eyes roam around the city skyline before they return to me.  “I was hoping to celebrate the New Year with you,” he then says.

“Me? Why not Lauren?” I ask before I could think twice. He furrows his eyebrows.

“Lauren? What are yo- Charlie, you saw me with her and came out here to be alone at midnight?”

“No?” I say severely ashamed of this fact. It sounds dumb now that I heard it from him.

“She just came up to me while you were alone, but left before midnight to be with her boyfriend. Because she has one and she wants nothing from me, we’ve been friends since we broke up.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Shawn.”

“Yes I do. Because…” He pulls his hands out of his pockets and reaches for my free hand and takes it between his warm palms. I look down at our hands and up at his face as he takes a step closer to me. “Because I don’t want you to think I’m into anyone. Look, I’m terrible with talking about my feelings, I only write songs about them, but I can’t just start singing all the time,” he chuckles and it makes me smile too. My heart is pounding against my ribcage as I’m waiting for him to continue. “Remember when I told you I was over my crush on you?” he asks.

“Yes,” I nod shortly.

“I lied,” he straight up says making my suck my breath in. “Charlie, I still have the biggest crush on you. When you walking into our house at Christmas I knew I was screwed because I felt just the same as in high school even though I really thought I was over it. And then it just got worse because we started hanging out and you are such a sweet soul and so kind. By the end of our little nostalgia walk I was… head over heels in love with you again, or maybe I’ve always been, I don’t know. But what I know is that I really wanted to be with you midnight because I’ve been building up my courage to kiss you and you just ruined my whole plan,” he chuckles nervously and I can’t help but laugh with him. He really did just turn everything around in a few minutes.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin your plan,” I finally tell him earning a boyish smile that looks so good on him, I could just kiss him right away, but I give him the opportunity to take that first step himself.

“It’s alright. But I guess you owe me something now.” “Oh really?” I giggle biting into my bottom lip and he moans painfully.

“Oh my God, Charlie, stop biting your lip! It’s making me crazy, for real.”

“Sorry!” I laugh but when his large hands slide to my jaw and tilt my head upwards I immediately stop. He leans in, but stops right before our lips could meet.

He doesn’t say anything, just examines my face and I’m just about to ask him what’s wrong when he finally kisses me. I melt into his hands, his lips fit mine perfectly as they are moving against them slowly. I bring both of my hands to his wrists, wrapping my free one around his and because I’m still holding the champagne in my hands I can only brush my knuckles to his skin with my other hand. He is taking it slow, lazily nibbling on my bottom lip, taking his time savoring me and I’m perfectly fine with it. Moments pass by and we part when I jump from someone screaming inside. His face is still just a few inches away from me, his warm palms are on my cheeks.

“Why did you stop before it?” I question curiously.

“Because I let my high school self admire the moment he has been longing after since day one.”

His words melt me and instead of saying anything I just pull his head down and kiss him again. And again, and again…

  My fingers are drumming against the wheel as I’m rolling in the traffic, singing along the song blasting through my car’s speakers.

“Be my summer in a winter day love…”

The sun is beaming which is odd in the middle of February in Toronto, but I’m not complaining. The warm rays are caressing my skin and the smile on my face is wider than ever. As I reach my old neighborhood I let out a satisfied sigh. I park down on our driveway and grabbing my bag from the car I head to the front door.

“Hello! I’m home!” I sing loudly when I walk into the house. I spot dad on the couch, probably watching a documentary. He smiles at me widely as he walks over and hugs me.

“Hey Chipmunk, how are you?” he asks walking back to the couch.

“Everything is fine,” I smile. I head to the kitchen and find Mom at the stove and I can smell the chili from the doorway.

“Hey! Are you hungry? It’s almost done,” she says caressing my face when I stop next to her.

“Yeah, thank you.”

“Charlie!” Erik barks when he walks into the kitchen through the backdoor. We exchange a highfive and he immediately tries to sneak a spoonful of the chili, but Mom quickly smacks his hand away from the pot. “When do you want to leave?”

“Leave?” Mom asks lifting his head. “She just got here!”

“Not leave leave, we are going over to the Mendes house,” I explain and Mom’s smile immediately grows wide.

“Is Shawn back in town? Why don’t you invite him over for dinner?”

“Because we have dinner plans,” I chuckle at her enthusiasm. Her disappointment amuses me, she is really fond of the whole Mendes family.

First Aaliyah made my brother fall in love and become a more decent person we’ve ever thought he would turn out to be. Then dinner at their house at Christmas was nice, she found so much in common with Karen, Eric told me they met up twice since then. And the latest news of me and Shawn getting together threw her over the edge. When I told her a few weeks ago I thought she would start crying over the phone.

