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peralta-guaranteed · 3 years ago

Note

Jake and Amy single parents AU.

Pretty please! :))

oh! Oh, I strangely love this one!

- Amy is a police-widow with little Mac (no, Teddy was not the father, it was a non-canon detective), while Jake is at the better end of a really messy divorce from Sofia, who very quickly handed over all alimony of Maya to him to focus on her career.

-Amy tries her best to juggle the newly single parent life with her full-time position running a bookshop, while Jake is not too happy about having to bring Maya in to the precinct all the time, but it can’t be helped (and Scully makes a surprisingly good babysitter). The squad’s had his back through the entire break-up, and they all love his little girl to bits, so at least she won’t be missing the family aspect in her life - and will always have an amazing female role model in her Auntie Rosa, who’s already planning to teach her Spanish just so she can trashtalk her dad with her without Jake knowing

- Mac + Maya meet at daycare and absolutely hit it off, despite the age difference of two years. Mac has apparently seen another curly headed toddler and immediately decided to brother the sh*t out of her. He takes her along to all his games and helps her pick colours for her pictures and shares his apple slices with her in exchange for a bit of sandwich (which is much nicer anyway).

- the daycare workers absolutely adore the little duo, and can’t help remarking how much they look like siblings anyway. So of course Jake has to meet the mom of the adorable little boy who always bring his daughter over to him for pickup by holding her hand.

- he’s a bit afraid of having to deal with the usual “Aw they’re little boyfriend and girlfriend” comments he’s expecting, but obviously Amy is having none of that. Instead, she tells him how glad she is that Mac has found a little friend to protect. “He’s always trying to protect everyone so much, ever since his dad... well...”

- (Jake knew, distantly, that she was the widow of one of his colleagues from another precinct, but apart from the usual condolences they’d all sent it had never really registered in his mind that there was a wife and a child left behind.)

- “Oh well Maya is so happy too. She’s a bit shy and scared at the moment, so having a big friend help her get out of her shell is great. Your little boy is a sweetheart, too.”

- Amy smiles at him, and he’s pretty sure his heart should not be doing what it’s doing, so he beats it down and tries his best to ignore it. Which is hard, because she smiles at him a lot in the coming months when they meet up for playdates, Mac over excited to show Maya all his favourite spots at the park or the coolest fish at the aquarium.

- Jake moans during one of their meet-ups about a case that has been dragging on forever and is going to need an allnighter to finally be solved, and his partner Boyle is really trying his best alone, but he’s the primary on it and- it feels great to talk about it with someone who understands, outside of his squad, even if Amy sometimes nods with the saddest look on her face when he mentions parts of his job. But she offers him last minute babysitting if he ever needs it, considering her job finishes promptly at 5pm each day, and he can’t help but take her offer when another case hits that needs him on a stake out at 10pm.

- so Maya gets a lovely sleepover with Mac, and Amy gets the biggest box of her favourite pralines as a thank you, because Jake has never, not once, given Maya to a babysitter to go to his job without feeling remorse and guilt, not even his own mom, but he had to deal with none of that when Maya gladly ran up the stairs to Amy’s place where Mac was already shouting her name.

- needless to say that Amy and Jake become the great friends they always are over time. He brings coffee and muffins to their park playdates, and she brings over frozen meals from Mac’s abuela for kid movie marathons at Jake’s place. They know each other’s schedules to help out with the kids, Jake has convinced everyone in his friend group and workplace to only buy books at her store from now on, and Amy is already planning the christmas gift she needs to pack for Maya and her daddy.

- it would be a nice, supportive friendship of equals, and a good help in their single parent life, if it wasn’t for the fact that Jake realised about three playdates in that he was falling for Amy faster than a shooting star. It took her a little longer, but realisation hit when she was packing Mac’s lunchbox, her own lunchbox, and Maya’s lunchbox too after a sleepover, and subconsciously already wanted to bag up a fourth set of sandwiches with some gummy bears and a soda thrown in for good measure.

