#this was actually supposed to be my birthday celebration from last month! but i gots too busy with school and work
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pahtoosh · 2 years ago
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You're invited to Pahtoosh's Big Summer Bash!
❀◝(⁰▿⁰)◜❀
one new fic a day for a whole week! (sometimes two hehe)
Sunday: apologies and kisses (stucky)
Monday: lap, please (lee bodecker) | mornings and kisses (chef!bucky)
Tuesday: ugly shirts and caffeine crazies (stucky)
Wednesday: pools and kisses (mafia!bucky)
Thursday: why leave (stucky) | yucky (lee bodecker)
Friday: you'll always have a place here (stucky)
Saturday: bunnies and kisses (lee bodecker)
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notintattooine · 4 months ago
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if only for a night
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pairing: padmé amidala x anakin skywalker x fem!reader 
warnings: 18+, polyamorous relationship, sexual content (ffm). not proofread bc i overthink <3
a/n: this was shorter and sluttier than intended...i actually took months to finish this....anyway!!! enjoy!!!!<3
inspo credits to @bimbo-baggins17 <3 you made me realize i could absolutely post this :)
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the gilded elegance of the senate meeting room felt like a dramatic contrast to the sterile meeting areas the council seemed to favor. you’d been trying to focus on anything but the ethereal beauty of the woman in front of you, senator padmé amidala. she was really impressive…… with a wonderful taste in windows, you thought to yourself. you’d (really) tried your best to listen to the discussion occurring but found yourself drifting into a daydream. finally, master windu suggested beginning preparing a celebration that was to be thrown later. you’d practically shot out of your seat- anything to regain the sense of control you 're supposed to have instilled into your being. (maybe that’s why you and anakin got along so well) 
of course the jedi goodbyes had begun, pleasantries engaged back and forth until obi wan finally put you out of your misery. accomplishing this by dragging you and anakin out, or (rather) trying to persuade the two of you to join in. padmé was talking about the celebration as she finally made her way over to the three of you, catching you first.
“and y/n, you’ll be there?” her voice had a slight hopefulness to it as her soft amber eyes met yours. “you’ll join anakin and me, won’t you?” the last part was low enough for only your ears to catch as she grazed her forearm against yours. her perfectly glossed lips pressed up into a smile as she placed her hand on the small of your back to lead you toward anakin. it was as if she’d electrocuted you, excitement trickled through every nerve in your body as you approached. 
anakin’s gaze shifted to something less friendly and more…playful as you two approached. his grin widened and his body language softened, welcoming you and padmé into his personal space. “we were hoping you’d join us?” 
“oh- of course” you managed to get out, flustered by the attention from the hottest couple in the galaxy. “i would love to.” 
-
“you’ll join anakin and me, won’t you?” padmé’s question had gripped your mind since it left her  lips. would you join them? it was risky, taboo, maybe even wrong. of course you would.
your mind seemed to be elsewhere while you laid out a dress from your closet, running your fingers along the silky fabric. deciding to put it on, slipping it onto your figure, you turned to the mirror. a smile crept upon your face as you admired the dress and its delicately embroidered lace details. it was rather flattering in the way it ruched and flowed in all the right places- it had been a birthday gift from padmé years ago. the color matched the sea foam green waters of naboo and brought fond memories of your youth along with it. fleeting moments of confessions in castle corridors and years of forbidden longing. 
-
you’d managed to make it to the celebration, eyes scanning the crowd of jedi for a set of more familiar faces. as you did, a metallic hand placed itself on your lower back. anakin smiled down at you, eyes traveling over your body.
“care to grab a drink?” his signature smile graced his face. “padmé will be here soon.”
you followed him to the bar, his hand sitting comfortably on your waist. you took a seat next to him before he ordered.
“two of my usuals.” he smiled, holding up two fingers. “thank you.”
you shrugged as the drinks arrived, hoping his taste in alcohol was as decent as his taste in women. you held the glass up to your lips before taking a sip.
you grimaced “oh stars-  anakin, what was that…. jet juice?”  his lips upturned in amusement. “not a fan?” he mused, wiping at the droplet that fell from your lip. 
“anakin, stop tormenting the poor girl,” padmé’s amused voice called as she approached, her figure resting gently against the bar counter. “you’ll scare her away.” 
-
“you sure?” padmé asked again as anakin’s teeth grazed your collarbone, intrusive thoughts winning as he sunk his teeth into the flesh. eliciting a yelp from you, swallowed by padmé’s kiss.
“never been so sure about anything.” you pulled back mumbling against her lips. switching to suck slightly on her bottom lip as you reconnected. 
anakin’s deft fingers slipped under your dress straps, urging it off. he gawked for a second, marveling at the sight of your nipples hardening against the cool air mixed with the aching in your core. mischief crossed his face as he attached himself to one of the nubs, licking a stripe then biting and repeating. your hands were searching for his hair as padmé slipped her tongue into your mouth. anakin tugged at the perked flesh, eliciting a moan that was straight of a holopad midnight porno from your lips. desperate for relief, your hips bucked, getting the message, anakin shoved his knee between your legs to part them. staring at you like he was going to consume you, he used his metal arm to bunch your dress up to your stomach, his fingers lightly grazing over the soaked fabric of your panties. 
“oh padmé, come look at this.” anakin grinned, looking at his wife. “she’s fucking soaked.” 
padmé smiled widely, “we’ll take care of you, y/n. won’t we ani?” anakin nodded in agreement. 
before you knew it padmé had her hips positioned over your face, your mouth watering at the sight. anakin aligned himself with your dripping sex, reaching to grip your hips as he began to sink his length in. holy shit. you could die right here right now. whining almost pathetically as he sunk in, your mind went blank only brought back to reality when you remembered the brunette above you. padmé let out a shaky moan as your breath fanned on her pussy. without warning you began, licking a fat stripe from her clit to her entrance and back. 
“maker mae, you taste fucking divine.” you mumbled into her, flattening and curling your tongue as she began rocking her hips. 
anakin watched, his dick growing impossibly harder at the sight of you devouring his wife. he removed a hand from your hips to rub your clit, to prepare he brought his fingers to padmé’s lips to wet them. you involuntarily clenched when you heard her mouth release his fingers with a pop. the mental image of what you heard was enough to make your eyes roll. anakin had set a brutal pace after entering you, the squelching of how wet you were would be embarrassing if you didn’t feel so wanted.
“oh she liked that.” anakin chuckled, shooting padmé a cocky grin. “gripping me like a fucking vice.” 
padmé’s grip on your hair combined with anakin’s grip on your hips had you reeling, no wet dream or dirty fantasy could amount to the real thing. you’d gotten off to the fantasy more times than you could count. you were here, padmé’s wetness dripping down your chin and anakin’s dick so far in you, your brain hurt. 
you worked at padmé’s pussy, sucking on her puffed clit before tongue fucking her and repeating. she was on the brink of tears with how fucking close she was, all she wanted was to see you fall apart on anakin. 
“y/n.” she warned, “y/n im close,” her hips were slowing but she was trying. you moved your hands to her thighs, bringing her impossibly closer to your mouth. moans from how close anakin had you were spilling into her. 
“me too.” you mumbled, nose bumping her clit over and over. with a cry she came, releasing on your tongue. you let her ride it out, peppering kisses to her thighs. 
anakin was fully slamming in and out of you, the heaviness of his balls, slapping against your pussy. you had your nails dug into padmé’s thighs, still lapping at her when your orgasm hit you. white hot pleasure sent you collapsing into the bed, completely limp as anakin fucked you through it. 
as you recovered, padmé held your face in her hands, peppering kisses against your face. anakin sighed, breaking you out of your haze. he was still painfully hard, his tip angry and leaking.
“oh ani.” you sighed, rolling over onto your stomach, “should we help him?” you turned to padmé. she grinned, gripping his length in her hand, looking towards you.
“spit on it.” she said, “please y/n.” anakin answered , looking down at you with furrowed eyebrows and eyes watering. who were you to deny him?
with a grin, you spit into padme’s hand, before lowering yourself to play with his balls. with a smile graced upon your swollen lips you grinned up at him. he looked ethereal, his curly brunette hair sticking to his forehead with sweat and his lip pulled between his teeth. padme worked his cock.
"switch" he panted, "want to fuck your face." he grabbed your chin.
with your pupils blown and drool pooling in your mouth, you obliged. you relaxed your throat the best you could, gagging as you tried to take all of him. he make a makeshift ponytail with your hair, his balls slapping your face as he fucked your throat. his hips started to stutter as padmé kissed him, the lewd noises of their makeout make your thighs clench together. you pulled out all the stops, gagging, drooling and moaning all around him. you knew you had him when he pushed you to the base of his cock, the coarse hairs tickling your face. he came with a cry, spilling down your throat.
you eased off him, resting back on your heels to take a second to catch your breath. padmé pulled you up to her, "you gonna share?" holy fuck, of course you would. you tapped her cheek signaling for her to open up before making a show of spitting his cum into her mouth.
anakin growled. his eyes wide and his mouth agape. he really was the chosen one. as if it couldn’t get any better, padmè lowered her face back to yours spitting it into your mouth. “swallow.” she said, hand gripping your chin.
anakin pulled you into them until you were a pile of limbs, soft kisses being peppered along your skin. “you were great baby.” he said, nuzzling his face into your neck. “so good for us.” padmé agreed, kissing the tip of your nose.
it was nice to be theirs, if only for a night.
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moonbaby26 · 3 months ago
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Title: The Gift
*Crossposted to AO3 Here*
Pairings: Doflamingo x Reader, Doflamingo x Viola/Violet (mentioned)
Warnings/Notes: My belated Doffy birthday oneshot 😅! Reader is female coded, but no explicit gender/pronouns are referenced (unless I missed one). Language. Age difference. Dubious consent. Male ejaculation, and some actual fluff this time?
Synopsis: Being such a vain and self-centric man, one would expect elaborate public birthday celebrations for Dressrosa’s king. But as the newest member of Doflamingo’s crew, you’re surprised to find that this isn’t the case. And you don’t think that’s right. So you resolve to give him a very personal gift anyway, to quite unforeseen (at least to you) results.
Fic Masterlist
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Doflamingo didn’t celebrate his birthday any longer.
This tidbit of information about your new master was dropped so casually one afternoon as you and Baby 5 worked together to clean blood and viscera off of the stonework. 
The two of you were together in some dark room the Donquixote captain didn’t want the normal palace maids to venture into. A special interrogation space you now dumped another bucket of soapy water over.
It wasn’t your place to ask any questions though. You had only lived in Dressrosa for the last six months. 
You were the payment Doflamingo had taken when your previous owner couldn’t cough up enough for a weapons debt in time.
Yes, your last master had likely ended up in a room much like this one. Because you’d never seen that abusive old man ever again. 
But you were a logia user. And that qualification had seemed good enough for Doflamingo to allow you this new chance within his own ranks instead.
So you did not complain. And you did not step out of line. You only followed orders just as faithfully as all these pirates that had lived with him years before you had. 
But you still wondered.
You wondered why it bothered you that no one was supposed to acknowledge the day their leader had been born.
The one day that should really be his.
You were still so skeptical of this, that you even paid more attention to the goings on in town over the next week. Looking for any hint of even the most subtle celebration plans or decorations for the people’s king.
But there were none.
And within the palace, Giolla was who you most often were assigned to and shadowed. When you realized even she showed no interest in making artwork for the king’s upcoming cumpleaños as they called it here, that was when you finally knew they must be serious.
His birthday had been removed from all outward recognition, both within his own kingdom and private “family”.
It was such an odd notion, for how extravagant of a man Doflamingo seemed to be.
But you supposed you didn’t really know him either. In the entire six months you’d lived within his home, you didn’t think you’d had more than a few words directed at you from his grinning lips. And they had only ever been emotionless commands.
Ones you dutifully followed.
And you were okay with this arrangement. Because you had been purchased fairly. Your life preserved in exchange for being little more than a warm blooded machine. Simply another tool among all his others.
Yet you still kept thinking about him and this erasure of his birth. It felt so wrong to you.
Somehow even more wrong than the toys you sometimes heard crying in the underground port after midnight, or the blood you and Baby 5 cleaned up again and again from those equally hidden dungeons.
You lay awake in your room for hours actually, on the night before his birthday, until an idea finally came to you.
You had a need to do something about your feelings. You were very thankful to have a roof over your head after all. You were thankful to have a reliable supply of food, and you were thankful to be in the aura of this warlord’s protection in the violent New World.
It was a compulsion by that point really, to repay him in even some small way.
So you sat up in your bed and got to work then and there, inspired just the way you supposed Giolla always spoke of being. 
Your hands hardened as you summoned your power, yet also becoming fully transparent all at once while your fingers still moved nimbly.
You were a human made of glass.
Clear and flawless as your creation began to ebb from your own fingertips.
You could shape and alter it as easily as if it were molten. But you didn’t need heat to do this. Everything was still a part of you as you shaped one flower petal after another.
It became a large rose in full bloom. No stem, but the base of the flower was as wide as both of your palms put together soon enough. The candlelight’s glow in your room played through those rippling surfaces, casting prismatic reflections in every direction as you smiled.
But it still wasn’t special enough then. It wasn’t personal enough as you felt it needed a second element. 
Which wasn’t easy. It took you multiple attempts actually as you tried to shape a bird nestled within this blooming rose. 
A flamingo of course. But the neck was so slender, it kept drooping before you could harden it properly. And if you made it too hard, you were afraid it would hold tension and fracture before long.
So you compromised.
You let that flamingo rest its head, smoothing it with your still clear fingertips as you curved the neck down for the bird to lay its beak against its wing.
As if it were asleep. An elegant flamingo, content and peaceful in the bloom of a rose. The final glass was pristine in its clarity of course, with all the facets you’d created catching the light in such a way that it fully sparkled while you cupped it in your hands with admiration.
You loved it.
And the next day when you went into Doflamingo’s empty office as part of your regular task of filing his completed contracts for him, you left this gift on his desk while you took that stack of paperwork in exchange.
Yet you put no note with your gift. You didn’t even leave it in the center of his desk like a focal point, as you would never be that brazen or prideful.
No, you simply left it to the side. It could be little more than an ornate paper weight for all it mattered. He could discard it if he chose to.
And that would be alright. A gift was the receiver’s to do with as they wished after all.
But at least you now knew he would have a present. He would not be ignored on his own day.
And that thought made you very happy.
But hours passed easily within his palace. Neither Giolla, nor Trebol had any further special instructions for you that day. So by the time the sun had set again, you were alone once more in your bed.
Reading by candlelight as you often did. The palace library was available to any of the Donquixote crew, and its contents occupied you well in any downtime you found.
The story for tonight was interesting too, but not so different than those you’d read before. Just another handsome protagonist, and his rather oblivious lover to be.
It was quite predictable, but still enough to make you giggle once the two characters finally found themselves alone.
You knew exactly where this was going.
And you had been turning those pages just a bit faster in that anticipation before your small transponder snail suddenly awakened to startle you.
Of course you still answered immediately, expecting a late night order. Perhaps a request to join your fellow lower ranks in the underground harbor. Sometimes the pirates there got rowdy, trying to back out of prior agreements. But you were much less destructive than Trebol when restraining them.
“Yes?” You had answered in your calm way, ready for almost anything.
“Come to my office. Now.”
Anything but that as the young master’s impatient tone filled your ears instead.
“Yes, sir.” You said anyway.
The snail clicked, disconnecting from his side first as you dropped your book and practically leapt from the bed.
No one kept Doflamingo waiting.
So much so that you didn’t bother with shoes, or even changing.
You were barefoot, just in a nightgown that fluttered to your knees as you pulled a jacket on over it and hurried out and down the hall.
Your master’s office was on a higher floor. Always like ascending to where you would never truly belong as your feet took the staircase two steps at a time.
But there was no one else in the dark palace corridors. Nothing to speak of panic or a rallying of the troops at all to protect the island.
Yet as you pulled down on the golden door handles to open those carved double doors that led to his workspace, you had still expected to see more of the Donquixote crew.
Never once had you been here alone with him.
Until tonight.
“Close the doors.” He ordered.
And you still did so with no hesitation, then walking towards Doflamingo’s desk with your hands clasped subserviently in front of you below your waist.
You didn’t even ask for an explanation. You simply looked at him, awaiting further instruction.
But his large chair was pulled farther from his desk than normal. He was slouched back in it with his shirt fully open and oddly wrinkled.
One of his long legs was crossed over the other. But his foot was moving slightly, bouncing a little like letting out tension the rest of his body would not yet portray.
“Did you make this?” Doflamingo asked in such an odd tone, yet immediate and to the point as one of his fingers tapped the desk.
Your eyes finally broke away from him to look down at that glass rose you’d created with the flamingo still resting peacefully within the spread petals.
He had moved it dead center on his desk now.
“Yes, sir.” You answered simply, your voice still soft.
But that was when his posture changed.
“Why?” He asked you as he straightened up in his chair.
And you felt your hands tighten against one another. Yet, you were simple. You didn’t think ahead, or plan and strategize. Everything was only what it was and nothing more.
You always told the truth.
“I wanted to give you a gift. I’m thankful to be allowed to stay here, young master.”
And you saw his facial muscles contort slightly. 
Like he didn’t know what expression to make.
“But today? You chose today to do this…” He sounded strangely unsure. Irritated too, as only one of his large hands easily scooped up that glass artwork that had taken both your palms to carefully hold.
“Yes.” You again answered honestly. “I wanted you to have something even if we aren’t allowed to celebrate.”
His brow furrowed. But you did not see any bulging vein. He wasn’t fully angry, not yet. He didn’t seem to know what to do. 
And perhaps that was the root of this frustration.
“How old are you?” Doflamingo asked suddenly.
“Twenty.” 
He muttered a curse under his breath at this seemingly unpleasant answer. And you saw his leg shift, that movement of his foot getting a little faster.
“Well…hoy tengo cuarenta años. Es demasiado.” He finally told you in return, switching briefly to the native language of this island as he frowned. Like he couldn’t admit this number out loud, to you or himself otherwise.
And his fingers were still moving over your gift, tracing all those edges while he held it.
“I’ve waited hours today…wondering what to do about this.” He said again then. “I even brought Violet in here earlier to try and alleviate it...” And he gestured unabashedly at the messy state of his clothing that you had noticed on first arrival.
But only then as his arm moved did you see the smear of dark lipstick against his rib cage beneath that open shirt.
And that was the very first thing that finally brought a tinge of heat to your face.
“It’s…just a gift, young master.”
“It isn’t.” He corrected you so surely that you lowered your head like a scolded pup.
And you heard the resulting growl which came from that too.
“You’re too damn innocent.” He lamented. “And I’m twice your fucking age now.”
Said as if this was somehow all your fault.
His crossed legs shifted again too, like he was struggling with himself. “You don’t even have a man in town, do you? You just sit alone in your room all the time…doing what exactly?”
“I read.” You felt that coil of embarrassment in your stomach now rising to meet the heat still creeping downward from your face.
But he scoffed, a much crueler noise. “And think about me as you do? Clearly you must.” He held the glass rose up higher then, almost as if it were indisputable evidence in this sudden trial against you.
He was starting to sound genuinely angry now.
“I’m sorry, young master.” You tried.
“You can’t do these things and expect no consequence.” Doflamingo chided you harshly, as if you really were a fool.
A fool that he owned.
“Come here.” He commanded you in that renewed authority as he set your gift back to the center of his desk.
You followed the gesture of his fingers without question. He didn’t even have to use his strings as you walked around his desk to stand before his chair.
“You can’t show me affection and think nothing would come of it…” He warned only briefly. 
And it felt too dangerous to try and apologize further. You were silent as your eyes watched only those red lenses of his sunglasses. 
You did know enough not to dare look away from him now.
“I’m not going to fuck you. But you are going to let me get this feeling out.” He said darkly. “So just be quiet and we’ll be done soon enough. Then you can go back to your paper fantasies instead.”
There was not even an implication of wanting your permission in his mocking words either. He was telling you what was about to happen just before those long legs abruptly uncrossed and you were pulled between them.
And you still gasped as the clothed erection he’d been hiding this entire time now pressed up hard against your bottom in his lap.
He didn’t even give you time to process. He was already thrusting that sharp bulge against your nightgown within moments.
His large hands fisted within that same thin fabric beneath your jacket as he groaned quietly.
You felt him inhale deeply next, taking in your scent as he curved his spine enough to lean down into your smaller frame.
It was like being encapsulated, a monstrous snake constricting itself around a small prey when the smallest flick of wet met the side of your face simultaneously.
Just the very tip of his tongue, only a tiny taste of you before before those large hands tightened on your hips.
Doflamingo pulled you harder against his own, bruising your skin beneath your clothes you were sure while his pace quickened even further.
“You smell so good.” He practically hissed against you. “You’re so soft too…”
His long fingers easily squeezed into your thighs as well, even as he didn’t release your hips.
And you must still be in some sort of shock really. Because somehow you didn’t feel afraid. 
You just let him do it. 
It was his birthday. He was your master.
And you were what he wanted, in this moment at least.
He never lifted your nightgown though. He never opened his pants.
But you could feel his body heat, and his desperation. A shame that outweighed any you should have had.
It was his loneliness. It was his need.
And it was mercy towards you.
Your master was giving you his rarest gift in return.
He could have taken your virginity here and now. He could have shattered you with his haki on only a whim, logia user or not.
Doflamingo was fully in control of you, and honestly just enough in control of himself that he did not truly harm you.
His breath only quickened as time seemed to draw to a standstill for you. It felt both like forever, and not long enough at all.
And still you didn’t feel wronged. 
The humiliation was only his instead, whenever you finally felt him stiffen further, grunting before he shuddered and that new heat blossomed against the underside of your thighs.
You were still sitting tightly on his bulge, and the wetness of his release wicked through those meager layers of fabric so easily.
He’d fully cum on himself within his pants. The king of Dressrosa had done this in a private moment with you, then hugging his arms around your waist as he rested briefly, recovering from that surprisingly heavy orgasm.
“Happy birthday to me…” Doflamingo chuckled despite himself, still sounding a bit overwhelmed in this instance while he gradually came down.
“Happy birthday, young master.” You answered tentatively, almost in a whisper.
But he allowed it now. He even squeezed you a little more. And it didn’t feel fully sexual then. He wanted something to hold onto.
He wanted comfort.
“Thank you.” The Heavenly Demon said to you, the young one who was surely only another of his many pets.
But he meant it.
And maybe by his next cumpleaños he would be able to do more. Maybe by then you would be ready to be more than just the one he wanted both to consume and to hold tonight.