“I told you! I told you he would be great for you!” she told me with joy-filled voice and I just rolled my eyes, but I knew she was right.

Things has been going better than ever. New Year’s Eve changed everything, I went to Shawn’s place single but left taken by none other than one of the most famous singers in the world. To be honest I had my doubts and fears, but it turns out Shawn and I can make things work easier than I thought. We had our first official date two days after the party and had several since then, but we agreed on taking it slow. Meeting again was quite sudden and we have a lot to adjust in this new situation. He left Toronto two weeks ago and I haven’t seen him since then meaning we spent Valentine’s Day apart and this is why we are holding our own V-Day now. It’s an understatement to say that I’m excited to see him again, but spending time apart was actually kind of useful, because I started to get used to the fact that we can never be like other couples, his work will take him away a lot and until I finish school I can’t always go with him.

“Okay, but we have to have dinner together sometime, like an official thing,” Mom says bringing me back from my thoughts that are already a few streets away.

“It’s not like you haven’t met him,” I point it out but she shoots me a look.

“Yes, but you weren’t dating him then. I haven’t seen him since Christmas and I would love to have him over for dinner.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to him about it,” I sigh giving in knowing she won’t stop nagging me about it.

Eric and I leave soon to meet our spouses at the Mendes residency. I have never thought I would ever be going to my boyfriend’s house with my brother, or date my brother’s girlfriend’s brother. Or that I would date a famous person. Of course, Shawn is not like a celebrity for me, he is an old friend, someone I’ve known in the past, someone who I’m happy I met again.

“So… How are things with Shawn?” Eric asks breaking the silence between us as we are walking down the empty streets of our neighborhood.

“Um, good! I have to get used to a lot of things, but it’s going great.”

“Charlie, I have to tell you something,” he then sighs nervously making me look at him suspiciously.

“What?” In the blink of an eye millions of theories run through my mind about what he could be hiding, neither of them seems too great so my anxiety is slowly creeping its way up on my spine.

“You remember when I said I didn’t think you’d care about the whole Shawn is Aaliyah’s brother thing?”

“Yeah?!”

“Well, that wasn’t true.”

“Eric, what did you do?” I gasp completely blown.

“It’s not that big of a thing! But… Aaliyah might have known about his crush on you and she might have told me about it. The dinner was about to happen at another time but we convinced everyone it’s better if you and Shawn are there too, this is why it was held at Christmas, because that was the only date when both of you were home.”

“Eric! I asked you specifically about this and you acted like you knew nothing!” I gasp in total disbelief how my little brother and his girlfriend just played me.

“Don’t be mad, it all turned out well!” He laughs nervously and I guess he is right. If it wasn’t for their little plan I wouldn’t be with Shawn right now. I might have never knew how he felt in the first place.

“I’m not mad, but next time let me know when you want to set me up.” I narrow my eyes at him and he holds his hands up nodding.

“Promise!”

Arriving to the Mendes house Aaliyah welcomes us and invites in. Looking around I don’t see Manny or Karen anywhere which is odd. I thought they would enjoy an evening to themselves now that we are all going out tonight.

“They are not home,” Aaliyah tells me smiling as she is putting her coat on. “You should take your jacket off by the way,” she suggests and I look at her confused.

“Why? We are going out too.”

“No, we aren’t,” I hear Shawn’s voice coming from upstairs and a moment later he appears in a dress shirt tugged into his deep blue pants. He looks hot as always, and the smirk on his face is just irresistible.

For a moment I don’t even process what he just said, I’m more focused on him and seeing him again. When he reaches the last step he immediately wraps his arms around my waist pulling me close to him and kissing me. I cup his face in my palms as I kiss him back and savor his sweet lips. It takes a few moments for the pink cloud do disappear and then my brain finally starts functioning again.

“So what’s with us staying here?” I ask still a little dizzy from his lips. He smirks down at me pecking my nose before letting go of me.

“Come on, I’ll show you,” he smiles at me.

Aaliyah and Eric leaves and once Shawn closes the door behind them he takes my hand and walks me into the dining room where the table is beautifully set for two people, candles are lit in the middle and there are even rose petals all around the table. It’s straight out of a romantic movie and needless to say, no one has ever did such a thing for me. I turn to him in disbelief as his arms snake around my waist.

“I also cooked, it’s not the best, but I tried. Aaliyah helped a little,” he admits and I see his cheeks turn rosy.

“I’m sure it’s amazing,” I say caressing his cheeks.

As I look in his eyes for a moment I go totally speechless. I think about how different things would have turned out if I wasn’t that obsessed with Dylan, noticed Shawn from the beginning. He would have been my first boyfriend, my whole high school experience would have turned out better.

