#the way my blonde bitches have been feeding me

[sstan-hoe]

◇ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 ◇

𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 — aemond targaryen × targaryen!fem!reader (rhaenyras daughter)

𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚 — After the death of your grandsire, Viserys Targaryen, your relationship with Aemond was hanging on a thread. For you, he was a murderer. For him, you were a traitor.

𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 — is it a warning when I say I didn't know what I was doing? well, aemond is a warning, swearing, and violence, it's hotd yall

𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 — this me letting my anger for aemond and daemon out, but I promise I will also show my love them - just not in this one (I'm also kinda making fun of aemond). I'm not completely happy, but when am I?

As night settled in the Keep it became quiet, only the sound of fire could be heard. You sat on his bed, like every other night, always the same. A book on your lap, at least you weren’t bored of them yet.

Oh, how you hated it here, missing the times were you loved it, enjoyed it. Being supposed to marry Aemond felt like a blessing, after all he was someone, you had known your whole life. You trusted him, started loving him and saw your future with him.

Add to that, you weren’t forced to marry him, your mother, the Queen had asked. Knowing there could be worse husbands, he was a good choice and a way to smooth the relationship between your families.

Everything was fine, a day was set, and preparations were made, until Viserys Targaryen died. The following morning, he had locked you in his chambers, because you would not declare for Aegon.

Nothing had been the same since, all you saw in him now was a murderer and with every passing second you hated him more.

As if on cue Aemond walked inside with Criston Cole on his trail. “Oh, my soon to be husband! I have missed  you dearly, are you well? Tell me, did you do something exciting?” you asked, tone cheery as if you really cared.

“Spare me your false words of care Lady Strong,-“ “Velaryon,” you cut him off, facial expression changing into a glare. “No, Targaryen soon, is it not?” you changed your mind.

Of course, you would rather die than marry him now, however you found it quite amusing to correct him this way. The blonde shook his head, ignoring your words to sit down with the commander of the Kingsguard.

The guard looked at you with wary eyes, “what? Are you scared to insult my mother in front of me?” you shot at him, knowing every detail of his past – especially with Rhaenyra.

“Will you please take a bath darling?” Aemond questioned, annoyence evident in his voice. At that you scoffed, only when he wanted something he would use a pet name.

If he did not, then you were a bitch, Strong or traitor – whatever suited the moment. “If it pleases you my prince,” you snapped at him, although you would not be gone for long. There was not a chance you would let Cole speak bad about your mother.

---

“Rhaenyra is like a spider…,” Cole’s voice was faint, almost a whisper but you heard him. Catching Alicent in her web, how pathetic could someone be? Aside from Alicent’s lies and hypocrisy, Cole was just as bad.

Feeding Aemond all those lies, hiding his own history and thinking he wouldn’t be exposed. You could hardly contain your laughter.

Only wrapped in towel you entered the room again, both men looking at you. The princes eyes using all his power not to drop to your breasts.

“Ser Criston I think you should take your leave,” Aemond cleared his throat, in the years he had known you, it became clear to him what you were trying to do. Quickly Cole left, he knew where he was going.

“Could you please put on some clothes?” the blonde asked you, which you ignored and instead sat down oppisite of him. The towel slowly fell down, exposing a part of your breast.

“You know he’s lying right? My mother and Alicent were friends, best friends until she married my grandsire and then-,” “had bastards?” he cut in, not particular in the mood for this conversation. If the situation were different, maybe then he would listen to you, but it was not.

“He offered my mother his hand in marriage, wanted to sell oranges with her in Dorne. She rejected him and he is still not over it,” you continued as if he said nothing, you were not new to him calling you a bastard. At first it hurt but now you try to ignore it.

“Because your mother has never done anything wrong…,” he trailed off, he was tired of hearing you defend your mother. A part of him would do the same, still it drove him crazy.

Without thinking you took one of this little statues and threw it at him, “careful Aemond.” In the next moment Aemond was above you, caging you in between his arms and against the sofa. His quick movements caused you to flinch and the towel to fall down into your lap.

“I should be careful? You are here, held a prisoner…,” he told you, tone dangerously low. He knew it was hard to intimidate you but not impossible.

Although Aemond felt a heavy aversion towards you, he couldn’t deny how much he wanted you in the same moment. How he missed your talks that could go on for hours, and after a day where he interacted too much with Aegon, you would help him relieve some stress or when you begged him to braid his hair.

“Your mother has put those dreadful thoughts in your head, Cole is speaking lies because he needs the attention, because he wants to be seen as the victim,” you snapped at him, lifting your head up to meet his eyes.

“Do not speak of my mother this way-,” “you mean the woman who speaks with two tongues?” you interrupted him, satisfaction coming over you when you saw realisation wash over his face. “Yes, I heard you.”

There were no words coming from Aemond, which did not surprise you. “Have I silenced you?” a smirk growing on your lips.

He scoffed, shaking his head and standing up to walk towards your shared bed. The prince stripped himself of most of his clothes, knowing you were watching. “Ah, are you trying to tempt me again? That is not how a prince should behave…,” you taunted him.

“Mhm, you did not seem to mind before” he questioned, taking off his eye patch. Even if the two of you started hating each other, he still felt comfortable enough to walk around without it.

“I see you have no arguments anymore…well, that is how it must be when you finally come to realise you are in the wrong,” you couldn’t help it, as much as you enjoyed his company, the way he took your mind of the war. You could not let it happen anymore, you felt like a traitor to the realm.

Aemond scoffed at that, he said no word and left the room. You were stubborn and every discussion he had with you ended the same.

“Yes, just leave like you love to do!” you shouted after him in anger and within a second your brain snapped. Just as Aemond walked through the door, a cup hit the wall next to him with full force.

“Hobrenkys mittys,” you muttered to yourself once Aemond was completely gone.

---

On the next morrow, Aemond was nowhere to be found – as almost every day. Now you would be alone, almost dying of boredom and no one was allowed to see you.

You often saw Helaena, she wanted to come to you but never dared to go against her brothers orders and the guards standing outside your door.

There was only one person who would break this rule, Aegon. He would come in, talk about the weirdest things and he did not care if you were listening, he also didn’t seem to mind that you would never accept him as king.

And just like that the doors flew open, revealing Aegon. “Good morrow dear niece,” he sounded energetic, full of motivation.

 “Aegon, to what do I own this pleasure?” you asked him, laying back in bed. Already done with him, under different circumstances you might enjoy his company. However as of late he only stole your energy.

“Well, I actually am in search of my brother,” he revealed, causing you to roll your eyes, “and you truly thought you would find him here?” Aegon could not actually think this.

“It is his chamber, is it not?” he raised his eyebrows, spinning himself around. For him it was fun, to come in and point out the difficulties between Aemond and you – especially when he was drunk.

“Oh, how observant you are. What do you want?” you snapped at him, sitting up on the bed to watch him closely. The false king shrugged his shoulders, “you know I’m a good king.”

You couldn’t help but laugh at his statement, “you are no good king.” At this he looked at you offended, not actually believing what you just said.

With a sigh you leaned back, “no one prepared you, grandsire always saw Rhaenyra on the throne, so what would you know about ruling? Your whole life you could do whatever you wanted, no one told you how it works, and you became a foolish imbecile.” You told him honestly, he needed someone who wouldn’t lie to him or manipulate him.

Aegon let the words sink in and he did not like them, he didn’t want to accept the truth. A side effect of manipulation – he could not truly think that he was fit to rule and the heir.

He huffed, “you’re just like him,” with that he left you alone again. Who he was comparing you to, you didn’t know but it might as well be Aemond, “just like his brother.” That was true, if Aemond was out of arguments he started talking nonsense or told you something he had already said.

 As night fell in, your soon to be husband was not back yet which was not uncommon and still it felt like something was wrong, like something would happen. You had taken a bath, cleaned up his chambers, just to keep busy.

Laying there in bed felt horrible, like you were chained to it. If death was to take you, you would welcome it.

Suddenly the door opened, a strange man walked in with a cage in his hand. Once he saw you, he was confused, “m’lady please excuse me however I’m here to catch the rats,” he told you.

And you recognised him, he was no rat catcher, no he was a gold cloak. Why were there no guards around? Why did no one stop him?

“What do you want?” you asked him, maybe you were too bold but with Daemon as a father figure, there was nothing else to be expected. The man did not seem to know who you were.

Then another one came in looking more scared. “Is he here- ah, princess we are sorry. We did not mean to disturb you,” he bowed in front of you.

His actions made the gold cloak realise who he was talking to, who Daemon mentioned. The traitorous daughter of Queen Rhaenyra. Without much thought he grabbed you by your throat causing you to gasp in surprise.

“Where is your cunt of a husband?” he growled while pulling you closer, holding a knife to your throat. When you didn’t immediately answer he gripped your hair tightly, fear over came you as you felt the cold metal on your skin.

“I don’t know!” you cried, wishing Aemond would step inside right this moment. However, your wish was not granted, instead you were thrown to the ground with full force.

“Personally, I think you are lying, after all you are his bride or is whore a better fit?” he gave you a dirty smirk before striking you with the back of his hand.

Knowing it would be a mistake you glared at him, “shut your fucking mouth. I don’t know where he is nor do I care,” you spit at him. If there was one thing you learned, it was to never back down and right now death seemed like a blessing.

“You truly are a bitch,” he nodded and kicked you in the stomache, making you groan in pain. Tears streamed down your cheeks, why was there no guard around? Why did no one stand in front of this room?

“He sends his regards,” was the only thing the gold cloak muttered before leaving with the rat catcher close behind him.

Leaving you there, on the floor and fighting to stay conscious but closing your eyes felt too good.

---

As Aemond came back to the Keep everyone was running around, they were scarred. He looked around, seemingly the only person who was calm. Taking long strides the prince walked to their royal quarters.

There he found maids cleaning, double the amount of guards and a maester coming out of…his chambers? He came inside, the first he saw was you, on his bed with an empty gaze.

Said maester had given you tea, wrapped bandages around you throat, stomach and head. Every movement you made hurt more than the last.

“Darling,” he whispered, coming to kneel in front of you, slowly you lifted your head to meet his eye, “where were you?” you asked, voice hoarse.

No tone came from his lips, he couldn’t tell you where he had actually been. “Where have you been?” you asked again with more pressure. Getting no answer once more and it made you mad.

“Aemond where the fuck were you when I was being threatened, when I had to be scared for my life?” you snapped at him, heart breaking when you saw how his expression changed.

“They wanted you, they think I’m a traitor because of you. All the pain I had to endure because of you!” now you started screaming at him, he deserved it. “Jaehaerys is dead because of you. Not only do you kill my brother but also your own nephew.”

Then it dawned on Aemond, Daemon had sent them to take care of him. The Rogue Prince saw him as a challenge.

“Seven hells, you are not even listening to me. You are supposed to protect me and not be gone the whole day! I mean what was so important? Did- did you find some whore to-,” as you said the last sentence you noticed how he looked down for a second.

“You were with one,” you stated, scoffing to yourself and standing up, “just like Aegon, true brothers you are,” this couldn’t be happening. If he at least was better at being decent, as if being gone every night wasn’t suspicious.

“Do not compare me to that imbecile. They are terrified of me, no one is scared of Aegon,” Aemond argued, taking a step towards you, “Daemon sees me as a challenge, big enough to kill me in my sleep,” he was very convinced of himself.

You looked at him in disbelief, he could not truly believe your stepfather was scared of him. “How delusional can one be? A son for a son, you killed Luke, so they kill you. It is called revenge and because they were not able to find you, they chose Aegon’s heir,” you laughed at him, they way actually thought this was about him being a threat.

Yes, Daemon thought you were a traitor however he had always been a special person, so you did not think much of it. If he wanted to believe it, then he shall.

The moment you were able to get out of here and speak with your mother, everything would clear up. You also hoped Rhaenyra would allow you to burn Daemon for the torture he put you through.

“Do not laugh at me, if he wanted revenge then he would have done it himself,” was he trying to convince you or himself? Probably himself.

“Shall he burn the Keep with Caraxes? Daemon is a lot but not stupid, unlike you,” shaking your head, you sat down of the sofa, standing was too exhausting. In the past you thought there could never be a moment where you hated it here more but now you realised there was.

“Aemond you are weak, the only thing that makes you dangerous is Vaghar and if she is not by your side? Then you are nothing,” those words made something twitch in him.

The next moment he had you pressed against the cushions with his hands around your throat. “Am I still weak?”

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | I do have a taglist however it has conditions that must be followed — you can follow @sstanhoe-updates for updates without anything

𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑮𝑨𝑹𝒀𝑬𝑵𝑺 — @georgiapeach30513 @meyocoko

[urmultideadfandomperson]

The Specialists as Your Boyfriend

Fandom(s): Winx Club

Pairing(s): Red Fountain X Reader

Character(s): Sky, Brandon, Riven, Timmy, Helia

Genre(s): Fluff

Writing Style: Headcanons

Summary: A few headcanons of the Red Fountain Specialists as your boyfriend.

Warning(s): None

Requested by: None

Note: Hello! It's been a while since I wrote some headcanons like these. And yes, I joined the Winx Club fandom recently because I just finished Season One! It feels good to go back in track! I apologize for my lack of posts nowadays, but I'll try my best to feed you some content! Enjoy your read!

Sky

I know a lot of people find him as 'meh' because he is sort of a basic blonde, I can agree

But for me, he's super sexy, I cannot. This prince completely stole my heart because of his basic personality (yes, I'm a basic bitch too)

Anyway, Sky is definitely a sweetheart, already seen at how he treats Bloom in the first season

But don't forget he's the prince of Erakylon, so he's definitely rich

Sky will pamper you with so much love and affection

Whether if you're royalty or not, or if you're a fairy or an earthling, this man will still love you

Hand kisses are a MUST

Brandon

Oh boy. This suave flirt

Because Brandon is Brandon, he will obviously love teasing and flirting with you.

But that doesn't mean he wouldn't flirt with the other girls in Magix

As Prince Sky's squire, he obviously knows how to defend you. He may or may not try to impress you that way

He will definitely bring you to dates in Magix. Wherever you want to go, he will come with you

He may be flirtatious to you and other girls, but I assure you that Brandon is loyal. How did he become Sky's squire if he wasn't a loyal servant to him?

And for me, I have a feeling he will give golden retriever vibes

Riven

THIS MAN IS THE LOVE OF MY LIFE

Riven is really awkward and closed off in the beginning of your relationship. But as time goes by, he becomes comfortable

He isn't the best guy in words of affirmation, but the way he helps you out when you need it is always there. It's his way of loving you

This man actually has the best and warmest hugs

It's a guilty pleasure of his in which you try to calm him whenever he is about to go maniac over someone or something

Surprisingly very cuddly in private

Riven also wants you to stay in Red Fountain often so you can watch him spar with the other Specialists

Timmy

Similar to Riven, he is firstly awkward in the start of relationships (less awkward than the latter, however).

