#they would honestly get lost trying to find a bathroom in a theme park

[sugaaaaaaaar]

You fool! Crunchy Chip and Cream Cheese (and Red Velvet) already are besties (after their rivals to friends arc because one of them is dog person and the other is cat person I actually made a post of this look at their tags-)

Currently, I am too lazy to make a good drawing of the Cream Cheeses but I'll think on it

In the mean time, here's their dynamic:

Crossover AU where Clotted Cream assigns Cream Cheese to be (@minecraftninjerkid 's) Meringue's bodyguard.

I thought it would be cute if these 2 met considering it would be possible (Financier was probably the one that recommended him since she is pretty much his older sister/mentor). I also thought it would be funny since he has absolutely no impulse control so it's more of a Meri making sure he doesn't die. (Maybe I'll make more refine doodles another day but I just wanted to present the possibility)

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Satisfied, Part 38

First

Previous

Next

~~~

She woke up with a groan and rubbed her eyes. Someone, probably Chloe, had tucked her into bed. She smiled faintly and sat up.

A glance at her phone found a text from Chloe saying she’d gotten home safely, a text from Jason asking if she was okay (really subtle), and a text from Damian asking if she wanted to talk.

She closed her eyes, letting her phone drop to her side. She didn’t really want to talk about anything, she’d already cried herself out of tears the night before and she didn’t intend on doing that again anytime soon.

She glanced at her work. She kinda needed to get a move on, the Wayne Gala was steadily approaching, but she didn’t really have any motivation to do that. She didn’t feel like being productive at all, actually.

What she wanted, really, was a distraction. She mulled over her options. Most of her hobbies also felt like work, from designing to baking, so… what could she do?

Oh!

She pulled up a chat.

Definitelyforgottosleep: wanna hang out today

She barely had to wait for an answer.

Coffeeismygirlfriend: Sure! I’ll be there soon.

She got up and went to the bathroom to get ready, only to see the dried blood on her floor. She bit her cheek and then walked to the door. She glanced back in it’s direction and smiled when she realized her counter covered it. Good. She could deal with that later, then. She didn’t feel like cleaning.

Marinette smiled as she opened the door an hour later, fully ready.

Tim smiled. “Hey! Ready to do some work?”

She grinned and rushed past him, hooking her arm with his. “Nope!”

He blinked confusedly as he allowed her to drag him along. “Uhhhh this wasn’t expected.”

“I can see that. You work too much anyways.”

Tim groaned. “Not you, too! I thought you understood!”

“Not saying it’s a bad thing, but I don’t want to do work today.”

He looked at her like she was insane.

She grinned and pulled him into an arcade that she’d seen a few times on patrol. “Behold! I’m gonna teach you how to have fun!”

He raised his eyebrows slightly. “I know how to have fun.”

“Mmm,” she said, not agreeing or disagreeing.

They both pulled out their wallets and then eyed each other warily. Marinette crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m the one who wanted to come.”

“I’m the one with more money.”

She rolled her eyes and, however reluctantly, put her money away. He had a point. He probably wouldn’t even register the loss.

He smiled like he’d won something and handed over his credit card. “Uhhhh just as many points as you can give us, I guess?”

The clerk looked exhausted as she nodded, handing over the plastic cards.

And, with that, they were off.

She was better at most of the straight video games. He complained about difficult controls, but she was pretty sure he just wasn’t used to playing on consoles. It made sense, he didn’t really seem the type to play video games in his off time (if he even had any offtime, of course).

Still, he gave her a pout every time he lost. “You’re cheating.”

“Yeah. I’m cheating on this game that I’ve literally never played before in my life. You’ve caught me.”

He huffed. “We’re playing something else.”

Then they moved onto games based on sports. Were they maybe a bit too good at these types of games? A bit too quick? Yes. But neither of them intended on saying anything because oh cool tickets. Still, it became obvious they had different skill sets: Tim had her beat at basketball and Marinette never lost at skeeball. They never learned who was better at air hockey because one of their hits sent the puck flying into someone’s head and they had to run away before they got sued.

Next was games of luck…

She got the lowest possible amount of tickets. Five times in a row.

Marinette kicked the machine and then cursed at the pain. “THIS IS STUPID.”

Tim, however, was trying his hardest not to laugh. “This shouldn’t even be possible.”

“Helpful,” she muttered.

He gave a small shrug as he stepped up to the machine. “Maybe it’s just rigged or something,” he said. She would have been inclined to agree... if he didn’t get a jackpot on his first try.

She huffed at his smug grin. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I could feel you judging me,” she muttered, giving his shoulder a small shove.

He grinned. “I’d never.”

She rolled her eyes. “New type of game!”

After a bit they managed to find some co-op games, and she was delighted to find that the two of them together made for a pretty formidable team. Admittedly, some of the games weren’t technically supposed to be played as co-op, but who was going to stop them from getting as many tickets as possible from this fishing game by working together? Really it was the designer’s fault for not taking that into consideration.

They ran out of credits about every hour, but did they care? Not really. Mostly because Tim never told her when this happened, usually waiting until she was distracted with a game to go recharge their cards. Did Marinette notice the fact that their cards were seemingly never ending or that sometimes they would randomly have a lot more credits? Maybe, but she was enjoying herself enough to avoid the guilt at least temporarily.

Eventually, though, the arcade was coming to a close.

They had bags upon bags of tickets hanging off their arms, but this would become their downfall. Despite being smart enough to find ways to get the most tickets at every game, they apparently weren’t smart enough to think ahead and were now struggling to untangle the tickets.

“How did you even do this, bean?”

She knocked her head against the machine she’d been leaning on. “Less talking, more untangling,” she muttered irritably, struggling with a ticket that somehow had gotten a knot in it.

They ignored the workers’ glares as they finally managed to hand over the little slip with their ticket count on it. Despite how much they’d gotten, they were forced to go to the cheapest section.

She pouted. “Man, we were cheated.”

“We could just buy the stuff, it’s a lot cheaper that way.”

She turned her gaze on him, an incredulous look on her face. “Of course not! Where’s the fun in that?”

“You would actually get what you wanted…?”

She huffed. “Boring.”

“You just said you felt cheated.”

“That’s part of the experience, Timothy.”

He rolled his eyes and they split off in search of what they could afford. Her eyes landed on the vigilante merch and a smile came to her face as she got a plan. She quickly rang herself up and headed to the bathroom to change.

She grinned at him as she stepped out in a Red Robin themed hoodie, clutching a plush version of the vigilante to her chest. 

Because what’s the point of knowing your friends’ secret identities if you can’t mess with them?

He blushed, his grip tightening on the bag of prizes in his hand.

Marinette tried not to laugh as she looped her arm with his again, pulling him out into the streets. She really didn’t know where they were going, but she didn’t want to just leave when he was looking so flustered. What a wasted opportunity!

“So, Red Robin fan?” He asked after a bit.

She smiled. “Of course! He’s super smart! I mean, I know Batman is supposed to be the greatest detective of all time or whatever but, considering ages and experience, I think that Red Robin is probably going to have him beat in… I don’t know, a few years?”

Poor Tim looked like he was about to pass out, his face was so red.

She smiled and sat down with him on a park bench. People were thinning around them as night approached, but she didn’t care. What was going to happen? They get attacked? That would only really be a bad time for the criminal.

“But I’ve actually met the guy a few times. He’s really nice and genuinely cares about his job from what I’ve seen. Don’t think there’s anything bad to say about him, honestly.”

He grinned, resting an arm around her shoulders.

“He’s alright, I guess.” An odd light sparkled in his eyes and he reached into his bag. He shuffled through his things for a bit and then held up a mug…

There was a picture of Ladybug on it.

“I think she’s cooler, though.”

Marinette fought the urge to bury her face in his shoulder as a blush came to her face. Ah. So this has backfired on her, apparently. All she could manage was a quiet: “Oh?”

“Yep! I think it’s really cool that she came over from Paris, because she really didn’t have to do that. No one would have said anything if she’d disappeared when Hawkmoth was defeated, but instead she decided to help Gotham!”

They were alone, now. This was great, because she didn’t need anyone else seeing her looking like a tomato. She fiddled with the Red Robin plushie in her lap for an excuse to look away.

A hand rested on her cheek and she looked up to see him. He was still a little flushed from her own compliments, but now there was a small grin playing at his lips. “Everything alright, bean? You look a little bit flushed, are you coming down with something?”

She opened her mouth to give an excuse before something struck her. Tim wasn’t stupid, she hadn’t been lying when she had said so. He couldn’t genuinely be wondering if she was sick, the smug look on his face made that obvious. So the only reason he’d be acting like this was if he was teasing her, which meant…

“You know?”

His eyes widened slightly and then flicked to the side. His hand lowered. “And I’m guessing you do, too?”

She nodded almost imperceptibly, closing her eyes. “What gave me away?”

“I was kinda suspicious during the food fight, you were a bit too good at it for a normal civvie, but I really figured it out because of the fox necklace. The one time she wears it is the one time I’ve seen you ever have it? It was just too much of a coincidence.”

She swore in French. She’d forgotten about that! She was going to start wearing the fox miraculous casually to alleviate suspicion, but Red Robin hadn’t come by much after that and she hadn’t been completely sure it was Tim.

“And how’d you figure me out?”

She hesitated. “It was obvious, honestly.”

“Damian?”

She blinked. “What? How’d you know?”

“You wouldn’t lie to protect anyone else.”

Fair enough. “Damian and I sparred, I recognized his fight style.”

He nodded and pulled her into his side a bit more.

She leaned into his touch a little bit, slinging an arm over his stomach lazily. “What do you think I should do?” She mumbled.

He didn’t bother to ask what she was talking about. “Honestly? I don’t like you going out into the field again. You’re not well…”

“But?”

“But the Rogues are unstable and I don’t like the idea of trying to fight them all off without any knowledge of what they were going to do.”

She nodded slightly. That made sense. “That’s about what I figured, too.”

“I don’t like you going out into the field again. You’re not well,” he repeated, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “The rest of them are probably going to be even more against the idea than me.”

“I’ll convince them.”

“Can you?”

Her head shot up to look at him and she bit at the inside of her cheek. He had a point, unfortunately. Jason was going to be against it, Bruce would probably be cautious of her because of his whole anti-murder thing, Dick would probably lean towards not letting her out again as well. She thought she might be able to convince Damian, but then again he was the only one who knew the full extent of what had happened over the past week.

She sighed and leaned into him again, closing her eyes. She buried her face in his shoulder. “Can you help?”

“Maybe,” he said softly, and she knew immediately that whatever he was going to say she wasn’t going to like it. “If you go to therapy regularly they’d probably be more okay with it.”

She cringed. There was that suggestion again: therapy. It was almost like she needed it or something. Still, she felt her normal excuse fall off her tongue: “What, am I supposed to tell them who I am?”

“Yep.”

She frowned.

“All of us have a regular therapist who sees us in costume and we talk about the job.”

“Will she tell Bruce everything I say?”

“Nope! She only has to tell him if we’re going to hurt ourselves or others.” He gave a short chuckle. “More than necessary, I mean.”

Marinette sighed. “But…”

Man, she was really running out of excuses now.

“It’s really the only way they’ll agree, bean.”

He was right, she just didn’t like it. She didn’t agree out loud, that would only make it feel more real. Instead, she curled into his side.

“We should probably head back to my apartment at some point. It’s going to get cold soon.”

“Yeah, probably,” he agreed quietly.

They didn’t move from where they were for a long time, content to lean into each other for warmth.

And, when they woke up the next morning, they decided to pretend they didn’t notice the giant sign over their necks that declared them under Rogue protection.

~~~

Taglist

@comet-kun @thatonecroc @trippingovermyfeet @swiftie-miraculer13 @nickristus-dreamer @moongoddesskiana @i-am-ironic @indecisive-mess-named-me @thebooki3h @insane-fangirl-of-everything @deepestobservationwombat @theymakeupfairies @fatimaabbasrizvi @clumsy-owl-4178 @fanofalittletoomuch @iamablinkmarvelarmy @nathleigh @lilkymilky @silvergold-swirl @dino-lovingreen-angel @thestressmademedoit @kissa-chan @ladybug-182 @alysrose-starchild @t1dwarrior-of-earth @spyofthenightcourt @rowanrouge @nik-nak-3 @momothefemur @aestheticnpoetic @labschaos @our-preciousss @mochinek0 @eliza-bich @mythogaychic @severelyenchantedwonderland @sashakoi @smolplantmum @bluesimani @tropestropestropes @kitsunebell @keepingupwiththemalfoys @sassakitty @2confused-2doanything @too0bsessedformyowngood @all-mights-asscheeks @demonicbusiness @meg-an-ace @fantasiame @qualitypeacepainter @multplelifes @kokotaru

<3

[colorfullfalls]

Blast to the past

Sodapop Curtis x Reader

Summary: Soulmates are very tricky because sometimes two people who are meant to be are born in two different generations. Your soulmate can be born three days after you die. Luckily the mystical universe transports you there to meet yours. That’s how you find yourself back in the 1960’s instead of the present.

Warnings: hinting at sexual assault

~~~~~~

Friday night is ladies night. It has been since you were twelve and it will be until you die. The core group gets together and does whatever seems interesting for the evening. The three of you ranged in activities of going to the movies, getting something to eat, thrifting, people watching, getting coffe and sitting at an empty park- you name it and it’s been done.

Tonight the gang decided to get smoothies and sit in an empty parking lot. The small town didn’t allow much entertainment for freshly graduated adults. Especially for adults that wanted more to life than such a simple place could provide.

Claire laid on the pavement, dark hair swirling around her shoulders as she turned to gaze at the moon. She was beautiful in the moonlight, soft skin glowing. You were always jealous of her unique good looks, but never aimed bitter thoughts at her. She was a warm and loving friend who was literally a ride or die.

Claire turned her head to look at Margo who was sitting upright with her keys in hand, twirling them around her hands. Margo was the wild one of the trio. The jokester who was basically a meme lord. You three fit like puzzle pieces, best friends for ever.

Claire and you shared a look of amusement as Margo dropped her keys, mumbling a quiet shit before laughing and picking them back up to repeat her actions.

“This is supposed to be a quiet, soul searching moment you know.” You deadpanned, lips curling into a smile as Margo rolled her eyes and flipped you off.

“If you wanted quiet then you picked the wrong bitch to bring along.”

Claire shook her head, “Okay, let’s post on snap about a replacement bitch. Preferably one that can be silent at times.”

You shifted so that your legs were pulled up in front of you instead of rested against the cold ground of the parking lot. A funny thing to add popped into your mind and you knew it would make them laugh, “There’s one more requirement though. It’s vital.” You added, swirling the contents in your cup to break up the remaining blotches of ice.

“Hmm?”

“They have to be willing to sacrifice their own life for Pakistan”

Claire busted out laughing hitting her cup off her leg and Margo snorted, causing everyone to laugh even harder. That fucking tik tok would never not be funny to you guys. Especially when their soulmates thought it was hilarious and would say it when you guys failed to.

Claire found her soulmate a year ago at a football game. Her soul mark burned when the cute player from the other team bumped into her after the game. Gage was the coolest dude you knew. He treated you guys like best friend and he treated her like she was the sky, the moon, and the stars. Not long after Claire found him, Margo found Naomi. A badass chick that was a tattoo artist in town. Margo now has little tattoos decorating her body from the designs her soulmate came up with. Naomi and Margo just fit, and you were happy for her. Happy for both of them.

Day after day with no luck of finding your other half, you were starting to despair for yourself. Soulmates usually found each other close to adulthood if they were in the right life time. It was disappointing to go to bed every night knowing that you were still alone. Your best friends loved you more than anything and always included you, but the soulmate connection was different- special above everything else. And here you lacked that.

Margo dropped her keys again but left them there. She picked up on your solemn mood after you didn’t talk for a few moments.

“I wanted to go camping this weekend, maybe you’ll find your lover there?” She softly spoke, giving you a hopeful smile.

You sadly smiled back, “I dunno, probably not. Sorta giving up over here.”

You looked down at the simple soul mark. An old pop bottle was the initials S.P in the middle with the letters DX very small on the bottom left underneath it. Marks were supposed to signify something important about your other half, describe something about them to you. Ever since you were old enough to remember you would buy old fashioned pop in order to collect the bottles. It meant the world to you.

“Don’t say something like that, of course you will meet them dude. We found ours early but that didn’t mean you won’t ever find them. I’m sure your other half is right around the corner.” Claire supported, patting your thigh for comfort.

“Yeah, it could be Harry Styles for all we know. And honestly it would make sense because how the hell do you meet someone famous like that?” Margo trailed off.

You scoffed, “Harry Styles- my ass. His indicator would so not be an old pop bottle. It would be a guitar or something like that.”

“I guess so. Point is, don’t fret. You have time. The world may fuck with people, but not good ones like you.” Margo grinned childishly.

“Yeah, you’re right. I am good. I sacrifice my own life for Pakistan.”

“God dammit, I hate you.” Claire stood up and offered a hand, pulling you both upright, “We better get going. The same cop has been driving by and I don’t like it.”

“ACAB.” Margo chanted as she crawled into the backseat of the car. You laughed and pushed her the rest of the way in with your foot before shuffling in yourself.

‘Best friend’ by Rex Orange County blared through the speakers as the car moved on the damp roads in the dark night. You guys sang loudly, hands out the window to feel the wind ripple against fingertips. Your heart filled with adoration of the girls in the vehicle with you. Getting sad about the soulmate thing sucked but dealing with it was easier when you had two people to assure you and take your mind off of it.

You waved bye as you walked up the steps of your house. You quickly noticed that no one else was home. Your siblings were off with their friends for the night and your parents went out for their anniversary. You sighed, taking your shoes off lazily. A warm bath would feel so nice to finish out the day. You stretched before taking a step forward toward the bathroom but your foot caught underneath the rug and you fell face first onto the hard surface of the tile.

****

Your body felt like it was on fire while rolling over to rest on your back. Forcing your eyes open, you gasped at the sight before you. Instead of laying on the bathroom floor, you were in an empty parking lot. Your heart thud roughly in your chest as you scrambled to stand.

Your mind began to panic as you didn’t recognize your surroundings. An old diner sat across from the lot and it wasn’t the one you, Claire, and Margo sometimes went to. You brushed yourself off and looked around, confused as to what was going on. Had you gotten drunk and imagined you were home and somehow managed to get lost? Did you fall so hard that you passed out and got kidnapped? Sharp pains alerted your mind to put a finger to your face. There was a scratch from where you fell, you must’ve hit it. You were just glad that your wallet was still in your hand but your phone wasn’t. You searched for it but no luck.

You meekly opened the diner door and shuffled inside. It was themed to be an old authentic diner. The usual black and white checkered floor tile, the twisty barstools, and the car sign decorations on the wall. Diners like this were adorable in your eyes.

You went to sit at a both and grabbed the young pretty waitress. She gazed at your clothes in confusion which made you internally frown. Your outfit wasn’t inappropriate or anything. Blue khaki shorts that came above mid thigh and a white and blue tie dye shirt.

“Excuse me, where am I?” You asked, embarrassment creeped up your spine as she gave you an old look.

“Tulsa. Are you lost?” She asked, shifting the tray to rest on her hip.

You quickly shook your head no, “Thank you, I’m not lost. Just uh, traveling. I’ll just have a water please.”

She gave you a funny look but nodded, going to get you the cup of water. Everyone in the diner glanced at you in curiously which made you paranoid. Alone without a phone and no escape plan. Not an ideal set up. You tried to rack your brain for what the hell was going on but you were outta luck.

Water was set down on the table and she stood there, observing you. You felt her eyes staring at your piercings, especially the hoop in your nose. You awkwardly looked up at her and smiled, hoping she would go away.

“That’s an odd looking necklace, Miss.” Her hand casually pointed towards the crystal gem necklace hanging between your breasts over your shirt.

You shrugged, “You’ve never seen them before? They sell them at Walmart or any hippy store really.”

She wrinkled her nose in judgement, “Huh, never heard of Walmart. Must be from wherever you’re from.”

You choked on air, coughing loudly to force oxygen back into your lungs. How could someone now know Walmart? Was she fucking with you right now? Waitresses usually weren’t rude unless you were rude to them first.

“They’re like nation wide? One in every town? Seriously, every town.”

No emotion appeared on her face as she shook her head no, “I still don’t know what you’re talking about... do your parents buy you those shorts? Do they care about your nose ring?”

You squirmed in your seat at her question, her voice carried a shrill tone that let you know that she didn’t approve. Jesus, did this girl think you should be in a full body suit without showing skin? You pulled them down subconsciously to try to hide some of your upper thigh. As for your nose ring, you were baffled as to why your that was an issue. So many women had them.

“I bought the shorts, but they don’t have an issue with them if that’s what you’re trying to get at? They think the nose ring is cute too. My parents are very cool with me choosing to do what I wish with my body.”

Her eyes widened in a holy-cow-you’re-crazy sorta way, “My parents would kill me if I looked like you.”

A dry laugh escaped your lips at her harsh words. And they were harsh, whether she met them to be or not. Putting women down wasn’t what you stood for and you really thought that the world was passed shaming people for what they look like.

“It’s twenty-twenty , they shouldn’t care about what you look like. Acceptance is key to a happy family.”

“What’s that mean?” She cocked her head to the side in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Twenty-twenty what is that?”

You glanced at the table to your left that was intently listening in on the conversation. You felt uncomfortable in the booth. Two guys stared shamelessly at your legs and you wanted to crawl under the table and hide.

“The year? It’s two thousand and twenty?”

She threw her head back, blonde hair following to fall down her back, “You really are an odd ball.”

You furrowed your eyebrows.

“It’s nineteen sixty nine, dear. Your cheek is bleeding and I’m assuming you fell because you’re acting crazy.” She quietly said, bending down to your eye level. A part of you wanted to hit her so hard that she fell down. Condescending attitudes rubbed you the wrong way to say the least.

You were fuming as you took two dollars out and put them on the counter, “Have a good evening.” You gritted out.

***

The cold night air pinched your skin as you walked aimlessly around the small town. You came to the conclusion that it was 1969 and you realized why the waitress was so taken back by your appearance. Girls in the sixties probably didn’t have shorts this short or nose piercings. It all made sense as you took in the town. The old styled cars, how people dressed, hell- how they talked. Old ass terms that people only used as a joke now.

So yes, you were in the past, but how and why. Watching Shameless in your bed right now seemed like heaven on earth. Your mom and dad’s faces haunted your mind when you thought about never getting to see them again. Tomorrow they would get back only to see that you have disappeared without a trace. Your dad will be so worried and heartbroken and your mom will be calling everyone to ask if they saw you.

And what would Claire and Margo think? You just knew they would feel so guilty for not knowing when they were the last ones you saw. Hurting them only hurt you more.

You found an old tree and sat down against it, letting the tears splash down your face. It was cold out from the brisk air and you had nothing to layer up with. This sucks, mega sucks, you noted.

An old red Ford Mustang parked on the road and two men got out of the car and headed your way. You clutched your wallet close to your chest in predetermined fear. Two men walking towards any woman would make that woman scared. It was a built in instinct that still wasn’t gone in the twentieth century. Especially with the men from this time. You knew women weren’t truly equal yet and they especially weren’t in this time.

They had on khaki pants and different colored polyester sweaters. Same guys from the diner that were watching you. Horrible look in their eyes as they stood in front of you.

“What’s a pretty lady like you sitting out here alone for? It’s late.” The one wearing a yellow sweater asked. His hair was brown and smoothed back, you were unable to see his eyes in the dark. He bent down to look at you in a way you didn’t appreciate. You were not having it.

“Really? Is it late? Couldn’t tell, not like the moon’s out or anything.” You retorted, shifting further back into the tree.

“Woah, no need to get lippy with me, hun.” He said, looking back at the other guy with the red sweater. Red shook his head to agree with yellow.

“Let’s not get comfortable with the nicknames. I’d say I’d call the cops but hah, ACAB... not that you would know about that.” You trailed off. You rambled when you got nervous and it was not a good feature.

“ACAB? You’re a weird one, aren’t you?” Red said, leaning down too.

“Weird, but an absolute doll. Not many girls ‘round here show skin like you.” Yellow said, hand grabbing your thigh.

Your hand slapped his away lightening fast before jumping up and backing away. You took your shoe off and held it up in defense, “Go fuck yourself! Get away from me.”

The men looked at each other in shock, assumingly at the vulgar words that escaped your pretty lips. You backed further away until you felt safe enough that you put your shoe back on and ran. You heard their feet shuffle in the grass as they ran after you.

You turned down an alley way and tripped again on a stick in the middle of the road, the boys were suddenly visible meaning you would not have time to get up and run. Instead of trying to escape, you grabbed said large stick and grasped it tightly between your hands. You wish Margo and Claire were by your side right now. You could do anything with them.

“A stick? Really? We just wanna spend some time with you.” Red said, walking closer.

“Fuck this! Fuck this so hard! Fuck toxic masculinity that makes pricks like you think it’s okay to do shit like this! Systematically you were probably raised to think chasing a woman is okay- judging from the car that you have money. Kids with money, especially in these days, are spoiled and never told no, but I don’t want you. Leave.” You shouted, twirling the stick like you saw so many times in Starwars movies. You saw the two men slowly step back and you were proud of yourself for fending them off until you heard another masculine voice behind you.

“You soc scum need to bounce.”

You moved to the side to be equally separated from whoever was behind you. A man about your age stood firmly beside two others that looked a few years off, one younger and one older.

The one that spoke was standing in the front and boy, he was beautiful. Dark hair slicked black to rest comfortably against his neck. He wore a blue and white flannel with blue jeans. His body was slim but you just knew he had some lean muscle on him. Red and yellow turned and walked away but not without making some derogatory claims about greasers.

You panted, finally breathing again as you doubled over, stick still firmly grasped in between your palms and fingers.

“Are you okay?” You heard the same voice quietly ask. You noticed they were standing right in front of you now. You meekly looked up to gaze into his pretty blue eyes. He hissed out in pain as he looked at his arm at the same exact moment that your mark started to burn so bad that you couldn’t take it. A searing pain ripped through every single one of your cells. You did it! You finally found your fucking soulmate! Without being able to stand the pain and excitement, your body tumbled forward for the second time that evening.

