#turns out it was already considered as completed from my year back in australia.

[cornerihaunt]

god i feel so fucking dumb rn. SOOOOOOOO DUMB

[wizkiddx]

this deleted itself but the req was for an ill reader who likes to try and carry on even if they feeling shit and tom noticing I think?!?

Summary:  you take start to feel a bit shit  at toms family barbecue and get caught out and taken care of

///////////

It should've be lovely, an evening in the rare but much appreciated British summer sun in Dom and Nikki’s garden. Everyone was there; all the Holland boys; both sets of Tom’s grandparents; Haz and his long time girlfriend Lucie. It was a reunion of sorts, although no one had been away working, you’d somehow all timed your individual holidays simultaneously. You and Tom to Australia; Sam and Harry to south-east Asia; Paddy, Dom and Nikki to Sweden. Having all returned in the space of a week, everyone was catching up, involving great British barbecues (which are always a little disappointing) and a fair amount of booze.

You were sat on the garden furniture with Tessa (Tom’s grandma), Nikki and Lucie. Very much a ‘girl power’ meeting if ever there was - which in a family full of boys was often needed just to keep the peace. Everything about the evening was lovely… except perhaps your body. God knows why, because you rarely got ill - having not had a day off work in two years. As much as you’d been trying to push away the slow creeping feeling for a couple of hours - it was now getting impossible to ignore. The slightly unsettled feeling in your stomach had you fidgeting in the wooden chair constantly, trying to ease it by shifting positions... to no avail.

“Y/n… Y/n?” Looking up to see three pairs of beady eyes trained on you, you faked a smile, looking over to Nikki who had been calling your name. “Tess was asking how long the flight back was?” “Oh sorry, was miles away!” You tried to cover, shifting once again, this time pressing a hand to your lower abdomen in the hope that’d distract you as you turned slightly to make eye contact with Tessa. “And I think 11 hours ish.” The girls all pulled a grimacing face in sympathy, to which you chuckled at. “No no honestly cos Tom spoiled me completely so we were in the fancy seats, I honestly was spark out of it the whole time!”

It was enough of a response for the girls to all nod, carrying on the conversation as you, now not the main focus, rubbed your pulsing temple with your other hand - in the hope to relieve some of the building pressure. Clearly, though, you weren’t a subtle as you thought - since Lucie got your attention by bumping your shoulder and leaning in closely. “Come to the loo with me?” It sounded like a question, though it very much wasn’t - the stern look in her eye enough to scare you into agreeing. With a word to Nikki and Tess, you both stood up and made your way to the inside, not stopping until you were locked into the thankfully spacious downstairs loo - the brunette eyeing you intently. “You look like shit.” “Thanks Luc, that’s exactly what I needed to hear right now.” You sighed, sitting on top of the closed lidded loo heavily. “What’s up?” Her tone was harsh and to the point, but secretly there was a look of worry in her eyes. She was one of your best mates but sometimes could also scare you shitless. “I think I’m just tired, it’s my stomach and my head, I’ll be fine.”

Lucie didn't really seem to believe you, but respected your stubbornness and after providing you with two paracetamol capsules from her bag, she let you off - both going back into the garden, where, by now Sam was plating up the slightly charred burgers.

Naturally, you’d sat next to Tom, who had pulled your chairs right next to each other - so that his leg was pressed up against yours, his arm pulled around your shoulder. That was just Tom, away from the prying eyes of the public and media, he really was an affectionate person. He just liked to feel you there. God knows how long you all sat in those same positions, but it was long enough for the sun to set. In fact, you most definitely weren’t the person to ask, because at some point, unbeknownst to you, you’d zoned out. Nobody had noticed, under the cover of the low sunset light, until Tom felt your head briefly fall against his shoulder before it shot up once again - your eyes blinking heavily.

He frowned at the sight, seeing you huddle your arms across your body, which was bizarre due to the unbelievable hot weather in London. Yes, it might have shifted into nighttime, but it was still at least 24 degrees. So as his Dad had the entire table captivated recounting some long and complex tale of his touring days, Tom took the opportunity to squeeze your shoulder - grabbing your attention.

“You alright love?” In response you just hummed, eyes shifting up to him after a little delay - similar to how your reflexes became stunted with alcohol, though Tom suddenly realised you’d barely had more than half the glass of beer he’d poured you when you’d both arrived. “ I’said are you okay?” “Yeh… yeh I’m fine.” You forced a small tight lipped smile, whilst Tom took his arm that was round his shoulder to rest on the crown of your head before slowly stroking down your hair. “Sure? You seem a little out of it?” He pushed, still in a whisper so as not to draw attention to the two of you. “Maybe just tired.” Flat out lying, you shifted back into the backrest of the chair a little more making his hand accidentally land on your forehead rather than your hairline. He didn't move it though, instead sitting and swivelling in his chair, pressing the other side of his hand to the skin as well. “You’re burning up Y/n/n” he spoke a little louder - eyes full of concern as he looked you up and down. “No I’m a bit cold if anythin-“

That was when Nikki, from across the other side of the table got involved. She’d obviously been silently observing the two of you, now feeling the need to send you both home. “Oh, we forgot dessert! Tom, Y/n would you mind helping me bring it out?” Thank god for Nikki, for finding a cover story and stopping everyone's eyes on you. Because for someone dating, three years deep, an A-lister - you hated any sort of attention, even from those closest to you. Especially sympathy, you had absolutely no time at all for that.

Leading you into the kitchen with his arm wrapped tightly around your waist, Tom waited till the door was shut before turning to you.- claiming you were boiling and looked not so great. “I’m just a bit cold if I can borrow one of sam’s jumpers then-“ “Love, please go home.” Nikki interrupted as she wormed past Tom to put her own hand on your forehead too. “You’ve got the chills and you’ve not been normal all day. Am I right or am I right?” She was the worst to argue against. That was completely due to the fact she was always right. With a defeated nod from you, she clicked her tongue, pushing you to sit down on one of the barstools. “Tom go get a jumper from Sam’s room and order a taxi, I would drive but we’ve all been drinking.” “I can just go back by myself T, you don’t get to see your grandparents a lot and -“ “I love you but please please shut up.” Having rounded the back of your chair he pressed his lips to your temples as confirmation before scurrying off to the back of the house.

“You know he doesn’t mind at all? My son never was at my beckon call like he is with you.” There was a little smile teasing the corner of her lips as Nikki placed a glass of water in front of you, as though instructing you to take small sips. “I just feel bad, he’s always telling me how he regrets not spending more time with all of you and… well I’ve had him to myself for the fortnight in South Africa.” “Your just as much a part of the family as me or his grandparents are okay? Now when you get home..”

Nikki switched the tone to then list off all manners of ways that you needed to look after yourself once back, which she then repeated as soon as Tom returned with a black hoodie that you gratefully pulled over your head.

//////////////

By the time you got home, you were feeling so incredibly shit you weren’t even considering keeping up your brave face. Tom had wordlessly led you up the path to your shared home, unlocking the door and telling you to go straight to bed.

Perhaps he was so concerned because in the whole three years together he’d never ever seen you ill. Yes, the odd headache or whatever, as well as the occasional morning after the night before when you’d opted for a ‘tactical chunder’ to try and protect your modesty. But other than that, you were always the one being sympathetic to him. When he was tired, both emotionally and mentally from work; when he hurt his knee and was on forced bed rest for a couple of days ( which turns out to be the hardest time for you too, dealing with the whiny and fidgety boy man).

He came up a couple of minutes later, by which point you’d already pulled joggers on and wrapped yourself as tightly in the duvet as physically possible. If felt so bloody cold your teeth were actually chattering as you curled up into the smallest ball possible. In his hands was a small tray, carrying a steaming mug; a collection of all the different pill packets you kept in the medicine cabinet (as Tom himself had no idea which one was right so decided to use them all); a hot water bottle and what looked like a damp towel, all scrunched up.

No matter how shitty you felt you had a smile at how sweet and doting Tom was being... and as much as you hated the sympathy - if it was always given by a ripped and beautiful brunette with the sharpest jawline you’d ever seen… well just maybe you could get used to it. After snatching the hotwater bottle up immediately, then letting Tom fuss over you in every which way he wanted you gave in, losing the ability to entertain his puppy energy.

“Can we just go to sleep please?” You whined, which Tom nodded to - quickly getting changed and ready before joining you in bed.

As soon as he felt the way the bed was practically vibrating with the chills you were suffering from, he pulled you up into his chest. Now you had both your own personal heater and a hot water bottle to try and warm you up. “You wake me up if you need anything kay?”

Pressing a kiss into the crown of your head, which was nestled between his shoulder and neck. “Promise me ‘kay?” Him needing the reinforcement caused you to arch back up, looking deep into his brown eyes with the warm glow of his bedside table lamp. “You’re too good to me Tommy.” He tutted at that, bringing his hand up to cup your cheek.

“Oh no” He whispered exclaimed, making you immediately ask him what in response. “I think this fever is making you go all delusional love.” You quirked your head, causing him to continue with a cheeky grin. “Well for one, nothing would be too good for you darling and two…. When the hell have you ever called me ‘Tommy’” With him chuckling at his own joke, you rolled your eyes at his cheekiness, firmly planting your head back on his shoulder as if to shut him up. “Alright, I’ll let you off just this once cos your all feverish… get some sleep love.” “Thankyou Tommy.” “Shh love.”

And that’s how you fell asleep, finally finding a bit of warmth in Tom’s arms.