He loves to go to the library with you to study for exams and such

When he has new things to share, the first person Timmy will approach is you because he knows you will listen

Timmy is actually really blushy, and this is evident whenever you help him with his glasses

He isn't really into physical contact, but he does excel in quality time. He loves your presence with him

You're his assistant during calculations and he loves your cooperation as a duo

Timmy loves to gift you some new items and he likes to impress you with his logical thinking

Helia

Ah yes, the hottest guy to ever exist in Red Fountain of the Magix Realm

Helia loves to write poems and short stories for you

Since it is often seen that he loves to draw, he would secretly draw you in his sketchbook

Expect bouquets of flowers from him once in a week

It may or may not be expected, but Helia loves to say some pickup lines. These pickup lines are either cheesy or romantic

You are the only person he allows to braid his hair, so be thankful

Hand kisses are a MUST 2.0

[leclerc-s]

the blonde bitch always with them

series masterlist

arthur leclerc how do i kick someone out of my apartment nicely?

arthur leclerc asking for a friend..

max jones-verstappen you don't... just own it.

daphne jones-ricciardo coming from the man who is cuddling my husband you have no say.

zoya torres LMAOOOO!!! SUCKS TO SUCK LECLERC!!!!

arthur leclerc SHUT UP ZOYA! THIS IS NONE OF YOUR CONCERN!

dulce perez he's going through a break-up arthur. leave him alone.

dulce perez HE ALSO LIVES WITH US!!

ollie bearman that's a dick move arthur.

arthur leclerc he's been going through break-ups ever two days. he's literally just watching grey's anatomy.

isabella perez to be fair, that's a very valid reason.

oscar piastri you cried yesterday when you find out that daphne did a mashup of is it over now? and out of the woods.

bailey winters also very valid

dulce perez louis said, 'how am i supposed to move on after mark and lexie's death? i am in pain and also suffering arthur!"

daphne jones-ricciardo that is a very valid excuse arthur. leave the boy alone arthur.

arthur leclerc why can't my third wheel be like joris? why do i have to get stuck with the blonde guy?

pato o'ward not everyone can have a joris arthur. sucks for you.

arthur leclerc i hope isa crashes your next date patricio. gael perez now why would you wish that on me?

fernando alonso pobrecito.

arthur leclerc SEB! HE'S BEING MEAN!

fernando alonso snitch.

sebastian vettel fernando be nice to the poor boy. can't you see he's suffering?

arthur leclerc all of you are fake. so fake.

dulce perez wow. some men just have the audacity.

liked by babs.rodriguez, schecoperez, maxjonesverstappen1 and others

dulceperez baking is a task that is taking very seriously in the perez-leclerc-graham household

tagged: arthur_leclerc, louis_graham

view all comments

olivia.johnson this basically confirms it to me that louis is dulce and arthur's child

liked by babs.rodriguez, isabellaperez and others

↳ louis_graham they feed me, i live with them, i go to races with them. i am their child.

↳ arthur_leclerc you live with us and not because it was my choice.

↳ louis_graham BECAUSE I LIVED THERE FIRST LECLERC! YOU MOVED INTO OUR APARTMENT BITCH!

marcus_42 love how neither one of you is making the same thing

↳ dulceperez everyone had different cravings...

babs.rodriguez hey siri, what do i do when my friends have once again forgotten my existance?

↳ dulceperez you said, 'you don't want me baking. it'll be worse than charles' poor excuse of a dish when he attempts to cook.'

↳ arthur_leclerc then you said, 'i'll eat whatever you people make. except for arthur's. i don't trust a leclerc, except mama leclerc, when it comes to food.'

↳ louis_graham and you proceeded to judge us as if you were gordon ramsay.

↳ charles_leclerc catching strays from the strays dulce brought in 🙄

isabellaperez no invite?

↳ dulceperez you were hanging out with your boyfriend and your 'sons'

↳ olliebearman no invite?

↳ oscarpiastri no invite?

↳ dulceperez and watch you two flirt with arthur? please, i already have louis to do that.

schecoperez el apartamento esta bien? no lo quemaron? is the apartment okay? you didn't burn it down?

↳ dulceperez todo bien tio! arthur tuvo supervisión! all good uncle! arthur had supervision.

↳ arthur_leclerc charles lacks talent in the kitchen. i am a decent baker.

louis_graham posted new stories

😴❤️ some get me away from these two. i live with this now i have to deal with this shit in public? about to beat all these bitches during game night.

dulce perez never trust a word arthur leclerc says.

isabella perez in the words of the great kendrick lamar, 'you a bitch and a liar too'

gael perez it's habitual liar isa.

isabella perez no fucking way i've been singing that part wrong.

arthur leclerc that picture is false! i don't like that man. can't stand his fake ass.

daphne jones-ricciardo lying is not good arthur.

ollie bearman caught them cuddling after game night on saturday.

fernando alonso i caught them cuddling after bahrain.

lewis hamilton could've fooled me if you asked me if they were dating.

max jones-verstappen toto circa 2014 about nico and lewis. rhys jones gp circa 2018 about daniel and max

oscar piastri arthur's in love and not with dulce.

arthur leclerc i can't stand you either.

logan sargeant now that's a lie. you were literally asking him for a kiss on new year's.

bailey winters mr. steal you boy over here.

arthur leclerc LIARS! ALL OF YOU LIARS!!

dulce perez admit you like him!

arthur leclerc lying is not good!

carlos sainz cuando le conviene (when it's convenient)

penelope trevino when you stop ditching me for lando then you can talk.

carlos sainz I SAID SORRY!! bailey winters and why is that we're still getting ditched?

sebastian vettel boys..we talked about this.

lando norris we're trying really hard seb.

dulce perez AS I WAS SAYING!!! NEVER TRUST A WORD ARTHUR LECLERC SAYS!! HE'S A BIG FAT LIAR!!

dulce perez he ditched me this morning to get breakfast with louis.

pato o'ward no mames wey.

arthur leclerc i left to get breakfast and louis followed me.

gael perez wow. i'm telling tio checo.

arthur leclerc DO NOT SNITCH ME OUT! I DIDN'T COMMIT ANY CRIMES!!

isabella perez snitch him out!! through him in the slammer!!

arthur leclerc if i die just know it was their fault.

charles leclerc you deserve it for what you did earlier.

natalia ruiz but did they lie?

charles leclerc 🙄 🙄 🙄

daniel jones-ricciardo i hope you enjoy the couch buddy.

taglist: @burningcupcakefire @arkhammaid @applopie @sunflower-golden-vol6 @lorarri @bb-swift @thewannabewriter @mypage-myfandoms @stopeatread @hobiismyhopeu @lilsiz @alessioayla @niniluvsainz @au-ghosttype @six-call @justtprachisblog @nichmeddar @landonorizzz @unluckyyoshi @cool-ultra-nerd @kami10471633 @1nt3rnetgf @fernandoswarcrimes @arieltwvdtohamflash @brekkers-whore @natcha888 @camdensreg @mycenterfold @dear-fifi @georgeparisole @dan3avocado @nikfigueiredo @namgification @jensonsonlybutton @weekendlusting @trouble-sistar @lesliiieeeee @leclercsluv @33-81 @theseus-jpg @sarah-thatstings-ann @minmira95 @casperlikej @formulaonebuff @hopenshaw @ijustgomessitupx @hwalllllllelujah @doodlehunz @prongsvault

¡leclerc-s speaks! no one act surprised that i disappeared for two days and came back to post this randomly. i have no posting schedule and even if i did i probably wouldn't be able to stick to it.

¡disclaimer! this is in no way making assumptions about the people involved in this story, this is all fake. it is a fanfiction please don't take any of what is said seriously. this is all for entertainment purposes and as a creative outlet for me. enjoy!

[idontplaytrack]

Rejanis angst? Breakup?

With “party favor” by Billie Eilish as like inspo? Idk lol

Party favor

Janis ‘Imi’ike x Regina George

Warnings: angst, coarse language, some descriptions of smut, self-harm, implied eating disorders & some mentions

"It's not you, it's me and all that other bullshit You know that's bullshit, don't you, babe? I'm not your party favor."

"Oh, my God. I am sick of you being-"

"Oh, are you, now? You're sick of me? Is that what your attitude lately meant?"

"You're not letting me finish my sentences."

Regina responded through gritted teeth.

"Like what you want to say would be any better." Janis scoffed.

“As I was saying,” Regina continues, “I am sick of you being so paranoid! What the fuck, honestly.”

“What the fuck is right.” Janis lets out a dry chuckle, “What the fuck is my life right now? What the fuck kind of life have I been living?”

“I told you, you need to start taking care of yourself, otherwise—”

“What, Regina, what?” Janis snapped, “You’re gonna force feed me? Commit me? You’re the last person that should be telling me what to do. All those things already happened. You really—”

“I’m breaking up with you.”

“Fuck you.” Janis spat, “I was there for you in the hospital when they took you there against your will. I visited you when no one else did, all while trying to make it through college. And now you’re just going to do this? You know what? I hear you, just leave. We don’t have to see each other ever again, anywhere. Fucking leave! Why are you still standing there? You left me once, I’m very sure you’ll have no problem at all doing that again.”

“I told you, Alex was a one-night stand.” Regina sighs.

“No.” Janis answered, “No. I’ve had enough of pain from you, I am not setting myself up for a round three. I don’t want anything! To do with you ever again. I am who I am because of you! You don’t get to shove that excuse in my face when you cheated on me.”

“I was drunk!”

“So drunk you could forget your girlfriend of a whole year? So drunk that you forgot someone you saw at least twice a week? I travelled from here to Connecticut for you without fail. The least you could do is be honest with me.”

Regina trembled in shock seeing and hearing Janis screaming like that. But then a feeling of sadness, and anger and guilt all washed over her at once. But, the blonde turned and faced the front door, swallowing the painful lump in her throat. But she still doesn’t leave somehow. 

“Even after such a clear mistake, you still have to be right. I saw you that night in that bar in Queens. I know how you’re like when you’re drunk. You weren’t drunk that night — so don’t bother. I am not someone you can just use and toss. I am not someone you can call just because you need me but when I needed you, you couldn’t do the same for me. You always make up excuses! When have you been honest with me since the name-calling started? A leopard never changes its spots, Gina. I really should’ve known better, you are a motherfucking bitch that deserves nothing for everyone you’ve hurt and treated like collateral damage along the way. Go fuck yourself.” 

————

“You lit her backpack on fire?!” Mrs. ‘Imi’ike screamed at Janis. 

“She was making fun of me! She’s been making fun of me for months! So has the rest of the school, Mom!”

“So, someone calls you a name, you take a Bunsen burner and torched someone’s bag?”

“A name?” Janis scoffed, “She called me an obsessed lesbian. She outed me, she humiliated me. She made my life hell.”

“You should not have done that.” 

“Sandra.” Her dad interjected, “No. Janis wouldn’t have done something like that for no good reason.”

“We raised you better than this.”

“You raised me to stand up for myself. I’ve been nothing but tolerant of all sorts of nasty names and insults thrown in my face. I couldn’t take it anymore, I cannot face anyone in that school anymore. I’m done.”

“Ben, she committed a violent act.” Sandra turned to face her husband.

“Do you hear what she’s been saying, Sandra? Our daughter was bullied for months and we had no clue. We failed to protect her, we failed to help her. This isn’t her fault.”

~~~~~

She had the blade in her hand, her eyes closely looking at it, then her wrist. Her hand was shaking, she was terrified. But her fear of her ex-best friend overpowered the fear of her own actions. The metal slides across her tender skin, bright red droplets trickled out from the cut. Janis took a sharp inhale, chewing on her lower lip to keep from making any noise. In that moment, the noise in her head was silenced and replaced by white hot searing pain from the self-inflicted injury. It worked, she wasn’t thinking about the names, about the snickering, about Regina. But actual physical pain that she could control. 

~~~~~

“We can’t afford to homeschool you, Janis. We have to work.” Ben apologised.

“I know.” Janis fiddled with her thumbs as a force of habit.

“Go grab something to eat then we’ll be on your way to your therapy session.” Ben nudged.

“Okay.” Janis nodded, feeling somewhat defeated. She knew her parents were doing the best they could, but just maybe…her Mom was still just a little mad and would rather be at work than be at home with her. Well, her Dad’s been the only one taking her to and fro therapy and home— Janis had been kicked out of school for the remainder of the year. 

This incident strained the mother and daughter’s relationship but it was almost inevitable. That’s just how Sandra’s been like for as long as she could remember. She wasn’t too flexible. Or open-minded. 

Janis had been going to therapy for three weeks now. That meant six sessions. And she’s cried every time. It was liberating, helpful but also left her a little tired. And a little headache. So that annoyed her a bit but she felt somewhat better and was making progress. 

“Janis, I’ll see you Tuesday.” 

“See you, Joan.” Janis gave the older woman a tight-lipped smile as she chewed on her dry lips, leaving the dimly lit office. 

“Tuesday.” Joan reminded.

“I’ll be here.” Janis answered. 

Pushing the creaky metal door, Janis steps out onto the front steps of the building, the summer heat torching her skin. She squints to be able to see clearly, the sun overhead hurting her eyes. Janis then sees her Dad driving up to the pickup point in the family car. Janis swiftly skipped down the steps and got into the vehicle, wanting to escape the sweltering heat. 

“Hi, ladybug.” Ben smiled, “Do you wanna go for some froyo?”

“Maybe after the next session.” Janis smiled back apologetically, sniffling, “Today’s session really took it out of me. I kinda just want to go home and nap.”

“Yeah, of course.” He nodded in understanding as he began their drive home. 

They got home, Janis took a shower and took a nap. And while Sandra was at work, Ben took the time to make the family dinner tonight. He’d already taken the day off work to keep Janis company after all.

~~~~~

Ben dropped Janis and Damian off at the mall for a movie and a lunch at the food court. The pair hadn’t seen each other in awhile, since Janis had to get used to therapy and being medicated. Nearing the end of summer, everything started to calm down, gaining a new sense of normalcy. 

Just like always, Damian cracked her up. Made her laugh until her stomach hurt. Something she’d missed so much since what happened with Regina. 

“So no homeschool?”

“One of them has to work at least. Dad’s job pays more so my mom wants him to keep at it but my mom’s…my mom. She doesn’t think mental health is a thing. So even though I have the therapist’s memos and shit, she doesn’t want to accept it.” 

“It’ll be okay. I’ll catch you up, the school will know too. I’ll make sure they do.” Damian assured. 

“Thanks, Damian.”  Janis genuinely smiled as she held her milkshake straw between two fingers and gave it a stir.

“Hey, I got your back, okay. You know that. Everyday, since two thousand and nine.”

~~~~~

Janis was doing so well, she really, really was. Until she wasn’t. Two weeks before the new school year started, Janis ran into Regina and Karen at a bookstore. A bookstore out of all places. The blonde sneered at Janis, all while her dad was barely five feet away. The guy definitely saw it and shot the duo a warning glare. The tall blonde only scoffed and smirked, tossed her hair then continued browsing. But not before she purposely walked closer to Janis to try and shove her out of the way. Even an idiot could see that there was a huge space between them at first. “That is enough. What you did to my daughter is unacceptable.”

“Aw, look. Daddy’s little girl needs her daddy to protect her, fight her battles for her.” Regina laughed.

“Let’s go, Daddy.” Janis tugged on his arm. He quickly took her and left without buying anything even though he’d promised Janis a new storybook for all the progress she’s made recently. 

“Ignore her, hm? How about a donut?” 

“No, thanks.” Janis declined.

“A smoothie?” Ben asked hopefully. 

She says no to that, too but they continued their way around the mall for awhile. Janis now knew better than to focus on what put her in a bad mood. “Daddy, maybe we could get some dinner before we go home.” Janis suggested, “Mom’s not in town anyway.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Ben smiled, relieved, “What do you feel like having for dinner?” 