- Rosa tells him to ‘grow a pair and ask her out, she sounds perfect for both you and Maya’ when Jake confides in her. And that is rare praise coming from Diaz, because no one is good enough for Maya in her eyes, sometimes not even Jake himself. But he can’t take advantage of Amy’s friendship like that, not when it risks losing both her and Mac for Maya... and there is always the underlying fear that Maya will bond with a new woman in her life and be left behind yet again if they don’t work out, just like with her mom, whose biggest contribution to her life since the divorce has been the alimony payments each month.

- Kylie, meanwhile, warns Amy not to risk too much when she confides in her. She sadly remembers the many days she had to spend at her friend-coworker’s side after the funeral, cleaning out half of a closet and half of a shared home, basically. She’d been hoping that Amy would find love again, maybe in a few years time, but when she heard the news about her ‘great new friend’ being a detective himself, her heart dropped because she knew what that might be heading towards, and Amy very much shares her fears. She’d vowed to an absolute ‘no cops’ rule for her planned restart of dating in two years, perfectly scheduled with Mac’s start of school.

- as it is, both of them dance around their emotions in a perfectly synchronised waltz while still getting closer and closer as friends and parents, to the point that the daycare workers don’t even bat an eye anymore when Amy brings both Mac and Maya in, or when Jake picks both of them up into his arms with an excited ‘ready for ice cream and games?!’ before they meet up with Amy for a Coney Island afternoon.

- until one day, when the daycare offers a ‘star gazing sleep over’ event after the story of the stars and night sky was the theme of the week, and it falls right on the day Amy and Jake were planning to take the kids to a movie. “We could still go.” Jake mumbles while Maya runs into the daycare center, not shy at all anymore, and Mac follows her. “You want to go see Paddington’s Big Adventure... without the kids?” Amy jokes, but he looks so serious. “No, of course not, but I mean - we - uh - we both got the evening off now, don’t we? I told my captain I won’t be in no matter what. Seems like a waste of time just going home. We could see that period drama you talked about, that will definitely get an Oscar?”

- Amy hesitates only for a second, but they do go. They watch the drama that Jake has to admit is pretty damn good for a movie where nothing explodes or is set on fire, and that praise does not only come from the fact that Amy grabbed his hand with a gasp during a particularly emotional scene, and then kind of forgot to let go afterwards.

- but then the movie ends and Jake still doesn’t want to go home. Neither does Amy, apparently, because she offers up an ‘amazing 24h diner’ around the corner for some late night snacks, during which they laugh and flick chocolate chips at each other and end up blushing like mad when the waitress comments on what a ‘cute couple’ they are.

- he walks her to her front door, and they both kinda don’t know what to do as they say goodbye, because this kind of date night should usually end on a kiss, but it wasn’t really a date, was it, they would’ve taken the kids along if it hadn’t been for the day care event, and-

- “Ames, I’m - this is terrifying, but I think I’ll hate myself even more for not ever saying anything - and, and, I kind of, maybe, I think you might also-” She takes his hand again, a lot softer than she did in the cinema. “I think this is the kind of talk that needs a coffee and a good couch.”

- That’s how they end up at her place that Jake already knows so well from bringing Maya over, from the perfectly styled bookcases down to the absolute mess of a playroom that is Mac’s kingdom. They both grip their coffee cups tightly as they talk it all out, about what they’re afraid of, what they would risk if they gave ‘them’ a try.

- “I wouldn’t ever want to put Mac through losing another cop-dad even if it wasn’t from work, and I won’t let Maya lose another mom.” “Me neither. And I promised Mac I’d never forget his papa, but... I can clearly see him love his new daddy, too. He already looks up to you so much. He wants a flannel shirt for christmas.” “Maya introduced you as Mama Amy to one of my aunties. Which was quite a thing to explain.” Amy laughs, and then smiles at him, and his heart does that thing again, like it has been doing for months now, but this time he doesn’t beat it down. This time he lets it lead him to lean in for the most careful kiss, a kiss that Amy gladly returns, just as carefully.

- they agree to take things slow, be mindful, not drop it on the kids immediately or rush into things from the pressure of friends or family.

- and then three months later Amy finds the perfect apartment for the four of them, and Jake aks Gina and Rosa for ring preferences and proposal tips, and ‘slow and mindful’ has flown out the window the second Maya brought home a picture she did with Mac at daycare showing their little ‘family’ before Amy or Jake had even talked to them about their possible dating.

