#trying to learn to be a bit looser with everything but eh

[charlie-cat-doodles]

unfinished sona experimenting

[hockeyboysiguess]

Year One

a/n: coming up with this idea completely threw me off working the other day and i have no regrets. this has a little bit of everything in it. you like friends to lover? it’s in here. you like very large hockey players with tiny children? it’s in here. you like very soft smuttiness? it’s in here. you like cutesy dates? they’re in here. there’s a little bit of something for everyone in this one, so I hope you find a part you like!

warnings: swearing, mild smutty-sort of action, drinking, and a ton of cavity causing sweetness.

January

This party was definitely going to require another drink. It’s not that you weren’t having fun; it’s that all of your friends were having quite a lot of fun. You snuck away from your drunkest friend and headed to the kitchen to refill your cup. You sighed when you glanced over the counter holding your variously terrible options.

“Okay, what combination looks like it would taste the least like paint thinner,” you mumbled to yourself.

“Definitely the Strawberry Lemonade Svedka and the grape Fanta. It sounds weird but it turned out pretty good honestly.”

You turned toward the voice and you smiled a little to yourself. He was positively gorgeous. Strong shoulders, muscled tattooed arms, sharp jawline covered in stubble, and a smile that drew you in. He came over towards you and you noticed how much he dwarfed you and it made your mind wander.

“Is it?” you asked with a raise of your eyebrow.

“Look, your other possible combinations are objectively terrible. Like who buys birthday cake vodka?” he asked, his face scrunching at the idea. “I know it’s a birthday party but, yeah, no.”

You laughed and he smiled softly at you.

“I’m Pierre-Luc,” he told you.

“That’s kind of long,” you added after telling him your name. “Got any nicknames available?”

He laughed and scrunched his nose up as he looked at you, “I play hockey actually so I’ve got lots of things for you to chose from if you want.”

You grabbed the flavored vodka and the grape soda per his recommendations and poured them into your cup. You tried it and nodded softly. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as you had imagined it would be. You grabbed the edge of the counter and hauled yourself up, letting your feet dangle against the cabinets.

“Hit me with ‘em and I’ll pick the best one you should exclusively use from here on out,” you said confidently, not sure if that confidence was you or the alcohol talking. 

“Pretty sure one nickname picked out by a girl is going to get me chirped to no end,” Pierre-Luc sighed, but it was playful. His free hand rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke, giving you a glimpse of the tattoos on the underside of his arm. 

“But I’m a hot girl,” you took a sip of your drink as he raised an eyebrow at you, a smirk forming on his face. “Oh don’t even. You’ve stared at my boobs at least six times since I met you three minutes ago. You’re averaging at least two looks a minute.”

A wide smile broke out across his face as he raised his hands in the air, feigning innocence. You took a sip of your drink as you watched him, as clearly as he could manage, rake his eyes up and down your body, pausing as various points that particularly interested him. You were relishing in the attention and he certainly didn’t mind giving it.

“Guilty as charged,” he said, his smile shifting from humorous to cocky. “So, I think you were about to judge the shit out of my name some more?”

It would have made for a fun night if not for someone running into the kitchen as soon as he finished his sentence. 

“Hey, you’re came here with that Kelsey right?” the guy said, pointing at you. “Because she just threw up like, everywhere in the bathroom and-”

“And gotta go handle that,” you mumbled, sliding off the counter begrudgingly. “Uh, I guess I’ll see you around?”

It came out more like a question than you’d meant it to, and Pierre-Luc nodded as he stepped aside and cleared the way for you. 

“Yeah, no, definitely. I’ll see you around.” 

February

Pierre-Luc had been easy to find on Instagram after the party. It was nice to confirm that your drunk mind was not remembering him hotter than he was, but you didn’t want to make the first move so you stopped yourself short of hitting the follow button on his page. If he wanted to talk to you, he’d come to you, you decided. However, that was almost four weeks ago. It was February now and you let it go, chalking it another temporary drunk connection and moving on. This is until you agreed to go ice skating a the local outdoor rink with Kelsey and a few other friends. He was already there when you arrived. 

Everyone exchanged pleasantries and names. Kelsey was introducing you to the people you didn’t know yet, but you barely remembered anyone because you were anxious to talk to Pierre-Luc again. You tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. He spun around to face you. A soft smile pulled up the corners of his mouth when he saw you and you instantly realized you hadn’t practicing saying anything beyond hello. 

“Hey.”

Well, now you were flying unplanned and anxious, a dangerous combination that put the threat level of saying something that was way too much extremely high. 

“Hi there,” he replied, his smile growing as he spoke. “How are you?”

Thank god he’d apparently thought at least one step further than you because it gave you something to respond to and something to ask him in return. He answered that he was busy since it was hockey season and all. 

“And yet, you’re here to skate on your day off?” you asked him. 

He shrugged and laughed a little, “Can’t get away from it, I guess. I don’t mind. I love skating.” 

“Might have to hit you up for a few pointers because I’m definitely super rusty and let’s be honest, there really isn’t much skill under the rust,” you joked with him.

“I can help,” Pierre-Luc cut in instantly, just a tad too eagerly, so he tried to smooth it over with a classic, “I mean, if you want me to.” 

“I need all the help I can get,” you huffed as you sat down on the bench to start lacing up your skates. 

You struggled to tighten the laces, giving them a pull with all your might as Pierre-Luc laced up both of his skates with practiced ease. You watched him tie off his second skate before you’d managed to get halfway through your first. Whatever he was doing was not at all applicable to you.

“That’s definitely half of your problem right there,” he teased you as he sat down next to you. “Your skates are way too loose.” 

“Well, strong hockey man, then fix it,” you sighed, letting the laces fall from your hands. 

“Not sure we’re gonna stick with that nickname,” he laughed. 

He stood up only to kneel down in front of you. Your mind practically ran to the imagine of his head between your legs for something else and you had to shove the thought aside as he picked up the laces to properly tie your skates. Where you struggled, he had no issues at all. Did you pretend your left skate was looser than your right after he asked you if it did? Yes. Was the left skate looser? You didn’t even have enough experience to really answer the question, but you really liked watching his muscles tense as he pulled the laces tighter. 

“Thanks, Luc,” you said as he stood up, finally satisfied with his workmanship.

“We’re going with Luc, eh? Pretty bland nickname choice.” He offered you his hand to help pull you to your feet. “You gonna be able to walk to the rink there, shaky?” 

“Sometimes the most obvious choice is the best choice,” you replied, “and yes, I’m fine. Thanks for your abundant concern.” 

You couldn’t see him, but you could feel Luc’s hand hovering near the small of your back in case you did fall even though you were sure you wouldn’t. You stepped out on the ice, your feet sliding a bit out from under you with the transition, but you managed to stay on your feet. You heard Luc slide onto the ice after you. He pivoted until he was in front of you, skating backwards in order to get face to face with you. You weren’t exactly looking at him though. Your eyes were trained on your skates.

“If you cut me off, I will fall over,” you warned him. You were entirely too focused on staying upright to pay much attention to him. “I learned how to go forward and sort of turn. Stopping was never in my skill set.”

“Sounds like you need a lesson from a master,” Luc joked, earning a glare from you. “Come on. It’s not that hard. I’ll show you. Trust me?”

March

“Jesus,” you muttered to yourself as some of your beer spilled on your hand. Luc had slammed some guy from the other team into the boards in front of you. “Are hockey games always this violent?”

“Have you really never been to a game before this?” Kelsey asked. “Well, free tickets right against the glass from your hot hockey player boyfriend is a hell of a way to be introduced to a live hockey game.

You shook your now beer-covered hand off and scrunched your nose up at Kelsey before telling her, “He’s not my boyfriend and you know that. We just talk.”

“Oh come on, the way he looks at you!” 

She practically shouted that sentence. One of her biggest flaws as a friend after her inability to keep down more than four drinks was that she could not control the volume of her voice under any circumstance. At least this time, the venue meant she wasn’t entirely too loud for the crowd.

“You know he’s not, Kels,” you told her after taking a sip of your beer. “I don’t even know if he would want that. Literally all we do is talk and Snapchat.”

“Shirtless snaps post-practice?” she asked you, a hopeful look in her eyes. You shook your head, so she tried again, “Lots of red heart and or red heart eyes emojis?” 

“Kels, stop,” you laughed. “I think it was just a thing at the party when we were drunk. It’s fine. Not everything has to be a thing. We can just be friends. I’m good with that.”

“Whatever.”

She waved you off, but at least the conversation was over. You weren’t trying to get your hopes up with Luc. You saw the way every girl in every room he went into looked at him and he was a really great guy to top it all off, but you’d been in this sort of situation before. You knew better than to try to wear your heart on your sleeve here. 

That didn’t stop your heart from pounding in your chest when you saw him post-game. The Blue Jackets had won 4-3, so Luc’s smile was on full display as he found you after the post-game interviews. His suit fit him so well, darting in perfectly at his waist, making him look impossibly broader somehow. The first few buttons on his white dress shirt were undone and his tie was loosely hanging around his neck.

Kelsey had gotten in your head. Now the only thing you could think about as you looked at him was how badly you wanted to grab the collar of his shirt and pull his mouth down to meet yours. 

“Ready to head out?” he asked you. He motioned down the hallway and you followed his lead, heading towards the blue double doors ahead. “I believe you promised me that I could pick the movie tonight if we won?” 

“A promise is a promise,” you sighed, “even though you’re going to pick something god awful.”

He smiled wider at you before asking, “Did you enjoy the game?”

“Yeah, actually. I had a great time. Kelsey ditched five minutes before the end. That guy she met at the bar last weekend wanted to grab drinks or something. i try not to ask too many questions I don’t want to know the answers to,” you told him. “Thanks for inviting me, Luc.”

“Thanks for coming,” he replied as you stepped through the doors and into the cool air on your way to his car. 

It was cold for March. Not all that cold for Columbus in March, but cold for most people’s definition of March. You still had your coat on, but thankfully it wasn’t quite gloves and hat and scarf weather anymore. You could see Luc’s breath faintly as you walked toward his car, but at least he world wasn’t quite as frosty as it had been last month on the outdoor rink with him. Something told you that your feelings for him were soon going to be inevitable, but for now his friendship was what you needed.

April

Luc’s empty beer glass slammed down on the bar next to you. He’d emptied it faster than you thought he even could.

“Fuck, I hate losing,” he hissed through his teeth. “Fucking game seven.”

You almost opened your mouth to say that at least they’d made it to the playoffs unlike sixteen other teams, but the first round exit was clearly hitting him hard. Instead, you made eye contact with the bartender, bringing him over towards you and Luc. Luckily, this particular bartender had been eyeing you since you walked in and it was definitely possible you were using it to get faster service. At least you were tipping him well.

