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more-miserables · 4 years ago

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Part Seven - White Wedding

@cubeswhump here. This title has no significance. Y'all know I'm terrible with titles and there's this bit about wedding dresses and I got that stupid Billy Idol song stuck in my head.

Tagging @liliability @albino-whumpee If you're not tagged and want to be, just let one of us know.

Yates was hoping he’d be able to curl up with Ginger under those soft, frilly bedsheets and take a nap, hoping he’d have time to digest all the extraordinary information they’d received in the past thirty-six hours. Ginger looked like he would have benefitted from some sleep too - but he didn’t even wait for his face to regain its colour. He hauled himself up on his wobbly legs, clinging to the wall for support.

“Come on,” he hissed. “I want to look around. Check everyone out.”

“I really think you should rest for today,” Yates mumbled, though he was already trailing after Ginger. “We don’t even have any real clothes.” Andromeda had brought them strange, soft pyjamas when they’d both showered after the doctor left. Ginger’s looked practically brand new - plaid pants and a soft black shirt with long sleeves. Yates’s were older, with a slightly washed-out look, the bright pink faded to a sickly peach. They were patterned with bright red roses; it seemed the person closest to his size was one of the girls.

“I doubt they’ll care what we wear. But we need to make sure these guys are the real deal, okay? Make sure they won’t report us.” The stairs were causing Ginger some difficulty, and Yates held him round the waist to guide him up. “Thanks. Look, I’ll sleep after we meet everybody, if you really want.”

“Okay…”

They jumped when at that precise moment, someone knocked on the door at the top of the stairs. Yates opened the door very reluctantly, and Andromeda strode down the stairs, smiling brightly at them both.

"Are you two hungry? Shall I bring a tray here again or would you like to come upstairs?"

“Upstairs please,” Ginger said, while Yates was still dithering over the choice and the astonishment that they’d been given one. “We want to look around.”

“Ginger does,” Yates whispered. He’d much rather cower in the basement himself.

"Well, we'd love to see you," Andromeda said, "but if you want to stay here while he looks around, there's the TV or I can find you an audiobook or some drawing stuff…"

“No thank you,” Yates said hastily, grabbing Ginger’s good hand. “I’d prefer to stay with him.”

Andromeda nodded, and though he smiled, the look in his eye and his lingering gaze made Yates uncomfortable. He chatted as he led them upstairs and through elaborately decorated, spotless halls.

"There are lots of choices so I think you'll find something you like. Everyone likes different things here. Xander gets sick from a lot of foods so we have to limit certain things. David is back over and he just likes toast and tea, but you can have something more exciting if you'd like."

“We should probably introduce ourselves to David, if he’s our new owner,” Yates said. “We need to be respectful.”

"No, he's not your owner. No one has owners here," Andromeda said calmly, and added, "Well, except the animals."

“It might take him a while to grasp it,” Ginger mumbled. “He was always better at this than I was.”

The kitchen was its own room with the wall connecting to the flamboyant living room knocked down. There was an actual booth by the very large windows, blue benches with grey pillows and a marble table, and a table with chairs that matched the bench nearby. This was clearly the main room they ate in.

Tina, Nils, and Harley were at the table - and there was a new boy there too, pressed right up against Tina's side. His hair had more brown to it than Ginger's, but Ginger almost felt glad he wasn't the only redhead. But this boy had skin that was almost tan and none of the freckles splattered all over Ginger.

There were three more people at the other table, a baby in a wooden highchair, a woman, and a… Yates did a double take and was pretty sure he was a man. The woman wore a very fancy nightgown, decorative lace and silk and way too much effort to sleep in. Her legs were propped up on another chair and she had on fuzzy slippers with rabbit ears, ruining the effect. She was very pretty, though, with dark eyes and smooth brown skin and high cheekbones. Her hair was very big and curly, dark brown with blonde highlights. The baby had very dark hair with curls like hers and skin the same shade, and the frilly pink clothes suggested she was also a girl.

The man across from her seemingly ignored her for his phone, sipping his tea carefully so he wouldn't smudge his lipstick. Who in their right mind would wake up and put on a full face of makeup this early? His shirt was shiny purple silk that matched his nails and his black hair fell in loose curls, and judging by the lines around his eyes Ginger secretly thought that wasn't his real color.

Yates ducked behind Ginger, suddenly shy. This man - if he really was a man, Yates still wasn’t totally sure - was unlike any he’d ever seen. He looked nothing like any of the men who came by Stanley’s house, and he didn’t look like the people at the facility. He couldn’t help seeming rather formidable, with his cool air of class and his perfect posture. The serious look on his face didn’t help. Ginger couldn’t think why anyone would paint their face just to sit there looking miserable, but he was quickly distracted by the baby. She was cute, sure, but also the most unexpressive, dull baby ever. He squinted. Was it even blinking?

Andromeda ran through a list of vaguely familiar names: "You've met Tina, Nils, and Harley. That's Briar, that's Priscilla, and that's David. Xander and Jay usually sleep in and Crow's a little nervous to meet you two just yet."

Yates heard none of that, and he didn't see the auburn-haired boy glaring or the unfamiliar woman sizing them up. He also didn't hear this woman say, "Fresh meat."

He only heard Andromeda say David. He saw the finger pointing at this new man, and David turning to nod at them. He saw David shake his head at the woman at his table.

This was David, the new owner. And Yates had no idea what to expect from a man like this. He went to kneel and show respect again, but Ginger caught him by the scruff of his pyjamas and held him there. Yates froze, staring at David helplessly.

Yates nearly jumped when this man spoke. His voice was surprisingly deep and very plummy.

"You don't have to stay standing. There's space over here, or you can sit over there since you're acquainted with Tina and Nils," he said, waving a hand in their direction and adjusting his glasses with the other.

Yates started asking in a tiny voice which David would prefer, but Ginger wasn’t in the greatest mood after having his hand hacked at for half the morning. He grabbed Yates mid-sentence and dragged him over to Tina’s table.

Andromeda was by their side, running down a list of food options, but both were distracted. At the forefront of Yates' mind was this David, and Ginger was having a staring contest with Nils. Only Nils would not make eye contact and Ginger had no clue what he was staring at. His drink was in a sippy cup and his waffles and fruit were cut into tiny bits. Odd.

“What were you trained as?” he asked. Maybe a domestic - he wasn’t particularly pretty, just like Ginger himself.

Tina gave Nils a fond pat on the shoulder. “Nils didn’t quite have the same background as you, dear. But he’s equally safe and happy here.” She didn’t elaborate, and Ginger was left more confused than ever.

Nils looked at her, squinting like he had no idea what she was talking about. But he went back to his plate, dripping syrup down his bare chest and whining when Tina wiped him down with a flannel. He didn't close his mouth to chew either. Watching him eat wasn't terribly appetizing. Ginger was almost glad he didn’t have much appetite, but he put a waffle in front of Yates. “You should eat something. When did you last eat properly?”

Yates bent his head. “I’m… not sure I should eat.”

“Why not? You must be hungry.”

“But I haven’t done anything to deserve it,” Yates muttered. His voice was low, but Tina still heard.

“You don’t have to earn food, sweetheart,” she said. “Nobody does. You can eat all you want here. You’re not going to get into trouble for eating.”

"It's good to keep our energy up, yeah?" Andromeda called from where he sat at David's table. "You can have however much you want. Both of you."

Yates nibbled his lip. This had to be a trick. Stanley used to do it too. He’d ask Yates if he thought he deserved to eat, and if he said yes he was punished for taking luxuries for granted, and if he said no he’d be punished for not working hard enough.

Ginger sighed. He cut off a corner of the waffle and held it up to Yates. Yates sucked in his lips and Ginger snorted. “Are you five? Come on. Just a bit.”

Yates shook his head stubbornly.

“For me?” Ginger said, putting a breathy, sickly-sweet imitation of Yates’s own voice. Yates gave him a disgruntled look - but parted his lips slightly all the same. Ginger quickly stuffed the fork in his mouth before he could reconsider.

Andromeda caught Tina's eye and grinned. She winked.

As Ginger helped Yates through his breakfast, he stared across the table again, trying to size everyone up. Nils was still painting himself with syrup, commanding most of Tina’s attention, so Ginger looked at the boy clinging to her other side. Brian, was it?

Nils stole most of the attention but when you actually noticed this boy, he was possibly weirder. He just stared at Tina wordlessly and wouldn't touch his eggs and pancakes until she nudged him, at which point he would take a bite or two and then go back to staring. At one point, he noticed Ginger's gaze - and gave him the most ferocious scowl.

Ginger felt affronted and pulled a hideous face back, sticking out his tongue and wrinkling his nose.

"Ah!" Nils suddenly yelled out, jumping up and pressing his face to the window. Harley barely glanced up, like this was ordinary, but Ginger's eyebrows shot up at the goat grazing just outside.

“What is he doing?” Ginger asked weakly. Not that he was upset by the sight of the goat. It looked quite sweet. Maybe it would let him stroke it? If he was allowed. No, even if he wasn’t! He was through taking orders now.

“Why don’t you show them the animals when we finish eating?” Andromeda called over. “Maybe you two new boys would like to see around the house.”

“I’d rather see the animals,” Ginger said. Yates wasn’t too keen on that - he’d much rather look around the house - but he didn’t want to be away from Ginger. He kept quiet.

After everyone had finished, Andromeda collected plates and started cleaning up. Nils crawled over Tina and Briar, who yelled, “Get off!” He was standing before anyone else, waving his arms at Ginger and Yates in an exaggerated beckoning gesture.

They stood obediently, Yates clinging onto Ginger’s good hand. They could’ve been glued together now for all the time they spent linked. They followed Nils to the door, Ginger having to drag Yates out because he didn’t want his bare feet on the grass. Nils, though fairly clean right now, looked like he belonged out here with the animals with his toffee-colored hair standing out in every direction, shirtless with freckles all across his face and torso and barefoot with overgrown toenails. He ran to a shed first.

“What’s in here?” Ginger asked, pointing to the shed. “Which animal?”

Nils turned to them, bunching his four fingers and thumb together and tapping his lips twice before leading them into the shed. The shed was small and from what Ginger could see, there were no animals in there. Just canisters, buckets, metal bowls, and hay. Nils popped the lids off to canisters and started filling a plastic bucket with grey-brown pellets.

“I don’t know what your hand gestures mean,” Ginger told him. “Can you point to what I need to get?”

Nils grunted a bit as he picked the bucket up, and he shoved it into Ginger’s arms. Ginger had to let go of Yates to grab it, and Yates clung to his shirt instead. Then Yates was nearly knocked over when something bashed into his shoulder. He looked down to see the small block of hay that had hit him, and back up to see Nils pointing at him.

“You want my help too?” He hastily grabbed the hay block, eager to be of use. Nils nodded and gave Yates another small block, and he filled up another bucket with pellets and corn and hauled it up himself, cheeks puffing out, and led them out the door. He was almost as small as Yates, and at least a few years younger, but he seemed to trust himself more with the heavier of the feed.

“I guess we’re not worthy of the hard jobs yet,” Ginger muttered, but he didn’t sound cross. He was smiling.

Nils dragged them around the yard. It was big, a bit too big as Nils kept nearly dropping his bucket and when he set it down to take a break, a big goat and a smaller one ran at him. He held it above them and shook his head, but he turned to Ginger and tilted his head toward the goats.

“This?” Ginger checked, pointing to his bucket. The goats were showing a lot of interest in him. The little one lowered its head and bumped Ginger’s legs, making him squeak in surprise.

Nils nodded. “Oh,” he said, like an instruction.

Ginger scattered the food rather nervously. The goats stayed by his bucket, clearly unimpressed, so he tried again, bolder this time. He scattered large handfuls of feed and the goats pounced on it. He looked at Nils while they were distracted. “Can I touch them? Do they mind?”

Nils nodded, patting the little one. Another goat trotted over, roughly the same size as the bigger one but this one was black, brown, and white. Ginger knelt by the brown one. It was preoccupied with the food; it probably wouldn’t mind being stroked. Ginger ran his good hand over the coarse fur, feather-light and tentative. Nils picked his own bucket up again when the little one became interested, hugging it to his chest to keep hold of it. Yates stood back, holding his hay blocks like a shield. He wasn’t too sure about these goats, with their staring yellow eyes and weird smells. He gasped when one of the goats started sniffing at the blocks, but Nils pushed it away with his foot, nearly overbalancing and falling over.

He made another noise, nudging Ginger with his shoulder.

“Are we done here?” Ginger asked. Nils nodded. “Where to next?”

Nils led them around, showing them a giant pig and her piglets in a big pen (who practically inhaled the bucket of food and blocks of hay), returning to the shed to get food for the noisy chickens (Ginger actually squealed when he saw the tiny chicks), and the two cows who wandered the yard with the goats already had their food, hay and other plant matter, that they ate through the bars of a circular fixture. Ginger was running back and forth after they’d finished feeding the animals, as if he couldn’t get enough of them all, and though Yates allowed himself to be pulled to and fro, he was more focused on the two men who had appeared by the fence than the animals.

One was fairly tall and dressed in black with hair that matched, and the other was in a wheelchair, chin-length brunette hair sticking out in all directions like a dandelion. He had an eyepatch over one eye and stared back at Yates as the other man spoon-fed him from a bowl.

“Who are they?” Yates tried to ask Nils, but he just made some of his confusing gestures. He accosted Ginger instead, but he was even less interested.

“Who cares? I’m going to see the baby pigs again,” he said.

Yates hesitated. If he was perfectly honest, he didn’t really want to go look at the pigs again. He wanted to meet everybody, to make sure they would be safe here. He looked up at Ginger. “Stay by the pigs? So I can still see you. I want to meet those men.”

Ginger nodded. “I will. Be careful with them. You never know what people can do.”

You never know what people can do. Yates never knew he’d be able to push old men down their stairs. He shook his head hard, going towards the two men by the fence. He wouldn’t think of Stanley.

The wheelchair was similar to Stanley’s, designed to be pushed by another person rather than driven by the user, with its tall back and armrests. But this wasn’t a weary old man; he was… an adult. Yates couldn’t quite distinguish ages. People were children, adults, elderly. This man was probably on the younger side of adulthood. He looked around the age of most trainees: above eighteen, always. All WRU trainers are of legal age. But never too old, no. They had to be young and desirable. He had no collar, of course. He wouldn’t be a pet. But no one here wore collars.

And this man shrank down in his chair as Yates approached, pressing his head down to his knees with his red-gloved hands over it protectively. The man standing smiled, though his expression was guarded. “Hey. You’re the new guy?”

“One of them,” Yates whispered. He felt quieter and quieter when he was separated from Ginger, like he started fading away altogether.

“Yeah, you can’t miss the redhead. He abandoned you then? The animals can be a big draw. Nice to meet you, anyway. I’m Jay. This is Xander.” He gestured to the man in the chair. “He’s kind of shy with new people. Hey, Xand! Don’t you want to say hello? It’s alright, this one looks quiet and docile.”

“I am,” Yates assured them, trying to be helpful.

Xander didn’t move for a moment, but then he slowly sat up. He looked back and forth between Jay and Yates.

“Do you have a name yet, Curly?” Jay asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh well, that’s something you can think about. Don’t worry too much about it here, it’s really okay when you get used to it. We’re doing okay here, eh, Xand?”

Xander just returned his gaze to Jay, staring up at him.

“Are you a bonded pair too?”

“No,” Jay said shortly. He didn’t offer any other explanation and his smile dropped. Yates backed away and ran back to Ginger, terrified he’d upset them.

Ginger, along with Nils, was in the pig pen. Yates gasped. “Ginger! Don’t get your bandages dirty.”

“Don’t call me that,” Ginger grumbled. “We need to think of new names now. Good names. Anyway, never mind that. Look at this pig!” He held up the smallest piglet. “He’s so much smaller than the other ones!”

“Put him down, you’re going to get your hand infected all over again,” Yates cried.

“I’m barely touching him with that hand! It still hurts a lot. Stop fussing. Don’t you want to come in and meet the pigs?” Ginger said distractedly, still with an armful of piglet. He wasn’t looking at Yates. He was grinning right at Nils.

Yates felt his cheeks growing warm. He had a sudden terrible urge to snatch Ginger away from Nils, away from the animals, away from this very house. He’d never had to share Ginger’s attention before. It hurt even more that Ginger didn’t seem to notice, laughing at something Nils did. Making friends without him.

Yates could feel his eyes burning. He wasn’t supposed to cry, but the rules were so weird here, maybe he could. Even so, he didn’t want Ginger to see. Yates turned and trailed back to the house - and the fact that Ginger still didn’t notice made the tears start pouring.

"Excuse me? Are you all right?"

Yates just about had a heart attack. It was David. Yates scrubbed his face hastily. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry.”

"Did something happen?" he pressed on. Yates couldn't detect anger in his tone or face, but he couldn't detect much else either.

“I’m being ridiculous,” he sniffled. “Acting like a jealous child…”

"Well, sometimes people react in ways that are… that they think are absurd. But it's better to just let it happen." He paused. "As long as it isn't a reaction that harms anyone."

“I wouldn’t hurt anyone!” Yates cried - then his face went pale. He started shaking, eyes wide.

David looked taken aback. He looked around as if wanting to signal help.

“I wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Yates insisted, much louder. Don’t think about Stanley, don’t don’t don’t...

"I'm sure you wouldn’t. I was just adding as a general rule of thumb."

Yates didn’t know what that meant. He looked down at his trembling hands. Did thumbs have rules now too?

David fumbled in his bag - would that be called a purse or a satchel? - and handed Yates a tissue. He took it and quickly tried to wipe away any evidence of tears. “I don’t think I’m Ginger’s favourite anymore,” he said mournfully. “He likes those pigs best.”

David was silent for a long moment. "Would you like to sit down? I'll make tea."

Yates decided those kinds of questions could be taken as orders. He sat at once.

"Havin' a tea party, Davey?" That singsong voice… The woman with the baby.

That woman left a moment later, patting her baby's back. She paused and winked at Yates, and he shrank down until she disappeared.

At last, David returned, looking unnatural carrying a tray.

"Make your tea however you'd like," he said, taking his own cup.

“I don’t really know how I like it, sir.”

"Please, just David." He looked at the younger man's mug, patterned with flowers. "Why don't we experiment and find out what you like? In general, do you prefer foods that are very sweet?"

Yates still wasn’t sure. Didn’t David know they were given the barest, blandest food available, if they were fed at all? But he obediently spooned a little sugar and honey into his cup.

"Yes, see if you like that. Add more if you would like, but I would suggest only a little at a time. You can always add more but not take away."

Yates couldn’t understand why they were having such a blasé conversation while he was just mourning the loss of his partner to some stupid animals. Maybe David didn’t understand how devastatingly serious this was. “It’s Ginger who likes sweet things. He’s good at making cakes, doing the frostings.” His words wavered as his eyes filled up with tears again.

"You're speaking as if he's died."

“He’s not dying!” Yates started sobbing in earnest.

David was quiet for a moment. He took the smallest sip of his own tea. "Then it sounds like this problem can be resolved.”

“How?” Yates wept. “I don’t know how! We were just us before. Nobody else.”

"Yes, you're a bonded pair. Tell me, what will happen if you spend an hour or so apart, and then come back together?"

“Well… Back at our old place, we wouldn’t see each other all day. But we’d be chained together at night. It was okay again.”

"Don't you share a room? You'll still be spending nights together."

“Ginger might want to sleep with Nils instead. He’s funny and he knows about animals. I don’t know anything about them,” Yates said glumly. “And I’m not funny. I’m really boring.”

"I'm sure that's not true. But I think while he's preoccupied with the animals, you might like to find something you enjoy. A hobby."

“A hobby.” Yates muttered the word like it was another language. “Just for myself?”

"Yes. Most of the residents - recovering boxies, that is, like you - have hobbies." David sounded like he was making a business proposal, tone very serious and expression unchanging. Yates wasn't sure how he knew this, but David was definitely a businessman.

"I've met two other bonded pairs, one here and one at another property I work with," he went on, "and while they all stayed very close with their former bonded, I think they all found something to do on their own. Two from the same pair have even gotten jobs separately."

Separate. The very word frightened Yates. “H-how..?”

"Well, it took some time."

“I don’t remember… a time when we were separate.” It was like Yates couldn’t even comprehend the possibility.

"I think everyone needs some alone time. Spending time alone doesn't mean you're growing apart. If anything, I think it may help you both."

“How?” Yates burst out. “I don’t want to grow apart!”

David looked at him properly. He looked him in the eye, and Yates realized they hadn't made eye contact this whole time. David hadn't looked at his face much at all.

"Two people will form a sort of bond by marrying. They agree to spend life together, but do they spend every moment of the day together? Do they share every interest and hobby?" David asked. "Identical twins come from the same tiny cell that breaks apart. They develop and are born together. Parents frequently dress them alike and people treat them as if they're one person rather than two. But they are individuals and they typically develop their own identities, establishing their own style, separate interests, take different classes in uni."