- Maya grows up with her Mama teaching her Spanish along with Auntie Rosa, and an abuela and abuelo who love to spoil her with Cuban sweets just as much as her big brother. Mac gets to ride along in his Daddy’s police car sometimes, and hears stories about his brave Papa from his colleagues. His auntie Gina is so proud of him for taking care of his little sister the way she took care of her little brother too. And Jake gets to see Amy smile all the time now, and knows it’s him and their kids that is making her smile so much.

#B99 #Brooklyn 99 #Peraltiago #Jake Peralta #Amy Santiago #headcanons #mac peralta #maya peralta

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solitvdcs · 4 years ago

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someday i will come up with wanted connections but today is not that day

* darren barnet, cis male + he/him | you know spencer novak, right? they’re twenty-six, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, two years? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to i got you (i feel good) by james brown like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole messy piles of sheet music, button-ups with rolled up sleeves, slow motion running thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is october 8, so they’re a libra, which is unsurprising, all things considered.

basic info

full name: spencer ryan novak

birth date: october 8, 1994

pronouns: he/him

hometown: seattle, washington

sexuality: pansexual

height: 6′4″

eye color: brown

hair color: brown

build: lean

tattoos: none

piercings: none

style: used to just be graphic tees with loser sayings on it, but after being in the public eye (and now as a teacher) he was forced to up his game. now he’s got nice, tailored button-ups and jeans/slacks that show off his ass. it’s like queer eye came and fixed him

favorite color: green

favorite food: everything

zodiac: libra sun, sagittarius moon, libra rising

mbti: enfj

hogwarts house: hufflepuff

enneagram: type 2 wing 3

temperament: sanguine-phlegmatic

spencer was a very loved, very planned, very wanted baby, so as far as traditional “family drama” went, he had none. he and his younger sister have always gotten along well, his parents are still together and very much in love, and have always supported their children and their paths in life no matter what. they were an upper middle class family, with enough to have their needs met and most of their wants, but not enough to spoil themselves. it was very picturesque, and spencer didn’t realize how well adjusted he was until he got to college.

a lifelong band geek and first chair trumpet player with enough dorky charm to start a high school glee club without being creepy about it, it was no surprise that spencer decided to go to school for music education. ohio state university was far from home and not necessarily where he wanted to end up (who wants to end up in ohio for the rest of their lives, really) but they’d offered him a hefty scholarship and had one of the best marching bands around, so he couldn’t turn it down.

the hitch in the plan came in his sophomore year of high school, when america’s next top model decided to add guys to their roster. spencer knew nothing of modeling and had no desire to enter the industry, but after losing a dare to his frat brothers, he ended up submitting a casting video. he may or may not still have been tipsy while filming it, but he was pretty and tall and charming, so he somehow made it through to the filmed audition episodes. he made a distinct impression on the judges despite not having a great walk (miss jay, he found out later, was jumping at the chance to work his magic) and lo and behold, spencer made the top 14.

for the first few weeks, spencer mostly stayed in the background of episodes, watching the drama unfold. sure, a lot of it had been staged, but seeing how well his competitors could fall into place scared him a little (a picture of him clutching a pillow and staring at a catfight has since been turned into a viral meme). he expected to get eliminated early on, but found himself floating near the middle of the pack from week to week instead of at the bottom. the only time he seemed to stand out was the week of a late shoot, where he hadn’t told the crew about his diabetes and passed out on set after not eating for too long. (it’s still one of the most “omg moments�� in top model history.)

and then the time for commercials came, and spencer’s star really started to shine. for all the things he wasn’t as polished on as the other contestants, nobody could compete with his natural charm. things started coming together for him after that, and he cracked the top four before getting sent home. still, he’d set into motion something he could never have accounted for, and suddenly everybody wanted a piece of spencer novak.

as soon as the season was done airing, spencer’s phone would not stop ringing. agents and managers and publicists, oh my!! a dare from his frat brothers had opened up a whole new world of possibilities for him, and suddenly he had a choice to make: would he continue with his plan of being a high school band director, or take the once in a lifetime opportunity of seeing where an acting career could take him?

