#the way maya was literally still at the restaurant

[maylas]

maya & lola | right where you left me

[dorizardthewizard]

Galactik Football season 3 rewatch, eps 16 - 18

Episode 16:

Nice levitation trick Simbai, but she's just allowed to use the Breath like that? Maybe because she's a flux society member? It does make me realise, since the wars were not so long ago, how many people are walking around who could previously use the the Breath all the time but now aren't allowed. That's kind of crazy!

I do like the idea of them actually learning how to use the Breath in more creative ways!

This soundtrack for Tia's training session is pretty cool

Well done Mei for wearing more weather-appropriate clothes this time!

Mice telling Mark to get it together kdjfskfd time for lover boy to get dunked on for once

FSJHDFKDSF ARTEGOR BEING A COMMENTATOR NOW I LOVE IT

Callie: Do you miss playing when you see your friends on the field? D'jok: Um, I- Callie: Certainly you must think they are still bitter towards you after beating them on Paradisia?

Callie those are some horrible questions leave the man alone 😭

I am once again asking for more Lun-Zeara action. Btw has she ever spoken a line? Fucking Stevens may have spoken more than her

I support the Snow Kids but I love seeing the Wambas winning and having fun <3

GOOOOOAL MICRO-ICE!

Artegor: Listen Barry, to be frank, I'm not a fan of your work

HE'S SUCH A BITCH LOOOL after my rewatch I want to make a compilation of Artegor's commentator moments

Lun-Zaera is CHILLING lmao, also I just checked the wiki for the spelling of her name and it's about as consistent as the Wamba's hair colour.

Why is Woowamboo being such a dick. She's trying her best!

Awwww D'jok cheering on the Snow Kids

Mei is carrying the defence in this match like the queen she is <3

Artegor contributes a more technical analysis of the game which is pretty cool

WOOWAMBOO FOULING?? I mean fouls aren't really rare but still, he's being far more aggressive than before? Sure, the Wambas aren't going to just be fun-loving when the GFC is at stake and they're as competitive as any other team, but when you combine this with the way he was talking to Lun-Zia it's just jarring?

Also WAIT. Woowamboo is ginger? So the player that switched to the Lightnings for the Paradisian tournament was just someone else? Fair enough as you wouldn't switch your star player, but yeah my bad. Actually wait, he literally has grey hair in the Netherball scenes in season 2. WHAT IS THE TRUTH

OK WHAT. SO LUN-ZIA TELLING THE WAMBAS WHERE ROCKET IS MOST LIKELY TO SHOOT IS PERFECTLY A-OK BUT D'JOK TELLING TEAM PARADISIA A LITTLE TIP ON HOW TO BEAT AHITO IS A BETRAYAL?? PLUS, in the last episode Aarch faces the SK in the holo-trainer and says he can beat them because he knows how they play, and that everyone else does too. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS SAYING WHEN I WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT THE AHITO BETRAYAL BS. WHICH IS IT, WRITERS?!

Well at least Woowamboo seems more accepting of Lun-Zia now that he's seen her give it her all. Nice to see her settled in with the rest of the team!

I just had a thought, where is Maya in all this? We've seen Mama-Ice pop up and check on (scold XD) Micro-Ice but we didn't see Maya interact with D'jok at all? Wouldn't she have gone to see him instead of only hanging with the Snow Kids?? And now that D'jok's “retired” and hanging out by himself at Genesis, isn't she gonna look for him? She knows football was so important to him, so to give it up is a big deal! Ah well, we'll see.

Episode 17:

Yaay more Tia and Mei being besties

NOT CLOVER GIRL DOING THE MARYLIN MONROE

Side note I like Kim-8's vibes, she's just cool

That scene in Ballow's restaurant where he's talking about leaving dirty business behind, all while henchmen are constantly coming up to him with dodgy items like stolen paintings is so hilarious jfdskmn

aww I love Artegor trying to convince D'jok to come back, especially with him telling him how hard the SK took it when he left. It's also interesting to see Artegor refer to playing with the Snow Kids as a responsibility - they're a symbol of hope for the people of Akillian, who didn't even want to go to their first match in the stadium due to the trauma from the glaciation.

He also reminds D'jok he's a Snow Kid, which reminds me of their conversation in season.... 2? Where Artegor tells him he'll always be a kid from Akillian. It's also nice that once he's voiced his opinion, he changes the subject instead of pressuring D'jok to answer. He's really developed from the demanding Shadows coach he used to be.

THE PIRATES!! CRUSH THE RED TIGERS!!!!

Poor Artie, he can never watch a full match LOL

FOUR GOALS FOR STEVENS!!! WOOOOOOOOO PIRATES BEAT A FLUX TEAM! TAKE THAT!!!

NO. NO NO NO NO NO. THE CYCLOPS CANNOT FREEZE PEOPLE. THAT'S THE XENON'S FLUX. TRY AGAIN. ACTUALLY WATCH THE PREVIOUS SEASONS. TAKE IT FROM THE TOP.

Do you ever watch an old video and get jumpscared by a comment you don't remember making? Because I wrote this on another upload 9 years ago and I still don't know how they messed that up LOL.

I mean yeah sure it COULD be a new ability they've unlocked like how the Snow Kids are finding new ways to use the Breath. But they don't show the Cyclop's hypnosis thing at all, the animation is exactly the same as the Xenon's flux, and Callie even mentions their "hypnotic" flux and how the players can barely stay on their feet, which doesn't really match what's on screen sooo yeeeeeaahhh this is just an animation error. A pretty big one though.

So team Paradisia have no problem using their flux? Which was a synthetic one to begin with? And the technology for it is no longer available? Or do they just get it implanted once and that's it? So what was up with them going into those pods to “charge”? How does this work???

sfkdgfkjdf Mark went too hard on the sauerkraut, I love this gag about Mark and food

YESSSS SONNY! FATHER SON BONDING TIME FINALLY. His speech about the Pirates always being by his side even in tough times is sweet, and makes sense for D'jok. He's been through a lot with the Snow Kids and they're basically family now, and family wouldn't truly turn him away if he was sorry for what he did. At least, they wouldn't stay mad forever.

BENNETT YOU LEGEND. But also a bit reckless of Sonny to stand with D'jok right in the middle of an open area

Sonny: We're trapped!

Um no you're not, there's a staircase right there

Poor Cyclops, always getting clowned on :( ARTEGOR IS A SAVAGE IN THIS MATCH

BALLOW OUTING THE CON ARTISTS FDKFDKJDF I'm sorry I know it's a tragic moment for Sinedd but THAT'S SO FUNNY

The way they animate Sidney rolling around is hilarious. Also Thran only thought of finding Harvey just now? Wow, talk about second-class citizens.

It's so funny how this is the last episode in the official playlist, like they just gave up uploading HD episodes 2 years ago. Unless it's a regional thing? I'm editing this in Austria rn and the official English uploads aren't available unless I use VPN, are the French eps all uploaded in HD at least?

Episode 18:

Aaaaand I'm back to 480p uploads from 10 years ago. Thank you for your service youtube user lykaon868

I do get to see the intro and outro now though yaaaay

Wait what? We ended last episode on D'jok wanting to talk to the Snow Kids and with this one we just skip ahead to him being on the team again? I mean... they were building up to that moment for sooo long and we don't even get to see it? What???

It seems Tia and Rocket have accepted D'jok back but Micro-Ice and Ahito aren't so enthusiastic. It's strange to see Ahito so resentful but it's a refreshing change to see him react like that.

Micro-Ice's reaction on the other hand isn't taken very seriously and it's presented as them squabbling immaturely but like... he's right to feel hurt! We could've had some good Micro-Ice angst topped off with a heart-to-heart between two guys who canonically consider each other brothers, but here we are.

Sinedd's parents were... I M P O S T E R S ?

Sharky why are you revealing this as a scoop when it just puts you into hot water for not doing a background check before inviting them on the show

OOOO SHADOWS SPEAKING HISTORIC MOMENT

This is the serious - silly contrast dynamic I had in my head for the Shadows LOL. Although it's sad this kind of implies the Shadows only care for Sinedd as a player and not a person, telling him to get a grip after something like that? Although maybe their whole thing is that they TRY to act tough but really they're all feeling like that one guy who ran out crying lol. It IS a bit weird to insert comedy like that into this kind of scene though, kind of undercuts it for me.

Artegor just having tea and biscuits 🤣🤣🤣

CALLIE ACCEPT HIS OFFER FOR TEA DON'T BE RUDE. He looks sad after her reaction fskdjfskds honestly Artegor is probably the best character this season

STOP HAVING THEM SCORE IN THE FIRST MINUTE SFJKDFSKS

Tia squaring up to Sinedd I LOVE HER

Also wtf Sinedd, but he was about to go to Mei so I wonder what he was gonna do? Taunt her? Or maybe he regretted it? I guess we'll never know

This is a match with the Shadows, the Snow Kids' biggest rivals, and yet the first half is over in a few minutes of the episode! The matches just aren't as interesting in this season and feel too rushed

TIA CAPTAIN MOMENT YYYEAAAAAAHHH SHE DESERVES IT!

I am not immune to some D'jok vs Sinedd action

Not Maya focusing on Sinedd when she hasn't interacted with D'jok this whole time 😭

Mei is such a savage, it reminds me of Stevens handing Sinedd the ball that one time when there was seconds to spare LOL also pls forgive the shit quality gifs, demonstration purposes only folks

Sinedd: Do like everyone else Mei, don't worry about what I do and just forget me. Mei: But Sinedd- Sinedd: I lost, Mei. I lost everything. Everything.

Oof Sinedd really goes through the ringer every season, huh

Mark is smooth as butter on the pitch but so incredibly cringe at flirting

Warren: The team. The group. That's all that counts, D'jok D'jok: Being a team player Warren, that's what I want to improve!

Sure D'jok, until next season. But it's also kind of weird to portray his arc as if he just needed to learn how to be a team player again, when a big part of why he left was the emotional turmoil from the breakup and him lashing out because of it. That's never really resolved, although I guess the season is trying to say that D'jok became obsessed with winning again, which is what drove Mei away in the first place, but again I'm just speculating here! They had the means for a really good arc for D'jok but fumbled it and decided to retread old paths instead.

Is Harvey alive after all?

I do love that Clamp is still working alongside Sonny. And yaaaay Thran gets to do something!

Wait Paradisia is a dead planet, it didn't blow up or anything. Harvey is a robot so is it that surprising he's still there? Why not look for him earlier?

[honeybunniii333]

something gay plz

(OMG? COULD IT BE? MIRA WRITING SOMETHING OTHER THAN ANGST? The world has truly gone mad. 0.0 )

Nevin had grown quite used to this routine, He fell asleep first and woke up first. It was always the way they'd been. He'd wake up and walk quietly down the stairs to avoid waking up the kids. Slip into the kitchen and start making breakfast, and after about an hour had passed, he'd feel arms wrap around his waist. Then, a warm mess of a boy would would press his face into his shoulder with a mumbled greeting that barely qualified as English. "Mrnnginn..." Chris had always been slow to wake up. "Morning Hermoso, sleep well?" He hummed as he turned away from his previous task to face the other, wedged comfortably between the counter and his husband.

"Mnhm.." he hummed his arms still wrapped around him, his face still tucked away in the crook of the shorter boys neck. Chris was clingy in general. He liked physical contact, and he liked being close but especially when he was sleepy or sick. "You should stay in bed longer..." he mumbled, and Nevin couldn't help but roll his eyes fondly at the complaint. "Mmhmmm, after breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day, you know." he reminded, gently pushing the boy back so he could press a kiss to his lips. "Could you wake the girls up for me?" He asked, turning back to his previous task of mixing up pancake batter. "Yes, sir!" The older boy snorted, turning on his heel and making his way out of the kitchen so Nevin could work his magic in peace for a few minutes.

It wasn't long before Nevin heard two sets of little feet quickly scampering down the hall and into the kitchen. It was the same order every day, first came Maya waddling in with all the grace a toddler could have, next was Amara chasing after her little sister with far too much energy for 10 in the morning and lastly, Chris, making his way in after them to start setting the table for breakfast.

Saturdays were always slow for the small family. It was usually spent lazing around since the rest of the week was typically so busy. With running a restaurant and taking care of two children under 6, life was typically good but busy. Weekends, though? Weekends were their break time, time to relax. Nevin was barely registering what the characters on the screen were saying. He was too busy thinking, thinking about how in the world he'd managed to get here. On a nice comfy couch, pressed against a pretty boy with two adorable kids playing together without a care in the world... He was happy, happy that his kids' world was far brighter than his had been at their age... But it was hard to believe sometimes that it was real. Nevin always tried his best to stay optimistic, to not give up. That mindset had been born out of pure spite. A decision made of stubbornness, a refusal to let himself be broken. And somehow, it had carried him 25 years, to here of all places. To a nice warm house, with a nice warm boy that he'd let in from the cold when they were just teenagers.

Chris never viewed himself as anything special. He wasn't a hero by any means, but Nevin was quite confident that Christopher Maddox Jackson had saved him. Maybe not in the literal sense, maybe not in a sense that made sense to anyone but himself... but Nevin was positive he wouldn't be nearly as happy as he was right now had he not met him. Nevin didn't believe in silly things like luck, but if somehow Drew was right about it. He would consider himself very lucky.

[augment-techs]

What if: What if Skull had come with Bulk onto terraventure in lost galaxy 👀

First thing's first: *instantly kills Professor Phenomenus* Sorry guy; I know you were in the 'I'm a Ranger' civilian call, but you should never have been on Terra Venture, you're like a thousand year's old.

On with the good thoughts.

Bulk and Skull in space--the one year Earth got a break from attempts to take it over.

I would like to take this opportunity to posit the theory that while Bulk and the Professor had jobs as tech originally that got sidelined due to constraints with the staff, Bulk and Skull are basically jack of all trades and could probably present their hundreds of recorded jobs to be able to do literally anything.

Bulk can stay on as a restaurant proprietor; Skull can swap around with assisting in the upkeep of the various biomes when he's not taking the opportunity of free time to better himself with as many musical instruments as he can get his hands on.

They are both Friend Shaped and because I am highly convinced Damon and Maya could never be happy with just the Rangers--Damon because he was never supposed to be on Terra Venture and Maya because all the Rangers were involved in the worst day of her life and thus instantly brought up trauma in the back of her mind--I am going to have Maya stumble into friendship with Bulk, while Skull proves himself to be reasonably interesting enough for Damon to find worth talking to.

Let's keep in mind that the boys probably joined the colony in an effort to move away from how they were in Angel Grove, prove themselves as more than just in the way or laughingstocks or--because I am interconnecting the comics with this, fight me--found themselves lonelier than they thought when literally all the teens they'd grown up with or come to respect (all Rangers) had left without saying goodbye.

Given the opportunity, I think Bulk could prove to be invaluable as a source for Maya to understand Earth's history in a clear and concise way that Kendrix and Kai don't have the time to explain, and Leo, Damon, and Mike just...aren't very good at. Bulk in his position as bartender and chef would be able to feed Maya human food Mirinoi could never fathom: potato pancakes, Pad Krapow Moo Saap, yakitori, Gulab Jamun, sanguinaccio dolce, Qumbe--and then teach her the background on the continents and cultures the cuisine originated from; more than happy to answer any additional questions the woman would inevitably have.

Skull, contrariwise, would most often find himself nearby when Trakeena or Scorpius's Generals happened to teleport in to cause trouble. Being from Angel Grove, he is not at all impressed by the insectoid species constantly interrupting his work. Would eventually being able to straight up just chase off any Stingwingers that would try and mess with his duties, and would gain a bit of a reputation among the staff of Terra Venture's lower staff as the guy to call to work under high pressure. Something Bulk would be incredibly proud of if he wasn't fully aware that Skull still had troubles with anxiety and only had one injection from before the launch that was supposed to keep him balanced for a year.

Damon kind of feels bad for being a little standoffish the first time Skull bails him out of an incident before morphing in the middle of a barely controlled panic attack and ends up requesting Skull as a partner for assignments on the ship.

As a bonus to Bulk becoming friendly with Maya, he also ends up becoming something like friends with Kendrix and Kai who, while brilliant, don't have encyclopedic knowledge of ancient Earth and enjoy picking his brain from time to time; even asking for aid with Ranger Problems when Alpha mentions "knowing" both Bulk and Skull when Zordon was alive--which would bring about a hilarious, confusing, and heartbreaking misunderstanding.

Leo instantly respects Bulk for reasons he can't really put into words except that he seems to be really good for the Team.

Mike, when he returns to the world of the living, is more inclined to...maybe not respect...but enjoy the company of Skull--especially when he finds him after curfew in the park trying out a new guitar.

Also the Lost Galaxy is not going to be misleading. Terra Venture LITERALLY gets lost because of an interdimensional transport accident. The Rangers still have the Astro Megaship, but they are SUPER lost.

Which means lots of things.

Like maybe the Rangers do wind up with Karone, but only because, say, both Damon and Skull got recruited by Trakeena to mess with a machine she didn't understand and they wound up resurrecting the Psycho Rangers as a unit, which means MORE interactions with MORE Astro Rangers.

But Karone showed up to fix the Psychos' brains and Kendrix didn't die--in fact, they wind up KEEPING the Psycho Rangers with the Astro Rangers sticking around for a little to help everyone acclimate.

Bulk ends up with a whole new set of duckies lining up to follow him around juuuuuust in time for Terra Venture to make contact with some Guardians of Eltar that ran aground their ship because the humans don't have a registered charter and, lo, Zelya and the Sentry Force Four come to meet with Stanton and Reinier while negotiating with Trakeena the return of Damon and Skull after the miserable bitch snapped them up again to see what else they can do.