The father and daughter wound up at the food court, enjoying their orange chicken and fried rice then a blizzard each from Dairy Queen to wash it down. By the time they were on their drive home, Janis had forgotten entirely what upset her.

~~~~~

“Why do you think she kissed you?”

“Don’t know, to get a reaction out of Kyle? And me?”

“Alright, but why?” Joan prompted.

“She’s crazy, I don’t know, Joan. I don’t know why my best friend of six years one day decided to pull this stunt and not be the person I knew anymore.”

“How did Kyle react?”

“He— he cheered. He was happy to see us kiss. It was disgusting, he told us to kiss again. Regina almost leaned in for another, I pushed her away and ran out of her house. Gretchen came out to the curb to check on me but I wasn’t having it— she and Regina had gotten close those last few weeks. Regina had not been talking to me as much at that point but this sleepover was a weekly thing and she wanted me there as usual so I went then it happened and changed everything. I knew Gretchen really was worried about me, that’s never changed about her. She’s always been nice.”

“How did you feel when you kissed her?”

“Um—” Janis stopped bouncing her leg, “I…I liked it. Because— I actually, I caught feelings for her over time. But I never told her, I never had the chance to.”

“And how’d that make you feel?”

“Heartbroken. Angry. Like I want to strangle her for saying that I only let her kiss me because I was obsessed with her.” Janis answered, “I really cared about her, I cherished her. I didn’t want to tell her until I was sure she felt the same way. Or maybe I was never going to say anything because I was too scared it would change things between the two of us. Joan…I felt safe with her, then my whole world as I knew it got…wrecked in the matter of minutes.”

“Janis, what do you think caused her to change?”

“She got a boyfriend, I don’t know. Regina George only cares about herself now. Everyone else is like dirt on the ground to her. She saw me at the bookstore and shoved past me even though there was tons of space.”

“It might be deeper than that.”

“How so?”

“Based on what you’ve been telling me, and given how much time you’ve spent together with Regina, she’s never met Kyle before that sleepover and declared him to be her boyfriend.”

“Yeah, well Kyle’s a new kid— oh.”

“I think, she might’ve done what she did because she was trying to avoid admitting to herself that she acknowledged a change in herself when you came out to her.”

“A change…?”

“The feelings, that you had for her. Could be mutual. She just isn’t ready to come to terms with it.” Joan revealed, “I see this quite a bit even just in a week. But, be that as it may, her outing you and publicly humiliating you was not the way to go.”

“Yeah no shit.” Janis chewed the inside of her cheek.

“Janis, what do you do in your free time?”

“You mean everyday? I got kicked out because I finally retaliated, remember?” Janis laughs. 

“Well, I remember. But I was just thinking maybe picking up a new hobby or two that you can focus on, that you really enjoy and immerse yourself in.”

“Well, I like art so I’ve been sketching and painting a whole lot more over the summer since I naturally have a lot of free time on my hands.”

“Good.” Joan nodded, “Make use of art, channel your emotions into your pieces. I could help you work through some of it without you actively realising. I know the sessions sometimes take a lot out of you, you feel a lot in the 45 minutes. Very intensely. Art could let you have an outlet to release those emotions and thoughts. On top of the methods we’ve began to discuss, that is.”

Janis gave the lady a solemn nod, “I will. I’ll stick to it. Um, running into Regina that day upset me. I wish I hadn’t seen her because I was doing so well.”

“The thing about healing and recovery is that it takes time. And it’s never really linear all the time. These encounters are bumps in the road, little dips in the chart.” Joan explained, “How you respond and move forward from them is what matters. And what tells you where you are in your progress.”

“Me and my dad, we left the bookstore and we carried on walking around the mall. He offered to buy me a donut, a smoothie��� declined. Didn’t feel like it because in that moment I just lost my appetite.” Janis began, “But then we just kept walking and window shopping, and the…encounter was tossed to the back of my mind, I could pretty quickly focus on what was in front of me instead of what’s already happened.”

“See? That’s great, that’s progress. Improvement. It will take time, but with the effort you’ve been putting in, you’ve got it.”

~~~~~

“What?” Damian glares at the blonde. “What the hell did you just say to me?”

“I said you were stupid. Stupid for believing her. She’s clearly doing all of this for attention.”

“I think you are. You put on that damn show asking if you could kiss her. You are one messed up person.”

Regina raised her brows, the smirk never leaving her face. “What am I doing, Damian? Straight A’s, I look put together, great friends. Meanwhile she looks like she just rolled out of bed and came to school.”“You? Straight A’s. Don’t go lying to yourself, Regina. That’s very stupid of you. Keep her name out of your mouth while you’re at it. You’ve decided to let her go, so do that. Otherwise, you’re like, the one obsessed with her or something.”

Janis’ hatred for the girl only grew with each passing day. The sight of her made her sick, and also made her want to punch the wall. But she wasn’t going to damage school property and let herself be the one getting into trouble. Not again. Regina George wasn’t worth it. Damian was right— she’d decided to let her go, so Janis should be treating Regina as if she didn’t exist. As if she was invisible. 

~~~~~

“I made a mistake.” Janis revealed as she sunk into the armchair, “I was six weeks clean. Six weeks. But last night I spiralled and it happened again”

“We talked about this, picking yourself back up and moving forward is the way to go. Take care of it, get it cleaned and bandaged because we don’t want infections. But you recognise this action, you know not to dwell on it. You have the ways— other ways to help you work through the urge.”

“I wasted my effort. This was the longest I’ve ever gone without doing that.”

“No, no effort was wasted.” Joan disagreed, “Janis, would you have talked to me about this if it was even just a month ago? Would you have successfully calmed yourself down and called me to tell me you needed to see me sooner?” 

“No?”

“Precisely.” Joan continued, “That, you making that call to me, to tell me what you needed was a result of your effort, you know what’s good for you, what can help you after a mistake, after a little slip on your journey. Remember that, be proud of that, the little wins. One by one, they’ll add up and become a major change in your life. A good change.”

~~~~~

“Move your fat ass out of the way, ‘Imi’ike.” Regina snarled.

Janis stiffens, scurrying out of the way, her back pressed up against the lockers as she stared at the ground when Regina and her posse walked by.  

Again, there was plenty of space around them. Janis just got startled, and reacted. She’d already had a rough morning hearing her parents get into it, fighting about her. “Either you eat faster and go on your way to school, or don’t eat at all.” Her mom bellowed irritatedly. Janis jumped, scared. Sighing, she scraped her plate and left it in the sink then promptly left the house. Her Dad caught up and drove her to school. “Get breakfast when you arrive in school, okay? It’s still early.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

The rest of the ride was silent with the exception of the radio playing in the background. It wasn’t a long ride, anyway.

“I’ll see you right here after school, okay, ladybug?” Ben pulls up in front of the school.

Janis nodded, he kisses her on the head and gave her a hug from the side.

“I love you, have a good day.”

“Love you.” Janis forced a smile before she got out of the car.

A tap on her shoulder pulls her back into the present. “Jesus, Damian! You scared me.”

“You told me to look for you at your locker after school. What were you expecting?” He teased.

“Nothing, I just got scared that’s all.” 

“Well, I’m sorry.” Damian apologises, putting an arm across her shoulders, “Let’s go get burgers.”

Janis gulped, Regina's comment rang through her ears again: “Move your fat ass out of the way, ‘Imi’ike.”

She shook her head as though to get rid of that voice, then continued making her way out of the school building with Damian. They walked to their usual after school spot — their favourite fast food restaurant to enjoy their favourite burgers and fries.

Janis was starving, the school lunch sucked so she was glad to be able to get her favourite food here. But after awhile, the annoying voice came back. “Woah! May be  time for you to get a bigger sized shirt, Jan. That is not a cute look.”

“Kalua pork and rice again? You oughta cut down on that meat intake. You’ve really let yourself go these days.” The blonde sighs. 

“Look at me.” Damian snapped his fingers in front of her face to get her attention.

“What?”

“I know this look.” Damian admits, “She said shit to you, didn’t she?” 

“Since when does she not, Damian?” Janis dropped a fry back onto her plate. 

“She’s a bitch. She ain’t worth any of your time. Focus on yourself.”

“I may be focusing on myself too much.”

Damian quirked a brow, seemingly having figured out what Janis meant. “No fucking way.” 

“Oh she did. First thing she says to me every day now ever since you know — my body changed.”

“She called you obsessed? Who’s the obsessed one now? She’s always thinking of you, my friend.” 

Janis guffaws, “No thank you.” 

~~~~~

Tossing her clothes into the hamper, Janis grabs her towel and a fresh change of clothes then walked to her bathroom. Out of nowhere, the mirror caught her eye and she stopped in front of it. She looked at the reflection of her new body that she was still trying so hard to get used to. Puberty sucked— why’d her body have to change? Her hand glided down her side, stopping right by her hip. Her fingers pinched the flesh, her eyes traced her own features. Squinting, as if to look closely, as if to commit how they looked in to her memory. 

When did she get this extra flab?

When did her thighs start getting so close together?

When she seem this short? Why was she still so short? 

Janis groans, rolling her head and shoulders to relax the tension. “God, I’m fat.”

~~~~~

February, Valentine’s Day was in a week. Kids around her were all buzzing with excitement, talking about their mushy gushy plans. Janis shuddered at the thought. 

Pulling her sleeve down as she walked to her locker, “Oh, wow. Daddy’s sweater?” 

“Yeah, so? Mind your business.” 

“Smart choice, really covers up your problem areas.” 

Janis got her chemistry textbook out of her locker, shut the door and swiftly left the area. 

After school that day, Damian went to therapy with Janis. He waited outside, of course. 

“Hi, Janis.” 

“Hi, Joan.” Janis put her bag down and sat in the armchair, like always. “So…Regina really, really pissed me off today. I don’t know why— it wasn’t even that bad of a remark compared to what she usually says.” 

“What did she say?”

“She made fun of me for wearing my Dad’s sweater. Said it was a smart choice because it covered up my problem areas. She’s been calling me fat for weeks— directly, or indirectly.”

“And how have you been doing with that?”

“Oh.” Janis laughs, “Art pieces have been piling up.”

~~~~~

“Janis.” Sandra narrows her eyes at her daughter, “Eat the food, don’t just push it around on your plate.”

“I already did.”

“Finish it, you just told me the school lunch tasted horrible. It’s dinner time now.”

“I’m full.”

“You’re wasting my food.” Sandra continued, clearly unhappy. 

Ben looked between them both, concerned. For different reasons. 

“I said I’m full.” Janis inhaled sharply, gripping the metal fork tightly. Then she drops it, it hits the plate noisily. Janis got up and ran up to her room. 

“Janis!” Her mother shrieked, “You better stop that and get back down here. Finish your dinner.”

Janis stopped on a step, hesitating. But, she continued stomping upstairs despite that. “She’s crazy. How is she full?”

“Sandra, you can’t just say these things. You know that.”

“And she knows better than to take that plate for herself if she isn’t going to finish it.”

Ben sighs,”That’s it. I’ve had enough.”

“Well, good.” Sandra smiled.

“Of you. I’ve had enough of you.” Ben clarified, “You are no good. You don’t see how hard she’s trying to get better. You don’t hear how loud she was struggling. I’m doing my job as her parent and helping her. You are just here, day in and day out with useless, and harmful comments that you think you can just say and think she doesn’t hear you. Guess what? She hears you, she takes your words to heart because you are her mother. What you say to her means more than you know. You either stop this damn behaviour or I’m taking Janis and we’re moving.”

Sandra arched a brow looking at him, “Okay. Move out.” She retrieves an envelope from her bag on the couch, handing it to Ben. “Sign the papers, then you’re free to go with her.”

~~~~~

“Janis, you have to come see me tomorrow.”

“Rather not.”

“Why not?” Joan asked.

“Because, I’m tired.”

“And I want to talk to you about some things, it will help.”

“My parents got divorced.”

“I’m aware, Janis. You texted me about that.”

“Should I switch schools?”

“Of course you can.” Joan replies, “I’ve talked to your father about getting you into a different school as a possibility. He has left that choice up to you.”

“Joan, I know that. He told me that, but I’m— not sure.”

“Tell me more.”

“Well, having to start over is scary. And it’s my last year until high school, so it seems…not worth it?” 

“Is the thought of being in a brand new environment more tolerable, or the thought of being in the same space as your bully? It may be your last year, but every day should count. You should be living a life where you put yourself first.” 

“I know what to do. Thanks, Joan.”

~~~~~

“Stop laughing and go do your homework.”

“Already done, mom.”

Sandra;s nostrils flared, “I’ve had enough of your attitude, Janis. After everything we’ve done for you, you repay us by getting into trouble, becoming gay and wasting your Dad’s time and money sending you to therapy. Those are all just excuses, Janis.” 

“All those didn’t happen overnight.” Janis’ heart sank. She had tears quickly welling in her eyes. Why was her mother like this? Why doesn’t she love her?

Quietly slipping upstairs, Janis carefully shut and locked her door. Going up to her desk, she pulls out this stack of enveloped notes from her drawer and placed it on the desk. She sits on the edge of her bed, skilfully retrieving the blade she hasn’t seen in ages from her nightstand. She was crying,  she could feel the tears hitting her thighs, hitting her forearms. When she went ahead, it stung— at first. But she was used to this, so she repeated her actions, only wincing when her salty tears hit the sites. Over and over, deeper and deeper. Her grip goes weaker and weaker…her vision was blurred by her tears but she blinked them away and her vision comes back into focus. Janis sees the photo of her as a child, with her father at Pololū Valley…back home. In Kohala. How Janis wishes she could be home. Not here in this house. The blade falls from her grip, hitting the floor. Janis curses, beginning to feel lightheaded. Blinking profusely, she was suddenly aware of the excruciating pain and was doing everything in her power to not scream. 

Holding her phone with a shaky hand, Janis dials her dad’s number. He picks up in seconds, “Daddy, daddy I’m sorry. Please help me, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to.”

His blood ran cold hearing how broken she was. “Ipo, I’m calling 911 right now. Will you stay awake for daddy? Please, ladybug? Promise?”

Shit. Ben was only out of the house for awhile— he’d went to the bakery nearby to get Janis’ favourite cake as a reward for a 94% percent on a math quiz.

“I promise…but it hurts so much, Daddy.”

“I know, ladybug. I gotta hang up, but I’ll be right there with you, I promise.”

A second later, Ben had hung up on Janis to call 911. Janis didn’t stay awake for more than a minute. She’d passed out. Even the thud didn’t alarm Sandra. Not until she saw the paramedics drive up to the house.

~~~~~

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know—”

“You did. You were just too stuck in your own mindset and beliefs. We’re not married anymore. Just go, you’re free.” 

As apologetic as Sandra was now, as much as she’d cried. Ben knew not to give in anymore. Why should he? Janis almost successfully took her own life under her care. Because of her words. 

Janis looked away when she saw her mother turning her head to look at her. She hated her. Janis hated this woman. And she wasn’t sorry about it. Why should she? 

“Daddy, I wanna go home.”

“I know, I know. You can’t just yet.” Ben cups her face, brushing her tears away. “But I promise you, we will.”

Janis spent three days under constant supervision, then three months in the psych ward.  Her education had no doubt been put on pause, but that meant full, undivided focus on her recovery— anxiety, depression, self-harm and disordered eating. She really buckled down and put her heart and soul into getting better. For her own sake, she wanted to get out and do more. Go back to school, make new friends, spend time with Damian— she wanted to live life again. 

~~~~~

“Here’s the cake I owe you.” Ben smiled, letting go from the hug, “Welcome home.”

“Thank you, Daddy.”

“It’s nothing.”

Janis shook her head, “Thank you. For everything.” 

“It wasn’t all me, ladybug. You’ve done a whole lot of work for yourself to get to where you are now.”

“Can we go to the beach, please?” Janis smiled, sniffling. 

“And get shave ice?” Ben asks with a chuckle.

“Always.”

~~~~~

The Plastics were in O’ahu for their high school graduation trip. Janis didn’t know until Damian brought it up. This was the first time she’s heard that name or seen that face since she moved back to Kohala with her Dad following the divorce. Janis was turning 14, and they had to make do with living out of a room in a relative’s home for awhile, but Janis has never been happier. To be homeschooled, to be here, to be home. At peace, at last. 

“Well, when are you coming here, dude? I miss you.”

“Next week, Janis.” Damian says, “I’m a broke ass bitch, had to book my flight out for the date that’s the cheapest.”

“Alright.” Janis laughs heartily, “See you soon.”

“Lunch is ready, Janis.” Her aunt knocks on the patio door.

“I’ll be there in a second, ‘Anakē. Just have to finish up this part of the piece.”

“Okay, honey.” 

~~~~~

“Janis? Oh, my God. It’s you.” A familiar voice stops Janis in her tracks on the beach. She was curious, not tense, or worried, or anxious. She turns around, and comes face to face with Gretchen Wieners. 

“Hi, Gretchen.”

“I’m so glad to see you again.”  Gretchen walked closer, Janis smiled wider. And then, they hugged.  “I didn’t know you moved back here.”

“I didn’t tell anyone.” Janis chuckles, “How are you?”

“Our senior class is here for a graduation trip. Regina is nearby if you’d rather steer clear of her.” Gretchen said, then her voice trails off at the end. Janis squints, “Are you okay?” 

“Uh, yeah. Just— Regina is behind—”

“I am sorry.” Regina began once Janis turned around the other way to look her in the eye, “But I know it doesn’t cut it. I’ve hurt you. Everything you’ve been through started because of me. I don’t know what else I can say except apologise over and over and over hoping that you hear me. That you acknowledge it, you don’t have to forgive me. I deserve it. And more. Janis, you were the greatest loss of my life.”

This was the first time Janis had been calm in front of Regina. First time since they were friends. Damn, how long ago was that?

“I was a nasty person, in denial. But I…I’ve missed you every day that I’ve spent apart from you.”