“But me and Ginger don’t look alike,” Yates mumbled. He found it hard to grasp what David was talking about. He wished he’d just come out with it.

"You were treated as a single unit, but that's not what you are. You're two individuals. Separate people."

Yates wasn’t really getting the point, and it was clear on his face. Weeks of intense training couldn’t be erased so quickly. Maybe they were two separate people, but Ginger felt like a part of Yates. It felt like Yates wasn’t whole without him.

"Why don't you give hobbies a try? Then when your friend comes back in you can tell him about what you've done. It'll give you lots to talk about."

“What sort of hobbies?”

"Why don't you get to know some of the others and ask? Andromeda knits, Harley likes all kinds of arts and crafts, Priscilla has been able to relearn how to read and she likes poetry and makeup, Crow - well, he won't want to be bothered yet. But everyone will be friendly."

“I can just go up to them? They won’t be angry?” Yates checked.

"They won't, no."

“Okay. Thank you, sir - David.”

David nodded. Yates left the table, going in search of somebody else. Probably Andromeda, if he could find him. At least he made more sense than David.

Yates was struck by the messiness of the place as he moved from room to room; Stanley and Ivy had insisted on keeping a clean and tidy house. This place was chaotically cosy, with bright pictures on the walls and various possessions scattered about. The furniture was clearly high quality, though frequently buried under blankets.

"Hiya!"

Even while he was seeking Andromeda out, Yates jumped when Andromeda greeted him in the hallway.

“Hello, sir. David says I should try some hobbies,” Yates reported.

"Oh, he did?" Andromeda asked. "Do you want to right now, or would you rather not?"

“Well… I don’t really have any other tasks to perform. And Ginger is busy,” he said mournfully.

"It's okay to do nothing for a little while. We can put something on the telly, maybe, or we could try a hobby."

“I’m allowed to watch the television?” Yates seemed a tiny bit brighter.

"You are! Everyone's jealous you have a TV in your room," Andromeda laughed, "but you can watch TV in the living room as well."

“We can give the TV to someone else if you’d prefer,” Yates said quickly.

"Not if you and Ginger enjoy it!"

Yates decided to ask Ginger later. He was sick of making decisions.

"What will it be then?" Andromeda asked, smiling. "Telly or an activity? Or we could even do both."

More decisions. Yates mumbled that he’d like to try watching TV, mostly because he knew you just had to sit there and watch it. He felt exhausted already.

"Living room or your room?"

“Living room?” He said it like he wasn’t sure. But Ginger would have to pass the living room when he came back. He’d see Yates and want to sit with him again…

"Okay! Would you like me to watch with you?"

“Yes please. If you don’t mind, sir.”

"I don't mind at all," Andromeda said cheerfully, walking him back to the living room. David was no longer on the sofa. Yates sat on the floor automatically. Those sofas were fancy, there’s no way he’d be allowed to sit on them.

"Are you comfortable there?" Andromeda asked, perching on the leather cushion.

“I’m perfectly fine, sir.”

He flinched when Andromeda moved suddenly, but then could only blink his eyes in confusion when he found Andromeda sitting beside him on the floor.

"Let's see what's on. Looks like someone was on the wildlife channel, but I take it that's more your friend's style?" Andromeda said, different images flashing across the screen faster than Yates could keep up. "Cooking, baking, cartoons, reality - which is more scripted and dramaticized than real, but if I'm being honest… I love trash TV. Fashion, more reality, more cooking, cartoons again…"

“Why are those ladies choosing such fancy white dresses?” Yates asked, seeing a wedding dress program flick by.

Andromeda went back to the channel. "Oh, those are wedding dresses! They're choosing their outfits to get married in."

“Married?” He’d heard of that, but only when referring to their potential masters back at the facility. Yates knew weddings had giant fancy cakes because Ginger had been taught how to make them - but he’d never realised they had these special dresses too. “That’s what ladies wear to weddings?”

"Mhm. Big white dresses are customary, at least in primarily English speaking countries. Where I grew up, women would usually wear colorful silk with patterns and hats, though the white dresses and veils have started catching on."

“You didn’t grow up here?”

"No, I grew up in Mongolia," Andromeda said, though his accent sounded no different from his own. "Do you know where that is?"

Yates shook his head. He didn’t have a clue where Mongolia was. He didn’t even know which side of a map it’d be on.

"Do you know the seven continents? Asia?"

“Sort of,” Yates said vaguely. The names felt familiar, but he wasn’t sure why. Like déja vu.

Andromeda got his phone out of his pocket. He showed Yates a screen with clumps of green surrounded with blue. "We're here on this little island, which is actually rather big and doesn't feel much like an island. This is Mongolia waaaay over here."

“It’s bigger than here,” he mumbled. “Do you remember it?”

"Mhm. My parents and I moved here when I was twelve."

“Why don’t your parents live here too?”

"Well, they died after coming here, when I was still a kid. And I don't have family in this country so I went into foster care. Do you know what foster care is?"

Yates shook his head.

"When there's no one to look after a kid, they go into foster care where designated caregivers look after them."

“So is David your caregiver?”

"He was. I'm twenty-eight now, well past aging out of the system, so now I'm taking on some caretaking myself."

“Caring for us?” Yates clarified. It still seemed foreign to him. They were the ones trained for caring.

"Mhm."

“But that’s our job.”

"Well right now, both our jobs are to judge that wedding dress."

Yates frowned, but faced the television obediently. “She doesn’t look very happy with it.”

"What kind of clothes would you be happy wearing?" Andromeda asked. Any clothes. Not necessarily wedding."

“Um…” Yates paused. “I don’t know a lot of clothes. Just something comfy?”

"Comfy sounds nice."

“I don’t know what kind Ginger likes. Probably ones with animals on,” he said, a little tartly.

"Do you like clothes? Do you like the design and stuff?"

Yates shrugged. “I’d like to see more of them.”

"So you like this show?"

Yates nodded. He did like it too, he wasn’t just saying what he thought was the right answer. This show was simple. The women came in, picked out a few dresses they didn’t like, then found their dream dress and everybody cried and hugged and went away happy. He liked that.

#whump #box boy whump #bbu #pet whump #male whumpee #recovery whump #my characters #my writing

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keanureevesisbae · 4 years ago

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“The road to our forever” - Chapter 1

Summary: John and Darcie are planning their wedding, but it comes with certain ups and downs.

John Wick x OFC Darcie

Word count: 2k

Warnings: none

Masterlist // Previous chapter // Next chapter

It’s the end of January, which means that I’ve been engaged to John for about a month now. Yet Ellie and Tina can’t stop looking at my ring when I bring them their orders.

‘Mister Wick has such great taste,’ Tina admits, holding my hand as she checks out my ring. ‘You’re going to be Mrs. Wick.’

‘Do we need to call you that?’ Roger asks, wrapping his arm around Ellie. ‘After you get married?’

I shake my head. ‘No, for you guys I’ll always be miss Angel. I think if the four of you start to call me Mrs. Wick, I won’t even respond.’

‘Miss Angel fits you,’ Greg says. ‘I mean, I could see you as a Mrs. Wick, but I can’t see us say that.’

John bursts into the cafe, causing people to look up from their tables, including the high school kids and me. He has something in his hand. The dogs jump up when they see me and I pat them on their heads. John walks up to me and gives me a long kiss, causing the high school kids to be disgusted and they are not afraid to let us know.

‘Are you okay?’ I ask, when he lets me go of that long kiss, that—to be honest—made me a little bit weak in the knees. He barely greets me like this when he comes back into the cafe.

Oreo and Tiki are welcomed by the kids, but they all steal glances, wondering what has gotten into John’s mind and to be honest, I’m quite curious as well. This is not how my fiancé usually acts.

‘I’ve got something for you,’ John says. He hands me the heavy envelope that has my name on it.

When I turn it around, I recognize the stamp on it and I squeal. ‘Is this what I think it is?’

I don’t even wait for his response, as I rip open the envelope and see that it’s the Harper’s Bazaar edition of February. Two weeks ago I did a photoshoot and an interview with them and I can’t believe it’s finally here. There is a note attached to it, saying that they had such a good time with me and that they hope that it’ll arrive at my house before February 1st, when the magazine will hit the shelves and they can’t wait to see where my life is going after this.

‘Oh my God,’ I say, while I browse through the magazine, hoping to find my own part. ‘It’s three whole pages.’

‘Is that the interview?’ Ellie asks. ‘The one that you told us about a few weeks ago?’

‘It certainly is!’

John and I have taken place at his table, but all the high school kids are reading with me over my shoulder. ‘Oh my God,’ I say with a smile. ‘This is amazing.’

‘You are beautiful, Darcie,’ Ellie says. ‘You are truly living the dream life, aren’t you?’

‘It kind of looks like it,’ I say with a chuckle.

John presses a kiss on my temple and says: ‘I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.’

‘You are the absolute coolest,’ Roger says. ‘I mean, you named us in your interview. I’m going to buy this magazine when it comes out and I’m showing everyone how awesome the cafe manager is that I visit everyday.’

‘But miss Angel,’ Greg says, after the kids are done admiring the article, ‘are we invited to your wedding?’

I haven’t even thought about the wedding invitations. I have thought about the wedding, the location, but not who I want to invite.

‘You want to come?’ John asks, when I don’t respond right away.

‘Of course!’ Tina squeaks. ‘I’ve never been to a wedding.’

‘And I bet you’re going to look beautiful,’ Greg says, causing me to roll my eyes and say: ‘You’re such a kiss ass.’

‘Please, miss Angel,’ Roger begs. ‘That’ll probably my only chance that I can dance with you.’

‘You’re such a moron,’ I tell him. ‘We don’t know when we’re getting married yet, but the four of you will get an invitation.’

John starts to laugh when Roger and Ellie give me a kiss on my cheeks and I roll my eyes, before I burst into laughing as well. ‘Okay, I have to go back to work now,’ I say. ‘You want to read this, honey, or can I show it to Raye and Jennie?’

‘Show them,’ John says. ‘I’ve got enough to do.’

‘Oh mister Wick, you’re not going to talk to us?’ Roger asks, looking genuinely disappointed and I know that John can’t say no to them. Even if he had different things in mind to do, he’d do anything for those kids.

Imagine the things he’ll do for our own.

I give John a kiss on his cheek and whisper: ‘I love you, mister Wick.’

‘I love you too, future Mrs. Wick.’

⟢⟡⟣

After work, John and I take the dogs out for a walk in Central Park, before we head back to our apartment. ‘I have been thinking,’ I say to him.

‘Tell me all about it,’ John says, squeezing my hand.

I don’t understand—and probably never will—how this man’s hands are not ice cold. I’m wearing the thickest mittens one could wear, while he isn’t at all. Even through the thick fabric of my mitten, I can feel how warm he is.

‘Maybe you and I need to look for a different place. Like, a house.’

This gains John’s attention. ‘You mean, for when we have kids?’

I nod. ‘We only have room for one kid right now and that would mean that your bookbinding stuff has to move and we don’t have a guest room anymore. Though I love my apartment, I know that Jennie is also struggling financially and has to get out of her house in six months. My mother told me about it. I thought that maybe that we can give her that apartment, while we move into another house.’

‘If Jennie is struggling… Why didn’t she tell us?’

‘She once told me that when her parents died, she was left with debts. My parents helped her out, but she felt so guilty for it. I know that if we help her out financially, like, with literal money, she’d never accept it. An apartment, while we move into another house, that’s something she’d maybe accept.’

John nods. ‘Well, I do think it would be the perfect timing. I can look for something when you’re working. You have particular wishes?’

I shake my head. ‘Not really, just enough rooms for our kids and for us. A big kitchen, that’s a must.’

John nods again. ‘How many kids do you want?’

I shrug. ‘At least two and then pretty close together. Growing up I always felt pretty lonely and having someone your own age who is always there… I think that would be nice. How about you?’

He chuckles. ‘I mean, if it were up to me, five or more.’

‘Five or more?’ I repeat in a loud voice. ‘Oh my God, do you hate me? Why would you do that to me?’

‘I won’t, don’t you worry,’ he laughs. ‘I think two or three kids is perfect for us.’

We get back to the car and when we’re inside, I take off my mittens. ‘God, I’m so cold,’ I mentions, rubbing my hands together.

John holds them between his, so he can warm them. ‘My beautiful fiancée,’ he says with a smile. ‘God, I know it has been a month, but saying those words… It makes me happy.’

‘Me too,’ I admit. ‘And though I already used you as my personal human heater before we got engaged, I’ll continue to do so and when we get home, you better join me in the shower.’

‘I’ll never say no to that,’ John chuckles. He presses a kiss on both of my hands and starts the car, heating it up as we drive home. It’s not surprising we’re stuck in traffic, but that gives John plenty of time to fantasize about our future house.

‘You know,’ he starts, ‘when you and I have kids, I can see us on Sunday mornings in bed and the kids jump on top of us, their giggles filling the room. Then we’ll make breakfast as a family, maybe eat outside, listening to the birds. Then we all get ready so we can hang out at the cafe.’

For a brief moment I can see it all happening. ‘John,’ I say, when I’m back in reality and snapped out of that lovely thought. ‘Do you want kids right away? Right after we get married?’

He shrugs. ‘I want them whenever you are ready, sweetheart. I mean, you’re doing the hard work.’

I can’t help but chuckle. ‘So, no rush for you?’

‘No rush for me,’ he confirms. ‘I’m ready whenever you are ready.’

Taglist: @toomanystoriessolittletime / @flhorah / @allie1804-fan / @cynic-spirit / @raven-black102

#keanu reeves x oc #keanu reeves fanfic #keanu reeves #keanu reeves x original character #keanu reeves x ofc #john wick x oc #john wick fanfic #john wick x original character #john wick #john wick x ofc #the road to our forever

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blueberryrock · 4 years ago

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Here is the Prologue to my newest story! It's not a fanfic, it is an original story im writing! I hope y'all like it!

(Also I might change the name in the future)

"Momma" a small five-year-old girl with long brown hair tugs on the bottom of her tired mom's pants "when will daddy come home?" Her big bright brown eyes meet her mom's dull brown eyes.

The tired mom glances at her watch, which reads nine pm. She pulls a curtain back from the window in front of her and sighs "any minute".

She turns her head to look at the little girl "Why don't you go put your jammies on, grab your sister, and we'll play a little game" she warmly smiles. The little girl squeals and runs to her room.

The mom smiles as she runs down the long hallway, she glances back outside to the empty street. "C'mon Rick, where are you" she mutters. She fiddles with her gold wedding ring that has a single, gorgeous, red jewel on it. A "blood-red diamond" as her gemologist cousin calls it.

"Mom, please tell Karlene that I don't want to play some stupid game" The five-year-old, Karlene's, older sister complains. She tucks a strand of her long dirty blonde hair behind her ear.

"Now Sierra, you promised to play a game with her earlier, and as soon as your dad returns from work. You can go back to your room" Sierra's mom finally turns away from the window.

"Ugh, fine, but just one round" Sierra huffs "what game are we playing anyway."

"Cops and robbers!" Shrieks Karlene.

"No. No way am I going to play that stupid game" Sierra angrily crosses her arms.

"How bout a card game?" Their mom suggests.

"Ooh let's play gold fish!" Karlene happily said.

"Sounds good to me" Sierra finally agrees "and it's Go Fish."

"I'll grab a deck of cards, you two clear off the coffee table" their mom dashes out of the room to look for a deck.

"Where do you think dad's at," Sierra asked her little sister as she moves a stack of paper to the ground.

"Maybe he's fighting super villains!" Karlene enthusiastically hits a remote on the ground "oops" she mutters to herself.

Sierra can't help but giggle at her little sister's sheer happiness. "He could be" Sierra puts the last object onto the lower level of the coffee table.

"Really?" Karlene squeals.

Sierra smiles and messes with Karlene's crazy brown hair, she looks around and gets ear level with her sister. "You know dad does have superpowers" Sierra whispers and smirks.

Karlene's blue eyes go wide and her jaw drops "No. Way." Sierra only grins "umm, yes way, he told me"

And as soon as Sierra said that, the girl's mom walks into the large living room, hold a bowl of pretzels, and a deck of black cards.

Before she can set anything down, Karlene leaps to her feet and runs at her mom. "Does daddy really have powers?" She asks excitedly, bouncing up and down.

"Ah, well, I wanted to wait till you were older" their mom sends an upset glare at Sierra, which she ducks behind the glass coffee table.

Their mom walks around the bouncing Karlene and sets the bowl and deck on the table. "But yes, your father has...er..powers"

And at that Karlene lets out the loudest squeal on the planet. "Do you think he can show me his?" Karlene runs up to Sierra.

Sierra only shrugs "don't ask me," she says

Karlene then turns to her tired mom "do you think I'll have powers?" She jumps up and down on the carpet.

"Well, there is about a fifty-fifty chance of you two to get them, but let's play our card game" she pulls Karlene by the hand to sit "please? And once your father comes home, you can berate him with any and all questions"

Karlene grins again. "So six cards?" Their mom asks as she deals out five cards to everyone.

"I'm pretty sure it's seven" Sierra corrects her. They continue to play round after round until the big, old, grandfather clock strikes twelve.

Karlene is passed out in her room while Sierra is reading and her mom is currently pacing back and forth in front of the door.

"Mom" Sierra puts her large book down, "I'm sure dad's fine, he's probably just held up somewhere" her mom stops pacing and shoots her a worried glance.

"Oh, umm, I meant in...like...traffic or something" Sierra quickly corrects herself. But her mom continues to pace.

"But he's never been this late" Sierra's mom throws herself on the nearest piece of furniture, which was a very comfortable armchair.

"I'm sure he's fi–" Sierra cuts herself off with a big yawn "ine" she rubs her eyes.

"You should go to bed, he'll (hopefully) be back here tomorrow" Sierra's mom gets up to plant a kiss on her daughter's forehead.

"R-right" Sierra picks up her book and walks down the hallway to her room. As soon as her door closes, Sierra's mom pulls out her phone to dial her husband's phone.

But on the second to last ring, a sobbing woman picks up. "R-Rose," she sobbing woman says "h-he's go-o-one"

"What! Tina calm down, who's gone?" Rose calmly asks. "R-ri-ick" Tina barely finishes.

The phone nearly slips out of her hand, Rose slides into one of the chairs and readjusts the phone. "M-my Rick?" Is all that she can muster.

Rose slides from the chair to the hardwood floor. "N-no!" She sobs "i-it ca-a-an't be t-r-r-rue." Rose drops her phone and continues to sob hysterically.

After maybe a few minutes or a few hours, Rose's sobs turn into loud whimpers. She shakily picks up her phone, Tina has hung up ages ago.

She tiredly wipes her eyes and looks at the time, one and a half hours have passed. That means she spent one and a half hours sobbing when she wanted to be with her husband.

She shakily pushes herself to her feet. Waves of nausea washes over her as she sits back into the armchair. She decides that she is too tired to walk down the same hallway her girls went.

She instead pulls her knees as close as she can into her chest and wraps her arms around them. She lays her head on them and looks around them empty room.

Memories of her family come flooding in, she glances at the coffee table she and the girls were at, and a memory of them with their dad play a board game makes her smile as more tears form.

She continues to softly cry as she remembers the last time she spoke to her husband. It was before he had to leave for his job.

They were talking about his they were planning on taking their girls out of the country for a vacation. But that idea is now long gone.

Rose continues to softly cry until she falls asleep. She dreams about talking to her husband in a little cafe.

She is rudely awakened by her youngest daughter. "Mommy" she happily says. Rose's bloodshot eyes meet her daughter's beautiful brown eyes.

"Yes, sweetheart?" She croaks, her throat begging for any water.

"Where is daddy?" Karlene asks with a small grin. Tears form in Rose's eyes as the thoughts of last night come flooding back. Perhaps it was a dream?

No. Rose couldn't remember a dream to save her life. "Y-your d-dad's g" she stops herself as her oldest daughter tiredly walks into the room.

She yawns "Karlene, let mom wake up first" Sierra rubs her tired eyes and unceremoniously throws herself onto the couch next to them.

Rose wipes her eyes and sits up straight. "G-girls" she announces "I have something very important to tell you about your father." Both girls sit down and pay attention.

"Your father...he's..." Rose sighs, she takes a deep breath in "he's gone"

"W-what do you mean gone?" Sierra asks.

"I mean your dad is gone, dead, he was...I believe that he was murdered" tears form in her and Sierra's eyes.

Rose looks down at Karlene, half expecting her to be full-on crying and half expecting her to be confused.

But she is the later one. "Daddy isn't coming here?" She furrows her brows as she tries to think "did he leave us?" She looks up at her now crying mom.

"Yes, he left us" she tries to explain, but Karlene starts sobbing "d-di-d he n-not l-o-ove u-s" she cries.