~~~

You heard rustling going on around you, but you clenched your eyes in fear that you wake up still stuck in the past.

“If I open my eyes and I’m not home, I’m gonna throw hands with whatever God there is.” You mumbled, slowly opening your eyes. The handsome man sat on the floor by your face, causing you to yelp and quickly move to a sitting position, hand clinging to your necklace.

“Hey, calm it, I won’t hurt you.” His gentle voice spoke. You laughed nervously as it hit you that he was your soulmate. Your life was fucked, oh so fucked. Sure, you found the one, but in a different decade!

“The world is a cruel place.” You muttered, hands removing from your necklace to rub down your face in irritation, “My life is a joke.”

He sat up on his knees, cautiously moving closer towards you as if you were a scared stray cat that he was attempting to take home to keep and take care of. You internally gagged at the idea of being kept inside as a house wife now that you were living in this time. You could not survive like that.

“It’s not. Usually people are happier to find their soulmate, yanno? I’m happy... I thought you would be.” His voice seeped with disappointment and pain.

You sighed as you felt his sadness creep up your bones and invade your sanity, “I would be thrilled if I wasn’t transported back in time. I’m not kidding, I’m from year twenty twenty. I can show you.”

You grabbed your wallet and ripped your lisence out, showing him. His eyes squinted as he read your birthday and the date you got it. His eyes enlarged as he looked back at you.

“That- that’s just impossible.”

You snorted, “S’what I thought too. Guess the universe really shoved us together on this one... and uh, thanks for saving me earlier, my inner jedi isn’t strong enough yet- I’m no obiwan.”

He furrowed his eyebrows, “I don’t know what that means.”

You blushed, “Big movie franchise that eventually comes out. I’ll try to avoid pop culture references... my bad.”

He smiled, pearly white teeth showing, “you’re really pretty, y/n.”

Your heart raced in your chest at how attractive he was. Claire and Margo would hardgirl swoon with you over him but they’re not here to join you, so you had to soak up his beauty all on your own. And him saying your name like that? God, that would make any girl bust a nut.

“How do you know my name?”

He shrugged, “Saw it when you showed me the date. The name surely suits you. I’m Sodapop, Sodapop Curtis.”

He held his hand out and you hesitantly met his half way as if to give him a handshake, but instead he intertwined your fingers together before moving closer. His skin was so warm against yours and all you wanted to do was pull him closer and bury yourself in his chest. Finally finding him was overwhelming after convincing yourself that you were doomed to be alone.

“Those guys that chased you, we ain’t letting them get away with it. We’ll find them and give ‘em a good what for.” A new voice spoke.

A kid, you guessed to be about 16, stood in the living room doorway, hands shoved deep into his jean pockets. He had longer brown hair like Sodapop, but his eyes were more hazel instead of the pretty blue. You awkwardly smiled, attempting to pull your hand away but Soda tugged it back, stubborn to lose contact so soon. He gave you a sweet smile to reassure you that he wasn’t going to try anything like the two men last night.

“Y/n, this is my brother ponyboy, and that’s my brother Darryl.” Soda said, pointing to the younger kid and the full on man that walked through the front door. You nervously waved with the hand that Soda didn’t claim.

“Hi, thank you guys for saving me... although I think my stick was pretty promising...” You awkwardly spoke making all three of them chuckle softly.

“Better safe than sorry.” Darry said, offering a smile, “Come on, Ponyboy. We will be back.”

Darry signaled Pony to go with him outside, you and Soda sat in silence as you heard the truck doors and the rumbling of an engine pulling away. His thumb grazed over the back of your hand. Your insides felt like they were melting. Sodapop was extremely attractive and you could not believe that you found him. Harry Styles has some competition for sure. Well, maybe that was going far. It’s Harry Styles, no one could really beat him.

“So what’s it like here? What do you do for fun?” You asked, looking around the house. You imagined the houses around to be very similar. Old couches, ancient TVs with the antennae’s, framed photos on the mantles, and the cool old wallpaper. Very similar to the sorta place your grandparents grew up in.

“Play cards every couple nights. Go to the drive in movies when I’m not working. Diner is open late at night so that’s where young folk hangout. We find good times.” He smiled softly, getting lost in his own thoughts, “What’s there to do for you?”

You couldn’t even begin to explain that you lay in your bed watching tik toks off your phone while Netflix plays softly in the background. Or that you quote memes in a parking lot with your friends. Soda would not understand memes at all and that would be a huge struggle because half the shit that came out of your mouth were memes.

“I have fires a lot at my house, we usually sorta just sit there and bullshit for hours but uh then there’s the usual- getting coffee and sitting in a parking lot. Not much to do in my town but eat and go somewhere to hangout...”

“That sounds nice.”

You shrugged, “More people than not get drunk or smoke weed everyday because what the hell else is there to do?”

He quirked an eyebrow, “you do that?”

You shook your head no, “My friends and I drink from time to time but not heavily. And we especially don’t go to parties because those are cesspools waiting to be caught by cops. Well, fuck cops anyway, but..”

You froze when you realized that cops in this time weren’t critized by the public as much. Political climate ranged from your time to now. Soda probably wouldn’t support the LGBTQ community, or if he did he didn’t know much about it. And racism surely lingered in the 1960’s air. You felt sick thinking about fighting barriers that you usually didn’t have to.

“Do girls swear a lot in the future?” He asked timidly, not wanting to upset you but also he was just very curious. He never heard ladies swear and especially not that word.

You snorted at how cute he was, “All the time. It’s normal for us. Trust me, if you are shocked by that you don’t want to imagine the crude things that are said daily..”

His thumb stopped rubbing circles on your hand and your heart faltered. He was probably used to obideint women who were dainty and didn’t outspeak too much. Women in this era were subservient and you could not be further from that. You had quite the mouth on you and your idea would not be oppressed. You graduated pretty high in your class. You were intelligent and political and that was mind blowing to men of this time. What if you were too much for him? You wouldn’t dare change but it would be heart breaking to know that your other half couldn’t take who you are as a person. As a woman.

“What you said about the cops.. what did they do wrong? I mean here they can be annoying but they try to be fair.” He asked, thumb rubbing your skin again. His eyes glanced down at your thighs and you blushed a bit, wishing you would’ve put on your sweatpants instead before leaving to go with the girls.

“If I explained it all, we would be sitting here for days. Long story short; African Americans still aren’t equal and they are murdered by cops at an unequal rate compared to the population size. Protests turned violent and the whole country is a mess. Half the country trusts cops and the other half wants the systematic corruption to be dismantled. Personally, I’m with the latter. So cops aren’t really my heroes. I try to avoid them. Of course my dad disagrees because he’s old fashioned and doesn’t get it, but what’s so hard to get about treating people equally. America’s supposed to be a melting pot so what’s with the racism and harsh divide? Guess the founding fathers only meant equality when it came to every white man- and that’s bullshit.”

You stopped rambling to see that soda was grinning from ear to ear at you. You gave him a questioning look. “Did I miss something?”

“You are wicked smart with politics. Wiser than anyone I know, prettier than anyone I know.”

~~~

Three weeks later you found yourself walking through the library with ponyboy, fingers grazing over every book you walked past. Books were little keys to jump inside different worlds. You wished you could find a book from 2020 that would magically transport you back. You found Soda, but at what price? You wanted to go home where you had control over your life. You were lost here.

“Any book recommendations? I’m sure you had to read a lot of these.” The youngest Curtis asked as you rounded the corner.

“Hmm, ever read any Tolkien books? Like The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings Trilogy?”

“No.”

“Awh, goodie, I get to be your mentor for this. Basically these are the best damn books that you will ever read. Bit lengthy but the detail is beautiful.”

He gently took the Hobbit in his hands, one gripping the back while the other flipped through the pages, examining how many there were before he tucked it under his arm, affirming that he would take a stab at it.

“What’s it about? Is it girly stuff- not that I mind really.”

Ponyboy was unlike the rest of the gang. He was a little softy that you wanted to hide from the world in order to protect him. The gang protected him physically but his feelings were usually punched, as much as Soda tried. Ponyboy felt things differently and deeply. He was in touch with literature and his life revolves around movies and books. You imagined how much he would adore the twentieth century with how much content there would be for him.

You crossed your arms and shifted your weight to one foot, “It’s a fantasy set up. So like elves, dwarves, hobbits, trolls, orcs, shapeshifters, magic, and I’m sure there’s more but my mind is blanking here. I promise it’s worth it. And I can explain as you read.”

“You’re a nerd?”

His innocent question made you laugh, “I guess you could say that, bud. Give it a shot and if you don’t like it, so be it,” you muttered this part to him, “although no one can resist middle earth’s charm.”

“What’s middle earth?”

“Where it takes place, it’s like another version of earth basically. But hey! You’re already so interested. Soon enough you’ll be wishing you were an elf slaying orcs too.” You joked, jabbing him in the side, “and if you say you wanna be a dwarf instead, you’re dead to me.”

He smiled, “what if I like the humans more? What then?”

“Then, I would consider you an absolute freak. Humans in this are like mediocre. Well, in the hobbit at least. Lord of the Rings they are more of a key part, but they’re so boring compared to the other cultures. Unless you like boring?” You raised an eyebrows at him.

“No, I ain’t boring. And I don’t like boring either.” He stubbornly said, walking side by side with you to go check your books out.

You grabbed a few random books that you wanted to check out. Soda worked and he refused to let you go anywhere alone, so you and Ponyboy just read a lot. It was summer vacation so he was outta school and had all the time in the world. You liked hanging out with the kid.

The two soc boys were standing by the counter when you guys got there. You huffed as the one winked at you. In that moment you wished you were legolas with a dagger and could gut him.

“Surprise seeing you here, considering I doubt you guys are literate.” You spoke, smiling at the librarian as you handed her the books.

“Surprise seeing you here with only the kid, we’ve heard you’re shaking up with Sodapop now. Looks like the greaser found his soulmate.”

The derogatory term aimed at Soda fueled your veins with rage. Blood rushed into your head at the idea that these guys thought they were above Soda, who was the kindest man you knew. Your heart told you to call them motherfucking cunts but your brain warmed you that it wasn’t a good choice. You glanced over and noticed that Pony looked as mad as you. If you retaliated, you wouldn’t get beat up but if he did, he would go home bloody while you trail behind him with a guilty face. You would give them a little talk.

You blew air out of your mouth before turning around to them, “Boys, I don’t know if you keep up with the news or not, but Vietnam is an ugly war filled with horrible people. Do you know what soldiers see? People being burned alive, dogs getting shot down, bombs obliterating people, women in villages getting raped, and most importantly you watch the men you grew to love die right before you.”

The two men stared at you wide eyed as you paused to grab the books from the librarian who was also now listeninf to you.

“Drafts are inevitable, and you know what? War doesn’t care who you are; greaser or soc. The enemy won’t stop to ask your financial stability before ending your life. The boys who you deem greasers could be the ones to save you from dying. Maybe try being nice because you never know who you will end up with on that field.”

Ponyboy’s mouth opened in shock when the two socs slowly back away and left without a single word. You hummed in victory before ushering the younger boy out of the building with you.

“Where did you hear those things? Darry keeps up with that stuff and I never heard nuthin like that.” Ponyboy asked after a few minutes.

You guys walked through the gate of the house but you halted before the steps, “A lot about the war is exposed after it ends. We learned about it in school. I used it against them as a wake up call. Try not to worry too much about it.”

Pony slowly nodded, “okay.”

The door opened and two-bit shuffled out the door with a beer can in his left hand, right hand wedged in his pocket.

“You guys are in trouble.” He sang as pony pushed him out of the way and walked into the house. Two-bit walked off the porch and turned to head home. He didn’t wanna be present for the yelling.

Soda and Darry’s heads snapped to the door and you held the books tighter to your chest to hide yourself. You two forgot to leave a note where you were going and now you were going to get scolded.

“Where the hell have you two been? It’s past 8:00.” Darry scolded, throwing down the newspaper that been in his hands.

You looked to Soda for help but even he shook his head to signal that he was just as upset. You handed the books to Pony before holding your hands up in surrender.

“Oh no, you caught us. We were at the library.” You joked, quickly knocking the smile off your face when the two older Curtis boys glared at you.

“Not funny. Anything could’ve happened to you.” Soda reprimanded. Your soulmate was always worried for you when he wasn’t around. He knew how horrible soc could be and they clearly had an interest in you. It was bad enough being away from you, but getting home to you and his kid brother not there made his nerves fly through the roof.

“Socs aren’t a worry when she’s around, trust me.” Pony mumbled, setting the books down on the table.

“Whats that mean? Did those socs bother you again, Y/N?” Soda suddenly was in front of you, checking your body for any cuts or bruises. You smacked his hands away.

“No, simmer down, I’m fine.” You said, offering him a reassuring smile.

“Then what happened!”

“She shut them down with her wit before they could even start. Those soc didn’t know how to respond so they turned around and walked right away.” Pony explained.

“What did you say?” Darry asked, slightly amused. He liked you very much and was glad that such an extraordinary woman was meant for his little brother.

You shared a look with pony to silently tell him to shut up about what you really said, “Nothing that’s important. What does matter is that Ponyboy got a bunch of books that he should be reading.”

He playfully rolled his eyes, “You want me to read so you can talk to me about elves.”

You nodded, “Well yeah, they’re the best part so get to it! Once you start you will love it.”

Ponyboy nodded before picking up the books and heading towards his shared room with Soda to begin reading. You smiled as you watch him go. You knew deep down that he was excited to read but didn’t want to make it seem like he was. He liked to taunt you with your taste in movies and books but you knew he really did agree.

“You baby him more than Soda does.” Darry stated, giving you a teasing glance.

“I don’t baby him.” Soda argued, glaring at his older brother.

“You do, Soda. Darry’s right though, I baby him a lot but I can’t help it. Pony’s a good kid that’s curious about the world. Reminds me of my best friend back home... I am sorry that we didn’t leave a note, we didn’t even think about it.” You admitted, grabbing Soda’s hand and intertwining it with his. He melted into your touch and you could tell that he wasn’t mad anymore. He couldn’t stay mad at you even if he tried.

“I know, I know. Just try to be more careful.” Darry softly spoke, “I’m headed to get a shower and go to bed. Don’t let Pony stay up too late.”

Soda muttered a yes and goodnight as you saluted Darry in a joking way, making the oldest Curtis smile and roll his eyes before going about his way.

As soon as the door was shut you were pulled into Soda’s arms, both wrapped tightly around your midsection as he nosed against your neck. You blushed as you wrapped your arms around him too, smelling the oil and dirt that came with working at the DX. It was an oddly comforting smell. Distinctly him. Your soul mark tingled as he left a soft kiss against the skin of your throat.

“You gave me a real fright, doll.” He softly spoke. Your eyes fluttered shut as he pulled you closer, his lips grazing your skin with his words, “ just worried when you’re not around, ‘m always thinking about you.”

“I didn’t know you thought about anything other than cars all day,” you poked.

He snorted, “yeah right. As if.”

“I’m so used to my independence that I forgot that here I need to let people know where I’m going.”

He pulled away slightly, “Did your parents not care about your safety?”

You snorted, “They did. Of course they did, but it was so easy to get ahold of them that I could just let them know while I was away. Plus once I turned 17 they stopped really caring what I did as long as I wasn’t doing anything sketchy. And I was always with my best friends.”

“Makes sense. Darry doesn’t care what I do if I’m with Steve...”

You pullled away and picked up one of the books to start reading it, “He should be the most concerned when you’re around that boy.”

You sat on the couch and held the book in your lap as you gave him a pointed look. He rolled his eyes. You and Steve sorta got along. He was nice and all to you, but he was a dick to ponyboy and that wasn’t appreciated. He walked to the kitchen to get a pop.

Minutes later he sat beside you on the couch, glancing down at the words splashed across the pages. He skim read but the book didn’t seem that great to him.

“Y/n?”

“Hmmm, soda?” When he didn’t reply you half way shut the book and turned to him, “what’s up?”

“Does it ever bother you that you’re so much smarter than me?”

Your heart burned at his question. Soda had a complex that he was stupid because he dropped out of high school. Everyone knew he did it because of his situation in which he tragically lived. Darry couldn’t do everything on his own and soda knew that. He sacrificed his future for the better of his small family. He wasn’t dumb.

“Education changes through years, so a lot of new material has been taught to me that you wouldn’t have known.”

He crossed his arms against his chest and slunk down in the cushion, “Come on, for real. Doesn’t it bother you that I’m a drop out?”

You set the book down and shifted so that your hands wrapped around his right bicep. You leaned your head on his shoulder. He didn’t look at you, instead he was staring holes into his bedroom door.

“Sometimes I feel like you should’ve been Ponyboy’s soulmate instead of mine.” He softly spoke, “He’s brilliant.”

“Oh my god, Soda. Can it. The universe wouldn’t send me decades back to find you if we weren’t meant to be. Not one part of me cares that you didn’t finish high school. You’re Soda. The smart man who takes care of his family. Does it bother you that I’m brainless when it comes to cars?”

Soda gave you a look like you were insane, “I don’t mind at all.”

“See, it doesn’t matter. I don’t see you as dumb and I wish you would stop seeing yourself that way too.”

Ponyboy walked into the living room, blonde hair messy as if he was playing with it. His cheeks were flushed from sitting under blankets and he looked a bit sleepy. Reading always made him a bit tired from how at peace he was, which was rare in his current life.

“Y/N, I don’t know how to feel about Bilbo. He seems good but he also seems a little selfish.” He said, eyes skimming along some of the words.

You smiled, “He’s a really pure character. You’ll grow to enjoy him. What part did you get to?”

Just like that Soda was in a better mood. Watching you speak so happily and effortlessly to his little brother about a book made his heart soar. Sometimes he felt like he couldn’t connect with Pony like he wanted to. And where he was lacking you were there to make up for it.

A few hours later Soda sweetly kissed you goodnight before retiring to his shared room with Pony. You snuggled into the couch with blankets wrapped around you.

~~~

Opening your eyes you saw that you were laying in your bed instead of the Curtis’ couch. Panic flood through your veins at the idea of returning home without the boys. Your heart was racing out of your chest as you looked at the decorations on your wall. A place that felt like your safest place was now a personal hell.

You wanted to return home but not without Soda, Pony, Darry, Two-bit and even Steve. God, you had to have been especially emo if you wished to see Steve more.

The idea of seeing Claire and Margo was beyond relieving but the pain of never seeing Soda again almost cancelled it out. Once again you would be the friend without a soulmate- without a better half. You sighed as angry tears slipped from your eyes. Why did the world have to fuck with you so much? You didn’t have a soulmate, found them in another decade, and then when you grew adapted to the times and people, Mother Earth ripped you back to your old life.

“Hun, why are you crying?” You heard Soda say. You tried to sit up to look for him but a firm arm was wrapped around your middle. Somehow you completely didn’t register that when you woke up.

You struggled to turn around and there he was. Beautiful Sodapop Curtis laying right beside you in your bed. In 2020. His hair was slightly shorter but his kind blue eyes were still the same. He was still the same handsome boy from the 1960’s.

A choked sob escaped your lips as you wrapped your arms around him, pulling yourself as close as you could. Warm skin against yours assured yourself that he was real. This was real. Not some dream that your brain cruelly conjured you in attempt to calm you down.

“Did you have a nightmare?” He softly asked, a hand coming to rub up and down your back. His gesture only made more tears leak out of your eyes. You were so confused. Why wasn’t he freaking out too?

“I don’t know. Where’s Ponyboy and the guys?”

His hand faltered for a moment before he went back to comforting you, his lips pecked your forehead a few times, “They’re at home, probably asleep. Did you have a nightmare about them?”

Your mind was spiraling. Somehow the boys made it here too and soda seemed to not find this weird at all. He was acting like everything was normal.

“What year were you born?” You asked, clutching onto him, trying to remember what his skin felt like against yours.

“1999. Babe, tell me what’s going on. You’re starting to scare me here.” He lightly chuckled, adoring that you were clutching onto him as if he would disappear.

You didn’t know how to explain so you disguised it as a dream, “I had a weird dream, a really realistic one, that I was transported back to the 1960’s and I found you and the guys there. I can’t remember how we met now.”

You felt him shift slightly to get his arm free. He picked up his phone and the screen lit up. His lock screen was a picture of you two in front of a well taken care of old blue camaro.

“We met five months ago at a car show. You were with your grandpa, Claire, and Margo and I was with the boys. My mark burned when I accidently brushed your arm when I passed. We realized what was going on and we got this picture. We’ve been together since.” He recalled easily.

As he spoke, you could faintly see all of this happening in your point of view. How happy you felt when you saw him, the tingling of your mark, gushing internally at how attractive he was, you could even hear Margo cat calling in your head when you two got that picture.

Suddenly memories were dancing around in your brain. Getting Taco Bell together at midnight. Him joining your friend group to sit around the usual fire pit, him making you a s’more when you beg him even though you knew you didn’t have to ask more than once. Him building you the nice wooden shelf in your room that you put your weird Knick knacks on. Him laughing along when you scream “I will sacrifice my own life for Pakistan.” Going over for dinner and watching Lord of the Rings with pony boy.

“It’s all real.” You breathed out, “I’m sorry, that dream just really messed me up..”

He grinned down at you, his lips slowly drifting right above yours until they softly brushed together. Your soul mark tingled in utter delight. His arms slithered around your back as he moved on top of you, “I should be offended that you forgot about all of that, you know.”

You laughed, “Yeah... I’ll make it up to you by being nice to Steve for a whole day.”

He snorted, “wow, a whole day... that might kill you.”

You exaggeratedly nodded, “Honestly. He’s seriously the worst, soda.”

He boyishly smiled as he rolled off of you and stood up, grabbing his jeans and pulling them over his legs. He shoved his hands in each pocket to make them go in. He grabbed his plain black shirt and slid it over his shoulders and then head.

“I have to get home, Pony’s drivers test is in an hour and I’m the one to take him. He’ll for sure pass. I made sure of that. But tonight we will probably get cake to celebrate, the boys are all coming over. You’ll come, right?” He asked grabbing his hat and sliding it on his head.

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

He winked at you once and leaned over the bed to give you a quick peck, “see you soon, pretty lady.”

You blushed, “see ya soon, handsome.”

He smiled softly before walking out the door. You laid there in the bed in disbelief. Your dream was too real to not be true but at the same time you recalled meeting him in 2020 too.

Either way you were thankful that soda was in the present with you because it was honestly the best of both worlds.

A strong breeze hit the house and your window popped open. A small scrap of paper floated in and landed on your dresser. Your hands smoothed they paper before reading it.

“Sometimes reality changes for people who deserve it.”

[chilling-seavey]

Qui Totum Vult Toum Perdit (d.s.) - 7

A/N Guilty or generous 

Warnings: This story is centered around a murder so there will be graphic descriptions of blood, death/manslaughter, dealing with corpses, possible domestic abuse (physical/verbal), crime/covering up a crime, shock/grief, and other possibly heavy or triggering topics. Please read at your own discretion.

One thing my parents always taught us while we were growing up was, when traveling, to never stay at the cheapest hotel. By no means should we break the bank to stay at a five-star resort but there was usually nothing good that came out of the cheapest option. I could see what they meant as Jonah and I climbed the metal stairs of the Lincoln Motel, the white paint peeling from the handrails and the steps creaking with each footfall. Once having been on the cover of Forbes, I no longer really needed to follow that guidance that my parents engrained in us since I could afford all the five-star hotels and resorts I so desired to stay at.

I mean, to be brutally fair, dear reader, my parents also taught us not to murder our spouses; so who knew how many lessons of theirs I had ignored in my lifetime.

I triple checked that my car was locked as we reached the top of the flight of stairs and headed down the carpeted outdoor hallway. Anyone who uses carpet outside should honestly not be trusted. This place already left a bad feeling in my stomach. Would saying it gave me murder house Psycho vibes be in poor taste? Possibly? Then please disregard that statement.

Number nineteen was right in the middle of the hallway. The brass number nine was set slightly crooked on the door. I caught myself tilting my head with its direction as if I were trying to stall. I swear if the person on the other side of the door slept with my wife I…I didn’t know what I would do but the thought of it made me sick.

“Are you going to knock?” Jonah tore me from my thoughts.