Maybe you’d been the oblivious lover to be all along. 
Regardless, whatever happened now, you wouldn’t be laughing at those characters in the books any longer.
If you’d even be reading them much at all. Because you might have someone else needing all of your free time now.
Someone far more sensitive than he’d ever let on as he kept you in his lap while he reached for your artwork again, moving it back closer to the edge of the desk so it better caught the light from the small chandelier above.
You watched your master smile, his body relaxing fully before he bent down enough again to rest his chin on your shoulder.
This was just another flamingo, resting his head with his newest flower.
——————————
End.
Thank you for reading! 🎂🦩
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fanttasttica · 1 year ago
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One plus one makes three
Rhysand x reader
After your one night stand with the High lord, you hadn't expected to see him ever again, but fate had other plans. You are pregnant, carrying the High lord's first child and you need to tell him. How is he going to react? And what will that mean for you?
Warnings: nothing (I think.. If you find anything, please let me know :D )
Words: 4129
Authors note: Thanks for participanting inthe voting! Since this idea got the most votes, i wrote it first. My next story will be on theme "enemies to lovers" :D
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You weren't that type of a girl who got drunk every weekend and had a sex with males whose names you haven't bothered to learn. No.. So why was the universe punishing you for this? It was one night, only one. You were celebrating your birthday with some friends at Rita's, when you spotted the most beautiful male that ever existed. He was tall, seemed strong and there was this dark aura around him. He was undoubtedly powerful, but instead of fearing him, something dragged you to him. After some time you were watching each other from afar, he came up to you and asked you to dance. It was during your time on the dancing floor, when you found out it was no other than High lord or the Night cour, your High lord. It was the first time you saw him, the first time you talked to him and you thought it would also be probably the last. Maybe you ended up in his bed that night, but it was supposed to be only a one night stand, but fate decided otherwise. 
You weren't feeling well for a couple of days. Your friends were pushing you to see a healer and today you finally gave in. You visited your healer on the other side of the town, thinking she will brush it off, tell you to rest for another couple of days and eat chicken broth, you hated, but no. This wasn't only some illness you could get rid of after a few days. This would last for at least a couple of months and then the real fun would begin. You were pregnant. Carrying an heir to the Night court in your womb. Your stomach was still flat and if it weren't for your morning sickness and tiredness, you wouldn't have noticed you were pregnant yet. After finding that out, you thanked and said goodbye to your healer, leaving in a hurry. As if running from her would also mean that you would run from your situation. Unfortunately for you, that didn't happen. Symptoms still bothered you in the following days, reminding you about how screwed you were. 
“What are you going to do?” Your friends were curious, of course. And honestly you were too. “I have no idea. I am.. I only saw him once.” You answered her while running your hand through your hair. “Yeah, you saw him once. You slept with him once and you ended up pregnant.. I can't believe your luck.” It was hard to say if she was speaking ironically or not, because you wouldn't call yourself lucky. This wasn't some blessing. You weren't against children, you actually liked them and hoped one day you will have one, this was simply quite early for you and certainly with the wrong man. He maybe was a High lord, but you were an ordinary fae. He probably already forgot about your existence. “I don't even know how to contact him. Should I go back to Rita's in the hope I will meet him there? Should I send him a letter and tell him about this? And what should I write in it? Do I really have to tell him?” Not telling him anything and running to another court was an idea you were also toying with. “You can not possibly mean that! He deserves to know. And besides that, lies or secrets are always exposed in the end. He is the most powerful High lord of all times.. Do you really think you can keep this as a secret your whole life? Your kids' whole life?” You sighed in defeat and shook your head. “No, that's stupid.. I.. I just need another few days to collect my thoughts and think about ways to contact and tell him.” 
Few days passed by and you still weren't sure what to do. Why does it have to be so complicated? If he weren't the High lord, you would already have told him. It would make everything so much easier for both of you. It was pointless to cry over a spilled milk, but you couldn't help yourself, blaming it on your hormones. One day, you had enough of it. Enough of hiding in your room, crying and cursing on him and yourself. You were determined to find him, tell him about this and return home, so you could finally have some good rest without constantly thinking about this, because currently you were losing your head. You decided to try to find Rhysand again at Rita's. It seemed better to ask him for a minute there than marching to his house and demanding he would see you. You friends were supportive, not leaving you to be all alone. There always was at least one of them by your side, although you weren't finding it necessary, it was a nice gesture you appreciated. The first night you spent here looking for you, you hadn't had any luck, likewise the second or third night. But after sitting on the bar stool for the fourth night in a row, you finally saw him. He was talking to his friends, with a smile on his handsome face, unaware that his life was about to change drastically. 
Your heart started beating faster than ever before. In normal situations, you were a calm person, but obviously not today. “You should hurry and go speak to him, before other girls start to throw themself on him.” You swallowed hard.“Yeah.. I am going right now.” You tried to put on a neutral face and started walking towards him, even though everything in you screamed to run away. Suddenly, you were standing right before him and his friends, who were measuring you with interest in their eyes. You simply nodded at them in greeting and looked at the High lord. “You probably don't remember me, but we met here a while ago.. And I need to speak with you. It's urgent. ” At first you were worried he was going to send you away. He raised one eyebrow, but nodded and put away his drink, following you outside. Cold air hit you immediately, so you hugged yourself, before turning to face him. “I remember you, don't worry.” You weren't expecting that. “Yeah.. that's good.” It made a few things easier for you. Now you know there isn't a need to explain to him when you met and what you did together that night. “So? What did you need to tell me?” He was curious, of course. Maybe expecting you to try to seduce him, as many girls certainly did in the past, but there was nothing that could prepare him for this. “I am pregnant and it's yours.” 
There weren't many people who managed to surprise the High lord of the Night court. And even the least people managed to surprise him so much that he couldn't think of a reaction for the first few seconds. He was stunned, looking at you as if you were from another unknown world, so you took word once again. “To be honest.. I expected a worse reaction..” You sighed and looked at the ground. “I don't want anything from you. I want and will keep the baby, but if you don't want to, you don't have to be involved in the baby's life. I have people who will help me and also have enough money to take care of it. So.. It's up to you.” And with that, you left him standing outside alone, returning to your friends.
“How did it go? Did he take it well?” Immediately after your return, you were flooded with questions. You shrugged and drank water from your glass. “He was clearly surprised. I told him I don't expect anything from him and assured him it's his choice, if he wants to be involved or not and then left.” They laughed. “You told him this and just left him standing there alone? Oh my Cauldron, I would pay to see his face.” Maybe you would also laugh at this, only if it weren't you who was in this situation. You put one of your hands on your stomach. It was weird and also.. magical, knowing that right now, you are creating a new life. “He returned to his friends and is talking with them.” Your friend whispered to your ears. You could feel several pairs of eyes watching you. Shaking your head, you smiled at them. “Let's talk about something else for a while and try to enjoy this night.” You desperately needed some distraction and opportunity to think about anything else. In the end, the reason why you were here today was done and you deserved some break from this too. 
The next day, you were woken up by the Sun. After you forgot to close the curtains last night, there was nothing that could stop morning rays from tickling your eyes. Like any other day before, you were thinking, if you weren't dreaming this whole time, but morning sickness was clear evidence that in fact you were not. After brushing your teeths and hair, you dressed up, put on black leggings and your favorite jumper, you were ready for the day. For the last couple of days, you took time off from your job. It wasn't that hard,since you were running a small bakery with your friends and they almost forced you to stay at home. But today, you were determined to return. You wanted to start living normally again. There isn't a chance that you will spend a whole pregnancy locked in your room. You will take things slowly, so there is no chance for something to happen and it will all be good. 
Your day has been going just fine. After coming to work, you could finally be able to feel like a few weeks ago, like nothing was going on. Well, that was until the bell rang, announcing the arrival of another customer you should greet. After you look up, you find no one other than the High lord himself. “Shouldn't you be resting?” You raised your eyebrow. “Hello to you too.. I assure you I am rested well enough.” He came closer, the only thing between you was a counter, behind which you stood. “You don't need to work. I will take care of both of you.” You shook your head. “There is no need for that. I can work, what's more important, I want to work. I love my job.” Something in his face told you, he took this as a challenge. “You are pregnant with my child. I think I should have a say in this matter.” This whole conversation was uncomfortable for both of you. You both were very determined to do it in your way. And the fact that you were strangers had not been helping at all. You didn't know how to treat each other. “Then I guess we need to find some compromise.”
You weren't exactly thrilled with how some things turned out in the end, but on the other hand, it could be worse. After a long talk with Rhysand, how he told you to call him, you end up agreeing to stop working when you are halfway through your pregnancy, but that is not all. During those few weeks you will still be working, there will always be someone with you, during your shift. Practically, members of Rhys's Inner circle were supposed to babysit you. You knew it would be very unusual for you, but you were hoping that in a couple of days you will be able to ignore them or befriend them. You also agreed on moving in with Rhysand and his Inner circle, three weeks before the baby was supposed to be born and staying for at least a couple of months. “Honestly, I am surprised that you want to be so involved..” You mumbled. You two were talking almost your whole shift, which was coming to the end right now. “It's my baby, of course I want to be involved. We have to take care of her or him. Which brings me to my last point today.” He took your silence as a cue to continue. “We should get married.” You weren't sure what you were expecting, but this was certainly not it. Almost dropping a tray with two last gingerbreads, you turned to face him. His face was serious, there was no sign that he was just kidding, but you laughed lightly even so. “Good one. I am not marrying only because I am pregnant.” But he didn't let you brush that off so easily. “Why? It would be better. You would live in luxury for the rest of your life and I would have an heir.” Without this union, this baby would only be a bastard in the others eyes, you were aware of that, but you couldn't do this. “I already told you, I am comfortable with the life I am living. I don't need jewelry or fancy dresses. I was always determined to marry for love or not at all. And I am not changing my mind.” 
The weeks passed one by another. As Rhys promised, from the very next day, his friends started accompanying you, during your work. Sometimes, it was Morrigan you befriended quite quickly. It was because of her friendly personality. She was treating you like a friend from the start, promising you to always help you with the baby. Almost every time she came, she was bringing something for you or the baby. You It almost didn't make sense for you to go shopping for things for the baby since she was the one doing it. Then there were Cassian and Azriel. They also were friendly, but it took a little longer to get used to them, but after you started feeding them sweets from your shop, they warmed up to you and you were chatting like an old friend. The last person who you saw maybe two times was Amren. She wasn't rude, but when she was there, she was doing her own work and since you didn't want to disturb her, you hadn't talked so much. As for Rhys, he was visiting you every other day before and after your shift. The communication between you two was better and sometimes, you caught yourself staring at him, when he was talking to his friends and since that was exactly what got you into this situation in the first place, you weren't happy with yourself. 
“This is your last day, isn't it?” Morrigan was sitting on a table, smiling at you as you were counting the money before closing the register. “Yeah.. I still can't believe it.” You were half through your pregnancy and your bump was already showing a little. Fortunately, the morning sickness and tiredness have passed you by now. You were feeling great. “I don't know what I am going to do with my free time.” She shrugged. “You can read.. Paint.. Shop for the baby..” You chuckled at the last thing. “Thanks to you, the baby has more than enough clothes. And I pursue all my hobbies even when I am working.. Rhys is thinking that I will only lay in bed, eat and sleep, but that's simply not possible. I would lose my head after one week.” She smiled at you sympathetically. “My cousin behaves sometimes like a mother hen. I believe you, when you say it's annoying.. But you have to endure it only for another couple of weeks..” That wasn't helping. “I am not like a mother hen. I don't know what you two are talking about.”  You only noticed Rhysand, who was leaning against the door frame, now. “Yeah, you are worse.” You mumbled, after recovering from the shock he gave you. “You are hurting my feelings, dear Y/N.” You pursed your lips at him. “How are you going to recover from this?” His laughter filled the room and forced you to chuckle a little bit too. “When will you two finally get together? You are perfect for each other.” Neither of you answered her. 
As you expected, you were bored only after a week of not working. Sure, you had your friends and also new friends from Inner circle, but it wasn't enough. They also had work and their lives. So you decided to go bother the man who was responsible for your boredom, Rhysand. You already visited his home, he gave you permission to come and go as you pleased, so you decided to pay him a visit today with some sweet desserts from the bakery for him and a jar of pickles for you. The other symptoms of pregnancy passed, but this one, love for pickles, remained. You knocked twice on the mahagon door that led to his office and waited for his response, before opening them and walking in. “I am bored and it's your fault.” Rhys leaned back in his chair and narrowed his eyes. “How is that my fault?” He obviously wasn't understanding your logic. Maybe it was because he was a male or maybe because his brain was not affected by hormones. “You didn't want me to work anymore, so I don't have anything to do and in addition to that, I am already sick of some things that I normally like! It's frustrating.” You sat on the chair across from him. “I need to finish these papers, but once I am done, I actually know what we could do together.. Until then, you are welcome to stay.” You thought about it for a while and nodded. “Okay, I will wait. And I would almost forget. This is for you. Morrigan told me you like this.” You moved the dessert tray across the table in front of him. He looked surprised and also very happy. “Thank you, it's nice of you, but you didn't have to do that.” You shrugged, picked up one pickle and ate it before replying to him. “I wanted you. Sweet is good for the nerves. And you'll need a lot of nerve to put up with my moods.”
There was a comfortable silence. Rhys was working, you were eating pickles and watching him. During this time, you found out some other new things about him. For example, every time he tried to concentrate intensely, he furrowed his brow, when he was thinking about something, he tapped his pen on the table.. “I didn't know I was so interesting to you.” You blinked a few times, before you realized he probably noticed that you were staring directly at him for the past few minutes. “I was just thinking how can I protect our child from inheriting your crooked nose.” He chuckled and looked at you, still smiling. “Your love for me is touching.” You rolled your eyes playfully. “Are you almost done? I am running out of pickles.” He put the papers aside and nodded. “Lucky for you, yes. We can go now.”
You had to admit that his house was beautiful. It was so spacious, but cozy at the same time. It felt like home. During the tour Rhys gave you, you were imagining your life here. Imagining a little girl running around the corridors and Rhysand following her, while they are both laughing.. “There are only two other rooms I want to show you.” You offered him a small smile, “Okay, lead the way.” After climbing a few stairs, you reached the next floor of the house Rhys walked to the end of the corridor. “This is my room and right next to it..” He opened the door and let you walk in first. You gasped at the sight before you. It was a nursery. The walls were white and decorated with painted gold stars. Everything was ready. Closets full of baby clothes and other necessary things. Crib was in the middle of the room, filled with some stuffed animals and more blankets than needed. Tears welled up in your eyes. “It's so beautiful! Did you do it by yourself?” You asked, turning to Rhysand who was watching you with a happy expression. “Most of the things, although Cassian and Azriel had to help me to build the crib.. I am the most powerful High lord, but that thing is terrible.” You laughed at the idea of ​​the three strongest Illyrian warriors having trouble assembling a crib. “And Morrigan got the clothes.” You nodded, recognizing some pieces. “Thank you, really.” He walked towards you and carefully took your hand to his. “You don't have to thank me. I was happy to do it. After all, I promised you that I would spoil both you and the child.” The fact that your child was going to be spoiled was certain. And probably no amount of strictness couldn't prevent that. “As for spoiling you.. I also have room ready for you.”
It wasn't until Rhys pointed them out that you noticed a door not far from the crib. “This door leads to your room. And the door opposite.. to mine, so I can come and help you with the baby during the night or you can easily come to my room, if you would need it at any time.” It was practical, better than having to run to the hall and knock on his door there. “Are you ready to see it?” With this, he caught your attention once again. “Of course.” 
You fell in love with your room the first second you walked in. Rhys made sure the walls were painted in your favorite color. There was a table, not so far from the window. On the other side is a bookcase with a rocking chair next to it. The walk-in closet was the same size as your bathroom, which was as luxurious as everything else. “Okay.. Now I am really looking forward to moving in here.” You joked and lay on your big bed. Blanket was so soft you wanted nothing else than getting tangled up in it and never getting out. Rhys sat on your bed, watching you with a grin. “And I thought you said you didn't need a life of luxury..” He said playfully. As a response, you slapped him gently on his hand. “I don't need it. But I have to admit, it's nice.” You sat up and rested your head on his shoulder. He hugged you, with one of his hands, around your waist and placed his hand on your stomach, stroking it gently. “Only the best for you.”
Many weeks passed and now.. As you predicted, you were holding a baby girl in your arms. Your and Rhysand's baby girl. Your birth was quite easy, thankfully. You were happy. Rhys was all over the moon, not leaving you alone for one minute. The others were not better, they pushed each other away, only to get a better view of her, before Madja told them to leave, since you need to rest. So now, it was only you, Rhys and your little star. “I know I already said it.. But thank you.” You looked in his eyes and smiled. “I thank you. Afterall, this takes two.” Although most of the job was done by you, Rhys was amazing to you this whole time. Treating you like a queen. “I am really.. glad for this. Finding out I was going to be a father was shocking, I will not lie, but.. I am just really happy.” Hearing this made your heart jump with joy. “Yeah.. I am too. I am glad I met you. And I have to admit.. I grew fond of you.” He chuckled deeply and kissed the top of your head. “Does that mean you will marry me then? And I assure you.. I am not asking out of some obligation, because we have a child together.” Rhys was ready to give you time to think, but you didn't need it. It wasn't love at first sight with him. You were falling in love with him for a while, but now you were sure that he was your happy ending. Well.. him and your daughter. That's why there wasn't a trace of hesitation when you answered him, “I will.”
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secondratefiction · 9 months ago
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That 70's Show Drabble request: It's your and your twin brother Eric's 16th birthday, kitty and red usually remember but they forget yours this year, your boyfriend Hyde notices and gives you one of the best birthdays ever, including you two both having sex for the first time. Hyde also does a little cussing at red And kitty for forgetting their youngest daughter's special day.
'ello my love, always nice to see you around 😁
Afraid I might have gone a little off the brief for this one, but hopefully it still hits at least most of what you wanted 💜
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(Ok, yes, timeline wise, Hyde was living with the Foreman's before he got the car, but this is basically the fandom versions of "...who's like is it anyway?" where the stories are made up and canon events don't matter, so... just roll with it)
You're blaming Eric for this.
He was the one who decided he didn't want to share a birthday party with you any more
Now, granted, you had agreed, mostly out of anger and annoyance with him in the moment - "Fine! Why would I want another stupid Star Wars themed party anyway!" - But you hadn't thought it would end up here...
The decision had been made after the disastrous aftermath of your last combined party, and it was something that had slipped your mind over the last year.
Of course in the month before, Eric was sure to bring it up, and remind your parents that you were doing separate celebrations... although, you weren't expecting exactly how that ended up working out.
Your mother had seemed to pull out all the stops for this year "Sixteen is such a special age after all..."
There were pancakes and all of Eric's favorites at breakfast... only Eric's though
And you tried not to let that get to you, but you didn't even get so much as a happy birthday out of any of them... not even your Dad which stung quite a bit considering that it was no secret that he had a tendency to favor you over Eric and even Lori.
But you sucked it up, put on a brave face, and tried to act like it wasn't a big deal... which you were actually pretty good at -
At least until you got sent down to the basement to collect a few things for your mom. That's when Hyde spotted you...
He sat up from the couch looking like he was struggling to wake up. Which, in all fairness, he was, "Hey, little Foreman." You rolled your eyes at him, leaning on the ack of the couch, "Did you sleep here again?" "Yeah." He nodded, leaning into kiss you. "You're gonna get caught..." He only smirked up at you with a shrug, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there."
Standing up, he vaulted over the back of the couch to pull you into a proper kiss that honestly made you a little weak in the knees, leaning into him more as he pulled away, "Happy Birthday baby."
And just like that the damn broke...
You let out a strangled, broken laugh, quickly burying your face in his chest to try and hide the fact tears had immediately sprung up, and that you were losing the fight to keep them contained.
To say Hyde was caught off guard would be the under statement of the century. He almost panicked as he scrambled trying to figure out what was wrong, what he'd said to set you off.
All of this despite your poor attempts to assure him it was nothing. "Hey, no. Look at me," He pulled you back from him so you couldn't keep hiding, and waiting until you actually looked up to meet his eyes, "If you are this upset, it is not 'nothing'. Now, tell me what happened."
You tried to fight it, keep your mouth shut, but there was an intensity in his gaze that left no room for argument... he wasn't going to let this go until you told him, so you did, laying out all the events of the morning, "... I can't believe they fucking forgot my birthday."
For a moment Hyde's expression was unreadable and you had just started to ask what he was thinking when he grabbed you by your elbow and started walking you towards the door "Wait! Steven, what are you - I'm supposed to be grabbing a box for my mom." "Don't worry about it, I'll get it."
He walked you straight out of the garage, putting you in the Camino, still very confused before he turned around a disappeared back down the basement steps.
He grabbed the box you had indicated and made his way up to the kitchen. Smiling tightly and nodding in greeting when Kitty noticed him. "I didn't realize you were here Steven." "I just came by to pick up Y/N... plans for her birthday, you know."
He took the moment of realization and shock on her face as a chance to drop the box on the table and make a quick exit out the sliding glass door.
He was sliding into the driver's seat by the time Kitty could be heard shouting for Red inside the house, throwing his arm behind your head as he looked to back the car out of the drive
"Ok..." You said slowly as he turned around to put the car in drive, pulling away from your house, "So what are we doing?"
"Don't know yet, that's up to you," He said, smirking at you, letting his hand come to rest on your knee, "Tell me what you want to do, and I'll make it happen."
You couldn't help but laugh a little bit, almost beaming at him as you put your own hand over his, "Anything I want?" "Anything."
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14thcommander · 7 months ago
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loml | hange x reader
summary: the first time hange sees you after your breakup.
cw: 1k words, and listen this is angst okay. open ending. smoking and swearing. both of them are bitter af. no beta we die like hange: scared but willingly. recommended songs for listening while reading this: cowardice by defeater, loml by taylor swift and/or such small hands by la dispute. enjoy!
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Hange has managed to avoid you for a few of months now.
It didn’t really manage to soothe the ache in their heart, almost as if the phantom of your relationship still existed around Hange. Traces of you left behind the scene of their heartbreak, a couple of lipsticks in the bathroom, a Polaroid of your smile attached to the fridge. There isn’t a day in which Hange wakes up in a cold bed and not misses the feeling of your body next to theirs.
“Tch, gotta at least pretend a little. You look miserable.”