So many possible intergalactic incidences...but so much more fun. Relationships: Psycho Rangers & Bulk; Psycho Rangers & Karone; Maya/Kendrix Morgan; Maya & Bulk; Bulk & Skull; Skull & Damon Henderson; past Zelya/Skull. Additional Tags: Bulk is having a much better time than in canon; Skull is having a so-so time; NEW SKILLS; Big Papa Bear Bulk; Skull Needs a Hug; Past Relationship Trauma; PTSD; Leukemia; Amnesia; Post-Human Weapon ANGST; Trakeen spends three Episodes Flirting with Zelya; Stolen Beauty Episode - Canon Divergence; Skul Confirmed Gay; Food as a Metaphor for Love.

@skyland2703

[the-labyrinth-within]

CHAPTER TWO

"Giaaaaa!"

A loud and piercing voice yelled out . She turned around to see her best friend and assistant Maya , running toward her .

"Oh my God ... I missed you so much . How was your Christmas? Was it amazing? I can't wait to tell your about mine . I would have done it earlier , but the reception sucked at the resort.....I just can't wait to..."

Gia could have sworn that Maya was the most hyper person in her life . She had literally called her from across the street and dashed past people, not caring if she bumped into anyone, while making crazy gestures with her hand to signal her .

The moment she finally caught up to Gia , she wrapped her arms tightly around her as if letting go was forbidden.

Gia could feel herself suffocate now , she gently patted Maya's back and slowly pulled herself away. When she was finally free, she forced a kind smile and squeezed Maya's soft and slender hands.

" I missed you too Maya. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself this Christmas. Now let's get to work , I think it's gonna rain in a bit , let's catch up at work okay ?"

Maya nodded and hooked her arm with Gia's . As they walked to their workplace, Maya couldn't help but notice that Gia seemed a bit distant. Actually, Gia had been distant for the past few months and she couldn't find a way to get her to open up without unintentionally pushing Gia away in the process. So, as a good and dedicated best friend, she decided to respect Gia's privacy and be around all the time ....just in case the time came when Gia needed to talk to her .

They finally got to work and Gia opened the restaurant. She had gone to culinary school after high school and she became a chef in a few years . She was around 20 . She then moved from job to job, from investor to investor until she met Carlos and he believed in her enough to invest in her . And that's how her world slowly begun to go crazy.

At first everything was professional. She opened her restaurant with Carlos' investment and paid him back bit by bit until she owed him no more . And the restaurant was legally hers.

Looking back on it now , she realised she still owed him . All the gifts and occasional vacations he granted her when they were in a relationship were from the pockets of Carlos. And if they aren't together anymore, then she needs to pay back every single cent. That's what she made herself believe.

"Earth to Gia"

Maya said while vigorously shaking her friend who had been stuck in an unknown land in her mind for more than 2 minutes.

Gia finally snapped out of it and apologised . Maya gave a wry smile and mouthed "it's okay ".

They got busy with setting up the restaurant and calling their suppliers for fresh fruits, veggies and meat . After about an hour of pacing up and down, they finally took a break and sat to talk over coffee.

Gia didn't want to seem like she had a problem, so she wrapped her fingers around Maya's knuckles and asked her to give her a full detailed report on the Christmas holidays. Maya on the other hand , had been dying to tell her everything.

She quickly unloaded everything to her best friend and started beaming in the end . The reason for her joy was that , Maya had met a guy at the resort and though they hadn't talked much about it , Maya felt that there could be something between them in the future.

On the other hand, Gia was trying hard to hold herself together and make sure Maya doesn't see that something is wrong with her. She occasionally threw in quick questions and funny statements to keep Maya from noticing anything.

"You really should get a boyfriend Gee. You have to, you're not getting any younger, you'll be 25 in a few months."

Maya did not know about Carlos, in fact the only ones who knew were the security and home staff of Carlos .

He had made it super clear to Gia that nobody was to know of their relationship. Not even Gia's mom or Maya.

So, for the past 2 years , she had been lying about being single and having occasional flings with people she often supposedly met at bars and beaches.

No one knew, so whenever Carlos hurt her, she had no one to comfort her. She silently broke and awaited Carlos to fix her back and it always took him forever to do so .

This time though, it seemed Carlos wouldn't fix what he broke . And that was the part that scared her the most .

Maya sat across her , confused. She didn't know which part of her story was sad, so she didn't know why Gia had started crying all of a sudden. She noticed that again Gia was lost in thought and she didn't even realise she was crying.

She gently placed her palm on Gia's cheek and wiped her tears .

"Whatever it is Gia, I'm here for you. I don't wanna pressure you , but I know something is wrong . I don't wanna loose you Gee , so tell me whenever you're ready . I'm here "

Gia finally gave up and broke into uncontrollable sobs . She was like that for a while, then she finally decided to tell Maya everything.

Maya , was definitely not prepared for what she was about to hear . She could have guessed a million things, but not this.

"What did you say ?"

Maya asked, stunned and hurt by what she just heard.

" I fell in love Maya, I fell in love with someone I shouldn't have. And now, I'm paying the ultimate price"

Gia didn't need to mention a name . Maya already knew who Gia was talking about . There could only be one person. All those coincidences weren't just coincidences , they were together and Gia kept it from everyone.

As she sat to analyse everything, Maya couldn't help but feel a pang of betrayal and anger towards Gia . She sat back and bit her lip as if that would stop the stream already flowing down her cheeks .

The pain Maya was feeling was like none other and in that moment, she was stuck in a limbo . She didn't know if to listen to Gia first and act or just get up and leave .

The two just sat there across each other in total awkward deafening silence .

[fanbloggingpursuedbyabear]

The Deluca-Bishop and Diaz-Buckley Guide to Navigating a Relationship Where One Partner Figuratively and Literally Cannot Stop Running Into Burning Buildings

A few days after making this post, I started to work on a Maya Bishop meets Evan Buckley crossover fic. I finally finished it. I would like to thank @firefighterbracket for the inspiration. This was a lot of fun to write. The working title of this document was "Reckless Bisexual Childhood Trauma 'Siblings.'"

This fic is set a few months post-canon and complies with known canon as of May 3, 2023.

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

“You died, Buck. Again. You can’t just walk that off.” … On the other side of the curtain, a similar conversation played out. … Carina paused, taking a deep breath. “And you. You almost died, Maya. Again. We need to talk about that.”

Content Warnings: Mentions of Death, Hospital Setting

Read on AO3

Read on Tumblr below the cut

“This is so good,” Maya said between mouthfuls of pizza. “It is much better than anything we could have had in Seattle.”

“You didn’t need to fly me all the way to California just to eat pizza,” Carina teased. “What’s this about?”

“Even though the ‘official’ reason I’m in LA is a department-sponsored training on fighting brush fires, I thought it’d be nice to take a short vacation as just the two of us.” Maya paused to analyze the expression of her wife, who had just stopped eating. “Is everything okay?”

“I am just so in love with you,” Carina confessed.

“Oh-” Maya giggled. She lightly shook her head in an attempt to stop the rising rosiness on her cheeks. A little flustered, her eyes scanned the view of the city from the restaurant patio when she suddenly felt something was off. She tried to distract herself by digging a hair tie out of her purse and pulling her hair back into a ponytail, but Maya’s off-put feelings only intensified.

Carina, noticing this change in her wife’s behavior, asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Do you smell that?” When Maya received no answer, she continued. “I think I smell smoke. Something around here is on fire. I should go.”

“Maya, stay,” Carina pleaded. “I am sure that the local fire department is perfectly capable of handling it.”

“But-”

“Maya, you just said it yourself. You are not at work. You are on vacation with me. Let’s enjoy it together, please.”

“What if someone needs-”

“HELP!” a voice called out from down the street, finishing and answering Maya’s question. A man in a purple polo shirt and khakis ran around the corner at the end of the street and stopped to catch his breath. Again, he called out, “I need some help!”

Maya jumped out of her seat and started sprinting down the sidewalk, leaving her small crossbody purse on the table next to her pizza. “Sir,” she shouted, “my name is Lieutenant Maya Bishop. I am an off-duty firefighter and paramedic from the Seattle Fire Department. What do you need?”

“I’m the principal of the school just down the block,” the man responded. “There was an accident in one of our science labs, and the fire department is still five minutes out. I need help with the kids.”

Carina didn’t even try to stop her wife. She just sighed, pulled $40 out of her wallet, and tucked the cash under a plate on the table. Carina grabbed both her purse and Maya’s purse and ran after her wife.

----------

The step-down unit at LA County General Hospital had been able to get some new beds when COVID hit, but they weren’t able to get new rooms. This meant that some rooms held more than one patient. The step-down staff generally tried to avoid more than one person per room, but when the ICU and step-down were at capacity, only a privacy curtain separated one bed from the other. Most of the kids injured in the fire had been diverted to pediatric hospitals or placed in the PICU, but the influx of other patients meant that LA County General’s step-down had to start doubling up. 

Having seen another patient on the other side of the curtain as he walked into the room, Eddie kept his voice down as he talked with a newly-awake Buck. “They’re treating some kids and adults for second-degree burns and smoke inhalation, but no one has stayed dead.”

“What do you mean, ‘stayed dead’?” Buck asked.

“You carried a kid out to triage, and Hen noticed that you looked bad. She wouldn’t let you go back inside until you got some Oxygen and she did a workup. You were drenched in sweat, so she couldn’t get the leads on the monitor to stick. She got them to stick, but she only got two seconds of monitor readout before you arrested. You were in asystole for 72 seconds. It was Hen that caught the hyperkalemia and brought you back. You should call her.”

“Do we know what caused it?” Buck followed up. 

“Not with certainty. The doctors think it was a combination of the beta blockers they started you on, the amount you were sweating, exertion, and probably something else.”

“How long until I can get back to work?”

“You died, Buck. Again. You can’t just walk that off.”

“I was dead for a shorter amount of time this time. I can’t stop being a firefighter -- it’s what I’m meant to do.”

“I don’t want you to stop being a firefighter. Take it from someone that has tried not being a firefighter: you don’t need to quit your job to save your life. You just need to make your health and safety a priority, Evan.”

On the other side of the curtain, a similar conversation played out. Upon waking, Maya looked around the room for Carina, and a sense of relief washed over her when she saw Carina seated in a chair pulled up next to the side of the bed. “Carina,” Maya said, though her strained voice had a hard time escaping the nonrebreather mask over her face. She pulled the mask down and tried again. “Carina, is everyone okay?”

Carina, finally hearing her wife, looked up to see Maya holding the mask away from her face. “Maya, the mask stays on,” she instructed Maya. When her wife obliged, replacing the mask, Carina continued, “No deaths. Some kids and teachers with smoke inhalation and a firefighter that collapsed.” Carina paused, taking a deep breath. “And you. You almost died, Maya. Again. We need to talk about that.”

“What’s there to talk about? It’s not my fault that I-” Maya’s tone shifted to defensive before she stopped her sentence short, realizing what Carina might want to discuss. “I had a duty to help!”

“You also had a duty to stop when the LAFD told you not to continue without protection. I know that you know that stopping wouldn’t have lost you your job. I know this wasn’t about your job, but it still felt like you were choosing being a firefighter over me. I had to watch you run into a burning building, and I couldn’t do anything about it.” Carina stood up from her seat.

“Carina, I’m sorry. I-”

“I know, and I know that you are working on this with Diane. I love you, bambina, but I need you to ask yourself if you really value your life.” Carina steps toward the door. “I’m going to get some coffee,” she says as she opens the door.

Moments after Carina stepped out, Dr. Abbasi entered the room. She glanced over at Maya. “Hi, Maya. I’m glad to see you’re awake. I’m Dr. Abbasi, the critical care attending assigned to your care. Do you have any questions for me right now?”

“How long do I have to be here?” Maya coughed out the question, following it with a round of loud, wet coughing. 

Dr. Abbasi quickly grabbed a paper cup from across the room and handed it to Maya. “Spit,” she instructed. After Maya lifted the mask and spit a glob of phlegm into the cup, Dr. Abbasi placed the cup on the table next to Maya. “You don’t want to keep swallowing that stuff; it’ll keep you sick. We want to keep you here overnight for observation and continued treatment. I can discharge you once you stop spitting up, your blood gases are good, and you can maintain oxygenation on room air.” She paused to allow Maya to digest this information. “Is your wife around? I’d like to speak with her.”

“Carina went to get a cup of coffee,” Maya responded, not showing her anxiety about when Carina would return.

“Okay. I’ll check back in later.” Dr. Abbasi smiled and walked over to the other side of the curtain. She was pleasantly surprised to see another patient awake. “Hi, Evan. I’m glad to see you’re awake. I’m Dr. Abbasi, the critical care attending assigned to your care. Do you have any questions for me right now?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

“Okay. Let me know if something comes up later,” Dr. Abbasi responded. “Mr. Diaz, can I talk to you in the hallway?” She walked out of the room, taking Eddie with her.

Maya stared up at the ceiling. “Evan, huh?”

“Yeah, though my friends call me Buck,” Buck replied.

“Why Buck?”

“It’s short for my last name, Buckley. What about you?”

“Maya. I overheard that you had died again. What’s the story there?” Maya reached for the cup and started to cough again.

“I, uh, was struck by lightning a couple months back. According to Eddie, I was dead for 3 minutes and 17 seconds. I was in a coma for a while, and I had this really weird dream. I didn’t get any of that this time around.”

“Struck by lightning? How’d that happen?”

“I’m a firefighter, and there was this apartment fire during this big thunderstorm, and I was on the ladder, and I, uh, don’t remember too much after that.” Buck let out a small nervous laugh. “So, uh, what do you do?” he asked, attempting to change the subject.

“I’m also a firefighter, but I work in Seattle.”

“Seattle. What brings you to the great city of Los Angeles?”

“Brush fire response training. I was going to spend the next few days here as a mini vacation with my wife, but I think I ruined that.”

“How did you ruin it?”

“I ran into a burning building and almost died. I got distracted by the kids needing help and wasn’t thinking. It was stupid, and I-”

“I, uh, I get it,” Buck interrupted her. “I’ve ignored evacuation orders to save civilians on more than one occasion. I’m the first one to volunteer for dangerous rescues. I am constantly putting myself in danger and not thinking twice about it, or even once for that matter. I, uh, understand the guilt, too. Maddie, Cap, Eddie, and Chris have feared for my life more than is healthy. It’s a lot.”

“It is,” Maya agreed. “Why do you keep doing it anyway?”

“I can’t stop,” Buck admitted. “It’s just a, uh, part of who I am.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was born to be a bone marrow donor for my older brother. It didn’t work, and he died before I could even register that he existed. My parents were so beside themselves with grief that Maddie and I were pushed to the side. Even though I didn’t know what had happened at the time, they blamed me for his death. I acted out hoping that they would notice me, but they just got mad at me when I got hurt. I never really grew out of it, but I have slowed down.”

“How did you figure all that out?”

“Therapy. Lots of therapy.”

“Oh.”

“Not the answer you had hoped for?”

“No. I have worked so hard to get back to a good place with my wife, to rebuild her trust in me, and I just acted like none of that ever happened. How I acted today is how Maya from a year ago would have acted. I’m not supposed to be that Maya anymore.” Maya paused to take a deep breath. “How do I stop?” She coughed another glob of phlegm into the cup.

“I’m not sure I can help you with that one. I’ve died twice this year.”

“Right. How do I fix this?”

“I’m not the right person to answer that question either, but I know someone that might be.”

Just outside the room, Carina sat in one of the two chairs conveniently placed next to the door, clutching a white to-go cup of lukewarm hospital coffee. Though her eyes were glazed over and her vision blurred, she was determined to not start sobbing.

A few feet away, Eddie finished his conversation with Dr. Abbasi. As he headed back to the room, he noticed Carina’s worried expression. He recognized her as the companion to Buck’s roommate and took a seat next to her. “You look like you could use someone to talk to,” he said. Realizing he hadn’t introduced himself, he added, “I’m Eddie Diaz. My friend in there is Buck.”

Carina turned slightly to face Eddie with her bleary eyes. “You’re a firefighter, right? You were at the school fire earlier today?”

Eddie nodded in response.

Carina continued, sounding a little unsure, “I’m, um, Dr. Carina DeLuca. My wife in there is Maya. And I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Eddie replied with a hint of skepticism in his voice. He looked away from Carina to stare down the hallway, but he didn’t get out of his seat.

After a slightly awkward 30 seconds, Carina broke the silence. “Your friend in there, Buck? Is he going to be okay?”

“Physically, he’s going to be fine. Emotionally, I can’t really say. It’s the second time he’s died on the job, and he still wants to keep going.”

“What do you mean, ‘the second time’?” Carina took a sip of her watered-down coffee.

“Buck was struck by lightning a few months ago. His heart stopped for 3 minutes and 17 seconds. He came back with new math superpowers and a whole ‘life is a gift’ philosophy. He had just really started to process what it meant to have died. He was finally starting to understand that he is not expendable. Then he died again through no fault of his own.” 

“I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“That’s okay. How is Maya?”

“I don’t know,” Carina admitted. “The smoke inhalation injury was pretty bad, but the attending that admitted her said that she’d make a full recovery with proper care and rest. I’m not even sure I can convince her to stay in the hospital once she’s off Oxygen, not to mention resting when she gets discharged. Asking Maya to take a break is like asking a baby to stop being cute: she doesn’t know how to.”

“So Maya is the off-duty firefighter that ran back in after Cap told her not to?”

Carina sighed. “Yeah.”

“From what I’ve heard, she sounds a lot like Evan. A couple of years ago, he sued the city because he was benched while on blood thinners-”

“Let’s not give Maya any ideas,” Carina interrupted.

“Until the lightning strike, he lived for the danger. Even after his attitude changed, he still didn’t know how to stop trying to save everyone but himself,” Eddie finished.

“You could say that last part about Maya,” Carina responded, beginning to fidget with her wedding ring. “I want to help her, but I don’t know how. She almost killed herself after shutting me out for months. She wouldn’t let me in, so the only thing I could do was commit her, and that almost destroyed our relationship. I don’t think I can take it happening again. I love her too much for that.”

“You can’t always wait for them to let you in. Sometimes, you have to kick the door down yourself. It’s what Buck did for me, literally.”

“Did that help?”