Safe to say he very much didn’t sleep so well. Yes, you felt cold - but Tom was bloody boiling. Still he didn't move because if you were comfortable, his discomfort didn’t matter. It was also a physical impossibility for him to relax until he felt (yes, technically not the most scientific way) your fever coming down. Every five minutes or so he’d gently press the back of his hand to your forehead. This boy was so whipped for you... but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

~~~feedback is really really appreciated~~~~

taglist for tom: @lovehollandy12 @hollandlover19 @thefernandasantana @hunnybunimdun @hallecarey1@cedricdiggorysimpp @msmimimerton @hollandfanficlove @pandaxnienke @crossyourpeter @thegirlwiththeimpala @tom-softie @sunwardsss @spiitfiiires @radcloudenthusiast @ladykxxx08 @prancerrparkerr @wildxwidow @Elishi03 @arctic-monkcys @Ownbauer13 @tomhollandlol @marvelsbitch8

[thetriggeredhappy]

recently rediscovered your blog and read the fic from your dad spy au where scout starts out as the "guard" and then becomes scout from there and lemme tell you that shit put me on some s-tier brainrot. like a cranial decay type beat.

i had a concept in my head that instead of being hired as a guard, he could have been hired as a right hand man to the administrator like pauling, because i think hed be awesome in that position. like imagine having a personal merc who can get in fast and out even faster. but maybe he would stay in the base like the rest of them, sort of like a secret on call intel gatherer, who also maybe sometimes has to dig a couple graves. and also like, nobody on the team expects anything from him at first because its this 20 year old newbie kid. hes dressed in his formal clothes and he talks like somebody from relatively around boston but not quite. i can just imagine one day he comes back during a team dinner with his shirt half untucked and stained with blood, hair disheveled as he asks soldier if he can borrow his shovel, or him debriefing them for a mission when miss pauling is busy. same vibe as the fic i mentioned before but scout gets to have a job as cool as miss paulings. honestly id write it myself if i didnt have the attention span of a fly

anyways your scout content gives me life thank you

scout teamfortress but 20% more competent standing next to miss pauling teamfortress while she's doing her job and doing like silly quips and otherwise contributing nothing like it's a buddy cop film is literally my fucking ideal

(warnings for some canon-typical violence)

-

“Oh, Pauling, it’s good to see you again,” greeted the chairman, smiling in an imitation of a grandfather and clasping her hands perhaps too-kindly considering she barely knew him. “Young as ever, and still so stylish, I see. And who’s the new fellow?”

“He’s just here to help with transport, Mr. Montgomery, nothing unusual,” Miss Pauling replied, returning his smile and adjusting her glasses. “Heavy cases, you know how it is.”

“Of course, I remember you almost toppling clean over last time we made a trade!” Montgomery agreed, frowning at the memory. “You’ll pull a muscle that way, better to be careful. It’s a pleasure to meet you, young man. And your name?”

“Mr. Normandy, sir,” the new kid replied easily enough despite his slight East Coast accent, giving the man a firm handshake, expression neutral and stony, the picture of professionalism. Internally, Pauling breathed a sigh of relief.

“Firm grip there, young man,” Montgomery praised, nodding approvingly. “Tennis player, perhaps? Or golf?”

“Baseball, sir,” he replied, still evenly. “First baseman.”

“Ah! Of course! Were you any good?” Montgomery joked.

“At everything but playing in front of the crowds, otherwise I’d be in the major leagues,” he replied, tilting his head just slightly to imply that he was joking, his sunglasses glinting at the movement, and Montgomery barked a laugh.

“I like this one, Miss Pauling!” Montgomery said, and Pauling just barely caught herself from physically relaxing at it.

“We do too, Mr. Montgomery,” she agreed. “I was under the impression that you’re very busy today, so we won’t keep you for too long, we just wanted to sort out the final details surrounding the manufacturing rights for the—“

“—Pacific Northwest branch, up into British Columbia and Alberta, of course,” Montgomery agreed, nodding faintly. “Of course, of course.” He turned to regard his own man in a dark suit, the one standing to the right, who appeared to be unsuccessfully trying to stare down Normandy, who was completely ignoring him. “My briefcase, please.”

The man handed over the briefcase, and Montgomery put it on his desk, opening it and pulling out a sheaf of papers. “All our requests are submitted and approved, at this point we just had a few dustbins to take care of regarding initial percentages and making sure everything is wired to the correct accounts, which names are undisclosed, things like that,” Pauling explained as he glanced through the papers.

“Right, right, everything looks good here,” the man murmured, nodding to himself, sending his long-white hair just ever-so-slightly out of place. “I’m assuming these more sensitive documents should be sent some way besides through the mail?”

“If you finish them today I can take them with me, otherwise either me or Mr. Normandy can return to pick them up at your convenience,” she replied, to which Normandy gave a singular nod.

“Oh, it would only take me a short while,” Montgomery said, waving a hand. “We have a lovely lounge just down the hall from here if you’d prefer to wait there, it should only take me ten, fifteen minutes at most. In the meantime, I do believe there’s also the manner of payment for services rendered.”

Miss Pauling tilted her head just slightly to one side, confused.

“I arranged with Helen already,” Montgomery explained, not looking up from where he was initialing a few things. “The payment, rather than being wired, she asked to be made in material investment. A venture of mine from years ago that she’s willing to sit on. Rather than gold or bonds, she agreed to take some old currency of mine that my family collected, from early 18th century New Zealand and Australia. Monetarily it’s worth around the same, and I’m quite a bit attached to it to be entirely frank, but it was at her request to buy the whole collection from me, and after years of the work we’ve been doing together, well, I’d never trust it with anyone else.”

He gestured to the other man, the one on his left, who stepped forward to hand him a manila envelope, which he passed to Pauling.

“Inside is both keys, the door alarm codes, and all other security information for the building where the collection is being stored. They’ll ask for a few codes and confirmation of identity, only because several other art collections and artifacts are being stored there by other affluent individuals such as myself.”

“Thank you, Mr. Montgomery,” Pauling said, taking the envelope gratefully.

“Think nothing of it, my dear. Helen talked me into it all her own,” he said easily enough. “Now, gentlemen, if you would let Miss Pauling and Mr. Normandy into our lounge? I should have these wrapped up before any of us can even think about lunch, eh?”

One of the suits showed the two of them through the doors and down the hallway, through two doors bracketed by similar suits who simply nodded politely at Pauling and ticked their chins at Normandy as they passed them.

Normandy posted up beside the door for all of three seconds before they shut and Pauling pulled her glasses up, rubbing at the bridge of her nose and making a vaguely distressed noise. He then promptly relaxed, instead leaning his hip against an armchair probably worth the same amount as a small car. “So, uh, we’re glad that he’s giving us a bunch of commemorative coins from when dinosaurs still walked the earth?” he asked just below normal speaking volume, eyebrows raised.

“Yes. Very glad. Because unlike about six people total on the planet, he hasn’t figured out yet how valuable those are.”

“What, is a picture of a kangaroo on some copper really gonna make up for a couple hundred thousand American dollars?” Normandy asked, sounding doubtful.

“Not copper. Something else,” she replied. “I can’t tell you much more about it other than that, but these coins are made of something priceless to us. And to the Administrator.”

“…Love? Memories? The magic of family?” he joked, cracking a smile, and she rolled her eyes, moving to open the envelope and start reading the papers inside. “Hey, uh, not to question whether my job should exist, but what the hell am I doing here, exactly? Besides carrying a briefcase. Like, chivalry isn’t dead but I really don’t think you need me carrying your bags and holding the door for you.”

“You’re helping with security, basically,” she replied, adjusting her glasses to squint at tiny handwriting about the collection. “Mr. Montgomery is trustworthy, but he mostly hires out to… well, people like us. His security detail is mostly people we’d rather have screened, freelancers, stuff like that. A lot of people we contract out to are like that. Most of them have heard about me and know better than to try and pull something, since I can hold my own pretty well, but if they haven’t, seeing a second person might persuade them to think it over again.”

“Oh, so I’m like, uh, when it says ‘tow zone’ next to the no parking signs even though nobody checks, or when they’ve got a camera in the corner of the store that isn’t even plugged into anything,” he said, and the looked up at him, confused. “Like, uh, what’s the word… I’m a casual deterrent.”

“Sure,” she said, because it sounded like he knew what he was talking about, shuffling the papers back away and closing the envelope again, making a note to ask the Administrator if she should change their current containment procedures to be closer to Mr. Montgomery’s. “Just… if there’s a fight, you deal with it, otherwise you just stand there and look like you’re paying attention.”

“That’s what the sunglasses are for,” he agreed. “I was blinking morse code at the guy across from me literally the whole time.”

“You know morse code?” Pauling asked, surprised.

“Just the alphabet, ‘S.O.S.’, and ‘ass’.”

She rolled her eyes again, and that’s when the door opened.

She expected Mr. Montgomery, not one of the men in suits. “Excuse me, both of you, if you don’t mind,”the man said, accent having the slightest English tilt to it, a Londoner if Pauling had to guess. “You’re Miss Pauling, the Mann Co. affiliate, yes?”

“That’s me,” she agreed, hesitant, and glanced at Normandy.

“I’m afraid there’s been a mistake. Mr. Montgomery have you the wrong envelope on accident,” the man said apologetically, extending a hand forward. “We apologize for this unfortunate mix-up, it’s really quite embarrassing, but those documents are sensitive and we’ll be needing to see them back now.”

Pauling looked at him, and within a moment, shifted her expression. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” she agreed, nodding. “No, right, of course. These aren’t the papers for the currency collection?”

“I’m afraid not,” the Brit agreed, head tilting just slightly, hand still extended, moving a fraction further forward.

“Well, thank goodness we figured out now and not with us halfway back,” she joked, and moved to hold the folder closer to her body. “I’ll take this right back to Mr. Montgomery, then.”

“He’s sent me to correct the error,” the man explained simply.

“Right,” she said, and saw in her periphery that Normandy had already started sneaking a hand in towards his primary, clearly having pieced together something she was only suspecting. “We can bring this to his office, then, right down the hall.”

“You misunderstand,” the man said, taking a step forward again. “I’ll be taking it to his office myself.”

“That’s funny,” Pauling said. “I didn’t realize you had clearance to be in there. Or to be carrying a semi-automatic instead of a standard handgun.”

The Brit reached for the semi-automatic, and before he could even get it out properly, Normandy hit one clean shot to the side of his head and another to his thigh, sending him crumpling to the ground.

Pauling had only as far as pulling her own handgun free, thumb on the safety, and breathed a sigh of relief, glancing over at Normandy, shifting to more comfortably hold her gun. “Quick reflexes,” she noted.

“Just noticed a lot sooner, maybe,” he shrugged, stepping forward to glance over the body, tucking his gun back away.

“What was your hint?”

“He’s here to give us the right folder, yeah? Well, why were his hands empty, then?”

She was just starting to nod and realize that as well when a second man shouldered through the door, holding a gun at the ready. Normandy scrambled to draw his own, but Pauling fired a shot into his knee, shoulder, and neck to send him dropping before he was even close. “There’s quick on the draw, and then there’s prepared,” she said pointedly. “Gotta think of if there’s more than one, new guy.”

He nodded, and drew his gun again, bending to hit the guy on the ground at the temple hard enough to knock him out if he wasn’t unconscious already. He then glanced up at the sound of a shout from the other side of the door, two men shouldering through, guns drawn but lowered. It was only the firm eye contact they made with both her and Normandy that made her pause the millisecond it took to realize these ones weren’t trying to kill them.

“Pauling, what on earth is going on here?!” Montgomery demanded, entering the room and staring with wide eyes at the bodies on the ground. “What could’ve possessed you to—“

“He was trying to run off with these documents,” she explained quickly, gesturing with the envelope. “He knew whatever was in here was valuable.”

“He drew his gun, sir,” Normandy added, tipping his head down towards the body, and Pauling glanced down as well and found herself a little surprised. He’d rearranged the man just slightly, apparently, adjusting the arm to be holding the gun a bit further outward. “Other one was aiming to kill.”

“My, my,” Montgomery tsk’d, shaking his head as he surveyed the scene. “What a mess. My apologies, Miss Pauling, Mr. Normandy.”

“It’s alright, but you need to start doing more thorough checks on your staff, Mr. Montgomery,” Pauling stressed.

“He’s only been here two weeks, sir, he was one of the men we hired in a hurry after the incident last month,” one of the bodyguards said, and Montgomery shook his head.

“Thank goodness nobody was hurt,” he sighed. “Mutiny, and besides that, they’re bleeding on my carpet. Here are those papers, Miss Pauling—what a day, eh?”

“It’s really alright, we handled it,” Pauling assured him, giving her bravest smile, a little exasperated now.

“Right, right, you and the first baseman,” he agreed, and Normandy fought back an actual smile.

“If you’d like, we can take care of those for you,” Pauling said, gesturing at the bodies. “To pay you back for the carpet and the scare.”

“Sounds fair to me,” Montgomery agreed, clearly relieved.

-

“My dad’s gonna be pissed, by the way,” Normandy was so helpful as to say on the way back up the path to the base. “And you’re fielding that.”

“About the suit, or the fight?” she asked, glancing at his clothes where he was somewhat covered in a fine dusting of mud and grime from the gravedigging, shovel still in his free hand.

“Both. Mostly the fight. Your fault for saying it’d be an easy one to start with,” he said.

“If it was going to be that much of a problem, you wouldn’t have gotten this job. I’d just have made you go do dishes all day or something,” Pauling replied.

“Point taken,” he said, walking ahead to get the door, holding it open for her. “Wait, we’re allowed to mention what we do, right? Just not names?”

“Or locations, even with travel distance. Round up to the hour if it comes up,” she replied.

“Sure, sure,” he agreed, trailing a step behind her as she led the way through the base.

In the common area, there was a bit of a ruckus happening. Soldier, Heavy, and Demo appeared to be having some kind of arm wrestling competition on a rapidly-toppling table, the Engineer was on a stepstool trying to fix the ceiling fan, and Sniper appeared to be half-watching the beginnings of an argument between Pyro and the Spy regarding use of the oven as Medic patched up a burn on his arm.

“Hullo,” Sniper greeted the two of them, sounding a little bored, Medic giving them a brief, polite nod. Normandy’s eyebrows were raised pretty far as he surveyed the room.

“Hi, Sniper,” she greeted in return, then cleared her throat, raised her voice. “Team meeting in five minutes! New mission for next week!”

Groans from the room at large, the eight mercenaries starting to finish up what they were doing and filing out. Spy moved over, glancing over Normandy and starting to talk to him in rapid-fire French, picking smaller bits of gravel off of his suit as they walked.

“Alright,” she addressed the room, Normandy peeling off from getting mother hen’d by Spy to stand next to the blackboard with her. “Monday, you’re all going on a transport mission. Getting the truck from point A to point B with everything in the boxes intact. Already we’ve had to put up with some people trying to get ahold of these things, so bring your guns.”

“Oh, our guns, you said? Lads, this is a serious one, keep your heads on a feckin' swivel, she’s sayin’ we might even need guns, can you believe it?” Demo faux-gasped, and chuckled when Spy bopped him on the arm, rolling his eyes at the Scot's theatrics.

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved off, flipping through the papers a bit. “So Engie, I’ll need the keys to the truck, me and Normandy are going to be loading those tomorrow, all of you need to be at this drop point bright and early.”

“How early?” Heavy rumbled.

“Six. Hour and a half of drive from here.”

Some complaints from the room that she sighed at.

“Hey, hey, calm the hell down,” Normandy cut in, and she glanced over at him where he had his arms crossed and a stern look on his face. “You chuckleheads get to have all eight of you to unload the damn thing, me and Miss P gotta do all the rest of this on our own and probably kill twenty guys on the way there and back. She had to be up at 6 AM, workin’ since 7 AM, lunch break at noon and nothin’ else, and we just got back now at, what, fuckin’, 10, 11 PM? Any of you work her shift and then see if you even got the energy to complain about wakin’ up early, how about that?”

The room went utterly devoid of complaint or backsass. “Thank you, Normandy,” she said politely, and he just nodded once, glancing off to the side. “Anyways, anything new on this end? Spy, how are you adjusting?”

“Very well,” he said simply. “I have nothing pressing to say. Once I’ve been updated from the stock weaponry provided here to my requested preferred weaponry, I believe I should do just fine.”

“I see you already have Herr Normandy digging graves,” Medic chimed in. “Straight into the hard labor, ja?”

“Eh, hey, y’know, it’s why they keep us young people around,” he shrugged, grinning, and there was a brief uproar to drown out Medic’s entirely offended scoffing and Spy’s snort-laughing.

“Get ‘im, lad!” Demo cheered, and Normandy indeed looked fairly proud of himself.

“Monday, transport mission,” Pauling noted over the noise, writing it up on the chalkboard to hide her own smile from the room. “Normandy, you and me are doing the boxes tomorrow. Everyone on the same page? Good. Dismissed. Oh, and Pyro—stop taking the fire alarms down when they beep. They’re beeping because you light things on fire in the base. Do that outside.”

“Oh, hey, uh, helmet guy, All-American Beef,” Normandy called, and Soldier straightened up. “Here’s your shovel back. Gettin’ my own tomorrow.”


Soldier walked directly over to him, clasping a hand on his shoulder. “That’s a high honor, Cadet,” he said, tone grave. “Do not take this responsibility lightly.”

“I, uh, I won’t?” he said hesitantly, and blinked a few times as the shovel was carefully taken from him before it was promptly marched from the room in double-time. Only then did Normandy look over at her. “So he’s always like that?”

“You’ll get used to it,” she assured, dusting chalk from her hands. “You should get to sleep soon, we have to be up early.”

“Sure thing, Miss P.”

[peaches-writes]

naturally

description: there’s something about bang chan, even if he’s not some senior crush you’ve pined over from the very beginning or a friend you’ve known forever, that just makes realizing that you’re in love with him as something that feels right member: chan genre: fluff, slice of life, high school au, college au, friends to lovers au, sports au (off season universe), campus dj au (if u squint), slow burn (?), fem reader word count: 12k wtf warning: explicit language, alcohol, a plot that makes zero sense note: idk what this is it’s so messy anw + @skzwriternet​

Chan came in your life quite late—both literally and figuratively.

The two of you were in the 12th grade when you met, at a time when all everyone cared about were getting into their respective dream universities and establishing a solid group of friends to call back once they’re already on their separate ways. He got stuck in traffic that day and wasn’t allowed entry past the school gates at first because he didn’t get his uniform on time while you and your group of friends were on time in class, completely unexpecting of a new addition to the group as you all worried about the upcoming entrance exams.

“Oh, look at that, new kid.” Minho nudged your elbow and whispered loudly close to you that day, gesturing to the spaces between the curtains of the window facing the hallway. Outside, Chan was being ushered to the faculty room at the other end of the hall by a teacher, head hung low in embarrassment that he stood out with his black hoodie and sweatpants. “And no uniform on the first day—I feel like we should adopt him!”

You didn’t pay much attention to it at first, shrugging before returning to your messy Homeroom notes. An election was to be held at the end of the week and maybe, just maybe, you were thinking about it. “A bit risky, don’t you think? Right before the exams.” You mused out loud, more to the classroom elections than to the transferee.

“Do you think we’ll get him?” Minho asked anyway despite the lack of interest in your tone, leaning on your side of the shared table with a propped up elbow. “Or will Dahyun and Bam’s class next door?”

The answer was given to Minho over five minutes later, when the gentle sound of your Homeroom adviser’s voice was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Excuse me, good morning, Ms. Park!” The faculty head, Mrs. Liu, peered in your room that day with Chan trailing behind with curious eyes. “I’m so sorry for the interruption but your transfer student is now here!”

In front of the classroom, Ms. Park welcomed Chan with a smile and clasped hands. “Ah yes, Bang Chan, finally! Come on in!”

Chan introduced himself in awkward giggles and a slight miscalculated step when he didn’t immediately see the elevated area separating the black board and the first row of desks. “Hi, I’m eighteen-year-old student Bang Chan and I moved here from Sydney, Australia! Please take care of me!” You remembered him introducing himself at Ms. Park’s request before being seated right next to Hansol on the other end of the fourth row.

Minho, who eyed the boy curiously the entire time, sat up properly after and told you, “I’m gonna ambush him at recess. You wanna come with?”

You knew even then that you didn’t have to answer the question because as the bell rang for recess time, Minho had dragged you over to Hansol and Chan’s table as soon as he saw you pick up your wallet.

“Hi, I’m Minho and this is Y/N and we’re about to kidnap you!” Minho exclaimed as the two of you approached the unexpecting boy, earning you wide eyes from him. “If you want to, of course. Y/N’s gonna be class president again by Friday and I’m gonna be fighting Moonbin to the death for basketball captain so we’re clearly overqualified to show you around.”

You remember Hansol toppling over in laughter while you turned away in embarrassment. Not that it was uncommon for the most nonsense things to come out of Minho’s mouth then—in fact, it was quite the opposite.

Fortunately, Chan was easily persuaded. “Uh...sure, why not?” He grinned with relief, pushing his chair away from his desk and picking up his own wallet before following you and Minho downstairs to the cafeteria.

You ended up helping him buy snacks from the cafeteria and showing him around what you deemed as the most important areas of the campus within the thirty-minute recess. Because of the short time, he met your other friends belatedly at lunch.

Chan came in your life quite late—both literally and figuratively—but you suppose it’s not that bad because you’ve been friends ever since.

Minho was ‘disappointed but not surprised’ when Chan tried out for the swim team instead of his basketball team—his words not yours.

Club Week was not actually a week but a week and a half, giving everyone time to either succeed or fail in the clubs they signed up for and move on to the next. Since you were elected Class President, you decided on sticking only to what you considered your most important clubs for senior year: Volleyball and the school paper. Minho, on the other hand, unfortunately lost his ‘fight to the death’ with Moonbin over the team captain title but he kept insisting that it was because he really was fated to be the cheer dance team’s captain instead.

“At least, it’s one less sweaty kid I have to worry about.” You jokingly assured Minho once Club Week was over. You and your group of friends were huddled on your usual table that lunch break, comparing training and review center schedules.

“Ya, what does that mean?”

“It means you’re in two sports clubs and you never shower after any one of them!” Dahyun points out for you across the table, earning her ‘ooh’s and high-fives from everyone. “You should be embarrassed, Mingyu’s on three teams and he literally showers on Febreze.”

“But I do shower, just not as religiously as everyone.” 

“Why not?” 

“Climate change!” 

You turned to Chan amidst the playful chaos, shaking your head in feigned disapproval. “Sorry, they’re five.”

The boy only chuckled. “It’s okay.”

“I’m glad you joined the school paper too, by the way.” You made sure to add, hinting that you saw him at your club assembly the week prior despite the large turn-out of people. “I heard from Jihyo at our last council meeting. Broadcasting, right?”

“Yep,” He nodded with pursed lips and an eye smile. “so you guys will hear me DJ for the rest of the year too.”

“Can’t wait.”

Chan’s first gig as the school radio’s DJ was the Friday that followed, in the middle of your student council meeting. He sounded nervous at first, which made you, Jihyo, and Seungkwan laugh while you were presenting your batch’s initiatives for the whole school year, but he made it out alive—and even included a shout out for you.

“Also, shoutout to Y/N! Thank you for showing me the ropes this month.” His voice echoed faintly through the hallways at lunch break. A pause then followed, what you assumed was Changbin and Jisung scolding him, before he snickered and said, “I guess Minho and Hansol, too! See you tomorrow, you guys!”

Ever since the 7th grade, you’ve made sure to follow each and every one of your closest friends’ extracurricular activies. From Dahyun’s and Jihyo’s recitals to Bam Bam’s and Minho’s competitions and meets, you were always there: half as a volunteer for the school paper and the other half as a cheering friend. It’s your way of looking out for your friends, by standing in the sidelines for support. 

So naturally, with the addition of Chan to your friend group, you always came to his swim meets with a camera, a write-up outline, and a tarpaulin you’re quite sure Minho and Bam Bam didn’t make while sober the night before.

“Like the slogan, dolphin boy?” Bam Bam snickered at Chan as he sat on his designated waiting area right in front of your bleacher. It was the final tournament for the semester and your two other friends have decided on a lazy ‘Let’s go Dolphin Boy!’ decorated in glitters and a Photoshopped photo of Chan’s head in a dolphin. “When are you going on?”

Chan turned to your group and immediately slapped a hand to his face in embarrassment. “Oh my God...”

“To set the record straight, Jihyo and I were studying together last night and Dahyun was at piano lessons.” You held your hands up in self-defense to an eyeroll from Minho. “The poster’s all on Bam and Minho.”

“I know.” Chan mumbled behind his hand, removing it slowly after. “I’m on in five minutes. And what happens when I do get a place on the stands?”

“Then we’ll stand up and wave this harder!” Minho answered this time, aggressively waving the cartolina and causing a few glitters to scatter on your jeans.

“Minho!”

Chan competed in 1500 m I.M. and all the butterfly relays on that day and only then did you notice that he liked competing in them more than the other categories. You took photos and noted the important details with Bam Bam’s agile typing on your phone throughout the event, up until Chan received his mostly gold medals—when Bam Bam and Minho did kept to their word and ambushed the poor boy by throwing the slogan over his head when he asked for a group photo with everyone.

“This is like the Avengers of extended friend groups!” Dahyun joked once the chaos has died down and you’ve managed to get everyone to prepare for a couple of group photos. “Now I’m even more excited for dinner!”

A couple of Chan’s childhood friends also came that day—Younghyun, Somi, Sana, Lisa, and Matthew whom you befriended after over dinner that was Chan’s treat. It looked more like a weird family reunion to you than what Dahyun thought but you laughed anyway as you adjusted your camera settings.

“Okay, you guys ready?” You asked the group once everyone’s settled down, arms slung over each other and bright smiles ready to be taken for Instagram updates. “One, two—“

At the center of the photo, with a big bouquet of roses and several medals, Chan suddenly shifted in his position under Matthew’s and Younghyun’s arms and asked you, “Wait, wait, wait...Y/N aren’t you joining?”

You shook your head, making everyone erupt in protest. “Ya, then who’s gonna take the photo?”

Minho doesn’t exaggerate it one bit whenever he recalls this that Chan literally bolted out of the group to pull in his nearest teammate to take the photo, quickly tugging you to him afterwards and positioning you right in front of him once the group photos were taken. You ended up with his arms and his bouquet draped over you in all of the photos.

With the college entrance exams fast approaching over a month later, you found yourself juggling your academics, cram school, Volleyball training, student council, and the school paper all at once. It was manageable at times, with the help of your teammates and clubmates, but of course there would be days when you would almost fall asleep on the spot at Saturday cram school, in particular.

Chan was no better as he balanced academics and cram school with his own swim training, the school radio, and preparing a portfolio for his talent exams at the Departments of Music for every university he applied to.

Fortunately, you both went to the same cram school with everyone else. Seated next to each other, you bought Chan coffee while he passed you candies and chocolate he would get from his mom through the mail.

“You, uh...” Chan nudged your knuckles with his softly one time, alternating his gaze between your open notes and the formulas being discussed on the white board two rows ahead. “The answer’s 2.”

“Hm?” You hummed tiredly, free hand supporting your cheek as you tried so hard to pay attention and follow along. The day prior was meetings upon meetings that lasted until 8:30 PM, pushing all of your time allotted for homework to midnight since you had to take the bus home. To say you were so tempted to fall asleep then was an understatement.

Knowing this, you saw Chan take the liberty of writing the correct answer on your notes through your half-lidded eyes, poking your knuckles with the end of his mechanical pencil after. “You have the whole solution down but the final answer is 2, silly.” He chuckled softly, discreetly passing you another gummy bear from under the table. “Do you even know what you’ve been writing?”

You nodded even though your brain was barely processing anything, receiving the gummy bear after. “I think so?” You mused out loud, making him laugh. 

“We’ll just have to go through this again later. You should’ve stayed at home and rested if you’re so tired.”

You found out later, when you were much awake to have lunch at a nearby cafe with Chan, that the boy took down the notes for you in a fashion similar to your note-taking technique for you to copy—and that he drew a small dinosaur on the margins of your notebook with a text bubble that said, “You can do it!”

Chan has made it a habit to bring you an extra thermos of coffee and drew little animals on your notebook whenever the two of you were bored ever since.

You showed up at Chan’s doorstep on his first Christmas Day in Korea, not really expecting to see his mom with his aunt on the other side of the door.

“Hi.” Chan mustered up a rather confused smile, growing even bigger and less shy right in front of you the longer he gazed at your own wide eyes and long travel coat. “Y/N, hi.”

“I thought you were—“ You unconsciously gestured to his extended family running around the hallways behind him, furrowing your brows. “Hi, um, should I just—should I just go?”

Chan furrowed his brows, instinctively pulling you closer to the doorway by your arm once he noticed the snow falling harder behind you. “What? Why?” He asked at the sudden proximity. “What’s up?”

His unintentionally blunt tone with the question definitely had you caught off-guard and flustered. “O-Oh, I just thought—I thought you wouldn’t be with your parents and siblings for Christmas so I came over.” You cringed internally at your truthful but rather cheesy answer. “Everyone’s skating at the mall today and I thought of inviting you because I assumed that you’d be lonely here with just your uncle and auntie...”

Another smile, an amused one, settled on his lips as you talked. “Really?” He mused out loud to which you nodded absentmindedly at. “We could go right now, if you want. My mom would probably tell me to bring Hannah and Lucas along, though, if that’s okay.”

Your eyes widened for the second time that afternoon. “W-We can, yeah.” You nodded slowly to both questions, breaking into your own smile.

“Okay, come on in first, then, it’s cold out.” Chan then took you by the same hand inside, closing the door behind him and leading you to the shoe rack for your boots. “My mom’s been looking for you and everyone else since they landed here too! You should be able to stop her from fussing over dinner so much.”

You met Chan’s parents and siblings that day, almost getting stuck in his aunt and uncle’s house because of his mom’s excitement at meeting one of her son’s friends in Korea until Chan smoothly brought up your offer of going to the skating rink with his siblings. You eventually left the house with him and his younger siblings right before Minho could text you that you were taking too long.

“You do know how to skate, right, Chan?” Minho asked when you arrived. He sat between you and the boy in question to rest his feet from racing with Dahyun, removing his skates and stretching his legs forward. “Y/N and Jihyo suck at explaining things she’s already good at and Bam Bam’s a deer walking for the first time so the choices for teacher aren’t really looking so well for you right now.”

When you looked over at him from Minho’s shoulder, he simply shrugged. “Shouldn’t be that hard. It’s just ice and blades, right?”

But it ended up being very much so, at least for him as he ended up reaching for yours and Jihyo’s hands before you could even run off to join Minho and Dahyun on their race. “Okay, okay, I was wrong!” He exclaimed dramatically, gloved hand meeting your own when Jihyo jokingly moved her hand away. “I’m going to fall over!”

“You’re doing fine.” You rolled your eyes in feigned exasperation, holding his hand anyway as you slowed your pace. His siblings then passed by the two of you, giggling over their eldest brother tripping on ice. "Look, even your siblings are doing fine and you came from the same place as those two.” 

“Chan, you’re being dramatic.” Jihyo added to tease him further, gracefully sliding away from the two of you. “‘It’s just ice and blades, right?’ You’ll get used to it!” 

Then, as if for unintentional emphasis, Chan almost tripped at this and instinctively held your hand tighter. “I really am going to fall if I let go.” He pouted, linking your arms together instead. “Can’t you really teach me?”

You unlink your arms, catching his hand again. “Fine, I’ll try but don’t cling to me too much.” You pointed out, laughing when he interlocks your fingers together. “You swim in deep ass Olympic pools back and forth like it’s nothing, ice shouldn’t be that scary to you, you know.” 

With that, you spent the rest of the afternoon teaching Chan how to balance himself on his skates (and getting him out of Minho and Dahyun’s way as the two circled the rink like two roller derby players). He perfected his balance at the end of the day but he still wouldn’t let go of your hand so naturally, you came back next year. 

And next year eventually turned into an annual tradition between the two of you. 

The exam results then came in the middle of your final Volleyball game which was probably not good for your adrenaline levels but everyone found it amusing.

Your team was leading in the final set, 23-22, and you could tell as you delivered volley after volley that your opponent was already losing hope. On the sidelines of the open gymnasium, Bam Bam and Minho held up the ugliest orange cartolina ever with ‘HAIKYUU THAT SHIT Y/N!’ in mismatched marker colors while Jihyo, Dahyun, Chan, Hansol, and Seungkwan screamed their lungs out for your team.

You’re quite certain the cartolina got confiscated by your coach after for inappropriate language, you’re not quite sure even at present because you never saw it again, especially when it was dropped to the ground the moment everyone’s phones started ringing because of an e-mail from school.

You noticed it from the sidelines, even as you and another teammate delivered the final volley that lead to your victory. Chan held your phone with a bright smile on his face, directing it to you after as you and your team huddled for a group hug and greeted the opposite team for the last time.

“Congratulations!” He greeted you as soon as you’ve celebrated enough with your teammates, waving your phone in front of you as he approached with everyone jumping not far behind him. “On both!”

“Both what?”

Before Chan could even answer you properly, you were engulfed in a big hug by Jihyo, Seungkwan, and Dahyun. “You did it!” They exclaimed in unison. “You passed all of the uni’s you applied to! We all did!”

Immediately, your widened eyes and agape mouth sought Chan for confirmation, to which he simply nodded with a laugh and a thumbs up. “No way...” You muttered in disbelief, gaining feeling back in your frozen legs after to jump along with everyone in your group hug. “No shit, no way! Congratulations, guys!”

“Congrats to you too, dude! You won twice today!” Jihyo pointed out, making everyone laugh. “We’re still on for BBQ, right?”

“Well, I can’t be the only one paying now since we all passed the exam!”

You got hugs from the others as well (and an extra one with a high-five from Seungkwan because he was just so hyped about your volleyball game), receiving from Chan last since he wanted a photo with you after.

“We could do a group photo, you know.” You tried suggesting as you held your Finals tournament trophy in between the two of you. Hansol has both of your phones side by side in front of him, adjusting the settings a little before taking the photo.

“We could but that’s for later. I need a new contact photo for you!” Chan insisted. Before you could comment on his ridiculous excuse, however, Hansol was already taking photos of the two of you.

Chan did set a photo of you from that day as your contact photo—specifically the one where you were pretending to dump invisible water from the trophy over him. It’s ridiculous and it still makes everyone laugh whenever Chan’s phone lights up with this photo.

Graduation celebrations naturally came after, as soon as Spring Break was over. Bam Bam threw a house party for your batch that was anything but sober and civil, the clubs each had send-off parties, and the student council planned a Graduation Ball which was mostly just yours, Jihyo’s, and Seungkwan’s excuse to dress semi-fancy and have Chan invite Younghyun to invite his band, Day6, to perform a whole set of their new songs.

You came with your friend group, or at least you and Jihyo convinced yourselves that you did since no one bothered to look for dates. It had been your finals before the Saturday of the graduation ball and, on top of that, the two of you were busy ‘student council-ing’ as Minho worded it, organizing the event with the school faculty and a few parents.

You did dance with everyone by the end of the night too, Minho pulling you along by the hand in a group hug as you yelled out the lyrics to Days Gone By—one of the last songs of the evening. “Finally you can join us!” He exclaimed dramatically, pressing a kiss on top of your head as he slung an arm over your shoulder. He didn’t actually need to worry about spending time with you since you’re all staying in the hotel for the night anyway. “Loosen up, will you?!”

On your other side, you could only hear Chan laugh as Bam Bam proceeded into the center of your big circle to dance, challenging an unexpecting Yugyeom nearby after. He stole glances over to you occasionally, a fond smile on his lips whenever you’d catch him in the act. He actually wanted to ask you to dance but decided against it last minute, growing too shy at noticing that the crowds are mostly dancing in friend groups rather than pairs until it was ultimately time to retreat into your hotel rooms.

“Goodnight and happy graduation, Seoul High!”

Fortunately, however, Chan made up for this by waiting on you after the dance. You stayed behind with Jihyo and Seungkwan for an hour more once the students have either gone back to their hotel rooms or migrated to the hotel lobby to wait for their rides home; Chan was more than happy to lend an extra helping hand as you thanked the staff and made sure that the packing up was done orderly.

“You did well tonight,” He complimented you sheepishly as the two of you carefully packed up the stage’s sound equipment. The microphone he was trying to remove from the stands was still on then, making his voice echo faintly through the hall. “organizing the event and all.”

Your face heated up against the now softer stage lights as you moved the guitar and music stands from the center to the side where a staff member was waiting for you. “T-Thanks, Chan. Did you have fun?”

He simply nodded this time with a sheepish giggle, passing you the microphones after making sure they were properly turned off.

After this, Chan politely walked you and Jihyo back to your shared room with Dahyun just two floors above the one all the boys in your class reserved for themselves

“Night, Chan! Make sure you’re not being too loud with the boys downstairs, okay?” Jihyo bid him goodbye quickly with a small yawn and a mischievous smile as she opened the heavy door to your room with ease. “I’m pretty sure Bam brought that wireless microphone with him again—and it’s probably Mingyu or Seokmin’s idea again.”

“Don’t worry we won’t, I’ll make sure.” Chan nodded sheepishly before waving goodbye to her. Once she’s inside, he then turned to you and said, “Goodnight, Y/N.”

You nodded slowly at him, a little hesitant. When he raised his eyebrows at this, you then suggested, “Um...I know this is sudden and it’s like 1 AM but you don’t happen to be in the mood for McDonald’s, right?”

“Seriously? At this time?” 

“I’ll buy you an iced coffee if you want.” 

So you ended up at the McDonald’s two blocks from the hotel where your graduation ball was held, wrinkled dress suits and all. You talked for what seemed like an hour more, played with the Powerpuff Girls happy meal toy he bought on a whim, and got scolded through calls and text from your friends because you didn’t invite them. Since this day, the two of you have been buying each other’s coffee from McDonald’s.

Bam Bam and Minho both moved further West in the city, the latter sharing his uncle’s old apartment with another friend of his, while Jihyo dorms with Mina, another friend of yours from another school, up North. Besides these, no one made a drastic change to move houses or dormitories from the area your parents considered near since everyone else attended universities relatively near. At university, especially on your first year, you, Chan, and Dahyun mostly stuck with each other; just now with the addition of Lisa who ended up attending the same university and Jacob whom Chan befriended in his classes.

Sometime towards the end of your first semester, when Bam Bam and Minho skipped school to crash one of your semi-finals Volleyball game, your now larger group of friends decided that Chan would ‘take one for the team’ and get a driver’s license for all of your travelling needs. He lost against Jacob and Dahyun of all people in the most intense game of rock-paper-scissors you’ve ever seen. 

Because of this, for the two weeks leading up to finals week, you ended up risking your life accompanying Chan to practice in his aunt’s old SUV. During this time period, he either took you to and from university as well or from your neighborhood to the bar and grill you started frequenting with him and the rest of your friend group. It’s not that he’s bad at driving, his parking skills were just initially a cause of worry for you whenever he was driving in crowded places. 

“Am I close?” Chan asked you on your first day of finals, leaning over your side of the car to check the side mirror. You had your reviewers for your Communications class glued to your face throughout the entire twenty-minute ride but that didn’t stop you from simultaneously being anxious of hitting someone else’s car right in front of your college building. “Can you check?” 

You opened the window and briefly peeked your head out, turning to Chan after and almost jumping at how close he’s gotten. “It doesn’t even look like you tried.” You laughed through your immediate flustered expression, making him lean back in frustration as he prepares to move the car again. “How long have we been here? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” 

Chan pouted, keeping a hand on your head rest as he now carefully re-attempts to parallel park. “Just five minutes.” He mumbles, alternating his gaze quickly between the front and back of the car. “So that means you’ve been studying well this entire time.” 

