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shoezuki · 8 months

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Sampo has been quiet, not even giving Gepard the slightest hints of what planets he is dragging him to, what Gepard should expect. His questions are always answered with a lazy wave of Sampo's hand, or a cheeky grin, a chuckle that makes Gepard punch his shoulder. (Sampo has started gasping, wincing in actual pain each time, only breaking his acting when Gepard panics and apologizes and holds him close. Gepard shoving him doesn't stop his laughter.)

His own secrecy seems to be eating at him, though. Gepard stands by the windows and watches stars shoot by as tails of light, actually watching Sampo squirm out of the corner of his eye; his legs don't stop moving as he sits in the piloting chair, he wriggles and shivers like he's uncomfortable, and occasionally his eyes light up and he opens his mouth before slamming it shut and trying to force himself still. It's cute, although he looks almost frantic and crazed sometimes.

If it had been anyone else witnessing Sampo's too-sharp smiles and erratic movements would have probably worried Sampo was going to snap and murder them. Luckily, Gepard recognizes Sampo's uncontainable excitement and finds it endearing.

Their small, unfortunately stolen space shuttle doesn't leave them any room to be apart. Gepard finds it to be comforting, though, now used to being shoved so close to Sampo that he can always, always reach out and touch him. Which he does. A lot. (Sampo always makes a humming, surprised sound in the back of his throat when Gepard catches him by surprise. He always tenses up, first, instinct raising his hackles. He relaxes quicker and quicker with each artificial day, though.)

"Is that the one?" Gepard asks, the ship humming and jolting gently and making electric groaning sounds as they slip out of hyperdrive. Galaxies and planets pass by as smudges of colour and light when Sampo sets their course and pushes the ship to its limits. But sometimes he randomly will slow things down, let them drift a bit, maybe point out celestial bodies and strange star patterns to Gepard and talk about them in strangely personal detail.

("I don't know what they're actually called but we called 'em Star Hoppers. They're usually... oh, there! There! You see that-- no no, where I'm pointing. And squint your eyes and you can see it. It kinda looks like a frog, right? Wait, do you know what a frog is, Geppie? Whatever, doesn't matter. But uh anyways I hope you got your fill because those things have some insane grudges and apparently will tell all their friends about the businessman who was distracted and accidentally crashed a massive ship into a whole family of Star Hoppers so we need to leave before it senses us.")

"Yep!" Sampo's voice echoes off of metallic walls. Gepard can feel the whole ship tilt slightly as Sampo slides his fingers over glowing blue screens, the shifting wings paddling through stardust and dark matter like oars. Sampo reaches over to some dial and the rough metal roof and walls shimmer, shifting into perfectly translucent glass. It's far from the first time, but Gepard always finds himself gaping at the hanging stars, the sudden feeling of being the only two people in endless space. Gepard looks towards the far, far off planet they are approaching and watches clouds of microscopic glittering dust shift like waves and his breath catches in his throat.

(If he turned his head slightly he'd notice Sampo watching him, always watching.)

The planet is light years away despite their fast approach, and at this distance it's less a uniform, round shape and more a gathered haze of colour. They approach quickly, the swirling haze solidifying into twisting shapes, intertwining lines and vines. It's only when they are just outside the hazy atmosphere that Gepard sees leaves, branches, and realizes the surface of the planet is completely consumed by greenery.

The ship jolts and shudders as they enter the atmosphere, surrounded by a blue-green sky barely visible through a swirling, thick smog of shifting colours of green and pink. Massive, all-encompassing treetops stretch out underneath them, millions of shivering leaves in shades of dark green, near-yellow colours, pale greens. Huge vines and twisting branches overlapped, intertwining with one another and bending in impossible ways.

Gepard's chest feels light, awe bright and burning under his ribs. He turns to Sampo to say something, eyes wide and vibrant, but finds any words he was going to stay fizzling into nothing. Sampo was already staring at him, a soft grin on his face, eyes half-lidded and fixated on Gepard. He found his face warming, his breath catching in his lungs. Gepard can't get used to the way Sampo looks at him.

He walks over to stand beside Sampo as he controls the ship, ducking them down down down closer to the surface that Gepard can't see. He rests a hand, gentle and hesitant on Sampo's shoulders; Sampo flinches and a wing of their ship tears through branches and leaves. Neither of them react, say anything, but Gepard grins when Sampo relaxes and leans into him.

The forest they move through is unimaginable, completely impossible to Gepard; trees the size of mountains, leaves as big as their ship, dark brown bark flowing past them like water. Trees and plants grow on top of branches, roots digging through wood and bark, hanging underneath like vines. Flowers of impossible colours and shades bloom among leaves and bushes, shifting and shivering as they move past. The fog permeating in the air makes the place look ethereal like a dream.

The world grows darker the closer they get to the surface, layers and layers of plant life blocking out the light from the trio of stars the planet orbits. thick vines strangle tree trunks, twisting over and around one each other impossible. Flowers the size of buildings shift towards their ship as Sampo directs them through the dark, petals bending as if to pluck them out of the air.

Sampo directs them up closer to the hazy sky, through the branches of a gargantuan tree that towers above most. Sampo slows their ship down, settling them on a flat, wide branch the size of a road. The ship jolt, hums, stutters over vines and rough bark before humming to a stop.

"Welcoooooome," Sampo sings out, leaning back and grinning up at Gepard. He throws his hands out in a wide flourish. "To Vix! well actually its technically called V-9, but that's not a fun name at all.

"We can't go outside," Sampo says quickly, "this ship-thing doesn't have any sanitization processes and I couldn't find any protective gear. If we stepped outside without anything the pollen and spores would seep into our lungs and probably start growing which is uh. gross."

"Is that what this is?" Gepard asks, looking up, "pollen?" Sampo's response is a humming affirmation, a sharp nod of his head. Gepard lets the quiet settle over them, comfortable and warm. He's transfixed by the planet, the life of it, the all encompassing green. He stands right by the massive windows, staring down and out and at everything intently, his back to Sampo. Small, pencil-thin vines teem over the branch they've settled on, dotted with minuscule flowers of blues and purples and whites. The leaves above them shiver with the wind, rustling sounding like wind chimes. It's beautiful.

"I dunno if it's true," Sampo breaks the silence, his voice a soft sound Gepard loves, "but allegedly this planet was once overrun by herbivores, no predators to keep them in line. Any and all plant life was chewed up, destroyed, stripped down to nothing. Yaoshi, the Abundance, passed by and saw how uneven the planet was. They gifted the plant life a chance to fight back and filled the soil with their power. It tipped the balance the other way, though, and now the planet is more plant than anything else. The pollen and spores are dangerous and will cling and grow on anything. The vacuum of space will kill anything that clings to the ship, but if we dragged the spores to another planet it would destroy it, too."

"That's..." Gepard starts, but finds himself at a loss. It's terrifying, really, the power an Aeon could evoke with a passing thought. The idea of how easily the plants could spread makes him shiver. But it's still beautiful, as scary as it is. The teeming life and power in every plant, every leaf, every root on this planet. It's mesmerizing.

"That's horrifying," Gepard settles with, the awe in his voice contradicting his words. Sampo seems to understand, though, in that way he always does; throwing his head back with a full-bodied laugh, grinning and nodding. "I know, right? It's cool."

It's quiet again, peaceful. Gepard can't look away from the planet. He watches the small, small flowers puff out, yellow pollen joining the haze. Branches and vines writhe, slowly but surely, moving along bark.

He feels Sampo walk up beside him, a hand almost shy as it grasps his own. Gepard doesn't hesitate, grasping Sampo's hand and interlocking their fingers. Sampo shakes, slightly. He always shakes in these little moments, like he's overwhelmed and close to bursting. Gepard glances at him out of the corner of his eye, smiling softly at the pale pink blush on his face, the light casting a pale green shade over him. Sampo's lips are a thin line, barely contained.

"You like it?" Sampo whispers it out. "The... the planet."

He's rarely bashful, rarely so shy and subdued, unsure. He's more unsure with Gepard now, though, more hesitant, almost scared. Gepard squeezes his hand. "Yeah, it's... lovely."

"You said you like green," Sampo blurts it out, hunching his shoulders to his ears and looking away so Gepard can't see his face. "You said... so I thought. You'd like this place."

It had been a passing comment, an answer to a random question Sampo had asked when they both were half asleep. ("Geppie? You awake?" "...Hmph?" "Okay, sweet. what's your favourite colour?" "... Green?" "...Really? I thought you'd say blue or something.") He hadn't thought of it, nearly forgotten about it, but clearly Sampo held it in his hands close to himself.

"...You brought us here," Gepard says, turned to Sampo fully, "because I like green?"

"Don't get a big head over it now, Geppie!" Sampo chokes out, huffing and crossing his arms. He doesn't dare to let go of Gepard's hand, instead accidentally dragging him closer. "Maybe I wanted to visit here before that, huh? Maybe I like this planet! Or maybe Sampo Koski is just trying to be the best intergalactic guide in the universe!"

Gepard just snorts and rolls his eyes, not giving a response to Sampo's floundering. It's calm, Gepard standing so close to Sampo, his warmth intoxicating. It takes no effort to wrap his arms around Sampo and rest his chin on his shoulder.

This time, Sampo barely tenses before melting into Gepard. It makes his heart inflate.

"You like plants," Sampo whispers, again. a confession. "And your apartment had so many of them. And you said you like green. But there's no plants on Jarilo. At least, not much. So... ta da?"

Gepard feels like he could explode, like his heart is going to burst out and paint the world with his feelings. He feels light, and airy and all he can do is stare up at Sampo, awestruck with something other than the planet Vix.

He hums, presses a kiss to Sampo's jaw. It's barely a kiss, really, more like pressing his wide smile into Sampo's skin. But he still feels Sampo's breath catch in his lungs, just like it does every time Gepard kisses him, touches him, adores him. "Thank you." Gepard imprints his words into Sampo's skin, barely getting them out and across his neck, his jaw, before Sampo twists around and captures his lips with his own.

#sampard #honkai star rail #sampo koski #gepard landau #in the bones #had this halfbaked in my drafts for like a month #so i was like fuckit n wrote the rest in class lskghlshglshg #im sitting in a cafeteria rn #this is like a mini series now. my third mini fic on here of sampo taking gepard around the universe #n i have 1 other in my drafts but i might rework that one when im bored #maybe i should make like. a post compiling em #anyways uh i really like the idea of sampo taking gepard across the universe

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mobiusxyearslater · 3 years

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Rekindling (A Sonally Story)

A/N: This whole thing takes place about two years before the whole AU/Your Dork starts off for context. ~Mun @t-vict101

On a cool night in New Mobotropolis, Princess Sally Acorn is walking back to her cottage from the Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital. She witnessed her friend, Bunnie Rabbot give birth to her firstborn daughter Annabelle. The whirlwind excitement and joy practically drained Sally’s energy, it was time for much-needed rest. She quietly walked along the dirt path still thinking about her new niece, how cute she looked, and how happy Bunnie and Antoine looked. That’s the kind of love that could last lifetimes. Sally starts to wonder if she could feel that way someday. Well, she did at one point, the only person she felt happy with was--

“Hey there Princess! You’re out late!” Sally heard a voice pipe up.

She looked forward to see the source of the cheery voice, well who else could it be? The one and only hero of Mobius, Sonic the Hedgehog, sat there on her porch giving her a soft wave. Sally stared at him for a few moments unsure of what to do. The last time she saw him he was off fighting Doctor Eggman and saving the world once again. That was almost half a year ago. But that was how Sonic was. There was no tying him down after the job was done which led to their romantic relationship being more on and off if anything.

The ironic part was that their last break-up wasn’t because Sonic wasn’t around. It was because Sally was too busy juggling her life between her duties on the council and her duties as leader. Sonic did confront her about it which led to a big fight then eventually they agreed to go their separate ways. There was a twinge of guilt in Sally’s heart because of that and seeing Sonic there acting as if nothing happened. All Sally could do is muster up a small chuckle as she looks at the blue blur.

“Well, you know me. I’m always busy with one thing or another.” she joked as she took a seat next to Sonic, who gave her a chuckle.

“Oh, boy don’t I know it! So what was it this time?” He playfully props his chin in his palm, “Council meetings? Ribbon cutting? Oh! A big speech in front of the entire kingdom?”

Sally gives him a small nudge and shakes her head, “Oh shut up. If you have to know, Bunnie and Antoine just had their baby tonight..”

“What??” Sonic perks up, “Those two have a kid now? Man. I feel like I miss out on a lot.”

Sally chuckles and shakes head, “Well that’s what happens when you’re gone for months on end.”

Sonic chuckles and scratches his head, “Heh. Well, I do come back once in a while though so it’s not all bad.

Sally let out a small chuckle and nod looking out to the moon, “Yeah.. I guess so.”

The two sit in silence just watching the moon. There was a feeling that someone should say something but neither of them did instead soaking in the atmosphere. Somehow, someway, the silence was relaxing for them both. No one brought up the past or having to suffer the awkwardness of reliving the whole thing over again. But there was one burning question that rattled in Sally’s head. Of all places to go in the middle of the night, why hers? Sonic still had his parents, his Uncle Chuck, heck he could just crash at Tails’ place if he really wanted to.

Sally cleared her throat, making Sonic’s ear twitch. “So, you just randomly decided to pop up here?”

Sonic sweats a bit and gives off a nervous chuckle, “I guess I made it too obvious huh?” He looked at her shrugs, “...I guess I just missed you.”

Sally quirks a brow tilting her head, “Is that right?”

Sonic huffs at her tone and tilts his head, “What’s with that tone? I really did miss you.”

Sally chuckles and pats his head, sighing out tiredly, “And I missed you too.”

Still unable to get a read of what she’s thinking, Sonic wags at her at a finger, “...Why do I feel there’s a huge BUT coming up.”

Sally frowns and sighs out, “But… This feels like a pattern..”

Sonic gives her a confused look, “What do you mean..?”

Through her tiredness she starts to pet through the blue hedgehog’s quills, “...This. Us. You leave for a long time then come back saying you missed me. Old feelings come up and we try again. Then…”

Sonic watched Sally as her words tiredly trailed and looked down to the ground. He always loved Sally, that fact is the solid truth, but being committed was a whole different ball game. Thinking about her words more, he started to see the pattern too. Sure his feelings were genuine at the moment but he’s always changing his mind about them. He started to think that maybe Sally wanted more than just part of him. Maybe she needed all of him, just like he wanted all of her. Maybe just maybe, him leaving for months after each attack isn’t fair to her at all.

Sonic huffs out a chuckle and slides his hands behind his head, “...You wanna hear something funny?”

Sally rubs the tired out of her eyes and looks at him, “What’s that..?”

Sonic rubs his nose a bit, “While I was gone I actually dated someone for a small while.”

All Sally could do is huff in response, “So you can here in the middle of the night to tell me about your exes to your ex?”

Sonic nudges her a bit, “Just listen for sec. While I was away, I actually dated Amy for a small bit.”

Sally’s brows perk up hearing the news, “Wow. You actually let up and let her catch you huh?”

Sonic shrugs letting a small chuckle, “I did. I was always running and she was always there. I figured that was something I wanted or something. At least I thought I did.”

His words slowly trailed off as he thought about his time with Amy. The pink hedgehog sure was a spitfire. Wherever Sonic went she gladly went along with him for support. He figured giving her one date wouldn’t hurt. Then it turned into two. Then it turned to something exclusive. Their honeymoon phase was sweet but soon after Amy found herself in a bit of a rut. Hopping from city to city, fighting badniks left and right, she was all in on that no doubt but she wanted something more. At first, she thought Sonic was that solution, but when she had him that feeling never really went away.

Sonic sighs out softly circling his thumb in his palm. “So she dumped me. She said something about traveling around to find her purpose or something.”

Sally stared at the dejected hedgehog and softly petted his head, “You’re number one fan dumped you. That must’ve been a blow to the ol’ ego of yours.”

Sonic stifles a small chuckle letting himself relax under Sally’s touch, “Yeah it was but I get it. It was fine for a while but I guess somewhere down the line. She realized I couldn’t give HER what SHE needed.” He lets out a sigh and looks up at the sky, “...I am proud of her though. Whatever she decides on doing for herself, she’ll be great at it.”

Sally nods in agreement and lets out a small yawn, “Yeah. She’s too determined to let herself fail at anything that’s for sure. She’ll probably be the best.”

Sonic shakes his head and looks at Sally, “Alright, enough about my dating life. What about you? Anyone in your life?”

Sally huffs out a chuckle and shakes her head, “Not really. There have been dates here and there but my busy schedule made it way too difficult to really settle into anything.”

Sonic snickers a bit, “Woo boy don’t I know it--” he stops himself when he watches Sally’s face slowly fall into a frown, “Come on Sal. I don’t blame you for your hectic schedule.”

Sally gives him a look and crosses her arms, “Isn’t that the reason you dumped me the last time?”

And there it was. That sting of awkwardness they worked so hard to avoid has finally come to the forefront. The silence draped over them as they sat there with their thoughts. No one knew what exactly to say at that moment. Sally realized she still had her hand on Sonic’s head and quickly pulled away looking away.

Sonic took a deep breath, “I know I gave you grief about it before. I just thought we could be how we used to be when we were 17.” Sally opened her mouth to say something but Sonic held up his hand. “Which I realized now… It can never be like that. I guess… I was…. I dunno.. Anxious about everything changing. You and Rotor on the council, Bunnie and Ant having a kid, Tails being the next inventor of the century, even Amy…” He takes a deep breath and kicks the dirt a bit, “...Seems like everyone is running this race and I'm dead last.”

Sally hums a bit pondering about his words, “...I guess… You’re feeling everyone is outgrowing you…?”

Sonic’s ear twitches and lets out a small pout leaning his chin in his palm, “....Maybe yeah…”

Sally lets out a small laugh and Sonic gives her a pouty look. She nudges him playfully, “Oh stop. I’m laughing because you’re the hero of Mobius. Everyone loves talking about you and practically wants to BE you.”

Sonic huffs out and crosses his arms, “I KNOW! I know I just… feel like I can do… more… Like I could do more for the world, my family, our friends, even you--”

Sally’s brows perk up at the last part Sonic started to say but cut himself off. It was kinda strange seeing him so vulnerable. Usually, he had a real cocky attitude with everyone and was the brightest in the room. Honestly, this was a side of him that she tried to bring out a lot of the time but he would always brush it off like it was nothing. He seemed almost embarrassed that he was saying all of this out in the open, especially saying it to her.

She softly puts a hand on his shoulder, “...Hey. It’s normal to feel that way. Almost everyone feels that way sometime or another, right?”

Sonic sighs out and looks at her, “Yeah but it’s ME we’re talking about.”

Sally huffs and stands up, “Yeah and I know you better than you think. You’re a guy who takes action. You’re always putting others first before yourself. You’re a hero that inspires everyone to be the best versions of themselves.” She holds out a hand to him, “...Now are you going to stop moping and do something about it?”

Sonic stares at her hand remembering those were the words he said to her years before. He huffs out a chuckle before grasping onto her hand and standing up, “You got me there. And you’re right, like always.”

Sally chuckles and shakes her head, “Of course I am. I’ve known you way too long to be wrong.”

Sonic chuckles a bit and watches her make her way up to her front door. He leans on the porch rail and tilts his head, “So I’m guessing I shouldn’t keep you from your beauty sleep any longer huh princess?”

Sally chuckles and shakes her head turning back to him, “Well that all depends if you’re going to keep me up all night.” She opens the door and gestures inside.

Sonic gives off a snarky chuckle as he walks up the steps stopping in front of her, “Oh ho ho! And what exactly do you mean by that princess?”

Sally rolls her eyes and pushes him inside of the cottage, “I mean you’re sleeping on the couch!”

Sonic pouts and leans back in her hands, “Aw but I could really use a nice big warm bed after months without one!”

Sally shakes her head, “You should’ve gone to your parents then.” She lets out a soft chuckle before shutting the door behind her, “You big dork.”

END

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic au #sonic #archie sonic #archie sonic the hedgehog #archie sonic comics #sonic fanart #sonic fandom #sonic satam #sally acorn #sonsal #sonally #fan fic writing #fan fiction #writing

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horansqueen · 4 years

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one shot request: y/n is watching Niall working out and seeing him all sweaty really turns her on and he helps her out after his workout (based on workout Niall 🥵)

okay so, 2.5k. im supposed to be sleeping because i work tomorrow. but i just had to post this first. i hope you guys enjoy! SMUT. the usual warnings i guess? so i added the pics or Niall and a few gifs because visuals are always good. so here it is. let me know what you think!

I've always loved summer days, and that feeling had really increased this year. I always had the habit to get on the terrace to sunbathe or read a book (or both) but this summer, my boyfriend had started working out right next to me. He said he wanted to enjoy the sun, and that it was more motivating, but one night, when he was very drunk, he had admitted that not only did enjoy spending more time with me, but he also liked the way I was looking at him when he worked out. It surprised me slightly since I thought I was clever and subtle about it but I couldn't deny that I enjoyed watching him work out next to me.

I thought we would be used to each other after over a year of dating and spending all that time together but it seemed like I would never get enough of him. Mentally and physically. He didn't need to work out, he was already perfect the way he was, but there was something sexy in watching him sweat, and that something couldn't be compared to anything, except maybe when he'd sweat and groan while being on top of me. The thought made my eyes flutter behind my sunglasses and I turned my head slowly and slightly to look at him. I couldn't do much since he was zooming with his coach but I just enjoyed the view, not able to focus more than two seconds on the book I was reading.

When he finally stopped, he got up and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off is forehead and looked back at my book, pretending to read. I felt his body move closer to mine and suddenly, my sun was blocked by his shadow, making me move my sunglasses up on my head to look at him.

"Can I help you?" I asked, raising my eyebrows, as I saw a smirk draw itself on his lips.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." he replied, the left corner of his lips raising up slightly more. "I could feel your eyes on me the whole time I was working out." he added, crossing his arms on his chest.

My eyes wandered on one of his arms for half a second before moving back to his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about." I just said with a shrug.

"You're a good actress Y/N, but you can't fool me." he added with a chuckle. "Besides, you've been reading for over an hour and you haven't flipped a page."

This time, I grimaced and he laughed some more, taking a step back and taking his towel again to place it around his neck. Slowly, I got up and tilted my head to stare at him.

"It's just because I was lost in my thoughts."

"Lost on my chest, you mean, but it's okay, you can look all you want." he let out, half-joking, raising his eyebrows and sending me a cocky smile.

"Oh you're hot alright." I admitted, taking a step closer. "But can you really please a girl? That's the real question, Horan."

He placed both of his hands on the sides of the door frame and I held my breath, my eyes immediately moving to his armpits. Why was this so fucking hot? Why did this sight totally turn me on?

"I'd be offended that you ask... if you didn't scream my name and shake in my arms every single time I fuck you."

My eyebrows raised and my lips parted at how bold he was but I couldn't really deny his words and I just licked my lips, moving again his way. The closer I was getting the more his smile was growing and when I was so close that I could feel his body heat hitting my skin, I inhaled deeply, staring into his eyes. Was it wrong to enjoy his post-workout smell and the sight of sweat falling on his forehead?

"I can bet you anything you want that I can keep quiet the whole time you fuck me."