“Yeah, can you just keep those coming for my friend here?” you asked nicely, putting on your best smile for him as you patted Luc on the back.

“Sure,” he said, smiling back you brightly. “And what would you like next?”

“Can I try the new sour you guys just made?” you asked, still keeping that smile dialed up as he poured Luc’s next beer and then handed it to him.

“Of course. I’ll be right back with that.”

The bartender slid past you a few moments layer, dropping your drink off with a thousand-watt smile, before moving on to the next customer. Luc looked at you with a soft smirk on his face and a slightly judgmental look in his eyes. He shook his head at you and clicked his tongue at you a few times as he brought his fresh beer to his lips for a few massive gulps from the glass.

“That’s not nice what you’d doing to that man,” he told you.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” You took a sip of your drink to try and hide the shameful look on your face. “Just drink your beer and be happy.”

Luc laughed, the first time you’d heard a genuine laugh since the loss the other night before telling you, “It’s really not fair when you do that since you have zero intention of giving him your number.”

“You don’t know how I feel,” you retorted, even though Luc was correct.

“Oh, please. I know I’m right.” Luc set down his beer as he leaned in close to you. “He’s not your type.”

“And how do you know what my type is?”

You cocked a brow at him as you took a sip of your drink. Luc nodded softly as one of his large hands fidgeted with his glass. His cheeks, forever your indicator of his nerves, turned a light shade of pink.

“I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m your type.” His voice was steady and strong but, his hand was sliding against the slick glass between his palms and his cheeks were pink verging on red. “Something at the party was telling me if Kelsey hadn’t puked everywhere maybe the night might have ended differently?”

It was a question, but he already knew the answer to it. You tilted your head to the side though, deciding to play along.

“What do you mean, Luc?”

Your voice was soft and just a little curious, trying to force him into telling you exactly what he meant by that. Your heart was pounding as all you could think was maybe he was feeling what you had started to feel. Luc’s eyes turned to you. He was studying your face, trying to find some sign of what you were feeling. His eyes landed on your lips and your breath hitched in your throat.

“Fuck it.”

Luc leaned in quickly and you titled you head up so he could kiss you easily. He smiled down at you as one of his hands cupped one side of your face. He knew you wanted this too. His lips were inches from yours now and you could only smell his cologne and hear your heart beating in your ears as you were being enveloped by him.

“PL!”

Someone shouting made him yank away from you before his lips could meet yours. He dropped his hand from your face and his jaw tensed as he turned to look at Jonesy who you discovered was the culprit who ruined this moment

“Oh shit,” Jonesy said between closed teeth. “Uh, my bad, man. But Boone is super fucked up and I need some help getting him home and you’re the only one still here.”

Luc sighed and ran a hand over his face as he pull himself back to reality. He knocked back the last dregs of beer in this glass before he leaned back and grabbed his wallet out of his pocket. He thumbed through until he pulled out cash and handed it to you.

“Can you close my tab? Also, can you text me when you and Kelsey get home safe?” He dropped some cash on the bar next to you. “That should cover my tab and yours and a ride home.

Normally, you would’ve pushed the cash back into his hands, but the look in his eyes was telling you should take it because he wasn’t going to take no for an answer tonight.

“Yeah, yeah, no problem.”

Luc slid off the stool to his feet and went to head in Jonesy’s direction. He paused and turned on his heels to come back to you.

“Would you like go out with me sometime? Like a real date?”

May

“I did not think I’d be as bad at this as I am,” you sighed as you tried again to putt the ball into the hole on the course. 

Luc managed to get two under par on the same hole and you were about ready to throw your stick in the pond with frustration. You didn’t know you could be as bad at something as you apparently were at mini golf.

“Relax,” Luc’s large hands gripped your shoulders, applying pressure in an effort to make you calm down that only made you more tense. “Maybe this just isn’t your thing?”

“It’s very clear this isn’t my thing, Luc,” you informed him as you hit your club against the toe of your sneaker. “I hate things I’m not good at.” 

“Oh, competitive are we?” He took the first stroke on this hole, getting dangerously close to a hole-in-one and you knew you were about to, like every other hole, get absolutely destroyed. The score card had been accidentally dropped into the pong by hole seven and you clearly didn’t know how it happened. “Too bad I’m more competitive than you.” 

“Did you just try to start an argument over which one of us was more competitive?” You tried to verbally snipe back at him as you hit the ball, but you nearly hit it clean out the source and settle for losing this round entirely. “Must be a low moment for you to have to brag about being more competitive than a girl half your size while playing mini golf.” 

He reached for you, one of his large hands finding one of your hips and pulling you into him. You felt so comfortable against his chest that he reminded you of a certain feeling you couldn’t quite place, kind of like being at home. Luc kissed the top of your head, bring you back to reality. 

“You missed,” you told him as you looked up at him, meeting his soft eyes with yours.

He gave you a confused look before it was replaced with a look of understanding and he verbally added, “Oh, I owe you from the bar a few weeks ago. I see.” 

“You were about to do something, I think anyway, and then you had. totake Boone home and then you shipped your own ass off to Quebec,” you fake whined, pressing your palms against his chest, which somehow felt better under your hands than you could have imagined. 

“Hey, hey, I apologize,” he smiled down at you, “and I came back for you, right? That’s gotta count for something. Even if I’m destroying you at mini golf.”

“Couldn’t have just taken me to dinner?” you joked, your smile coating each word you spoke with a playful edge. 

“Too boring for a girl this far out of my league,” Luc replied. He reached a hand up to tuck your hair behind your ear, letting the strands tangle in his fingers before he spoke again, “I’m going to try and kiss you again now, just so you’re aware. And no one is going to interrupt me this time.” 

The entire world disappeared the moment his lips found yours for the first time. This moment was created and inhabited solely by the two of you. No one else could break in even if they tried. His mouth moved against yours and you felt like you were on fire. Everywhere his hands ghosted over felt like he lit it ablaze, leaving a trail of need and destruction in his wake. You were putty in his hands and he loved it so much. You wanted him and he was more than happy to meet you in the middle on a surprising cool May afternoon on a mini golf course just outside of Columbus, Ohio. You never thought that’s where the rest of your life would begin, but you couldn’t deny that it had. 

June

How Luc already had sunburn tingeing the tops of his ears and the tip of his nose less than twenty minutes into being outside was beyond your understanding and you had to tease him for being one of the palest people you’d ever seen. Maybe asking him to come the an outdoor arts festival and not bringing sunscreen for him was a mistake.

“How?” you asked, gesturing to his nose.

“This is me,” he smiled at you. “Take me or leave me, sunburn and all.”

“I think I’ll keep you?”

You said it like a question, but a smile broke out across your face before you’d even finished your sentence. A matching one formed on Luc’s face and he reached for you. His large hands set on your waist, pulling you into him as his mouth captured yours.

“Hey, get a room!”

You weren’t sure which one of his teammates shouted it at you, but neither of your cared. Luc smiled against your lips and you couldn’t help but smile back, ruining the kiss but not the moment.

“Why do we go places with them?” you fake whined a little, your hands pressing softly on his chest as your spoke.

“Because they don’t get out without us,” Luc muttered softly to you. “It’s charity.”

You leaned your head back and laughed. Luc’s hands moved to the small of your back, his long fingers lacing together to support you as his laughter joined yours. You leaned forward again so your eyes could meet his.

“We should probably catch up to them,” Luc told you before his lips found yours again. “They’ll wander into some booth and a little old lady is going to convince them to buy all of her arts and crafts or something.”

Luc knew he teammates well because that’s exactly the situation you found the other boys in. This particular little old lady was apparently into making three-dimensional crotched cats. She was showing Zach a particular one she’d made that apparently resembled her calico cat she had as a small child and how she only offered it to customers who reminded her of her long lost childhood love. You took a deep breath and headed into the booth to begin a very painful rescue mission.

You didn’t realize until you managed to escape, after buying eight of her creations, that Luc had disappeared. You grabbed your phone out of your purse to see if he’d texted you where he’d gone.

“Hey, did you see where PL went?” you asked Jonesy. He took a sip of his wine slushee he’d picked up half a block ago that was already mostly empty and shook his head no. You turned toward Josh and raised an eyebrow. “Josh?”

“Nope. He’s your responsibility anyway,” Josh replied.

You looked around on your tip-toes, trying to see if you could spot his tall frame anywhere, but you were definitely too short for the task at hand. You let out a frustrated sigh and rocked back on your heels. Seconds later, a strong arm wrapped around your mid-section, pulling you into a familiar broad chest.

“Hey,” Luc whisper in your ear. “Sorry, I thought I’d be back before you managed to break them out of jail.”

“I work fast,” you replied as you rubbed along his muscled forearm currently positioned across your stomach.

You heard something  rustling behind you and Luc’s other arm wrapped around you to present you with why he’d gone missing.

“Flowers!” you practically squealed, drawing a soft laugh from Luc and some chuckles from the other boys as you grabbed the flowers with both hands and pulled them into your chest. “Thank you.”

“Hey, hey.” Luc’s hands grabbed your hips and tugged, spinning you to face him. “You didn’t even let me finish before you took them so I hope your answer is yes or I’m going to have to take those back.”

You gripped the flowers protectively against your chest carefully so you didn’t crush any of the delicate petals. No guy you were seeing had ever actually bought you flowers before and Luc had remembered you telling him that on your first date, trying to figure out the right moment to fulfill your fantasy.

“Mine,” you pouted, trying to look as cute as possible so he felt bad about threatening to take them away. “What’s the question?”

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

He bit the side of his lip, a smile pulling up the corners of his mouth, as he waiting for your answer. It was one of the easiest yeses of your life.

July

“Cannonball!”

You weren’t sure who had jumped into the pool, just that they’d created a big enough splash that had caused water to spray up on you and Luc. Luc’s arms were wrapped around your bare stomach. His hands had been on you the entire afternoon so far and he was showing no signs of stopping soon. Some girl nearby was freaking out about how her swimsuit had gotten wet from the splash as apparently it wasn’t designed to actually get wet.

“Thank god I’ve got you,” Luc mumbled in your ear, one arm lifting off you to bring his beer to his mouth for a quick swig. “Who the hell buys a swimsuit that can’t get wet and wears it to a pool party?”

You threw your head back against his shoulder as you laughed, the drink he’d mixed for you sloshing in your cup at your movements. Luc kissed the side of your head and gave your stomach a little squeeze.

“God, you two are so cute it’s disgusting,” Jonesy told you.

“You wish you had this hot-”

Water splashing on the two of you again cut Luc off before he could finish his drunk, loose lipped sentence. You squealed a little since this splash had pretty much soaked you both.

“Wanna go inside and dry off?” Luc whispered in your ear.