I swallowed thickly, “Yeah.”

I raised my fist to the orange painted door and rapped a quick knock before taking a little step back. I habitually glanced over the railing to make sure no one was getting too close to my car.

The sound of the door creaking open had me turning back quickly to see who was on the other side. I expected a man and that’s who I was met with, simply the first glance of him making my jaw clench protectively.

He was short. Brown hair. Brown eyes. His patterned button up was undone halfway. Arms and neck littered in random tattoos. I eyed him up for a moment.

“Can I help you?” he asked, an obvious confused edge to his voice.

“Yeah, do you know an Avalon Seavey?” I pushed back at him strongly. I couldn’t help but straighten up around him just to have those few inches above him.

“Avalon? Yeah, I know her enough. Why?” he looked between Jonah and me.

I took off my sunglasses and tucked them in the collar of my shirt to see him better in the shadow of the motel balcony.

“I’m her husband.”

“Daniel.” he breathed with realization, his eyebrows raising as he stared at me.

“Yeah. Daniel. Who are you?” I asked sharply.

Jonah didn’t intervene through my anger, in fact, he looked just as concerned as I felt. I appreciated his willingness to let me have my moment to interrogate this guy.

“I’m Jack. How did you find me here?”

“I found your address in her phone.” I added.

“Oh, what a nice non-toxic relationship you have.” Jack mumbled.

“Excuse me?” I took a quick step towards him but Jonah grabbed my arm and yanked me back.

“I was not sleeping with your wife if that’s what you’re here getting all macho protective douche-bag about.” Jack assured me coolly. “We had nothing more than a professional relationship.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, staring at Jack’s unimpressed flat expression. He didn’t seem to be one to be phased by anything.

“Professional over what?” I pressed.

“Does Avalon know you’re here?” he ignored my question while he peeked around me as if to see her down the hallway or in the parking lot below.

I didn’t flinch as he looked around me. Little did he know that she was in fact right there with us.

“She’s dead.” Jonah answered.

I hadn’t realized I hadn’t replied to him for a few too many seconds but Jonah’s blunt response certainly brought be back to reality. I snapped my head towards him. Since when did we agree we were going to be telling people that?

“Oh.” Jack said flatly. “That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah…well…I wanted to see who you were…so…” I stumbled out ungracefully, rubbing the back of my neck anxiously with one hand. I dropped it with a sigh to my side again, “We’ll be going.”

“Hang on. Come in for a second.” Jack offered, stepping to the side and pushed the door open wider to let us on. “I gotta show you something.”

Jonah and I glanced at each other briefly before silently deciding to follow him into the motel room. I peeked over my shoulder to my car down in the lot once more before stepping over the threshold.

Jack seemed to sense my hesitation as he closed the door behind us, “I won’t keep you long. A nice car like that won’t last long around here unsupervised.”

I swallowed thickly, watching him walk across the messy motel room to the closet. Jonah and I stood just inside the door and the first thing I noticed was the bright teal wallpaper that even covered the ceiling, so bright and neon it was nearly blinding and it did not match the dark red floral print carpet at all. The bed had red bedsheets and a dark mahogany headboard that was more 1960s mirror panel than wood and beside it sat a single small round table with a fold out chair and a rotary phone on top. The bathroom sink and light oak vanity was outside of the bathroom in the main room which right away was another turn off to this already run-down place. I was no decorator, dear reader, but the sight of this motel room was nearly nauseating. And that’s said by someone who had a dead body stashed in their car trunk.

As Jack shuffled through the bi-fold closet for whatever he was looking for, I took a moment to take in my surroundings for more than just the initial shock of colour and pattern vomit that filled the place. The neon 80s themed picture above the bed was of the New York skyline which was strange since we were in Los Angeles, and the fact that there were two more mahogany framed mirrors along the other walls was unsettling. I tried not to meet my own reflection.

Jack had a suitcase laid out beside the mahogany dresser and it was tossed open and clothes were haphazardly thrown about it but the suitcase wasn’t the only spot for fabrics as every other available surface – including the small table in the corner – housed various piles of fabric scraps and scissors and pins and needles. The worst of it was the few bare mannequins laying under the window adjacent to the door.

“So…” I started slowly, turning back to Jack whose back was still turned to us, “How did you know my wife?”

“My business.” Jack answered. He pulled a jacket on a hanger from the back of the closet and dropped it on the table right on top of all the scraps and pins and mess. He grabbed one of the many pairs of scissors that were scattered around and snipped a few things that I couldn’t see from where we stood.

His dry answers to our questions had Jonah and I more suspicious as the time went past but we waited to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.

Jack finally turned around with a small smile and picked up the hanger to turn and face the black denim jacket towards us, “I’m a bit of a fashion designer I guess you can say and Avalon found my page on Instagram a few months back and she got in touch with me about making you a custom jacket.”

I didn’t know what to say. In all the words I could use, perfect was the only one that came to my mind as I stared at the jacket in his hand. Someone might see it as a mess of things but it was just my taste; chaos enough to pass as designer even. It housed red x’s painted over the right shoulder and a single white stripe down the left side that matched my surname on the bottom right front panel. He made sure to show each of the denim sleeves, cuffed at the bottom in black and red plaid and the left wrist had ‘honey’ printed in small white font – the nickname I always called her. The other sleeve had matching vertical white font spelling out ‘Only the Beginning’ which was the name of Jonah and my very own record company; the company that always caused the most hostility between Avalon and me. Jack finally turned the jacket around to show the back, the shoulder section sewn over with a lace that looked a hell of a lot like Avalon’s wedding dress and I found myself stunned into shocked silence. It was incredible.

I walked into that motel with no hopes of any sort but what I seemed to find amidst those disgusting teal walls was better than I ever could have expected.

I took a step forward to take the jacket from him, grazing the sleeve ever so gently with my fingers as if it were going to break under my touch. Jack passed it over and helped me slide it on to make sure it fit. He brushed his hands over my shoulders and down my back to smooth it out and directed me to one of the many mirrors that were glued to the motel wall.

“That jacket is fresh.” Jonah said.

“It’s…gorgeous.” I agreed softly, turning slightly to see the back in the mirror.

Jack spoke next as he watched me admire his work, “She worked me into the ground for this one. I kept having to restart because she kept saying it wasn’t perfect enough…I lost a fuck ton of materials and money through that…ended up getting evicted from my place because I wasn’t earning money to pay rent which is why I’m living in this shithole now but…she was adamant. Said it had to be perfect for you. We were going to meet up one last time once you two got back from your trip but…” he faded out with a sigh.

I turned to him, “You were evicted?”

“Oh,” Jack shrugged as if it was no big deal and sat down on the end of the bed, “Yeah. She said she couldn’t pay me right away and I assured her it was no big deal but then when money got tight I felt badly to ask for an advance. She was my only client, ya know? She worked me hard enough anyway to pass as my only customer but…with no pay…landlord ended up kicking me out and this was the cheapest place in the whole county. It’s such an absolute fucking dump here that my daughter isn’t allowed to come visit me until I get back on my feet…court said something about unfit living situations or some bullshit. Not like my ex needs anymore reasons to talk shit.”

“Shit…bro…I’m sorry.” I breathed.

“What can ya do?” Jack shrugged, sucking his teeth with a shake of his head. He stood up from the end of the bed, offering a dry, “She’s dead now anyway so…”

I turned to Jonah who gave me a look as if to just get out of there but I looked back in the mirror at the jacket I wore.

Goddammit.

I spoke to Jack through the mirror, “Do you take PayPal?”

Detective Team: @jonahlovescoffee​ @randomlimelightxxx​ @stuffofseaveyy​ @hopinglimelight​ @tempus-ut-luceant​ @br4nd1s​ @xkelsev​ @hiya-its-amber​ @sexyseavey15

[brideofcthulhu10]

The Lost Boys Find Out Their Fem!S/O is Pregnant [4/4]

SUBJECT WARNING: PHYSICAL AGRESSION, SEXUAL THEMES AND A WHOLE LOT OF SWEARING. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

Alrighty then, my lovely fang babes! Here we are, we have the last of the first edition of the pregnancy saga! Worry not, dearest readers, for there is hope! I plan on doing a separate series about going through the pregnancy, and maybe even going through the childbirth with how the boys are as new dads. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more, and by tomorrow night we'll have a whole new set to love!

It was such a blast writing Paul's, I'm not gonna lie I got lost in the magic! We have a cute little character cameo for all you 80s movie nerds, lemme know if you can figure out what it is! So, without any more delays; here he is. The gorgeous, the goofy, the one, the only:

PAUL

Today had been an unexpected challenge. You barely got through your shift at the record store, every time you were in light it made you dizzy. Hangovers had nothing on this! Did you drink too much the night before? No, now that you thought about it any attempts to drink had you hugging a toilet. Not to mention your period was late as hell! Well, not the cramps, go figure. Just no blood. None at all. 

You never let on to your beau, Paul, though. The party boy vampire would become overly worried if you told him you were sick, and you weren't about to spoil a good time with a bit of nausea. So here you were, stumbling about the day into the late afternoon absolutely miserable. Your manager Iona offered you some crackers and ginger ale during your lunch break. No dice, within an hour you were running to the bathroom again. 

"Gosh hon, I dunno what ta tell ya. Maybe you ate something nasty, I told you that boardwalk food was fishy," Iona sighed, poking at her own lunch with a fork. Currently your coworker Andie was watching the front until you were feeling better.

"Kill me now, Iona," you groaned, chin resting on the table with your arms laid over your head. Then there was a smell. The greatest, most flavorful, mouthwatering scent you've ever experienced. Like a honey baked ham and a New York sirloin had a glorious new baby drizzled in ecstasy. Glancing over, your stomach growled at whatever it could be. If this were a cartoon you'd be flying to what it was.

Oddly enough, it was coming from Iona. Well, whatever black stuff was in her little plastic tupperware dish. Who cares what it was, it smelled incredible.

"Hey uh..," you asked, leaning over towards the sticky, mysterious delicacy calling your name. "You wouldn't mind if I had a bite, would ya?"

"You sure, hon? This isn't exactly your average dish, it's kinda weird," she tried to explain. God you couldn't take your eyes off it! Finally, your merciful manager pushed it your way, and you couldn't resist any longer. 

"I don't even care, this is the first thing in the past two days that hasn't made me nauseous," you muffled between cosmic bites.

Oh shit, this was heaven! It had to be some sort of meat, it reminded her of a nice spicy kielbasa, a slow roasted brisket, every second it changed to some new world of food you had never tried. What it was didn't matter by this point.

"Wooow. I've never met someone who liked black pudding that much."

Pudding? "I thought it was meat or something? It doesn't taste anything like pudding," you insisted, polishing off the very last specs of it. "Got any more?"

"No, no, not like chocolate pudding or stuff like that, kiddo. black pudding. It's this dish from the UK my new boyfriend made me. It's congealed pig's and cow blood mixed with spices."

You made a face. Blood? Like, blood blood? The cow equivalent of what Paul drank on a daily basis? Yet this was the first time you didn't puke, in fact, you kinda wanted more. Even knowing what is was made of.. for some reason you craved more. Meanwhile Iona continued to talk on and on, until one phrase caught your ears. "Yea, ya know my mom was so into for the longest time. Said she craved it her whole pregnancy, I never got a taste for it honestly."

A single thought popped into your head. A dangerous, foreboding thought that your intuition said was very much a possibility. In a flash you jumped up, nearly slamming your hands on the table. "I gotta go. Oh shit, I gotta go! I'll be right back, I swear, I'm so sorry, I swear to god I'll be right back," you shouted as you bolted out of the store.

"Wait what-?!"

You'd make it up to her once you got back. You had to know! You had to be sure..! Please just let it be paranoia! Please let it be anything, anything at all besides what you thought it was!

Once you reached the nearest CVS you made a B-line to the women's health section. Your hair clung to your face, your lungs stung like crazy but all you could think about was getting answers. And cue the disapproving glare of some old bat picking out a box of pads. Alright being 17 in front of the pregnancy tests looked bad. You weren't just a high schooler, you looked it too. "What're you looking at, " you snarl. Immediately she clutched her pearls, startled by this abrasive youngin' in no mood for dirty looks. God why'd there have to be so many options? Pink boxes, purple ones, bright yellow insisting it worked the fastest. The heavy fluorescent lights were no help at all, it made your head spin. You had no time for this crap. In a sweeping motion you grabbed three different brands and threw them into your basket, all you needed was….where was your wallet? Shit... Glancing around you checked for any nearby cameras or staff. Karma be damned, it was an emergency! Five finger discount it was. 

Once again you made a mad dash back to the record store as the sun finally set. All three boxes were crumpled in your hand, your boots running so fast it you hit a rock that'd be it.

But getting back to the record store was your best bet. You weren't about to pee in some dirty, old, nasty pharmacy bathroo- oh fuck. There was something that finally slowed your steps, nearly making you trip in the process. Four bikes parked right outside. Three of which were occupied by by Dwayne, David and Marko all talking amongst themselves.

Shiiiit, shit, shit! All you could do was swear repeatedly. Before they could spot you, you practically dove into the alleyway behind the store, rapidly disabling the alarm. If that went off it'd be a dead giveaway. Quickly you looked left and right before you slammed the door shut behind you still trying to catch air.

But there, right past the door to the employees lounge, over by the counter you could see a mass of blonde hair chatting away with Iona about Led Zeppelin's best album to date. Paul, gorgeous as every, laughing. It made your heart flutter, but then it sank. What if it was a-... He was never the type to run away from a challenge. But then again, a kid wasn't a challenge, it was a massive ordeal. It would take a huge chunk of his life- well, afterlife! Boozing and cruising would be switched out with drowsy days and busy nights. You weren't sure if you wanted him to know if you were, it would take all that from him. Unfortunately, he must've smelled you or sonething, because immediately he turned around like a puppy being called.

"Babe," he cheered with delight, rushing over to hug you. Rather squeeze you by your hips and lift you four feet off the ground. Quickly you stuffed the skinny boxes into your back pocket, now smushed up against his chest. "Where were you? Ion's said you just bolted mid-shift, we were worried sick! Well, I mean, I was more worried though, cuz I can't stand you bein' gone, kitten."

"Well, yeah uh, I forgot something I had to get at the store, and I forgot what time I got off," you hesitated, still antsy to escape to the bathroom. Truthfully you didn't actually want to, you had to! If you could, you'd just kiss him and ride off into the night to raise some hell like you always did. But this was too big to ignore.

Paul raised a brow. You weren't known for being this jumpy. You wouldn't look him in the eyes, they just kept darting towards the bathroom. Boy, you really did look sick, though. Pale, almost greenish with dark circles under your eyes. You even felt colder than usual. "Am I uh, interrupting something, babe?"

You managed to work out if his arms, giggling nervously. "Actually I-I had some of Iona's lunch earlier, and I just, gotta- be right back!"

With that, you bolted into the bathroom and slammed the door behind you. Again, weird. Paul just shrugged, maybe you had some bad Mexican.

 Iona wasn't convinced. Little miss jumpy-pants skipping out on her, you owed her an explanation. While Paul perused the albums she sunk over to the bathroom, rapidly tapping on the door. "Y/N! Psst! You good in there, hon?"

You were most certainly NOT good! Your hand shook, the third test finally finished. Not like it mattered! They all said the same thing. Every fucking one of them.

Positive. Positive. Positive.

No, no, no!

"Shit," you hissed. "Shit! Oh shit, oh fuck! Fuck-fuckity shit fuck fuck! Dammit." That's all you could do! You swore over, and over, and over, rapidly kicking the wall in front of you. Stupid pink plus! Why? Why did it have to be a plus?? Immediately you threw it in the trash and scooped up the other two. Maybe they were all flukes? Maybe only a doctor could tell you! You had to get home. Like now. Right now, you just had to rush home, make an appointment at the doctors, maybe hide in shame for a few days just until you could figure out what the hell to do with all this! Once again you wedged the tests in your back pocket and nearly tripped, cracking open the door to face your boss. "Iona, I gotta get home."

"Seriously, Y/N?? Why? What is with you?"

"Please, I swear I will make it up to you, I'll take a double shift, I'll wash your damn car-"

"Oh no, nuh-uh. Not until you tell me why you're being such a spaz," she practically shouted in a hissing whisper, absolutely exasperated. You teens and your drama, when she always said she wanted to fell young again this is NOT what she meant!  

"Listen i-... iyay amyay egnantpray," you whispered. Pig latin. It was a little code you two usually reserved for secrets. Well, that and talking smack about snotty customers. But wow was this a big ol' secret. 

Iona covered her mouth. Oh, you little idiot! You poor little idiot. Looking over at the unsuspecting boyfriend she sighed, looking you in the eyes. She wanted to just tell you to come clean to your man. The boy hung around you constantly, you two were the ultimate it-couple, there wasn't even sparks it was like watching supernovas. Something this big.. it shouldn't be left in the dark!

But that pitiful expression on your face just begged her to keep quiet, and frankly it wasn't her place to tell you what to do- well, at least in this regard. "Alright, alright. This saturday you're taking my night time shift, there's a big concert I wanna go to. And you gotta wax my car, it's gettin' nasty. And you better write the best damn apology note in the history of apology notes, sweetie. This is huge, you better come clean to him eventually, or I'll kick your little butt you hear me?"

"Yes. Absolutely, fine, deal. Just please, please keep him busy, I'm not ready to tell him," you whined, clutching the door. Frankly it sounded like a piss poor plan, but it couldn't be helped, not right now at least. You didn't have the strength to confront the situation head on, you were barely keeping it together. You wanted to cry all over, jump into his arms and come clean now, but this was neither the time or place.

As soon as Iona went to go over to Paul you stuffed the tests into your purse and bolted out the back door, only this time stealth was not on your side. Right at the mouth of the alleyway, just as you were about to be home free- you ran smack dab into a particularly lithe blonde that felt like a brick wall. You went flying onto the ground, your purse crashing onto concrete with a hundred pieces of your privacy going every direction. In a panic you began to rapidly stuff it all back, barely able to hide the first two tests as you threw some half baked apology Marko's way. Honestly he deserved a better one than that, but you were too frazzled to be fair at the moment.

"Oh shit, Y/N," Marko exclaimed, immediately kneeling down to help you gather the scattered remains of your purse. "Sorry, I didn't even see you, I was coming back for a smoke. Big Ed is such a douche, can you believe theres no smoking on the-..." His words trailed off, and you shortly saw why. Grasped between his pointer finger and thumb was the little pink strip, and a look of complete disbelief. All you could do was snatch it from him, a heavy moment of silence magically muffling the wild noise and shouts of the busy boardwalk. 

"Do...D-Don't worry about it. Look, I gotta get home, I'll see you arou-," you started, trying to jump up, maybe catch him off guard and make a run for it. Not this time. 

You hadn't even noticed he grabbed your wrist, it was such a blur. He stayed silent, standing up and looking right into your eyes with hidden malcontent. You swore if you answered wrong this mischievous cat would tear your throat out. After all, you were his best friend's girl. If you did anything, ANYTHING, to hurt him... Well, let's just say a pregnancy would be the least of your worries. "Why are you running, Y/N? What the hell is this thing," he asked quietly, eyes flickering between red and blue. "Did you…?"

"Oh don't fuckin' even," You snapped, smacking his arm, yanking your hand out of his grasp. "Of course not! You butt! God, are you serious? What do you take me for- No! I- fuck I just- no!" You kick the tin trash can beside you, watching a plethora of trash fly into the air. "I am freaking out! Of course it's Paul's. Oh fucking god, it's Paul's and I don't know what to do!"

Marko's expression softened, placing a hand on your shoulder. "Hey, I didn't mean to make it sound like that, Y/N. Paul's my friend, I just had to be sure you weren't sneaking around, you know?"

You sighed, pushing back your mess of a hair with misty eyes. This was perfect, a real big screw up from start to finish. All you could do was look over at Marko with pleading eyes. "You can't tell him yet. Please, just please please PLEASE, Marko, don't tell Paul yet!"

"Tell me what, babe?"

Shit. Shit on a stick. You looked behind to see Paul halfway out the back door with a look of concern, one that he rarely carried. You and your dumb mouth, go figure.

The blonde pushed through and let the door close behind him, looking over at his best bud standing alone with his girlfriend who was begging him to keep something secret, from him no less.

 "Marko?"

"Nah, nah, don't look at me man, this is all on you guys," he sighed, hands up in a shielding motion. "Good luck buddy. Gotta go, Y/N." with that the young vampire excused himself from this melting pot of drama, hands stuffed in his pockets. 

You just stood there, keeping the little strip tightly grasped behind your back. Paul was silent, but glancing at his hands you saw they were balled so tight his knuckles were white. "P-paul…," you hesitated, biting down on your bottom lip. "I should really… get home.."

Paul only raised a brow, glancing at your arms still tucked behind you. This wasn't like you to hide from him, and that alone frightened him. Nothing had ever frightened him before. And he didn't like the taste of it one bit. "What's behind your back, babe?"

"What?"

Again his spoke, this time his voice lowered into a low growl. "What... do you have... behind your back, babe?" The way he said it was so firm, it made you shake a little. You didn't like stern Paul. They way he hissed the word "babe", practically spoken through clenched teeth

Your throat ached, eyes darting across the ground struggling to think up a good excuse. Anything. A book, your purse, a surprise for him! Anything!

"N-nothing." Apparently, you failed to find any excuses. Great.

Paul's knuckles began to crack, jumping forward to try and snatch it from behind you. When you dodged him, he grew even more furious. You both began to struggle, pushing him away, insisting he just stop and let you leave. But every attempt to reject him only upset him further. Why were you hiding things from him?! How could you just ditch him at the record store when he was worried sick about you??

The struggle built up until finally he had enough. His eyes turned white with rings of fire, brow looming heavily over his eyes and fangs jutting out where his incisors once were. In a flash he grabbed you by you wrists, pinning you so hard to the wall it shook. You still tried to struggle. Thrash, kick, squirm! Steel wished it could be so strong, your muscles ached. This probably wasn't even his full strength, but it dwarfed you in comparison. This terrifying side of Paul you had certainly seen before, but never had you been on the receiving end. It was in all sense of the word, predatorial. He'd never try to kill you, but you still felt that horror build up inside. Rapid, sharp breaths made your chest heave, too afraid to look up at those red eyes still fixated on whatever you kept hidden from him. He continued to pry your stubborn fingers open, ignoring your shaking whimpers. He squoze your wrist, the tendons aching and contracting until your fingertips began to lift up. Any resistance was pretty much useless at this point, but dammit you still tried everything to worm out of his grip. But he had finally had it, you weren't gonna be keeping secrets from him. Now your last finger was pushed off, and he could see what was so damn important that you physically fought him to keep it secret. It was almost slow motion the way the strip spun to the ground, clattering down and landing beside his mud caked boots. He froze, slowly looking down at it. That's it? That's all you-...

You could barely read his face, so many different emotions flashing across it all at once. Occasionally he'd look back up at you, then back down at it. To the point you almost got annoyed that you were still being stuck to a wall while the reality set in. After all, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know what that was, just put you down already!

Paul looked at you still pinned beneath him, horrified at how he lost his temper and immediately released you. Still rubbing away the pain across your wrists, you watched him pick it up. A wave of guilt swarmed your body, you didn't know whether to hug him or punt him in the chest.

Hell, a massive tidal wave of guilt overflowed him too. It'd been such a long time since he got that angry.. but worst of all he'd never been like that with you. Never grabbed you so forcefully and ignored your pleas, it was a dark side of him he never wanted to display in front of you. Glancing at the little pink plus at the end of the stick, his mind swirled with a plethora of questions. But slowly he stood up, looking down at you still really trying to process everything that had happened in the past few minutes. "I don't… I don't understand.."

"You- You are such an ass," you shouted out of nowhere, enough that it made him jump. There you were. That's the fiery girl he knew, not the one he exactly wanted to be on the opposing side of at the moment, though.

Paul wasn't surprised you were pissed, but he definitely didn't expect you to start punching his arm. Again. Then again, and again you just kept hiting his arms, his chest, pushing and crying, you were so mad you wanted to chuck him in the ocean! It didn't really hurt that much, but he felt awful he drove you to that point.

Tears blurred your vision as you lashed out on him. All you could do was yell names between sobs, even whack him with your purse. "Paul, you absolute jerk! Butt! Jackass! You smarmy, half wit, blood-sucking tool! You said you were packing blanks, you absolute liar! I was gonna tell yo-! I mean, I know I shouldn't have run-! But you just couldn't wait- and then Marko- and you! You ! Jerk ! Butthead !"

"Hey, ow! Ow! Ow, dammit! I know, I know I went to far-ow not the hair dammit," he demanded, grabbing your arms before you could lay another mighty blow. "Babe! Babe, stop! I thought I was! I swear I didn't know- I-..I never thought that I could get you...." His hands slowly released your shoulders, moving to your hips. "I'm so sorry, baby. I swear, I didn't know.. I'm so sorry."

The way his voice softened only made you want to cry more. This whole day was a mess. You didn't mean to try and run.. You never should've tried to in the first place. God, you were so tired. All this running around, all this secrecy, the fighting, it was exhausting. Paul was the last person you wanted to fight. Sure you had spats and a few heated arguments. Every couple did, even vampires. But this, it was just so.m draining. With a firm thud you plopped your forehead on his sternum, your fingers tightly clinging to the upper sleeves of his jacket. "Wh-what am I supposed to do-… what are we supposed to do now..?"