He chuckled and shook his head, his eyes never leaving mine, and his hands gripped the door frame more. "Bullshit." he replied, clearly teasing me. "You start whimpering as soon as my hands get on you. It only takes a fingertip and those beautiful eyes of yours just close while your lips part. And the way you moan petal, that's totally worth it."

He was right, and I knew it, but it was a challenge I was ready to try. "What do you want to bet?" I proposed, tilting my chin up and licking my lips.

He glanced at my mouth and when he looked back in my eyes, his smirk was even bigger. "How about if you lose, I get to fuck that pretty dirty mouth of yours whenever I want for the next week?"

'Whenever I want', for Niall, literally meant 'whenever I want'. It could be three times in an hour, or randomly while driving to the grocery. Sometimes, I would even wake up in the middle of the night with the tip of his dick between my lips. He knew what 'owning' was all about and he enjoyed it. I did too, and he was well aware of it.

"And if I win?"

He bent down more and his lips were almost touching mine but I didn't budge. My heart was beating so hard in my chest though that I was wondering if he could hear it.

"If you win, I'll spend two hours between your legs every day for a week."

"With your mouth?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Mouth, tongue, lips, nose, my whole face if you want."

"Oh, I want." I admitted with a small smile, bringing one of my hands up and brushing my thumb on his bottom lip. "Very very bad."

"It's a deal, then." he whispered. "And we're starting now."

Without giving me a chance to protest, he crashed his mouth on mine and I had to stop myself from whimpering as my heart jumped in my chest. He tasted so good and when he pushed his tongue in my mouth, I shut my eyes tight. Quickly, he turned us around and walked my way, making sure I'd step back inside as his hands found my waist. I broke our kiss and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, pulling it over his head quickly and throwing it away. I didn't know if going faster was going to make it easier for me, but the thought of him eating me out for two hours while I came over and over on his face was strong enough to make me want and try to win this bet.

"You're so impatient and you think you can actually win this, pet?" he chuckled low. "This is impossible for you, I know you too well. I know exactly what to do to make your heart race, your pussy throb, and your body shake."

I knew it was true but I simply let my lips run on his neck, ignoring his words. His skin tasted salty due to the sweat and somehow, that turned me on even more. I swallowed the moan that threatened to escape and felt his hand slip under my shirt.

"Like when I play with your tits, and run my thumbs on your nipples." he continued, doing exactly what he was saying and making my eyes flutter. "I'm impressed, petal. Didn't think you could keep quiet with that. Now let's try something else."

He took a small step back and worked on my pants, unzipping them and pulling on them. I held my breath and looked down at him as he got on his knees and helped him take my pants off before he threw them farther. The left corner of his lips raised again and slowly, he moved closer to me, his gaze still stuck to mine. I held my breath when his lip pressed against my panties but it didn't take long until he pulled them on the side to run his tongue on my slit. I immediately reached for his hair and let my eyes roll back as my head fell on my shoulders. What exactly did I get myself into? Niall knew me by heart. I was definitely going to lose.

He slipped his tongue inside me and I pressed my lips together as one of my hands reached for his hair, pulling on it hard and pressing his face more in my pussy. I knew it was going to be even harder to keep my moans in but I couldn't resist. I started grinding on his face and when he moaned against my pussy, I started feeling dizzy.

"You can't do that." I pointed out in a whisper, making him laugh.

He got up and I blinked a few times as my vision was getting clearer. He was close to me and my eyes dropped to his glistening lips. "I can do what I want. I'm not the one who can't make any noise, you are."

Suddenly, he moved closer and his hand wrapped around my neck, making my heart skip a few beats and I held my breath again. Slowly but a bit roughly, he brought me to the couch and made me lie down on it before laying on top of me. With his free hand, he snapped the side of my panties off and my eyes got bigger but I had a hard time focusing on anything else but his fingers pressing on my throat.

"You make me so hard, petal. I'm so horny. I'm gonna fuck you so hard it'll be impossible for you to keep quiet." he added before I felt his cock press on my inner thighs, realizing he had pulled his shorts down quickly. "But I'll help you a bit." he finally let out with an other smirk, choking me slightly more. "Not easy to moan with my hand on your throat, right darling?"

"Fuck you." I whispered as my lips parted, making him laugh again.

"Fuck me? No fuck you, that's what I'll do."

Without waiting, he moved his hips against mine, making his dick fill me completely in half a second. My eyes opened wide and it was a miracle I didn't let out any sound, but I spread my legs more to feel him as deep as possible.

"Look at you, all fucked under me. Don't you wish you could moan my name?" he chuckled. "You know what I'll do darling? I'll allow you to moan my name once. Just once. When you cum. How's that? What do you say to your amazing boyfriend?"

"Fuck you." I repeated with a smirk, making him raise his eyebrows.

"I was thinking more something like, 'Thank you, your dick is massive and I can't wait until you fuck my mouth multiple times a day for a week'... but it'll do."

If he hadn't started to thrust in and out of me at this moment, I would have laughed and replied something smart, but the way he was moving completely out of me before pushing himself back deep inside me over and over again was making me dizzy.

After fucking me for a while, he let go of my throat and I breathed in deeply to catch my breath. He moved back on his knees and grabbed my waist, pulling me up and turned me around. I felt my palms sink in the cushions of his couch but the way his hands ran on my back and until my ass made me close my eyes again. He spread my cheeks and pushed his cock inside me again but slowly this time, and I could feel myself throb around him.

"Fuck, my love, you feel so fucking good." he groaned low, slipping one of his fingertips in my ass. "I miss your moans though, why don't you let out a few whimpers for me?"

I didn't answer and he just let out a low 'Alright then!' before thrusting in and out of me again, pinching and slapping my ass whenever he wanted. He ended up with his chest leaning against my back, his damp skin rubbing against mine as he held himself on his couch with one hand while the other was running on my breasts quickly.

"You make me want to cum deep inside you." he murmured as his hand brushed on my stomach to reach between my legs. "I want to feel you clench around me, first. I want to hear you moan my name as you cum."

Two of his fingertips started rubbing my clit as he fucked me harder and I knew it was close. I tensed beneath him, shutting my eyes tight, and despite myself my body quivered and a low moan escaped my lips. He didn't mention it and his thrust became unsteady. He kept pushing himself harder and deeper inside me, making it harder for me to keep my balance and without any warning, I felt an orgasm hit me.

"Oh my god, Niall, fuck!" I let out louder than intended as I started shaking.

It only took him half a minute to started coming too and the grunts he let out as he kept fucking me to ride both our orgasms made me see spots behind my eyelids.

We ended up both panting as he peppered kisses on my shoulders, making me shiver, and after a while, we both lied down on the couch, facing each other.

"I heard it, you know."

My eyes fluttered open and I started nibbling on my bottom lip, sending him an innocent look and making him laugh. "Heard what?"

"I heard you moan before you came." he explained, totally aware that I knew what he was talking about. "I won."

I raised my nose up and groaned. It had been tough and I couldn't believe I had lost like that. I was so close to win.

"But you put up a good fight." he added, his smirk turning into a fond smile. "How about we both do what we said we'd do if we lost?"

I raised my eyebrows at him and my lips curled. I brought my hand to his cheek and brushed my thumb gently on his cheek, watching a few drops of sweat fall off his forehead.

"That's nice of you."

"Hey, I'm a nice guy." he chuckled, moving closer to peck my lips.

"And... I did stare at you the whole time you worked out." I admitted, trying to hide my smile. "It's just so hot, I can't help it."

This time, he laughed and his nose raised up in the cutest way possible. "If my work out sessions can always end like this, pet, I would never complain."

#niall horan #niall horan oneshot #niall horan blurb #niall horan writing #niall horan story #my fanfics #blurbs #niall blurb #niall horan imagines #niall oneshot #niall smut #niall imagine #Anonymous #niall horan smut

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imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl · 4 years

Text

The Perfect Bad Boy (Pt. 04 of 18)

Pairing: Billy Hargrove X Reader

Word count: 2.9K

Summary: Working as a lifeguard in the Hawkins Community Pool, you try to fit in after moving from New York. Things were going pretty well when you notice you've been under someone's stare. Billy Hargrove, Hawkins' bad boy, has been staring at you since day one. You never intended to have anything to do with him, judging by the reputation he has. But Billy won't leave you alone, determined to show you his feelings are different this time...

As if your heart flooding you with confusing feelings wasn't enough, there are weird, strange animals lurking in the woods... But those have to be just part of the wild live of the woods surrounding Hawkins... Right?

<- Previous part (03)

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{Stranger Things Masterlist}

Walls Start Falling

“(Y/N), that was insane,” Monica says as you have your lunch break. “Billy never did that. He never cared enough.”

You're still a mess, a confusing, flustered mess. But you made up your mind. Yesterday's events were madness. But it was just Billy being nice, you concluded. Another reason for you to be thankful and to give friendship a chance. Nothing else. “Yeah, it was nice of him to do that.” You try to keep it cool, your voice steady.

“Weren't you even a little bit... Excited about that?” She lowers her voice, even though there's nobody else around.

“Well...” Lying is not your thing, so you just have to tune it down a bit. “I was surprised. Perplexed and... I don't know. It felt good to have someone stand up for me.” You remember how cute it was when Christopher defended Monica, and see it happening to you a while after did send chills down your spine. But there's no reason for you to believe it was anything else. Billy might think he likes you, but he doesn't know you enough yet. That reminds you of another thing you have to tell Mon. “He... Billy told me something weird yesterday.” Mumbling, you drum your fingers on the table.

“What?”

“That he... That he likes me.” It only takes four words to make Monica stand up abruptly as if bit by a snake.

“Why in the hell didn't you tell me that the moment you set foot in this pool?”

You can't help but giggle. “Because it's not a big deal. You can't just decide you like someone you don't even know.” Shrugging your shoulders, you play with your food.

“Look. Something happened to Billy in senior year.” She starts. “He was in this awful car accident and if it wasn't for his sister and her friends, he'd be dead. After that he... Changed. Not completely, but he stopped treating his sister like shit.” It makes you curious. You haven't seen any scars on Billy, and nobody told you about any kind of accident. Maybe you could ask him about it sometime.

“And what does it has to do with anything?”

“It means that he changed then so he can change now.” It has some physiological background she's not explaining. “Just... You can be a normal girl around me, ok? We're friends, we're supposed to tell each other this kind of things.”

It's not that you don't want to open up, you just don't want to think about Billy all the time. But you guess it's ok. You feel like you can trust Monica, even about things you're a little scared about. “I know. But tell you what exactly?” You ask, taking a sip from your lemonade.

Her lips break into a smile. “Like the fact that you find Billy hot.” You almost choke, clearing your throat as you put the glass down. “You said that yourself. Yesterday when you shoved into David's face that he's envious of Billy because he's way hotter.”

“Billy is... Cute.” That's a good word, you decide. It's kind, it's not a lie, and it sounds casual.

“Have you ever seen him shirtless?”

“Yes. We're both lifeguards on Hawkins Community Pool and it's Summer, so yes.” Mon rolls her eyes at you sarcastic tone, but you just smile at her.

“Ok. But have you stopped to actually look?”

“Monica, I won't stare at the guy.”

“Why not? He stares at you.”

“It's different.” You snap.

“How so?”

You don't know how to answer. You don't even know exactly what's going on with you, or with Billy, or with this whole town. It doesn't matter how hard you think, you can't come up with a satisfactory answer, one that will be enough for your brain to stop forming questions. Monica is restless, and sometimes you catch yourself wishing she won't call. And she doesn't even know that Billy kissed you in the cheek. If you tell her that, you'll never hear the end of it. “I don't–” The door is open suddenly and it makes you shut up immediately. And the person who comes in makes you nervously move in your chair, sitting up straight.

“Were you talking about me?” Billy asks with a smirk.

“No.” You burst out, ready to stand up and head back to your chair. But Monica moves first, giving you such a hard stare that it makes you sit back down.

“Gotta go.” She says, storming out of the cafeteria.

Billy sits where Monica was, looking at you, as usual. “You were talking about me, weren't you?”

“No,” you repeat, cursing yourself for lying. “My lunch break will be over in-” you take a quick look at the clock above the fridge. “-three minutes. So I gotta go too.”

“Tomorrow is our day off. What are you up to?” He says when you reach the door.

You do have somewhere to be, thank God. “Mon invited me for a trail in the woods. With her crew...” You lock eyes with him again, and somehow, even though the distance, you feel the weight. It's not a bad kind of weight... It's different. It's gentle. “Wanna come?” It comes out faster than you can process it, so you look down, not sure if you want him to say yes or no.

“Yeah.”

You know he's smiling, and it has an effect on you. “We'll meet up at Benny's at nine. Don't be late or we'll leave without you.”

“I'll be there.” You listen as you walk away, thankful for the forty-five minutes you'll have on your chair without Billy being around.

•••

The sun is casting a beautiful golden light. It will be another hot day, and the fact that you'll be walking all morning isn't going to help. So you picked a light blue shirt with thin straps, short jeans, and comfortable white sneakers. You're leaning against Monica's car, parked in front of Benny's Burgers, doing a side french braid on your hair as you wait for the guys to get here. There's a fresh, morning wind blowing, and you breathe in the soft smell of coffee coming from Benny's. You didn't tell anyone about inviting Billy, so, if he doesn't show up, you won't have anyone talking about it.

Minutes later, the rest of Monica's crew gets here, five minutes before nine. You feel a little relieved that Billy won't come, actually. You've been trying to understand why the guy is making you so nervous when you're set to pursue nothing but a good friendship. Being confused is tiring. “Well, let's go,” Jason exclaims, and immediately, everyone starts getting in the cars. You're moving to sit on the passenger seat of Monica's car when Christopher calls shotgun. Great.

You're about to get into the back seat when you hear a car approaching, dangerously fast judging by the loud noise, and then it stops. You stand up straight, feeling your stomach burning when you see it's Billy's Camaro. “What the hell,” Mon mutters, giving you a glance.

Ignore her, you tell yourself. “Did you invite him?” Jason asks. “Or is he just crashing the party again?”

“I invited him. Hope it's not a problem.” Jason shakes his head no before getting into the car. But not before giving you a smirk. Well, you invited him, so you have to go and say hi. With your stupid heart beating faster, you walk over his car, offering a small smile when he steps out, standing by the door. “Hey. You're almost late.”

“Almost. Get in.”

“I'm going in Mon's car.” You gesture at where the two cars are parked. You get the feeling that you'll just end up in the same talk as last time, so you give up. “Just because I'm literally your only friend here.” Rolling your eyes, you gesture for the guys to go as you walk around the car to get to the passenger seat.

Billy follows the party until they stop randomly by the road. Everyone starts moving, getting their backpacks to get into the woods. You get yours from Monica's car, putting in on your back.

“Hey,” Billy calls, gesturing for you to get over his car with his index finger.

“What?”

He doesn't say anything as he takes the water bottle and snacks from your bag, putting in on his backpack. You watch, arms crossed, wondering why in the hell he's doing it without even asking if he could. Once your stuff is packed with his, he throws your empty bag on the passenger seat.

“Give me that,” you demand, reaching out your hand. “I'll carry through half of the way and you carry on the other half.” You raise an eyebrow at his smug smile as he hands you the pack. The moment he releases it, the weight pulls your arm down, and you have to push it back up before it hits the ground. “Damn, what do you have in here?” Suddenly you don't wanna carry this thing anymore. You should've just played along.

“Don't worry, princess, I can carry it.”

Shit. That name again.

“Fine.” You give him the bag, moving closer to the others.

“For the sake of our health, we're not going too far today,” Christopher announces, leading the way.

He keeps saying things, but you're not listening. You have never been in the woods, and you're too busy looking around, taking it in. Diane was lucky to have grown up in such a place, so beautifully calm, close to nature, being able to just run a few miles and be among the trees. You easily fall back, walking slightly slower than the party, mesmerized.

“It looks like you're enjoying it,” Billy says, and you notice he's purposely keeping your pace. But what else would he do? You're the only one he talks to in this group.

“It's beautiful. Living so close to the woods... It's just amazing. I can't believe I actually live here.” You're smiling like an idiot now, your eyes moving from the trees up to the blue sky. “What about you? Do you like living here?”

“Not in the beginning, but I got used to it, I guess.”

“I'm from New York, so you get the difference.” Shrugging your shoulders, you see something through the corner of your eye. It's small, and it jumps from a tree to the ground, running away. “A squirrel!” You exclaim, gesturing at a tree on our left. “I saw a squirrel.” Giving one last look at the group, you start moving to where you saw it going to.

“Wait up,” Billy calls since you're trying to walk as fast as you can without tripping on any branches.

You scan the woods, looking for any sign of the small animal, but you don't find anything. There's a slight slope on the way, so you use a fallen tree as a support as you move through it. But a rock moves under your foot, making you slip and fall on your butt. A low whine escapes your mouth when you feel a sting on your calf as you slide down the rest of the slope.

“Hey.” Billy is suddenly before you, you don't even know how he got here so fast. He pulls you up, holding your arms. You're laughing though, and the confused expression on his face doesn't help much. “You ok?”

“Yeah, I'm alright.” You look up, noticing how close Billy is. His blue eyes are like the ocean, beautiful, calming, and peaceful. Not the kind of eyes you'd expect from someone with the reputation he has. Clearing your throat, you step back, dusting off your clothes. “The squirrel won this round, I guess.” You can feel his stare as you look down.

“There's a cut on your calf.” He gets on one knee, taking your left leg by the ankle.

“What are you doing?” You mutter when you almost fall for the sudden loss of balance. You use Billy's shoulder to keep yourself steady. You feel his thumb on your skin, watching as he carefully removes the blood from the wound to take a better look.

“It's just a small cut. You'll survive.” He says as he stands up, those blue, piercing eyes on you again.

That was... Weird. To say the least. You just don't get why it made you so nervous. You really need some time away from Billy to think and think very carefully, to get things figured out. “We should get going or we'll get left behind.”

“As you wish.” He gestures for you to move, and that's what you do. But when you're about to climb up the slope, Billy comes to stay near you, a hand on your side when you use the fallen tree to pull yourself up. You just decided you don't like him touching you. If that's what makes you nervous, you have to avoid it.

But how are you supposed to be friends with someone you can't touch? Friends hug all the time... Damn it, why does it have to be so confusing? You blame Billy for this, even though this is not really his fault. Or is it?

“Hey. Monica told me something about a car accident. In senior year.” You decide to ask, and hopefully get a nice conversation that will keep you from getting nervous.

“Yeah. I was going on a date when... I hit a deer and crashed the car.” By how dark his voice gets, you can tell those aren't pleasant memories.

“Was it bad?” You move to walk closer to him as if it would offer any kind of comfort.

“Very.” He confirms. “If it wasn't for my dipshit sister and her stupid friends I'd be dead.” Despite the mean names, he flashes a small, quick smile. “Things changed from that day on. I couldn't hate her anymore.”

“And why did you hate her before?”

“Everyone says I'm an asshole but I was an even worse asshole before. But that day, it just... Clicked. After years of having me treating her like trash, she still went through a lot of trouble to save my life.” He lowers his voice, barely a whisper now. “And I'm not sure I was worth saving back then.”

It breaks your heart a little, to see how some of his walls just fell to the ground. You wonder if he told this to all the girls he has been with. “And when are you going to introduce me to your sister?” You try lighting up the mood a little, elbowing him.

“Are you inviting yourself to my place?” His smirk is back, but it doesn't bother you. You're actually happy the heaviness in his voice faded away.

“No.”

“You already have a place to be on your next day off.” He's clearly not asking.

“I'm not going to your place, Billy.” Despite being glad the atmosphere changed, you still have to set up some boundaries.

“I'll make Max stay home. I'll even let her invite the kiddos.”

Running a hand through your hair, you start playing with the tip of the braid. “Only if you order pizza.” You give him a quick look, admiring his smile. “But I'm paying this time.”

“No way.”

“Then I'm not going.”

“You're very stubborn.”

“That I am.” Smirking at him, you move to walk backwards, right before him. “I'll stop by your place to meet your savior sister and her savior friends and I'll pay for the pizza. Deal?”

“You should really watch where you're going.” The moment he's done speaking, your back hits a tree. Billy comes closer, standing there, way too close for your taste, looking down at you. It reminds you of when he kissed your cheek, the sudden proximity that made your stomach burn before the feeling his lips on your skin. “Deal.” He whispers, moving away.

Closing your eyes for a couple of seconds, you take the deepest breath you can, thankful that he moved away. He's doing that on purpose, you're so damn sure. Rolling your eyes, you set in motion, now listening to the low chattering of the group.

“Billy. Let me get some water.” You quicken your pace until you reach him, searching through his backpack until you find your bottle. It's still cold, thankfully. “Want some?” You watch as he shakes his head no before you drink. You take a few sips, closing your eyes at the good sensation of the fresh water in such a heat. Suddenly you feel the bottle being pushed up, and the water spills all over your mouth and nose, rolling down your chest. Opening your eyes abruptly, the first thing you see it's Billy's amused smile.

“You're such a-” You move forward, holding the bottle tightly as you throw some water on him. “-idiot!”

He bursts into a laugh as the fight begins. You're struggling to throw what's left of the water on his face as he tries to hold your arms. “You gave me no choice.” He mumbles under his heavy breath.

“Shut up,” you yell, your voice altered by the laughs. You're trying to set free from his grip, but he's stronger. You use your body weight to try and make him move backward, anything that could give you a chance. “Jerk!” As you speak he somehow manages to take the bottle from your hand, throwing the water on you. But you think fast, moving your body closer to his as you push his arm, so the water ends up falling on both of you.

“Hey, kids!” Jason shouts, and your head immediately turns at the source of his voice. You're both frozen now, as you notice the whole group stopped, looking at you. “Let's go!”

Clearing your throat, you struggle not to let your mind process the closeness. How you pushed yourself onto Billy, collapsing on his chest. “Let's go,” you tell him, stepping away. “Jerk,” you repeat, failing to hold back the smile.

@chloe-skywalker

#imagine billy #billy hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #imagine billy hargrove #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove x you #billy hargrove x y/n #billy stranger things #stranger things imagine #imagine stranger things

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penaltbox · 4 years

Text

your side of the bed - roman ahcan

feedback & reblogs are always so appreciated!! if you like it, let me know your favorite line or part 😊

word count: 3k

You glance up from your phone, seeing the tv show playing far later at night than you needed to be awake, but not remembering a single thing that had happened during that episode or any prior. You glance over to your left and see the back of someone who had been there plenty of times now but who you still weren’t used to.

Technically speaking he was your boyfriend. He did everything you asked, went out of his way to be sweet to you, and his mom thought the world of you. From the outside looking in you had it all and you felt like you owed him for all the good things he did for you, but something always felt missing. Something was always off. He didn’t feel like home the way Roman had.

You think about the night everything fell apart more frequently than you wanted to admit. The two of you didn’t always get along but you didn’t fight every time you were together either. You were quick to butt heads on some things, but being together always had a spark that you knew you’d be chasing your whole life.

You were out with Ro and his friends one night, trying to wind down after a long week and two tough games on their end. You’d been a little irritated that day, but you didn’t think you were super crabby. He had other thoughts though and made them known.

“If you’re gonna have an attitude all night just go home. I don’t want to deal with it,” he says, shaking his head after you glare at some girl who had come to try and talk to the boys.