the acting career went as most do for realty show stars. he had a staring role on a show that got cancelled after a season (too many teen dramas had saturated the market), and it seemed that all anybody wanted him to do was take his shirt off. sure, he’d packed on some muscle since being a lanky high school band geek, but it just wasn’t him. while filming another teen movie in irving (yes, he played a mermaid and yes, he was very excited about the part), he fell in love with the town. he’d never considered himself a beach guy before, but irving had convinced him. after filming ended, he decided to go back to the original plan, finished his degree and teaching certification in north carolina, and got a job at the local high school. his agent is still hounding about coming back, but he’s made his choice and he’s content with it. if you’re missing seeing him on film, though, you can still catch him on #hotteachertiktok.

#irvingintro #let's gooooooooooooooooooooooo #i still haven't figured out who's on discord and who's not so if we haven't plotted yet pls ??? yell at me????????????

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artificialqueens · 5 years ago

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Not Nineteen Forever (19) (Branjie/Scyvie/Ninex) - Ortega

a/n: hi pals! so this was probs one of my top 3 fav chapters to write out of the whole fic. it’s got so many things that i just love, and i so hope u will love it too. i should probs make it clear that this isn’t the end of the fic! it’s going to have 21 chapters, so there’s two more to come after this (omg only 2????? bitch wtf???? WTF???). thank u guys for all the love my ask box gets flooded with after every chapter, i’m always so so excited when i see it so thank u so much, i really appreciate it!! here we go with n19f19 xoxo

please note: this fic contains young adults often behaving in irresponsible/unadvisable ways with regards to alcohol, drugs and sex. if you are someone who feels as if they could be heavily influenced by fic and incorporate what happens in the plot into ur own life, pls steer clear!

summary: Brooke, Yvie and Nina are three flatmates who forged a friendship in their first year of university and picked up some other waifs and strays along the way. Now in their final year, there are feelings that need to be unravelled and confessions to be made whilst navigating drunk nights, hungover mornings, takeaways, group chats, library meetups, cafe gossiping, and the small matter of getting a degree.

last chapter: there were confessions of love in a karaoke bar.

this chapter: a month on from the events of last chapter and with final exams and dissertations looming, Brooke thinks she can avoid Vanessa until graduation without having to confront anything that’s happened between them. this proves difficult when she’s trapped in the library with her.

***

Brooke was fine. She was more than fine, actually, she was good. She was calm, serene, fucking zen. If it wasn’t for the dissertation she had to hand in a week from now she would have ascended to Buddha-like status, doling out study tips to her friends like proverbs.

Brooke had always been good at exams. She’d been a straight-A student back in Canada, the whole process of revision coming naturally to her. She’d bought designated ringbinders for every subject, poring over textbooks and copying information out in messy cursive until she’d filled her whole refill pad. When she’d walked into the big assembly hall on exam day, she didn’t get the usual churning of her stomach or shaky hands that her friends had always described. It was almost as if the hall reminded her of taking ballet exams when she was a girl- she knew what to do, she had all the information in her head somewhere, and all that was required of her was to think and write.

Essays, however, had never come easy, which was a shame as they essentially formed the basis of Brooke’s degree. There wasn’t the fast-paced element to essays as there were to exams, and lengthy deadlines gave Brooke time to overthink, redraft, panic, delete, then do the whole process over again. She’d never fully got the hang of them; add in the fact a different tutor marked what she’d written every time and her grades were practically a lottery. She knew this element would follow her throughout her career- writing, fashion design, God even her ballet exams from years ago- it was all a form of art, and art was subjective. She knew there were designers out there that were universally respected, but none were universally liked. Nothing was universally liked. In an exam, there was a set of right or wrong answers, but essays were open to interpretation. An interpretation that her degree classification depended on.