~~~~~

Janis was certain she was dreaming, feeling the girl’s lips against her own, eager, tender, exciting, and filled with yearning. After six long years, they have both found themselves, and their way back to each other.  

“Are you sure you want to—”

Janis answered the question by connecting their lips.

One thing led to another quickly, becoming increasingly heated. Regina backs Janis onto the mattress, straddling her smoothly.  “I’ve missed you so fucking much. I can���t believe it took me this long to accept that I was gay.”“Just kiss me already.” Janis pulls her down.

Regina chuckles into the kiss, unbuttoning Janis’ shirt and reaching back to unclip her bra, freeing the girl’s breasts. As Regina kisses a trail along her jaw and down her neck, Janis’ head got thrown back as she swallowed a low noise.  

“Holy shit, that is a gorgeous tattoo.”

Janis chuckles lowly when she feels the blonde’s fingertips tracing the art, “Thanks.”

~~~~~

“Fuck— I— I love you.”  Regina panted, falling onto her back next to Janis. Janis laughs breathily, in disbelief of what she’d just heard. 

“Okay. Wow.” Janis turned her head to look at Regina.

“I do. And I have for years. I just couldn’t—”

Janis smiled, brushing the stray hairs out of the blonde’s face, cupping her cheek. A sleepy smile tugs at her lips. 

“Where are you going for college—”

“Can we talk about this tomorrow? When we’re more awake and alert?” Janis requested.

Regina hums, nodding, “Yeah, that’d be better.”

~~~~~

In the fall, Regina starts college at Yale, and Janis at NYU. The couple did long-distance but saw each other in person at least every other week. 

This new stage of their lives was going well. They were thriving, but by the summer, Janis notices Regina getting more and more withdrawn, and cold. Snarky, like her old self. 

Over a late night FaceTime call, Regina reveals that she’d relapsed. She was struggling with bulimia again after being three years in recovery. Despite all efforts, Regina deteriorated and had to be in the hospital. 

At first, Regina only took a leave of absence. But then she’d eventually withdrew her name from school. Janis did all she could to support her girlfriend, but it was so tough. She’d started to shut everyone out. 