Levi’s mellow voice doesn’t hurt them, and Hange notices how he hasn’t used any insults to address them for the past couple of weeks.
There’s music and chatter filling the air, making Hange feel exhausted at the thought of interacting with people alone. They are hiding in the balcony, with Levi by their side. Smoking seemed like a good reason to excuse themselves from the conversation.
“Well, Sherlock, I am miserable.” Hange mumbles, cigarette dangling from their lips. “Shit, where’s my lighter?”
Before Hange can look in their pockets, Levi fishes a silver lighter from his own, handing it to them. A muttered thanks is all he gets in return.
It was Nanaba’s birthday celebration, a dinner slash party slash event happening at the shared house of Miche and Nana. The thought of the happy couple only makes the pain more sour.
“You sound like a fucking emo teenager. What is this, 2006?”
Needless to say, they weren’t handling the break up very well. They wonder if you were affected by it at all. It’s been, what, three months?
In the meantime, Hange’s hair got messier. Dark circles now adorned their brown eyes. They picked up the bad habit of smoking again, one they had dropped when they were a graduate — the reason they quit in the first place was your breathing issue. Was it bronchitis?
Everything is blurry lately.
Hange hears Levi mutter yet another curse word under his breath, but they think none of it. Smoke enters and leaves their lungs, slowly poisoning their body.
“Smoking kills, you know.”
The sound of your voice makes Hange momentarily freeze in place, as their brain short circuits at the sound of the words you once told them years ago.
Slowly, awfully slowly, they turn around, being met with the sight of you.
You got a haircut since the last time you saw each other, and it suits you perfectly. There’s a guilty smile playing on your lips, painted in a color they haven’t seen you wear before. Something darker, edgier. After all, your favorite lipstick was left at Hange’s place.
“Yeah, too bad.” It’s what they come up with, taking another drag, blowing the smoke towards the open air, in order to avoid it reaching you.
There’s a beat of silence, and you get closer.
What now? Hange thinks. What the fuck am I supposed to do?
Perhaps they should have been nicer, more gentle.
You give them a chuckle, followed by “It doesn’t smell good, either.”
It was a far friendlier response than what they originally expected.
“I’ll leave you two to it.” Levi states, before discarding his own cigarette in the ashtray. It was awkward enough as it is. “Figures.”
Silence weighs heavy between the two of you, the tension so thick it barely allows you to move — but you do. Of course you do. While Hange is curious and erratic, manic even, you manage to be the reckless one in this relationship. Did, actually.
“How you’ve been?” You dare to ask, and Hange almost gasps in disbelief.
Their dark eyes find yours as they bury the remains of the cigarette in the ashtray. Something inside them snaps, thinking about how this seems like a scene straight out of a nightmare.
“The usual. You?”
Their stab seems to reach your heart, from the look on your face, and it almost pains them. Almost.
“Well, uh… still living in Petra’s guest room. Working a lot. You know, stuff.”
Hange chuckles in return. They know damn well about stuff — crying before sleeping, not being able to eat from how much they miss you, smoking for breakfast. Stuff.
“Stuff. Yeah, I know.”
A glean around your neck makes them notice how you are still wearing the necklace they gave to you, the jewelry reflecting the moonlight. It was Hange’s birthstone or something like that. Something they didn’t understand why you liked, but still gifted it to you in order to make you happy.
“Yeah.”
Another beat of silence. Another piece of their heart dropping on the floor, cracking like glass.
“Was wondering if you’d like to, um, catch up or something. I miss you.”
They chuckle again.
“Sweetheart.” They fully turn their face to you, seeing you standing closer than they thought you were. The sound of the old nickname tastes bitter on their tongue. “You are the one who decided to call it quits. You don’t have to make small talk out of pity.”
You make a sound that seems like something between a scowl and a sigh, avoiding Hange’s somber eyes.
“I don’t pity you. Believe it or not, I don’t see you as a victim-”
“Excuse me?”
“although I do regret what I did. I was fucking depressed and didn’t want to be a burden to you. I’m sorry, I realize I fucked up. All I’m asking for is a second chance to make this right, to take care of you again. And, you know, let you take care of me too.”
Hange sighs. You blink at them.
“I really am sorry, Han. I wanna make this work. These past months have been the worst of my life. I regret breaking up every single day.”
Hange stares at your moonlight glazed eyes, nodding.
“Yeah. Guess we can go out for coffee or something.”
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qedart · 2 years ago
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Time Warp AU - #14 Well this update just didn't want to come together. But finally it's done (all 8K+ of it 😬) and I'm actually rather happy with how it turned out. So I hope you all enjoy this offering of Pete emotional H/C with a side of parental Icemav.
Honestly, Pete had never really got the big deal about birthdays. Sure, when he was little they seemed important. They’re supposed to, when you’re young. But he wasn’t a child anymore. 
He’d learned a long time ago that simply managing to make it through the year wasn’t exactly cause for celebration. A few rounds of people forgetting, ignoring, or scoffing at him for waiting for some kind of acknowledgment of the date had made it all very clear to him - nobody gives a damn about stuff like that, and you look pathetic if anybody catches on that you might. 
So he didn’t. Doesn’t. 
For the longest time now, the only real significance that that day held for him was as a marker of his being one year closer to independence. Living with Mav and Ice, even that didn’t provide the same spiteful satisfaction that it once had. 
These days, he didn’t count down the months until he was free of the people he found himself in the midst of. Quite the opposite really. Ice, Maverick, Tom, the Daggers, the uncles… they were good people. Good, kind, safe people - and they actually seemed to like Pete being around. 
Nothing lasts forever though, of course. He knew that. He was well aware that he was one big screw up away from blemishing whatever image they all had of him, one proper misstep from sending the whole house of cards he’d built around himself from falling to the ground in one way or another. And he was well overdue for one of those mistakes. Unfortunately, it was an inevitability. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Pete Mitchell messes up nice things. 
He tried not to let it bother him too much. 
It was better to just live in the moment, and at this particular moment he had far bigger concerns than inevitabilities or the fact that he was turning 17 in a week. The chief among them - Maverick was turning 60. 
Unlike Pete’s birthday, that was something significant. That was important. That was worthy of celebration. 
Up until this whole time-warp fiasco went down, Pete would have put money on him (any version of him) not making it past 30. 60 was double that! It demanded celebration, even if Mav himself had developed a habit of referring to the subject of his age merely as ‘the situation’.
So when Ice suggested a little lunchtime get-together by the Hard Deck the coming Saturday ‘for the birthday we’ve got coming up’, he agreed that it was a fantastic idea. 
“Penny’s got a barbecue there that we could use I’m pretty sure,” Tom chipped in over his cereal. 
“Nice. I’ll be there if there’s food,” Pete grinned as he made a bowl for himself. 
Tom rolled his eyes. 
“You were going to be there anyway, numb-skull.”
“Boys, please,” Ice sighed, before Pete could return fire. “I’ve not had my coffee yet, let’s just hold off on the bickering for a little while longer.”
Pete sniffed when Tom promptly shot him an exceedingly smug smirk. 
“I’d get drinking if I were you.”
“Pete.”
“Fine,” Pete huffed, before turning back to Ice. “The beach sounds great though. Want us to bring anything?”
“Just yourselves,” Ice replied, shaking his head. “Mav and I will sort out the logistics.”
And that was that. Party at the beach to celebrate Mav’s 60th, be there at 12. Sorted. 
The rest of the week went by like normal, for the most part. He was asked if he was excited about the party a bit more often than he expected he would be, but he figured it was just people making conversation. He and Tom spent most of Thursday trying to find the old man a fitting birthday present. 
“You’ve seen the hanger! How are we supposed to top that?!”
“I think we should probably start by setting our sights a little lower.”
In the end they decided to both go in on a new camera, figuring it was the most affordable of Mav’s hobbies to tap into. 
When the day itself eventually did roll around, Pete was up and out of bed by dawn. Not due to excitement, and not due to any additional birthday gestures like he’d been contemplating (a fry up was always a good start to the day, after all), no - due to Tom. 
“We’re going for a ride and you’re going to enjoy it,” he announced the second Pete woke (with a start, thanks to the other boy dropping his riding jacket and boots on top of him). “Up and at ‘em.” 
“But what about Mav’s-?”
“We’ll see him at the party, I’ve left a note,” Tom announced, grabbing the end of Pete’s quilt and dragging it out of the room with him. “Mush.”
“I hate you!”
“Hate me on the move. There is breakfast with our name on it somewhere.” 
“Ugh!” 
The ride, annoyingly, was fantastic. The roads were mostly clear, and riding with Tom was always a blast. Tom even bought him breakfast and a couple of pastries for after (“It’s your birthday, idiot. Of course I’m shouting”). It was… well, nice. Pete didn’t care about birthdays, he really didn’t, but even still… it was just nice. Sitting at the look out, munching on the food his best friend had bought for him, he found himself feeling genuinely content with life and how it was turning out. A year ago, he wouldn’t have been able to bring himself to even imagine that. It was a moment he resolved to savour. 
“You feel any different?” Tom asked, smirking as he dusted the icing sugar from his Pączki off his fingers. 
Pete scoffed at the question, rolling his eyes. 
“Oh yeah,” he replied, nodding seriously. “I feel like I’ve levelled up, you know? Way more mature now. I feel like I’ve really grown as a person.”
“And yet not an inch vertically? Life’s not fair, is it-?”
“Fuck you!”
Tom snickered, ducking out of the way of the hand Pete swung at the back of his head, before holding his own up in surrender. 
“Seriously though, happy birthday,” he said, shooting Pete a warm smile that made his stomach do that fluttering thing he’d noticed it doing more and more often lately. 
Smiling himself and ducking his head, Pete shrugged. 
“Thanks,” he said. “It’s not really a big deal.”
“Well as somebody with a vested interest in your being born, I reckon it is,” Tom retorted, rolling his eyes. 
Pete scoffed, a teasing grin tugging at his lips as he folded his arms over his knees. 
“A vested interest, huh?”
“Don’t let it get to your head.”
“Nawww, you do like me,” Pete snickered. 
“You’re letting it get to your head.” 
“Is that why you brought me out here, to confess your undying love?” 
“In. your. dreams,” Tom scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Bringing you out here was my present to both you and Mav.” 
“How is me going to go for a ride and being bought breakfast a present for Maverick? 
“You going for a ride and being bought breakfast means both you and I are here, not at home. Which means Mav and Ice have the whole place to themselves, all morning. And there’s no chance of either of us overhearing anything and being scarred for life.” 
Pete blinked at that, before pulling a face at the thought of Mav’s birthday ride and announcing, utterly serious, “You’re the best friend a guy could ever ask for.”
“I know,” Tom drawled, before shrugging as he tucked the rubbish from his breakfast into his backpack. “And maybe I wanted to get in first with the birthday wishes.” 
“Always a competition with you, isn’t it?” Pete scoffed, ignoring the other boy’s derisive snort as he jumped back to his feet. “Race you back to the Hard Deck!” 
“Absolutely not!” Tom snapped, hurrying to his feet all the same as Pete bounded over to the bikes. “That flies entirely in the face of the contract!” 
“I laugh in the face of the contract!”
“Yes! That’s why it took so long to draft! Pete!” 
They didn’t end up racing back, much to Tom’s relief. As a result, by the time they pulled up, pretty much everybody had arrived at the beach. Bradely, Hangman, and Phoenix were still by the Bronco though, pulling the last of their stuff out the back.
“Ah, the birthday boy has arrived,” Hangman cried as they wandered over.
“Ha ha,” Pete scoffed, rolling his eyes before turning to Rooster. “Hey, can we dump our helmets and stuff in your car?”
“Sure, the back seat should be free,” he replied as he hefted the cooler from the trunk. “But really, happy birthday, Pete.”
“Ah, thanks?” Pete replied, a confused smile tugging at his lips as he stepped out of the way for Tom to stow his stuff away as well. That’s two times today. Weird. 
“What’s with the face?” Phoenix asked, laughing. “17 is a big deal.”
Pete laughed. 
“Yeah right,” he replied, stooping to grab one of the bags from their pile. “16’s supposed to be a big deal, and 18 definitely is. 17’s just there.”
“Agree to disagree. But, that raises a good question,” replied Jake, a mischievous grin spread across his face. “What sort of Sweet 16 fiasco are we competing with today?” 
Pete arched a brow at the question, but figured it made sense. Out of all the milestone birthdays, 16 was the only relevant one he and Mav had an overlap on. Though he wasn’t sure how much “I spent most of it in the ER with a broken arm’ would help with gauging the temperature for how this one was going.
Instead he just shrugged. 
“Nothing really special. I’m sure this’ll be way better.”
“That’s what we’re aiming for,” Jake replied with a grin, ruffling Pete’s hair (and then, far more amusingly, Tom’s), before leading the way over to the sand. 
Pete blinked as they drew closer. A lot of people had turned up. All of the daggers were here, pitching up chairs and umbrellas or tossing a football (actually, two footballs) around while almost all the uncles and even Viper milled about among them. Mav, Ice, Slider, and Penny were getting the barbecue started, chatting with Warlock and Cyclone (which was weird, but probably Ice’s doing). He even spotted Amelia and Theo slip out of the Hard Deck, deep in conversation with Hondo (about something nerdy and interesting no doubt) to join the group. 
“Damn, Mav sure invited a lot of people for someone who pulls faces whenever anybody utters the number 60 around him,” he laughed as he hefted the bag further up his shoulder. “Or are you all gatecrashing just to torment him?”
Jake snorted at that, rolling his eyes. 
“Nah. Though he is being a baby about it, so if we did it would be his own fault,” he replied. 
“He actually ordered us not to mention ‘the situation’ the other day,” Bradley scoffed, shaking his head.
“In fairness, Roo - you and Bagman were having a lot of fun at his expense,” said Phoenix as they all dropped their bags on the sand and set about making camp. She grinned at Pete and Tom. “There have been lots of fossil jokes. These two even smuggled a walker on base and swapped it with his lectern before debrief. He had to walk it to the side of the classroom.”
“Cruel,” Tom snickered from beside him. “Funny, but cruel.”
“You know it,” Jake cackled, dropping his bags down on the sand before stretching his arms over his head. “But nah, he’s opted out of a group celebration. Don’t know why. But I’m afraid that means you’re flying solo today, baby bro.”
Pete blinked again. 
“...I’m what?”
“You’ve got the spotlight pretty much to yourself today,” Bradley replied, shrugging like it was the simplest thing. “Apparently he’s got some day-trip planned with Ice tomorrow, so he’s sorted. That just leaves you with all of the attention. Reckon you can handle that?”
…Shit. 
Shit, shit shit - he had not prepared for this. He’d not expected this. What the hell even was this?! He’s turning 17. Who gives a shit?! Why the hell would all of these people come out here, some of them a hell of a long way, just for him?! They wouldn’t. Had they not been told it was just for him? Did Mav wriggle out of this at the last second and now he had 20+ people who’d pretty much written off half their weekend for no reason on his hands? 
“Pete, you alright?” Tom asked, shaking his shoulder, a worried expression on his face. 
Pete grimaced, before glancing around at the others and finding them all looking at him with concern. 
He pulled on a wide grin and laughed. 
“Me? Yeah, of course!” he replied cheerily, mind racing all the while. He needed a minute to himself. To come up with a plan. To fix this. 
Quickly turning back to the others, slapping his forehead as he did, he said, “You know what? I think I left my phone on my bike. Just gonna go grab that, can’t lose another one. Are you guys good here for a sec?”
“I mean, yeah,” Tom said slowly, frowning. 
“Great!” Pete cheered (perhaps a bit too overzealously, but whatever) before spinning around and, with a quick “Back in a moment!” taking off back up the beach. 
Right, step one, calm the hell down. He had to get a hold of himself and he had to do it now. 
Alright, it was a surprise. Alright, there were probably going to be some irritated people down there. So what? He could deal with irritated people. He could deal with people that actively wanted to kick his ass, irritated is nothing. Why the hell was he freaking out so much? Less than a year of being treated nicely and he’d gone completely soft, seriously?
He shook his head roughly. 
He was fine. This was fine. He’d make it work somehow. He just needed to stop acting like a baby and come up with a plan of action. 
He could direct attention back to Maverick. The old man can try and wriggle out of it all he likes but two can play this game. He’ll stick around for an hour, direct as much attention to Mav as possible, whip Jake and Bradely up into enough of a frenzy to keep the momentum going and then make a classy exit. Nobody will even remember he was here and they’ll forget all about this misunderstanding. That’s good. That’ll work. 
…Unless Mav launches a counter-attack. Which he would. 
Shit!
“Pete?” 
Pete whirled around and found Mav and Ice approaching, both looking concerned and not all that surprised to see him up here. Goddamnit, Tom, the snitch!!
“What’s going on, kiddo?” Mav asked, cocking his head to the side. 
“I mean, that’s a pretty good question man,” Pete replied, running a hand through his hair anxiously as he glanced down at the beach once more before turning his attention (and frustration) back to the older man. “I get that you’ve got some sort of three quarter life crisis going on about turning 60, but seriously, throwing me under the bus so you can avoid that is a dick move.” 
Mav, the bastard, looked more confused than chastened at the rebuke, exchanging a bemused glance with Ice. 
“You’re going to have to spell this one out for us, buddy.”
Pete groaned, folding his hands on top of his head. 
“First, explain it to me, guys,” he replied. “What was the plan? Trick everyone here by saying it’s a party for Mav and then hope people aren’t too put out when it turns out it was for the other Mitchell? Jeez guys, I mean, what the hell? Why the hell?! Nobody gives a damn it’s my birthday. I don’t give a damn it’s my birthday. Now it looks like I do, and now I get to look like the stupid little moron who needed people tricked here to pad things out!”
“Pete,” Ice said slowly, holding his hands out like he was trying to calm down some wounded animal. Like Pete was being irrational about this. “You do know this party is for you, right?”
“Yes,” Pete replied with every ounce of patience he possessed. “I’m aware of that. That’s exactly my point”
“No. He means it was always intended to be just for you,” Mav weighed in. 
Pete sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried his very best to channel Ice and remain as diplomatic as he possibly could (it did not help, mind you, that Ice was joining in on this nonsense. But he tried nevertheless). 
“Look,” he said with forced calm, “I see what you’re trying to do, and it’s a nice thought. I appreciate that you guys care and want to make a fuss, I do. But you can’t just expect to trick people into writing off half their weekend for one thing, and then bait and switch with a discount offer at the last second. Wood and Wolf flew in from Texas for this, guys. Please. I’ll see if I can get the Daggers to lay off the fossil jokes, but- …what’s this?”
“Read it,” Ice replied, holding his phone out to Pete until he took it and did as he was told. 
Jake has named the group chat: Big Effing Deal Jake: First of all, how. dare. you? Nat: Seconded! Both for leaving us out and forcing me to agree with Bagman. Jake: Look what you’ve brought us too!!!  Nat: I feel physically sick.  Jake: Ditto. Bradley: Wow, you guys really are in sync today.  Nat: You take that back!!! Ice: Could somebody please explain what we’re being accused of here.  Jake: Betrayal!!!  Coyote: Dude - you’ve been hitting the expresso machine again, haven’t you? Mav: Guys. BOB: Rooster mentioned you are having a get together for Pete’s birthday on Saturday and we’re all handling the rejection differently. Fanboy: How could you, Mav? Mav: Well first, there’s no rejection for anybody to handle. We floated the idea of a beach party this morning and he seemed alright with it. So if you guys are free and want to come along, you’re more than welcome to.  Jake: Was that so hard?!!!! Mav: If you’d waited a few more hours I’d have invited you in person at work tomorrow. Jake: But Roo gets his invite right away??? :(  Ice: Rooster was over during the day, so yes, he heard first. Rooster: Remember how you were supposed to help me fix their gate today?  Jake: Nope. Poorly communicated on your part.  Jake: Moving swiftly on - we need times. And gift ideas. Nat: What a crappy brother. I got my present for him weeks ago.  Payback: Burn.  Payback: Also, same. Jake: You’re a pair of goody-goodies, I’m not surprised in the slightest.  Jake: Besides it doesn’t matter how early you got it. It’s how good it is. Nat: Got you beat there too Bagman.  Jake: Bullshit. Pete and I have a connection.  Payback: Is that what we’re calling you being a terrible influence now? Coyote: Just before these three properly kick off - is this a joint birthday bash? Or Pete-specific? Mav: Pete specific.  Mav: I’ve already got plans for mine.  Ice: And by that he means I have already made plans for him.  Ice: They’re on Sunday though, so we’ll be there regardless.  Mav: And people think I’m the competitive one. My point is, I’m covered, so don’t go worrying about that. Coyote: Roger that!  Fanboy: This is going to be great!! I can bake a cake if you like!!! Lil bro likes chocolate, right? Payback: Guys - take him up on the offer!  Phoenix: This! ^^^^^ Ice: That would be lovely, Fanboy, thank you. And yes, chocolate would be well received I expect.  Fanboy: Yeeeeeesssss!!  Mav: Right, we’re just going to leave you guys to this.  Rooster: Oh, actually, just before you go… Bradley’s added Sly-Guy, Chip_P, E!News, Full_M00ning…  Mav: Oh you little shit stirrer.  Sli-Guy: First of all, how dare you?! 
Pete blinked, utterly mystified, as he scrolled through the group chat (which seemed to go on for quite a bit) before eventually turning back to Ice and Mav. 
“I… I don’t understand,” he uttered. 
“Join the club, kiddo,” Mav replied, rubbing the back of his neck. 
“You helped plan this,” Ice pointed out, a baffled expression on his ordinarily nonplussed face. “I specifically asked you if you would like a party at the Hard Deck?” 
“I thought you were asking for my input for Mav’s party,” Pete muttered, his cheeks blazing with embarrassment as he realised just how stupid he apparently was. 
“The daggers have been talking to you about it all week?” Mav pointed out, equally confused. “Bob asked you what snacks you’d like him to bring.” 
“I thought they were coming to me because they couldn’t get anything out of you!” Pete snapped back hotly. 
Ice held up a hand, cutting that line of conversation off before it could get too heated. Taking a deep, exceedingly put upon breath, he sighed “Once again, it appears that this family’s outstanding communication skills have come back to bite us all in the ass.”
He turned back to Pete.  
“If it’s any consolation, it wasn’t meant to be a surprise party,” he said.
Pete scoffed softly, in spite of himself, but soon enough the begrudging amusement gave way to confusion once more. 
“I still don’t understand,” he said. “Why would all of them come out if they knew it was just for me?” 