“Your driving is already good I could even sleep in, it’s just the parking that’s worrying.” You pointed out teasingly, leaning on his hand to glance back at the situation behind you and poking on his new arm bands. “Speaking of, you do know that you don’t even have to park, right? It’s not like you’re going to wait for me.” 

“But I’ll wait for you.” Your eyes met belatedly as Chan finally parks the car. “It’s just 30 minutes, right?” 

“It’s two hours, Chan...” You quirked a brow. “Didn’t I text you that?”  

“Really? Ah, well...I’ll just...” Chan chuckled sheepishly, clearly realizing his mistake at the last minute. “I can totally just hang around, I guess.” 

But the problem was, Dahyun didn’t have class that day, Lisa was organizing a club party, and Jacob was in his own volleyball training. Chan ended up loitering around the swim team for a while and impulsively buying you lunch because he didn’t want to waste gas. 

You bought him lunch when he passed his driver’s license in return. 

“You probably need glasses now.” You pointed out to him as you happily ate your Burger King inside his car. The nearest branch to the driving school he attended had a relatively big parking lot, making the two of you sigh in relief that he didn’t have to parallel park this time. “I’m pretty sure I texted you that my exam was from 10 to 12.” 

Next to you, Chan had his seat reclined and the windows fully open as he sipped on his Cola and munched on fries. “No, I checked it again the other day and you texted 10 to 11.” 

“What?!” When you do check your phones, only then do you find out that you did mistakenly text him 10 to 11 instead of 10 to 12. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry! Should I buy you another burger?”

Chan simply shook his head and snatched the ice cream cup you’ve been saving. “I’ll just take this, thank you!” 

“Ya!” 

The first time the driver’s license actually came in handy was on your first volleyball game as a university student. Chan went on a round trip around the major universities in Seoul to pick up all of your friends which almost caused you to be late to the game but you could barely care then—you were too pumped over the idea of all of your friends coming together to watch you.

Besides, Chan volunteered to be a courtside reporter for the game so you weren’t scolded by your coach alone.

“Good luck out there!” Chan nudged your side with a wink as the two of you prepared to enter the arena with your team. He made sure that he had his microphone off twice this time. “I’d really love to interview you when you win.”

“When have I ever lost in front of you, hm?” You teased with a grin of your own, just as the backstage doors opened to the cheers and drums of your university. 

And, true to your word, you win the game a little over an hour and a half later. With a small trophy passed around from your teammates and the promise of a day-off from your coach, Chan was the first of your friends to approach you.

“And here we also have SNU women’s volleyball team newest recruits, Y/N and Chaeyeon!” Chan introduced you and your teammate in front of the cameras. In the distance, you could see your friends then: Jihyo, Dahyun, Mina, and Lisa holding balloons in the color of your university, Bam Bam and Minho holding their usual embarrassing slogan, and Jacob jumping up and down excitedly over your game’s turn-out. “This is your first game and first win of the season, congrats! How does it feel, you two?”

Your eyes met Chaeyeon’s instinctively to your right, making the two of you giggle shyly. After a mini game of passing the microphones between each other, you eventually ended up answering, “Um, we’re very grateful that our first game gave us our first win as new members as well and we hope that we’ll continue doing even better in the semi-finals!”

“Yes! Everyone’s hoping so too, especially after watching your play today!” Chan commented, clearly going off-topic then by the way you noticed how his mini crew of fellow students looked surprise and even checked their own cue cards.

Once the interviews were over, you were then whisked away by Minho and Jacob—the former to catch up with you while the latter was so excited talking to you about your game.

“Dude you were so good out there! Like that serve on the first set that really riled up the opposing team’s captain? And and that over the net move you did with Chaeyeon! We should have a practice game sometime!” Jacob always talked a million times per second over things that excited him but you didn’t mind, at least now Minho had someone to compete with over who could say the weirder thing.

The interaction placed a rather childish pout on Chan throughout the ride to your promised Korean BBQ dinner, no one but Lisa paid it too much mind.

“Stop pouting you look ugly.” She said to the poor boy with a feigned judgmental face, switching seats with you earlier for the ride to dinner so you can discuss volleyball with Jihyo and Jacob. “Why are you even pouting? Something on your mind?”

“Nothing.” Chan only furrowed his brows and frowned, glancing over to you on the rear view mirror to see you laughing along to a video Minho was showing everyone on his phone.

it’s not Minho that bothered him, everyone with eyes and a braincell have always known that he’s in love with his current roommate.

Jacob, though...you play the same sport and are both equally passionate over it! It definitely made Chan think.

“Nothing looks like she’s having fun, huh?” Lisa mumbled under her breath in response after a moment, breaking out into a laugh when Chan finally glances over at her with a confused look. “Nothing!”

Lisa made sure you sat next to Chan after, dragging Minho and Jacob by the ears to the other side of the table.

On your second year, your favorite junior from your previous school finally entered college. Seungmin was also on the student council, school paper, as well as in the high school baseball team who often practiced with your volleyball team so you basically considered him your ‘child,’ much to his annoyance. Though he attended a university that was nearer to Bam Bam’s and Minho’s, you pestered Chan into driving you almost once a month to his dorm to visit, anyway. 

Chan would’ve said no every time given his own busy schedule but you promised him every time that Felix, a friend of Seungmin’s who happened to come from Australia as well, and Jeongin, another junior you unofficially ‘adopted’ in high school, would also be there. 

“Chan, I need to go to Seungmin’s, it’s an emergency.” You greeted Chan one day right after your afternoon classes. You found him in the library, studying for second semester midterms with Lisa and Jacob which did made you feel bad but you really couldn’t wait for the next bus anymore.

“What kind of emergency?” Lisa asked, prompting you to shake your head. 

“The kids said it’s very bad...” You continued shaking your head frantically and that was enough for Chan to pack up his things and lead you outside to his car. 

When the two of you arrived at Seungmin and Jeongin’s shared dorm, Chan was more than confused at seeing the former sprawled out on the common area carpet with his arms folded over his chest like a vampire while the latter and Jeongin hovered over him with worried looks and mini fans. 

“Is Seungmin dying?” Chan asked you with genuine worry as you approached, which would’ve made you laugh with the choice of words had you not just been vaguely called on short notice to deal with the situation. 

You didn’t get to answer him at first as your first instinct was to sit down next to Seungmin and ask Felix, “We came here as fast as we could. What’s wrong?” 

In front of you, Seungmin groaned in pain and rolled over on his stomach, hiding his reddening cheeks from you. “Y/N, why are you here?” He whined, bringing his arms up to his head to hide his face further. “Did these two call you?”

“Yeah they did.” You answered firmly, rolling the boy on his back again that prompted more complaints from him. “Now, what’s wrong? School? Sports? Friends? Are you okay?”

It took a moment for Seungmin to remove his arms over his face and answer you and it undeniably made you and Chan nervous. When he did answered, it was what you least expected from him as he said, “Y/N, I think I have a crush...” 

A pause then followed as everyone simply stared back at Seungmin who immediately hid in his hoodie once again. 

“Oh for the love of God, Kim Seungmin! Are you kidding me right now?! I came all the way here for this?” You smacked him in the arm once you’ve recovered, finally breaking out into laughs as the other boys toppled over in laughter. Turning to Jeongin and Felix, you then asked, “So why did you call me? You could’ve called Minho, he literally lives three blocks away.” 

Felix and Jeongin glanced over at each other and shrugged. “He said he’s having love problems,” Jeongin pointed to Seungmin innocently before turning to you. “So I thought of calling you. Aren’t you and Chan a thing?” 

This time, it was you and Chan looking at each other and laughing. “No, no, we’re not a thing.” He clarified for you with a dismissive wave. “Y/N’s married in a poly relationship with academics and extracurriculars.”

“And Chan’s secretly a merman so it’s a hard pass.” You finished his thought jokingly, looking over at Seungmin after. 

“You guys, I’m still in a situation here!” Seungmin frowned, lifting his head up to place on your lap. “I’m fucked, basically.”

“Well, since we came all the way here and gas is expensive, do you want to talk about it? Lix and I can cook dinner.”  

With that (and a few more words to get Seungmin off of the floor), you managed to drag the lovestruck boy into the kitchen and cooked him tonkatsu with Felix and Jeongin on your tail. Chan kept him company the entire time, peering over his shoulder as he narrated the story of a certain figure skater he met at his Freshman welcome assembly. “We’ve been friends for a while and I really like them but they’re always getting into trouble!” Seungmin mostly rambled, making you, Jeongin, and Felix snicker with your backs turned.

“All the more reasons to see them often, then?” You suggested, much to Seungmin’s annoyance.

“Won’t I be too obvious? Or too doting? Maybe they don’t like that as much since they’re so independent. Agh, what do I do?!”

“Play it cool like you always do, kid.” You answered simply, patting his head affectionately as you passed by his spot to retrieve a basket of condiments “What do you think, Chan?”

You clearly caught him off-guard then by the way his eyes slowly widened and he instinctively sat up straight. “O-Oh, u-um—yeah, what you said...” He eventually agreed with a nonchalant shrug to cover up his shaky actions. “Don’t overthink it or else nothing happens.”

You re-joined Jeongin and Felix across the kitchenette with a chuckle, nudging Jeongin with your elbow after. “You kids are growing up! Ah, but it still kinda feels like yesterday when you two were just messing around back in high school.”

“We’re a year below you, what are you talking about?” Jeongin pouted, eyes not leaving the side dishes he was preparing. When you don’t tease him further about it with another side comment, he then adds, “Sorry for assuming you and Chan were dating by the way. That wasn’t weird, right?”

You shook your head reassuringly. “No, it’s cool! I’m just curious where you’d get that from.”

“Minho said—“ And that was enough for you to give your aforementioned friend an earful the next time you saw him after.

“So, Chan’s not dating?” Felix asked next to which you nodded at. “Oh, cool!”

“Why? Do you have someone for him?”

Though Felix didn’t say anything more specific after that, Chan was then coerced into a friendly blind date to the movies a week after, you heard it at his new sideline podcast with Changbin and Jisung of all places.

“I—“ Seungmin’s first reaction was to clasp his hands together while the two of you were listening to the podcast episode in YouTube. “I spill out my heart to you guys and over tonkatsu then I find out that this happened right under my nose that night?”

It was a month since his dramatic confession and a little over two weeks since Chan went on the blind date and you’ve been taking the bus with Dahyun to visit the kids ever since. Chan thought he did something wrong but you’ve assured him multiple times that you’re just trying to be considerate of him since he now has an additional person on his plate.

Dahyun also wanted to visit Jihyo and Mina so you decided on commuting with her in particular.

“Ah, well, that’s life—or college...or maybe both.” You shrugged. You often studied in their dorm living room to pass the time if Minho wasn’t up for being bothered with in his apartment—you found out throughout this that studying with a Legal Management major like Seungmin motivates you to go through your rigorous readings. “How’s your crush by the way? Any progress?”

“They want to try speed skating! Do you know how dangerous that is? Not to mention, the legality of it all...”

“This person seems like they get you up on your toes. I like it! Makes things a bit more exciting, don’t you think?”

“It just makes my head hurt.” Seungmin sighed, rubbing his temples dramatically for emphasis. “I can’t help but worry...”

“I think you’re sweet looking out for them like this.” You assured. “But it’s not sports if you don’t get hurt and we both know that.” 

“Then what do I do?” 

“Just look out for them. I’m pretty sure they’re not all that clumsy as you make them out to be—you said they’re an athlete, right?—but it’s still important to be there for support and help when they really need it.” You half-shrugged, not really knowing what else to say. “But not just as someone who has a crush. Be a friend first and foremost—I mean, obviously, since you’re not dating, you’re just friends, hopefully for now. Yeah, that’s it! Don’t overthink it, you’re friends not married!” 

A thought then seemed to pass Seungmin as a small smile formed on his lips. He then pulled his knees close to his chest and leaned back on the sofa behind him. “So, is that how you are with Chan?” 

“What?!” 

“I mean he’s sort of dating right now but don’t you have a crush on him?” The younger boy asked in genuine curiosity. “Honestly, I was surprised that you let him go on that blind date with the Soyeon girl Felix recommended, much less a second date this weekend.” 

“No—I mean no, I don’t have a crush on him.” You refused calmly though your voice clearly shook a little but not for the reason Seungmin thought it was. “We’re just friends. You’re going off-topic!” 

Seungmin’s eyes lit up in interest. “Well, I thought about it so we’re talking about it now! Have you seriously never thought about it?”

“No, but I am now because you brought it up!” You shook your head back truthfully before smacking his arm with your reviewers, making him pout and wince at you. “Don’t do that! You’re like—you’re trying to brainwash me into having feelings or something!”

Seungmin instinctively held his hands up, filled with his own lecture notes, and shook his head at the accusation. “No I’m not!” He pouted at you to no avail. “I’m just saying that I’ve always thought there was something, with how you two are so close.”

“You and I are close, Minho and I are close,” You argued back with a small pout, crossing your arms. “Heck, Bam Bam and I are close and we grew up together since the 4th grade.” 

Again, the boy shook his head stubbornly. “Yeah, we’re all different kinds of close, especially Chan,” He claimed with so much conviction. “You look out for me, Minho, and Bam Bam but Chan looks out for you as much as you do for him, if that makes sense.”   

“See you can’t even reason out properly and you’re in Legal Management.” You scoffed playfully. “I look out for everyone the same way, Chan’s not that kind of special for me. Also, it’s basic human decency, Seungmin. I can’t believe you don’t look out for me back, to be honest.”

Though you came off as perfectly unbothered by this, there was a period when things started became awkward on your end and it frustrated you until the end of your second year. 

Seungmin teased you to no end for it to make up for your equally endless questions about the person he’s taken interest in, Minho kept bringing it up whenever the two of you met or hung out in his apartment, and Dahyun only confronted you about it when it started becoming inconvenient for her as yours and Chan’s mutual friend.

“Chan keeps texting me if we want a ride to Minho’s but I already told him that we’re on the bus right now.” Dahyun showed you her phone on another one of your many commutes to Minho’s side of the city. By this time, it has been two months and three dates for Chan, with your time spend with said boy having reduced significantly. “Are you guys okay? Have you been talking lately?” 

You furrowed your brows and nodded in genuine confusion. “Yeah, why?” 

“It feels like he wants to ask me about you but he won’t say it directly.” Dahyun shrugged, leaning back on the seats. “It kinda gives me the impression that you guys fought or something.” 

“We didn’t fight.” You assured with a small frown. “Nothing happened, really.”  

“Then what is it?” 

It took you a moment to answer as your mind instinctively went to the conversation you previously had with Seungmin. “I...you know when someone points something out to you in a different light and then it makes you think of a lot of things?” When you saw Dahyun nod slowly, you then took it as your cue to admit, “It’s something like that, I guess.”

And like you, it also took a moment for Dahyun to answer. “Well, how do you feel about it?” She asked back as a response. “I think I know what this is about but you don’t have to tell me if you’re uneasy telling me about it.”

And you were uneasy and confused, very much so. “I don’t think I’m feeling anything special about it, really.” You admitted in a smaller voice, finding your attention flitting down to your hands on your lap. “I feel like I’m just thinking too much on what that someone said and how they said it.” 

“Then it’s probably nothing, easy as that. Don’t let people’s words get into your head too much, especially on things like this—if we are thinking of the same thing—or else it’s gonna feel like you’re being forced into having different feelings or think differently.” Dahyun shrugged with a reassuring smile. “If otherwise, even then don’t overthink it too much. Just let things happen as they are.” 

When you didn’t respond immediately, she then took your silence to quickly add, “Anyway, bottom line is, whatever it really is that you’re feeling or thinking, don’t ignore Chan for it. Talk to him about it specifically if it helps just don’t make him feel left out just because you’re on a one-sided awkward situation.”  

It was a tough love kind of advice but Dahyun pestered you about it until she saw you approach Chan first over a week later, when you personally asked him to carpool to Bam Bam’s place for a year-end party.

You’ve never seen Chan’s face light up as much as it did on that day at the campus library. 

“R-Really?” He stuttered out in disbelief and suddenly, all hints of drowsiness had disappeared on his expression. “I mean, c-cool! Uh, what time should I pick you and Dahyun up?” 

“Ah, well, what time should you pick up Soyeon if she’s going to carpool with us?” You asked slowly, rubbing your nape awkwardly as you stood next to his table. 

His eyes widened in surprise before an equally awkward chuckle came out of his lips. “Soyeon’s not carpooling with us.” 

“Hm?” 

“She’s going with her own friends since they’re nearer to her place.” Chan nodded absentmindedly, pulling a chair for you to sit down. You took the place without hesitation, neck heating up in embarrassment over the thought that you seemed too eager. “We’re not actually dating anymore.” 

“Oh?” You furrowed your brows as quickly as your expression almost lit up. “I mean, since when, if it’s okay to ask?” 

“Since last week. I don’t know, we agreed that it’s really...not happening between us.” Chan shrugged nonchalantly, going back to his lecture notes. “It’s cool, though, we’re studying together next week at the new study hall near Itaewon.” 

You nodded, exhaling a breath you didn’t even realize you were holding until then. “At least it’s not awkward or anything.” 

“What about us?” 

You immediately looked up at this, meeting Chan’s somewhat hopeful gaze that had you unexpectedly stammering, “W-what do you mean?” 

“Did I do something wrong?” He pursed his lips nervously, voice growing smaller with each other. “It’s just that we haven’t talked a lot lately—or maybe I’m just overthinking it...” 

You were quick to shake your head, mustering up a small smile. “No, you didn’t do anything.” You assured him gently. “I’ve just been—it’s nothing.” 

“Really?” 

You nodded, breathing in another sigh of relief. “Yeah, I just had a lot of things going on then. It’s okay now.” 

And it really was okay then. Talking to Chan again assured you at the time that you liked him as a friend. You really really liked him at the time as a friend. 

Third year meant preparing for your senior year and going on your Junior Year internship which is probably why Bam Bam scheduled a trip to his hometown in Bangkok in the summer before this. It was just him, you, Chan, Dahyun, Jihyo, and Minho as a kind of mini high school reunion—the small kind of gathering everyone naturally hopes for with the pacing of university life. 

You stayed at his family’s house where his parents offered you the entire expanse of the living room to have a movie night and sleepover in on your first night, right before the overwhelming itinerary Bam Bam planned for the next five days. 

“Rock-paper-scissors for the beds!” Bam Bam announced after your sixth movie of the night. The Meg really wasn’t that amazing in your collective opinion but that didn’t stop you from putting it at the bottom of your To-Watch list just to throw as much nonsensical comments as you can on it. “The expandable couch goes to first, second, and third; the smaller one goes to fourth, and fifth and sixth get the air bag!” 

Unsurprisingly, you and Chan had to share the grey air bag because you simply were just unlucky that night (you accidentally got a Pringles bag that had more air on it than chips prior) and Chan was so sleepy right next to Minho from cramming a passion project with Changbin and Jisung on call. Not that you minded, you were actually glad you didn’t have to put up with Bam Bam kicking you in his sleep or Minho waking you up with his cuss-filled sleep talking. 

“Are you okay with this, sharing an air bed, I mean.” Chan had asked you as you prepared to sleep some time at 3 AM. He was hunched over on the side of the mattress that wasn’t pushed to the wall, laptop perched on top of his area as he continued fighting sleep and finishing his project. Everyone else had gone to sleep earlier. “I can totally just ask Bam for a sleeping bag if you want me to.” 

“It’s okay.” You assured him as you spread the blanket over the entire expanse of the small air bed before sliding in and taking your phone out from under your pillow. “Aren’t you slidi—tucking in too, though?” 

His face lit up in genuine surprise, slowly shifting into appreciation and fondness right in front of you as he caught the concern in your own face despite the phone blocking his view. “In a bit...I’m just making a few adjustments with this.” 

Changbin and Jisung erupted into yells on the three-way video call, their voices bursting so suddenly on Chan’s headphones that he immediately muted them before you could ask or even notice. 

Fortunately, you didn’t. “Oh, then don’t stay up too late, Chan.” You pointed out in even more concern. You knew how he could get whenever he pulled all-nighters, you realized. “We have to start really early tomorrow—or later.” 

He hummed absentmindedly with a small nod as he continued nodding, glancing back up at you again after a moment. “Then you should go to sleep already, you don’t have to wait up for me.” 

“Who said I’m waiting up for you? I’m scrolling through my Instagram.” But despite your teasing tone, you still ended up scrolling through your phone until he finished his project, bidding Changbin and Jisung a quick good morning before ending the call and sliding in under his share of the covers. 

“Okay now go to sleep.” He chuckled tiredly as he gazed down on you, hand accidentally brushing against your own in the small gap between the two of you as he placed it right next to his head. 

“But you’re watching me,” You frowned disapprovingly. “turn around or something.”

“I sleep better like this and what if I closed my eyes and you took pictures even with my back turned?” He feigned a pout, bringing his hand under the pillow as he shifted more comfortably in place. “You sleep first.” 

“You’re so childish.” You giggled, shaking your head stubbornly. “I won’t do that.” 

“As if you aren’t too right now. You’re probably thinking about it.” 

“On three, then? One—” 

“Two—“ 

“Three.” With your cue, the two of you then closed your eyes at the same time, only to peek one each right after. “Ya!” 

You eventually managed to fall asleep at the same time half an hour later with Chan reluctantly turning around for you once you had your eyes closed. He’d only see your sleeping expression a little bit later, when he woke up to use the bathroom at 7 AM and came back to check up on you sleeping comfortably and move more of the blanket to your shoulders. 

“Look at these eyebags, you could carry souvenirs in them later.” Minho chuckled next to you on the ride to your first trip destination after, laughing even more when you swatted his index finger that moved up in an attempt to poke your eyes. “Nightmare? The Meg wasn’t even about ghosts, Y/N.” 

“No, I just slept late.” You sighed, leaning back on your seat. “Chan and I stayed up a little longer.” 

At this, Minho’s eyes visibly lit up and he wiggled his eyebrows mischievously at you, prompting a disgusted look on your face. “Ooh, did something spicy finally happen between you two?” 

“No—and please never do that again, it’s disgusting!” 

“It’s my eyebrows!” 

Minho ended up teasing you throughout the whole trip, anyway, as you and Chan repeated almost the exact same routine every night.     

You had your Junior Year Internship at a media network across the city and though Chan insisted multiple times that he can drive you to work before going to his own at an entertainment company in the opposite direction, you managed to convince him that you really can commute this time and spend the night at Minho’s if you went overtime. No hard feelings this time. 

So with what his presence in your life suddenly lacked in being your everyday transportation, he made up for by spamming you constantly online. 

“This place has Tim Tams in their cafeteria!” He’d send you the most random photos and videos of his day-to-day working in song production at the entertainment company, from actual work-related matters like sophisticated equipment he was allowed to use to the small things like the extensive cafeteria food and his boss’ pet Labrador. “What are you having for lunch?” 

Being a P.A. at a media network, however, was much more fast-paced and required you to be running everywhere on your work hours. Chan understood, of course (hence the sudden influx of dog photos during a particular period that had you working overtime almost every day), but it still made you feel bad for replying so late because, whether you admitted it or not, his constant updates alleviated your stress. 

More often than not, his spams would be responded with photos of you on the subway and video clips of Minho and his roommate who are always practicing cheer dance moves in their living room. “I had three Snickers today but I drank a lot of water so that should count for something!” You often replied, following with a clip of Minho falling on his butt after tiredly trying to land a flip. “This is your Minho update of the day. He’s getting there! I think he’s going to try out for cheer dance captain this year!” 

At the end of the semester, Chan was more than happy seeing you again, so much so that he treated you with lunch and even offered you ice cream after. “You’re going to make up for all the full meals you’ve missed this semester!” He insisted as he picked you up from Minho’s place. The two of you ended up at a ramen house which was a far jump from your usual fast food dates—something you thought about the entire time. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.” You laughed but you let him order you food anyway since it was free. “Extra nori and eggs, please!” 

You exchanged internship stories throughout the entirety of your lunch, laughing along to his stories of falling asleep in the middle of work and hearing his endless teasing over you getting starstruck with assisting your favorite artists on the job. You didn’t actually miss out on a lot of his shenanigans (that’s how heavily he spammed you) but you stayed in the ramen house for more than two hours, unconsciously drifting off to different topics and gossiping about your friends until the slight embarrassment of overstaying creeped in.

“Speaking of friends, I haven’t seen everyone else lately too.” Chan mused on your ride back home. He had his CD he secretly produced over his internship period playing on the radio as well as one hand on the steering while while the other fought you over the air conditioning. “I just know that you and Jacob train for volleyball together on weekends, Lisa’s busy with club duties, Bam Bam’s on an exchange student thing and Jihyo recently introduced us to the person she’s dating now.” 

You leaned back in your seat and shrugged, finally giving up on the air conditioning to open the windows instead and admire the Han river on your side of the road. “Well, you know how Minho’s been doing with my updates and I haven’t seen Dahyun in a while too since she’s taking the most classes this semester.” You explained, extending your hand outside to feel the gentle Autumn breeze. Chan, despite being the swimmer between the two of you, thinks you’re crazy for liking the cold better. “As for many many other people I know, they’re either studying really hard or starting work now. Time flies and friends come and go, I guess...” 

When you glanced over at him again, you saw his face scrunched up in thought as his hands blindly found the gear stick to slow down at an intersection. Once you reach the red light, he then meets your gaze, uncertainty in his expression that he tried playing off with a shrug. “Yeah but...is it weird if I said I don’t want that to happen with us?” 

“N-No?” You found yourself answering before you could fully comprehend the question. Clearing your throat, you tried joking it off, “I think you might’ve taken the ‘I’m class president let me show you around’ thing back in high school, Chan.” 

He shrugged, smiling as well at this. “Maybe I did, who knows? I like spending time with you.” 

“I force you, you’re my ride around the city.” You teased, hints of sincerity coming through your tone of voice. 

“But that’s because I like you, isn’t that what people do with people they like?” He said it with so much nonchalance but you couldn’t help but feel flustered at this, a reaction you immediately hid by laughing. 

“You like me too much, it’s going to cause a traffic with all this sentimental stuff,” You pointed out, the cars behind you suddenly honking annoyedly as if on cue. “See? Even the people behind us agree.” 

Chan wasn’t offended, however, not one bit as he continued rambling about liking you all the way to your dorm after. It flustered you at first, especially with how casual he was being, but, as you neared the turn to your dorm outside of university, you eventually caught up with teasing him back about it. 

When you thought about it on your own once he left, you realized that you somehow liked it. It felt very natural—as if it’s something that’s always felt right hearing from him. 

“I like Chan.” 

“Yeah no shit.” Minho agrees absentmindedly, Seungmin and Jeongin nodding along while emptying their take-out boxes. You carpooled with Chan today as he drove Felix and Jisung somewhere to help them finish their term research paper. You were only supposed to hang out with Seungmin and Jeongin but Minho decided to ambush the three of you with Jihyo and Mina on their way to join your group at the younger boys’ dorm. “What else is new, Y/N? We haven’t met up like this in a while so I was expecting something spicier!” 

“No, I mean—” You roll your eyes at him, smacking him with your rolled up lecture notes but to no avail. The boy simply opened his phone to check his messages, frowning when he then comes across a message from Jihyo and Mina informing him that they’re stuck in traffic. “I really like Chan.”   

“Okay, and then?” 

“I’m telling you I actually like someone then you dismiss me.” 

“And I mean that took you a record-breaking three years to say.” Minho points out, finally closing his phone and propping an elbow up on the table to face you properly. “What has you sharing this to us on this fine Saturday, hm? Did you get jealous over someone again and got so insecure that you realize your feelings? Did you get stuck in a really small space, admired his face a bit then realize that you think he’s cute? Which trope is it?” 

You shake your head disapprovingly at him, briefly glaring at Seungmin and Jeongin when the two start snickering next to you before answering, “Nothing, just...we talked lately and I thought that I really like talking to him.” 

“So you don’t like talking to us?” It’s Jeongin teasing you this time as he sipped on his juice box, earning him a crumpled ball of paper on the head. “I thought it’d be more grand like in those K-Dramas.” 

“You flood your crush with Pepero boxes and now you’re talking big with K-Drama confessions.” Seungmin points out, making the other boy in question roll his eyes. 

You open your mouth to speak but Jeongin beats you to it. “Talk to me when you’ve confessed to that figure skater at your university, baseball boy.” He says before turning to you again, placing a hand over Seungmin’s face and dramatically pushing him away by his head. “Anyway, back on topic! So, will you ask him out?” 

“I don’t know, should I?” You frown, leaning back on the sofa behind you with your arms crossed. “Wouldn’t it be weird?” 

Minho shakes his head. “It’s 2020 so go wild, my friend. Anyway, if it doesn’t work out I already got my driver’s license—though I will tax you since you live far away.” 

You roll your eyes, hitting him again. When his roommate passes by, half-asleep and dragging their feet towards the kitchen, you hear them request another smack on Minho’s head on their behalf as if on instinct. “I mean, do you just go for it? What if you don’t feel enough for people for it to work out?” 

A pause then follows in the room, even Minho’s roommate momentarily stopped gulping down water from across the open common area. Seungmin and Minho sigh while Jeongin only raises an eyebrow with the same curiosity.

“Yes, Y/N.” Minho answers after a moment, tsking at you as he does so. This time, you gather the energy to smack him for the fourth time as quickly. “It’s dating not marriage, just see what works and what doesn’t.”

Seungmin opens his mouth to say something else, probably to comment on how Minho doesn’t apply the sentiments to his own love life, but he nods in agrement anyway. “I think it’s like you always tell me: don’t overthink it.” He adds instead, briefly turning his head to Minho after. “But I’m going to pretend you didn’t bring it up first, hyung.” 

Don’t overthink it. Even Jihyo and Mina agreed when they arrived, pestering you into going over your entire rant and dilemma again once they arrived with beer and convenience store food. Dahyun too, but only a little later when Jihyo puts her on FaceTime.

“Just wing it,” She even added to assure you, glitching a bit on video because public library wi-fi has never been better than that.. “it’s just Chan, what could go wrong?”

And really, with Chan, nothing ever does feels like it’s going to go wrong even when the situation has your heart on the line.

“Chan, give me your hand.” You extend your hand out to his side of the car with your palms facing upwards, chuckling when he glances over to you with wide eyes. “I won’t tickle you this time, promise.” 

“So what are you going to do?” He asks as he reluctantly moves his hand from the steering wheel to your hand, alternating his gaze between the road and you on his side in long intervals. “I’ll have you know that we’re about to turn to a narrower road so don’t try anything funny.” 

“Like I said, I’ll just hold your hand.” You feign a pout, bringing your hands down on the compartment in between your seats. “There.”

You won’t tell it to his face right now, of course, but holding his hand is comforting to you.

He invited you to a small film festival for today, a thirty-minute ride to a place he only heard of on the poster for it that he showed you at the start of the week. “Bam Bam’s too busy to come with so I thought I’d invite you since you’re free this week!” He explained over the phone and you knew Bam Bam is really busy when it’s you who Chan is inviting to these kinds of everyday. “They have lots of animated movies on the line-up too so I immediately thought of you!” 

“Your hands are so small.” Chan comments after a moment, shaking your intertwined fingers gently as the car stops at traffic. 

You poke on his knuckles in response. “You just have really big hands.” 

“Your hands are clammy too.” He points out next with a laugh. “Are you okay?”

“Because you won’t turn the air conditioning up, dumbass.” You roll your eyes, scoffing when he doesn’t move his hand anyway. “So why don’t you let go?” 

“Because I like holding your hand.” He shrugs, biting down a small smile. The traffic still won’t move and he takes this as an opportunity to look at you as much as he can. “I like you a lot—even with your clammy hands.” 

“I—” You freeze with your mouth hanging open, finally catching onto his smile. “Ya, what’s with the smile? Did you...did Minho say something?” 

“What? No. I can’t smile now?” And it’s the truth, you find out much later when Chan calls Minho for you and puts him on loud speaker to disprove your suspicions. “Why? What am I supposed to not know until now?” 

You squint your eyes suspiciously at him, shifting your hands around his but to no avail. “That I—I was going to say it first today. I like you too—a lot.” You sigh in defeat, leaning back on your seat and twisting your body to face him properly. The traffic is slowly starting to move again and Chan briefly turns away to move the car, turning to you as soon as traffic permits him again. “It’s a bit embarrassing to say right now, my hands are so clammy and you’re holding onto them the entire time.”

“It’s not because you’re nervous, right?” He asks with the smallest glint of teasing in his eyes which you shake your head at immediately. “It’s just us.” 

“I told you, it’s because the air conditioning’s too low.” You chuckle, finally relaxing your shoulders in relief. Chan then lifts your hands up to the air conditioning unit jokingly, turning up the level with his knuckles. “And it’s exactly why I’m not nervous, because it’s just us.” 

“Me too, to be honest. I’d be freaking out right now if Minho or Lisa or just anyone else peered over our shoulders.” You hear him mumble under his breath in a sheepish giggle. A thought then crosses his mind as he glances over to you, the traffic now moving much more smoothly. “So, I can still ask you if this is a date, right? The cinema’s still five minutes away with this traffic.” 

You pretend to purse your lips in thought, bringing your hands back down once they’ve dried with the sudden rise in temperature. “Isn’t this too last minute even for you?” You tease, making him frown. “Ah, well, better late than never I guess.” 

“I’ll make it up to you on the second date, promise.” He assures you, turning right to your destination. “Jus don’t back out on this being a date now, okay?” 

“Of course not.” 

“So boring.” It’s Bam Bam teasing you this time, Minho agreeing on the side. The one time he’s actually free to hang out and he sasses you throughout the entire night. “I expected more from you two.” 

“It’s...two people dating in college, not a romcom, Bam.” You deadpan before taking a sip of your soju. 

He shrugs from across the table anyway, passing you another bottle. “I guess being in love makes you a little boring. I don’t blame you.” 

You slap a hand up to your forehead while Chan is practically drunk and dying next to you in embarrassment. “Oh God...” 

[henryobsessed]

The Veterinarian and the Werewolf - Chapter 1

Summary: Jessie has completed Veterinarian school, after the death of her aunt has moved back to her home town.

word Count: 2013

A/N hello How are you all doing? we are in lockdown again here in Victoria Australia, I hope that means more time to write :)

Prologue

Chapter 1

Jessie sank into her plush foe leather couch; it had been a month since she had returned to her hometown and surprisingly her business was thriving. Even though she had yet to treat any wildlife she had a steady stream of cats, dogs, birds, ferrets, and other assortments of domestic animals heading through her doors. A big surprise to her was the number of cattle ranchers who on her arrival had asked her to make house calls to assess their cattle. Normally they paid for someone to come out to their co-op from the neighbouring bigger city. Now she was here if she could gain their trust, she would be set.

She looked around at her aunt’s old house, so many beautiful memories, Bet had been her best friend apart from the animals and had encouraged her to follow her dreams, she had even pitched in to her college fund when her parents’ life insurances had not been quite enough. She pictured her aunt standing at the stove, cooking her pancakes, grey hair piled atop her head, apron wrapped around her tall slender body, excited to cook for “The Vet” as she had lovingly called her even before she started her degree.

The last time they had spent time together she had sat on the couch, pancakes in hand. Her honey brown eyes pinning Jessie to her seat as her age roughened voice pleaded, “You can’t keep shutting people out Jessie, you have to open yourself to the possibility that you might find love, or even a good friend. You’re an adult now, and I won’t be around forever.” Her eyes misting as she whispered, “I worry about you honey, I don’t want you living your life alone like I did.”

Jessie had hugged her aunt pulling her in tight as she felt her sweet Bet’s distress. She had never asked why she was on her own, caught up in her own dramas. She had loved that it was just the two of them. But now she wondered if she had been too selfish. Once she was at college, her aunt was alone again. As if validating her aunt’s concern’s, she had received a call, a week after returning back to her last month of college. Her Aunt had suffered a major heart attack at work. Even though she was in the hospital when it had occurred, they were unable to save her. It had been a hard few months no one had come by the house for the funeral, it had just been the two of them. The local lawyer had encouraged her to sell up and move to a more populated area saying they had no need for a vet, and she had considered it. But a part of her still felt connected to the land, connected to those buried deep within the woods around their house.

He phone buzzed bringing her out of her musings, shaking the tired fog from her head she peeked at the antique gold clock above the mantel 11pm, Picking up the phone she heard a timid voice answer “Is this the vet, the one that came to our ranch last week?” mind pulled into action she answered “ yes this is the Vet what can I do for you?” a shaky breath let out as the young man responded, “I’m sorry for calling so late, My name is Thomas, my dad owns Ride em ranch. I was out checking traps around the property line, I hate them so much but dad insists we have them, a wolf has been caught. If I don’t get him out of here soon my Dad or one of the hands will come and kill him. Please what do I do?” sitting up Jessie talked in a calm voice to the boy, “First thing how is the wolf behaving?” getting up Jessie pulled her coat on whilst heading for the car, “He’s growling and whimpering at the same time ma’am, I think he would bite me if I got to close, but I can see he is in a lot of pain.” Opening the door to her pickup she jumped in glad her veterinarian bag was already in the back. “Ok Thomas tell me where you are, I am on my way”

Jessie was focused looking for the a boy in a red checked shirt and dark blue jeans, a part of her was excited, she was finally able to help a wolf, but another part of her was worried she was too late. There waving his arms illuminated by the high beams of her truck she saw Thomas, he had blond hair, brown eyes, and stood around 6 ft 3 although he had not filled out yes so even with his height looked like a young man.

Pulling up she could see his obvious fretting as he didn’t stop to talk but rather, as soon as she had her bag, started moving back into the forest. The boy was so intent on getting her there he didn’t say a word, however the closer they got the more evident it was the animal was in great distress. Long lone howls could be heard along with whimpers, when Thomas broke into the area where the wolf was his whimpers changed to savage snapping of his teeth and loud growls interrupted by his whines. The was until Jessie stepped into the opening, She could have sworn the wolf looked right at her with shock before it laid its head down and quietened. Jessie was amazed, its behaviour was one of submission and in its current state was highly unusual. She walked closer, slowly talking to the animal, “Hey boy, your ok, I’m here to help ok. Will you let me help you?”

She knelt just outside of the range where the wolf could reach her and reached into the bag, the majestic creature watched her closely but gone was the snarls and defensive growling. All that was left was his pain filled whimper, quickly assessing his weight she pulled a small tranquilizer gun out along with some prefilled darts. On seeing the gun he let out a long mournful howl that tore at her heart, “I’m sorry, but this will make you feel better I promise.” Taking aim she shot into his flank. He let out a soft yelp, they kept eye contact as he slowly lowered his eye lids.