But right now all these doesn’t really matter. Because I look at him and I’m just happy we happened to meet again.

“Eric told me something interesting today,” I say. He hums and kisses my forehead softly. “Did you know him and Aaliyah worked together to get us meet again?”

He freezes mid movement and looks at me with furrowed eyebrows.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, apparently Aaliyah knew about your crush and they twisted everything to make Christmas happen with both of us present.”

“What? You gotta be kidding me!” he gasps with wide eyes. “How did she know about it?”

“I don’t know, but our siblings are master minds,” I chuckle and he nods laughing.

“Well, I gotta thank her though. If Christmas didn’t happen I would still be just longing after you and occasionally think about high school.”

“You were still thinking about high school because of me?” I ask raising my eyebrows at him.

“Honestly, yes. Not that much, but I still kept thinking about you. And now… I get to kiss you.” He leans closer and pecks my lips softly. “Whenever,” another kiss, “I want,” another one, “because you are my girlfriend.”

“Mhm, I am,” I grin at him in awe. “So, does this make me a celeb too?” I ask playfully, making his chuckle.

“Well, we haven’t made it official. Wanna do it now?”

“You mean you want to post a sloppy couple picture?”

“Exactly,” he nods.

“Well, I guess we have to take this step sooner or later.”

He pulls his phone out and I try to fix my hair to look presentable. Suddenly I think about the millions of people that will see this photo and I feel very insecure about my look. I keep running my fingers through my hair.

He wraps his hand around my wrist and stops me. I look at him and see a warm smile on him.

“Stop, you look amazing.”

“Uhuh, you have to say this, you are my boyfriend,” I arch an eyebrow at him, but he just rolls his eyes. “Maybe we shouldn’t take this photo, or just not post it, I don’t kno-“

His lips crash to mine stopping me from talking and honestly, this is the best tactic. I get lost in his lips, kissing him feels like paradise and I just never want to stop doing it. Though when I lean back I see that he has his phone held up.

“Shawn! Did you just sneakily took a picture?” I ask turning to the screen just to see a photo of us, very much lost in each other. I have to say it’s a good photo, my favorite of us so far. His defined jawline amazes me and I just want to turn back to him and kiss it.

“Mhmm,” he hums as he opens the photo in Instagram.

I watch him write the caption “from high school crush to girlfriend” and then tag me on the photo, but he doesn’t post it just yet. Instead he turns to me.

“I’m not posting it if you don’t want me to. I’m excited to share with the world how happy I am with you, but if you are not ready just tell me.”

I smile at him caressing his cheeks with my hands.

“Post it. I only care about your happiness.”

He smiles down at me stealing a short kiss before finally posting the picture. A wave of anxiety washes over me but then I calm down pretty quickly. I see the comments and likes flow in and for my biggest surprise it’s mostly positive. People are freaking out, but they also seem very happy to see us together. A lot of them are confused about who I am, but I’m sure they’ll do their fangirl magic and find everything out very soon.

“Well, I guess you are officially linked to me. Can’t run now,” Shawn jokes and I turn to him hugging his neck with my arms.

“I’m not a fan of running, so you are stuck with me,” I smirk at him before kissing his sweet lips. We soon forget about the chaos our photo just caused and just get lost in each other, happier than ever.

[dorotheajanegilmore]

Devil’s Daughter

Previous: 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

Chapter seven

I had been staying with the Winchester's for just over two weeks now. My purple case looked great against the brown walls of the guest room, really made it feel like home.

The first night I stayed at the bunker (Before visiting parents in NY)

"Sorry it's so plain." Sam has said when he first brought me in here.

I shrugged. "It's much better than my dorm."

He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah I know how ya feel. Stanford."

"NYU." I admitted and he nodded with an impressed face. "Creative writing."

"Law."

I cringed. "Smarty pants."

Instantly an attractive smile broke out across his face and he shook his head, blushing wildly. "No. I never graduated."

"I don't think I will either, at least not yet." I told him truthfully.

"I hope that decision isn't because of us? I know how it feels to have your studies cut short and if I could go back..." Sam paused before he shook his head, laughing at himself. "I actually wouldn't go back."

I laughed at his honestly and shook my head. "No, I've been contemplating dropping out for a while. This whole angels exhausting and paternity testing is just the push I needed."

"Right." Sam wondered over to the bed and sat down beside me. He looked at me with a face of concern. "How are you feeling? Honestly."

"Honestly?" I asked and he nodded. I let out a deep breath, letting my shoulder sink. "I feel...like it's not real. I haven't thought about too deeply or really acknowledged it properly. I know that's not healthy but I just don't know how to accept this. My family life has always been rocky, my mother hates me."