They’d then decided to return to their regime of FaceTime calls— everyday. The distance allowed them to cool off. For Regina to focus on recovery, for Janis to focus on school. There wasn’t any more Janis could do at this point. She wasn’t a medical professional. 

~~~~~

After a full year in the recovery facility, Regina could finally go home. Home, as in Chicago. But June did something— she’d bought Regina an apartment in New York so she could be closer to Janis. So then, their relationship went on without another mention of Regina’s eating disorder. Like it’s never happened. 

They were healing, they were fulfilled, they were happy. 

Were they really happy? Or in denial of their past and choosing to forget instead of process them?

Janis knew she was the happiest she’s ever been. The most authentically herself.  But she’s had times where she found herself wondering if Regina was indeed happy to be with her.

Her gut was trying to tell her something.

————

After four years in the city that never sleeps, Janis was once again back where she was meant to be. Home. With her family. 

“New York was fun, huh, ladybug?”

“It was. It was…something special. Learnt a lot, about myself, about other people.”

“I know, honey.” Ben nodded in understanding, “Hey, maybe we should make it our thing, to go to the city every year? It’ll be fun.” 

“I’d like that.” Janis agreed.

“Did you manage to meet anyone special?” 

She laughs, “I have been talking to this girl in one of my lectures, but no, not dating yet.” 

“Ua ola loko i ke aloha.” Ben reminded. 

“Love gives life within.” Janis grins, “I know, Daddy. When the timing is right, what’s meant to happen will happen.” 

🏷️Tag list:

@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @ludoesartandstuff @pda128

[thatfanficstuff]

Not About You - 32

Pairing: Damon Salvatore x OFC

Warnings: nothing beyond canon

When Lucy woke the next morning, she found herself alone much to her annoyance. A touch of the sheets beside her told her that Damon had been gone for a while. She frowned and grabbed her phone off the nightstand beside her. Where are you? she sent.

Out.

She rolled her eyes. Oh, thanks for that, Mr. Vampire. Very helpful. She readied herself for the day before heading downstairs to find a fresh pot of coffee waiting for her along with a note from Damon telling her that he’d bring food home with him. Okay, she’d forgive the disappearing act if he was going to caffeinate and feed her.

She made her coffee and was heading toward the living room when the front door opened. Lucy glanced over expecting to see her boyfriend only to be greeted with the sight of one of her least favorite teenagers. “Elena,” she said by way of greeting. She sipped her coffee before giving an insincere smile. “What the fuck are you doing in my house?”

The girl scowled. “The door was unlocked.”

“Okay, but this is still private property. You can’t just walk in whenever you damn well please.” Lucy was going to have to talk to Damon about locking the door. He wouldn’t be happy. “Do you just wander around town walking in people’s houses? What’s wrong with you?”

Elena rolled her eyes and sighed. “I need to see Rose. It’s important.”

Lucy didn’t like being ignored. “Are you even going to respond to what I said?”

The girl just stared at her.

Lucy clenched her teeth and worked the muscle in her jaw. Damn this girl. “Quit coming in the house without permission, Elena. I won’t give you another warning. As for Rose, she’s around somewhere. I’m sure if you look hard enough you can find her.”

It was nearly an hour later before Damon returned home, Stefan walking beside him as the two of them bickered about something. Damon handed Lucy a bag from the Grill and kissed her head without pausing his conversation. She took a bite out of her sandwich while her gaze moved between the brothers.

Finally, Lucy held up a hand. “Hold on. Are you two arguing about Katherine?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

She scrunched her nose. “Why?”

Damon dropped onto the sofa beside her and laid his arm along the back of the couch. “We went to see her this morning. Stef thinks its cruel to keep her in the tomb. I say it’s what she deserves.”

Stefan sighed as Caroline walked into the room and wrapped her arms around his waist. He held her against him and steered her to one of the chairs where he sat and pulled her into his lap. “It’s not that simple, Damon.” He turned his attention to Lucy. “He’s correct in saying that I think its cruel to keep her in the tomb to desiccate surrounded by burnt vampires.”

When he didn’t immediately continue, Lucy frowned. “Surely you don’t want to release her?”

“Thank you,” Damon said with a gesture toward his brother to say ‘see’.

Stefan shook his head but before he could clarify, Caroline spoke up. “Wouldn’t she be more cooperative later if we did her a favor now?”

Lucy’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t expect that from you of all people. She killed you, Care. I don’t particularly want to give her the chance to do it again.”

Caroline sighed. “I know but angry Katherine scares me.”

“I don’t want to let her out,” Stefan declared loudly. “I just think maybe there is somewhere else we could keep her. Somewhere a little less morbid.”

Lucy nodded her head. “Okay, Stef. I hear you, but consider this. She knew all those vampires were trapped in that tomb and left them to rot sooooo maybe we leave her to do the same.”

He shook his head. “Sometimes I worry about you, Lucy. You’re a little vindictive.”

“It has nothing to do with me. It’s called Karma and she’s a bitch.”

“So’s Katherine,” Caroline said with a little laugh before covering her mouth.

After a moment of shock that the blonde would say such a thing, Lucy laughed as well. Damon smirked and pulled his girl into his side before kissing her head again. He loved to see her happy.

Stefan looked between their girlfriends before shaking his head. “You two spend entirely too much time together.”

Several hours later found Lucy laying with her head in Damon’s lap while he played with her hair as they watched a movie. He groaned in annoyance when his phone rang. Lucy turned to look up at him, wondering who it was. “Now’s not a good time, Rose. I’m busy.”

Lucy scowled and her brow furrowed. The kidnapper had Damon’s number. Wasn’t that lovely?

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said and grabbed one of her hands to pull her up into a sitting position. “Yeah, we’ll be there soon.”

He tossed his phone beside him and raked his hands through his hair. “Stupid, idiotic, pain in the ass doppelgangers. Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish Elena was a little more like Katherine when it came to her self-preservation instincts.”

Lucy sighed and slipped on the shoes she’d kicked off when she laid down. “What did she do now?”

“She’s being monumentally fucking stupid.” He slipped on his jacket. “Bring your gun.”

Lucy huffed a laugh as she grabbed one of her guns from the drawer of the entry hall table. She left the ammo as she had extra in both of their cars. “I kind of meant what specific thing did she do this time.”

He held out a hand and interwove their fingers as she took it. “Elena conned Rose into taking her to Richmond to see Slater. He was dead when they got there but his little girlfriend showed Elena how to contact Klaus,” he explained as he opened her door.

Lucy buckled in then pulled out her phone to text Elijah. “So mark the teenager down as suicidal. Got it. We should probably get her some therapy. The only saving grace we have is it’s not that easy to get hold of Klaus. Even Elijah had trouble tracking him down for a while.”

Damon smirked slightly but kept his attention on the road. As he should considering how fast he was going. Lucy briefly considered reminding him that she was human but opted against it when Elijah’s response distracted her.

“Elijah killed Slater to prevent exactly this sort of thing. Says he overlooked the girlfriend. He’ll meet us there but it will take him a while.”

Damon nodded in response and increased their speed. The rest of the drive was quiet and much shorter than it should have been. They parked in front of a non-descript apartment building. Damon kept Lucy behind him and led the way to the apartment number he’d been given by Rose.

The door was cracked open when they arrived and they entered without knocking, breathing a sigh of relief when Rose and Elena came out to greet them.

Elena frowned and her gaze darted between her two would-be rescuers. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving your worthless ass. Again,” Damon snapped.

Lucy tried to hide her smirk. She really did. Rose was mirroring Elena’s expression but it was solely directed at Lucy. She obviously hadn’t been expecting the human to come along for the ride.

“You’re going to ruin everything,” Elena nearly whined.

“Don’t care. Let’s go.”

Angry Damon was kind of hot, Lucy thought. As long as it wasn’t directed at her anyway.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Elena stepped back as if to put Rose between them. Like that would do any good. The vampire owed her nothing. Barely even knew her. Why in the hell would she protect Elena from anything?

Lucy leaned against the wall with a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t understand why they were even having this discussion. He was a vampire. All he had to do was pick her up and throw her over his damn shoulder. Of course, Rose could have done the same damn thing instead of calling him in the first place.

Damon’s gaze flicked over to Lucy then back to Elena. “You don’t have a choice.”

He closed the space between them so he was glowering down at her. “Listen to me. I am not going to let you get yourself, or Lucy, killed because you’re too damn stubborn to do what you’re told. I’m trying to be nice about this, Elena, but I don’t have to be.”

“Lucy’s not my problem, Damon. You’re the one that brought her here. And I’m tired of being told what to do. This is my decision.”

“Just for once, could you maybe concede to the fact that the vampires that are a century older than you might possibly know more about the situation than you?” Lucy asked, annoyance getting the better of her patience.

Damon flashed her a little smirk before turning back to Elena. “This is over. It’s done. We’re leaving.”

The door burst open just as he finished speaking. Lucy straightened and pulled her weapon as three vampires strode into the apartment. She briefly considered if she should have loaded the wooden bullets over the vervain darts even as she rolled her eyes at the dramatic entrance. They’d been invited. They could have just knocked. Damon darted over to stand between her and the new threat, dragging Elena with him.

“We’re here for the doppelganger,” one of the men announced.

“Thank you for coming,” Elena said and started to move forward until Damon stopped her.

“I will break your arm,” he hissed, obviously fed up with her shit. Elijah had said he needed her alive. He said nothing about whole.

“Sorry, no doppelgangers here,” Lucy said. “Fresh out. We restock on Tuesdays.”

Damon snorted a laugh before he could stop it. A squelching noise interrupted any further comment and the vampire closest to the door collapsed to reveal Elijah standing behind him. He held the man’s heart in his hand and dropped it to the floor with a faint look of annoyance. Rose darted past everyone and out the door. Shocker.

“They killed you. You’re dead,” Elena said, her voice cracking.

“For centuries now,” Elijah replied with a smirk. Lucy rolled his eyes. He was entirely too fond of that joke. “Hello, Lucy. Lovely to see you again. Should we get dinner?” He shifted his attention to one of the remaining men. “Who are you?”

“Who the fuck are you?” the man shot back.

“I am Elijah.”

Those three words were enough for the man to start backpedaling the attitude. It was still strange for Lucy to see people afraid of the man she’d called uncle for the vast majority of her life. She perhaps understood slightly better as she watched him rip the hearts out of the other two vampires as well. He walked over and kissed Lucy’s forehead before vanishing out the door.

“What the hell was that about?” Elena demanded after a beat of silence.

“The guy you’re trying to hand yourself over to doesn’t appear to want you,” Damon responded. “So, can we go home now?”

“No,” she said and stomped her foot. “Not until I get some answers from Lucy. Why did he say hello to you and invite you to dinner? Are you sleeping with him?”

Disgust contorted Lucy’s features before she could stop it. A glance at Damon showed the same look on his face. “Elijah’s my uncle, you sick fuck. Eww. What is wrong with you?”

Elena huffed in annoyance. “Well, how was I supposed to know? It’s not like you told anyone.”

“I knew,” Damon said with a shrug. “So does, Stefan.” He glanced over at Lucy. “Does Caroline know?”

Lucy shrugged. “Don’t remember.”

Elena rubbed her temples. “If you are related to Elijah, how am I supposed to trust you? Any of you?”

“You’re not,” Lucy said. “The only reason we’re protecting you, is Elijah asked us to. So keep pissing him off. Maybe he’ll give us the day off.”

Elena let out a little scream of annoyance and stomped out of the apartment.

“I call shotgun,” Lucy yelled after her.

Damon chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. He steered her around the dead bodies and out of the apartment, shutting the door behind them. “Should we do something about that?” He gestured back to the apartment.

“Elijah will take care of it,” she assured him. “Let’s go home and finish our movie while I make dinner.”

They stepped out of the building and into the sunlight to find Elena angrily pacing in front of the car. “Should we expect company?”

Lucy’s gaze followed the doppelganger for a moment before pulling out her phone and sending her uncle a text. “Yeah. Probably a good idea.”

[ravenzeppeli]

Claimed

Chapter 40 - History Finds Itself Repeating|Formaggio + Illuso x Reader Angst|

Warning: strong/vulgar language, cheating, stalking, physical abuse, verbal abuse, noncon threat, choking [murder attempt], extremely dark chapter. MA.

2 Months Later

Formaggios POV

"Thanks," Formaggio muttered, tossing two 50s on the ground next to the random blonde that just finished sucking him off. "Make sure to keep your fucking mouth shut. Last bitch told my girl, she don't need to know this shit." He turned to the side, sliding the condom filled with cum off of his cock, letting it fall to the ground. The condom made a plop on the ground, his sticky white cum spilling out all over the alleyway floor.

"I'll keep my mouth shut," the girl muttered, snatching the money off of the ground. "Your cock is like, so amazing. I wish that you would be my boyfriend. You're so handsome."

A laugh escaped his lips, his eyes rolling. "You don't gotta compliment me for more money, honey. You did okay, I'll give you a little tip." He slid a 20 out of his pocket, this time handing it to the young woman on her knees in front of him. "My girl never fucking compliments me."

"I'm sorry," she replied, taking the 20 and shoving it in her bra, along with the two 50s. "If you're ever looking for a girlfriend, I would compliment you every day. A strong man like you deserves to be loved."

Money was a little tight, as it always is. The boss hardly paid him shit, but this little honey was feeding into his ego hard. Being complimented by a woman felt so nice. Why couldn't you compliment him like this? It'd be nice to hear how sexy and strong he was from the woman he loved instead of some random honey.

"Just take the rest of the night off, honey," he replied, slipping a 50 out of his pocket and handing it to her. "Buy yourself something pretty. And remember, if you run into my girl, walk the other way immediately. I don't wanna hear her pretty little mouth bitching me out for having fun." Fun, it was just harmless fun. Harmless fun that you wouldn't find out about again.

💜🧡💜🧡💜

Formaggio never felt bad about his personal affairs. What a man did in their private business was their business alone. He took good care of you, and he made sure that you were happy. Sharing you with six other men also made him feel less guilty about getting his dick sucked. It's not like he was fucking these girls and spending time with them. It was just a way to relax after a hard day. What's the harm in that?

He planned to approach you as soon as he entered the base, but you were already outside as he walked over to the front entrance. Illuso was standing directly beside you, his hand having an iron grip on your waist.

"I'm going to tell him what you've been doing," Illuso immediately snapped at you, unwrapping his arm from around you, his eyes locking onto Formaggio. "Are you fucking clueless? Am I fucking clueless?" He questioned, red eyes filled with a mix of panic and anger.

A feeling of anger quickly washed over Formaggio, looking past Illuso to land his glare directly on you. "What the fuck did you do?" He had no fucking clue what you could have possibly done, considering you were a pretty low maintenance and well behaved girlfriend. Never did he have to do much of anything with you unless he wanted too. He couldn't even recall a time where you've ever asked him for anything.

"I didn't do anything," you muttered, eyes dropping to the ground. "Just drop it, Illuso. You don't need to bring Formaggio or anyone else into this. We've all done bad things here, and my thing is less bad."

"Shut your fucking mouth," Illuso snapped at you, turning back to look at you. "It doesn't matter what the fuck we do! You mind your goddamn business like we mind ours when it comes to you! You fucked up, you crossed a goddamn line!"

"Fucks going on?" Formaggio questioned, stepping forward, feeling completely fucking clueless. What could you have possibly done that was so fucking bad? That would actually cause him to give the slightest fuck? "You cheating on us? That what it is?" A scoff escaped your lips, his eyebrows immediately shooting up in surprise. "Illuso, what did she do?" He didn't take his eyes off of you.

Illuso walked past Formaggio, hand reaching forward as he grabbed your jaw, his fingers tucking under your chin as he yanked your head up, forcing you to look at Formaggio, "She's been fucking following us. Watching us. For goddamn three months."

"What?" Formaggio questioned, more shocked than angry. How did he not know that you were watching him? This had to be a misunderstanding. You weren't capable of anything. For fucks sake, he never even let you use your stand, he just made you drive them around while they did the heavy lifting. All you were was just their pretty little girlfriend, you weren't capable of successful stalking anyone. Suddenly, he laughed, shaking his head. "If you caught her doing it once then it doesn't mean that she's done it before." Fuck, Illuso was an idiot.

At times, you were a little sneaky. He'll give you that. During the night, you always seemed to slip out of his bed before he woke up. It's been months since he's woken up, and you've been next to him. Even when he clings to you, you still find a way to sneak out of his bed and go sit on the couch or in the dining room. Maybe you were just good at walking on your toes, he didn't fucking know.

Illuso let out a dry laugh, "She's been paying the girls that have been sucking our dicks." His grip seemed to tighten as the amusement suddenly draining from Formaggios face. "Wanna know how I found out? It was pure fucking luck, all because I mark the money that I give Y/N." His eyes immediately cut over to you. "You think you're so fucking smart, don't you? Think you're smart enough to embarrass us and never get caught?"

"You only got caught because you do what he does," you spoke calmly, giving your shoulders a gentle shrug. "It's more complex than that."

Formaggio felt as if his heart was about to explode out of his chest. With disbelief, he stared at you, shocked that you actually did all of this without getting caught. "How did you catch her?" He muttered, not taking his glare off of you as he stepped closer, leaning down slightly so that he was in your face. "More complex?" He felt like a goddamn idiot. How could he not have realized you were watching him? How did he not know that you were aware of his cheating? Goddamnit!

"I went to get my dick sucked this morning. Asked the girl for change, and she pulled out a bunch of 20s," Illuso spoke, shaking his head. "When I give Y/N money, I mark the right hand corner with a small red x to see if she ever uses the money I give her. When I threatened to blow the girls brains out, she spilled the beans and told me everything. Says our little girlfriend approached her and some other girls, paying them to give us longer and better blow jobs."

"Why the fuck would you want us to cheat on you?" Formaggio snapped, his hands balling into fists. "Y/N, what the fuck?"

You said nothing, your eyes dropping to avoid his glare. Visibly, you were stiff, uncomfortable with how close he was. How close they both were. Nearly 8 months together, and still you couldn't stand him. Still you made him fuck you with a condom on as if he had a fucking disease. All this was starting to really get under his skin, and he had a feeling that Illuso felt the same way as him.

"She's trying to get us to fall in love with another girl," Illuso muttered, his hands dropping to your throat, jaw locking. "That fucking bitch told me everything Y/N. How you approached them and were paying them, telling them be extra nice to us and compliment us. I was wondering why all these random cunts were saying my dicks amazing and I'm fucking attractive. You fucking little.. you.. you fucking..." He seemed to be struggling to find the words, his hand grasping tighter at your throat. "How dare you humiliate me!"

Formaggio stepped back a little, not being able to take his eyes off of you. This was insane. He had no idea that you were capable of doing something like this for months without getting caught. On top of that, all these random women now think that his girl hates him! This was a tricky situation because both Illuso and him did tell you that they wouldn't cheat on you. So your lie was just a reflection of their lie, so what the fucks he supposed to do?

"Can't we just be coworkers?" You questioned softly, that getting you an instant slap across the face from Illuso. "Is that a yes? We can just coexist together. You can do your thing, guys, and it'll be fine. I just feel like it would be better if you both broke up with me." The slap didn't even make you flinch, the red handprint mark staining the side of your cheek, your head remaining in place.

"You're gonna get a beating," Illuso snapped, raising his hand, Formaggio immediately noticing that it was a fist. Quickly, he grabbed Illusos fist, dragging him away from you. "Man, what are you doing!? We need to beat her ass! She's been doing crazy shit all because she wants us to dump her!"