You smiled, your tongue darting between your teeth as he chuckled in your ear. You quickly started to dowm the rest of your drink, nodding in response to him as you drank. You barely had a chance to finish before Luc was grabbing one of your hands and pulling you towards the house. He was trying to be subtle about it and sneak away, but he was 6’3” and still incredibly pale despite summer being in full swing, so you know several people took notice. Neither of you cared.

Luc found an empty guest bedroom and pulled you in quickly, his eagerness guiding his movements. He shut the door by pushing you up against it as his mouth met yours. Your hands grabbed at his broad shoulders as his mouth pressed hungrily against yours. He grabbed right onto your waist and lifted you off the ground. You wrapped your legs around his waist for support as his tongue worked against yours.

“Fuck, baby, you look so good,” Luc mumbled as he moved from your mouth to your neck.

You let yourself drop just a little deeper into his arms so you could find the friction you both desperately wanted. Your core ground against the hardness in his shorts and he groaned against your skin.

“Shit,” he breathed out against your skin. “Trying to kill me already?”

“We do not have time for your slow and steady teasing shit right now,” you replied breathless as one of his hands slowly started tugging at the tie of your bikini top around the back of your neck.

“You’re normally,” he took the edge of one of the cups of your bikini top in between his teeth and pulled it aside to reveal your hard nipple, “much more into it.”

His mouth was on your stiff nipple before you could respond and a moan left your open mouth instead of the words you tried to say.

“Fuck, Luc,” you said breathlessly. “Stop fucking around and fuck me already.”

August

You were fiddling with the strap of your purse across your lap. Your right foot was tapping nervously against the floorboard of Luc’s car. 

“What if they don’t like me?” you finally asked him. He’d been trying to get you to tell him how you felt the entire drive over to his parents’ house outside of Montreal. “I mean, I know you’re gonna tell me they will-”

“Because they will,” he cut in. “I know they will.” 

“But,” you continued firmly, “what if they don’t?”

“Baby, I promise you that they’re going to love you.” Luc reached across the console and grabbed on to your hands folded around your purse strap. “I wouldn’t lie to you about this, okay? You have absolutely nothing to worry about. I’ve told them all about you and they are really excited to meet this girl who has completely swept me off my feet.”

You smiled with closed lips at his words. Your nerves were still more prominent than any comfort he tried to offer you. You let out a long breath as you tried to pull yourself together a bit. Luc had been itching to get you up to Montreal since the summer started so you could meet his family before the first game of the season and with camp on the horizon next month, August was the only time that made sense. However, two months of preparation was nowhere near long enough to calm your nerves, but you weren’t sure if there was an amount that would have gotten the job done. 

“It’s just,” you sighed again, “I know how important they are to you and if I fuck this up, what’s going to happen?” 

“You’re pretty much physically incapable of fucking this up,” Luc laughed, giving you a sweet smile. “Look, if they don’t like you, you can punch me in the face for lying to you, okay?” 

You shook your head and tried to fight the wide smile he was pulling from you, but you couldn’t. Luc leaned in and placed a quick kiss on your lips. 

“Alright, get out of the car while you’re still smiling,” he ordered you. “Let’s go.” 

Four hours later as you sat back in Luc’s passenger seat on the way back to his apartment, you couldn’t remember why you’d been so nervous in the first place. His dad had decided you were good five minutes in and within the first hour, he’d moved you up to great status. His mom was harder to read, but you knew you’d cracked her when Luc prompted a conversation about baking and she took an interest in your family apple pie recipe which involved not one but two kinds of liquor in it. 

“You know they love you, right?” Luc told you. “They made sure to tell me when you went to the bathroom.”

You smiled and reached over to pat his knee. You weren’t going to tell him you’d heard every word his parents had said to him. 

“Luc, she’s great,” his mom had said to him. “Really, she’s welcome here anytime. She’s wonderful.”

“Looks like you learned a think or two from me about getting a women very far out of your league to date you,” his dad had joked.

“And she was worried you guys wouldn’t like her,” Luc laughed to them. 

“We could never dislike someone who made you this happy,” his mom replied. 

“She really does,” Luc sighed. You could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke about you. “She’s just, she’s everything, you know? Including so many things I didn’t realize I wanted. She’s beyond anything I’d ever thought about. I’ve just never met someone that makes me want to be a better person that she does and that’s way too much information. Mom, are you crying?” 

“You just, god, you’re so grown up. Look at you!”

When the moment shifted, you had  headed back to the bathroom just to give them a little more time. Luc’s voice when he spoke about you was on a loop in your head and it played like a broken record the entire car ride back to his apartment. He was so genuinely happy when he talked about you. It was the kind of joy that infected the people around you, pulling them in even though they didn’t quite understand it. Your mom had told you that you sounded the same way the first time you told her about him. You let your mind linger on what they could mean as you fell asleep wrapped up in his arms that night. You couldn’t quite figure it out, but you knew it meant he was important to you and you were important to him.

September 

The stress of camp and the approaching season had made you both crack at the same time on a cool September evening. You’d both said things you didn’t mean, hurling words designed specifically to hit each other’s weak spots. You’d walked out after a particularly sensitive verbal jab from him and he didn’t come after you, two major issues stacked together. He’d picked you up after you finished work today, so you didn’t have your car, a series of events you were currently regretting as you wandered aimlessly around his neighborhood. You’d passed the point of clearing your head and now you were just painfully aware of the fact that you left your jacket on Luc’s couch and it was colder than you’d thought it was.

You pulled out your phone and opened up Uber. Unfortunately, the nearest ride to you was over fifteen minutes away. Stupid Thursdays in the middle of the night in Columbus. You kicked a nearby rock with the toe of your sneaker as you sighed. Naturally, you had to fuck you the best thing in your life. It’s what you’d always done. 

“Oh thank fucking god.”

You looked up in time to see Luc running up to you, arms outstretched. He wrapped you up in his arms and you stiffened. He pressed his face into your hair to envelop you in him, ignoring how you were unsure what to do in the moment.

“Fuck, you just left. I was so worried,” he mumbled into your hair. 

You hadn’t even thought through your anger enough to realize that going out in the middle of the night by yourself might not have been the smartest idea. You slowly wrapped your arms around his waist. 

“I know I was a shit head, but please promise me you won’t just walk out like that again.” Concern coating each word as it left his lips. “I was so fucking worried. I’m so fucking sorry, baby girl.” 

"I’m sorry, Luc,” you mumbled against his chest. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he whispered back. “We’re both just stressed right now and I know I took it out on you and I shouldn’t have. You deserve a hell of a lot better than me taking the stress of the season coming out on you.”

“No, no.” You pulled back from him a bit so he could hear you clearly and you continued, “It’s okay to be stressed about the season starting. I took my stress about it out on you. I just, this sounds so stupid, I know, but I just worry that when we can’t spend as much time together that you’re not going to like me as much and something is going to happen because we won’t be together as much and I just really, really, really don’t want that to happen.” 

You knew you were rambling, letting your nervousness come out all at once. You were losing track of what was actually coming out of your mouth and what was just flying through your head at this point. You noticed Luc’s brows furrow as he listened to you. He was shaking his head softly from left to right as you spoke. He must have had enough of listening to your rambling nonsense because his lips crashed into yours as his hands cupped your face in an attempt to get you to focus your energy somewhere else. 

He pulled back from you an inch, “That,” then brought his lips back to your briefly, “is,” kiss, “not,” another kiss, “going,” another, “to,” again, “happen.” He kept his mouth on yours this time, his tongue sliding against yours for a few moments before he pulled back again. “What else could I possibly want when what I’ve already got is so much better than I ever imagined anyone could be?” 

You pushed him back against a nearby fence as you crushed your lips to his. Your mouth moved against his as his hands grabbed any part of you he could, moving from your face to your waist, grabbing your ass briefly, palming your breasts, anywhere he could think to touch. 

“We should go home,” you breathed out as he moved his mouth to your neck. 

“Oh yeah? Taking me home now, are you?” he mumbled against the sensitive skin of your neck.

His words with dripping in innuendo. Normally, you would’ve rolled your eyes at him and shoved him away jokingly, but there was a look in his eyes when they met yours again that went straight to your core and made your skin feel like it was on fire. So, you let him take you home. 

October 

"Luc!” you screamed. Your hands flew to his hair to try and get some stability as he started to lose his balance. “Luc!”

“I’m going to drop you if you don’t stop fucking wiggling,” he told you.

You glared down at him, not that he could see from your position on his shoulders. You squeezed your thighs in a little, applying gentle pressure on his neck to showcase your displeasure at how difficult he was making this process. 

“Choking is my job and not where there’s all these little kids around,” Luc sang softly at you. “Did you get it yet?”

You stretched your arm out as far as you could and still needed to lean forward just a tad to get your hand to rap around the perfect apple you’d spotted from the ground. 

“I got it!” you told him excitedly. 

Luc laughed at your excitement. It was just an apple, but it was an apple that could’ve sat proudly on a kindergarten teacher’s desk and now it was your apple. He gently sank to his knees so you could get off his shoulder without causing too much risk of injury to either of you. It was a pretty high fall from his shoulders after all.

“You’re so useful.” You pat Luc’s cheek as a thank you with your eyes never leaving your apple. 

“I feel like I’ve been replaced by a goddamn apple,” he said, annoyance permeating his voice. One of his heavy arms slung around your shoulders to pull you into his side. You sort of fell into him since there were already so many apples littering the ground of the orchard that you tripped a little, but he easily supported you. “Do you want to put your apple in the bucket or are you going to hold it the entire time?” 

You glared up at him, drawing a laugh from him. You knew he thought you were too cute to ever succeed at looking threatening. You still maintained your glare as you gently placed the apple in the bucket with all of the others you’d already grabbed. Having a tall man to go apple picking with was giving you far more apple options than you normally had. 

“These apples are indirectly for your mother, so consider the effort for your mother rather than for me,” you told him. 

She was coming to town to watch the game this weekend and Luc had a day off prior to her arrival, so you decided that getting some fresh apples and making her your family apple pie recipe would be a nice gesture since she was so interested when you visited her back in August. 

“You know she’d still like you even if you didn’t bake this pie and you’d just let me have my way with you all day.” Luc had whispered the last part in your ear, being careful that all of the children running through the orchard didn’t hear that. 

You rolled your eyes at him, but let him pull you into his chest more as he kissed the top of your head.

“Um, excuse me, mister?” 

You and Luke both turned to see a young girl, maybe five or six, standing a few feet away from you. Her mom was right behind her, watching the interaction carefully. Luc took his arm from around you so he could sink down, getting as close to eye level with her as he could. 

“Hi,” he smiled softly at her. “My name’s Pierre-Luc. What’s your name?”

“Annie,” she said, a bright, toothy smile breaking out across her face. “You’re really tall, Mister Luc. Could you help me get an apple?”