"Oh no baby" her mom says, she gently scoops her up and sits onto the couch next to the sobbing Sierra. "He love-ed us w-with all h-h-is heart" Rose tries not to cry, but she's failing miserably.

"W-will I-I get t-to see h-hi-m aga-ain?" Karlene wails. "Of c-course" Rose reassures her wailing daughter " y-you'll s-see hi-m aga-ain" Rose chokes on a sob.

BANG. BANG. BANG. Rose unwraps her arms that are around Karlene and sets her gently where she was sitting. She quickly walks towards the large dark oak front door. Rose takes a deep breath in, wipes her tears away, and opens the door.

"Hello, Ms. Winster." A tall police officer says in his deep voice. He nervously shifts on his feet. "My name is Dean Sanchez" he holds up his police badge, "and this" he points to his partner. His partner is slightly smaller, with blonde hair and brown eyes. "Is my partner."

"James Riddle" he introduces himself. He politely holds out his hand and shakes Rose's cold hand.

"We've umm...come here to inform you that your husband has be-" Sanchez tries to say but Riddle jabs him in the side.

Rose raises one of her eyebrows "has been what?" She asks, already knowing the answer.

"He's dead," Riddle says bluntly. "James! Be sensitive" Sanchez says. After hours of crying, more tears stream down Rose's face.

"H-how d-id it hap-pen" she sobs.

"We don't really know, it could've been an accident or a murder. We're still looking into it" Riddle explains "but we'll update you on any new information we get."

"O-okay" she sputters out. Sanchez pulls out a tissue from his vest and hands it to Rose. She says a quiet thank you and blows her nose.

The policemen bow their heads and start to walk away. Rose slowly closes the door, leaving a crack to watch them, making sure they left.

Something was off about them, but Rose didn't care enough to question them. She crumbles up the used tissue and places it on the coffee table.

She looks at her two still crying daughters. "How 'bout we get some ice cream?" She offers.

Sierra sneezes and weakly says "okay". Karlene only nods, she does her red and wet face on her soft PJ shirt.

"Go get dressed then we'll leave" Rose calmly says. Both girls get up and head for their bedrooms "and brush your hair Karlene" she calls after the youngest.

Rose looks down at her owns clothes. Pj pants and a hoodie. She sighs and rubs her tired face, she heads for her own room to change.

After five minutes of staring at her husband's clothes, she finally meets the girls in the living room.

"You ready?" She sadly smiles at the girls. Sierra lets out a hiccup and puts her flip flops on. Rose looks at her youngest daughter "did you brush your hair?"

Karlene only nods. Rose sighs and grabs her black leather purse "alright lets go."

Well thanks for reading, I hope y'all like what I do with it annnnd yeah...Oh! Also, I won't be updating this every week as I did with my other fic, the updates will be random

#original superhero #original shit #original story #original characters #Hero Academy

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hargroves-dingus · 5 years ago

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fire meets gasoline | b.h x v.h

pairings: Billy Hargrove x Veronica Hopper (O.C), Hopper!AdoptiveDad x Veronica Hopper, Eleven!AdoptiveSister x Veronica Hopper

summary: Billy comes to pick up Max and Hopper isn’t happy about his daughter knowing the neighbourhood bicycle, but what happens when Veronica disregards her father and still goes to Tina’s party to see none other than Billy Hargrove?

warnings: moderate swearing??

a/n: lemme know if you want to be tagged in future parts dudes :)

CHAPTER TWO

Morning were often my favourite time of the day, quickly followed by nightfall: the hours I could truly bask in my own solace. The sunlight fought to seen through the curtains, shining a bright light on my face causing me to turn to the other side of the bed, humming in content at the smell that lingered. Dad was making eggos. Hauling myself out of bed, I threw my hair up in a messy bun and wiped the sleep away from my eyes.

“Morning sweetheart” Hopper robotically muttered, he said it every morning, and when faced with making breakfast, he lost the ability to multitask. “The girls not up yet?” Scanning the room for the brunette and her ginger accomplice, only to find they were missing so knocked on her bedroom door and alerted them of eggos – which motivated them to get out of bed. “Four eggo extravaganzas and strawberry milkshakes.” Hopper announced, placing them around the table. The mismatch family (plus a Max) sat around the table, starting to devour their breakfast, before a door knock pulled us all from our morning conversation.

Already getting up, I dusted any crumbs off of my lap, “I’ll get it.”, and lazily opened the door, and snapped into sense when Billy Hargrove was leaning against the doorframe, his gold necklace dangling idly in front of his chest, wearing none other than a shirt that was buttoned a bit too low. “I’m here for Max, princess.” God I could only imagine Hoppers reaction to his pet name, and I was not looking forward to the questioning. “We’re still eating breakfast, none of us are ready.” I shrugged, leaving the flirty tone from last night at bay. Not around Hopper or the girls. “Explains the outfit.” At this moment, I realised how exposed I was, simply an oversized t-shirt that hung over my right shoulder from the excessive size. “Stop gawking, Hargrove.” Slightly snarling with a small smirk, crossing my arms at his not so stealthy mission of checking me out. From this and when we met, it seems he likes being caught. “Come in then.” Turning on my heels, I walked back to the table, picking up my plate, “You can have some of mine.”

“So you can be nice sometimes.” Laughing, he grabbed a plate from the cupboard and I piled some food onto his place and gave him a fork, and we sat at the counter beside eachother. Feeling Hoppers eyes burning into us, I slightly shouted “Dad? This is Billy, Max’s brother.” Feeling like an introduction to the teenage boy in his house was what he was expecting. “Step-brother.” Both Max and Billy mumbled, which I threw my hands up in surrender up, muttering a string of amused ‘sorry’s.

“We’ve met.” Hopper grunted, eyes squinting onto Billy. This was a splendid start. “Still speeding around town like a maniac, Hargrove?” He was challenging him. Baiting him almost. “Not anymore, sir, not since you busted me.” Billy’s signature cocky tone was back, and it irritated Hopper, as he added, “Six times.”

“Five, actually, sir.” He corrected, and you could see Hopper tense up, as if ready to pounce. “Alright, Mr and Mrs Testosterone, break it up.”

Both backed off, turning back around to continue their meal. For a bit, I just watched him eat, sitting in a comfortable silence. It was then that I really noticed his eyes, this bright shade of blue that burned into you. They were like water, or even the sea, but the intensity reminded me of a burning fire. “Having fun there, princess?” Laughing, I cleared his now empty plate into the sink. “You wish.” Raising an eyebrow, I leant back onto the counter to which he walked over, reaching behind me, our bodies millimetres from touching and all I wanted to do was close the space between us, “Oh I do. Trust me.” And picked up an apple, and copied my stance on the counter opposite. “Are you coming to Tina’s party tonight?” Taking a bite of the apple, the juice slightly dripped onto his chin and he wiped it off with the back of his hand. How could Billy fucking Hargrove eating an apple make me so goddamn weak? “I might make an appearance.”

“Billy, let’s go!” Max shouted from the door, all dressed and ready to leave. Billy rolled his eyes in what I guess to be frustration and pushed himself off the counter. I went to walk him to the door and he placed his hand on the small of my back, sending shivers down my spine, “Well I hope you do, princess.”

Billy then straightened out his jacket, and extended his right hand forward in front of Hopper, and he begrudgingly took it and grunted “Thank you for breakfast, sir, nice to see you again.” And when he left, a part of me was hoping it wouldn’t be for long. There wasn’t a breath of silence before Hopper broke it again. “So. Veronica.” He scratched his head, almost comically and in the most patronising and dad-like way asked “How long have you known Billy ‘I like to speed around and break rules’ Hargrove?” Of course he was getting annoyed. Billy isn’t the type of guy who bring home to your family. He’s the type of guy to only ever meet your bedroom. Playfully rolling my eyes, I stood put, not moving from the door. “Since yesterday, dad. Purely because he’s Max’s step-brother.”

“Then how did he know where the plates were kept. Hmm?” His voice became louder, angrier, and he sharply shrugged in anticipation. Slamming his hand on the side and he sighed before returning to his more heated tone, “Why does he know where we keep our goddamn cutlery, Veronica?”

“Stop yelling! Fucksake. It’s seriously not that deep. I invited him in for a drink when he dropped Max off last night. No need to make a drama.” I’d known Hopper to get mad at me. It wasn’t rare. I guess over time, he accepted whatever shit I got into and he shrugged it off. But I had seen him angry. This somehow felt different. “No need? Sorry I don’t want my daughter hanging out with some trouble maker Casanova like him.” Scoffing, he placed himself on the sofa, elbows resting on his knees running his hands over his face. “I can handle myself. This is bullshit. And you know it.”

“Excuse me?”

Then it clicked. He didn’t like Billy because he’s a ‘bad boy’ (or not entirely), he didn’t want to lose his little girl. “You just don’t like the fact that I’m growing up. I’m no longer a kid and that scares the shit out of you. I’m going to be around boys, going to parties, sleeping with people,” At the last part, he scrunched up his face in disgust, and almost in raw truth, as he realised I was right. “And that terrifies you. But don’t project that onto me. Deal with your shit, dad.”

* * *

The house was practically shaking from the blaring music, the entire teenage population of Hawkins crammed into Tina’s house, filling their veins with burning alcohol, finding somebody to pretend to love for just one night, pretend they didn’t live in this tiny shitty town. Clinging to my denim jacket, I mentally cursed at myself for wearing black cycling shorts and a black tucked in t-shirt, causing my legs to turn into icicles from the Indiana October weather. There were murmurs and subtle gasps of shock when I walked in, parties never usually being my scene, opting to stay in and read. Or maybe have dinner with the devil as I’ve heard some people say I do in my spare time. That one was my favourite.

Hearing I chorus of cheers, I was drawn to the garden, hearing a voice roaring, “That’s how you do it, Indiana!” and a smile graced my face as I identified it as Billy. My pathway was blocked as the bathroom door swung open, and a guy leaving nearly knocked me off my feet. “Fucking hell, watch it ass-” My series of curses halted as I looked up to see none other than Steve Harrington. Steve Harrington crying.Nobody had seen King Stevecry. Well, anybody but me. And I’m not talking about this moment. Before he was crowned King, we were best friends, since being toddlers. He was the one who held me crying when I felt alone and unloved (each time) and when Hopper adopted me, then we distanced. I’d seen Steve cry, when his parents were on brink of divorce, when he felt like they didn’t care, we saw each other at our lowest. It must be something big to cause Steve to break at a party full of everybody he knew.

“Steve? Let’s go outside.” I tried my best to hide his face, to keep up his image but everyone was too drunk to remember this tomorrow. We sat on the porch steps, and the cold air whipped my skin and I sat waiting for him to talk. “Don’t shut me out again.” I whispered, not even looking at him, the pain from all those years ago laced in my voice. “Talk to me.” Placing my hand on his wrist, I tried my best to comfort him. At first he tensed up, not used to my touch but it didn’t take long for him to relax into it, putting his other hand atop mine, interlocking our hands. “It was all bullshit.” His voice was broken. Utterly broken. I hadn’t heard his voice like that since his dad told him he wished he’d never had a son in the first place. “What was?”

“Her.” Nancy Wheeler. When they first started dating, it made me laugh. Stuck-up prudish good girl dating King Steve – what else did I expect? But I never thought she’d end it. Honestly thought new Steve would fuck up and sleep with someone else. “What happened?”

“She broke up with me.” He laughed. In a way that was filled with disbelief, even he couldn’t understand it. “You can do so much better than Nancy fucking Wheeler.” Scoffing, I wrapped my arms around his shoulder and pulled him into a hug which he only weaselled his way out of, standing up in front of me, running his hands through his hair. “I don’t want better. I want her. I love her.” Sighing, I looked up at him. “Love is fucked up, and overrated.”

“I know.” With that, he wiped his face, shook his body as if shaking away his pain and smiled at me. A genuine smile. “I’m going to head home. Thank you, Ron.” Ron. It felt weird hearing him say it but comforting at the same time.

“You made it.” Steve’s place was replaced with Billy, and a waft of beer stench and cigarette smoke invaded the air around me. He flashed a smile, biting his lower lip and I stretched my legs out in front of me. “Seems I did Hargrove.” Crossing my arms, I took in the view around me. Nightfall. The sky was dark, a poetry of stars strung throughout the blackness and the blanket it made comforted me. He sighed in boredom before asking, “Wanna get out of here?”

“I know a place.”

* * *

He parked his car on the side of the road, and as I grabbed his hand, I guided him through the trees. “So where are we going?” He chuckled, “You’re not going to kill me right?” Weaving throughout the towering branches, I sighed in content as we arrived at a clearing, the grass full of a variation of flowers and walked to the group of rocks in which I perched myself on top of, motioning for him to join me. “My thinking place.”

“Thinking place?” He repeated, looking around, taking in the view. The flowers were my favourite, the haze of purple and yellow, although the vibrancy was masked the dark sky. “Obviously you know Hopper isn’t my real dad.” I stated, voice void from emotion. And as I said that I didn’t know why I did. Why I was opening up. But there was this feeling. This instinct that I could trust him. “My dad left when I was four. Mum died from an overdose when I was six. Hopper was close to my mum so he took me as his own.” Looking at him, his eyes were glassy slightly, eyebrows furrowed and I felt this steel ball sink in my stomach. “Please don’t give me that look. I don’t want your pity.” Resting his hand on my thigh, his warmth made me jump slightly, probably the California in him. But his touch calmed me. “I wasn’t going to. I know a few things about shitty dads.” It was odd. Two strangers opening up to each other. “Yours an asshole too?”

“You see this?” Twisting slightly, it revealed a scar along the side of his head, running along his temple, “Gave that to me.” I traced it with my thumb, the rest of my hand placed on the side of his head. “Fucking hell, Billy.” Scoffing, he looked down, then coughed, discarding of the tears that started to form. “See? Now you’re giving me that look.”

“That’s different. Mine decided I wasn’t going enough for him so left. Yours…”

“Hey,” He hushed, this newfound softness in his voice was soothing, and he took both of my hands in his and brought them up to his lips. “Don’t think you’re not good enough. You were four. Whatever the reason he left, wasn’t because of you.” I sent him a weak smile. I only ever spoke to Hopper or El about it, on the very rare occasion, but it was nice to open up to him. “You know what, Hargrove? We’re kindred souls, you and I.”

He smirked, laughing under his breath, “Oh yeah?” Nodding, I crossed my legs, fiddling with the hem of my shorts, “I think we were meant to find each other”

“You really believe in that stuff?”

“Not until I met you.”

-------

taglist:

@katiexdacre

@httpakasha

@yaidothat

@becca-dolan

@prettylestrange

#billy #hargrove #billy hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #x oc #steve harrington #steve #harrington #jim #hopper #eleven #stranger things #fanfic #fanfiction

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layce2015 · 6 years ago

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Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (Newt Scamander x Reader)

Chapter 8: The Blind Pig

*3rd PERSON POV*

Tina leads the four of you down an insalubrious back alley covered in bins, crates, and discarded objects. She locates a set of steps leading to a basement apartment and motions you, Newt, Jacob and Queenie down. The steps lead to, what appears to be, a dead end: the doorway has been bricked up. Instead, a poster of a simpering debutante in an evening dress, gazing at herself in a mirror, covers the end of the walkway. Tina and Queenie stand in front of this, turn to each other and, in unison, raise their wands.

As they do so, their work clothes transforms into stunning flapper party dresses. Newt hastily magics himself a bow tie and you raise your wand as well and change from a button up shirt and black pants to a beautiful (fave color) dress. Queenie gazes at Jacob, a cheeky smile on her face as Tina steps towards the poster and knocks four times.

As she knocks, Queenie looks over at Newt and sees he has a look of amazement and awe on his face. And he was staring at none other than you. She looks amazing! Beautiful, actually! Queenie hears in Newt's mind. She smiles to herself as the hatch opens: the painted eye of the debutante whip back to reveal the gaze of a suspicious guard.

****

After getting clearance, the five of you walk into the seedy, low-ceilinged speakeasy, where every down and out of New York's magical community come to unwind. A glamorous goblin jazz singer croons on a stage full of goblin musicians, smoky images wafting from her wand to illustrate her lyrics:

The Phoenix cried fat tears of pearl

When the dragon snapped up his best

girl,

And the Billywig forgot to twirl

When his sweetheart left him cold,

And the unicorn done lost his horn,

And the Hippogriff feels all forlorn,

Cause their lady loves have upped and

gawn,

Or that's what I've been told

As the singing continues, Jacob stand by a seemingly unmanned bar, waiting to be served. "How do I get a drink in this joint?" He asked, aloud, when a thin bottle of brown liquid zooms towards him, out of nowhere, he catches it, stunned. The head of a house-elf peers up at him from behind the bar. "What? Ain't you ever seen a house-elf before?" The elf asked him, eyeing him suspiciously. "Oh, no, yeah, no, yeah, of course I have....I love house-elves. My uncle's a house-elf." Jacob said, trying to act nonchalant about it as he removes the cork from the bottle.

The house-elf, not fooled, raises himself up, leaning against on the bar to stare at Jacob as you and Queenie approach the bar. "Six shots of gigglewater, please." Queenie said, looking downcast. "And a lobe blaster, please." You ordered and the house-elf shuffles off to fulfill the request.

Queenie and Jacob look at each other while you look around the bar. "Are all No-Majs like you?" Queenie asked him. "No, I'm the only one like me." Jacob replied trying to sound serious and almost seductive as he reaches over and takes one of the gigglewater shots.

Maintaining strong eye contact with Queenie, Jacob knocks back a shot and emits a raucous, high pitched giggle. You snorted and cover your mouth with your hand as Queenie laughs, sweetly, at him.

Across the room, Newt, who can't help but stare at you, and Tina are sitting at a table alone. "I've arrested half of the people in here." Tina said, looking around the bar, and Newt turns his attention to her. "You can tell me to mind my own business....but (Y/N) and I saw something in that death potion back there. We saw you hugging that Second Salem boy." He said as Tina moves her gaze from him, looking off to the side.

She lets out a deep breath and said. "His names Credence. His mother beats him. She beats all those kids she adopted, but she seems to hate him the most."

"And she was the No-Maj you attacked?" Newt asked her.

"That's how I lost my job. I went for her in front of a meeting of her crazy followers---they all had to be Obliviated. It was a big scandal." She finished as Gnarklak emerged from the depths of the speakeasy, smoking a cigar and smartly dressed for a goblin.

He eyes the newcomers as he walks over to Tina's and Newt's table and sits down. "So you're the guy with the case full of monsters, huh?" He asked Newt. "News travels fast. I was hoping you'd be able to tell me if there have been any sightings. Tracks. That sort of thing." Newt replied as Gnarlak downs his drink and a house-elf brings him a document to sign.

"You and that lady friend of yours have a big price on your heads, Mr Scamander. Why should I help you instead of turnin' you in?" He asked.

"I take it I'll have to make it worth your while?" Newt asked him as the house-elf scurries off, holding the signed document.

"Hmm--let's consider it a cover charge." Gnarlak said. Newt pulls out a couple of Galleons and slides them across the table toward the goblin, who barely looks up. "Huh---MACUSA's offerin' more 'n that." He said, unimpressed.

Newt, then, pulls out a beautiful metal instrument and places it on the table. "Lunascope? I've got five." Gnarlak said as he continues to smoke his cigar. Newt rummages in his coat pocket and pulls out a glowing, frozen ruby egg instead. "Frozen Ashwinder egg!" He said.

As he was doing this, you decided to walk over to them and sit next to Newt. "You see--now we're---" Gnarlak said, now sounding like he is interested, but stops when he sees Pickett poking out of Newt's pocket. "Wait a minute! Is that a Bowtruckle?" He asked, pointing at the creature. "What?" You ask as Newt places his hand over his pocket, protecting the creature. He turns to the goblin and said. "No. Absolutely not!"

"Come on. They pick locks, am I right?" The goblin said.

"You're not having him" Newt said. Gnarlak gets up from his chair and said."Well, good luck gettin' back alive, Mr Scamander and Miss (L/N), what with the whole of MACUSA on your backs."

He starts to walk away until....

"Wait!" You shouted and the goblin stops in his track. "Take me instead." You said while the goblin smiles evily.

"What? No! Absolutely not, (y/n)!" Newt said, quickly.

"I'll take Pickett's place." You said.

"Well, well, well." The goblin said as Newt shakes his head at you, feeling like his heart being ripped out. "Don't do this, (y/n)." He said, shakily.

You give him a small smile and kiss his cheek. "Find the rest of our creatures and get out of New York safely." You whisper in his ear and then you get up from your chair and walk over to the goblin. "Take me instead, I can do so much for your little pub but only if you tell him what he needs to know." You said. The goblin looks at you, smiling viciously, then snaps his fingers as two more goblins come up next to him.