Beating you was something that Formaggio so badly wanted to do. Of course, he wanted to punch you in the face and bend you over his lap. So badly, did he want to scream at you and threaten you for stalking him, scare you so badly that you throw up all over yourself like you did last time. When you acted up, you deserved a good beating. That's just what happened when you crossed lines. But a different idea suddenly crossed his mind.

"You know, a lot of times you've stalked Illuso and I, it's been at night," Formaggio added in, causing Illuso to immediately freeze. "Doesn't Ghiaccio have a certain rule that forbids you from going out at night all alone? One that will get you in trouble with him?" You weren't the only one that fucking knew things.

Dread washed over your face, a smirk quickly spreading over Illusos. "I think I should give Ghiaccio a call and tell him," Illuso added in. "I bet he would be so fucking pissed at you. It would probably ruin your relationship with him."

Formaggio let Illuso go, staring into your eyes and finally seeing that you were nervous. This was his chance. "We aren't going to be leaving you. In fact, I think it's time you tell us something very important." He placed his hands on your shoulders, forcing you down to your kness. "Get on your knees you stalking cunt, don't say shit or I'll call Ghiaccio."

You let him force you to your kness, a smug look appearing on Illusos' face as he stepped forward. "Look up at us." Grabbing a fistful of your hair as he leaned down, he snatched your head back, forcing you to look at them. "You're so smart, aren't you? We'll turn you into a dumb bitch."

"Don't hurt me," you muttered, "I didn't do anything wrong. If anything, I was helping you both out. I don't love either of you, I want you to spend more time with those other girls. The less I see you both the better." How are you still not fucking scared of them? You should be begging not to get beat, not pushing them further!

"You disobedient bitch," snapped Illuso, but his grip loosened on your hair. "I love you, you clueless fucking cunt! I fucking love you! That was the first time in two months that I cheated!"

Formaggio smacked Illusos' arm. "It's not cheating if it's condom blow jobs! It's not cheating if we fucking pay for it!" He raised his hand again, wanting to slap Illuso, but that was mainly due to his frustration with you. "Illuso, fuck this bitch. Fuck her. She doesn't love us. She never will. She's just pussy, that's all she'll ever be in this family."

"I'm a part of this team, and you'll never be able to get rid of me," you spat out, your blank face turning dark. A glare that he found more cute than threatening spread across your face, your eyes locking onto Formaggio. "You are a garbage excuse for a man. I hate you, and I hate you more than I hate Illuso. Laying down next to you at night makes me feel sick. I hate when you fucking touch me. I'll never care about you cheating, it just makes you look like a jackass. Enjoy never being cared about by me, I can't stand you bitch. Call Ghiaccio and tell him. I don't give a fuck."

A man can only take so much before they snap. Fuck it, he didn’t give a fuck. Fuck holding back and not hitting you. With all of his force he raised his fist, cracking it into the side of your skull. He didn't care about damaging you brain. In this moment he found himself wanting to fucking rip you apart. If only he was allowed to use his stand on you. He would shrink you and finally make you feel fear. Risotto knew all of them so well, it was smart that he forbid the men from using their stands on you. If he didn't respect and secretly fear Risotto then he would break that rule, but he wouldn't dare cross his capo.

Your head roughly jerked to the side, blood beginning to pour from the side of your skull. If it wasn't for the grip that Illuso had on your hair, then you would have probably collapsed. Illuso immediately let go of your hair, your back leaning against the brick wall as your head limply hung. Silence came from you, your body still as a rock despite the drops of blood that puddled in front of you.

"You want me as an enemy, you fucking bitch!?" Formaggio yelled at you, pushing back Illuso roughly as he tried to grab him. "You got one now. We are done, just like you want. You aren't my girl anymore, and now that I have no reason to protect you I'm going to make your life a living hell! I'm going to break you, I'm going to destroy you!" He dropped to his kness in front of you, hands tightly grasping around your throat, forcing you to look at him. Forcing you to show fear. "CRY! YOU FUCKING CUNT, CRY!"

With speed, you spit in his face, coating his face with your bloody spit. A forced smile suddenly spread across your lips, and that smile was meant to taunt him. "I'm free from you. Why cry?"

"If we fuck her up too bad then we're fucked," Illuso quickly added in just as Formaggios hands tightly locked around your throat. "Let go of her throat man, you're going too far." He felt Illusos hand on his shoulder, attempting to pull him back.

Just as he was about to let go, you said something that completely stunned him. "You drove your family to suicide," you gasped out, your voice hoarse. "You're a curse!"

The consequences were clear and laid out in front of him. If you died because of him, then his death would follow. Hell, even Illuso might end up dying. Killing you would be him outright betraying his entire team as well as the little bit of love he had for you. He did love you, in his own sick and twisted way, but he didn't have self-control right now. Not after what you just fucking said to him. Today.. all three of them were going to die and he didn't care. He wasn't afraid of death. Fuck this. Fuck everything. How dare you bring up his mom and sister.

"I LOVED MY MOM AND SISTER!" He screamed, beginning to squeeze as tightly as he could, watching the life drain from your eyes. Good. Die. "Die, die you fucking cunt! I hope you burn in fucking hell bitch!"

"Formaggio, no!" Illusos fist suddenly cracked into the side of Formaggios face, his nose immediately leaking blood as he let go of your throat, his nose making a weird popping sound. "She's my girlfriend too! You can't fucking kill her! Want us all to die!?"

"FUCK HER!" Formaggio snapped, quickly getting off at you, ignoring your low gasps for air. He grabbed his nose, giving your stomach a rough kick as he got up, a satisfied hum escaping his lips as you finally yelped in pain. "Look at you now.. pathetic as you were the last time I beat the fuck out of you!"

Temporarily, he let his anger turn towards Illuso. He raised his hand to punch Illuso, freezing when he felt your hands suddenly wrap around his ankles, weakly attempting to pull his leg back. What the fuck?! You should be crying in pain and begging for his mercy!

"P-pussy," you spat out, voice hoarse and weak. "I.. would have.. finished the job!"

Formaggio reached for his gun, Illuso grabbing his hand, stopping him from blowing your brains out. "Let's just fucking leave. She's supposed to be spending the night with me. We'll just leave her at the base. Fuck it," Illuso told him, keeping his eyes on him. "Please don't fucking kill her. Just chill man."

You let go of his ankle, your hand grasping the brick wall as you began to slowly rise to your feet, your face completely hidden from him. From a gap in your hair, he saw a dark bruise on your neck, a pool of blood surrounding you. "Just.. fuck off.. let me be.. alone," you whispered, slowly moving towards the door. "Both of you.. no more.. relationship. Break up forever." You were hardly making any sense, but he could get what you were trying to say.

"I didn't break up with you," Illuso snapped at you. "And I never will! You are my girl, and you are a Formaggios girl, whether you like it or not! Go be a good girl and clean yourself up and go lay the fuck down!"

"Scum," you spat at him, a sigh immediately escaping his lips as he reached past you, opening the base of the front door with one agressive twist and push. "Bitch."

"Go to bed," Illuso commanded, pointing inside of the base. "We love you. Don't you fucking forget that. Families fight but they stick together."

"Neither one of you are my family," you muttered, this coming out more clear as you shuffled into the house. "Dumb fucks."

The insults were pissing Formaggio off, making him want to attack, but he was holding his composition. You were too far for him to successfully be able to prick your finger and shrink you without Illuso striking, and maybe killing you was a bad idea. In so many ways, you provided them with love and comfort. That was something that he didn't want to let go of despite almost taking your life. Fuck.. he made a mistake.

"You're still my girl bitch," Formaggio called out, keeping his eyes on you as you vanished into the base. "And I'll be coming back here expecting an apology real soon! Straighten yourself out cunt, I can do what I want with you! I'll fuck you up while I fuck you! I could fuck you right now if I wanted too!"

"Don't threaten to rape her man," Illuso snapped, his eyes going wide. "Fuck, you need to take a break from her! Stop talking to her, and you shut the fuck up too Y/N!"

Formaggio assumed it was over until he heard your footsteps immediately running back, something immediately crashing into the side of his skull. "Goddamnit!" He screamed as he heard something shatter, his hand immediately raising to the side of his face. Blood leaked from the left side of his face, his eyes trailing down to a broken glass ashtray in front of him. No way. No goddamn way did you actually come back and throw something at him. He was stunned, completely stunned that you dared to throw something at him.

"How about I fuck you!?" You screamed, rushing towards him. "I'll fuck you up! Want me to rape you!? I'll do it, I'll be the one that ends you before you end me!"

Illuso launched at you before you could get to Formaggio, lifting you up. "Y/N, relax! Nobody is raping anyone, for fucks sake! Formaggio, just leave, I'm staying with her!" He dragged you into the base, slamming the door shut. "Hey, do not fucking hit me! Stop it right now Y/N, I'm in no mood to have a fist fight with you!"

Formaggio stood stunned, his eyes wide, actual tears filling his eyes as he realized that he made a big mistake. It didn't matter if Little Feet made no appearance. With his bare hands, he almost murdered you. If Illuso hadn't cracked him in the nose, then he probably would have killed you. Fuck. This was very bad.

The blood pouring from his head and nose indicated that he probably needed to go get looked at. The pain he felt throughout his entire body was sharp, a low ringing beginning form in his ears. Almost killing you should have broken you, but from the banging and yelling that he heard from Illuso inside indicated he might have awoken something very bad in you. This was too far. All you did was stalk them and pay some girls to compliment them. Why does he instantly lose his cool? He just couldn't help it. The fact that you still didn't love him and made him wear a condom to fuck you.. it really bothers him.

Going in there and helping Illuso with you would be a bad idea, considering that you were attempting to fucking attack him. Hopefully he could convince you to keep your mouth shut or come up with a good lie. Fuck, he needed to convince you to keep being his girl too. Thank God Melone and Ghiaccio were out of town for a few days, and Pesci didn't fucking intimidate him. You just could not tell Risotto. Now that he was starting to calm down this wasn't worth dying for, and he might just end up getting fucking killed for what he did to you.

[itfitsitshipsart]

Till Death Due Us Part

Part 2

Pairing: Evelyn (s/i)/Albert Wesker

Word count: 835

Warnings: swearing, needles

Nearing the end of RE5's story, they board a tankard ship to complete their plans for the future.

--

Evelyn sat with a laptop, her back against the railing of the docking to the massive tankard behind her. Her bag slumped beside her, she tapped away at the device, and looked up only at the sound of footsteps. Even with the golden light of evening obscuring her vision, Evelyn frowned, the silhouette and saunter all too familiar.

“Where's Albert?” She asked the woman who walked up to her, who proceeded to put a hand on her hip and glare down at the blond.

“You're not worried about him, are you?” She questioned. “I figured you'd have more faith in Albert, or that he’d tell you things-”

“Don't play this game Excella.” Evelyn retorted bluntly, flashing a glare up to her. Excella sighed, muttering under her breath for a moment.

“He's having a reunion of sorts.” She finally responded. “That Chris man.”

“Ah,”

“‘Ah'? So you understand now?”

“Of course I do. Unlike you, I know their history.” Evelyn quickly typed at her keyboard, then closed the device and slid it into her bag. Standing up, she looked at the large tankard boat. “He needs to be here within a minute,”

“And here I am.” Albert quickly strode his way towards the women. “Is everything ready?”

“As far as I can tell.” Evelyn smiled sweetly at him, shifting closer as he rested a large hand on the small of her back. “There's just one. Last. Thing to tie up.”

Excella furrowed her brow, looking at Evelyn with a confused expression as she glanced back at her with cold eyes, her smile still on her face.

“That we can deal with on the ship.” Albert stated dryly, and led Evelyn onto the boat, Excella trailing closely behind. “Excella, go below deck and prepare some more serum for me, would you? Best to have enough ready for the next few days.”

“Alright.” She nodded, “I understand you need me to get it, being necessary for your well being. I'll meet you on deck 5 then, yes?”

“Yes.”

***

“That bitch is taking too long.” Evelyn muttered, sitting beside Albert, leaning comfortably against him. She flicked through the camera feeds on her laptop. “And Chris isn't too far behind.”

“My, I don't think I've ever seen you impatient to have her here,” Albert remarked.

“You know how I feel about her.” Evelyn huffed, and put away the device to stand. As she rose to her feet, Albert wrapped his arms around her, drawing her tightly against him.

“I know. And soon my dear. Soon everything will change.” He nuzzled the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair deeply.

Excella panted, having just run all the way up to the deck, half of the serum lost due to the meetup with Chris. She frowned, watching the tender moment between the two of them.

“And that last loose end now?” Excella questioned, sick of watching the two in front of her in silence. “Is the Uroboros project not complete?”

“It's ready, but this matter is just a small thing, a trifle, really.” Slowly, Albert pulled away from Evelyn, stepping towards her. “See, this is about… Us.”

“Us?” Her brow raised, and she flickered a triumphant grin towards Evelyn. “What about us?” He rested a gloved hand on her cheek, and she leaned into his touch. Slowly, he gripped her face and walked around behind her. And suddenly, with his other hand, he twisted her arm. Excella let out a shocked cry, the almost gentle caress turned harsh as he held her painfully still.

“About us,” he muttered, his red eyes behind his shades glowing. “It would never work out. It's true I need someone to rule with me in this new age, but it's not you. You've reached the end of your usefulness, Excella.”

Excella's eyes widened, watching Evelyn draw a vial and needle from her bag. She tried to move, to pull away from Albert, but he held her fast.

“I've been waiting for this,” Evelyn muttered, readying the injection and walking over. “Let's see how Uroboros takes to you, shall we? I have my doubts this will end well for you, though.”

“No, why do this to me?!” Excella strained to look at Albert. “I've done nothing but help you, Albert. I've shown you my loyalty. I-” her breath hitched, the needle digging into her neck. 

“And now you can show me your loyalty one last time.” Albert released her, roughly tossing her to the side as he strode back over to Evelyn. “Unless of course, Uroboros doesn't kill you, and you dispose of Chris. There may be something I could use you for then.”

“Albert…” Excella groaned, pain radiating quickly from her neck through her body. He scoffed, and put an arm gently around Evelyn once more.

“Let's observe from a safer place, shall we, my dear?”

“Of course,” Evelyn smiled, turning with him and walking off. The last Excella saw of them was Albert scooping Evelyn up into his arms, disappearing from her view.

[freakyelf-ontheshelf]

STARDEW VALLEY HEADCANONS PART 2:

YIPPY!

Starting off with my favourite blond:

•Haley:

-Besides what I said in part 1 with Alex, Haley kept on kissing boys until she openly came out and felt comfortable enough (when she met the FF🤭)

-Every time you gift her a sunflower she keeps them in a vase on her bedroom window, once the petals wilt she keeps them in a box for later crafts^^

-She stopped putting effort in photography because she was embarassed and felt she had a different image to keep, once she meets female farmer and her hardwork, passion and dedication, she starts rediscovering herself and retaking her passions seriously

-Once when she the farmer passed out and Haley found out, she ran to the farm and made the farmer let her help. Ended up doing the work for her that day and let the farmer fall asleep on the porch<3

-When she goes and visits the farm, she takes nature pictures and snaps some discrete ones of her farmer girl🤭. She takes them to her red room and sends them to the farmer with lipstick marks<3

-Her and Alex remain best friends and when he starts dating the male farmer they enjoy gossiping about their love life's by the icecream stand ^^

-Haley switches her nails every two weeks and they always have a seasoned theme, once she starts dating you she'll excitedly show them to you, hoping you love them (you do, obviously, and are glad to tell her everytime<3)

-She smells of Macedonia fruits and salt water, sweets as well😻

-Everytime you gift her a pink cake she grabs the strawberry on top and feeds it to you, smooching you after (I'm so terribly in love with her)

-Her favourite season is summer, although she tells everyone it's winter because of the sweat

-Once she starts reading and searching for herself, she finds a love for art history and Renaissance books

-Poetry reader (sapphic mostly, Spanish artists translations...)

-When she starts working the farm, she specially enjoys taking care of the animals, going to find you giggling everytime she gets stained

-in the hot weather you sprinkle her with the hose and she loves playing around in the sprinklers with you

-When you ask her to marry you she quite literally, jumps you (then she cries, a lot)

-She ends up having an amazing relationship with Emily, making fun of her everytime she talks about Sandy (she secretly loves seeing her sister fall in love)

Again, I'm going to stfu now cause I could talk about her forever (I will)

•Abigail:

-Had a My Chemical Romance fase and a scene kid one too (Caroline almost had a heart attack, still almost does though, bitch needs to calm down)

-Is taking classes not only to please her father and have some peace of mind, but also because Sam is taking them too and would hate to disappoint her friend

-Shes an amazing artist and is the one that decorates the store. The windos are painted with a different scenery every season.

-Shes had five different guinea pigs cause they kept on "disappearing", she geniuenly thinks that still (goofy aah)

- Definitely bisexual, with a preference to women. Even though that means there could be a chance for her to date Sebastian like literally everyone wants, she's never liked him (or Sam) in that way

-Follows every single alternative or goth woman on her socials, has a secret Twitter account where she posts shit about people in her day to day life to unwind

-Loves My little pony, prove me wrong

-Her and her dad used to play videogames together, which is why she got into it in the first place, but as she got older her dad thought she should be concentrating on other stuff and eventually stopped playing with her, which is why she asks the farmer for help in her two heart event

-Caroline gifted Abigails flute to her when she turned 14 and she's been playing ever since, only having shown Sebastian and Sam

-One time Haley told Abigail that her hair is suprisingly healthy and well kept taking into account she's been dying it purple since the age of 15, and she's seen Haley differently since then

-Has a hyperfixiaton on the ocean, specially it's wild life, minerals and swordsmanship

-After the sixth heart event Abigal and the farmer do all the mining together, and once she sees the effort and danger in doing that she actually realises how much the farmer cares for her, going in the mines to get minerals for her and such.

-She loves taking you to the mountains when it's really late at night, going camping and listening to you tell her about the stars

-When you go to Sam's concer and she sees you from the stage she blushes and makes sure to not make a single mistake, asking you later on if you enjoyed the song (she wanted to know if you thought her skills were cool, okay)

-The first time you ever saw her cry was when she told her dad she was (finally) dropping out from the classes she despised, getting into the biggest argument with them and running all the way to the farm (and into your arms ayeeee)

Time to stfu again, see you in part 3 (yippyyyyy)

[chaos-event-horizon]

"You have an update on the girl's condition?"

All Might asked that question without bothering to turn around. He could always feel Eraserhead's scathingly pointed glares well before he saw the man himself.

"Yes."

The blonde turned now, using a cloth to wipe the blood from his hands as he stepped away from the man he'd beaten into unconsciousness. "Good things, I hope... That little girl has been through way too much. Eri deserves better than what cards she was handed."

"Her quirk is still dormant for the most part, but occasionally it wakes back up."

"We're almost lucky, in that the shock and stress of her rescue depleted whatever energy reserves her power feeds off of..." All Might murmured, leaning against the wall next to his subordinate. "We've been able to evaluate that bitch Chisaki's research notes and prepare for her to live comfortably. Not to mention that we were able to get LeMillion his quirk back without hassle, after finding that the yakuza bastards had already synthesized a cure."

"It's already been almost a year..." The quiet assassin murmured. "It's hard to believe... She's grown a lot. She smiles often. She's discovered her favorite foods and favorite colors..."

"You poor bastard," All Might said with a good-natured chuckle. "You really have started loving that little girl. It's just as well, since you're the only one who can help her if something gets out of hand... But never in my life would I have pegged you as being someone's father-figure."