“What are you talking about?” You ask, not realizing your face had betrayed your thoughts that way.

He laughs a little, but there’s no humor behind it, “don’t act better than her just because you hang out with my friends now. You used to be in her position not that long ago.”

“I didn’t even do anything. What’s your problem?” You ask, your temper flaring a tad over his accusations.

“Oh don't start with that. Why do you always have to pick a fight when I put you in your place?” He says, quickly backing you against the wall so he can keep the inevitable argument between you two.

You lean back against it and glare up at him, knowing this tactic well. It wasn’t your first fight at the bar and sometimes you both lost your temper so he’d started corralling you to try and keep things calm. It worked sometimes, when he didn’t talk down to you like he was now, but other times the boys still picked up on the problems that would arise as your voices got louder and would usually have to intervene.

“I’m not picking the fight. You started this!” You poke his chest, knowing it would start him up.

He takes a deep breath before he mumbles through his teeth, “don’t fucking poke me like that.”

“Or what? What are you gonna do, Roman?”

“I’m gonna tell you to shut the fuck up and check your attitude. Why are you so goddamn crabby tonight?” He asks, his voice raising a little already.

“I wasn’t crabby but if you keep being a dick and telling me what you think I am, it’ll change really fast,” you roll your eyes and try to push him out of your way.

“I’m not dealing with this tonight. I’m not your babysitter,” he scoffs, but puts his hands on the wall on either side of you to keep you in front of him.

You clench your jaw then, hating that he was pushing you around in public, “let me go. I wasn’t in a bad mood until you started being an ass and telling me I was. You won’t stand here and act like you’ve got all this power over me because you can hold me in place.”

He smirks then, like this is some game, “you never seem to complain when I hold you in place in bed.”

Your patience has worn out and his comment is ill-timed. You push his arm down and step around him, determined to go back to your drink and talk with people like you had been before he decided to unnecessarily give you a hard time.

“I’m sick of you treating me like a little kid when we fight,” you say, looking over your shoulder at him, “why can’t you just be fucking nice to me?”

“Are you kidding me?” He asks louder than you expect, but he’s quick to glance around. A couple of the boys look over and you know you’re being watched after that outburst, “I am nice to you and it’s not fair for you to try and say that. I’m just trying to make sure everyone has a good time tonight by checking your attitude early.”

You feel your jaw tense again and you somehow cool your tone down as you explain, “I’m not a child, Roman, and I would really appreciate it if you let me be my own person rather than making sure I fit into your little group here. If you want someone that just does what you say then I’m not the girl for you.”

Roman’s jaw drops a little at how even your tone is and how serious you sound. He’s quickly stuttering, trying to spit out an apology but you’re quicker than him.

“I’m fucking done. I can’t deal with the bullshit that comes with you and this team anymore,” you say, a statement that would end up being so untrue but you had no clue then, “We’re done.”

You weren’t sure exactly what you expected, but suddenly Roman straightens up and shrugs his shoulders. You frown a little at the action and he seems to finally know what he wants to say.

“Fine, go then but don’t talk to us anymore either. This isn’t your group to be friends with,” he says, his tone cold and unfamiliar.

You glance around at the boys you’d become close with, the ones who you’d spent so much time with over the last half a year, and especially the ones you really liked. You swallow hard but know you have to play it like this doesn’t hurt. But it really fucking does.

You look back at Roman and give him a little nod before turning and brushing past Owen who calls your name softly. You can’t look at him, your composure wavering at the sound of your name coming from him, but you swear you hear him yell something at Roman as you stay on your path out of there.

You make your way out of the door, spilling out onto the sidewalk of Lake Street. You have to take a couple deep breaths as you try to stop the tears from falling but it doesn’t work. You turn and head towards your apartment, not having any patience to wait for an Uber. You hardly make the turn onto State Street when you hear your name called.

This had to be a sick joke. He embarrassed you like that in front of so many people and now he wanted to chase you down and make amends? You feel the sadness start to quickly switch over to anger as you quickly turn towards the voice, tears still burning down your face.

“What do you want?” You spit out, but you gasp right after, “Mike, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was you.”

He gives you a little smile as his hand scratches the back of his neck, “he shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t argue in public with you just because he thinks you were in a mood. It just makes problems for everyone.”

“Oh,” you mumble as you wipe at the tear tracks, surprised by the closest thing you’ll get to an apology for the situation, “thank you?”

Mike blushes a little and gestures randomly towards the street, “I didn’t want you to have to walk home alone either. That’s not safe.”

“You coming with me then, Vorlicky? Am I the chaperone here or is that you?” You joke, finally smiling a little.

“Hey now,” he laughs, walking past you down the road, “you coming with, pretty, or are you just gonna cry in the street all night?”

It’s your turn to blush then as your stomach flutters a little. You duck your head to try and hide your smile, but you quickly match his pace. It had been a long time since you flirted the way you and Mike did that night. It was light and the banter came easily. He’s good at getting your mind off the issue at hand and before you know it the late hours turn into early morning and you let him crash on your couch eventually.

When you didn’t hear from Roman for the next week, you figured he really was over it. You’re heartbroken and you hate that it ended the way it did. You had so many questions and problems with him just giving up on you two, but Mike provided a pretty good distraction that you didn’t expect to have.

—

You knew Roman’s friends hated you. How could they not? You had broken up with one boy and then pursued another on the team. They didn’t say anything out loud but you saw the looks you got from his group whenever you were all in the same place.

You never brought it up though. You opted to stay quiet and take on a different approach than the first time. You didn’t get drunk around them anymore or argue loudly, even when you had an opinion on something. You kept to yourself unless one of them asked you something and you always deferred to Mike when a decision needed to be made.

You hated every minute of it. You were a shell of what you used to be but you had yourself convinced if you just got through school then things would turn out okay eventually. You wouldn’t have to see the team anymore and you wouldn’t have the reminder of the one you’d lost staring you in the face every time you wanted to see your new boy. If he even lasted that long.

It wasn’t like Roman was completely gone though. It wasn’t just seeing him with the guys that happened every now and then; no, there was more than that. There was still this odd level of contact that was happening and it was on purpose from you, but you weren’t sure about him. Every Instagram story was checked by one another, always being one of the first few to watch it. Neither of you had unfollowed the other on anything and you refused to take down any pictures from vsco. That didn’t set extremely well with Mike but he never said too much on it either. You couldn’t quite let go of him even though you technically had someone new.

You stare at your bed one Saturday, silently thinking about all the nights Roman has been taking up the space, and some of yours as well. You can’t help but wonder what would have happened if you tried harder to get him back. When you look back on things you know he deserved an apology, too. You’d gotten a little out of hand and let your temper run the show. Not once did you take a step back and tell yourself to calm down for a second rather than escalating the situation.

You know you could have done things differently but you didn’t and now you had what you had. You were stuck home on a weekend but you were more than okay to have the place to yourself for once and you were soaking in the quiet.

You would finally get to sleep alone that night, the boys having plans to go out and you definitely didn’t get those invites anymore. As you get changed, you swap his shirt out for one of Roman’s to wear to bed that night. You know you should have gotten rid of it when you broke up but you just couldn’t do it. You knew it wasn’t right, but you stored it in the back of a drawer and only pulled it out when you knew Mike wouldn’t be around.

You slip into bed, mind racing all over again. It was quickly nearing 2:00 in the morning and yet you couldn’t seem to slow down. You realize you’re laying on his side of the bed and you pull an extra pillow closer, hugging it tight. Your heart strings tug a little as you remember how much he used to beg to be the little spoon. You never denied it, but you did pick on him just a bit for it.

—

“You’re too big for this,” you giggle, but do your best to wrap your arms around him.

“No, it works! I promise,” he says, his laugh easily filling the quietness of the room with a sound you loved to hear.

He scoots down the bed a little and wraps his arms around your waist, lifting your leg up over his hip. He finally gets comfortable and lets out a sigh as your fingers begin to run through his hair, gently massaging his head every few swipes.

“I love that you always do this,” you admit quietly, barely above a whisper.

He hums and keeps himself squished against you, “I’m glad you still let me. Don’t tell the boys.”

“And risk you not doing this anymore?” You ask, “not a chance.”

—

You never did tell any of the boys about it and you never would. It was too intimate of a moment, only a memory to you now, for other people to know about it. It was also something you didn’t have with Mike and you weren’t sure you ever wanted him to try. He didn’t ask for it or pull you close and bury his head in your chest like Roman would. He liked to have his hair played with but everyone pretty much does so you never saw it as a big deal.

Sometimes you really missed having a big tough hockey player all curled up and needing some extra attention, especially once it got dark outside and you were left alone with your thoughts of how things used to be.

You know you’re not about to fall asleep so you do what you’d been doing for the last couple months since things ended: Post a story and see what Roman would do about it. He would be the only one who would know you weren’t on your side of the bed and you wondered if he even remembered or not anymore.

It’s a simple picture, one that someone else would glance over in an instant. The soft glow from the string lights over your bed showed the side you were on and a little slip of red fabric - his shirt - with your tv on in the background. You put a little ‘no sleep’ comment with a crying emoji and shrink it, placing it right above the spot where you can see the shirt.

It’s all so subtle that you’re not sure he’ll even realize it but you have this feeling that you need to just post it. Your heart is hammering for some reason as you tap through the screens, posting it to your story and then making sure it uploads right away. 2:03am is what your phone tells you and you sigh, swallowing at the lump that formed suddenly from your next thought. He probably had someone else keeping his attention. They were out at the bar and some new girl probably was getting that signature smirk from him instead of you. He didn’t need to check on you anymore.

You lay back down and get comfy all over again, still holding the pillow close like it would somehow make things feel better and make the tugging feeling in your heart go away one of these days. Your mind wanders to the last time he was in your bed and you have to shake your thoughts.

He was gone. He wasn’t yours to miss anymore. Why couldn’t you just accept that and move on?

You feel your eyes finally getting heavy as you do anything you can to think about something, anything else but him. You’re about to doze off when your phone vibrates in your hand. You frown and lift it up, heart stopping when you see what the notification is on the screen.

‘roman_ahcan3 sent you a message.’

You read it over and over, trying to see if you’re imagining things, but you’re not. You open your phone to pull up the message as quickly as the page will load and you’d be lying if you said the contents of it didn’t take your breath away.

‘That’s not your side of the bed’

You have to pull yourself together and read it again. He noticed. He had taken the time to watch your story, look at it, and then send you a message. You can’t believe this played out the way you’d wanted it to.

But why now? Why did he choose this story to respond to? There had been plenty of other chances to say something or make a comment. This wasn’t the one you expected to get a reaction from.

‘No, it’s yours’

It’s bold and feels too forward. You regret it immediately and consider unsending it but he reads it almost as quickly as you send it. You’re panicking now because you’re sure he’s about to tell you to knock it off or that you can’t say that anymore. But he doesn’t.

‘Is it really mine though? Still?’

You know your response as soon as you read his questions and you type it out faster than you can even process it. Every word is honest and you know you mean what you’re saying.

‘If you come back it is.’

#roman ahcan #wisconsin hockey #mine #my writing #hockey fic #college hockey fic #hockey writing #college writing

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artificialqueens · 4 years

Text

Reckless (Bianca & Adore) - Candy Cane

A/N: im living in 2015 right now so like. ignore me fsdfsdf but anyways, here’s 2.8k of more incredibly self-indulgent fanfiction. i wrote this as platonic, but if you wanna see anything in here as romantic be my guest!! id like to thank chaoticnachokitten for supporting me and giving me ideas and beta'ing and i just- GAAAHH THANK YOU!! and thanks to everyone else who had such nice words to say abt my last one, it means soooo much 🥺🥺🥺

Summary: Adore and Bianca hang out, but of course things go wrong.

Adore loves hanging out with Bianca. Not only is she her best friend, but she’s the kind of person Adore thought would’ve hated her. But that’s not the case at all, there’s some sort of weird mutual respect and admiration going on between them, and it is fucking awesome.

The young musician knows she can be… a lot sometimes, what with her natural hyperactive toddler personality type, and it amazes her Bianca puts up with her. Especially in moments where Adore knows she shouldn’t be bothering her friend, but decides to anyways because Bianca can be boring sometimes. Moments like this one.

Adore had a gig at one of the clubs, and it ran much later than she had originally anticipated, but that was mostly due to her wanting to stay for Bianca’s set too. Of course, that led to them sharing a few too many drinks together while they stayed to watch some more performers. So when it came time for them to go home, Adore can’t find her keys.

It’s late. Late enough there’s no guarantee Adore’s roommates will be up to let her back into the apartment. The singer immediately turns to her oldest, nearest, dearest friend.

“Oh my God,” Bianca sighs whilst massaging her temples, seeing the next ten hours play out clear as day in front of her.

“Pleaaase can I stay at your place tonight Bia?” Adore asks, using her most pitiful voice and absolute poutiest facial expression.

They’re sat at a table in the back, Adore’s hands perched on Bianca’s knees as she essentially begs. Adore’s too drunk to care.

“Why don’t you call someone to see if they’ll stay up for you?” Bianca retorts like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. To be fair, it probably is. Adore’s still too drunk to realize that though.

“Oh yeah,” she says, knowing she sounds like the world’s dumbest bitch. She fumbles with her phone for a few seconds, poking the screen and the on button for an embarrassing amount of time before turning to Bianca with another sad pouty face, “It’s dead.”

“Of course it’s fucking dead,” Bianca groans, playing it up like she really does mind Adore staying with her for the night. She doesn’t, she probably would never. Adore is like the niece she never had, and she wouldn’t trade that girl for the world.

“Why don’t I just call one of them on mine?” Bianca offers.

Adobe frowns, putting on her thinking face, “…I don’t remember their numbers.”

“I can call Courtney,” Bianca reminds her.

“Oh yeah!”

A few minutes later, they discover they cannot call Courtney. They try calling her twice, and both times are a bust.

She glances down at Adore, and chuckles when she sees the “Bambi eyes”. Even if she weren’t planning on letting the kid stay with her, that would’ve done her in. She hasn’t met a single person that can resist those eyes.

“I’ll be quiet! I promise!” the singer whines.

Bianca makes an exaggerated show of sighing and hemming and hawing, just to tease Adore, then cracks open a wide, amused smile, “Of course you can stay at my place, bitch.”

“Party!” Adore cheers, throwing her arms tightly around Bianca’s neck. It’s all the thanks Bianca needs.

They pay their bills, order a Lyft, and in more time than either would’ve preferred, they make it to Bianca’s huge ass apartment. The pair stumbles inside the building, trying to look as Not Drunk as they can, and failing miserably. It doesn’t matter anyways, it’s almost 3 a.m. meaning there’s not a soul alive there to watch them.

Bianca leads Adore to the elevator, even if it’s pointless because Adore randomly shows up at Bianca’s place at least three times a week. The singer grips Bianca’s hand tightly, giggling and stumbling while the comic practically barks at her to be quieter. They’re lucky it’s a Friday. Well, a Saturday now, Bianca supposes.

The pair climbs up the one flight of stairs to Bianca’s apartment, and then into the apartment itself after Bianca spends a couple minutes fumbling with her keys. The door swings open, and they both fall onto the nearest couch.

They’re breathless with laughter, and then it starts up again when Bianca realizes she hasn’t closed her apartment door yet.

After she locks her apartment back up and turns on some lights, the older woman finds she can’t take her eyes off of Adore. The younger is smiling so freely, and it ignites something inside Bianca. She’s not sure what it is, maybe youthfulness, or freedom, but she loves it.

“B! Oh my God! I have an idea!” Adore suddenly says, sitting up way too fast and clearly making herself dizzy.

“Don’t kill yourself, otherwise I’m the one that has to call 911. You think I want paramedics at my house before the sunrises? Fuck no,” Bianca berates her, but she’s quick to recompose herself when Adore goes all pouty again, “What’s your idea? God knows you only come up with a good one every millennium.”

Adore childishly sticks her tongue out at Bianca, “We should make waffles!”

“How the fuck are we supposed to make waffles? I’m not a cook, I don’t keep that shit in my house.”

Adore screws up her face cutely, clearly trying to think of a solution to her waffle problem. She brightens up again after a minute, looking very proud of herself, “Alyssa! I bet Alyssa has it!”

Bianca rolls her eyes, “You really think I wanna speak to her right now? At three in the goddamn morning?”

“But waffles!” Adore insists.

“Tomorrow,” Bianca promises, “Right now I want to get out of this clown costume and into bed.”

Adore sighs, then tries her best puppy eyes again, “Cuddles?”

“You’re here, aren’t you?” Bianca snorts. Adore smiles as bright as the sun, then at Bianca’s beckoning she follows her best friend down the hall so they can take off their makeup and get ready for bed. When they’re finally able to snuggle up in bed together, Adore in one of Bianca’s old shirts and pair of leggings, the whole apartment pitch black, and the only sound they could hear was the sound of each other’s breathing.

It’s soothing and warm. They sleep like rocks.

The sun wakes Adore up at way too fucking early though. Her head is pounding, her arm has fallen asleep from Bianca laying on it through the night, and she is really fucking hungry. Adore groans and gently pulls her arm out from under Bianca, then stumbles out of the way too big, way too soft bed to go find something to take care of her headache.

She’s quickly able to find where Bianca keeps those things (the mounted cabinet in the bathroom) because Adore used to spend a ridiculous amount of time at this apartment complaining about her ailments to Bianca, which of course lead Bianca to freely helping Adore out whenever. Bianca would act all cold and exasperated over it, but they both knew it was just a show.

Adore downs two of the pills dry and decides nearly immediately she should go find something to drink. In mere minutes she has a pot of coffee brewing, and simultaneously discovers that it’s only around 9 a.m.. Which is just overall… weird. Adore is almost never up this early, especially after the kind of night she had last night. The events of the night are still pretty fuzzy right now, but she still remembers everything. Mostly. She thinks.

One thing she does remember is a promise. A promise for waffles. Adore grins, an idea formulating in her head. Bianca is always so incredibly nice to her, helping her out and giving her whatever she wants. And sure, it’s not Mother’s Day, but that doesn’t mean Adore can’t show her appreciation for Bianca.

Clearly the woman deserves breakfast in bed. Courtesy of a little help from a next door neighbor (hopefully). The singer quickly grabs Bianca’s key off the counter and heads over to the one person she knows will have just what she wants.

Adore knocks on the door, and it’s only a minute later with an accompanied shout of ‘I’m comin’ hon!’ that the heavy white door is thrown open.

“Oh my goodness it’s Adore Delano!” Alyssa Edwards says excitedly, “Hello, doll!”

“Hi, Alyssa!” Adore smiles, “Um, I have a favor to ask of you?”

~*~

Bianca’s favorite way to wake up is slowly, with the sun streaming in through her bedroom window and having absolutely all the time in the world to get up, check her phone, and get ready for work. This morning is the exact fucking opposite.

First thing that wakes her up is the motherfucking fire alarm, causing her to scramble out of bed at a record speed. Second thing, she’s painfully aware that Adore isn’t in the bed with her. Bianca is halfway through screaming Adore’s name when she bursts out into the main room.

The main room is smokey as all hell. Adore is aiming a fire extinguisher at the counter from the other side of the kitchen. The counter is covered in white foam. Her damn fire alarm won’t shut up.

Bianca’s going to have a hard time explaining this one to the neighbors for sure.

The older woman breathes in slowly, but sharply, “Adore, what the fuck did you do?”

Adore doesn’t say anything. She lets go of the fire extinguisher, and they both wince when it crashes against the kitchen tile. Not for the first time, Bianca is glad that she lives on the first floor.

The two stare at each other, Adore resting boneless against the oven, her expression just screaming shock. She lifts her head to meet Bianca’s eyes.

Pounding on the door, someone starts shouting, “BIANCA?! HOLY GOD, IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?”

The woman in question is quick to open her apartment door, but instead of accepting the concern, she barks out, “What do you want?”

“The whole damn building knows your alarms are going off, Bianca!” Alyssa says sharply, shoving her way inside the apartment, “My girls are coming over in two hours! I can’t have my house burning down on me.” Bianca and Adore share a twin look of surprise. Alyssa’s always been Bianca’s favorite neighbor, that’s no secret, but this is a tightly concealed side of her that neither of them have ever really seen. It’s concern. Worry. But not for herself, for them. Even if it does come off as something else. This is just something not usually associated with her.

“Okay,” Bianca says carefully, “What the fuck is going on.”

“That’s what I want to know,” Alyssa agrees, lips pursed skeptically, “Adore told me y’all were making waffles.” It’s absurd. The fire alarm is still blaring. Adore has crushed herself into a nook, looking petrified. Bianca is very hungover and her most beloved annoying neighbor is standing in her house at way too early o’clock. Bianca suddenly realizes that even though there’s no fire, there’s still smoke in her apartment, and she really wants that alarm to shut the fuck up. Also, the smoke is going to stain her expensive shit if she doesn’t get it out.

She starts to open all the windows in the main room, and is grateful when Alyssa comes to help her. They make short work of it, and when she turns around to look at her best friend, she feels scared.

She’s scared that Adore might be hurt. She’s scared that she didn’t do anything to prevent this. But mostly she’s scared that something might be broken between them.

For the first time since walking in, Bianca notices bowls spread across her kitchen counter. Bowls and boxes and whisks… It clicks.

“Okay,” Bianca exhales, “Alyssa, what the fuck did you just say about waffles?”

“Adore came to me a little while ago and asked me if I could lend you two some waffle ingredients,” Alyssa starts slowly, “And I think to myself, ‘Now Alyssa Edwards, as a woman of God it is your duty to love your neighbor and let her make some waffles on this beautiful morning-’”

“Alyssa, you let my dumbass kid do WHAT?! You fucking know she can’t cook! We have had this conversation a hundred times!”

“Well, Adore said to me ‘Bianca and I’ not ‘I’m going to’! I thought you were gonna be helping her!”

“WHY WOULD YOU ASSUME THAT? WHEN HAVE I EVER COOKED?!”

“I’m sorry!” Adore snaps, her voice quivering and tears welling up in her eyes, causing Bianca and Alyssa to turn to her, “I’m so, so sorry- I didn’t mean for this to happen! I just- I just wanted-”

Bianca stares at Adore with shock, not fully comprehending everything happening. Between her hangover and the sheer chaos of the first fifteen minutes of being awake, she’s not entirely sure why Adore is so distressed. Adore starts whispering ‘I’m sorry’ over and over to herself, hugging her knees tight to her chest, tears starting to crawl down her face, and it hits Bianca like a train.

“Alyssa…” Bianca says slowly, but she’s unable to tear her eyes away from Adore.

Adore’s blaming herself completely and totally. And it makes sense, she is the one that started the whole mess. But Bianca can’t stand that look on Adore’s face. She’d much rather put the blame on Alyssa (who can more than handle it) instead of Adore (who is currently having a nervous breakdown).

But Adore isn’t having it.

“No, this is my fault. I’m not- I’m not that stupid, Bianca. I’m not that useless, either. I’m not a kid. I’m not someone you should leave supervision for. I’m fucking twenty-four. Stop treating me like I’m not,” Adore’s words are cold, but her face tells Bianca the musician is falling apart, “Look me in the eye, Bianca.”

She does.

“Yell at me,” Adore says.