“It saved my life, my career, and my walls.” Eddie’s phone buzzed in his pocket, letting him know that it was almost time to pick Chris up from school. “I need to go pick my son up from school. I should probably check in with Buck before I go. Are you coming back in?”

“I think I need I little bit more time. Can you tell Maya that I went to grab something to eat?” Carina asked Eddie as he got up from his chair.

“I’ll let her know,” Eddie told her. He opened the door and walked into the room.

Inside, Eddie turned to Maya first. “Maya, your wife wanted me to let you know that she went to get something to eat.”

“You saw her?” Maya asked timidly.

“We ran into each other in the hallway?” Eddie said.

“Is that Eddie over there?” Buck asked from the other side of the curtain.

“Yeah. I need to-”

“Great,” Buck cut Eddie off. “Can you do something about this curtain? Maya and I have been talking. It turns out we have a lot in common.”

“I’ve heard.”

“You have? What did Carina say about me?” Maya followed up.

“She loves you,” Eddie replied. He pushed the curtain back so that it bunched up against the wall, allowing Maya and Buck to see each other. Eddie then turned his attention to Buck, turning his head to lock eyes with Buck. “Buck, Carla’s off today, so I need to go get Christopher from school. We’re going to pick up some dinner, and then come back here. Please don’t let him sweet talk you into doing his math homework again.”

Buck smiled softly as if to silently giggle at Eddie’s last statement. “Does the team know I’m awake?”

“Yes. I told them after my conversation with Dr. Abbasi. Shift doesn’t end for a couple of hours, but they’ll stop by later. Maddie is on her way.”

“Thanks, Eddie.”

----------

Maddie arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes later. As she walked into the hospital room, she ignored Maya and headed directly for Buck’s bed. “Oh, Evan, I am so glad you’re okay.” She placed her black purse on the floor as she took a seat on the edge of the foot of Buck’s hospital bed. Maddie looked her brother in the eye and rested a reassuring hand on his leg. “Eddie told me what happened. That must be a lot to process. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, Maddie. Really. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I’ve been worrying about you since you were little. It’s not something I can just turn off.”

“You’ve mentioned that before.”

“Well, it’s true.”

“I know that you are here to check on me, but I was hoping that you could help me with something else.” Buck glanced over at Maya. “Maya, this is my sister, Maddie. Maddie, this is Maya Bishop, an Olympic gold medalist-turned-firefighter from Seattle.”

Maddie looked across the room to find Maya. “What did you play?”

“I ran the women’s 10,000-meter in 2012.”

Maddie just nodded lightly in response. She looked down at her hands and twiddled her thumbs, hoping that someone else would fill the silence. 

“You don’t seem too impressed. I was the US’s first gold medal in women’s athletics that summer. It was a big deal,” Maya said, sarcastically offended.

“I didn’t really watch,” Maddie admitted. “Doug said that running wasn’t a sport worth watching, and I didn’t care to pay attention while I was at work.”

Noticing his sister’s distress, Buck was eager to change the subject. “So Maddie, Maya here needs some advice. She and I have strikingly similar patterns in behavior, and she’s going through a bit of a rough patch with her wife. I figured that between you raising me and you building back your relationship with Chimney, you might be able to offer some guidance.”

Maya looked up at Maddie with a hopeful-lost-puppy look in her eyes. “I keep messing everything up. I’m worried that she can’t love me anymore. It’s like I’ve stabbed her in the heart, and the moment it starts to heal, I twist the knife.” Maya pulled the mask off her face to wipe away the tears that had started to fall onto her cheeks. 

Maddie got up from Buck’s bed and crossed the room to take a seat at the foot of Maya’s bed. “Hey. We are not going there right now.” Maddie paused to get up to grab Maya a tissue. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“Where should I start?” Maya asked half-jokingly.

“Whenever you think is good.”

“Okay.” Maya let out a shaky breath, which was followed by a coughing fit and another glob of phlegm into her cup. “After I was demoted, I started working out really hard and pushing everyone away. It got to the point where I almost died, but instead of accepting the help I needed, I kicked Carina out. It’s taken us months to rebuild our relationship. I wanted to take Carina on a short vacation, but I ran into a burning building and almost died again. Now I’m stuck here, and Carina seems pretty upset. How do I fix this?”

“Have you talked to your wife?”

“Not since she walked out after I woke up.”

“Eddie did,” Buck added, “but he would only say that Carina said that she loved Maya.”

“Why did you run into a burning building?” Maddie asked.

“LAFD was five minutes out and the kids needed help.”

“Then why is your wife mad at you?”

“Because I ran back in after LAFD showed up and told me to stop.”

Maddie shifted her weight around, trying to piece together what may have happened. She remembered Bobby sounding quite angry about a civilian on the radio during the school fire earlier that day. She tried to put that out of her mind as she followed up, “Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Maya sobbed, tucking her hands under the elastic coming from the side of her mask to cover her eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” Maya started to cough again, a wet hacking interrupting her sobs. The monitor over her head flashed as her Oxygen saturation values slowly fluctuated downward.

Maddie, noting the cup on Maya’s bedside table, grabbed the cup and brought it to Maya’s chin. She slowly lifted the mask off of Maya’s face and allowed Maya to cough a smoky glob of phlegm into the cup. “Maya, it’s okay to not know, but I do need you to slow your breathing a bit. Would you like me to walk you through some deep breaths?”

“I got it,” Maya replied as she attempted to take some long breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

“Good,” Maddie said to a now-calmer Maya. “Can you tell me why you think your wife can’t love you anymore?”

“I haven’t been able to move past it. I’m supposed to be a better Maya, but I can still hear his voice in my head. ‘No one loves a failure. People want a winner.’ I want to stop scaring my wife, but I don’t know how. All I know is ‘eyes forward.’ How can Carina love me if I’m failing at this?” Silent tears streamed down Maya’s face.

“I don’t think you’re failing,” Buck chimed in.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s hard. Getting the things our parents taught us about ourselves out of our heads is hard. I would know.”

“He’s right,” Maddie agreed. “I still hear the voices of my parents criticizing me in my head, and I’ve been working on that for a long time. You said that you wanted to stop scaring your wife. What did you mean by that?”

“I do these stupid things, and I get hurt, and then I push everyone away.”

“That is something I can help with,” Maddie responded. “The first step to getting your wife’s trust back is taking your recovery seriously, but I think you already know that.” She turned her soft face from Maya to glare at her brother. “You just probably weren’t ready to say it to yourself.” Maddie thought about adding, ‘That goes for you too, Buck,’ but her glare said it for her.

Having a much clearer mind, a sudden wave of slight panic and embarrassment came over Maya. “No, no, no,” she said. “I did not just have a breakdown on a total stranger again.”

“It’s okay,” Maddie reassured her. “I work at 911 dispatch. I speak to total strangers having the worst day of their lives all day. I just normally can’t see their faces.”

Maya stared down at her hands. “Thank you, Buck. Thank you, Maddie. Thank you.”

15 minutes later, Carina’s voice punctuated a soft knock at the door. “Maya, I’m coming in.”

As Carina entered the room, Maya began to speak. “Carina, I’m sorry. What I did was not okay. I didn’t mean to scare you, and-”

“Maya, please stop talking. I know you’re sorry, but I need to say this now, or I’m worried that it’ll never get said.” Carina took a deep breath. “I love you, but I cannot have you keeping me in the dark. I am worried about you, and I don’t know how to help. I want to trust that you are getting better, but then you pull things like this, and I don’t know if I should believe you.”

“How can I-”

“Maya, let me finish. I would like to sit down with you and Diane.”

“You want to go to couples’ therapy?”

“No. I want to have a real conversation with you and Diane about how I can best support you. Is that something we can do?” Carina walked over to Maya’s bed, tentatively taking a seat just past her wife’s feet.

“Yeah. That can be arranged.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, Carina spotted a stack of papers on the bedside table that hadn’t been there before. “What’s that?” she asked, gesturing toward the stack of papers.

“Yes. That,” Maya said excitedly. “That is a copy of my medical records release form to give to Grey-Sloan when we get home. They already filed one here.” She cracked a shy smile. “I also filled Andy and the Battalion Chief in on what happened. I have a couple days of desk duty lined up for when I’m scheduled to go back to work.”

“Wow. Maya, I’m impressed.” Carina grabbed the release packet off the table and paged through the fully-completed form. She didn’t recognize the witness signature on the last page. “Who is this?”

“It’s Maddie, Buck sister.” Maya pointed to Maddie, who was quietly speaking with Buck on the other side of the room.

Carina glanced across the room, not having registered that the curtain had been pulled back when she walked in the room. “Thank you, Maddie.”

Maddie perked up and looked over at Carina. “You don’t have to thank me. This was all your wife’s idea.”

“It was?” Carina asked, shifting her gaze back to her wife.

“Yeah.” Maya let out a proud giggle and locked eyes with her wife. “What’s that look for?”

“I want to kiss you so bad right now, but your mouth definitely still tastes like smoke.”

Maya reached for Carina’s head and leaned in to press their foreheads together. “How’s this instead?”

“You still smell like smoke,” Carina remarked.

Buck looked at Maya and Carina longingly. “You two seem so good for each other. I wish I had someone who looked out for me and understood me like that.”

Maya slowly pulled away from Carina. “What about your husband?” she asked innocently.

“My what?”

“Your husband. What was his name? Eddie?”

“Eddie’s not my husband,” Buck replied, realizing that while that was certainly true in a legal sense, he wasn’t so sure if he acted like it wasn’t true at all.

“You look at him like he’s your husband. He looks at you like you’re his husband. You talk about him like he’s your husband. You might not be married, but he is your husband.” Maya squeezed Carina’s hand.

“How did you know? You and Carina?”

“When something bad happens, the first person I look for is Carina,” Maya offered.

Buck considered what person he would go to in that situation. He started a running tally. Eddie: 1

“When I have a bad day, all I want is to be in Maya’s arms,” Carina added.

Eddie: 2

“I’d be a completely different person if it weren’t for Carina.”

Eddie: 3

“If I could call anyone in the world from the hospital, I’d call Maya.”

Eddie: 4

“I think I get the point,” Buck responded before Maya could add another item to the list. “I could say all of those things about Eddie. What, uh, what now?”

“You tell him,” Maya instructed.

“H-how?”

Maddie pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Eddie. “You have fifteen minutes to figure that out,” she informed Buck. “He and Christopher will be here shortly.”

----------

Eddie got back to the hospital with Chris about an hour after he left. Chris rushed over to Buck and gave him a big hug. “Buck, you have to stop dying on me,” Chris demanded. 

“I’m trying my best,” Buck half-joked back.

“It’s time for homework,” Eddie told Chris, placing his backpack down next to the chair on the far side of Buck’s bed. He looked up at Buck to say, “Maddie’s text said you needed to tell me something?”

“Eddie, these past few months I’ve been looking for someone that really sees me. In doing so, I overlooked the one person in my life that does: you. I am not afraid to be my full, true self around you. Eddie-”

“Just kiss him already,” Chris interjected.

“What did you just say, bud?” Eddie asked, slightly taken aback by Chris’s demand.

“Oh come on!” Chris continued. “The two of you have been in love for years. How come I noticed but you didn’t, Dad?”

“I agree with the kid,” Maya added.

“Me too,” Carina agreed. “The way you talked about Buck in the hallway is the same way I talk about Maya.”

“I wasn’t exactly expecting to make a speech right now, so I don’t have much to say. Evan, you-”

“Just kiss him and get it over with!”

“Fine.”

[sabbyvincent]

More Zig Novak headcanons pt. 2

“Novak” means newcomer or stranger, it refers to a new arrival in the city. It’s actually a given name and derives from the Slavic surname Novaković. I headcanon that his parents immigrated from Serbia to Canada for a better life and changed their surname from Novaković to Novak.

Mrs. Novak (who still carried Novaković at the time) was pregnant with Zig when they moved to Canada. They specifically wanted to move to Canada because his dad was a part of the Serbian mafia. He was in pretty deep to the point their lives were at jeopardy if he were to leave the gang. When they found out that she was pregnant they were desperate for a solution, so to escape the gang, they grabbed their hands on the cheapest bus pass they could afford, and moved to Toronto by train.

She was very distraught when they had to move considering she had to leave her father and brother behind, but it was anything to keep their baby safe.

This is canon, but I thought this was interesting. Zigmund means “victorious protector,” the writers were quite intuitive with his name, much better than Carter Cash. We see on numerous occasions Zig being very protective of his friends.

He was raised Eastern Orthodox. His mom is religious and they practice their Serbian traditions during holidays.

His grandfather back in Serbia that was very innovative and creative. He owned a store where they exclusively sold homemade Christmas ornaments. Before Zig was born he made him a homemade ornament. The boy carries his grandfather’s ornament with him everywhere

Because of his roots and growing up in poverty, Zig is a sentimentalist. When Maya wrote him “Yes” he listened to it for days, especially after their break up :(

Just needs a fucking hug and emotional guidance I swear

Boy Meets World is his favorite tv show, and Shawn’s character influenced his transformation in some ways. At the Matlin residence, he'd wake up and watch Boy Meets World while getting ready for school.

He was really close to his dad when he was younger. Since he was the eldest son, om “Badnji Dan” (Christmas Eve Morning) one of their traditions consisted of going to the forest and chopping down an oak tree to retrieve an oak branch “badnjak”, a ritual of Yule custom

As he got older he wasn't as close to his dad as he was with his mom

Zig absolutely hates onions and hates everything with onions on it. He hated cooking onions at the restaurant because his eyes were constantly stinging, but eventually got used to it.

Can totally see him being that dweeb who wore goggles when he chopped onions for the first time 🤣🤣

When he and Damon went to that diner as kids, he’d peel all the onions off his burger until he was old enough to realize he could just order cheeseburger without the onions.

In Next Class, I headcanon he’d cook meals for homeless civilians and residents of the group home he lived at because of what he went through. (Really wish we could of gotten to see stuff like this, ugh. So robbed.)

i headcanon when he had his transformation before sophomore year began (new hair, the cut off leaves), he really became a spitting image of his dad which scared his parents immensely. Gang dealing runs in their blood.

His mom did not want to kick him out, but she wanted to protect the family. The reason they left Serbia was to escape gang life. She was slightly traumatized after his’s fathers life in the gang, and was afraid to be in that situation again because they would have no where else to go, their store is all they have for bread and butter, literally. (Especially with Zak’s life in jeopardy)

Grace was the first person to find out Zig was homeless, and did all she could in her willpower to help him. That’s why they are so close, and very protective of him. They met at the ravine during a party, she noticed his duffel bag and teary eyes. Even though it wasn't much, she told him about the abandoned house in her neighborhood and all about squatting.

He constantly relayed to her about his crush on Maya, and his heartbreak when he saw her with Miles for the first time.

She helped him overcome his grievance of Cam’s death. I really stan this friendship.

Zig got interested in gang life when he started noticing Damon’s new threads... As well as a new phone. His clothes were way too nice to be thrifted or lost and found finds.

Tiny and Zig weren't on good terms at first, but when he realized Novak was really struggling and learned of his homeless life he was more willing to help him. Eventually got to be best friends turned brothers.

Zig was fun to write for, especially since he was a character without much of a background. Like / reblog for Zig as a boyfriend headcanons.

[supercorpkid]

The date.

Supercorp, Kara Danvers x Daughter!Reader, Lena Luthor x Daughter!Reader, Lillian Luthor x Granddaughter!Reader

Word count: 2202.

“MOOOOOOOM!” You open your bedroom door and stick your head out just to yell. You leave it open and go back inside looking at your entire wardrobe on top of your bed.

“What’s going on?” Lena walks in two minutes later and looks at the situation of your bedroom. “Oh my God, what happened here? A hurricane?”

“Far worst.” You complain sitting on your bed, about to cry. “I have a date with Maya.”

Lena looks at you confused. You’ve been having dates for weeks now.

“A real date. In a restaurant.” You add, pointing at yourself. “I can’t go looking like I’m a fugitive who just robbed a bank.”

You get a chuckle in response, which makes you huff, upset.

“Stop laughing. Help me!” You beg, picking up your clothes. “She’s just so gorgeous.”

“You’re gorgeous too, babygirl.” Lena reaches for your face, but you step away.

“Mom, seriously. I get it, you think I’m cute and pretty and nice, whatever.” You cross your arms. “I want to LOOK pretty. Can you do that, please?”

“Ok. Let’s see what we have here.” Lena starts trying to untangle the clothes from your bed, analyzing each item of clothes you have. She keeps making combinations, and talking at the same time. “Remember to eat slow. The way you and your momma eat it’s not cute.”

“You married her.”

“Well, I’m-well-It doesn’t matter what I did.” She looks back at you, handing you an outfit. “Let’s see this one.”

You change using your superspeed and Lena looks at you, raising an eyebrow.

“No.” She goes back to the pile of clothes. “I know you are an alien, but Maya doesn’t, so she won’t think it’s cute.”

“Yeah, ok. Got it.” She gives you another combination and you change again.

“Too formal.” Lena shakes her head in denial, making you roll your eyes. “Also, please pay for dinner.”

“I will.” You agree, showing her a sweatshirt, she denies with her head.

“Oh, I remember one that I think will look great.” Lena goes to your closet, and you hear her voice coming from there. “So, do you need me to drive you there?”

“Mom, I can literally fly.” You answer a little bit louder, and she comes back with a suit jacket. You deny with your head. “No, mom! I’m not gonna wear a suit for my date.”

“It’s not a suit.” She goes to you, putting on your shoulder. “It’s a part of a suit. You can put it with jeans.”

“Please don’t make me regret asking for your help.” You pout and she breathes deep.

“Hey, what are you two up to?” Kara asks leaning over the door frame from your bedroom and you look at her.

“I have a date, mom’s helping me pick something to wear.”

“What?” Kara looks outraged. “Why haven’t you asked me?” You just give her an eyebrow raise, and when you look behind you Lena is doing the exact same thing. “I have great style.” She mumbles to herself.