Ok Thomas we need to move fast, I had to guess his weight and even though I am sure I’ve have put him out for the night I can’t guarantee that.” Together they moved to the brown black creature, jessie made note as they together removed the trap from its leg that the creature had seen better days. His hair was matted in places and there were other areas where the fur was missing showing signs of fights that it had been in. Carefully after assessing the rest of its body, Thomas and Jessie lifted the creature which from tail to muzzle would have been 6 ft 5 however it showed malnutrition and was much lighter that she would have expected for a creature of its size and age. In fact had Thomas not been there to help she would have been able to lift the wolf herself which said a lot for its condition. Sadness filled her as they carefully placed it in the back of the truck. Once he was securely placed in the back she turned to the young man “Thank you Thomas, I appreciate your help and your kindness” Thomas looked down at his feet for a moment before signing, “Please don’t tell my pa, he would think I was a pansy for doing this. What he fails to understand is we need to work with the wolves without them….. well we need them. Thank you for coming, I hope he survives.”

Jessie watched the tall young man in her rear vision as she dove away, there was something special about him.

On reaching her clinic she bought out a trolley and carefully picked up the wolf playing him down and wheeled him into the treatment rooms. Her first priority was x-ray the leg and make sure it wasn’t broken, as she moved around the room her other patients called out to her. A small Tibetan spaniel who was in for cherry eye surgery whimpered at her before settling down in it’s cage, along with a tabby who was recovering from a broken leg, who at all the noise hissed at her. “ohh come now calm down, we have to help this poor creature ok. I expect you both to keep him company as he recovers.” She quickly took the x-rays dismayed to see that the trap had indeed crushed his ulna and radius on the right leg. The night was long as she reset the leg and applied a cast. The sun was coming up, and her young assistant joe was walking in the front door as she finished setting the wolf up in a special cage.

Joe taken aback walked around to peer into the cage, “OMG Jessie, where did you find this boy? He is gorgeous and yet has seen better days.” Exhausted she just stood wiping her hands on her apron and started cleaning, “you look like you need a break Jessie, why don’t you go home, I’ll reschedule your non important appointments and push the urgent ones back to this afternoon so you can get some sleep.” Grateful she nodded her thanks and left the Joe to care for the grumpy cat, and Tibbey.

Jessie’s dreams were plagued with images of the wolf, his eyes that held so much pain caused her heart to constrict. The resemblance to the those she had buried so many years ago could not have been a coincidence. As she tossed and turned the images grew bolder, the wolfs from long ago circled her, she felt no fear only curiousness as they sniffed at her before one by one they laid at her feet. She knelt and stroked each one, reassuring them that she would take care of him. A loud sound broke into the now peaceful dream, her mind now fussy she picked up the phone, “Jessie” the frantic voice of her assistant invaded her calm “Jessie you have to get down here, the wolf woke up and is tearing at the cage. I can’t even get close enough to change the fluid bag. I’m scared he is going to break out.” Jumping out of bed she ran to grab her bag, not even worried that she was still in her pajamas she ran to her truck. The clinic was only 5 mins by car, but she was the only one authorised to use the tranqu gun.

Running into the clinic she could hear the panicked snarls and snaps of the wolf, the sound of the metal clanging and it tried to escape. Gun in hand she ran into the room, as Joe opened the door and her eyes met that of the wolf the strangest thing happened. Just as it had in the forest, the wolf calmed, whined and laid its head down. “well I never!!” Joe breathed in exasperation, “Teach me Obi wan, Tell me your secrets” if she hadn’t been so socked herself she would have laughed at Joe’s comment. However this was not normal wolf behaviour. Taking a risk she moved forward and sat before the creature, an odd feeling settling in her stomach as joe handed her the new bag. Talking in a calm voice she addressed the canine, “This will help you feel better ok” his eyes locked with hers as he whimpered. Risking everything she hooked up the new bag then opened the cage, going against her training she reached in and caressed him. She felt his body relax the more she stroked his neck and flank until he was once again asleep. Replacing the latch on the door she looked back a Joe both confused and amazed.

Chapter 2

I have tagged people from my last story if you wish to be removed please let me know 😊

@legendarywizarddetective @blakerogue @ladamari68 @witcherfan @sillyrabbit81 @littlefreya

@stephartrave @angelcavill66 @fatefuldestinies @bageracat

​@fortheloveoftradition @kmuir1 @fanfictionaddiction99 @zealoushound @thenonrealloser @xobriellaxo24 @jessayw

@abschaffer2 @elena-myth @shy-violet-soul @hisnamewasmojito @tumblrninia @thereisa8ella@cavilladdict @its–fandom–darling @omgkatinka @leaena2go@littlefreya @elena-myth @bluedog63 @oh-for-fic-sake @legendarywizarddetective @foodieforthoughts @lady-love88 @ladamari68 @elena-myth @viking-raider @hisnamewasmojito @its–fandom–darling @fysaelys @zurcda @allthingsatlanta13 @bageracat @cecilegoestoparis

@meandmycherrytree

@f4iryerin @amberangel112 @silllyrabbit81 @crippledcatlady @multifandomlover1 @confusednerd09 @sycochick @littlefreya @absolutepie @jajphcfan @mandolover86 @ladamari68 @whereismymindlaura @antepatch @fanficforfun @thereisa8ella @davidbuddbg @ethandaddyramseyx@gayathriiii @nemessisvoninpirian@kath94210 @ladamari68@fancysthings @awallflowerstream @oddduckthatgirl@mcz02057 @gmfbaby @meanerface@adorable-hen @hrrypinks @melaniqueen2 @f4iryerin​ @biancawlf@tayxbri @whip111stuff​@kellynkeskoski @mzchievous-blog @pixie88 @marytudorbrandon @wolfsmom1 @amberangel112 @marantha

[chudleycanonficfest]

Day 30, Post 1 by @blimeypeople

Hi! This is my first time writing a fiction story in English (I'm not a native english speaker) and it's unbetaed :(  If you have time to spot something wrong or if this story doesn't make any sense, just let me know, pretty please?

Thanks for hosting this fest. You're all so awesome!

---

Title: Don’t run, please.

Author: blimey,people

Pairing: Ron/Hermione

Prompt: Parenthood

Rating: G

Hermione Granger-Weasley really thought her life was perfect, that she had achieved everything she wanted and made her heart happy: she had a husband who loved her, a job she enjoyed, saw her friends and family whenever she could (well Sunday lunches at The Burrow were an unwritten rule but she enjoyed them a lot), but then what was she doing running through the corridors of the Ministry of Magic? Hiding from her husband, that's what she was doing. She turned on the corner of one of the corridors, she was no longer running, but she was walking hurriedly heading in the direction of the main library of the Ministry, so big and wide that not only was it difficult to locate the books you needed, but also the people that were inside. The best hiding place, Hermione thought and quickened her pace when she saw him: Ron, standing in front of the large wooden doors, staring at his shoes in his scarlet Auror team uniform, which was somewhat wrinkled. Probably coming back from training, Hermione barely had time to think when she turned around running to the opposite side. They were quite far apart, so it wouldn’t be that easy for him to reach her but he was faster.

  "Hermione!" She heard him scream, but she couldn't stop, she was scared, she was afraid of having a conversation with him. She accelerated her escape as she felt his footsteps getting closer.

  "Hermione! Don't run, please! " She had heard that voice a few times. Her memories took her to a particular occasion, when she was also hiding, but from evil forces who wanted to end their lives and the life of their best friend. She couldn’t resist his voice, she had resisted it countless times while he asked her for forgiveness inside the horrendous tent. It hurt her soul, it hurt her not being able to hug him telling him how much she loved him, but her pride won. Only months later, she was able to achieve what her heart and mind most wanted: to reveal her feelings and be reciprocated. Now her heart and mind told her this was far more important, that this could perhaps destroy the relationship that with so much love, time and dedication they had built, this could possibly end one of their most cherished dreams, burst the bubble of joy and emotion that had appeared inside them almost three months ago. This could take away their most precious gift: their future child.

  So she stopped, took a deep breath, and waited for him to catch up with her. It didn't take many seconds when she felt his long fingers capture her left wrist leading her towards a deserted office.

  I should’ve flooed home, Hermione thought as she walked alongside Ron. He would have found me there in an instant though, I should’ve gone to..., she tried to complete the thought, when she was struck by doubt. Her choices were limited in terms of places where she could just go to think without being seen, without being interrupted, no questions being asked by anyone. Her childhood room in her parents' house might have been a great option, but now recently her parents had semi-retired from their jobs (occasionally they went to the office in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, at times they took turns and one of them stayed home while the other went to work), thus Hermione didn't know for sure when the house was thoroughly empty. Besides if they found her in her old room on a Friday lunch, at the time in which she should still be at the Ministry plus they were aware that, due to her almost obsession with completing every unfinished task at the end of the week, Fridays were her most complicated days at work, it would potentially lead them to ask her thousands of questions and if she chose to answer truthfully, as she had done since she met them again in Australia two months after the war, tired of hiding things from them. This time, though, she was certain they wouldn’t be as understanding as they were back then. Now the situation wasn't just about her, it involved someone more important and vulnerable, someone they hadn't met yet but they already loved.

  Her parents, Jean and Hugo, were over the moon since the day they learned about the arrival of their first grandson or granddaughter. The imminent growth of their little family filled them with infinite joy. On countless moments, mainly when Hermione and Ron would give them the news about the birth of a new child in the ever growing Weasley family, the faces of Jean and Hugo gave away what they wanted: they were dying to ask her when she and Ron would finally decide to have one of their own. Therefore they were ecstatic. The decision to adapt a room on the first floor as a playroom for their future grandson or granddaughter came easily. Well, we don’t need a library anymore, do we, Hugo?, said her mom. It took them a week to disappear the shelves loaded with books that were once part of the room. Toys, kids books, little stuffed animals, big stuffed animals, a white cot and the largest most colorful collection of clothes Hermione had ever seen overflowed the rather large space. Apparently, her mother considered it was better to have more variety than later needing a neon green footie embroidered with dinosaurs and not having it on hand. Her father, more serene and restrained, but just as enthusiastic, had bought a beautiful memoir book for the baby, where he himself would be in charge of writing down every detail of his or her first year of life. However, Hermione was sure something was wrong with her for she hadn't been able to share the same level of enthusiasm of her parents or her husband hence she just smiled everytime they mentioned the baby. Therefore, she was certain Jean and Hugo would probably agree with Ron on this issue. So now he was being proven right, they would help him convince her to "do the right thing for the baby." Except she honestly couldn’t discern what was right anymore so the confusion and fear consumed her. She loved her job, enjoyed the responsibilities that came with it, rejoiced in every new challenge she encountered no matter the outcome, she was sure of it. Her newly discovered feelings for the little human being growing inside of her were what confused and scared her at the same time.

  Ron guided her to an old and solitary chair within the rather desolated office gently helping her to sit on it. Rather than sitting beside Hermione, he stood in front of her and crouched down. He took one of her hands, placed it on top of her knee, gently stroking it.

  “Hermione, the evidence is overwhelming. If they were able to send an object specifically charmed to harm you into your office, it is because they aren’t our most common enemies. It means they are doing their homework figuring out your routines. They’ve been following you for at least a few weeks. They knew that only us usually go there so you would open the package without a second thought,” Ron couldn't control the tone of sadness, anger and despair as he spoke.

  Minutes before lunch, Hermione received a small package wrapped in a black paper with little stars, the wrapping of Hermione's new favorite bookstore in Muggle London. She frequently went there alone and sometimes Ron accompanied her. She ran to get it, unwrapping it in an instant. She didn’t even have time to see the title of the literary work, when the book came to life and suspended in the air began to hit her repeatedly, increasingly hard on the chest, arms, legs. Her wand was on the handbag she regularly took to lunch. The book kept hitting her, in one moment heading for her belly. Hermione started to scream, moving as far as she could from the object. In seconds, the auror who was stationed outside her office managed to undo the spell. It wasn’t the first threat, that's why the auror guarded her office. Whoever was behind it, had tried to harm her on previous occasions but they had never been so close to actually hurting her. The spell was very powerful, the package was able to pass the rigorous inspection of the experienced auror. A mother who genuinely loved her child would already be home, protecting him or her by being away from danger, the thought stunned her. She began to run through the corridors of the Ministry even when she heard the auror screaming for her to stop. She didn’t want to see anyone, especially Ron, who a week ago had almost begged her to stay home for a few days while they determined who was threatening her.

  “Harry and I are very close to identifying who is doing this, Hermione. We just need you to get away from danger a bit… ” Ron started, looking her straight in the eyes.

  “I don't want to quit my job, Ron, not after working so hard for many years. I'm nearly there with the house-elf protection law… "

  “I know about all the work you've done, Hermione. I would never ask you to do it, if it weren't for… "

  "The baby," Hermione completed looking down, "I understand Ron, but I honestly don't think it's necessary ..."

  "Not putting our child at risk is more than necessary, Hermione, it will only be a few months," Ron interrupted quickly.

  "Ron, I can't. So many magical creatures trust in me..."

  "They will continue to trust in you when you return," said Ron.

  "We said having a child wouldn't alter our lives, that I would continue working, you know I don’t want to be a stay at home mum." Hermione felt Ron's hand tighten on top of hers.

  "It's not that. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if the situation wasn't like this," argued Ron, "Tough I must say you were the one saying having a child wouldn't alter our lives. I think you were trying to convince yourself. For my part, I believe that many things are going to change, things we won’t be able to control."

  "Ron…"

  "I reckon you're getting scared ..." Ron continued coming closer and reaching her shoulders to hug her.

  "I'm not…" Hermione tried to interrupt and wriggle out of the hug. But he knew her better than anyone. Hermione was sure he had noticed her doubts, insecurities and fears even before her.

  "I am scared too, I'm not just talking about the threats, because I can assure you that we are going to find out who is behind everything and he’s going to pay for putting you through this," his voice was harsh and he had struggled not to shout during the last sentence. "I’m positive you're scared for him or her too," his voice had taken a delicate, sweet tone, the tone he used when they fought and he wanted her to understand he was right without making her feel too bad.

  "You are doubting yourself, asking that brilliant mind of yours a ton of questions, not finding answers. You’re wondering if you’re going to do a good job or if you will love him or her enough. The fact is, Hermione, the love you will feel towards our child will never be enough, it will be infinite", he raised one of his hands caressing her cheek, “It's not about doing a good or bad job, love. It's about doing the best we can in our own way, making mistakes and learning together, because you do realize we're in this together, right?” Ron delicately squeezed her cheek, Hermione looked up, her beautiful blue eyes pierced through her with the deepest love, he lowered his hand placing it on her still small belly, “He or she deserves the world, I assure you we will give it to him or her when the time comes. What we can do now is protect our little one, we are not going to let anything happen to him or her. Okay, we should definitely find out if it’s a boy or a girl, I'm getting tired of this”, he grinned.

  In that instant, Hermione felt within her how the little life Ron and she had created began to move and the most profound love, love she only felt for the man in front of her, completely invaded her. Ron gave no sign of feeling it, but it wasn't necessary. She placed her hand on top of Ron's, looked him straight in the eye, and nodded. He smiled at her, hugging her tightly.

  At this precise moment in her life, despite her insecurities about her ability to love and protect her unborn child, the certainty of knowing Ron never made vain promises began to fill her with strength and hope. If he firmly believed everything would be fine, it would be. If he was by her side on this adventure, there was no doubt the next few years would be different, challenging, but wonderfully incredible.

[ncghtshifts]

serves up. my second child on a silver platter. not as lovable bt thts ok........ lets all put on our horse blinders...........

◜     *     :     drew     starkey     .     demiman     &     they/he     .     pink     in     the     night     by     mitski     .     ━━     the     legend     surrounding     london’s     l’academiae     furorum     would     not     be     complete     without     ZEPHYR     CASIMIR     MONTANA     FOGELMAN     .     the     academy's     TWENTY     -     SEVEN     year     old     GUEST     ARTIST     has     been     with     furore     for     FIVE     MONTHS     ,     oft     described     as     VERBOSE     ,     VAINGLORIOUS     ,     IMPRUDENT     ,     BEGUILING     &     has     proved     utterly     indispensable     to     the     company.     in     passing     ,     they’ve     come     to     be     associated     with     CIGARETTES     YOU     SHOULDN'T     BE     SMOKING     ,     A     COCKTAIL     OF     BODY     SPRAYS     AND     COLOGNES     STOLEN     FROM     STRANGERS     -     WHOEVER     CAUGHT     YOUR     ATTENTION     THESE     LAST     FEW     DAYS     &     the     product     of     three     overbearing     parents     ,     as     spoiled     as     they     come     and     not     afraid     to     show     it     .     running     into     rehearsal     late     for     the     third     time     that     week     ,     lipstick     mark     staining     the     collar     of     your     shirt     -     effortless     in     everything     you     do     .     you     truly     believe     you     are     the     best     and     everyone     around     will     know     it     if     you     have     anything     to     do     with     it     .    whether     this     will     be     their     final     curtain     call     is     anyone's     guess     &     the     company’s     worst     nightmare  .

background

if u asked monty’s dads if they were psychics they wld say yes bc they cldnt imagine picking a better surrogate to carry monty, their birth mum was still a HUGE part of their life growing up n the family always did everything together - they each chose one of their names if the absolute absurdity of it wasn’t obvious

born in brisbane, australia, monty grew up WILDLY spoiled, got only the best dance teachers and was a part of the best ballet academy in australia

there was a lot of expectation put onto them, not that their parents weren’t rly supportive and loving bt its very . jackson from sex education feeling where if they wanted to spend a night to themselves their parents wld b like . :) i dont hear ur toes breaking, silly!!!!!!!!!!

eventually the pressure caught up to them when they become a principal dancer - cue natalie portman in black swan except naur nowhere near that bad ofc but they definitely got no sleep and their body was falling apart with the amount of work they were putting into it without fueling it properly

it just ended with a heated argument that monty attempted to turn violent but they literally just collapsed in on themselves and woke up 2 days later after finally catching up on all the sleep they’d been missing for eons to hear that they were demoted in the academy

ofc their dads paid off all directors involved to keep the whole incident quiet and monty immediately applied for guest artist positions to escape the australian academy (did not name it. n i shant. i am not creative enough fr tht)

after a few years monty got offers instead of applying themselves but they’re always paranoid that their past will catch up to them

details

this is monty’s 2nd season as a guest artist w the academy :yum:

still practices far too much to b considered healthy bt away from gazing eyes - has THE WORST attitude to them where they act like they’re jst naturally the best to get into the heads of other dancers when they’re just as bad

just has the most lackadaisical attitude to them, doesn’t want anyone to think they’re taking this too seriously

claims they can ‘see auras’ so they know who is and isn’t worth their time

mean to be mean but also if they like u will go above and beyond as a friend

believes if they were to b monogamous someone would b missing out. jst thinks the world of themselves frankly.

so so so dramatic

sleeps around fr funsies bt they also have. certain taste. will sneer at someone they don’t deem worthy of their time LKSHDGHSDGKLDG

connections

since they’ve been here a few months already n its their second season coming back to furorum perhaps friends from before??

bt also . ppl they have rubbed the wrong way on purpose or not

someone they used to date n broke their heart.............. side eyes them

or opposite someone they caught feelings fr n now? they avoid said person like the plague. literally pretend said ex isnt talking to them right in front of them

hook ups/dates gone wrong/etc.............

wtvr ur vibing with!!!!

[rein-ette]

Are you still working on your Commonwealth study? Do you have any thoughts on Arthur's relationships with his colonies apart from Canzuk + US?

Not properly, unfortunately with exams and then work I haven’t had mental/emotional capacity to do real research (and probably won’t for a while 😔). But I have continued to think about and develop certain relationships, and I think I also have old hcs I’ve never shared, so I’ll put those down!

Born into the Empire

Australia

@oumaheroes has already done such great hcs on him idk what I can add, but basically he was a little bit of a rowdy child, always breaking windows and shattering fancy pots, never able to sit still. I think rainbow once mentioned that Ken (short for Kenneth, my name for Aus) was a lot like England as a child in his curiosity and energy, and I wholeheartedly agree. But I think Arthur’s intensity was more inwardly directed, pushing him to pursue and master new talents and learn whatever he could, while Australia is a little more carefree in his love for the outdoors, exploring, jumping around and off things, little wild animals. Unfortunately for him, he was born in a period of the empire when Arthur was very serious about his kids education, and therefore often praised those who studied hard and learned fast, which really just wasn’t Australia’s cup of tea. Australia took this kinda hard and thought he was the “dumb” one in the family that Arthur was always scolding, but in reality Arthur knew and appreciated that Australias interests lay elsewhere — he was just a frustrated, tired, parent who really wanted to give his kids the best while also holding his empire together, two goals that were never going to fit well in the end and would completely exhaust him.

As Australia’s grown older he’s realized a bit of this (not entirely, though) and also that 1) he really did break a lot expensive things and cause general mayhem 2) scolding us Arthur’s way of showing he cares, if he didn’t he wouldn’t have payed attention to him at all 3) despite being a penal colony, he was still one of Arthur’s more “legitimate” children (being white and a boy) and was therefore still incredibly privileged — never having to question, for example, why it was that Arthur was his dad, if it should be this way, or if he had a seat at the family table at all (more on this later).

New Zealand

Zee, from birth, was a clear favourite. Obedient, calm, quietly intelligent, he would also later develop a blistering sense of humour which combined with his appearance made it overwhelmingly clear who’s child he was. If Ken questioned his place in the family because of his poor academic record and others did because of their appearance/race/other complications, Kaelan never had such problems; his siblings called him the “prince.” Zee, however, also had a charm that, like Matthew, endeared him to his siblings and mostly protected him from jealousy, though he certainly still had issues with being called a try hard, daddy’s boy, bossy, arrogant. Certainly as a child Zee was a little prideful and, under that unperturbed demeanour, willful, but he grew out of it by the 20th century and became one of those most trusted by Arthur, second only to Matthew. He’s also always been inseparable from his brother Australia despite their differences, and today they both have one of the healthiest and most amicable relationships with Arthur of any nation, let alone former colonies (family road trips, every summer).

Bermuda

I absolute fell in love with this girl after reading about here, once, in this fic by @shachaai, and after that my mind just ran away with me. For me, her human name given to her by Arthur just has to be Ariel — for the little mermaid reference, yes, symbolizing her connection to the sea and stunning good looks, but also because:

1. Ariel is a biblical name, meaning lion of God. This makes sense to me, because Bermuda began as a Portuguese trade post, so Arthur definitely consulted our resident bad catholic Port before naming her.

2. Ariel used to be boys name. This also makes sense, because I hc Bermuda was and still is a tomboy. Bitch is fierce, takes no prisoners, and has zero filter. Her letters to Arthur, which all the colonies sent so Arthur could keep an eye on things, were full of shit like “I swear to god if the Spanish don’t get out of my waters I might eat one of them,” and “father, I asked you for destroyers two months ago, and yet you sent them to Hong Kong — could you explain this most unusual occurrence, surely it’s not that you forgot”, and “thank you for the harpoon on my birthday, I caught a small shark a couple days ago and have sent you some of its teeth for your collection.” Arthur tolerates this attitude because he’s weak when it comes to girls; he absolutely spoils his daughters (and flushes like a 16 year old when a woman so much as bats her eyelashes at him). Yes, p*ssywhipped Arthur is a hill I will die on.

3. It also suits her because? Ariel? Shakespeare? The Tempest? Bermuda Triangle? Shipwrecks? Daughter-like figure of powerful and vengeful sorcerer? Yeah. And this girl is a fire spirit — she is so lively, snarky, clever. As she’s grown older she’s mellowed out a little, but still: a no shit taken, no fucks given type of gal.

4. Speaking of growing up, she’s also become quite the beauty. Shacha, if I’m remembering correctly, described her as dark skinned, wavy-haired, and green eyed and that image has been burned onto the back of my eyelids ever since. Those Iberian genetics really be pulling through for her, that’s for sure. Engport love child if I’ve ever seen one. Definitely one of the prettiest in her family.

Singapore

I’ve already mentioned this to needcake, but I’m not too big a fan of canon Singapore, so this is my oc version. Singapore is fascinating to me because it had only a very small local population before it became a colony (The original settlement had actually been destroyed by the Portuguese about two centuries before the British started building a port there.) So nation-tans like Singapore and Bermuda really are Arthur’s children in the most direct sense of the word. And yet, Singapore is mostly ethnically Chinese, with Malays being the second largest group. Growing up Asian in a white, Victorian era family surely cannot have been easy and more than once Singapore probably wondered if there hadn’t been some mistake. To make up for the constant fear that he wasn’t “really” British, Singapore studied ferociously and had a truly terrifying work ethic. I’m not sure if this is common knowledge outside Asian circles, so I’ll mention that this hc comes from the fact Singapore is well known for having truly exceptional students and some of the most prestigious schools. Singaporeans score highly in literally everything and they have an advantage with good English learning environments, a highly desirable trait in Asia, but these results come from brutally long hours — and its really saying something that they’re known for working hard, considering the studying ethic of students in Korea, Japan, and China aint nothing to sneeze at, either. To me this actually fits really well with Singapore’s upbringing in Arthur’s household, because Arthur himself prizes intelligence and hard work above all else, being a workaholic himself.

As for their relationship, it was probably the best when Singapore was young and peaked in the 1930s with the massive naval base the British built at Singapore, at the time the largest dry dock in the world. Singapore was a well-behaved child, not necessarily introverted but not rowdy either, and all the way into his teenage years he truly admired Arthur and was proud to be a part of the British Empire, despite his lingering unease and insecurities. The British defeat in World War II, however, was a massive turning point. He had worked his ass off to be a good son, a good brother, to contribute to the only family and system he had ever known, and he had thought by the 30s he was finally on his way to becoming a fine adult. And suddenly, the British surrender brings his entire world crashing down. He had followed the rules faithfully thinking it was his destiny, but suddenly it was clear that all rules were made up. Of course, his insecurities exploded. If the empire was a ruse, what the hell was he? A part of the illusion? He couldn’t have a truly Asian identity, because many of the old East Asian nations shunned him for his Western upbringing, and he could not entirely understand their values either. So he was a kid who kinda had to figure out late and very very suddenly who the fuck he was and wanted to be.

And, well, he’s done pretty well for himself, hasn’t he. After having a total crisis and questioning everything, I think Singapore slowly started to realize that just because the British Empire as a political entity didn’t last forever, that didn’t mean that his entire childhood and identity weren’t real. The love he gave to his siblings and the love he got back, the hard work he put in, his bond with Arthur and the safe, happy childhood he had — those memories and feelings didnt have to be diminished by what came after. Essentially, he learned the lesson all nations have to learn, which is that one needs to be able to discern between duties as a nation and feelings as a human being, and to some extent keep them separate to protect both.

Whoooooo ok I’ll stop there because this turned into a dissertation, sorry. Let me know if there are any specifics u want me to elaborate on or anything I missed, but I’ll leave this here for today :)

[sofwrites]

for the prompt thing; polin + 41

41: sitting close and knees touching | Also my entry for Polin Week Day 3: Modern AU

A modern twist on Penelope finding out about Colin's journals

Themes: angst, yearning, teasing | Length: 2.3k

Read on ao3 or under the cut | masterlist

Thank you for requesting! xx

He hadn’t planned on telling anyone. He really hadn’t planned on anyone seeing them. And he really really hadn’t planned on anyone ever reading them.

The only reason Colin had even started keeping a journal was to remind himself that he was a real person on his travels- that he had the power to leave something permanent on earth. That he wasn’t completely wasting his time flitting from country to country- desperately trying to find some sort of purpose in his life.

Again, he hadn’t planned on anyone seeing them.

But one day he was painstakingly hiding his journals in a deep, hidden corner of his laptop, and the next, Penelope Featherington had found one. She’d found one then read. And somehow, she thought they were good. Actually good. Not I’m-only-saying-this-to-be-nice good.

And, sure, it had all happened by accident, but after some time, Colin was so incredibly thankful that it did.

He’d been hiding out in Eloise’s flat (Anthony had texted about wanting to meet that afternoon because- well, it didn’t matter really. The fact of the matter was that Colin had no desire to do so) when the buzzer rang.

He ignored it and continued to flip through the book in his hand.

But then it rang again. And again.

And on the fourth ring, Colin finally groaned and forced himself off of the sofa.

It was barely a second after his finger had reached the speaker that a loud, rather familiar-sounding shriek rang out. “Eloise!! Eloise! Please tell me you’re there!”

With a snort, Colin cut the voice off and buzzed them in. And in roughly a minute (an impressive feat considering that Eloise lived on the fifth floor), he saw a bouncing bit of red hair through the peephole and opened the door.

“Thank God, I really need-” Penelope froze mid-step in the frame as her eyes traveled up to reach Colin’s face. For a moment, she just stared, her mouth parted open. And then she swallowed and gave a quick shake of the head.

With a slightly forced smile, she nodded and swept past him, looking around as she went towards the sitting room. “Is Eloise in?”

“She’s not,” Colin answered flatly as he casually leaned against the closed door. He kept an impressively blank expression as Penelope haphazardly rifled through Eloise’s desk, roughly blowing a few loose curls out of her face. “Looking for something?”

Penelope either missed or simply ignored the teasing tone as she frantically moved her search to the sofa cushions. “Did she leave her laptop here?”

“Don’t think so. Though I’m not entirely sure- all she told me was to try not to empty her entire fridge.”

Normally, that would have elicited Colin a laugh or an amused smile, but all Penelope did was let out a groan. A groan that bizarrely caused his stomach to flip. He glanced away from her, clearing his throat. ”Erm- but if you need a laptop, I do have mine.”

Penelope looked up at him with such sharpness that it caught him a bit off guard. “You do? Can I borrow it?”

He blinked at her for a moment, but quickly nodded and motioned to his bag near her feet. He’d barely muttered a “Course” before she’d already retrieved and set it on the table.

“Oh, password’s-” Colin balked for a second, his mouth still open. He’d never told anyone his password before, and it felt… Odd. Unnerving to give away such a private piece of information. But Penelope was looking up at him again, eyes huge and slightly feral, antsy fingers hovering over the keys. He rubbed the back of his neck before mumbling, “GregorySux. With an x.”

The tips of Penelope’s fingers froze as the corner of her mouth twitched, but she bit her lip as she looked down to type.

“He kept hacking into it,” Colin said in an attempt to justify himself.

She seemed so focused on the screen that he thought she hadn’t heard him, but, almost absentmindedly, Penelope said, “Don’t think it’s hacking if your password is literally Password.”

He gaped at her. “I can’t believe Eloise told you!”

This time, Penelope just shrugged in response, her attention completely taken away. The only sounds that filled the room were those of her lightning-quick typing.

He stood there for a moment, feeling uncharacteristically awkward as he watched her fingers work. And then he cracked his neck before nodding. “Right, I’ll give you a minute…”

And as he reached Eloise’s toilet, it occurred to Colin he’d never before been alone with Penelope- not really. He’d known the girl for over a decade, but they’d never really been friends. They were friendly and had spent a decent amount of time together, but there’d never been a real closeness, definitely not one where they could spend a casual afternoon hanging out.

But Colin had never had trouble with finding the right words to say, so it shouldn’t be different with Penelope, right?

He’d asked her about work- that was safe. And maybe how her recent trip with Eloise and Frannie had been- also another safe topic. After that, it’d be no trouble.

But when he reentered the hallway, Colin immediately noticed how quiet it had suddenly gotten- the air completely absent of any hasty typing. Silently, he peered inside the sitting room.

Penelope was still hunched over his laptop, her mouth parted slightly as she stared at the screen. The only movement of her hands was to scroll, but her eyes were running across the screen at an inhuman speed. He watched her for a moment, the corner of his mouth rising unconsciously as her lips mouthed a few words.

He felt intrigued.

Not intrigued by her- of course. But rather intrigued by what had entranced her so much that she couldn’t dare peel her eyes from the computer.

She didn’t react as he crept behind her, looking over her shoulder to see the screen. The brightness was a bit lowered, but he could see a Word document. He leaned a bit closer, eyes squinting as he read a random line.

Imagine you’re at a party, feeling weightless and invincible-

Wait- he recognized those words.

Colin’s eyes flew to the title of the page, which very clearly read, Italy, 09/03/19.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Penelope yelped at the sudden noise, turning her head so quickly that her forehead made contact with Colin’s nose.

“OW!”

And that was how it had all started. A frantic Penelope, a trip to the toilet, an accidentally minimized Word document, and a (luckily) not broken nose.

He’d been angry at first… Well, really, he’d been fairly livid about the entire thing. Not because he was necessarily mad at Penelope, who had accidentally opened the tab initially, but rather because he felt… Embarrassed. It was embarrassing having one’s little sister’s best friend accidentally come across their greatest secret.

But even though he wanted to forget and pretend it all had never happened, Penelope had been unrelenting. After an assurance that what she read had been good, she’d practically demanded that he let her read through the rest of his work.

And now, weeks later, here they were sitting next to each other at his kitchen table, two cups of tea and a printed-out version of his journal laid out in front of them.

“What was it you were trying to say here?” Penelope asked, her eyes rolling over a highlighted section of an Australia entry.

He looked down at the page, following where her finger rested. Instantly, he felt himself flush a bit. She was pointing out a particularly convoluted metaphor he’d written, one likening the magnificent sunset to the familiarity of reading one’s favorite childhood book for the first time as an adult.

“Erm…” He cringed, unable to say anything else.

It was still so odd- the not knowing what to say. Colin Bridgerton wasn’t someone who ever had trouble figuring out his words, and yet… And yet having Penelope had that effect on him. Or, more likely, having Penelope inspect his work, dissecting every word that had ever come out of his brain, make him feel insecure in a way he never was.

It wasn’t so much that it was Penelope, of course. She was his sister’s best friend, a woman he’d known since they were barely grown. It would have been like that if anyone else had seen his work, he was sure of it.

But even still- he found himself staring at a rogue curl on her cheek, his hand twitching to reach up and tuck it away.

“Colin?” Penelope interrupted his roaming thoughts, abruptly looking up at him. Her lips pinched together once she saw his expression, pulling themselves down into a small frown. “Colin,” she repeated in a softer voice. “I wasn’t lying when I said you were a fantastic writer. It’s just that everyone needs a little editing- even the best of us.”

His head tilted slightly as he looked at her, suddenly caught on her use of the word, us. “Do you write a lot then?”

Penelope’s lips slowly formed a smile as she looked at him, a hint of hesitation on her face. She sighed, taking a moment. “Well, actually-” But then she cut herself off, suddenly resembling the same shy Penelope he hadn’t seen in years.

Colin found himself leaning in, putting both arms on the table in front of them, desperate to hear the end of whatever she’d wanted to say. He could feel his knee bumping into hers, but neither of them moved. “What?” he prompted, surprised to hear how faint his voice was. There was something about the moment that was making it rather difficult to breathe.

Penelope was looking back at him with an intensity, mouth slightly parted as she licked her lips reflexively. There was nothing inherently seductive about the movement, but- But something about the way her tongue flicked out made Colin’s stomach clench uncomfortably.

“Uhm,” she whispered, only hearing the loud beating of her heart. No one knew about her secret, other than her editor. And it would surely be a disaster if anyone ever found out …

But she had found out about Colin’s secret, albeit by accident. It felt only right that he should know hers as well…

But if she were being truly honest, she didn’t care very much about her secret at that present moment. Not when the two green eyes she had spent her entire adolescence (and much of her early adulthood) pining over were staring directly at her, looking as though they could see through her entire soul.

Every breath was an effort, every movement was the most difficult task in history. The spot where their knees were still gently pressed against each other felt like it was on fire, spreading itself across her body. She’d been in so much shock when the contact had happened that she hadn’t moved away. And then she’d been astonished when he hadn’t either.

Penelope couldn’t even remember what they’d been talking about, and it almost appeared that Colin… That Colin shared the same sentiment.

It felt like she was dreaming. Somehow, he was staring at her with just as much intensity as she was to him. She wasn’t sure if anyone had… She was quite certain that no one had ever looked at her like that.

Colin swallowed as he stared at her, taking in every freckle spread across her nose and every loose curl surrounding her face. He could see her eyes clearly for perhaps the first time in his life- a beautiful shade of warm brown with golden flecks throughout the iris. And then his eyes unwillingly moved, flickering to her lips as she licked them again, causing his gut to wrench painfully.

And then he realized that his hands on the table were so close to her own, the one still resting on his forgotten journal excerpt.

Almost without meaning to, his pinky twitched, moving just enough to meet hers. His breath hitched as he looked back up to meet her gaze.

Neither of them moved, as if moving would break something fragile. As if moving would forcibly tear them from the moment they were.

But then- he wasn’t sure how long- Penelope’s soft eyes left his, darting down to rest on their touching fingers. And then her eyes widened, and her entire body jerked backward, and suddenly Colin’s knee was incredibly cold.

Her chair made a loud scraping noise against the floor as she jumped up, startling him out of the hold he’d been under. “Pen-?”

“It’s getting a bit late,” Penelope muttered through a quick breath, quickly stashing away her belongings. “I’ll finish this at home, and we can meet another time to discuss it. Maybe coffee- next week.”

Colin frowned, getting out of his seat, and taking a few steps towards her. Quietly, he said, “Or you could stay here?”

Penelope froze for a moment before slowly retrieving her keys, gaze firmly locked onto the ground. All he could see were her eyelashes as she blinked.

He bent down slightly and reached out to lift her chin. “Or you could stay here,” he repeated with a bit more reverence in his voice. “We could get some dinner and- talk.”

Penelope swallowed as her eyes rested on his face for a fraction of a moment, but soon enough, she pulled away again. Her fingers trembled as she draped the bag over her shoulder, shaking her head as she looked towards the door. “Erm, no, sorry. I really- really need to go, Colin.”

And then she all but sprinted from the flat, leaving a speechless Colin Bridgerton behind.

[kpop-zone]

Blackpink reaction when their foreign s/o is homesick

A/N: Happy Comeback Day guys!!!

Jisoo

“What would make Y/N feel better?”

Jisoo huffed and looked at her members, desperate for advice.

As soon as she had realized that you were feeling homesick, she knew that she had to do something to make you feel better. And who better could she ask for advice than the two persons in her life that had went through the exact same thing as you?

“I think the worst thing in the beginning is the feeling of not fitting in. Everything is new and you’re not really connected to anything which can make you feel lonely. So the most important thing is that you make sure that Y/N doesn’t feel lonely.”

Chaeyoung explained and Lisa nodded in agreement.

That made sense.

Jisoo hummed deep in thought, already contemplating how she could prevent you from feeling lonely. Her career wouldn’t allow her to take care of you sufficiently, so she had to ask someone to help her. Not everyone could take that job though. It needed to be someone that Jisoo trusted 100%. And there weren’t a lot of people that she could say that about. Therefore, her decision was made in a matter of seconds and she sighed relieved.