Stretching and feeling her spine bump against the hard plastic chair, Brooke let out a huge breath. She could still see her Mum’s face if she remembered hard enough, when she’d told her her very first mark on her very first uni assignment back in first year; the way the woman’s face had faltered a little but forced a smile and a congratulations. It was the first mark below 70% Brooke could remember in a long time, and her Mum’s disappointment still stung. Brooke was currently sitting on a 2:1, but only just. Her dissertation was going to cement what degree she received and Christ, Brooke would be lying if she said the pressure wasn’t getting to her ever so slightly. It was at the stage where she was taking a beta blocker each morning before spending most of the day in the library. Sometimes she’d take another in the afternoon if she felt herself starting to panic. Maybe that was the reason she was so chill.

Looking at her laptop and the block of black text against white digital paper, she rubbed her eyes and glanced through the huge floor-to-ceiling pane of glass to her left. Her own sleepy face gazed back at her, the view rendered invisible due to the pitch black outside. Brooke didn’t dare look at the time, but she knew it had to be late if it was this dark at the end of April. Casting her eyes to Nina, she couldn’t help but give a snort of a laugh.

“What the hell are you doing?” Brooke asked, looking at the exploded rainbow of colour-coded flash cards that were strewn across the girl’s desk and spilling out onto the floor. There were scribbly neon post-it notes stuck all over her laptop screen and Nina probably had half the library stacked up in high-rise tower blocks on her desk. A quick glance at her screen showed Brooke that Nina had roughly sixty tabs open.

“My goddamn best.”

Brooke let out another laugh as Nina gestured helplessly at the mess in front of her. “Jesus Christ, Brooke, how the hell am I going to be a teacher if I’m this disorganised?”

Brooke gave a little shrug and raised her eyebrows. “I dread to think what your classroom desk is going to be like.”

“Probably going to accidentally kill a child on my first day. Nudge over a big pile of papers on my desk, boof. Dead,” Nina giggled, then let out a huge laugh and instantly clamped her hands over her mouth in embarrassment. The action made Brooke laugh out loud too until the pair were having a silent laughing fit in the exact place they weren’t supposed to be making any noise.

To be fair, the top floor was pretty empty given the late hour they were there. The few people that were left were already packing up their things and leaving, laptops shut in a manner of resignation. The yellow strobe lights that hung above gave the whole place a clinical glow, and the patterns on the fuzzy green carpet all seemed to merge into one. As Brooke ran a hand through her hair and was about to check the time on her phone, loud chimes rang out over the speakers built into the ceiling.

“Would all students please be aware that the library will be closing in ten minutes, that’s ten minutes. Thank you.”

Brooke almost jumped out of her skin. She blinked, then looked at the four numbers in the bottom right-hand corner of her screen. “Nina. No way is it almost midnight.”

“God. I’m not even surprised anymore. At this point it feels like we live here,” Nina groaned, cracking her back in a way that made Brooke wince then rolling her shoulders. “I guess we should head back to the flat.”

Brooke’s ears pricked as she heard a commotion from the other end of the floor. It sounded like a thunder of footsteps and a hissed argument. Turning slowly, Brooke’s heart sank as she saw exactly who she’d hoped she’d be able to avoid until graduation day.

Silky and Vanessa were standing at the printer a mere two sets of desks away from her and Nina. Silky seemed to be printing something out and insisting she wouldn’t be long as Vanessa tapped her heel against the carpeted floor impatiently, her Converse almost wearing a hole in the floor. Despite the late hour her makeup was still perfectly applied, and her hair was half hanging loose over her shoulders and half swept up into a haphazard topknot. Brooke pictured Vanessa growing frustrated at her desk, fretting over some form of past paper and tearing her hands through her hair, tugging her brown locks up and securing them with a hair tie. Brooke hoped she wasn’t too stressed about her finals. She remembered that when they were together Vanessa had had some form of big essay due, and she’d sat up in bed exhaling and worrying, typing furiously with her long nails crashing against the keyboard of her laptop like angry waves. Brooke had quietly brought her tea, wordlessly pressed a kiss to her temple, and Vanessa had cast her a soft smile that had made Brooke’s heart set alight.