She can’t. Bianca doesn’t even want to. She feels like she failed here, because Adore isn’t her kid but God does it feel like it sometimes.

“We’ll replace your stuff, Alyssa,” is what Bianca says instead.

Luckily, the woman accepts that as her cue to go. She gives Bianca a hug and a kiss on the cheek before she leaves, and sends air kisses Adore’s way. Adore gives Alyssa a weak smile.

The door closes. Bianca and Adore lock eyes.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Bianca says. It’s a tired, worried voice. Not at all what Adore was expecting, or even wanted.

“I wanted to surprise you,” Adore answers simply, arms crossed defensively over her chest, “You do so much for me. For everyone. And I know you said last night we’d do it together but I just… I wanted to do something for you.”

That alone melt’s Bianca’s heart. It’s been getting easier and easier lately for Adore, and by extension the rest of their friends, to do that. For a while she thought moving to this city was stupid, and probably the worst decision of her life. But even now, after such a chaotic fucking twenty-five minutes of being awake, Bianca is so happy she’s here.

“Next time, buy me something online,” Bianca says, warm and forgiving, instead of cold and biting like Adore would’ve expected.

The younger practically runs into Bianca’s open arms. The embrace is full of love, and Adore feels that it’s okay. She still blames herself, she’s still stupidly upset, but Bianca… Bianca makes her feel like everything will be okay.

They sit there hugging for a few minutes, then Bianca mutters, “Good thing you knew how to use that extinguisher, I think that’s been hanging there for ten years.”

Adore chuckles wetly, face buried into Bianca’s shoulder, “Yeah… Hey, shouldn’t have all the other alarms gone off too?”

Bianca freezes. Adore is right, all the other fire alarms in the building should’ve had people evacuating.

“I guess the building needs to get that fixed, huh? Maybe you being a walking disaster is a good thing after all, if that had been real, everyone would’ve been fucked.”

“Wow,” Adore whispers, “Maybe our building should get that checked too…? Oh my God. Oh my God.”

“What?!” Bianca asks, pulling away from Adore to see what’s wrong.

“I never went home last night,” Adore says, “I never charged my phone. I never texted my roommates.”

Bianca suddenly doubles over laughing, fully bellied and absolutely batshit crazy, “Good, Courtney doesn’t get nearly enough stress in her life!”

Adore breaks out into a grin, and feels her worries start to melt away. Somehow, Bianca is really fucking good at doing that.

“Alright,” Bianca sighs, looking at the pure mess that is now her kitchen, “Let’s charge our phones and order breakfast.”

And they do.

Neither would’ve spent the hour following that disaster any other way.

#rpdr fanfiction #adore delano #bianca del rio #alyssa edwards #biadore #gen fic #fluff #angst #fighting #lesbian au #cisgirl au #hurt/comfort #reckless #candy cane #tw fire #concrit welcome

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1heartfanfics · 4 years

Note

Love when the male character calls it his tummy, says some food didn't sit right/upset it, moans, publicly rubs his stomach, asks for SO/friend to help take care of him. Def want to request an emeto story but more of a build up like he can't get it out/feels sick to stomach longer/needs more taking care of before vomiting

TW: depictions of vomit

“Hey man you want another beer?” Zayn asked as Jackson walked over to him.

“Nah, I’m just gonna stick with the one today I think,” Jackson shook his head.

“Fair enough,” Zayn answered, pulling one out of the cooler for himself and another for Andrew.

“So how’s married life?” Jackson asked, walking back over towards the rest of the group with him. Their whole friend group had gone out to the lake for the weekend before class started again.

“It’s awesome! I mean it doesn’t really feel any different than it did before most of the time. But then I’ll randomly have these moments where I’m like ‘holy shit we’re like married married’,” Zayn laughed.

“That’s great, I’m really happy for you guys,” Jackson chuckled as well.

“Why do you ask?” Zayn pressed, although he had his suspicions.

“Well,” Jackson flushed a little, “I’ve just been thinking I guess. I mean, not like right now, but I think I want to propose sometime this year,” he rambled nervously.

“That’s awesome dude, you guys are great together,” Zayn reached out and shook Jackson’s hand. They weren’t exactly close friends, Jackson and Kaiser both knew Andrew a lot better than his husband. Zayn kept to himself a lot.

“Hey Jaz?” Kaiser spoke up from behind Jackson. He spun around, heart racing. How much of that had he heard? It was way too early to have ruined his idea. But then he saw Kaiser’s face and realized that potential eavesdropping was not what he needed to be worried about. Kaiser was pale (even more so than usual) and had a slight grimace on his face. Something was wrong.

“Hey, what’s wrong Kai?” he asked, wrapping an arm around Kaiser’s waist.

“My tummy isn’t feeling so good,” Kaiser shrugged, leaning into Jackson’s side as he brought one hand up to rub at his stomach through the tank top he was wearing.

“Alright, let’s go inside, get you out of the sun. Maybe some cool air will help, yeah?” Jackson said softly. Kaiser turned into a child when he wasn’t feeling well.

“We have a slew of antacids and stuff in our room, feel free to grab whatever you need,” Zayn said, looking on knowingly. Both he and Andrew suffered from their fair share of stomach problems, so they always liked to be prepared, especially when they knew they weren’t going to be at home for a couple of days.

Jackson gave him a nod and a grateful smile as he ushered Kaiser inside, gently pressing him forward with a hand on the small of his back.

“Here we go, air conditioning might do you some good,” Jackson said as they walked inside the cabin they were all staying in. He led Kaiser over to the couch in the main room and helped him lower himself down right in front of the air vent.

“Everything okay?” Nathan asked. Him, Hazel, Alex, and Charlotte were playing a game of cards at the coffee table in one corner of the room.

“Stomach’s bothering him,” Jackson answered, sitting down next to Kaiser, who was leaned back with his eyes closed, one hand rubbing back and forth across his stomach.

“Overheated?” Hazel asked. “I can go get him a bottle of water from the cooler if you want,” she offered.

“Yeah, that would be great, thanks Hazel,” Jackson nodded before turning his attention to Kaiser. “You think you might just be overheated?” he asked, placing a comforting hand on his knee.

Kaiser shook his head, “I don’t think lunch is agreeing with me. Something isn’t sitting right.”

“Do you want to try some medicine then? Zayn said he had some in their room,” he asked, rubbing circles into Kaiser’s leg with his thumb.

“I guess,” Kaiser shrugged.

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” he said, leaning over to kiss Kaiser’s cheek as he stood up, then darted off towards Zayn and Andrew’s room.

Sure enough there was a small collection of medicine bottles sitting on the little table next to the bed. He decided to go for pepto over tums, since that seemed to work better for Kaiser, then headed back to the living room.

Hazel was sitting next to Kaiser, her arm draped over his shoulders. He somehow looked even worse than when Jackson had left not two minutes ago. His face had paled to a shade of almost grey, sweat starting to bead on his forehead.

“What happened?” he asked.

“He took a couple sips of water but now he’s feeling kinda queasy,” Hazel answered, retracting her arm and scooting over to allow Jackson to take his spot beside his boyfriend.

“Hey, talk to me babe,” he said softly.

“Dunno, my tummy’s just really upset,” Kaiser whined, turning to press his face into Jackson’s shoulder.

Jackson wrapped an arm around his boyfriend, rubbing his back gently as Kaiser curled up to him. Although Kaiser was pretty open about stuff like this, he was probably a little uncomfortable now having all these people around. But it didn’t seem like he was really up for moving to their room. He could tell that the others were trying hard not to look at them, but they all kept stealing glances.

“You feel like you might be sick?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah-” he cut himself off with a gulp, “Feeling pretty nauseous now,” he continued.

“Do you want to move to the bathroom?” He asked quietly.

Kaiser shook his head slowly. He felt like everything was spinning and his limbs suddenly felt so heavy. All he’d done was take two sips of water and then this wave of nausea had just come crashing over him.

“Here,” Hazel said, getting up to grab the trash can from the other side of the room and placing it in front of Kaiser.

“Thank you,” Jackson said, smiling wryly at her. This certainly had come on fast.

“Hazel come here, don’t hover. Give them some privacy,” Nathan said, motioning for her to rejoin their game.

“Do you need anything love?” Jackson asked once they were sort-of alone.

“Will you rub my belly for me?” Kaiser asked shyly.

“Of course Kai,” Jackson slid his other arm around to Kaiser’s front. Kaiser moved his own hand, grabbing Jackson’s wrist to position his hand over the middle of his stomach. Jackson started to rub gently, feeling how tight and bloated his stomach felt. Something really was not agreeing with him, that was for sure.

“Woah, what happened to you two?” Andrew asked, walking in to grab a bottle of water. He was starting to feel a little drunk and needed something to dilute the alcohol in his system.

“Shh, he’s feeling a little sick to his stomach,” Zayn chided him.

“Oh, sorry. M’drunk,” Andrew said more quietly.

“Did you find some medicine for him?” Zayn asked Jackson.

“I grabbed the pepto, but he thinks he’s gonna throw up, so we’re just waiting it out,” Jackson said.

“Shit, that really sucks. Hang in there Kaiser,” Zayn said, then dragged his drunk husband to the kitchen to absorb some of the alcohol he’d consumed.

“Oh god,” Kaiser moaned, sitting up and leaning forward over the trash. Jackson maneuvered it to rest between Kaiser’s legs so he didn’t have to lean over so far.

“You’re okay, just breathe,” Jackson said, leaving his hand resting on Kaiser’s stomach, his other hand rubbing his back.

“It’s a good thing Tayden isn’t here,” Alex piped up from across the room. Their emetophobic friend would not have been having a good time if he were here right now.

“Fuck, I can feel it, but it’s not coming up,” Kaiser breathed out, voice shaking. Actually all of him was shaking.

“Just relax, it’ll happen when you’re ready,” Jackson said, wrapping his arm all the way around Kaiser to take some of his weight off of his shaking arms.

Kaiser was rocking back and forth now, eyes squeezed shut as he was wracked with wave after wave of nausea. The vertigo was enough to make him sick on its own, not to mention the sloshing and churning of his stomach like a washing machine.

“I need to throw up so bad Jaz,” Kaiser cried, tears starting to slide down his cheeks.

“Okay, okay, here let me help,” Jackson said, moving his arm down to press against Kaiser’s stomach. He tightened his grip, pushing in harder against his upset stomach.

That extra bit of pressure was enough to finally get him started. He pitched forward with a wet belch that morphed into a gag, bringing whatever was upsetting his stomach so bad finally up and out. He brought up a wave of vomit into the trashcan, coughing and spitting as it continued to come up.

When his stomach was empty, he reached down to press a hand into his stomach, sending up another sick sounding belch from his belly. He sat back, leaning against Kaiser with a sigh of relief, although he was still shaking from the exertion.

“Feel better love?” Jackson asked, brushing Kaiser’s sweat dampened hair out of his face. He could feel the eyes of everyone else on them.

“My tummy still hurts but I’m not nauseous anymore,” Kaiser shrugged.

“You want to try some pepto now to keep it settled?” Jackson asked.

Kaiser nodded, so he reached over and grabbed the bottle. He poured out a capfull, handing it to kaiser along with the glass of water Hazel had gotten. Kaiser quickly downed the medicine then took a small sip of water, afraid of upsetting his stomach again.

“There we go. You want to go lay down for a bit?” Jackson asked softly, carding his fingers through Kaiser’s hair.

He nodded tiredly, eyes drooping. Throwing up really took it out of a person. Jackson helped him up, basically hauling him off of the couch and dragging him down the hall to their room. All of their friends gave them sympathetic looks as they passed, having gone quiet as soon as Kaiser started getting sick.

Leave it to Kaiser to get a stomach ache so bad he pukes in front of all their friends while on their ‘relax’ weekend at the lake.

#sick kaiser #caretaker jackson #jackson and kaiser #tummy ache #upset tummy #tummy rubs #tw vomit #vomit trigger warning #emeto #my fandoms #oc story

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little-igit · 4 years

Text

Crimson Roses

𝕮𝖗𝖎𝖒𝖘𝖔𝖓 𝕽𝖔𝖘𝖊𝖘

Last Chapter

A/N: Hey!! I still can't believe that I dreamt all of this- obviously not every detail but the basic plot of it. I was about to have surgery when I originally finished this chapter the update on that is good! I'm healed and everything! I do headcannons and things too by the way! I just haven't posted any yet! I do headcannons, roleplay, fanfiction obviously, I draw sometimes. I don’t bite so if you want to message me and say hi I don’t mind! I encourage it actually! Thanks to anyone who reads and comments, I'll talk to you all next chapter.

Here is a little key you might need before you start!

Y/N - Your name

S/N - Little Sisters Name(If you are an only child make one up!)

H/C - Your Hair Color

Summary: You have an odd dream on the plane that leaves you feeling worse than before. On the other hand you are one step closer to your sister!

Warnings Of The Chapter: None but if I missed something tell me!

Y/N sits in her seat, the plane had taken off a few moments before. She would be sitting there for thirteen hours and she was already tired of it. The roar of the plane’s engines as it flew through the air sounded more like an incessant humming as it was muffled by the wings cutting through the air. She closed her eyes in an attempt to relax, possibly even sleep. The sound of the plain only grew louder as she tried to get comfortable without disturbing anyone. The wings were like knives slicing through the atmosphere as the big hunk of metal was propelled through the air.

It's safe to say that she isn't a fan of flying. She can admit that it isn't the worst thing in the world but the thought that there's a chance they could randomly start plummeting towards the earth from thousands of miles above haunts her just a little. Granted the tendency to overthinking doesn't help that.

It isn't all bad though. The dim lights of the cabin combat against everything else going on, in and outside of her mind, helping her feel tired when everything else acts like it wants to keep her awake. She ends up curled in an odd position, facing the closed window that she had unfortunately been put next to. She wouldn't open it until they had been up for a while and she felt safe in the air. That is unless she felt stuffy and wanted to see the outdoors to help with that.

The longer she stares blankly at the white surface keeping her view from the outside world the calmer she starts to feel, though it could always be the dull vibrations of the plane causing her to calm down. With time her eyes start to close, body relaxing, eyelids growing too heavy as she drifts off to sleep.

When she opened her eyes everything was dark. An endless void of nothing for her to stare into forevermore. She wasn't on the plane anymore but she didn't care. The darkness felt oddly comforting.

She doesn't know how long she was staring into the nothing until she heard the sound of a drop of water crashing into a puddle behind her. The sound was a miracle reminding her she was still alive, that she IS something. It echoed for a moment, The sound beautiful like a piano key.

The sound had barely enough time to echo before she spun around to face it. Instead of looking at a measly puddle on the ground, she found herself face to face with the most elegant mirror she had ever seen.

Is stood tall enough so that all of her could be seen, her feet carried her towards it, stopping her directly in front of it. It was drawing her in like a moth to the flame. Her feet touched something wet, surprising her yet she didn't flinch, drawing her attention to the ground as well as the fact that she had no shoes on.

There was a puddle, like what she had expected to see first instead of the mirror. It was admittedly smaller than what's she thought it would be, maybe the size of her hand, by the sound the drop made but a puddle nonetheless.

The puddle gave her no entertainment and she quickly found herself bringing her gaze back up to the mirror. Her heart dropped, there were six pairs of legs standing behind her own. She felt like she should be panicked, and a part of her was, but the darkness kept her feeling safe. She needed to see who it was, or maybe she didn't, but her head started to move to see without her realizing it. It was like she wasn't the one in control, merely looking through someone else's eyes. The people behind her were all dressed nicely from head to toe but she didn't get to have a good look at any of them, as soon as she was able to meet one of their eyes they all disappeared. Like they were never there.

Another drop, she saw it this time. It was hard to make out but the reflective shine on the otherwise clear droplet, despite the fact that there wasn't any light shining anywhere from what she could tell, gave it away. Her eyes followed its path. Just as it hit the ground, giving off the same odd echo as before, though, this time a lot less like the miracle it seemed to be before, her eyes snapped open.

She had been sleeping. It had all been but a dream. She woke up to the ding from the speakers above them on the plane. She still felt calm thanks to the dream, but she was glad to be awake. The pilot's voice, or one of the flight attendants, she didn't care enough to know which, came over the loudspeaker. "Attention everyone we will be landing shortly please make sure to have your seatbelts on, and thank you for flying with us today!" The flight attendant started to repeat the phrase in Japanese given that's where they were landing, even if she could understand what they were saying she didn't want to listen to it twice so she tuned it out the second time.

Y/N straightened out from her, slightly less, balled up position than when she had fallen asleep, and clipped her seatbelt on before letting out a sigh. Had she slept that long? It didn't feel like she had but then again dreams always feel short. Maybe she had stared into the inky blackness longer than she originally thought she was when it was happening. That could have definitely messed with her sense of time. She hasn't been this confused waking up since she was little, seven maybe? It was before she started school but it could have been earlier.

She sighs, bracing herself for landing as she feels herself lean forward involuntarily in her seat. The plain starts descending as she feels the need to pop her ears every few seconds. She's reminded why flying isn't one of her favorite things. She shuts her eyes, using her armrests to push herself back up against the seat. It was much less comfortable than it was when she was asleep and she briefly wonders how she fell asleep in the first place.

She doesn't know how many seconds she stayed like that until she's jostled in her seat, the plane touching the runway making everyone bounce slightly. Everything is bumpy for a while as the plane slows down, leveling itself on the pavement until it's rolling along like an oversized car. She opens her eyes then, still not comfortable but not as uncomfortable as before…knowing they aren't in the air helps.

Finally, after thirteen whole hours, she can't believe she slept through and can't really remember the plane lands, stopping completely. Everyone starts to grab their bags but she stays seated waiting for the cabin to empty a little. She starts to gather her own things as soon as she feels she can walk into the Isle without hitting someone. She takes her carry-on bag from the overhead compartment that had mostly been filled with snacks.

She walks out into the Isle muttering 'excuse me's as she passes others trying to enter the Isle. Everyone rushing out excited to be on the ground again and out of the plane.

She still can't believe she slept for the whole flight. It's not new for her to sleep for a long time, she's used to waking up around noon. That's usually because she stays up late though and she would wake up in the middle of the night. She's never been able to sleep soundly throughout the night as she had slept on the plane. She would always wake up at least once. But she hadn't, and if she did she didn't remember which might scare her more than just not having done so.

She paused in her steps, looking around after she was out of the plane and the loading area. She was somewhere in the airport but she didn't know where. She should have been paying attention to where she was going as she walked.

She starts to walk again, looking for a sign of some type that might tell her where she is or better yet where to go. She found a map of the airport pretty easily as they tend to be all over the place. She studies it for a moment before following its directions straight to baggage claim. She doesn't know which one she's supposed to be at thanks to her not paying attention. This one seems right, she recognizes a few faces from the plane. She maneuvers her way near the front of the cloud excusing herself as she goes, waiting for her bag to come around.

She spots it easily, a Disney themed suitcase her mom bought on one of the few Disney trips she's been on. She grabs it and walks out of the way of everyone else to extend the handle so that it can roll along easily behind her. She takes a moment after that to type the location of the camp into her phone mapping services. So that she could have it ready. She grimaces as she sees how far away it is. She wouldn't want to bother with trying to find some public transportation that goes that far. She'll have to rent a car then…something she's never done that's for sure.

She leaves her spot, finding another map and studying it again before following it to a car rental place. She stands outside of it for a bit watching what everyone else does out of habit before walking up to the desk herself. She hopes someone speaks English because although she can understand it she hasn't actually had to speak Japanese in a long time.

The process is awkward and lengthy, even after they explained what she needed to do to get a car. She still doesn't really know what she's doing so that does nothing for her. It might even be the reason she takes so long.

After everything is said and done she finds herself standing in front of the airport with keys to a pretty nice car, though not an expensive one, in her hands. Before she gets in she opens the trunk, dumping her suitcase inside. She shuts it again, keeping her bag of snacks on her. She takes a second before she gets in to just stand and stare. She takes out her phone charger finding a place to plug it in. The one requirement she had when renting the car was that it had a place to plug in her phone as there was no way it would survive all the way to the camp without it.

When it's all set up she uses google to bring up directions to the camp. With all of that done, she starts to drive.

Next chapter(in the works)

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molnlycke · 3 years

Text

100 DAYS OF SUNLIGHT BY ABBIE EMMONS REVIEW

As a disclaimer I want to say that I found the Youtube channel of Abbie Emmons by one of her ‘write with me’ videos. Following that I watched some of her WritersLifeWednesdays vlogs and thought, this woman has tremendous passion and work put into her craft. She actually gives valuable advice, and the themes of her videos are pretty good. So when I saw that she has a novel of her own published, I wanted to see how she incorporates the stuff she talks about into practical work. This is how I started reading her debut novel: 100 Days of Sunlight.

I was curious, okay?

But oh man, what is this?

This book… I’m sorry it’s just so bad. The mess of glaring problems, plotholes, the …characterisation. Abbie Emmons says every good story is character driven (which I wholeheartedly stand by if it is executed well!!!) but what should I get from this, honestly?

There are too many things screaming PROBLEMATIC here.

But let’s start at the beginning.

The exposition––the first chapter’s building don’t make no sense. It has a twist in it alright, but why start with something that turns out to be a dream (or a scrap of a memory in this case) of the actual past, only to get dumped with everything else that also happened following that scene? All of this is told from the protagonist’s reminiscing of said happening.

- To be clear the book starts with the scene of an accident–the accident in which the protagonist, Tessa loses her sight. A drunk driver with a pickup truck runs the red light crashing into the car Tessa and her grandmother are in. Soon it turns out that’s only a recurring nightmare and she’s been home for one or two weeks (maybe? I don’t remember precisely). By this time she has already lost her sight. Tessa runs the audience over all that happened after the accident (basically in those weeks she got discharged from the hospital etc. etc.) Now my question is why not start the book from the accident itself? It all gets narrated either way.

The next problem is the way first Tessa’s grandparents, and then the WHOLE BOOK just downplays consent. Why? Why would you do that?

- Tessa’s grandparents “know better what’s good for her than she does”–that’s an actual quote from the novel btw. Nothing glaringly alerting in that, I mean adults often have this way of thinking about children. Until… they try to arrange a stranger to help Tessa with transcribing her work. Tessa is a poet with a blog where she posts her work on schedule. Ever since the accident, she doesn’t feel like writing (or blogging for that matter). She’s shut herself off from the virtual world, doesn’t touch her laptop, nor speaks with her internet friends. (Because ofc she’s homeschooled, doesn’t like to go out at all and only has internet friends in the first place.) She’s in her room for most of the day, cries a lot and tries to cope. Whether her coping is good or bad I’m not qualified to say, but she thinks of herself as selfish, lazy, cynical, and depressed most of the time––everything she never wanted to be, things hates with every fibre of her being. She blames herself and basically detests life for beating her down to the ground. She feels she can’t get up even though she’s told, her blindness is a condition that can go away in ninety-something days’ time. I think feeling these emotions are pretty reasonable for a teenager. It’s been like three weeks since the accident, and her newfound blind perspective of life. That can’t be easy. BUT her grandparents know this isn’t healthy, Tessa needs to write. “I haven’t written one verse, one line, one word of poetry. I have no desire to. I have no inspiration, no joy. It’s all gone.” - Tessa from ch.1 So what do Granny and Gramps do following their infinite wisdom? Play the girl. And I’m like, sure dude, harass the child into doing what you want. Sure, don’t try to get her professional help or a psychotherapeutist or something if you think she’s faring so terribly. Sure, run an ad for hiring some part timer to transcribe for the poet who doesn’t want to write anymore. Sure, do it all behind her back. I mean she has PTSD and is blind for now, but yeah, this will most definitely help. Good job! For goodness’ sake they treat the girl like she’s been locked inside her room for months?!