“How’s it any different from them coming out for me?” Maverick asked with a frown.
Pete shrugged. 
“They’re your family,” he replied simply. “They’re supposed to show up for you.” 
“They’re your family too,” Maverick argued, his frown deepening. 
“You do know that, don’t you?” Ice said slowly, eyes narrowed suspiciously. 
“Yeah. Course,” Pete muttered, cutting a quick glance to the group in question. Nobody seemed to have noticed they were gone yet, thank goodness. Somehow Pete felt like he’d find himself even more outnumbered if they did. He had to bury this quick though, if he wanted to avoid that fate. 
Unfortunately, when he turned back to the oldtimers, Ice had his signature ‘so you’re just going to lie to my face now?’ expression in place. Never a good sign. Also almost never directed at Pete he realised with a dull pain. 
“You know, you pull that face every time this topic of conversation comes up.”
“What face?” 
“The ‘well if it makes them happy’ face,” Ice replied, folding his arms over his chest. “Be honest with us, Pete. What’s going on here?”
Pete shrunk back a little at that, feeling very much under a spotlight all of a sudden and not entirely sure why. 
“N-nothing. Nothing’s going on.”
“Well clearly something is. And just to be clear, do you honestly believe that we’d have all been fine throwing a party for Maverick and doing absolutely nothing for you?” the older man asked, arching a brow pointedly. 
“I… I mean… I… I’d get it,” Pete stuttered, heart pounding in his chest. What the hell was going on? What did he even do? He took a step back, giving into the instinct to at least be out of arm's length, only to knock into the back of Ice’s Jeep when he tried. Crap. He was trapped. And he was in trouble. And he didn’t know why. 
His alarm must have shown on his face too, because soon enough Ice was taking a step back himself, hands held up disarmingly. 
“Pete, I’m not angry with you,” he said, calmly and far gentler than before. “I’m sorry.”
Pete swallowed thickly, but nodded all the same as he tried to rein himself in, to calm down for goodness sake. He was being so damn stupid!!
“I just don’t understand,” Ice continued. “You know everybody here loves you, don’t you? We haven’t dropped the ball that much I hope.” 
Embarrassment and shame twisted sickeningly in the pit of Pete’s belly. Because he did know that. He knew how hard everybody had tried to make him and Tom feel welcome. And not just as novelty extensions of Mav and Ice either, but as their own, separate people. They’d all tried so hard to bring them into the family and make them feel like they belonged in it, Pete knew it. He saw it each day. For the most time, he felt it too, but there was just this part of him that wouldn’t allow him to accept it fully. Wouldn’t allow him to trust it. To trust them. 
“I’m sorry,” he uttered weakly, staring down at the tips of his boots. “I… I know it doesn’t make sense. It’s not anything you guys have done, or haven’t done. I know how much you’ve all tried to be welcoming. And you have, truly. I love it here… so much. But… but every time I try to… it’s just in the back of my mind I’m always… I…” 
He flinched sharply when something touched his arm, but it was just Ice reaching out to him. All of a sudden, that contact, that offer of reassurance was all he wanted. Sighing heavily he stepped forward and leaned against the old man’s chest, dragging in a deep, calming breath as Ice’s arms wrapped around him, squeezed him in a tight. 
“I love it here,” he uttered. “And everybody here… and I know they- you all care - about me and Tom. But I just know…” 
He sighed deeply. 
“It’s just… self-preservation, I guess. I know it’s going to really hurt, so much, when I mess up.  I didn’t care, when it was just some other home I was stuck in longer than usual, but now… now it’s probably too late already. When I mess up and have to go-”
“Hey, who said anything about you going anywhere,” Ice said with a frown, holding him closer. “We told you, you have a place in this family for life. Nothing will change that.”
Pete sighed sadly, shaking his head where it was pressed to Ice’s sternum. They didn’t get it. They felt that way now, but it wouldn’t last. 
“No matter how hard you try, you’re going to end up alone.” 
Both Pete and Ice froze at that, before turning to face Maverick, who looked all the world like he’d just commented on the weather rather than putting one of Pete’s deepest, most painful fears to words. And he wasn’t done. 
“We’re going realise just how messed up you really are. How much damage has been done. How much of it can’t be undone. And, most importantly, how much of it you probably deserved. And sooner or later we’ll change our mind about you. It’s all well and good to say we’ll always want you in the family if we haven’t seen the full picture yet, because let’s face it, you’re on the good behaviour streak of a lifetime right now. But sooner or later, you’re going to mess up, because that’s what you do. And then we’ll see the real you. The screw up. The waste of space. The guy everybody else can see clearly. Eventually the rose-coloured glasses will come off and  we’ll really see you for what you are. We’ll get tired of trying to bring somebody into a family who doesn’t deserve to be in it and clearly is meant to be on their own. It’ll be better for everyone to just stop trying. We probably won’t kick you out, to be fair - but when you head off to college or the academy… the calls and emails will peter out. Tom will probably find his own people too, when he’s got other options. He’ll stop spending time with you too. It’ll probably be pretty amicable really. But everybody will just go on with their life and there will be no room for you in them. That will be that. Better to just accept it now, try not to get too attached to how things are, so when it happens, at least you won’t look like you were blindsided by it all. It’s a bit less pathetic if you at least saw it coming.” 
Pete’s stomach sunk so fast through the blacktop it felt like he was pulling negative G’s. Mav knew. Mav saw how this was going to play out just as clearly as he did. The first card in his little house was beginning to wobble. 
To his horror he felt his face beginning to heat up and his eyes beginning to sting. He dragged in a deep, shuddering breath, squeezing them shut tight. He wasn’t a baby. This wasn’t a surprise. He wasn’t going to start crying in the middle of the car park where everybody could see him like some child. 
He jumped as an arm wrapped around his shoulders and looked up to find Ice, holding him close again, and leading them to the space between his jeep and Bradley’s Bronco - more or less out of sight from the rest of the group.
“Sit down and take a few deep breaths for me, kiddo,” he murmured, manoeuvring Pete until he was sitting down on the gravel, back pressed against the rubber of the Bronco’s tyre. Biting his lip, he folded his arms tight over his chest, knees drawing up as Ice kneeled down beside him and wrapped an arm back around his shoulders, rubbing up and down his arm soothingly all the while.. “In and out. Just like that. What the hell, Mav?” 
“Just trying to work out what we’re dealing with here,” Maverick replied, sounding tired and sad now. “Pete, can you look at me?”
Pete really didn’t want to. This was all humiliating and painful enough without risking bursting into tears the second he made eye contact with the old man as well. But, at the same time, this was the reality of the situation, and closing his eyes and hiding from it wasn’t going to change anything either, except to make him look even more childish. So whether he wanted to or not, he didn’t have much of a choice. 
Clenching his jaw tight and breathing in deeply through his nose, he (as resolutely as he could manage) lifted his head and met Mav’s eye. He wasn’t expecting to be met with a sympathetic expression. How could Mav see him so clearly, and still look at him like that. 
“Does that about sum it up?” the old man asked, cocking his head to the side. “What’s going on in that head of yours.”
Scrubbing roughly at his face, Pete nodded his head. 
“M-more or less.” 
Mav hummed thoughtfully, pausing a moment, before smiling and sitting down properly across from them. 
“You know,” he said, leaning back on his hands. “The first time I met Carole, she scared that absolute crap out of me.” 
Pete blinked, confused at the strange turn their conversation had taken, but interested all the same. Mav wasn’t shy with talking about Goose or Carole, but he’d never heard that. 
A fond smile tugged at the edges of the old man’s mouth as he looked up wistfully at the sky. 
“People underestimated her. She was so loud and joyous all the time, most people figured she was probably a bit dim. But they had no idea. Sure she was smart enough, but her real strength was with people. She had this way of looking at a person, just looking at them, and seeing past all the bullshit.”
He shook his head. 
“The first shore leave after Goose and I became a team, Goose insisted that I come home with him. He hadn’t realised until we were literally docking that I didn’t have anywhere to go, so the second he put the pieces together it was, ‘Come on, you have to, Mav! It’ll be great. You can meet Carole. You guys will get on like a house on fire, I know it’. And I, for the life of me, couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse to convince him otherwise. I think I was a bit blindsided that he was offering to spend more time together at all.” 
He scoffed. 
“Either way, the pressure was dialled up to 11,” he drawled. “Not only would I have to stay on my best behaviour for even longer, to keep Goose on side - and I’d been on a 6 month streak at that point and felt the end looming. But I also had to become best friends with his wife, immediately. Otherwise he’d wonder how he got that one so wrong. Then he’d look closer, and he’d see everything he’d somehow missed about me before. See exactly where I was lacking. Me getting to keep the one person in the navy, hell, the one person in the world that gave a damn about me - depended on this month going well.”
Rubbing at his scratchy eyes, Pete leaned a little more into Ice’s side, before asking. “You managed to pull that off?”
“Hell no, I lasted less than a week,” Mav scoffed, shaking his head. “And it only lasted that long because Goose and Carole had the patience of saints.”
Pete frowned. That didn’t make sense. He might not know this story but he knew a hell of a lot of the others that came later. He knew Mav stayed friends with Goose, and Carole as well, for years after when this would have happened. How could it not have worked? How did he screw up that badly and still manage to keep them around? 
He shot Ice a confused glance, receiving a ‘just roll with it’ shrug in response. 
“Carole was living in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Texas at the time. Her aunt needed help moving or something. Unfortunately that meant I had had about six hours of travelling to work myself up and come up with a game plan for how I was going to make it all work. Going in with a charm offensive wouldn’t have done it, Goose would feel like making moves on his wife, Carole would feel like I was a creep, and I’d be stuck with both of them feeling like that for a month. I couldn’t risk being myself, for reasons already discussed. So I decided on the red carpet treatment. From the second I got out of Goose’s truck to the second we got back in it to head back to the airport, Carole Bradshaw would be shown a level of respect and deference that no admiral had or has ever received from me. The queen of England could have come around and found it excessive. But it was the best I had.
“I addressed her as ma’am, I stood when she walked into the room or got up from the table, I tried to help out around the house as much as I possibly could. A big part of the plan was also trying to give her and Goose as much space and time to themselves as possible. I wasn’t supposed to be there, and the absolute last thing I wanted is for them to miss out on time together because Goose felt obliged to bring me along with him. On paper, I thought it worked. Be respectful and stay out of the way. Unfortunately, in practice it went more along the lines of me actively avoiding everybody like it was my job and, whenever I couldn’t, making the situation so awkward it was uncomfortable for everybody. And it was uncomfortable. My god. Goose and Carole, they tried so hard to get me to relax, come out of my shell, do the exact opposite of what I was trying to do essentially. It was not going well,” Mav laughed, rubbing the back of his neck and shaking his head at the memory. 
“Goose knew I was acting off, which was putting me even more on edge. And I knew I was quickly moving past that ‘meeting new people is awkward sometimes’ grace period straight into ‘this little twerp I’ve known for a few months has got a problem with the love of my life’ territory. So not ideal. And Carol… Carol knew from the beginning that I was putting up a front, which made settling around her pretty much impossible.”
Pete grimaced sympathetically at the thought of it all. 
“At least you stuck it out,” he muttered. “I would have just left at that point.”
“Oh, I did,” Mav replied without missing a beat. “About five days in everything finally bubbled over. Goose tried to coax me into telling him what was wrong for about the millionth time and… well, after days of constantly being on red alert, barely sleeping from the stress, just second guessing every single move or sound I made while knowing, in spite of trying my best, it was all going to hell - I sort of lost it on him. Told him he could take whatever friendship he thought we had and shove it where the sun don’t shine because I sure as hell didn’t need it or him. That I'd been on my own for over half my life and I didn’t need anybody, thank you very much, least of all some hapless, sheltered country-boy who clearly didn’t know what was good for him if it smacked him in the face. Then I grabbed my bag and went straight to the train station.”
Pete blinked owlishly at that, confused to say the least. 
“But I thought Goose was your best friend,” he said. 
“He was,” Mav replied. 
“Even after that?!” 
“I know, I was surprised too.” 
Pete frowned, puzzling it over as Mav laughed softly and shook his head.. 
“This being the tiny town it was, the train didn’t run very often, and I’d missed the one for that day - which was just the cherry on the top really. I figured I’d just spend the night on the platform. Didn’t want to risk missing the next one, and I was feeling pretty sorry for myself at the time so it seemed fitting. Which was exactly where Carole found me three hours later.”
Ice scoffed softly beside Pete, shaking his head with a fond smile of his own. 
“Mother Goose sent in the big guns then,” he drawled. 
“I honestly have no idea if Goose even knew,” Mav replied, smiling reminiscently himself. “I think she just figured she’d given us both enough time to sulk and decided enough was enough.” 
He chuckled, tilting his head back as he recalled the encounter. 
“She came over and sat down on the ground beside me,” he said, looking around them, the corner of his lips twitching a fraction higher. “Sorta like we are right now.”
Pete smiled weakly at that. 
“She sat with me for the longest time, didn’t say a word, just waited me out, until she could tell I was ready to actually listen to her. Then she took my hand and said, “You know what, honey? If you were half as rotten as you’re afraid you are, you wouldn’t care nearly as much as you do”.”
Pete ducked his head as, all at once, tears started welling up once again. God he wanted that to be true. With every fibre of his being he did. He bit his lip as he felt Ice pull him a little tighter against his side, and heard Mav scoot closer himself, reaching out and rubbing his arm himself. 
“Do you think she was right about that,” he uttered, voice crackling with the strain of keeping himself together. 
Mav smiled, squeezing Pete’s arm gently as he inclined his head. 
“Honestly, I always had my doubts,” he confessed. “But these days… I think she probably was.” 
Before he could stop them, a couple of the tears Pete had been battling against broke free and rolled down his cheeks. 
“Oh, buddy,” Mav sighed, reaching up to rub the moisture away. “I’m so sorry. Sometimes I forget how much all of that stuff hurt.” 
Pete leaned into the contact, the corner of his mouth twitching a little as he did so.
“Actually pretty good to hear that from my perspective,” he murmured, drawing soft scoffs from the oldtimers. 
Shaking his head fondly, Mav patted Pete’s arm one last time before folding them over his crossed legs. 
“I’m telling you this for two reasons,” he said, ducking his head to meet Pete’s eye once again. “First, and I really am sorry for this but, unfortunately, this is just one of those cards that you and I got dealt. This is something that you were always going to have to work through. Being on your own for so long, and getting told so many times and in so many ways that nobody wants you, and nobody will ever want you - it leaves a mark. That doesn’t mean you’re broken. It's just a hurdle that we get that some people don’t. Everyone’s got their own set. For us - it’s being very, very aware of just how much other people can hurt you, while at the same time knowing how much the alternative hurts too.”
Pete sighed softly, but nodded all the same. That point wasn’t exactly news to him, but it still sucked hearing it all the same. 
“And second,” Mav said, reaching out and brushing Pete’s hair back from his face with a small, reassuring smile. “Even though it doesn’t always feel like it, and that feeling will flare up from time to time unfortunately, some people really do stay.”
Pete lifted his head to look at the old man properly, something like hope fluttering weakly in the pit of his belly. 
“They stick by you as long as they possibly can, through more crap than you could possibly imagine. I know it’s hard to really let yourself believe that right now. I know it feels like the second you do it’ll all fall apart around you, like a house of cards. But that will fade with time and with evidence. You’re just going to have to trust me until then. You’re not meant to be alone. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong or bad about you. The people who are worth a damn, they stay - you just have to let them in in the first place.”
The older man leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially, “Just be careful, because once you do, it’s all bets off. I had one moment of weakness around Slider 36 years ago and now I’m stuck with him.” 
Pete laughed wetly at that, smiling back as Mav practically beamed at him. 
“I hope you’re right,” he uttered, rubbing again at his face. 
“I am,” Mav replied, nodding firmly. “And look, I’m not going to lie to you and promise forever. Nobody knows what’s around the corner. Hell, a tsunami could take us all out right now.” 
Pete scoffed softly, rolling his eyes as Maverick ruffled his hair teasingly. 
“But the stuff you’re worried about, the mistakes you’re worried about making, I’m sorry but they’re just not gonna cut it.” 
Ice nodded at that. 
“Unfortunately, to shake us at this point you’d have to do things that you’re simply not capable of. And they certainly wouldn’t be accidental.” 
Pete frowned slightly, glancing between the two of them. 
“...Could you give me a clue?” he asked. “You know, to be safe.”
Ice scoffed softly, before cocking his head to the side thoughtfully.
“Alright. We’re talking about doing things that would deliberately traumatise others. Not accidents, like a car crash or getting in a really bad fight, though we’d all rather you avoided that too. Stuff that’s just evil. Things specifically done to make somebody else feel afraid or humiliated or less than” Ice replied calmly, brow rising pointedly. “Do you feel that avoiding that sort of behaviour would be a struggle for you?”
“Fuck, no,” Pete replied, nose wrinkling at the thought of doing anything along those lines.
Ice  nodded. 
“There you go. There’s the bar,” he replied simply. “Anything above that? Worst case scenario, you’re the pain in the ass of the week. And that’s a title we’ve all held at one point or another.”
“Even you?”
“Unjustly,” he sniffed. 
“Ask Uncle Sli about it some time,” Mav replied without missing a beat, before turning back to Pete before Ice could retort. “Honestly kiddo, do you really think Bradely was an angel growing up?” 
“Well… yeah?”
“Think again,” Ice drawled. 
Mav hummed, nodding seriously. 
“Off the top of my head, there was that time he threw a party with his baseball team while we were out of town and trashed the house.”
“The bike he borrowed without asking, rode unlicensed, and totalled - on a dare.” 
“The kitchen he nearly burned down because ‘guys - you can’t pause online games, how many times do I have to tell you?’ and ‘I want bacon’ turned out to be a bad mix.”
“The spy-phase that ended with him trying to sneak onto a military base, ours that is, and then refusing to answer any questions or co-operate after getting caught.” 
“I maintain that that was mostly Hollywood’s fault for taking him to watch True Lies.” 
Pete blinked, stunned by the antics of, by far, one of the more mature ‘big brothers’ he had. 
Ice scoffed, rolling his eyes with a fond smile. 
“And we still love the kid. Did back then when it happened and through much less amusing run-ins too,” he said, before squeezing Pete a little tighter to his side. “So try not to worry so much. You’re a kid, you’re supposed to do stupid things. Mav does stupid things every other day and we still keep him around. And that’s these days. He was an absolute menace when I first met him. And six years older than you are now. You’re a dream in comparison.”
Mav huffed. 
“You are a delight,” he said, patting Pete on the shoulder, before shooting his husband a pointed look. “But I think some people are forgetting which one of us introduced himself by immediately talking shit.”
“We were competing and the fact that you still bring it up almost 40 years later just further emphasises what a sound psychological victory that introduction was for me.”
“I mean I wanted to kick your ass all the more afterwards, so I’m not sure how much of a victory it was.”
“Well you never did, so a big one I would say.”
“Bullshit I never did-!”
“Go-ddddddd,” Pete groaned, though he couldn’t help but grin at the bickering, which, in the span of 10 months, had somehow become the comforting soundtrack of home for him (which probably said a lot about Ice and Maverick, but who cares). “Wher’es Tom when you need him?”
“Our point,” Ice said pointedly, shooting Mav a look that said quite clearly ‘we’re supposed to be a united front, genius (also, you know I’m right), “Is that you’re going to make mistakes. Everybody does. You’re going to do stupid things, things that we don’t approve of. And, because we’re here to help you become the best person you can be, we’ll call you out on it. At one point or another, we’ll disagree, we’ll argue, feelings will probably get hurt, egos will get bruised. And then, we’re going to be here anyway. Because you’re a member of this family and that’s not going to change.” 
“And we’ll remind you of that however many times you need,” Mav replied, smiling warmly at him, before slapping his own knees and leaning back. “Now, how would you like to proceed from here? Are you alright breaking the Birthday Drought today or would you like to go home and we can just have a nice family dinner tonight. Which would you rather?”
Pete bit his lip, fiddling with a loose thread on the hem of his t-shirt. 
“I guess I… I wouldn’t mind staying,” he replied, his heart and stomach fluttering again at the thought of all these people, his family, turning up just for him. But this time, he found his emotions leaning more on the side of nervous excitement rather than all-consuming dread. “I mean, It’s been a minute.” 
“You’re sure?” Ice asked seriously, rubbing Pete’s back reassuringly. “Don’t feel like you have to if you don’t want to.” 
Pete ducked his head, a small smile spreading across his face as, for the first time since this whole miscommunication came to light, and before that really, something seemed to settle inside of him. Some knot of tension that had been there for so long that he’d just learned to live with it, seemed to ease just the littlest bit. He did not doubt, for a second, that if he decided to leave now, Ice and Mav (and Tom) would cover for him, would back him up and stand in his corner. Whether they needed to or not, and Pete suspected things would probably topple in the direction of ‘not’ because the others would understand.
Drawing in a deep, calming breath (like Ice had been teaching him) he lifted his head a smiled a little wide. 
“I want to,” he said. “Seriously, if I ever say no to chocolate cake I want you to assume that somebody’s stolen my face and is impersonating me.” 
“Mark that down for both of us,” Mav replied, nodding empathetically. 
“Noted,” Ice scoffed, smiling as the three of them got back to their feet. “In that case, we should probably get back. Tom said he’d try to keep them all in one place to give us a moment alone but the fact that he seems to have managed it is making me nervous.” 
Pete snickered as Mav shot him an amused grin, before they both followed Ice back to the beach. It turned out the old man may have been right to worry. 
“In my defence,” Tom drawled as he jogged over to meet them. “I didn’t expect them all to lose their minds.” 
Pete felt like that was a pretty accurate description for the mayhem they’d just walked into. Almost all the daggers and a few of the flyboys were shouting, waving their arms about, jabbing fingers in faces or, in Fanboy’s case, cackling rather manically. And those that weren’t seemed content to either enjoy the show or stoke the fires all the more. It was pandemonium. 
“What did you do?” Ice sighed as they drew closer. 
Tom shrugged. 
“I casually mentioned that Pete and I watched Die Hard for the first time, and asked what other Christmas movies we should watch. And, well...” 
“IT’S SET ON CHRISTMAS EVE, BAGMAN!!! HOW MUCH MORE OBVIOUS DO YOU NEED IT?!” 
“THAT’S ALL YOU’VE GOT! IT’S AN ACTION MOVIE-”
“ON CHRISTMAS EVE!” 
“OH MY GOD! SO WHAT?! SO WHAT?!!” 