Kara makes space in your bed for her to sit, and keeps playing with your clothes. You can see Lena is two seconds away from kicking her out of the room.

“You know, I think you’re due a haircut.” Kara says and you run to the bathroom’s mirror.

“What’s wrong with my hair?” You yell, desperately.

“Nothing’s wrong with it!” You hear Lena’s voice. “Honestly Kara, if you’re not going to help…”

“I am helping!” She huffs annoyed. “I don’t know why you two are making such a big deal about this. You have been seeing Maya for weeks!”

“Uh.” You groan, going back to your bedroom. “You wouldn’t understand. You were friends with mom for years before you made a move on her. She knew everything about you, and still wanted you.” You look at Lena. “Why, exactly?”

“HEY!” Kara defends herself, then pouts looking extremely offended by your comment.

“I’m not saying she shouldn’t!” You rush to reassure her. “You’re cool, funny, and so handsome!” Kara smirks to that. “But you ARE an alien. So, what made you fall for an alien?”

You look at Lena, still shuffling through your clothes, and Kara also looks at her, very expectantly, like she doesn’t know the answer herself. Which is absolute bullshit, because you’ve never seen two people more in love in your life, and they are constantly talking about it and showing affection.

“Really? Just look at her.” Lena points at Kara, whose smirk just grows bigger. “Look at those guns!”

Kara flexes her arms, and Lena’s eyes zeros in it in hunger.

“You know what? Forget I asked.” You go back to your pile of clothes. “Stop looking, JESUS!” You clap your hands in front of Lena’s face. “Can’t you guys just wait until I leave for my date?”

“When is that exactly?” Kara asks, and you roll your eyes, feeling kicked out. But you still look on your phone.

“In ten minutes.” You look at some clothes. Your eyes slowly widen when you realize what you just said. “TEN MINUTES! MOM! I have TEN MINUTES!”

“Ok, calm down. You have super speed.” Lena shoots a look at Kara. “Come on, help.”

Kara mumbles something about the fact you two don’t think she has great style (which is true), but helps you to pick up a long-forgotten jeans jacket you loved so much. Lena picks up the rest of the outfit around it, and you’re ready with three minutes to spare.

“Hey, don’t forget to compliment her.” Kara says walking behind you, while you make your way to the backyard.

“Be a gentleman. Pull the chair.” It’s Lena’s turn to advise you.

“Oh, and if she asks how you got there, please don’t say you flew there on a bus.”

You snap your head back at Kara, squinting your eyes.

“Why on Earth would I say that?”

“Trust me, it could happen.” It’s Lena who answers and you look on your phone just to make sure you don’t have time to ask any further questions about it. “And don’t forget to pay-”

“Oh, dear Rao, I’ve got it!” You fly away after that.

You don’t got it. You absolutely do not. You’re revisiting the entire list they gave you from ‘compliment her’ to ‘pay for dinner’, when Maya walks in the restaurant and you almost choke on your own saliva.

“Hey, babe.” You hear her voice and you scramble your brain for words and the list. Oh, the list!

“Wow, you look… Wow.” You say and she chuckles, coming closer to kiss your cheek lightly.

“You look ‘wow’ yourself.” It’s her answer. Oh, the chair! Pull the chair.

“Here.” You pull the chair and she sits, with a smile on her face.

“What a gentlewoman.” Maya says and you celebrate inside your head. You sit across from her. “Did you moms drive you here?”

“Um…” Don’t say you flew here on a bus. Wait. Of course, you won’t. Rao, Kara is such a dork. “Yeah, Kara gave me a ride.”

“Oh, I thought Kara didn’t drive.” Maya is looking at her menu and you’re in front of her in absolute panic. It’s good she’s not focusing on you at the moment.

“No, she does. Just not well.” You say, making her laugh. And you breathe relieved and happy at the same time. Her laughter is something else. Maya, herself, is something else.

You try not to order too much food, so you don’t look like an actual alien. Usually, you know the exact moment when to stop ordering food by the way the waiter looks at you like you can’t just simply eat all that. This night you stopped way before the look, which probably means you’ll need to buy an entire pizza on your way home. But it’s cool, it’s fine. If not eating like a monster it’s the price to pay for having a girlfriend, you’re more than willing to comply.

“So, I’ve noticed you always have headphones with you. I figured you must really like music.” Maya says and you shake your head agreeing.

Yes, you really like music. And what you like about it so much is the fact that you can drown the noises down with it. Having something to focus on always works for you, when your powers are hard to control.

“I made you a playlist.” She gives you a keychain with a code. You smile from ear to ear. “In case you want to think about me, those are my favorite songs.”

“Oh, I think about you all the time, trust me.” You smile at her, holding her hand on top of the table. “Thank you, I really love it.”

You’re too enamored to notice your surroundings, but you hear an awfully familiar voice that shoots a spike of adrenaline through your spine. You look around to see her there. Oh, no. Not Lillian. Not at the same restaurant you are.

“Can you excuse me for a minute?” You stand up and Maya shakes her head agreeing, but she looks confused. She lets you go, and you pretend you’re going to the bathroom. When she looks down to her phone, you run to Lillian’s table.

“Grandmother.”

“Granddaughter.” She tilts her head, doing her signature move. “Are you here on a date?”

“Maybe.” You shrug. “Are you here to attempt a world take-over?”

“Maybe.” It’s her answer, but she isn’t. She is just eating like a normal person. Why does every day Lillian look more human to you? “You’re looking great.”

“Oh. Thanks.” And now you’re embarrassed.

“You shouldn’t keep your beautiful date waiting to talk to your old evil grandmother.” Lillian points at Maya with a head tilt, and you look back at your table and see Maya sitting there looking amazing. You can’t help a smile that comes up on your face. “Go! I won’t do anything evil today. We’ll talk more soon, dear.”

“Yeah. Ok.” You are almost going back to your table, when you turn around and salute her off. She nods with a tiny smile.

“You cool?” Maya asks and you agree with your head. “I ordered dessert.”

“That’s awesome.” You sit in front of her. “You’re awesome.” You fidget your necklace around your neck trying to calm yourself. “Um, so. I don’t know if you would like this, but um-” Maya holds your hand on the table, and gives it a gentle squeeze, like she’s telling you don’t have to be nervous. You smile. “Well, I applied for this robotics thing, and I have to work on something for it.”

“You know I’m not smart like you, right?” Maya jokes and you laugh.

“No, it’s… I have to work on it next week, and I thought maybe you would like to go to my lab at L Corp with me after school, and like, hang out?” You don’t even give her time to answer and you’re already adding. “But if it doesn’t sound fun, then you don’t have to, at all. Honestly, it’s-”

“Really? That would be great, yeah!” She smiles and you feel your heart easing out a little. “I would love to see this great brain of yours working.”

“Yeah?” You ask and she squeezes your hand again.

“Can’t wait to spend time with you.” She adds and you feel your heart beating so fast, you’re scared she might be able to hear it even without super hearing.

Honestly, you’re a big pile of mess after that. Actually, you’ve been a big pile of mess for this entire dinner, but Maya doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seems to like it.

When it’s time to leave, you pretend to call Lena for her to pick you up. It feels horrible lying to Maya, but you’re well aware that sharing your secret identity is something far too big than few dates. You hope one day you can tell her, but for now, you wait until she’s gone, find an alley somewhere, then you fly back home.

Before going inside the house though, you actually call Lena, just to make sure they’re decent and you don’t see more than what you would like to (again).

“Did you meet Lillian at the restaurant?” Lena asks, going in the living room at the same time you’re walking in.

“Yeah, she was having dinner there.”

“She sent me Maya’s entire family background check.” Lena says looking up from her phone.

“WHAT?”

“Oh, and apparently-” Lena looks at you smirking. “She approves.”

“Is it weird that I feel like I should break up now?” You joke, making your mom laugh. She comes closer and kisses your forehead.

“Don’t worry, I also did the background check once you told me about her.” She smiles when she sees your shocked expression. “And Alex looked them up in all systems worldwide. She’s cool.”

“You guys are so weird.” You half complain, half smile, and make your way to your bedroom.

They are weird, and also unnecessarily overly protective, because you have superpowers and can handle anything. But the fact that your entire family (even Lillian!) were worried about you, it’s extremely adorable. You just freaking love them so much.

Notes:

@hermen0404 and I got so carried away with Maya existence, so yeah.

[onechicago-upsteadrhekker]

the trouble with wanting (is i want you) - part two

Friends!!!!! I’m here! I’m back! 

I can’t apologize enough for the long wait! It certainly wasn’t intentional, but alas that is the life of a college student and unfortunately school comes before upstead as much as I wish it didn’t!

I hope part two gives you all the feels and makes up for the long absence, however, I do have something to share with you that may make you want to kill.

Part two turned into part three...

So, SURPRISE! This isn’t a two-shot; it will definitely be a three part story and I am happy to say that part three is written (mostly, I have to tweak a few things) so that will be up sometime next week depending on my school schedule.

Thank you again for your patience and I sincerely hope that you enjoy this chapter that contains no real plot, a lot of fluff and mutual pining!

As always, let me know what you think in the comments!

Tagging: @imjustwritingg, @anniesardors, @thetwit, @angelsjedi, @chichichicken, @carissalizz, @maya-asturias

Let me know if you want to be added to this list for part three!

Read on AO3

The next few days are filled with mandatory walking sessions, pain meds every four to six hours and Jay’s smiling face. He was the only reason why she wasn’t absolutely losing it because while she despised hospital stays in general, hospital stays in another city filled with people she didn’t know were downright insufferable.

But he’d made it go from something akin to glorified torture to slightly tolerable.

The bullet wound was starting to heal and the incision from where they’d had to remove her spleen was looking great according to the nurses and everything seemed to be on the right track healing wise, but anything regarding this thing that she and Jay had going on? She had no idea.

One would think getting shot in a different city, causing one partner to literally drop everything and come rushing to the other partner’s side would end in heartfelt confessions and relationships born at hospital bedsides.

But that’s not what happened, and Hailey was seriously starting to wonder if she and Jay were ever going to be on the same page. Or at least read the page aloud because she was fairly certain he felt the same way about her that she felt about him.

Because just partners don’t fly eight-hundred miles to be by your side even if you are hurt.

Right?

And it didn’t help that he was there with her almost twenty-four seven, giving her no time alone to process what he was telling her without words because before this, it had just been subtle glances and warm smiles, teasing words and affectionate eyes.

But this. Flying eight-hundred miles. It was tangible and real, and she couldn’t quite believe it was really actually happening, but then he was there, bringing her her favorite foods from restaurants she’d found during her time in New York and barely going back to her hotel room for sleep, staying by her side to keep her company and catch her up on five weeks’ worth of Intelligence news.

He was there for every lap around the hospital floor and every dressing change. He was there to shoo out the nurses when they were starting to get on her nerves and he was there, rubbing her hand softly when the pain of her bruised ribs made it hard to breathe.

And then there was the way she was constantly being referred to as ‘Jay’s wife’ instead of her own name much like when she was back in grade school and her teachers would call her ‘Sam’s little sister’.

He’d made quite the impression on the nurses and for some reason neither she nor Jay had set the record straight on the actual status of their relationship since that first day when he was mistaken as her husband.

(It was probably the same reason that they hadn’t talked about what Jay flying to New York meant. And to be honest, Hailey was sort of hoping that Jay would set the record straight on their relationship, if only to let her know where they stood.)

And she definitely wasn’t going to acknowledge the dangerous little thrill she got from hearing herself referenced that way or think about what it would be like for real. Nope, not a chance or she might never come back down to reality after having narcotic-induced dreams of three little words, ‘I do’s’, freckled little faces and laughing green eyes.

But then it’s so close, she can almost taste it and it should scare her, but it doesn’t.

Because she can feel it in the way he grins at her and in the way he tells her goodnight at the end of a long day of keeping her company. It’s in the way his arm brushes hers when he’s helping her sit or stand and it’s in the way his eyes hold hers for far longer than he should; his green eyes swimming with hints of the things she dreams.

But until she hears it. Until one of them gathers the courage to actually say the words and put a name to what they already know and feel, then she’s going to wait and guard those dreams carefully because she knows deep in her heart that when they return to Chicago, it will have either worked out or it won’t at all.

She’s not sure exactly when the pieces will fall into place or if they’ll even fit together but she knows they are at the point of no return. And honestly, that scares her the most because no matter what happens, it will always be Jay for her.

Because he was her home, and he had a place in her heart no one else could ever have and that terrified her because she knows that she’ll never get over him if for some reason it doesn’t work out between them.

She tries not to think like that because she’s pretty sure what she’s seen in his eyes is something that looks a lot like love, but it’s hard to be totally optimistic when it seems like the universe is always keeping them not necessarily apart, but not really together. At least not in the way she’s pretty sure both of them want.

So, she sits in her hospital bed, watching him laugh at her attempts to renegotiate her discharge date with the nurses and listens to him chatter about what Will’s been up to and how much he hated being tossed between Kevin, Kim, Adam and Vanessa while she’d been gone even if he liked working with each of them.

They’d been flying crooked he told her and that her not being there threw them all off so he’d be happy when he could take her back home and so would everyone else. In fact, they’d told her as much when Kim had facetimed Jay the day after he’d arrived in New York to get proof of life and see for themselves that she was truly going to be okay.

It was sweet and nice, and it made her realize how much she really did miss her team turned family even if she already felt like she was home just because Jay was beside her.

He was beside her and he was there with her and every time he looked at her over the beeping of the heart monitor she was hooked up to, everything else faded from view. The facetime calls with their friends, the friendly nurses checking up on her every few hours, the general hustle and bustle of hospital life happening outside her room.

It was just them and she’d be lying if she wasn’t looking forward to her discharge date for reasons other than just being out of the hospital because she knew then, she and Jay would truly be alone stuck in a hotel room in a city that neither one of them knew.

And that, she knew, would be the true test.

*

On the morning of the third day she’d been in the hospital, Hailey was given the news that she’d be released by that afternoon. If she was physically capable, she’d be jumping for joy but because of the dozen stitches in her side, she’d had to settle for celebrating internally.

Moving was still slow-going and she still felt overly tired far too early in the day, but she was confident that a night in her own bed (or at least the bed she’d been sleeping in for the past several weeks) would do her a world of good.

And she wasn’t going to think about how Jay being potentially next to her would probably make her sleep better than she’d ever had.

She didn’t know exactly where Jay had been disappearing to when he’d left the hospital at night, but she’d given him the key to her hotel room and he always came back looking well-rested so she felt safe assuming he was sleeping in the same queen bed she’d been occupying for the past five weeks.

Hailey wasn’t quite sure what would happen tonight when it was time for him to go to bed, but she wondered if this was the day they were going to finally get it right, nestled under the bed covers, whispering dreams and promises, her side aching but her heart so full.

“Here, let me help you with that,” Her gaze flicked up to Jay who had entered the room and was walking towards her, his hands already reaching out to help her pull on her coat. Hailey looked up at him as he focused his gaze on putting her left arm carefully through the sleeve of her jacket.

She wasn’t sure if a person could have reversed déjà vu, but the action brought her right back to another hospital room in a different city when she was still reeling from the panic she’d felt surrounding Jay’s terrifying brush with death.

When she’d helped him pull his familiar, worn black jacket over his sling right before she almost told him she loved him.

And now here they were again, except this time it was him helping her and this time she knew they weren’t going home without having the conversation they should have had then.

“Thanks,” She murmured softly, trying to ignore the way her heart raced when he briefly squeezed her hand.

Hailey gingerly sat down on the side of the bed, already worn out and sore from the morning’s activities of getting ready to leave.

“I called a taxi. It should be here any minute,” He grabbed her duffle and sat it beside her, “You sign the discharge papers?”

“Yes, thank God,” She muttered accepting the pair of Sperry’s Jay was handing her.

He chuckled softly, “You are so impatient.”

She shot him a look, “I’m sorry. And who was the one practically begging me to spring him from the hospital the minute he was awake and talking?”

He had the wisdom to look sheepish, but he couldn’t hide the wide smile threatening to take over. Clearly, they were both happy to be leaving the hospital room behind.

As Jay busied himself with packing the last few items into the duffle he’d brought Hailey the day he’d arrived in New York, he can’t help but watch her. She’s moving slowly, but she seems pretty alert for someone who got shot and had relatively serious surgery only four days ago.

Her eyes are bright if not tired and her hair is haphazardly thrown up in her signature high pony, but Jay still thinks she’s the most beautiful girl in the world and he almost tells her just that.

His mouth is open, forming the words when she turns to him after sliding on her shoes, catching his gaze with eyes narrowed in suspicion, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

And he thinks this is why he can never tell her how he feels. She’s always taking the words away with a flash of blue and a dash of blonde because he wants his future to look like her so badly, it terrifies him. And even when he does finally find the words, he knows he will never be able to tell her with words just how much she means to him.

His lips quirk and he shakes his head, turning his attention back to the duffle to zip it up before nodding towards the open door of her hospital room, “No reason. You ready to go?”

For a second, he thinks she’s going to push, and they are going to have the conversation they need to have right here and now, but then she doesn’t and some part of him feels disappointed that they are making themselves wait once again.

He’s not even entirely sure why because nothing is holding them back now. Not really. They are finally both in the same city with no kidnappings, rigged elections or anything else threatening to tear them apart and yet, they are still walking that very fine line of partners and best friends to something openly affectionate and loving and real.

It’s almost too perfect because while he rushed here in a state of panic, not knowing what he would find, Hailey, for the most part was okay and now they were stuck here with basically nothing to do but wait till she could fly without risk of infection or complications from surgery.

He’s not sure if he should be worried, waiting for the other shoe to drop or thrilled that the universe seems to be giving them a hint that it was finally time to take that leap of faith from partners and best friends to something more.

*

“Hailey, you are clearly in pain.”

After the short taxi ride from the hospital, they were finally in the hotel room and now firmly engaged in a battle of wills.

Hailey was currently giving him a glare that reminded him of the way she would silently warn him from across the bullpen to not do something he might regret or when they were down to the last couple of fries during a long stakeout and he was reaching for them.