Just then Silky looked across the room, saw her, and began to wave. Fuck. Brooke watched as Vanessa cast her gaze over to where she sat. Her eyes widened when she laid them on Brooke and she tilted her head to the sky, barely hiding a gigantic roll of her eyes as she followed Silky over to Brooke and Nina. Brooke had in the time it took for the girls to reach their desk to decide how she wanted to play this. It was a tough decision. Because in the month-and-a-bit since their dalliance in the hot tub, and an even shorter time since her crying meltdown to Scarlet in the Swan toilets, Brooke had developed a hard, harsh exoskeleton for herself that involved channeling all the love and regret she felt for Vanessa into venom, poison and dislike. If Vanessa wanted to be petty and unkind and rude to her, then fuck it. Brooke would be the exact same back. She’d tried it out already- responding to thinly-veiled barbs in the groupchat, ignoring her if they saw each other. Brooke didn’t want to act that way, didn’t want to do any of it, but she forced herself to do it in the way a small child had to be forced to eat vegetables; it was what was good for her. Good for them both. It was better that Vanessa hated her. She’d tried loving her and look where the fuck that had ended up.

The issue was, the frosty behaviour she’d return to Vanessa was uncontrollable. She knew it was causing vibes and tension in the group, splitting them all up and causing cracks and fractures in a time where they were meant to be closer than ever. Yvie had had words with her, as had Nina. It hadn’t got them anywhere. Brooke had tried to reach out to Vanessa, offered her so many olive branches that Vanessa had just started beating Brooke black and blue with them. Brooke knew it was for the best if she acted like the complete bitch that Vanessa thought she was.

“Hey, sisters! What you both doin’ here so late?” Silky asked cheerfully as she reached the girls. Brooke stuck a smile on her face, tried not to look at Vanessa and then failed. Her thick eyelashes were cast to the floor as she scuffed the carpet with her shoe. Brooke felt a stab at her heart. Luckily, Nina took over.

“Christ, I was just saying to Brooke it feels like we’ve moved in here. My diss is due on Friday and I’m stressed out of my mind. What’re you guys up to?”

Silky waved a thick stack of paper at Nina as if she was showing her evidence. “We were down on floor one but the janitor’s chucking people out. I needed some readings and figured he’d get up here last, so I just came to the top floor to use the printer.”

“Yeah, and we’re done now, so let’s go. I need to pee before we leave,” Vanessa muttered to her flatmate, her voice dull as she still didn’t tear her gaze from the floor.

Nina’s cheerful smile faltered. Silky, to her credit, looked embarrassed by Vanessa’s sulky behaviour. To Brooke’s dismay, Nina shoved all of her index cards onto her laptop keyboard and slammed it closed. “Well, hey! We were just leaving. We’ll come with you.”

Vanessa’s face twisted into one of discomfort. “Nah, Nina, really, it’s fine. I’m gonna head to the bathroom anyway-”

“We can wait for you! It’s no big deal!”

Brooke’s heart sank. Great. An excruciating walk back outside with the girl that hated her most in the world. Just as she was about to bullshit a reason why they couldn’t, Silky enthusiastically agreed. Brooke watched Vanessa bite her lip in frustration, give a forced fake smile and nod. They were both united in the fact that it was a situation neither of them wanted to be in. It was the closest Brooke had felt to Vanessa in a while.

Nina and Silky filled the silence on their way to the library toilets. They were only beside the lifts so not that far away, but every step felt as if it lasted a million years. Finally, mercifully, the girls came to the toilets and Vanessa ducked inside. As they waited, Brooke just wished and hoped she’d be quick so the awkward situation would be over sooner rather than later. One minute turned into two, and Silky became impatient. Brooke watched as she wrenched open the door and yelled inside.

“VANJ, C’MON! THE PLACE IS CLOSING SOON!” she shouted into the room, muttering under her breath something about Vanessa having a bladder like the Hindenburg. Brooke tried to be patient and cast her eyes up to the ceiling. Looking back into the floor of the library, she was alarmed to find it completely empty, void of people. It could have been that she was startled, but she gave a shout into the bathroom too.

“Vanjie, hurry up! Jesus!”

At this point Vanessa was standing blasting her hands with air from the dryer. She shouted something back at Brooke that Brooke couldn’t hear over the air jets, but she could hazard a guess as to what it was. Finally, Vanessa stormed out.