Now she could finally sleep in peace again.

It had been bugging Jisoo tremendously to know that you were suffering, but not knowing how to help you. Now, however, she was feeling more optimistic; she couldn’t even wait to start fighting your homesickness.

Therefore, Jisoo wasted no time before taking you to the persons that should be a part of your support system from now on. Right on the next day, the two of you were standing in front of their door and you were nervously tugging on your clothes.

“Are you sure that your parents won’t mind if I come along?”

You asked right before jumping in surprise when the front door suddenly swung open.

“Of course not! You are a part of our family now! That means, you are always welcome here.”

Jisoo’s mother, who had opened the door, smiled warmly before pulling you into a hug. You seemed to relax instantly and thanked her profusely for her hospitality while walking into the apartment.

The interaction caused a fluttering feeling to spread in Jisoo’s stomach and she looked at the two of you fondly. It would pain her to know that you were feeling lonely whenever her schedule was preventing her from seeing you; but if you were feeling like you could have a place of refuge here too, she could leave reassured. Nothing would make her happier than knowing that you considered her family, your family too.

Jennie

Jennie immediately realized the subtle melancholia reflecting in your eyes. For weeks now, your eyes didn’t sparkle like they used to, and it didn’t take her long to figure out where this dullness was rooted. You were homesick. She knew that you loved your family and friends more than words could ever tell, so it was only logical that you were missing them. If she was honest, she would probably be a mess without her mum too. She could absolutely understand why you were feeling sad, even though she hoped that she could eventually make you feel home enough to banish your homesickness.

Till then, however, she had to get a little creative in order to distract you from your sadness. Especially with your birthday nearing, you were missing your family even more and Jennie knew that she had to do something special for you. It had to be a big gesture that was able to break through the wall of nostalgia that was getting higher and higher the closer your birthday was inching. That wasn’t an easy thing to do, but she already had a fail-safe plan.

On the day of your birthday, Jennie invited you to the dorm as soon as you were done with all your work. The time until the doorbell finally rang was pure torture for her, because she just couldn’t wait to surprise you. She was sure that you would love it.

“Hey baby!”

Jennie smiled from ear to ear when she opened the door for you, and you tilted your head in confusion.

“What’s going on?”

You asked suspiciously but Jennie quickly shook her head.

“It’s your birthday, dummy! Congratulations!”

Happily, she flung her arms around your neck to pull you into a warm hug. The embrace, however, only lasted for a few seconds before Jennie pushed herself off again and took your hand to pull you inside the apartment instead.

“I have a surprise for you.”

She grinned and you shook your head.

“I knew that something was going on.”

You smirked, causing Jennie to giggle. Without further ado, she dragged you behind her to the living room. Just before entering, she stopped quickly and flashed you a cheeky grin over her shoulder.

“Welcome home!”

Jennie said loudly -much to your confusion- in order to trigger her surprise for you.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

On cue, a chorus of voices sounded, causing your eyes to widen comically.

Inside the living room, at least a dozen technical devices were set up on every possible surface, displaying the faces of your entire family and some of your friends. A turmoil of congratulations, laughter and conversations filled the room, but Jennie didn’t let herself be bothered by that and calmly wrapped her arms around your waist to pull you closer.

“Happy birthday, baby.”

Jennie whispered into your ear and you looked at her fondly. You were completely speechless, but the sparkling inside your eyes was the only answer that she needed before pulling you in for a kiss.

Chaeyoung

“Oh my god.”

Loud giggling from beside Chaeyoung caused her to look up from her notebook where she had just scribbled down some lyrics.

“What? What’s so funny?”

She smiled, happy to see you in a good mood.

“Come here.”

You gestured her to come over and Chaeyoung gladly complied with your wish. Excitedly, she jumped onto the couch right next to you and rested her head on your shoulder in order to look on your phone screen. A video was playing, showing your family on some sort of fall festival, joking around with each other and grinning widely into the camera.

“Aw they’re so adorable.”

Chaeyoung cooed with her eyes glued on the screen, not wanting to miss a second of the cute video.

“They are.”

Your voice instantly alarmed Chaeyoung. It was barely above a whisper and she immediately noticed the shift in your mood, causing her to forget about the video in a heartbeat and to give you her undivided attention instead.

“Do you miss them?”

She asked carefully while soothingly running her hand up and down your arm.

“Yeah, especially in moments like this. This festival was kind of a big deal in my town and I went there every year with all of my family and friends. I just really wish, I could be there with them.”

You sounded happy and sad at the same time as you told her about all the funny things that you had experienced there and Chaeyoung listened attentively, feeling like it was important to allow you to have a piece of home here; even if it was just through your memories. She knew how hard it was to move to another country; the first years in Korea hadn’t been easy for her either. If she was being honest, she couldn’t even say that her longing for Australia had ever stopped. Sometimes a feeling of melancholia just washed over her even now, especially whenever she saw something that reminded her of the place that she used to call her home. The only thing that had helped her through that nostalgia was an attentive environment that continuously showered her with love. And Chaeyoung was planning on giving you that as well.

You yelped in surprise when a sudden force from the side suddenly tackled you onto the couch.

“Let’s do something together this weekend. I can reschedule some appointments and we can drive somewhere and do something fun.”

Chaeyoung hovered above you with an excited expression on her face, hoping that her distraction would work. She knew that this would not fix everything, but it was a place to start.

“That sounds like a great idea.”

For the first time since watching the video, you had a genuine smile on your face and Chaeyoung squealed happily.

“Yayyy!”

She cheered before leaning down to pepper your whole face with kisses causing you to giggle cutely.

The launch of the mission “Happiness” was hereby found successful.

Lalisa

You sighed sadly as you sent another apologetic text message to your mother. It was her birthday today, but because of your hectic life here, you couldn’t have flown out to see her. Of course, you had sent her a present by mail and called her first thing this morning, but you still felt like that wasn’t enough. You should be there to celebrate with her and if you were being honest, you were feeling a longing to be home for a while now. You had managed to distract yourself pretty well in the past weeks, but this occasion today was just a non-ignorable trigger for your homesickness.

This whole day you had been in a bad mood. Work just didn’t seem to pass by and now you didn’t even enjoy your way back home like you usually did. You loved where you were living right now. Your neighborhood was a little secluded from all the turmoil in the city center and your drive there included a little glimpse on several parts of Seoul. But today you couldn’t care less about all that. If you couldn’t be all the way where you wanted to be, you at least wanted to be in your apartment now; the place that was closest to making you forget about your homesickness. Not because it was especially pretty or cozy, but because of the person that you knew would be waiting there.

Therefore, you almost ran the way from the bus station to your apartment, just because you couldn’t wait to wallow in self-pity and let yourself be comforted by your girlfriend. As soon as you bolted through the front door, however, you came to an abrupt halt.

What was that smell?

It kind of smelt like...home. While sniffling wildly, you followed the orders of your noise and eventually found your girlfriend standing in the kitchen.

“What are you doing?”

You asked astonished, causing Lisa to turn around with a wide smile on her face.

“Y/N, you’re home already! I’ve cooked for us. I mean, I’ve tried...”

The proud grin on her face was absolutely contagious and almost managed to make you forget about your horrible day. Curiously, you walked up to her to peak over her shoulder at the stove. As soon as you spotted the food though, your jaw dropped. It was one of your favorite dishes that your mum always made when you came home.

“I thought, I’d make something special for you considering the occasion today.”

Lisa smiled softly, causing your heart to flutter.

“You remembered?”

You asked in awe, impressed that she had kept your mother’s birthday in mind.

“Of course, I did. I know how hard it is to be away from the place that you used to call your home for so long. It’s important to make your new environment as homey as possible and I’ll try my best to help you.”

In that moment, you felt more grateful than ever to be able to call Lisa your girlfriend and you flew into her arms, almost causing her to fall down.

“Thank you.”

[asinglemagpie]

Today has surprised me over and over.

We dropped the car off at the dealership to have them figure out what was going on with the climate control. It’s been needing to be seen to for about 6 months, but life went hella wonky so it got put on the back burner. I talked mum out of using our usual guy (who admitted he had no idea what he was doing and would need to take the whole dash apart..?!?!) and that it was worth going to people who deal with these cars all the time. Of course when I found out it was £130 just for them to look at the car, I was feeling like I was pushing us towards doom.

First good sign was the courtesy car wasn’t confusing to drive - though in part because we’d handled a new Juke before, when we were there the first time on a recall repair.

We got home, we got settled. I had breakfast and made iced coffee for the first rime (delish), then vacuumed the stairs (the hoovers were all charged).

Gas check dude turned up. New company, so it was interesting how different he was from the usual guys we used to have. He had a few troubles taking the case off the boiler, but all the tests came back totally fine, so that got a clean bill of health for another 9 months.

While he was there we got the call that the car was done - they had been busy so they didn’t get to it until this afternoon, but it only took them an hour to diagnose and fix, so come and get it when you can.

We get there, park in the last parking spot, and go in. Turns out the reason it was so fast was because the entire problem was ONE WIRE. It needed soldering and clicking back into place. (My hunch that our usual guy accidentally did it when doing the annual service/MOT seems to be absolutely on point.) The guy said we only needed to pay for the man-hours used - £120 for the hour. (Honestly, £2 a minute seems pretty reasonable to me considering how much knowledge these people carry around to fix these things IN AN HOUR lmao.)

So we’re already in shock - we were expecting sensors and things needing to be replaced so around £500 in hours and parts. £120 on top of the £130 fee to just look at it is like... very much below the terrified expectation.

Then the guy comes out and holds out the card machine: “That’ll be £125.”

Mum’s going “Wait wait... what... are you sure?”

I’m going, “Shh, don’t question it, just pay it before he changes his mind.”

He’s going, “Just. £125“ in a very pointed manner.

So at this point we’re pretty much losing it mentally lmao. From the way it was pitched we’d be paying £250 total, and he’s giving us the earnest look to just pay the £5 less than “look at” fee and stop asking questions.

But I mean he was so nice to talk to (we chatted about Australia for a bit lol... long story) and then we paid a SIGNIFICANT amount less than we expected, and less than we were quoted... so we got the numbers for how much a full service and their MOT services cost, and with the courtesy car so Mum doesn’t miss work (because our usual place doesn’t do that, so she has to take the day off work) we’d be paying less than the overall cost it would usually be.

And it’s not to malign the usual place, they have been very good to us for a very long time, but the car is coming up to 6 years old, and the overall cost factor it’s just so worth putting her in the hands of people that know what they’re doing with this particular model of car.

We get to the car - they’d washed it! Washed it outside and did a brief clean inside too. Completely unexpected, and very appreciated because it needed doing XDD

Then we get home, sit back a second and then it’s time to cut my hair! I had decided that it’s summer, I want my hair off my face... so I got a Jamie Lee Curtis cut. Slightly longer in places because of my particular face, but at half the length it was, it was still quite a substantial chop! But I am so in love with it. Selfie on FB levels of in love lmao!

Then we got home, and tried the Slush Puppie blue raspberry ice-lollies and holy cow they are perfect. Gonna need to get so many more, and I need to hunt for the proper stuff to mix with crushed ice because I need it for summer.

So... yeah... honestly so relieved at how well today went!

[snek-snacc-ficc]

One Is A Genius, The Other’s Insane

Summary: Logan had seen enough of the world to know it was a horrible place, greatly in need of a competent leader. That was a job he was more than willing to fill, and so, by the age of twenty, he began his tireless work to plan the perfect scheme for world domination. Things became much more complicated, however, when Remus, his complete opposite in nearly every sense, stumbled his way into his life.

(Pssst, it's a Pinky and the Brain au)

Words: 3,177

Logan Ackeroyd couldn’t pinpoint exactly when he realized the world was a horrible place. It had been more of a gradual thing really. He studied history in school and learned of all the horrors man had committed against man throughout the thousands of years of humankind's existence. Everyday he’d watch the news and see atrocities happening across the globe in real time. When he turned sixteen, he had to get a terrible job as a fast food cashier, enduring impatient, rude customers demanding cheap food that tasted like it had been chemically manufactured (and he figured it most likely was), just so one day college would be slightly more affordable. And, perhaps worst of all, when he did reach college, he was forced to listen to pretentious English professors take the likes of Sigmund Freud seriously. Listening to an old man tell a room full of his fellow peers that Hamlet wanted to copulate with his mother was the last straw, and so, by the age of twenty, Logan Ackeroyd decided that he would take over the world. 

He wasn’t the absolute perfect choice for Earth’s ruler, he knew, but he also knew that he had an immense amount of intelligence, and a righteous moral code, and that put him above nearly every other world leader in his book. 

Unfortunately, Logan found, working to become the world’s benevolent dictator didn’t pay well, in fact it often depleted his pocket book, and so he took up a job as a middle school science teacher by day, and would dedicate his nights to working out the perfect scheme for world domination. 

It was supposed to be a secretive, solo endeavor. Involving others in his plan could get messy and chaotic, which was rather counterintuitive to his goal. Along with that, it could prove disastrous to alert others of his plans for fear it could somehow lead to interference from the authorities. It was best, he decided, to simply keep to himself with a clear mind. All of that, however, was ruined the day he met Remus.

Logan’s trip to the hardware store was meant to be quick and simple. He was working on what he thought was the verge of a breakthrough, (a prototype of a device that would allow him to brainwash the masses through the use of a high pitched sound wave), but he was missing some of the tools needed for its completion. When he turned around from the shelf he had grabbed a collection of bolts from, he was brought face to face with a man with a handlebar mustache staring at him. He was startled for a moment, but the feeling quickly gave way to annoyance.

“Excuse me,” he said, pushing past him.

“Is that blood on your sleeve?”

Logan looked down at his long sleeved polo. He hadn’t noticed the red stain on it earlier and he thought it odd that the stranger would point it out.

“I don’t believe so. There’s a stronger possibility that it’s jam.”

“You should totally lick it to find out.” 

“That would be highly uncouth,” Logan deadpanned, hoping the peculiar person would soon leave.

“It could be cool. If it is blood then you’d be like a vampire.”

Logan moved towards the check out, delving into an explanation of the definition and proper pronunciation of “uncouth.” The man continued to trail behind him, apparently satisfied with his shopping trip of a cartful of spray paint, chattering on about what seemed like disconnected nonsense. By the time he was finished with his purchase, excusing himself once again to leave, Logan was relieved to no longer be burdened with the annoying distraction.

He rushed to his lab with the missing parts once he reached home, eager to begin work on the project once more. He had little time to do so though, as right as he began the door to the room swung open. Logan jumped, grabbing a screwdriver on instinct in case he had to defend himself, and spun around to see the man from the store standing before him. 

“What?!- Why’re you-” he sputtered, completely flabbergasted.

“You left this at the checkout,” the man said, thrusting forward a plastic bag with a collection of wrenches in it. Logan hadn’t even realized he’d left it behind, but his attention had been split when he was checking out thanks to the other.

“So your first reaction was to stalk me and break into my house?!” Logan’s voice rose with anger and unease. “How did you even find where I live?”

“I followed your car.” The man said it like doing so was the most casual thing in the world. “I almost missed ya, but I caught up just in time. Lost you for a second at a stoplight though. And when I found you again your car was already in the driveway and you were gone. I tried knocking at the front door but you never answered, so I just walked in and heard you doing...whatever this is down here.”

Logan was silent, both confused and slightly disturbed that the man’s first solution had been breaking and entering, but he had little time to dwell on that. His cover was blown. His lab had been exposed to an outsider who would most certainly bring an end to his work. It had always been a concern of Logan’s, but he didn’t think he would be faced with it so soon. He kept his composure though, already theorizing which high security prison he might be thrown into. 

“Well,” he said, “I suppose now that you know of my secret you will contact the authorities. I’d rather you do it now and get it over with. My phone is right over there if you need to use it.”

The man did not move to grab it however. He remained where he was, darting his gaze around the room.

“Why would I do that?” he asked, still taking in the surroundings.

“B-Because you know of my nefarious plans now, to take over the world.” Logan gestured to the large bulletin board on the wall labeled “Plans for World Domination,” using the same tone of voice he used when re-explaining concepts to students that had been zoned out in class.

“You’re trying to take over the world?!” the other sounded ecstatic, “Woah, how?”

That hadn’t been the reaction Logan expected at all, and he still was unsure whether it was a trap of sorts or the man in question really was this...dense seemed the best way to put it. Either way, he had little left to lose. If he was going to get arrested, at least he would finally get the chance to explain his genius plan to someone beforehand. He turned back towards the device on the work desk. 

“Well if you must know, I’m working on this prototype of a device that would send out a high frequency noise to anyone within a ten thousand mile radius. Once it’s finished, I was going to hide them on numerous radio towers and implant a message within it that would brainwash everyone that heard it, allowing me to gain total control of a large number of people quite quickly and efficiently. The only problem thus far seems to be a simple yet pesky error on my part; These wires on its main control panel keep falling in the way when I try to work on it, and there's no way for me to move them all at once and simultaneously continue my work.” 

“Well I can help with that Dr. Dork-enshmirtz, here.” He moved over to the control panel, lifting up the bunches of wires that hung over it. “That better?”

Logan, though still a bit stunned, dug around in the bag the man had brought over, taking out the wrench he needed to continue where he left off. 

“My name is Logan,” he said, “but that is quite helpful, thank you…?”

“I’m Remus,” the other chirped eagerly.

“Thank you Remus.” As much as he loathed to admit it, it was fairly nice to have some sort of companionship. Being able to share just a bit of his idea already gave him a rush of excitement, despite the odd circumstances it had occurred under. And having someone to be an extra set of hands was an added bonus.

“Would it be possible for you to further offer your assistance to me?”

“Sure thing Nerdy Wolverine, as long as I get Australia privileges when you brainwash everyone. I’m gonna make a spider army.” 

The plan fell through in the end (Logan hadn’t considered how difficult it would be to travel the globe, climbing thousands of radio towers), but from that moment on Logan had Remus as his partner in justifiable crime.

---

"Heeeyyy Logie, what are we gonna do tonight?"

Logan rubbed his temples. For ninety-five nights in a row Remus had asked this same question, and every single night Logan's response was the same.

"The same thing we do every night Remus, try to take over the world."

"Ooo neat! What are we gonna do this time? More sabotaging jam companies?"

"No Remus," Logan sighed, "after last night's disaster we're lucky we aren't on some government watch list." He was most disappointed that out of all of his plans that one fell through. Creating a utopia where only Crofter's jam was consumed would have been a dream come true. But alas, he had to move on.

"Truth be told I am rather stumped as to what our next approach should be, but I'm sure with some copious amounts of effort I will come up with another brilliant idea."

"Why don't you take the night off Brainiac?" Remus asked.

"Take the night off?" Logan scoffed, "When the world still remains in the clutches of corrupt, incompetent leaders? Never. Besides, what would I do if not plot to take over the world?" 

"You could take a nap," Remus suggested, "You've got circles under your eyes so dark you could pass for a MySpace profile picture."

"While I appreciate the concern, my friend, I am quite fine. Though my sleep schedule is a bit off of an average rhythm, rest assured I have calculated a routine that keeps me functioning regularly. Though, given that you sleep a full 9 hours each day I doubt a set sleeping pattern can do much to create normal behavior." Logan muttered the last bit watching Remus grind his nails against his teeth like they were a nail-filer.

Remus halted his movement, inspecting his hand with one eye closed as he spoke. "Well then we could do something fun. We could watch this one documentary I want to see about this religious cult that made all it's followers fuck each other on a bridge and then jump off," he let out a cackled laugh, "Crazy how all that religious stuff can control people like that."

Logan scrunched his nose. "Remus, I ask that you keep your disgusting documentary drivel to yourse-" He paused for a moment, the last thing Remus said sinking in. 

"Remus, what did you just say?"

"It's crazy how all the religious junk can control people," Remus repeated, "that's partially why I gave up organized religion, in fact…" 

He trailed off but Logan wasn't listening, the gears in his head turning, formulating a new idea.

"Remus," he exclaimed, eyes lit up as he cut the other off without realizing it, "are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"Hm, well I think so Logie," Remus said, "but I'm actually allergic to synthetic body glitter."

Logan grit his teeth, face falling. 

"You would make for wonderful evidence to prove it's possible to de-evolve, Remus. No, I was referring to the idea of preying on the population through the use of religion. If I were to somehow convince the masses that I were a god I would have the world tied around my finger; They would do anything I commanded."

"Woah, you'd be a much better god than Sky Daddy Logan," Remus said, "but how are you going to get that many people to trust you?"

"From what I've observed, most people seem to distrust claims of the supernatural due to a lack of perceivable, verified evidence," Logan said. "If I could find a way to create some sort of projection of myself to a large number of people all at once, it might be enough to convince them that I am a deity. And right here in America would be the perfect starting point, because most people here are rather gullible and severely lacking in critical thinking skills."

Remus clapped his hands together. 

"Yay! We're gonna start a nerd cult!"

---

Tireless nights were spent working to bring the plan to fruition. Logan had to work out exactly how he could create a convincing projection of himself, as well as find a power source with enough energy to fuel it. After weeks of building, planning, and re-working the contraption was finally finished and ready to be put to use. 

It was about half past ten o'clock when Remus and Logan headed out to the nearby electrical company. Its small amount of security and large source of power made it the ideal location to put his plan into motion. When they arrived and had successfully snuck through the wired fence, Logan turned to Remus.

"Here," he said, handing him a thick metal pole he had under his arm, "you use this to knock out the security guards while I hack into the security system and cameras. Try and meet me in 15 minutes."

Remus gave a two-fingered salute. 

"You got it Dorkenshmirtz."

Logan rolled his eyes at the nickname, but couldn't truly be annoyed by it. So far everything was going perfectly according to plan. Logan even found himself grinning as he made quick work of disabling the security, the flow of adrenaline making him nearly burst with excitement. Once the system was completely down, he turned tail to head to the main center. He unzipped the bag he was carrying, carefully taking out the disk-like platform he would use for the projection, and untangling the series of wires and cords to put together. To his dismay, he found that the last cord was slightly bent, most likely from being shuffled around in the bag on the trip over, and wouldn't properly plug in to the outlet without hands on assistance. The concern was quickly diminished though. Remus would be able to hold it in place while he was on the platform. Just as the thought crossed his mind the door swung open and Remus stepped in. His hair was slightly more astray than usual and a noticeable bruise was forming around his jaw, but he was smiling madly, chipper as ever.

"Did you take all of the guards out?" Logan asked.

"Yup, I bonked 'em!" Remus said, proudly. "A few of them put up a fight but I went like this," he swung the pole through the air, "BONK!"

Logan couldn't help the amused quirk of his lips. 

"Wonderful," he said, making his way towards the platform, "Everything has been put into place, except the cord over there. I need you to hold it into the outlet for this to work. Do not let go."

Remus nodded.

"Amen Sky Daddy!"

He plugged the cord in, keeping it upright and steady. Almost immediately the platform lit up with a surge of power. Logan walked towards it, nearly trembling. Finally after years of work, trying and failing and trying again, he was going to succeed. The world would finally be his to craft to his perfect, peaceful vision.

Once it was completely charged up Logan took his step onto the platform. Outside an enlarged image of himself filled the sky for miles. He cleared his throat, preparing his speech for the people, when suddenly his moment was interrupted by the sound of Remus cursing to himself as softly as he could manage. His head whipped around and to his horror he saw sparks of electricity flying from the place where the cord met the outlet, sending repeated shocks through Remus, who was struggling through the pain to keep the cord plugged in.

Remus looked to Logan, seeing him hesitate.

"Go on," he whispered, though his voice was strangled with discomfort, "I'm fine."

Logan turned back around once more, but got no further in his speech as he caught the sparks growing larger out of the corner of his eye. 

Time seemed to freeze for Logan, his head was spinning, torn between the task at hand and Remus' pained whimpers.

He'll be fine.

He'll get electrocuted and die.

It's one person vs the future of the rest of the world. This is what I've worked towards for years, and I'm going to blow it.

But he's helped so much. 

Stupid, loyal Remus with his constant screw ups, and dumb jokes, and annoying nicknames, and laughter and chatter that always rang through the house, that filled a void I didn't even notice was there before, and-

Remus cried out, his body completely jolting with an electric shock, but still he forced himself to keep hold of the cord.

"Remus let go!" Logan shouted.

"N-no, y-you-" Remus couldn't get out another word before another strong shock struck him. The surrounding wires and cords were jumping with sparks as well, and Logan caught sight of a fire starting at the floor where Remus sat slumped weakly against the wall.

"Remus!"

Without thinking twice Logan bolted from the platform, heaving Remus into his arms just as the flames began to grow and approach his body. He rushed out of the building, lungs burning from the toxic fumes of smoke that filled the air, but he didn’t slow his pace until they reached the car, the sound of sirens already blaring in the distance.

The drive home almost certainly broke the speed limit, but Logan cared little about that, glancing at Remus, unconscious but miraculously breathing, every few seconds until they reached home.

---

It was evening two days later when Remus finally awoke. He groaned, blinking his eyes open. Just as he came to, Logan walked into the room, rushing over to the bedside.

"So Logan,” Remus said, flashing a dopey smile up at him, “what do you want to do tonight?" 

Logan threw his arms around Remus' neck, the position awkward due to him being sprawled out on the bed, but neither paid any mind to it. Tears leaked out of Logan's eyes, that he tried to hold back.

"I think," he said, sniffling, "that you can choose what we do tonight Remus."

Soon after, the two were curled up on the couch, Remus' head resting on Logan's thighs. Logan sipped hot chocolate from his #1 DICK-tator mug, a Christmas gift from Remus, carding his fingers through the other's hair as a true crime documentary played on the T.V. Maybe, he thought, world domination could wait a bit when he had his whole world lying right in his lap.

---

Ah! I’m so glad I finally finished this! Think of it as my own little celebratory work to welcome in the new Animaniacs reboot.

Taglist: @bullet-tothefeels 

[acnelli]

Illuminating

I had a lot of fun writing this story for the 2020 HPRomione Discord Secret Santa Exchange. Thank you @remedial-potions for organising this for us. And shout out to @nagemeikenu who beta-read my story at such short notice.

[...] Ron Weasley was, without a doubt, the brightest and strongest light for her and she knew that it was everything she needed. [...]

Also avialable on FFN and AO3.

Please also check out all the other great stories that are and will be added to the AO3 collection.

 “But it’s tradition, Hermione!”

“So?”

“So, it means bad luck if we do.”

“Honestly, you can’t believe that, Ron. This is superstition at its best.”

“Better safe than sorry if you ask me.”

“Isn’t it also against tradition to have sex before being married? I don’t remember you putting up a fight against this particular case of tradition-breaking.”

Hermione crossed her arms in front her and looked expectantly at Ron, absolutely unable to keep the smugness out of her face.

She should’ve known better though because Ron never failed to come up with something in response. “Mum will insist for you to sleep in Ginny’s room tonight. I’m sure,” Ron continued, completely ignoring Hermione’s irrefutable offering of logic, “You may have noticed next to nothing slips by her and this certainly isn’t something she’ll choose to ignore.”

Ron met Hermione with an equally smug grin, absolutely positive bringing Molly Weasley into this would settle the argument.

It didn’t.

“What I indeed noticed is the inability of your family to keep their noses out of our life,” Hermione complained, blowing an annoying strand of hair out of her face, “I love your mother, you know it, but I don’t see how it’s any of her business whether or not the two of us share a bed tonight.”

“She’ll make it her business and you know it.”

“Why does she care?”

“Because it’s bad luck!”

Hermione groaned and ran her hand through her hair in frustration, making it even wilder in the process. Despite them bickering over the silliest things, she certainly didn’t expect this particular topic becoming something they would disagree on. Because as of yet, they never disagreed on anything considering their…bedroom activities.

It was the day before Ron and Hermione’s wedding, and despite their recent argument, Hermione felt excited, looking forward to tie the knot with the tall, lanky redhead in front of her. It was the next milestone in their relationship, and sure enough, the most important one as of yet.

Hermione was well aware that nothing would really change after tomorrow; they’d still continue to live in their quarter of Grimmauld Place since Harry insisted for them to not rent a “ridiculously expensive” apartment in London when they could live in the former Order’s Head Quarter for free. Of course, he was right about that, but both Ron and Hermione agreed that at some point in their life they have to find a place of their own.

Yes, nothing changed. But at the same time, everything did. Marrying Ron didn’t make what they had more important or more meaningful. But there was always something strange about calling Ron her boyfriend. From the earliest moments of their relationship, the word ‘boyfriend’ just didn’t feel right because all things considered, especially the years of mutual pining and constant danger, all the things they went through together, made the word just not strong enough when Hermione thought about it.

She couldn’t help the smile appearing on her face when she thought about the night Ron Weasley stopped being her boyfriend and started to become her fiancé.

It had been almost six months ago when they walked home from Dean’s Christmas Party. The night couldn’t have been more perfect for Christmas Eve with the light layer of snow covering everything, illuminated by the bright light of the full moon. Almost every street light and every window they passed on their way back to Grimmauld Place were decorated with Christmas lights and from somewhere far away they heard a man singing, very loudly and very off-key.

“Reckon that’s one of Dean’s party guests?” Ron laughed as they walked hand in hand through a little park.

Hermione chuckled, thinking about all the booze available at Dean’s. “The only one still sober enough to stand, let alone sing, was Harry. And we know that’s not his singing voice.”

“That’s true. Harry sings much worse than this guy.”

“Definitely,” Hermione said, chuckling at the memory of Harry singing a lullaby to his Godson, “I think he scarred Teddy for life.”

“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star will forever be a trigger for that poor child.”

Hermione barked out a laugh and took a quick look at her watch.

“Oh, it’s already past midnight, Ron,” she said and looked up at him, “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas, love.”

Ron stopped walking and pulled Hermione against him, kissing her cold nose. “You know,” he said as he clapped his hand against his jean pocket, “I actually have that present of yours right here with me.”

“And…that present is inside your pants and happy to see me or…?”

Ron barked out that deep laugh she loved so much and she loved it even more when she was the one responsible for it. He leaned down to softly kiss her, leaving Hermione with the taste of eggnog and cinnamon on her lips.

Stepping back a little, Ron pulled out a book of his pocket, clearly too big to fit in there. Since Ron hated carrying around bags the undetectable extension charm became one of Ron’s favourite uses of magic. The book had a thick leather cover and in Ron’s messy handwriting the words ‘Our Adventures’ were dancing up and down the front.

Hermione took the diary-sized book from Ron and opened it to the first page.

‘The Beginning’ it said at the top and it showed a photograph of them and Harry in first year. She couldn’t help but smile back at the three children, especially her past self with wild bushy hair and flushed cheeks and a huge toothy grin. Little Hermione was so happy to finally have friends that it made her forget all about her large front teeth she usually used to avoid showing in pictures.

As she turned the pages, Hermione travelled back in time as she looked at all the moving pictures that showed their shared adventures. From their school years over their joint trips all around the world to birthdays, weddings and family gatherings, it was all there. Even the picture her Dad had made of them when Ron and Hermione brought them back from Australia was in there, positively unmoving, but showing a very tanned Hermione and a Ron with the worst sunburn of his life.

And when she turned the last page there wasn’t another picture of them. The words written there sent a jolt right through her heart, making it beat faster. And when she looked up, the picture in front of her matched the question she just read.

Ron knelt in front her with a small, golden ring in hand and Hermione found the same emotions in his eyes that threatened to fill her heart to bursting and that only he could give her; happiness, hope and…love. 

Back then, he asked her to start their next big adventure. When he proposed to her, something clicked into place. She already had the thing she would miss the most, but to tie the knot felt like the right step to make.

When the witch thought back at their years together as friends and a couple, she couldn’t help but marvel over how well everything worked out in the end. Because Merlin knows, they didn’t have an easy start by any means. Their romance started right when incredibly hard and dark months lay ahead of them; months and years of mourning, rebuilding, coping and one of the things she was incredibly thankful for, therapy. They all needed it, although all of them used to consider it an admission of vulnerability before they finally saw how healing it was, amongst other things.

And despite the grave times and hardships, Hermione always had her very own source of light. Among the wonderful people in her life providing her with the warmth she needed to beat the darkness, one of them stood out the most. Ron Weasley was, without a doubt, the brightest and strongest light for her and she knew that it was everything she needed.

Ron currently stood in front of his wardrobe, fishing out one of his old but still brightly orange Cannon shirts. Before he could turn around again, Hermione walked up and hugged him from behind. She pressed herself against his back, her left cheek resting right between his shoulder blades.

“Okay!” She murmured as her fingertips softly grazed up and down Ron’s sides.

“Okay what?”

“I’ll sleep at my parents’ house tonight.”

Ron turned around to her, clearly surprised about the sudden change of opinion.

Before he could say anything else, she softly kissed him. Returning and deepening the kiss, Ron pulled her closer as a soft moan escaped her. Kissing Ron Weasley most definitely will never get old.

“Are you sure?” He asked, and Hermione couldn’t help but chuckle at the not-so-subtle disappointment in his voice.

“Did you expect me to persuade you with my mediocre seduction skills? Because I think I looked right through you just now.”

With a smug and slightly embarrassed look that only Ron Weasley could manage, he gave her one of his trade-mark lopsided smirks.

“It was less expecting than hoping for it,” he answered, softly tugging some locks behind her ear before leaning down to kiss her ear lobe, “And mediocre my arse you little vixen.” “Well, I definitely considered it to be my next move, but then I thought it’s probably kind of romantic to not see each other until Dad walks me down the aisle.”

“I’ll certainly not stand in the way of this rare display of romance by Hermione Granger.” Ron winked at her as he slowly backed her into the direction of his old bed. “But if you don’t mind, I’d love to get you a parting gift before your departure.” 

*******

As Hermione lay in her bed, dressed in her most comfortable pyjamas, she finally admitted to herself why she had been against separate sleeping arrangements tonight in the first place. It was irrational and probably ridiculous considering the many days they spent apart when Hermione went to Hogwarts and Ron to Auror training, but she couldn’t quite shake off the feeling of uneasiness and unrest that settled inside her stomach.

She had gotten so used to falling asleep beside him, with his soft snoring and the warmth always radiating off him, no matter how cold of a day it was. Several night missions and other Auror assignments made Hermione miss the redhead at night, but especially today, with the excitement about tomorrow keeping her wide awake, she found it next to impossible to fall asleep without his large, freckled hand resting on her hip.

As Hermione looked out of the window beside her old bed, preparing herself to count herself to sleep with the stars she could make out from here, a small ball of light reflected in the glass and illuminated the room.

And she really didn’t need to turn around to see who just apparated inside her bedroom. That’s why she just closed her eyes, not being able to stop her face to split into a wide smile when Ron climbed into bed beside her and draping an arm around her middle, pulling her close.

For some silly reason, Ron showing up tonight made her feel so incredibly happy that she couldn’t stop the tears welling up in her eyes. Enjoying his warmth and leanness and the hot breath at the back of her neck, she marvelled at the simple fact that Ron Weasley illuminated her life in every way possible.

“I love you.”

“I love you.” 

[dearmrsawyer]

well IT WAS A YEAR. it was also emotionally two weeks and five years? lol. its been a lot, but there were some real positives from this year that i wanna reflect on just because! they’re nice to think about!!

i’d love to know if any of you have any positive things from your year that you’d like to reflect on. accepting asks where we can celebrate your little wins too :)

in general i’m just quite proud of myself for how i’ve managed the library this year, given that its just me. its been hard feeling more disconnected from our students, and also trying to provide them with support that can reach across the void created by distance learning. it wasn’t 100% successful all the time! but it can’t be, and i never aimed for that. i just did everything that i felt i could reasonably do as a single individual, and i think i did my best! i spent a lot of this year driving out to post books to our students, or meeting them at convenient locations to do book swaps, and i’ve spent a lot of time coaching academics through online systems over zoom so that they could effectively teach their subjects, and i’ve spent a lot of nights and weekends prepping materials that needed to be made available to students ahead of class, because our academic staff weren’t able to finish them while i was still on the clock (i’m def not trying to @ our academics here! they’ve been delivering material late all year bc of how much extra work they’ve had to take on too! its just the roll on effect bc i’m the last link in the chain). i’ve felt a huge sense of camaraderie with many of my colleagues this year, and am grateful i had them to make this work year more manageable. but i know i’ve been doing a lot of hidden work and i think i did well :)

oh man i loved turning off my wake up alarm in march and never turning it on again!!!! I think i can count the number of times i’ve had to use my alarm on one hand, and they were mostly dr appointments. it feels so comfortable to wake up when my body decides, whether its 6am or after i should already be working LOL. there have definitely been ebbs and flows to how well i’ve slept throughout the year, sometimes i know exactly what’s affecting my sleep and sometimes i have no idea, but regardless, the absence of an impending alarm has been such a nice way to compensate for.. everything else lol

i started growing vegetables!!!!!! I spent a week in March digging out a patch of my yard, and then the next month or two growing seedlings, and i successfully grew snow peas, silverbeet, beetroot and lettuce :D i also added dill to my herb garden, and successfully propagated thyme and lemongrass! i did attempt a few other vegetables that didn’t pan out, mostly because snails kept eating my seedlings jkjdgkj but it was so exciting to successfully grow something that i could then EAT! and i’ve also been able to figure out which vegetables i consider more convenient to grow, for example buying leafy greens can be super inconvenient bc i find its often impossible to use them all before they go bad. they sell greens in such ridiculously large bunches! but growing them myself, i can go out and pick however many leaves i want, and the rest won’t go bad because they’re still on the plant! i also started to stagger how many seeds i wanted to grow which meant they weren’t all maturing at the same time, and i didn’t need to use them all at the same time. 