Paul pondered his options with a solemn face, but there was only one that made him happy. Only one that sat right in his heart. What else could he possibly do, there was only ever going to be one answer even if you told him right away. Most of all, he couldn't stand the sorrow in your eyes. A frown never suited such a beautiful face. He never expected there to be anything to come from your heavy sexcapades, it never seemed like there was any risks in it. He'd never seen a vampire munchkin, least of all he'd never even heard of a vamp conceiving with a human. All he knew now is you, crying in his arms, terrified of what you were carrying. What it could mean. In that moment, he steeled his resolve and came to a final decision.

Silently he tilted your chin up, using his thumb to brush away all those tears staining your cheeks. Those blue eyes, you could get lost in them. Swallowed up by the sea. It wasn't hard to read his mind when he held onto your hip with one hand, while the other that pushed away salty droplets now cupped your cheek. Within moments you crashed your mouth into his, wrapping your arms around the back of his neck.

Warm. A surge of heat filled your body. It was the first time you felt truly alive all day. You could feel your chest heave against his, you didn't want any space between the two of you and only pressed tighter until there wasn't anything left. Each kiss gave momentary breath before you dove in for more. Neither of you could stop. You didn't want to pull away, not even for a split second. The way he smelled, the way he tasted, the way he touched you, the way he felt beneath your fingers; it made your head spin. His hands began to wander, you clutched at anything you could get a hold of. Your body burned, so sweet and long. In those moments the world stopped, it just melted away in streams of light. No one was there but you two. 

It was over too soon, both of you rapidly panting for breath still intertwined. Oh, how you could stare into his eyes forever.

That frown was long gone, replaced by a tender smile. The one he had come to cherish. Paul chuckled softly, breathlessly nuzzling against your collar bone. Slowly he leaned in close to your ear, his disheveled blonde hair brushing up against your cheeks. Lips trailed up flesh, reavhing just beneath your ear. And then you heard those three forbidden words. Such sweet, tender words, you hadn't expected him to say. Although he whispered them so softly they might have gotten lost in the wind, to you they were as clear as the moon on a cloudless night.

"Y/N.... I love you."

It made your heart throb, you thought you might even faint. A lifetime of struggles led up to this beautiful moment. You never expected it to be a half-undressed heavy make out session with your vampire lover, the father of your unborn spawn, in the back alley of a record store on the Santa Carla Boardwalk. But here you were, nestled between him and an old brick wall. Paul loved you, he had said it, he finally said those words that could destroy any doubt you had. And more than anything in the whole wide world, you knew once and for all, you loved Paul.

[thatssokatsuki]

I Do Adore || Shoto Todoroki x Reader

Pairing: Shoto Todoroki x Reader Song: Mindy Glandhill - I Do Adore Summary: A normally calm and straightforward todoroki finally surprises you with one of the most romantic of gestures. Warnings: fluff  Word Count: 1,492

Everything you do it sends me Higher than the moon with every Twinkle in your eye You strike a match that lights my heart on fire

Todoroki is a relatively quiet boy, and very straight forward overall. He is really really sweet but hes also not very good at the surprise romantic gestures. He always either tells you first, or asks something that gives it away, however its really really endearing when he tries. The happiness that shines in your eyes when he presents you with flowers or anything else he gives you is enough for him to keep going and keep trying. Today is another day in which he tried again, without trying to tip you off either. He went out to the floral shop earlier that day, picking up a bouquet of your favorite flowers, and once he got home, he out them in a vase to keep them alive until it was time to finally to go pick you up. He then goes into his room and spends the next handful of hours preparing. He picks out the suit in which you said you had loved the most, fixed his collar, and debated putting on a tie. Just as he was looking them over, he decided it would be better to just leave the top button undone and wear the matching vest instead, skipping the jacket anyways, although he decided to at least bring it along incase you got cold. On his way out the door he slipped something into his pocket and quickly patted down the flower stems before tying a beautiful red ribbon around them.  

When you're near, I hide my blushing face And trip on my shoelaces Grace just isn't my forté

A soft knock taps on your door just as you were putting on your shoes. You called out that you’ll be there in just a moment, hopping over trying to put your shoes on at the same time. You knew you should’ve started getting ready sooner, but you were honestly stuck on what color theme to do that you just kinda.. lost track of time. You managed to get your shoes and step down onto both feet right before you opened the door to find your softly smiling boyfriend holding both hands behind his back. He stated that you looked absolutely breathtaking, and you had returned the compliment in kind before accidentally tripping as you went to step out of your own door. He went to catch you, revealing the bouquet he had hid behind him. He held you close and chuckled to himself as your face turned that soft shade of pink that he loved so much. You stay there a moment, not wanting to move due to your embarrassment, hiding your face into his chest. He makes no move to remove you either, finding it both adorable that after all this time you still get embarrassed and flushed around him. You eventually manage to pull away, saying something about not wanting to be late.

But it brings me to my knees when you say Hello, how are you, my darling today? I fall into a pile on the floor Puppy love is hard to ignore When every little thing you do, I do adore

He just smiles in response, making sure to hand you the flowers that you had briefly forgotten in the moment prior, smiling brightly as you bring them to your face, closing your eyes as you smelled the sweet and floral scent radiating off of the flowers in hand. This was pretty routine, but you still loved it every single time. They were arranged a bit differently this time, but you just figured he had wanted to switch things up a little like he does every few months. You give him a sweet kiss before heading to the car, leaving him to be the one blushing this time around. You looked back and giggled at him before walking back and grabbing his hand and drag him along. He finally snapped out of it at the doors, and proceeded to open yours for you so you could get in. Once you both are situated in the car, you place your flowers down in the backseat of the car and plug your phone in to play some music. You hit shuffle and almost like fate, you were hit with a mix of sweet love songs, and he couldn’t help but smile to himself hearing your beautiful voice singing along next to him. 

We're as different as can be I've noticed you're remarkably relaxed And I'm overly uptight We balance out each other nicely You wear sandals in the snow In mid-July I still feel cold We're opposites in every way

It became apparent in this moment just how different the two of you are. Your singing and dancing along to the songs, whereas, despite the growing smile on his lips, he has a relatively cool demeanor overall. That is what everyone said made your relationship so perfect, though. You had brought him out of his shell and got him to try wild and crazy and new things,, where he had brought you back to earth and helped you be at least a little less reckless. To everyone around you, it was obvious how much opposites really do attract, and how much love was truly shared between the both of you.

But I can't resist it when say Hello, how are you, my darling today? I fall into a pile on the floor Puppy love is hard to ignore When every little thing you do, I do adore

An hour or so passed once you reached the restaurant, and you both had a wonderfully good time just talking over food and wine, oblivious to the hand he would sometimes drop underneath the table. You typically thought nothing of it as he typically had a habit of adjusting his shirt or vest when wearing something that wasn’t more casual. What you didn’t realize, however, was in those brief moments, he was making sure the small box hadn’t escaped his pockets. Once dinner was finished and paid for, left overs placed in their respective boxes, and those boxes placed into the car, you both had decided to walk around the night market nearby for a while. You had taken him by the hand as you walked and checked out as many small stalls as you could, sometimes buying something that would remind you of eachother or something you thought would just be cute around the house. He had wondered off for just a moment, and you had assumed he had simply went to the bathroom until a few moments later when you felt someone place something on your head behind you. He had then hugged you and mumbled into your shoulder that he thought you were already beautiful as you were, but he thought the small crown he had placed upon your head just a moment ago would only add to the beauty he had already seen. You giggled and reached up, touching the ornate piece gingerly before turning around to kiss him. 

Finding words, I mutter Tongue-tied, twisted Foot in mouth, I start to stutter Ha, ha, Heaven help me

A few minutes later had found you both standing near a decorative well that was in the middle of the park in which held the gorgeously lit shopping area. The moon was glowing above brightly, adding an extra romantic flair to the evening. You sat down on the ledge, wanting to rest your aching feet for a moment, when your normally relaxed boyfriend seemed to become a bit more jittery. He had taken your hands in his and kissed each finger tenderly, causing you to blush and giggle to yourself, caught by surprise by his actions. You were caught even more surprised as the calm man from just minutes ago nervously got down on one knee. Admittedly you were confused, not really knowing what was going on until he had pulled a little black box out of his pockets and began to fumble a bit over his next words. He briefly talked about how much he had truly loved you and how grateful he was to have you in his life and how, if you would let him, he would be forever grateful to have you there next to him for the rest of his life. He paused for a moment as you had gone to cover your mouth, tears of both joy and shock starting to fall from your glistening eyes. He then took a deep breath and looked up at you, and asked a fated question in which you were already nodding your head in response too. “Will you marry me?”

Hello, how are you, my darling today? I fall into a pile on the floor Puppy love is hard to ignore When every little thing you do, I do adore 

[hecohansen31]

I Know The Signs Of The Ancient Flame

College Student! Michael Langdon+Classical Student! Reader.

(A/N): Hello there, lovelies!

How are you? I haven’t published the fic for a while, and I am still scared shitless about publishing this kind of things, because it doesn’t have smut and it is.. more about a ‘guilty pleasure’, than anything!

But I still hope you’ll like the idea behind it! (Also if this interests you I have done a similar piece about classical culture with Xavier, which you can find HERE).

As always: any feedback is welcomed, let me know what you think about it, whether it’s positive/negative (just remember to be kind): hearts, reblogs and comments all go straight up to my heart!

Have a nice day!

PLOT: Stuck in a tiny elevator with your ex-boyfriend, you suddenly discover that your story might be more classical than you thought.

WORDS:3,4 K

WARNINGS: Angst, Past Trauma, Break-Up, Classical Annoying Things, Claustrophobia, Claustrophobic Spaces.

You seriously should have known better than to simply hook-up with some of your fellow schoolmates, mostly when group projects were around, and you had been paired with the boy who had broken your heart: Michael Langdon.

You had started a relationship with him with no interest other than for the sex, which was amazing from the rumors you had heard, and which you could confirm with some of your own.

But then for you it had become more.

Michael had heightened your perception with a softness he had shown only to you, making you think you were special, different from a simple hook-up.

But then things had stared becoming more difficult than you had originally believed they truly were.

Michael ignited stupid fights and he would get on your nerves, making you feel like who was truly doing the most in your relationship was you.

In the end, he had just given up: one night you had fallen asleep with him and the day after that… he was gone and when you had tried to confront him, he had shooed you away.

This was enough to leave you heartbroken, even more since you shared a few courses, so you had to actually face him constantly, although you had become especially talented at being as cold as him.

That was till the day your teachers had thought it would be a good idea to set you up on a joined project for your final paper, since you had both expressed your interest in the same theme: the fourth book of “Aeneid”.

What your Latin Literature teacher hadn’t understood, other than your barely contained hatred for each other, was the different point of views you beheld on the subject.

Whereas you had a more lenient thought towards Dido, knowing all too well what it felt like to be seduced and abandoned, Michael didn’t understand her cry and need for Aeneas, decidedly classifying her as a rather maniac desperate woman.

Whereas you thought that Dido’s suicide was caused by Aeneas and the most tragic of tragedy in the entire epic poem, to Michael it was nothing more than a last gesture of revenge, a useless reply to a man who had told her ‘no’.

You weren’t in the slightest in the mood to talk with your ex about this, mostly when all he kept on doing was blabbering his own opinion as if it was the best.

After the teacher had assigned your homework, you had both insisted on the possibility of a change of partner, which wasn’t possible, since he thought that your diverging opinions would work well in a debate.

Which was stupid, according to you both, to say the least.

After you had exited the classroom, definitely scorned, Michael had followed you, even after you had suggested you two just worked on your own things and then put them together, once you were finished with your researched.

‘It doesn’t work like that!’ he had mumbled, annoyed ‘I don’t know about you, but I am honestly trying my best to get a decent grade in this class…’.

‘This is why I am telling you to leave the entire thing at me’ you had shot back, meanwhile you went through the lawn of the college park, trying to quickly get away from him.

‘I…don’t think that you should do everything alone…” something in his tone seemed rather embarrassed, but you didn’t dare to turn around to check on him: you knew all too well what his blue eyes could do to you “… the teacher actually paired us together because of our contrasting ideas…”.

‘Which means that if we work together all you’ll do is try to convince me that your stupid opinion is the best one’ you replied, moving onto the first library you could find, almost having the satisfaction of closing the door in his face.

‘… well if you start up with that attitude we certainly won’t have a nice experience’ he commented, stopping the door from closing just a few minutes before it might have slapped on his face ‘… I am no asking for you to stop this hostility, but maybe… just to soften it’.

Yeah, of course, he could come back whenever it was useful for him…

What a dick.

‘… go to hell, honestly’ you simply mumbled back at his proposal, sneaking in the elevator and again Michael managed to catch the ride with you, which would make the entire thing quite more awkward.

‘Very mature, (Y/N)’ he mumbled, meanwhile he set himself on your side, as you huffed “,,, that is why we broke up, honestly… you always see your single point of view and nothing else”.

You were ready to properly reply to him, but suddenly the elevator went black and a strange noise was heard before the elevator shook lightly, under your feet, sending you against Michael and making you both fall on the ground, you on top of Michael, before the light reappeared but not the movement of the elevator.

“What the fuck?!” mumbled Michael, meanwhile you felt him shifting nervously under you as you tried to get away from him, to reach for your backpack which you had lost due to the sudden shake “What the hell is going on?”.

“I think that it is probably an alien invasion” you joked, immediately pushing yourself up to use the emergency button, knowing all too well that in some pretty shitty situations the elevator of the college library would stop working.

All you could do was just wait.

With your ex, in the same small place.

“… did this thing just broke?” Michael looked seriously panicked at the sole thought of it being, indeed, broken and you couldn’t help but smirk just to spite him, nodding lightly.

“This shit hasn’t been working properly since I first came here, we’ll have just to sit here and wait for the technician” for which you weren’t ecstatic, since you were stuck there with your idiotic ex, but there was no other way.

You would just put your headphones on and ignore all the incoherent mumbling that Michael had to say to you.

… and then you saw him crunching on the ground, his face definitely paler than it was healthy and in an attempt at human decency you reached out, immediately startling him, with his eyes going to the closed door, blocked due to the elevator having been stuck between floors.

Nothing too bad, the electricity had probably run out and the technician would have to just push and pull on a few things to get it work again.

“… Michael… is everything ok?” his breathing was shallow and sweat was drenching his perfect curls (you had once noticed a hair curler in his bathroom but hadn’t made any questions).

“No…” he swallowed a deep intake of saliva, before his breath went back to being even shallower “… I hate… fucking… closed spaces… I am scared… shit… fuck… by them”.

The revelation honestly surprised you: he had never talked much about himself when you were together, or better… he had talked about himself a lot…

All his best points, the perfectness of his features and the elegance of his steps, the way he was so smart that every teacher loved him, whether or not they approved of his methods or not…

… but he had never spoken or confessed to you why some nights he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep till you joined him in bed, or when he would wake up from nightmare and hold you just a bit tighter…

… he had never explained to you what had troubled him and in the end it had become heavy in your relationship, one of the many reasons why you had broken up eventually, feeling like he was just withholding important information from you, and it hurt… to know he didn’t think you were worthy of that intimacy.

You didn’t have many experiences with claustrophobic people, you, yourself weren’t a big fan of small spaces, but you had learnt to live with them (mostly since your apartment was the size of a shoe box) but you thought that water and slow breathing might help.

You took out your precious water bottle from your backpack: it had been decorated with a shit ton of stickers you had gotten from Michael, who would bring them over to you at first as a joke and then as a true gift.

You had thought about getting rid of the painful water bottle, but you couldn’t help but think it would be a waste, and in the end kept it, although sometimes you would look at a particular sticker and memory would bring you back to that moment when you had been happy with Michael.

Michael seemed a bit taken aback by what you were offering him, but he took the water bottle in his hands, gulping a few good sips from it, before he splashed some on his face, gaining a bit of color, which made you let out a breath of relief and move closer to Michael.

“Everything is going to be alright” you tried to make him relax, honestly wanting to touch his shoulder, to let him know that you were there with him, but you didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, alongside that you weren’t sure that you would be able to stop yourself from touching him any further “… Michael you just need to take a few deep breaths, understood?”.

“What if the oxygen runs out and we end up dying for asphyxia?” he shot back, but did as you told him, meanwhile you rolled your eyes at him.

“… and then I was the anxious one” you muttered under your breath “… then you should better shut the fuck up”.

Michael couldn’t overlook the sarcastic annoyed tone you took and shot you back a rather pretty smirk, although it wasn’t as energetic as it would have been, hadn’t he been having a slight mental breakdown a few minutes before.

“You know that I can’t shut the fuck up to save my life”.

Oh, you did perfectly.

Michael was always the one who would say the more hurtful during your fights: he knew exactly where to hit and sometimes he just couldn’t hold his tongue to save his life, hence you hadn’t been able to stop yourself from shattering in front of him many times.

He would always come back to you, asking for forgiveness, as a child.

Those were the only times he would allow you to see the trauma he had gone through.

“… well either way, I am going to put on my headphones, so Taylor Swift will cover your voice in 1. 2…”.

“Maybe this is a sign” spoke Michael, catching your attention for the cryptic phrase “…that we are meant to discuss about the entire ‘Dido and Aeneas’ debate”.

“That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say” you replied, shooting him a look that ‘kindly’ invited him not to say anything, anymore “… and I have heard you say a shit ton of stupid things”.

“Oh… I remember that you quite liked when I would whisper at your ear…” he retorted, and this time his smirk was full-blown.

“… I honestly preferred you when you were not breathing” you mumbled, although you didn’t plug your ears yet with your earphones “I don’t see how we can debate on such things: I believe that Dido was a fucking tragic heroine who got more than she bargained for, for daring to love Aeneas, a dick who left her, because Fate had plans for him… I hate that asshole and you won’t convince me in any way to change my opinion”.

For all your life, Dido had been the scream shout by women who loved too much and got, literally, burned by it, and after Michael’s betrayal, you had felt even closer to the epic heroine.

You certainly didn’t glorify her last choice but understood the way she pushed the blame onto Aeneas and did the same as you analyzed the book, from your point of view.

“Aeneas couldn’t just say to the Fate ‘hey, dude, I just have fallen in love with a girl, so maybe… I might have to stick to Carthago, for longer and never found Rome’. It was simply impossible for him… he couldn’t have done that”.

“He loved her, and he might have stuck and fought more for that feeling” you mumbled, almost burned by Michael’s affirmation.

“You are truly naïve, (Y/N)” mumbled Michael, shaking his head slowly “… you always think that a thing as small as love can fix anything: he fucking couldn’t let love blind him, he had Lavinia waiting for him on the Roman shores!”.

“But he loved Dido, he said so, the cave… the…” you were just rambling right now, the way he spoke Michael didn’t accept any objection.

“… he didn’t love her, he just found her suitable for his plans, he used her” Michael’s tone was final.

“… so, you won’t deny me, at least, that Aeneas was an asshole?” you replied definitely all angered.

“He did what he had to do” he mumbled, as if he wasn’t proud of Aeneas’ behavior, as if it had been his, some kind of sadness shining in his eyes as he sent her a little look as if he wanted to see her reaction to the entire thing “… there are some things that are waaay out of our control”.

“I think that is what weak men say when they can’t do something, because they don’t want to” you whispered, and this got definitely to Michael, who turned to you, his eyes extremely icy.

“Why can’t you just convince yourself that sometimes some things are better on than off?”.

And that, this time, got to you.

You got to your feet, immediately coming closer to him.

“… are you talking about our relationship or ‘Dido and Aeneas’?” you shout “… because I was not the one who took off in the dark of the night! I would have fought, but maybe it is, indeed, better off than on! It makes things easier, definitely”.

You then moved to turn around and seriously sat onto your place again, with headphones on, but this time Michael’s hand shot out to get to you, making you turn around, and although you were expecting him to be angry at you, he looked devastated.

“I fucking saw you being miserable with me” he commented “… yeah we had the best highs I have ever had in a relationship, you made me feel so good, but then… the lows were so ugly and too many and…”.

“You were fucking the one who didn’t want to work in that relationship!” you retorted, pointing your finger at his chest “… I was so so fucking in love with you, butterfly in the stomach and all that shit… but you were always closed off, you didn’t let me in…”.

“Because I am fucking rotten, (Y/N)!” he screamed in your face and before you knew it he was up in front of you, his face all red due not to anger towards you, but to anger towards himself, something that broke your heart.

Truly.

“… all I do is take and destroy and that was what I was doing to you, the only good thing in my life”.

Silence broke down between the two of them.

Michael also shifted his sight onto the door, pushing it so he wouldn’t be facing you.

You still were able to stare at his distorted reflection in the side of the elevator: he was a few minutes from crying and again… you searched out in your backpack to find a box of tissues.

You moved closer as if you were cornering a scared animal, holding the box between you two in order for Michael to grab it at its own pace, which he did, almost stealing it from your hand, and scrunching it closer to himself, almost pushing it onto his chest.

“… thank you” he mumbled, softly “… I am sorry for this entire thi…”.

“You thought that you were protecting me…” you mumbled, catching immediately his attention, although your words were resentful, your tone wasn’t, blocked onto a calm uniformity “... but what you didn’t understand was that I felt shitty in these months… even more than when I was with you, which might be crazy…”.

“I felt also shittier, if it might help” mumbled Michael, a weak smile onto his face and you moved down to sit next to him, your shoulder budging against his.

“It does, you should feel shitty for letting me cry over you, asshole” your tone was in no way mean, neither it held that bitter sarcastic bit it had at first, a lighter teasing one that brought some kind of beauty onto your face, making Michael beam at you.

“Oh c’mon, you might say that, but deep down you obviously still love me” he retorted, shifting his face to your side, making you smirk lightly “… you have to admit it”.

“And you have to admit that you are an asshole” you answered back, this time definitely more aggressively “…Michael, all you needed to do was talk to me, I can handle things I am a big girl”.

“It isn’t that easy” Michael’s face was again hiding from your glare “… people like me can never ‘just talk their problems out’, you don’t know how people look at me, whenever I tell them… they look at me like the monster I fucking am…”.

He got up, swiftly, and then moved to the opposite side of the small elevator.

“… maybe Aeneas just wanted to stop Dido from being hurt, that is why he ran away, he had a fucking pissed goddess on his shoulders, why would he want to involve others in his shitty mess”.

“Because she fucking didn’t care of that pissed off goddess!” you shouted back, gaining his interest and when you turned around his eyes were teary and her gaze softened “… I wouldn’t have cared and I wouldn’t have run away from you, Michael”.

“You don’t know… what I…” he tried to push you away, but you raised onto your feet.

“… I don’t care, because you took care of me when I had a fever, you made me tea whenever I was panicking and you brought me stickers because they reminded you of me” your smile was sad “I loved you, truly”.

“I still love you, truly” Michael’s word were extremely honest and you just were left with your mouth open, surprised by the thought that Michael ever loved you, and blushed, lowering your eyes, but just when you were…

… the elevator shook again, signaling that it had started working again.

You were again pushed against Michael’s chest who protectively draped a shoulder over your shoulder, before the elevator regained its power and started again his movements quickly reached the chosen floor, the door opening to reveal two annoyed technicians.

You couldn’t help but blush thinking that maybe the two must think that you might be the one who actually stopped the elevator to spend a ‘romantic moment’ there.

Michael thanked them for their work, before he pushed you away from the elevator, after he had dragged your backpack out of it with his foot and you pushed it over the shoulder, smiling politely before you sprinted away from ‘the crime scene’, Michael behind you.

You both reached a more secluded area, Michael smirking lightly over to you, although his expression had some nostalgy to it.

“Well that was a fun experience” he mumbled, his hand onto your waist, more out of habit than anything.

“You shitted bricks for half of the experience” you replied, smirking at him, before you brushed a few of his curls away from his face “…you are an idiot”.

“You liked this idiot” he retorted, and you weren’t able to deny the truth anymore.

The knowledge of his insecurities might have definitely gotten into you.

“I did”.

“We could give a happy ending to Dido and Aeneas… we could be the one who stayed together” he proposed.

You were a bit uneasy trying things again, mostly because if Michael left you again, you weren’t sure you would have survived again, because of the pain, but the smile on Michael’s face as he gripped onto your hand as you nodded, was the best thing ever.

But you stopped him from actually kissing you, as he leaned in.

“We have homework to make”.

And then you sprinted off, Michael on your tail.

You would be fine, Michael would be fine.

And it was all because “non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco” (“not unknown to being unwell, I am learning how to help those in need”).

---

So as always: feedback is precious, even more lately, when during the holidays us writers get no notes, so don’t be a bad people and share the fic if you liked it, saying something, it literally takes you a few seconds, and it makes us writers happy!

With this being said, here are the people of my stable tag-list (if you want to be added/removed, just shoot me an ask!).