“You know, I actually just did that for my girlfriend,” he informed her, gesturing to you as he spoke. “I think I got one more lift in me though, if that’s okay with your mom.” He looked over to the girl’s mom, who enthusiastically nodded at him.

“Honey, can you show the nice boy which apple you want?” 

She pushed the little girl towards Luc and she immediately grabbed one of his hands and took off running, pulling him with her down the orchard. Her mom came to stand next to you as they came to a stop shortly, just a few trees over from where they started.

“Seems like you’ve got yourself a good one there,” the mom said softly to you. “I don’t know any guy close to his age that good with kids.”

You watched as Luc carefully placed his hands on his waist and lifted her up towards the apple of her dreams and you couldn’t help but smile. You’d seen him with the Savard children before and how good he was with them, but this one felt a little more real, a little more like this was something you could see in your future. 

“He’s a good egg,” you told the mom. “I’m really lucky.” 

“He’s cute too,” she said with a playful nudge of your arm. “Don’t let that one get away from you.” 

“Mommy! Mommy!” little Annie screamed as she ran back to her mom, a bright red apple in her hands. “Look what I got!”

“You did? Look at that beauty!” she replied.

“Thank you so much,” she told Luc. “You absolutely made her day. Thank you again.” 

“It’s no problem at all,” Luc assured her. “If she finds another one you can’t reach, come find me and I’m happy to help.”

You were pretty sure the mother thanked him at least seven more times before they headed off into a deeper part of the orchard. You looked over at Luc with a wide smile on your face and shook your head softly. 

“What?” he asked you as he titled his head to the side as he tried to figure out how you were feeling. 

“Just debating if you’re a Disney prince or something in your spare time is all,” you replied. 

He blushed in response and smiling impossibly wider and you were a goner. Relationship were always terrifying to you, having to put that much of yourself into someone and trust they’ll treat like like you deserve to be treated. The potential directions relationships could go were vast like the ocean. You’d typically gone out to sea in the past with looming storm and had never stayed to far from the shore. With Luc, you’d slowly paddled out to sea, trusting a storm wouldn’t come and overturn your boat. Now, you were in so deep you couldn’t see shore anywhere around you anymore and for some reason, it didn’t scare you in the slightest.

November 

“Baby, can you pass me the salt, please?” Luc asked you, hand outstretched toward you.

“Salt!” you shouted as you put it in his outstretched hand.

“Thank you. The pepper too?” he asked. You knew the ask was coming, so you were already prepared and slapped it into his waiting hand. 

“You two are so precious.” 

You hadn’t realized your mom had entered the kitchen until she spoke, making you and Luc jump a little. Luc had just enough time off right round Thanksgiving and your family was close enough to Columbus that you were able to make the day trip to spend it with them. Your mom had insisted you bring Luc along. She said she was going to make your good Canadian boy “American fat” for his first American family Thanksgiving. You knew better so by the transitive property Luc knew better than to try and resist your mom’s will, so you were both in the kitchen early on Thanksgiving morning helping make dinner. 

“Uh, thanks, mom,” you told her. 

Your eyes locked with Luc’s before you returned to chopping the celery for the stuffing you were making. He gave you a sweet smile before going back to stirring his pot. Your mom, the forever hoverer, headed over to observe Luc’s cooking, meaning she grabbed a spoon on her way there to taste his work in progress. When you’d first told her about him, you mentioned he knew how to cook and she didn’t believe a guy that young, that attractive, who plays that heteronormative-enforcing of a sport could cook. Based on her expression when she tasted the gravy, she realized how wrong she’d been. 

“Oh my god, that’s incredible, sweetie,” she told him, a look of pure shock still present on her face. 

“Thank you,” he replied as his cheeks tinging with pink in mild embarrassment.

Your mom patted him on the shoulder and threw her spoon in the dishwasher, knowing you’d get on her case if she’d come in and just left something for you to clean later, before she headed back into the living room where the football game was on. 

“Thanks for coming.” You were pretty sure you’d said it to Luc at least a hundred times since you drove down last night. You couldn’t express how much it meant for him to take some of the very little rest time he had during the season and spend it with your family, one of the least restful things you could think of. “I mean it, PL. I really appreciate it.”

“You don’t have to keep thanking me,” he told you, his eyes never leaving the recipe book in his hands. “You know I’ll do anything for you because I lo- really care about you.” 

You paused for a second and your breath caught in your chest. Had he almost just told you he loved you? Did you feel the same way? Did you just hear what you wanted to hear? Did you even want to hear him say that to you? 

You shoved the thoughts aside, deciding that rambling thought process was better saved for another time, and walked over to him. He must have heard your feet as you shuffled over to him because his arm closest to you was already up and outstretched and he’d shifted to holding the recipe book with one hand. You accepted the invitation and wrapped both of your arms around his waist, sighed contently when you were pressed against his warm body.

“I really care about you too, Luc,” you told him, “and I really appreciate you coming with me. Can’t thank you enough for coming.” 

“If you thank me one more time, I’m going to return a Christmas gift,” Luc sang softly to you, his eyes transfixed on the recipe. “Do you think it matters if I- oh fuck it, I’m just gonna throw it all in and see what happens.” 

December 

“Okay, you have to do this.” Luc threw the icing bag down on the kitchen table causing white icing to squirt everywhere. You were grateful you’d picked up a cheap table cloth just to do this like your mom always had. “My hands are too big for this.” 

You laughed and grabbed the gummy wreath and the icing bag from in front of him. You carefully coated the back in icing and put a little extra on the door of your gingerbread house to make sure it would stick before placing it gently on the door. 

“See, big man hands can’t do that,” Luc told you knowingly, making you laugh. 

“Think you can handle putting the Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the roof like shingles?” you asked him, offering up the box of cereal in his direction. 

“You are a creative genius with gingerbread, you know.” Luc took the cereal box from you. “You should quit your day job and become a gingerbread house designer.” 

“Are you going to financially support me in the off-season? Seems like a very seasonal job without a ton of revenue opportunities,” you popped a candy Christmas light in your mouth, “but a lot of free goodies seem to be included.” 

“Of course,” Luc replied without missing a beat. 

His concentration was mostly on gently placing each individual cereal piece on the roof in careful, slightly overlapping lines to create a decorative roof. His tongue poked out between his teeth as he lined up a piece right on the edge of the roof and you snorted a little at the sight. 

“Don’t laugh at me. I’m trying to support your vision here,” Luc told you in a jokingly serious tone. 

“Your support is incredibly valuable to me.” You rolled an icing covered ice cream cone in green sprinkles to create a green tree for by the front door of the house before continuing, “This project wouldn’t be where it is without your endless support.” 

“Mm,” was all he could say as he was back to the opposite edge of the roof again.

He cursed under his breath as his phone started to ring on the counter. He was covering in royal icing of various shades and sprinkles. 

“Baby, could you get that? It’s probably my mom,” Luc asked you. 

You got up and grabbed his phone off the counter. He was right. It was his mom. They’d just gotten to the airport they were connecting through to get to Columbus and just wanted to give Luc an update. You relayed the message and told her you were looking forward to dinner later with them, but you have an important construction project you needed to finish first so she wouldn’t launch into a conversation the length of their layover. 

“She’s mad she doesn’t get you Christmas,” Luc told you as you sat back down. “My mom,” he added when he saw your confused face before elaborating further, “She understands why, but she says you’re part of the family, so she’s mad you’re not actually going to be here for Christmas.” 

“My mom feels the same way,” you replied. “Not sure it’s you or your cooking she’s really missing though. Maybe next year we’ll bring everyone together here in Columbus? We’re going to need a bigger place though if we’re going to host that many people.”

“We’re going to need a bigger place for next year, eh?”

Luc emphasized the words “we” and “next year.” You hadn’t even realized you’d said that and now you realized that you’d suggested you were going to be together a year from now and that you would be okay with your parents meeting his at that point. You just jumped from casual banter to an incredibly serious future conversation.

“Well, I just- I don’t know. Forget it,” was all you could come up with as a response and you started fidgeting with the container of sprinkles in front of you as a distraction. 

“I’d love all of that.”

You turned your head to face him, your eyes searching his face for any sign of discomfort at the idea his part. All you could see was him looking at you the way he always had, since the first day you met him almost a year ago now. 

“I want you out of your shitty ass apartment with Kelsey. I want to see you on Christmas next year. I want to watch our dads try and interact.” You both laughed at that thought and then Luc continued, “I want you here with me all the time because I love you.” 

Your mind had been racing last month when he’d almost said those words, not sure exactly how you felt. In this moment where the words had actually come out, a wave of calm came over you. This didn’t scare you at all like you had thought it would. This feeling had been building since the first time you met him and you hadn’t been able to place it until he said those words out loud for the first time. You knew you loved him. 

“I love you too, Luc.” 

[velmia-warins-blog]

Ooh, can you tell us more about RO? 👀👀 (and if that ok if we ask ro's reaction ask? 😀)

Yeah, I’ll tell you a bit more. Also, of course you can ask RO reaction asks. It would make me very happy to get them.

Alex: He is an individual of organization and order in general. This often entails taking up a leadership position which he has been used to doing most of his life, and he does take up a leadership role among the dorm upholding it unless the MC asserts themself more so. In most free time he is reading a book, often enjoying Drama as a genre given social dynamics to him are more entertaining to learn as they’re much more chaotic and unpredictable compared to learning logical and structured subjects. Though some Mysteries have continued to evade him, he considers the Mystery Novel ‘Unlike Sicily’ his greatest bane given how he couldn’t figure out the solution to the mystery until it was revealed at the end of the story. Friends often comment hearing him talk can be entertaining given the depth of his thoughts and passion for everything he has learned. Other hobbies of his are Tabletop RPG’s, computer programming, and Astronomy.

Eliza: She can build pretty much anything if given the right materials, and she has made a lot of friends by building various complex machinery. Mostly computers but she can also do televisions, phones, video game consoles, and in one case even a car. Her passion is everything when it comes to Engineering, and she is looking forward to how anything she can plan to build will be possible for her to do just that with the use of magic. She also tends to be very popular on her own in a social sense, she is earnest, sincere, kind, understanding, and believes everyone has a great depth to them that can be discovered if given enough patience and space to open up to others. Although she believes most people are good and can be healed thus redeeming them from past mistakes, Eliza holds a strong value in the Moral Line. The idea that an individual who crosses crimes like murder is to be viewed as evil for life. Hobbies of hers also include video games, archery, and watching soap operas.