“Fuck me, will you girls hop off my dick? Can I not pee in peace without you rushing me along? We’ve got ages! It’s fine!”

And then everything was suddenly plunged into darkness.

Brooke gave an involuntary cry of fear, felt someone grab her hand. Looking down at her interlocked fingers and then up to who it was connected to, she was shocked to see Vanessa, her face illuminated in the green fire escape sign and completely petrified. All at once she seemed to realise what she’d done and dropped Brooke’s hand like it was made of hot metal. Nina had fallen silent, her expression one of shock, and Silky was uncharacteristically quiet.

“Fuck,” Brooke found herself saying. Her mouth had gone completely dry.

“It’s fine. It’s fine, they’ll just be turning off the lights before they lock up. Let’s just hurry up and get the lift,” Silky reassured them, but Brooke didn’t miss the worried frown that was set on her face as the four of them walked quickly. Vanessa reached the button first, scrabbled at it with her fingers. The little white light that usually illuminated the panel didn’t turn on.

“Oh my God this can’t be happening,” Nina whispered, her voice panicked and fast. Silky rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but the frown on her face was deepening. Reaching out, she pressed the same button firmly, jamming it into its little metal pad. Nothing. The girls stood in silence for only a few seconds, listening for the metal whirrs and clunks that the lift usually made on its way up or down the building. Nothing came.

“Stairs,” Vanessa said simply, her voice full of worry as she suddenly dashed in the direction of the stairwell. The three other girls followed and all pretence of remaining calm and walking was truly out the window as their trainers squeaked over the linoleum, feet thumping harshly against the steps as they tore down flight after flight. Brooke’s pulse was speeding so fast she thought she would have a heart attack, and the bones of her feet began to hurt more with every step she launched herself down two-at-a-time. Breathless and frantic, they finally reached the bottom floor, Vanessa crashing through the double doors at the bottom of the stairwell and speeding across the lobby to the main entrance. Brooke was hot on her heels, her heart now painful in her chest and her breath coming in thick, uncomfortable wheezes. Any hope she’d had sank to the floor with her gut as Vanessa pounded the automatic doors and almost wrenched the fire door off its hinges in an attempt to get out. It was to no avail.

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” Nina repeated, her hands flying to her face as it blanched in fear.

“Fucking shit- HELLO? HELLO? WE’RE STILL IN HERE!” Silky yelled at the top of her lungs to nobody in particular.

“Guys, I don’t like this,” Brooke said, hearing the shake in her own voice as her eyes darted around the huge, dark building frantically.

“No shit, really? I’m having a fuckin’ whale of a time, personally,” Vanessa hissed, casting a glare her way before going back to shaking the doorhandles in a futile attempt to open them. Brooke felt her face curl up in a sneer, all the fear she’d felt previously moved into a convenient little box and replaced with all-consuming anger.

“Ugh, JESUS, Vanessa, of course, of fucking course, we’re literally locked in a uni building with no way out and you choose to start picking a fight with me. Big fucking-”

“ENOUGH!” Nina shouted, Brooke taken aback. She had known Nina for almost three years now, and in that time she’d never heard her shout. Well, she’d heard her shout with happiness or joy or fear, but never anger like this. She felt like one of her primary school kids as Nina continued. “Both of you just shut the fuck up for one fucking minute! Can we at least just find a way out of here before you start a fucking domestic?”

“I’ll take the cafe,” Silky said decisively, shouting to the others as she ran in the opposite direction. “Nina go right, Brooke and Vanjie go left.”

Brooke narrowed her eyes, looking again at Vanessa whose gaze mirrored Brooke’s. Relenting and not wanting to risk another telling-off from Nina, Brooke obediently tore off in the direction Silky had told her to go. She weaved her way through desks and bookshelves, checking every window only to find them all locked. As she was losing hope, the dull, green light of a fire escape sign caught her eye. Brooke sighed with relief as she tore towards it. This was surely a guaranteed way out. Reaching the tall door, Brooke slammed her hands on the cold, metal bar that lay across it, pushed down, and waited for the cold night air to hit her face and calm down her panic.

Nothing.

Brooke frowned, trying again and pushing harder at the bar. This time she got her shoulder involved, leaning all her weight against it. It didn’t so much as budge.