When they share this brilliant plan with Tessa, she freaks out so much the elderly retract the ad. But not before the son of the newspaper’s owner gets a scrap of this new, possible past time activity and decides to be a creep and essentially stalk Tessa. But that’s for later.

Tessa explicitly tells her grandparents she doesn’t want to meet new people, doesn’t want to write, what she needs is time. So the next thing Granny does is pushes an unknown, teenage boy into her blind granddaughter’s room for a chat. Against Tessa’s repeated objections! There’s so much nonsense going on in the sequence of the story. Like one day there comes a boy–a stranger, knocking on the door, saying he’s this and this’ son and wants to help. And because, at a glance, he has prosthetic legs, you invite him first into the house then into your blind teenage granddaughter’s room? Without actually knowing if he is who he says he is? Without knowing the first thing about him? But even if that part is true, and he is who he says–the son of the newspaper’s owner, let’s not forget the mildly stalkerish way the guy’s been acting.

Granny shares a shit load about Tessa’s problems, then flat out tells her to meet Weston. “I told you I don’t want help. And I certainly don’t want anyone touching my laptop. I don’t want to write. I don’t want some stranger coming into my house and feeling sorry for me!” That’s Tessa speaking with Granny prior to the meeting. I mean it’s no biggie if she’s against the whole idea because he could help, right? Is this the American way of handling things? Someone give me a spoon that I can boink myself in the head with to get around this type of mentality.

At the first meeting Tessa has meltdown, screams at Weston and cries. Tells him she doesn’t need help. Tells him not to bother. Tells him she wants him OUT OF HER ROOM. Weston leaves before telling her he’ll be back the next day. And Granny and everyone else is fine with that. So in the following days the nuisance has the audacity to come over, small-talk the grandparents into loving him because he’s so charming everyone is in love with him a little. (That’s another thing from the book, I shit you not, the dude straight up thinks things like this. Yes, I know it’s self-deceit.) Weston forcibly takes over Tessa’s room which is basically the last place she feels comfortable at? Never mind, now someone’s popping in randomly when they think it’s cool, telling her what to do––“I know you don’t need me. But you need to write.” Bitch I think you need to fuck off from people’s lives who don’t want you in it. Just an advice.

One time Tessa wakes up to Weston barging into her room (“...he walks into my room without knocking, at 9.00 a.m., when I’m still in my pajamas”). Granny’s off to do her things leaving the boy to stay and make himself at home. Huh, quite reasonable.

Weston forces Tessa to accept there’s no fleeing this situation––one, the three of them (him and the oldies) constructed for her. Because it’s helping.

That’s basically the question of: where’s the line between wanting to help someone and pushing them even deeper when they’re already at a bad place. But since this is a YA romance everything is nice and good and sorted at the end so Tessa can thank her loving family for forcing their volition on her.

- Here’s another lovely example of consent portrayed in the novel: “I told you I don’t want to go outside.” Weston laughs. “You also told me to get out of your house and never come back.” “And you directly disobeyed my wishes.” “And you’ve been enjoying it...” Please tell me I’m not the only one seeing what’s wrong with this whole dialogue. It’s so disappointing and frankly, discouraging, to see an attitude like this written by a woman, targeted at a young, female audience.

- Oh, there’s their first kiss as well. It’s really really romantic. Weston asks for permission then doesn’t wait for the answer! “I’m gonna kiss you. Is that okay?” It’s not fair, because I don’t give her any time to reply. Instead, I press my lips against hers. Without permission.” ...So why did he even bother to ask? To seem nice? Well, as the saying goes it’s the thought that counts… So is this how consent works? NO! But consent never stood a chance in this book at the first place.

Next up; Characters.

*not @me side-eyeing Abbie’s video about how to craft a strong female protagonist* - I’m not gonna say a lot about Tessa. For me she falls flat like a cut-out. She’s paper thin, and dumb, although she’s the novel’s protagonist. Funny though, I feel she has less to give to the story than Weston, and it’s not just the length of their respective chapters. There’s like 600-700 words from Tessa’s POV (mainly about Weston 80% of the times), then we get a 4k word count chapter from Weston (mainly about his own journey and overcoming his struggles). Tessa’s chapters are either shallow or about her time spent with Weston. Opposed to this Weston has a full arc of him getting over the loss of his legs and standing up from it (quite literally). See what I’m talking about? All I get from Tessa before the accident is that she’s a writer, homeschooled, likes her colour coordinated books, and waffles (like Abbie ha!) (*whispers* and she wears her hair in a messy bun, ofc she does). Oh and she can’t live without WiFi. All I get after the accident is that she’s hurting, angry and blind. And now she has Weston. So her backstory is…..?

- Weston. Oh man where to start. Now he has a backstory. From it we can conclude how idiotic he is. That’s not recklessness or being a teenage boy. I’m sorry but his behaviour is simply idiotic. Sometimes he’s really grown up (taking care of his baby brothers and all) other times he has like 1 (one) braincell operating in his head. Bearing weeks of pain, and not saying anything about it to anyone because that’s not superhero like? WHAT??? He experienced, at the least, three weeks of torturous pain and several days of fever and dizziness, popping Advil like it’s candy. Still, the only one who realised this is his best friend at school and his 10 year old brother who was at the scene of Weston injuring his legs in the first place. What about the parents one might ask. Well Idk. Obviously a 13 year old is so good at deception and sneaking around that adults can’t catch on! On this note I want to gift Parents of the Year Award to Mamma and Pappa Ludovico. With parental supervision like that I’m baffled the child lived up to the age 13.

Weston is the nightmare male lead people usually salivate after in k-dramas stuffed into the body of a 16 year old American boy. Now I’ve never understood those people and their preferences of the bratty, entitled, but oh-so-handsome males and I still don’t understand to this day. Where’s the appeal? Don’t ask me.

I’ll just put down some quotes: “It’s the first time in three years anyone has ever met me without that look of pity on their face. The first time anyone has ever looked at me and not seen me. The first time anyone has stood before me—with perfectly normal legs—and complained about their own problem. The feeling is exhilarating.” So basically this is the so called ‘No one has ever treated me like this. Except this girl, my God, she’s intriguing’. Weston enjoys Tessa’s rude behaviour. “So she’s stubborn. She’s rude. She’s a spitfire wallflower who lost her sight and now hates anyone who tries to help her. Game on.” ...Are you five? “Tessa is the only Dickinson who doesn’t like me.” I have no idea why that could be. But, listen, listen: “I turn around in the desk chair, throwing her a hard look over my shoulder. She’s still sitting rigid and stoic on her bed, staring at nothing. She’s actually really pretty. Her eyes are bluer than mine—the enhanced kind of blue you see in contact lens commercials. She has freckles, too. Just a few, thrown across her nose and cheeks. Her hair is braided today, less messy. She looks so serious. I liked it better when she was screaming and crying.” Idk somehow this sounds like every badly composed romance I’ve ever seen. Let’s just say the progression of the relationship between Weston and Tessa infuriated me 90% of the story. You can help others without being an ass. You can also help others without being a horrible love interest, but that’s for another day. YA contemporaries don’t work like that.

Oh Weston, what a knight in shining armour. Three years prior, he had this thing with Clara Hernandez–a girl from school. It wasn’t real dating but they spent some time together (he walked her to class ooooh~~~) so she became “at the time, my unofficial girlfriend”. Things change after Weston’s accident, of course. He tells her he doesn’t want to continue their ambiguous relationship. And that’s alright, it’s his choice, BUT he then kind of passes the girl to his best friend, so she won’t annoy him anymore? The way he narrates the whole thing is...ugh. “But she wasn’t even dumping me, and we weren’t even dating. We were thirteen years old, for crying out loud.” See, this is Weston thinking about what happened. And this is him telling Rudy about it: “What were you talking to Clara about?” he (Rudy) asked. “I dumped her.” Following in another chapter they talk about how now that the coast is clear––Weston and Clara are through, Rudy should hit on Clara: “He wanted to resist the whole thing and deny his obvious crush on Clara Hernandez. But he couldn’t do anything except laugh and shake his head. He knew I was the best friend he could ever ask for.” Such a kind and caring person for handing out the girl he doesn’t really want to his best friend. Give him a medal for that one. Idk this whole business irked me to no end, like Clara was his possession or something. (Yeah, and the poor girl eventually ended up with Rudy, not like she had any other choice…)

- Downplaying female friendship. Yeah, that one happens as well. When Tessa talks with her friends (her blogging circle) the only thing we as readers can glimpse about their conversation is “Tell us more about the boy,” like... really? Because once again that’s the only thing a group of friends can talk about when one of them suffers an accident resulting in trauma. And Tessa’s answer? “At first, I didn’t like him. I thought he didn’t understand anything about me—even though he acted like he did. And I’m not sure that he understands much, even now. But he’s kind. And patient. And he kept coming back to type poetry for me, so I’ve kind of been forced to make friends with him.” The reply of her friends… “Aw ... He sounds really cute.” Yeah, really cute, forcing you to be friends with him. “How can you not be in love with a boy who makes you waffles?” Well, friend no.5, it’s not that hard… But there’s more. After Tessa gets her sight back the only thing we get from this supporting bubble of warm friends is as follows: “LIV: TESSA HOW ARE YOU FEELING ME: a lot better actually ME: my headache FINALLY went away MARIA: yayy!! ALLISON: PRAISE THE LORD ME: yeah fr KATE: So glad to hear you’re doing better, Tessa! It must be quite a transition omg… GRACIE: I can’t even imagine ME: it’s been pretty crazy ME: but good ME: I guess ME: ugh idk mixed emotions LIV: ???? LIV: TELL US EVERYTHING LIV: if u want to lol ME: ahhh well ME: Weston is kind of not talking to me anymore,” That is it my friends. Two to three sentences about her condition and it’s time to talk about the boy. Is this really how shallow anyone would want to describe the protagonist and her close-knit group of friends talking for the first time after one of them lost their sight? Then again, talking for the first time after she got her sight back? I’m disappointed to say the least.

- I didn’t care for any other character enough to jot down my observations. They were bland, they were there to help the main couple, nothing more, nothing less. Weston’s kid brothers were cute and Rudy seemed like a normal, sane character (I applaud him for that). All I can say is the families in this novel are something else.

The romance.

Okay, let me state before anything else: I like romance if there’s balance. I like romance when the people involved are equals. I believe a relationship, and a good one at that, should have cornerstones. One of them has to be that equality. It also doesn’t hurt if none of the involved parties are assholes. The romance can be of any trope as long as the happy ending is tied to said relationship being healthy. And I don’t mean sorely the end product; the way that relationship is constructed step by step should resemble these things. If not, at least call them out for it. I’m not the advocate of perfect characters or relationships (any kind, not just romance) because that would be really unrealistic. It can be bad, yeah, it can be toxic, or a little messed up in the middle. But for crying out loud reflect that in the storytelling! Do it especially if the story is planned for a younger audience! Now let me make another statement: What I don’t like is that in mostly American YA het-romances there are rarely any of these things.

- This one here is probably supposed to be the writer’s well liked trope of hate-to-love romance, but I feel the concept of kindergarteners is more fitting. The boy forces, the girl yields. But it’s okay because he likes her and wants to help.

There are some cases of harassment sprinkled in, as in one party objecting the other’s closeness or presence and the latter not giving a damn about this. Real respectful; but, hey, that’s part of consent too so I guess it simply flew over our heads in this particular story. A fresh and original concept on romance, wholesome and healthy. And the thing is, Weston actually knows these things. He literally says so in the book, “...until I intruded on Tessa’s life, however it happened.”

And of course Tessa is more pure than fresh snow on white lillies; she’s basically a lotus. Weston is the first boy stepping into her room. Give me a second to freak out about that. It’s so exciting! (Mostly by knowing the circumstances in which he did that.)

The other thing that annoyed me was Weston’s entitlement and holier-than-thou attitude. He knows everything better than Tessa. He knows Tessa better than she herself does WHEN HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT HER. That’s the moral of the story. No, but I’m not kidding, some of his thoughts set me on fire. “She wrote about sunlight and oceans and falling in love, when I’m pretty sure she has no idea what it feels like to fall in love.” I’m sorry, but do you know Tessa? (besides stalking her via the grandparents)???? The audacity, I’m cackling.

- Can someone tell me why Tessa speaks with Weston if she doesn’t want to? I mean besides that this way the story can go on. She actually starts their conversation on the second day. Me, personally, don’t talk to people whose presence I can barely tolerate. How silly, I know.

- Weston annoys the shit put of Tessa for like five minutes but he talks to her, (for his own selfish reasons may I add––Weston, honey, if you want people not to pity you try helping blind little kids who actually want your help) and brings her flowers, and chocolate so I guess it’s reasonable that approximately four days later Tessa’s attitude shifts to comparing him to sunlight. “Weston is everything And all at once. Weston is gentle And harsh. Weston can be blindingly bright But then he can also be Delicately soft. Weston is a paradox.” – Oof girl.

- Let me tell you kids just because someone annoys or teases you and you tolerate it––that’s not the get-go to life changing love. Even though he’s the first real life boy whom you’ve ever spent casual time with. But he’s the first boy who ever showed you real attention, you say. Well then, that’s a grace girls have to accept. Or so this book and so many others try to make us believe. The sad thing is, there actually could’ve been a conflict––if one wants to write about opposites attracting each other so much––without making the story so cliched and weak.

Plot-holes.

- Maybe it’s nitpicking for some, BUT… why was Weston in his dad’s office in the first place? I never got around to the reason of that. He loiters around there once a week, that’s what the book states. Well, okay, he is there inspecting the motivational quotes collection on the wall while his father just works away. And am I supposed to believe the man is all cool with this? What is Weston doing there? For what reason? The answer is easy: he simply had to hear the phone call of Tessa’s grandfather retracting the ad.

- Now why does his father–the owner of the newspaper–accept calls regarding ads in the first place? Is this really how things work? Other employees do nothing? I’ve worked at a small printing company in the past. The management only accepted calls regarding ads if there wasn’t a single soul anywhere near the perimeter of the office. There’s a department for jobs like this. Bosses don’t qualify.

- About the already mentioned beautiful first meeting, where sparks fly, and the lovely couple can roll off a great start... If Tessa didn’t want to meet anyone why didn’t she lock her door? That’s a pretty easy task. At first I thought maybe there’s no lock on the door. But wait; after the disastrous meeting she locks herself away. “The door is locked, and Grandma has stopped trying to open it.” Sooo there was a lock after all…...okay…….

- Why is almost everyone in this book freckled with blonde hair and blue eyes? Okay, this really is just nitpicking, but like, is there some symbolism in that? *bounces eyebrows* Ehem, if you know what I mean.

- I’m not sure if this is an actual plot-hole but I was really surprised by the lack of anxiety Weston’s approach triggered in Tessa. Essentially, Weston is a stranger at the start of the book, with whom she gets locked into a room, without anyone else in there, when she’s still adjusting to the fact she can’t see. I especially looked out for it; Weston closes her door every time he’s over at their house to speak with her. I mean the first time she’s angry; but what about later? She doesn’t even seem nervous or affected by this at a time when her blindness is still fresh. Yet, when they go to Barnes & Noble, a public space with people around, Tessa is anxious the minute Weston leaves for a bathroom break. Like okay, some strange dude tries to pick her up and she’s rightfully terrified, but all she has to do is call out. Now both of these scenes are pressuring and scary, but where’s the difference? Tessa is nervous when the stranger approaches her in the book store, a big and open space with people around even before said stranger tries to initiate skinship. She tells him to leave her alone. But she did just that when Weston first went to see her. And Weston didn’t give a shit about it, much like the high schooler at the book store. And I’m supposed to believe with Weston she wasn’t apprehensive at all? Of course she wasn’t… he’s the love interest.

The whole book store scene makes me so uncomfortable and NOT because of what you’d think. It’s simply distasteful to create a scenario like that only to draw it back to… yes, you guessed it, Weston. He’s the saviour sweeping Tessa off her feet with “Get your hands off my girl” and chasing away that jerk. Why is it that still, in the year of *looks at smudged handwriting on hand* sometime past the 1890s there’s the need to use The Jerk™ hitting on the girl and The Nice Guy™ saving her by making her seem like his property? Oh did I forgot to mention the jerk smelled like cigarettes, and his pants were falling off his ass. I’m surprised he wasn’t wearing a leather jacket or had piercings just to fit the look to a T. That usage of my girl ...ugrghgh I can already feel white hairs sprouting from this. Look, I’m not against the idea of belonging to your beloved. If you want to say it, cool, do it. But when it’s not consensual, and you’re not a couple who already expressed to one another the wish to be viewed that way maybe DON’T FUCKING USE IT. Not to one up another guy trying scare the baddie away. Man, don’t do that. *channelling my inner LE to rap the last line really loud* What’s even better than this? Tessa’s reaction: “Despite the gravity of the situation, I can’t help but smile and get butterflies all over again.” REALLY???? Please donate braincells to this girl. She really needs it.

The dynamic of relationships.

- This is mind bogging for me. Almost all relations (excluding the most fundamental ones) serve a sole reason: cheer on and make the main couple happen. This book is promoted as a love story, one, not limited to romance. It’s a love story of family bonds, love between brothers, and grandparents, and friends. And that’s true for Weston… but for Tessa??? I don’t think so. But maybe that stems from how underdeveloped Tessa’s character is.

- The main couple’s dynamic is so stilted. Weston basically caused the state he is in, Tessa suffered an accident caused by outer circumstances. She’s the victim of a drunk driver, while quite frankly, Weston’s the victim of his own stupidity. And yet, since Weston decided to fight for himself he expects Tessa to do the same. Now that’s a nice thought, even if it’s about someone you barely know and met maybe two times in your life. Is that a reason to harass the other and tell them what to do, not taking no for an answer? I highly doubt it. Weston wanted to get better so he pressed himself, but he made that choice himself. It’s beautifully written down not once, not twice, but multiple times; how hard it was for him to choose between 1, the easy way––the flat grounded desert and 2, the hard scaling and rocky mountain range. He chose the mountain range and that’s admirable. What’s not admirable is, that from what I get from this book, Tessa never had the luxury of a choice. Because other’s never gave her time or let her decide for herself. Tessa says Weston is stubborn and obnoxiously optimistic. I think he’s just obnoxious, period.

- At the end of the book Tessa narrates how ashamed she feels and how her heart is breaking “Because of what Life has done to Weston.” For one, is Life responsible for what happened to Weston? I’d liked to read about how Weston tells the story of losing his legs to Tessa with a straight face, because all thorough the book he never once did that. To anyone. If that happened, he ought to admit how incredibly stupid he had been. As well as the consequences of his own decisions, every time he went on without saying a word or asking for help. That stubbornness is his character trait. Yes, it is, but we never get to see how that affected his family, there wasn’t one paragraph about his parents talking about it with him.

- On this note why is Tessa always so ashamed, feeling like she’s the brute, saying sorry to everyone at every chance? It’s not like others apologised to her once. This character trait only perpetuates the notion how everything others impose on her is fair trade because they only want to help. And either way, she only feels apologetic about standing up for herself.

Mentions of notable things that annoyed me.

- The judgement if a girl need makeup or not, because *banging pots and pans* she’s beautiful no matter what in the boy’s eyes. And he tells her just that. “Are you wearing makeup?” I ask, without thinking. Tessa smiles just a little. “Yeah,” she says. “Grandma helped me with it. This feels like… a special occasion.” “You don’t need it, you know. You look beautiful without it. But you look beautiful with it, too. You always look beautiful. Even when you’re crying.” Tessa really needed to know your opinion about her wearing makeup Weston. Kudos for you for telling her she doesn’t need it because she looks beautiful without it, but it’s okay to wear it as she looks beautiful with it too. Great input man!

- At this point I’m not even surprised, but there really was the girl staring at something, asking if it’s pretty. (Okay, Tessa couldn’t stare but she was probably imagining––here it’s the sundown, bc of the whole sunlight theme). Then the boy answering, “Yeah, it’s pretty.” Not as pretty as you, he thinks while staring straight at her. Hello, is this a Disney production?

Conclusion.

All in all is this the worst book ever? No. Are there unforgivable problems with it? Not explicitly.

My biggest problem is what message it sends about relationship patterns, patterns I hate with a fiery passion. It’s the same old shit I grew up with, and it’s the same old shit that doesn’t seem to change after twenty years. Not even now when,––with the help of the era of internet––everyone is suddenly so woke. But are they, really? All I saw about this novel is the raving reviews praising it to heavens. And there are themes in it that deserve praise––the acceptance of one’s self, the loss, the forgiveness, the overcoming of hardships of life––but what about all that’s left? What about the execution?

Bottom line is, because this is a book, everything gets resolved and all is happy and fine at the end. However in real life, coercing others to do things against their will isn’t a glorious idea. Disregarding consent isn’t acceptable. Helping with the stubbornness of a mule isn’t really helping. And last but not least, perpetuating a mindset and a budding relationship like the one presented in this book––for a young audience shouldn’t be okay.

#100daysofsunlight #abbie emmons

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nialledfromfics · 4 years

Text

The Dating Game | Chapter Four

“So, what’s up with this chick you won’t shut up about? What’s her name?”

Niall’s fingers stopped plucking at the strings of his guitar and he looked over at his best friend, and roommate, Chris, who was slumped back into their massive couch with a beer in his hand. They had known each other nearly their whole lives, Chris moving in with Niall after he had bought his house in LA to watch over the place when Niall had to travel with his career. Chris was hilarious and had a bit of a wild streak, sometimes coming on a little too strong, but underneath it all, he was a teddy bear and had always been a huge support system for Niall.

“Joey.”

Chris nodded his head, titling the beer bottle that rested on his thigh towards Niall. “Yeah...Joey, what’s up with her? Are ya’ll, like, dating?”

Shifting his bottom on the piano bench just a bit, Niall momentarily flicked his blue eyes up to the soccer game that was playing on the TV. “Umm, no...I don’t think so?”

“You don’t know?”

Niall shrugged and slid his fingers across the fretboard. “I mean, we hang out and chat and stuff, she’s supposed to come over here Saturday night to hang out, watch a movie. Have dinner or whatever.”

“So...you’re dating.”

“No, we’re friends,” Niall shot back, looking over at Chris.

“But you like her.”

Niall nodded, furrowing his brow slightly. “Yeah...yeah, I like her. I mean, we’re friends.”

“Yes, but you wanna bone her.”

“Dude…”

“What?” Chris snorted, as if he was the one offended, and held out his hand towards Niall. “Look, man, you’re taking this bird out–‘hanging out’ with her–or whatever, you fuckin’ got her tickets to her favorite band and went to the concert with her...and have been talking to her non-stop since, yet...you’re gettin’ nothin’ out of it. That’s kinda fucked up.”