Hussein: He grew up in less fortunate circumstances in comparison to many other of his classmates, and definitely less kind ones to him than the rest of his dorm mates. Hussein has never known his birth parents and was a foster child passed on through several neglectful/abusive homes up until the age of eleven. At that point, he was adopted by one of the Child Protector Service agents and her wife where he lived with four other boys. Two older and two younger he came to consider his brothers. From then on his life was much more supportive and stable, however, his upbringing still made him very cynical to the world at large and especially the crueler group of nobles who entertained themselves by picking on the poorer populace. He can be very defensive, of himself and close friends so he has learned to fight and maintain his body through a lot of physical activity. Hobbies of his include scrapbooking, knife throwing, and baking.

Ramona: She is a complete ball of energy and creativity. Everything related to the arts and using the imagination she has a passion for. She writes, paints, draws, designs clothes, sings, dances. She has done everything to be able to proclaim herself the embodiment of the practitioner of everything considered an art. She is considered the colorful child among a family who is mild-mannered and mundane especially her parents. Her father being an accountant and her mother being a technical writer. Although she’s never been shamed or looked down upon because of her interests, it’s been hard for her to feel truly appreciated due to a household that never cared much for the vibrant and creative things in life. A bit more understandable as they have been mages who prefer the practical side of magic. Instead, she gains inspiration among friends and the expansive eternity that is the cycle of life and death. Her most prominent hobbies are poetry, painting, and clothing design.

Ilsa: The student escort of the MC and first second-year student met at the Academy. She is the ideal of a model student at the Nellis Noble Academy. Very passionate about everything magical, and she does her best to learn about every single field. Though what she excels at are Arcane magic and Wind magic most especially. She likes to consider herself a peacemaker in everything she does, though she can definitely be very forceful when it comes to this goal. Being even more overbearing and authoritarian than Alex himself. Yet this strong will and need to maintain order has made her leader of her dorm. When it comes to her softer side she is more of a guide and a nurturer, someone who wants to see everyone achieve their true potential and reach their goals no matter how impossible they may be. Given her much looser moral code even if someone wants to rule the world or become the next lich to destroy all life she will encourage anyone with the will and hunger for power to do it. Her hobbies include dancing, playing any game related to strategy, chess, and the video game series ‘Elemental Banner’.

(The following are the other RO’s the MC has yet to meet at the academy. Ilsa’s dorm mates.)

Sifer: Ilsa’s second and command, it is best to refer to Sifer as they given they are non-binary. Sifer covers Ilsa in a more measured and logical manner whenever she becomes much more intense in her behavior. They are quite measured, logical, but pragmatic to the point it can be considered concerning. Despite holding humanity to be a high value, it only goes so high as when they deem something to be much higher value than the life of a person can be considered worth sacrificing in their mind. On the surface, they appear to be very stoic and reserved when it comes to their emotions. However, if looked closely at the eye all their emotions can be seen. Their eyes are intense when angry, bright when happy, flow with tears when sad. Very few people know why, but when they feel understood by someone else they feel confident about opening up about everything. Their hobbies include studying philosophy, gardening, and creating historically accurate dioramas.

Martin: The biggest defending champion of flirting and charming his classmates at the Academy. Whether they be male, female, or identify outside of those usual pronouns, anyone attracted to guys he considers a chance to charm his way into their lives. Rumors vary on whether he has succeeded in sleeping with the rest of his dorm mates. Though the truth of the matter is that he managed to make out with Lucas once and the rest of the dorm is mildly amused by how casual they are about the whole matter while just being friends by that point. Managing to get to know him past the first date reveals the more sincere side to him, someone who would prefer a more serious relationship but in his past struggles to make friends desires the popularity of being a flirt in the meantime. Though it takes just as much effort to get him to lower the persona of a heartbreaker and create something more sincere when it’s just a friendship. His hobbies include pottery, animal raising, and playing guitar.

Kelsie: A very standoffish woman who presents herself with a very dark and aggressive personality. Most people consider her to be a bad girl, a reputation she would like to uphold especially as her dorm mates have taken to teasing her by trying to attest to something very different. She desperately wants to be proficient in death magic and crush her natural talent in life magic. Ironically sabotaging her own goal by not understanding the complimenting elements of life magic that death is so intrinsically connected to. Her anti-social behavior makes her difficult to approach. Being fowl mouthed, reflexively aggressive to people of a soft or weak disposition, picking fights, making casual death threats that vary to the extreme and make it difficult to tell how serious she is. Only her dorm mates really know what’s behind her persona of the adoration of death and general violence. So they are definitely looking out for someone who could come into her life and handle the rage she has for the world. Her hobbies include heavy metal, casting summoning rituals in attempts to summon demons and sword fighting.

Lucas: The most chill guy one could ever meet in their life. He is almost comedically calm in just about any situation imaginable. Demons have been summoned into the dorm and everyone needs to work together to banish them? Cool, does he need to look over the banishing ritual? The mysterious interdimensional portal is now in the kitchen? Eh, nothing has come out yet so he’ll take the extra five minutes of sleep. He likes to advise others to take the time to slow down and appreciate the small things in life. Relax, not fret over the big picture and take the worries over life down a few notches. He likes to roll with the punches, and when good things in life come then he likes to stop. Focus on those single moments in time and make them the longest memories that will truly count. It takes extraordinary circumstances that make him worry, freak out, and especially for something to come up that will make him afraid. His hobbies include swimming, fishing, and meditating.

[aesir-modir]

@sonofirishseas​

continued from here

Jack’s first thought was that the Queen certainly knew her son well. It was true, though Loki showed Jack his intentions, his affections, his…enjoyment and contentment (if he dared to use that word) with him, he had never actually said the words there were so common among lovers. This might have put some off…made them doubt everything. But Sparrow didn’t think it needed to come to that. Loki’s actions spoke well enough…even if the god of mischief did not realize how well the pirate could read him. They were too alike in this…and Jack was fine, guarding that vulnerability for him. Keeping it secret between them and caring for it at the same time.

He moved closer to her and after a moment’s hesitation, dared put his hand on her fidgeting ones, trying to calm them. He knew such nervousness well. He met her eyes, even if it humbled him to do so. “I’m glad he’s happy…I do try to make him so. And you need not worry…this shall be between us.” he nodded.

He chewed his lip as he thought how to answer the rest though, “I think your son and i are cut from similar cloth perhaps….I could regale you of stories of cleverness and wit but…I don’t think that is why…truth is, Lady Frigga…I don’t know why he chose me. But I happily chose him.” Jack blinked at himself. He was far looser in tongue with his feelings when it came to Loki–usually with the aid of sex and rum–but this was…undeniably honest of him. But he found he couldn’t help himself.

It strange to be so honest with someone he had just met, but he felt no compulsion to lie or guard himself as he might have with others. “I’m only mortal, my queen…I know it’s foolishness to love a god. There are many many tales of it in my world warning against such things…but I’ve never been good at heeding such things. Too curious, I suppose. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh?” He flushed again a bit more. “What I mean to say is…what I love; I love. I will do my best by your son. Whatever is considered best for a pirate, I suppose.”

It would be a lie to claim that his touch did not startle her. Though she very much expected it, between her sight and his character that she had seen thus far, the fact that he still had the bravery to do so was surprising.

Still, Frigga smiled brightly at him, accepting his comfort and ceasing her fidgeting, for the moment, at least. “I truly appreciate it. I do not condone keeping secrets, but when it comes to deeply emotional matters with him, I fear he would rather shut everyone out than ever speak about it.”

Frigga was quiet as she listened to him struggle through explaining himself. It seemed that he had more trouble trying to understand why Loki loved him instead of the other way around. It was understandable, she supposed, for their lifespans were so vastly different, that it would seem ridiculous for any Asgardian to even want to spend time with a human, knowing their relative lives were so short. It was inevitably a pain no logical being would ask for.

But love was so infrequently logical. It had to be, for Loki was her most logic focused child and even he was unexpectedly captured by it. And he had seemed to be captured by someone in the relatively same situation. It was like Loki had captured his heart without knowing – or perhaps caring what Loki was. It at least gave her some relief that he didn’t seem interested in trying to use Loki’s affection to his advantage.

Still, she wanted to know more about him and his intentions with her son, just to be sure.

She hummed lightly. “I think you judge yourself too harshly because of what you call yourself instead of who you truly are. This may merely be the musings of an old woman, but it seems to me your title and penchant for mischief only captured Loki’s attention.”

With a soft exhale, she pulled her hands from his, waving one to create an illusion of Loki as a toddler. ”Even young, he was always focused on learning and improving his talents. He had a few friends, but they seemed to mostly be ones his brother shared, and he seemed far more interested in his studies than improving his relationships.” With another gesture, Frigga had the illusion shift through the years of Loki’s growth, always showing him in some form of study or work. At least until more recent images, showing Loki seem to grow bored with his studies before seeming to walk out of the illusion and fade.

“Instead, I would wager that it is something within you that resonates with something in my son that encourages him to turn away from his familiar subjects and return here. I know not what it is, but it seems to fill something you both did not realize you were lacking.”

[mbavholidayexchange]

To @demonicbutterflies, from @pixiepaintt

Title: Piecewise Equations & The Inner Turmoil of a Mathlete

Rating: T

Summary:  It was a day of completely no consequence. Small and tiny against the mass of the calendar; itty-bitty in the grand scheme of chronological order. It was no holiday nor commemoration. It was a Tuesday unlike any other Tuesday to have ever been invented, but to Benny Weir, grand amateur spellcaster and goof, it was the most important day of his life.

It was the day he was going to confess to Ethan fucking Morgan.

Ao3 Link: Link

Content

It was a day of completely no consequence. Small and tiny against the mass of the calendar; itty-bitty in the grand scheme of chronological order. It was no holiday nor commemoration. It was a Tuesday unlike any other Tuesday to have ever been invented, but to Benny Weir, grand amateur spellcaster and goof, it was the most important day of his life.

It was the day he was going to confess to Ethan fucking Morgan. AKA the smartest guy in the whole world. AKA an angel disguised as a human. AKA the person that Benny has been pining over for three years.

In Freshman year, he was just figuring out that he was even into dudes-- he spent most of the year pondering if he liked Ethan as a friend or liked him like that . In Sophomore year, he fawned over Ethan and decided that there was no way the feeling was mutual, especially not with Sarah around. In Junior year, he started out thinking the same, but then-- then Sarah confessed to Erica, and she apparently didn’t like dudes, and Ethan seemed relieved, and he felt like maybe, just maybe, this was his chance. So Benny convinced himself to confess.

The days couldn’t have passed any quicker; he had set a date to confess right after he learned he had a speck of hope (a week ago). Then he blinked, and it was the morning of his confession.

He forced himself to confess before lunch.

That failed.

He forced himself to confess during his last period English class.

That failed.

English class had just been dismissed by the bell, there were no hours left in the school day now, Ethan was still oblivious, and Benny was freaking out. If he didn’t do it now, he knew for a fact he’d back out and hide in his feelings for the rest of his lonely life. He’d done that for two years already; he didn’t want to go back now. Not when he had an opportunity in front of him.