“Well, it did distract them,” Ice replied, arching a brow as he took it all in. “They’re going to go full Lord of the Flies any moment now, but it worked.” 
Tom grinned, before slinging an arm around Pete’s shoulders and drawling, “Wanna make it worse?”
“You’ve been a terrible influence on him,” Ice sighed, shooting Mav a despairing glance as Pete laughed softly and shrugged. 
“Sure.”
Tom winked before calling over the noise, “Alright, maybe Die Hard can go one way or the other-”
“NO IT CAN’T,” Jake and Nat hollered in unison, before immediately shooting each other disgusted glares. 
“But surely we can all agree that Nightmare before Christmas-” 
And they were off again, with renewed vigour and with previous alliances suddenly shattered. 
Pete laughed as he took it all in. Tom’s arm around his shoulders; Mav and Ice squeezing his arm and ruffling his hair respectively as they walked by to try and reign in the chaos; Rooster and Hangman each elbowing their way through the crowd, hollering for him to back them up. 
The fears were still there, bubbling away beneath the surface. Pete felt that they probably always would. Allowing himself to stay this attached, to actually believe that maybe this time, just this once, things truly would turn out different… it was risky. Frankly it was downright dangerous. 
“Right, enough of this!!” Rooster hollered over the noise. “Let’s settle this properly.” 
“Agreed,” Jake replied, nodding firmly. “Dogfight football. I bags the babies.” 
“What?!” 
“You can’t take both of them!”
“Can. Did. Pete, Tom, come on.” 
Sometimes, the risks were worth taking. And, well, he’d always liked to think he was a little dangerous.
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hauntedwitch04 · 1 year ago
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Bday secret party
Remus Lupin x reader
Words: about 2.0k words
Warnings: pure and awesome fluff (after yesterday ahaha), lovely Remus, my obsession with Edimburgh
Author's note: Hi! Here another one shot fo the series for my birthday. Hope you like it loves.
Requests are open I Ask
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"James, I swear if you said anything to her I will hang you upside down from the astronomy tower for an entire day." Remus says in a particularly annoyed and contrite tone.
The young werewolf immediately felt guilty for talking that way to his friend, but at the same time he couldn't believe that James had almost screwed up the whole plan he had designed to put on your birthday party. He had been planning everything down to the last detail for a month now, to make sure everything is perfect on your big day, and he couldn't let a chatty deer ruin everything just because he's careless.
He sees pure fear in his friend's eyes after threatening him with one of his greatest fears: height.
"Sorry." Whispers James, as he backs away slowly to make room for his friend, seeing that he is stressed right now. "But I swear she didn't understand anything. It just slipped out that I had to see you to arrange something, and I said it was my gift to her." Potter continues, as he looks at Sirius, who up to this moment had been silent. Immediately his best friend understands the plea for help and nods.
"Yes, she didn't understand anything, we were very good at lying to her." Says the older Black, as Regulus runs a hand over his face, remembering the scene that took place a short time ago in the Great Hall. Indeed James and Sirius had been good at creating a believable excuse, but I young Black knows you better than you think, and he had seen in your eyes the seed of doubt, and he knows that this is not good at all. In your group of friends you are known for having a sixth sense and a spirit of observation so keen that sometimes it seems you can read people's minds and, even, the future. The very moment they've said their shit, Regulus knows that some strange mechanisms have been activated in your mind that have caused you to weigh all possible options, and so he knows they're screwed.
"No, you have to excuse me. I didn't think organizing a birthday was so hard, but at the same time I want everything to be perfect for her, because she deserves it." Remus confesses, as he holds his head in his hands, trying to relax.
"You know she's going to say you're overreacting anyway and she doesn't deserve it." Regulus comments, as he puts away the last things for the party. Your birthday would be celebrated this evening, after a romantic walk between you and your fiancé. Remus had managed to convince the prefect with the Ravenclaw night shift to turn a blind eye, and would thus take you in front of the Room of Requirement, afterwards around the park, and there all your friends would surprise you. It was a well-thought-out plan, and it still doesn't explain how you didn't actually almost come to find out only today and not weeks before.
"Which is silly after all he gives every day for us." Sirius continues, as James nods, placing balloons on the wall. "Our mother deserves a proper celebration." The oldest Black concludes, making all three other boys laugh. "Ever since you and Remus got together, the boys started calling you the 'mom' of the group, since they always teased Remus for being their dad in a way, since he was the most responsible of the four.
When they finish laughing they go back to work to sort out the last few things for the party, knowing that it is now only a short time away. Right now you are supposed to be with the girls, whose job it is to distract you from the absence of your friends and your boyfriend, but Remus cannot help but keep fidgeting both behind every little detail and out of fear that at any moment you might walk in the door and find out why he has not been very close to you these past few weeks, but after all, part of him knows it might be because of the gift he gave you.
Remus keeps moving like a damned soul without rest for a while before Regulus stands up and blocks him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Man, everything is perfect, why don't you just relax for a moment?" The youngest among them asks the werewolf, but immediately Regulus sees in his friend's eyes that there is something else and not just what they are preparing that is upsetting him.
"There is something that doesn't give you peace." Regulus comments, and Remus says nothing, and just looks at him. "It's not like it's the gift you gave her, is it?" The Slytherin continues, marveling at the Gryffindor in front of him.
"How did you do that?" Lupin asks, increasingly shocked by young Black's prowess, when the other in response merely laughs.
"You were playing with a little box earlier, and can one read the doubt and fear in your eyes?" Regulus explains, continuing to laugh, while Remus in response rolls his eyes and looks at the clock, seeing that it was almost time to see you, so he gets up.
"It's almost time for our walk. Take care guys, the others should be here soon. Don't screw up please." Lupin asks as he looks at his friends, who reassure him and give him pats of encouragement.
"Go and return victorious with the lady messer Lupin." Sirius says, giving him a sort of bow, just before Remus walks out the door. He turns and as a last thing gives him a middle finger, after promising never to let him see "The princess bride" again.
Remus could feel his own heart beating in his throat as he saw you coming downstairs in simple jeans and his favorite sweater. You are simply perfect in his eyes, and nothing could change his mind.
"Finally, it seems like I haven't seen you in forever. Where have you been until now?" You ask curiously, seeing him a little stressed. "Are you okay? You look a little pale honey."
Immediately his heart warms at hearing your concern, and he can't help but think that maybe those nutty friends of his are right to call you "mom," and gently the boy shakes his head.
"I'm fine honey, maybe I just need to get some air. Would you like to take a ride with me?" He asks, and he doesn't even have to wait a second for an answer, as like a hurricane you pounce on him, taking him under your arm and running toward the school grounds. You walk around the lawns for a while, laughing and joking like you haven't in a long time. Nothing could dent your mood, and nothing exists apart from each other at this moment.
From the outside, one can see obvious the love you feel for the other person, only from your eyes, more than from your gestures, which seem to sing the most beautiful love song ever heard.
Hours seem to pass, then Remus looks at his watch and realizes that you are running late, so with the excuse that he has to catch another prefect in one of the side corridors to get the keys to a closet for the next prank James and Sirius are planning, he takes you in front of the mystery room. He's never felt more flustered than he does right now, and he's doubtful whether to give you the gift now or later, when you, damned curious as usual, lean out and touch the door.
"How come the room of needs is visible?" Ask curiously, as you watch him break into a cold sweat and try to play the part of the one who hides nothing.
"I have no idea my dear, try opening it and see what's behind it." Try suggesting Remus, as he rests a hand on your shoulder to guide you into the darkness of the room that opens before you. A few seconds pass and just as you're wondering what the point of it all is, the lights come on and all your friends pop out from behind couches and armchairs, shouting who "surprise" who "happy birthday," but all with beaming smiles on their lips as they come to hug you.
You immediately feel tears in your eyes, which you let run, because of the happiness and excitement they made you feel seeing so many people gathered to celebrate you.
Once you've greeted everyone you turn to Remus, who looks at you smiling, his hands behind his back.
"Did you arrange everything?" You ask in amazement as you look around and try to memorize every single detail of everything around you. "You didn't have to-"
"Yes I had to. You deserve this and much more than I can give you, you deserve the world, indeed the universe. And it wasn't just me, everyone helped me in some way." He interrupts you, as he circles your shoulders with one arm, and you hold him even tighter to you, squeezing his waist. "I love you, and all I want to do is remind you of that every day, but today especially, after all it's your day, and we all came here just for you, because we all love you, me more than all of them." He continues, resting his forehead on yours. Then he freezes for a moment, right for a few seconds and pulls out a box from his pants pocket.
"I want to give you my present now, because I want you to think about it." He says and you, confused for the umpteenth time this evening, wipe away the last of your tears and then pick up the box he is handing you. It is a black velvet box, and when you open it you see a pair of keys. You look up not understanding what they were, so your boyfriend explains.
"These are the keys to an apartment in Edinburgh, in your favorite area, which I may or may not have asked an old family friend to rent to me and my girlfriend, once I finished school, if she wanted to move in with me. What do you say, what will she decide?" He asks as he strokes your face and tucks a strand of hair behind your ear. You can't help but cry again before you go back to hugging him, just enough to take his breath away, your arms wrapped around his neck.
"I don't even have to think about it, the answer is obviously yes idiot." You whisper between the kisses you leave all along his face, making him laugh, while a few tears escape him as well. "You know you're pretty dumb for the smartest guy I know, it was obvious my answer was yes. And me thinking for a moment today that you had found a new girlfriend and were going to break up with me, damn how stupid I am."
Both of you laugh, still clasped in each other's arms, enjoying that closeness you had missed so much.
"I love you more than my own life, how could I ever look for another girl, when I have the most perfect girl that exists in the whole universe?" Remmy says in a whisper in your ear.
"I love you too Lupin, but you don't have to suck up, look you've already won your reward tonight." You counter by winking at him and he jokes by raising his eyebrows and whispering "I won, let's hurry up and leave this party then," making you laugh, until that sweet moment is interrupted as usual by the grace of Sirius Mr.Elegance of the Year Black.
"Do you want to be part of the party too, or are you going to be lovebirds the whole party?" He asks to throw a handful of confetti at you.
"I guess your reward will have to wait for Lupin." You say, as you hear him laugh, and together you go to enjoy this party with your friends, while in your mind already what will happen tonight in your own personal after party.
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idontplaytrack · 7 months ago
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✧ Not My Fault
Janis ‘Imi’ike x fem! reader(ft. Regina George)
Warnings: coarse language, Regina assumes reader has an eating disorder(reader has endometriosis), Janis gets angry
“Maybe forgiving you was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve ever made. Because you have not changed, Regina. How dare you say that to my girl?”
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“What did you just say?” Janis shot up from her seat, staring daggers into Regina’s soul, “Maybe forgiving you was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve ever made. Because you have not changed, Regina. How dare you say that to my girl?”
“Nothing.”
“No, you said it once, you can say it again.” Janis spat, “Repeat it. I heard you loud and clear.”
The blonde chewed on her lips, regretting her impulsive decision to comment on something that didn’t concern her at all. “Why does she keep going to the bathroom? Does she have an eating disorder or something?”
Damian gasps loudly, completely stunned. “That’s what you said? Out of everything you could’ve yapped about you chose to say something so messed up?”
“You are the last person to have a say in what she does. I don’t even know why you’re here right now. What the fuck even possessed me to think it was okay for you to be here. I thought you’d finally turned over a new leaf, Regina. I guess I was wrong about you— again.”
“Janis, forget it.” You swallowed thickly, stepping out the bathroom, “You wanna know what’s wrong with me? Do you? Because I can tell you. All of you. Because it’s Janis’ birthday and she’s already spent practically all day worrying about me. You have no idea what it’s like to be me. You have no idea how it feels like every month to have it feel like your uterus and your body parts are getting ripped out of their spots. That’s what I’m feeling. That’s what I need to deal with every single month at least. I wouldn’t be running off to the bathroom multiple times if my nausea wasn’t this bad. I would stay right by her side and let her celebrate her birthday in peace with her friends. Not having to get up and haul my ass over to the toilet while barely being able to stand up straight. And then you come into my house and say all of that nonsense, upsetting my girlfriend on her birthday? I know it’s not my fault, but it sure feels like it. Unlike you, neither Janis nor the rest of the gang has made me feel this bad. You are so gutsy, Regina. But not for a good reason.”
“I- I’m sorry, it was supposed to be a —”
“If your next word is ‘joke’, no one laughed. No one’s going to laugh.” Aaron quips.
Regina bites the inside of her cheek, at a loss for words, “I’m sorry. I’ll leave. Happy birthday, Janis.”
“y/n, sit down.” Cady pulls you down onto the couch carefully.
“No, I—” You took in a sharp breath, “Fuck, where is the damn Zofran?”
“We ran out. The pharmacy didn’t have them too.” Janis squeezes your knee. “I was going to drive to another town buy it but you called me so I rushed home.”
“I have it.” Gretchen quickly dug through her purse to find the medication, “Here.”
“Thanks.” You mumbled, putting the pill into your mouth— under your tongue to let it dissolve.
“I hope you feel better soon, honey.” Damian sighs. “Is there anything we can do to help? Make you feel better?”
“Actually, yeah.” You nodded, “Why don’t you all take Janis out to celebrate her birthday? Let her have some fun. I’ll be fine at home for a few hours.”
“I don’t have anything I wanna do, baby.” Janis sighs.
“Come on, just go get some drinks and sing karaoke or something. I feel terrible having you all look at me like I’m dying.” You told them all while you curled yourself up in a corner of the couch.
“If you’re really worried about her being alone, let’s get that bitch’s ass back here to keep an eye on her. She couldn’t have gone far.” Damian suggested.
“I agree.” Cady says, “Let Regina see what it’s really like.”
“Please, just leave me alone. That girl will kill me.” You replied.
————
“You all want me to babysit y/n?” Regina got called to return to your house.
“Yeah. This is your punishment, for being a bitch.” Janis smiled patronisingly.
“We’ll be back by dinner, and if she ends up with even just a paper cut, you’d better watch your back, bitch.”
“Yes, yes. I’m a bitch, okay? I told you guys before— it’s hard for me to just change like that.”
“That’s why you gotta think twice before you speak, G.” Janis raised her brows, walking back over to you after getting changed. “See you in a few hours, ipo.” Janis smiles, pressing a kiss to your lips.
“My God, I just threw up. Janis, why did you kiss me directly on my lips?” You stared at her, startled.
“It was just a peck.” Janis chuckles, standing by the side of the couch where you laid your head. She strokes your cheek, “I’ll get you some of those brownies you like on my way home, hm? For when you feel better?”
“Okay.” You muttered, a tiny smile tugs at your lips, “Have a good time, baby.”
“Thank you~” Janis kisses you on the forehead this time, “I’ll be back soon to give you cuddles~”
The gang laughs, loving this soft side of Janis that snuck through from time to time— even in their presence. Seconds later, they were all out the door, leaving you alone with the apex predator. You both looked at each other awkwardly. “I’m sorry, honestly. That was a dumbass joke, very insensitive.”
You only shrugged.
“Do you need anything? Water? Something to eat?”
“No, thanks. You can go if you like.” You told her, “I can’t believe you came back.”
She scoffs, and with a shrug of her shoulders she says, “Wanted to make it up to you and Janis.”
“I’m just going to be laying here, you know? Not gonna do anything. I’m too nauseous to eat and everywhere else hurts too much for me to even think about watching TV.”
“I can help you turn it on?” Regina states. “It’s a little quiet.”
“Yeah, whatever. That’s fine, thanks. Watch whatever you want. I’m gonna try and get some sleep before I need to puke again.”
Regina got up from the couch and went to look for something. You didn’t care what it was, as long as she didn’t burn down your house or break something. You turned your gaze to the TV, getting distracted when you heard some shuffling noise. “I’m just put this trash can here.”
“Okay.” You said quietly.
“So you don’t have to walk all the way to the bathroom.” She continues.
“Thank you.” You responded, glancing at her.
“Forgive my ignorance, but do you take any pain meds for it?” She asks after some silence.
“I do. They help, but the nausea and throwing up from how bad the pain gets is the main problem for me.” You answered.
“That sucks.” A soft sigh falls from her lips, “How long have you been dealing with this?”
“Oh.” You chuckled wryly, “A long time. I started having the symptoms since I was 13 maybe? Only got diagnosed with it this year, though.”
“Well now I feel horrible for that damn joke. I really could’ve said anything else or just asked if you needed anything.” Regina admits.
“I get it— okay? We just ate and I run off to the bathroom? Who would think it was endo the first thing?” You said back, “Annoyed me, but I…I get it. Janis is um, very protective.”
“I know.” Regina nods knowingly, “She is and rightfully so. I was being a bitch.”
Truth is, Regina wasn’t all that bad one-on-one. She’s never been mean to you or the gang the way she’s been towards other students at school. That was a flaw of hers to not just be kind to everyone most people, but she was working hard on changing for the better. This interaction proved it for you. The ‘old her’ would’ve left you completely alone like you’d asked.
When you sat up, she watches you carefully. “Do you want me to—”
You nodded, retching as she picked up the plastic trashcan, holding it under your mouth. Nothing comes out of it but your stomach was not happy.
“How about some ginger tea?” She suggests, “You wanna try?”
“No.” Your voice cracks, you cleared your throat composing yourself. You did not want to cry in front of her. “No, just leave me alone.”
“Yeah, nice try. And have your girlfriend strangle me to death?” She bites back a laugh, her palm rests against your back as she starts to rub circles on it.
“I do not have anything left in me. But I cannot stop this feeling.” You grumbled.
She didn’t know what to do, and neither did you. So you just laid back down and closed your eyes again to drift off to sleep. Regina stayed on the couch, quietly watching some TV to pass time.
Awhile later, Regina gets a text from Janis asking how you were doing.
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When the sun began to set, the rest of the group returned home together with Janis. You were still asleep, much to Janis’ surprise. Honestly she would take you being asleep any day over being so nauseous and uncomfortable. “She’s been asleep since you texted me.” Regina told Janis while walking up to her.
“That beats her being nauseous. I’d take that as a win, at least she’s getting rested.” Janis shrugs, taking a peek at you stirring in your sleep hearing the noise of them returning home.
“I just…want to apologise again. It was really uncalled for, that ‘joke’.” Regina says.
“Now you know the real reason.” Janis replies, “Just don’t pull that shit again, and choose your words carefully. I should apologise too. i could’ve just told you to drop it and why she was going to the bathroom so much.”
“I deserved that yelling.” Regina laughs, “I hope you had a good time, Janis. If you ever want me to keep an eye on her again when you’re busy with work or just need a minute for yourself, you let me know.”
“I’ll hold you to that, Regina. No take-backs.” Janis bites back a smile, “Thank you, for apologising.”
“It’s the right thing to do. I’m working on it, and I hear you. I’ll be more careful.” Regina nods solemnly, “I talked to her, asked her about it all. And, she’s fucking incredible. This is no easy feat. She’s lucky to have you.”
“Well, I consider myself pretty damn lucky, too.” Janis shrugs.
Regina couldn’t help it but cracked a smile which she quickly concealed. “Anyway, she’s probably gonna be very hungry when she wakes up.”
“Oh, yeah. For sure.” Janis nods, casting her glance on you again. You were opening your eyes, sitting up soon after, “Oh.”
After the gang collected their belongings that they’d left here prior to heading to the bar, they quietly left after saying bye to you and Janis, and wishing her happy birthday. “Take care, y/n.” Cady hugs you carefully, being the last one to leave.
“Thanks, Cads.” You smiled, hugging her back. It was now just you and Janis, allowing her time to unwind and check on you. “How was your night?”
“It was fun. Had some good food, sang my heart out. Now I’m just happy to be here with you.” Janis smiles, very gently pulling you close, “Did you sleep alright?”
“Longest I’ve slept at a time in two days.” You nod.
She kisses you on the cheek, “Do you want something to eat? Maybe some soup and crackers?”
“Alright.” You agreed, getting to walk now that the pain’s eased up. You end up in the kitchen, sitting at the dining table while Janis heated up a can of soup for you. Thankfully, the pain stayed away until you’d finished eating. Then, it started to amp up again. Janis puts your bowl and spoon into the sink and took out a heating pad she’s left in the microwave after it was done getting warmed up. Holding onto it, she helps you upstairs and into bed. Once you were settled in, she hands the heating pad to you while she got changed into a new set of clothes. You were starting to feel absolutely shitty again and couldn’t wait for this flareup to be over. Janis joins you in bed, guiding you to rest your head in her lap. As always, she was very careful about whether or not she touched you. Because sometimes, you were aching just about everywhere, you couldn’t bear to be touched the slightest bit. You shifted uncomfortably, telling her, “God, the pain’s shooting down my leg. Fuck.” You moved the heating pad off your abdomen and placed it under your right thigh.
She doesn’t react, she doesn’t say anything. Letting you take it all out on her. Janis didn’t mind it. It helps you. Your eyes were screwed shut, you then started to take in slow breaths that you let out even slower all in attempt to calm yourself down so you wouldn’t burst into tears out of frustration.
“I wanna brush my teeth.” You sniffed.
“Sure.” Janis said back, “I got you. No worries, baby.”
The pain’s subsided just enough for you to move again. You groaned while Janis helped you up and walk the short distance to the bathroom. You brushed your teeth, she brushed hers. Then, you both were back in bed again. Eventually, you were settled on sleeping on your side, heating pad on your thigh while the same leg was rested up on Janis’ hip. She held you, admittedly a little scared to move and waking you up. So, she falls asleep like that. Couple hours later, she was up to use the restroom, you laying on your back by then. Heating pad away from your body now.
She couldn’t fall back asleep and she knew that. So, Janis stayed up. Reading, drawing, sewing and watching you sleep. That happens sometimes. She just couldn’t sleep no matter what she does. You woke up the next morning quite early, seeing as you went to sleep early last night. Janis had already made you your favourite breakfast, in hopes of cheering you up. And it did. “Thank you, Jan. This is so sweet.”
“Dig in.” She says, her smile mirrored yours. “I managed to get more Zofran, and the pain meds.”
“Have you been up all night?” You realised.
“Not all night, no. Just like, five hours. I woke up at three to pee, then I couldn’t fall back asleep. But I didn’t want to toss and turn and risk waking you up. You were sleeping so soundly.” She chuckles, “I’m okay, I promise.”
“If you say so.” You shrug, “Thank you.”
“What for?”
“Taking care of me.” You said, “It’s difficult and I know it.”
“Just doing what I gotta do as a partner.” She smiles, giving your hand a squeeze.