Sam recoiled and pulled an offended face, as if I had just delivered a blow to his stomach. "I'm sure she doesn't hate you." I knew that his situation was difficult at the moment. Dean told me that their mother was trapped in some sort of apocalypse world.

"Don't defend her, I promise. You'll see tomorrow, she hates me." I emphasised it again but he shook his head, not having it. I decided to just continue because there was no way in changing his mind. "So, how did Dean recover so quickly? Those guys tortured him too."

Sam shifted on the bed and adjusted his watch on his wrist. He was clearly uncomfortable the way he was sat because his legs are way longer than mine and even my legs ached. We were both sat criss cross and I couldn't take it any longer.

I moved to sit at the edge of the bed, Sam sighing in relief and copying me as he answered. "Castiel healed him. Dean was supposed to save you from those guys but they ended up injecting and torturing him too. Demons aren't really fond of us, we've made a name for ourselves as hunters and they didn't know he was working with Crowley."

I nodded understandingly. I bit the inside of my cheek as I thought about asking the next question. My curiosity got the better of me and so I asked. "Did you, do you and Dean think I'm evil?"

Sam thought for a moment, before gently taking my smaller hand in his larger one. "I won't lie to you. When Rowena told us that Lucifer had a daughter and we needed her help...I definitely believed you to be evil. I thought that we were gonna find you at a bar murdering people or eating babies." Sam laughed at that last part.

“Why eating babies?" I tilted my head to look at him, confused as to where he'd get that from.

"Because ya'know, Lilith eats babies? At least in mythology and all of my text books-"

As Sam rambled on I looked down at the ground. I had forgot about Lilith being my true mother, I was so busy worrying about the devil I forgot about his first demon.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Sam put a gentle hand on my shoulder and I shook my head.

"It's not your fault, Sam. I just can't believe I'm not a product of Christian and Rose. That Hallie and Alex aren't my blood related siblings. They'll always be my family, regardless of what a test says but I had that I don't have an actual connection to them. I hate that my blood isn't their blood. I hate that my blood is...evil." I sobbed as the word evil left my mouth.

Sam shook his head and wrapped his big arms around me, pulling me into him for a supporting hug. I cried into his red plaid chest as he held me tight. "You're not evil, Elle."

"You don't (hicup) know that!" I shook my head, feeling him hold me tighter. He began to rub his palm up and down my back, as if he was soothing a crying baby.

"No I don't, you're right. But if raising Jack has taught me anything, it's that we can't make quick assumptions."

———

Present day

(Two weeks living in the bunker)

I sat in the library with a book under my nose. Every waking moment of the passed week has been spent reading up on Lucifer, and learning my powers.

So far I have discovered my psionic energy blasts can be used in blasts, streams, waves and bolts to move things, lift and even throw things. Allowing me to hit, push or pull a target, potentially exerting enough force to destroy them. I had also improved my telepathy, I can control when to and when not to listen to thoughts so I could actually focus now.

As I was reading about Lucifer's cage I felt a presence enter the room. I was already on edge from all of the reading, Satan's not a happy guy. Feeling threatened I spotted a pair of scissors on the end of the table and used my new found powers to lift them up and send them at the person watch me.

As I span around, hands glowing red I realised who it was. Dean was stood at the door with wide eyes and hands held up in the air alarmed.

The blade of the scissors, surrounded by red wisps, hovered just inches away from his neck.

"I didn't mean to scare you, little red." He pushed the scissors away with his index finger. They landed in the floor with a snap and I sighed in relief.

"Dean, sorry about that." I felt immediate relief, so happy that it was him and not some creature I had been reading about. I cringed, hoping he wouldn't be to mad at me. "I'm reading about monsters so I'm a bit on edge.

"A bit?" He smirked, amused. He pulled out a seat opposite me at the table and sat down. "Is that why I was nearly executed in my own home?"

I nodded and slid the book over to him. I pointed at a paragraph and he quickly skimmed over it. It said;

The powers of a nephilim would be to great to raise such a creature on earth among mortals. A human woman could never contain a baby nephilim for very long as it could tear them apart. A nephilim will grow at rapid speeds, much faster than a human woman's body could contain. Once born a nephilim will reach adulthood within a matter of hours.

"Yeah." Dean nodded, confirming that the information in front of me was in fact correct. "Jack was born and within twenty minutes he looked like he was twenty years old.

"So how come I have baby photos? Actual picture evidence of me growing through the years. Every birthday party photo shows a year of progression. Am I slow? Am I broken?"