“B? You coming?” Ethan asked, hefting his shoulder bag over his body and ambling to the door. He was probably excited to go home and play the new update of Zombies: Brains, Brains, and More! Benny wished all of his troubles were a zombie apocalypse; that would be infinitesimally easier than what he was going through now.

“Uh-- I--” Benny half-responded, still sitting in his desk. His feet wouldn’t move.

“Benny?” Ethan asked, lifting up a worried smile. He paused momentarily on his journey to the exit.

“You-- I don’t--” Benny managed, pointing a hand to the door. He was shaking.

“Let me just grab my stuff out my locker and we can walk home together?” Ethan promised, walking back towards the door.

“Wait!” Benny yelled, regaining his footing finally, “E, wait.”

“Yeah?”

Benny held his pointing hand straighter, flailing for the right words. He couldn’t think of any Latin with this state of a frazzled mind, so he settled for a simple English spell. Under his breath, sweating with nerves, he muttered:

“ Fire deflection, passionate perfection, grant the door unyielding connection !”

“Did you say something?” Ethan asked. Luckily he didn’t have super-hearing to go with his seer abilities.

“Uh.”

“I’m going to get the nurse. B, you’re worrying me.”

Ethan tried for the door’s handle. He tried again. It gave no budge at all-- not even a sliver of movement in any direction. Benny hesitantly smiled; at least his spell had worked. That was the only thing working for him in the moment; everything else was disorganized mayhem. Just call him Dr. Homo Doom, because his teenage life was descending into a frenzy of unrequited love!

Ethan kicked the door. Immediately after, he scowled tightly and rubbed his foot.

“The door is jammed.”

“Yeah,” Benny nervously responded. Oh God, was he too obvious? Was his plan failing? Was Ethan onto him?

“Are you,” Ethan dithered, choosing his words carefully as he checked Benny up and down, “better now?”

“Yeah. Swell as an Orc in the Highlands of Manoria!”

Ethan tried to suppress a grin at the mention of their favorite fantasy MMORPG. They always made fun of the janky 3D mechanics together.

“Valiant Orc, I shall slay you with my enchanted Ice Protection III Sword of Elysia!”

“Oh heavens above, not the enchanted Ice Protection III Sword of Elysia!” Benny yelled, clutching his chest. He made a pained ‘gh’ sound and collapsed onto his desk, twitching dramatically and trying to hide his giggles.

“Didn’t a new mob just get released?”

“Bro, yes, ah-- spear goblins, I think. Definitely OP. I wanted to play during last class but stupid Ms. Wallon won’t let us bring our phones in the room.”

“Some of us are trying to learn,” Ethan teased, smiling with his eyes, and god did that make Benny’s heart clench .

“And some of us are trying to learn strategy techs for the new meta!” Benny quickly responded. He regarded competitive gaming very seriously.

Ethan sighed. Although he, too, was heavily invested in gaming, he preferred singular player free roaming modes, or, at the very most, campaign modes. Competitive and ranked games gave him too much anxiety. He loved to watch Benny play rankings and rage at smurfs, though.

“Anyway, we should head home. We can play ZBBM?” Ethan pointedly looked at the door, “Can you, uh, do your thing?” He wiggled his fingers, and Benny snorted.

“That’s the issue. See,” he took a deep breath (it was now or never!), “I’ve been wanting to tell you something really kinda important.”

“Okay?” Ethan answered, and that confirmation sent Benny spiraling. This was really, really happening. It wasn’t just in his imagination anymore.

Benny’s breathing quickened, and he briefly considered backing out. Ethan certainly didn’t feel the same way. If he confessed now, he’d lose his best friend. Benny gulped and backtracked.

“Eh, I just--”

And then the door started hissing. And shaking. And glowing.

Ethan gasped. Benny cursed.

“Shit, Grandma always told me English spells were more tricky,” Benny muttered. He flexed his fingers. Something wasn’t right-- he may not be the most proficient spellcaster, but a simple spell like that certainly shouldn’t cause the door to rumble like a giant was full-throttle rattling it.

English spells often had a looser sense of interpretation; something about the translation from the original latin being lost in the magic altered them. He had pronounced the spell with all of the right intentions, but--

But the door was still shaking like an earthquake.

Benny blanched.

“Water pyre, built from needs dire, extinguish this door’s mental fire!”

Nothing.

“Succulent wind, in which all, uh, things end, to my cause a hand you should lend!”

Zero effect.

“Powers from earth, strengthened by girth, to a peaceful door you should give birth!”

Still, no response.

Ethan looked to Benny with wide deer eyes. He had the pinched inner brow expression that meant only one thing: he had been thinking through a problem, and reached a conclusion.

“Did you spell the door earlier?” He accused.

“Uh, heh… the thing is--”

“Benny!” Ethan whined, fretting a hand through his hair.

“I know, I know, I’m trying to find a reversal spell.”

“Because that’s going so smoothly,” Ethan snarked, then paled, “Sorry. I’m just-- agh, I don’t know what’s going on.”

Benny nodded. He didn’t either.

To be fair, he didn’t deserve all the blame. He’d only glanced over the spell once in a decades-old book with more dust than ink-- and then amateurly attempted it. At least it wasn’t a reanimated animal this time.

He could handle a door. Right?

“Let’s just calm down and think about this rationally,” Ethan suggested. He pulled out a chair and sat next to Benny.

Somehow, just Ethan’s very presence soothed Benny’s worries. When Ethan was near him, it was similar to a feeling of… indestructibility. Like nothing could stop them. Benny didn’t know how to feel about that.

Ethan smiled worriedly, always trying to stay lucid in tough situations, and Benny smiled in response. With Ethan by his side, he had no doubt that they could fix this.

“What spell did you use?”

“Well… uh… fire something, made the door lock.”

“Which spell, though?”

Benny grimaced.

“E, you know I have less than one brain cell. I don’t remember. It was pretty simple, though.”

“...Okay.” Ethan sighed, “Then why did you lock it?”

“Oh.” Benny sucked in a breath and froze.

“B?” Ethan asked, scooting closer.

“I-- I wanted to talk.” Benny settled on. Hopefully that was vague enough.

His hands were shaking, so Ethan settled put a hand on his shoulder.

“We can talk. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just-- nervous,” Benny replied, uncharacteristically grave.

And suddenly the door stilled.

It was clattering viciously, intent on nearly breaking, until it abruptly suspended all movement. It was… quiet. The room seemed to shrink without the raucous noise. Benny and Ethan both stared at the quasi-normal door. There was not even a hint of a glow anymore; no sign of any previous activity.

Benny was the first to crush the silence.

“What… happened?”

“Touch my arm.”

Benny shrilly laughed. It seemed too ironic to be true. Ethan asking for physical contact? At a time like this? Right after Benny had chickened out from his confession? He couldn’t tell if it was bad or good luck, but fate was certainly poking fun at him. There was an irregular bit of hope stirring in the pit of his chest.

“Wha-- Why?” Benny choked out, chuckling.

“Vision,” Ethan said impatiently, holding out his hand.

Oh.

A vision. Not because he actually wanted to touch Benny or anything. Okay. Benny shrugged and touched Ethan’s hand hesitantly. Not that he was paying attention, but it was quite warm.

Benny was snapped out of it when Ethan shook his head.

“Nothing happened,” he frowned. He took back his arm and pursed his lips.

“Okay,” Benny simply responded.

“At least the door’s stopped, though. Maybe it opened?” Ethan got up to check. He paused before wrapping a hand around the handle, taking a deep breath.

He shook it, and the handle didn’t move.

Benny couldn’t help but chuckle deprecatingly. Oh, how the tables had turned on him. He had trapped himself in a room with the boy he was infatuated with, stuck in a crappy school building past dismissal time. It seemed destiny was pulling his leg, and he had no choice in the matter.

Ethan raised an eyebrow at the laughing.

“Nothing,” Benny quickly assured, “Just… We couldn’t even get stuck in a cool classroom like biology.”

“And we don’t have our phones,” Ethan noted, his eyebrows furrowed in thought, “No possible way of contacting others.”

Benny nodded. He didn’t know what to tag on; it was his fault they were stuck, anyway. He didn’t want to worsen it and make Ethan despise him even more .

“I… just give me a minute to think about the situation,” stressed Ethan. Benny nodded again.

Ethan sat back down and tapped his fingers on his desk. A minute passed. Benny watched him think, so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice Benny’s stares. A few more minutes passed, and the crease in Ethan’s brows was only deepening. Benny wanted to help him so badly, but he’d already messed everything up. Not only did his confession go haywire, but he botched a simple spell and trapped Ethan.

He had never regretted a spell more. Not even when he had accidentally hexed Erica’s hair green and she threatened to sacrifice him to the council for weeks. Not even when he spelled Mr. G to give him an A, and his grandma found out. Not even when he tried magicking some of Sarah’s fake blood to taste like soda and tasted it himself. Nothing could be worse than this-- this cacophony of confusion and guilt. God, he really shouldn’t dwell in his thoughts, but he couldn’t help it. Ethan looked so utterly pensive, and Benny just knew that he was the root cause of it.

His worst fears were being realized, and he didn’t have a clue about how to amend it. His relationship with Ethan was the most important thing in his life, and like everything else he touched, he ruined it.

By this time, they would have both been beyond home, probably settling in for dinner and video games.

Benny waited for Ethan to say something-- anything-- because the silence was nearly killing him, but he didn’t. Ethan just kept tapping his fingers. The desk reverberated back at him. Benny was out of the loop.

Time streamed by them fruitlessly; it stole the light from the windows and the confidence that they had. It was on a different, faster river; Benny was left to run after it.

Eventually, Ethan sighed and broke away from his thoughtful silence. He grabbed a water bottle out of his nearby bag and drank from it. He paused and held it out to Benny as an afterthought.

“You thirsty?”

In more ways than one.

Benny nodded, and snatched the bottle from Ethan’s loose grip. He chugged it, small rivulets of water catching his cheek and strolling down. He pulled away after a second and grinned, garbling through a mouth full of water.

“Imdirect kiff.”

Ethan flushed red. His ears turned a rosy shade, and he tugged some hair forward to cover them.

“Huh?” He asked, voice airy with an odd mixture of confusion and hope.

Benny didn’t reply. He was too busy gulping back the water and despairing in self-negative thoughts. He had no clue why he had done that.

Ethan was still staring at him.

Benny looked away, willing his cheeks to stop burning. They didn’t comply. And hindsight was truly a bitch. He refused to meet Ethan’s inquisitive gaze; he stared at the floor and picked at his short nails instead. Somehow, among this entire mess, he had managed to do something completely ridiculous and irrational again . In his peripheral vision, he saw Ethan twine his fingers together tightly, to the point of whiteness (one of his nervous tics). Benny’s heart stuttered.