Niall dropped his hands from his guitar, his mouth falling to a part as he stared in disbelief at his best friend. “Are you...fuckin’ serious, mate?” Niall said, shaking his head slightly as he ran his fingers up through his hair, “I’m not hangin’ out with her just so I can fuck her. I actually, genuinely, like bein’ around her, she’s a cool fuckin’ person.”

Shaking his head, Niall moved his stare back down to the guitar in his lap. “Jesus Christ...”

Chris shrugged nonchalantly and tipped his head back as he took a swig of his beer. “I’m just keepin’ it real, man…”

“Well, you better keep that shit to yourself on Saturday when she comes over,” Niall warned, glancing back over at his friend, “I don’t want her gettin’ the wrong impression.”

“What the fuck would that be?” Chris chuckled, “That you wanna fuck her?”

With an exaggerated eye roll, Niall ignored Chris’s comment and went back to strumming a riff on his guitar. Chris let out a scoff. “I’ll behave, don’t worry,” he finished under his breath, his eyes settling back onto the TV screen.

•

It had been a little over two weeks since the night of the concert. Niall kept his word and texted her the very next day, and nearly every day following. They’d sometimes text each other in the morning or chat while Joey sat in the teacher’s lounge eating her lunch, or while Niall was on his way into the studio. Sometimes they’d text in the evenings, while they were both in the kitchen simultaneously scrounging up some dinner or randomly while watching the same shows on Netflix, timing as close as they could so that it was almost like they were watching it together. Niall would Facetime her while he was working out, or while Joey was busy grading papers.

It was fun, easy and comfortable. There wasn’t a second that they didn’t have something to talk about: whether it be as simple as whatever ridiculous trouble Niall’s friends were getting into, or as complex as Joey’s family, how her parents had moved to Florida a year prior to take care of her sick grandmother. Joey never felt comfortable enough with anyone to get into the details of her family, but with Niall...it was so different. He understood, no matter what she told him, he understood and made her feel normal. They could just laugh and be silly with each other and Joey was becoming so grateful for their growing friendship.

They had hung out a few times too. Heading to a small corner coffee shop one late morning, and hitting up Pink Taco for a quick bite a few nights later. They went for a casual midday hike along Runyan Canyon that following weekend, and even went out to a comedy club that next night. But they tried their best to stay away from prying eyes as much as possible. Niall had warned Joey that, even though they were only friends, word could get out if they were seen alone together and it would most likely be assumed by the media that they were more than that. It had happened to him many times before and while it hadn’t happened to them yet, Joey tried to mentally prepare herself for if it ever did.

When it came down to it, she just really loved being around Niall. He was a blast; incredibly witty and charismatic, always up for anything and made even the simplest things enjoyable. There wasn’t a minute that would go by that he didn’t have Joey in stitches, and she found that she could talk to him about anything. He was more knowledgeable–whether it be music or politics, weird facts about space or everything else in between—than she had given him credit for. There wouldn’t be a lagging moment when they were together; Niall loved to see her smile and laugh, and Joey loved to see him flustered, especially when any topics of romance or love came up in their conversations. It didn’t tend to very often, but Niall got noticeably flushed and had the cheekiest of smirks on his face whenever it did. Joey found it all quite amusing.

A few days before Joey was to go over to Niall’s place for the first time that Saturday to hang out, she decided to call in sick at work. It was something that was practically unheard of for her, she was always very diligent in her work and being there for the children, but something in her just needed to take a day for herself. She was far from actually being sick, Alexis being the only other soul that knew she was telling a tiny fib to get out of work, but the school always took any illness seriously. So it was an easy out for her.

It was nearing 2pm, and she had been snuggled up on her couch–still in her pajamas, a big fuzzy blanket wrapped around her lower half and a marathon of a crime docu-series playing on TV–all morning with her little sidekick, Sadie, cuddled at her feet. She hadn’t spoken to Niall at all that day, actually she hadn’t spoken to him since the previous afternoon when he had called to ask if she wanted to come over to his house that Saturday to watch some new documentary that was coming on Netflix and maybe have some dinner. Alexis laughed when Joey told her.

“What?” the red haired girl innocently questioned, stuffing a bite of her leftover enchiladas into her mouth.

A playful smirk tugged over Alexis’ lips. “Please tell me you’ve heard of ‘Netflix and chill’?”

Joey rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Not this again…”

“I’m just saying, Jo,” she snipped back, “he’s inviting you over to his actual house and I can guarantee it’s not just to watch a movie…”

“We’re just friends!”

That was how most of their conversations went in the following weeks since the concert. And it was starting to exhaust Joey.

Tugging on a piece of hair that had fallen from the side of her loose bun, Joey’s stare had begun to glaze over as she mindlessly stared at the TV screen. She was meant to be watching the fifth installment to Making a Murderer, but her mind was hovering on something else. Or someone else. It was weird how she felt almost...sad that she hadn’t heard from Niall at all yet that day, and she thought that maybe he was just busy and didn’t have time to chat. Which...he was a very busy man with writing and recording for his upcoming album, but she still felt like...well, like she missed him.

The thought crashed through her and Joey scoffed lightly at herself and shook her head, nestling deeper into the couch and focusing her attention back to the TV. It wasn’t another ten minutes of Niall’s face and voice and laugh flashing in her brain that she pushed out a defeated sigh, cursing at herself from under her breath, as she leaned over to grab her cellphone from the coffee table in front of her.

Not really thinking about what she was going to say, Joey texted him a quick ‘hey’ and clicked off her phone, turning it upside down as she tossed it back to the table. Her teeth sunk down into her bottom lip as she looked back over at the TV, trying with everything in her to not count down in her head how long he was going to take to respond. Her heartbeat was starting to pick up slightly in her chest–thump, thump thump–and she tore at the dry skin around her fingernails as she waited.

The tone of a text coming through startled her, it shouldn’t have but it perked up Sadie’s head as well and the little dog looked over at Joey as she reached for her phone.

N: Heya love , what’s up?

A smile eased across Joey’s face.

J: Nothing. Just bored at home, wanted to see what you were up to.

N: You’re home ? Are u okay ?

J: Yeah, I’m fine! Just needed a day off. Are you busy?

N: Not really, no. Just workin on some tunes .

N: Why ?

J: Hmmmm

N: Hahahaha what’s up . .

Joey swallowed hard as she hovered her fingers over the screen of her phone and it struck her as odd that she was even hesitating to ask Niall what she wanted to ask him. She pulled in her face at her own ridiculousness–it was only Niall for crying out loud–and licked across her lips as she began to type.

J: Do you maybe want to hang out? I was thinking of heading over to Cosmic Vinyl. I need a few more records to add to my collection and I couldn’t think of a better person to help me than you.

J: If you’re free.

N: Fuck yeh ! Like right now ?

J: Um, maybe like in an hour? We can meet up there.

N: Sounds sick . See ya there in a bit, Jo .

Jo. He had called her Jo. There were only two people on earth that called her Jo–her brother, Carter and Alexis, her best friend. Nevertheless, it put a permanent smile on her face as she jumped up from the confines of her sofa to go get ready to meet Niall.

•

Her hazelnut eyes studied the album covers as she flicked through them, every so often peeking over at the door to the record shop. Joey had arrived at their meeting place a little early, only fifteen minutes, and was waiting for Niall to show up. She had lazily given the shop a little stroll before settling towards the back where some of the older, more vintage records were kept.

With only two minutes to spare, her wandering gaze spotted the one and only Niall Horan just as he stepped into the store. He was wearing a long sleeved button up that hung open and a pair of light wash jeans and Joey swore she could see the blue of his eyes shining from all the way at the back of the store. He licked over his lips as he stood there, bouncing his stare between the other five or so patrons that were browsing before he finally caught that sweet bright smile of Joey. His chest tightened a bit at the sight of her; a loose knit cream top that was modestly tucked into a pair of dark jeans and her red hair softly flowing down the middle of her back, and Niall bowed his head to run his fingers through his dark hair as he began walking towards her.

They spent the next twenty minutes in light frivolous conversation, Niall enticing some giggles from Joey as they slowly perused through the thousands of shelved and binned records. He had already helped her find two records that she didn’t own that he thought she would like–an Eagles album and also one by Damien Rice, an Irish artist that she had never heard of. Niall spoke very highly of his music and Joey decided to give it a try. Strolling along a bit more, they came to a stop in front of the “J” section, Joey not really knowing why but obviously drawn to the letter. Niall smirked upon realizing the connection.

“I think the closest you’re gonna find is Joe Cocker,” he said, flipping through some stacks, “Or maybe Billy Joel is more your style. I personally like me some Billy Joel.��

Joey chuckled and peered down at the bucket style shelves as she began flicking through the different albums, hoping a cover would catch her eye. “I’m not really looking for anyone in particular, just seeing what they’ve got.”

“Ahh...I see.”

They both continued to thumb through the albums, a content quiet settling between them for a moment before Joey remembered something that she had wanted to tell him. “Oh!” she blurted out, shaking her head as she looked over at Niall. “I wanted to tell you...um...I have another date.”

His fingertips paused on the edge of an album sleeve and he slowly shifted his eyes over to Joey. “You do?”

The young woman nodded, scraping her teeth at the corner of her bottom lip. She glanced down at the rows of records in front of her. “Yeah...it’s on Saturday, before I’m supposed to come over to your house..,” she went on, catching Niall’s stare again. “Obviously.”

“Do you wanna reschedule comin’ over?” Niall asked her, hoping her answer was the one he wanted to hear.

“Never.”

It was.

Joey shrugged, going back to perusing through the records. “Besides, it’s not like I’m going to sleep with this guy or something,” she started to explain with a giggle, “I’ve given up on having sex with men on first dates.”

A worrisome tightness that had built up in Niall’s chest eased at her words and he pushed out a heavy breath, the sound coming out as more of a scoff than he intended. “What?” Joey snipped, wrinkling her brow at him slightly.

“N-nothin’,” he reassured her with a shake of his head, “just...good for you.”

Joey narrowed her brown eyes at his weird comment. ‘Good for you’–what did he even mean by that? She wondered, but she brushed it off and gave him a smile. “Do you have sex on first dates?” she then casually asked him, not certain if he would actually answer her or not as she slowly caught his gaze. Was that too invasive of a question?

He had a lopsided smirk on his face as he stared at her, his cheeks barely pulsing that pinkish hue she liked and he faintly licked across his lips. “I have,” he said truthfully, lifting his one shoulder, “in the past.”

“But you…don’t anymore?”

He quirked a brow. “I don’t go on dates.”

Joey lifted her chin as she kept her eyes on his. “Mmm...right, I forgot about that…”

They both chuckled as Niall flipped over the next album in the bin he was looking through and yanked it out to show Joey. It was Judas Priest. Peeking down at the cover of the album, she covered her mouth with her hand as little giggle slipped out. “Why’re you laughin’?” Niall asked, fighting off his smile.

“What makes you think I would ever listen to heavy metal?”

Niall shrugged, his mouth turning down at the corners as he slipped it back into the row of records, both of them laughing. Joey sidestepped a little bit away from Niall as she continued to browse, and he followed her with his eyes. He could not get over how absolutely stunning she was. Just the way the dim, gritty yellow light of the vintage album store was slipping down her delicate profile, it made a warmth claw at his insides. He knew by the steadily annoying increase of his pulse and the sweat that was building up on his palms, and just how she made him feel when he was around her, he knew that he was really starting to like this girl. Way more than just as a friend. Niall gently cleared his throat. “So…what happened?” he spoke up, “that made ya...ya know, stop havin’ sex on the first date?”

Joey gnawed at her lip as she kept her stare down, flipping through more albums. “Well...do you remember, like, a month ago...the night of the festival?”

“Yeah.”

“The guy that I had gone there with, I sorta...slept with him that night.”

Niall swallowed hard, his mind flashing to that night and vividly remembering how she looked, how she smelled...how she had made his heart race in his chest. And how he was most definitely not the one she went home with. “Did ya?”

Not saying a word, Joey softly giggled and pulled out a Carly Rae Jepson record, holding it up as she peered over at Niall. A low chuckle bubbled from his throat and he shuffled himself over next to her again and took the record from her hand, the tips of his fingers softly dragging over hers. It made a small breath catch in Joey’s chest. “This is actually a sound record,” he said with as much conviction as he could muster. He held back his smile as his eyes danced over hers and stuffed the album back into its slot, “so no laughin’.”

He was only teasing her and the jokingly serious look on his face made her laugh even harder. “Anyway,” Joey went on, her voice staying low, “he was a complete dick to me the next morning and, I dunno, it just...wasn’t me. And definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. I was drunk and trying to let loose and have a ‘fun experience’, but it really wasn’t the experience that I wanted to have.”

Niall rolled his lips into his mouth as he peered over at her. “Yeah, well...when ya have sex with someone you don’t know, it usually isn’t.”

A sigh slipped past Joey’s lips and she hung her head back onto her shoulders in exasperation. “Jesus, Niall,” she said, her voice coming out a bit whiny with the mention of his name. She squeezed her eyes closed for a split second before lifting her head and glancing over at him. “I’m a twenty five year old woman, I should know these things by now.”

Niall’s chest rumbled with a heavy laugh as he looked back down and continued to flip through the bin of albums. “The only way to know is to experience ‘em and at least you can say you’ve got that now.”

Joey rolled her eyes in a huff. “Yeah...just never again.”

“Here,” Niall proclaimed, yanking out an Elton John record, “I think you’ll like this one.”

Joey leaned her body closer to Niall, that sweet scent of her soft skin violating his nose as she slowly slipped the album from his fingers. “You know what?” she said, turning her head to look up at him. “I think you’re right.”

Niall smiled at her. “Shall we get it then?” he asked her as she rested the album on top of the other two that were nestled in the crook of her arm, “You good?”

“Yup, I’m good,” Joey smiled.

“Sweet,” he mentioned as they both turned to walk up to the counter at the front of the store, “maybe we can go get some smoothies after this? I know this great place just a block or so from here. Do ya like smoothies?”

Joey tipped her head down in a giggle as they stepped up to the counter. She laid the albums down and slid them towards the cashier so he could ring her up as Niall shimmied his body next to hers and rested a hand on his hip. With a smile she glanced up at him, his eager blue eyes dancing across her face as he waited to see what she would say.

Watching as the tip of her tongue softly ran along her bottom lip, Niall felt a rush of excitement seep through his veins as a big bright smile spread over Joey’s face. “Yeah, I definitely like smoothies.”

#niall #niall horan #niall fic #niall fanfic #niall fan fic #niall ou #slowburn #tdg #chap 4 #hey yall!!!#PLEASE share and tell me what you think!!!#this one is kind of short #only bc this chapter and chap 5 were originally one part #but it was WAY too long so i had to split it up #anyway its still cute and fluffy and i hope you guys enjoy it :)#if i do finish this fic in time (i only have 2 more chapters to write) i might post them more than once a week #but we will see #happy reading!

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that-crow-kid · 4 years

Text

i’m sick of loosing soulmates (so where do we begin?)

By @galactic-sam for @foxes-and-arrows in the @friendly-neighborhood-exchange

The story is here

Rating: General Audiences

Relationships: Penny (Peter) Parker & Tony Stark, background Penny (Peter) Parker & May Parker, background Penny (Peter) Parker & May Parker & Tony Stark

Characters: Penny (Peter) Parker, Tony Stark, background Pepper Potts, background May Parker

Summary:

Everyone has two voices in their heads. One is your own, and the other belongs to your soulmate. It’s not their thoughts, just their personality, a bit of a hint at who they are, how they feel.

Tony Stark only ever had one voice in his head. Until he didn't.

Penny Parker never had a single day without two voices.

Tony knew his soulmate was young. She was a girl, born in august of 2001. Penny knew her soulmate was a lot older, enough that his voice had dropped and he drank. A lot.

This is how they find each other.

Note: This is pretty long. I would recommend heading to the Ao3, where it is split into multiple chapters.

Everyone has two voices in their heads. One is your own, and the other belongs to your soulmate. It’s not their thoughts, just their personality, a bit of a hint at who they are, how they feel.

Tony Stark had only ever had one voice in his head. For the first few years of his life, he was reassured that lots of people’s soulmates were younger than them, and that he would get a voice in his head eventually. But by the time he was eleven, those reassurances stopped. Soulmates were very rarely outside of the 10 year age gap, even if they were platonic. Tony simply didn’t have a soulmate.

————

Penny Parker had never had a day without two voices in her head. She could swear that the voice was familiar, one that she knew, but she could never place where it was from. She knew her soulmate was much older, since for most of her life the voice slurred in her head. He was sarcastic and sharp, and even when drunk enough that it came across in her head he was smart and kinder than he seemed. She knew that when she was 7, he had been scared. Really scared. For about three months, the voice in her head had been in constant terror. Then when she was 9, the voice had been sick and afraid leading up to and during the Stark Expo, which had ended in disaster. When she was 11, for the day leading up to and the day of the battle of New York, her soulmate’s voice had been stressed. Then terrified. Then when she was 14, and had just been bitten by a spider, the voice had been anxious and sad, which wasn’t new, but it was so heightened. It really was a wonder how she hadn’t put two and two together.

————

Tony’s second voice appeared in August of 2001. He barely noticed at first, as drunk as he constantly was, but when he did, he was completely shocked. A girl. A baby girl was his soulmate. He tried his best to drink less after that, since he didn’t really want his soulmate’s whole idea of him being that he was a drunk. He knew that she was smart, almost as smart as him, but without the proper tools, she was stuck bored in classes intended for most kids her age. He knew that something had happened to her in 2005, when she would have been four, as the child’s voice had been sad and confused for weeks. Something bad had happened again in 2012, before the Battle of New York, and she had been scared. About 6 months before the Sokovia Accords were introduced, she had been sick for a week, and almost immediately afterward she became sad and guilty, and then randomly filled with energy. He briefly wondered what had happened to her, but he had been so caught up in Sokovia and in the Accords and figuring out who the new spider-themed vigilante was that he didn’t have time to give it any more thought.

When he found out who the Spider-Girl was, one 14-year-old Penelope Parker, and almost immediately picked up and went to the Parker’s apartment. He knocked, and the door swung open to reveal May Parker. Recently widowed. Penelope’s aunt. Penelope’s parents had died when she was 4. Plane crash.

“Umm. You’re Tony Stark?” Her shock was very apparent on her face.

“That I am, Mrs. Parker.”

She cut him off. “Please, call me May.”

“Alright, May, may I come in? I have something I need to discuss with you in regards to your niece.”

She opened the door a bit wider, waving him in. “Make yourself at home! My walnut date loaf was just coming out of the oven. Would you like some? Or anything to drink?”

“I’ll have some of the date loaf, thank you very much.” He sat down carefully on the edge of the couch, making sure not to jostle any of his bruised ribs. May sat herself down next to him.

“So, Mr. Stark, what did you want to talk to me about? You said it was something to do with Penny?”

“Please, call me Tony. Yes, she, uh, she applied for a grant from the September Foundation. It looked really good, and I’m here to offer her an internship.” His soulmate’s voice had just gotten interested in something.

“She didn’t tell me she was applying for anything.” May furrowed her brow.

“Well, it’s a very competitive program. Maybe she didn’t want to get your hopes up?”

“Yes, that must be it.”

Just then, the door swung open.

“Hey May.” He turned to watch Penelope Parker walk into the apartment, and not even notice him.

“Hey! How was school today?”

“Okay. There’s this crazy car parked outside -” The girl noticed him, and trailed off.

“Oh, Ms. Parker!” Tony said, as his soulmate’s voice rapidly went from interested to confused. Maybe a bit afraid?

“What? Oh um. What? Oh, hey, um, I’m, I’m Penny. Penny Parker.”

“Tony.”

“Hey, um, hey, what are you doing here?”

“I figured it’s about time we met. You’ve been getting my emails, right?” He hoped that she’d go along with the script he was feeding her, considering her grades. She did.

“Yeah, yeah, regarding the -” Penny started, but May cut her off.

“You didn’t even tell me about the grant!”

“Yeah, the grant.”

“The September Foundation.” He gave her a bit more to go off of. “Right, yeah, remember when you applied?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I approved! So now, we’re in business.”

“You didn’t tell me anything, so what’s up with that? What are we, keeping secrets now?” May sounded genuinely hurt.

“Well, I just, I just know how much you love... surprises? So I thought I’d let you know, what. So, anyways, what did I apply for, exactly?”

————

In conclusion, Tony Stark was weird in person. Without his perfectly manicured TV persona up, he was sharp and witty and a bit sarcastic. It was a good weird, and it felt so familiar, somehow, but Penny wasn’t exactly sure why. She’d never met him, save for the three seconds back at the Stark Expo when he had saved her from the hammer drones.

At the same time, her soulmate’s voice was satisfied and pleased. He had clearly just done something that made him happy. She was glad - he’d been very stressed lately. He deserved something good to happen. She still wanted to know who he was.

Now, though, she was going to Germany. To steal Captain America’s shield. Which was a super weird thing to think about. She’d better start packing - Mr. Stark’s assistant/chauffeur/head of security was picking her up after school tomorrow, so she’d need to be packed for then. She was going to Germany!

————

Tony’s soulmate was happy. Something had clearly just happened to make her very excited, and now her voice in his head would. Not. Shut. Up.

He was a bit too preoccupied with getting to Germany to think too much about her. If he had, maybe he would have noticed why Penny Parker was so ridiculously familiar. But he was busy, and she was getting on his nerves, so he tried to tune her voice out.

All day on Friday his soulmate’s voice was filled with anticipation and excitement. The girl probably had a party this weekend that she was looking forward to. He was sure that his voice in her head was significantly less ecstatic. It was a wonder she was in such a good mood given how gloomy his voice must be, and if she heard him as well as he heard her, well, let’s just say that his voice’s thoughts must not be very nice to be stuck with. And yet, all day long, she’s happy and excited. He’s in Germany, having flown out almost immediately after meeting Penny, so he ends up on the phone with Happy in the middle of the night as he and Penny are in the air.

“Tony. This girl will not shut up.” Happy opens with. Tony has to stifle a laugh. If only Happy knew his soulmate.

“Sorry, Hap, but she’s your responsibility. Besides - now you know what it’s like to live with my soulmate, who, if I ever meet, will probably be around Penny’s age and just as excitable.”

Happy is silent for a good 10 seconds. “Tony, do you know how old your soulmate is? When you first started hearing her?”

“Sometime mid, early august of 2001, I’d say, why?”

“Did it occur to you that Penny’s birthday is August 10th?”

“Why do you know that? Never mind, Hogan, what are you saying?”

“Is Penny your soulmate?”

Tony stills for a moment. He’s heard about the ‘moment,’ when you realise that your soulmate is, indeed, your soulmate, when everything goes still and quiet and a sense of serenity descends over you for a few seconds, but he’d never believed it was actually a thing, you know? One of those things that people exaggerate. Well, he sure believed it now.

“Tony?”

“Yeah, Happy, I think she is.” His mind starts racing. Her parents died in 2005. She was four, and she was sad and confused. Her uncle, right after she was bitten, about 6 months ago, when she was sick and guilty. Something in 2012, that didn’t come up on her records. Oh well, he’d find out eventually, he’s sure. She’s his soulmate. Penny Parker, Spider-Girl, is his soulmate. Holy fuck.