"Boys, take our new girl to the back and have her ready for her first day on the job." He said as the two hench-goblins grab your arms and take you away from Newt, who looks away and wipes tears from his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Beautiful....anyway somethin' invisible's been wreakin' havoc around Fifth Avenue. You may wanna check out Macy's department store. Might help with what you're looking for." Gnarlak said as Newt sniffs and clears his throat, trying to compose himself even though he feels empty without you there. He was kicking himself for not admitting his true feelings towards you sooner.

"Right." He said, croaky. "Oh, one last thing. There's a Mr Graves who works at MACUSA---I was wondering what you knew of his background." He said to Gnarlak, who stares at him.

"You ask too many questions, Mr Scamander. That can get you killed." The goblin said when suddenly someone screamed. "MACUSA ARE COMING!!"

And a bunch of house-elves Disapparate. Tina gets to her feet and glares at Gnarlak. "You tipped them off!" She said angrily. Gnarlak chuckles menacingly as wanted posters of you, Newt and Tina appear on the wall. Aurors begin Apparating as Jacob saunters up to Gnarlak. "Sorry, Mr Gnarklak--" Jacob said and he punches the goblin straight in the face, knocking him backward. Queenie looks at him, delighted. "Reminds me of my foreman!" Jacob replied as Newt stands up and runs towards the back.

Meanwhile, as the goblins brought you to the back you hear someone shouting about the MACUSA coming and you turn around and face the goblins. "So sorry about this." You said, sincerely, and you whip your wand out and shouted. "Stupefy!" And blast the goblins away. You smile to yourself as you open the door and run out of the room. "NEWT!" You shout as you run and suddenly you collide with something solid.

You look up and see the familiar green eyes. "Newt." You said, smiling. "(Y/N)! Thank Paracelsus you're okay!" He said as the both of you hug each other and he kisses the top of your head. Tina, Queenie and Jacob come up behind him and the five of you met up and Disapparate.

#fan fiction #fandom #fanfic #fantastic beasts and books #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beats and where to find them #fantasticbeastsandbooks #wizarding world #newt x you #newt scamander x reader #newt x reader #newt scamander #x reader #reader insert

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fiddlesticksimagines · 7 years ago

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Fantastic Beasts and where to find them Masterlist

Fantastic beasts and where to find them head canons

How they react to seeing their child for the first time

their first date with their so

How they react to your cooking

How they React seeing your patronus for the first time

How they react when they haven't seen their so in a while

How they React to seeing you on your wedding day

How they act when they're jealous

First kisses

Passover with the Goldstein's

Their favourite kisses

How they react to jump scares

Their pet name for their so

How they cuddle you

How they hold your hand

How they comfort you after a nightmare

How they react to seeing you on your first date

How they dance

How you dance together on your wedding day

How you sleep together

Platonic multiple characters

Just a bit brighter

Newt Scamander-fics

Come back to bed

What a doll

Course I do *

Morning love

Bad timing

Stranded without you *

You're safe now

She looks like a bowtruckle

Breakfast with beasties

Fresh air

Little one

Bristly whiskers

An odd place for a nap

My inspiration

Habit

What are you worrying about?*

Fresh canvas

Where's that smile? (warning: verbal abuse)

You found me

Dancing shoes

I've got you

It could be the rain

Summer symptoms

Helping hand

Brown paper packages

Breakfast in bed

The hunt *

Now you're here

Lift me up

Half asleep

Decisions decisions

Pictures of you

Remember

Not without you, love *

Not quite

Shaken

Bedtime tea *

First love

Among the stars

What's In a name?

I'm not going anywhere

Little pest

My favourite

Feel better

It was written

A welcome apology *

You're perfect

Everybody gets tired of me

Paper aeroplane*

Paper aeroplanes part two

It's always been you

A beautiful sight

It's not farewell *

Looking sharp

Oblivious

Terrible handwriting *

to another

To another part two

Bath time *

Unfinished sketches

Don't stop *

Let me look after you

What a walk can do

A spring in his step *

You're not having her

A little friend

Dust me off

A full bed *

Going back

The imperfect moment *

Bubble baths *

Moonlit stroll *

See what I see

Always my sisters

Meeting Mr & Mrs Scamander *

Meeting the parents

Old friends *

Not quite sleep walking *

Celebration *

Something about you *

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

Bowtruckle enthusiast *

Distraction *

Finally

Becoming Mrs Scamander *

comforting arms *

Perks of insomnia *

Birds of a feather (part 1)

Birds of a feather (part 2)

More than you could know

I’ll always be here (warning, self-harm scars self-harm)

I’ll look after you

Hush hush

The hound gets the fox *

Enchanting stranger

Nothings changed *

Waiting for him

Little beasts

Falling asleep on newts shoulder

Newt Scamander- headcanons/preferences

Newt with his daughter

Newts kisses

Newt as a child

How Newt shows his love

Newt's wedding day would include

How Newt would confess his feelings

Dating Newt during Hogwarts would include

newt's so being a healer would include

Newt comforting you after a beloved pet dies

Newt dating a muggle would include

Newt taking care of his drunk partner

Newt taking care of his partner when she's on her period

Newt Taking care of his pregnant wife *

Scamander brotherly head cannons *

Tina & Queenie's sister marrying Newt

Christmas with Newt

Newt with a bespectacled partner *

Being Jacobs sister and courting Newt would include

Growing up with Newt

Newt with a small partner *

Travelling with Newt

Newt taking care of you after a bad day *

Newt as a husband

Newt as a father *

Jacob Kowalski- fics

What about that bath?

l'll help you through

The best raspberry donuts *

Brown sugar

Cold hands warm heart

Jacob & Queenie

Jacob Taking care of Queenie when she's pregnant

Jacob & Queenie as parents

Jacob & Queenie's wedding *

Credence Barebone fics

Sweetheart

I thought I lost you

I never liked those plates anyway

Keep you warm

Credence Barebones head cannons and preferences

Credence kisses

dating credence would include

seraphina picquery

Being Percival's sister and dating Seraphina

Dating seraphina picquery would include

Percival Graves

We're here together

Percival Graves with a no maj, plus size partner

How Percival Graves would react to finding out that his muggle partner is pregnant with his child.

Percival with a pregnant partner

#Percival Graves #seraphina picquery #credence barebone #newt scamander #tina goldstein #Porpentina Goldstein #Queenie Goldstein #jacob kowalski #Jacob kowalski x reader #Jacob x Queenie #newt scamander x reader #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fanfic #fan fiction #fanfiction #fbawtft #fiddlesticksimagines #fbawtft masterlist

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ranwing · 6 years ago

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Kadam Fic: Learning to Fly (7/?)

Title: Learning to Fly Series: A New Direction (was Season Four Remix) Pairing(s), Characters(s): Kadam, Kurt Hummel, Adam Crawford, Burt Hummel, Rachel Berry, Santana Lopez, Carmen Tibideaux, Cassandra July, Artie Abrams, Tina Cohen-Chang, Elliot “Starchild” Gilbert, Dani, Adam’s Apples, Original Characters Rating: PG13 Genre(s): canon divergence. Parts: 7/? Summary: As another school year starts at NYADA, Kurt seemed to have it all. The respect of his teachers, a group of wonderful friends and best of all, getting to live with the man that he’d come to love. So of course the universe would throw a few curve balls in his direction.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six

On AOE

There was something oddly comforting about waking up at his old home. In his old bed, Kurt considered as he slowly came awake. It helped ease the feeling of displacement and feeling totally adrift in the world. The home that he’d shared with Adam no longer existed and his lover was no longer close at hand to reassure him that everything was going to be all right. For someone who’d always prided himself on being so self-sufficient, this sense of vulnerability was extremely disquieting.

He and Adam had spoken on the phone the previous night for what seemed like hours. The Englishman was settled into the hotel room he was sharing with Nialls and told Kurt about how interesting Boston was and that he and the others in the cast planned to spend a day or two sightseeing before they went into tech and all of their free time vanished. He was glad that Kurt was taking a bit of time to spend with his family before the school term began.

It’ll be good for you, sweetheart, the older man had insisted when Kurt had first proposed his plans to visit while his father was home on winter recess. I don’t want you to be alone right now.

Better to crawl home to lick his wounds than hide away in his dorm room in a nearly empty school, Kurt thought petulantly as he curled up under the heavy layer of blankets that provided a warm nest and pulled a pillow to his chest. He would be content to hide there for the duration of his visit.

A knock on his bedroom door roused his unwilling attention. All he wanted to do was huddle under the blankets like he did when he was a child and the outside world became just too much to bear.

“Kurt?” he heard his father’s voice call out gently. “You awake, buddy?”

Despite himself, he sat up and emerged from the covered. He didn’t want to worry his father unnecessarily. “Yeah..,” he answered, his voice sounding wan even to his own ears.

His father opened the door and peeked in to make sure that Kurt was decent before coming in and sighed when he saw that he was still in bed. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “How are you holding up?” he asked gently, sitting down on the edge of Kurt’s bed.

Kurt shrugged, feeling too mentally and physically tired to feign otherwise.

“Did you get any sleep at all?”

Kurt shook his head. “Not really,” he admitted, knowing that it wouldn’t do any good to lie. His father would know from the dark circles under his eyes that he’d been tossing and turning most of the night.

Burt sighed in sympathy. “I know that telling you that everything is going to work out isn’t going to make you feel at all better, so I’m not going to try,” he said. “But you can’t hide away from the world the whole time Adam is away. And you’re going to have to get your head back on straight before you head back to school. Adam wouldn’t appreciate you letting your grades slide because you miss him.”

Kurt couldn’t help from smiling a tiny bit at his father’s blunt form of comfort. It was kind of gentle kick in the pants that he needed.

“I know,” he granted. “I just need to feel sorry for myself for a little while.”

“That’s okay. You’re allowed under the circumstances,” Burt granted. “But not too long. Got that?”

Kurt nodded, inhaling deeply. He knew that however much he wanted to wallow, his own nature would push him to push past his pain and shift his focus on his education. But right now, he just hurt.

“Why don’t you get dressed and come downstairs,” Burt suggested, though there was just the slight edge of command in his tone. “Carole’s making breakfast. Just between you and me, I think that she’s looking forward to feeding you up while you’re here.”

Kurt couldn’t help from smiling. His stepmother apparently missed having boys around to take care of and he could look forward to plenty of home cooking and hearty meals during his visit. He’d have to make sure that he went running every day if the weather permitted, otherwise he’s probably gain twenty pounds before he returned to New York.

“I’ll be down in just a little bit,” Kurt assured his father. “I just need… Let me just wash up.” He needed a bit of space to get his mental feet under him.

“You got it, sport. Better get a move on while there’s food left,” Burt said, pleased that he at least was able to get Kurt out of bed. He ruffled Kurt’s hair playfully, hoping to coax another smile out of him before leaving his son to make himself suitably human.

“Don’t eat all the bacon before I get there,” Kurt called out, hearing his father chuckle at the not-so-playful admonishment. His father did still need to watch his diet and now that he was home for a little bit, Kurt was going to remind him of his dietary restrictions.

He arrived in the kitchen about fifteen minutes later, his face washed and teeth brushed, a soft robe wrapped comfortingly about his body. The warm scents of coffee and cinnamon greeted him and he went right for the coffee pot to pour himself a mug. The kitchen table was already set with plates and a bowl of fresh fruit salad.

Carole was standing at the counter in front of an electric skillet, turning over the pancakes she was cooking. At seeing Kurt, she placed down her spatula and pulled him into a warm embrace. “Good morning, sweetie,” she greeted gently, seeing immediately that he wasn’t his usual chipper self. “How are you feeling?”

He wasn’t going to lie to her. This was the one place where he felt that he could let down his shields and admit how much he was hurting. “Not so good. I didn’t sleep much and… I miss Adam.”

Carole smiled understandably and pressed a kiss to Kurt’s forehead. “I know you do, honey. But he’ll be back before you know it. And I’m sure that he misses you just as much,” she insisted kindly.

Kurt felt himself smiling a little sadly. “I know he does,” he granted. “It just hurts… being away from him like this.”

Carole hugged him again. “Why don’t you sit down? Breakfast is almost ready. You’ll feel better after you get some food into you.”

His stepmother’s cooking skills hadn’t deteriorated since he was home the last time, Kurt noted. And while she had prepared what she’s hoped would be comfort food for her stepson, she did it with a nod towards Kurt’s normal eating habits and her husband’s health. The pancakes were whole wheat, studded liberally with blueberries and accompanied by a plate of turkey bacon.

“This looks great, Carole,” Kurt complimented, feeling his appetite start to kindle. He took two pancakes and some fruit onto his plate, along with several strips of bacon. After pouring a healthy amount of syrup onto his pancakes, he took a bite and made an appreciative moan. “I missed your cooking.”

His stepmother smiled broadly as she served herself. “Well, if you came to visit every now and then, or came down to Washington while we’re there...,” she hinted playfully,

“Carole, let the boy be,” Burt admonished gently, chuckling at her teasing. “He’s got school and work to worry about.”

“Thanks Dad,” Kurt grinned and nibbled on a piece of bacon.

Carole huffed with mock indignance, but offered her stepson a tolerant smile. “Well, I’ll just have to send a few extra care packages your way. Especially since you’re going to be living on dorm food for the duration.”

“I won’t say no,” Kurt said agreeably, sipping at his coffee. While the dorm cafeteria kept the eating habits of their student body in mind with lots of healthy options, he was sure that it would get boring after a while. Between Carole and Ellie Crawford, he’d be the envy of all the dorm residents.

“Do you have any plans for today?” Burt asked, looking at his son pointedly. It was clear that he did not want to see Kurt moping around the house, feeling sorry for himself during the whole duration of his visit.

Kurt sighed, knowing that he needed to find something to occupy himself with besides quality family time. Thankfully McKinley High School was out for winter break, so he wouldn’t be tempted to pop in on New Directions. He’d made some tentative plans to meet up with Tina and Artie while they were all home, but he really need to find something to occupy himself with. And at the moment, he needed something to clear his head.

“I thought I’d head over to the garage this morning,” he proposed. “I kind of want something to tear apart and put back together again. I’m sure they’ve got something I can get my hands into.”

Burt nodded approvingly. “That sounds like a great idea,” he agreed. “I was going to stop by later on, but I’m sure the guys won’t mind you going in to help out.”

Having a goal now perked Kurt’s spirits up a bit. “I figured that some of the guys might be taking some time off for the holidays and they might need some help. And it’ll feel good to get my hands dirty for a little bit.”

Carole chuckled brightly at Kurt’s apparent enthusiasm. “It’ll also give you an excuse to treat yourself to a manicure,” she teased.

Kurt couldn’t help from laughing a little bit. “Well, I do have to keep myself in good condition,” he advised. Oil under his fingernails and obvious calluses would not help his employment options as audiences liked their actors to be pretty.

After finishing breakfast and helping to clean up, Kurt returned to his room to find something suitable to wear to the garage. He was sure that he had a set of coveralls in the back, but he didn’t want to risk any of his good clothes with stains that he knew from experience would never come out. He found an old pair of jeans in the back of his closet and pulled them on, wondering if they still fit.

They were a bit short since he’d bought them before his last growth spurt and a little snug about his thighs, but he definitely needed a belt because they were loose in the waist. Squatting a few times, he thought that they’d be comfortable enough to work in. Topped with an old henley that stretched across his shoulders, he realized just how much he’d changed since leaving for New York. The physical changes were just as profound as his mental and emotional ones, and he felt a certain amount of gratification that he was so far from the boy he’d been just a few years ago. He liked who and what he’d become.

Tugging on an old pair of Doc Martins, he headed downstairs. His father and Carole were lingering over another cup of coffee and talking quietly when he entered the kitchen. “Dad, I’m going to head over to the garage now.”

“Okay, sport. Tell the guys that I’ll by a later this afternoon,” Burt advised, sipping at his coffee. “Have fun destroying something.”

Kurt grinned and gave them a quick wave before bundling up to face the bitter Ohio winter. The drive to the garage went quickly, the route permanently imbedded in Kurt’s memory and he parked behind the building in the employee area. Dodging slush puddles and snow piles, he walked into the garage area where several of the mechanics were already at work.

The manager spotted Kurt as he entered and exclaimed happily, “Kurt! We were hoping you’d stop by!” Bill hurried over to hug the younger man warmly.

“Hey Bill. Good to see you,” Kurt greeted, smiling at the man who’d been mentor and baby sitter for a good portion of his childhood. He accepted the hug, feeling a sense of comfort to be around friendly faces and a familiar setting.

The other mechanics came over to offer their own welcome, glad to see Kurt. Greg leaned against the Ford SUV that he was working on and looked to him expectantly. “Your dad warned that you were in town for a little while,” he said, wiping his dirty hands on a rag.

Kurt nodded, letting himself relax a bit. “I’m on winter break and Adam had to go out of town for work so I thought I’d come home for a little bit.”

“And you’re doing well in school?” Bill asked, making his near-parental concern clear.

Kurt thought back to his winter critiques and let himself nod confidently. “It’s hard work, but I’m doing okay. We’ve got a big musical this spring and I got cast as an understudy for one of the major roles.”

“That’s great, kid,” Greg complimented. The mechanics might not know all that much about musical theater but they knew enough to understand that being cast as an understudy at this stage was no small thing.

“I was kind of hoping to get my hands into something,” Kurt explained, looking about the garage. “I need a little automotive therapy.”

Bill nodded understandingly. “I think there’s a set of your old coveralls are in the back room,” he offered. “Go get changed and I’ll see what we’ve got around for you to play with.”

Kurt smiled appreciative and headed to the staff room. Pulling on the heavy cotton material felt comforting in its own strange way and he marveled that he could still be as comfortable in an oil stained jumpsuit as he could in the most elegant couture fashion. Adam would just smile and say that it was an example of how complex a person he was.

Thoughts of his boyfriend dimmed his smile a bit. He really needed to get his hands on an engine and start taking it apart so he could clear his head a little bit.

Returning to the work area, Bill pointed him in the direction of an Audi that had clearly been on the wrong end of a significant accident. The whole front end was crunched in and the airbag had been inflated, warning that the impact had been substantial. Hopefully the driver was not seriously injured.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Kurt cooed sympathetically to the car, running his hand over a crushed bumper. It was an absolutely crime for such a beautiful vehicle to be in such sorry condition. “What happened to you?”

“This just came in yesterday,” Bill explained, amused at how Kurt always treated damaged cars like he would a wounded kitten. “Got into a fight with a lamp post after skidding on some ice and I think the lamp post won. Think you can you get started on the diagnostic so it can be submitted to the insurance?”

Kurt nodded, feeling his mood start to improve. This was exactly the kind of thing he needed. Rolling up his sleeves, he pulled a tool cart over to where the damaged car sat and carefully popped open the hood to get a look at the engine and see what needed to be done.

Running the diagnostics gave Kurt something to focus on, taking his mind away from his loneliness. He had to pay attention to what the instruments were telling him and what his own eyes were seeing. This was the part of working with cars that he’d always found the most interesting; trying to figure out just what was wrong and how to fix it in a way that was economical for the customer. It was like working out a large, greasy puzzle and he’d always been pretty good at it.

He took his time, going over the entire car and made careful notes of all the things that were wrong and needed immediate repair. There was a good crack in the radiator that he wasn’t sure could just be repaired and might need a complete replacement. Several hoses were torn or pulled loose, but those were easy fixes. One of the engine mounts was missing and definitely would need to be replaced, otherwise the owner would hit a bump and end up with the engine in his lap.

The rest of the engine seemed okay, he needed to check out the undercarriage and make sure there was no other damage. Getting a creeper board and hanging light, he lay down and slid under the car to see what was going on.

Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any damage to the major structures and while the repairs would be considerable, the owner was lucky that the car wouldn’t have to be junked. Sliding out from unde the car, he wiped off his hands and wrote up the report to be submitted to the owner’s insurance.

There were other jobs on the list that he took over to give the guys a little breathing room. It felt good to do simple tasks like oil changes and brake jobs where he got a bit dirty but was able to keep his head clear. Focusing on the tools in his hands and the machinery in front of him prevented him from dwelling too much on the other things in his life. Here there were no worries about the pressures of school or the loneliness of Adam being away. One of the guys turned on a radio and Kurt found himself humming along with the classic rock tunes, dancing a bit as he worked.

“I don’t hear any singing,” Greg complained from his station, where he was elbows deep in the engine of a Dodge Charger. “What do we have to do around here to get some entertainment?”

Bill laughed, giving Kurt a playful nudge. “Come on, kid,” he urged. “Give us a little show while we still can afford to see you.”

Kurt couldn’t help from grinning at their urging. They’d always been so supportive of him when he was growing up, despite the fact that he couldn’t be more different from them. When he came out, it was probably not much more of a surprise to them as it had been for his father and they never treated him any differently. The teasing was good natured and affectionate and he would always have a place here, no matter where life took him.