Neither of them moved or made a sound for several minutes. There was only the combined noise of their breathing: Benny’s stilted and Ethan’s indecisively heavy.

God, nothing had ever been this awkward between them. It was so unusual-- so innately deafening for Benny to not be completely comfortable around Ethan. He was abruptly dunked in a pit of ice water, and he was left to flail in the bitterness. He was so accustomed to the warmth, and a fire was near, but-- he hadn’t the courage to pursue it. So he was silent.

It took everything in his limited willpower to not crack open a half-assed joke about being about as straight as 2 radians (because that was equal to a circle, and Ethan would love a math reference) but he didn’t. He couldn’t let himself ruin their relationship even further. Well-- if they still had a relationship and Ethan didn’t completely despise him by this point.

But then the object of his worries spoke.

“Unless… it didn’t have to be indirect?” Ethan’s voice wavered, pitchy and breaking on every other word, but Benny had never heard anything so beautiful .

Benny sputtered for a second, then managed to choke out a few words.

“Not indirect-- wait, what--”

He didn’t have the chance to finish, because Ethan was promptly burrowing under his desk and tucking his limbs away from view, husking himself into a neat shell. When he wanted to be, he could be very flexible. His shoulders folded between his knees, his head ducked into his chest, and his feet slipped underneath his body. He was nearly cornered into a fetal position, if it weren’t for the tremor in his chest and wild, watering eyes. Benny was all too familiar with these symptoms; Ethan was extremely anxious.

“E, it’s okay,” Benny soothed, forgetting all of his stressors in lieu of seeing his best friend hurting. That possessed the utmost priority.

Ethan didn’t respond, so Benny took a little step forward and continued to talk.

“I promise everything’s fine.”

“Just-- Just forget I said anything,” Ethan pleaded, lifting his head just enough to meet Benny’s eyes.

Benny didn’t know quite how to respond to that. How could he simply forget the most suggestive thing his crush has said to him in the history of their friendship? That moment was already ingrained into his memory, and he doubted it would ever leave. But instead of telling Ethan that, he simply extended a hand.

Ethan paused and took a couple of deep breaths, steadying himself. He took the hand, and Benny gently hauled him up. And then, in the same motion, pulled Ethan into his chest.

“Wh--” Ethan began to squeak, but was quickly muffled by Benny’s classically striped shirt. He relaxed into the hug after a few awkward moments, tentatively wrapping his arms around Benny in reciprocation.

They had hugged before, sure, but it was never truly intimate. Usually it was a quick pull and release, or a light half-hug in pictures. They friendship was never very physically close; that was largely a result of the stigmatic culture that they grew up in. Besides, playing video games together was much more fun than have tickle-fights. This time, though, this hug was different-- it was a mental connection as well as physical.

Benny sighed into the hug; it was such a simple gesture, but it seemed that all of his chaotic fretting was vanquished as soon as he was pressed against Ethan. The naturally subduing aura of Ethan was only amplified through physical contact.

Idly, he noticed that more than a few seconds had passed. Was this too long of a hug? Was he making this awkward? Benny grimaced and pulled back, suddenly feeling bad, but--

Ethan didn’t let him get far at all, tugging him back into the hug with a strength neither of them knew he possessed.

“Stay,” mumbled Ethan.

“Okay.” Benny surprisedly breathed out in response. The things he would do for this boy .

“I’m sorry,” said Ethan, ever-apologetic, and Benny couldn’t help but shaking his head against Ethan’s hair.

“Don’t be sorry. I-- uh-- I wanted to talk to you about-- stuff. Actually.”

“Stuff?”

“Yeah.”

Benny failed to elaborate. Ethan lifted his head just enough to stare Benny directly in his eyes, maintaining fierce eye contact. He wasn’t joking around.

“Stuff?” Ethan repeated. He raised a hand, almost as if he were to tuck back the hair falling in front of Benny’s eyes, but then changed his mind and dropped it.

Benny averted his eyes, opting to stare at the door. The moment was finally here. Ethan was asking him so directly, so intently that he couldn’t bring himself to lie. It was actually happening; he was going to confess his undying love for Ethan Morgan. Where he had been previously anxious, Ethan’s “indirect” comment was fueling him. He was on top of the world with adrenaline.

“Uh, well, there aren’t any cherry blossoms falling around us like, uh, all successful anime confessions go, but-- but yeah. So basically I’m in lo-- I love you.” Benny nervously chuckled. He studied Ethan’s face very closely, noting all of the emotions that cycled through it: first confusion, then surprise, then contemplation, a bit of sadness, and then contentedness. Or what Benny hoped was some form of contentedness. Ethan’s face settled on that last emotion, holding it for a time akin to forever; neither of them moved in fear of… so many things. The unknown, rejection, loss of each other-- But it didn’t happen.

After several long moments, Ethan’s thin smile cracked into a wide grin.

“I love you too, dork.”

“So…” Benny prompted, lopsidedly grinning just as wide as Ethan now.

Ethan quirked his brows as a silent question.

“Maybe we could get started on making it not indirect--”

And then the door shuddered, trembled, and rounded it all off with a clicking noise. It wasn’t glowing or moaning anymore, just… still.

Ethan, who had been curled against Benny’s chest, pulled away and hesitantly stepped toward the door. He watched it carefully for a few seconds, before deciding something in his head and walking up to it. Benny almost called out to him, was on the verge of warning him to not mess with fickle magic or he might get hurt, but Ethan had his hand wrapped around the handle before he could. With a subtle but effective flick of the wrist, he turned the knob, and the door… opened. It hinged into the classroom, revealing the empty hallways behind it, inanimate and soundless as ever. It was so normal .

The next thing Benny registered, Ethan was doubled over laughing.

“E…?” He asked, confused beyond belief.

“I-- It--” Ethan laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Benny didn’t understand at all.

“I had a hunch. It-- Your spell was fire-based, right? Fire is connected to passion, and draws power from intensity and enthusiasm. When you cast it, it… Latched onto your conflicted feelings, and created a warped version of a piecewise equation.”

“E, I don’t get how algebra messed up my magic.”

“Imagine it like this: if you still had unexpressed feelings, the door would be shut, and if you had expressed feelings, the door would open.”

“Bruh,” Benny said, at a loss for words. His magic spell had held him hostage in an attempt to get him to disclose his crush? Shit. He would have to ask his Grandma about that later (if she didn’t kill him for his stunt in the first place). Magic backfiring against him was a lot more worrisome than him merely messing up a spell (which he had assumed he had done).

“It’s okay,” Ethan assured him, “It’s all better now. Just… be careful with your powers, okay?”

“Thanks, Mom,” Benny bit back without any real anger. He was more upset with himself for letting this happen.

“B,” called Ethan affectionately, “Come on. Let’s go home, play some new meta, and forget this ever happened.”

Benny looked up from his inner turmoil like a possum caught in headlights.

“Forget… all of it?” Benny asked.

“No. Not all of it. Forget your worries.”

“Hakuna matata,” Benny weakly responded.

“Forget the feeling that you’d ever have to be scared of me,” Ethan clarified. He stepped away from the unlocked door and returned to Benny’s side. He held a hand up and finally brushed that piece of hair out of Benny’s face-- this time, without any hesitancy.

“I--” Benny started, but then Ethan was getting closer, so close, and--

Well, with the way that their lips connected like two halves forming a whole, and the way Ethan’s arms slid seamlessly behind Benny’s neck, and the way time slowed for their benefit--

There was no way it was indirect.

[hellacluttered]

Home (Vin Tanner x OC)

I was rewatching Mag7 (1960) and noticed Vin has a ring on his left ring finger. Naturally this extremely minute detail inspired an amount of Mag7 creativity in me that I haven’t had in a minute, so here’s this.

Ella closed the front door of her house, resting a hand on the table inside and leaning against it for a long moment before pulling off her hat and unpinning the braids that held her long, dark hair inside. A wide-brimmed hat, a somewhat square jaw, and a bit of dirt on her face always seemed to conceal her gender well enough to get her jobs, receive bounties, and not too many stares. She unbuckled her gun belt and set it on the table, unfastening her hair ties as she kicked off her boots and beginning to loosen her braids as she walked back to the kitchen.

Reaching the doorway, she froze. On the counter lay a basin of bloodied water and next to it several of her dish towels, all stained red. She turned, quietly crossing the living room again, but even as she reached out for her gun, there was the sound of footsteps and a voice from the kitchen said, “Easy there.”

The two words jolted through her like a burst of adrenaline, an empty feeling spreading through her chest even as her heart sped up. Her outstretched hand dropped to her side and she turned. In the kitchen stood a familiar wiry figure, and his eyes pierced her just as easily as ever. “What’re you doing here, Tanner?” she asked.

“Calling me by your own last name now?” Vin asked.

“Not anymore.” Ella held up her left hand, revealing an empty ring finger. “Like I said, what are you here for?”

“I figured it was time to come home,” Vin said.

“Time to come home?” Ella asked. “It was time to come home a year ago when you said you were doing your last job.”

“I wasn’t ready,” Vin said. “I am now.”

“It’s too late,” Ella said. “I’m doing just fine without you now.”

“How’s that?” he asked.

“Bounties,” Ella said. “I make enough off them.”

“You always hated it when I took in men for bounties,” Vin said.

“You didn’t leave me much of an alternative,” Ella said. “In case you’ve forgotten, there aren’t many palatable job opportunities for an abandoned married woman in Tombstone.”

“You’re right,” Vin said. “I should have come back sooner.”

“Well, I don’t need a knight in shining armor anymore,” Ella said.

“I can see that,” Vin said. “But I need your help.”

The words took Ella aback, and it was then that she remembered the bloodied rags on the counter. “What happened?” she asked finally, her voice brusque, but calmer.

“Got shot doing a job south of the border,” Vin said.

Ella finally approached him, and he took a seat on one of the kitchen chairs as she entered the room. His thigh was wrapped in a dirty strip of cloth, stained dark with old blood. “Is the bullet still in?” Ella asked.

“No,” Vin said. “A friend got it out. But I think the wound’s infected.”

“Take your pants off,” Ella ordered.

“I didn't think we were on those kind of terms,” Vin said.

Ella raised an eyebrow. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. If you want me to take a look at your wound, do it, and get on the table.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Ella was silent as Vin settled on his back on the table, shamelessly exposed. This was familiar for them. There had been many a night that Vin had come home injured, prevailing on the skills Ella had learned as the daughter of a doctor to patch him up again. Every time Ella had grown more desperate and Vin more stubborn. It was what spurred their arguments over his lifestyle and consequently his walking out the door one late night with no intention of returning.