Dean chuckled at my outburst and shook his head. "Elle, there's never been an angel, demon cocktail baby. You're the first. Perhaps Lilith's genes are much slower."

"Or." Came a Scottish voice from the doorway. Rowena stood with a mischievous smile on her face as she danced her way over to the table.

"Perhaps I did a wee spell to aid in your human growth. I was there when Lucifer chose your parents and he made sure that Rose would be strong enough to encapsulate you for nine months, not to raise your relatives eyebrows at a two month unholy pregnancy. The spell made sure that Lucifer's child would grow as a normal human until she reached adulthood, then her powers would slowly blossom. That's why it's important that we found you." She lifted her martini up as if to cheers us before taking a large sip.

"I thought you want me to put him in a cage?" I raised a brow, wondering why she was adding to her story now.

Rowena shrugged. "That’s for the after party. Once we’ve rescued Mary from the apocalypse world, you and Jackie boy can work together to put him in a new cage, a stronger sturdier cage. Come on, had I told you this earlier you would’ve been overwhelmed and scared away. We need you, Red.”

Dean shook his head and pushed the book away. "Damn it, Rowena! Any other information you'd care to share?"

Rowena bit her lip and tapped her finger against her chin in thought. ”Aside from Lucifer wanting Jack and Elle back? No, not that I can think off.”

Next: 7

Tags: @lilulo-12 @vicmc624

[acecorvid]

Sick Day [Spideypool/Spiderfam fic]

Sorry it’s been so long since a Spiderfamily update! It’s been a really weird and busy start to 2019 and I’m on a somewhat social media break? But more fics will be coming soon!

It took all of six seconds for Wade to realize he’d come home to chaos and considering he’d been in three gun fights only hours before, that was definitely saying something.

“Thank fuck you’re here,” Peter growled. His voice was much deeper and gravelly than it usually was. It was sexy. Quite sexy. Maybe the most sexy of all the-

“Hey! Fuckface! Eyes on me. Focus-” although the last part of ‘focus’ was coughed out onto Wade’s face.

“Ew, Spidey-germs. Does that mean I’m gonna get spidey-powers now?”

“You never get sick, Wade. Healing factor, remember?”

“That’s mutanist. You’re being- you’re falling over actually okay let’s get you to a flat surface.” Wade caught Peter in his arms mid-sentence as he started to tilt a little too far to the left. He propped Peter up against his own chest, turning his face so that if he coughed, he’d cough in a direction that wasn’t Wade’s tattered and bloody suit.

The falling over and apparent fever that Wade could feel through this suit didn’t stop Peter from rambling. “Gwen needs cough medicine. Peni needs a hot water bottle. Porker needs a lot of Kleenex. Noir needs some kind of old timey remedy that has too many ingredients and probably heroin so scratch that and just get him ibuprofen.”

“And Peter B. needs to lie down because he’s got the highest fever I’ve ever felt and I had cancer, my dude.”

“Don’t call me-” Peter’s coughing fit cut him off and he buried his face into Wade’s chest once again. “Don’t call me dude.”

“And Miles needs more blankets!”

Wade turned to the couch to see one Miles Morales peeking his head up from the couch.

“Miles?” Peter also turned to look but Wade assumed he got dizzy because he just put his face back on Wade’s chest. “You’re still here? I thought you went home.”

“You said there was a Spidey quarantine!”

Peter paused in Wade’s arms. “I guess I did say that. Okay. And Miles needs more blankets.”

“And water, please.”

“Don’t be greedy.”

Miles groaned and dropped back onto the couch and out of sight.

Wade stared at the back of the couch for a moment before he unceremoniously picked Peter up and starts to carry him upstairs.

“This isn’t what I asked for.”

“But it’s what you’re getting. Gotta get you into bed, old man. Have you always been this heavy? I feel like maybe-”

“Do not kick a man when he’s down,” Peter growled into Wade’s shoulder but he clings harder to him. He’s still clinging when Wade plants him down on their bed and tries to pull away.

“You’re warm,” is Peter’s only answer when Wade asks him what he’s doing.

“And you’re on fire. Didn’t you want me to help out the other spiders?”

“Leave them to die, cuddles are more important.”

Instead of doing any of that, Wade pulled away and was surprised at how easily he slipped out of Peter’s grasp this time. He was weak and pliant, which only made Wade worry more as he pressed a soft kiss to Peter’s forehead.

“Get some rest, old man.”

Peter grumbled and groaned, but he rolled over and cuddled one of the fluffy pillows on their bed, seemingly obeying Wade’s words for once. Wade was sure he’d be asleep within minutes of leaving the room.

As he walked down the hall, ready to go check on the spider-kids, he pulled out his phone and shot his reliable weapon’s dealer a quick text message and a list of everything he would be needing.