“I heard what you said to Regina when she made that stupid joke.” You recalled, “I gotta say, if I wasn’t giddy from the puking up my guts and dehydration, I’d be making out with you like no one’s business.”
She guffaws, “Wow, really?”
“I love that about you, so protective.” You swallowed your food, “Very hot.”
She couldn’t stop the smiling, “If you say so, baby.” “Feel free to ‘make out’ with me whenever you want after you feel better.” She teases you, knowing that you meant more than that.
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🏷️ Tag list
@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @ludoesartnstuffs @pda128
💭 A/N
Not sure what this is. A drabble? Idk. The ending was crap, and this was definitely too short but whatever. This was the idea so that’s all I did💀 I don’t even know what category this one falls under but it’s fine I guess
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beneathsakurashade · 8 months ago
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why did my favorite game turn into a dating sim? twst x gen reader (crack fic) CH: 2 me. u. church. in wedding outfits. rn
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CH: 1
The two of you sit across from each other on opposite sofas.  Enjoying a pleasant late afternoon meal of tea and various cakes, it felt like a scene from a fluffy fanfic.  “Man, I remember one time I had a birthday party at a cafe or something and we got served lemonade and cookies” you smile, serving yourself another small cake.  “Lemonade and cookies? I haven’t heard about that before, processed sweets and drinks are forbidden in my household” Riddle remarks taking a small sip of tea.  “Damn, that’s crazy, is that why your fave food is strawberry tarts?” You reply.  “Yes, the tarts that Trey makes are my exception to that rule.  In fact, Trey bakes all of the desserts for our dorm.” he explains.   
    “Wait Trey makes these? Like ALL of them? Dang, bro’s a great baker, I’m banned from the kitchen in my household for some reason” you say “Banned from the kitchen? H-how did that happen?” He sighs nervously and you shrug in response “I think it was because of that one time I microwaved a mozzarella stick for like a minute and almost burned down the house.  Or that time I gave my family food poisoning the first time I cooked dinner.  Wait maybe it was that time I cooked a pizza and it fell down to the bottom of the oven from the rack and we had to buy a new oven… Dunno, tbh they're prob just being haters”.  Riddle chokes on his tea and coughs “Uh-I-I see…I suppose then I’ll have to be the one cooking in the relationship”.
“Speaking of this relationship, am I gonna take your last name for a month?  Or are you gonna take mine?” You ask “I thought about this, and while I would like to keep my name.  I don’t mind taking yours, it is only a month after all”. “Hmmm, Y/N Rosehearts or Riddle L/N…” you sigh “Quite the conundrum” “Indeed…”     The door is flung open by two students who you recognize as Ace and Deuce.  You jump in surprise and drop the cookie that you were holding.  “Housewarden Riddle! Is it true that you’re gonna get married?” Ace exclaims and Riddle stiffens “Y-yes that’s correct, but only temporarily! A month at most”.  You pout and pick up the fallen cookie “Rip soldier” you mutter and turn to the two “What have you to say for killing my cookie?” Deuce bows “Our deepest apologies!” Ace groans “No need to be all proper Deuce, its not like they’re a celebrity or something” he smiles “The names Ace Trappola, and this here -he points to Deuce- is Deuce Spade”.  You sigh “Erm actually, I have three hundred and sixty seven followers on hoyolab, so yes, I am a celebrity. Also I know, Riddle complained about how you’re among the worst students that he’s seen in all his twenty years.  Btw I’m Y/N L/N, professional failure and yapper, with rizz”.     “I feel bad for ya’ to be honest.  With all the rules here n’ stuff” Ace sighs and sits down beside Riddle on the couch, much to the other’s chagrin.  You shrug in response “I know, but that’s the price you pay for love I suppose.  I don’t mind it if I can be married to my husband here for a month”.  Riddle turns red and Ace laughs “We better get used to seeing a strawberry red housewarden Deuce!” Deuce responds confused “Okay!” You smile “You two are silly, I like it, but stop harassing my pookie”.  Riddle turns an even darker shade of red if that was possible and collars Ace.  Deuce watches on in confusion, unsure of whether to defend his friend or his Housewarden.  You liked Ace, he reminded you of a childhood friend that you had back home, though said friend always pretended not to know you at school for whatever reason.  That’s probably what drew you to his character in Twisted Wonderland.  Deuce reminded you of yourself, though not the whole middle school gangster thing, your mom would kill you if she ever found out that you used to ditch school and joined a gang.  But the whole working hard and it never being enough, nothing ever sticking in your head no matter how many times it was drilled into you, staying up till ungodly hours in the night to get a good grade to impress her. 
    The two of you, yourself and Riddle, head back to his room.  “Did we miss a few chapters?” You tease and Riddle turns to you confused.  “Pardon?” You sigh “Of course you wouldn’t get it…” he still looks confused while opening the door “Guests first” he smiles and you walk in.  “Woooah, aw man, there’s only two beds” you mutter “Is there something wrong?” Riddle inquires. “Nah, just a fanfic reference, iykyk” you shrug and sit down on the twin bed near the wall. “Fanfic?” “Yea, y’know, fanfiction?” You lie down on your back and turn your head to face him. “Fanfiction? Oh, Cater mentioned something about that…” he nods and sits down on his bed “Is your bed comfortable, Mx. Y/N?”. “Its nice, but it would be better if you were here with me” you sigh dramatically.  To which he blushes and sighs in mock annoyance “Y-you’re certainly quick to act like a married couple Mx. Y/N”.  You turn and set your chin on your palm “Call me Y/N, we’re more than a married couple less than lovers correct?” He sighs softly “I suppose that’s a rather accurate description, forgive me for acting incorrectly at all during our time together.  This is the biggest thing that I’ve done without Mother’s permission…besides that one time I got fast food with Cater”.  The teasing look vanishes from your face “Your mom doesn’t let you get fast food??” You gape.  “She considers it extremely unhealthy, saying that fast food is the beginning to a short and poor life.”    You blink and finally say “So…she’s an almond mom?” He looks down “Cater said something like that once…I researched the topic and it isn’t an incorrect description of my mother.  But she’s a good woman! She is a doctor so she knows all about what she is talking about! Mother wouldn’t lie to me…she wouldn’t…”.  You sense the saddening gloom that's starting to settle in the room.  Riddle's mom was a sore subject for him, most of the fandom, (his stans especially) absofuckinglutely hated her guts, you couldn't blame them though, she was a real daughter of a nice lady... “Welp, usually I’d say listen to your parents.  But I have an idea, how about we go to a fast food place for our first date as a couple?  You guys probably have a McDonald’s or something like it here right?”.  He brightens up at your enthusiasm “Are you sure about that? Aren’t first dates usually more classy?”.  You respond smugly “That’s what the tv shows say, but my broke ass says otherwise! Don’t worry pookie, I’ll make our first date the best that you’ve ever seen!”
AN: hiii everyone its me, also random thing but I remember the time I was reading a twst fic on wattpad and there was a comment that I found so goofy and what made it extra memorable for me was that the user of the commenter was theevilfoodeaterbanica or something like that and it made my Evillious Chronicles fangirl heart happy. Anyways hope you all are doing great! (つ≧▽≦)つ⊂(。・ω・。⊂)
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iamvegorott · 4 months ago
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Ink Month 2024 Day 10
Sweater - Danti
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“Happy birthday!” Wilford sang at the top of his lungs as he walked through the crowd of Egos, holding a wrapped box above his head. They were all in the Septiceye House to celebrate Anti’s birthday, and Wilford insisted on having his gift given last, claiming it would ‘leave the rest of the night in a fun mood’. No one asked what he meant by that. Most of them either didn’t want to know or had a feeling. 
“My money is still on this being booze or something,” Anti said as he took the box from Wilford, pausing when Chase cleared his throat. “Thank you, Bubblegum.” He added, translating what the sound meant.
“You’re going to love this.” Wilford chuckled. 
“That was an evil laugh,” Marvin whispered to Chase. 
“His evil can either be like legit evil or a strange show,” Chase whispered back.
“Or both.” 
“Is this like a blanket or something?” Anti asked, pulling out a large piece of fabric from the box. “It’s really soft.” 
“Allow me to show you its use,” Wilford stated, guiding Anti to stand with the gift. “Come here.” He grabbed Dark’s arm and pulled him over to be beside Anti. 
“Why am I getting involved?” Dark asked. 
“You’re part of the gift.” Wilford took the fabric from Anti. 
“Part of the gift?” Anti and Dark asked at the same time.
“Stay still.” Wilford ignored the question and threw the fabric over them, casually humming while the other two fought against him. “Ta-da~!” Wilford sang, took a step back, and gestured at his work. 
Anti and Dark were now both wearing the oversized sweater, heads sticking out of the same hole. Each had only one arm free and in a sleeve long enough to cover their hands. The sweater looked hand-made, crocheted with little open spots that got covered by colorful patches and pins. 
“I hate you.” Anti huffed. 
“What even is this?” Dark looked down and tried to read the words on the sweater. “What does it say?”
“‘Our get-along sweater’.” Jackie read for him. “You actually made them one of those?” He added to Wilford, laughing loudly. 
“This is so not funny.” Anti started squirming, trying to get out of the sweater, but discovered he was stuck. How was he stuck? “Wilford, what the fuck? What did you do to this thing?” He flailed some more and bit into the sweater's collar, thinking he could tear the fabric with his teeth. 
“Would you stop that?” Dark grunted. “You’re going to get this thing covered in your drool.” He sighed and then addressed Wilford. “Why are we not able to get out of this on our own?” 
“It’s a get-along sweater. You’re not supposed to get out of it until you get along.” Wilford explained, using a tone that showed he thought it was obvious.
“We haven’t fought each other in like months. We get along just fine.” Anti went back to trying to free himself like a cat trapped under a blanket, a hiss even making its way out of him. 
“Damn it.” Dark sighed, knowing exactly the kind of ‘getting along’ Wilford was expecting. “I know what to do.” 
“You got a knife or something?” Anti looked at Dark. “The one time I’m not armed and-” He was cut off by Dark suddenly kissing him.
“I knew it.” Dark ended the kiss quickly and threw the sweater off of him. “And you-” He grabbed Wilford by the ear. “-are in a lot of trouble.” Dark walked off with Wilford as he spoke. Wilford’s ow’s were heard until they slowly faded with the footsteps. JJ watched them leave before sighing and getting up to save Wilford from Dark's wrath.
“Aw, the birthday boy’s blushing.” Marvin teased. 
“I am not!” Anti had stayed in the sweater, stiff with shock. The blush he denied was getting deeper, and he scrambled to remove the piece of clothing. 
“That was adorable.” Chase joined in the teasing.
“I’m getting my knife!”
“Does this mean Anti and Dark are dating?” Jackie asked.
“I’m stabbing you first, boy-man!” 
------------
@ctheotter
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maxverstappensflatbrim · 2 years ago
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Show Me Yours | Matty Healy [26]
chapter twenty-six, act three: so far (it's alright)
masterlist
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April 14th 2015
Tommie sheds her jacket as she enters the bar she’s supposed to be meeting Caleb and his friends. She says goodbye to Phoebe, promising to meet her at her place when she’s done to run over a few ideas the upcoming singer has.
When she looks up, phone now in her back pocket and jacket on her arm she sees a new figure besides Caleb. For a second she thinks it's his little sister but then realises the blonde is too tall.
She remembers she's here to meet Shane’s new girlfriend and wonders if that's her, but a glance to their usual booth shows Shane with a girl on his lap as they get off.
She heads on over, sliding up beside Caleb who grins, kissing her cheek and then sliding an arm around her waist.
“Hey, babe, this is Emma, she’s an old friend of mine from Georgia. Emma, this is Caroline.”
Tommie raises a brow at the first name and stretches her hand out, “It’s actually Tommie, nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Carol, can I call you Carol?”
“No.”
Caleb nudges her and she shrugs a little, “You’re from Georgia?” Emma nods, “You just moved out here?”
“No, no, just visiting. And I bumped into Caleb here, thought we haven’t seen each other in a while and decided to catch up.”
She lifts her head in a nod, “I’m gonna get some drinks and catch up with Mitchell, you two want anything?”
“We’re good, we just got some. I’ll come find you when it's time to go yeah?”
She nods, “Six, right? Promised Phoebe I’d help her out tonight, so I’ll go there whenever we’re done, no rush.”
He nods and kisses her cheek, “You’re too good to that girl.”
She shrugs, “She’s my only friend outside of the band.”
“Maybe you and I can be friends.” Emma suggests and Tommie lifts her head with a tight lipped smile trying not to be rude.
She squeezes Caleb’s hand and he smiles at her again, leaning down to peck her lips before she rounds the bar to where Mitchell is sitting at the bar in self-pity. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He says quietly, eyes glued to Emma’s hair as she flips it over her shoulder.
“You okay?”
“Eh.”
She follows his gaze across to Emma, “Old flame?”
“I wish, but no…”
“Crush?”
“Yeah…” He sighs, eyes watching her push her hair over her shoulder.
“Wanna talk about it?”
This is what she learns from Mitchell , she’s here in LA to see some band she likes as a birthday gift from her best friend. She’s just celebrating her thirty-first birthday, she’s a few months older than Caleb.
And they dated.
Not just dated. They were highschool sweethearts who got engaged the moment they left school. Literally the moment, he proposed in the car park as they left on their last day of school.
Then he started the band, and her religious picture perfect American dream family didn't agree with it. They wanted her to get a stable job in their family business back home in Georgia and keep going to church.
So she broke up with him, and left him completely heartbroken.
Leaving  Mitchell, who had been in love with her for years before that, to pick up the pieces of his broken heart.
He opens up about how hard it was as he had been in love with her since they were kids, before either of them met Caleb. And then he cried over how hard it was seeing them so happy, how many times he'd comfort her when he saw her crying outside because stupid teenage Caleb had done something to upset her. She rubs his back gently letting him rant as she keeps her eyes on them. 
When Mitchell has finally stopped crying and she’s sure he’s safe, she’d had to drag him outside with the help of Shane who she’d forced off of his girlfriend, (she’s also introduced herself to her, she was a sweet, kind girl called Crystal from, here in LA). They’d piled him in a cab and sent him home to James who was waiting for him after getting their call.
She checks her phone, seven thirty, they’re late, missed the reserved fancy dinner they’d booked for date night.
She sighs and hesitates to go over to him but then she does quickly, he smiles down at her, “Hey, babe.”
“Hey, uh, we’re a bit late.”
“Yeah, it’s alright, I’ll sort it, just a few more minutes? Can you grab my jacket, I’ll say goodbye.”
She nods, saying goodbye to Shane and Crystal, waiting at the door with both of their jackets.
She waits for five minutes, then ten, then twenty, fourty, when it nears an hour she sighs and walks over to them.
“I’ve missed you a lot, you know.”
“Yeah, me too. You know, I was thinking about you the other day-”
Tommie doesn't want to listen to more, she puts his jacket down behind him and walks outside, calling herself a cab and giving Phoebe's address.
“Hey.”
Phoebe lets her in, “I’ve got drinks, seem like you need them.”
She sighs, face planting on the sofa, making both Max, and Button, who Phoebe had agreed to dog sit for the day so they could have a playdate, look up at her.
“Wow, okay, what’s up?”
“Some pretty blonde woman who’s just- just perfect, with nice hair and nice teeth, and a nice smile, and she’s tall, and-and skinny. She’s nice. She’s the complete opposite of me.”
“Sounds boring.” Phoebe says lifting her legs to sit there and lets them fall back into her lap.
“I think I’m having a mental breakdown, what do I do?”
Phoebe shrugs, “Usually I just like, listen to emo music and dye my hair.”
Tommie sits up, “Will you help me?”
“Help you what?”
“Dye my hair.”
Phoebe frowns, moving to curl some ginger hair around her finger, “But, I love your hair.”
“Please?”
She sighs, “I only have the colour I use, so we’ll have to wait until the morning, when the stores open.”
“That colour will do, I like it.”
That’s how they ended up sitting in Phoebe’s bathroom on the floor, Tommie turned towards the wall while Phoebe sat on the closed toilet lid.
“Are you sure?”
She breathes in then sighs and as Phoebe lifts her hand she quickly leans forward, “Wait-”
“I knew you’d back out.”
“What if it doesn't suit me?”
“It will, you’re pale.” She says confidently then dumps it on her head quickly.
“Do you think you can cut bangs?”
⋆。 ゚☁︎。 ⋆。 ゚☾ ゚
Phoebe did in fact not cut her some bangs, claiming she wasn't a hairdresser and she should go to professionals if she wanted to make that decision.
She did however dye her newly cut hair to the platinum colour that she had hers.
“What are you gonna do? Keep dying it?”
She shrugs, still looking in the mirror, “I’ll let it grow then when the ginger reaches my shoulders I’ll cut it back to this length.”
Phoebe lifts some hair up and tilts her head, “It kind of suits you. I mean, being ginger will always suit you more, definitely, you just have the bone structure of a ginger, and the eyes.”
She rests her hands on her shoulders, looking at her in the mirror, “Gonna tell me what’s actually wrong now?”
Tommie shrinks back a little, “You’re gonna think I’m crazy.”
“Have you met me?”
She rings her hands together, walking out to sit on the settee, “I did a little internet stalking, found the three other girls he’s ever hooked up with since Emma, they all look like her. Tall, blonde hair, brown eyes, skinny, Christian citizen types. I’m- I’m nothing like that.”
Phoebe’s brows furrow, “Yeah, you’re not a boring carbon copy, he’s got a new type, so what?”
“The other girls, they’re the type you take home to meet the parents, yeah? I’m the type you have on the arm to keep an interesting conversation going. To impress someone. Not to- to love, to have a family with. I’m not the type his mother wants him to have.”
Phoebe scoffs, “What does that bitch know? You know, it’s amazing how much someone can say when they don’t know what they’re talking about.”
She shifts closer, “Look, we’ve only known each other literally like two months, but I already consider you one of- if not my closest- friend. Not just in the industry, in the whole fucking world, okay? I’m not saying this because of that, I’m saying this because it's the truth. You’re amazing, you’re beautiful, inside and out, you’re great at what you do and you’re so fucking perfect sometime it makes me what to physically hurt you or make out with you, sometimes I can’t decide.”
Tommie laughs and lets her head fall to Phoebe's shoulder, the singer pulls her closer kissing the top of her head affectionately, “If Caleb can’t see that then you should break up with him.”
⋆。 ゚☁︎。 ⋆。 ゚☾ ゚
April 15th 2015
“Woah…”
George’s eyes widen as he looks up at the opening door causing the rest of the guys to look at the door.
Tommie pauses when she sees their eyes on her, she turns, finding no one behind her, then looks at them again, “What?”
“Who are you?”
Matty’s the first to reach her, eyes squinted as he tugs her head to the side, “Where’s the ginge?”
“I dyed it- well, Phoebe dyed it for me.”
He squints his eyes further, picking at it, “I don’t like it.”
“Thanks.” She says with a fake smile, she lifts her chin, acting like the comment didn;t just make her question every single decision she’s ever made.
Adam’s next in line, “What you do that for?”
She shrugs, “Just… fancied a change, that’s all. Is that a crime?”
“I think being a nice ginger and dying your hair should be a crime.” Ross says.
She tilts her head at him, he’s laid on his back on the floor staring at the ceiling, “A nice ginger?”
He nods, “You’re a nice ginger. But like… Ed Sheeran, he’s just like… fucking neon orange. Looks like a highlighter. But you’re like… almost like Emma Stone.”
“Almost?”
“Almost. Emma Stone is fucking stunning.”
“Agreed.” The entire room says together.
Tommie lifts a hand to push the hair over her shoulder, “I just… I needed to do something dramatic, I mean, I’m not the worst out of us,” She lifts a hand to George, “G can’t even get a brush through his hair.”
“You said you liked my hair.”
“I do, when you’ve brushed it. It looks like a bird's nest right now.”
⋆。 ゚☁︎。 ⋆。 ゚☾ ゚
April 26th 2015
Tommie falls through the open door of the studio, running right over to the spare chair beside George that is usually occupied with Matty and slams her little leather notebook down.
“I wrote a song.”
George takes one half of the headphones off and hums as he looks over at her and she repeats her words, “I wrote a song.”
“Can I see?”
She nods, opening the book to that page and chews on her nail, “You know, it’s not finished, not yet. I think there’s a few things I can tweak, with help from you and Matty. I kind of have a whole guitar thing in my head for it but-”
“No tweaking needed, it’s great, Tommie.” He raises a brow then, “I’m a lesbian kiss’?”
She closes the book, “It makes sense to me, in my head, it’s my thoughts.”
“Why are you a lesbian kiss?” He perks up a little and leans closer, “Have you broken up with Caleb for a woman? Does she have a friend? A hot friend?”
“No, no and no.” She tells him quickly, “It’s just something Phoebe said to me last night.”
“She offered to kiss you?”
“No, it’s just- it’s a metaphor.”
He nods slowly, “What’s it about?”
“Well, you know, I’m atheist, yeah?” He nods his head, “And Caleb’s all religious and shit, and, I don’t know. Guess I just feel stupid compared to him, wonder if I believe in some kind of higher power, place all my blame and guilt on that will it make life a little easier for me?”
He starts setting everything up, turning things on with a quick flick, “Wanna jump in and record it?”
She shakes her head quickly, “It’s for Matty to sing, not me.”
“Well, if you want it to be your vision, you’re gonna have to jump in and set the tone for him to follow.”
She nods in reluctance, grabbing her acoustic guitar to strum a little tune as she sings the lyrics to her song titled ‘If I Believe You’.
She does it in one take, coming back out for them to listen together. George makes suggestions on what they can do, he takes the backing track from an unfinished and untitled song adding it in with her voice. He does a few cool echo effects as the time stretches on and even suggests all of them in there together for certain parts.
Tommie suggests a Gospel choir, to give the religious feel a bit more edge and George is calling Jamie, leaning back in his chair.
“What's this one?”
She hovers the mouse over the one labelled ‘Baby’, “Can I listen?”
“Wait, Tom-”
‘So I heard you found somebody else And at first, I thought it was a lie I took all my things that make sounds The rest I can do without I don't want your body But I hate to think about you with somebody else Our love has gone cold You're intertwining your soul with somebody else I'm looking through you While you're looking through your phone And then leaving with somebody else No, I don't want your body But I'm picturing your body with somebody else-’
George turns the recording off the moment he can get out of the booth, turning to her slowly as she sits in the chair staring at the little play button.