“Oh, Mama, I’m in fear for my life from the long arm of the law,” he began, using the lower end of his register. He was standing underneath a classic Chevy, draining the old oil into a disposal pail. He could certainly sing while he worked and gave his father’s employees the show that they wanted.

Kurt left the garage a few hours later after having lunch with the guys and returned home to clean up. He was feeling a bit better about things now that he had a chance to clear his head a little bit. He washed his hands in the kitchen sink with a bar of abrasive soap that his father kept there to scrub the stains off his hands, using a nail brush to get the grime out from under his fingernails. He would need to seriously moisturize his hands afterwards because the soap was so harsh on his skin, but by the time he was done, his hands were in pristine condition. A quick shower and a change of clothes left him fit to face the world again.

Coffee, he decided. He needed coffee and something sweet. It had been over a year since he last went to the Lima Bean and hoped that they were still serving the gingerbread loaf cake that he’d always loved. With a vanilla latte. That would be just the kind of pick-me-up he needed.

Driving to the café, he slipped back into instinct. He knew the way like the back of his hand, having followed the path hundreds of times before leaving this town for good. It still felt a bit strange that he was now starting to see Lima through a visitor’s eyes and not that of boy desperate to leave. Now he was more aware of the charms of the town and less focused on its obvious shortcomings. The feeling of nostalgia was almost pleasant.

The Lima Bean seemed much the same as it ever was; brightly lit and clean, the display cases filled with appetizing treats and smiling baristas preparing drinks. For a moment when he walked through the doors he felt a flash of the panic he’d felt when he’d worn one of those aprons. He’d lived in absolute anguish, fearful that he was doomed to spend his life trapped in Lima and working here because he didn’t have any other options. It had just been something to do that filled his days until he managed to find the courage in him to take the plunge and leave nearly everything and everyone that he knew in order to chase his dreams.

Going to New York without a place or plan had been terrifying, but less frightening than being stuck behind that counter with a fake smile pasted on his face so that the customers would never know that he was screaming inside. Thankfully he had escaped this trap and now felt that could walk in with his head held proudly. He wondered if the day would come when he no longer saw his hometown as a place just waiting to snare him and drag him back.

He was still seeking the balance, Kurt realized as he pulled himself mentally together. He didn’t have many fantastic memories of life in Lima, so coming back home was still hard in a lot of ways. But he had family here and it would always be a part of him no matter where his career took him in the future. Be it a Broadway stage or touring the country the way Adam was, Lima would always be a huge part of his past. It helped make him who he was.

Looking over the offerings in the case, he was torn between the gingerbread that he’d been craving and an absolutely scrumptious looking cranberry scone. He couldn’t afford to eat both, not with the way Carole was going to be stuffing him the whole time he was home. There was no way he would dare show up back at school having gained an ounce because Ms. July would certainly notice and make him suffer the consequences. One treat only.

He ordered the gingerbread since he could get scones back in New York anytime he wanted, along with the much-needed latte. The café was pretty full with the afternoon rush and there didn’t seem to be empty tables. Maybe he could find someone who would be willing to share so he could enjoy his afternoon snack.

He smiled to himself when he saw a tall blond woman sitting at the table in the back reading a magazine while nursing a large coffee that Kurt knew from past history would be black with no fewer than five packets of sugar.

Taking his plate and cup, he walked over to the table. “Mind if I join you?” he asked to get her attention.

She looked up at him with a sharp-eyed glare and prepared to launch what was probably a viciously worded refusal that would have left him gathering up his own entrails when she realized who was standing there. Her blue eyes widened in shock and, Kurt suspected, pleasure.

“Porcelain,” Coach Sylvester said softly, very clearly surprised by his presence. Her mouth drew into a wide smile. “Sit that tight little tush down right now.”

Kurt couldn’t help from smiling at the command in her voice. He placed his food down and took the chair opposite her. “It’s good to see you, Coach. Even if you are out of uniform.” It felt odd to see her dressed in anything other than her customary track suit.

“I’m off duty right now, and I’m not your coach anymore,” she reminded him playfully. “You can call me Sue if you want.”

Kurt recognized this for the honor that it was. There were moments when he felt like he was one of the few students that she’d not only genuinely liked, but respected in some way.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked. “I would have thought that the only way you’d ever come back to this town would be dragged kicking and screaming. You were already halfway out the door during your sophomore year.”

Kurt was reminded that for all her cutting comments and bizarre behavior, Sue had been one of his chief supporters while he was in high school. He’d never forgotten the lengths that she went through to protect him during the worst of the bullying he’d suffered and he knew that she’d been very upset during her stint as principal that she hadn’t been able to do more. Even after he gave up being a Cheerio, he remained one of her chosen few.

“Just here for a little while on winter break,” he explained. “I start classes again in a few weeks so I thought I’d enjoy a little family time. Dad’s home on recess, so it seemed like a perfect time.”

She nodded understandingly. If there was anyone who appreciated the need for family, it was Sue. “And that gorgeous hunk of English beefcake that looked like he’d follow you to the ends of the earth?”

Kurt couldn’t help from sighing. “He graduated last June and he got cast in a show that’s doing a national tour,” he explained. “We’re going to be doing the long-distance thing for a couple of months.”

His former coach gave him a sympathetic stare. “Well, if he gives you any problems, you let me know. I have several highly skilled and very discreet assassins on retainer if you need a referral.”

Kurt could only stare at her in surprise, but the twinkle in her eyes betrayed her and he realized that she was joking a little bit. He couldn’t help from laughing. He’d long suspected that Sue’s outrageous behavior at school was something of an act, but this confirmed it for him.

At least, he hoped that it did.

He nodded his head at the magazine, seeing an overly perky cheerleader photographed in mid-leap on the cover. “Professional research?” he asked, not hiding his amusement. “I assume that you’re going to be gearing up for Nationals when school restarts, right?”

She chuckled, nodding. “Just getting a sense of what some of the other teams may have in mind,” she explained. “You know, considering what a few of them tried last year trying to outdo me, my plan to shoot Brittany from a cannon wasn’t that insane.”

“Well, you were always a trail blazer,” Kurt reminded her, taking a taste of his gingerbread. It tasted just the way he remembered, the bite of ginger and cloves perfectly tempered by the creamy glaze.

“I don’t think we ever did so well as when we had you on the team. Your Celine Dion solo was a total showstopper that no one has been able to match,” she reminisced fondly. “What I wouldn’t give to have you back and doing a ten-minute Italian aria while doing a perfect handstand at the top of the formation.” She sighed happily at the concept.

“How NYADA is treating you? I’m assuming that you’re doing well there.”

Kurt smiled. “It’s good,” he insisted. “I’m learning a lot and we’re doing this huge musical in the spring. It’s a pretty amazing place.”

“And you’re looking awfully fit,” she noted admiringly. “It’s a shame I can’t steal you back for the team.”

Kurt couldn’t help from feeling flattered at her appraisal. “I run now pretty regularly and I’ve been doing a lot of upper body work. And I’ve got dance three times a week with a teacher that I would love to run a DNA test on, because there is no way that she’s not related to you in some way.”

“And she’s going to let you get away with eating that?” Sue asked archly, pointing to Kurt’s cake. “Because I would have had you doing jumping jacks until your limbs came flying off.”

“I usually burn it off pretty quickly because I’m so active, and I’m keeping up on my physical regimen while I’m here,” he assured her. “Ms. July will personally cut off any flab she sees with a letter opener so I need to take care of myself. My body is one of my instruments, after all.”

Sue nodded approvingly. “Well, whatever you’re doing, the results are certainly impressive,” she complimented, eyeing the breadth of his shoulders appreciatively. “You look like you could probably toss any of our fliers one handed now.”

Knowing how rarely Sue gave unvarnished approval gave Kurt a sense of pride at her positive appraisal. “We did a lot of pairs work in dance the past semester and I wasn’t always matched with the lightest girl,” he admitted. “Missing a lift always ends up with Ms. July bitching us out in the middle of class and no one wants that. And I’m taking stage combat this semester so I really need to be in good shape.”

“Now that is something I would look forward to seeing you do,” Sue chuckled, mentally picturing him wielding a sword and slicing through the bullies that had tormented him when he was younger. She paused to look at him, her eyes softening in a way that Kurt rarely remembered her showing to anyone other than her sister.

“Oh Porcelain… I’m glad to see you doing so well,” Sue claimed with clear sincerity. “I never doubted that you’d manage to find your way out of Lima. I think that you would have crawled out of here on your hands and knees if that’s what it took. If only to spite anyone who ever tried to make you feel like nothing.”

Kurt nodded, knowing that there was more than a grain of truth there. All the times he’d ended up atop a pile of trash in a dumpster, the times when he did laundry as soon as he got home from school so that his father wouldn’t see the stains from food being thrown at him or the time when he spent several weeks’ worth of allowance money to buy a designer sweater to replace the one that his father had given him as a gift and ended up destroyed… it had all been fuel to Kurt’s determination to escape Lima.

“And that was something I always appreciated about you,” she explained. “You didn’t need anyone carrying your ass the way Berry did. I mean, Schuster all but ferried her to New York on his back.”

Kurt winced a bit internally, not liking to hear the harsh reminder of how unfair an advantage Rachel had back then and not surprised that Sue still had a rather unforgiving opinion about his friend, but she hadn’t seen how Rachel had matured since coming to New York. His friend had a better understanding of her own flaws and Rachel was constantly striving to prove to Kurt that she could be the kind of friend that she wanted to be. He hoped that in time others might see that shift.

“I’ve run into your father a few times, when he’s in town,” Sue confessed. “I always liked Burt. He’s always talking about how well you’re doing, which is the best ‘screw you’ to everyone in this town that looked down on you. He mentioned that you were in some plays this past summer. I would have liked to have seen that.”

“I’m sorry,” Kurt answered softly, surprised at her statement. “I didn’t even think…”

“It’s okay. I’ll forgive the lapse this one time,” Sue assured him, a touch of teasing in her voice. “I checked out some videos on line and your dad gave me a program for the Cheerio display at McKinley. You’re definitely turning out to be one of our prouder legacies.”

Kurt wouldn’t put it past Sue to wanting to brag about him, setting up the constant reminder that someone who she had personally chosen had been mocked and put down so harshly was now succeeding. It didn’t matter that he’d only been on the squad for a few months. In Sue Sylvester’s eyes, no one ever stopped being a Cheerio once they donned the uniform.

“And next time you’re in a show, I expect that you will tell me and have a ticket for me,” she said warningly, a familiar spark that bordered on madness in her eyes. “Because if you don’t, I will personally carve out your right kidney with a grapefruit spoon and sell it on the black market to compensate my hurt feelings. Am I clear?”

He couldn’t help from laughing a bit. “Yes. I promise,” he assured her.

“Good, because I don’t think your boyfriend will be happy to be visiting you in the dialysis unit,” Sue warned playfully.

Kurt’s phone beeped for his attention and he quickly checked it in case it was something important. “Speak of the devil,” he pronounced at seeing that it was a message from Adam.

Sue smiled, amused at the way Kurt’s expression brightened at just receiving a text from his lover. It gratified her that her protégé had found someone worthy of him. “What does he have to say?” she asked, chuckling to herself at the starry-eyed look on Kurt’s face.

Kurt opened up the message and immediately started to laugh. He pressed his hand over his mouth to keep from disturbing the entire café. Adam had texted a photo of him and Nialls at what looked like Boston Commons, both of them with their hands raised in surrender because a man dressed in a colonial military uniform was guarding them at musket point. Adam had added a quick caption, Bad day to be a Brit in Boston.

Kurt handed Sue his phone and watched as she chuckled at Adam’s silly antics, but not in a way that felt like his boyfriend was being mocked.

“I’m glad that you found someone more on your level,” she insisted, handing him back his phone. “He looks like he can keep up with you.”

Kurt nodded. “I’m very happy with him,” he stated confidently.

“Good. I’m glad about that. Otherwise I’d have to take steps,” Sue warned with apparent seriousness. “I have friends in several government agencies that could have him shipped back to England before he could finish his tea.”

“Well, as much as I appreciate the gesture, that won’t be necessary,” Kurt chuckled. “He treats me like absolute royalty and besides… he can’t be deported.”

“Oh?” Sue questioned, one thin eyebrow rising in query.

Kurt couldn’t help from grinning, knowing that he was going to be surprising her. “He’s got dual citizenship,” he boasted, popping the last bit of gingerbread into his mouth.

Sue cocked her head, the surprise apparent in her expression. “Does he now? Well… that does raise my opinion of him a bit.”

“He’s not Blaine,” he assured his former coach. “Not by the furthest stretch of the imagination.”

She nodded evenly, her eyes softening. “That’s good, because if I had any inclination that he was anything at all like that weaselly Muppet that you foolishly allowed yourself to become enamored with, I’d have to arrange for your immediate kidnapping and deprogramming. I know people at Langley that excel in such matters, but I suppose that would put a crimp in your Broadway career aspirations,” she mused.

Kurt laughed at her outlandish threat, accepting that at least the sentiment was sincere. “I think that it would, so I’ll avoid doing anything to warrant such drastic actions,” he promised.

Sue laughed riotously and got a few stares turned in her direction, but she clearly didn’t care about anyone looking. She gazed at him adoringly, reaching out to touch his cheek. “Oh, I’ve missed you. You, Lopez and Fabray… you were my special ones. I saw a lot of me in all of you.”

Kurt smiled, smart enough to recognize what an honor that actually was in Sue’s estimation.

“So make sure that you enjoy your visit here,” she advised. “Take a look around and see how far you’ve come. Because as time goes by, you’re only going to push further away from this place.”

Kurt felt himself nodding, having had very much the same thoughts since he arrived in Lima. He’d long ago made the decision not to let Lima become a trap for him. There was so much waiting for him in New York. Hard work, to be sure, and undoubtedly disappointments with no promise of success. But it was what he hungered for.

He knew that in a few days, he’d be returning to New York. Classes would be starting at the end of the month and he would be moving towards the future he wanted. He looked to his former coach, deeply grateful for all that she had given him.

“I have to thank you,” he said sincerely. “I don’t know if I would have made it out of here if it weren’t for the help you gave me over the years. Or if I’d be able to survive NYADA if I hadn’t experienced learning with you. Surviving you gave me the kind of tough skin I needed.”

Sue chuckled ironically, a touch of color reaching her cheeks. She seemed touched by his statement and a bit at a loss for words. He doubted that too many people thanked her for the insults and teasing, but he recognized how it was helping him now.

“I’d better get going,” he said reluctantly. “I promised my dad that I’d be home for dinner tonight.”

Sue just smiled. “Go on,” she urged. “And say ‘hi’ to Burt for me.”

Kurt nodded and gathered up his trash. Impulsively he bent to quickly kiss Sue on her cheek. “Thank you for everything,” he said again. “I’ll let you know about my next shows.”

It took Sue a moment to recover her wits, but she reached for her wallet and pulled out a business card. “Here’s my personal information,” she said, a suspicious hoarseness in her voice as she tried to maintain her customary air of detachment. “If you need my help… or just to brag about what you’re doing so I can rub it in Schuster’s face.”

Kurt snickered, knowing too well that she would do just that given half a chance.

* * *

“Are you kidding?” Finn asked, astonished at what his stepbrother was telling him. “Sue Sylvester?”

Kurt nodded, laughing out loud. “Finn, I’m telling you that beneath that diamond-hard exterior beats a heart that is pure marshmallow.”

“For you maybe,” Finn said cautiously. “She threatened to rip my spleen out when she thought I’d knocked up Quinn and I didn’t even know what my spleen was at the time.”

“Oh, she’s not that bad,” Kurt insisted, only to be cut off by Finn’s laughter.

“To you! You were one of her favorites,” Finn pointed out. “She would have happily murdered anyone else.”

Kurt leaned back and looked at his brother’s laughing expression on his computer monitor. “Oh, I miss you so much,” he sighed fondly. Finn had always been able to get Kurt to smile. “How are things going down there? The job working out?”

Finn nodded enthusiastically. “It’s been great. You would love it here,” he insisted.

Austin certainly seemed to be agreeing with Finn. He looked tanned and fit and really happy with things. Happier than Kurt could remember him being in quite some time. He seemed to have made some progress on finding his own path, which gratified Kurt tremendously. He’d hated how Finn had felt so lost, but he appeared to be much more secure with himself now.

“And the new apartment is okay?” Kurt asked, glad that his brother had managed to find better accommodations. The one room that he and Puck had managed to find when they first arrived in Austin was neither comfortable nor safe, and Kurt was relieved when they quickly moved out.

“It’s fine,” Finn assured him. “And work has been really great. Our boss has been teaching us a lot and we’ve been going out on a lot of jobs with him. There’s this mansion that we’ve been working on that’s really amazing. Robb, our boss, said that we’re doing so well that he’s giving us a raise and wants us to stay on for good.”

Finn paused, looking a bit contemplative. “You know, I didn’t expect things to turn out this way but I think that it’s really working out well for us. Robb said that we can really do well as craftsmen and I like the work,” he assured Kurt. “He said that if you find something that you’re good at and you like it, you can really be successful if you work hard. And I think I can really see myself this.”

“That’s great, Finn,” Kurt praised happily, delighted that Finn finally seemed to be finding a pathway for himself. “Austin really seems to suit you.”

Finn nodded. “We really like it here. I mean, the people are great and it’s fun and there’s all kinds of stuff to do. Puck and I are looking to put a band together,” he confided. “There are so many clubs down here and the music scene is amazing. We think we might be able to get something going. Just for fun. And we seem to have found another guitarist so we’re off to a good start.”

“I’m so glad, Finn. That sounds amazing!” Kurt said sincerely. He could understand how the two of them might miss music and even if the band turned out to be nothing more than a hobby, it would be good for the both of them.

Finn chuckled to himself. “It’s kind of cool because he moved in with Puck and me. We can share expenses and jam whenever we want,” he explained. “And Robb gave him a job so we can afford to stay here.”

Finn cocked his head. “You want to meet him?” Before Kurt could answer, Finn turned his head and called out, “Hey! I’ve got Kurt on Skype!”

There was a bit of jostling on Finn’s end as the computer image shook and Puck’s face came into view. “Hey, little dude!” he greeted happily. “Good to see you!”

“Hi, Puck!” Kurt couldn’t help from grinning at the sight of his old friend. Like Finn, Puck was looking healthy, tan and happy. Getting out of Lima has definitely been to both of their benefits.

The image on Finn’s end jostled again as the boys shifted so that a third man could squeeze in. Kurt felt his jaw drop in shock at seeing a familiar blond head come into view.

“Sam? Is that you?” he gasped.

Sam’s familiar wide smile came into focus. “Hi Kurt,” he greeted happily. “Bet you’re surprised.”

Kurt nodded, his eyes wide with shock. “You could say that,” he admitted. “How did this happen?”

Sam cocked his head towards the other boys, who sat behind him laughing at Kurt’s reaction. “Well, I’ve been keeping in touch with these bozos and they called me up one day that their boss was looking for more workers and if I was interested in a change of scenery. So, I flew down to Texas last week and the rest is history.”

Finn leaned forward, throwing an arm around Sam’s broad’s shoulders. “It’s really cool,” he told his stepbrother happily. “It’s kind of like us having our own New Directions offshoot down here. All we need is a bassist and we’ll have a proper band.”

Kurt looked at their smiling faces and felt a sense of relief for them. “That’s great,” he stated. “I’m so glad that it’s working out for the three of you.”

Puck gave Finn a playful nudge. “And tell him about Jane,” he urged.

That sparked Kurt’s curiosity. “Jane? Who’s Jane.”

Finn began to blush so deeply that Kurt could see it over his computer, and that got some teasing laughter from the other boys. “I… I kind of started seeing someone,” he confided shyly.

Kurt’s smile widened. “Oh? Tell me more…,” he urged.

“She’s a student over at the university, studying to be a social worker,” he explained. “I met her at this bar where she works as a waitress and we started talking. You’d like her…. She’s really cute and smart and…” His voice trailed off and he started blushing again.

Kurt remembered how moony he’d been when he first met Adam and fully understood what Finn was feeling. “She’s sounds nice,” he agreed. This was the first girl that Finn seemed to be really interested in since his break up with Rachel and Kurt grasped just how big a deal it was for him. It was the last step in Finn moving on.

His phone began to ring for his attention and Kurt quickly checked to see who it was. “Oh, I’ve got Adam trying to call me,” he explained. “Gotta go.”

Finn nodded understandingly. “Okay… say hi to him for us,” he urged.

“I’ll talk to you guys soon,” Kurt promised. “Sam, you keep those two out of trouble!”

“I will,” Sam assured him. “Talk to you soon.”

“Bye Kurt!” Puck chimed in before Finn ended the connection.

Kurt shook his head in amusement at their antics before answering his phone. “Hi sweetie!” he greeted happily, putting his laptop aside.

“Hello darling,” Adam answered and Kurt could all but hear the smile in his voice. “Oh, I miss you!”