Supernatural finished this year which was NOT a highlight 😭 but it was originally scheduled to finish in May, and i was given the gift of 6 whole extra months to live with this show as a work in progress. as much as i still wasn’t ready to say goodbye in November (would i have ever been ready), i was given so much unexpected extra time to appreciate being IN it while it was still going. i spent so much of this year reflecting on how big a part of my life this show has been, and how much its given me and shaped me. from the ages of 14 to 29 i was able to live with this show as a close friend, and i’ve never taken that for granted, but i am so thankful for the extra time i was given to reflect and appreciate it even more deeply. also supplementary highlight is how much that ending meant to me <3 the world can think whatever it wants but i was on that journey for 15 years, i was there for every episode, never falling behind or taking a break, and that ending honoured the story i watched, and i am very grateful that the pain of it ending was cushioned by the sense of peace and fulfilment that ending gave me. 

i finally found hair products that WORK!!!!! i’ve had the same hair routine for like a decade (basically sans products) and i thought i should use this extended period of time where i exist unobserved to experiment. i’ve never really bought hair products for myself, i’ve always inherited them from my mum bc she always had a surplus of products she’s collected over the years. our hair couldn’t be more different so i’ve never experienced a product that was particularly effective LOL. i have v dry hair that’s naturally curly/wavy but extremely frizzy, and i have soo much of it!! so many hairs on my head! my mission was to find a way to let it dry naturally without all that frizz popping up, and without having to dry it in two big twists. the only products directed at curly hair that i’ve ever been aware of is mousse, which used to give people that crunchy look that i can’t staaaaaand but i’ve spent a few months buying quite a lot of products and testing them out one after another, and i’ve found a couple that i absolutely LOVE!! this is big for me bc i always structured my week around when i wash my hair (the day of and day after i’m unavailable lol). i’ll still have to structure my time around it somewhat bc it takes so so long to dry, but its going to be less of a drama if i have to do things when its not completely dry yet, and also i just feel like i’m finally getting to let my hair do its own thing without it stabbing me in the back 😂

i think that human connection has probably been more important this year than ever before, and i’ve often felt like maintaining connections requires energy i just haven’t had for a lot of this year. but i also feel like i have been very connected? i feel like i put in the work. my best friend and i shared a few phone calls this year even though neither of us have ever really been big on phone calls (neither of us have ever talked with people on the phone much in our lives lol). i’ve skyped with my Norwegian friend Ellen almost every month this year!! my friend Bel and i started exchanging sporadic voice messages again, which i’ve just loved. i’ve video chatted with Steph even though it was a scary new venture! and it was so amazing! i do feel like i’ve had less interaction with people on my dash this year, but i feel like working from home has changed the ebbs and flows of my energy throughout the day sooo much, and i just haven’t been online as much when other people are, but i’ve spent a lot of time connecting with people over whatsapp! when it comes to family, being around my grandparents was really really stressful for the first half of the year, but as the situation in Australia eased we relaxed enough that we were comfortable to spend time with them without our masks (plus we weren’t seeing anyone else lol). and i was able to make myself available to them more often while working from home, since i live only a minute away! we stopped having our big family lunches until September, and when we were finally able to get back together we enjoyed each other’s company so much. so while i haven’t been face to face with people on a daily basis, i don’t think i’m any less connected to the people that matter than i was a year ago.

[smolbeandrabbles]

Hanging On - Emmett Dutton x Reader (Australia)

GIF Credit: X

@happyskywhale​ @wltz-bby​

A spiritual sequel to:  When She Says Baby / Starlight / Living Proof

Requested by @slurpin 

Author’s Note: Every single ride I mention existed in the 1940′s and honestly it’s not research that I ever thought I’d have to do but here we are!

Massive shout out to @saddadfanclub​ for the catalyst, truly an excellent suggestion 🙏

Also, Kathner is back - because of course he is. 😉

Also, just because the lyric video is set at a Theme Park, which is too good of a coincidence... Hangin On - Chris Young

It takes 2900 words to get to the smut, and no I will not apologise! 

Disclaimer: Australia & all associated pieces not mine / lyrics & gif neither.

Premise: Emmett takes you on a surprise date, and while you’re having the best time, there’s still no where you’d rather be than loving on him back at home...

Words: 7136

Warnings: Soft/Sweet Smut - it’s more emotional than it is Sinday/Sunday. / Emmett should always come with an insulin warning... he’s a little feistier this time though!

_______

I'm a few drinks in, but that ain't the reason I'm all tongue tied and my breath's leaving this fast I can't get past Those blue eyes shining They keep drawing me in to you Got me fallin' off track, you get me like that It's every smile coming off of your sweet lips That makes me wanna stay here No, this ain't a one night, one time thing You always light me up like a flame and it's clear Every time you're near Yeah, I'm hangin' on, hangin' on To every word you say, every move you make I'm hangin' on, hangin' on Wondering what's up next Girl, I can't wait Ain't nothing like spinning you around the room Where everyone can see You hangin' on, hangin' on to me So let me pull you a little closer Even when the music's over I'll be hangin' on, hangin' on To every word you say Every move you make I'm hangin' on, hangin' on Wondering what's up next I can't wait... ---

It was quite the view. Okay, fine, it wasn’t the most perfect view, but the man walking it sure as hell was. You were leaning on the wooden frame of your front porch awaiting the return of your other half, who had hurried off into town to get something that was clearly important for whatever date he was taking you on. As you would be leaving immanently when he arrived, you decided to stand out in the warm sunshine – luckily by the time you were outside he was already returning. Emmett was always easy on the eye – there couldn’t have been a woman in your little town who didn’t know that, and you often watched them call to him up and down the street as he walked by. The catch for all of them of course was that they could stare at him all they wanted, but they couldn’t be with him. (On second thought, maybe you ought to start charging them for looks). That had been your place for several years now, ever since he’d been stationed here for the first time. He’d moved up to Darwin during the war effort, and you’d made the trip a few times, but, now with the war over he was back with you. Still a Captain, of course, but today out of uniform. Emmett stopped just short of the steps, gentle smile on his face, “Ready to go?” “Mhmmm.” He tipped his head, “What’s that look for?” “Oh, nothing…” You sighed dreamily as you descended slowly, “You’re wearing my favourite shirt.” The dark blue was fairly faded and worn these days, but he still looked flawless in it. “Oh.” His smile became slightly shy, and those beautiful blue eyes lowered from yours, “I mean I could pretend I didn’t think about that, but I am taking you on a date.” That somehow managed to make you more overjoyed, “You wore it for me!?” “Uhm, yes.” “You’re gonna make me cry before you even take me on a date, you know that!?” But you were kidding as you wound your arm around his and Emmett linked your fingers, “May I kiss you for that?” His smile widened, “You may.” You pushed yourself up on your toes to brush your lips to his, and then pecked his cheek just for good measure. He gave you a knowing look, but said nothing more as he walked you to the car. “Is this a big surprise, Captain?” “You should know, you only mentioned it to me last week.” You mused for a second, “Well, we’re not going to see any Kathner reruns…” that was obvious by the time of day. “You need to stop with the Kathner fixation before it gets out of hand.” “Process of elimination! WAIT- The fair?!” Emmett only nodded, “That’ll be the one.” “OH MY-” you gasped, “You said it wasn’t your thing! I completely dismissed it!” “Yes, well.” That little smile was mysterious. “You said it was hard to get tickets!!!” After you’d practically begged him to humour you, he’d only presented you with that news. No way, Emmett didn’t have it in him to play you like that, did he?! He reached into his back pocket and slid the tickets apart, “Did I?” He was clearly very amused by this. “Did you lie to me!?! I can’t believe you!” “Well, I just wanted it to be a nice surprise, now get in or we won’t get there, will we.” You stood by the car door, arms folded and mouth slightly agape as he opened it for you, and couldn’t help but laugh, “Consider me surprised!” *** The drive was fairly short considering it’d been set up reasonably close to your little town. Emmett was already shaking his head at you as some of the larger structures came into view before you arrived, eyes wide as saucers. “If I’d known this was going to be your reaction, I’d have taken you right away!” Your voice was pitched in joy, “There’s a pleasure wheel and flying swings. This is already the best date ever!” “I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment, considering.” You turned to him and batted your eyelashes, “Oh, but Emmett, any date with you is the best date ever!” He chuckled, holding his hand out for yours, kissing the back of it when offered, “Alright, stop.” Your intake of breath was sharp, “Oh, Captain, I’m not sure you can stop me now!” “Ha-! I’m not sure I ever could!” That much was probably true, had your relationship up until now been anything to go by.

 While at first your excitement got the better of you, and you almost literally dragged Emmett around from place to place trying to decide on what to do next, he – as ever – pulled you back to reality. “Y/N, Y/N- hold on!” He pulled you back to face him, not entirely sure what your long and extremely fast babble had been about, except every so often you exclaiming ‘Look Emmett they have-!’. With you now looking up at him, quiet for a moment, he framed your face delicately with his hands, “Sweetheart, calm down. We have all day – we’ll get everything done; I promise. I know you’re a firecracker, but you can… slow up every now and then too, y’know?” You placed your hands over his, interlocking your fingers, nodding gently, “I… I’m sorry I just, got over excited.” “Yes, I know that too.” Emmett pressed his lips to your forehead, “Give yourself a chance to think. Not everything needs to be a million miles an hour.” You giggled softly, accepting his kiss and squeezing his hands tighter, “That’s why I’m with you. You calm that chaos and I don’t even know… how. But you manage it.” “Well, nothing like a bit of order.” He let you fall back in step with him, and you wound your arm around his, still holding his hand. Emmett made sure that he was the one setting the pace, glad to see that you might actually settle, “Though I believe being proper about things will be out of the window today.” “I believe, Emmett, we’ve been together long enough for you not to have to worry about that one.” “Well, unmarried, still a bit-” “Now you can hush.” “As long as you know my objections.” You scoffed, “Objections!? Yes, I know all of those by now!” His face turned a little pink at that, “You know what I meant!” which only sent you into a fit of giggles, “You are far too easy to fluster for a man who has been with me as long as you have.” “Yes, well,” He sighed gently, “some things you never get used to.” That only made you hope he never would, it was far too cute. By the time midday arrived you were already on your 5th sugar rush of the day; Emmett was being a little more reserved and sat opposite you now shaking his head. “I can see you’ve never heard of the word moderation.” You pushed the box of candy towards him with big eyes, “You and I both know it is safer to snack between rides, and now I’m worried you don’t eat enough.” He studied the box carefully before selecting one, “You’d have me believing I had enough sugar.” “Well, you’re certainly sweet.” You leant on your hands to admire him, “So really I always get my sugar fix.” “Ah, well, then you certainly shouldn’t be eating it!” But he agreed with your ‘snacking’ point, “Now, you’ve been staring at the wheel since before we got here, so that’s my suggestion for what’s next.” “Awww…” You exhaled, “A man after my own heart.” “That’s certainly enough from you,” Emmett held his hand out to help you stand, “I believe I earned that a long time ago.” “You deserved it, I’m still unsure I was worthy of yours.” “You, my darling, should have no fear of that.” The pleasure wheel was at least slow, and you could admire the view for miles around; even though the best one was quite clearly sitting right next to you. Emmett - having done his fair share of travelling - was pointing out nearby points of interest, including what he affectionally termed ‘home’. Although you couldn’t say you were really listening to him, staring at him and nodding for sure, smiling where appropriate and focusing on the tones of his voice, but not the words themselves. In fact, you found yourself thinking on the conversation you’d just had – and interrupted his geography lesson to ask your burning question. “Has there ever been anyone else?” The change of track didn’t even faze him, and Emmett lowered his hands from pointing to his lap, looking into your eyes he blinked slow. “For me? No.” For you it was very nearly too sincere, and it struck your heart like a lightning bolt, “Oh, Emmett, you’re going to make me cry!!” You wailed, throwing your arms around him and burying your face in his shirt. His tense was enough to tell you how proper he thought that was, but Emmett kept his mouth closed, before running a hand through your hair, “If you’re going to cry I think I have a handkerchief and-” “No, no I-” You pulled back, fanning your face and sniffing, “I’m sorry. I just, even here I see the way they all look at you… but you’re here with me. You chose to be with me.” His eyes flicked to the fair below, yes of course Emmett noticed this, occasionally, but he didn’t really think anything of it. Most of the time he thought it was more to do with the uniform. He placed his hand over yours, and then enclosed it, focusing back on you, “You think I don’t notice how they look at you? Y/N, I would choose you every single time. Sometimes I think you forget that. How much you mean to me, I would have fought that war and won it just for you.” Now you really were crying. “Oh… Darling…” He pulled you back closer to him, “Come on, this isn’t like you.” You rubbed your tears away on the fabric square he handed to you, and almost looked at him angrily, “Will you stop being so perfect!?” He held his hands up promising not another word, but couldn’t stay too stoic for long before smiling – you were perfect to him too, he was certain you had a habit of forgetting these things; but Emmett liked reminding you, and often. After certainly vowing him to silence on any waterworks that were to occur today, you went back to the carousel. You’d already been on a few times but it always reminded you of your childhood and constantly begging your parents to go on any time you saw one anywhere. As a bonus, Emmett would also help you up onto the horses by lifting you, and you could sit with a smug little smirk at the women who wished they were you. Even more so as he took your hand as the ride went around. He pointed out how much you were thoroughly enjoying your ego trip and you only shrugged, you thought you deserved one of those once in a while too! Annoyingly you were too far away from each other on the flying swings to hold hands but that wasn’t for lack of trying (and you did try real hard.), but soon enough Emmett was the one dragging you onto something. “What are they?” “You’ve never seen these?!” “No, but the fact that you’re so excited is enough to get me curious.” “Well, they’re called flying scooters, but what do they look like to you?” “Aeroplanes.” “Exactly!” The excitement in his voice made you think of how often he must hear it in your own. “…I didn’t think you ever flew?” He nudged you gently, “No, but I have friends that did. I suppose the actual answer to your question would be… not officially.” “Oh my gosh, should you be telling me this?!” It was hard not to get concerned that he’d be the kind to get talked into flying a plane with no experience. “It’s very hard, most of the time I was passenger.” Emmett had to lift you up into this one too, which of course you were fine with. In fact, when you thought on it, he was getting as handsy with you as you usually got with him only to get scorned… usually. Not today, and already in the back of your mind you were wondering if you could play that to your advantage. As he sat up with you and started to explain things, you understood his excitement. Each car had a rudder and a control so you got to manipulate the direction of the ride, also if you were skilled enough you could get the cables to snap which made everything a little bit more out of control. “Why… would you want to do that?” “You’ll see if I manage it.” “…Why does this feel like something you’re gonna tell me you did with your Army friends?” He laughed, grinning back at you, “Because it was!” “Oh. No.” Soon you found out exactly what he meant by a snap. The sound was fairly distinctive, as the cables slacked at the rides top speed, and all he had to do was turn the rudder just the right way for everything to spin slightly crazy. You were alright holding onto the ride for the majority of the time but when Emmett managed to do that, you couldn’t help but shriek and throw your arms around his waist, gripping onto him super tight, to hold on. You supposed, with the way he smiled every time you did, that was the point. The day was starting to slow down, and you’d been on nearly everything you wanted to see, and probably eaten a little too much, but it was good comfort food so you didn’t mind that. Emmett however had other ideas and you caught up with him again leaning against a railing and nodding over to something else. You placed your hands on your hips, “And I thought we were about done.” “We were, but this one’s been put here just for you!” You turned, and then were stuck between the ‘aw’ that your heart felt and your brain wanting to punch him in the arm. “Is that a tunnel of love?” “Sure is.” “You old romantic.” You weren’t sure if you wholly meant your sarcasm “You’re the one who has relatively little regard for personal space and always wants her allotted public displays of affection.” “I believe we’d be going back to Victorian ways if you had your say.” “That’s real courting. There’s nothing wrong with it.” He folded his arms. “Emmett, darling, you’ll barely touch me at a party with a dancefloor, don’t give me that.” “Just a difference in how we were raised is all, my romantic values are… reminiscent of the class I grew up in. But that hardly matters. I already told you, I’d chose you every time.” “Well, it worked between Sarah and Drover so…” He gave a nod at your affirmation of his point, “Exactly, and it works between us. Indeed, I would be so bold as to say that’s why it works between us.” He pushed himself away from the railing and held his hand out for yours, “Now, if I may?” You shook your head at him with a small smile and took his offered hand, “You may, dear Captain.”  And as you walked over you gave a smirk, “Your mother would never approve of me, would she?” He chuckled, “She’s not here to disapprove either. And here I am staying.” Once through the queue and in the boat, you turned to him suspiciously, “This better be a romantic one, because if it’s scary I’m going to kill you!” Emmett raised an eyebrow, “Whatever someone took you on that’s scary… I don’t think that was a tunnel of love, and I don’t think you ought to have been on it with them.” He smiled, “Luckily you have me now. And I had been standing outside a while, I heard no screaming.” “Are you teasing me?” “Me?” His blue eyes shined innocently, “I would never!” Your eyes narrowed, but you still smiled, “I’m watching you, Emmett Dutton.” He was right though, the ride was romantic, the music setting just the right tone to cuddle up. You had read somewhere these were created when touching (especially when unmarried) was pretty much frowned upon. Right up Emmett’s alley then – ah, to be in Darwin again now. You wondered how some of those stuck up bigots were doing now. They certainly weren’t a fan of you, especially not with ‘their’ captain. Need you point out he was stationed in your town first. Emmett’s need to always defuse the situation and calm things, with you internally fuming at everyone… You shook your head, that was a while ago now, and you needed to focus on him. You wrapped yourself around him, head against his chest as he wound his arm around your shoulder, gathering your hands on his lap, stroking his thumb over them. Emmett instantly relaxed you, and you were no longer paying attention to the ride itself. All your focus was on his breathing, his heartbeat, his scent and how warm he was. The feel of his body this close, and under your fingertips; you knew what was happening to you. You were about to become a swooning mess and couldn’t give a damn about it. You snuggled further into him, making Emmett chuckle and kiss the top of your head. “You alright, darling?” “Mhm,” You nodded, burying you head in his chest and holding him a little tighter, “I just wanna get you home…” *** He was very good with you, even though he knew what was coming. Emmett let you hold his hand the whole way home. By this time your fidgety nervous energy was kicking in and your heart was letting you know that, by the way it continued to flutter as you looked at him. He wasn’t about to complain, even though your nails dug into his skin a little uncomfortably. You felt like a teenager with their first crush, just hoping to get noticed, as he rolled neatly into the driveway. And you thought for a moment that sugar rush was finally catching up with you. “Well,” He spoke was a voice as soft as his smile, “We’re home.” “We are.” You agreed, and Emmett took your hand to kiss it before he left the car and, like the gentleman he was, opened the door for you. You stepped out and it was all you could do not to melt into him instantly. “Lead on,” He let you take his hand back and run him up the front porch steps, you were happy that he didn’t say ‘I’m yours’ because you would have lost it right then and there. Once inside, with the door closed, everything slowed down but your heart. Your hands linked with his as you stood in the hallway, spinning with him for just a moment. Eyes locked on his, Emmett’s face held the same amusement that yours did. “What? What is it?” “I just…” you drew yourself a little closer, “I need a moment.” Your hands left his to run gently up his arms to his shoulders, then linking behind his back as you closed your eyes and leant into a kiss. His hands stilled on your waist, keeping your balance as he reciprocated your kiss, slow and gentle. You kept him against your lips running your fingertips into his hair, Emmett groaned softly as he allowed your body to push up against his, hands remaining respectful. Sometimes you wished he wouldn’t be. The movement of your tongue over his lips tentative, not begging; but he was forthcoming in the acceptance of your invitation, kiss still slow as you allowed yourself to focus on the taste of him. Emmett’s kiss and tongue were playful however, and every teasing attempt to pull away from you was only met with you gripping his collar tighter. Eventually you let him pull away as his hands reached for yours, “Come on…” his voice coaxed, “Let us not stay here, darling.” His fingers laced with yours as he led you upstairs leisurely.

He must have wanted this too, or else just so happy to play to your whims. No, surely he wanted this - you knew Emmett; if he didn’t want your hands all over him (or, indeed, to put his hands all over you) then he would have protested. He was very good at that. Instead he walked those stairs very nearly backwards to keep your hands in his and his eyes on you - you tried to ignore the flutter that remained in your heartbeat to no avail. The heat and excitement building in your body that culminated in your wide-eyed, lips parted look, complete with your deep, short breaths.

He knew what you were feeling, every meaning of that look on your face, and once at the top of the stairs Emmett bit his lips together as he drew your body closer to his, hands running through your hair to kiss you again. These kisses were sweet and meaningful. This would be a slow, delicate, love. And almost certainly love with the way he was touching you now. There was no room for any other emotion. Emmett continued to lead you backwards to the bedroom, and your hands only left his to close the door behind you. Winding your arms around his neck as he paused for a second, one last kiss to your lips before he took a little bit more notice of the room.

 You followed his eyeline; you’d always been very specific about how you wanted the colours in here. Everything cream or off-white gave it a purity and warmth. The sunshine through your balcony windows glinted on the polished wood floor, and of course, with him facing the sunlight it sparkled in his eyes too. “Emmett.” Your voice was soft, to draw him back to you, hands rising from your waist to the buttons on your blouse his head nudged yours, kisses a little lighter. Of course the sun was reflecting on you too, throwing a thousand shades into the colour of your eyes and hair.  That only made him chuckle, “No you’re right, the real view is here.” Blush covered your cheeks for a second, but you smiled, “On that one we might agree.”

You let him finish with your buttons, running his hands delicately over your collar bone, across your shoulders, brushing them down your arms as you let it fall to the floor behind you. His lips ghosted kisses across your face, and your eyes fluttered closed as he caressed your skin with his fingertips. Bowing your head forward you inhaled him, fresh air and sunshine and grass, clean sweat and sugar from your day out, lingering notes of aftershave, all over the familiar warmth of his own body. You opened your eyes, running your hands smoothly up his chest, and undid his own shirt buttons one by one. Your movements were just as slow as his had been, and after each one - as more of his skin was exposed to you - you placed a gentle kiss. Emmett hummed his delight, fingers now stroking your shoulders and tangling in your hair. You slipped his shirt from his shoulders as he had with your own and as it cascaded to the floor the sun illuminated his skin, which immediately had you smiling at the collection of freckles that blessed his face also kissed his shoulders and chest. You were already smiling too much to bite your lips and stop yourself. “What?” He chuckled, but you knew he already knew the answer. “They’re just so cute I can’t help it!” You shook your head slowly, still smiling, and leant up again to kiss him. Emmett gathered your face in his hands, guiding you gently backwards towards the bed. As he walked, you set to work relieving him of his belt and even as you pulled it through his belt loops slowly, it was still gone by the time he stopped moving. Drawing back from his kiss for a moment you looked back into those beautiful blue eyes. “Did I tell you how much I love you today, yet?” His next smile was a little shy, but he drew your waist back to his, unfastening the ties on your skirt before undoing the zip, “Trust me,” Emmett kissed you again, letting your skirt fall, “You don’t need to.” “Oh?” The look on your face was mischievous as you undid the button on his pants and teased the zip down slowly, “But I want to.” “It’s not like I can stop you, is it?” His hands ran back around your waist, fingertips grazing you relaxingly as he ran them down the small of your back - you couldn’t help a tiny shudder and a soft moan escaped your lips. “No.” You agreed, eyes shining, “Because I do, love you, so much.” “I love you too.” Emmett ran his hands a little lower, hoisting your body up for you to wrap your legs around his waist and arms around his shoulders, your lips met once more.

This kiss full of promises, perhaps a little more passionate than you’d both meant as he lay you back in the sheets, but every bit worth it, as his lips transferred to your jawline and down your throat as you tipped your head back for him. You sighed his name like a prayer as he planted them delicately across your shoulders, sliding your bra straps down your arms. You pulled yourself back to his lips if only so he could undo the clasp; although Emmett’s arms remained around you holding your body close to his. You couldn’t help but giggle a little, hands running back into his hair. Even under that uniform he didn’t always look it, but he was so strong, and he felt that way whenever he held you like this. But a bigger sweetheart than you thought you deserved. Emmett only pulled back from the warmth of you when your giggling became a little too much for him not to begin laughing himself, and you observed each other for a minute. The sunshine was still working wonders on those freckles of his, and your fingers attempted to neaten the curls that were already falling out of place. “I mean it,” you breathed, “I don’t deserve you…” “Oh,” He tsked, “don’t start that again.” His hands ran down your body gently, varying his pressure over where he knew would cause giggles to rise in your chest from being ticklish, or gentle sighs in places you found it calming to be touched before he coaxed your hips towards his, sliding his fingers into your underwear. Your eyes remained on his. “You okay?” “Yes, Captain, I’m fine.” The graze of his lips to yours was hardly enough, as he slid them down your legs and they joined the rest of your clothing on the floor. Emmett balanced himself on his elbows as he took his time to observe your body. You always got a little bashful about this, no matter how many times you might joke with him about bathing together, or his absolute refusal to be in the room if you were changing and your constant ‘Emmett! You’ve seen me before-!’, but you supposed it was the weight of his stare, the vulnerability of letting someone see you like this. Especially him; the first time you’d been intimate you’d worried that he wouldn’t like what he saw, and you still worried about that. But you discovered that he honestly didn’t care; to him you were flawless. And if there was one thing your Captain liked to do, it was affirm that - respectfully. He traced his index finger carefully from the hollow of your throat straight down to your navel, feeling every motion of your breathing and your body under his, the slight shake at his touch.

“You are so…” This time he didn’t finish, because he didn’t need to, “I just…” “I know.” “No… No, I don’t think you do…” This time his thumb traced your jawline and then ran gently over your lips, your own hand resting on his wrist, eyes still only beholding his. “You are my world. What do I have without you?” You thought of a thousand smart things to say, but realised that Emmett wanted to hear none of them, and before you knew it he was wiping a single tear from your cheek and replacing his thumb with his lips as he kissed you again. Your legs tangled with his, even though he wasn’t fully undressed yet, and the feel of his body against yours only made you moan into his kisses. “Emmett…” “Shhh, darling shhhh…” He helped you remove his final garment and this time as you threaded your legs together you made sure your hips were wide enough for him. Emmett was back to staring into your eyes, although yours kept flicking to those damn cute freckles of his and you were almost ready to start crying all over again. One of his hands framed your face, caressing your cheek and stroking your hair back, as the other held your own for just a moment, he squeezed your hand gently and you knew exactly what he was asking, giving a short nod back.

 Emmett’s caress moved to your thighs, and it was enough to have you tremble beneath him. His fingertips just felt so good over your skin, and he was always so gentle with you. He continued to draw a number of sighs from you as he inched towards the heat that was building in you, you couldn’t deny being needy for him now and your body was more than eager to betray that. Even with his touch being exploratory your hips couldn’t help but rock into his fingertips as you gasped. Damn, maybe you were more needy for him than you thought. It certainly got you flustered, Emmett, ever the gentleman, only chuckled and kissed your forehead. He seemed to be telling you it was okay, but it certainly didn’t leave you any less embarrassed. His fingertips were gentle and lazy - to tease you and please you - and from every sound emanating from you were certainly doing the trick. You were desperately aware of how wet you already were, and the gentle ache at being touched like this was quickly becoming a slow throb. “Emmett-!” You whined his name, greeted by a kiss, rewarded by his fingers moving to your entrance. You thought he might continue to tease you, but he didn’t, even though he only inserted one finger into you at first. When you were fine with that, he pushed in a second, this time making you moan; your arms back around him by this point meant your nails dug into his skin - Emmett gave a shudder of his own at that. His groan was quiet at the feel of your heat; you were certainly ready for him, and his fingers were still gentle as he stretched you a little wider. You shuddered again for him at the feeling, moan a little louder. He brushed his thumb over your clit in reward, body arching into his. “I love you.” You panted it again, and that confidently flashed smile Emmett gave you was nearly a smirk.

 His fingers withdrew from you slowly, and Emmett moved to arrange your body with his. He wanted as much contact as possible, to have you as close to him as you could be. Kiss to your stomach, then over your ribs as he travelled back to your lips. His hands travelled up with his kisses, and as his tongue darted out across one nipple, his fingertips caressed the other, hand kneading your breast. This time you cried out in pleasure, certainly hardly expecting that. “E-Emmett-!” You were breathless, voice shaking and hands in his hair as he switched sides. Brief maybe, but that shot of pleasure made you want to squeeze your thighs together for relief. You couldn’t, of course, because his body was between them. That only made him chuckle as he finally claimed your lips again, this time his hands slid back to yours. “You sure you’re fine?” “Yes…” You placed your forehead against his, eyes fluttering closed again, “please, Emmett…” at the needy shake in your voice and the way you said his name, Emmett slowly pushed into you. This time his lips against yours swallowed your groans.

 You clung to him as you both settled, feeling his heartbeat against yours. Although so close, he was supporting all of his own weight and you were on the verge of pointing out all that army training again. Instead you stayed in that comfortable silence, gathering your hands to the middle of his chest for a moment. “Go slow…” you whispered, “Emmett, I want to savour you.” It was what he always wished for, but this time you wanted him to know that’s what you needed. He nodded, with another gentle smile, kissing you once more - a little too chaste for your liking. “As you wish, darling.” Making sure that your body was tightly wrapped around his, Emmett’s hands glided smoothly over your skin - leaving a pleasurable tingle in their wake - which made you hum in comfort and content. He moved in you, to a gentle sigh and your arms cuddled him closer. It was so easy to let his name spill from your lips, he wasn’t about to stop you - and you couldn’t stop yourself. You loved tangling yourself with his body, whether that be as you snuggled down to sleep for the night, or relaxing on the couch downstairs, radio or paper or book attempting to draw your focus from the way it felt to be in his arms, or he’d draw locks of your hair back and kiss your neck… or like this. With nothing between you but love. There was no other word for this than perfect - and yet even that didn’t seem to do the feeling or the moment justice. Emmett’s movements were slow and drawn out. It almost made things torturous. The heat in the room built slowly between the two of you and the suns warming rays - but it was a lovely thing to be wrapped up in. And you couldn’t help your smile; nor being so utterly taken with him. Emmett did nothing more than whisper his sweet ‘I love yous’ into your skin as he continued to kiss you. Every groan he drew from your body causing him to smirk into your skin. But it wasn’t long before you were pulling gentle moans and pants from him, which caused exactly the same reaction when you were able to kiss his lips once more. His rhythm built more comfortably; but your sex was still sweet and slow. He paid so much attention to every sign of your body, the gentle shake as your pleasure built, but your whine against it to not end yet, your insistence with your hands through his hair, over his skin, grazing your nails, pulling him back to you, that Emmett kiss you more. And more! But that his lips worshiping any part of you was not unwelcome, and if he got a little too excited and you ended up with bruises, you weren’t about to mind those either. You were as in tune with Emmett as he with you, though, and he was all of him beautiful. The feel of his muscles under your fingertips, of those silky dark locks under your touch. How his groan could almost become a growl if you ran your nails through them just so. The freckles you could count across his skin when your love was this slow. The ones across his back may have been out of sight, but they were certainly not out of mind. He was still so soft under your touch though, Army Captain though he may have been by profession. And the feel of Emmett’s body against yours was not one you could easily describe. Those eyes of his, that blue could be so gentle, yet so fierce, and when it was dark like this and he bit his lip when he looked at you… your heart leapt to counter that rush of heat that coursed through your body. And he moaned quietly again. But that look in his eyes was of nothing but pure adoration - and that’s how you stared right back. You pulled him into you, closer, deeper, body flush to yours. Emmett Dutton was all you ever wanted; he became the only thing you’d ever needed. You couldn’t imagine your life without him, you didn’t even want to think on the possibility of that ever happening again. After Darwin. After the war. Never again. He was yours, and you’d be damned that anyone or anything would take him from you now.

 This time he was the one to shake, and his breaths got a little shorter. You coaxed Emmett’s lips to yours, arms around him as it became much more of an embrace. “I love you.” He breathed between kisses, which almost had you giggling. You knew that, of course you knew that. It was about the one thing you really did know. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get over you saying that.” Your voice was still a whisper, the waver of delight raising a smile from Emmett. He almost managed a laugh then, “I don’t think I want you to.” “I’ll certainly not get bored-” You gasped suddenly; your body’s own reaction to his - brushing you in just the right place as he shook again, getting just a little harder. “Sorry.” “What are you---” your sentence was punctuated by another moan, “Apologising for!? God- Emmett!” Your voice pitched and this time the edge of your climax wouldn’t be ignored. Your body was just a little too greedy, and your wish to finish together, clenching around him was enough to have him calling out for you.

You needed him so badly, tangled in your arms like this, wrapped up in him. Your vocals were both pitching in unison even with the sex this slow. Somehow that made things more intense. You nearly wanted to beg him to stop, for just a second, to just let you savour this. Freeze the moment, let me catch it! No such luck, and that rush of heat hit you too hard; the constellation of freckles over his skin became a blur of stars that closing your eyes to only had you pouring tears. You triggered the same reaction in him, and his muffled moan of ecstasy into your skin was still the best sound you’d ever heard. Before Emmett blushed horribly (not to you - but he probably wouldn’t like how red his face got), as he wound back down, panting heavily. He still tried not to put too much of his weight on you, but the feel of his body on top of yours like this only added to your happiness, that feeling of protection, to have him so close that he almost faded into you. And yet more tears ran.

Emmett framed your face with his hands, “Hey… you’re crying again.” You sniffed, trying to hold them back, but only succeeded in giggling through another set of them: “Of happiness.” “As long as that’s what they are.” You continued to giggle as he attempted to wipe them away with his thumbs, and you reciprocated, cupping his face with your own hands - but Emmett wasn’t crying. “I love you, Emmett Dutton! I love you so much!” His eyebrows knitted, but he was still smiling, “I’ve known that a long while, don’t you listen to me?” “And I told you it wouldn’t stop me.” “Mhm. You did.” He kissed you once more, “But it’s not something you need to waste your words on. I know that in my heart and soul.” Emmett laced his fingers with yours once more, “I can feel your love, physically… and I can see it, observe it… in the way you look at me, in every smile on your face. And hear it in your voice, without the use of such words.”  He shifted his weight from you, pulling you closer into his embrace, running his hands over your skin to relax you once more, “I can feel your love even when you’re not there. That most important of all. That matters to me most of all. And yet I know that you would rather spend every waking moment you can affirming it.” “Would that I could.” You breathed gently, eyes looking between his. “And yet you think you are not worthy of all the love I can give you?” He didn’t let you protest, kissing you back into silence, “Just know, you are wrong.” This time you kept your mouth shut, but the little wiggle in his arms let him know that you’d only let him win this time. Next time that victory would be yours. You cuddled into his chest, closing your eyes with a smile, “To the end of the Earth, Emmett Dutton.” There was silence for a moment, and his lips grazed your forehead gently, “Forever.” Of course he would… you could only smile though as he continued to caress your bare skin with his free hand, as you kept his other between yours, kissing his knuckles gently. Forever - if he was prepared to let you love him for that long. Forever held a lot of promises, all of them you were sure he could keep.

 When did forever start though? You pondered: had it already? Did it start tomorrow? ...Did forever only really begin when he got down on one knee? ...Or only when you dressed in white and received a gold band?

 No… You could think on this all later, in his arms today was neither the time or place to focus on anything but this moment with him. You could think on forever, forever. You could only revel in this moment right now. That was what really mattered; after all, forever with him would still be lived one moment at a time. So - no matter when forever may begin - why waste them?

---

Thank you for reading! 🥰🥰

[highfivecalum]

Currents {Surfer!CH}

a/n: ok so this was supposed to be like surfer!calum but uhhh i kind of forgot that whole plot as i was writing it lmao? there’s some, like beachy themes and mentions of surfing, and i didn’t want to change the moodboard because it’s kind of relevant, but it’s not like, all about surfing. but i still hope y’all enjoy this 17k random cute calum content hehehe happy reading :)!!! (also if this flops let’s pretend it didn’t happen because i haven’ written in like months) ~~~

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Currents: A body of water or air moving in a definite direction. 

Summary: Needing a change and needing to get away from her over-controlling mother, Joey moves across the world to live with her cousin in Australia, where she meets mysterious surfer boy, Calum.

***

“Joey!” Her head snapped up from her phone, a smile making its way onto her tired face at the sight of her cousin that she hadn’t seen in way too many years. Elise, Joey’s cousin who was only four years older than her, was nice enough to let her escape her life in Seattle, and stay with her in Australia for however long she pleased. “You look exhausted.”

“Yeah.” Joey laughed, pulling away from their hug, smiling down at her shorter, but older and gorgeous, cousin. She missed having her cousin around. Elise having left the city to move to Australia after meeting and falling in love with a man who was from there, Joey rarely got to see her her favorite, and only cousin on her mother’s side. “Fifteen hour flight will do that to you.”

“Right, right.” Elise hummed, picking up the three bags that Joey brought, and nodded her head in the direction of where her car was parked, still on with her hazard lights flashing. She knew they couldn’t stand there any longer and chat due to the crazy traffic that the busy airport brought. “Let’s getcha home!”

The drive from the airport to Elise’s house in the small city just outside of Sydney was only twenty minutes away, and for that Joey was thankful. All she wanted to do was take a shower to wash off the airplane smell and grime, put on her favorite t-shirt, and crawl into bed. She knew that getting used to the time difference, and sleeping off the jet lag, would take more time than she wanted it to, but, she had all the time in the world to sleep and adapt to her new, temporary home.

“So,” Elise tapped on the steering wheel and glanced at her cousin, smiling at the way she was looking at her surroundings in awe. She had never been to Australia before, and Elise remembered her reaction was the exact same the first time she visited. “How long are you planning on staying?”