————

Happy had gone to the bathroom about 3 minutes ago, and she knew he was on the phone in there, but she wasn’t particularly trying to listen. The bathroom was a good way off in the massive (massive!) private (private!) jet (jet!) and the whirr of the jets was so loud that she could barely hear over them anyways. Her soulmate’s voice had been moaning and groaning all day, and very suddenly, about 2 minutes into Happy’s ‘bathroom break’ he'd gone quiet, and she’d felt a sense of peace for a few seconds before it had faded. If the stories were true, then that means that her soulmate had realized that she was their soulmate. But who was her soulmate? Who did she know who would have just realized they were her soulmate? She couldn't figure it out. Oh, well, she was halfway across the world, so she guessed she shouldn’t worry about it.

Happy came out of the bathroom, and he seemed a bit… cautious? In regards to her, in particular. He was being a bit nicer, when before he had been cold and disgruntled.

“Hey, Happy, how long do we have until we land?” She asked. The past few times, he’d responded with a gruff ‘soon,’ but this time,

“In about an hour. Tony’s meeting us at the airport, driving us back to the hotel. Gotta rest you up for tomorrow.”

That was… definitely a surprise. One, that she got an actual answer, one that seemed… genuine, and two that Tony was meeting them to drive them to the airport. What was that about? Surely the man had better things to be doing than driving them from the airport to the hotel.

————

Tony wrung his hands behind his back as he waited at the (completely empty) airport for Penny’s plane to land. Well, it was technically his plane, but if she wanted it, she could have it. He would give her anything - he had waited so long, wished for his soulmate for so long, and now she was finally here. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say. Was he even going to tell her? He’d read on an online forum on his way here that telling your soulmate before they found out on their own could be detrimental to your relationship. No. He would just act more like himself than he ever has, and hope she’d put two and two together in her head. Maybe he’d outwardly express some emotions. Yeah, that should do it! And then

“Hey, Mr Stark!” The girl herself came around the corner before stopping abruptly and giving him a small wave. Her voice in his head chattered nervously, and he gave her a grin.

“Hey, kid.”

“Why’d you come and pick us up at the airport? Don’t you have better things to be doing?”

“I decided to skip my, ah, ‘more important things,’ for sake of riding with you back to the hotel. Happy, the car’s out back. Let’s go.”

As they walked out to the car, Tony swung an arm over Penny’s shoulder.

“So, Penelope. Anything of interest going on in Penny world?”

“Not really, Mr. Stark! This is the most exciting thing, for sure.”

Tony hummed in response. “Hmm. Well, kid, tell me about yourself? Who is Penny Parker; vigilante extraordinaire, top of her class, academic decathlon champ?”

She blushed. “Well, I wouldn’t say top of my class -”

He cut her off. “No, you are, I looked.”

“Oh.” She seemed surprised, almost like she hadn’t been expecting it. “Well. What do you want to know?”

“I don’t know. Here, how about… what’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you in the past week. Apart from me showing up at your house and flying you to Germany, I mean.”

“Well, on the plane just now, actually, was when it happened! I suddenly got this feeling of immense calm and peace rush over me, and my very talkative soulmate was super quiet while it lasted. I’m not sure what that was about!”

Well. There it was. “Your soulmate? Do you know who they are?”

“No, but I think that they know who I am.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Mr Stark, I remember reading somewhere that you don’t have a soulmate?”

He paused. “When’s that interview from?”

“1998? 1999? Around then,” Penny responded.

“My soulmate appeared in 2001.”

“Really? That’s a big gap!”

He hummed. “How about you? When did your soulmate appear?” Tony knew what she was going to say.

“He’s been around as long as I can remember. I’m actually pretty sure I have a big age gap too, because he was drunk a lot for the first 7 years of my life? So either he was at least 21, or he was a child drunk. He’s stopped now, though, which is good.”

“That is good.” They arrived at the car. He opened the door for Penny, and walked around to the other side. “Hogan, you drive.”

————

Penny was seated in the back of a very, very luxurious car. And next to her was Tony Stark himself. He’d been really chatty on the way to the car, asking her about her soulmate, and for a few minutes he’d almost sounded like the voice that chattered in her head alongside her own. Now that she thought about it, his voice was almost the exact same as her soulmate’s, too. But it couldn’t be. No way Tony Stark was her soulmate.

————

Penny realized in the middle of the battle. When things first started to go to absolute shit, her soulmate’s rapid descent into near panic almost perfectly matched her own, and the events that she could see before her eyes. And she noticed him, too, when she realized for certain. He had stilled, a look of serenity passing over his face for a split second, and he had glanced at her. And then James Rhodes had been shot out of the sky, and she hadn’t seen him since.

Now, she was lying in her hotel room. It was around 9pm, but she was really tired. But just as she had been drifting off, Tony Stark had decided that he was going somewhere. Well, that’s what she guessed. He was muttering and slightly afraid, and now she was wide awake and pretty worried.

Slipping on the suit, she pushed open the window to her room and slid into Germany’s cool night air. Slowly creeping along the side of the building, she climbed to the top. Just as she reached it, a quinjet flew directly over her head, low enough that she could have reached it on a standard ladder. On instinct, she shot a web at the bottom. It stuck, and she was tugged off the roof, the quinjet taking her soaring over Germany. She pulled herself up, getting her hands and feet in contact with the jet, and scrambled to the top, keeping herself pressed as close to the jet as she could muster.

The quinjet stayed low, which was good because she probably would have passed out if it hadn’t. It flew for a while - probably over 4 hours, but she didn’t have a watch. When they finally landed, it was a lot colder. She wasn’t sure where they were, but there was a lot of snow. She watched as Tony got off the plane, and walked towards a large, snow-covered building. Bunker? It could probably be called a bunker.

Just then, another quinjet flew down, and none other than Captain America and his friend with the cool arm got off. The three spoke for a moment, before all heading inside together. The doorway was sliding shut quickly, but Penny was quicker, and she slid in as the door clicked shut behind her. She saw light and heard indiscriminate muttering up ahead, and like any sane person would do when their soulmate was right there and scared, she inched her way towards it.

She didn’t want to be seen - she didn’t know what they’d say, and she knew they’d be mad, so she stayed out of sight, inching along the ceiling in places. Because she was keeping her distance, she couldn’t really hear what they were saying. But Penny was a superhero, and she knew what a fight sounded like.

And then Captain America and Cool-Arm-Man left the room she had followed them too. Tony Stark was groaning and fading fast in her ear. She watched the Captain & walk out from where she was tucked into a corner above the doorway.

And Mr. Stark wasn’t with them.

Once they had turned the corner and gotten out of sight, Penny dropped to the ground and inched her way into the room. When she saw the Iron Man suit, though, she picked up the pace.

She dropped to the ground beside him, and shook him, trying not to panic. “Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark?”

The mask slid open. “Penny? What -” he coughed, spitting out a bit of bloody saliva to the side. “What are you doing here? How’d you -” He coughed again, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “How’d you get here?”

His voice in her head was slow and rapidly fading. “I grabbed onto the plane and didn’t let go. Is there someone I can call?”

————

During the fight, when Steve smashed his shield into his chest, Penny’s voice in his head was frantic. It was frantic now, too, and she was standing over him. Sitting? Was he lying down?

He knew he said something, and that she was now talking, but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. It was like they were underwater - how did they get underwater?

He had the sensation of being lifted and carried, and he knew he was moving. He just didn’t understand how, as he certainly wasn’t moving himself. He slipped farther and farther down, his soulmate’s frantic speaking slowly floating away into nothing.

————

Penny carried him all the way from the inner area of the bunker back out across to the quinjet. It was pretty hard, and that's saying a lot for the girl who had stopped a bus moving 60 miles an hour with her bare hands.

But Tony Stark was not a light man, and his completely solid metal suit was pretty heavy too. And a dead weight 1000-pound metal body was pretty hard to maneuver.

He blacked out completely about halfway back to the quinjet.

When she got to the bottom of the quinjet, she paused. How was she supposed to get him inside? But before she could properly worry, a loading ramp sank down in front of her, and she dragged him up and into the body of the jet. The ramp closed behind her.

“Hello, Penny.” A female voice said from above.

She jumped, almost dropping the man she had in her arms. “Hello? Who’s there?”

“I am FRIDAY, boss’s personal assistant. Do not be alarmed. I am an artificial intelligence. In his current state, I recommend bringing him to the med bay of the quinjet. He is not in critical condition, so do not worry. Follow the on lights to get there.”

Penny nodded, and then realized that the AI probably couldn’t see her. It was a relief that he wasn’t critical - she definitely didn’t think her ‘I give myself bad stitches after patrol’ medical knowledge was going to cut it if he wasn’t. “Alright. FRIDAY? Can you lead the way?.” She hoisted Tony up, and began working her way along the hallways. As she walked, FRIDAY began to speak some more.

“I have additionally notified Ms. Potts, who will be organizing a medbay for him back at the Avengers compound. She has also been notified of your status as soulmates, and will be expecting your presence.”

Well, there it was. Her confirmation on what she suspected and was absolutely positive of. “Does he know?”

“Boss is fully aware of this fact. You have now reached the medbay. As well, I have accessed Boss’s suit and disengaged it.” Mr. Stark’s suit fell away, and wow, he was so much lighter.

“Okay, what do I do now?”

“Place him on the bed to your left and hook up the ECG and heart rate machine. Then you are going to need to place an IV.”

She was going to have to do what? Well, that was certainly going to not go well.

“I will walk you through the placement of all of the machinery.”

Oh. Good. A walkthrough on how to place an IV from an AI. That would certainly make her a medical professional.

————

When Tony woke up, he woke up slowly, like surfacing after a long dive. Sounds came into focus a few at a time, and one of the last ones that he heard was long, slow breathing that absolutely was not coming from him. He blinked awake, and with no small amount of effort, twisted his head to where the breathing was coming from.

It was Penny. She was sound asleep, her phone in one hand and a book spread open on her lap.

“Penny?” he found himself saying, and she startled awake.

“Mr. Stark! Are you alright? I’m sorry I completely hitched a ride on the top of your jet and followed you to wherever we were -”

He cut her off. “Penny, it’s fine. I probably would be dead if you hadn’t, so thanks.”

They were both silent for a minute.

“Hey, I know -”

“Did you -”

They both started speaking at the same time. With a gargantuan amount of effort, Tony waved her on. “You first.”

“No, no, Mr. Stark, you can go!”

“Alright, but you need to call me Tony.” He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a split second, and said “Did you know we’re soulmates?”

She paused, and said “Yes. But it’s totally fine Mr. Stark! You don’t have to spend time with me. I know I’m just a kid from Queens and -”

“It’s Tony, kid, and what are you talking about? You’re my soulmate. Of course I want to spend time with you!”

“But -”

“Kid, c’mere.” He patted the bed beside him. Hesitantly, she stood up, made her way over and carefully sat on the bed beside him. He reached up and pulled her down into a hug.

“Oh. This is nice.”

Tony hummed, and casually brought a hand up to her head and began combing through her shoulder-length curls.

Slowly, he slid from consciousness. There was no second voice in his head, but it was okay. Instead, his kid was right there in his arms, and she wasn’t going anywhere.

Bonus:

This was definitely a weird day. It started with her realizing Mr. Stark - Tony? - was her soulmate, and then following him to Siberia from Germany by hitching a ride on his quinjet, where she had then dragged him out of an abandoned hydra bunker, flown the quinjet back to the avengers compound, and met the Pepper Potts.

Now, though, Tony was back asleep and she was lying on top of him. Her paternal soulmate that she had finally met. His hands were in her hair and she didn’t want to disturb him, so there she lay in Tony fucking Stark’s arms. Tony Fucking Stark, her soulmate.

Well, she figured, I’ve had a long day too. And this position isn’t half bad for a nap.

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horansqueen · 4 years

Text

You & Me : chapter 16

A Niall Horan fanfiction ; rated MA

Sequel to AM CONVERSATIONS

CHAPTER 1 || CHAPTER 2 || CHAPTER 3 || CHAPTER 4 || CHAPTER 5 || CHAPTER 6 || CHAPTER 7 || CHAPTER 8 || CHAPTER 9 || CHAPTER 10 || CHAPTER 11 || CHAPTER 12 || CHAPTER 13 || CHAPTER 14 || CHAPTER 15

NOTES:

-one chapter is her pov, the next is his. -4.4k -im sorry, i never proofread, i hate it. -there WILL be smut. but not only smut. -this is a romance, comedy, smut story. -for the summary, check my MASTERLIST.

- notes: youre gonna love me. then youre gonna hate me. or at least that what i think :X WARNING: DRUG ABUSE +SMUT

also, if you like this story you may want to read the few blurbs i wrote about it. ill probably write more but here are the few already written

Niall & Liv (fetus) - FLUFF

Louis & Liv - FLUFF

Niall & Liv - SMUT & FLUFF

Liv & Heidi - ANGST

if you read, THANK YOU!

if you want to be on the list of blogs i notify when this is updated, just message me :)

requests! : you guys wanted fluff and smut and i think i got it right lol SPOILERS”

Chapter 16 : Her chapter

OLIVIA

The words Heidi had thrown at me were resonating in my head over and over again, hitting my brain like a hammer as a headache was forming itself. I looked around the room at all my friends smoking, still unsure if I should actually do it. Sometimes it was fun and other times, it ended up ruining my nights and with the feelings invading my insides at that moment, I was still in a dilemma. My eyes met Niall's and I realized he was looking at me and him too was a dilemma for me. I was not as tipsy as I was at the club and I could see him clearly. He was sitting on an other couch and I was not sure why he didn't sit next to me but I pushed that thought away and pressed my lips together.

I wanted him so bad that just the thought of his hands on me made me hold my breath and made my whole body tense. I knew it could seem like a common feeling. I was not the first person to feel lust for someone and clearly not the last one, but was it normal to lust someone so intensely even if you already knew what he felt like? Even if you already knew what he tasted like? What he smelled like? Was it normal to need someone so bad even if you had him before, and not just once, but a hundred of times? I could understand the need for new things, the craving for something you want to experiment... but wanting someone you've had multiple times before was a new thing, at least for me.

The fact that he wanted me too was a bit ridiculous though. I had enough self-confidence to accept it but now that Heidi had thrown at me some rude shit, my trust was starting to falter. She was not wrong, though. Dylan and Niall were both out of my league, but a body was just that, a body, right? It's not all that mattered and I tried to remind myself that even if Heidi was considered 'beautiful' by society's standards didn't mean she had the personality that went with in. In fact, in that domain, she was not even a two and apparently, I was not the only one who thought that.

I got off the couch and walked slowly to the bathroom, trying not to draw attention to me, and I stood in front of the mirror, staring at my reflection. I was chubby now, I knew, and my teeth were crooked. Was something wrong with my forehead? I turned my face on the side and grimaced before passing my hand in my hair. I used to be average but now, Heidi was right, I was just below that, and it was hurtful to realize. I closed my eyes tight and groaned low until I heard a noise and felt my heart jump in my chest. I turned around and noticed Niall, leaning against the door frame, staring at me.

"You're not focusing on Heidi's shitty rant, are you?"

I sent him a small smile and glanced down despite myself, realizing I had answered his question without even talking. The thought in itself was pathetic and I couldn't believe that once again, I was in the bathroom and that Niall had randomly joined me. Should we bring chairs for next time? A couch, perhaps?

"I'm okay, Niall."

"You remember who you're talking to?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I'm your best friend. I know you by heart. You're not okay, I know you're not. Talk to me."

I didn't know if it was the alcohol still doing something to me or just the tone of his voice reaching something inside me but I shut my eyes tight and let out a sob I was desperately trying to keep inside. I brought my hand to my mouth and in half a second, Niall was close to me, wrapping one of his arms around me and pulling me closer. He smelled amazing and I let my cheek brush on the soft fabric of his shirt, moving my arms around his chest and holding him tight against me.

"She said that because she knows how self-conscious you can be. Don't let her win, okay?" he whispered, rocking us slightly before kissing the top of my head. "Olivia, look at me."

I pulled away slightly and looked up at him through my eyelashes. He grabbed my chin with his thumb and forefinger and moved it up to stare in my eyes.

"You are beautiful. You are the most beautiful girl in the world." he added, making my lips part. "I'm not the only one who thinks that. And you should think that, too."

Slowly. he turned me around and made me face the mirror. It brought a memory to my brain and I felt like I was back then, before we started dating, when he had brought me in front of the mirror at his place and had told me I was beautiful. Unfortunately, a few hours after that, he was having sex with Heidi in a bar. Could I really trust him? I looked up in his eyes from his reflection and he stared back, letting his hands slide down very slowly on my upper arms. I could trust him, right? Why would he lie about that?

"You're gorgeous." his voice was so low the only reason I heard him was because he had bent down and his lips were brushing on my ear. They moved down, reaching my neck as he brushed them on my skin, making a quiver cross my body. "I fucking love you."

I didn't expect his last words and for some reason, they're the ones that made all the throbbings of my body meet between my legs. I let out a low groan and felt his fingers slide gently to my waist, moving my shirt slightly up as his hands slipped under it.

"Fuck..." I whispered without thinking, feeling goosebumps appear where his fingertips brushed, surprising me as they also left a burning trail on my skin on their way. "Niall..."

"Yes petal?"

He was testing my self-control and if I had been as tipsy as I was at the club, I would let him run his hands all over me but I felt his teeth nibble on my neck and my eyes fluttered. I turned around before his hands reached my bra and sent him a small smile shaking my head.

"We can't..."

"Please, we totally can."

He grabbed my waist and pulled me up on the counter as I jumped a bit to help him and he moved between my legs. It was amazing how that fucking counter was exactly the right height for him to push his crotch between my legs and when I felt his bulge press on my inner thighs, I twitched and moaned.

"You're gonna wet your pants." I let out as he smirked.

"Are you already wet?" he chuckled, bending a bit to bring his mouth close to mine.

"Maybe." I whispered with a bigger smile. " And I don't have any panties, remember?"

"Fuck!" he let out a bit louder before crashing his mouth against mine.

"You guys having fun?"

I chuckled against Niall's lips when I recognized Louis' voice but kept my eyes closed as I pulled away.

"Go away, Lou." I just said with a smile.

"I was just checking on you two but you clearly don't need my help." he chuckled again and I could imagine the smirk he had on his lips.

"We don't! Bye!" Niall quickly let out, reaching for the door and swinging it closed.

I held my breath, a bit scared that Louis would be mad but I heard him laugh on the other side of the door and relaxed again as Niall brought his hands up, cupping my face, his fingers spread on my cheeks, jaw and neck.

"I feel like I would need to just skip the foreplay and fuck you until I cum inside you and only then I could really make love to you or fuck you properly." he admitted, pressing himself more against me. "You make me so fucking horny I don't think I'd last."

He still held my face for a while as we kissed before his hands let go of my cheeks to reach my naked thighs. I felt his fingers slip under my skirt and my lips parted at the thought of what he was doing. He sucked on my bottom lip and then started nibbling on it, making me feel suddenly dizzy. His hands moved up on my thighs, pushing my skirt up more and I started panting as my head tilted back.

"Oh my god."

It took me all my strength to reach for his hands and take them away from me as I moved myself back too. He tried to move with me to keep kissing me but I shook my head and he opened his eyes, staring at me.

"We can't. Fuck, you know we can't."

He stared at me a few seconds and finally nodded and stepped back. It made me realize how empty I felt when he was not close to me and I shivered, suddenly a bit cold. He reached for his pocket and took a joint out before handing it to me. My body was still throbbing with lust but I tried to stop thinking about it and frowned, reaching for it and taking it from his hand.

"Did you steal that from Louis?" I asked, a small smile playing on my lips.

"Gave it to me. Told me it could ease things between us or some shit like that." he laughed, pushing his hands in his pockets.

I knew he was trying to stay away from me the same way I was trying to stay away from him, at least physically. It was not easy and I knew it never would be. If we didn't end up together, which was clearly a possibility, being around each other was going to be an everyday challenge. Maybe we should fuck, if only to make all this sexual tension go away. Perhaps we'd be able to see clearer after... or maybe not.

"But you don't really smoke anymore, do you?"

He shrugged. "Rarely. I prefer alcohol."

"Me too."

I reached for my bra and took a lighter out, making Niall's face light up at the same time as I was lighting up my joint.

"What?"

"You keep a lighter in your bra?" he laughed and shook his head and I felt my heart skip a beat. I loved hearing him laugh. There was nothing I loved more.

"Not my fault this skirt doesn't have pockets!" I explained with a smile. "I don't really smoke either, but it was planned tonight so that's why I brought a lighter with me."

I inhaled and let the smoke invade my lungs before moving my face up to blow it away from him. He took a step closer and raised his eyebrows at me, making me frown.

"Do it." he just said, making me smile more.

"Wait, you want me to shotgun you? Wouldn't you rather get a beer from the fridge instead?"

"Fucking shotgun me, Olivia." he repeated seriously, surprising me before I just nodded.

He got closer and I inhaled from the joint again, making some sort of tunnel with my hands around our mouths and noses. It felt like I was telling him a secret and I exhaled as he breathed in deeply. I stared in his eyes the whole time and when I took my hands back, he cleared his throat.

"You know you have to stay here all night, right?" I just let out after a few minutes as he moved closer to do it an other time but this time, he pressed his open lips against mine as I pushed the smoke in his mouth.

I suspected he just wanted to be closer to me and I didn't mention it because I really enjoyed it, too. He moved away as he held his breath again to keep the smoke in and I tilted my head, not even ashamed that I was gazing.

"Why? It's not like I was driving. I can take a cab."

I raised my nose up in a grimace, making him laugh again. He was getting high and so was I and although I knew we should get back in the living room with everyone else, I just wanted to stay in this small room with him. I knew it was harder to resist if we were just the two of us but I didn't care at that point.

"I'm staying don't worry!" he exclaimed with an other chuckle. "Do you want to know what I've been obsessing about for the past 20 minutes?"

"Mm, please say it has to do with me."

I felt my heart jump at how bold my statement was and he laughed again, this time throwing his head back. His eyes were sparkling and I wanted nothing more than to cuddle him.

"It does." he admitted with a grin. "I've been thinking about your smell." I frowned and he kept going. "Your hair, it smells like a mix of vanilla and honey. I don't know if it's your shampoo, or your perfume, but it's always obsessed me. Since we came back from that tour. No one smells like you. And also..." he glanced at my thighs and looked back in my eyes. "You took your panties off and you're horny. I miss the smell of your wet pussy."

I choked on the smoke I was breathing and started coughing, making him laugh again.

"Shit, are you okay?" he kept laughing. "I'm so sorry!"

"Fucking hell, Horan!" I coughed again, hitting his chest lightly with my free hand. "Why did you say that?"

"Because it's true." he let out, sending me a small smile and raising his eyebrows. "I just want to get on my knees and eat you out."

"That's... not going to happen." I admitted with a smile, making him nod.

"Not tonight, I know."

The fact that he was so sure it would happen at some point made something stir in my stomach but at the same time, I couldn't tell him he was wrong. I was clearly not as sure as he was but thinking that I'd never feel his tongue between my legs again was a concept I couldn't grasp.

"Do you really think I'm pretty."

I had talked in a low and vulnerable voice without really realizing it and Niall's smile fell immediately. He took a step closer and bent down again to look in my eyes without touching me, as if doing that could stop me from focusing on what he was about to tell me.