“I’ve got to re-open it to drain it,” Ella said. “Let me get my things.” Vin nodded, and Ella left the room, retrieving a small bag and some clean towels and bandages from a cupboard that she hadn’t opened since Vin had left. When she returned, she tossed a towel over Vin’s lap and opened her bag, pouring some rubbing alcohol onto a rag to clean her tools. “Am I making you uncomfortable?” he asked, adjusting the covering.

“No,” she said. “Now be quiet; I need to concentrate.” “Why are you doing this for me?” he asked.

Her hands continued to move, sterilizing a scalpel, but her eyes were distant. “Habit, I guess,” Ella said. She handed him the bottle of Scotch next to the sink and he took a long sip before taking the piece of rubber she offered him and fixing it between his teeth. “You’re gonna feel this,” Ella said, and then sunk the scalpel into his wound.

One tortuous half hour later, Vin’s leg was cleanly bandaged and he was struggling to fit back into his pair of closely-cut jeans when Ella said, “Hold on,” and left the room. When she returned, it was with his old sleep-pants, a much looser cotton pair. He slipped them on easily and pulled the drawstring tight before resting against the edge of the table. “Brings back a few memories, eh?”

“Not any I want to remember,” Ella said.

“But we had some good times,” Vin said. “We were good for each other.”

“We were,” Ella said. “For awhile.”

“Not anymore?” Vin asked.

Ella shrugged.

“I’m quitting my old line of business. I mean it this time,” Vin said.

Ella laughed, though it was without humor. “I couldn’t tell you to stop now if I make my living off a gun as well.”

“It’s high time I did,” Vin said. “And maybe you could too, if we were together.”

“How?” Ella asked.

“Heck, we could open a store,” Vin said. “A general store. We could think of something. I never forgot about you, you know.” He laid his left hand flat on the table and his wedding ring gleamed in the lamplight.

“This whole year…?”

“There was no one else,” Vin said. “You?”

“Almost,” Ella said. “But no.”

“Why not?” Vin asked.

Ella shook her head. “Didn’t feel right.”

“Mm.”

“So you’re saying you’re really done this time?” Ella asked.

“I am,” Vin said.

“On your honor?”

Vin chuckled. “You think I still have any?”

“I don’t know, do you?” Ella asked, but her voice was stone serious.

“A little,” Vin said. “Enough.”

“For what?”

“To do what I couldn’t before,” Vin said. He stood up straighter. “To do right by you.”

Ella looked at him keenly for a long moment and then something in her eyes softened. “What makes you want to settle down now?”

“I was just down in Mexico, helping a little town drive off some men trying to take their food, their goods, everything they had. I saw how far they went for home and, well, it made me miss mine. I thought I had nowhere to return to but I was wrong. I’ve drifted for most of my life, and you were the only home I ever had. If I have any chance of getting that back, well, I’ll take it.”

“And if you change your mind?”

“I won’t,” Vin said.

Ella didn’t answer immediately, her brows creased in thought. Then his he reached out, his fingers just lightly brushing her knuckles before dropping back to the table. “Please.”

She sighed, looking down at the floor. At last she met his eyes, searching for something. Then she nodded. “You can have the spare room. And one more chance. Don’t mess up this time.” Even through her gruff words, the corners of her mouth quirked up just slightly, a warm, familiar feeling spreading through her chest. She turned away, not wanting to let Vin see her smile, but she knew it was too late, and he himself had an earnest grin on his face.

If she was honest with herself, she had missed those blue eyes.

[fairyqueennerd]

NALU prompt-5- Blessing

The day Natsu entered her life, she thought her life would become a living hell but he was a blessing in disguise.

She was a news reporter and he was her cameraman, their channel was well known and always topped the charts and Natsu was pretty famous for creating all the troubles but since he was a close relative of their chief he was not fired but he was always fired up.

Before meeting him she had heard a lot about him, like how in the editing department he edited a article telling good things about a project to a one that wanted to find faults in it, while in printing department a fire broke out and the machines were damaged when he was on duty, while in the writing department he trolled a politician so much that they got notice after its release, and making caricatures; he was horrible at it the chief granddaughter got nightmares about whatever he drew.

She sighed loudly when she learnt that now he wold be working for the channel and not the newspaper department and his work would start as a cameraman, that too to her.

“yo! I am Natsu Dragneel, nice to meet ya”

“Lucy Heartfilia, nice to meet you too.” They shook hands and she noticed how handsome he was, his charcoal black eyes with green flakes in them, toned abs and muscle, his boyish smile and casual attire.

This job was suitable for him, she and her assistant Happy helped him through it he had to struggle initially about the holding and keeping then keeping a firm hold, the focussing to the background whenever needed, zooming in and out.

For the first few days it was just to click good quality picture, and he did take awesome pictures of hers and their interaction increased and he was pretty easy to talk to.

Then for few weeks the shooting was done in the studios practice shooting, talk shows and debates, he was part of them all observing the small details and praising her for her work. She liked how dedicated he was to learn and gain everything he can in all the practice session.

Then they started for their first live telecast, it was about the arrival of a big celebrity and he realised how much struggle it was to get a nice footage and relevant interviews with all the other reporters there, but it was a nice experience.

The training ended and he was kind off professional now and they were doing great work together, now she thought that whatever she had heard about Natsu before were just rumours or bad omen for him and their channel.

   Once they were to get a live telecast but she arrived at the venue late the reason being her hangover from the night before for drinking so much with her friends. Later in the evening she was called to by the chief for explanation, but Natsu promptly said that it was him that was late and Lucy was just waiting for him, after that chief said no more just warned him to take things seriously or change department again, he hastily  cut him off that he would be more sincere next time and there is no need for change of department.

 For the rest of the day she sulked to herself not talking much to him, so after work hours he dragged her to the nearby restaurant on her treat and cheered her up.

“Aww, come on Lucy I didn’t lie I too came late just a bit before you for taking live takes, the old man is just cranky don’t mind him”

“But, this never have happened before.”

“sometimes or a while it is worth a try, don’t always try to be in your good two shoes, just be lively.”

“yeah ofcourse.” She still sulked.

“How many times have you been to the chief before”

“Never for a complain but few times for compliment.”

“That’s a good sign, he is gonna forget it sooner than you, just let it be a little reminder for you and else I will take care of.”

“Natsu-“

“Come on Lucy now chill what has happened now can’t be changed don’t let your mood turn down in this beautiful evening.”

She looked out of window and then at him blushing slightly she nodded.

After their dinner, they got drunk again but this time in limits, it would not have happened last night if it weren’t for Cana but now both of them knew it could endanger their job so three glass each was decided. Like last night Natsu dropped her home, she was letting him to spoil her. In his presence she could be herself chubby, forgetful and relax not as if somebody is going to come at her neck if she did one step wrong. She forgot a lot of things, her keys, their appointments, deadlines some times it was genuine and many a times it was intentional she liked it when he would call her up for those small things and always having her back.

Now she just couldn’t imagine how could she think such a blessing in her life to be a curse.

  Lately they were hanging out a lot, it was as if you can’t contact Lucy then contact Natsu and vice a versa, 99%chances were they would be together.

Nowadays, they were having all three meals, going to shopping, movies, karaoke, and gamming together.

It was the weekend plus the last day of the month so Natsu and Lucy were at her apartment watching a movie.

There was one thing that was bothering her from the time she came to know him better but somehow she could not manage the courage to speak it out, but today she felt the urge to ask him-

“Ne Natsu?”

“Hmm”

“Were you always interested in journalism?”

“Nah! It was just my uncle, I mean our chief after the sudden death off my father I used to live with him, since I was not good at anything he made me join him.”

“I see, but I have noticed that you are a good learner.”

“Huh!”

“I mean when you started working with me, you didn’t even know hoe to handle the camera properly but you were focussed at learning the techniques and now see you are a professional, you put in a bit of effort and you do things perfectly, so I was wondering why such a blessed man had to change departments so frequently?”

He visibly tensed hearing her thoughts and she realised it was bad thing to ask and all her previous thoughts to keep her thoughts to herself was the best thing for them.

“Ah! Let it be, it must be coincidence” she laughed nervously to change the topic but before she could make an attempt he sighed and answered- “It was because of you.”

“What??” she was baffled by his answer, what had she done she kept wondering and he spoke again.

“Before I joined here, I didn’t see the channel nor read the newspaper, but when I joined it first day I say your talk show going on, and all I wanted was to work with you, idk why must be your professionalism I thought, and told uncle the same but he said he knows I am not good at anything, and since the channel and particularly your shows were popular he didn’t want me to be a part of it, so I intentionally did everything so that he would change me from department to department till I got to you.” He smiled widely at her and she was completely speechless, never expecting this to be the reason.

“Hey! Don’t look at me like that.”

“Sorry.”

“Luce?”

“Sorry.”

“Oye! What are you sorry about? Did I just creeped you out? Ha I knew it so didn’t want to let you know but the day when uncle said to change department again, I declined hastily and thought maybe you got to know this too.”

“Huh! This thought never ever crossed my mind.”

“I didn’t want you to know this, still wanted to tell this that you have always interested me Lucy, from day one I liked everything about you and just wanted to know you better.” He looked at her with searching eyes as if her face would answer his silent questions.

“Well I liked you too, and thought whatever I had heard about you were just rumours. I was right and here we are best buddies in the world.” She specified on buddies because it was what he used to call her a lot.

“Yeah buddies.” His voice held a little sarcasm.

“What Is it Natsu?”

“Nah! Nothing let’s go have dinner.” He got up and started for her kitchen but she caught his hand and pulled him back beside him.

“You suddenly seem upset, you can tell me we are best friends.”

“That is the problem Luce, We are best friends. I don’t want this, I want something more, something like… forget it, what I want right now is food.”

This time he rushed to the kitchen.

“Are you trying to ask me out Mr.  Dragneel.”

He freezed on his spot and slowly turned towards her to find her blushing and smirking at him.

“Eh!”

“Well, I always thought that dating was not your cup of tea Natsu, well I was right you can’t even ask a girl out directly.” She interwind her fingers behind her back and walked towards him teasingly.

“And to think the girl you wanted to ask out was me. Ha! I should have known Mr. Oblivious is not so oblivious to the girls around him.”

“stop it Luce.”

“Oh! And from day one wow that was unexpected but expected I am like a fairy .”

“Luceeee”

“You don’t like to loose but it’s a fact the one that falls for the other first is a looser.” And she started to laugh hard.

“ok that’s it”

And he kissed her so fiercely that it took all her breath away and ceasing all her laughter, she never thought his lips would be so soft and her first kiss would so great.

After feeling the need of oxygen they parted, looking each other with hooded eyes,

“I won.” Natsu suddenly said.

“Huh!”

“You are mine now, so I won.”

The word mine kept repeating in her mind and she just nodded blushing profusely.