"Look who's talking... You went from being a seemingly violent tyrant who feigned heartlessness, to suddenly taking in a bunch of strays like me," Eraserhead quipped. "Then you went from adopting subordinates, to adopting your pet husband, then a teenager, and now you have a daughter."

"Maybe we're all just getting a bit older."

"Don't rope me in with you."

The blonde snickered. "Fine, fine... But I assume you have something else to say about Eri, or you would have told me to fuck off and walked away by now."

"Yes... She has a request for you."

The older vigilante blinked, brows furrowed as he met the other man's eyes. "She has a request? Well... How can I be of service?"

The tired looking assassin hesitated, then sighed. "Eri wants to meet the little princess, and also see your protege again. She sees LeMillion often since Nighteye and I work closely together, but she wants to see the other boy who saved her... And once she heard about your daughter, she became determined to see her. She's even worked harder to control what little power she has, in case you'd say no because of that."

All Might couldn't help but give a soft smile. "Oh dear... It seems a playdate will be in order, then. I'll talk to Rian."

"Just like that?"

"Of course... It's a reasonable request. The poor kid is probably very lonely, and honestly Hinata is at an age where she needs to start socializing anyway. If I know Rian, and I do know him quite well, he'd turn on me if I had the nerve to say 'no'."

"I see..."

The blonde bruiser stretched walking back towards the man he had previously been pummeling. "Very well then... I'll contact you after I've nailed out a few details. Don't work too hard."

"Sure, sure..."

All Might didn't have to look to know that Eraserhead had left, but he did anyway, fighting a smile. "...We didn't even casually threaten each other this time... We're both getting soft."

[selfless1978]

MAD DASH FOR LOVE

ok, I feel like I should explain a few things before I throw my AU stuff out there. first off, my OCs Vicky and Cris live in "this" world. They go back and forth between dimensions by using a portal Donnie made. Second, Vicky and Leo share a mindlink. That happened after she got mildly mutated. This Particular story takes place "here" where the turtle lair is "there".

I hope this doesn't confuse too many folks lol

.

.

My eyes narrowed as I took the situation in. It wasn't a good one. There were a large amount of bodies between me and my target, and I didn't have much time. I ended up cursing my typical bad luck as I scanned the area, trying to plan the best course of action in this situation. Almost immediately I came to the conclusion that a frontal rush would be the best solution here. I took a deep breath to steady myself, then took off in a run.

Using the agility I had spent countless hours training, I easily dodge through the mass of bodies in front of me. The old lady pushing the shopping cart was a bit of a problem but I solved that by just vaulting over it, to her opened mouth shock. I ignored it as I kept going. I had more important matters on my mind. That buxom blonde bimbo was getting too close and I had a lot of ground to make up. She knew I was coming too but she got hung up in her own rush of bodies. I smirked at her as I pulled ahead, and that promptly earned me a faceplant with an end of aisle display that I didn't see. Of course if I had been watching where I was going...

I rolled back to my feet leaving the tipped over shelving unit and it's contents where it fell, flipped over another cart pushing customer and hit the floor running. Cursing the mistake of talking on the phone on the way in about what I was wanting to get. And then seeing even from across the store that there was only one left. And this bitch thought it would be a good idea to get it too all of a sudden. Dumb broad...just couldn't come up with her own idea and had to steal mine. I knew that's what she was wanting to do as soon as I saw her eyes light up. And with a "Hell fucking no!" the chase was on.

Great...now there were two carts in front of me, both spaced out a bit apart. I would lose time if I tried to do a double jump or tried to weave my way around them. In a split second I chose another route. I flipped up onto the top of the shelves, my feet knocking everything over off of the cluttered thing, running along it to the delightful squeal of the toddler in one of the carts that caught sight of me. Of course by the time his mother turned to see what had him giggling away I was already past them.

My eyes narrowed when I noticed that smackaho was closer than me and I put on some more speed, stepped off of the edge of the shelf and landed in front of her right before she reached out to grab it. With an immense feeling of triumph my hands landed on it first and I picked it up and held on tight. Then I turned and gave her the most evil grin I could before I sauntered off to the checkout counter. This was my Valentine's present dammit and I was going to give it to Leo.

I quickly lost my smug feeling when I turned and noticed the destruction I left behind me. Ooops... I took the long way around, hit the self checkout counter and hauled ass outta there right about the time a few cop cars pulled in. Well...I wasn't coming back to this store again. Didn't bother me a bit though as I clutched my prize and slipped into my Jeep and headed home before they even got out of the patrol car. I'd have to ask Donnie, on the sly, to see if he could erase all the evidence this little mishap caused. You know, the video feeds, police reports...shit like that.

It was with a large feeling of relief when I finally made it home, to find Cris and Marina waiting for me by the door. Both of them were looking at me as if they had just spent a large amount of time laughing at me.

"What?" I asked my chuckling friends as I slipped out of the Jeep.

"Did it ever occur to you to hang up the phone before you went on your rampage?" Cris asked me back.

"Huh?"

"We heard it all." Marna laughed. "Cris put it on speaker phone. Donnie is already working on cleaning up your mess."

"Oh..." I blushed. Ok...so I wouldn't ask him on the sly. "Leo doesn't know...does he?"

"No." Cris grinned. "He was in the lair meditating. Still is actually. You're off the hook on that one...for now. Well, let's see it. It better be worth the effort you put in to get it."

I sheepishly opened the back door and carefully pulled it out.

"Oh Vicky... It's perfect for him." Marina's eyes actually misted up a little and Cris quietly nodded her agreement.

I blushed again at their reaction as I carefully brought it into the house. "I'm...going to bring it to him now. Nowhere really to hide it for later and he's in the right spot for me to give it to him."

Cris smiled. "You go do that."

So I did. I walked through my house, trying not to pay Donnie any attention as he gave me a quick glare as he muttered and worked, and into the lair. My footsteps carried me towards the dojo, through it and to the little room adjoining it where he usually meditated when he didn't sit in his father's room. I hesitantly brought up a hand and knocked on the doorframe as the other held the present close to me.

Leo sat cross legged on a mat in the dim room, his eyes closed and his face softly lit by the scented candles that flickered on the low table in front of him. "Come in dear one." His blue eyes opened.

I looked around the room that was otherwise bare of furnishings. Leo never really did need much so his meditation area was just as bare as his room was. "I have something for you."

His head tilted curiously as he noticed the item I was carrying. "A picture by the looks of it." He got to his feet.

I nodded and turned the large frame around so he could see as I held it out to him. "Happy Valentine's Day. I know it's not the typical Valentine's gift, but I didn't want to get you some cheesy ass teddy bear stuffed in a mug... I wanted to give you something special."

His eyes grew wide as he took it from me, then they took in every detail of the Japanese painting I had found...and trashed a department store to get. He held it with one hand and ran the fingers of the other over the pristine landscape pinned under the glass, the colors mixed perfectly to highlight the mountains in the background, the forests on each side and the quiet little village tucked in the middle field. Even the clouds were perfect and seemed to float across the painting. Then those eyes looked at me.

"I...I thought it would be nice to hang it in here... Give you something pretty to look at if you can't sett-"

He cut me off with a kiss after he pulled me too him, careful to keep the painting out to the side. That went on for a minute or two. Was a little busy to keep track of the time there.

"Thank you Vicky." He told me when he finally gave me a chance to breathe again. Leo then turned and carefully placed it on the low table between the candles and leaned it against the wall. Then he stepped back to look at it as his arm wrapped around my shoulders. "It's perfect."

"I did good?" I smiled the question at him.

"Very good." He smiled back. Then an eyeridge came up. "But did you really have to destroy the houseware section of the store to get it?"

My jaw dropped open. How did he...

'You forgot to shut some memories out dear one.'

God damn it...

His laughter filled the room then as he turned me to him and pulled me into a hug. "Oh Vicky... I do love you."

"I hope so. Otherwise I'm going to end up on America's most wanted for nothing..."

Leo chuckled as he shook his head in amusement.

"I'll go pester Donnie for a hammer and nails." I tried to leave the room, only to have him pull me back to him.

I squeaked in startlement as he spun me back around, then I shivered when I noticed that look in his eyes. "That can wait..." He murmured. His mouth came in again for another kiss even as his hand reached behind me to close the door. Right after that Leo guided me to the mat, the first churr of many filling the room.

Leo's meditation room was used for something besides meditation that afternoon. The painting bearing silent witness to our love making as our candlelit reflections mirrored off of the glass. A perfectly beautiful painting that was almost as perfectly beautiful as the love we shared for each other.

@turtle-babe83

[ofkingmakers]

this means war I FALCIEN

Walk the razor's edge, cut into the madness, question all you trust, buy into the fear. I see the man ripping at my soul now. I know the man, I know him all too well. There's nothing here for free, lost who I want to be. My serpent blood can strike so cold on any given day. I'll take it all away, another thought I can't control. This means war.

Stefan agreeing to leave with him had been the final piece of the puzzle that he needed to start the last phase of his plan. Getting Stefan’s body back to the warehouse had been simple enough, due to the man being unconscious and he smirked when Fallon rolled his eyes at the sight of the pair.

“Was it really necessary to knock him out?” she asked, moving to help her uncle drag Stefan’s body into the warehouse.

“Probably not, but it was certainly more fun,” Lucien answered with a shrug. He closed the garage door once the man was safely inside. All of the noise had woken Caroline from her slumber and the scream that she let out at seeing Stefan was unlike anything that Lucien had ever heard. He had never felt so strongly about anyone that the sound of grief and misery and sorrow that left Caroline at the sight of Stefan unconscious would be something he’d be able to replicate.

“You son of a bitch!” Caroline shrieked, kicking at the bars of her cage with all the strength that she had left in her. “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to rip you apart bone by bone and feed you to a fucking pig farm, I swear to God. I’m going to kill you.”

Lucien didn’t even flinch at her threats, turning instead to look at Fallon. “Shut her up, will you?”

Fallon sighed but didn’t hesitate to complete the request. She ghosted to Caroline’s side, pulling her roughly from the cage and unceremoniously snapping her neck. The blonde falls to Fallon’s feet with a thud and she grabs the girl’s hand, pulling her over to where Stefan lay.

“You know that he’s going to kill me for this, right?” Fallon asked, not finding it necessary to clarify who him was. They both knew that she was referring to Klaus.

“Can’t kill you if the plan goes off. Just make sure you have that necklace. He’s stronger than either of these two, you’re going to need every bit of power you can to subdue him.”

Fallon nods, feeling in her pocket to make sure that the necklace she’d ripped from Caroline was still there. It was the only link that she had to Lizzie, and having the power of both heretics was the only way that this plan was going to go the way it was supposed to. “I told him that she wouldn’t die. He’s going to be out for my blood.”

“Just stick to the plan and you won’t have to worry,” Lucien snaps, fire in his eyes as he finally turns to look at Fallon.

She closes her mouth quickly, embarrassed at being scolded so viciously. Lucien reaches down and arranges the bodies of Klaus Mikaelson’s lovers so that they’re laying next to each other, Stefan’s hand on top of Caroline’s. “And you’re sure you can make her look believably dead?” Lucien asks.

Fallon rolls her eyes, grabbing Lucien’s phone off the nearby table and handing it to him. “Just get ready to snap the damn picture.”

Magic was amazing to watch, and Lucien stared in awe as the glamour Fallon cast changed the appearance of Stefan and Caroline. Stefan’s eyes, while closed in reality, were suddenly open and glassy, his neck was ‘broken’ at an odd angle, his body a little too stiff. Caroline’s form turned gray with black veins running through her. He was almost too stunned to remember he had a task and it took Fallon clearing her throat for him to focus the camera and snap the picture.

She dropped the illusion as soon as they had what they needed and set to work getting Caroline back in her cage and shoving Stefan in the one that was set up for him nearby. Klaus’ lovers may still be alive, but their suffering was certainly far from over.

Lucien is quick to pen a message to the hybrid. He sent the photo first and the message that followed simply read, ‘Feel free to come collect their bodies at your convenience’ with the address of the warehouse below. He knew Niklaus. He would be angry, he wouldn’t ask for backup, he would come alone. The hybrid would probably have suspected that Lucien would have run after ‘killing’ Stefan and Caroline, but the opposite was true instead. He would be here and happily waiting when Klaus showed up.

It was time to end this once and for all.

[sapphires-and-sirens]

Addictions

This is chapter 2 of my fic Sapphire Beaches. Tags, background info, and other chapters can be found here!

In which Suguru goes back to the most addictive drug he’s had in his life, Yuuji gets another hit, and Keiji has a relapse.

“There’s my pretty boy,” Yuuji purred at the sight of him. He felt a pleasant tingle go up his spine.

“This is the last time,” he lied. It wasn’t ever the last time. The blonde seemed to know that, if the small uptick of his lips was anything to go by.

“Well, we’re just hangin’ out, right? Nothing wrong with that,” the other hummed, his voice low. Suguru swallowed, nodding, and the mermaid took him in. He looked upon the smooth white of the door to Yuuji’s bedroom, probably made of shell and pearl, for the last time as he entered the room. Sat on the bed.

“You recognize the ships coming in,” he noted. “Gup— mermaids don’t normally do that sort of thing.”

“We don’t normally have to. Humans like us.”

“Not Seekers.”

“Yeah.”

“But I’m glad that you’re okay.”

“Seekers took my parents.”

“I know.”

His voice was soft as he slipped his hand into Yuuji’s, squeezing it in a comforting gesture.

“They killed my dad.”

“I know,” the blonde murmured, squeezing back and moving closer.

“It’d be nice if you’d quit having your side bitches try to turn me into an exhibit in public, you know.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got a reputation. That’d all change if you’d just be mine again, though,” the other trilled lowly, a hand coming up to caress his face. The touch soothed his starting temper with a practiced ease.

“Yuuji, you know I can’t do that.”

“Why not? Because Keiji told you not to?” Yuuji pressed with a hint of aggravation.

“They all told me not to, because you’re bad for me.”

“Bad for you?”

An arm around his waist, a hand cupping his cheek, those brown eyes boring into his.

“How can I be bad for you when I treat you so good? Baby, I treat you so well. You don’t agree? What am I doin wrong? You know I just wanna make you happy. I spoil you when I have you, and you know I love you. I just wanna make you feel right. Tell me how to be better, and I’ll do it.”

Fuck.

Yuuji was so close to him right now, on top of him, almost, and his touch was melting his logic and reason. Those eyes were full of sincerity, and Suguru…

Couldn’t resist.

One of his hands wandered to the back of Yuuji’s head, tugging his face closer.

“You don’t need to,” he clicked quietly, their foreheads pressing together. “You’re so perfect.”

That uptick of the mermaid’s lips made him tingle.

“Am I?”

“So so perfect. Best I’ve ever had.”

“I love you,” came the near silent chitter, before their lips met.

He didn’t need to get over it. Not when he could get back under it instead.

Those lips fled to his jawline, murmuring love along the way. Such sweet words flowed from the mermaid’s mouth like pure poetry. He’d missed this.

He’d missed this so much.

Kisses across his collarbone— “you’re sculpted so perfectly, baby” —and shoulders, down his stomach, across the scales that started at his waist.

“Come back to me, baby. Please. I need you.”

“I’m yours,” he replied instantly, watching the bubbles from the rushed, breathy response float upwards.

Those eyes lit up.

“What was that?”

“I’m yours, Yuuji.”

That smile could feed him for days.

“Then let me cherish what’s mine, mm?”

—

Akaashi Keiji was not an idiot. He had been when he was twelve and a performer, before the siren hunts. When he thought having fun was all that mattered.

It had always been the four of them: he, Daishou, Osamu, and Oikawa, but there had also been others. They were friends with more sirens than that currently, too, but there were a lot more of them, back then.

Keiji had had a boyfriend. He’d been madly in love, to the point that it blinded him. The four of them were performers and his boyfriend had come to see him every night.

His boyfriend had been a Lightbringer.

There weren’t any of those, anymore.

They’d performed at a bar, singing and dancing. It was for fun, and for shells, and it had helped Osamu be a little less shy. His boyfriend had died during the siren hunts, and they performed no more.

Keiji was living and learning, now. He didn’t think he’d ever sing again.

That was to say, though, that he was not an idiot. Not anymore. So he knew that his friend was doing the opposite of getting over his breakup with that guppy, Terushima Yuuji.

Koutarou shifted, pressing his face into the crook of his neck. Keiji chuckled, adjusting to help the Bottom Feeder fit better.

“You’re thinkin so loud,” Koutarou murmured.

“What do you mean?”

“I can just tell you’re overthinking somethin.”

“Yeah.”

“S’it Daishou again?”

“Yeah.”

“Need me to keep him here for a few days?”

“I don’t know yet. You should come with us tomorrow.”

“Mkay. He’s a big boy. He can make his own decisions.”

“Can he, Kou?”

“…no. But you gotta let him learn, my lovely,” the Bottom Feeder chittered softly, leaning up to press a soft kiss to his jaw.

“Yeah, I guess. I just worry.”

Koutarou nodded fractionally.

“I know. Kinda your thing.”

The next morning, Suguru wasn’t there. He hadn’t gone home last night, which meant—

“That bastard hooked up with Yuuji again,” he hissed.

Koutarou sighed.

“It’s okay, I’ll talk to him this afternoon,” Keiji stated, the threat clear in his voice. Anger was already curling in his stomach. He let out a quiet hiss, clenching and unclenching his hands.

So that afternoon, when they were basking in their little spot— a little place they’d found surrounded by rocks and with a decent amount of water still there, far from humans and mermaids, and Suguru showed up, Koutarou grimaced. Osamu, Oikawa, Atsumu, and the others weren’t there yet.

Koutarou excused himself, and went off. Keiji smiled, venom probably obvious on his face.

“So, Suguru, how was your dick appointment?”

A flash of guilt across the other’s face.

“Great. You sound more mad than normal.”

“Because I’m fucking tired of you,” he snapped. “Suguru, do you ever think?! No, of course not! You’ve got constant fish brain, or something. You need to get it through that thick fucking skull of yours that Yuuji doesn’t fucking love you. He’s using you, and you’re just too stupid to grasp it. You’re such an idiot, Suguru! I thought maybe after living through the siren hunts and the war that you would finally get some damn sense, but that was wishful thinking, right?”

“I—“

“I don’t want to hear any sort of excuse, Suguru. You’ve been purely stupid, thinking that anyone, especially a guppy, could love you. Don’t your ass cry about it when you lose him, or when you fold to his will again, because you’re just fucking asking to be used at this point,” he hissed. A broken chirp of protest exited the other, before he fled to the surface. Keiji followed, fully prepared to continue ripping into him.

He shouldn’t have. He knew he was doing that thing where his mouth just ran for no reason, and said things he didn’t mean. And that he’d probably regret everything he said pretty soon. But still, Suguru was being stupid! And he cared too much to let the Keyholder throw himself back into Yuuji’s arms.

When he surfaced, he was met with the Keyholder’s back. Those shoulders shuddered, and the gills were working overtime from where they were still submerged.

“Okay, Keiji, let’s talk about you then.”

“About what?! The fact that I can keep a boyfriend, and everyone likes me, and I’ve never let a guppy puppet my life?!”

“No, but about how you still can’t watch your damned mouth. Yeah, sure, I love Yuuji. And that’s my fault?!”

A voice chimed in. Oh, Iwaizumi was here, and angry as well.

“That makes sense though, doesn’t it? You’ve always had a thing for letting yourself be used for attention.”

Suguru sniffed.

“So you think I let it happen?”

“No, but you saw the opportunity for an attention grab once it happened and you just took it.”

Keiji glanced at the brute, shaking his head firmly. That was too much.

“So, the whole thing is all because of me, then? He’s not in the wrong at all?!”

“Yes! You don’t fucking think— and look at me WHEN IM FUCKING TALKING TO YOU!” So, Iwa probably got into a fight with his mom before he showed up.

Daishou flinched, whirling around with his eyes wide.

“Suguru, dating a guppy is stupid. We thought you were smarter than that.”

“Exactly!”

“Okay. I’m gonna…go, then. Have fun with the others. I’m sorry, I um. I’m sorry. I didn’t…I don’t…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean— fuck,” the Keyholder hissed finally, and then he turned and dove back under.