Generally, he didn’t win the fights when she wore that look but today, he was determined to stand his ground.

“Jay,” It was practically whined and while he understood her reluctance to take the pain meds she’d been prescribed, he couldn’t stand watching her in pain.

In the few times that Hailey’s been injured during their partnership, it hadn’t been too serious, and she usually had a good attitude about doing what she needed to do to recover. So, seeing her like this, pale and tired and just not her normal, spunky self, broke his heart and he wanted to do everything in his power to fix it.

Starting with the meds she’s determined not to take.

He was happy to at least see the trait that was so undeniably Hailey in her eyes because otherwise, she looked like a lifeless shell of the badass detective he knows she is. The oversized pillows she was propped against makes her seem so tiny and she almost blended in with the sheets she was so white.

If he was being honest, she was starting to look worse than she did when she was in the hospital and that definitely concerned him enough to possibly make him take her right back there or at least call Will for his opinion.

Sighing, he uncrosses his arms to move from where he’s been standing a few feet away from the end of the bed holding the prescription bag in a clenched fist.

Her eyes track his movements as he comes to gingerly sit down at the edge of the bed, leaning over on his forearm to look at her closely, “Hailey,” He shakes his head, “Please just take them. At least so you can get some sleep. You look exhausted.”

For a second, he thinks that she’s going to keep fighting him, but then he sees the weak mask she’d had in place slip, the dull look of pain and exhaustion becoming clearly present in her eyes.

“Okay, fine,” She sighs out wearily, and he’s a little surprised that she conceded that quickly even if he knew he’d already won, but then she cocks her head slightly, “What do I get in return?”

Yeah, he didn’t think he’d won that easily.

Jay pushes the flirty and slightly suggestive response that instantly pops into his head to the back of his mind. There would be plenty of time for that later, or at least he desperately hopes so because he knows that now is not the time to start anything of that nature.

When he tells Hailey what she deserves to hear, he wants her feeling halfway decent and looking healthier than she does right now.

If they were in Chicago, he would bribe her with Bartoli’s, but they weren’t. They are in New York and she’s already made it quite clear that the pizza here is a tragedy, so he doesn’t think she’d want that particular food even if he could find a copy-cat deep-dish place.

So, he goes for the next best thing, “What about some Greek? It probably won’t be anything like Greek Islands, but I’m sure I can find a decent place. I could grab you some Pastichio. What do you say?”

The way her eyebrows furrow and her bottom lip sticks out adorably makes him want to kiss the pout away, but he doesn’t.

She shakes her head, “I don’t want Greek.”

Jay bites his lip briefly and refrains from making a comment on the childish tone of her voice as he regards her carefully for a quiet second.

He would never admit it, but he knows he’s a much worse patient when their positions are reversed so he’s more than willing to put up with her stubbornness because he knows it’s just a way to cope with the pain.

And besides, he loves her. He would do whatever he could to make her feel better.

“I’ll get you whatever you want as long as you take your medicine, so why don’t you tell me what it is you’d like to have,” He pushes himself up off his forearm to sit upright, but he still holds her gaze.

She sighs carefully, picking at the covers before answering him, “A Snickers bar.”

Jay raises his brows.

In the years he has known her, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen her eat a candy bar. She could down a piece of chocolate cake at an event, or the random chip bag she’d found during a stakeout, but he doesn’t think he’s ever seen her eat the overly processed candy bar before.

“You like Snickers bars?” He can’t help the slightly disgusted tone of his words.

Hailey’s expression instantly morphs into a defensive one, “A girl can have guilty pleasures, and this just so happens to be mine. Now, you said you’ll get me anything if I take my medicine, so you’re lucky it’s not something like a new gun. Or a car.”

Jay rolls his eyes and Hailey desperately wants to swat him but she’s already in a significant amount of pain so she doesn’t think that would be the wisest decision.

“Relax, I will get you your Snickers bar. I promised, didn’t I?” He smirks a little as he moves off the bed to grab his coat that’s thrown over the back of the desk chair, “I just can’t believe I didn’t know you liked candy bars.”

Shrugging a little, she tries not to wince at the pain that small movement caused her, “I don’t indulge in them much; only when I’m not feeling good or if there’s literally nothing else to eat.”

After gathering up his wallet and phone, Jay stops in the middle of the room to regard her for another moment. He shakes his head, “What else don’t I know about you, Hailey Upton?”

She gives him a little smirk of her own, “Lots of things, I’m sure. I was once told I was aloof about my personal life.”

“And just when I thought I was getting to know the person under that tough exterior,” He feels the smile creep over his face, and he doesn’t care that he probably looks like a man hopelessly in love because he is.

He watches as her own expression softens and for just a moment, their eyes meet. A thousand words of unspoken love pass between them and he can see his entire universe in those captivating, blue orbs just as she can see a million promises in his.

Hailey shifts and winces at the sharp pain it causes her, cursing herself for ruining the moment. Those pain pills she’d tried refusing were looking pretty good right about now as the throbbing intensified around her still tender ribs.

Jay noticed her discomfort. He always does, and she could see the concern so clearly on his face it made her heart swell in love. He’s the most caring man she’s ever met, and it’s one of the things she loves most about him.

“As soon as I get back, you’re taking your meds,” Jay frowns, rubbing his thumb briefly along his hairline before dropping his arm, “I’d give them to you now, but I’m not sure I should leave you alone with narcotics in your system just in case. And besides, you need to take the antibiotics with food, so I’ll pick up something while I’m out.”

She just nods, picking up the remote for the television, “Sounds good. I’ll be here watching whatever trash I can find on TV, so hurry back.”

Jay gives her one last smile that warms her from head to toe before he opens the door and walks out.

*

When Jay walks through the hotel door about an hour later, he has the overwhelming urge to call out a ‘Honey, I’m home’, but he doesn’t want to wake Hailey if she’s sleeping and he’s not sure how she would respond to the term of endearment even if it is said teasingly.

It’s funny how that is the thing he feels would be crossing the practically non-existent line they have towing for the past several days. Or weeks really if he’s honest with himself.

As it turns out, she’s not sleeping but still in very much the same position he’d left her in. The TV was on, a rerun of ‘Happy Days’ playing quietly but she doesn’t seem to be paying much attention. Instead, she’s looking down at the phone in her hand, clearly scrolling through something before glancing up at him.

Her eyebrows rise as she takes in the various Target bags he’s carrying in both hands. Hailey let her phone drop in her lap, more interested in what Jay had bought because all she’d sent him out for were Snickers Bars, “Did you buy the whole store?”

He frowns at her as he finds the bag of take-out Chinese he’d ended up getting for their late lunch-early supper to set on the nightstand, “No, I did not, but I did get real food and,” He holds up the other bags he was carrying, “I got you your Snickers.”

Whatever else he’d bought was forgotten as she beamed up at him, already reaching for the candy bar he was digging for throughout his purchases. When he finally found what he was looking for, he tossed it to her, and she immediately ripped open the wrapper.

He makes a face as she bites into the sugary chocolate, “I still don’t know how you eat that crap.”

She responds with an eyeroll because her mouth was too full to make a witty comeback.

“You could at least wait till you ate actual food first,” Jay arched a disapproving eyebrow, his nose wrinkling as he watched her make an obvious display of enjoying her treat. He shakes his head and deposits the Target bags on the lower end of the bed to pull out the bottles of vitamin water he’d bought for her.

“Here, I got your favorite and a couple of new ones for you to try,” He handed her the blackberry flavored one before retrieving the pill bottles that were sitting on the nightstand beside their bag of food.

He read the instructions on each bottle then opened the oxycodone to dump one out, “Okay, you can have one right now and,” He checked his watch, “One at around seven then another at eleven.”

Hailey frowns, but takes the pill out of his outstretched palm anyway, “I hate the way these make me feel. My head feels fuzzy, and I can’t think clearly.”

Jay gives her a sympathetic smile and offers a simple, “I know” because he does know, but he also knows that if she has any hope of getting rest tonight, she needed to be well medicated.

“Maybe tomorrow we’ll try going all day without pain meds, okay? I just want to make sure you have a good night’s rest tonight since it’s your first night out of the hospital,” He tells her as he shakes out an antibiotic pill and then the iron supplement the doctor had prescribed her with for the next few days to hand to her.

Nodding, she knocks the three pills back and takes a swig of her vitamin water. Meeting his gaze, she reaches out to grab his hand and gives it a tight squeeze, “Thank you, Jay.”

The heavy tension that settles over them is now a familiar one and it’s almost comforting in a way as she tells him with her eyes how grateful she is for him.

After a few moments of silence, she clears her throat and withdraws her hand, turning her attention to the bags of stuff piled on the bed, “So, what’d you get?”

Jay blinks, shaking himself out of the trance they’d just been in as he rifled through the things he’d bought, pulling them out to show Hailey, “Well, I did some research and according to WebMD which was confirmed by my brother, weighted blankets can help with muscle soreness and speed up the recovery process.”

“I also got some ice packs,” He dumps out about a dozen before reaching in yet another bag, “And I picked up some of your favorite movies as well as a couple of pairs of fuzzy socks because I know you didn’t pack any and the hospital socks are terrible.”

The tears that spring to her eyes aren’t unexpected because the fact that he knows and remembers how much she loves wearing fuzzy socks when she’s at home decompressing tells her how much he cares even if he hasn’t really said it out loud yet.

The research, the weighted blanket, the movies, the treats, the socks; it’s slightly overbearing, but it’s sweet and it’s so undeniably him that it makes her heart hurt with the love she has for him.

She gives him a soft smile, “For someone who claims to not know me, he sure does take care of me and brings me all of my favorite things.”

“Well, after four years I would hope to know some things,” Jay smirks at her before moving to put the ice packs in the small fridge/freezer combo they had in the room.

He looks back at her over his shoulder, “But, I somehow missed your Snickers habit and it makes me wonder what else I should probably know, but don’t.”

Rolling her eyes, she watches as Jay moves back over to the bed, going for the food he’d sat on the nightstand.

“You know you’re not exactly an open book,” She points out with a wry smile.

He’s not an open book, it’s true, and even though she’s teasing him about it, she knows him better than anyone. Maybe better than even Will knows him. Maybe better than he even knows himself, and it’s ironic because the way she knows him better than anyone is more so through his actions and not his words.

She knows his heart through his acts of compassion. She knows his mind through his steady emotions. And she knows him because he lets her see the deepest parts of himself, unspoken secrets swimming in his eyes and dark memories whispered over drinks.

She knows the things that matter and the same could be said about the things he knows about her, but now that it’s being brought up, she does wonder if there are any meaningless habits she hasn’t bared witness to.

If her mind goes straight to those of a personal nature such as nighttime routines and shower preferences, then she’d never admit it.

“Well,” He handed her a container of Shrimp Lo Mein, “We’re stuck in this hotel room with basically nothing to do so,” Jay sat down on the bed, facing her with his own container of Chinese, “Let’s play a game.”

Hailey arches a skeptical eyebrow, “A game?”

“Yeah,” Jay nods as he takes a bite of his own Lo Mein, “Like one of those ‘get to know you’ games since we apparently don’t know much about each other.”

She frowns, a little unconvinced at this plan and what it could entail, but she’s curious and the slight woozy feeling she feels from the pain meds makes her ask, “What kind of ‘get to know you’ game? Like truth or dare?”

Smirking, he shakes his head, “No. Although, that could be extremely entertaining.”

“Uh-uh. No way am I drinking a bottle of hot sauce or jumping off the balcony or some other insanely difficult thing that you would think was easy,” She takes a bite of her food, trying to shake back the loose hair that keeps falling into her face, “I just had surgery.”

He’s full-on grinning now, chuckling at her impassioned response, “Nothing like that. I was thinking more along the lines of 21 Questions.”

Hailey tries to take another bite of her food, but her hair gets in the way again. She’s starting to get frustrated at the locks that keep falling into her eyes and mouth, making it hard to eat.

Sticking her chopsticks into the take-out container, she uses the now free hand to push her hair behind her ears as she shrugs, “Alright then. We don’t really have anything better to do other than watch movies and eat takeout anyways.”

The way his eyes sparkle at her answer is worth all the cheesy questions she’s sure he’s going to ask.

He stands up, shoving a used napkin into his now empty takeout container and she’s always amazed at how quickly he can down food when he wants to, “We can alternate asking questions and we don’t have to ask exactly 21 questions. It can be more, or it can be less.”

He throws his trash away and starts cleaning up the bed, moving all of the empty Target bags and the stuff he bought off to one side, “Is there anything off limits?”

She hesitates before saying no, shaking her head because while her natural inclination is to keep everything close to the vest, she knows there is nothing that she wouldn’t share with Jay if he asked her.

He makes her feel safe, and she’s constantly finding herself telling him things that she’d never said out loud before anyway, so she already knows that he will guard her secrets and feelings and thoughts deep in his own heart as if they were his own.

It’s like he knows what she’s thinking because the way he smiles at her is so gentle and the secretive sparkle in his eyes is what tells her that the same goes for him.

“You wanna go first or do you want me to?” Jay cocks his head, looking at her as he tears into the weighted blanket.

“You can go first,” She goes to take another bite of food when her hair falls into her face for what feels like the hundredth time.

She sighs internally, her frustration going unnoticed by Jay who had turned back towards the movies he’d bought, opening each of them as he tells her he has to make this first question a good one.

Pretty quickly after waking up from surgery, Hailey had found putting her hair up in its typical ponytail an almost impossible task because every time she raised her arms to gather her hair up, her stitches would pull, and her ribs protested loudly.

After several failed attempts that left her eyes watering, she ended up having a nurse put it up for her and she continued to ask for it done in the mornings before Jay arrived at the hospital to keep her company.

But now, there was no nurse to gather up her long, annoying hair when it keeps falling in her face and even though she’s stubborn enough to try it, Hailey knows if she pulls on her stitches or possibly breaks one, then she’s going to be paying for it tomorrow all because she wanted to put her hair up herself.

She sighs again, this one audible as she sets her Chinese container on the nightstand, “Jay?”

“Yeah?” He turns to look at her, his brows furrowed in concern.

Hailey bites her lip sheepishly as she snaps the elastic band around her wrist against her skin, “Can you put my hair up?”

He looks surprised for a moment before he smirks at the slight blush dusting her cheeks at having to ask for help with a task this simple, “Of course I can, Hailey.”

She hands him the ponytail holder as he walks over to the side of the bed, “But I will warn you. I’ve never done this before.”

She wants to tease him. Maybe tell him he’d better start practicing now if he ever hopes for a daughter one day, but it feels too on the nose when she wants that daughter to be hers too.

So instead, she smirks at him as he moves behind her to start gathering her hair up in awkward chunks. Hailey glances at him out of the corner of her eye, fake gasping, “Don’t tell me that the brave and noble Detective Jay Halstead, the man who jumps over moving cars and shoots sniper rifles doesn’t know how to put hair up in a ponytail.”

“Oh, shut up,” He grumbles good-naturedly, still trying to smooth her blonde hair into his loosely closed fist on top of her head, “It’s not like I’ve really had the opportunity or need to practice.”

Chuckling, she lets him concentrate on pulling her hair through the elastic and tries not to get lost in the feeling of his fingers in her hair and the warmth radiating off him. Her eyes flutter close and she marvels at how gentle he is even with the strength of his hands, well-conditioned in the act of squeezing a trigger.

And just like when making those shots, the precision in which he does everything is still there as he carefully tightens the elastic, securing her hair into place.

Hot breath hit the back of her now exposed neck and she can’t help but shiver. Before he’s stepping away, she swears she feels his hands brush her skin and she wonders if he’s equally as affected as she was by his closeness.

But before it can turn into anything, he’s smiling and settling back into his spot at the foot of the bed, gesturing to the ponytail he’d just completed, “It’s not as good as you do it, but I think it’ll pass.”

“I’m sure it’s fine, Jay. It’s out of my face and it’s not like anyone will see it,” She grins at him as she picks up her food, intending to finish it off now that her hair won’t get in her way.

Jay frowns teasingly, “Hey, and what about me? Am I not someone?”

She smiles softly in amusement, “You’ve seen me in worse states and you’re not just anyone, you know that. You’re my best friend, Jay,” She hesitates because she knows that’s not strictly true. He is her best friend and he’s her partner but he’s also the man she loves, and it would be so easy to let the truth slip out.

Looking at him, she sees something in his eyes that looks like hope or maybe anticipation and she wonders if he thinks she’s going to tell him the one secrete she just can’t seem to get out. Maybe she would have told him if they sat there for a few seconds longer, but his phone buzzes and the moment is gone before it really even began.

Hailey wonders if phones are going to be their downfall.

She thinks she sees disappointment flash across his face, but she blinks and he’s looking at his phone with a serious expression.

“Is everything okay?” Her brow furrows as she watches him type out a quick response and put the device back into his pocket.

He shakes his head, sighing, “That was Kev. The Latin Players are on the verge of waging war against a new up and coming gang called The Jets.”

Interjecting, Hailey raises a brow, “As in West Side Story?”

“Yep,” Jay lets out a wry chuckle, “Anyway, the team flipped someone on The Jets’ side, and it looks like they are possibly willing to play ball so Kev was asking for some background info on my Latin Player connect because Intelligence is going to attempt to negotiate a truce before it can escalate to a full-blown gang war.”

She groans quietly, all too aware of the potential complications and ramifications that come from this type of violence, “That’s just what the city needs. A gang war.”

He huffs in agreement, dropping his head in disgust and she can see the tension in his shoulders. Even eight-hundred miles away, the crime and the innocent people that inevitably gets tangled up in it affects him.

Hailey frowns, her eyebrows furrowing in concern. She reaches out a hand to lightly touch his bent knee, “Jay.”

He looks up at her and the empathy she sees in his eyes makes her heart swell in what’s becoming a familiar sensation. Love and pride and admiration and respect for this man she has the privilege to know.