Joey puffed out a breath of air and readjusted herself, turning to lean against the window of the bright yellow Jeep that Elise was driving, and pulled her legs to her chest. She twisted her lips from side to side, not knowing the answer to give Elise, since she didn’t even know herself. “No clue. Not forever, obviously, but just long enough for my mom to realize that what she’s pushing me to do is what she wants, not me.”

“Still pushing the whole lawyer thing, huh?”

“She won’t give it up.” Joey rolled her eyes. Even the mere thought of her mother pissed her the hell off. She loved her mother dearly, she really did, but she couldn’t stand the pressure and all the pushing her mother was doing. “I mean, I’m twenty-two years old, for God’s sake. I think it’s a little too late to go to law school.”

Elise giggled, nodding her head in agreement. “How is your mom? I haven’t talked to her in months.”

“Fine, I guess. Just the same neurotic, control freak, mother Jill.”

“Well, now you got me; fun, laid back, favorite cousin, Elise.”

Joey laughed, shaking her head in amusement, but still smiling at the thought of being in a new city, with her favorite cousin who lived two minutes away from the beach, thousands and thousands away from her mother.

***

The Australian sun shining through Joey’s curtain-less windows was a pleasant change from the gloomy and rainy Seattle sky that she was used to. Letting out a high pitched squeal as she stretched her tired and sore body, Joey stared up at her ceiling in complete happiness. She had been sleeping on and off for nearly a week, trying to get used to the time change and rid herself of jet lag. It seemed to be working, considering Joey felt much better that morning than all of the others.

“She’s alive!” Elise clapped her hands at the sight of a tired looking, bed-headed Joey in nothing but her oversized t-shirt that stopped mid thigh. “I was just about to go upstairs and make sure you were still breathing.”

“Not to worry. I’m all rested up now.” Joey assured her, sliding into one of the wooden chairs at the dining table, crossing her arms on the table and resting her head on them. She hummed happily, contently, at the feeling of the sun beaming down on her and the smell of bacon cooking and coffee brewing. “So,” Joey got up to pour herself a cup of coffee. “What are we doing today?”

Elise laughed, flipping the bacon over and spun around, resting her back against the counter to look at Joey. “Whatever you wanna do,” Elise winked. “We could grab some lunch and go to the beach?” Joey nodded her head in agreement, wanting nothing more than to explore her new town. “But, do you mind if my boyfriend comes with? He’s been out of town teaching surfing lessons and I told him we could hang out.”

Joey’s ears perked up at the sound of meeting Elise’s boyfriend she had heard so much about. “That’s fine.” Joey finished her coffee and put the cup in the sink. “I’ll go get ready then!” 

Joey skipped up the stairs and happily pranced to her bedroom that she loved so much. Seafoam green walls with yellow, pink, and blue objects and accent pieces to match it, a huge window taking up a whole wall, and her own small, but personal, bathroom. 

After her much needed shower, Joey let her dirty blonde hair air dry, keeping it natural in loose waves, applied her daily light amount of makeup, and dressed herself in a yellow bikini with a white, flowing cover up on top. 

She felt a bit exposed, with her bikini showing through her coverup, but Elise assured her that nobody would be staring, it was normal for people to walk around in just swimwear. That was one thing, out of many, that Joey would have to get used to. 

***

“Are we day drinking?” Joey asked as her eyes looked through the menu that Elise had already memorized, having been there a million times. The menu was endless and Joey really wasn’t sure what she was in the mood to eat. 

Elise scoffed out a laugh, Ashton’s high pitched giggle following after hers. On both of their days off they enjoyed drinking and spending time at the beach. “Is that even a question? Of course we are.” 

They ordered their respective drinks and food and made small talk while they waited for their food to be served. Clearing his throat, Ashton leaned forward and laced his fingers together. “So, Joey, tell me about yourself.” 

“Erm, what do you want to know?” Joey laughed nervously. She wasn’t sure why she was nervous, really, it was just her cousin’s boyfriend, after all. But that question always put her on edge.

“The basics.” Ashton shrugged. Joey went on to tell Ashton about herself; why she moved away, how long she was planning on staying, and so forth. 

“I’m currently job hunting,” Joey puffed out her cheeks. Job hunting was one of her least favorite things, ever. It took way too long and was way too stressful and was never promising. “El said she isn’t charging me rent, but I feel bad, so I want to pitch in and help out.”

“Oh, really? Well, I own the surf shop down the street and I’m looking for some new people to work. I have a few guys workin’ for me, but they’re more focused on the surf instructor side of the shop, so I’m in need of a cashier.” Ashton told her and Joey quirked an eyebrow. “If you’re interested, you have the job.”

“Seriously? You’ll give me a job? Just like that?”

“Why not?” Ashton shrugged. “You’re Elise’s cousin, I trust my judgement, and you.”

Joey grinned happily, clinking her glass against Ashton’s, her new boss, and felt a weight lifted off of her shoulders. She finally had a job, after a week of living there, and all she could think about was how things were finally starting to look up. 

***

Joey was nervous, to say the least, as she walked into Ashton’s shop, Surf and Co. A basic name, she thought, but that’s exactly what it was - surfing equipment, swimwear, towels, and everything else that is a beach essential. 

“Joey, hey!” Ashton waved her over to the counter where the cash register and another guy were standing. Another very attractive guy. “This is Luke,” Joey looked at him, taking in his bright blue eyes, blonde curly hair, and tanned skin. “He’ll be training you. He’s a great friend and a good teacher.”

Oh, God. Joey thought. She was already nervous for her first day and now this ridiculously attractive surfer was training her? Her body felt like it was on fire and it wasn’t just from the sun that was shining through the large window to her left. 

“Nice to meet ya, Joey,” Luke extended his hand for her to shake and she did so politely, and nervously. His smile was bright and pretty and it had Joey smiling back easily.

“Yeah, you too, Luke.”

Ashton excused himself, going to his office in the back of the store to finish some paperwork and payroll, leaving Luke to show Joey the ropes of the store. 

Joey had worked in retail before in Seattle, so she learned quite quickly how to work the register which Luke was thankful for, since it gave them time to chill out and get to know each other better, since it was a slow Monday afternoon. The store didn’t usually pick up until after three when people were starting to get off work.

“Have you made any friends yet?” Luke asked, spinning around in the wooden stool that was behind the counter. 

“Erm, not really.” Joey laughed sadly, with a small shrug. “I mean I haven’t really had time, you know? With trying to get adjusted to everything, unpacking, and trying to find a job, I’ve been a bit busy.”

Luke modded his head in understanding. “Well, at least you have Elise, right?” Joey hummed in agreement, a small smile pulling at her lips at the thought of her cousin. “She has a lot of friends, including me and the rest of the guys, so I’m sure you’ll be meeting new people soon. But, in the meantime, you can hang out with me.” Luke flashed her a beautifully blinding smile, showing off his pearly whites. 

Joey smiled at how nice and thoughtful Luke was being, even though she didn’t know who the hell the ‘rest of the guys’ were, but she was sure she would find out soon enough. 

***

The party that Elise had talked Joey into going to was in full swing. Ashton’s house was packed full of people, only three of them that Joey knew, but the alcohol was helping her let loose and her anxiety dissipated with each sip she took, even though the liquor burned her throat. 

A sudden elbow to her back had Joey spinning around to see who was behind her, though she was sure it wasn’t anybody she knew, but was surprised to see Luke. “Oh, hey.” Joey laughed. 

“Joey, hi!” Luke pulled her into a side hug, slinging his arm over her shoulder, Joey happily reciprocating the hug. He smelled like booze, which was to be expected, and she sure she did, too. “Havin’ fun?”

“I guess so,” Joey shrugged. “Don’t really know anybody here, though. And I’m not sure where Elise ran off to.”

“Well,” Luke dropped his arm, taking Joey’s hand in his, pulling her along with him. “Let’s go change that!” Joey really appreciated how friendly and welcoming Luke was being, considering she was the new girl in a town where everybody knew everybody, and he could be spending his time doing anything else. “Guys, this is Joey!”

Two guys, sitting around the fire, looked up at the sound of Luke’s voice, one of them smiling up at the girl that Luke was introducing, the other’s face stoic, never changing. 

“Nice t’meet you, Joey! I’m Michael.” He stood up, shaking her hand happily, Michael grinned at her. He, too, like every other male in Australia, it seemed, was also quite cute with a contagious smile. “You’re Elise’s cousin, right?”

“That’s right.” Joey smiled at him. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“This is Calum,” Luke pointed in the other guys' direction, Joey’s eyes following his long finger, gaze landing on the most gorgeous looking man she had ever seen, even in the darkness, she could see his face just fine from the flames from the bonfire. “You’ll be seein’ a lot of them.”

“Nice to meet you,” Joey extended her hand out to Calum as he approached her and Luke, but much to her surprise, and disappointment, all he offered her was a purse of his lips and a head nod, walking directly past her and inside the sliding doors. 

“Um,” Joey frowned. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Nah,” Luke sighed sadly. “That’s just Calum, distant and non-approachable. He’s a bit closed off around new people, but you’ll get used to him in due time, no worries.”

Luke was reassuring, kind of, but Joey still didn’t like the feeling of being brushed off by a guy who she didn’t know, and who didn’t know her. 

***

Calum couldn’t stop staring at her from across the kitchen. And he hated himself for it. “I thought you said that Joey is Elise’s cousin?” Calum asked Luke as the two of them leaned against Ashton’s kitchen counter. 

“She is.” Luke confirmed with the nod of his head. 

“So, Joey is a she?” Calum frowned, his eyes never leaving Joey, who was standing in the living room laughing at something Ashton and Michael were saying. 

“You sound disappointed.” Luke said, his voice full of amusement. 

“I just thought we would be gettin’ another dude around here to hang out with. Not-“

“A pretty girl?” Luke smirked, bumping Calum’s shoulder with his own, receiving an elbow to the ribs. Pretty was an understatement, Calum thought.

But, Calum knew that Luke was right. Joey was attractive, gorgeous even, with already slightly tanned skin, light colored, but not blonde hair, and a few tattoos scattered on her body. Even in the dim lighting, Calum could so clearly see how bright and pretty her green eyes were. 

“What’s your deal with her? You didn’t even say hi to her, you totally stiffed her, dude.” Luke frowned down at his barely shorter friend. Luke liked Joey so far, only knowing her for a few days, but he liked her vibe and her personality. He didn’t understand why, without Calum even knowing her, didn’t. 

Calum simply shrugged, pushing himself off the counter to walk away from Luke and busy himself with the other people he knew in the house, those people not being his friends, who were surrounding Joey and listening to her animatedly tell a story, with Elise joining in every so often. 

Calum was going to stay far away from her. Or at least try to. 

***

“That’s so amazing,” Joey sighed in amazement as she watched the dozens of people effortlessly surfing the waves, Elise and her friends included. She never thought she would be living on a beach, but she loved every second of it, even if it was only the second and a half week of her being there. “I wish I could be that good at something.”

“Why can’t you be?” Michael asked, looking at her behind his shaded eyes. The two of them, the only two in the group of friends that didn’t know how to surf, were sitting on the huge beach towel laid out on the sand, listening to music, and sipping Corona. 

“I have no skills,” Joey admitted with a laugh. “I especially have no skills when it comes to being in the water, you know, like, water sports.”

“You and me both.” Michael snorted. “I’ve lived here my whole life and all my friends can surf or wakeboard, and here I am, talentless and jealous.” Michael didn’t really mind, he would rather sit and do nothing and watch his talented friends, than put the time and energy into learning something new. Laziness was something he and Joey had in common.

“We should take lessons,” Joey suggested with a cheeky smile. She bumped his shoulder with his, prompting him to look at her and crack a smile. “I’ll do it if you do it.”

“Seriously?” Michael laughed, not even being able to picture himself sitting, let alone standing and riding, on a surfboard. And, really, Michael was just too lazy. He wasn’t ashamed to admit it. “I would probably break my neck, so I’m gonna have to pass on that, Joey.”

“Pass on what?” Elise panted as she jogged up to the pair, shoving her board into the sand and collapsing down on the towel with Ashton, Luke, and Calum following her shortly after. 

“Surfing lessons,” Joey hummed happily, her head thrown back, her hair brushing the towel below her, letting the sun bake her skin. 

“You totally should!” Luke exclaimed excitedly. He would have offered to teach her, but he didn’t have enough time on his hands. “I’d give you lessons, but I’m booked for a few months, so is Ash.”

“It’s oka-“

“Calum’s not,” Ashton interrupted her quickly, kicking Calum’s foot with his own, a smirk on his face. 

“I’m not what?” Calum looked up from his phone, with furrowed eyebrows, clearly confused and clearly paying no attention to the conversation at hand. Joey wasn’t surprised, really, the two times she had been around him he had totally ignored her.  

“Booked for surfing lessons.”

“Oh,” Calum nodded. “Yeah, ‘m always open to taking new clients. Who are we talkin’ about?” 

“Joey,” Luke smiled knowingly. He wanted the two of them to get to know each other better, wanted Calum to befriend her like he and the rest of the guys did so easily, and he knew that Calum was trying to keep his distance. But why? Luke didn’t know. And he was determined to change that.

Calum let out a heavy sigh, locking eyes with Joey who was directly across from him, biting his lower lip at the nervous expression on her face. “Fine.” Calum knew he couldn’t get out of it, and neither could Joey. 

***

“Hey,” Joey stood up, wiping the sand off of her bikini bottom clad butt, smiling nervously at Calum. He didn’t look too pleased to be there and Joey knew that he was doing this against his will. “Thanks for doing this.”

“Whatever.” Calum rolled his eyes, dropping his board to the sand and pulling the wax out of the pocket of his swim trunks to wax his board. “Let’s just get this over with, yeah?”

Joey frowned, but mumbled a quiet okay and followed Calum’s lead and started waxing the board that Elise had lent to her for the day. She knew that once she got the hang of it, if she ever did, she would go out and buy her own board, but the spare one that Elise had would do for now. 

After learning the basics of how to stand, where to stand, and how to work the board, Calum stretched his gorgeous body, that Joey couldn’t keep her eyes off of, and looked at her expectantly. He looked bored.

“You wanna get in the water today or wait until next time?”

“Um,” Joey bit her lip. She wasn’t sure if she was ready, but she was going to pull the trigger, and she was burning hot under the blazing sun.  “Today?”

“You’re going to surf in that?” Calum nodded to her body and the black string bikini she had on. He had his wetsuit in the trunk of his car, always being prepared, but he figured that Joey, who had never surfed before, didn’t own one yet. But she could easily go to the store and pick one up for herself.

Joey looked down at herself, frowned, and looked back up at Calum. Tilting her head in confusion, Joey asked him, “What’s wrong with this?”

Calum laughed, though there wasn’t a hint of humor in it, and shook his head. Jesus, Ashton, Calum thought. “Leave it to Ashton to hire a clueless girl, who knows absolutely nothing about surfing, to work at a surf shop.” 

Narrowing her eyes at him, Joey crossed her arms across her chest and tilted her head to the side, glaring at him, though he was paying no attention to her. “Why don’t you like me?”

“I don’t know you, Joey.” 

“Yeah and you won’t ever get to know me if you avoid me every time we hang out.”

“Alright, let’s get one thing straight,” Calum stood up straight, eyeing her down. “We don’t hang out,” he motioned between the two of them. “You hang out with your cousin, who is dating my best friend, who I hang out with all the time. If it were up to me, we wouldn’t ever be hanging out and I would not be giving you lessons today. For free.”

“Then why are you?”

“Because Ashton and Elise would be pissed at me if I didn’t. Understand?”

“Yeah, I understand,” Joey shook her head angrily. Picking up her purse, she fished a few twenties out of her wallet and threw them in Calum’s direction, paying him for the lessons and the time wasted, even though she didn’t have to. “I understand that you’re a dick. Thanks for the lesson.”

“I don’t need your money! It’s free!” Calum yelled after her, cupping his hands around his face, as she stormed away as best as she could in her flip flops in the sand, forgetting about and leaving Elise’s spare board behind. Calum could handle getting that home to her. 

Turning around, Joey continued to walk, backwards this time, and yelled back at him, with her middle fingers up in the air. “I don’t want to owe you any favors, asshole!”

***

The Australian heat is something that Joey will never get used to. After living in Seattle for over ten years, and rarely ever going on vacations, sun was a rare thing in her life. And she loved it. 

The loud splashing into the pool had her peeling her eyes open to see Michael on Luke’s shoulders and Elise on Ashton’s, playing a game of chicken in the in ground pool in the backyard of Elise and Joey’s house. 

The lazy, but content smile on Joey’s diminished when she saw Calum walk out of the sliding doors that led out to the backyard and pool. He was invited, of course he was, but Elise was unsure if he was actually going to come, and Joey really hoped he wouldn’t. But, of course, he showed up. Two hours late. 

“Cal! You’re finally here!” Michael shouted, paying more attention to Calum than to the game, and Elise took it as her chance to push his shoulders as hard as she could and knock him into the pool. “Fuck!” Michael’s cursing was the last thing to be heard before he fell backwards into the pool. 

Ashton and Elise cheered in victory about their win as Calum made himself comfortable on one of the vacant pool chairs. Joey got up to throw away her empty beer bottle, opening her mouth to offer to get anyone a drink, when Luke came barreling toward her, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. “Luke!” Joey squealed. “Put me down!”

She pounded her small fists against his butt, making him giggle, and he returned the favor, smacking his very large hand, against her scantily bikini bottom clad butt. Not too hard, but enough to make it jiggle slightly and enough for Calum not to be able to tear his eyes off of them.

Calum watched as Luke spun Joey around, playfully smacking her butt every few seconds, causing a feeling that Calum didn’t like in the pit of his stomach. It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t annoyance, he knew that, and he really hoped it wasn’t unwarranted jealousy. 

“You ready, Joey?” Joey could almost hear the mischief in Luke’s voice.

“Ready for what?” She exclaimed, not getting an answer from Luke, as he was already running and jumping into the water, submerging them both. “Luke!” Her voice rang throughout the backyard as she wiped her face clean of pool water. “You’re such a dick!”

Splashing her in the face, Luke smirked deviously, mumbling a quiet, “not as dick of a dick as Calum,” into Joey’s ear before swimming away from her. 

She almost regretted running her mouth about Calum to Luke, Ashton, and Elise while they were all at the shop, but she needed to get it off her chest before she exploded. She just didn’t understand why he hated her so much without even knowing her. 

Joey rolled her eyes but silently agreed before pushing herself out of the water. Calum’s eyes were on Joey as she wrung her hair out, her half naked body due to her very small bikini, glistening with a combination of water, sweat, and tanning oil. He had to force himself to look away from her once their eyes met. He didn’t want to stop looking at her. 

He may not have liked her, but he had to admit that she was surely a sight to be seen. Even a blind person could see that.

***

It pissed Joey off to no end how attractive she thought Calum was. His looks mixed with his accent and his tough, don’t give a shit, demeanor, was something that she found way too attractive. But his attitude towards her? A complete turn off. 

“You’re staring,” Luke leaned over to whisper into Joey’s ear. Although it wasn’t quite whispering considering they were in a loud, crowded bar with music thumping. “Again.”

“Shut up,” Joey grumbled and sipped her Jack and Coke, practically having to tear her eyes away from Calum. “It’s just not fair,” she sighed dramatically. Luke raised his eyebrows, prompting Joey to continue. “He’s so attractive but he’s such a dickhead to me for no Goddamn reason!”

Luke snorted, finishing his drink that he had been nursing, since he was voted to be the designated driver of the night. “He’ll get past it, trust me.” Luke stood up, leaving a sloppy kiss on her cheek. “How could he not like you? You’re great, Joe.”

The corners of her lips turned up and she nodded as a thank you as she now finished her drink. She, too, got up to get another drink, but Luke stopped her since he was on his way to the bathroom, he offered to get her her next drink, which she appreciated. She wasn’t in the mood to stand and wait for ten minutes to get a drink. 

Looking away from Luke, Joey and Calum’s eyes met, and she pursed her lips, and unsurprisingly, his face held no reaction. What else could she have expected? She didn’t think he would ever warm up to her. And she hated that feeling. 

***

“Why is that your name?” Calum asked, finally breaking the silence between them for the first time since they got on their boards and paddled into the water, which had been almost over an hour.

“I’m sorry?” Joey furrowed her eyebrows. 

“Your name - it’s a dude’s name.”

Joey scoffed out a laugh and shook her head, running her fingers through the still water. There hadn’t been many good waves that day, so Calum and Joey floated on their boards in silence while they waited. “It’s actually Josephine. I’ve hated it since I could say it, so I’ve always gone by Joey.”

“Why did you move here?” She looked over at Calum again, looking so perfect and natural on his surfboard, and sighed. Was he really trying to make small talk? 

“Are you asking because you’re genuinely curious or you’re just bored of the silence?”

Calum shrugged. “Little bit of both, I guess.”

That surprised Joey. Calum had never taken an interest in her life and she really didn’t think he ever would, but she didn’t mind. She appreciated it, really. And she was deathly bored of sitting in the water without speaking. 

“My mother is an overbearing control freak who tries to plan my every move,” Joey spit out without hesitation, shaking her head distastefully at the thought of her mother. “She’s been pushing me to go to law school since I was thirteen and never gave up. Finally, a few months ago, I told her I didn’t want to and I told her I needed to get away from her and from the city. A twenty minute phone call with Elise later and now I’m here.”

Calum opted to stay quiet and simply nod his head. He couldn’t imagine how stressful it was for Joey to grow up with so much pressure on her. His upbringing was much different with his parents letting him choose his own career path, letting him choose to do whatever it was he wanted to do, with their support. 

“Sounds like shit.” Was all Calum had to say. Joey couldn’t help but laugh and nod her head in agreement. Calum watched her look out at the water, the sun glistening down on her and the ocean. As his eyes trailed down her body, they caught sight of a tattoo he hadn’t noticed before. It was a date of some sort in Roman numerals. “What’s that tattoo mean?”

Joey looked down at her ribs, tracing the date lightly, a sad smile on her face that Calum could clearly see. “The date my father died.”

Calum’s lips made an O shape and he suddenly felt bad for asking and prying into her personal life. He hadn’t ever asked her personal questions before, so he really didn’t know anything about her. It was weird, for Calum, to hear Joey open up to him. 

“Hey,” Joey looked up at the sound of his voice and followed the nod of his head, looking in front of them to finally see a wave forming. “That’s all you.”

Joey swallowed the nervous lump in her throat, but pushed her anxiety to the side and paddled forward. She did everything Calum had taught her in the three lessons they’ve had, not many, but enough for her to grasp the concept of how to catch and ride a wave. Maybe not well, but she could get the job done.

The lessons paid off as Joey successfully caught and rode the wave, her excited squeals of excitement and clapping had Calum smiling at her smile and happiness against his will. He watched as she dropped into the water, popping back up just seconds later, and swam over to where Calum was sitting on his own board. Their smiles mirrored each other’s. 

“Hell yeah!” Calum held his hand up for a high-five which Joey happily gave him and she tried to paddle away, but couldn’t get any further as Calum wrapped his hand around hers and pulled her closer to him. “That was amazing, really. For your first time catching a wave - I’m impressed.”

“Thanks, Calum.” Joey blushed, but couldn’t help but smile widely, showing off her pretty and perfect teeth. “All thanks to you.”

“Please,” Calum scoffed. “You’ve got natural talent.”

Joey rolled her eyes but smiled at the man in front of her, who, for once, was being nice to her. It was a weird, one-eighty, change for the two of them to be talking and laughing together, but they both welcomed it.

The moment was perfect, really. With Joey and Calum’s faces only inches away, the sound of waves crashing, and the sight of the sun setting behind Joey and in front of Calum, it was the perfect moment, Calum thought. And he didn’t want it to slip away. 

Before he could process it, Calum’s lips were on Joey’s and before Joey could think about what she was doing, she was kissing him back. Calum couldn’t find it in himself to stop kissing her, not until he felt her hands in his hair, prompting him to pull away. 

Their breaths were heavy and their chests panting. “We, uh,” Calum’s breath fanned over Joey’s lips and her eyes fluttered shut, hoping he would press his against hers one more time. “We should get going before it gets dark out.”

With that, Calum pulled away, paddling towards the shore, leaving Joey more confused than ever. 

***

“Dude,” Elise snapped in Joey’s face, knocking her out of her daydream. Joey looked up from her nails and the chipped polish she had absentmindedly been picking at and raised her eyebrows at her cousin in question. “What is with you? You’ve been acting weird lately.”

“Ugh,” Joey threw her head back in exasperation. She had debated telling Elise about her and Calum’s weird kiss in the ocean, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to spill the beans when it really wasn’t that big of a deal. “Calum, um,” Joey cleared her throat anxiously. “I- Calum kissed me.”

“What?” Elise nearly spit her coffee out on the concrete below them. The two of them were sitting outside at the small table in the corner of their backyard, in the shade but could still feel like the sun on them, and it was nice, but the conversation about to take place was not nice. “I’m sorry - he what?”

“After I caught a wave, he seemed so happy and proud of me and I guess we got caught up in the moment and he kissed me.” Joey explained more in depth. “And then he swam away and acted like nothing happened!”

“Well, have you talked to him about it?”

Joey made a bored face. As if she had talked to him. Even if she did try to speak to him about it, she was sure he wouldn’t give her the time of day. “Yeah, right. I haven’t seen him since and I don’t have his phone number, so,” Joey trailed off in annoyance. 

“Want me to talk to him?”

“God no,” Joey shook her head quickly. She didn’t want anybody else to get involved. It was her and Calum’s mess, so they had to sort it out themselves, as civil adults. “I’ll deal with it. Eventually.”

Which was going to be hard, because Joey really didn’t think Calum could act like an adult, let alone a civil one. 

***

After the bar, Calum walked back to Elise’s with her and Ashton, and stayed for another drink, chatting and laughing with them in the kitchen. They all had a good buzz from being out, and Calum was in an even better mood since Joey was too tired to go out, so she was glued to Elise’s side like she always was. He hadn’t seen or spoken to her since their weird kiss, that he, regretfully, initiated, and he wasn’t looking forward to seeing her. 

“Alright,” Calum chugged down the rest of his beer and stood up from the stool that was at the marble island, and shrugged his jacket back on. It was getting late and he didn’t want to be walking home too late, even though his house was only a ten minute walk away. “I’m outta here. See you guys later.”

“Get home safe! Love you!” Elise and Ashton yelled as he let himself out through the sliding doors that led to the backyard and a walkway directly to his own house.

He stopped in his tracks, unlit cigarette between his lips and lighter in hand, when he saw Joey, curled up under a blanket, a hoodie that he was pretty sure was his that Elise stole from him, with the hood up and weed leaf socks on her feet. Why she was outside? He had no clue. It was nice out, sure, but she had a perfectly fine bed inside just a few feet away. 

He saw the empty glass of wine on the ground next to her, as he slowly and quietly approached her sleeping body. She looked peaceful, and adorable, as she slept, which Calum hated to admit, and he didn’t want to wake her up, but it was half past one in the morning, and he didn’t want to leave her out there in the dark and with the mosquitos. 

“Hey,” Calum, crouched down to lightly shake Joey’s body, watching her stir and open her eyes, looking around in confusion. She clearly wasn’t planning on sleeping outside for the night. “Why’re you asleep out here?”

“Hmm,” Joey hummed tiredly and closed her eyes again, cuddling into herself more with her knees pulled up to her chest. Even though she was outside on a lawn chair, she was too comfy to get up. “Spider in my room. Couldn’t find it to kill it.”

Calum snorted. Typical, he thought. “C’mon, let‘s get you inside, yeah?” 

“Can’t get up.” 

“Jesus,” Calum huffed and pocketed his long forgotten, and much needed, cigarette, and stood up to his full height, taking the blanket off of her and draping it over his shoulder, effortlessly picking her up bridal style, and made his way inside. Joey was quite small, barely over one hundred and ten pounds and shorter than Calum, most people were, so carrying her was easy and effortless for him. 

Toeing her bedroom door open, Calum flicked the light switch on causing Joey to groan and hide her face in his chest. He fucking hated now nice and natural it felt. 

He had never been in her room before, didn’t have a reason to, so he looked around as he settled Joey in her bed. He had been in the room before, of course, but not since Joey made it her own. Fairy lights were hung above her bed and candles were scattered everywhere, and her bed sheets were bright white with flowers on them, unlike the boring gray ones Elise used to have on the bed. 

It seemed to fit her, Calum thought, and he caught himself smiling at the picture on her nightstand, of her and Elise when they were younger. “Wait,” Calum was stopped from walking any further, his plans on leaving Joey to sleep long forgotten as the grip she had on his wrist loosened. “Stay. Please.”

Calum was hesitant, one because Joey was nearly in a full slumber, and two because he was a little bit more than tipsy and the offer sounded way too appealing. Going against his better judgment, Calum sighed heavily and took a seat on the other side of her bed, his shoes on the floor next to him, and his body above the blankets, not under like Joey was. 

He couldn’t fall asleep, with her right next to him and her perfume in his nose, that was for damn sure. So he sat there, wide awake, staring at the ceiling. And before Joey could wake up, Calum was gone. He wasn’t sure what he regretted more; staying the night or leaving before she woke up.

***

The little bell above the door rang throughout the shop, and Joey locked and put her phone in the drawer to her left, wanting to look professional while she greeted the new customer. “Welcome to Surf and C-“ Joey’s words died on her tongue as she made eye contact with her mother, who she hadn’t seen in over a month. “Mom?”

“Josephine.” Jill smiled, though it was clearly fake, and looked around the shop. Her nose scrunched up at the sight of her daughter behind the counter, wearing a bathing suit with a see thru shirt and jean shorts on, her flip flops on the floor below her as she sat criss cross applesauce on the stool. 

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Joey was shocked, to say the least. The last time she saw or spoke to her mother, they were screaming at each other and saying things neither of them meant, and would soon regret. 

“I came to see how you were doing, sweetie.” Jill rested her arms on the counter across from Joey. Joey swallowed nervously, knowing full well that her mother would have nothing good to say. “Seems like you’re doing worse than you were in Seattle.”

“Mom-“

“You could have had it all, Josephine! A good, stable, job in a law firm, not a beach shop, and a nice man in your life. What do you have here?” Jill held her arms up, motioning to the empty store she was working in. “You have nothing going for you here. Have you even met anyone you can foresee a future with?”

“Did you really travel eight thousand miles to come lecture me?” Joey asked, completely ignoring the questions her mother was asking her and the disapproval in her voice. Joey wasn’t having it. 

“I came to bring you home.”

“I’m not coming home, mom.”

“Josephine-“

“No! I’m not leaving here. Not yet.” Joey stood her ground, standing up to her mother for only the second, or third, time in her life. “You want me to leave, you want me to go to law school, you want me to find a husband. You. It has always been about you! I’m a grown woman, I’m done listening to you and your bullshit.”

Joey’s voice cracked and her eyes and nose stung and she knew she was about to start crying. Not tears of sadness, but of anger and frustration. She couldn’t stand her mother and the need for her to be perfect. Joey would never be perfect. 

“You want me to be this perfect daughter and guess what? I’m not! I’m not the daughter you want me to be and I never will be. Not as long as I’m around you.”

“Fine,” Jill rubbed her gloss covered lips together and picked up her purse from the chair next to her. Joey’s eyes were filled with unshed tears. “I just want you to know that if you do change your mind and come back to Seattle, you don’t have a place in my home anymore.”

The tears finally fell. “I don’t want one.” With that, Jill turned on her heel and stormed out of the shop, no goodbyes, no I love you’s, nothing, and Joey couldn’t find it in her to care, really. 

Once the door was shut, Joey hid her face in her hands and let the tears fall. She wasn’t sobbing, her shoulders weren’t shaking and there weren’t any loud sobs leaving her mouth, just a few tears that she shouldn’t have even been shedding over her mother. 

“Uh, hey.” At the sound of Calum’s voice, Joey’s head snapped up. Of course he was there - the last person she wanted to see. She hastily wiped at her cheeks and avoided all eye contact with him. “You okay?”

“How long have you been here?”

“Long enough.” Calum smiled innocently. “That sounded rough.”

Joey scoffed. “No shit.”

Joey wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Maybe a half ass “I’m sorry” from Calum that he didn’t entirely mean, or total silence, but sure as hell not a hug from him. It was foreign, hugging him. They had never been so close together, despite their kiss and him laying in her bed with her - both of which they acted like didn’t happen. 

“I know I don’t know the situation, but you shouldn’t let her get to you like that, yeah?” Calum mumbled, his cheek pressed against the top of Joey’s head. This is the closest, and longest, they had ever been touching each other. “I know I obviously didn’t know you in Seattle, but you seem happy here, from what I can tell. You shouldn’t let her show up here out of nowhere and fuck up your mood.”

Joey sniffled and nodded her head, her hair rubbing against Calum’s bare chest due to his wetsuit being unzipped and only hanging around his hips. “You’re right,” Joey’s voice was quiet and she figured that the goosebumps that rose on Calum’s skin were from the cold air, not her breath. “Thanks, Calum.”

“Am I interrupting something?” Luke appeared out of nowhere with a smirk on his face, and Calum, quickly and sadly, pulled away from their hug. It was too short for Calum’s liking and he found himself wanting to hold her for longer, to make her feel better after getting berated from her mother. He had no clue where these unexpected feelings came from and he didn’t want anyone to know about them. Not Luke, not Michael, not Ashton, and especially not Joey or Elise.

“Just tryin’ to cheer your friend up so she stops complaining.” Calum brushed him off, trying to act like he didn’t actually care about Joey or her feelings, which wasn’t true. Clapping him on the shoulder, Calum grabbed his surfboard and exited the shop, leaving Luke confused and Joey with an even bigger frown on her face. 

Why the fuck was he so confusing?

***

“Oh, fuck.” Calum cursed under his breath as he watched another, cocky and selfish, surfer swim up on Joey and take her wave right out from under her. There were some competitive surfers in their town, it wasn’t a secret, but Calum was hoping to avoid them while he and Joey were in the water. Calum knew that Joey wasn’t really ready to go up against any other surfers, wasn’t as strong, and he was worried about what would happen. 

It was unexpected and Joey hadn’t even seen the much bigger and better surfer swimming up next to her, too focused on trying to surf the wave she knew she could catch. Caught off guard, a guttural scream left her lips, catching the attention of Calum and the rest of the few surfers scattered around the beach. Calum was instantly alert, ignoring everything else around him as he watched Joey’s body fly through the air.

Her body hit the water, hard, her head smacking against her board and the impact from the huge wave and the pressure of the water splitting her board in half. “Fuck,” Calum cursed again as he paddled towards her, trying to see if he could spot her, but could only see one half of her board, the waves too hard and too big to be able to see her just yet. “C’mon, Joey.” Calum nervously cracked his knuckles.

The waves kept coming at her, the cord of her board still attached to her ankle and stuck in the coral that cut her leg up, and as the seconds passed, Calum grew more and more anxious. She had been under water far too long for his liking, so, ripping off his own cord, Calum dove into the water to find her. 

The salt water stung his eyes, but that was the least of his worries, all he could think about was Joey and making sure she was okay, and it wasn’t too late. He found her seconds later, eyes closed and her body floating in her own blood, and he was beyond thankful that sharks in the water they were in were rare. 

The next few seconds were a blur to Calum. He didn’t even remember pulling her out of the water and putting her on his board, quickly but safely paddling them out of the water and to the sand and screaming at the lifeguard to call an ambulance. He checked her pulse on her wrist and neck and panicked. He thanked God that Ashton made him take a CPR class in order for him to be a surf instructor, and went to work on Joey right away, trying to get her back to consciousness. 

“Come on, Joe. Don’t fuckin’ die on me.” Calum grunted, pressing his lips to hers and pushing on her chest. His panic and anxiety and worry dissipated, just the smallest amount, as Joey’s eyes fluttered open and she was sputtering water out of her mouth as she slowly sat up, coughing up all the salt water that invaded her lungs. “Oh, thank God.” Calum wrapped his arms around her, holding her head in his hands as it rested against his chest to steady her weak body. 

She was panting, tears in her burning eyes, her mouth dry, and her throat raw. She couldn’t speak, it seemed she didn’t know how. All she could focus on was Calum’s warm, bare chest against her cheek, his hands running up and down her back, and the sounds of sirens getting closer and closer. 

“Come on,” Calum helped her weak body to her feet and wrapped his arm around her waist. Her legs were wobbly and her left ankle had a deep, bleeding cut, so Calum tried to be as gentle as possible, “Let’s get you checked out, yeah?”

She sat on the edge of the ambulance, shivering, teeth chattering, and her usually pretty pink lips turning blue. The medic asked a series of questions and Joey simply shook her head yes or no, not being able to find her voice just yet, too in shock from everything that had just happened. 

“We’re going to take you to the hospital to get you checked out for a concussion and to stitch up your leg, miss. Is that okay?”

“Um, y-yeah.” Joey nodded her head, finally opening her mouth to talk, taking a deep breath from the oxygen mask that was covering her mouth and nose before removing it from her face. “That’s fine.”

“Do you have an emergency contact?” Joey shook her head no. “Is there anyone you want me to call?”

Ashton and Elise were out of town for the week for their anniversary and really, Joey couldn’t think of anyone else to call. Her mind was completely blank. It felt like it was full of sand and saltwater. “I’ll follow you there, yeah?”

Her gaze snapped up from her shaky hands to Calum, who was draping a light flannel over her half naked body, subsiding her shaking just a tiny bit. Joey almost forgot that Calum was even there, but how could she? He had just saved her life. 

“O-okay.” Joey rasped and Calum left a quick kiss on her forehead before the medics shut the doors behind them and took off to the hospital. 

Calum looked over his shoulder, seeing Colton, the guy who so carelessly knocked over and nearly killed Joey, laughing with his friends in the water, acting as if he didn’t almost just take a girl's life. Calum debated on paddling back out in the water to confront him about it, which would no doubt lead to a fight of some sort, but he figured that Joey and her wellbeing was more important, and he would leave talking to Colton for a different day. 

***

Joey hated hospitals. The last time she was in one she lost her father and she hadn’t been back to one since - a whole four years. She avoided them at all costs, but with a huge gash on her leg and a possible concussion, she knew she had to go with the medics. She would have rather driven there with Calum, but the medics told her that going with them was the best and most safe option, so she didn’t argue. She didn’t have the energy to argue.

“Hey,” Calum’a voice was quiet, knowing that Joey’s head was in pain and she still hadn’t fully recovered from the scary accident. Calum rubbed her bare thigh comfortingly, although he wasn’t sure how comforting it was, and lightly squeezed it. “You okay?”

“I think so,” Joey smiled tiredly. She was exhausted and her whole entire body felt heavy and weak, apparently almost dying takes a lot out of you. She played with the much longer sleeves of Calum’s flannel she still had on, opting to not wear the ugly hospital gown and sighed tiredly. “Thanks for saving my life.”

Calum couldn’t help but laugh as he scuffed his shoes against the linoleum floor. A small, careless shrug pulled at his shoulders. “Course.”

“Ma’am?” Joey and Calum both looked to their to see the doctor approaching them with a clipboard consisting of medical instructions to follow and her discharge papers. “You’re good to go now, but I recommend having someone stay with you for the first night just to make sure you’re okay and monitored. Is there anyone you can call to stay with you? Do you live alone?”

“I, uh, I-I live with my cousin but she’s out of town until Monday night.” Joey cleared her scratchy throat. “And I-I don’t know who else-“ 

“I can,” Calum interrupted. He figured he was going to have to drive her home anyway, and he definitely didn’t want her to be alone after what happened, and he had no other plans for his day, so he wanted to help as much as he could. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to inconvenience you, Calum.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Calum chuckled incredulously. If this had happened a month ago, Calum wouldn’t hesitate to just drop her off and leave her to fend for herself, but Calum, even though he didn’t want to admit it, cared about Joey. “You almost just died, Joe, I want to help you. It’s the least I can do.”

“You just saved my life, Calum. You’ve helped enough.”

“You’re not gonna win this argument, love.” Calum smiled sweetly at her. “Sign the papers so we can get you home, yeah?” The unexpected pet name had Joey’s very pale cheeks heating up and Calum mentally shaking his head at himself. Love? Where the hell did that come from? 

Joey nodded her head and scribbled her signature on the papers before handing them back to the doctor and hopped down from the hospital bed. They offered her a wheelchair to take out to the car, but Calum waved them off and patted his back for Joey to jump onto, which she did so easily. 