-

-

-

“You know, when I got your message this isn’t exactly what I was expecting,” Weasel held out six bags full of pharmaceuticals, Kleenex, and everything else the poor sick spiders would be needing. Weasel took in Wade’s form as he handed the bags over the threshold of the doorway. He blinked wildly, took of his thick glasses to rub them clean on his shit, put them back on, and continued to stare. “Also wasn’t expecting that.”

Wade, completely free of his usual suit and mask, was wearing a blue and white unicorn onesie and a pink frilly apron. With all the spiders sick, someone had to clean house, and that someone was well equipped with the best outfit for the job.

“It’s the uniform of a providing father, Wease.”

Weasel stared blankly at him. Clearly he did not believe or understand anything out of the mercenary’s mouth.

“Is that meds?” Gwen had snuck up behind Wade and he would have scolded her for leaving her bed but she was leaning heavily against his side for support. He’d never seen any of his spiders so weak. Gwen reached around him and rummaged through the bags until she found a package of cough medicine. “Thank fuck!” Gwen pressed a kiss to Wade’s cheek before turning and launching herself over the back of the couch to land directly on top of Miles judging by the yelp and groan that followed. He could not understand how she could still be this nimble when she was burning up with a fever.

“I got the stuff!”

After Miles recovered he lifted his head over the couch again, “Thanks Dad Number 3!”

“What the shit, Wade?”

Wade turned back to Weasel who looked completely shell shocked. He was staring into the house, eyes wide with disbelief.

“Is this where you’ve been this whole time? Everyone’s been asking for you at the bar, wondering why you’ve just been picking up jobs over the phone instead of coming in, and you’ve been… playing house with someone else’s kids? Who are these kids? Whose kids are they? What the-”

“Lot of questions, buddy. Slow down, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“Did you kidnap and brainwash a bunch of children, Wade?”

“Yes, Weasel. It’s a big conspiracy where I brainwash random kids to become mutant mercenaries not unlike myself and get them to do my bidding.”

“Al’s not gonna like this, Wade.”

“Weasel. I’m not. Obviously.”

Weasel looked from the couch, where two heads were poking up with curiosity, back to Wade. “Whatever’s going on here isn’t obvious.”

Wade sighed and shoved Weasel out of the doorway and stepped outside, closing the door behind him, much to the dismay of the two eavesdroppers inside.

“Look, you can’t tell anyone. I mean it this time, buddy. Tell anyone and I will personally slice your balls off and feed them to you on a silver platter.”

“Not the most creative threat you’ve given me but okay, noted.”

“I got married to a perfectly normal man from this dimension. His name is Peter and he has two children who are definitely both his biological spawn and they’re technically my kids now through marriage. That’s it. That’s the whole deal. And they’re defenseless little normal humans so I can’t let anyone know about them because any of my enemies could find out and hunt them down. Can’t have that. So no words out of your mouth, got it?”

Weasel stared at him for a moment before nodding, “Yup, absolutely everything out of your mouth was a lie but I can’t even begin to fathom the truth of it so- you got it bud. Not a word. Just promise me you’re not doing anything weird or skeevy or more illegal than the usual illegal shit we do.”

“Scout’s honor!”

“You’re not a- yeah okay, sure. You’re welcome for the care package. Hope the kiddies feel better soon.”

“Me too, who knew spider-people could get this sick.”

“Sorry what?”

“What?”

“The what people?”

“What what?”

Weasel rolled his eyes, waving his hand dismissively as he walked away. “Whatever Wade. You can tell me when you’re ready. Let me know when you’re ready for another mission.”

“Will do, buddy!” Wade gave him a two-finger salute before heading back inside and promptly running into Gwen and Miles who were obviously backing up from leaning against the wall. They somewhat successfully steadied each other despite looking like they were going to collapse at any moment. Gwen folded her arms and gave Wade a stern look, possibly to overcompensate for being caught. Miles glanced at her and immediately followed suit.

“Are you cheating on Pops?”

“Ye-yeah! Are you cheating on Dad Number 2?”

Wade rolled his eyes, sighing loudly as he put his arms around the two kids and lifted them up, carrying them back to the couch and plopping them down.

“Nothing or no one could make me cheat on your dad. I am faithful till the end. Sometimes beyond the end. With the exception of men that time travel and have metal arms… then sometimes I’m not the most faithful person but it’s an understandable thing. Like one of those freebie lists. You get me?”

Both Gwen and Miles shook their heads.

“Good! Now,” Wade dug through the bags he’d left in the entryway and plopped down a box of Kleenex, bottle of painkillers, two bottles of gatorade, and other supplies onto the laps. “Take some drugs, get some sleep, and feel better!”