Her eyes soften and she smiles gently at him, an earnest look on her face, “If you need to go home, go home Jay. I’ll be alright here by myself. I don’t need you to take care of me.”

If the situation wasn’t so serious, she might have laughed at the way his eyebrows shoot up in surprise, clearly not expecting those words to come out of her mouth.

Recovering, his eyebrows furrow and he shakes his head adamantly, “No way. They can get along without me. I’m not leaving here without you and I don’t care if you think you can take care of yourself because who’s going to help you change your bandages or make you take your medicine or keep you company?”

He challenges in a slightly playful manner, but the eyebrow he raises dares her to contradict him and she knows he is serious, “Besides, I need to be here if I want to keep my own peace of mind. I don’t work well without you, so I’m not sure how much help I’d be anyway.”

She knows that no matter the circumstance, Jay would always perform above and beyond the call of duty, but she also knows that this is his way of telling her that he needs her and the way he was willing to stay with her in New York makes her heart stutter in yet another way.

Before she can dwell on the feeling any further, he’s smiling again, his eyes crinkling with mischief, “Now back to the game. I think I have the perfect question for you.”

Sorry it ended in a bit of an awkward spot, but I decided to split it into two parts when I hit 10,000 words and I still wasn’t done yet lol so I didn’t know this was going to be the ending of a chapter.

I’d love to hear what you thought and stay tuned for part three!

[aventurasdeunatortuga]

Guatemala Days 18-21

Lívingston and Río Dulce

Coming up on the end of this trip. It’s been a weird couple of days.

I’ve spent the last 5 days in Lívingston, Guatemala on the Belizean border. Lívingston is a very interesting community with a really fascinating history.

It is populated by a mix of indigenous Q’eqchi’ Maya and Garifuna. It is the only Garifuna community in Guatemala.

The Garifuna are a group of Afro-Indigenous people descended from two shipwrecked slave ships which crashed on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean in the mid 19th century. The Africans aboard those ships managed to escape being enslaved and mixed with the indigenous Arawak and Caribe peoples of the island as well as recently freed enslaved people from elsewhere in the Caribbean, as slavery in the British colonies was outlawed in 1833 (I think that’s the right year?).

Anyway, this unique time and place and intersection of cultures allowed a really unique combination of a variety of Africans that were never enslaved and thus maintained their cultures and local indigenous cultures. They called themselves the Garifuna people.

In 1845 I think? The British government became wary of the Garifuna because they were not submitting to British rule and inciting revolts. They evicted them from St. Vincent and they developed communities all over the Central American Caribbean coast. Mainly in Honduras and Belize, with Lívingston being the only Guatemalan Garifuna community. There is also a thriving Garifuna community in New York City.

All this to say that Lívingston has a really interesting and unique culture. It is also really isolated and hard to get to, which I think has helped them to preserve their culture. It isn’t on an island, but it is surrounded by canyons and thick jungle, so the only way to get to it is by a 2 hour boat ride on the Río Dulce, which eventually leads out to the ocean. You can take a boat from Lívingston to Belize as well.

I’ve been sick the whole time I was in Lívingston unfortunately with a stomach bug, which meant I couldn’t really eat much, but I still enjoyed my time there. I was also feeling overall kind of down and exhausted so I spent most of the time sleeping.

I went to a restaurant called Las Tres Garifunas where I met a guy named George who told me more about Garifuna history and language. Garifuna is one of 24 languages spoken in Guatemala (22 distinct Mayan languages, Garifuna, and Spanish).

I took a day trip along the Río Dulce, which reminds me so much of the Amazon River. We went to Siete Altares which is a hike literally through the middle of a river bed where there at least 7 waterfalls and dozens more smaller ones. It was really beautiful but the trail was really hazardous, I only fell once though!

We also went to Playa Blanca, the only white sand beach in Guatemala. Due to all the volcanoes most of the beaches have black sand. We spent a couple hours there relaxing which was nice.

On my last day I spent a very long time on the dock watching the egrets and pelicans and hung out in a cafe for a very long time just people watching. In the evening I went to a bar and tried gifiti, a Garifuna liquor made with rum fermented in a jar with herbs. They also had Garifuna drumming and dancing which was cool to see. You can definitely see the mix of African influences with Ladino Guatemalan music and indigenous Guatemalan style.

Overall despite not feeling my best it was a nice quiet final week in Guatemala and I’m glad I came to Lívingston.

Today I spent a bazillion hours in a boat and a hot bus to get back to Guatemala City, and am currently sitting in my hotel eating uber eats fried chicken, watching Rush Hour 3, and awaiting my 3am wake up call. I’ve also got an exciting 12 hour layover in Texas tomorrow so that’ll be fun.

I’ve had a great time in Guatemala these past few weeks. I have learned so so much and I’m really glad I came. My goal was to learn as much as I could because my school I work at has been receiving more and more recent immigrants from Guatemala and I wanted to be able to connect with them more. I’m also glad to be back to traveling internationally after these past few pandemic years.

Until next time!

[transguyedgeworth]

HALLO i hope all has gone well with bugs and such ur probably dealing w that as i type this but i have more headcanons >:) so! i hope these are helping deal with evil evil bugs

-maya still has a bunch of mias clothes she gave some to lana and some to pearl but sometimes she’ll wear a sweater or something that was mias

-phoenix doesn’t really like hospitals

- reminds him too much of bttt and falling

- yes i think capcom should have realized that falling off a damn bridge should give a man a good bit of upset and trauma capcom i am outside your door

- miles bottles up his feelings A LOT because there wasn’t any place for feelings in the von karma house. he’s trying to get better though

- he mostly bottles up his anger because he sees mvk in himself whenever he gets angry because mvk would be angry a lot

- fran also does the same but with any happiness or personal pride she may feel

- they both try to work on it, maya and phoenix are good influences on them

- miles has visited mvk in jail once. he won’t again

- franziska will never visit him

-miles likes to knit

-maya is sooo superstitious not like ohh if i break a mirror i’m dead but like Bigfoot Is Real and I Saw Him At Gourd Lake

-edgeworth and phoenix go often to a little coffee shop and always get a pot of tea

-sometimes phoenix brings flowers

-LMAO edgeworth asks what they are sometimes and unless they’re the two types of flowers phoenix knows he has No Idea

- the bathroom at wright and co is haunted

- maya attracts ghosts like nobodies business

-fran is afraid of spiders and maya is Violent towards spiders

- fran will shriek from the other room and maya will run in flip flop in hand, take one look around the room, and chuck her shoe at the spider. she never misses.

-maya LOVES that bakery they investigated in that one case i cannot remember the name of the one with the like. french dude? and tigre?

-pearls and maya make a scrap book for wright and co

-phoenix still draws (he was an art student and i am projecting onto him) sometimes but always drags edgeworth to art museums and talks about the art

-building on game night with the wrights they also have video game nights. phoenix is so bad and maya is still competitive but fran and edgeworth when paired against each other are Scary

-fran also sometimes lets her little brother win and gets dramatic about losing but it makes her happy to see edgeworth excited

- edgeworth has a journal bc someone once suggested it and he writes in it so often

- he also carries a certain picture of him larry and phoenix when they were kids and his signal samurai keychain in his inner pocket and fiddles with the keychain

-maya loves decorating the office for holidays

-the only thing phoenix can make well is soup and hot chocolate and he makes them at least twice a month when it’s cold

-edgeworth won’t admit it but he’d rather eat phoenixs almost burnt soup and melted bar hot chocolate than the stuff from the fanciest restaurants

- when edgeworth and phoenix propose they both propose at the same time and it’s so awkward but so so funny they both say yes of course but phoenix will tell that story to anyone who listens

ok that’s all for now! idk if i have any more (that’s a lie i have so many thoughts about them but idk how many of them are coherent) anyway i wish you best of luck with all the hubbub!!!

everything is going well thank you for the concern!! housing sent someone out to fix up the hole in my wall that they were coming through and the pest control guy just left and is now treating the outside of the building. these are absolutely helping me deal with the stress so thank you for sending them in! 

starting strong with the clothing thing, i love love LOVE your interpretation of the fey clan so much. it is canon in my brain now. capcom wishes they could think of this shit. also giving some to lana? precious, sentimental, amazing. lanamia nation rise up. thank you for my life. the detail about maya believing in cryptids and the bathroom being haunted? accurate and hilarious. and yes big agree that she still likes tres bien (i’m pretty sure that’s the name), she worked there briefly so of course she’d have a soft spot for it. i literally adore the idea of maya being hella Into Stuff, like cryptids and holiday decorations and winning at game night, and the scrapbook idea slayed me on sight. i am in tears.

LITERALLY WHY DOES CAPCOM IGNORE THAT PHOENIX HAS BEEN THROUGH SOME SHIT??? like what the hell. man almost died and then like two days later he’s like “lol i’m Completely Fine :)”. unrealistic. capcom let him be Affected by experiences please. 

kinda building off of that, AGAIN WITH THE WRIGHTWORTH STUFF MAKING ME TENDER??? i love them goin on little dates and being domestic... art museums and coffee shops and phoenix being Dumb about flower breeds and miles loving his cooking.... i am Soft i am Yearning. AND THE PROPOSAL THING!!!!! I HAD THIS SAME FUCKING IDEA GET OUT OF MY BRAIN!!!!! IT’S JUST SUCH A THEM THING TO DO...

and oooh edgeworth. good for you king, journaling and knitting and stimming and learning healthy ways to cope with your emotions. also the anger thing i totally get. like not to Overshare or anything but i used to have a lot of issues expressing my anger because when i did it reminded me too much of my dad so i feel that. 

the vk sibling stuff also spot-on tbh. good that they didn’t visit manfred except for miles’ one time. fuck that guy. let him rot. they are Learning and Growing together.... fran letting miles win at a game also perfect. she cares about her little brother even if she has trouble showing it sometimes. also love that her one weakness is spiders. that seems very fitting to me and i LOVE the image of maya just. chuckin a shoe across the room to defend her Wife from the eight-legged terror.

also you are free to send me incoherent thoughts if you want that’s the form most of my thoughts take anyway fjnfjsf i��d still love to hear them if you’re willing to share!

[fishnets-fingers]

Harry’s House - Album Review

A review from two tumblr moots - Maya [ @fishnets-fingers​ ] and Aprajita [ @0oolookitsme​ ]. While Aprajita listened to the album when it came out, Maya bit the bullet and listened to the leaks a week before the release. We’ve put down our thoughts for each track, we wrote an album review with a rating, and ranked it with the older albums in Harry’s discography.

 1. Music For a Sushi Restaurant

M- Weird. But I love the way it sounds. Definitely the right opening track. The horns - I LOVE. It really threw me off because this is not the type of music I was expecting from him but I’m not complaining if the whole album is gonna be like this. It’s cause I love you babe. Every kind of way. Just a little taste. You know I love you babe. These lyrics are my favourite. 

 A- I literally laughed when I focused on the lyrics. Like, this song is so goddamn fun, could be played in a club too maybe, or just depressed and tipsy students could dance to this during parties. And when the ‘aah’ goes from low to high, just makes me clench my eyes cause it just feels so good! + The moment I heard: scooby do bo, I was like yas king!   (literally obsessed with this song these past two days)

2. Late Night Talking 

M- The Coachella song. Didn’t like it when it was performed but it definitely grew on me. I LOVE the chorus. Very cute premise of staying up and talking with the one you are currently infatuated with. Nothing very remarkable about it for me. 

A- There would be rare moments in my life when I’d want to play this song, but those moments will be just perfect. Defo the one I’ll skip sometimes. But when he tunes the words before the “If you feeling dow…”, is the reason this song is playing continuously in my head, and not to forget the 12..34..56 kinda chorus. This one kinda gives me the vibes of when the whites are on a car ride during summers, yanno?

3. Grapejuice 

M- The whispered one two three from Harry in my ears really invaded my personal bubble. HELLO ASMR KING LMAO. Very eh for me… I’m very curious to see how he’d perform this live (I’m picturing he sits down on stage). The crooning chorus was divine. I feel like the only way I’d appreciate this song to its fullest when it’s being played is on a long road trip and it’s super dark outside - with patches of light pouring in through the streetlight - and everyone in the car is asleep and it’s eerily quiet, except for the whir of the car. 

A- The 123 really did catch me off-guard cause you know, I didn’t expect his voice to be so low and raspy. I’m not THAT infatuated with this song but I just know I’ll probably grow on this song when I’ll start going on walks during the afternoon or late mornings, cause I’d defo play it at that moment.

4. As It Was 

M- Sweet sweet as it was. Harry’s pumped up kicks era. It’s a nice reminder to know that he’s just as messed up as the rest of us. I loved it when it came out but I’m tired of this song, to be honest. It’s overplayed - it’s on every other story/ reel/ post/ video on instagram - and I’m ready to move on. 

A- This song is chef's kiss and because I don’t see this song on Insta that much, I don’t think I’ll ever skip this song. Like.. I could hear this song in whatever mood I’m in, literally.

5. Daylight 

M- My little gem. I absolutely love this. It’s this album’s Golden. I have a feeling that this was written super late at night. Or at least that’s the vibe I’m getting. The ooh in the chorus is the best part. Wished this would go on for a whole ten minutes… sigh. 

A- I’ve been listening to this one a lot lately. Like, 's the best song so far. I love the poetry kinda vibes from the lyrics and the music is>> Like this instantly made it to my faves. I can’t -and won’t-  stop listening to this literal gem.

6. Little Freak 

M- Mayhaps we’ve got ourselves another Complicated Freak on our hands? Oh how wrong I was, expecting it to go a very different route. Still don’t know how to feel about this… I feel like this is

the song in the album that I’d skip and suddenly listen to it in a few months and mentally curse myself for not appreciating it a bit sooner and have it on repeat. 

A- His voice… omg. This song is the ‘Cherry’ of this album. He sounds so vulnerable! Like I can imagine his nose getting slightly pink because of the chilly atmosphere while listening to this one. I expected this one to be a sex song so I wasn’t ready. All I know is that I’m ready to see this on my ‘on repeat’ playlist on Spotify. “You never saw my birthmark..” …and I LOST it.

7. Matilda 

M- It’s very sweet. I got very emotional listening to it. I love the perspective he took while writing it. Not a skip. It has a place in my heart.

A- I love the tears I had in my eyes while listening to this song as I was alone in the kitchen, sitting on the slab and preparing myself tea. The fact that I read the novel this song has been inherited from just makes it so much more meaningful to me cause you see, I read that story when I was 11 or 12. Don’t even be surprised if you see me listening to this one while having a breakdown in the bathroom.

8. Cinema 

M- I think this is the most different out of all the songs in the album. Love the way he says cool. Definitely going into my horny playlist. Don’t like the bridge that much though. Bit too long in my opinion. 

A- After 2 emotional songs, this changed my mood in a snap of fingers. Like my mood doesn’t change this quickly when I’m on my periods mate. I might skip this one sometimes, though.

9. Daydreaming 

M- Absolutely loved all three minutes and seven seconds of this. Very dancey. I could totally see myself convincing people to start a conga line when this song starts at parties. I saw a post that said Taylor Swift’s exes are making music together and sign me up if it’s gonna give us more bops like this. 

A- Literally can see myself dance-walking to this song. Like, I’ll be dancing like some old but active and fit old man to this song lmao.

10. Keep Driving 

M- This is hands down my favourite song on the album. It’s super airy and his voice sounds beautiful. Had this on repeat for days now. Side boob, cocaine, choke her with a sea view, edibles, puff pass - Harry what in the name of debauchery. It’s my favourite of all the bridges. Only can pepper in shit like in a sweet sounding sound. 

A- I agree so much with your review. I can see myself humming this song out of the blue. That’s literally what I’ve been doing since today morning so-. Love this song. Can listen to this song on any type of car drive. But this song is either made to be heard super early in the morning, or on a chilly evening. But there's hustle-bustle around during both the times.

11. Satellite 

M- I expected this to sound similar to cinema but it’s not. It’s giving me a very Jonas Brothers vibe. Very forgetful for me. Don’t particularly like it. 

A- I kinda like this song. Like, really like this song hahah. He did a few innovations with this one but honestly, I love ‘em.

12. Boyfriends 

M- Boring. It’s a sweet song but it’s the one song I dislike on the album. Hate me all you want but it’s a guaranteed skip from me. 

A- This song- hmm, I think I’ll only listen to this when I’m feeling the loneliest. Like this song digs a pit in my chest, at least it feels so. I’ll be scared to listen to this song most of the time so I don't know how often will I let it play.

13. Love Of My Life 

M- Shoot me in the face, this was so beautiful and vulnerable. The synth was just chef’s kiss. It’s unfortunate, just coordinates, keep echoing in my head for some reason. All in all, such a lovely way to sign off.

A- The piano in the end is what broke the dam.

Final Review & Rating: 

M- Lyrically not his best. I think Fine Line was the best lyrically. It’s much more ambiguous than what he used to write - much more ambiguous than what it used to be. It’s giving me a lot of similarities to Bon Iver but he’s just not on par yet (sorry Harry and the writing team). Sonically, I absolutely love it. Super different and playful. Groovy. Jazzy. Disco. It’s the best sound he’s ever put out. It’s still at the bottom and this is just my first impression but albums usually take time to grow on me and who knows maybe in three months, I have a feeling it will knock his first album to the bottom of my list. 7/10. 

A- I’m really starting to grow on this album now, but it still sits at the bottom for me. The more I play, the deeper I find it so I have a feeling that this might take the position of his self-titled album by the end of this year… I’ll give this album an 8.5/10 :)

Ranking: 

M- Fine Line for me still is on the throne. Followed by his first album and then very closely, followed by Harry’s House.

A- Fine Line > Harry Styles > Harry’s House.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Fateful Theft.

Why are we doing this?

Kuripa...

Just a question Boss.

Come on, it’s not like we have anything better to do with our time. Besides, I thought you liked hi-tech fancy stuff like this.

I do. But whatever they have here has lost all it’s impact to me by now, considering I’ve seen things way crazier in my recent years.

This Fang Inc. had better be up to snuff, that’s all I’m saying.