She turns to look at him slowly, “Did he…” She pauses to take a deep breath in and then slowly lets her eyes lift back up to his, “Did he write that about…”
She doesn’t finish her sentence, George remains silent and she mutters his name softly but firmly at the same time.
“Yes.”
He tells her, “But I wasn’t supposed to let you heart it, not yet, I mean-”
She gets up quickly, looking around for her phone and grabbing her hoodie to pull on over her vest, “Where are you going?”
“How long do I have? Until he’s set to be here?”
George scarves to look at the time, “Uh, forty minutes?”
She nods, “I’ll be back then.”
“Tom! Tom, where are you going?”
taglist
@thereisaplaceintheheart, @indierockgirrl, @sofaritsalrightt, @julezs-bl0g, @eaglestar31, @sophinthealpss, @noacfemcel, @if-my-heart-bleeds, @befrwime, @fallingforel, @sexorchocolateorpillowsorclouds, @3terna15unshin3, @1975sophie1975, @thesocraticjunkiewannabe
-let me know if you want to be added :)
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my-castles-crumbling · 5 months ago
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Hi Cas!
I have three best friends A, D and P and everything's so complicated at this moment. Over the past year (since Jan 23), I have ended up being hurt by all three of them.
A started dating this girl, R, and I wasn't really a fan of her because she refused to interact with any of A's friends, including me, A ditched me for her and I've tried bringing it up more than a few times in mature conversations where she has ended up telling me that R overthinks, and I at least have D, and another one of our friends, S to spend breaks with, while R, as the new girl doesn't. After 10 months, she has finally seen for herself and realised what I've been telling her for months, and plans to break up with her in two weeks. But we've had so many arguments about this, and I felt so shitty that she was so ready to ditch our six year old friendship for a girl that she had known for a grand total of six months. Long story short, this and her lack of understanding and consideration for my feelings has hurt me multiple times and only recently has she started making an effort to be better.
D and S have a lot in common. Same subject choices and classes, and they went on an exchange trip together. Most of the time I felt like I was third wheeling them, which has only recently stopped because D realised that S was an egoistic bitch. D and I have been best friends for seven years, but she so readily ditched me with S because they wanted to go somewhere in school where we had been specifically told not to go to. October through December last year, I didn't even want to go to school because while I wanted to see D, I hated feeling replaced.
P and I have had a complicated relationship for a long time. Last year, she told one of her other friends, M, about my crushes. We go to an all girls school, I'm a lesbian and the girls I liked were the self proclaimed mean girls. You do the math. Anyways, P tends to get into a lot of trouble, and last year our class teacher genuinely despised her. I cannot tell you the number of times I got into trouble by trying to get her out of it, or just for being friends with her. Yet I always feel like her second choice, actually, her last choice. I ask her to stay with us during the breaks, and she agrees but then goes off with M. At one point in time, she was mad at D and me for joking about her height (she's shorter than us) and called me an elephant. I'm curvaceous and a bit on the higher side of the scale for our age group, but yeah, she was supposed to be my best friend. This is obviously a bit biased, because I probably don't remember the shit I've done to her. Today I found out from A that P feels trapped in our friendship and that's why she spends time with M to escape. Apparently, I've hurt her a lot and said shit that "scarred her inside". And I feel so shit for that.
Sometimes, I wish I never met them. They're supposed to be my best friends, but all they do is hurt me. And they're always talking about how they're hurting or they were hurt so they acted the way they did, but what about me? What about how I'm hurt? I was planning to go out with A, D and P the weekend after my birthday to have a small celebration, and I was kind of excited for that because we were going to an arcade and I had always wanted to go there with them, especially with D and P. But now I don't want to do anything for my birthday, because I don't want P to stay in a friendship where she feels trapped, but I can't also not invite her. And even if I didn't, what's the point of just going out with A and D?
Sorry for ranting so much, but I don't really have someone to tell this to.
Hi hon <3
This sounds like a lot to deal with. Honestly, I think you need to sit down with all of these friends (not all at once, but one-on-one) and have some conversations about how you feel. If they feel you've hurt them too, then there's resentment on both sides, and it needs to be aired out, or the friendship's just going to get worse. If you want to stay friends with them, you need to try communicating, you know?
I think it also might be worth it to try to find some friends outside this group. See what else is out there. Best case scenario- you make new friends. Worst case- if all of these people continue to suck, you have other people to fall back on.
Naming you ADP anon!
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winryofresembool · 2 years ago
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Birthdays (a Jily one-shot)
A/N: Happy birthday to James Potter, who is currently celebrating his 63th birthday with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and 3 grandkids ♥
Summary: glimpses to four of James' birthdays during his Hogwarts years from Lily's point of view
Words: 2032
rating: T for suggestive language in the last part
@jilymicrofics
AO3
...
27.3.1972
When Lily stepped into the Gryffindor Common Room, she wondered why the people in there were being so loud. Louder than usual, that was, and that was quite a lot considering the fact that Lily suspected the Gryffindor house was the loudest of them all in general. When she was looking for the source of the ruckus, in the center of attention she found the two boys that had been the bane of her existence for 6 whole months already. Black and Potter.
“What’s going on?” She walked to her friend Mary who was sitting on an armchair quite far from the boys.
“Oh, it’s Potter’s birthday.” Her friend waved her hand dismissively. “Apparently her parents sent him a new broomstick… Some Nimbus or whatever, apparently it’s a brand new model and only professional players have managed to get those so far.”
“But first years aren’t supposed to have their own broomsticks, right?” Lily questioned.
“Nope, we are not,” Mary confirmed. “But I just heard him bragging that he’ll keep it hidden in his dorm and fly at night and McGonagall won’t know a thing. Sure, as if everyone in our house won’t be talking about it in the Great Hall and all… He’s going to have it taken away before he manages to say ‘Quidditch’.”
“Well, serves him right if that happens. Anyway, I think I’m going to head to bed,” Lily yawned. “I’ve had a long day and Merlin knows no one can focus in this noise.”
“Alright. I’ll join you soon,” Mary said, showing her the unfinished essay she had been working on.
Lily nodded and turned to leave. Before she got to the stairs, though, she heard someone yell at her. “Oi, Evans!”
Slowly, Lily turned towards the voice.
“Yes, Potter?”
“Are you not gonna wish me a happy birthday? And admire my new broomstick?” He had a hopeful smile on his face.
Lily rolled her eyes.
“I think you and your broom already have enough admirers as it is. And after what you did on my birthday I kind of feel like skipping the pleasantries.”
“I told you I was sorry!” James exclaimed with frustration. “I swear I hadn’t meant for you to get into that trap…”
“Well, I did end up in it anyway. Now, excuse me, I’m feeling pretty tired, so…”
She got into the stairs and didn’t look back as she started climbing towards her dorm. If she had done that, she would have noticed that James’s earlier excitement had faded somewhat. Not long after she had disappeared he took the broomstick into his dorm and no longer boasted about it to the other students.
27.3.1976
“Why are you not in the Common Room? It’s almost curfew already,” Mary noted when she found Lily in the library, doing her homework there at almost 9 PM.
“You know what day it is,” Lily simply grumbled as a response.
“Hmm? A Wednesday?” Mary pretended to not know what Lily was talking about.
“It’s Potter’s birthday.”
“Yeah? What about it?” Mary smirked.
Lily rubbed her forehead tiredly. “It’s always unbearable in the Common Room on his birthdays. Everyone is being completely nuts and he just keeps boasting about his presents…”
“Actually…” Mary started, “he and his friends left already. They said there was somewhere they needed to be tonight so they cut the party short this time.”
Lily shook her head. “Right, I bet they went to Hogsmeade through one of those secret passages of theirs and are currently trying to make Madam Rosmerta sell them alcohol.”
“That’s what I would have guessed too,” Mary admitted, “except that apparently Remus is having one of those sick days of his again and I happened to see James, Sirius and Peter heading towards the hospital wing when I was looking for you.”
That stopped Lily from making more snarky remarks about Potter. She had for a good while had a suspicion about Remus’ condition but she still hadn’t gotten a confirmation for it. However, it just so happened that she had checked the current moon phase for an astrology assignment earlier that day and she was very well aware it was full moon that night. But if Remus really was what she thought he was… how did the others manage to be close to him and not get hurt?
“That’s… too bad. About Remus, of course. Hope he’s feeling better soon, the poor guy is sick so often… Anyway, since the party has died down, I suppose I can go back to the Common Room with you…”
“It’s not like you have a choice; Pince is about to kick us out any minute now," Mary pointed out.
Lily chuckled. “I can be pretty convincing! But… I’m not feeling like trying my luck tonight,” she mumbled as she noticed the woman in question glaring at the girls from behind her desk.
The girls left the library, but as they were making their way to the Gryffindor Tower, James Potter was running down the staircase towards the entrance hall.
Lily wasn’t quite sure what made her do it, but before he got too far, she yelled: “Hey, Potter!”
James stopped, looking surprised by the interruption.
“Alright, Evans?”
“Yeah, I just… um, wanted to tell you happy birthday. Oh, and tell Remus I wish him a speedy recovery.”
A small smile spread on his face. “Thanks. And will do.”
“How do you…” Lily started to ask, but then she changed her mind. “Er, never mind. You seemed to be in a hurry so… go ahead.”
James still seemed a bit confused. “You’re not going to take points for me for being out of our Common Room at this hour?”
It was only then that Lily even remembered she indeed was a Prefect.
“I’m going to make an exception this time. Just this once, though. Take it as a birthday gift, or something.”
“Thanks, Evans.” Then James glanced at his clock. “So, I better going. But I’ll see you two around.”
“See you,” Lily gave him a small wave before she turned to the other direction. Mary gave her a weird look.
“What was that about?”
“What? I can’t wish a classmate a happy birthday?”
Mary shook her head. “You can… just that, a moment ago you were pretty adamant on avoiding his birthday altogether.”
“Whatever,” Lily said coolly and started talking about something else to stop Mary from teasing her mercilessly.
27.3.1977
“Is this from one of you lads?” James asked his three friends after an owl had stopped in front of him and dropped a square package in his lap. They were having their breakfast a few seats away from Lily and her friends, just close enough for her to listen to the conversation.
“No,” all of them shook their heads.
“All of us already gave you presents in the dorm, how many presents do you expect us to give you?” Sirius asked as James started ripping off the paper.
“Well, it’s my sweet seventeenth and all…” he said nonchalantly before focusing his attention back to his gift. It was a brown leather covered book with a golden snitch imprinted in the middle. “Quidditch Through The Ages!” he gasped. “I’ve been asking my parents to buy me this for years... I wonder if this is from them…”
He searched for a note that would reveal who had sent the book but found nothing.
“So strange… I don’t think this is from my parents; they would have left a note… And besides, they already gave me this watch.” He raised his hand so his friends could see the old, golden watch around his wrist better.
“Maybe you have a secret admirer,” Sirius smirked, and Lily could have sworn his eyes flicked towards her for a moment before turning back to the book. Suddenly her face felt very warm.
“You think so?” James asked skeptically.
“I do,” Sirius nodded solemnly.
“I hope I find out who it was… This is a rare edition, must have cost quite a bit…”
Lily was not about to tell him that she had used almost all of the money she had been hoping to use during her next Hogsmeade trip for that single book. She couldn’t help but notice some knowing looks from both her friends and Sirius in her direction, but chose to ignore them.
"It was you, wasn't it?" Mary muttered some minutes later as she and Lily were leaving the Great Hall.
"I was what?" Lily asked innocently.
"You're the one who bought James that book," Mary accused.
"So what if I was? He gave me a copy of Pride and Prejudice for my birthday; apparently his mum had recommended it. Besides, he's actually been quite decent this year..."
Mary just rolled her eyes. "You two really are so dense..."
27.3.1978
“Happy Birthday, James.”
Lily was waiting for him near the bottom of the stairs that led to the boys’ dorms. When he spotted her, he jumped over the last few steps and instantly pulled her closer, locking their lips in a way that would probably have made Sirius tell them to get a room, but luckily the young man in question was still happily asleep in his dorm. Once they had to break the kiss to get some air in their lungs, James breathed:
“Thanks, Lils. I have to say, this birthday already kicks last year’s arse, and last year was pretty solid, so…”
“I take it you really like snogging me,” she grinned at him teasingly.
“’Liking’ doesn’t even begin to describe it, Evans. I don’t think I could ever get bored of it. Shame that we have basic needs for things like oxygen and food and water because otherwise I would probably never stop doing it.”
Lily snorted. “Big words, Potter. But lucky for you, I have taken my entire evening off today… You know how in the Muggle world 18 is often the important age in terms of getting more rights and responsibilities… It’s worth celebrating, right?”
“Certainly,” James agreed. “How are you planning to celebrate it?”
Lily gave him a mischievous look. “I have to admit, after giving you that book last year I had a hard time deciding how to top it…”
James’ mouth opened in surprise. “Wait, what? It was you who gave me that book?”
“I thought you knew,” Lily said sheepishly. “Yes, it was me. I got really lucky because apparently it was the last one they had. To be honest, I had no idea they were that popular…”
“To think that you went through such trouble to get it and we weren’t even together yet… You never cease to amaze me, Evans.”
“Don’t say that before you hear about my plans for today.” She reached for his tie, pretending to straighten it even though it was really just an excuse for her to stay close to him.
“Well, now I really need to hear them as soon as possible,” James demanded.
Lily quickly glanced around to see that no one else was in hearing distance. “There might be an after party on the seventh floor, near a certain tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy… But only you are invited.”
“The Room of Requirement?” James’s eyes darkened, remembering the few times they had snuck there after finishing their patrolling. “Hmm, I might have to tell the boys to cut the party short, in that case…”
Suddenly Lily was feeling a bit bashful. “I don’t want you to feel pressured to leave, though… You should have fun with the others too.”
James took her face into his hands. “Hey, there’s no place I’d rather be than with you. Believe me, they’ll understand. As a matter of fact, I’m fairly certain Sirius would kick my arse if I stood you up.”
Lily chuckled at that. “Good to hear. The word is there will be treacle tarts in the after party so it would be such a shame if you missed that.”
James kissed her again. “Can’t have that happen, then.”
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ollieofthebeholder · 1 month ago
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And If Thou Wilt, Forget: a TMA fic
Read from the beginning on Tumblr || AO3 || My Website
Chapter 27: The little shivering gaping things
It had been a long, frustrating month. Actually a long and frustrating year. So when Tim got an email from Lou asking him to meet her for a late lunch to celebrate her birthday, he’d jumped at the offer, even if it meant he’d have to catch a cab or extend his lunch, since he hadn’t driven to work. He wouldn’t vent to her, wouldn’t ruin her day, but it would be nice to get to talk to someone who wasn’t involved in…all this. And maybe she’d know some places to find Gertrude.
He’d insisted on both Sasha and Martin going at their regular time, assured them he would talk to Jon, and used the span of time he had to himself to probe at a few threads he’d deliberately left hanging from statements he’d been assigned, secure in the knowledge that Jon wouldn’t call him on it…yet. He was just packing his laptop up to head out the door when he heard a thump, a clatter, and a rustle from the Archivist’s office.
And every sense he’d honed over the last two years fired off at once.
Tim was out of his seat and across the Archives floor before he had a chance to consciously think about it. Jon was standing over by the shelving unit he’d put up against one wall of the office, or what was left of it, anyway; it looked like it had collapsed, maybe because he’d put too much weight on it. There was dust all over that part of the office and a…tang in the air Tim couldn’t quite place but definitely didn’t like.
“You okay?” he asked Jon, who looked momentarily flustered.
“Ah…yeah,” Jon said, straightening his shoulders. “A…spider.”
Something prickled on the back of Tim’s neck. It could have been completely innocuous, but if the Web was involved…“Did you get it?”
“I…hope so.” Jon looked at his hands, as if searching for evidence. “I think so. Nasty, bulbous looking thing.”
A big, obvious-looking spider? If it hadn’t had a clear marking that told Jon it was toxic, it was certainly there just to draw attention, and that definitely meant the Web. Tim’s eyes roved over the shelving unit. “What did you do, try to tackle it?”
“No, just…” Jon waved at the shelves. “Cheap things, I guess. I was just trying to—”
Tim sucked in a sharp breath as his eyes locked onto what he hadn’t realized he’d been looking for. The shelving unit, as it had collapsed, had slammed into the wall. Not hard, probably, or at least it didn’t look like it should have been hard, but there was a distinct dent in the plaster. No…no, not a dent. A hole.
The tang in the air got a bit stronger, like a gust of wind had just come out of that hole, and he recognized it all at once: the sickly, musty odor he’d last noticed, last consciously noticed, in the corridor outside Martin’s flat. The smell of insects, and rot, and…filth.
Corruption.
Oh, shit.
“Jon,” he said sharply, cutting off whatever Jon had been trying to explain.
“What?” Jon looked at Tim, then followed his gaze. “Oh…uh…got dented when the shelf collapsed, I suppose.”
“That went clear through.” Fear was encroaching, threatening to choke him, but Tim had to stay calm, had to stay sensible. “Fuck, that’s supposed to be an exterior wall.”
“It—it should be.” Jon, in defiance of all logic and common sense but totally in line with his insatiable curiosity, bent over to examine the crack in the wall. “I think it’s just plasterboard.” He reached out, tentatively, and pushed at the largest portion; it crumbled away almost instantly.
“Jon, don’t, get away from there!” Tim shouted, lunging deeper into the room.
The musty, decaying smell got even stronger, and he heard the wet squelching sound of too many crawling, writhing things eagerly rushing towards them. Jon reeled back, throwing his arms up over his face. “Tim, run. Run…”
Too late. Way, way too late. The weakened wall ballooned briefly, then crumbled away at the bottom, and hundreds, thousands of the grey and white worms started erupting out of the wall. Jon yelled in dismay and backed off. Tim thought he was going to run—sensibly—but instead he lunged for the Archivist’s desk and began scrabbling with one hand across the surface, his eyes darting back and forth between the onslaught of filth and the desk.
“What are you doing?” Tim shouted at him.
“Almost—” Jon half-gasped, and Tim realized he was going for the tape recorder.
“Leave it, it’s not—” Tim half ran, half jumped over and reached for Jon’s arm.
Jon, not even looking in his direction, nearly folded himself lengthwise and managed to seize the recorder with a glad cry. “I got it!”
There was a sudden bang as the door to the office swung inwards and hit the wall, and Martin’s voice came from behind them. “Guys? Is everything—oh, Christ!”
“Shut up and get the extinguishers!” Jon yelled back.
“What?” Martin squeaked out.
“Fuck that,” Tim ground out. Jon’s eyes were still fixed in terror on the invasion, Martin was obviously too frightened to think clearly, and while it would obviously be best to extinguish these before they got any deeper into the Archives, his priority had to be getting Jon and Martin out of the line of fire. If these things got into them…no, it didn’t bear thinking about. He grabbed Jon’s arm and yanked him hard, then turned and dragged him towards the door, shouting at Martin, “Out, out, out! Grab the nearest CO2 and let’s go!”
“Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, yep.,” Martin babbled, backing out of the doorway, stumbling over his own feet, before turning and darting for the wall near the computer, where the little black-banded CO2 canister still hung. Tim knew, knew it had been serviced and replaced after he’d used it on the outlets behind Mister Megabytes and hoped and prayed nobody had used it since then.
In that, at least, his luck held; Martin grabbed it, aimed it at the threshold of the Archivist’s office, and let loose with the gas. Tim kept dragging Jon forward. “Come on! Don’t stop to fight them all! Document Storage, now!”
Jon was stumbling along at Tim’s side, running well enough on his own, and Tim, stupidly, released his arm, intending to drop back a little and go for one of the bigger extinguishers that had to be around somewhere nearby. Unfortunately, he did so at the exact moment as Jon looked back, presumably to check the pursuit of the worms. He slammed full speed into Sasha’s chair, which crashed to the ground with Jon on top of it. The recorder flew from his free hand and slid across the floor towards the shelves.
“Dammit!” Jon flailed, panicked as a drowning swimmer, and managed to free himself from the chair. Instead of continuing towards Document Storage, though, he started scuttling sideways to the worm army, obviously intent on the recorder.
“Jon! Santa cazzo Madre di Dio,” Tim swore. He put on a burst of speed, full Big Brother Mode activated, and caught Jon around the waist. Jon yelped, then screamed in the instant Tim hoisted him up over his shoulder.
“Jon, it’s okay, it’s just Tim!” Martin cried frantically.
“Martin! Get in the fucking storage room!” Tim bellowed, stomping a patch of worms with a disturbingly satisfying pop and vaulting over the chair. He was rewarded by the sight of Martin sprinting, almost as fast as he’d left his apartment, towards Document Storage.
His intention had been to toss Jon in, slam the door behind himself, and go back out to do battle with the things invading his Archives, dammit, Gertrude wasn’t here and she had left him in charge, Elias be damned, the Archives and those in it were his to protect, he’d already failed once, twice if you counted Breekon and Hope turning up to make their delivery, thrice if you counted Sasha getting lured out by the Twisting Deceit…all of that ran through his mind in the three bounds it took to get across the Archives to safety, but Jon’s hands were balled up in the back of his shirt and Martin was holding the door for him and he had to at least get in and get Jon down safely before he went back out there, and the second he was across the threshold Martin slammed the door and leaned against it, breathing heavily.
Jon was whimpering faintly as Tim slid him back over his shoulder to sit on the cot. Tim was about to reassure him that they were safe when his brain locked onto the pitch and timbre of Jon’s screams. Not fear. Pain. He instantly gave him a once-over and quickly found what he was looking for and afraid he’d find, in what little meat there was to his calf, just behind his left ankle. “Shit fuck damn! Martin, bottom left drawer, there’s a first-aid kit, I need it now!” He quickly patted himself down and—as he’d expected—came up with nothing but his key ring. He gritted his teeth. “This isn’t going to be fun, but it’s going to be the best I can do.”
“Wh-what are you—I, I didn’t get the recorder, I need to go grab the recorder,” Jon chanted, looking pale and dizzy. “I need to—”
“I’ve got one,” Martin said over his shoulder, rummaging through the drawer. He came up with the small metal kit triumphantly, then looked over at Jon and paled. “You’re bit!”
“I—nngh—“ Jon grimaced as he tried to move his leg.
Tim tried his hardest to keep his voice calm and level. “Jon, there’s a worm in there. I need to get it out. This is going to be messy, but—”
“Here. Use this.” Martin pressed something into Tim’s hand. “I’ll, I’ll get that recorder, okay?”