The drive was silent, until Joey nervously spoke up as she applied chapstick to her now pink, no longer blue, but chapped lips. “Can we, uh, can we not tell Elise about this yet?”

“What? You don’t want to tell her?”

“Just - just not today, okay? It’s her and Ashton’s anniversary and I don’t wanna ruin it, you know? I’ll call her and tell her tomorrow.”

“Alright, yeah.” Calum nodded in agreement. “We’ll wait.”

Joey sighed in relief and smiled in Calum’s direction, the car falling silent one more until they arrived at Joey’s house. She walked in easily, not needing Calum’s help any longer, but he kept his hand on her lower back just in case. 

“I’m gonna go shower and wash the salt water, near death, and hospital off of me.” Joey said, making her way to her room to shower. She was exhausted and all she wanted to do was lay down, but Joey knew that taking a shower would make her feel somewhat better. “Make yourself at home.”

***

“Can I tell you something?” Calum spoke, interrupting the content silence that lingered between them. They had been sitting on the couch in Joey’s living room after she had taken her much needed shower, binge watching Schitt’s Creek on Netflix. Joey and Calum were on either side of the couch, Joey with her back against the arm and her feet resting on Calum’s lap across the couch. 

“Mhmm.” Joey mumbled tiredly. The medicine she had taken and all the events of the day had taken a major toll on her and her eyelids were feeling way too heavy. 

“I was so scared I was gonna lose you today.” Joey’s eyes slowly went from the TV to Calum, who avoided eye contact with her, only looking at his hands that were resting on her ankles, his fingers lightly tapping them. “I-I really thought you were gonna die on me.” Calum chuckled sadly. 

“Well, I’m glad you don’t hate me enough to let me die.” Joey grinned at him lazily and he finally met her eyes. They both had small blushes on their cheeks, admitting it was hard for Calum, and it was even weirder for Joey to hear. 

“I don’t hate you.” Calum furrowed his eyebrows. 

Joey scoffed, rolling her eyes at him. “Right. I’m sure.”

“I don’t!” Calum exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. He hated that Joey thought he hated her. “I’m serious, I don’t hate you. I’m warming up to you more and more everyday.”

“You really have an ass backwards way of showing it, Calum.” Joey joked, but there was a sad smile on her face that Calum didn’t miss. 

He knew he was a dick to her when they first met, and for a while after that, and he knew that she didn’t deserve it. Hell, she had done nothing wrong, he had no reason to treat her like such shit. It was hard for him to admit it to himself, but he found himself liking her the more he was around her. 

“C’mere,” Calum patted the cushion next to him and Joey slowly crawled over to him, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her chin atop them. The longer he looked at her the bigger his smile was. Before he could stop himself, he found himself, after thinking it for so long, blurting out and telling her, “You’re gorgeous.”

Licking her lips, Joey pulled them between her teeth to hide her smile. “So are you.” Joey wasn’t embarrassed to admit it. 

“Oh, yeah?” Calum’s eyes lit up.

Joey rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder lightly, her body leaning into his closer than she intended to, but neither of them minded. “Don’t act like you don’t know you’re attractive, Calum.”

Their lips were close, so fucking close, and Calum couldn’t take it any longer. He was consumed by her. “‘M gonna kiss you now.”

Joey couldn’t help but smile. “Okay.” 

And that’s all it took for Calum to smash his lips against hers, gripping her hips and pulling her onto his lap. Without warning, Calum stood up, making an unexpected squeal leave Joey’s lips and he blindly walked them to her bedroom. His lips found her jaw and neck and Joey moaned quietly and Calum swore it was his new favorite sound, but he wanted to hear them louder. 

Their clothes were off in a split second, leaving Joey laying on her bed in just her cheeky panties and Calum in his tight boxers. He leaned up from her lips, biting down on his lower one hard at the sight of her almost completely bare for him. 

“So fuckin’ pretty.” Calum’s fingers ghosted over Joey’s skin, goosebumps covering her skin and he smirked, he already loved the way she reacted to his touch. His hands found the band of her panties, tugging them down without a second thought and threw them behind him carelessly. “Fuck,” Calum ran his fingers up and down her heat. “So wet for me.”

“Calum,” Joey whined, bucking her hips into his touch. “Do something.”

She was breathless, chest heaving and sweat already coating her skin, and Calum knew he couldn’t tease her, couldn’t deny her, so he dove right in, connecting his lips to her clit, sucking and licking, moaning against her. 

Joey’s fingers tangled in his curly hair, pulling and tugging, moaning loudly as she threw her head back into her pillows. It had been long, way too long, since she had been sexually intimate with anyone, so she was embarrassed when she was coming undone against Calum’s mouth so quickly as his fingers worked inside of her.

“Need t’feel you.” Calum mumbled against her lips as he worked on taking his boxers off. He hadn’t thought about a condom, that was honestly the last thing on his mind, and he prayed that Joey, or Elise, had them somewhere in their house. “Condom.”

Joey shook her head, their lips parting for just a second as she panted. “Birth control.”

Calum swore she was going to be the death of him.

***

“I can’t believe you didn’t call me!” Elise said, frustratingly running her hands down her face. She and Joey were in the kitchen, sitting at the island, discussing Joey’s accident and Joey felt like a child getting reprimanded by her mother. 

“I’m sorry, El! I just didn’t want you to- wait,” Joey narrowed her eyes at Elise, noticing the new, huge, diamond ring that adorned her ring finger. “What,” Joey took Elise’s hand in hers. “The hell is that?”

“Oh, uh,” Elise laughed nervously and took her hand back, twisting the ring around her finger, smiling at the memory of Ashton getting down on one knee just three nights prior and asking her to marry him. It didn’t feel real. “Ash - he proposed.”

“What?” Joey exclaimed happily, the smile taking over her face, completing forgetting about their small argument about Joey not telling Elise about her near death experience. Joey jumped on her cousin, giving her a bone crushing hug filled with happiness. “How could you not tell me this?!”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Elise shrugged, acting nonchalant, but inside she felt like her body was going to erupt from butterflies and happiness. It had been five years since they met and she knew they would end up getting married, but she didn’t expect it so soon. “We’re having dinner tomorrow night here and we’re inviting everyone, we wanted to tell everyone at the same time.”

“Ah! This is so exciting!” Joey was unbelievably happy for Elise and Ashton, she knew how in love they were, and she couldn’t wait for them to make their love official. 

“Thank you,” Elise giggled, squeezing Joey’s body lightly before releasing her from their long hug. “But we’re still not done talking about your accident. And about you and Calum.” Joey sighed, but knew she was not getting out of either conversation. 

***

“What’s this dinner all about?” Michael asked as everyone sat around the long outdoor table on their porch. It was the perfect night out, with it being around eighty degrees with a light breeze, it was the perfect night for a nice, friendly dinner. 

“Maybe they just wanted to do something nice,” Luke shrugged as he sipped his beer. They all were instructed to bring their bathing suits, too, if they wanted to swim after dinner, and almost everyone did, minus Michael’s girlfriend who could only stay for dinner. “We haven’t gotten together in a while. I think it’s nice.”

“Okay, guys!” Elise clapped her hands together, gaining everybody’s attention, with Ashton by her side with his arm draped around her shoulders. She had her hand hidden behind her so nobody would notice the sparkling diamond on her finger. “I know you guys are wondering why we invited you over, and we want to-”

“We’re getting married!” Ashton interrupted her, not wanting to wait any longer. He held up Elise’s hand to show off the impressive ring he had saved up for for so long purchased, and nearly everybody shot up from their seats to gush about it and admire the ring. 

“You don’t seem all that surprised,” Calum mumbled into her ear, causing involuntary goosebumps to rise on her skin. Calum wanted to give the couple their space as everybody else crowded them to give them hugs and congratulations. 

“I already knew,” Joey shrugged innocently with a small smirk on her face. She wanted to tell Calum, or anybody, she really did, since she was awful at keeping big surprises and news like that a secret, but she knew she couldn’t. Neither Elise or Ashton wanted anybody else to know. “I saw the ring when she got home.” 

“Hm,” Calum hummed, pressing his lips to her exposed shoulder, due to her spaghetti strapped dress she had on. Calum couldn’t keep his eyes off of her since he walked inside of her and Elise’s house. The white, silk dress she wore that exposed all of her legs, back, and arms, made her look incredibly sexy. “Love is just in the air tonight, huh?”

“I suppose it is.” 

Nobody really knew what was going on with Calum and Joey, they didn’t even really know what was going on with them, all they knew was that they were immensely attracted to each other, and they knew there were some feelings there, but they didn’t know the extent of it, and everybody knew better than to ask. 

Their lips met and the kiss was light and quick, but everybody saw it, and the smirk that took over Luke’s face was hard to miss. He knew that something would eventually happen between them, he could just feel it in his bones, but he didn’t want to push anything between them. Luke knew, in due time, that they would realize the attraction and the feelings they had for one another was undeniable. 

***

“So,” Luke nudged Joey’s shoulder with his own as they sat next to each other by the side of the pool. Joey didn’t want to get into the pool, so she opted for sitting with her legs dangling in them with Luke next to her, his jeans pushed up to his knees since he didn’t bring anything to swim in. “You and Cal, huh?” Joey just simply shrugged, a smile taking over his face as she sipped her Sangria that she and Elise made through her straw. Luke rolled his eyes, not happy with the lack of words from Joey. “What’s going on with you two?”

“Honestly?” Joey looked at Luke. “I’ve got no clue, Luke.” 

“He likes you,” Luke stated simply. “I can tell by the way he looks at you. He hasn’t looked at anyone like that since his first girlfriend broke his heart.”

Joey furrowed her eyebrows, not having a clue about Calum’s past relationships, or past anything, really. She was interested, of course she was, but she wasn’t going to pry and she wasn’t going to force Luke to tell her. If Calum wanted her to know, he would tell her, simple as that.

Calum swam up to them, shaking his wet hair in their direction, splashing little bits of water over Joey and Luke. His hands found her calves under the water and gave them a light squeeze. “Watcha two talkin’ about?”

“Just how sexy you look swimming,” Luke winked at him, causing Joey to giggle into her drink and shake her head at the two best friends. Calum rolled his eyes, but ignored Luke, turning his attention to Joey. 

“You gettin’ in?” Joey shook her head no, not quite in the mood to get her freshly washed hair and perfectly done makeup messed up. And she didn’t feel like walking all the way up to her bedroom to change into a bathing suit. “Hm,” Calum hummed, pressing his lips to her thigh. “Think I’m gonna change that.”

“What do you-”

Joey squealed as Calum gripped her hips and pulled her from the side of the pool, fully into the pool with him. Her dress rode up above her hips, exposing the fact that she was wearing no underwear, thankful that it was dark and the water was covering them. “Calum, what the hell!” Joey wrapped her legs around his waist.

“You’re not wearin’ any underwear, are you?” He could feel the skin on skin and felt himself hardening at the thought of Joey being completely bare under her dress. She never failed to surprise him.

“Why don’t you find out?” Joey tilted her head challengingly and Calum bit his lip, sexually and in frustration at how easily Joey turned him on. It was driving him insane. Ever since the night they had mind-blowing sex, all Calum could think about was Joey.

“Hm, I think I just might.” In a matter of seconds, Calum had them out of the pool, he still holding Joey and her legs still wrapped around Calum’s waist, thankful that her ass wasn’t exposed to all of her friends that were in her backyard. “See you guys later!” Calum shouted to his friends, ignoring the hoops and hollers they received. 

Neither Joey nor Calum cared that their friends knew exactly what they were going upstairs to do.

***

“Why couldn’t you have asked Elise to come with you?” Calum complained to Joey as the two of them looked through dresses in a higher end boutique shop in the middle of town.

They were, or Joey was, shopping for a dress for Elise and Ashton’s engagement party that was coming up in just a little over a week. It had been a month since Ashton and Elise announced their engagement and it’s been crazy ever since. 

“She’s too busy planning the party.” Joey hummed as she sifted through the dresses, not finding any she liked, and if she did like them, they didn’t have her size or were way overpriced. She was almost close to giving up. 

“How ‘bout this one?” Calum picked a random one off the rack, holding it up by the hanger to show Joey. 

It was a pink, mid thigh, flowing, backless dress with a halter top that tied behind the neck. Joey’s eyes lit up at the dress that she had failed to see and took it from Calum’s hand. It was her size, surprisingly, and it wasn’t too costly. 

“I love it.” Joey grinned at him. 

“Well, go try it on!” Calum turned her around by her shoulders and ushered her to the fitting rooms where she happily stripped down and tried to the dress on. 

She came out shortly after, holding the top to her chest, spinning around, asking Calum, “Tie me up?”

“Gladly,” Calum smirked, thinking of all the other ways he could tie her up, as he moved her hair to one side of her neck and carefully and securely tied it. Spinning around, Joey looked at Calum expectantly, who was looking at her with wide eyes and a goofy smile on his face. “Gorgeous.”

“Yeah?” Joey blushed. 

“Always,” Calum held his hand out for her to take and raised it above both of their heads. “Spin for me.” Joey did so happily, a quiet giggle leaving her lips as Calum twirled her around a few times before pulling her into his chest. “It’s a winner.” He mumbled against their connected lips. 

“You sure? Because I can always try-“

Their cute moment was interrupted by a familiar voice that Calum hoped he wouldn’t ever have to hear again. “Calum?” They pulled apart just a tiny bit, with Joey’s hands still around his neck and Calum’s around her waist. 

Stood before them was the devil herself, also known as Calum’s first and only, ex-girlfriend. His grip tightened on Joey’s hips, only slightly, but she felt it. “Ava, hey.” He was unhappy and uncomfortable, Joey could tell instantly. 

“Uh, how are you?”

Calum had to repress his scoff. “Fine. You?”

“Good, good.” She nodded her head and looked between the couple in front of her. Calum’s arm was now slung over Joey’s shoulders and her arms were awkwardly crossed against her chest. She could feel the girl judging her. “Who’s this?”

“My girlfriend - Joey.” 

Joey’s head snapped up to look at Calum in surprise. It was the first time he had ever called her his girlfriend before, so she was extremely caught off guard, but not disappointed. She had been waiting to hear those words leave his lips for weeks now. She couldn’t hide the smile on her face. “Hi,” she waved awkwardly. 

“Joe, this is Ava, my ex.”

Joey had heard only one thing about Calum’s ex-girlfriend, and that was from Luke, and she didn’t push Calum to tell her, and she didn’t mind the thought of him having an ex-girlfriend, she had ex-boyfriend’s herself. But standing in front of her, a gorgeous model looking girl, Joey was feeling just a little bit insecure. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” Joey said sweetly, even though it wasn’t nice, not in the slightest. 

“Likewise,” Ava’s smile was fake and Calum could tell, but he wasn’t going to start something pointless by mentioning it. “So, what are you two out shopping for?”

Seriously? Calum wanted to scream. She really couldn’t have just left it at that? She had to try and spark up a pointless and meaningless conversation? Calum wanted to run away the moment he saw her.

“Ash and Elise are getting married. Shopping for engagement party dresses for Joey.”

“Oh?” Ava’s eyes widened in surprise at the news of her old friends getting engaged, and soon married. “You know Elise and Ashton?” She turned her attention to Joey. 

“Elise is my cousin,” Joey nodded her head, and told her condescendingly, “So, yeah, I know them.” 

Calum bit back his laugh and smiled at Joey’s attitude, but silently applauded her for it. He knew she didn’t want to be standing there talking to his ex-girlfriend just as much as he didn’t. “Well,” Joey cleared her throat. “I’m gonna go change back into my clothes and then we can go, yeah?” 

“Yeah,” Calum smiled, pressing a quick kiss to her lips as she retreated into the fitting room, leaving Calum and Ava to catch up, or whatever it was that Ava wanted from Calum. 

“She’s pretty.” Ava nodded her head in Joey’s direction. 

“She is, innit she?” Calum smiled. “And nice. And honest. A lot of things you weren’t.”

“Calum,” Ava shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry. For everything.”

He pursed his lips, clearly not believing any of the words that came out of her mouth. Ever since she broke his heart, he hadn’t believed anything. “Sure you are.”

The curtain swung open and Joey stepped out, dressed in her normal street wear, her purse hanging on her shoulder, and the hanger dangling on her finger. “Ready to go?” Joey smiled up at Calum. 

“Here,” Calum fished his credit card out of his wallet and handed it to Joey. “You go pay. I’ll catch up.”

“What? Cal, no.” Joey shook her head, not accepting the card that Calum was holding out for her. The dress wasn’t too expensive, really, just a little over fifty dollars and she could afford it. She appreciated Calum’s offer, but didn’t want to take it. “You’re not paying for this.”

Rolling his eyes, Calum easily shoved his card into the front pocket of Joey’s jean shorts, looped his fingers through her belt loops, and pecked her lips. “Don’t argue, baby. I’m payin’.” Joey rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless and made her way to the counter. Calum’s eyes followed his non-official-official girlfriend as she made her way to the cash register and smiled, but it turned into a scowl when he remembered Ava was standing in front of him, watching him watch Joey. “You have anything else to say before I walk away from you? For the last time?”

Ava shook her head sadly. “You look really happy, Calum.”

“I am.” Calum didn’t hesitate to confirm. 

“Well, I’m glad.” Ava rested a hand on his shoulder, making Calum almost flinch. Joey saw out of the corner of her eye and even though she could tell that Calum was uncomfortable, she felt uneasy, jealous. She hated it. “Give Elise and Ashton my love.”

“Yeah,” Calum exhaled a humorless laugh. As if. “I won’t be doing that.”

With that, Calum walked away from his ex-girlfriend who broke his heart, and over to his new girlfriend, who mended it back together. 

***

“So, ex-girlfriend, eh?” Joey finally brought up the dreaded conversation. She spun around in the small stool behind the front desk at Surf and Co., working the slow night shift that Ashton scheduled her with Calum keeping her company. 

“Canada, eh?” Calum smiled innocently, receiving an unamused look from Joey, who had finally stopped spinning. It had been five hours since they ran into Ava at the store and Joey was itching to say something and Calum knew it. “Right, sorry.” Calum knew they had to discuss it. “Yeah, Ava, ex-girlfriend.”

“What, uh, what happened?” Calum sighed heavily, twisting the rings on his fingers nervously, trying to figure out a way to start the story he was dreading on telling. “Luke mentioned something about her-”

“Luke told you?” Calum’s head snapped up.

“N-no! He just mentioned an ex-girlfriend that hurt you, but that’s all.” Joey assured him. She didn’t want Calum to be mad at Luke for mentioning anything to her about it, she just thought it might make things easier. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, Cal.”

“No, no. I should. You deserve to know.” Calum rounded the register, leaning against the counter next to Joey, spinning her around so she was facing him now. He smiled down at her, just the sight of her pretty face making his light up. “She was new in town a few years ago and I kind of, like took her in, much like you and Luke. But, instead of becoming just friends like the two of you, we-”

“Fell in love?” Joey mumbled.

“Yeah.” Calum scoffed. “I introduced her to everyone; all my friends, Elise, everyone. And she and one of my friends, Peter, hit it off well. A little too well. But I was happy about it, you know? Thought they were just friends. Until I found them in bed together. My bed.”

“Calum-”

“Instead of growing a pair of balls and breaking up with me, she took the cowards way out and cheated on me, so I broke up with her.” Calum frowned at the memory, but it didn’t make him as sad as it once did. He was completely over it, but the memory still stung. “She broke my heart.” He laughed sadly. 

“I’m sorry, Cal.” Taking his hands in hers, Joey gave them a reassuring squeeze, and bent down to kiss them. “Is that why you didn’t like me at first?” Joey hesitantly asked. “Because I was another new girl in town?”

Calum hadn’t ever even thought that could be a reason he disliked her so much, but thinking about it now, it all made sense. He didn’t want another new girl to come into his town and his life and turn it upside again just like Ava did. But he knew, with everything in his heart, that Joey would never do anything like that to him.

***

The annoying, incessant, vibrating of Calum’s phone had Joey putting her curling iron down and crossing his room to silence it. “Cal,” Joey shouted his hearing, receiving a mumbled ‘yeah’, from his bedroom. “Your phone is blowing up.”

“Who is it?”

“Uh,” Joey furrowed her eyebrows. “Number Isn't saved, but it says, ‘it was so nice to see you last night, Calum. I’m sorry about the kiss.’” Joey’s confusion could be heard through her tone of voice as she continued to read the text. “Kiss? What the hell, Calum?”

“Shit,” Calum cursed, hopping on one foot as he tried to put his dress shoe on the other. They were getting ready for the engagement party and Calum couldn’t have picked a worse time for Joey to find out what happened the night before. “I was going to-”

“Who the fuck is this?”

“Uh,” Calum nervously scratched his growing stubble. “It’s- it’s Ava.”

Spinning around, Joey held Calum’s phone in her hands with raised eyebrows and wide eyes. She could not believe what she was hearing. And she couldn’t believe how fucking casual Calum was acting about it. “I’m sorry, what? When were you with Ava? I thought you were with the guys last night.”

“I-I was, I swear I was!” Calum approached her, resting his hands on her shoulders to give them a reassuring squeeze, but Joey wasn’t reassured, not at all. “I bumped into her at the bar and she wanted to buy me a drink as an I’m sorry sort of thing, I guess? So then I bought her one to make it even and we talked for a few minutes and-and then she kissed me.”

Inhaling a deep breath, Joey took a step back from Calum, watching as his arms fell to his sides, and licked her teeth angrily. She was going to try to keep her cool and not explode, since it was Ava who kissed Calum, and not the other way around, but still, seriously? This couldn’t have happened on a worse day.

“Were you planning on telling me this?”

“Yes! Course I was, Joey.” Calum ran a hand through his perfectly done hair that Joey worked so hard on, fucking it up in the process, and nervously licked his lips. He didn’t want her to think he was a liar. “I just wanted to wait until after the party. I didn’t want to ruin tonight for you. For us.”

“Well, you should have thought that plan through,” Joey laughed sadly, shoving Calum’s phone in his hands as she picked her small clutch up from his bedside table. “I’m gonna go. I’ll see you at the party.”

Calum let her leave without another word, knowing that fighting her or trying to make her stay would just make matters worse, and although this wasn’t how the night was supposed to start, although they were supposed to arrive to the party together, Calum knew that wasn’t going to happen. 

***

“Now, a speech from the maid of honor!” Elise spoke happily into the mic, prompting Joey to stand up on wobbly legs and smile as she took the microphone from her cousin. She looked beautiful, but she always did, Joey thought. 

Calum watched his girlfriend with a small smile on his face as Joey nervously licked her lips and cleared her throat before giving her speech that she had barely prepared beforehand. “Elise,” Joey smiled down at her cousin. “Ashton,” Joey smiled at her soon to be cousin-in-law. “I’m so happy for the two of you. I never thought that I would be here, living in the prettiest town I could ever dream of living in, with the two of you and the new friends you’ve introduced me to, but I’m so happy to be celebrating this with you guys. I’m gonna keep this short, because if I keep talking I know I’ll start crying,” Joey laughed awkwardly. “But I just want to say I’m so, incredibly, happy for you two and I hope to, one day, find love like yours.” Joey sniffled quietly. “I love you, both.”

Joey finished her speech with a cheers and everyone held their glasses up, cheering along, and gulped down their drinks. Joey sat back down in her seat that was next to Calum, and felt his hand on her thigh, and as much as she wanted to shake it off, she couldn’t find it in herself to. She was still mad at him, but he looked so handsome, she couldn’t stand it.

“Can we dance, please?” Calum’s voice was full of desperation and when Joey finally looked at him, his beautiful brown, puppy dog eyes and pouty lips, her resolve crumbled. “Please, baby?” Calum whispered.

Joey stood up abruptly, looking down at Calum expectantly. “Well? Are you coming?” 

Calum wasted no time standing up and following Joey to the makeshift dance floor that wasn’t there when they first arrived, but Michael and Crystal transformed it into one. A slow song started playing and they swayed back and forth silently, but Calum’s hands on her waist were practically burning her skin. 

“I’m sorry, Joey.” Calum mumbled. He didn’t want to ruin the moment, but he wasn’t sure if he would get her one on one the rest of the night. He needed to explain how sorry he was. He knew what it felt like to be lied to and he never wanted Joey to feel that way. “I-I didn’t wanna lie to you, but I didn’t know how to tell you what happened.”

“Up front would have been nice.” 

“I know, Joey. But I just didn’t know how to-”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Joey interrupted Calum, scoffing out a humorless laugh at the person who just walked into the venue where the party was being held. There stood Ava, in all her pretty glory, looking way better than Joey did. “Your girlfriend is here.”

With that, Joey spun on her heeled shoes and stormed through the crowd to where the private bathrooms were. She gripped the sides of the sink until her knuckles turned white. The tears that pricked Joey’s eyes were unwarranted and she wanted to kick herself for letting this bother her so much.

The soft knock at the door a few minutes later had no effect on Joey. She kept her stance, kept her hands on the sink, and kept the tears falling out of her stinging eyes. “Joey?” Calum’s voice was heard through the door. “I know you’re in there.”

Joey failed to lock the door behind her, so Calum let himself in, hoping that it actually was Joey in the bathroom and not somebody else. He was relieved when he saw that it indeed was her, but his worry came back tenfold when he saw her glossy and red eyes through the bathroom mirror.

“How’s your girlfriend?” Joey stood straight and spun around to lean against the sink, crossing her arms across her chest, tilting her head to the side. She was trying to use her sarcasm and sass to cover the fact that she was upset, even though she knew she was being immature. It was her defense mechanism. 

“She’s right in front of me,” Calum took cautious steps towards her and rested his hands on her hips. He frowned down at her sad face and wanted to put a smile on it. She was too pretty to frown, Calum thought. “And she’s obviously upset with me.”

“You’re right,” Joey nodded her head in confirmation. “She is.”

“I told her to fuck off.” 

“Why the hell was she here in the first place, Calum?”

“It doesn’t matter why, Joe. She’s gone. She’s out of the picture, for good, I promise.” Calum’s hands ran up her hips to her sides, cupping her face to tilt it up so he could meet her eyes. They were less red and less glossy now, which he was thankful for. “And even if she keeps comin’ around,” Joey raised her eyebrows, unimpressed. “Which she won’t. I’ve only got eyes for you. Only want you.”

“I just-” Joey shook her head sadly. “I hate feeling like I have to compete with her, Calum. She’s-she’s so pretty and you loved her and-”

“Alright, no.” Calum shut her up before she could finish. “I’m gonna stop you right there. She doesn’t even compare to you, Joe. You’re gorgeous and beautiful and she doesn’t even compare to you, okay?”

“Okay,” Joey mumbled, but Calum could hear the underlying uncertainty and the insecurity laced in her voice. 

“I’ll show you just how much.” 

A squeal left Joey’s mouth as Calum hoisted her up onto the sink, parting her legs so he could stand between them and attached his lips to hers in a heated kiss. Their hands blindly worked on each other - Joey undoing Calum’s pants and shoving them down his legs and Calum’s pushing Joey’s thin and lace panties to the side. She was already wet, which wasn’t unexpected, and Calum was already semi-hard, so there wasn’t much more to take care of before Calum was slipping his length inside of Joey. 

“Oh, fuck.” Joey moaned against Calum’s lips as he rocked in and out of her. They tried to be as quiet as they could, considering there were people not even twenty feet away from them, but it was nearly impossible with how good they were making each other feel. 

They swallowed each others moans, panting and groaning into each other’s mouths and skin and Calum worked relentlessly until he felt Joey clench around him, prompting both his and her orgasm. Their moans and breaths were in sync as they came down from their highs and caught their breaths.

“That prove to you just how much I want you?” Calum mumbled against Joey’s bare shoulder due to the halter top of her dress and she laughed, with only little humor in it. 

Pushing Calum away from her, Joey adjusted her thong and jumped down from the sink. “You’re gonna have to work a lot harder than that, Hood.” With one pat to the chest, Joey rounded him and left him lonely in the bathroom with his pants around his ankles.

Calum stood there stunned with an unbelieving chuckle leaving his mouth. Joey left him speechless, more than once, but he was going to do whatever he could, work as hard as he could to prove to her that she was the only one for him.

***

“I can’t believe you’re moving out,” Joey pouted as she helped Elise pack the last of her stuff. She knew that with Elise and Ashton being engaged now that she would be moving out, but Joey wasn’t ready to live by herself, she never had before. “I’m gonna be so lonely.”

“Please,” Elise scoffed at her cousin’s dramatics. “I’ll be less than fifteen minutes away,” Elise reminded her, but it didn’t ease her sadness. Joey had never lived alone before. She always lived with her mother or a friend or boyfriend, never by herself. “And you can always call Calum and he’ll come over in a second.”

“Yeah.” Joey mumbled, unsurely as she taped the last box shut and rested her arms on it. The thought of Calum made her feel uneasy, considering they hadn’t really seen much of each other since the engagement party. They would hang out with friends as a group, but hadn’t one on one. “I think he’s mad at me.” Joey furrowed her eyebrows.

“Why would he be mad at you? He’s the one who kissed his ex-girlfriend.”

“She kissed him,” Joey reminded Elise. “But he’s just been avoiding me I think,” Joey frowned. “Like, he hasn’t wanted to hang out just us two, you know? And he’s barely been responding to my texts. I know he’s busy with surf lessons and has been with the guys, I just-” she shook her head, confusion written all over her face. “I think ever since seeing Ava, he’s changed his mind and he doesn’t actually want to be with me.”

“You’re being paranoid. Calum is crazy about you,” Elise assured her with a light squeeze to her hand. Elise knew Calum and she knew that he felt more for Joey than he ever did for Ava. It was obvious. “Just talk to him, yeah?”

***

The emptiness and the quiet of the house made Joey a bit uneasy. Sure, she had spent the night multiple times in her house by herself, but knowing that Elise was gone and not living with her anymore made it feel different and she didn’t enjoy it. 

Joey: Can you come over?

Joey sent the text to Calum after much debate, almost asking Luke to come over and keep her company over her own boyfriend. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous to ask Calum to come over.

Calum: Course, love. Everything okay?

Joey: Just lonely

Calum read the text and didn’t bother changing out of his sweatpants and sweatshirt, just slipping a pair of shoes on and grabbing his car keys. He could have easily walked the ten minutes, but he was feeling lazy and wanted to get to Joey as quickly as he could. He didn’t want her to feel lonely, especially since she had him.

Joey had told Calum that the front door was unlocked, so he let himself in without bothering to knock or ring the doorbell, and his heart swelled at the sight of Joey curled up on the couch, tucked under a blanket in his hoodie, looking as cute as cozy as ever. 

“Hey, Joe.” Calum’s voice was quiet, not wanting to disturb her little bubble of peace, but when she heard his voice, her tired looking face lit up and she was holding her arms out to him, making grabby hands as she continued to lay down. He laughed at how childish, but cute, she looked and collapsed on top of her lightly. 

Joey’s arms wrapped around his neck and his slid under her back to squeeze her close to him. He wasn’t sure what was wrong, why she seemed upset and off, and he wasn’t going to push her to tell him, but he was still going to ask.

“What’s wrong, baby?” 

Sighing heavily, Joey ran her fingers through Calum’s messy curls and debated on telling him. It was stupid, childish, she thought. “It’s stupid.”

“Doesn’t sound stupid,” Calum lifted his head up from where it was hiding in the crook of Joey’s neck and placed a light kiss on her lips. “If something is upsetting you, no matter how small, ‘s not stupid.”

“I just,” Joey pushed herself up on her elbows so she was leaning against the arm of her couch and Calum rested himself above her on his elbows, his chin just barely resting on her stomach as he looked up at her. “I feel like ever since you saw Ava, and since she kissed you, you-you haven’t wanted to be with me as much.”

Joey avoided all eye contact with Calum as she picked her nail polish nervously. She didn’t want to see Calum’s reaction to her embarrassing confession and really didn’t want him to see the insecurity on her face, so she missed the deep frown that was on his. He hated that she felt that way.

“Baby,” Calum mumbled sadly and took her hands in his so she would stop picking at her nails, knowing it was her nervous habit, and kissed the tops of her hands lightly. “I don’t want you thinkin’ that.” 

Sitting up completely, Calum pulled Joey onto his lap and grunted as he adjusted the two of them more comfortably. Her head was held in Calum’s hands, with him tucking her hair behind her ears and watching her watch him.

“Seeing Ava just brought back bad memories, you know? And I just - the feeling of her hurting me so badly came back full force and I didn’t - I don’t ever want to feel that way again,” Calum shook his head. “I don’t want to get my heartbroken by somebody I love again.”

“Calum, I-” Joey spoke up before she processed all of his words, stopping short, and leaning back just slightly with wide eyes. “Wait,” Joey reached up to grip Calum’s wrist. “Somebody you love?” 

“Shit, I-” Calum ran a nervous hand through his hair. “I-I didn’t mean,” Calum stumbled over his words and Joey patiently waited for him to finish. She wanted to hear what he was trying to say. “I didn’t want to tell you like that.”

Joey’s voice was barely over a whisper, but she couldn’t help the smile that covered her face. “You love me?”

Calum loved that she was smiling. He was a nervous fucking wreck, honestly. He wasn’t sure if he loved her loved her, but he knew he liked her a whole fucking lot, and he could definitely see himself loving her. “I think so, yeah.” Calum finally smiled. “How’s that make you feel?”

“Makes me feel pretty damn special.”

***

“You comin’?” Calum asked Joey as he finished waxing his board, preparing it for the water. Elise, Ashton, and Luke were all already in the water waiting for Calum and Joey to join them. 

“Um,” Joey looked out at the big waves that were forming and felt nerves prick her. She hadn’t been on a surfboard since the day she nearly died. She had been in the ocean and the pool, but was too afraid to get on a board. “I’m gonna sit this one out. I’m tired.”

Calum could sense her nervousness and frowned as he bent down again to be face to face and level with her. Everyone else was already in the water, meaning if he was to join them, Joey would be let on the sand by herself, since Michael told Ashton he would pick up a shift at Surf and Co, and Calum didn’t want to leave his girlfriend on the beach by herself.

“You sure, Joe?” Calum moved her baby hairs that didn’t fit in her bun out of her face and smiled at how pretty her eyes looked with the sun shining down. “You just tired or are you scared to get in again?”

“Calum, I-” Joey licked her lips and shook her head in embarrassment. She didn’t want to admit that she was, indeed, terrified to get back on a board after what happened. It had been nearly a month since it happened, but she could still feel an anxious pit in the bottom of her stomach at the thought of standing on a board again. “It’s kind of embarrassing, but yeah,” Joey nodded her head in confirmation. “I’m terrified.”

“Baby, no,” Calum rested himself on his knees in between her legs and ducked his head down to make eyes with her. “It’s not embarrassing. You almost died, Joe, that’s some scary shit. I would be scared if I were you, too.” Calum placed a reassuring kiss to her lips and felt her smile against his. “I’ll sit here with you so you’re not alone, yeah?”

“No, no. Go out with them.” Joey shooed him away and he grinned, kissing her one last time, before standing up and picking up his board to race into the water with the rest of the group.

Honestly, Joey didn’t mind sitting on the sand by herself. She enjoyed watching her cousin and their friends surf and do their thing, she almost preferred to sit and watch over actually surfing, since she wasn’t the best at it, and she was convinced she would be scarred for life ever since she almost died. But she was content. 

She was knocked out of her daydream when a volleyball rolled onto her towel and hit her foot lightly. She looked around, seeing a volleyball net nearly twenty feet away from her, and a guy jogging over to her. She picked it up and held it out for the guy to take, not bothering to stand up.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” he panted and crouched down, bending his knees to retrieve the ball from Joey’s hands. She just smiled and simply shook her head, not bothering with a conversation with the guy. “You new around here? I don’t recognize you.”

“Uh, yeah, kind of.” Joey furrowed her eyebrows. “I’ve lived here for a few months.” 

“I’m surprised I haven’t noticed you before,” he looked her up and down, even though she was sitting down and leaning against a cooler, and shamelessly checked her out, not even trying to be discrete. “A gorgeous girl like you shouldn’t go unnoticed by anyone.”

Joey rolled her lips into her mouth, trying to suppress her laugh at the shitty attempt as a pick-up line. “Well, thank you.”

“Anytime,” he winked at her and she nearly groaned out loud. She saw the guys and Elise approaching them from the water and hoped that Calum, or any of them, would nicely tell him to get lost. “I never got your name.”

“That’s because she didn’t give it to you, Colton.” Calum grunted as he shoved his board into the sand next to the guy, Colton, that was shamelessly hitting on Joey. He stood up to his full height, still a few inches shorter than Calum, and dropped the volleyball on the sand next to his feet. “What are you doing bothering her?”

“I’m just having a conversation with her, Hood.” Colton shrugged and smirked at him cockily. Colton looked down at Joey, who was only paying attention to Calum and how angry, but sexy, he looked. “Seemed like she was enjoying it.”

“Seems like she wasn’t,” Calum took another step closer. “So, leave my girlfriend alone and fuck off.” Another step. Joey could tell that the guys behind him would pounce and back him up if a fight ensued. “And while you’re at it, apologize to her for almost killing her.”

Colton scoffed. “Fuck are you talking about?”

“The girl you knocked off her board last month when you were being a cocky asshole and surfed up on her wave?” Calum tilted his head to the side, watching it click in Colton’s brain that Joey was the girl he nearly killed. “Yeah, that girl? My girlfriend. So I suggest you apologize or walk the fuck away, Colton.”

Colton bent down and picked the volleyball up, not bothering to look at Joey or apologize to her before he stalked away, leaving Calum staring at him with his hands clenched into fists. Joey knew the only way he would calm down is if she told him to. 

Standing up, Joey pulled her bikini bottom out of her butt to rid herself of her wedgie from sitting down for so long, and stood in front of Calum, running her hands up his stomach to rest on his shoulders, and his eyes instantly went from Colton down to Joey.

“You good, Cal?” Calum looked back up to see Colton standing there staring at the couple, and Calum smirked, gripping the back of her thighs to lift her up and wrap her legs around his waist. “Cal!” Joey squealed at the sudden movement and laughed against his mouth as he pressed their lips together.

“I’m fuckin’ great, sugar.” Calum grinned against her lips and spun her around, the loud giggle leaving her lips made his grin widen. 

How Joey could turn Calum’s mood from complete and absolute shit and anger from seeming like the happiest person in the world was beyond him. It was crazy, really, but he welcomed it with open arms, and with her in his.

***

“What’s got you so happy?” Luke nudged Calum’s shoulder with his own, holding his near empty beer by the neck as they sat in the semi-crowded bar. The group hadn’t been out to a bar in a while, since before Ashton and Elise announced their engagement, so they were enjoying their night out. “You’re grinnin��� like a damn fool.”

“How could I not be happy when I have a girlfriend that looks like her?” Calum pointed his beer bottle in the direction where Joey and Elise were playing a game of pool, not taking it seriously at all, and laughing and messing around with each other. “Don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.”

“I can tell,” Luke nodded his head with a smile. He was extremely happy for his best friend and as he watched Calum watch Joey lose against Elise in pool, he couldn’t help but shake his head in disbelief, never having seen Calum so happy around somebody before. “You got lucky.”

“Luckiest guy in here,” Calum clinked his bottle against Luke’s and made eyes with Joey, who grinned widely and waved him over across the bar. Forgetting all about his half empty beer and Luke, Calum got up and crossed the bar, wrapping his arms around Joey’s waist from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. “You wanna get outta here?”

“I thought you would never ask,” Joey sighed dramatically, hanging her pool stick up, and the two of them left without bothering saying goodbye to their friends. They walked hand in hand down the street, Calum twirling his tipsy girlfriend as they walked and grinning at her infectious smile. “Let’s go swimming!” Joey skipped backwards down the sand with her heels in her hand and her arms out as she spun around and ran towards the water.

“It’s dark out, baby.” Calum laughed, but toed his shoes off and shed his shirt and pants, watching as Joey did the same thing. “Gonna be weird creatures in there.”

“You scared, Hood?” Joey challenged, reaching behind her to unclasp her bra, leaving her completely naked in front of Calum underneath the moonlight. Calum’s mouth watered at the sight of her and watched her teeth clamp down on her lower lip as he, too, was now naked in front of her. 

They swam around, splashing each other and giggling against each others lips, and Calum finally pulled her body into his, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist and her arms around his neck. “I think I just realized something,” Joey hummed against his shoulder.

“What’s that?” Calum squeezed her hips.

There was no nervousness or hesitance in her voice while she spoke, her words were confident and full of sureness when she told Calum, “I love you.” She spoke as if it was the most casual thing, but instead her heart was pounding and she was scared, only for a minute, that Calum wasn’t going to say it back.

“I love you a whole fuckin’ lot, Joey.”

Their smiles were so big, so genuine, that their faces hurt and they knew, right there in that moment, that they couldn’t be any happier even if they tried. 

Just as they looked up at the night sky, a shooting star flew by and they didn’t have to wish for anything because they both had what they wanted - each other.

***

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