*After breaking off from the rest of the group at the restaurant, Makoto and Kuripa decide to visit a gall

Besides, the word “gallery” is enough to send a chill down my spine.

Why?

Because, as part of my collage course when I was first studying animation work, we had very frequent gallery visits where we’d go to museums or some art bullshit, and study the paintings there.

They were totally pointless, and a waste of energy. Not even anime is on the level of a Van Gough painting, so studying ancient as balls art doesn’t help my style in any way.

Well, isn’t it less about style and more about inspiration?

How the fuck am I gonna get inspired by people who are thousands of feet in the ground right now? They think differently than me!

Art is just...I dunno, it sucks! I feel like it’s unfair to mark me on an art degree or course, simply because of how opinionated the industry is.

“We think this work deserves an F!” “I disagree!” “You can’t just-” “Um, yes I can, know why? Because it’s FUCKING ART!”

That uh...kinda made you fall apart, didn’t it?

Uuurgh...At least you see how bad it is.

Well, this isn’t exactly a classical art gallery though, so at least give it a shot.

Fine, but just because you’re here. In all seriousness though, what’s got you so interested in this exhibit?

I’ve heard good things about Fang Inc. If and when this whole Organization Zetsubou thing takes a turn, we could use a sponsor like them on our side.

After all, they’re showing off their weapons today as well.

They make weapons? I thought they were just a financial titan.

Well, they’re a financial conglomerate mixed with an engineering company. They do a little bit of everything.

Like this for instance. Look!

Hm...!

*Makoto and Kuripa go over to an exhibit, showing a javelin and a sword inside a case.

Looks interesting. Hi-tech spear, but what do it do?

Take a closer look at what’s suspending it.

What’s...suspending it...?

*Kuripa narrows his eyes...

Wait...NOTHING’S suspending it! I-It’s floating in the air!

Anti-gravity technology. We may see flying cars yet...

Wouldn’t get your hopes up...The company promises things like that, but it takes at least a dozen years before they actually act upon it.

Sorry?

*The two turn towards the voice. Maya Canzanilla stands next to them, sucking on a lollipop.

Sorry, that was a weird thing to say. Just know that most of what you see here isn’t as much as you make it out to be.

It may be Feng Incorperated’s prized gallery, but a gallery is still a gallery, and all these exhibits are the exact same as any other of it’s kind. Full of trashy and pointless art made by pretentious people. 

Finally! Someone who speaks decent English. Japanese in our case I guess.

Well, you DID say that art is a very opinionated industry, and I feel like I’m entitled to think otherwise.

Besides, art tends to reveal more about the viewer than the artist. Maybe you’re the one’s who are pretentious.

Hah! Good one.

I’m sorry, have we met? Do you work here?

Hell no. Just another “avid art gallery fan” Name’s Ma-uuuh...

Mah what?

Maaah...Mahfile! Robin Mahfile! Sorry, went braindead a little there.

*Maya, or rather Robin, reaches out for a handshake. She shakes Makoto’s hand vigorously.

Yeesh, that’s some arm you’ve got on you!

Huh...still though, it is intriguing. The weapons at least are worth taking a look at.

It’s hard to look at these and not worry about the possible casualties they can cause in the future...

Casualties? What do you mean?

Um...It’s a weapon...Weapons are literally made to hurt people...Regardless of whether you fight for good or evil, your weapon is always going to have someone else’s blood on the tip.

She’s got a point. That was a stupid question.

I don’t need this running commentary. It’s bad enough having to put up with ONE green-haired skeptic!

Haha! I’m being serious though. Look at this javelin, for instance.

One day, it could very well end up in the hands of someone completely and totally random. Someone who may not even be here. This weapon’s got a lot more functions than just flying about.

What if, that random person who acquires the spear, decides to use it for bad things, huh? What if...I dunno, some sort of terrifying terrorist organization gets their hands on loads of these things, and then declare war against the world.

If humanity had enough sense, they would prevent that from happening.

You have WAY too much faith in humanity. Ugh, honestly, have you never seen Iron Man? Fang Inc. will happily sell this to anyone for the right price, even if it means they send the world to hell.

If they’re like almost every other bigwig company...that may as well be possible. Doesn’t help that it’s run by selfish American’s.

Kuripa...!

Yeah, I said it! Come at me m8!

I like you. You don’t mince words. Unlike this other guy who’s too nice for his own good.

I can say how I feel.

Careful. He’s my boss. If you cuss him out, he might decrease my pay.

You know, despite seeming to have a poor opinion of American’s, you seem to be getting along well with this one.

Well, I’m actually Italian originally, so...

Sweet baby England! Europe represent!

*They fist bump.

Regardless, I know big corporations tend to get a bad rep by default, but Fang Inc. don’t seem to be dealing with any scandals yet. Nothing major anyway.

Nothing that can’t be stamped out with blood money, that’s all.

Huh?

Never mind...one of these days, they’re gonna get caught in something. I promise you. And the whole corporation is gonna go down with them.

Nothing that they won’t be able to bribe people out of with how much wealth they’ve got.

Come on, no corporation is THAT rich.

Ok, that settles it. Can I get your number? You and I seriously should go out for a coffee or something.

WOAH, That’s forward, ain’t it? Sorry girl, but I’m already taken.

Yeah, and I’m a raging lesbian, so it appears that ship ain’t sailing. 

I mean I’d just like to hang out again. I don’t think I’ve met someone who I’m so...I dunno...spiritually aligned with.

I must agree. You two seem to be the same, from your gaudy personalities to your gaudy appearances.

Ouch. But yeah, sure.

*Maya and Kuripa exchange contact info.

Anyway, I’ll take my stupid opinions and get out of your hair for a little bit. Talk to you later though?

You’d better not be one of those people who spams DM’s, else I’m blocking you.

Wuh-oh! Scooby got busted!

Haha!

Hahaha! Laterz.

*Maya walks away, sucking her lollipop.

Let’s keep looking around. We’ll meet back with the others in a while...

...Huh?

Please, dear god. After that conversation, I’m feeling less and less comfortable in this place?

...Boss? Everything ok?

I...I dunno...something doesn’t feel right...

*Makoto looks down at his hand.

...

AGH!

Woah, what’s up!?

M-My wedding ring’s gone!

You WHAT!? Wait, did she-!?

*Kuripa looks over Makoto’s shoulder, but Maya is already gone.

You don’t think she...!

It would explain the rough handshake! I can’t believe I just exchanged numbers with a pickpocket! I think...To be honest, I don’t know if you just dropped it somewhere.

Well, I at least still have my phone, so I’ll call Kyoko and the others and tell them to check the restaurant. But we need to find that girl!

She can’t have gone far! Let’s go!

Hoo!

*Sneakily, when she rounds the corner and out of sight, Maya takes the lollipop out of her mouth. Makoto’s wedding ring is stuck around it. She then casually waltzes over to a crowd of people wearing expensive looking clothes.

Damn, you guys got that drip.

Stop. No. Don’t use words like that, they annoy me so much.

Oooooh?

Maya...

Ok, fine. But do I get my own drip?

Yep, here. Make sure you put it on.

*Hunter hands Maya some fancy clothes. In turn, Maya hands Makoto’s wedding ring to Four.

Is this good?

Yes. This is the exact type of metal we need.

How long will it take you to melt it down and make us a key?

Who’d you think you’re talking to? I only need an hour.

And you’re sure that what we need is here.

This place is super secure at this time of year. Ollie and I ran some checks and if those files are gonna be on...well...file anywhere, it’s here.

Problem is that there will only be physical copies. Feng always has an auto-delete for her files in case they get hacked, so the only way we can find, and keep this info, is through this method.

Maya. Get changed. Then it’s showtime.

[love-bokumono-fics]

Trope Tuesday - AU's!

I don't know about you, but a always enjoy a fun AU, particularly when they take something we know and love and put such a creative twist on it. An AU can be anything from a minor divergence from canon, to a complete shift in time and location and character dynamics.

Today we'll look at some of the AU's that the fandom had created!

One Missed Call - by durotos; Completed, 1/1, <1k; Retail AU

Rating: General Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M

Fandoms: Friends of Mineral Town

Relationship: Claire the Farmer/Cliff; Characters: Claire the Farmer, Cliff

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Retail, Alternate Universe, Awkward Flirting, two shy people attempting to have a phone conversation, Fluff, Budding Love, yes I still use a flip phone

Summary: Claire is roused from her sleep when her phone alerts her that she has a missed call. She snaps awake when she sees who it is from. Sappy, happy fluff. Modern AU, Retail AU.

Side Effects - by Measured; Completed, 1/1, 13k; Soulmate AU

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M

Fandom: Trio of Towns

Relationship: Farmer/Ford; Characters: Ford, Female Farmer, Ensemble

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: When Ford meets her, the world becomes brighter. Literally.

Island of Sanctuary - Mai_Blade; WIP, 1/?, <1k; Zombie Apocalypse AU

Rating: Not Rated; Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death; Category: F/M

Fandom: Island of Happiness

Relationships: Reader & Other(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added; Characters: Reader, Other Character Tags to Be Added

Additional Tags: Reader-Insert, POV Multiple, Multiple Pairings, Angst and Tragedy, Blood and Gore, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Don't copy to another site, mentions of bullying, referenced suicidal feelings

Summary: An island is a piece of land surrounded by water, a thing separate from the mainland. Fate brought you to an abandoned one, and you've helped bring it back to life. When the dead walk the earth, the island you call home becomes a defensible place, a refuge. A sanctuary. But. Even here, death comes.

Seedlings & Hammers - by MOcarina; WIP, 1/1, 2k; Modern, Urban AU

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Categories: F/M, Gen

Fandoms: Harvest Moon 64

Relationship: Claire the Farmer/Rick; Characters: Rick, Claire, Ann the Innkeeper | Ran, Gray

Additional Tags: the makerspace au no one asked for, Urban Farming, Meet-Cute, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Community Garden, non-profit, Eventual Romance

Summary: Claire is an enterprising newcomer to Flowerbud City working for a non-profit and meets a man with an inventive streak who can help her get her new initiative off the ground white trying to figure out his own dreams. A makerspace/community garden AU in the HM:64 world.

Tear You Apart - by indoorsy; Completed, 1/1, 7k; Soulmate AU

Rating: Mature; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Category: F/M

Fandoms: Friends of Mineral Town

Relationships: Claire the Farmer/Brandon, Elli/Doctor Trent | Torre, Claire the Farmer/Doctor Trent | Torre; Characters: Claire, Brandon, Doctor | Trent, Elli | Elly

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, So much angst, Drama, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Unrequited Love (Kind of), Some Supernatural Elements, Sex Pollen, Dubious Consent, Mutually Dubious Consent, Cheating, But not on purpose, Non-Explicit Sex, Suicide Attempt, yes his name is still Doctor

Summary: Claire had grown up believing in the prospect of soulmates as something incredibly joyous. It sounded just like a fairytale – like the ones her grandpa would tell her about the goddess in the pond – except, somehow, this one was true. A first touch that would ignite your skin, fill you with dizzying euphoria, and magnetize you to one another – it sounded like a divine blessing. But now Claire knew it was a curse. - Your soulmate isn't always the one you are meant to love, but that doesn't mean it won't hurt like hell.

Excuse me, do you want 10 thousand dollars? - by kurikku; Completed, 1/1, 7k; Fake Dating AU

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Category: F/M

Fandom: Trio of Towns

Relationship: Holly | Nanami/Wayne; Characters: Ford, Daryl | Darius, Hector, Stephanie, Carrie, Brad, Lynn

Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Alternate Universe

Summary: Wayne was offered an absurd deal of $10,000 if he was to pretend to be Holly's girlfriend for a week. Sounds easy and harmless, right?

In Good Taste - by Nenalata; WIP, 1/?, 4k, Chef AU

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M

Fandoms: Animal Parade, Trio of Towns

Relationships: Holly/Chase, Kasey/Luna; Characters: Chase | Chihaya, Holly | Nanami, Maya | Mai, Hayden | Harper, Kasey | Yuuki, Luna | Ruumi, Julius | Juri, Candace | Kotomi, Angie

Additional Tags: AU, Restaurants, Chef AU, Alcohol, Rivals to Lovers, what else do you expect with Chase, Crossover, Teenage Rebellion, coming a decade too late I suppose, Cooking, Just a Lot of Food and Fluff, Not-Great Parental Relationships, People Interrupt Holly A Lot, Romance

Summary: “Top show, Holly! Even pro chefs have a tough time with legend class. You could have probably been successful as a full-time chef. Actually, it’s kind of a shame you didn’t become one.” "It's not so simple or easy a job that anyone could take it up on a whim and hope to succeed. What do you know of cooking? Running a kitchen? Have you any idea how to manage a business?" Holly has dreams of soufflé and meuniere, not Silkies and manure. The trio of towns is no place for her. She has bigger fish to fry on Castanet Island.

Chemistry for Beginners - by Lady_Malvence; WIP, 46/?, 72k; College AU

Rating: Explicit; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Category: F/M

Fandoms: Story of Seasons (2014)

Relationship: Klaus/Minori | Annie; Characters: Marian, Iris, Other Harvest Moon characters, Giorgio

Additional Tags: Romance, Fluff, Alternate Universe - Romantic Comedy, Explicit Sexual Content

Summary: Reagan (Annie/Minori) was making her way to her new chemistry class when she found herself hopelessly lost. Frustrated and not looking where she was going she literally ran into the man that will change her life. A/U

Harvest Moonshine - by Nenalata; WIP, 4/10, 11k; Bootlegger AU

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M

Fandoms: Grand Bazaar

Relationship: Amir/Anita; Characters: Amir, Gretel | Anita | Marl, Felix, Antoinette | Enju, Original Antagonist Character(s)

Additional Tags: Alcohol, bootleggers AU, Tax evasion, mild violence, Mild Language, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Political Intrigue, Renounced-ier Future, Implied Sexytimes Easy to Ignore if That's Not Your Thing, Painstaking Descriptions of Banking, Slight Canon Divergence, Blackmail, It's Still a Romance Though Don't Worry

Summary: In the eyes of Zephyr Town, Anita is a hardworking farmer who is doing remarkably well in the bazaar. To those in the know, Anita is who you see when you're thirsty and need a good strong drink from her less-than-legal liquor side business.

What You Want - by your_blackheart; Completed, 1/1, <1k; High School AU

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Category: Multi

Fandoms: Story of Seasons, Harvest Moon DS Cute, Tree of Tranquility, Animal Parade, Grand Bazaar

Relationships: Angelo/Pony | Jill, Angelo/Klaus the Perfumer; Characters: Pony | Aya | Jill, Angela the Farmer | Akari, Klaus the Perfumer, Angelo | Agi

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - High School, Self-Harm, Underage Smoking, Pining, Unrequited Crush, Platonic Female/Female Relationships, Platonic Relationships

Summary: Crushes are an absolute nightmare, but it only makes things worse when your crush has a thing for one of your teachers. Jill silently muses over what she wants as she awaits the period bell. It's a good thing there's someone around to smack her out of her daydreaming.

[ksyescribe]

The Boys™ Speaking A Foreign Language (HQ Edition)

Featuring: Oikawa, Osamu, & Ushijima

Warnings: Some slight manga spoilers!

A/N: This headcanon is centered around these bbs speaking Spanish but I think they can really be applied to any language! I hope you guys enjoy! Also thank you @cttnclouds​ for the Osamu fusion idea you’re literally an angel and i love you.

Oikawa Tōru

Why he learned: 

He moved to Argentina. It’s either learn or get really got at using hand signals.

Learning Process: 

Honestly? Probably tried the whole DuoLingo thing the first few weeks after he got the okay to move to Argentina. But after a while he burnt out.

He probably got up to like the introductory phrases and then fell off. Probably because he had to deal with all the logistical stuff that comes with moving.

(Someone help him cause he literally thought moving would be an easy one two three job :’) Iwa-chan help!)

The next time he remembers that he’s literally going to a new country with a new language is like a month before he moves.

He’s shopping with Iwaizumi for some new clothes and stuff when Iwaizumi just goes “So how’s your Spanish coming along?

freeze frame, his face looks like this: (∩╹□╹∩)

Anyways he really like stress buys like three different Japanese books that he then FORGETS ABOUT for the rest of the month.

He reads them on the flight to Argentina. The only things he learned were how to ask for the time and directions. 

Oh boy, Argentina’s going to be fun :’)

When he uses Spanish in front of you for the first time:

Right so, the first time you see him use his sorry excuse for Spanish is at the little corner coffee shop down the street

Of course everyone’s like eyeing him cause, why is a foreigner here in the hidden gem of the city? But also he’s kinda cute what?

Anyways, you’re minding your own business until you hear the heavily accented Spanish.

And pues, we’re all little chismosos so of course you pay attention to what he’s trying to do (order a coffee but he literally cant remember what the word for sugar is dear god someone help this man)

After cringing you step up with the translator app on your phone open and obviously help him out. 

He’s a little impressed because: 1. Your Spanish is so smooth and flowy it sounds like you’re reciting poetry and 2. Why didn’t he think of the translator app tf??

So you get his order shoot it back to Sandra over the counter in fast Spanish and then order your own stuff before moving off to the side to wait for your coffee.

Oikawa might be an idiot right but he’s not going to pass up the opportunity to ask you to teach him Spanish?? 

I mean you’re cute, you’re obviously a local from the way you were greeting everyone inside the shop, and well, you’re the only person who’s tried to help him out so far and that means a lot to him.

For some odd reason you actually agree? You still don’t know what caused you to say yes. Probably the pitiful look he had when he told you he had to move cause of work and he knew nobody else here.

How you help him with learning/bettering his Spanish:

Honestly, he bitched a lot at the beginning but forcing him to only communicate in Spanish really helped him out. 

So taking him on town trips and having him tell you about what he’s seen or what he wants to do in Spanish really helped him. Also having your friends come with is really fun cause he tries to teach them some Japanese words while they translate that into Spanish.

Also being immersed in the language is a big plus.