“You’re a weird dude, Mr. Deadpool Dad,” Gwen mumbled as she crawled under one of the many blankets Miles had accumulated on the couch - including the ones that Gwen brought down when she was tired of being in her room alone.

“And you’re a weird kid.”

“But you’re good to have around. Love you and all that.”

“Ditto,” Miles chimed in though his eyes were already closed.

“Love you two and all that,” Wade repeated and patted them both on their heads before gathering up the supplies and spreading it out among the other spiders. Noir put up a bit of a fight when it came to all the meds, insisting that he read all the labels and wondering why there wasn’t certain now outlawed ingredients in them but eventually he got him to take many of the night time pills and put him back to bed. Peni was curled up with her tiny spider that somehow looked as sick as she did, so he left all the meds and supplies on her night stand and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He did not want to talk about what he saw in Porker’s room. He left seven boxes of Kleenex for him and left immediately.

Back in Peter’s room, Wade slipped in to find Peter soundly asleep on the bed, covers haphazardly wrapped around him. He put down the last bag next to the bed and gently crawled in next to Peter, brushing his hair out of his face.

Peter grumbled as he woke, rolling over to look Wade in the eyes. “Are the others okay?”

“They’re better. Gwen and Miles are particularly lively.”

“Not surprising.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Like hell froze over.”

Wade reached behind him and pulled the bag up onto the bed. “I came prepared then!”

“Ah yes! I knew there was a reason I kept you around. You’re the best.” Peter made grabby-hands at the bag and in any other circumstance, Wade would pull the bag out of his grasp. But he wasn’t one to torment the sick so he gave in.

“Only useful as an errand boy, I see how it is.”

“Oh, you’re useful for other things too. I just don’t have the energy for any of those right now.”

“You don’t have the energy for bacon and eggs and pancakes?”

“Ugh, please don’t mention food to me right now.”

Wade patted Peter back and kissed his shoulder as he downed some meds, and then Peter turned his body into Wade’s. “The kids are all taken care of then?”

“Hm? Yeah they’re good,” Wade answered.

“Cuddle with me?”

Wade smirked, moving to lie on his back and letting Peter snuggle up close to his side, “We’ve got to get you sick more often if you’re going to be this affectionate.”

“I will gladly be affectionate with you every day if I don’t have to feel like this ever again.”

“Hm, I’ll look into it.”

“I don’t like the sound of that and whatever twisted experiment you’re scheming of but okay, sounds like a plan.” Peter buried his face in Wade’s shoulder and promptly fell back to sleep. All through the house, Wade could hear subtle coughs and groans, making it hard for him to fall asleep, but this was his family and he would always protect and take care of them.

(first) (next)

[nobody2212]

Original Character A.N.O x Elliot Alderson

chapter [I] A strange encounter

Loud buzzing was ringing in my ears as I suddenly opened my eyes. I got up from the bed, still feeling shaken by the nightmare I just had. 'Shit, it's Monday' I think, staring at the little black alarm clock on my nightstand. It read 7 AM in bold green characters. I ruffle my hair with my right hand. My body was pleading for some more rest but I knew I couldn't afford to waste more time. I simply took my phone to check for new messages I might've received last night. I notice 2 messages from Tyrell wellick, Annoyance clear on my face as I read the text about how if he made me his personal manager, my payment would get boosted aka bullshit. I just responded with a 'no thank you' at his 'generous' offer. Plus, I don't want my cousin's wife to think something dirty is going on.

Yes, you heard me, I'm the cousin of this dipshit. You would assume that I'm the same as him since we're related and all, but guess what, I actually deny and don't go straight up killing like him. I've worked at E-Corp for like what? 3 months now? And everyone sees me as an enemy, well more like the fans and the F-society clan. Most people don't even know what F-society means, That name's true meaning is 'fuck society' in my opinion. My inner monolog was abruptly stopped as the realization struck me,

'who am I even talking to?'

I shook my head and check the time, now it was 7:15 AM, 'wow I spent 15 minutes staring at the wall' I get up and stretch before deciding to take a bath. While preparing the tub, of course, I put a bath bomb in there. I usually like to entertain myself with those. I put my headphones on and I let the warm water and music relax my aching muscles. I lay there for 30 minutes. After I got myself out I then dry my hair and body. I jump into my suit and put my hair in a nice bun. I go to get my glasses with screen protection because I want to actually see when I'm old. I laugh at my little joke then give food to my bunny, Scott, and leave some water for him before I leave for work, feeling both bored and sick of this hell of a day named 'Monday'.