"You're beautiful. And sexy, too." he let out firmly. "Your self-confidence that you took so long to build can falter because you're human and it's not easy, I get it. But me? My speech won't change. Ever. I'm always going to be there to remind you that you're gorgeous when your confidence isn't as high as it should be. I swear on my life."

I felt myself tear up again and sniffed, my gaze never leaving his. Suddenly, I wondered how the hell I lived over a year without this wonderful man in my life. My heart was threatening to jump out of my rib cage and I pressed my lips together as I felt tears slide down my cheeks. I let them, too concentrated on the way his lips moved and the way his soft voice reached my ears like a fucking melody. It only took him a few seconds to wipe them from my face again and send me a fond smile.

"You're the strongest person I know." he admitted, making me smile but sniff again. "Are you tired?"

I nodded and he helped me get off the counter before grabbing my hand and opening the door slightly and slowly, making sure no one would hear. I held my breath in as if they could actually hear me breathe and followed him in the hall as he walked up to my room. I closed the door behind us very slowly and locked it before pushing the air out of my lungs with a chuckle. I knew it was bad but I just wanted to spend time with Niall and no one else. We had spent so long separated and I wanted to make up for lost time.

Without a word, we both lied down on the bed, facing each other. We were so close that I could only see his face and it's all that mattered. I felt my eyes flutter from time to time but tried to resist slumber. I wanted to look at him all night. He didn't say anything. He just brought his hand to my face, pushing a lock of hair away from my eye before brushing his fingertips on my cheek and jaw. It felt incredible and I squirmed a bit to get closer to him as he wrapped his arm around me.

I didn't know when I fell asleep but when I woke up, we were both laying sideways on the bed, over the covers and cuddling. I never sleep without blankets since I'm always cold but this time, I was surprisingly not and I smiled when I realized it was because Niall's body kept me warm. My eyes opened slowly and my lips curled even more when I saw him. He was sleeping peacefully and I licked my lips before brushing my nose slowly and gently against his. He groaned a bit before squeezing me tighter against him and open his eyes.

"I need a shower, wanna come with?" I smiled at his proposition and shook my head, making him shrug. "Was worth a try."

He sat up and I turned on my back, looking at him again before he glanced at me.

"Can I borrow some of Louis' clothes again?"

"Yea, I'll see if there's some clean ones in the laundry room." I replied as I stretched and laughed. "There's no way I'm walking in his room."

Niall got up and I couldn't take my eyes off of him as he took his pants and shirt off.

"You're staring again, aren't you?" he asked, his back facing me.

"Mm, maybe." I confessed as he started laughing again.

It took me longer than I thought to find clean sweatpants and shirt and when I reached the bathroom, I noticed the door was ajar. I pushed on it slightly, feeling a bit like a creep but finally leaning on the frame to listen to him. He was singing a song I didn't know and when he reached a higher note, it made something jump in my chest.

"Feels like every time I turn a corner, you're standing right there, over my shoulder, you're everywhere, I swear it's hard to think, it's hard to breathe when you're in the air, I try to run, but you're everywhere I go! When I think I'm all alone, and my heart's under control! Why is loving you not fair? You're everywheeeere!"

I chuckled but he didn't hear me and it made me realize how much I loved him. I already knew, of course I did, and I had for a long time, but nothing had prepared me for the feelings I had inside of me at that exact moment. Hearing him sing also made me think about that album he had written about me and about how many times I had streamed it since he told me. It was a bit pathetic. I left the clothes on the counter next to the sink and left to get changed into clean clothes too and make coffee. Everyone was still asleep and I was drinking from my favorite mug when Niall appeared. I could get used to seeing him every morning.

"I have something to do today." he just pointed out, opening the cabinet to grab a mug too and fill it with coffee. "I have to talk to Heidi."

My lips parted and I had to swallow the lump in my throat.

"About... what?"

He stopped everything and frowned at me. "About us, what else? It's time I break things with her. This is getting ridiculous and I just-"

"No." I cut him, making him frown even more. "Don't."

He put his cup away and moved closer to me, shaking his head. I couldn't tell if he was mad or confused but when he stood in front of me, I felt myself tear up.

"Niall I'm.. I'm getting married." I just pointed out, not really sure of what I was really going to do anymore.

"What? You're not serious." he let out as I remained motionless, just staring at him. "Are you telling me that everything that happened in the past few weeks don't count?"

No, of course that's not what I meant. It counted. In fact, it counted so much that I couldn't see straight anymore. I didn't have any rational thoughts anymore and my heart was swollen with love for a man who had broken my heart, a man I was not even sure I could trust. What told me that he wouldn't leave again after a few months, when the passion would be gone?

"That's not what I said just... wait before telling her." I repeated. "Please."

His eyes moved on me and I could see how hurt he was and if I wanted to be honest, saying those words probably hurt me as much as it hurt him to hear them.

"Fine." he let out rudely. "I know where the door is."

My heart was telling me to stop him but everything else was telling me to let him go. I felt myself tear up when the front door closed roughly and I swallowed again. I had no idea of what I was supposed to do, all I knew was that I had to do it quick.

----

"Fuck I missed you!"

Dylan hadn't even stopped at his place when he landed, he just took a cab to my place and walked in without knocking. Seeing his face for the first time in weeks made me smile and he opened his arms as I threw myself in them, feeling suddenly guilty as he engulfed me in a tight hug.

"I begged them for a few days off, they gave me two." he said when he pulled away, bringing his lips against mine and kissing me hard a few times. "Please, come with me."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I was not expecting that proposition and frankly, I was not sure I was interested. Especially after everything that had happened while he was gone. Still, I thought maybe, if I left with him, it could take Niall out of my mind. It was not likely but maybe it was worth trying?

"I can't, you know I have work here." I explained, bringing my arms around his neck and tilting my head.

"You can write even on the other side of the planet, you know."

My lips curled in a fond smile as he sent me an amused look.

"I'll think about it."

He nodded and chuckled, throwing his bag away and making me step back as his smile turned into a smirk. I knew where he was bringing me and somehow, I felt guilty again.

"So, how much did you miss me?"

My smile faltered a bit but I quickly brought it back on my face. Playing a double life was not something I actually enjoyed and when we reached my room, I waited until he closed the door behind us to bring my hand to his cheeks.

"We need to talk."

He frowned and shook his head quickly. "Mmhm, no." he protested with worry in his voice. "It's about Niall, isn't it?"

I felt so nervous I started being nauseous but I quickly nodded as he sighed and closed his eyes, letting go of me and turning around, his back facing me. He brought his hands to his head and waited a few more seconds before turning back to me. I wanted to cry but I felt like I didn't have the right to.

"I don't want to know."

His answer surprised me and I frowned. "No, Dylan, it's important, I need to tell you something." I argued, taking a step closer as he scoffed.

"No! I don't want to know, Olivia!" he repeated louder this time. "I don't want to know if you kissed him! I don't want to know if you fucked him! I'll just assume you did! But we're getting married, so whatever you need to sort out with him, do it, and then, meet me at the altar. Then, it's you and me, okay? Just us."

I was so shocked I actually forgot how to move and talk. He just stared at me and sighed again, rubbing his eyes.

"After that night at his place I just.. You know, I didn't realize just how intense and important that story with him had been. Maybe I didn't want to know." he explained, his tone more gentle. "But I love you, and I want this to work, so... September is not so far."

"Dyl, you can't, for a second, think that this makes any sense."

"I've been thinking non-stop about this. Whenever I had a few minutes of free time, I would think about it. I tried to think of what would hurt me the most, you know? Losing you for a while, or losing you forever."

I teared up again and my face twisted in pain as I brought my hand on my mouth.

"I don't deserve you." I just let out before sobbing.

"Clearly, you don't." he let out, half joking as I noticed he was crying too.

I laughed sadly too and he pulled me closer, taking me so tightly in his arms that I could barely breathe.

"Do you still love me, Olivia?"

I shut my eyes tight and buried my face in his shirt. I was in love with Niall. He was my soulmate, the love of my life... but that didn't alter the feelings I had for Dylan.

"Yes. I still love you."

#niall horan #niall horan smut #niall horan fluff #niall horan story #niall horan writing #niall horan fanfic #niall horan fan fic #niall hoan fanfiction #niall horan fan fiction #my fanfics #yam #theres prob many mistakes im super tired #well fingers crossed for ppl to like this chapter

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saibh29 · 5 years

Text

Underground (Part 3)

Pairing: Kelly Severide x Reader

Warnings: Possibly a lot… buried, swearing, break up, anger, trauma

AN: Enjoy my angst fest

PART ONE PART TWO

*****

Kelly had been gone for a while now, or at least it felt like a while. In retrospect you had no method of being able to tell the time and considering the fact that Kelly had taken his phone with him you were also laying in the dark.

Before he’d left to explore the little cavern, he’d tried to find your phone, however it had been in your purse and your purse was still MIA. So, you’d been left in the dark. You hadn’t thought you’d had any sort of darkness phobia, but now laying there, knowing you had tonnes of concrete right about you, well, you were rethinking the fear of the dark.

“Y/N?” The light was coming back and then Kelly himself as reappearing in your line of sight. “You ok? Sweetheart?”

“Yeah” you said, sighing a little and forcing your eyes back open. You were starting to really not feel so great anymore. Your lungs were struggling, your head was fuzzy and even though you couldn’t feel your legs your brain was still registering that something wasn’t right.

Kelly’s hand briefly rested on your forehead. “You’re burning up” from beside him he pulled up 2 backpacks. “Found these” he said while opening the top one and starting to search through it.

“What’re you doing?”

“Trying to find something…” he pulled out a bottle from the backpack opened the top and sniffed. “water” he declared.

His hand slid under your head and lifted you a little. Pressing the bottle to your lips he made you drink a some of the clear liquid.

“Thanks”

You couldn’t see it as your eyes had fluttered closed once again but Kelly’s brow had creased as he looked down at you. Something was wrong, even in the flimsy light from his phones torch he could tell that you were pale and sweaty.

“Y/N?” he squeezed your shoulder “Y/N, open your eyes for me babe”

You groaned “I'm just going to sleep for a moment”

“No!” Kelly’s grip tightened. “Don’t you dare close your eyes”

“Kelly” you moaned, fluttering your eyes back open. He looked concerned. You could see it. “Did you find anything else?”

He went back to searching through the backpacks, but his eyes kept flicking to you as well, checking you realised. He really didn’t want you to go back to sleep.

He was puling things randomly out of the bags. Nothing standing out as particularly helpful.

“I suppose you didn’t find a helpful tunnel out of here?”

“Sorry sweetheart”

“Too much to hope for” you were trying to keep your eyes open and just staring into the dark above your head. “Kelly?”

“Yeah?” his head shot up, completely ready to do whatever you needed. “What is it? Are you ok?”

“This is really bad isn’t it?”

Kelly dropped the backpack and shuffled over to take hold of your hand. “Yeah” he admitted with a release of breath. “this is bad”

“Bad like New Orleans bad?”

That made him smile, the two of you had been in New Orleans almost 10 years ago now for Mardi Gras, and most of that time was a blur of drunken decisions and bad outcomes.

“Worse sweetheart”

“How long do you think we have?”

“Before the oxygen runs out?” he asked. “A few hours, this little pocket we’re in… it isn’t as big as you’d think”

“A few hours” you said softly, that was less than you’d though. “Does it hurt?”

Kelly didn’t answer that, instead he let go of your hand and placed both of his on either side of your face leaning over you. It looked like he wanted to say something but his voice was failing him. Instead he ended up with his forehead pressed against your own.

“They’ll come” he whispered. “They’ll come for us”

You lifted your hand to the back of his neck, letting your fingers thread through the short hairs there. He was trembling, you could feel it beneath your hand. You knew Kelly Severide all too well. He would never admit to being scared or worried even. He was though.

“I'm sorry I dragged you into this Kelly”

“What?” he pulled back from you a little.

“If I hadn’t called you here, ranting about the pigman… you wouldn’t be trapped”

Kelly moved his thumb across your cheekbone. “Don’t be an idiot” he chided “who else would you call?”

“I don’t… Kelly...”

“Hey” he shook his head stopping you talking. “Just stop, stop even thinking like that. If I have to go, then with you, it’s not the worst”

“Not the worst?”

“Not the worst” he repeated. “I never liked him you know”

“I know” you said “you made it very clear every time you were near each other”

“Good. I'm glad you noticed. That was my aim” leaning down once more he pressed his lips to your forehead. “Now shut up, your wasting oxygen talking”

That sounded much more like Kelly. You did obey him though as he returned once more to the backpacks. You had no idea what he was looking for but at least it gave him something to do.

With your arm linked through Kelly’s the two of you walked into the art centre. Lights were strung across the walls framing the artwork, people were milling around talking and laughing as they took champagne flutes off of waiter’s trays.

“Fancy”

“It better be, it’s taken me the best part of 6 months to organise this”

“Clever girl aren’t you”

You dug your elbow into his side at that. “Shut up”

Kelly was laughing as he stopped one of the waiters and grabbed two glasses of champagne handing one over to you. “Well cheers to you”

“Cheers to me” you parroted taking a gulp of the bubbling alcohol.

For the next few hours you tried to forget about everything other than sorting out the myriad small niggles that people kept bringing to you. There was a brief moment where you nearly smacked your assistant who made some snide comment about Kelly being here and not your boyfriend, well Ex-Boyfriend you guessed now.

Other than that though everything was going to plan.

The first sign anything was wrong was barely noticed. You’d finally gotten 5 minutes to breath and you’d found Kelly sat at the bar smiling at you.

“god give me that” you snatched the scotch glass out of his hand and down the measure in one shot. “people drive me crazy sometimes” Kelly was just watching you with one eyebrow raised as you continued to rant.

The empty scotch glass you’d placed back on the bar suddenly starting vibrating, skidding along the bar to land with a crash on the floor. All around the room people were looking wildly around as the a low groan the whole building trembled.

“what the hell?” you looked at Kelly. “What was what?”

“Nothing good”

Kelly was standing up, reaching for you “come on” he grabbed your hand and started dragging you across the room. You were near the far exit when the low rumble from before magnified itself. The whole building was shaking and you were wrapped in Kelly’s arms as he held you up.

The last thing you saw was his worried face as the roar became deafening and the floor fell away from your feet.

*****

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drun-in-a-million · 5 years

Text

@egan-first-of-his-name

The journey to Madej was not easy. There didn’t seem to be a real path or road of any sort. The woods were thick and dark, littered with sharp, thorny vines and bushes. Not to mention he was pretty sure the trees would shift here and there, making him get turned around several times. He huffed. He typically had such a good sense of direction. This was ridiculous.

“Okay...I think this is new?” He muttered to himself. He was still quite a ways from the actual town. In fact, it seemed like he’d been sent in almost a semi-circle around it. “Ugh. I’m glad no one from home is around. The joke about being like Dad wouldn’t stop.”

He continued walking, barely avoiding tripping over a large stone. There was a river over here that Rejika had warned him about. Sometimes the water would do...strange things, she said. Besides randomly flowing backwards. “There’s honestly too much to really explain,” she’d told him.

He would have to cross that river eventually. Madej was partially surrounded by it. It seemed it wasn’t too far now. Just a little further and it would be visible.

Suddenly, a noise caught Drun’s attention. A low, dangerous growl. His antennae shook, his whole being telling him that there was danger nearby. He swallowed, as he looked around, planting his feet. A small flurry of ice appeared in his hand, ready to fight. “Hello?”

The growl became an echoing snarl as a huge beast barreled in from the trees. Drun couldn’t tell what it really was. At first glance it looked like some kind of giant cat except is also had feathers? And six eyes? What was this thing? However before he could search through his memories of things the various Dibs in his life had told him about, the creature was charging at him.

Drun yelped, tumbling out of the way of the attack. The beast had huge paws that could easily slam him into a tree or two. He scrambled to his feet, sending tons of ice and snow at the huge adversary. The beast, mildly irritated, was hit once by the small blizzard before dodging the rest of Drun’s attack and charging again.

‘Shit!” Drun yelped, activating his PAK legs to help him scurry up the nearest tree. The creature roared, wasting no time unfurling a giant pair of wings and following him up. “Oh, come on!”

The beast swatted at some of the branches, which sent Drun crashing back to the ground. He thanked his PAK legs for catching him, stabbing the ground as he caught himself to keep from getting too injured. He’d come this far. He was not about to fuck it up by getting injured but some overgrown chicken cat!

The chicken cat, however, seemed determined to tear him into itty bitty shreds. It snarled, this time flying at Drun at a speed he didn’t think could be possible for a creature of that size. Drun brought up his hands, a huge wave of ice aimed at the creature. It hardly seemed fazed.

Just when Drun thought he was doomed, something bright and warm shot between him and the beast. The beast stumbled to a sudden landing, snorting in agitation. Drun’s eyes widened as the fire reappear again, this time aimed directly at the creature. The beast gave a growl before taking off. Drun’s brow furrowed. Where had…

The flames, which were slowly disappearing, could be followed to a hard to see figure. As the person became more visible, Drun could see it was a boy possibly around his age. Maybe a little younger? It was typically not easy for him to tell since he was pretty tall. This boy came to his chest, and had messy black hair. He had...one eye? Blue skin? Wait, hadn’t the Mefni not wanted to come here? Brix hadn’t seemed to want anyone coming here…

“Are you alright?” The boy asked, looking up at Drun with concern. Even in the dark woods, he could tell that the boy’s eye color was not the same, startling green as the other Mefni. He’d have to wait for better light to figure out the actual color, though.

“Uh...yeah. Um...thanks.” Drun brushed himself off and cleared his throat. “Thanks, by the way.”

The boy shrugged. “Not a big deal. I ran into that thing twice in here, I think.” His eye flickered around the trees before looking back at Drun. “You look...familiar by the way.”

Drun sighed. Great. Another person to know him for only one thing. “Um...I’m a prince of Lazuroth. That might be how you know me.”

The boy’s eye widened with recognition and then he suddenly took a step back. Well, Drun was used to that too. They were either to intimidated or they only wanted to be his friend for clout. “Look...um...please don’t make a big deal out of this? I’m just a person like you.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Can I ask your name? And why you’re out in these woods?’

The boy shuffled his feet but he nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” He cleared his throat. “My name is Egan. As for why I’m here...well…”

Ah ahh ah ahhh~

Both boys froze, looking toward where the sound of that voice had come from. Drun’s sydark pounded. He was so close. He could tell.

It then occurred to him that Egan had reacted as well. “Wait...did you...did you hear that too?”

Egan looked up at him, appearing just as shocked that Drun could hear it. “Yeah. I’ve...I’ve been hearing it for a while. My mom, too.”

Drun’s brow furrowed. “...Wait, just your mom? I thought the whole clans were hearing it?”

“Oh...I’m not from here…” Egan explained. “I’m from the Galactic Alliance. It’s how I knew who you were.”

Something was tickling at the back of Drun’s mind, like he should be putting two and two together. But he could make the connection right now. Not with that voice singing louder than ever before.

Ah ahh ah ahhh~

“Well...I guess I won’t be doing this alone after all, then,” Drun said. He offered Egan a friendly smile.

Egan’s smile was shaky but just as genuine. “Yeah...good to know.” He pulled out a tablet which seemed to have the same coordinates that Drun had on his phone. “It’s not too much further. We just have to cross the river.”

“Right,” Drun agreed as the two trudged forward.

.00000000000000

Besides discovering that the river in question was floating above the bed it typically flowed in, the rest of the journey was without incident. The two boys made idle conversation here and there. Drun had nearly forgotten about the twinge of familiarity he’d felt earlier. Now he was feeling something else entirely. Something...strange and deep. Something that stirred more the closer they got to Madej.

He should not have been surprised when they found the town and it was literally a dark and barren wasteland. Not a single building remained, and the ground appeared permanently singed even after all these years. The air was dead quiet save for his and Egan’s footsteps. A cloud of ash and soot seemed to grip the entire place in a tight hold.

“My mom told me that the story of the Ignited Bride is why fire Mefni are treated so differently,” Egan suddenly said, idly creating little flames on his fingers. “They were already viewed with caution, but after what happened people see them as something to be feared. Dangerous.”

Drun shook his head. “My sister has fire powers. She told me there was a time where she was scared of herself. But she’s not anymore. And she only uses them when it’s truly needed. Well..unless she’s lighting a fireplace like a show off.”

Egan snorted. “If you’re talking about the sister I’m thinking of, I feel like she’s kind of the exception to a lot of rules.”

Drun shrugged. “To be fair, people on Lazuroth get scared of me. And we’re surrounded by ice and snow.” He makes a littler flurry before making it disappear. “People fear what they don’t understand. Fear makes us do stupid things.”

Egan looked deep in thought for a moment, but also sort of comforted. “...My dad has said the same thing.” He gave a laugh. “Path to the dark side, am I right?”

Drun couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah. For sure.”

As both boy shared a laugh, the voice returned. It sounded like the singer was right there next the them, singing at the top of their lungs.

Ah ahh ah ahhh~

Ah ahh ah ahhh

AH AHH AH AHHH~

“Ah ahh ah ahhh~” Egan sang back without missing a beat. Drun looked at him strangely for a moment, only to met with the other boy’s one eyed gaze. Drun didn’t think a look could look challenging and encouraging all at the same time.

“Ah ahh ah ahhh!” Drun sang loudly, matching up with Egan and the mysterious voice that had called them here.

It was like an explosion, a loud rush of light and magic. The soot and ash cleared a swirled. The three voices filled the air, swirling with the sudden wind. Egan yelped as his shoulders and arms erupted in flames. Drun was about to express his concern when his own powers came forth, a small blizzard of snowflakes shooting around them. The boys were suddenly surrounded by a cyclone of fire and ice. It should have been terrifying. And yet...it wasn’t. In fact, combined with the voice it was almost comforting. It was like finding what you were looking for, reaching for it but it’s still just barely out of your reach.

Drun turned back to Egan. It was like something had tied them together and was trying to pull them closer. Judging by the strange look on Egan’s face, he felt it, too. Tentatively, they both reached out for one another, taking each others hand in a firm hold.

AH AHH AH AH AHHHH~

The swirling got faster, lighting up the surrounding area around them. It was then that Drun noticed the color of Egan’s eye. Ice blue. He’d seen that color before, hadn’t he? Why was it so hard to think of now?

They found themselves surrounded by figures, shadows of memories appearing in the flurries and flames. Drun’s mother and father meeting on Lazuroth. Addie traveling back in time. The first revolution. Addie meeting Chance… Chance. Wait a second!

That when Drun saw the other shadows that appeared. A man with dark hair and icey eyes. A past wrought with pain and blood and regret. Egan even looked a little afraid at some points. But then a change of heart. A shutting of a door left opened for far too long. His mother. A fire Mefni. An Ozynite.

No wonder he was so nervous around Drun.

Drun could be dense sometimes, but he knew a person was not their parents, that they could not be faulted for a past they weren’t even a part of. He gave Egan’s hand a squeeze. The short boy looked up at him. There was that strange, binding feeling again. What was it? What did any of this mean? However, the questions didn’t stop Drun from taking Egan’s other hand.

Another eruption of magic happened, and the ground gave way under Drun and Egan, plunging them into darkness.

#[Denivar Dynasty]

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