“It’s only been two days,” Kurt reminded him, though he wasn’t going to protest as he missed Adam just as much.

“I know,” Adam acquiesced. “But I still miss you.”

Kurt felt his eyes start to water from the emotions that he’d been pushing down all day. “I miss you too,” he confessed. “But you look like you’re having fun.”

Adam laughed a bit. “We had most of the day to ourselves so we did a bit of sightseeing about the city,” he explained. “We visited the Freedom Trail and Independence Hall… I’ll tell you, love, that there seems to be a bit of anti-British bias in all this.”

Kurt chuckled in amusement at the playfully hurt tone in his lover’s voice. “Imagine that,” he teased.

Adam sighed a bit dramatically. “Well, I suppose that’s to be expected,” he granted. “Admittedly this part of history gets a bit glossed over in school across the pond.”

“I assume that it would be,” Kurt laughed. “So, tell me everything. What do they have planned for all of you?”

He could hear Adam settling down more comfortably on the other end. “The hotel is quite nice and I’m rooming with Nialls. Apparently, the others decided that us ‘old marrieds’ should bunk together, but that’s fine. He and I get along well enough. Oh, and we saw the theater this morning and it’s huge! I’ve never performed in a venue this large before.”

“That’s so exciting,” Kurt said happily. “That sounds like it’s going to be amazing. Now what kind of schedule do they have for you?”

“Tomorrow we have a cast and crew meeting that’s probably going to take up a lot of the day,” Adam explained. “And in the afternoon, there’s a meet and greet with the local press so you’ll probably see some things in the next few days before our opening.

“Then we go right into tech and our final dress rehearsals before our opening night,” Adam sighed. “The producers have already warned that most of our run in Boston is selling out. It’s a bit intimidating.”

Kurt wished that he could reach through the phone and wrap his arms about the older man. It broke his heart that Adam was facing such a huge step in his career and that he wasn’t there to support him in person. He knew that Adam was capable of meeting this challenge and that he would be wildly successful, but he wanted to be at his lover’s side to encourage him.

“You have no idea how proud I am of you,” Kurt insisted. “You are going to be so amazing and everyone is going to see what I see in you. You deserve this so much.”

Adam didn’t answer for moment and Kurt thought that he could hear the older man sniffling. “Thank you, darling. But I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for you,” he insisted. “You’ve been so generous in encouraging me, even when it caused difficulty for you. I owe you so much…”

“Hush,” Kurt admonished gently, feeling his heart swell for this wonderful, gentle man. Adam had been so giving and supportive since the two of them first met that he couldn’t imagine not making the same effort for his lover’s benefit. “I’m fine and the next few months are going to go by so quickly for the both of us. Before we know it, your tour will be done and you’ll be back in New York with me.

“And you’ll be the big star that everyone will the clamoring to hire for their shows,” Kurt claimed. “It’ll be worth all the hard work in the end.”

“I hope so,” Adam sighed.

“It will be,” Kurt insisted gently, sensing that Adam needed a bit of metaphysical hand-holding.

He heard Adam huff a bit, as if trying to regain his composure. “Tell me what you’ve been doing, love,” he urged. “How are Burt and Carole?”

Kurt could see a deflection from a mile away but decided that it wasn’t worth pointing out. Adam was going to have to deal with his worries on his own for now. He didn’t want to start an argument right at the start of Adam’s trip.

They chatted quietly about the kind of small, unimportant things that they always discussed when together. Kurt listened to Adam’s amusing stories about the cast and updated him on his family’s antics. They laughed as they shared their stories, both of them wishing that they could be with their partner.

Kurt lay down on his bed and stretched out, cradling his phone against his cheek so he could hear Adam’s voice clearly. He closed his eyes as he listened to Adam regaling him to stories about a group of British expats on the wrong side of American patriotic exhibitions and feeling a bit on display to the other tourists.

“It was so absurd darling, but I thought that this flock of schoolchildren were actually going to demand that we personally apologize for the starting the war,” Adam laughed. “One little boy was eying me very angrily. I thought he was going to start kicking me.”

“You poor thing,” Kurt chuckled teasingly.

“Their teacher was most apologetic,” Adam reassured him. “She reminded her class that none of us had been born at the time and that we shouldn’t be held responsible for what Old King George did.

“Oh… and maybe you can clear up something for me,” he requested. “That bell… why didn’t anyone ever fix the crack? Because it’s looks so odd!”

Kurt just smiled, listening to Adam chatter about the things he’d seen and was content to let his boyfriend tell his stories. He kept his eyes closed so he could imagine that Adam was in the room with him and not several states away. And maybe if he waited long enough, he would feel Adam’s hand reaching out to touch his.

* * *

“See anything interesting?” Kurt asked as he thumbed through the racks of sheet music.

Tina shook her head. “Not really. I just don’t know what my teachers are going to be asking me to do,” she sighed.

The past few days of his vacation had gone quietly for Kurt as he’d settled into something of a routine. He would wake up early, have a cup of coffee and then go out for a quick run. He stopped by the garage a few times to help out, glad to have a chance to see the guys for a bit before he returned to New York and keep his mechanic skills up to snuff. He spent time with his father and preparing meals with Carole. He did some studying for school, rested a bit and talked with Adam every moment that Adam could steal away from his work.

To be honest, he was very much looking forward to getting back to school and what passed for normal in his life at this point. Being at loose ends was wearing on him and he wasn’t very good at coping with not having a hundred things to do at a time. He just wasn’t’ made for inactivity

He had been lazing in front of the television while his father and Carole were out for the day, feeling his brain cells dying one by one from too many hours of appalling stupid daytime television shows. Not sure if he could stand another moment of watching pathetic dramas about paternity claims, he was nearly delirious with gratitude when Tina had called to ask if he could join her at Between The Sheets to help choose some material for the upcoming semester.

Kurt looked at the stack that she’d picked, seeing that she had chosen an assortment of classic and contemporary musicals. “I think you’re off to a good start,” he consoled. “You’ve got a little of everything. Some of these are just perfect to showcase your voice.” And to push her a little out of her comfort zone, he added mentally.

She looked at the books and shrugged. “I guess,” she conceded. “I just wish that I knew myself as a performer a bit more. Rachel never had that problem.”

“That is not true,” he corrected. “Rachel thought that she did and learned the hard way that trying to copy he favorite performers wasn’t going to get her the career she wants. She’s trying to find herself just as much the rest of us are so don’t feel like you’re at a disadvantage. That’s what going to school is supposed to be about. Don’t be afraid to try new things.”

Tina looked over her selections, making sure that the music she had selected was in the key for her voice. “Did you find anything for yourself?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t need any classic musicals and they don’t have too much contemporary for my range,” he admitted. There was a decided lack of anything written specifically for a countertenor’s range, so he was concentrating on traditional tenor material. “I’m going to check out some other stuff.”

While Tina continued her search in the musical theater section, Kurt moved to where the books for other musical genres were kept. Working with the Apples had expanded his comfort zone and he wanted to utilize that more unorthodox material in his voice work in class to help him stand out from the other students. He pulled out a book of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas that looked promising and began to thumb through it. He’d like to be able to surprise his voice teachers with some unorthodox material.

“Kurt?”

He felt himself freeze at the tentative greeting, his shoulders instinctively stiffening. Taking a breath to maintain his calm, Kurt turned to find his ex-boyfriend standing too close for his comfort.

“Blaine,” he said with cool indifference, pleased that he was able to keep any anger out of his voice.

The shorter man gave Kurt a tentative smile. “Hi. I wasn’t sure if I would see you while I was in town,” he said carefully. “I’m home on winter break.”

Kurt nodded. “Dad’s home on winter recess from Congress so I thought I’d spend a little time with him before classes start.”

“That’s nice,” Blaine responded, still clearly trying to gage Kurt’s reactions.

Kurt looked Blaine over, seeing that his olive complexion was darker from the California sun and that he still had the tendency to dress like a color-blind geriatric. And he felt…. He was surprised that he felt nothing. No real anger or frustration or lingering affection. Just a bit of annoyance at being bothered when he had things to do.

It was as if he was looking at a stranger that he had no past or present contact with.

“Is… is your boyfriend with you?” Blaine asked carefully, obviously putting out feelers over Kurt’s current relationship status.

Kurt snorted, not surprised that Blaine either couldn’t be bothered to remember Adam’s name or couldn’t bring himself to actually use it.

“No, Adam is out of town right now on a job. He got cast in a play that’s doing a national tour,” he proclaimed proudly. “And yes, he and I are still together. Just in case you were wondering.”

“No! I mean…. That wasn’t…,” Blaine stammered, clearly caught off guard by Kurt’s blunt assessment of his motives. His cheeks began to burn red. “I just saw you and stopped to say hi. Nothing more, I swear.”

Kurt shrugged, honestly not caring what Blaine’s motives were. “Sam said that you’re going to school in California,” Kurt said indifferently, as if he was making polite party conversation. He eyed Blaine’s gelled helmet of a hairstyle and wondered what the hell he’d ever seen in his former boyfriend.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tina notice the unwanted intrusion on Kurt’s personal space and gave him a silent signal to see if he wanted her to step in. He shook his head, letting her know to keep her distance, aware that she didn’t want to be around Blaine any more than he did but he was grateful to see that she was ready to step in if needed.

Blaine seemed to brighten a bit at Kurt’s vague knowledge about his current activities, apparently mistaking neutral awareness for genuine interest. He still clearly lacked anything in the way of self-awareness, not realizing that the only real emotion Kurt felt was relief that Blaine was on the opposite side of the country and that he could avoid most of Blaine’s drama.

“Yeah, I’m living with Cooper while I go to UCLA,” he explained, displaying his usual pleasure in discussing anything revolving about himself. “It’s really amazing out there. I’m doing well there in my acting classes and am already being considered for television roles. I met an agent at one of Cooper’s parties and she’s convinced that she can get me a lead role.”

Somehow, Kurt doubted that, though he kept his opinion to himself. The boasting reminded him far too much of the way Rachel used to brag about her questionable achievements in a way to puff herself up when she wanted to impress others. And whether or not it was true, no longer mattered to him.

Kurt was surprised at the lack of anger and resentment he felt towards Blaine. He hadn’t forgotten what Blaine had done, but he realized that he had truly moved on. Blaine and his actions was no longer a factor in his life. The only emotion he felt was gladness that Blaine wasn’t in his life.

He felt himself nodding absently, offering the barest of compliments for whatever fortune Blaine was finding for himself without any emotional investment, good or bad. He didn’t wish any misfortune on Blaine, but he was thankful that that their lives were on completely separate tracks and would likely not be intersecting in anything other than the most superficial way ever again.

“Kurt, listen… It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. Why don’t we go grab a cup of coffee? My treat,” Blaine offered, a bit desperately in Kurt’s opinion. “We can talk… catch up a little…”

Kurt just shook his head. “No thanks. I’ve got to get going,” Kurt pronounced, a trace of firmness in his voice that warned Blaine not to try to argue him into lingering.

“Oh, come on Kurt,” Blaine whined. “It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, and…”

“I said no, Blaine,” Kurt said again, making the refusal as clear as possible since Blaine was determined to be obtuse. “Tina’s waiting for me, but good luck in L.A.”

Blaine’s expression fell at the realization that Kurt was so totally closed off to him. He could only nod in defeat and mutter, “It was good to see you, Kurt. I’ve missed you.”

Kurt didn’t say anything more, only gathering up his purchases to join Tina over by the cash register. She looked over to him with gentle concern while the cashier bagged up her purchases. “You okay?” she asked. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to cut in, but you seemed to be handling him.”

Kurt smiled brightly, openly displaying the emotions that he refused to with Blaine. “Oh, definitely,” he assured her. “Let me just pay for my stuff and we can go grab lunch. There’s a burger joint that opened up that the guys in the garage said is really amazing.”

“Sounds good,” she chirped, accepting the shopping bag with her music.

Neither of the bothered to look behind them to see Blaine’s longing stare, the final realization of just how much he’d lost evident on his face.

* * *

The moment Kurt and Tina walked into Brew & Que, Kurt knew that his father’s employees had it right. The smells coming out of the restaurant kitchen were amazing and Kurt found himself liking the casual atmosphere. The restaurant had been designed to look like a roadhouse, but it was clean and the staff appeared to be friendly.

Tina picked up the menu and looked it over. “Well, there goes my diet,” she laughed when she looked at all the choices. “This all looks so good.”

“You don’t need to diet,” Kurt assured her honestly as he looked over the options. He could see why the guys at the garage liked this place so much, as the overwhelming majority of the menu was meat-based and there didn’t seem to be a low-calorie option in sight. Well, there was a salad but given how woefully out of place it looked on the menu, Kurt decided that it probably wasn’t the best offering.

Once they gave the smiling waitress their orders, Tina settled back in her seat. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked. “I know that Blaine can be a pill and he didn’t look like he wanted to take ‘fuck off’ for an answer.”

Kurt couldn’t help from laughing at his friend’s words. He was so glad that they had reconciled and that he had given her the chance to regain his trust. “I’m starting to think that I’m never going to totally shake him,” he sighed dramatically. “I could be celebrating my ten-year anniversary and I’ll have him showing up, trying to serenade me with Katy Perry. I really wish that he’d meet someone else so he’ll forget about me.”

Tina smiled gently. “You are kind of unforgettable,” she advised. “And I know what it’s like to be hung up on an ex longer than is healthy.”

Kurt’s gaze softened. He hadn’t been around when Tina was dealing with the aftermath of her breakup with Mike, but he had been on the receiving end of some of her poor behavior. He was glad that she woke up and recognized what she’d been doing and only hurting herself before it was too late.

“So, tell me more about your classes,” he urged, changing the conversation to something more pleasant. He didn’t want to discuss Blaine any further.

He let Tina ramble on about her teachers and classmates while they waited for their lunch, giving her his full attention. On some things, NYU didn’t seem all that different than NYADA. Demanding teachers, challenging classes and competitive classmates. Tina was faced with the same challenges that he and Rachel faced; figuring out how to stand out in a school filled with talented students while developing her own unique gifts as a performer.

“Are you taking any dance classes this year?” Kurt asked, sipping at his iced tea. “You should do well in that.”

She nodded. “Dance, voice and acting,” she confirmed. “I’m going to have a pretty full schedule.”

“How are your teachers?”

Tina couldn’t help wincing. “Tough,” she sighed.

“That’s good,” he assured her. “I know that it doesn’t feel like it at times, but the tougher they are, the better a performer you’re going to become. The key is to learn to take criticism and use it to grow. Not let it demoralize you.

“You know, you can always talk to Elliot if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed,” he reminded her. “He’s still at NYU, and I’m sure he’d be glad to help.”

Tina smiled gratefully. “Thanks,” she said sincerely. “There are times when I envy you and Rachel being able to support one another at school. I feel kind of on my own.”

“Well, you’re not,” Kurt promised. “Just because I’m at NYADA doesn’t mean that I can’t be there if you need me. NYU isn’t that far away.”

Tina couldn’t resist reaching out to grasp his hand in gratitude. “Thank you, Kurt,” she said earnestly. “I’m so glad that we’re still friends. Especially after how I treated you. I was such a jerk, and…”

“Shush. It’s fine,” Kurt insisted gently. “We went through a rough patch, but we’re good now.”

And they were. Kurt recognized what a dark place Tina had been in and that Blaine had taken advantage of her vulnerability, playing with her feelings in order to make himself feel better about his lot in life. Holding a grudge would not do either one of them any good. And it would give Blaine a win by letting him destroy a friendship that Kurt had cherished. He was sure that Blaine must have been annoyed to see Tina with him and not willing to give him even a word of greeting.

He probably should feel a trace of sympathy for his ex. After all, he was the one exiled to the other end of the country with none of his old friends to support him, but Kurt didn’t have quite that much nobility in him. There was just enough vindictive pettiness within him to take a rare bit of pleasure in Blaine’s misfortune.

“Kurt Hummel! Is that you?”

Kurt looked up in surprise at the familiar voice calling his name and grinned when he saw Dave Karofsky approaching their table with a huge grin on his face.

“Oh my God,” Kurt exclaimed happily, letting the bigger man sweep him up into a hug. “How long has it been?”

“Too long,” Dave admitted, letting Kurt find his feet again. He looked Kurt over from head to toe. “Wow…. You look fantastic.”

“Thanks! So do you.” And Dave did look good, in Kurt’s opinion. He was still a big, brawny young man but he was solid muscle underneath his snug fitting shirt. But what made him good looking was the brightness of his brown eyes and the open smile that contained none of the anger that had so marked him back in high school.

“You remember Tina, right?” Kurt asked, motioning to his table-mate.

Dave nodded animatedly, offering her a warm smile. “It’s good to see you,” he greeted sincerely.

“So how are things at OSU?” Kurt asked curiously.

“Good… good,” Dave confirmed. “It’s been great there.”

“You still majoring in sports business?”

Before Dave could answer, a tall young man approached him with a warm smile. “Hey, I paid the check. Are you ready to go?”

Dave’s eyes softened at the other man’s approach. “Hey, come here… I’ve got someone I want you to meet. Taylor, this is Kurt… from my high school.”

He looked to Kurt, with a gentle smile on his face. “This is Taylor. My boyfriend.”

Kurt’s eyes widened in surprise, but he quickly remembered his manners and moved to shake the other man’s hand in greeting. “Hi! This is… wow… It is so good to meet you.”

Dave’s boyfriend was a good looking young man with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to glimmer with spirit. He appeared to be about Kurt’s and Dave’s age and was dressed neatly in a pair of dark wash jeans and a soft knit sweater that clung to surprisingly broad shoulders.

And it didn’t miss Kurt’s attention that Taylor bore more than a fleeting resemblance to himself, and he turned a teasing arched eyebrow to the larger man. Dave just gave a small shrug, as if to say, “Hey, I’ve got a type.”

Taylor seemed just as surprised at the unexpected introduction. “So, you’re the Kurt he’s always talking about,” he laughed. “Dave was always going on about you and how I reminded him of you a bit so I feel like I probably already know you.”

Kurt felt his cheeks warm. He probably shouldn’t be too surprised that Dave apparently still regarded him so strongly.

Dave placed his arm about Taylor’s shoulders and pulled him close. “Taylor’s also a student at OSU. We met when he came to see a rugby game that I was playing in.”

The other boy laughed brightly. “I was actually there to cheer on my cousin when I saw Dave. He was totally adorable pushing around the other guys and totally kicking butt.”

Dave blushed at his boyfriend’s compliments and Kurt noticed the way the slimmer man leaned in to nuzzle teasingly under Dave’s jaw. To see Dave so easily accepting physical affection warmed Kurt’s heart because he knew just how fearful Dave had been when he was younger. It was gratifying to see just how far Dave had come. And if he had any worries that Dave’s attraction to Taylor was because of any resemblance to Kurt, the genuine affection between the two of them put his mind at least. Dave clearly liked his boyfriend for himself and not any lingering torch he might have carried.

“You’re home visiting your folks?” Kurt asked. Dave looked so happy and he hoped that everything was well with his family.

“Yup,” the larger man confirmed. “I wanted them to meet Taylor since we’ve been together for a while. Dad’s just happy that I’m happy, and Mom… she’s learning to deal.”

Kurt nodded sympathetically, knowing that Mrs. Karofsky was still learning to accept that her son was gay. Still, it sounded like she was trying, which was a lot better than the outright rejection Dave had experienced when he was first outed.

“We’re going up to Dayton to spend a few days with Taylor’s family before we head back to school,” Dave explained. “This is kind of the ‘meet the mutual folks’ tour.”

“And they’re gonna love you,” Taylor insisted.

“So, what are you doing in Lima?” Dave asked. “I would think you’d have to be pried out of New York with a crowbar.”

He turned to his boyfriend and explained, “This guy is at the best singer you ever heard. He got into this super-elite theater school. It’s like the best in the country.”

Tina couldn’t help from laughing at Dave’s effusive praise of her friend. “Careful Kurofsky, or you’re going to make your boyfriend jealous,” she teased.

“You’re mine, big guy,” Taylor reminded his boyfriend possessively. “And I don’t share, so don’t forget it.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to do that,” Dave agreed, giving Taylor an affectionate glance. “We already saw what happens if he thinks that someone is poaching.”

Kurt found himself liking Dave’s guy, if only for the fact that he seemed completely head over heels for his former classmate.

Dave gave Kurt a rueful grin. “We were at Scandals the other night and ran into your ex,” he admitted. “Taylor was in the bathroom and Blaine… Well, he started hitting on me.”

He paused, gaging Kurt’s reaction to that bit of news but Kurt just sighed.

“I’m not surprised, to be honest,” Kurt said evenly. “That’s a primary reason why he’s my ex. Was he drunk?”

Dave nodded. “He’d definitely been drinking. And he was really pushy. He kept going on about… well, about what happened back in high school and that I could do so much better.”