I pass both men and women, all somehow looking scared yet confident, I see teenagers with masks on their faces as they run past me, one of them colliding shoulders with me, making me lose my balance a little. As I regain my balance I hear the kiddos screaming "F-SOCIETY BITCH!" from behind me. I smirked, seeing how these revolutionary people who created 'F-Society' Just gave these rebels the reason to burst out like bombs. I chuckle, unimpressed by this world. I enter the subway and immediately notice an overdressed dark figure sitting down, waiting for their ride. I tried not to seem too obvious, my introvert self got curious but I just brushed it off, losing my interest as soon as it came. I sit across them, opening my termux and tried to connect with this person's phone.

yeah yeah, I can already hear you say: 'what the hell? you work at e-corp but you're a hacker, but you are not in F-Society?' well let me let you on a little secret, whoever made this, they never wanted that to end like this, they had a good and reasonable cause for it. Maybe people from the company? maybe the corruption and the nasty things women have to do to be someone?

Yeah, sorry but no, I'm not into that shit. I always had the urge to meet them, though. This site they used to make posts, it was so well encrypted, it made my heart skip a beat at how good they were. You may be asking why I said what I said about them. That's just how I feel about it, no one can do this shit ALONE

My attention got caught by the dark dressed guy. He was staring at me deeply, he must have noticed the black text, I quickly turned off my phone and just got up. Luckily, my train was there so I had a good excuse to leave. To my surprise, they also got up and started to follow me. I felt my body tense but I quickly recovered and tried to act as nothing happened. He probably knows I'm onto him. but I'm relaxed because I know I'm going to work and they cannot pass the guard. But this is most likely a common ride and I'm worrying too much, haha. I smile to myself when I notice they were looking at me again. The train stops and I get off, this being the station I was supposed to be at. Then I just leave, still feeling their eyes on my leave form. I give them a smirk over my shoulder.

'well, that was interesting' I laugh to myself as I walk out of the subway to my building (e-corp). It only takes a short while for me to get to my office. I put my purse down before I start the computer, ready to

start this somehow not so bad on monday.....

TIME SKIP TO 4 PM

wow, I'm very surprised Tyrell didn't visit me at all, he must have been REALLY busy today' i think as I get my stuff and put the papers that need to be finished in my purse. I say goodbye to everyone before I start walking to Ron's coffee shop. I heard what happened to the owner. Very unfortunate for him. I get my coffee and waste no time to walk out. I get to the old' sweet subway quite fast. While I wait for the train to arrive I can't help but notice someone with a black hoodie sitting next to me. I ignore the fact that our shoulders were almost touching. After a few moments, I hear a deep male voice say:

"you tried to hack me...why?"

His voice seemed lifeless and cold and that made a shiver run up my spine. "Well you caught my attention with your way of dressing, You looked like you were hiding something, but I didn't seem to get anything out of Termux" I answered, trying not to sound as interested in the topic as I actually was "So did you follow me back there or was it just pure coincidence?" he was silent for 5 seconds then spoke "Well e-corp and Allsafe are pretty close" I turn my head to look at him, only to catch his beautiful eyes already staring at me. "I thought the boss of Allsafe died and that the company died with him," I say a bit thrown off by his eyes

"one of my colleagues discovered that the company has a very nice compromise with e-corp," he said then got up, I followed suit after I noticed our train was here. I entered a different door, only to stare at him from across the corner of the cabin we were in. I huffed under my breath then averted my gaze from him to text my friend, Ollie, who has been single for a while now, not that I'm interested or anything. Ew, no. I just wanted to note that, who knows maybe I'll need it for later. I decided not to tell him about this guy and just get this man out of my head.

I go back to my hacking for a while before I notice someone in here had a stolen phone in their possession. I shortly made a report about it to the police. 15 minutes pass before the train stops and I walk out. In no time I'm back to my apartment's building. I turn on my phone to check the time, the screen read 6 PM. Jesus, I must've talked to that guy a lot. I chuckle as I enter the building then shortly after, my small-sized apartment. Seeing Scott jump and make cute rabbit sounds made me smile. I picked him up, giving him a few pets. After I set him down in his cage I changed my clothes. now more comfortable, I plopped down in my bed with my laptop.

I soon notice my Kali is open, but those were not my commands. I quickly cancel every process it had, then quickly backfire the other hacker's camera. I smirk, seeing that it was the guy from the subway again "What? Already got obsessed with me?" I chuckle, knowing I won't get an answer, "Next time you underestimate me, use the //blockcamera_01." I shut down the laptop, knowing its clean from any social media. After I set it on my nightstand I decide to go to sleep but first I made sure to delete every message and log out from every account on my phone.

That night I fell asleep with a cocky smile resting on my face