@emmyrosee​ @blakewaterxx​ @lovelylangdonx​ @so-langdon​ @1-800-bitchcraft​ @rosegoldrichie​ @lathraios​ @rocketgirl2410​ @kaetastic​ @frenchbread4ever​​ @melodylangdon​

[quixotic-writer]

The Rain at Sunset

Song request by: @jentheone12

Song inspo: Have you Ever Seen the rain — Rod Stewart

summary: (moreso implied vulquinn rather than blatant) Q is a mess and Sal is there to console him after leaving his fiancé. They sit together in the car at an overlook and Q finally feels like he can talk about it.

TW: depressive themes

———————————————————

Q sat in the quiet solitude of his home with thoughts brewing about in his strewn head. There was a sledgehammer cracking at his ribs and a mallet pounding in his brain and all he wanted was for it all to just stop already. His head peeked over the comforter of which he had cocooned himself in to stare at the one item to his name: his joker bust figurine. The night came flooding back vividly into his head, the series of events that left him broken and bitter.

He felt so foolish that he lied to himself for so long that everything was fine. It had grown so exhausting putting on a mask for everyone so they wouldn’t worried, and the one person he thought he could open up to honestly didn’t care. He was over it, but the cost of it all was becoming too heavy a burden to bear.

His phone chimes and signals an incoming call. Picking it up and looking at the caller ID, he saw that Sal was calling.

“Hey Sal.” He says in a hushed groggy tone into the phone.

“Hey buddy, was wondering if you just wanted to hang tonight?” Q shut his eyes, he wanted nothing more than to just sink further into the springs of his mattress until he disappeared, he felt a lack of motivation to try and go out let alone clean himself up to do so. Looking out the window he realized the sun was close to setting, another day had already slipped through his fingers.

“Not feeling it really tonight.” He honestly answers.

“C’mon, just a car trip around the island. Get some fresh air. You don’t have to really get cleaned up, it’s just me.” He hears the tone in Sal’s voice and knows how worried he is. He’s one of the few people that tried to get Q back and up on his feet. Almost every night after he left his fiancé they’ve either been on the phone, at either of their homes, or out somewhere. It was helping in a way, it helped to cheer him up and distract him a bit. Maybe being alone all the time was a lot more dangerous than being out and miserable for just a little bit.

“Okay, okay. I’ll get out of the house for a bit.” Q caves and forces himself out of bed.

“I’ll be over soon then, okay?” Their call ends and Q’s feet finally meet the cold hardwood ground for the first time today. He steps into the bathroom and turns on the lights and is met with his ghastly reflection. His hair was a mop atop his head, dark circles pulled at his eyes, and he hadn’t shaved in a little bit but that detail was the least of his worries. He looks into his reflection’s eyes and sees nothing but a sense of emptiness and sorrow.

“God what the fuck happened to you?” He speaks to his reflection wanting an answer or a healing solution to the conundrum he’s fallen into. He splashes cold water on his face and brushes his teeth to try and change what he can about his appearance. He shuffles out of the bathroom and puts on some half decent clothes, he didn’t want to look too disheveled.

As he finished getting himself ready, a knock echoed through the house. He opened the door and there stood Sal with a hoping smile, in his head he was hoping that today was a better day for his best friend.

“Hey Bri, you’re looking a little better today.” He goes to wrap his arms around the man that stood in the doorway. Q returns the gesture but is slightly scared that Sal might hug more tears out of him, that is if he had any left to release. He pulls away scared that the embrace might lead to spilling emotions.

“Let’s hit the road then.” They both pile into the car and they were off on the road. Q was silent majority of the ride, unsure of how to add to the conversation without bringing down the mood. So he sat there and listened to the radio and the gibbers that came out of Sal as he spoke and it made him feel almost content. Q kept his eyes out the window watching as the clouds gathered in and sky turned a brilliant sherbet orange with cool grey colored clouds littering the atmosphere. Soon droplets of rain fell from the sky and tapped onto the windshield and grew into a steady drizzle.

Eventually Sal had pulled off over to a scenic tourist spot that overlooked the town and put the car in park. They sat in silence for a moment to take in the sky’s ever changing colors as the sun sunk down below the line where the sky and the sea met and watched as the windshield collected more raindrops that slid down once they were too heavy. Q looked out longingly doing some internal soul searching in the quiet.

“I know today is a hard day for you, I can tell.” Sal placed a hand on Q’s shoulder, Q’s gaze never diverted, they remained fixed on the outside world. He felt lost in his mind and was trying to find his way out of the maze, but that meant having to confront all that’s been happening and that scared him more than ever.

“I saw it coming, but I ignored it willingly hoping it wouldn’t happen. I wanted to hold onto whatever I had left.” Q sighed and let out a defeated chuckle. From the moment she called him on that cruise, he just knew that there was a strain. Sal didn’t say anything, but he lowered the radio and focused all his attention to the man that sat next to him. “The moment she got in the car when she got home, I just knew. It all just went downhill so much faster than I ever imagined it could. I’m not blaming all of this on her, but boy did this really break me down man.” Q begins to feel everything well up and break down all at the same time.

“I’m glad you’re talking about all of this, I worry a lot about you, you know. Just know you’re not alone in this. It was the calm before the storm. Everything seems chaotic and bleak, but know that this too will pass one day. Maybe not today, but tomorrow’s a new stepping stone to being better.” A brief silence filled the car as Q tries to hold back tears.

“Sal, have you ever seen the rain coming down like this at sunset?” Soon the heavy waters from his eyes begin to trail down his cheeks, and it felt good, it felt like a release of pent up emotions. “I just want this all to wash away like the rain and end like a sunset.” He chokes on his own breath and hides his face in his hands and quietly sobs. Sal rubs gentle circles on his back allowing him to let out everything that he had built up.

“It’ll take time to heal, but i’ll be with you every step of the way.” Sal couldn’t stop giving reassurance to Q, it was all he could say and all he could do was hope that Q knew every word he uttered was spoken with honesty and care. He had seen Q broken before, but this was unlike anything he had seen, and he knew Q would need him more than ever.

“I think I need to go to therapy...” Q spoke in broken fragments.

“If that’s what will help you, then you’re making the right choice. It takes a brave person to get the help they need.”

“Sal?” Q lifted his head from his hand to look at Sal for the first time this whole car ride.

“Yeah, Q?” Q’s lip quivers and the tears began to fall harder and faster down his face.

“Thank you for being my support. Without you and everyone else with me, I don’t know what i’d do.” He wraps his arms around Sal and holds him tight. Audible cries slip past his lips, but he had reached a point where he no longer cared, he just wanted to release it all already rather than hold it in any longer.

Until the sun had descended below the horizon, the two remained in the quiet of the car with Q in Sal’s arms unraveling emotionally before him. The only sounds they could hear was the pitter patter of the light rain, the hum of the car engine, and the heart-wrenching sounds of Q slowly beginning to heal.

[sugarcrash]

Clumsy // Ethan Dolan

 (A/N: So, I’m taking up writing again, now that I’ve gotten the swing of things in the new school year! Feel free to request! Also, ya’ll better be grateful, this took a long time to write and it’s 4,396 words lol)

Summary: When Y/N gets clumsy, she ends up making a mess - on Ethan Dolan. So how will it go down when they meet again?

Warnings: Swearing, quite a long intro (lol sorry)

*****************************************************************

“Ugh.” Y/N groaned at her phone. The alarm had been going off for the past minute, blasting the same annoying tune into her ears. Rolling over, she hit the “stop” button on the glowing screen.

The girl turned to snuggle back into her sheets when the door opened, revealing her mother, who was still in her pajamas.

“Y/N, you’ve really got to stop setting that thing so loud.” she complained. “It’s woken your brother up twice this week, and I honestly can’t handle it anymore.”

The young lady smirked into her pillow. Her 10 year old brother, Tyson, was a crazy creature when woken up early. She heard his tinny little voice singing the obnoxious Pokemon theme song, and it was clear he was seeking attention.

“Ty!” her mom stalked to the little boy. Y/N listened in silence as she heard her mother scold him for almost waking up their cranky father.

Just as she was checking the time on her iPhone, her older brother, Asher, appeared at her doorway. “Hey nerd, gonna get up or what?” he raised an eyebrow. 

Y/N let out a sigh and shifted her head to meet his eyes. “Just because I wear glasses doesn’t mean I’m a nerd, y’know.”

Asher rolled his pupils to the ceiling. “Well, the glasses and the fact that you’ve never gotten a grade lower than a straight B.” he knew she couldn’t argue with that.

“Whatever. Now leave so I can get dressed.” he did so, shutting the door behind him.

Y/N lugged herself out of bed and stared at her body in the full length mirror next to her dresser. She rubbed her tired eyes before glancing at the digital clock on her wall, which read 5:30 am.

“Why does school have to start so early?” she whined to herself as she bent over to her drawers, shifting through them before finding some simple black leggings and a pale yellow sweatshirt, one of her favorite outfits.

Before Y/N threw them on her body, though, she gave herself a quick sniff. Sure, she’d taken a shower last night, she smelled fine, but the bra she had been wearing for the past two weeks did not. She quickly changed her bra and panties before noticing there was a red splotch on her underwear.

“No, no no! Shit! You’re not supposed to be here for another week!” Y/N grumbled. Thankfully, she never put her tampons in the bathroom. Not only is it farther away from her room, so she’d have to run in bloody panties, but Asher and Tyson would probably find them.

She reached to her secret stash in her nightstand, pulling out the familiar blue-wrapped tube.

After she put in the tampon, she shoved on her clothes and rushed to brush her teeth. While she was doing so, Y/N received a text from her best friend, Lola.

*Text*

L: Hey babes!

L: How ya doing?

Y/N: Not good, Aunt Flo decided to visit

L: Aww u poor thing! Cramps start yet?

Y/N: Nope, just waiting in agony. I hate having to walk around school with a little box of tampons

L: U can do it! For women everywhere!

Y/N: Cheers, bitch

*End*

Y/N spit the foamy toothpaste down the drain, watching it swirl as she got lost in her thoughts. Wasn’t that math quiz today? No, that was tomorrow. Would she see her crush, Alex? Would he acknowledge her?

“C’mon, dork, if you want a ride, get a move on!” Asher announced, walking down the hallway. Y/N grabbed her laptop and phone from her desk, brushing her hair as she made her way down the stairs. She grabbed her backpack from the coat rack, shoving her electronics and hairbrush inside before checking to make sure her tampon box was ready to go.

In the little flimsy plastic pouch she had found in a tampon kit for this very reason, there were three orange paper tubes. With a sigh, she stuffed them in her low side pocket on her leggings, throwing on some random socks and her Adidas tennis shoes.

Y/N checked the time again. 5:45. School started in around 20 minutes, and it was 15 or so minutes away from the house. ‘We’re gonna make it’ Y/N decided as she pulled her hair into a quick ponytail.

With her backpack over her shoulder, she wen to the kitchen to look for breakfast when Asher shouted “Think fast!” Before she knew it, Y/N was hit in the face with a breakfast bar.

She leaned over, face twisting into a mad expression when she saw what it was. She picked it up, then complain loudly to her 18-year-old brother. “Asher, you idiot!”

“Keep it down! Dad’s trying to sleep!” her sleepy mother came downstairs, Tyson weaving in between her legs.

“Mommy said that’s a potty word!” he announced, making Y/N roll her eyes. She needed to escape this mess, so with her breakfast bar in hand, she turned the handle and stepped out the front door. 

She hopped into Asher’s worn-down pickup truck, a gift from their grandfather on his 16th birthday. Y/N’s older brother soon appeared in the driver’s seat, using the key to start the car. Y/N pulled some headphones over her ears and let the music consume her.

A few minutes later, Asher pulled his car into the school parking lot with an abrupt stop, as to get Y/N’s attention. He lunged forward a bit, her headphones slipping off her ears.

“We’re here, sis.”

“Well, duh, I know.” the 15-year-old grumped.

“Alright, then get out.”

Y/N huffed and opened the car door, stepping out and taking a deep breath before starting toward the doors.

She looked down at her phone, and the time read 6:10. She had exactly five minutes before classes started and she was in trouble.

Y/N practically ran to the front doors, almost falling twice before reaching them and yanking the metal handles, revealing a main area full of students, most groggy.

She rushed to her locker, twirling the familiar lock to the right combo when Lola appeared next to her. 

“Hey, hon.” she chirped. Lola had always been a morning person, whereas Y/N was not.

“Hey.” the girl’s locker swung open, the small mirror reflecting her face. She gave a little smile to it before stuffing her backpack inside the cold metal space, grabbing the materials for her first class, language and literature.

“Aren’t you so glad that we have lang and lit this hour? Poor Maddie, having to go to math first.”

Y/N nodded her head just as the warning bell sounded, demanding that students get themselves ti their classes before they needed a  late pass. “Better start walking. We don’t need Mrs. Cooper getting mad at us again.” she nudged Lola, teasing her for yesterday’s mistake.

“Okay, okay, shut up.” she groaned at the memory. “Don’t look now, but someone’s right there!” her voice dropped to a singsong-ish whisper, and Y/N blushed, knowing just who she was speaking of. 

She glanced and caught his eye as they passed. His.

Alex Kallio’s.

The brown-haired boy had been Y/N’s crush since eighth grade, but he never noticed her. He fit in with the popular crowd. She did not. It only actually worked in movies.

“Y’know, Hayden was over there, too.” the girl told her friend. Her cheeks instantly flushed, and Y/N smiled. “You can’t deny it anymore.”

“I don’t have a crush on him! God!” her face was adorned with playful annoyance as the young lady next to her rolled her eyes, showing that her little love was all too obvious.

“Sure, whatever you say.”

“Stop it!” Lola whined. They pretended to be mad at one another before looking at one another, bursting into laughter.

They then reached the door. “Wanna know something?” Lola asked Y/N, who nodded. “I think one of the Dolans was totally looking at you.”

“No way. They’re, like, the most popular sophomores. And so handsome.”

“Looks like someone has two new crushes. Move over Alex, here come Ethan and Grayson.” the two giggled and took their seats just as the teacher walked in.

“Good morning, class.” Mrs. Cooper spoke, her voice filling the room.

“Good morning, Mrs. Cooper.” the class groaned back.

There was a click from the door and in waltzed the Dolan twins, goofy smiles on their faces. “Sorry.” they apologized together, but it was clear that the word meant nothing.

“Boys! We’ve talked about this before, you can’t continue to be late to class every day!” Mrs. Cooper scolded the teens.

Y/N raised her eyebrows and closed her eyes, her ears soon filling with the daily lecture on how it’s important to be a good student, and blah, blah, blah.

The twins sort of just stood there, secretly stealing looks and rolling their eyes at their friends, showing that it was clearly not a care. Then Ethan caught Y/N’s glance for a split second, and that’s when she realized she’d been staring.

“Lola!” she hissed at her friend. “How long was I looking?”

The girl let out a giggle. “The whole damn time.”

Y/N groaned and hid her face in her hands at Lola’s response, lifting it up only to see that class was starting.

*Time Skip*

Finally, 4th period. Lunch. Y/N could finally hang out with all her friends at once, rather than having to pass along notes and retell stories over and over again.

Y/N subconsciously walked into the cafeteria, lost in her thoughts. She found herself heading over to the lunch line, thinking about her love life.

“Do I really want Alex? What about Ethan? Or Grayson? I suppose there’s always that one kid, Adam, who’s always been nice to me.” she thought to herself, grabbing a tray from the stack.

As she made her way down the line, she noticed that the kids at the popular table somehow got a hold on a small foam football. She shook her head, getting a focus back on reality, rather than daydreaming and watching.

Y/N waited patiently as the long line got shorter, until she was next to get food. A school cook scooped some spaghetti onto her little tray, along with some salad.  Just as she had gotten out of line, she turned to her usual table, where all her friends were placed. 

Y/N began to fast walk toward them, not looking at her surroundings. Neither was Ethan Dolan, who, at the moment, was making an attempt to catch the small football before it hit the ground. He caught the ball in a jump and settled on the ground

Y/N was walking forward, but her head turned when she looked across the room, getting back to her thinking. She headed straight toward Ethan and, BAM! They collided.

Y/N spaghetti flew out of her hands , landing on her favorite sweatshirt with a thump, probably leaving a stain. She fell backwards onto her butt, the small tampon pack in her leggings flinging out, unclasping and sending the products all over the floor. 

Ethan had barely flinched at the contact.

He took a look at who had crashed into him, before realizing what a mess the girl was in. He immediately ran to go get napkins for her, as she got herself up and tried to gather everything.

People started to laugh as they noticed what had happened, and Y/N felt hot tears begin to prick at her eyes. “I’m so stupid, so clumsy.” she thought.

Ethan came back while she was still attempting to clean, though it was hard. She sat on her knees for a moment, resting her hands on her sides before feeling around.

Her tampon box was gone. Y/N started to mentally freak out, now frantically looking before someone found them and she got even more embarrassed. But it was hard to search, seeing that her eyes were blurry with tears.

“Hey, are you okay?” Ethan asked. Y/N only nodded her head. “Are you looking for something?”

She was about to nod again, stopping herself and realizing that, if she told him, he’d want to help, and he’d have to know what it was. She decided against his help, responding with a short “No.”

“Well, it looks like you are. Here, I’ll help.”

Y/N panicked as he looked on the floor, trying to find something that he didn’t even know what it is was, before his eyes settled on the bright orange tampon wrappers, along with the little blue box. Y/N was doomed.

The muscular boy picked them up and smiled, proud of himself that he did something right, but then Ethan realized what they were.

Both sophomore’s faces flushed with embarrassment as people realized their predicament, roaring with laughter around them.

“A-Are these yours?” Ethan asked sheepishly.

Y/N snatched them out of his hand, touching it for only a second, but long enough for something to spark. She looked into his eyes, then tore her gaze away, sprinting out of reach and into the empty hallway.

Once alone in the girl’s bathroom, Y/N broke down, tears running down her cheeks. Her favorite sweatshirt was ruined, she embarrassed herself and a popular kid in front of the whole school, and her crush would probably never look at her again.

The door burst open with a bang, hitting the wall behind it, and in came her friends Lola, Maddie, and Zoe.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Maddie asked. 

“We saw the whole thing!” Zoe exclaimed.

Lola sat down next to Y/N, and the two other followed. They gave her a huge group hug and let her cry.

After Y/N was finished, Lola suggested that she get a new shirt. The girl agreed, and the four went to the office to look for something in the lost and found.

“Well, honey, why don’t you go look in the bin? There should be a shirt or two in there.” the secretary told the girls.

They sifted through the large blue bucket and found two shirts, an old white one that smelled awful and was looking a little yellow, and a stupid Lego Batman shirt that was in pretty good condition, but smelled as if someone mixed too much cologne and sweat together.

“No doubt, these are from the boy’s locker room.” Zoe pinched her nose with her left hand as she used the right one to hold the shirt far away from her while she examined it.

“Whatever. At least it’s better than the one I’m wearing now.” Y/N grabbed the dangling shirt and sighed before marching to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Y/N came back into the office. The shirt fit her perfectly, giving a sign that it was probably from some nerdy kid with no build whatsoever.

“Oh, good, sweetie, you found something. Now, you kids better get back to class before your teachers get mad.” the secretary instructed. The four girls nodded and headed out.

Once alone in the hallway, Maddie spoke up. “Okay, like, I know this whole thing was traumatizing for you, Y/N, but can we just talk about how cute you and Ethan would be?”

Zoe and Lola laughed, but Y/N quickly clamped a hand down on Maddie’s mouth. “Don’t! Someone could hear!”

“Yeah, but it’s not like it’s a false statement.” Zoe giggled.

Lola smirked. “Totally. I ship.” 

Y/N covered her ears, playfully getting annoyed at her friends and running ahead of them, making the girls chase after her. They reached the sophomore hallway, laughing as they rushed to their lockers as to not be later than they already were.

Y/N collected her binder, pencil case, and laptop before turning to her friends. “Bye guys, see you after class.”

“Bye.” they called in unison.

The rest of the day went on painfully slow, and Y/N was called out several times during the day, getting comments on how she was clumsy or embarrassing. But there were always a few nice kids who asked her if she was okay.

By the time the bell rang at the end of the day, the girl was exhausted. Sh had been assigned at least 5 pages of homework, and probably an essay or two. But she couldn’t really say, because she hadn’t been paying that much attention.

To top of all the bad luck of the day, Ethan hadn’t looked at her again. No matter how many times Y/N attempted to catch his eye, he’d purposely turn his head the other way. They both knew what he was doing.

“Fine then.” Y/N thought to herself. “Save your ego. Can’t have anyone catching you look at me.”

She then blushed, realizing she was getting mad at him like he was her friend. They had barely ever interacted, why was she feeling and acting this way?

Y/N met Asher outside of the school, in the student parking lot. He was already in the car, obviously annoyed that his little sister had taken so long.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she babbled apologies as she clambered into the car and buckled up. Though she would never admit it, she tried to impress her brother and stay on his good side. He was in with the popular crowd at school, and she took every chance she got to look cool to him.

“Yeah, whatever. Listen, I heard what happened to you today.” Y/N’s face flushed red when he brought up the memory. “I know you had a bad day, so I’m gonna give you a deal. It’s a one time thing, though, okay?”

He turned to look at Y/N, and she nodded. 

“If you want, you can come to this party with me tonight. I’m hearing that some of the sophomores will be there, too, so it’s not like you’ll be alone. You wanna go?”

“Oh, yeah. That sounds like fun.”

“Okay. We’re leaving at 8:30. If mom or dad asks, we’re going to the movies with a few friends. I will not have my night ruined by some kid who can’t keep her mouth shut.”

His sister pursed her lips, showing that her lips were sealed. He put his key into the ignition and started it, driving back to the house.

Once they arrived from the ten minute drive, Y/N raced straight up to her room, taking no time in saying hello to the rest of her family. Really, though, it was only her mom, because her dad was at work and Tyson was still at school.

Y/N immediately texted her friends about the party.

*Text*

Y/N: Guysss!!!

L: Wat

Z: What is it??

Y/N: I’m going to a party 2nite!

M: R u serious? How?

Y/N: Asher

L: Ah, that makes more sense

Z: What r u gonna wear?

Y/N: idk

M: Well, when r u leaving?

Y/N: 8:30, why?

L: IT’S 3:30 U ONLY HAVE 5 HOURS TO DECIDE WHAT TO WEAR

Z: R U INSANE HURRY

M: U guys r so overdramatic

Y/N: Agreed. Will text when I have perfect outfit.

*End*

Y/N set her phone gently on the bed before turning it off, going over to her dresser and rooting through it to find the perfect combination of an outfit.

She pulled out various dresses, skirts, pants, and shirts, sifting through each one carefully and pairing together different items that may look good together. Y/N tried on each option before settling on the perfect ensemble, one that was casual but cool at the same time. “Coolsual”, she called it.

Y/N flopped onto her bed and flipped open her laptop, going to YouTube to entertain her for a few hours before she showed her friends what she’d be wearing. 

Eventually, time passed (though Y/N would admit quite slowly because of how excited she was to go to this party)

She threw on her outfit, a skin-tight black off-the-shoulder top that adorned long sleeves, paired with a pretty black and white plaid skirt with a small chain hanging off the hip and connecting to one of the belt loops. Y/N also had on knee-high black socks, and finished off with a slight coat of make-up.

The girl stood in the mirror, snapping a picture before sending it to her awaiting girlfriends, who responded with “omg!”s and “love it!”s.

Y/N smiled at her phone, knowing they would’ve said the same thing if she staples herself in a trash bag, even if she knew they were lying. 

“Are you coming or not?” Asher yelled from the bottom of the stairs up to her room. Y/N hadn’t realized the time and yelled back in response, grabbing her purse and heading downstairs.

She pulled on some quick tennis shoes, not wanting to be bothered with the burden of having heels on, even if they weren’t that tall.

“Finally, you slowpoke, I texted you only a million times!” her older brother complained.

“Girls take longer!” she complained, but the both of them knew that she was just lazy in getting ready.

Asher chuckled and shook his head at the younger girl. “Whatever. Let’s go.”

They started out the door and into the driveway, entering the car. The senior put his key into the ignition and they drove the 5 minutes in silence to his friend’s house.

Once they arrived, Y/N noticed that there were so many more people than anticipated. She could already tell that this wasn’t going to be as fun as she expected, and she recognized no one out on the lawn.

“Whatever.” Y/N thought to herself. “I’ll just hang out by the cooler the entire time. No big deal.”

But she was lying to herself, and she knew it. It was a big deal, seeing as she was never one to be so involved with large crowds of people. She had her group of friends, and that was all she needed. Nevertheless, she snapped out of her thoughts and brought herself to push open the car door. 

The minute they stepped out of the vehicle, Asher was swooped away by his friends, no surprise there. Y/N, left to fend for herself, went to the food. It was in the corner by some chairs anyways, so it was a nicer place to be alone rather than out in the sea of bodies that were dancing, some quite inappropriately, she may add.

Suddenly, the girl felt someone sit next to her. Y/N turned her head to find Amber, a girl that she sometimes talked to in her math class. They were getting to know each other pretty well, finding things in common when they had the time.

“Hi.” the brunette spoke, a bit quietly. It could’ve just been the loud music, but Amber was a known introvert, so it was a surprise to see her in a place like this.

“Hey. What are you doing here? I wouldn’t expect to see you at a party, no offence.” Y/N responded.

“None taken, and I could say the same for you. My friend Samantha dragged me here. I don’t know why though, because she knows I don’t go to these things.”