“I need you to hold him still,” Tim said, at the same time as Jon blurted out fervently, “Yes, please.”
Martin hurried over to his things, and Tim resigned himself to the fact that Martin was always going to do what Jon asked first. He looked at the object Martin had pressed into his hand and was surprised to discover it was a corkscrew—probably the one they’d used for Jon’s birthday wine last year. He eyeballed it, then the hole in Jon’s trouser leg…yeah, okay, that was probably about the right size.
“Okay,” he said, as calmly as he could. “This is still going to be messy, but probably not as bad. Sit still, okay? Can you do that for me?”
Despite the situation and the pain he had to be in, Jon still managed a pretty impressive glare, if not up to his usual standards. “I’m not a child, Tim.”
“You’re younger than my brother. You might as well be,” Tim shot back without thinking. “Sit still and try not to kick me in the face.”
He pushed the leg of Jon’s trousers up, exposing the bloody hole, and swiped at it with the first piece of gauze he found in the kit until it was clear enough for him to see. Gripping Jon’s ankle in a firm but not too tight hand, he lined the corkscrew up with the hole, gritted his teeth, and shoved it in.
Jon, unsurprisingly, screamed and—as Tim had more or less expected—jerked back, trying to pull himself free. Tim was stronger than he was, and he’d extracted enough splinters, thorns, and God knows what else from his daredevil baby brother, and he simply stiffened his arm to hold him steady and twisted the corkscrew in deeper. It squelched unpleasantly.
“And…there we go. Recording again,” Martin said. “Did you get it?”
Tim felt the tip of the corkscrew catch on something that he really hoped was the worm and not a muscle. Jon cried out in pain, and Tim’s heart, despite everything, clenched. He glanced up at Martin briefly. “Martin, I need you to sit behind him and hold him. Jon, Martin’s going to hold you, okay? This won’t take long, but it is going to hurt. I need you to be brave, okay?”
Evidently the pain was overriding Jon’s sense of indignation, because he nodded, then gave another soft cry of pain and closed his eyes. Martin, his whole face creased in anxiety, hastily sat on the cot next to him and wrapped his arms around Jon’s torso from behind, hesitantly at first, then more confidently and securely when Jon leaned back into him, almost involuntarily. Tim nodded, even though Jon couldn’t see him. “On three, all right? One…two…three.”
He pulled the corkscrew straight out. Jon cried out again and gripped Martin’s arm with almost clawlike fingers, but the corkscrew came free with a sucking pop and on the end was a feebly wriggling worm that, despite the bit of metal wrapped around its arse, seemed relatively intact. He pinched it off the end with the gauze, dropped it to the floor, and stomped on it as hard as possible. He wiped the blood off with a fresh piece of gauze, tapped a plaster in place, and—without really thinking about it—kissed the injured spot before rolling Jon’s trouser leg back down and patting it gently. “There. All done. Good job, Jon, you did good.”
Jon was breathing heavily, and his face was streaked with tears, but he sounded almost like his normal self as he opened his eyes. “Thank you, Tim.”
Tim glanced up at Martin, who—reluctantly, it seemed—let go of Jon. He didn’t go far, though. “Quick thinking with the corkscrew, Marto. Why do you have it, anyway?”
“For the worms.”
“What?” Jon looked up at Martin in confusion and some irritation, although noticeably less than usual.
“For pulling the worms out of people.” Martin gestured at the smear on the floor. “Like now.”
Jon followed Martin’s gesture, then cut his eyes away quickly; Tim swiped it up and lobbed it towards the rubbish bin in the corner. “How’d you think of that?”
Martin shrugged. “I used to carry around a knife, but I started thinking that, well, cutting laterally into someone wasn’t really the most efficient way to get them out, and besides which, they seem to be quite slow burrowing in a straight line, so, given their size, th-the corkscrew just seemed to be the better option.”
“Well, you’re right. Although I really hate that this is something you had to think about.” Tim found an alcohol wipe in the kit that probably wasn’t any good anymore, at least not for cleaning people, and began methodically wiping the blood off of the corkscrew.
“Thank you,” Jon said softly.
Tim glanced up at Martin. “You thought of this place without me shouting at you about it, right? That’s why the cot is in here?”
Martin’s cheeks turned pink. “Yeah. The room’s sealed. I checked it myself when I moved in.”
“Climate controlled, as well,” Jon put in. “Strong door. Soundproof.” He sighed. “These old documents are better protected than we ever were.”
“I did my best,” Tim muttered under his breath. He handed the corkscrew back to Martin and pushed to his feet. “Anyway, it’s a good place for you two to lie low.”
Jon looked up sharply at Tim. “What do you mean, you two? We’re trapped in here.”
“Look, someone’s got to stop those things,” Tim argued. “Gertrude Robinson trained me, so right now, I’m the best we’ve got. You two stay here and—”
“No,” Martin blurted out, his face drained of all color and his eyes huge with fear. “Don’t go. J-Jon’s right, it’s not safe, it—d-don’t go out there!”
They were well and truly scared…which was good, Tim supposed, it would keep them here and not getting themselves in trouble. On the other hand, their fear was going to draw the Corruption to them at some point or another, and even though the worms couldn’t easily access it, they’d get in eventually. He’d need to make sure they were either calm or protected before he could leave them.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
He glanced out the window of the door. No sign of Prentiss, not yet—that was good. And the worms seemed to be…backing off? Maybe he had a shot at this. He turned back to Jon and Martin. “Listen to me. Listen. It looks like we’ve got a clear path to the exit right now, but I know that’s bullshit. They’re waiting for something, and if we try to run for it they’ll be on us so fast, you have no idea. The Archives are in danger and so are we, and we’re not going to fix it by hiding in here. So unless you want to wait until someone comes to save us—”
“O-oh, God. Sasha!” Martin’s face, impossibly, got even paler. “I think she was out at lunch. She doesn’t know—we should, someone should call her, tell her not to come back inside.”
“There’s no signal in here,” Jon said, looking stricken as well. “We’ll just have to hope she heard the noise.”
Tim turned to look out the window again and cursed at the sight of the figure. “Too late! She’s just come in—fuck, she doesn’t see them.” He whirled back around and stabbed a finger at Jon and Martin. “Keep each other safe. Don’t open this door for anything unless I tell you it’s safe. The code word is ‘candlelight.’ If anything else tries to come through, you spray it to death and you run, and you get out of the Institute by any means necessary. Do you understand me?”
“Tim—” Jon protested, starting to try and get up, then collapsing to the ground with a cry. Martin rushed to his side. Tim used the momentary bit of chaos to open the door wide enough to admit himself and squeeze out, slamming the door behind himself.
His worst nightmare…well, close enough to it anyway…presented itself. Sasha had stooped to pick up the tape recorder and was looking at it carefully…but there was another figure behind her. This one wasn’t as tall as Sasha, with long, stringy dark hair and the tattered remnants of a red dress…and honeycombed all through it were holes, out of which poked more of the greyish-white worms.
“Sasha! Behind you!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
Sasha turned around and gave a ragged gasp, clutching the recorder to her chest like a talisman. The thing that had to be Jane Prentiss smiled at her with a mouth that was more worms than teeth.
“Do you hear their singing?” she asked. There was a swelling hum that was almost musical if you didn’t think too hard about it as hundreds of worms suddenly began squeezing up through the cracks between the floorboards around her.
“RUN!” Tim put everything he had into his bellow as he cleared the distance in two great strides and slammed into Sasha, tackling her out of the way as Prentiss and the worms sprang for them. She screamed and hit the floor, and honestly a whole lot of worms in the process, which made her scream louder. Tim quickly rolled to one side and onto his back, then sprang to his feet.
Prentiss was close. Too close. And they’d killed a bunch of worms when they landed, but there were still more, and more coming by the second. He leaned over, grabbed Sasha’s arm, and bodily hauled her upright.
“Go! Run!” he shouted, propelling her towards the door.
“Tim! Come on!” Sasha held onto his wrist and dragged him along behind her, still clutching the recorder with her free hand, worms popping and squishing under their feet.
Tim let her until they reached one of the shelves and he realized how full of worms it was. There were…way more than he’d expected, and yet somehow not as many as he would have expected if the Creeping Rot was seriously invading. He shook off the moment of analytical paralysis and let go of Sasha’s hand. “Run! Get help! I’ll hold them off!”
If she heard him, or responded, he didn’t notice; he only noticed that, thank God, she made it out the door of the Archives. Tim blew a raspberry at the shelf full of worms, then turned and bolted for the Archivist’s office. It was the logical choice—it was Ground Zero for the invasion, but also, it was Gertrude’s office. If there was anything in the Archives that could fight off an invasion, it was probably hidden in there somewhere.
Some of the worms leaped at him as he reached the door. He yelped, secure in the knowledge that there was no one to hear him, and dodged to the side to avoid them. Naturally, he overcompensated and tumbled headlong into a pile of boxes holding old case files. Or at least, they should have held old case files. From the solid nature of the things he hit, they didn’t—and from the faint clanking, they were probably fire extinguishers. God bless Martin and his paranoid hoarding.
Tim dove into one of the boxes and came up with an extinguisher. He twisted the pin and yanked it out, aimed the nozzle, and squeezed the trigger.
Just as Sasha had said in her statement, the worms died fairly quickly on contact with the extinguisher. He sprayed, and sprayed, and sprayed, until the extinguisher came up dry, then dropped it, grabbed a new one, and repeated the process. There were too damn many of the things, though, and he couldn’t get out of the office to get at them properly, so it was just…spray them until they stopped coming at him, specifically.
Had Elias actually had the new system installed? Tim vaguely remembered something about men coming to install, but had they…? Yes, yes they had, because the crew boss had gotten into a twenty-minute argument with Jon about it and then insisted on Elias signing about fifty different waivers saying they wouldn’t hold the company accountable if the Archives actually caught fire and the system didn’t do anything, and he recalled now the kid on the crew mentioning offhand that they’d assumed it was a computer archive rather than a paper one. And he’d managed to convince them not to install it in the Document Storage room, so if they managed to get it active, Jon and Martin would be safe.
Tim probably wouldn’t, but he’d suffocate if he had to.
He managed to clear enough space that he could slam the door shut. It wouldn’t help for long, though, since the hole in the wall was right there, but nothing seemed to be coming at him at the moment. He had five…maybe ten seconds’ breathing space. Well, breathing was optimistic. Still…he fished his phone out of his pocket and hit the preset number, then jammed his phone against his ear as he dug for more fire extinguishers. One ring, two, three…
“Delano.” Gerry sounded slightly distracted, like he’d been engrossed in his art, which he probably had been.
“Gerry, I love you,” Tim blurted out before Gerry could say anything else.
“What?” Now Gerry sounded startled, which was fair. Tim calling in the middle of the day was usually met with something joking, and since they rarely said that…
“I love you,” Tim repeated, the words tumbling over one another as he darted his eyes back and forth from the door to the ruins of the shelves. He could hear the squelching, squirming noise, and over it all, in his own head, he could hear the loud ticking of a clock slicing off seconds of his life. He didn’t have time for this, but he didn’t have time for anything else. “Whatever happens, I need you to know that.”
“Tim, what—?” Gerry’s voice sharpened with fear, but Tim had already seen the first worm poke its head out from under the door.
“Gotta go!” He hung up without further ado and kicked viciously at the worm attempting to squeeze through; he killed it, but he also put a noticeable dent in the bottom of the door. Oops.
It wasn’t safe in here. Sasha would get help, she’d—she was smart, she’d figure out a way to activate the fire alarm and get the fire suppressant system working in the Archives, even if there would probably need to be an actual fire to activate it, maybe one of the worms would bite through Mister Megabytes’ cord and short it out. Jon and Martin would be okay in their incredibly defensible position, hopefully, at least long enough for the system to activate; it wasn’t airtight, obviously, but they should be okay. Tim needed to go, though, and it looked like the only way out was to figure out where the worms had been. Probably just a narrow space between the walls, a secret passage that had been boarded up or a temporary wall put in to portion off the building when it was modernized or something. Either way…it wasn’t here.
The hole was bigger than it had been when he’d hauled Jon’s scrawny ass out of the office. Not a surprise, Jane Prentiss had to have got out somehow…God, she’d been in the damn walls. Tim moved a little closer and sucked in a sharp breath, ill advised as that was, when he realized it wasn’t just a gap in the wall. It was a proper tunnel.
Hadn’t Gertrude said the Institute was built more or less right over the remains of Millbank Prison? This could have been part of that original complex. Which meant these could go anywhere, extend for miles under the surface. They probably weren’t in great shape, except that if it was Millbank, it had been designed by Robert Smirke, who built to last. Either way, it also likely meant the space would be a bit more open, so he might be able to get away from the carbon dioxide. On the other hand, it was going to be dark, and he’d need both hands to work the fire extinguishers.
Actually, that was an easy fix. Tim whipped his belt off his waist, threaded it through the buckle, and tugged it around his head so it was almost but not quite snug. Then he activated the torch on his phone and tucked it on one side, then turned on the pocket torch on his keys and stuck that upright on the other before tightening the belt and securing the tang. Definitely not the most elegant thing he’d ever worn, but hardly the worst, and in the absence of a wreath to set candles in it would have to do. He grabbed a trio of extinguishers under one arm, crossed himself, and sent up a quick prayer to Saint Lucy, then plunged into the hole.
It was…dark, obviously, and the light of his improvised crown cast odd shadows on the sides of the tunnels, but it was cool and dry and oddly quiet. At first he thought there were no worms left down here, but then he saw some—moving faster, and much more quietly than they had in the Archives. Something up there, probably Gertrude’s wards, was slowing them down, but down here they were…stealthier. Quieter. A different kind of fear, maybe.
It didn’t matter. Tim unleashed the first of his canisters of carbon dioxide on the batch and watched them die, then ran over their corpses. He had to find…something. An exit. An answer. Fucking Gertrude.
She had to know about this, didn’t she? Was that why she’d put the shelves where she had? To know if something tried to break through that wall? Obviously there had to be other entrances, this couldn’t be completely sealed off…well, Jane Prentiss had got down here somehow, and even if the worms could squeeze through the floorboards, she couldn’t. She’d never mentioned it to Tim…or Gerry, probably…but that didn’t mean she didn’t know about it, only that she didn’t mean to tell them about it. Which meant that she was either not sure of how dangerous it was, or using it as a contingency plan for something. Either way, there was the possibility she was down here somewhere.
There was also the possibility that, if she was down here, she was lost. Hopefully she had enough food to last her a while, because this place was a fucking labyrinth. Tim wasn’t sure if he was more worried about meeting the Minotaur, the Goblin King, or the world’s biggest lab rat, but at least he didn’t sense the Spiral down here, so this was…probably real. Probably not changing. Probably. He didn’t really sense the Buried, either, so there had to be a way out.
He was…definitely a little dizzy. Okay, so maybe pumping six canisters of carbon dioxide into a room he was actively standing in wasn’t the smartest idea, but what was he supposed to do, let them get to him? Or worse, destroy the Archives?
He had to get back up there. Had to find another way up, had to find another way in. If he could get outside and loop in through the side door, maybe he could start a fire and—no! No, he couldn’t actually start a fire, Jon and Martin were trapped in there, even if the fire suppressant system put it out right away they might still get hurt.
Frith in a barn! What a business. The line popped into Tim’s head, and he took a deep breath to center himself. He was starting to think in circles. Right. Focus on getting out, then he could figure out how to save the others and stop Jane Prentiss.
The realization that, if this was the Creeping Rot’s attempt at a ritual, it was likely going to make Jon and Martin sacrifices for its ascension struck Tim at about the same moment as another small wave of worms appeared. He sprayed the fuck out of them with the first of the CO2 canisters and ran, ran like he could outrun his poor decisions, ran like he could outrun his past, ran like he could catch the future before it slipped out of his fingers. Ran like his life and the lives of everyone he cared about depended on him, because they did.
And, of course, he made a wrong turn and found a dead end. No…not a dead end. A room.
A room that was filled with worms. Tim quickly hopped backwards through the door—and then paused in the act of aiming the fire extinguisher. He turned his head slightly and cut his eyes to the side so he had a bit more light and could see better, because the vague impression he got looked…odd, and he needed to make sense of it. Without consciously being aware he was doing it, he crossed himself and recited the old familiar novena to Lucy of Sicily, Santa Lucia, bringer of light, patron saint of the blind and those who wanted clearer sight.
And his eyes opened, and he Saw.
The worms were knitting themselves together, weaving themselves into a solid mass. The structure rose into the air, creeping up the wall. Two structures, really—two columns, curving slightly in on themselves, not quite meeting but getting closer by the second. Silent but fast, the worms crawled up over their brethren and twined themselves into the ends, securing in loops and links and chains. It would take so little time for them to meet. At the rate they were going, Tim estimated another ten minutes, tops, before the two halves connected into an arch.
Into a doorway.
“Not on my turf, bitch,” Tim snarled. His voice echoed oddly in a way he wasn’t entirely sure had to do with the tunnels but couldn’t spare the brainpower to think about just then. He dropped the two spare canisters to the ground, raised the nozzle of the one he’d already started using, and squeezed the trigger hard.
The gas hissed as it dispensed into the room. The worms didn’t scream—of course they didn’t, that would be ridiculous, they didn’t have mouths—but he felt them screaming to the core of his being as the ones he touched with the carbon dioxide died. Not enough of them. Not nearly enough. He squeezed and sprayed until the fire extinguisher was empty, then dropped it to the ground, snatched up the next one, and sprayed it into the room as well. It was definitely getting harder to breathe by the time that one was spent, but Tim was absolutely not finished. Coughing violently, he scooped up the third one, backed out of the doorway, and sprayed it into the room, filling it like a hellish steam room.
Maybe Gertrude would have had a better solution, but hey, it was Tim’s first time disrupting a ritual. And he was improvising a bit.
He wasn’t stupid enough to think that was the end of it, though. He’d disrupted the portal, but Jane Prentiss was still out there and she was still going to try…even if she couldn’t bring the Corruption into the world fully now, she might still hurt his people if he didn’t find them and get them out. He hefted the canister to gauge if there was still anything in it. Felt like there was.
Right. Tim backed further down the corridor until he was far enough away from the tendrils of carbon dioxide that he could safely take a deep breath, then turned on his heel, squared his shoulders, and kept moving. Briefly, he touched the Saint Anthony’s medal beneath his shirt and murmured a quick plea for assistance—hey, Lucy had done him a solid back there, no reason to think the other saints wouldn’t get in on it—before focusing his attention on finding his way out of the tunnels, back to the Archives, and back to stopping Jane Prentiss.
Back to saving the others. Back to saving the world.
Gertrude had left him in charge. She had trusted him with her Archives in her absence. He had to keep proving himself worthy of that.
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sophietv · 2 years ago
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What are your thoughts on 1975 fans trying to attribute a lot of Easter eggs to Matty in the new video? :( Someone on Twitter put a visual together of all the highlights and it’s so annoying because when it’s laid out like that I see it and I hate that I see it. Just like lighting visuals being very similar, and particular dates being significant to the 1975 and/or Taylor. For example, the July 9th 1:38 people are saying is for Taylor and Matty’s birthdays (the 13th and the 8th). I guess the timeline makes sense because early April when she filmed this video would have been around the time when she was hanging out with him and doing whatever pr nightmare that was…talk me off the ledge pls! Lol.
Hi!
Don't worry, I went and check the threads you were talking about and I'm confident that it's not related or at least not as they think.
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The lighting in I Can See You Lyrics Video is the bisexual lighting and fits really well with the theme of the song.
Her comparing being in love with another woman to being a spy and having to navigate cautiously to not be seen.
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The spy scene is remisnescent of a commercial she did:
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(X)
And what she was trying to protect back then in the briefcase was a microphone you know to "Speak Now" maybe...
The videoclip has a lot of references to Look What You Made Me Do both MV and Eras Tour number, and I think it's very important and meant to point at Karma.
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A girl, that is remisnecent of Lizz comes and save her with her beard at the time that shielded her.
All her outfit of her public appearance (X) emprisonned behing glass.
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Side note on all of this is reminescent of the Tom Ford commercial Karlie did not long ago
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With the lyrics video too:
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Her being locked up in a Vault. With an orange door.
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And the Eclipsed Sun imagery (do with that that you will ;-) )
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Also some Karlie's parallel:
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With Long Live lyrics on her arm.
"I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you"
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Long Live was written a month after Chely Wright came out. And if you take the time to really look at the lyrics, you see how well this all fits together.
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Someone counted all the marks on the wall, and there's 1468 lines/days.
The exact number of days between when her masters got stolen and her releasing Speak Now Taylor's Version (X)
When she's finally free. All the glass closet shatter.
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And even more. The building holding her captive explodes once and for all.
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The person who help her escape has stars on her right side (Eye theory I'm looking at you)
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Stars on the face are there always to depict Taylor Swift TM public personna.
And she's the only one that can actually see Taylor and help her out.
Some say it might be gaylors, who can actually see the real Taylor.
But whoever this person is meant to represent.
She codes...
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And has a ring on her right ring finger....
Now the dates:
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It's tonight.
Remembre how Taylor said that Speak Now her version would be out on July 7th just in time for July 9th where we would be able to celebrate?
Now the time 1:38. The mission starts at that time. But how much time would it take to get her out? 20 minutes maybe?
Wich leads to: "Lit through the darkness at 1:58" and "That July ninth, the beat of your heart"
Both lyrics from last kiss.
To me it does sound like a rendez-vous. Now the only thing to determine is: is it 1:38 ET or 1:38 Liverpool time wich would be 8:38 ET (just before Taylor goes on stage for the show tonight).
And notice that in the countdown yesterday. Beside the clock in the front, every other clocks pointed to 1:58
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And the other date is where it gets really interesting...
I found this last night.
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May 22 2020
Here's what happened for Taylor on that date:
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And when you type the adress, you are still led to her website with this ULR message:
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"they wouldn't me do it Karma" (X)
And yes, I think it is exactly what you think it is...
Remembre how last week right before Karlie posted 6 palm trees (Karma was supposed to be TS 6th album)
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The URL on karmaonthewall.com changed for "after Midnights it starts" to "Ready For It"
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Suki, Austin and Kristine Karlie's sister also posted palm trees last week....
Here's a post I did about how Ready For It is relevent for all of this (X)
So yeah... everything in that MV is sooo important.
Nothing is related to Matty.
Now we just have to wait and see. And show a lot of support and love for that amazing woman who's been throught so much and deserves the world.
And after this URL change of last night... I think we can safely agree that karmaonthewall.com is really related to Taylor too...
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