Kurt couldn’t help from wincing. After the way Blaine had behaved at the music store, he was left wondering if Blaine had any real feelings at all besides his own immediate gratification. Trying to use Dave’s old crush to entice him seemed to be just the kind of childish pettiness that was up Blaine’s alley. And trying to use Dave to get back at Kurt for rejecting him really ticked him off.

“Anyway, this one,” Dave continued, giving his boyfriend a playful nudge. “He comes out of the bathroom and…”

“I see this badly dressed, drunk creep all over my boyfriend and I told him that if he didn’t remove his hands from my man, then I was going to rip his arms off and beat him over his greasy head with them.”

Taylor laughed wickedly. “You never saw someone back pedal so fast in your life!”

“And he would have done it!” Dave insisted, giving Taylor and affectionate look. Having someone that looked like him being treated with such possessiveness was more than a little satisfying.

Looking at Taylor’s hands, Kurt had to agree with Dave’s assessment. They were surprisingly strong-looking, with unexpected calluses on the fingers and palms that hinted at a lot of hard physical activity. The young man’s forearms were corded with powerful muscle and sinew. Paired with those strong shoulders, there was a lot of upper body strength there. Taylor looked like he could probably lift Dave without too much effort.

Dave couldn’t resist leaning close to Kurt and whispering confidingly, “He’s on the gymnastics team.”

Kurt cocked an eyebrow. “Impressive.”

Dave nodded, looking very pleased with himself. “He’s super bendy.”

Kurt couldn’t help from laughing. He was genuinely happy for Dave, glad that he was finally in a good place and seemed really content with his life. That was all Kurt could have ever wanted for him.

“Are you still seeing that guy you met at school?” Dave asked curiously.

Kurt nodded and got out his phone. “Yup. Adam’s working on a national tour right now, but we’re still together.”

“They’re disgustingly in love,” Tina inserted, giving her friend an affectionate smile.

Kurt pulled up a photo of the two of them from Thanksgiving and showed it to Dave and Taylor.

“Oh, he’s gorgeous,” Taylor cooed admiringly. He looked to Kurt and nodded in approval. “Very nice.”

Kurt smiled proudly. “We know how to pick the good ones,” he informed Taylor, causing Dave to blush.

And Dave was a good guy to Kurt. He’d come so far from the fearful, bullying boy he’d been and was now a man who was confident and open about who and what he was. It was wonderful to see.

When the waitress returned with Kurt’s and Tina’s lunch, Dave stepped back. “It was great to see the both of you, but we’d better get going,” he said graciously. “I promised my dad that we’d spend the afternoon with him.”

Kurt nodded, turning to shake Taylor’s hand again. “It was really great meeting you,” he insisted sincerely. “Take good care of the big guy here.”

Taylor nodded. “I will. Good luck back in New York.”

Kurt smiled appreciatively, glad to see that Dave had found himself a really good guy. He turned to give Dave a hug. “Take care of yourself,” he urged. “And let’s make sure that we keep in touch more.”

“You got it,” Dave confirmed. He glanced over to Tina and gave her a friendly wave. “It was nice to see you, Tina.”

She smiled back. “You too!”

Once the two men left, Dave’s arm casually thrown around the other man’s shoulders to keep him close, Kurt and Tina sat down to enjoy their lunch. Tina picked up a french fry and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

“It’s funny,” she mused. “Some people change so much and others… they don’t really change at all. Do they?”

Kurt knew that Tina was talking about Blaine and sad realization that the behaviors he’d been displaying of late were his true colors showing through. And that he probably had been showing for a very long time. And that it hurt to have loved and trusted someone who clearly had been so unworthy of that consideration.

And he wasn’t the same person that he’d been when he first left Lima. He was discovering strengths and desires that he’d barely begun to tap. He could see the boy he’d been when his father first put him on a plane for New York and the man who had returned for a brief visit.

All they could do was take what they had learned from the experience and move on. Kurt took a bite from his burger and took a moment to savor the taste, putting Blaine from his mind. He had so much to look forward to in life and it was something of relief that his old relationship no longer haunted him quite so strongly.

Blaine, like Lima itself, could hold him back only if he permitted them to. And he had long since made the decision that they wouldn’t.

He had dreams to follow and Blaine had long since ceased to be a part of them.

* * *

The last days of Kurt’s visit home were pleasant and easy ones. He allowed Carole to mother him, and spent quiet hours with her and his father to reconnect. He rested and prepared for his upcoming classes and rehearsals. He hung around with his friends who were in town. And he spoke with Adam every moment that his boyfriend could spare during his tech preparations.

Still, he would be lying if he tried to claim that he wasn’t glad to be returning to New York. Back where he really belonged.

He nearly went back to the apartment that he’d shared with Adam, only recognizing after he stepped onto the subway with his luggage in tow that he couldn’t go back there again. A change of trains brought him to NYADA, which would now be his base of operations in all things

His room in the dorms was stark and bare, the only amenities being the bed, dresser and desk that had clearly seen a lot of wear and tear since they were installed. The cinderblock wall behind his bed was painted a clean white, providing him with a blank canvas that he could transform into his own space. The boxes and bags containing his possessions sat on the floor, waiting to be unpacked.

Kurt sighed to himself, the realization of what the next few months would really entail finally hitting him. But there was no use in moping, not when he had things to do. Adam needed him to be strong enough to stand on his own two feet while the older man was away and the last thing that Kurt wanted to do was disappoint him. He needed to be able to do this for the both of them.

With quiet resolve, he took up the box cutter and opened up the first box. A framed photo of himself and Adam took a prominent spot on the desk where he would be able to see it from anywhere in the room. After that, the rest of things would fall into place.

#kadam fic #kurt hummel #adam crawford #rachel berry #santana lopez #tina cohen chang #artie abrams #burt hummel #carole hudson #finn hudson #sam evans #noah puckerman #dave kurofsky #blaine anderson #not blaine or klaine friendly #original characters

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strangerererthings · 7 years ago

Text

summer lovin’

Summary: You spent an amazing summer in California and even got your own little summer romance. However, you weren’t expecting him to transfer to your tiny high school in Hawkins, Indiana.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x Reader

Disclaimer: I don’t own Stranger Things or it’s characters!!!

Author’s Note: I’m going to jump on requests ASAP! I’m just taking a quick break from school work to pump out this first chapter.

Word Count: 1,702

part two/part three/part four/part five/part six/part seven

“You have to tell us all about this summer romance, Y/N!”

You grinned over at your best friend, Nancy, as she clung to your arm. “It was nothing. Honestly...” You took a seat on the hood of her boyfriend’s car, holding your books to your chest. “We just... hung out. We went swimming, got ice cream, caught a few movies... He taught me how to surf.”

“Does he have a car?” Carol asked, snapping her gum.

You and Nancy glanced at each other, resisting rolling your eyes. You couldn’t stand Carol and didn’t know why she still hung around your group anymore. You supposed it had something to do with Tommy still trying to hang around Steve. They were leeches for popularity. “Yeah. This beautiful blue Camaro.”

Nancy nudged your arm with hers as she sat up on the car with you, Steve coming over and kissing her cheek. “Are you ever going to tell us this guy’s name, Y/N?”

“Billy. Billy Hargrove.”

“He sounds dreamy, but we need to head to first period.” Nancy grabbed your arm and the two of you jumped down off the hood. She kissed Steve goodbye before the two of you headed off, missing the sound of squealing tires as a blue Camaro squealed into the parking lot. “So, tell me more about him.” She seemed possibly more excited than you, which was pretty hard.

“Well, he has these gorgeous blue eyes and curly blonde hair. He’s tall. Really tall.” You felt a pang of heartache as you continued on about Billy. “He’s so kind and caring. He loves his little sister, Max. He always blasted hard rock when we were in the car together.” You shook your head as she gripped your arm, the two of you walking into first period and taking your seats. You sat behind her and she turned around to listen, gripping the back of her chair. “Sometimes, I’d sneak out in the middle of the night and he’d pick me up to go to the beach and watch the stars.” Your voice dropped to a whisper as you leaned forward so only she could hear. “I went skinny dipping no less than thirty times this summer.”

“Y/N!” She smacked your arm excitedly, her eyes wide. “Did you...”

The unspoken question was obvious as you shook your head. “He was a complete gentleman. Never pushed and only did what I said was okay.”

Nancy shook her head as she sat back in her seat. “Sounds too good to be true.”

This summer, your family had decided to head to California to visit your grandparents. You had left right after school ended, getting there right in the middle of May. Your grandparents had this beautiful house on the beach, and you’d wake up early every morning just to watch the dawn. Eventually, you began to notice that the same guy would always be out surfing at that time. It had taken him a week and a half for the two of you to be introduced. You had walked to the grocery store with your aunt, who still lived with your grandparents. As the two of you were grabbing what you needed, you ran into her old friend from high school, Susan. Along with her was Billy and Max. He had stared at you with such intensity, his hand fitting perfectly in yours when he shook it. You had been hooked. You spent all summer there, only having come back home two weeks ago. But, you had called Nancy every night you could, since she was dying to hear all the details.

You watched as her eyes caught on the empty chair across the aisle, and you reached forward to grab her hand. “I miss her, too.”

Nancy simply nodded, though you could see tears rimming her eyes. The rest of the class went quiet as the teacher walked in.

You, Nancy, and Barb had all been a trio up until she had disappeared last year. You three met in kindergarten, and from there, it was history. You spent every spare minute you all could together, to the point of your parents joking that you three were sisters separated from birth. Last year had been hard on the two of you when she went missing. It was part of the reason your parents wanted to take such a long vacation. They wanted to get you away from Hawkins for a bit.

The rest of the day went fairly normal until lunch. You followed Nancy out of the lunch line with your trays, heading to where Steve, Tommy, and Carol were already sitting. Unsurprisingly, Jonathan Byers was sitting alone at the other end of the cafeteria. Despite Nancy’s attempts, he didn’t seem too keen on sitting with your group of friends. As you took your seat, Tommy looked up to smirk at you. “Hey, Y/N, have you met the new guy?”

You shook your head no, a frown playing on your lips. “New guy? Since when do we get new people in Hawkins, Indiana?” You sat down on the edge of the bench. “Who the hell wants to move to Hawkins, of all places?”

“Hey, there he is now,” Carol purred as she pointed over to where a bunch of guys were leaving the lunch line. There was a group of five or six guys and Carol made a point to stand up to wave them over.

As they got closer, you saw familiar blonde curls towards the back. As the group broke up a bit, you stood up, your heart leaping in your chest. “Billy?!”

The boy in question froze as all the guys turned to look at him. His eyes locked on yours, and he immediately rushed to you. “Y/N?! What are you doing here?”

“I live here!” You were smiling wider than you ever had before as he set his tray down, his hands moving to grab yours. “What are you doing here?”

“I moved here a week ago with my family.” His eyes were just as big and blue as ever and God, that smile could light up a city.

You shook your head as you moved closer. This was more than you ever could’ve dreamed. “Why didn’t you call me?! We could’ve--I don’t know!” You laughed, rubbing his arm.

He suddenly seemed to become hyperaware of what he was doing as he looked around him. Billy took a step back, chuckling nonchalantly as he pulled out a cigarette from his back pocket. “You know how it is, baby girl. I don’t have any ties. Don’t like being kept like an animal.”

“Billy?” Your smile dropped to a frown as he took a step back and you shook your head. “What’s going on?”

“You tell me, sweetheart. We have a few little, uh, trysts at the beach and suddenly you think we’re married, or something.” The guys around Billy were clapping him on his back and whistling as he lit his cigarette, taking a long drag.

You took a few steps backwards, bumping into the table. “I... I don’t understand.”

“Listen, baby... You were a good lay. Let me know if you ever wanna go again.” Billy walked forward, grabbing your hips and pulling you so you were pressed up against. “This time there won’t be any sand getting everywhere, huh?”

You pushed him away angrily, your cheeks flaming. “You’re bullshit, Billy Hargrove.” You pushed him again, tears rimming your eyes. “You hear me?! BULLSHIT!” With that, you ran out of the cafeteria, ignoring the laughs of Tommy, Carol, and the rest of the guys that now seemed to makeup Billy’s new little posse.

“Y/N! Y/N, wait up!” Nancy called as she ran out after you. “Y/N, come on!”

You pushed your way into the girl’s bathroom, locking yourself into a stall before you broke down sobbing. You leaned your head into your hands, wiping your eyes. “Go away!” You shouted as you heard the bathroom door slam open. With your luck, Carol would’ve rounded up Becky, Tina, and Vicki to come humiliate you some more.

“Y/N... It’s me, Nancy.” There was a knock on the bathroom stall as Nancy stood in front of it, but you didn’t move. “Y/N, boys are dickheads. You know that. I”m sorry that this Billy kid feels like he needs to show off or whatever. You don’t deserve it.”

You slowly stood up, pulling yourself off the tile before walking to the door and opening it. Nancy pulled you into a tight hug when she saw your tear-stained face. “He called me baby... He always called me baby...” You burst into another round of tears and Nancy could do nothing except rub your back, whispering that it was all going to be okay.

Back in the cafeteria, Steve stood up as he watched the two of you run out. He stepped up to Billy as he pushed his hands against his chest. “Dude, what the hell is your issue?”

Billy took another drag, looking Steve up and down slowly. “You got an issue, pretty boy?”

He nodded as he put his hands on his hips. “Yeah, what the hell was that? You clearly know Y/N and it was obviously something more than just a summer hookup.”

The tanned Californian stepped closer so he was nose to nose with Steve. “Listen, Harrington. She was a good lay. That’s it. If she read more into it...” He laughed as he looked back at his boys. “Then that’s her problem. Not mine.”

Steve scoffed, looking at Billy in disgust before he ran out of the cafeteria to find you and Nancy. Billy watched after him, his eyes softening a bit before one of the guys clapped him on the back. He turned back to them, putting on a smirk as he laughed. “Crazy bitch, huh?”

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #billy x reader #stranger things #stranger things 2 #stranger things fanfiction #fanfiction #reader insert

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luminis-infinite · 7 years ago

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the rescue

For @nix1327, the second story as promised. This one is pretty long and pretty dark, so warnings for mentions of domestic violence/abuse, blood and murder. Thank you to @wanderingnork for taking a look at this thing. Hope you enjoy.

It’s late September, 1928. Autumn brings torrential rain and one of the worst cases Tina’s been on this year. This particular day, it’s piss pouring down and the rain slices straight through her coat and hat, leaving her chilled to the bone. But Tina’s mind is elsewhere as Graves kicks down the door. It bangs against the opposite wall, cracking off its hinges with a squeal, contrasting sharply to the thud of heavy footsteps and the roar of a spell. Everything happens so quickly after that. The man yells, Tina flicks her wrist and there’s an awful crunching sound before more yelling and shouting and the crackle of magic in the air. Then comes silence.

Tina sweeps the scene with her wand still humming, securing the man she’s just brought down with a full body bind before moving further into the dilapidated apartment. It’s a dance of avoiding rotting floorboards and shattered glass, and fighting down the nausea. The place stinks of blood and shit, so strong Tina pulls the neck of her blouse over her nose to try and block it out. If the stench affects Graves, though, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he plunges farther into the room with face set in stone, wand drawn and ready. Tina’s stomach plummets a little when he disappears around a corner.

“In here!”

As quickly as he’d gone, Graves reappears in the entryway to a tiny little room. Beyond the doorway, a girl huddles in the corner. She’s still wearing the filthy, bloodstained and tattered nightdress she was abducted in six days ago. Her face – which Tina remembers being slender in the photographs in the casefile – now has the grey paloured gauntness of the malnourished and dehydrated. Golden hair hangs limp and greasy around that thin, frightened face, matted down with blood on one side. Tina’s heart aches and constricts – she looks so much like Queenie it hurts.

In the girl’s arms, the baby sits, barely breathing and staring out at the room with blank, glassy eyes.

These are the two they’ve been searching so desperately for; Vivian, twelve, and her baby brother Mason, just seven months old, taken by their father after brutally murdering their mother. As much as Tina wishes domestic violence was restricted solely to no-majes, it’s cases like this which remind her it isn’t true.

When Graves and Tina enter the room, the girl cries out in terror. Her magic flickers – weak and underdeveloped, but there – and she summons a lead pipe to herself by literally ripping it out of the wall. Fingers close around it, and she brandishes it at Tina and Graves, screaming,

“Stay back!”

Graves sheathes his wand slowly, before raising his hands with palms facing Vivian to show her that they’re empty, that he’s not a threat.

“It’s alright,” he says quietly, “It’s alright.”

Vivian’s lips curl back over her teeth – bloodied gums and a chipped front incisor explained by the bruise over her cheek and nose.

“Vivian,” Graves tries again, voice soft and gentle, “May we come over to you? I promise your f- the bad man can’t hurt you anymore.”

Both Tina and Graves shuffle to the side ever so slightly, giving Vivian full view of the doorway and the unconscious monster still laid out on the floor. Vivian chokes on something like a sob, clutching both the baby and the pipe a little tighter.

“Can we come over to you, Vivian? Will you let us help you?”

For a minute, Vivian hesitates, glancing between them and the empty door, before something overtakes her. The young girl lets the pipe fall and surges forward, stumbling and tumbling across the room into Graves’ open arms. A gut-wrenching sob rips her wide open, shaking her entire body. Graves motions for Tina to take the baby, before fully embracing Vivian. He doesn’t protest when blood and tears and snot soak through his jacket, nor when her fingers tear holes into it. Instead, Graves croons, “You’re safe, you’re safe now, sweetheart. It’s alright.”

They apparate the children to St. Jude’s after the rest of the team arrives to collect the monster and any evidence available in the crumbling apartment. Tina takes the baby, Graves takes Vivian, and the world swirls and compresses for a moment before they’re spat out into the hands of the waiting medical staff.

When the baby is relieved from her arms, Tina finds herself swept away in an avalanche of medical babble and questions needing answers. She debriefs with Picquery, with Johnson, with the head doctor, she fills out reports and not once thinks about the fact that she hasn’t seen Graves since arriving at the hospital.

It’s only when five rolls around and Tina’s stomach rumbles with fury that she comes up for air. Leaning back in her chair, Tina rubs at her eyes. Upon opening them again, Vivian’s picture stares back up at her from the case file, still open from this morning. Tina’s thoughts immediately turn to the little girl.

Wouldn’t hurt to go check on her, Tina thinks.

Upon her arrival, Tina asks the front desk for help locating the room, and in a few moments, a nurse is guiding Tina to Vivian and Mason. It’s stark, as all hospital rooms are, but the curtains are thrown open to let in the little light that manages to squeak through the rainclouds. It gives the room a different feeling – dove grey instead of bone white – softer, somehow.

Mason sleeps in a bassinet, rocked slowly by some ancient spell which hums warmly when Tina draws near. Vivian is tucked up beneath blankets and sheets on a bed, now cleaned of blood and bruises, if not the scars left behind.

Tina is expecting that. She isn’t expecting Graves to sit at the foot of her bed, isn’t expecting the gentle conversation he seems to be having with her. It’s like neither of them notice her, too lost in whatever it is they’re discussing. Tina knows that to be untrue, can see the way Graves’ eyes flit to her for just half a second before turning back to Vivian, but he gives the pretense that he hasn’t noticed.

“The doctors said they won’t go away,” Vivian forces the words out, sound wobbling from between her lips and making it difficult to hear her. Tina isn’t sure what scars she’s talking about – and she doesn’t really want to know.

“They’ll fade,” Graves replies, and upon seeing the tear roll down the young girl’s cheek, exhales in a way that sounds sad, and produces a monogrammed handkerchief. He gives it to her, a faint smile tugging on his lips when she blows her nose noisily.

“I wasn’t always proud of my scars, either. Still not proud of some,” he continues when Vivian has settled back into something like calm. At her inquisitive, if subdued expression, Graves shrugs off his jacket and undoes his cufflink with a wave of his hand, before rolling up his sleeve to reveal powerful forearm.

“Here,” he says, tapping a thin, shiny line which runs almost perpendicular to the way the bone runs, “got sliced up by a thug when I was just starting. I didn’t listen to my mentor, and ended up having to be stitched together. It was embarrassing, but I learned from it at least.”

Vivian blinks and nods, snuffling again. Tina knows it’s the shock wearing off, and in her mild surprise, realizes Graves is helping guide Vivian through it.

“What’s that one?” Vivian asks quietly, pointing to the round, circular scar in the space where Graves’ thumb met his palm. He glances down at it before chuckling.

“Do you know who Al Capone is?”

In typical teener fashion, Vivian rolls her eyes, forgetting for a moment what’s happened over the last week, and what she’s been through tonight.

“Of course! Everyone knows who Al Capone is! He’s a gangster, he’s got a gun and he -”

She stills when realization dawns and she makes the connection. Golden hair flutters in the breeze she creates as Vivian whips her head around to stare at his hand. Fine brows crinkle, and Tina almost laughs aloud at her expression.