“Ah. My brother offered to take me, since I had a pretty bad day, but I realize it’s definitely not my scene.”

Amber hummed in response, and the two girls people-watched for a few minutes, until Y/N noticed a certain someone in the crowd.

Ethan Dolan.

He stood next to his twin, Grayson, talking animatedly to a few of his friends. Y/N hadn’t noticed she was staring until Amber poked at her side for the second time.

“Y/N! Earth to Y/N!” she called, before noticing who she was looking at. “Ooh, you like him?”

“Yeah.” the girl called absentmindedly, unaware that Amber had even asked a question, let alone what the topic was.

Amber squealed. “Oh my god! It’s gonna be hard to get to him, though, he practically has a line of girls waiting for him.”

“What?” Y/N turned to Amber. “Please explain, I have no idea what you just said.”

As Amber talked to the sophomore next to her, unbeknown that she was being watched.

From across the room, Ethan was looking directly at her, watching as she talked to a girl that was probably in the grade, but never bothered to learn who she was.

Y/N and Ethan had only ever crossed paths a few times, seeing as she was obviously less popular than he. But after today, he felt butterflies dashing around in his stomach, and he wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or having a crush.

Little did he know, Y/N felt the same way.

Whatever the feeling, the muscular boy decided to suck it up and go talk to her. On the other side of the room, Y/N was oblivious to his attempts to get her attention.

After a few minutes, her gaze eventually shifted to him, and Y/N grinned at Ethan when they made eye contact. He ended his conversation and sauntered over to the sitting girl.

“Hey.” he spoke, causing Y/N to blush a little bit. She couldn’t believe it, a popular kid, talking to her. Willingly.

“Hi.” she quietly spoke, afraid that she would mess something up. The two sophomores looked at each other for a minute, small grins on both of their faces.

“So,” Ethan broke the ice. “How are you doing after today? Y’know, with the whole cafeteria thing...”

Y/N silently thanked him for asking “I’m doing good. Unfortunately, my favorite sweatshirt was ruined, but it’s okay.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I should’ve been watching where I was.”

“No, no, it’s my fault.”

The taller boy breathed out of his nose before speaking again. “So, see you around?”

“For sure.”

With that, Ethan left Y/N to go find his friends once more. What they didn’t know is that both of them felt the same feeling of butterflies invading their bodies, jittery and nervous.

Alex Kallio who?

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #273

ew, wtf is this new /tagged formatting???? ugh.

What is something you dislike about the dating world? I haven't dated around enough to have first-hand experience, really. But from an outside view, people don't seem all that interested in serious commitment. Don't fwm if you aren't into the idea of working towards a whole lifetime together. What gives you confidence? Bitch nothing lmao. Have you ever dated someone with very different sexual tastes than you? No. What is the most meaningful gift you’ve ever given? Both Jason and Sara got a huge list of reasons I love them for certain relationship "milestones," both which really did take a long time because there were loads. I did it with each because I really did feel like it was a very personal, uplifting, and full-of-adoration gift, not just for the sake of recycling an idea because I had no others. I have a shitload of romantic ideas, ngl man. Do you feel as though someone ‘won’ in your last break up? Neither of us "won" or "lost," really. It was a mutual agreement that now just isn't the time for a relationship between us. Whatever happened to the first person you ever loved? Sometimes I'm scared to know. Do you still shop at the same stores you liked when you were a teenager? Yeah. Thankfully Hot Topic became more accessible to plus-size people. Is there anyone significantly older than you that you would date? No. I won't go over like... nine years. Even eight it pushing it. Please share your embarrassing and weird celeb crushes. Post pictures. What do you like about them? I don't have any "embarrassing" or "weird" ones. What is something your partner does that is unattractive to you? N/A What is something that would have made the show better/you would have liked to see happen on one of your favorite series? I honestly wish Weed in Ginga Densetsu Weed was more realistic and realized Hougen was worth killing himself. The lightning seemed cheap and anti-climactic. He had EVERY reason to kill him, and it sounds weird to consider killing as a form of growth, but I feel like it would've been. Maybe that's just a personal thing, believing killing is sometimes justified, but it actually annoyed me. Nevertheless, fucking fantastic show. How do you feel about celebrities that are silent about political or human rights issues? Do you think celebrities should use their platform to speak out? I have... mixed feelings. I think most of me says to use their prominence for good, to be a loud voice to look up to and bring greater attention to issues, but at the same time, some people just like/feel safer being non-political. When you were a kid, what child characters did you admire or relate to most? BINDI IRWIN!!!!!!!!!! I still follow and fucking adore her. Y'all she recently got married and she is just so beautiful and so happy and the Irwins are just genuinely angels on this earth. Tell me about a time that you were bored in a relationship (can be romantic or friendship). What was it about them/the situation that bored you? I've never been romantically bored, and not really with a friendship, either. Sure, I've been bored in another's presence, but it was never a consistent issue. Who’s your favorite Tiktoker? I have never even touched it. How high or low is the barrier to entry in your field or desired field? It's tough, but not that high. More than anything, photography depends on who you know to help get you out there, sadly. It's luck, too. There is most certainly skill involved, but yeah... building your brand up to stand out with only your own hands is ridiculously hard. But that's really any small business/self-employed position. Where would you look if you were looking for a job (e.g., indeed.com, company websites, asking a friend…)? I've pretty much always used Indeed, or I hear from family/friends. How much lower than your ideal salary would you take? What would the job have to entail for you to take a less than ideal wage? Hi, I live in America, where the government doesn't give a fuck if you can support yourself on minimum wage or not. :^) But anyway, this is a difficult question to answer with how little experience I have. I can say, however, that I will fucking not work to just barely scrape by with minimum wage. If I'm going to bust my ass, it's gonna be fucking worth it. Even if you were able to support yourself/your own family, would there ever be a situation in which you would choose to live in a shared house with another family or individual, be it your parents or a sibling’s family, or some other housemate? Sure, I wouldn't mind. Especially family. Do bridges make you nervous? To a degree. Are there any movies that you find so dumb, you find funny? Napoleon Dynamite, of course. How often do you vacation? Pretty much never ever. Do you think it’s cruel to leave a live fish to die in an ice box? I am genuinely concerned for you if you say no to this. Have you ever done anything sexual with someone of the same sex? Yes. Have you ever pawned anything off at a pawn shop? No. Do you have stomach abs? OH, HUNNY- Do you know anyone who is trying to physically impersonate a celebrity? No. Have you ever seen a shuttle launch? I mean, on TV, but even then I didn't seriously watch it. Are we having signs of the apocalypse? I don't believe in the "apocalypse." We're going to fall through natural methods. We're definitely heading deeper into destruction in some ways, though, by our own hands. I'm quite sure humans themselves will be the end of humanity. Would you rather see The Blue Man Group or Fear Factor live? BLUE MAN GROUP!!! They're dooooope. Do you have any exciting plans for this upcoming weekend? No. I'm staying in the goddamn house like we're fucking supposed to. What color of colored contacts would you like to have? To wear regularly? Sapphire blue. Ohhh, maybe one that, and the other icy blue. What’s on your bedside table? It's more a shelf than a table, so I have quite a bit. My medicine basket, fan, a drink, books, sketchbook, some other miscellaneous things. What’s on your bed? A bedsheet, comforter, two pillows, and me, ha ha. Your floor besides furniture? Nothing. Your dresser? All my meerkat stuffed animals, plus some others. The top shelf in your closet? Ha, good question. Are there any dead stuffed animals in your house? No. What’s the best prize you’ve won on an amusement park/carnival game? *shrug* Have you ever done anything sexual in a school? No, I was a good noodle. Have you ever been indoor skydiving? No. Would you have any interest in going on a cruise? Not really. What did you have for dinner last night? I made some hot wings. What's your ideal indoor temperature? High 60s, ig. It’s hard to really tell because my room is always the hottest in the house and I have a fan on me, so I don’t really feel the “normal” temperature most of the time. Does your kitchen have a theme? No. What's the grossest thing u have found in your food? Probably nothing worse than a hair or something, idk. Are you a flip flop lover? I am NOTORIOUS for wearing flipflops absolutely year-round. A little bit of snow on the ground? I’m wearing my gd flipflops because they’re just easy to slide on and I care about convenience probably too much lmao. What namebrand dishwashing liquid do u use? … Dawn, I think? I don’t really pay attention. Do you like ice cream sandwiches? UGH yesssssssssss hunty. Do you prefer hard or soft shell tacos? I hate tacos, but I’d definitely rather have a soft shell than hard. Ever worn a flower in your hair? Maybe as a kid? Name five random things in your kitchen? Nothing abnormal, really… no, wait. You know those sticky cylinder things that flies are attracted to and die a slow death for their brazen intrusion upon your property? We have one of those hanging up in there. Magnets and pictures on the fridge is considered pretty normal, right? Name four things in your fridge? Milk, apples, a bigass bag of pepperoni, and some cold water bottles because I strongly prefer cold water. Name two things in your meds cabinet? We’ve got a load… Different kinds of pain pills, things like Pepto, etc. Name six things in your family room? A couch, a reclining chair, the TV, Mom’s bed, loads of pictures on the walls, and uh… sidetables? Name three things in your bedroom? My snake, my bed, and my dresser. Name three things in your yard? A bird feeder that squirrels like to steal from, a random fucking dolphin statue thingy that deadass looks like a distorted dick (it’s been here since we got here, idfk), and two sheds. Name two things in your bathroom? Our bathroom is tiiiny, so very normal stuff. Y’know, a toilet and sink. What health problems do you have? A lot that I don’t feel like thinking through. Fave name brand of water? Essentia. Do you have a trampoline? Not since I was a teenager. The last time you were in the fridge, what were you looking for? Jam to make a pb&j. Do you like clowns? No opinion. Are you listening to anything at the moment? Surprisingly nothing, but Halocene’s cover of “My Immortal” is seeeeeriously jammed in my head. Do you twitch when your falling asleep? YES. They’re more like muscle spasms. Are your dishes in the dishwasher clean or dirty? We don’t have one; we have to wash by hand. Buuut that house we’re moving into has one! :’) When is the last time you were on a bicycle? Not since I was a teenager. I used to love love loooove to ride my bike after school. What have you eaten today? Special K cereal and aforementioned sandwich. Do you own a strapless bra? Fuckin Y I K E S that would not work w/ my size lmfao. Does the person you like know it? Ye. Did anything brighten up your day today? Our lawn FINALLY got mowed and the bushes trimmed. We had to tidy it up before we can move. It looked like a jungle, deadass serious. Do you ever wonder how other people see you? Only all the time. What is one good thing you're known for? I write well. How about one bad thing? I’m very dependent. When was the last time you sang an ENTIRE song? Wow, no clue. I rarely sing, never mind an entire song. What is one thing that is currently bothering you? Actually my stomach kinda hurts. What did you do today? Wander around the Internet looking for something to even mildly entertain me, play World of Warcraft for a very brief period since I’m going through a bored phase of it, read for a bit, showered… not a lot, but later today we’re celebrating my mom’s birthday early, actually. Do you consider yourself to be attractive? No. I think my dimples are kinda cute, but that’s it. Do you regret going out with the last person you did? Not at all. Do you realize it when you curse? It’s so normal in my vocabulary that generally, no. I’m very mindful around kids, though. I still remember the first time I said “fuck” in my mom’s presence without realizing it and she just like f r o z e. Have you ever been extremely tired but refused to go to sleep? Yeah, for various reasons. That is veeeeery rare nowadays, though, partially because I’m so fucking bored that I’m just happy to close the day. What's the longest amount of time you've been stuck in traffic? An hour or so is my guess while traveling. I don’t recall any specific instances. Best field trip experience? We went to the zoo!!!! It was the one and only time thus far that I’ve seen meerkats irl. What is the most amount of money you've spent on a meal before? I’ve never really been able to buy my own meal, never mind something expensive. What museums have you visited, if any? Just local ones centered around art or science, generally. What's your worst traveling experience? Idk. Sims 1, 2, or 3? Why? Never played. Not my kinda game. What area of math are you best at? Worst? lol I suck at them all. How do you feel when you meet someone with the same music taste as you? It’s exciting! Do you believe in luck? Why or why not? No, because I don’t believe in any “magical” influence over events that occur. Shit just happens, sometimes to good people, sometimes to bad people, and everything in-between. How often do you "half-ass" things (put little effort in)? IIII tend to do that a lot.. Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people? Not really. Have you ever missed a meeting/event that was required/necessary? You could say so, but it turned out fine that I missed it anyway. What's something that makes you incredibly nervous? Talking to people I don’t know or being alone with a man. If you don't have glasses, how would you feel if you had to get them? N/A If you do have glasses, how would you feel if you didn't need them anymore? I’d be fuckin’ stoked, I could get my undereye dermal without it looking stupid. How many vegetarians do you know? I’m not sure. Have you ever considered going to art school? Does Photography count? I majored in that. Otherwise, no. Have you ever had problems falling asleep in class? No, I was always very attentive in class. Are your parents supportive of you? Very.

[in-tua-deep]

WHAT IF FIVE (IN THE BROKEN FIVE AU) FINDS A BEATEN UP PITBULL AND REFUSES TO GIVE HIM UP COS IT REMINDS HIM OF HIMSELF AND NAMES IT MISTER PENNYCRUMB

asdfgSFGDJ you’re so valid anon holy shit you’re absolutely right Five is absolutely going to adopt Mr. Pennycrumb come hell or high water

and it goes like this

Five shows up at home with a wriggly bundle that he sneaks in even though they live in a cabin not a mansion there is no place to hide in this house with eight people that they will not be found and yeah, Diego got away with bringing Marm home but that’s Diego and they already have Clyde and there’s that fear in Five’s chest that Ellie would cast his find aside even though logically he knows she would never do that

so yeah this is a doomed venture from the start

“What’cha got there?” Klaus asks, all wide eyes and enthusiasm and Five freezes but like,, the jig is up so he unveils the squirmy wriggly puppy that he shoved up his sweatshirt with an air of defeat

“a PUPPY” Klaus squeals loud enough to wake the dead (and Klaus would know, his powers are to do with the dead) and yeah there’s no hiding this

Ellie emerges with her hands on her hips and looks at them and Five has this puppy in his arms and it’s frantically wriggling and doing its level best to shower Five’s face in enthusiastic dog kisses and Five is looking at her with such big sad eyes and he so rarely asks for anything

“But Marmalade.” Ellie says, helplessly, because honestly bringing up Clyde would do nothing. Clyde would probably love having a puppy around for the kids to play with, he’s an older dog and can’t keep up with their energy a lot of the time though he’s always up for cuddles. 

“Marmalade is going to LOVE him.” Klaus says firmly, with all the belief of a child who hasn’t quite grasped the idea of a grouchy cat with a curious puppy who can’t keep its nose to itself, “we HAVE to keep him just LOOK”

and Ellie is looking. She’s looking at Five’s face and the fact that the puppy is pretty filthy and covered in mud and other kinds of grime and scratches and she already knows she’s lost the fight

“First things first a bath is in order.” Ellie sighs, making Klaus cheer because Klaus 100% knows they have a new puppy and Five is looking hopeful, “Where are the others, anyway?”

“Out with Vanya.” Klaus shrugs, “And I think Allison is at the movies with her town-person-friend.”

“Alright, into the bathroom. If you put that dog down on my clean carpets Five I swear - and also strip while you’re at it, that sweatshirt is filthy now. You can put some pjs on after.”

(they’d never been allowed to wear pajamas before bed back in the manor, let alone wear them before or to dinner - wild)

water gets all over the bathroom as her and Klaus and Five all work together to get the wriggly thing clean but between them they manage it even if Klaus looks like a begraggled rat at the end (Ellie needs to take him to get a haircut soon probably his curls are out of control) and at least Five is now squeaky clean as well after falling in the bath even if Ellie will have to mop up all the spilled water in a bit

“Where did you even find this little monster?” Ellie asks, voice fond as she offers one of Clyde’s toys for the puppy to gnaw on with his razor sharp little baby teeth

Five shifts in a way that means whatever is going to come out of his mouth Ellie probably isn’t going to appreciate. “Some boys were throwing rocks at him. In town. I’m pretty sure he’s a stray.”

Ellie pauses, voice mild, “And what were you doing in town? Alone?”

Five ducks his head, “Practicin’ jumping.” He mutters indistinctly, but Ellie catches every word. 

“You know you aren’t supposed to go to town on your own, Five.” Ellie sighs, running a hand through her hair. Even Allison had been picked up by the mother of her friend who was supervising what Ellie called in her head a playdate but would never say aloud because she was taking care of a bunch of teenagers who would throw a fit if she used such a childish term.

Five focuses on the puppy he’s scooped back into his arms, not looking at her. And Five is the most difficult child to enforce rules on, because of what got them here. She remembers the pale waif of a child he was when they first arrived, scared of his own shadow and shaking like a leaf whenever he thought he might have done something wrong. The others had told her about what their father had done, threatening Vanya’s life for his good behavior. A burden that no child should have to bear.

He’s better now, a little bit. He isn’t shaking at least, or hiding. The day he’d dropped a plate and proceeded to hide under her bed and refused to come out was still fresh in her mind. Ellie had sat there for hours quietly reading aloud from a book, interspersed with assurances that she wasn’t angry and she knew it wasn’t on purpose, praying that she was doing the right thing (she didn’t know how to be a parent, but she was trying and that should count for something)

Ellie considers her options carefully before opening her mouth, “Well I suppose you won’t be coming on the library trip with Ben on Saturday.” Five’s head snaps up to meet hers, looking a bit betrayed but Ellie smiles at him, “You’ll just have to stay home with this little fella here and make sure he doesn’t chew up the house. You can write a list of books you want and we’ll fetch them for you.”

“We can really keep him?” Five asks, eyes wide. 

“Yeah.” Ellie says, shaking her head, “But this is the last one. I’m serious. No more pets. I have all you little monkeys and that’s enough for me, goodness.”

Both kids stiffen at the word monkey and Ellie mourns a little bit in her mind at what the hell these kids went though. She’s not going to ask about it right now though, maybe another time

“He needs a name!” Klaus interjects cheerfully, and really he’s done very well at keeping quiet for so long. Then again, Klaus has always been pretty in tune with his siblings and worries over Five a lot. Even now he’s shuffled so that he’s pressed against his brother, using petting the dog as an excuse. Ellie’s onto the little brat, she knows his ways. “We should call him Toffee or something.”

“He already has a name!” Five protests, drawing the puppy closer (and honestly Ellie already likes this pup better than Marmalade, the pup takes the kids manhandling like an absolute champ), “His name is Mr. Pennycrumb.”

Ellie purposefully keeps her face smooth and blank even though on the inside she is automatically howling in laughter at the adorable cutesy name that just fell from the lips of one of her more serious kids. Absolutely perfect. She’s going into town right now to get that inscribed on a collar there is no way they’re changing it now

clearly Klaus is of a similar opinion even if he doesn’t have Ellie’s poker face, laughing freely as Five scowls. “It’s perfect!” Klaus crows, mollifying Five just a little bit, “I absolutely love it. Wonderful. I can’t wait to hear Luther say it.”

In Ellie’s youth they’d had pets with themes. All food names or all named after actors or characters from shows or books or whatever. And now she looks at her collection of animals. Clyde, Marmalade, and Mr. Pennycrumb

Wonderfully mismatched really. A bit like their family.

Mr. Pennycrumb fits in wonderfully and the kids are thrilled with a new puppy. Clyde cheerfully accepts the new addition even if he doesn’t seem especially impressed when Mr. Pennycrumb tries to chew his tail but the kids are occupied running around after the puppy and Clyde can relax on the porch and watch

surprisingly Marmalade doesn’t assassinate their new addition and seems to tolerate him, after giving Mr. Pennycrumb a few smacks when the puppy got too nosey and toothy with him (but with sheathed claws, so it was fine and Mr. Pennycrumb learned his lesson about respect and personal boundaries)

Five gains a habit of talking through Mr. Pennycrumb a bit (”Mr. Pennycrumb doesn’t like when X” Five says, clearly actually talking about himself, or “Mr. Pennycrumb wants to go to town/watch a movie/go to bed/etc.” - so it allows Ellie more insight and helps her from making missteps with him so she’ll take what she can get tbh)

“Seriously, no more animals though.” Ellie tells them all, “Unless you little suckers want me to take even more out of your college funds.”

“We have college funds?” Ben asks, eyes wide with surprise.

Ellie shifts, “I mean. There’s not much in them yet or anything but of course I started them. I mean, you guys don’t have to go if you don’t want to but I want you to have options. Like, I know I’m homeschooling you right now but that doesn’t mean you have to stay here forever, you know?”

Diego breaks the tension by popping up and saying - “Can i take money out to buy a sword?”

“Absolutely not, emergencies only.” Ellie immediately responds and is bombarded by the kids yelling out suggestions on what is definitely an emergency, like trips to a water park or to disney or to get those pretty shoes they saw in the shop window the other week and - 

Ellie loves her kids but damn that doesn’t mean they aren’t a handful

[chaoticneutralwriter]

14; Rising Tension

In which Jungkook doesn’t have experience with thin walls and you’re experiencing too much.

idol!Jimin x staff!reader ft. poor bun Jungkook

genre: slow-burn, fluff, pining, a little crack, comedy, unnecessary mature-ish themes

word count: 2.9k

follow up of Ramen and Chill?

Jungkook has dealt with a lot of things for someone who’s only twenty-one. Most of those things are something your average twenty-one year old would probably crumble under from immense pressure and stress. It’s not that Jungkook didn’t come close to it himself, but he’s pretty certain that he’s able to handle it a little better than most; that much he can say with confidence. Jeon Jungkook likes to think of himself as someone who would meet challenges head on and give it all he’s got so that he can at least say he didn’t try.

 Every challenge is a welcoming one, no matter how daunting because it’s always a learning experience.

 But now, as he stands frozen in the middle of his hotel suite, he’s not sure how he’ll even begin to approach this one.

 You see, not too long ago, Jungkook had returned to his room after a long, tiring night of smiling and greeting esteemed guests and getting his years worth of socializing. He, very decidedly, wanted to take a refreshing shower, take off his suit that has long turned stuffy, wash away the hair products and make-up and slip into a nice, comfortable pair of sweats and hoodie. That was his plan for the night and he had yet to decide whether he wanted to eat something before sleeping or just go straight to bed, reading webtoons until he fell asleep.

 He only got as far as stepping out of his en suite bathroom, changed and toweling his damp hair furiously when he heard it; a distinct thump coming from one of his adjacent walls. At first, he thought he imagined it, but then something else follows it.

 A moan.

 Distinctly female.

 His mind goes haywire, eyes becoming wider than saucers and alarmed, and he starts to freak out, all in the solitude of his own room. A room that Jungkook discovers has very, concerningly thin walls. 

 Even more pressing, his mind comes to realize next, is that the wall in question where the sounds are coming from is in connection with none other than Park Jimin.

 But then if Jimin’s room is beside his….

 Why did he hear a female voice coming from it?

 It’s like everything comes to a screeching halt for Jungkook, time is at a standstill as it slowly dawns on him, in quiet horror, that he's being dragged into something he’s never imagined himself being in.

 He’s eavesdropping on one his hyungs getting it on.

 Jungkook feels his face immediately heat up to the point that he swears he’ll be able to cook eggs on it and his ears feel like they’re about to be burnt off.

 Headphones! Gotta find headphones!

 “I’m so sorry! Where does it hurt noona?” Jungkook hears Jimin’s muffled voice ask, concern obvious in his tone.

 Noona?

 From Jungkook’s memory, he’s most certain there’s only one noona that Jimin would invite to his room this late and, on further thought, only one noona who is up anyways. It had to be Y/N noona.

 Now he doesn’t know whether to be happy for his hyung for finally getting the girl he’s been pining after or still be completely disgusted because he just HAD to pick the room beside his own!

 “A little lower—“ Her strained voice cuts off midway with a slightly more pained whine before adding, “I-I don’t think this is a good idea Jimin.”

 “No, it’ll feel better trust me. I just need to get us off the ground.”

 THE GROUND?

 Jungkook blanches. He didn’t mean to even continue listening for so long at this point, honestly! But seriously hyung?! The ground?! Even if Jungkook wanted to stuff his ears with the most effective sound cancelling headphones right now, he still can’t help but want to face palm for Jimin’s poor choice in initiating his first move to becoming a man.

 Right, the headphones!

 Jungkook springs into action, jerking between going left or right because his mind has yet to remember where exactly he put his headphones. He frantically starts tearing up his room, blindly looking for them, and all the while still catching snippets of the conversation from beyond the wall.

 “Is this better?” comes Jimin’s voice. He hears a responding grunt from Y/N noona.

 “Just… go slowly.”

 WHERE ARE THOSE HEADPHONES?!

 Housekeeping will absolutely murder him by the way he’s tossing the blanket and pillows, clothes strewn all over the place but he doesn’t care at this point. Jungkook needs his headphones and he needs them now.

 “Does that feel good?”

 A hum of contentment resounds through, followed by an airy, “Yes.”

 He hears Jimin chuckle. “Should I go harder then?”