But I think the #1 thing that really helped him was watching novelas with you. 

Like he wants to understand what Gabriela is yelling to Sofia about in real time not through the subtitles. (But damn Gabriela really slept with Sofia’s fiance? Wack, that man is not worth it hun)

You know his Spanish’s getting better when you walk into a completely new bread shop that the two of you are visiting and he just goes ahead and orders in fluent Spanish.

Leaves both you and the attendant in shock. But he just comes back and asks you in Spanish too, “Lo hice bien? No me trave verdad?”

The woman literally swoons from the whole encounter. He is now a danger to any woman within five miles of the vicinity. Gets all cocky about it.

Favorite Spanish Word: Alborotar - Disturb? That’s what google says but it’s more like mess up.

Miya Osamu

Why he learned:

Honestly? This Mexican-Japanese fusion place opened up and he just wants to talk to the chef about where he gets his ingredients from because this shit tastes amazing!!

Learning Process:

Went home the first night after eating at that restaurant and bought a year subscription for Rosetta Stone. 

He’s kind of regretting it because like, maybe he should’ve gone with the monthly plan? Fuck he shouldn’t have gotten ahead of himself.

He tries to do an hour of the program a day minimum. There’s some days where the hour like drags on and other days where he’s so pumped that he does more than one hour.

His max was one day where it snowed so hard that nobody could go out so he spent like 10 hours doing Rosetta Stone.

He tried going to like one of the Brazilian stores around his house to try out his Spanish with them but was sorely disappointed to learn that Brazilians do not speak Spanish.

Still got some bomb ass brigadeiros though so who’s the real winner here huh? 

Actually put up a craigslist ad for a Spanish partner. 

It’s up for a whopping 5 minutes before he promptly deleted the ad. 

Instead!! This man signs up for one of those international pen pal services and gets matched with someone fluent in Spanish (it’s you hello).

And it turns out said person is coming to Japan soon for a year abroad?? And they have a basic Japanese foundation?

Yeah dude he lucked out.

Out of all three boys, his alone learning goes pretty well. Gets a good foundation of Spanish.

When he uses Spanish in front of you for the first time:

This one’s so cute!! He actually does it sort of by accident?

He’s made friends with everyone at the fusion restaurant including the chef because he actually managed to hold a decent conversation in Spanish.

His brain just automatically switches to Spanish when he enters the restaurant.

So when you hear him bust out into a full fluent Spanish conversation with the waiter you kind of sit there like: (・о・)

This man even orders and asks you if you want to split a bottle of wine in Spanish.

You could only nod because holy shit. 

Like yes you’ve heard him speak it over the discord calls before but in person?? That’s a whole nother story.

Specially because his pronunciation is so good?? And he has the right accent? It’s so smooth like it just flows naturally from him.

And he can actually roll the r’s god damn sir

How you help him with learning/bettering his Spanish:

So he has a pretty good grasp on the language which means he doesn’t need much help with learning.

But you can help expand his knowledge. Like teaching him about how in some countries/dialects things might be said differently. (Like how there’s 17 ways to say straw. Hondurans say pajilla and that’s all I knew for a bunch of years)

He’ll also need help with learning about a lot of food names. He only knows the basic names, not any special fruits or like combination dishes so that’ll be fun. 

You actually start cooking new latin recipes every Saturday so he can familiarize himself with the cuisine.

Some ingredients are hard to come by but the adventure in finding them is so worth it.

His favorite recipe so far? Making Pollo con Tajadas from Honduras. The Bandeja Paisa from Colombia is a close second.

Favorite Spanish Word: Popote: Straw (in Mexico)

Ushijima Wakatoshi

Why he learned:

His last current concern is literally “he would like to work harder at studying languages”. 

Fair, makes sense. 

But instead of going with a familiar language he just says fuck it time to learn the latin alphabet with Spanish. 

yeah okay why not

Learning Process:

Ushijima is more of a visual learner. 

Which in it’s own makes sense. He’ll probably get a book that has like those floating numbers over items and it tells him what it’s called in Spanish right?

Wrong.

You know what he does?

This man. This 24 year old man. Goes home, opens up Netflix, and puts on... wait for it... DORA.

I kid you not!! Ushijima Wakatoshi will always begin learning a new language by watching children’s shows.

You know why? 

Because he read an article a while back where it said that the best way to start learning languages is by watching children’s shows due to the fact that the shows are literally tailored to teach kids the language.

See what he did there? Y’all thought he was a big dumb dumb but in reality he’s a big smart smart.

Uh, anyways.

He will sit down to watch the children’s shows with a notebook. He takes very good notes, has a Japanese translation for everything.

His show watch list: Dora la Exploradora, Plaza Sesamo, Maya Y Miguel, Go Diego Go, and Handy Manny.

The crazy thing? It actually works. He literally gets his Spanish base from these shows. 

Crazier thing? HE LITERALLY PICKS UP THE CORRECT ACCENTS.

I kid you not bro, he literally somehow managed to sound like a FLUENT speaker. I-

But from there he picks up some more books and audio files to try and increase the complexity of his knowledge.

He’s the best speaker out of the three.

When he uses Spanish in front of you for the first time:

Honestly? He’s been looking for a Spanish partner for a while and he genuinely doesn’t know how to go about it. 

One day though, he overhears you on the phone with your mom. 

He’s seen you before. You’re one of the girls working under the main manager and you’re actually really helpful. If he remembers correctly, you’re the only co-manager that can wrap the compression sleeves just how he likes them.

Anyways, not uh, important.

He’s not one to eavesdrop but, well you’re in the equipment room and he needs to grab one thing. Just a quick in and out. He’ll even turn off his ears.

But then you start speaking like fluent Spanish? And suddenly his ears are very active. 

He doesn’t harass you while you’re on your call. Instead he waits until after practice.

Then he just comes up to you and goes, “Perdóname por molestarte pero, estabas platicándo en Español anterior?”

Kind just sat there like: ◉‿◉ - (￣ー￣) - ⚈ ̫ ⚈

You can’t even speak, you’re still processing that he just spoke Spanish like a natural??? So you just nod.

He launches into a whole talk about how he’s been learning but he needs a speaking partner so that he can get better.

At some point during his whole speech you sit down because your brain IS NOT CATCHING UP.

In the end you agree to become his partner. He’s paying you in food how the hell can you say no?

How you help him with learning/bettering his Spanish:

Like I said before, he’s already good.

You mostly help broaden his knowledge about the culture from Spanish countries and their cultures. A lot of it is through food and the small glimpses of hispanic life from Japan. 

Can’t really teach the customs and traditional stuff unless it’s in person.

You’re actually getting ready to go back home for your once a year family reunion when suddenly this man invites himself to your trip?????

I mean, it’s not a bad idea in the first place but then he offered to pay for your trip and well...

You’re kind of broke and he’s rich so it works alright?

God but going back home? Ultra boosts his spanish.

Not sure if it’s the atmosphere, your family, or just the fact that the country is now in a whole nother language, but this man just adapts. 

It’s really uncanny. 

While he’s here, your family teaches him a lot of Spanish idioms and phrases that don’t translate over well and he starts incorporating them into his every day usage.

Someone on the team got hurt and he literally walked over and rubbed their wrist and went “ Sana, sana, colita de rana. Si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana.”

When you leave his apartment? “Te veo Mateo”

But he also gets to see how unique and beautiful the culture in your country is. 

His favorite part of the trip? Probably your family’s land that’s just surrounded by nature.

He also really liked the traditional shops that the old ladies from the village ran. (They also liked him and pinched his cheeks and called him a big strong boy so maybe that has something to do with it.)

His favorite Spanish word: Topogigio (to-po-i-yo): In Honduras, frozen ice cream (? not really but don’t know how else to describe) that is typically sold in a small bag. Flavors: Fruit juice or traditional ice cream flavors. 

[thelady1324]

Bathroom stalls

It was around 6pm in Ninjago City. A new restaurant had recently opened up in the city center and it was very hard to get a reservation there. But the smith family had managed to get one. Today was the day that the teenage girl, Nya, had graduated from high school. She didn’t have any plans for the future at the moment but couldn’t wait to be free from school work.  

Now, the family we’re celebrating. Nya didn’t want to make it a huge deal so it was only her, her parents and her brother. She did originally invite her boyfriend, Cole, too but he couldn’t come die to personal reasons. Nya would obviously prefer for him to be there but secretly didn’t mind.

The family had just finished their food and were now chatting about anything that came up in the conversation.

“Alright, alright. I get it. But can we stop picking on me and talk about how terrible Kai’s graduation was?” Nya teased.

Kai groaned and place his hand in his hands.

“I’m not going to lie to you, son, it could’ve gone better”, Ray smiled.

“Yes, dad, I know that”, Kai sighed.

“You literally tripped over Mr Wintleworth’s foot and fell face onto the floor in front of everyone”, Nya tried to stop herself from bursting out into a fit of giggles.

Maya chunckled, “I have to admit, it was pretty funny”.

“Mom! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Kai exclaimed.

“I’m just saying, darling”, she smiled.

Kai sighed, “I get it. My graduation sucked. But can we talk about Nya now? This was supposed to be about her”.

“Oh so we’re gonna talk about how perfect mine was?” She teased.

Kai huffed and sat back in his chair, folding his arms.

Ray laughed, taking a sip to his drink.

“All jokes aside, I am so proud of you both”, Maya smiled, “ I know that these past few years have been hard on you both, but you have done us proud”.

“Thanks mom”, Nya beamed.

“So do I get a car now?” Kai wondered, fluttering his eyelashes sweetly.

“Not a chance”, Ray told him.

Kai sighted, Nya laughed. Kai had always dreamed of having a car but his parents had always told him that once he gets a job and earns money, then he can get one of his own.

Mid-laugh, Nya glances across the room. Her face instantly fell as she spotted the one guy she didn’t expect to see here.

“Nya? Is everything okay?” Maya frowned.

Nya felt her throat tightening up. Kai frowned at her, sitting forward.

“Sis?” Kai questioned.

Nya pointed a finger in the direction she was looking in, not taking her eyes of the boy. Kai turned around, a frown still on his face. He glanced around, spotting him.

“Is that....?” Ray stared.

“Cole,” Kai snarled.

“Why does it look like he’s.... flirting”? Maya frowned.

“Because he is.....” Nya felt her eyes fill with tears.

“I always knew that guy was a bitch”, Kai snapped.

“ Kai, watch your language”, Ray told him sternly.

Kai turned to his father, “What? I’m telling the truth, aren’t I?”

“We don’t use bad language. Family rules, remember?” Ray reminded him.

Kai rolled his eyes, turning back to look at the black-haired boy again.

“Did you want us to get over there, sweetie?” Maya asked, placing a hand over her daughter’s arm.

Nya shook her head, “just leave it.”

Nya slumped down in her seat a little, hoping she wouldn’t get spotted. Kai thought for a moment before beginning to get out of his seat. Maya grabbed his hand pulling him back down.

“Don’t,” she spoke quietly.

“He can’t just get away with this”, Kai told his mother.

“I’ll deal with it tomorrow, okay?” Nya muttered.

Kai huffed,siting in his chair properly. He folded his arms.

“ are you okay?” Ray asked Nya.

“I just need to get to the restroom”, Nya stated before getting up, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

“Did you want me to come with you?”

Maya asked worriedly.

Nya shook her head, “I’ll be okay.”

She rushed off to the unisex toilets and closed the door behind her.

She didn’t bother checking if anyone else was in there. She wandered over to the end stall and entered, closing the door behind her. She locked it, pulled the toilet seat down and sitting on it. She buried her head in her hands and sobbed as quietly as she could.

When he said he couldn’t come due to personal reasons, she thought it would be because of family not this. Nya didn’t care all that much for Cole but to be cheated on like this and right in front of her... it really hurt. Whether he knew she was there or not, it still sucked. She just hoped her overprotective brother would stay out of it.

Nya was in the stall for what felt like forever, when it had really only been 5 minutes. She suddenly stopped crying as there was a knock at the bathroom stall.

“Hello? A high-pitched male vice spoke quietly, catching her attention.

Nya sniffed, trying to keep as quiet as possible.

“Are you okay? I heard you crying”, he said softly.

“Go away”, Nya responded sadly.

“Why? Is everything okay?” He asked again.

Nya thought for a moment before responding with, “not really”.

“ do you want to talk about it?” The boy wondered.

Nya didn’t respond. The boy on the other side of the stall door slid down to the floor, his back leaning against it. Nya pulled her knees up to her chest, thinking for a moment.

“I’m supposed to be here with my family celebrating my graduation but...” she stopped herself crying again, “I just saw my boyfriend... with another girl.”

“Another girl? As in like... flirting?” He questioned.

“Yeah...”

“Does he know you’re here?” He wondered.

“ I dunno... he doesn’t know I came here but I’m not sure is he saw me or not. I-I don’t think so though...” she sniffed again.

There was a moment of silence before he finally spoke again.

“Well he’s a jerk”

“Excuse me? My boyfriend is an amazing guy. He’s really hind and sweet and- she began

“I hate to break it to you but the amazing, kind, sweet guys don’t cheat on their girlfriends”, he cut in,

Nya sighed, “you don’t know him like I know him”.

“Doesn’t sound like such a great guy to me, though. A good boyfriend wouldn’t cheat on their girlfriend, especially in front of the ,” he told her.

Nya thought to herself for a moment. Whoever this boy was, he was right. Cole was acting like a jerk.

Who would cheat on their girlfriend?

“Besides,I bet you’re a great person. This guy doesn’t deserve you”, he spoke up again.

“You haven’t even seen me”, she shrugged.

“So? Everyone is beautiful in their own way”, he smiles.

“I probably look like a mess right now”, she respond

“A beautiful mess then,” He giggle a little.

Her heart skipped a beat. His laughed was adorable. She’d never even seen him and she knew that he was already a great guy. Cole was nothing comped to him.

“T-Thanks,” she replied wiping her tears away and smiling a little.

“No problem. You’re not gonna stay with him a after this, are you?” He questioned.

“I dunno,” she stated.

“What!? How can you stay with him after this? He can just cheat on you and expect to stay with you,” he exclaimed.

She nodded, yeah, I guess”.

“You know what would be funny?” He asked.

“What?”

“If you dump him right here in the restaurant, in front of everyone”, he laughed.

She smiles, “ Yeah... that would be pretty funny.”

“No, I’m being serious. If he’s going to humiliate you like that in public, whether people know it or not, do it back. It’s just like they say, karma’s a bitch,” he told her.

She thought about it for a moment before getting up from the toilet seat, unlocking the door and opening it. The boy, who was leaning against it, fell back and glanced up at her from the floor. She looked down at him with a smile. He had short, messy, auburn hair and most beautiful blue eyes she had ever laid her eyes on. She held a hand out, which he took gently. She laughed, rubbing the side of his neck nervously.

“Sorry”, He giggle.

She smiled, “You think I should really do it?”

He nodded, “Beat him at his own game.”

Nya thought for a moment before smirking, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No” he frowned.

“Great. Follow me,” she grabbed his hand and rushed towards the door of the restroom, “play along, Kay?”

“S-Sure, He stuttered, nervously.

As she opened the restroom door, her family all glances over at her and the boy she was holding hands with. She wandered with the boy towards the table where the jerk of a boyfriend was sat.

“What’s she doing?” Maya frowned.

“Who’s that with her?” Ray questioned.

“She’s beating hi at his own game”, Kai muttered, smirking.

Nya let go of the nervous boy’s hand as they reached the table. Cole glanced up, as did the girl sat opposite him. Cole’s eyes widened, almost choking on his fries. “Hello Cole,” she folded her arms.

“ Nya! What are you doing here?” He questioned awkwardly.

“I could ask you the same thing”, she responded, briefly glancing at the other girl, who broke eye contact.

“Um..... it’s not what it looks like,” Cole rushed.

“Oh really? Because to me, it looks like you’re flirting with another girl,” she replied.

Cole was speechless. He had no excuses.

“Well guess what?” Nya unfolded her arms.

Cole frowned.

Nya’s mouth opened to say something, she then turned to the boy next to her.

“Jay,” He told her with a smile.

Nya turned back to Cole, “Jay’s my boyfriend now”.

“He’s what!?” Cole snapped.

“I’m what!?” Jay exclaimed.

Cole laughed, “Don’t trick me like that, Nya.”

“Oh really? If I was joking, I wouldn’t do this, would I?” Nya questioned.

“Do wha-“ Jay began.

Before he could finish his sentence, Nya place her hands on the auburn-haired boy’s cheeks and pulled him into a kiss.

Jay was surprised at first but then he melted into the kiss, as did Nya. The whole restaurant were watching at this point. Ray and Maya watched in shock as Kai smirked, spotting coles angry face. Some of the people in the restaurant cheered for Nya as she got her own back.

As Nya pulled away, her cheeks were still on Jay’s face his eyes still closed from shock, they slowly opened, Nya smiled Sweetly. She removed her hands and held Jay’s hand with her right. With her other hand, she held on tight to his arm.

“How does it feel?” She smirked at Cole.

The black-haired boy groaned and grabbed the hand of the other girl sat opposite him.

“We’re getting out of here,” He snarled, shooting Jay a look.

“Bye!” Nya called out.

“Consider yourself dumped, bitch!” Kai shouted out.

“Kai, language!” Ray exclaimed. Kai shrugged a smile on his face.

Cole and the girl left the shop, the door slamming closed behind  them.

Everyone clapped and cheered and soon got back to what they were doing. Nya turned to Jay.

“Thanks for that,” she smiled.

“Heh, no problem,” jay giggle nervously.

Nya reached in her pocket and pulled out a pen. She grabbed a napkin from the empty table and wrote something down on it quickly. She put the pen back away and handed jay the napkin.

“Here’s my number. We should get together sometime”, she smiled.

Jay took the napkin as she winked and return to her family. Kai gave her a height five. Jay took one last glance at her before putting the napkin safety in his pocket and going back with his own family, who were sat on the other side of the restaurant.