“How did-“

“Turns out Mr. Capone employed wizards to help him run his business. He didn’t take very kindly to me asking him to stop,” Graves whispers in dramatic effect, raising his hand and wiggling it at her. Tina remembers that incident well, and the fact that Graves usually staunchly refuses to talk about his meeting with the infamous gangster.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Did you win?”

Graves does laugh now, eyes crinkling at the corners and shining, “I did. I didn’t think I was going to at first, but I got through alright.”

He then turns to Tina, addressing her with the slightest cock of a brow. Tina rolls her eyes, yet feels a flush coming to her cheeks. She steps further into the room, so Vivian can see her.

“Hi Vivian,” Tina says. Vivian gives her a shy smile and an awkward little wave, suddenly letting the curtain of her hair fall between them to partially conceal her face.

“Hi Miss Goldstein.”

“I came to see if you wanted anything for dinner. The food here is famous for being awful.” The smile she gets in return is at least a little brighter.

Days later, when Vivian and Mason have gone to Kentucky to live with their Meemaw, Tina gets her chance to talk the whole thing over with Percival. Graves pours himself a fresh cup of coffee, before adding a half teaspoon of sugar and stirring. The stuff is so strong Tina is fairly sure it really would put hair on her chest, so she doesn’t bother with the pretense of pouring herself some. Instead, she just sidles up beside her boss and friend, hip against the counter, and says,

“Never knew you were so good with kids, Mr. Graves.”

He glances at her out of the corner of his eye, half incredulous, but there’s still a smile haunting his mouth. Graves continues to stir, then withdraws the spoon and taps it once against china.

“You can’t know everything about me, Miss Goldstein, I have to have some secrets.”

he just snorts, before stealing a pastry off of his plate and skipping out of the way when he tries to grab it back.

“Uh huh, well, I wish you’d let us in on this one a lot sooner. Woulda signed you up for babysitting duty for Queenie and Jacob a lot sooner too.”

Graves just rolls his eyes and says, “Run along now, Auror. There’s more cases waiting.” Neither of them say what they are both fervently thinking – that they don’t come across something like this ever again. Tina prays they won’t.

#tina goldstein #percival graves #queenie goldstein #jacob kowalski #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts #adene writes #tw: abuse #tw: domestic violence #blood

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sarcasticace · 7 years ago

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AntiRoE

As much as I hate on RoE, I see the potential it has that isn’t capitalized on. It has interesting characters and story ideas, but they're not taken advantage of and RoE just reads like bad fanfiction. A lot of times I find myself stepping away from my phone and go…

I can get characters acting stupid or emotionally. Flawed characters are good characters, but there is a degree of common sense that when lost just breaks the immersion. I’m taken out of the story, I forget about the plot and the characters. I sit there and think ‘no one does that’. They’re just doing ‘A’ to get to ‘B’ with no real thought how to get there. And it’s not just limited to stupid things characters do, I see it in twists and cliffhangers. Sometimes RoE’s cliffhangers, whether it be the end of a chapter or the book 2 finale, leads up to something really dramatic and then nothing happens following it. It gets hyped up and nothing happens or something does happen, but it’s resolved in the most anticlimactic way. For example, when Luke (Big-Bro!MC) was in danger of losing his inheritance because Aunt Mallory (Mean!Aunt) raised suspicious that Luke and Elena had not been dating for two years, I think it was two, thus going against a condition in the will. This is where the ‘it reads like bad fanfiction’ comes in. First off, this is dumb. If they wanted Aunt Mallory to catch them in their lie, that’s fine. That’s good, actually. Badly executed, though. Like, really bad because her argument they hadn’t been dating for two years rests solely on the fact that there was no social media evidence they were dating. Not pictures, no related posts, no relationship status update. Okay, sure, that can be suspicious, but by no means ground to accuse their relationship was fake. It was really dumb, made for a terrible cliffhanger, but then in book 3, it is quickly resolved. Okay, not quickly. It took a couple chapters. Five or six, I think, but over those five or six chapter, it is rarely talked about until they find a way to resolve and overcome that conflict. You could say it was a cover for Luke’s task of proposing to Elena, but that’s a whole different bag of stupid I’ve talked enough about.

Another example, because this is the one that frustrates me the most, they made a whole big deal about Historia (party!twin) sleeping with Blake. Part of the reason this frustrates me is because Blake is Historia’s BOSS and hold a considerable position of power over her. Not only can Blake fire her if she ends things and he’s feeling petty, but in doing so he effectively throws her chance at her inheritance overboard. I mean, I know PB had no intentions of making Blake petty like that, but I still don’t like these types of ships. There’s a reason why a lot of places have rules against boss x employee or student x professor relationships.

Back to my point

RoE started the affair nonsense between Historia and Blake late in book 1 then hinted at her being pregnant throughout book 2, but it turned out to be just a pregnancy scare that acted as a cover while Aunt Mallory snooped around for proof to reveal Historia’s affair with Blake. Except she had no proof. At least, not anything good. Yeah, we all KNOW Historia slept with Blake, but you can’t use the players’ knowledge of events just to excuse or cover up a shitty and poorly executed confrontation. One person, I think it was Tina, said she saw Blake and Historia leave the party together. Yeah, that looks pretty bad and yes they DID end up sleeping together, but that by itself is not enough evidence to prove their affair. And yet Historia just goes with it and doesn’t even try to defend herself. I think she actually quit so that Blake doesn’t lose his job. I mean, the pregnancy scare was dumb to begin with because it was stretched across the ENTIRE book while Aunt Mallory and Violet (mean!cousin) barely did ANY snooping regarding Historia and Blake’s affair. Honestly, if they had just kept Historia as actually pregnant, they could've then used her positive pregnancy test as proof and I wouldn’t be here talking about how stupid this whole storyline was. But they didn’t and here we are. So that was the cliffhanger, Historia has no job and is in danger of losing her inheritance, but Blake is able to find her a new job as a tour guide so quickly it hardly even matters. There isn’t really any threats to her keeping her tour guide position besides Chaz confusing her with Grace (study!twin) and assuming because they’re twins, she’ll be incompetent or a troublemaker or something. Aunt Mallory endangers some children, but nothing else eventful happens. I mean, besides Aunt Mallory endangering children like wtf! I mean, sure, sabotage Historia. Make this story more interesting, but what compelled her to put real and very sharp swords in the hands of children who like hitting and hurting each other. There’s so much stupid here, it hurts me. Where was I? Oh yes, nothing eventful happening. Now, Historia learning to be more responsible is one of RoE’s few strengths. Even with the above flaws I’ve mentioned, I’ve ALWAYS enjoyed reading whenever Historia’s part in the story comes up. However, in book 3, RoE makes another big mistake. It cuts three of their more interesting characters. Those characters being Carter, Blake, and Mira. In my opinion, Mira is the better of the three. Carter is cool and you already know why I don’t like Blake. Anyways, you can see the progression of Historia and Mira’s relationship whether players take a romantic or platonic route. It’s compelling, but in book 3 Mira (and Carter and Blake) are effectively cut from the story in favor of Chaz and Carmen (Is that how you spell her name? Dam the English language and dozens of spellings for the same name). Chaz is really boring, imo. I know some people like him, that’s fine, but I honestly do not see any point in giving him more screentime while demoting three already established characters to cameos every other chapter and any significant content to be locked away behind diamond doors.

Last example, Aria (Big-Sis!MC aka Main!MC) starting to doubt her marriage to [insert LI here] because she found out her parents were separated for a short time. Now, this COULD have been a good twist, but again failed in the execution. The story goes: MC’s parents were high school sweethearts or something, but were worried their relationship wasn’t going to last so they separated for a year to see if it would and guess what? They couldn’t BEAR to be apart and got back together within a year. This, fucking THIS is a true love story and it was told within five or six lines of dialogue, but for some reason, Aria loses faith in love? It really makes no god damn sense. If anything, it should’ve strengthened her belief in love, but let’s be honest Aria never had a shred of common sense. She signed a document that was written in a different language presented to her by her sneaky ex-fiance now ex-husband when she could’ve asked her friend who spoke the language to translate.

Bottom line, RoE highlights Choices’ major weakness: PB rushes their stories sometimes. I’ve seen in TC&TF and ES to a degree, but it is most glaring in RoE. I mean, TFM has 4 books already and a sequel series that’s nearing the end of its first book. What I’m trying to say is that PB should take some more time with their books. Plan things out because RoE could’ve been a lot stronger had they just thought some of the storylines out just a little more.

#AntiRoE #Rules of Engagement #PlayChoices

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thewritinglist · 6 years ago

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Albums of the “Year”

It’s very limiting to list my favourite albums released in the last twelve months, because years are an arbitrary concept, invented by humanity, and I also struggle to get away from my comfort zone of a few bands I��ve obsessively listened to and mentally catalogued. So, here is my top ten albums of 2018. They’re not necessarily from 2018, but they defined my year.

10. After Laughter by Paramore

For a long while, Paramore existed in my cultural awareness as one song, and a post on this very site about how Hayley Williams once caused a tour to be cancelled by getting her teenage self grounded.

That’s an unfair assessment.

The one song was Still Into You, passed on as part of a mixtape made by a dear friend to celebrate my first anniversary with my girlfriend. But after hearing Fake Happy on the radio at my former place of work (I didn’t love The Co-Op, but I have to hand it to their DJs and their fine taste), I had to google some lyrics to find it. The twelve songs tell an often deceptively sad story underneath the jangling guitars and synths that throw you and Paramore back together to the eighties. I listen to the music for the lyrics, and Williams really excels in adding sadness in the tone and not as something yelled.

Best song - Hard Times.

2017 - Fuelled by Ramen - Pop rock

9. Silver Dollar Moment by The Orielles

I discovered the next two bands by a moment of delightful chance, when indie band Little Comets opened their twitter account to female fans on International Women’s Day, and one recommended these two.

Opening track Mango really nicely sets the scene for forty-five minutes of dreamily delivered indie rock, especially in Esmé Dee Hand-Halford’s vocals and bass. It’s the sort of music that makes me want to close my eyes and gently drift my head from side to side, which is why I have a soft rule to listen to it mostly in the comfort of a closed bedroom. Labelling anything indie gives an impression of competent but basic guitar/bass/drums, but The Orielles do much more than that, there’s an injection of funk and weirdness that occasionally brings to mind Talking Heads, if you played them at half speed, and replaced Byrne’s sudden manic energy with languid relaxation.

Best song: Mango

2018 - Heavenly Records - Indie rock

8. Love in the 4th Dimension by The Big Moon

The second chance discovery, The Big Moon are definitely more conventionally indie than their precedents in this list, but I like the simplicity of not adding too much to a song. This album blasts, first track Sucker building quickly and simply to a massive chorus, which is easy to imagine reverberating around Rescue Rooms or Rock City to a highly appreciative crowd.

But it slows, too. Formidable’s verses have a solemn quality, with imagery of a capsizing boat and vague references to “did she make you swallow all your pride?” changing the atmosphere to something more confrontational, before the chorus rugby tackles the subject, with still soft vocals.

Best song: Silent Movie Susie

2017 - Columbia & Fiction Records - Indie rock

7. Harry Styles by Harry Styles

“Have you listened to Harry Styles’ album?”

The same friend that brought me the Paramore song asked me this on a Texas road trip with my girlfriend, having grown understandably tired of my musical choices. I said no, with an implication of “of course not”, because he was a he One Direction guy, and I hated them and all they stood for.

That is a poor assessment of Harry Styles’ abilities as a songwriter and musician. His self-titled debut, such a classic going solo move, is a mature change-up from the former One Direction star. An aeon away from upbeat teen-pop, now Styles is singing maturely and softly about sex, not explicitly but provocatively in Carolina. The use of “Good Girl, she makes me feel so good” is not at all subtle, and the album often feels like these are ideas and feelings that Styles wanted to get off his chest. These are not One Direction songs, and much as the Harry Potter series mature as the books passed and readers aged, Harry Styles feels like an album aimed at One Direction fans who are growing less interested in the innocent, good boy image they’d cultivated.

The music is clean and engaging, but more complex than those previous recordings. In all, the album manages something tough: It reveals a former teen star’s true maturity without the need to scream it explicitly. It feels confident in its identity, which is an achievement in itself.

Best song: Two Ghosts

2017 - Columbia - Indie pop/soft rock

6. Mean Girls - Original Cast Recording

Mean Girls, the film, holds up. Comedy, as I’ve learned just across my time at university, is the first genre to age badly. Punchlines need a target, and our understanding and acceptance of who and what is allowed as a target is ever shifting. So for Tina Fey to ingeniously target not the cattiness of teenage girls, which is a cheap stereotype that the mainstream media still loves to find and blow up (see: the majority of Taylor Swift coverage), but rather the expectation that they’ll do that, and the mentalities of teenager in general, savvily keeps it fresh.

Mean Girls, the musical, opened in 2017 and moved to Broadway in 2018. Music is written by Jeff Richmond, Fey’s husband and collaborator on both the seminal 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Nell Benajmin provided lyrics whilst Fey wrote the book, and together they brilliantly recreated the quotable magic of the original. Fey’s credit is limited to the book but at times her voice is loud and clear in the lyrics. The dumbest plastic, Karen Smith, sings an ode to Halloween, which begins with her muddling over putting it before world peace as a priority, and builds to her love of costumes: “I’m sexy Eleanor Roosevelt or sexy Rosa Parks” is such a Fey joke, fitting of the film. It’s also delightful to hear some extra input on protagonist Cady’s initial best friend Janis (Barrett Wilbert Weed, the best performance), a wonderful character who has the backstory most ripe for exploration in any future works.

Hey, I managed not to say fetch.

Wait.

Damn.

Best song: World Burn

2018 - Atlantic - Broadway

5. Be More Chill - Original Cast Recording

Be More Chill is an honest story of teenagers and mental health. Adapted mostly faithfully from a 2004 novel by young adult author Ned Vizzini, the story is of Jeremy Heere, a high school loser whose initial goal is charmingly low-key. He just wants to be a bit less awkward and able to survive high school, but quickly decides to sign up for a school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, following in the steps of his crush Christine Canigula, a theatre lover with, in her words, “A touch of ADD”.

It’s this detail that sets the musical’s story apart from the book. Mental health is a subtextual theme of the book, but Christine and her love of performing as someone else and occasional scatterbrain, makes it explicit. The main thrust comes when a jock named Rich offers Jeremy a Squip, AKA a supercomputer, taken as a pill, that invades your brain and tells you how to act and speak. It helps Jeremy enter the cool kids’ circle, but at the expense of his friendship with the proudly dorky Michael, who is delighted that humanity has stopped evolving because, in his words, “there’s never been a better time in history to be a looooooooooooooooser!”

In the final song, Voices in My Head, Christine and Jeremy finally bond properly over the voices they’ve both heard, and it completes a surprisingly moving story of mental health in a musical that is often bombastically big and ridiculous - the Squip is supposed to have Keanu Reeves’ voice. Joe Iconis’ music and lyrics are witty and engaging, perfectly fitting the clever and original novel, and the sadly departed Vizzini.

Best song: Michael in the Bathroom (George Salazar)

2015 - Ghostlight Records - Broadway

4. Worhead by Little Comets

Little Comets are the most exciting band in current music.

This is a bold claim, but I like to be bold. Little Comets, who hail from Jarrow in Tyne and Wear, write the most incredibly moving, lyrically dense and thoughtful songs you can find today. Every song on Worhead is affecting.

If you listen to their first album, In Search of Elusive Little Comets, the musical and lyrical progression in six years is astounding. The fun early indie rock has complicated and deepened, like a lake dug out from beneath its surface. By 2017, lead singer and writer Rob Coles’ grasp on lyrics had become masterful, and he uses images to generate feeling so well. The title and opening tack immediately point to a specific image: “Standing in a field of grass, looking for a blade of grass”. Coles is upfront about his political beliefs - a 2014 song titled “The Blur, the Line and the Thickest of Onions” explicitly denies and attacks the language of Blurred Lines, and their music is often loudly feminist. Worhead asks us “My sweetheart, can we lean more, to the left side, to the left side of everything”. À Bientôt angrily speaks to anti-migrant rhetoric from their perspective, even including the temporary sympathy caused by the image of the dead boy washed up on the beach, whilst Hunting is written from the smug, entitled view of Tory ministers, cutting, unafraid of retribution, safe from the consequences.

Density of ideas is a Little Comets staple, and the unapologetic thickness of the accents often need a trip to their website or Genius for understanding, but Coles also writes poetically when he pares his words down for romance. “Common Things” describes globetrotting, but in the context of not wanting it, because of the joys of being home, only needing an atlas under the mattress. Elegant domesticity is the only kind of love song that continually appeals to me. They are a continually astounding and unique band.

Best song:

2017 - The Smallest Label - Indie rock

3. Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

I hardly ever enjoy music purely for the feeling that the music imparts on me. Before I was listening to music critically, I saw an episode of Charlie Brooker’s excellent series Screenwipe, which discussed and took the piss out of all elements of television. In an advertising special, he mentioned that advertisers love music as it bypasses the logical part of your mind and is processed emotionally. There’s something romantic about that, but at the same time sometimes I wonder if that subconsciously put up mental guards, and I have to understand lyrics to understand the emotions.

Illinois is a rare exception.

Sufjan Stevens relased Illinois in 2005 and it serves as a sort of concept album about the American state. It covers points from its history: “Come on! Feel the Illinoise!” covers the historic World’s Columbian Exposition, and “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” is about the infamous serial killer and affords him almost shocking levels of empathy. Stevens later said that we’re all capable of what Gacy did, which is debatable.

But we’re all capable of the grief woven into Caismir Pulaski Day, which tragically tells the story of losing someone who died on the state holiday celebrating their Polish revolutionary war hero.

An independent singer songwriter with track titles as terribly long as “The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'” seems like someone addicted to acoustic guitar, but Stevens utilises piano, strings and horns, especially effective in the aforementioned ‘Come on’. The album is vivid and alive, and is really a practical tie for second.

2005 - Asthmatic Kitty/Secretly Canadian and Rough Trade - Indie rock/folk

2. Masseduction by St. Vincent

This year, I made a real effort, admittedly only in September, to get into new music. Reading an interview with David Byrne, I was intrigued by his mention of St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark. Anyone who can engage David Byrne is worthy of attention.

Inside the striking image and colouring of the artwork, Masseduction was first introduced to me in the opening scene of Bojack Horseman’s fifth season, replacing the standard use of Back in the 90′s by Grouplove with Los Ageless. The song, Clark’s depiction of Los Angeles, feels bleak and distant, the electronic music giving an disconnected vibe. It’s her relationship to the city, and the album as a whole is a series of looks at relationships. Pills is about a relationship with drugs, the title track and Savior are about sex. Happy Birthday Johnny, both slower and acoustic, feel related, as though they’re both about the same person, Clark coming to terms with the sadness of that loss.

Masseduction is endlessly listenable. It spans various pop genres, with enough variety to reward many listens and picking on many of its songs to focus on individually. Pills really does feel like withdrawal, with pumped up verses, an almost manic chorus, and a suddenly balladish final section, where the tone becomes surprisingly sombre. It works, powerfully so.

Best song: Pills

2017 - Loma Vista Recordings - Electropop/Glam Rock

1. The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society (50th Anniversary Edition)

The Kinks released Village Green Preservation Society on the 22nd of November, 1968, which sounds fine until you learn that The Beatles released The White Album on the same day, spelling inevitable and crushing doom, and the permanent departure of founding bassist Pete Quaife from the band. Quaife, who had grown tired of the industry and the Davies’ brothers warring ways, scrawled ‘daze’ on a tape recording of Days. But he left on perhaps the band’s highest note.

I don’t know what else can be said about this album. Even if every song isn’t a standalone masterpiece, with the strange fairy tale of Phenomenal Cat and the childlike Mr. Songbird only working in context of stories of the past, but they form a collective that is masterful in painting a rich story. It has the delicacy of a great painting, something that former art student Ray Davies must appreciate. And it is so distinctly Ray Davies in its voice, something only he alone could have written. It was their first album after a still somewhat mysterious five year ban from American touring, then the only real form of promotion, but it dismisses the cultural shift towards psychedelia with an almost passive-aggressive tone.

The weighty re-release is fitted out with sixty tracks, but they’re largely alternative versions of songs from the original album and the recording sessions, many unreleased, including the finished Time Song, and a lovely demo of Days, that proves that Davies was always a better writer than singer, bless him. Harmonies with his brother Dave always lifted the words, but they stand alone, as short stories, brilliantly formed.

VGPS contributes to their stereotypical image of proud Britishness, but there’s a look to the future and underlying sadness that add depth to the album. The original final track’s closing lyirc?

Don’t show me no more, please.

1968/2018 - Pye Records - Folk Rock

#music #music criticism #best of 2018

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