 Jungkook becomes a little desperate, his brain coming up with elaborate plans of using one of his belts to possibly secure a pillow around his head to cover his ears as he’s continues looking for his one saving grace. Okay, okay calm down just think about other things! Like ramen, steak, being kinda hungry, maybe he really should order room service after all…. No! That would blow Jimin’s cover as much as Jungkook wants no part of the steamier aspects of his love life! Focus Jungkook! Overwatch has a new map; he should really try it with hyung sometimes—!

 A loud gasp erupts from Y/N noona that sounds like Jimin’s name, effectively cutting Jungkook’s mid mental tirade and halfway dumping the entire contents of his bag out.

 “Sorry, too hard?” There’s a teasing lilt in Jimin’s voice before he grunts.

 “I’m not gonna be able to walk tomorrow if you keep doing that.” came Y/N hiss before it morphs into a groan.

 “But this is the only way it’ll feel better. So relax noona, I’ll take care of you.” 

 Jungkook is ready to pull his hair out of his scalp. He’s about searched every pocket in his bag, luggage and carrier and still no signs of the Airpods he’s looking for. With a hand through his hair, he eyes look wildly at the mess he’s created, room looking very much like a tornado had just passed through. The hoodie he’s wearing now is starting to make him sweat. And then a light bulb went off in his head.

 …. Hoodie! What was he wearing earlier today?!

 “…. Stop staring at me like that.” Y/N noona’s voice comes out shyly; so quiet that Jungkook almost didn’t catch it.

 He hears Jimin’s unmistakable giggle in response, “Why?”

 “It’s embarrassing….”

 “...I think you look cute.”

 “No I—Oh….” Her tone cuts into a low moan. 

 “Right here?”

 Whatever sweet spot Jimin hit, he does it again to elicit another satisfied sound and Jungkook slaps his cheeks to get himself together, practically diving to rummage through his worn pile of clothing to search for the outfit he wore that might possibly hold the one thing he needs the most right now.

 “How are you so good at this?” He hears Y/N noona ask almost reverently. 

 Jungkook is close to screaming out in frustration, for once cursing himself for packing seven different hoodies that all pretty much look the same anyways (black). It leaves him no choice but to sift through each of them, patting them down in hopes of feeling a familiar lump in one of the pockets.

 “So that means I’m doing well right?” Jungkook can clearly hear the gloating in Jimin’s voice and it makes him want to gag a little. He does not need to hear any of this.

 A slight hum of affirmation lets Jungkook know that Y/N noona is pleased. Jungkook grabs probably the fourth hoodie and gives it a violent shake but nothing comes flying out like he expects it to and the first sounds of exasperation escapes the young man.

 “Agh! Don’t—!” Suddenly her voice rings out in a protesting whine just as Jungkook’s fingers brush against a square shaped container, buried in the fabrics of the cotton hoodie. Jungkook lets out a small scream of joy, grabbing at it like a madman that he thought he might’ve torn something in the process.

 “Oh sorry noona. Lifting your leg a little was supposed to make you feel even better. I guess it was too soon.” 

 “You should’ve warned me first.” 

 Jungkook fumbles, grasping the smooth case of his Airpods, flipping open the lid and unceremoniously shucks the wireless buds out before whipping out his phone and hooking it up to the Bluetooth in record timing that even Guinness would be impressed. He shoves the ear buds into his ears and plays the first song on his playlist, turning up the volume to near max. The youngest, with the feeling of winning the lottery, celebrates his victory by throwing his hands skyward in a double fist pump, laughing almost manically to himself as he’s finally free from hearing the conversations next door.

 ———

 You’re trying to steady your breathing, keep yourself from making any more embarrassing noises as well as conspicuously trying to hide the blush setting fire on your cheeks right now... but the way his fingers work.

 “Can I try lifting your leg a little more?” 

 You think about it, trying not to get lost in the way his fingers knead into you, working at the knot that has built there.

 “I guess? Just go slowly.” You say with eyebrows furrowed in trying to figure out whether or not the pain has died down enough for it. Jimin carefully grasp your ankle and slowly brings your knee up. He gets it to bend just slightly before you give a hiss of discomfort.

 Jimin sighs, “Noona why are you so stiff for?”

 You shoot a half-hearted glare as his fingers work to loosen your stiffened muscle again.

 “I don’t know….” You reply in a grumble, playing with the buttons of his suit jacket currently thrown over your lap. It wasn’t your fault that in the moment of being completely caught unaware via having a stupidly attractive male come half an inch close to kissing you, your leg decides to cramp and give you the worst Charlie horse of your life (talk about a moment ruined…. not like there was one to begin with anyways). And as if to add insult to injury, Jimin was adamant about massaging the muscle cramp out of your leg to make up for it. You’re not blaming him though; he was just being his regular sweet self, but you’d rather curl into a ball of suffering and not have someone like Jimin witness it at all.

 But there’s no escaping Jimin. He already felt bad enough for not breaking your fall in time from tripping over his bag strap, sticking haphazardly out from under the bed, which he shoved in his haste earlier in attempt to clean his room. 

 So much to your chagrin and immense embarrassment, he hauls you up with ease and places you on his bed, setting up the pillows so that you were comfortably leaned back and courteously gave you his discarded jacket to place on your lap to prevent any accidental flashing. Your last attempts at protest die the moment he presses his fingers into your calf.

 It’s been a good twenty minutes of Jimin diligently working on your stubborn muscles. He checks up on you every once in a while, making sure he’s not adding too much pressure that it hurts you while you on the other hand, struggle to even maintain eye contact with him. You wish you could say this was a comfortable silence, but you feel too on edge for it. 

 In the lull, you get lost in the bizarre events that lead up to this point and you don’t even know which one you should have a mental meltdown over first; the fact that you have a world class idol who-happens-to-be-your-low-key-crush massaging your leg or the fact that he possibly implied not minding ramen and chilling with you in-the-you-know-what-I-mean sorta way earlier. You feel your head grow dizzy with an oncoming headache. 

 Hohh my God…. You need to lie down…Wait you already are—!

 “Don’t tell me you’re falling asleep on me noona.” Jimin’s voice pulls you back from the recesses of your mind. When you’re back in the present, eyes focused on him, you realize he’s stopped massaging your leg and opted to just have his hands resting against your shin. He’s smiling at you in a way that reminds you of a Cheshire cat. You feel your cheeks flare again, a pout working onto your lips as you stubbornly look down to pick off imaginary lint from his (costs more than your student loans) jacket.

 “No I’m not…” You mumble. You hear a melodic giggle come from him before he lets out a long breath.

 “I’m really sorry that happened noona. It was my fault the bag was there, I was careless.” Jimin apologizes for the nth time. Your head shoots up, mouth open with a rebuttal at the ready.

 “No Jimin, it’s not your fault…. I’m just clumsy.” 

 He puffs out air and whines, “Why won’t you let me apologize noona?” 

 “Well…you’ve already done that by giving me a massage….” You reply and he laughs airily in response, a heart-stopping smile plastered on his face as he absent-mindedly starts to rub circles into your flesh again. The feeling nearly makes your knee jerk because his touch this time is gentle, not enough pressure to consider it a massage but by now your cramping leg has subsided to nothing more than a dull ache. 

 His thumb is tracing invisible patterns across your skin, almost in a way where he just likes being able to feel you and it sends you into a confusing place; one where your body is melting against his touch, craving for more and the other wanting to pull away out of shyness from how intimate this suddenly got.

 Your heart begins to race at the foreign feeling, like it’s triggered into a flight or fight mode and you think that maybe it’s about high time you leave. As much as half of you did want to stay, enjoy the calming presence of Jimin, you feel as if your heart has not yet reached that level of readiness. And besides, you really shouldn’t be here any longer than you need to lest you really do want to get in trouble.

 So with a shred of reluctance, you begin to pull away from him. Jimin notices of course, stopping all movements of his hands but making no move to prevent you from eventually slipping away from his grasp. He opens his mouth to speak, no doubt ready to apologize but you cut in.

 “I should go Jimin. It’s really late and you should rest.” You say gently, a small smile on your face.

 “Ah…Um, yeah.” Jimin stammers, getting up from his seat at the foot of the bed while running a hand through his hair. You make to gather yourself as well, swinging your legs to the side of the bed and begin to take your first tentative steps after cramping the crap out of one leg.

 In a flash, Jimin is next to you, arms hovering by you in case you decide to re-enact the entire thing again. You shoot him a thankful smile and he nods in reassurance. With a sigh of relief, you manage to stand and feel comfortable enough that the weight didn’t feel straining. Still, you take your steps carefully to the door and once you reach the threshold, the reluctance spikes.

 “Thank you— for the ramen and…. the massage.” You cough and fiddle with a strand of curled hair.

 “I— it’s no problem noona. I’m sorry that—“

 “No! No, honestly Jimin.” You force yourself to look him in the eye because even if you’re the one leaving feeling like you could just bury yourself in a hole, you won’t leave having someone like Jimin feel sorry for something that’s not a big deal anyways. “I’m not even upset about it if that’s what you think. In fact I think it was nice— that you even offered to massage me. I mean the massage itself was nice too but— you know.”

 He blinks, surprised by how adamant you sound before a smile blooms on his face, eyes disappearing into crescents and he lets out a giggle, hand coming up to cover his mouth.

 “I understand.” Jimin says. The grey of his contacts sparkle in a way you think felt too much like adoration that it makes your cheeks flush. You swear you must look like you’ve drank a whole bottle of champagne by yourself (an idea that sounds rather appealing at the moment) and yet he still continues to look at you like you’re the apple in his eyes.

 “Goodnight noona.” The warmth in his voice sends involuntary shivers down your spine, made your breath hitch and pulse rise all at once. You nod in a slight daze, taking a few seconds too long to form a reply.

 “Y-yeah. Goodnight Jimin. I’ll— I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

 He sends you off with another smile, one that you shyly return before you scurry out of his room and practically fly down to yours. Your shaky hands fumble with the keycard for a bit before you fling yourself into your room, doors shutting with a click and your legs give out from under you.

 You breathe out deeply, braced against the door and heart hammering in your chest. 

 This is it…. You think. This is how you die. 

 Because to your elation and horror, you’ve come to accept that you’re in too deep now.

 You’re balls deep in love with Park Jimin.

[theycallmebeccawrites]

Perfectly Imperfect: Chapter 2

With Tumblr holding my original writing blog @beccaheartschrisevans captive (aka flagged as explicit), I have made a secondary writing blog and may end up closing the other all together. In the meantime, I am reposting all of my stories on my new blog.

Pairing: Chris Evans x Wren Arnold (OFC)

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: n/a

Disclaimer: This work of fiction is not to be reposted, used or translated without my permission.

Perfectly Imperfect Masterlist | Chris & Wren Masterlist

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

May 9, 2020

An old, solid wood door with a cheap hook lock separated Chris Evans and the four women who had showed up over an hour early to Addy's third birthday party. They had brought their children, all of who Addy had been happy to see, but the four moms were way overdressed, or rather underdressed, for a preschool party. One mom was wearing a tight pair of black jeans with a silk top that barely concealed her breasts, while another was wearing a black leather skirt, a partially see through maroon top and a pair of knee high boots. The other two moms were wearing dresses that one would expect to see at a cocktail party, one skin tight and red and the other black and short.

Adelaide had turned three 2 days ago and Chris had arranged for all of her classmates at her preschool to come over to their house for a Sofia the First themed party. What he hadn't expected was for four of the moms to show up an hour early and proceed to flirt with him, or try to, instead of actually trying to help him set anything up. He'd lost count of the number of times his butt had been pinched or he'd been told how strong he was while they had petted his bicep.

Chris felt guilty for the way he'd told them to keep an eye on the kids while he'd fled to the laundry room right of the kitchen. The term 'chicken shit' came to mind as he leaned against his washing machine trying to figure out what to do. Taking his phone out of his pocket, he selected his family members and Wren and quickly typed a message:

SOS GET HERE NOW!

He hit send and then started to type again:

House invaded by the

He paused, for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain the situation he was facing. They were all moms, they'd come in a group and they all, apparently, wanted him and were offering themselves to him in front of each other and the kids.

House invaded by the horny mom brigade.

He hit send and his phone blew up a moment later with 'lol's, 'lmao's, and 'on our way'.

Then he got Wren's message:

Just parked. I'll be there in a few minutes.

Knowing he needed to get out there before the women decided to try and find his bedroom, Chris took a deep breath and unlocked the door. He opened it and startled when he saw one of the women leaning against the doorframe.

"There you are," she smiled, flipping her hair. "I wondered what you were up to." Her eyes flickered around the laundry room. "This room is a good -"

The sound of the doorbell cut her off and Chris breathed a sigh of relief as he ducked under her arm then all but ran to answer the door. After throwing it open, a large smiled spread across his face when he saw it was Wren. He all but pulled her inside and gave her a big hug.

"You have no idea how happy I am you are here," he muttered to her, holding her in his arms for a minute longer than needed, hoping the horny mom brigade would back off if they thought he and Wren were something.

"They can't be that bad," Wren laughed as she stepped out of his embrace. She smoothed her floral knee length skirt. "Where are the kids?"

Chris's face paled as he realized that the house was too quiet.

"We put a movie on for them," the mom in the black dress said from the entrance to the kitchen. She was holding a wine glass that was half full. "Who's this?"

"This is Wren," Chris told her. "She's my uh -"

Once again, Chris was saved by somebody arriving and he said a silent prayer of thanks when he saw it was his mom, siblings, niece and nephews.

"I'll go check on the kids," Wren offered with a smile. She slipped the strap of her crossbody purse over her head and then tucked it behind a chair so it was out of the way. She quickly said her hellos to Chris's family and then led his niece and nephews to the TV room where Addy and her school friends were watching a movie.

"Well, I assume there is still a lot to do before the other guests arrive," Chris's mom declared. "It will be all hands on deck to get this party ready." She headed into the kitchen, grabbing the wine glass out of black dress's hands as she went. "Thanks, dear. But alcohol at a three year old's birthday party might be a bit much."

Chris waited until everyone else had followed his mom into the kitchen before he did a little happy dance. He didn't feel an ounce of guilt for sticking his mother on the horny mom brigade; they deserved whatever she threw at them.

By the time Chris made it into the kitchen, his mom had everyone doing jobs: skinny jeans was helping Scott fill coolers with juice boxes; red dress was helping his older sister put together vegetable trays; black dress was helping his mom open the Sofia the First themed party plates and cups; and leather skirt was helping his younger sister fill the piñata that Addy had begged him to buy. With the four women occupied, Chris went out to the backyard to make sure both gates were closed and that the party games were ready to go.

It was another fifteen minutes, or so, until more of Addy's classmates arrived. Chris helped her answer the door while Wren, his niece and nephews wrangled the other three year olds. Most of the parents stayed for the party while others made their apologies and promised to be back within two hours time.

The next two hours were complete chaos, at least to Chris. Wren, who was used to dealing with twenty excited kids for eight hours a day, handled it like a pro. She seemed to have a sixth sense about when it was time to do a different activity and when the kids needed to rest for a little bit.

Meanwhile, the horny mom brigade had hidden themselves in the shade of the large tree in the backyard, trying to stay out of Chris's mom's eye line to avoid getting set with another task. It had humored Chris to great lengths that his mom had deemed the four women the perfect volunteers for helping little ones, whose parents had left, get to the bathroom.

Therefore, it was no surprise to anyone, when the horny mom brigade and their offspring were the first to leave the party. It was only after they'd left that the other parents, both moms and dads, started laughing and had informed Chris that the women tried this stunt whenever they knew there was a single dad in the picture. They'd all gotten a kick out of his nickname for them and had asked him to bring his mom with him to future birthday parties that the four women would be attending.

By the time the last party guests and their parents had left, Addy was stretched out on the couch in the TV room passed out from exhaustion and a sugar crash. Chris's family stuck around to help with the major clean up, but they eventually filled out, leaving the last bit of the cleaning to Chris and Wren.

"Thanks for your help today," Chris said as he dried the serving dish she had just washed. "I can honestly say we couldn't have done this without you."

"I love being around kids, you know that," Wren shrugged as she washed a bowl.

"Why don't you have any kids?" Chris asked her as he put the towel down to put the bowl away.

"Because I don't have a husband," Wren replied. "I'm an old fashioned girl, Chris."

"You'll be a great mom someday," Chris stated. His mind instantly went to Jessa and with a crack in his voice, he added, "and your kids will be lucky to have a mom like you."

Chris saw Wren's shoulders tense and then heard her shut off the water. He watched as she turned around and he knew that she'd caught the change in his voice. Turning away from her, he fussed with the dishes in the cupboard in order to get his emotions under control. He wasn't ready, wasn't sure he'd ever be ready, to talk about Jessa.

Only his family knew the real reason behind his and Jessa's divorce and he'd purposefully kept it that way. After all, the last thing he wanted was for the media to splash the fact that Jessa didn't want to be a mom all over the front pages and have his daughter find out one day from one of her classmates.

His mind flashed back to that November afternoon when he'd brought Addy home from a playdate. He'd put her down for a nap and then had gone into the bedroom he'd shared with Jessa, only to find her bags packed and her sitting at the end of the bed waiting for him.

At first, he'd thought she was going on a trip or being called away to fill in for another wardrobe assistant for Marvel, but then she'd handed him a manila envelope and had said the word 'divorce'. She had done some more talking, but all he had heard was 'blah blah I can't do this anymore blah blah blah I never wanted to be a mom blah blah blah.'

"Chris?" Wren's soft voice forced him back to the present. "What's wrong?"

Chris felt her hand on his shoulder and he took a deep breath as the anger he felt at Jessa for abandoning Addy threatened to return. He refused to let that anger affect Wren more than it already had and he refused to ruin an otherwise perfect day.

"I'm ok," he told her as he turned around. "Just had a not so pleasant memory."

"I'm here if you ever need to talk," she said, genuine concern showing on her face. "You know that, right?"

"I do know that," Chris nodded. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close.

Chris knew that Addy would suffer from not having her mom in her life, but he also knew that she would always have his mom, sisters and Wren in her corner. Those four strong women would show her more love than she'd know what do with. Knowing that made his heart hurt a little less for his daughter.

After ending their hug, Chris and Wren returned to their task of washing and drying dishes. It was as they were working that Chris mentioned that he'd recently gotten a job on a television drama that was going to start shooting in Boston in June.

"What are you doing this summer?" he asked. He had planned to have Addy in daycare with his mom and sisters taking up the slack when they could, but when Wren mentioned that she had the summer off, he had started to get an idea.

"I haven't made any plans yet, why?" she asked.

"Do you have any interest in taking care of Addy for me this summer?" he asked. "It will only be during the week and most of the time it will be normal hours, but I do know there will be some night shoots."

"Do you need an answer now?" Wren asked, hesitantly.

"No, I don't," he replied then quickly added, "But please don't feel pressured to say yes. My mom and sisters have already agreed to help. I just thought you and Addy would have fun together."

"I think we would, too," Wren nodded. "But I'll still need to think it over."

"I understand," Chris told her. "Take all the time you need."

They finished doing the dishes and then Wren said her goodbyes. Chris watched from the doorway as she whispered goodbye to Addy and then he followed her to the front door.

"Text me when you get home," he told her as he opened the front door.

"Will do," Wren nodded.

Chris watched as she made her way down the path to the sidewalk. She gave a slight wave as she reached the end and then she started walking to her car, disappearing from his view.

Closing the door, Chris took a deep breath as he leaned against the door. He barely had a minute to himself before he heard Addy call for him. Shaking his head, he pushed off the door and made his way into the TV room where the best part of his life waited for his attention.

Chapter 3

Want to find me off tumblr? I'm @beccatheycallme on twitter. I also post my stories on AO3.

My tag list is always open, just let me know if you'd like to be added!

[ascreamingstrawberry]

Theme Parks

Summary:  The gang takes a trip to the theme park. 

June 24th : Friendship, June 25th : Roceit, June 26th : Loceit, June 27th : DLAMP, June 28th : Patceit, June 29th : Anxceit, June 30th : FamILY

Pairings: Patceit, Logince, 

Word Count: 1,673

Warnings : Deceit’s name is Sinclair in this. Sympathetic Deceit. mentions of heights, fake tattoos, I think this all fluff honestly, mentions of epilepsy

Notes : Leave a like, a reblog, message, and reply! 

Sinclair hated theme parks, everyone in the car ride over had become painfully aware of that within the first two seconds. Between his groaned mumbling and longing stares out the back window, they were sure he was certainly going to ruin the whole day. Well, not really, because they’d been friends for so long they knew eventually he’d give up his brooding mood to actually have some fun. They just had bets on exactly how long that might take.

Roman’s was the most ridiculous, he said Sinclair wouldn’t make it through the front gates without a smile. Logan said he’d probably show signs of enjoyment around the first hour or two. Virgil, trusting his best friend’s resolve, bet 4 hours into the day before Sinclair even took the frown off his face. Somewhere in between Patton dozing off of one Sinclair’s shoulder, and the heterochromatic eyed teenager saying for the fifteenth time just how sticky children’s hands were at theme parks, they’d arrived.

And no one could believe Roman had won the bet.

To be fair it wasn’t the amusement park itself that had casted the tiny fond smile over Sinclair’s face, but rather Patton’s wide-eyed amazed look as he wrapped his fingers around Sinclair’s hand and pulled him toward the gates.

“Fork over the cash, ladies.” Roman smirked, holding out his hand as both boys handed him a five. “Gotta remember the crush.”

“Oh shut up.” Virgil rolled his eyes, running ahead to catch up with Sinclair and Patton. It would do any of them well for them to get lost in the crowd. Logan turned to Roman to shake his head playfully.

“Nice observation.” Logan said, holding his hand out and Roman smiled. He grabbed Logan’s hand and tugged him along to catch up with the others.

Thank God Patton had an epilepsy disorder and wasn’t allowed to ride a lot of coasters, Sinclair thought to himself watching as Virgil, Roman, and Logan got strapped into one of the ones that dropped you from a super high height. He didn’t know if he’d be able to brave it for Patton if he had to. Although  the fact that Logan, who had gotten on to prove a point to Roman, did look about two seconds from pissing himself made him feel a little better.

Patton liked to watch them though, and neither really felt like walking around any more than the group wanted to together, so they just leaned against the railing of the wait line and watched. Patton’s eyes followed their three friends up 10 feet, up 20, up 40, and then as they reached fifty, Sinclair made the mistake of drifting his gaze from the millions of freckles to up where their friends were waiting to drop. He swallowed, a big comedic one like you see and hear in the movies, and then reached over to grab something to ground him.

That happened to be Patton’s hand, which held Roman’s iPhone that he had been using to record the drop. Patton giggled, noticing how adorably frightened Sinclair looked, and reached over to the wiggle his fingers in between the spaces of Sinclair’s fingers. Interlocking them.

Sinclair’s eyes snapped up, blushed heavily, and then set his gaze towards the bottom of the ride, not moving his head though. Patton turned back to the ride just as the ride dropped, and he could hear Virgil’s and Logan’s screams.  Roman’s was more of a ‘wooh’ then anything and when it bounced at the bottom, Patton zoomed in on their faces. Logan looked about to puke.

When the three got off the ride Virgil mentioned wanting to get fake tattoos, and he and Roman ran over to slap the money on the table for five of them, while Logan hovered a little in front of Patton and Sinclair. Sinclair was painfully aware of the fact that Patton’s fingers were still interlocked, and he half remembers the warning in that one episode of Queer Eye.

“Cupping hands means platonic, interlocked is”-well, the language was quite colorful and Sinclair certainly didn’t want to think of that with Patton still holding his hand, so let’s just interlocked fingers is, not platonic. He tried to reach up and pull the yellow baseball around to hide the blush that was now even worse, but Patton tugged on his hand, to catch up with Logan.

“Are you okay?” Patton asked, catching Sinclair’s attention. Was something going on with Logan?

“Yeah.” Logan said, kinda breathless. Okay, something was going on with Logan because Sinclair knew a lie when he saw one. “Just tired.”

“Bullshit.” Sinclair whispered, and Patton must have been the only to hear it because Logan didn’t change at all, but Patton squeezed his hand tightly. At least he noticed it.

When Virgil and Roman called them over, the three stood patiently waiting for their turn to be tattooed. Sinclair stood next to Logan while Patton was being done, with his arms crossed trying not to think about how empty his hand felt, and completely enamored with the way Patton swung his feet like he was just buzzing with energy. Which he was, but it was still cute. When Patton was done he pushed Sinclair towards the chair. Sinclair sighed, lifting his shirt up to his shoulder to keep it out of the way while he tattooed his forearm, wincing as he heard Patton gasp.

The freckles littering his face was one thing, Sinclair figured a ton of people had freckles, but Sinclair liked to think he kept his vitiligo pretty hidden. It was light enough on his hands that not many people tended to notice, but his chest and shoulders were the worst, so he tended to never wear tanks or anything. Patton walked forward, tracing the edges of the small patches, the ones on his legs were bigger, but no one said was saying anything.

When Sinclair was done he hopped off, letting Logan take his place, and he was going to hang off a bit, but Patton grabbed his hand again and pulled him close enough to where their shoulders were touching. Roman and Virgil were chatting, Roman watching Logan intensely, and so none of them heard Patton whisper to Sinclair. “You’re beautiful.”