Keiji watched him go, feeling nothing but confusion and anger. Then he looked at Iwaizumi.

“That was far, Iwa.”

“It’s true.”

“Some of it. Not all of it.”

The other scoffed.

“Whatever.”

Wait. Where was Suguru going?

—

Yuuji didn’t expect Suguru to show back up within the same day. The siren had been gone for maybe an hour or two, but suddenly there were knocks he’d long learned to recognize at his bedroom door.

He opened it, and at seeing him, Suguru crumpled to the ground. Tears more dense than the ocean water fell from the other’s eyes, and the siren was positively trembling. His heart ached at the sight.

“Suguru?”

There wasn’t an outward answer, and so he picked the Keyholder up. That green hair was somehow a mess, the pretty face all crumpled up in dismay, and at the contact, his siren clung to him immediately like a leech.

“What’s wrong? What happened, baby? Tell me what’s wrong.”

Distressed chirps and chitters too quick to decipher flew from the other’s mouth, claws digging into his back. He grimaced but simply soothed a hand down his lover’s spine.

“What’s wrong, gem? You gotta talk a bit slower, okay?”

Yuuji felt those gills flex from where they resided on his siren’s shoulder blades.

“K-keiji and…and Iwa, they were yelling at me, and they called me stupid, and…and Keiji’s tired of me, and Iwa…Iwa blamed me f-for something that happened before everything got bad and then he reminded me of my dad and I couldn’t do it and it was too much and I’m sorry I’m so stupid I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry,” his siren sobbed, broken clicks and trills exiting him as fragmented apologies.

Opportunity to have his siren all to himself again.

Without Keiji, maybe Suguru would stay this time. And he’d be with him all the time and forever.

“I’m so sorry, baby, that’s horrible. Why don’t you stay with me, then? Forever. You know, they can’t hurt you if you never go see them. Nobody can. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll cherish you and treat you so good, gem, you know that,” he trilled soothingly, feeling his siren relax into him already. Just like he used to. “I won’t hurt you again. I won’t let anything hurt you anymore.”

Those claws dug deeper into his skin. That breath hitched. Telltale sign that Yuuji was very close to exactly where he needed to be.

“You promise…?”

There it was.

“Yeah, I promise.”

A shuddery breath and a nod.

“Okay.”

He smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of the Keyholder’s head.

“You’re mine. I’ll take care of you.”

Keep him forever and ever. Have and hold and love and keep him. Become his whole world.

Oh he’d love to be this boy’s whole world again. To be worshipped, loved, adored.

Needed.

Oh, how he’d missed that feeling of having someone so utterly dependent on him.

He’d missed Suguru. It hurt, not having him. He wouldn’t let him go again.

This time, he’d be better.

***

Living with Suguru reminded him how love truly felt. His siren laid on his chest, nose pressed into the crook of his neck. Terushima kept an arm wrapped around the other’s waist, talking to him about that one time last week that Kyoutani had managed to get all caught up in a net and so he chewed through it—

“What?” Suguru interrupted, laughing. The clicking laughter brought a smile to his face.

“Yeah, he chewed through the netting!”

“Of course he did.”

There was a small bit of silence before his lover sat up.

“Oh gosh, there’s this one Bottom Feeder, right? His name’s Tendou, and he’s a bit odd but he’s so sweet and funny. I wanna be friends but we don’t talk much.”

“Funnier than me?” Yuuji challenged, his tone playful.

“Well, not really. You two have different senses of humor. He’s funny without really trying to be, but his jokes are terrible. Your jokes are great. So I’d say you’re funnier.”

He purred softly at the answer. Good.

“But anyways, he has a really bright red tail, and he sees really well— better than us, even, and he acts like a Lurer. He’s fallen for a sailor.”

Yuuji hummed, watching the smile on his siren’s face. Too fond, for his taste.

No, wait. He wasn’t supposed to think like that anymore. Suguru could like his friends. That’s why he had them.

Still.

No. He had to play nice. Even if it aggravated him, he could try to pay attention. He wasn’t going to make Suguru leave him again.

“It’s so cute. He’ll go up and sing to him, and he hasn’t been successful yet but still, that’s such an adorable gesture. I hope his sailor likes him, you know. Well, I moreso hope that the rumors are right and that it’s actually just a siren who spends more time on the land. We can’t really be with humans, you know.”

He nodded, shifting closer. In turn, on instinct, his siren leaned closer. Just as he knew he would.

“Yeah, being with humans is kinda the biggest thing we’re not supposed to do.”

“Says the show pony,” his lover retorted playfully. He rolled his eyes good naturedly, scoffing.

“Do what I gotta do. You used to be a performer, didn’t you?”

“Well yeah, for sirens.”

“Same same.”

“Not really,” Daishou denied, a smile present on his face.

He was so damn pretty when he smiled. That smile was only for him. And he would keep it that way.

He tugged his boyfriend closer, those eyes wandering to his and being full of adoration.

He’d missed that.

As their lips met, he could feel the love, the want, radiating from his siren. So he kissed him like he was the only thing that mattered, so that he could be the only thing that mattered. Kissed him like the most valuable treasure. Because, well.

That was what he was. He was everything.

His hands wandered up his lover’s spine, feeling the purr that it elicited from the Keyholder. Hands cupped his face with such care that it melted him. He knew that his siren loved him, knew it in the way that canines nicked his bottom lip. He knew it in the tenderness that those hands held his face with.

He loved Suguru, he truly did. Loved the curve of his shoulders, the jade green of his scales, the emerald green of his eyes, the sharpness of his fangs, the color of his skin…Suguru was his definition of perfect. Filled every corner of his mind, filled him with more care and regard for another being than he’d had ever in his life.

He’d kill for his siren.

But he didn’t want to have to do that. So he’d just keep his lover here forever with him. That way, he wouldn’t ever have to do anything bad. Keep him close, protect him, make sure those eyes were only for him.

The mentioned pulled away and Yuuji gave chase, not satisfied.

“Yuuji…” his siren protested softly, though the ability to be persuaded was present in his voice.

Make it clear when you say no.

“What’s that, gem? Did you want to quit?”

Those gills were working overtime. His were, too. He loved it.

“No, just…I love you.”

He smiled, pressing their noses together.

“I love you too.”

This was how it was supposed to be.

This was what love felt like.

Previous chapter | Next chapter

[jude-thedude98]

Since you disowned me

I want you to know that I'm gonna flip it -

I never owned you

Right

Flight.

From the fight.

A liar in shining armor of a night.

Right?

Left me in the middle of knight.

That's why I had to improve by improv the rest of my life - think on the fly.

Cause manyscripted.

A robotic emotion just three little words spittin'.

How could I love you?

Look at you.

You were the whole package.

Blonde surfer wavy hair

Skateboard skills

Blue eyes

Soccer boy

And you were white.

Then you grew up black.

Wherein a hood

Saying you down to ride.

But I tried to tell you be careful

Wolves hide in grandma's clothes m, right?

That lesson I learned in a hard night.

Titanic stretches rips the transgression.

Transmission I had to admittance.

So my whole game is to switch it up.

Born a boy

Now I'm a girl.

Flirting with two spirits.

Gender exploring.

Having fun cuz lame niggas is boring.

The world is my oyster

So damn right I'm gonna tour it.

Floor it like Maybach

I'm going air Jordan on the jump line

I come from way back

But this shit is easy

A free throw line

I need the rock back

If you smell what I'm cookin

Then you wouldn't talk that

Smack that

Eminem and Skittlez

Too lost in a world of melting in your handles.

Turn off the lights and blow out the candles.

I'm Moses walking these directs in sandals.

Man how does he do it when he's on the road like cannibals

I give more lectures than hannibal

Yall ain't ready for this kid ink shit

I'm spitting granimals

Niggas wanna change well I'm the animor0hs

Niggas wait around for the flame when I take the torch

This is not s relay race

If it was I'm passing it back to myself

I goes on my own pace

Teach lines

To the outlinez

World to steady coloring inside

I tell em color outside the lines

Inkcorporated

If you ain't wit it

You ain't gotta hate it

Just now we on the scene like a masturbation

We cummin'

So like a candy switch

I'll see you now and later

My haters I love you

You the ones that keep the gators aidin

This heart pumps myself

Muse says bitch get outta the way

I'm a lil ludicrous so forgive me if these bars are a fiasco

I lupe that shit

Another line for the foolish fish

Trying to swim upstream but ain't got the moxy to do that shit

Yall know what it is

I do this shit

We got a fireman and a snowman in the game

When I come in it'd likebtwobtornadoes hit

Touchdown

Lose your breath

Shit

What the fuck did I do to deserve this shift

Two twister boards on the floor

We family game knightin this shit

Switch to a will smith

Back when we chillin in Miami wit

Them Boyz in Black

Yall know the BlackOutBitch

Way weigh wait

Summertime shift

Like I dos this

Two works overnights shift

That overtime shit

Like my brain always on graveyard shit

I'm talking to deceased cuz the alive ones are too dead for this shit

Everyone tryna be supernatural

When. All. You. Gotta. Do. Is.

Be your super self naturally.

Like who's on first.

I don't knows on second. Costello and abbott

I can switch lines cuz I been hit wit different lines.

Well here's a one liner

Your nut must be so good because all the forest life are trying to bark up your tree

I hit em wit tha uh

That's cuz they know my lifestyles evergreen

And when you wit me you'll surely see

The D

Like damn I thought this dude was cocky

Now I can see why

It's cuz his cock meat

I ground beef

No need to pound beets.

If you ain't around the heat.

I can get cool as a Dolphin and as killer as Whale deep

Sheep skinnin it

Chestshire cat grinnin it.

I always play on kayfabe mode - sitting and pretending in

That don't mean I'm fake.

Watch your clocks

Tik toks of what you saying kid.

That mean my life so fucked up

I'm always envisioning.

Cuz ima Disney plus a nickelodeon

The dream works

All you gotta do is put a quarter in

Told yall long time ago

Life is like a vending machine

Press a button to see what gleam

See ima g ima always feed

Check the leam rearrange the four letter anagram

And see what I mean.

FooDBarz by Mr. PoetAll

[absolutesort]

FRANKIE, JENNY & CHARLENE — DAY THIRTY-SEVEN.

location :    kitchen.

description :  the three girls make food for their dates with victoria.

featuring :  jenny /  @blondcs   &  charlene /  @guttcd

𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨.

“i think i’m gonna do like… a crème brûlée type deal, zeke from high school musical style. she looks a bit like sharpay if i squint.” frankie notes, thinking aloud, propped up on the kitchen counters with a spoon full of melted chocolate pressed against her tongue. it wouldn’t be love island without the obligatory melted chocolate and strawberries combo to go with her dessert, pre-prepped and ready to go by some intern who drew the short straw. make sure you feed her a strawberry, and tell the camera assistant when you’re gonna do it.  “kinda wanna do it just so they give me a blow torch, y’know?”  

𝐣𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐧

she’s halfway through pushing a slicer down an apple—the kind with handles on either side and a round spot for the core—struggling a bit when frankie stops her short. “crème brûlée?” there’s no way. “isn’t that like, super hard to make?”

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐬

right now charlene feels like she’s surrounded by a bunch of sharpays. three blondes one brunette. pretty hot. “zeke and sharpay should have been end game! have you ever made a creme brûlée before, frankie?.”  she calls out from the chopping section, sights focused on making sure she doesn’t cut a finger off. though if she really wanted to stand out… “what are you making, jenny?”

𝐣𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐧

she finally gets the contraption down and the apple slices fan out like a flower. perfecto. “i’m doing a salad. nice, classic first course.” because if frankie’s considering crème brûlée, there’s no way she’s not gonna have something to say about that. “i was gonna do like, a caprese thing but there’s no way the store in town has good mozzarella, so… what are you making and will there be enough to share ‘cause you look mad legit over there.”

𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨.

“what, you don’t think i could do it?” bitch. honestly, she can kinda see why adela hates her — frankie’s relationship with jenny hasn’t exactly been sunshine, daisies, butter mellow either — but her lack of faith only makes frankie more determined. “i’ve spent literal hours of my life in a galley watching our head chef do it. it’s just ice cream, sugar and egg yolk.” she neglects to mention that she’s a kinaesthetic learner, not a visual one. “like… how hard can it be?” her eyes flicker over to charlene, hoping for some kind of confirmation that she isn’t massively unqualified for the job.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐬

“salad! niiiiiice. keeping it classy. i’m making some jambalaya. im like, totally missing some spiced thoughts i don’t know how well it will turn out. i’ll totally save some for you though.” she offers jenny a little wink, like they’re sharing a secret. charlene almost certain that crème brûlée is a lot harder than what frankie is saying, but the blonde sounds so confident that charlene can’t help but give her a supportive thumbs up. “you got this! worst case scenario you could do one of those cute microwavable brownie mugs if the producers won’t give you a torch.” or if her attempt to make a five hour dessert in 45ish mins fails

𝐣𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐧

“uh… not really?” she looks to charlene for backup. “that’s like, pastry chef, gourmet shit. just make sundaes or something or you’re gonna be stuck in this kitchen all friggin’ day.” even jambalaya seems complex for a love island meal but that could just be because jenny’s not entirely sure what jambalaya is. “do you know this is the second time they’re making me do this shit? as if i don’t hate cooking. they’re definitely punishing me.”

𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨.

at the mention of charlene's dish, frankie can't hold herself back from singing out "jambalaya! jambalayo..." to the tune of bamboleo by the gipsy kings, springing to life like someone's put twenty pence in and wound her up like a clockwork doll on mandy. "there's actually a country song about jambalaya... by hank someone. i don't remember, my dad would know it." not that anything she's saying is even important. even if charlene's encouragement only runs skin-deep, frankie shoots her two finger guns in response. despite the knowledge that miles wants to chat to charlene, a notion which doesn't exactly spark joy, she can't really bring herself to dislike her when she'd always assumed the two of them would be friends. but if she kisses him, she'll change her tune. "they'll give me a torch. chris loves me." frankie knows most of the production crew by name, often finds herself wandering about in places she shouldn't, asking the floor runners about their day. there's only so many times she can talk to the other islanders about how many siblings she has (four) and where she sees herself in five years time (just straight up vibing) without getting bored. "i'm gonna be stuck in this house all friggin' day anyway. and they probably won't let us leave the kitchen until like... they've got a fuck tonne of usable footage. might as well hone a skill." unlike jenny, who's decided that leaves is the way to go about it. "is salad your way of telling her to graft someone else?"

𝐣𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐧

frankie with a torch sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but jenny just presses her lips together in a tight line, rooting around the silverware drawer for a knife. there’s no rhyme or reason to the way she slices the plastic wrapping off the block of cheese she’s planning to cube up, but she doesn’t cut herself so everyone upstairs can shut up, thanks. and everyone downstairs too. “why, is creme brûlée your way of saying you’re interested?”

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐬

she has no idea what the hell frankie is singing so the only thing she can do to chime in is ask “do you like country music?” she’s from alabama or something right? “it’s so funny that we have to ask permission to use stuff like that. i get this is a rented space and we have to be careful but it’s like, borderline ridiculous.” unless frankie proves them right and burns the whole place down. there’s a beat of silence when jenny and frankie do their little back and forth of whether they are interested or not, meanwhile charlene has her attention on chopping up some sausages.

𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨.

“yeah, dude. dolly parton’s one of my favourite musicians of all time.” as a kid, on the long stretches of time when her mom would disappear, only returning to ‘borrow’ money, frankie would pretend that the reason she left was because she was secretly dolly parton, but no one at school or her dad was allowed to find out, or it would mean she had to stop visiting. sometimes, she thought her mom was speaking to her through dolly’s lyrics, the sound of it thrumming from a mug as she sunbathed on the hot tin roof of a trailer park. “i’m not interested,” frankie fires back, leaping down from the kitchen counter to check the temperature on the oven.  just competitive. “but you never know what powerful wish-granting abilities bombshells have. they could’ve told her whoever makes the best course gets hideaway or some crap.” and honestly, charlene and jenny are the two people in here she’d most want to beat to the prize.

𝐣𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐧

“have you had to get advil yet? they act like it’s fucking adderall, and after this whole song and dance of ‘what hurts?’ and ‘rate your pain out of ten’ they only give you one.” what’s one advil gonna do for a pounding headache and… inflammation? by that logic, she can’t imagine them handing over the torch at all without some serious release forms. it’ll be a good test to see if the crew likes frankie as much as she says they do. “you think that… if you make the best food, they’re gonna give you the hideaway with miles? that makes literally no sense. have you seen the show?” plus, a salad could very well win best course, thank you very much. no accounting for taste…

[kiillerqueen]

❝ So basically you're their bitch? Now thinking about it , it kind of suits you. ❞ Amelia had come with all intensions on having a civil conversation with Mason even after she had woken up to how to toxic her relationship with the male had truly been. He obviously had her fooled with his charm and looks that she had been so willing to push aside the fact that he wasn't a great person. ❝ To be one hundred percent clear I had no idea that Violet was feeding my brother any kind of information. What is your issue with wanting to destroy my family so bad? Did my brother really bruise your ego that bad? ❞ In the blonde's mind she hadn't played any role in Mason's personal vendetta against her family. ❝ Let me make it clear again , I am not jealous and secondly it was brought to my attention by someone else. I didn't seek out to see what the fuck you were doing to only prove just how much of an asshole you truly are. I thought you weren't interested in what I have been up to? Why does it matter what goes on in my marriage? My husband is ten times better than you'll ever be. ❞ Amelia didn't directly answer his questions towards her marriage and her relationship with Luis. They're still in the whole getting to know each other stage , but if he kept on her case than she'd lie if it meant for him to stop questioning her marriage. ❝ So exactly how many times did you and my brother chat about me? I don't recall it being an issue for you when it got you what you wanted. Plus that was the old Amelia , I've actually done some self growth since I ditched your ass. ❞ Why did he so easily be able to get under her skin the way that he did?

Mason couldn't help himself from the chuckle that escaped him, ❝ What do you think this is?! A movie?! Where I can just pick and choose whether or not I want to do an assignment? That's not how this fucking works— They tell me what to do, and I do it. That's the end of it. ❞ His allegiance to the agency was oozing out of him subconsciously. The Manor had never given him a reason to distrust their decisions. The thought of trying to get out of a mission never even occured to him. He'd never go into detail with her about it, but the space was competitive; people fought to get into certain positions and Amelia's annoying attitude would be the last thing to get him away from trying to best the rest of his peers. No one is allowed to really question anything unless they wanted to be bullied like her sister-in-law was. ❝ The only reason why you didn't lose, is because you had help on the inside, and having help from the inside doesn't mean you won't lose again in the future. ❞ Mason didn't totally lose out hope. A part of him was banking on it so they would fail just to prove him right. ❝ You are jealous. Why in the worl would you waste your time trying to find out who I'm with when you should have better things to do. I didn't waste my time figuring out what you were up to. And I'll talk about your marriage if I want. What's the matter? You slept with him yet? Told you how much you l love him yet? Or does he not do it for you like I did? ❞ It's clear that she is probably still in love with him for some reason. Throwing Declan under the bus is a no-brainer now that he doesn't have to pretend with Amelia anymore. Hell, he might through everyone under the bus just to see what her reaction is. ❝ Family or not, at least I'm not making it other people's responsibility to clean up my life and making messes for everyone who comes across their path. ❞ At this point, he was intentionally being brutal to hurt her and he didn't care if it made him the bad guy.

[allamericansbitch]

AHHHH HAYLEY