And the rest of the day went the same, Patton trying to find ways to make Sinclair blush like winning him the only Chimchar plushie in the whole park just because he mentioned it, or eating the opposite side of his cotton candy ball at the same time as him. It was driving him insane, no one should allow to be this cute. And yet here he was, swinging their connected arms as he now full on had his elbow in the bend of Sinclair’s, holding the teddy bear plushie Sinclair had paid almost fifteen dollars to try to win, and just kind of gazing all over the theme park.

“Alright, the park’s almost closing, should we head out?” Logan bent over slightly as the other three came off another ride. Roman came up behind him to gently ask him if he was okay, but Logan snapped upward, smiling again.

“Can we do the ferris wheel?” Patton asked, bouncing up and down as he pointed to the middle of theme park where the giant white wheel with rainbow lights decorating the sides sat.

“I’m down.” Sinclair said, already pulling Patton along by their collected limbs. Three other shrugs later and the five were in a circular cart. Virgil was leaning slightly over the side taking pictures, Sinclair and Patton were sat so close to each other barely a breath separated them, and Logan was stiff as a board next to Roman.

“Lo, are you okay?” Roman asked, shaking Logan’s arm a little and in turn shaking the cart just the tiniest bit but it was enough to make Logan flinch and death grip onto Roman’s hand on his arm.

“If-if-you-must know, I am t-t-erri-b-bly afraid of-of heights.” Logan stuttered out, closing his eyes and Patton frowned, squeezing Sinclair’s hand once.

“But you’ve been riding rides all day!” Roman protested, wrapping his arms around the nerd’s shoulders anyway, pulling him tightly against his chest.

“Because you asked me too.” Logan mumbled and Roman sighed, reaching down to play with Logan’s hair.

The ferris wheel ride was over soon enough, and Logan and Roman headed off pretty far ahead of them to the car, while Virgil went to the bathroom, Sinclair took the time to turn to Patton. Who had done the same thing, and now Sinclair was eye to eye with him and his big goofy smile that made him forget anything he was going to say. “Did you have fun today, Sinclair?”

“Yes.” He replied quickly, relaxing when Patton giggled.

“I’m glad.” Patton said, leaning forward just a tiny bit so their noses were touching. Sinclair was standing in the middle of the amusement park, his favorite place now, as Patton leaned down that tiniest bit to press his lips against Sinclair’s. It was soft, and sweet, just like Patton himself honestly. And just as Sinclair was about to press a little harder, something went off behind him and he squeaked, throwing himself at Patton. Literally.

“It’s just fireworks, love.” Patton laughed, patting Sinclair’s head as he glared, and Patton dragged them back to the car. Honestly, Sinclair would let him drag him anywhere as long as he got to see the small little smile he shot back at him when they climbed into the backseat.

Virgil had ran at the car when Roman playfully pretend to leave, letting the now sweaty emo climb in the backseat. He flipped them off, collapsed along the third seat, with Logan in the passenger’s seat. And Patton leaned his head on Sinclair’s shoulder, as they pulled away, and for almost a half hour Sinclair could see the ferris wheel without squinting.

Yeah, he thought as Patton’s soft little snores filled the car over the low sounds of Ariana Grande, maybe theme parks weren’t so bad.

[possibilistfanfiction]

we were wild & fluorescent (come home to my heart)

[they jus keep fallin in love (lexa’s pov)]

//

the second date you go on you take her to a very highly rated retrospective. it’s your favorite museum, and you pay for the tickets and you walk through, tell her little facts you know and she grins and takes your hand once you pass a series of paintings about vaginas that make you blush, despite every single effort not to. 

clarke makes you stop in the middle of four huge paintings, one for each season, and her grip on your hand tightens. she’s an artist, you know, or she told you this reluctantly, lightly.

she doesn’t say anything, just takes a step closer to the painting you think is about winter. it’s warm outside, sweltering and muggy in the city, your skin sticky even just from the walk from your apartment to the bodega on the corner, but she sucks in a breath and you take in her bright, sunny hair, the blue dress she’s wearing, the color of her eyes and the horizon line on a clear day. she doesn’t look like winter, not at all, and the painting is dripping with deep purples, a mourning, a loss. there are words scribbled to one side, about sleep and a poet and a dream about a monster. or maybe you’re reading it wrong, because there are stubborn spots of yellow on the canvas as well, and it’s pale but alive, like the palm of your hand, clammy and nervous and joyful; sometimes they sting.

clarke clears her throat and turns to you and wipes her eyes quickly with a little laugh.

‘it’s one of my favorites,’ she says, and you almost don’t know what to do, or say, and you maybe forget to breathe because she’s so honest, and you’ve never been brave like that.

you kiss her, right in the middle of the four seasons, just once, softly but you hope she knows that you mean it. you kiss her and she kisses you back and you feel your heart taking root in your body.

she sighs and kisses your cheek and starts off toward the next set of paintings. you spare one glance back, and read, just barely, warm in ray of winter sun.

//

she stays over at your apartment after you get very, very drunk drinking tequila and eating tacos at the bar nearby, and when you got home she pressed you up against your door and you shoved your leg between hers with a gratifying, and loud, moan, until anya cleared her throat from the couch, nursing a bottle of merlot and a bowl of popcorn.

you’d rolled your eyes and clarke had blushed and you’d tugged her to your room, laid you down on your bed and you’d kissed her until you started to feel dizzy, which was embarrassing but you’d pushed her back, gently and regrettably. she kissed your forehead and pulls your shirt back down, snuggles in beside you with her head on your chest, little puffs of heady, tequila-warm breath against your neck.

when you wake up you’re hungover, groaning, and she’s not next to you but the bed is warm and her shoes are still flung in the corner so you’re not worried.

you walk out into the kitchen and she’s swallowing some medicine, which you think is advil, so you walk up behind her and put your arms around her waist, sleepy and soft.

she startles, a little, and you don’t know if you’ve done something wrong, because all you’d wanted was advil of your own, honestly, but you back up immediately and she turns to you and looks a little helpless and a lot stubborn and you realize, then, the force of her. people don’t stay, people have never stayed, and you lived out of a garbage bag for your childhood; you never had enough food and one time when you were thirteen you had asked the foster father you were staying with if you could get a new notebook and he was drunk and shoved you so hard into your bed that the frame broke against your shoulder.

clarke looks at you and her expression makes you think something terrible is going to happen, that she’s going to leave and it’s only been a little while but you think it would hurt you, and deeply.

‘i take anti-depressants,’ she says, and the relief you feel almost brings tears to your eyes before you remember that this is something she very reluctantly shared with you.

you take her hand and squeeze and kiss the crook of her neck before you pull her into a hug.

‘okay,’ you say.

she sighs, just once, and nods against your shoulder. 

//

you know you love her when you’re on the Q train, going from some dumb, packed market in midtown she’d wanted to go to back to her apartment by prospect park, and she had gasped and turned around when you were going over the bridge.

she’d told you all about the light, the resolution, the city skyline, as the train had kept going and she’d tried to take pictures of it all, this perfect moment, on her phone.

she’d smiled at you, and you’d felt dazed, and she’d taken your hand.

‘i’m glad i saw that with you,’ she says, as you’re climbing up the steps at her stop.

you nod, lace your fingers even tighter; you can’t imagine letting her go. it’s getting colder and she hunches up on the walk home and you don’t know how to say it; you’ve never been good at saying things, but you shrug out of your jacket and put it on her shoulders.

‘lexa,’ she says, ‘no, that’s okay.’

you shrug. 

she sighs and puts it on fully, kisses your cheek and takes your hand again.

//

you’re at your friends’ housewarming party, wine and cheese themed, and clarke is away for the weekend with her friends, celebrating the end of exams. you get very, very drunk on rosé like you’re a sophomore in undergrad again, because you feel achy and school is about to start and you’re young, really, and your students expect you to have so many things figured out, and you don’t.

you sit on the counter and eat a startling amount of smoked havarti and laugh, though, as your friends try to sing hamilton, and someone offers you more wine so you take that too.

clarke texts you that she’s arrived safely at her parents’ cottage and sends a picture of octavia already holding up a fish and raven scowling behind, and you laugh. you almost type i love you but you’re far too drunk and so you hit backspace for probably a minute and then send hearts instead.

you’re about to put your phone away when it lights up again.

costia: how are you?

your breath catches a little, like it always does, because you had been in love with costia for years, and she’s beautiful and her smile can light up rooms. you’re older and you’re not the same people you were back then, back when you climbed out of your dorm window and and climbed into hers because you’d lost your student ID at a party and you just needed to be near her, because your shoulder hurt and you couldn’t stop having nightmares.

you climb the stairs to your friends’ roof, and the air is cool and fresh, fluttering after a summer downpour. you call her instead of texting, because the screen is blurry and you miss her voice, and she seems surprised when she answers but happy anyway.

‘i met someone,’ you find yourself saying.

‘that’s good, lex,’ costia says, and your fingers ache. ‘are you drunk?’

‘very,’ you tell her, and she laughs. ‘she wants me to meet her parents at her graduation.’

‘you’re scared.’

you debate hanging up. 

‘lexa.’

‘yeah, whatever.’ you take another gulp of wine.

you know costia smiles when she says, ‘they’re going to love you.’

you clench your jaw and apologize when you hang up because it starts to rain again.

//

she traces your tattoos one night in bed, as she often does, propped on one elbow and curious.

she doesn’t ask about them, and you don’t offer, but she murmurs something about how beautiful they are and that’s enough.

you kiss her with tears in your eyes, because some cover scars and some are a kind of scar themselves. you taste salt.

//

you try to teach her to skateboard, one fall day, and she laughs so hard so many times she can’t even make it twenty feet without the board shooting out from underneath her.

‘clarke,’ you say, ‘you need to focus.’

‘i am the most uncoordinated person i know,’ she tells you. ‘it’s not going to work, babe.’

you sigh and dramatically and in slow motion show her how easy it is, and her eyes glaze over a little bit.

‘were you looking at my butt?’ you ask, incredulous.

she grins. 

//

you’re knee deep in grading midterm essays on the crucible when clarke bursts into your apartment, still in her scrubs, a fleece jacket from the hospital on over them, and when she takes it off and flings it to the floor, you see she’s covered in blood.

you’re stuck, you don’t know what to do, because you know about the boy she loved who died, and she knows about your parents, and you know how you get into fights and she chain smokes—but you don’t think any of this is her blood; she is hurting and you don’t know how to take it away.

you walk over to her and gently take her hand, ask her what’s wrong. she shakes her head and you sit her down on your couch, go into the bathroom and start running a bath. when you walk out she hasn’t moved, so you go and pour some bourbon into a mug and walk back to her, put it in her hand. when she smells it she nods minutely and it would be cute if she wasn’t so sad, and you take her hand and lead her to the bathroom, check the water before looking into her eyes and when she nods you lift her top off.

she’s not injured, anywhere, no cuts or bruises, and it has always astounded you, how few scars she has. she lets you take off her pants, her plain underwear, her bra, and she gets into the tub without a word. there’s blood on her neck and her arms and you sit on the edge of the tub and wet a washcloth, lather soap, your most relaxing, that you still buy at the market because it’s where you met her, it’s where you started to fall in love.

when you gently, as gently as you possibly can, start to wipe off her collarbones she starts to cry, quiet, heaving sobs.

a child died, in her hands, his blood everywhere. she tells you this, and you feel the ache acutely, because you love your students and because your girlfriend is hurting and because you were a hurt child, once.

her sobs eventually turn into sniffles and eventually she sighs, meeting your eyes finally, and hers are clearer, more resolved.

you tug on her earlobe with a crooked smile and she rolls her eyes and she dries off and puts on some of your pajamas while you heat up pizza for her, make her a salad even though she hates them.

she dutifully eats it, though, while you read her the worst lines from the essays you’re grading, and she laughs. she makes you hot toddies and you eventually put your papers aside, and she takes off your glasses and kisses you.

it’s a thank you, and it’s a lot of love, and you think of stones pressing someone to death, and you think of how to take them away.

//

you’re busy yelling at your long jumpers about their form during warmups when you see a flash of blonde hair and when you look over, clarke is sitting in the stands next to some of your coworkers—and friends—she’d met at a few happy hours.

it’s a shitty JV track meet and it’s probably going to rain, but she gives you a dorky thumbs up and your students are far too old to be making kissing noises but they do it anyway.

you make them run an extra lap and clarke laughs and she kisses you in the parking lot later, against the hood of her car like you’re teenagers, tugs on your track jacket and traces her tongue against your teeth, not stopping even when it finally rains.

//

you groan and swat at the offending hand, trying to take away the duvet you’d dragged to the couch after you’d woken up with a terrible fever and thrown up twice, texting your principal that there was no way you could go today.

‘clarke,’ you whine, and you curse the sunny, huge windows and the bright  walls in the apartment you’d moved into together because when you crack an eye open the light stings and gives you an immediate headache. ‘let me suffer in peace.’

it’s dramatic and someone laughs, but it’s not clarke, and you sigh when you pull the duvet down a little from your face and see abby.

‘oh,’ you say, and reach around for your glasses that you’d flung somewhere on your coffee table.

abby hands them to you with a little smile and puts the back of her hand against your forehead, and she’s so gentle and motherly you immediately feel like you’re going to cry.

‘clarke sent me,’ she says. ‘she got held up in surgery but she said you had a fever.’

abby hands you two pills and tells you that they’re fever reducers and will help you sleep, and she’ll stick around until clarke gets home, just in case you need anything. you take them and she hands you toast and gingerale that you slowly work your way through, drowsy by the end, and she settles on the far end of the couch and flicks on the tv. you fall asleep but wake up sometime later for a moment, and you can’t wait to tell clarke her mom watched hours of mtv.

//

you pick a fight, because you’re exhausted from AP exam prep and clarke has been working insane hours and you’re frustrated. you miss her and you’re too stubborn to tell her that and she’s too stubborn to figure it out, so she yells at you about not taking the recycling out and you tell at her about leaving a candle burning in the bathroom yesterday and she huffs into your bedroom and when you try to follow, still seething about the potential fire hazard, she slams the door.

you put on shoes and slam the front door on your way out, and you only realize until you’re down the block, picking up wine from the store around the corner.

you sulk back home, take the long way but you’re in shorts and it’s getting cold with the wind at night so you don’t stay out, and you roll your eyes at yourself and hit your buzzer.

‘hello?’ clarke’s voice is tinny and irritated but you’re beyond relieved she answered after a few rings.

‘hey,’ you say.

she hangs up and you roll your eyes and hit the buzzer for a full two minutes and forty-eight seconds before she finally answers.

‘what, lexa?’

‘i forgot my keys.’

she doesn’t buzz you up.

‘and it’s cold.’

still, nothing.

‘i bought chardonnay.’

there’s a pause but then, ‘the new organic one?’

‘yeah.’

she sighs, long and hard, and you want to continue to be angry and annoyed but you’re so fond of her and it makes you smile. she buzzes you up and opens the door and you hand her the bottle.

she rolls her eyes and puts it on the front table and kisses you hard. you work her shirt off and she reaches inside the elastic of your shorts and fucks you on the couch, fully clothed and residually mad, but afterward you take off your clothes and cuddle on the couch and drink the chardonnay she likes but you think is too oaky—but she’s happy, so you have it too.

‘i missed you,’ you say, and she kisses your shoulder.

‘missed you too.’

//

you’re at the park and there’s a pet adoption fair and she glares at you from behind her sunglasses but you just shrug innocently.

you walk away from it with a tiny, stalky grey pitbull with bright blue eyes, and clarke makes a big fuss about making sure he doesn’t eat her shoes or pee on her rugs, but you walk home to him curled up on her lap while she dozes on the couch, clearly exhausted after a night shift, and you kiss the crown of her head and he licks her cheek and she smiles.

//

on your birthday, which you genuinely cannot stand, she doesn’t say a word but tugs you into a clumsy, soft hug and rocks back and forth in your kitchen, until you’re swaying together, dancing to a song floating from the old record player jake had given you for christmas.

our love is a star, it plays, and you want to fold your body into hers, learn all of the crevices you can’t quite touch, know her until you don’t remember anything else.

//

it’s cold outside, again, freezing and white and gloomy, for four days before it the storm finally breaks. it’s early, early morning, when clarke trudges in with a big, heavy sigh, and it’s a weekend so there’s no need for you to be up but you love her, so you get out of bed and sit in the bathroom yawning while she takes a hot shower and mumbles about her day, the surgery she performed, how good she’s getting at her sutures.

you feed her pieces of fruit because she acts too tired to eat them on her own, which makes you laugh, and her hair is still damp but you let her lay down in your lap while you sit on the couch, run your fingers through the tangled waves.

it’s dawn, in your apartment, and it’s freezing outside, you know, but clarke breathes deeply against your leg, tender and safe, and you understand, now, maybe: the winter, the sun, the warmth.

[5hfanfiction]

Camren: At First Sight (Chapter 1)

A/N: Hi guys :) You might have read the prologue that came before this chapter (posted below), but if not, no worries xD Just remember that Camila saw Lauren at her first X Factor audition. Her green eyes were particularly striking xD Enjoy! 

-

I couldn’t sleep last night. The different scenarios just kept coming, and they got worse by the hour. Would I have to improvise? What if I got up to the mic, opened my mouth, and sang nothing at all?

Sleep deprived and jittery didn’t make for the best road trip companions. 

“Snap out of it, Camila!” My mom sighed. “We’ve been over this. You earned your spot, and you’ll do it again. Bootcamp’s your chance to remind them how great you are.” 

I opened the car window in case I needed to puke. 

“I mean, honestly, you got four yes-es. Not everyone there can say that.”

I nodded weakly. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure. Dad’s thinking about going back to Cuba soon, and he’s planning to visit—"

I followed along, recognizing our long-lost family friends from the pictures taped to our fridge. My memories of Havana were hazy, but if I closed my eyes, I could feel the heat on my skin…

“Come on, up you get.” I squinted into the sunlight, groggy, as Mom nudged my arm. “We’re here!”

Adrenaline took me out of my seat and into the parking lot. I ran to the trunk and grabbed my suitcase, hoisting it into the air with a nervous grin stuck to my face.  

My mom’s arms were suddenly around my own. “Call me every day. You’re going to be amazing.” She pulled back and looked into my eyes. “You can do this, Camila. I know you can.”

“Thanks, Mom.” I turned and headed into the auditorium before I could start to cry.

-

I stowed my suitcase in the back of the auditorium and looked toward the stage. Some of the contestants sat in groups, bright smiles marring their faces. 

Introductions. Small talk. I grimaced. 

With a sigh, I turned my attention to the metal rack by the wings. The contestants gave it a wide berth. I squinted, trying to read the signs taped into the bars, but it was no good. 

From the corner of my eye, I saw a girl staring in my direction. I was too far away to make out her features…but there could be no mistaking her. It was the green-eyed girl from the sound booth. 

She turned away the moment we made eye contact. I felt myself blush. Damn it, Camila. Get it together. 

She began an animated conversation with the petite blond to her right. I shook my head and started forward, ready to climb the stairs of the stage…and collided with a contestant. 

“Ouch!” She exclaimed. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” I glanced at sound booth girl quickly, and though she wasn’t looking in my direction, the smirk on her face gave her away. I groaned internally, cursing my two left feet. 

“It’s alright,” the girl in front of me replied, pulling my focus. “I’m Normani, by the way.” She held out her hand.

“Camila Cabello,” I smiled, shaking it. “Shall we?” I gestured to the stairs.

Normani grinned. “After you.”

-

Normani had just finished talking me through her obsession with Beyonce when Simon Cowell stepped onto the stage. He raised a single hand into the air, and we fell silent. 

“Welcome to Bootcamp!” He waited for the applause to fade. “Before we begin, I think it’s only fair to prepare you for what’s to come.”

He nodded to Demi Lovato, who smirked. “This week will be brutal. No need to sugar coat it.” 

My stomach did that strange thing it does when it would rather not be in my body. 

“In addition to the three challenges we will explain in a moment, the focus of this week should be on your improvement,” Simon stated. “Take our feedback to heart. Everything counts. If we tell you to work on your stage presence, and you glare at the floor during your next performance…I don’t care how good you are. You will be eliminated.” 

Demi shrugged unapologetically. “That’s showbiz. Get with the program.”

“And what is that, Demi?” Simon grinned.

“The program? So glad you asked, Simon.” Demi walked over to the metal rack, the one with the papers taped to the bars. “Song titles, as you can see. There’s two of each up here. When we sound the air horn,” and she raised it proudly, “you will sprint and grab one off the rack.”

Simon smiled at our confusion. “You’re to find the contestant who chose your matching song. This will actually be the second challenge, but you’re getting your partner now so you can begin practicing together.”

Demi grinned. “Right. Your first performance will be tomorrow evening—individually, just for me and Simon—so we can hear the song you were told to prepare in advance.” 

“The scores on the first two tasks will be averaged together. If you make it past the elimination round…well, then we’ll talk about the third challenge,” Simon smirked. 

I peeked at sound booth girl across the stage. She looked determined, as though she was willing to get up and prove herself then and there. I turned away before she could catch me staring.

“Alright, everyone, on your feet!” Demi called. “Toes behind the white tape.” 

Normani and I looked at each other and laughed. “You a runner?” She questioned.

“I’m pretty sure I’m failing PE,” I sighed, resigned. “May the best man win?”

Normani chuckled. “That’s the theme of the week, isn’t it?”

I shook my head ruefully. There was barely time to pick a target song before Demi shouted, “Ready. Set. GO!”

The air horn echoed through the auditorium as I lunged forward. 

-

“Later!” Dinah Jane melted into the crowd of contestants, leaving me by the fruit bowl.

I scanned the room before reminding myself for the third time that I had no reason to be looking for sound booth girl. Self-conscious, I pulled my phone from my pocket. 

Normani slid into the chair across the table. “Was that your partner?”

“Hey,” I smiled. “Yeah. Who’s yours?”

She waved vaguely to the clump of guys huddled by the bathroom. “The hot one.” 

I giggled. “Wow. If I got a guy, I think I’d be too nervous to focus.”

“Tell me about it,” she smirked, rolling her eyes. “No, but honestly, they’re working us so hard I don’t think I’m gonna have a voice by the time we have to sing for the judges.” 

I grabbed a banana and leaned back in my chair. “That’s the least of my problems. I so don’t wanna perform for Simon and Demi alone. I’m way too awkward for that.”

Normani raised her eyebrow. “Camila, get some damn confidence.” 

I smiled weakly. “You’re not the first person to say that.” 

“Maybe you should listen, then,” Normani shook her head. “Come on, let’s go outside. Break’s not over for 10 minutes.” 

I threw the banana peel into the trash and stepped through the glass doors. 

“Hey, they’re about our age, right?”

I shielded my eyes and turned in the direction of Normani’s pointed finger. Even from the back, there was no mistaking sound booth girl. She ran her fingers through her dark hair and smiled at the blond beside her.

A pit of jealousy settled in my stomach. And then I wanted to kick myself. 

“Let’s go say hello!”

“Normani—” I called, but it was too late. She had already started up the hill. My heart was beating far harder than it should have been by the time we reached the top. 

“What’s up, guys?” Normani folded her legs beneath her. I followed suit, but not as gracefully. “What are your names?”

The blond smiled. “I’m Ally.”

“Lauren,” sound booth girl said. I risked a glance in her direction and flushed when those striking green eyes met my own. 

“Hi.” I mumbled. 

Normani laughed. “Stop being shy, Camila.” She threw her arm around my shoulder. “This one’s special.”

I only blushed harder.

“Where are you from, Camila?” Lauren asked, a smile playing around her lips.

“Miami. Well, Cuba originally, but I haven’t been there since I was five, so I guess that would be around a decade by now.” I cut my rambling off abruptly. 

“No way! Yo también.” Lauren’s raspy voice sent chills down my arms. “I was born here, though. Where in Miami?”

When she raised her eyebrow, I realized I had missed her question. “Sorry, what?” 

Normani chuckled. “Let’s go, Mila. Time to sing ourselves hoarse.” 

I let her pull me into the auditorium.   

-

When Dinah and I left the rehearsal room, the sun had long since set. We grabbed our bags from the auditorium and hiked past the dining hall to Cabin 8B.

“Can you believe we’ve only been here for a day?” I yawned. 

“More like an eternity,” a raspy voice called through the darkness.

I spun toward the porch steps, suddenly wide awake. 

Lauren tucked a notebook under her arm and climbed to her feet. “You must be Dinah,” she smiled, looking straight past me. 

I tried to ignore the way her green eyes reflected the moonlight. “See you guys inside,” I mumbled, pulling back the screen door. 

The cabin was surprisingly spacious. Sparsely furnished but rustic, and cozy… though at that point, I would have called the floor a featherbed, if it meant getting off my feet.

“Yo, Mila, over here,” Normani beckoned, and I turned, happy to see her assigned bed next to my own.   

I smirked. “Nice outfit.”

She rolled her eyes and drew the fluffy pink robe tighter around her frame. “Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want. I’ll be nice and toasty tonight. Have fun freezing to death, Miami.”

 It was a fair point.

-

A/N: Hope you guys like it so far :) If you want to keep reading, there are around 20 more chapters posted on Wattpad (@paigejv). Skip straight to chapter 2.0 (This update was actually 1.0-1.4). <3