“We’re outta luck. They’re all locked from the outside.”

Brooke turned to see Vanessa walking purposefully towards her. Her tone was frustrated, but not towards her at least. Brooke felt relieved. She was beginning to regret snapping at Vanessa earlier, even if she was meant to dislike her. She wondered if she felt as scared as she did. Brooke thought about how Vanessa always hid her fear, remembered the time they watched some shit, gory horror movie at hers when they were together. Brooke had flinched and squealed and buried her face in Vanessa’s hoodie every two seconds while Vanessa had laughed at her, told her it was all fine and fake, but Brooke could feel Vanessa’s heart beat fast in her chest and her stomach muscles tensing every time a new horrific sight appeared on screen.

Vanessa leant against the bar that Brooke had tried, punctuating it with an angry kick of her foot. “That shit’s illegal, you know. Locking a fire door. We could sue fuck outta them.”

Brooke couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. “Yeah I’m sure we, twentysomething students with collectively hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of debt, have both the resources and the influence to sue the university. They’d shit themselves.”

She watched as Vanessa looked at her, a glare about to appear in her dark eyes, then disappearing as she allowed herself a small smile and a single snort of laughter. There was a pause of silence. Brooke decided to fill it. “Let’s find the girls, maybe they found a way out.”

As they passed by the floor-to-ceiling windows again, Vanessa suddenly gasped and tore off to bang on the glass. Brooke followed her eyeline and was overjoyed to find what looked to be a janitor, finishing up and walking away from the building. She joined Vanessa and pounded her fists against the window, shouting randomly if only just to make a noise. Her hope began to die, however, when instead of noticing the absolute cacophony of noise the girls created, the man simply got further and further away. Brooke watched as he got his phone out, a long earphone cord attached to it. She slumped against the glass and let out a helpless moan.

“Fucking shit bitch ass motherfucker!” Vanessa hissed in anger, pounding on the glass with her knuckles one last time. Brooke watched as she took a step back from the window, flexed her fingers and gave a hiss.

“You okay?” Brooke found herself asking. She could already feel herself frowning in concern as Vanessa nodded briskly, shaking her hand out and sticking the knuckle of one finger in her mouth.

“Fine. Just got a lil’ over-enthusiastic, cut my finger,” she spoke around her knuckle. Brooke felt a pang at her heart. She took a step towards Vanessa.

“Let’s see?”

Vanessa gave another laugh, harsher and more sardonic than her first had been. “It’s fine, Brooke, I don’t need you to kiss it better.”

Brooke held her hands up, unable to help the way her eyebrows flew up her face. “Okay, I’ll just go fuck myself!“

“Yeah, do that,” Vanessa muttered quietly, sitting on a desk beside the window and pulling her legs up to cross them. Brooke, in lieu of snapping back at the girl she’d once called her friend but had never called her girlfriend, did the same. They sat in a hostile silence, thoughts running around Brooke’s mind as to what she could do or say. So many options flooded her head that it was hard to see any of them clearly for what they were. It turned out she didn’t need to give any of them that much thought, however, as Nina and Silky soon appeared from the other end of the building.

“Oh, good! You’ve not killed each other,” Nina said brightly upon her return. Brooke snuck a quick look at Vanessa, then rolled her eyes.

“Guess you’re as shit out of luck as we are?” Silky asked, her voice quieter than usual by at least a few dozen decibels.

“Can you believe they locked the fire doors? Fuck them, man, imagine there was a real fire?” Vanessa spat bitterly. Nina sighed heavily and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“We could try calling someone?”

Brooke frowned. “Who could we call?”

“The police?” Nina said immediately, her naivety causing the others to burst out laughing.

“And say what?! Hey listen, we know you’ve got murderers to catch but we’re locked in a uni building, could you bring round a big battering ram and knock the door down?” Brooke laughed, not missing the way Vanessa laughed in response and feeling a twinkle of pride light up in her heart.

“Well, could the fire brigade get us out?” Nina suggested, Silky groaning and pulling her hands down her face.

“Nina, you need to lower your expectations of what an emergency is. Four dumb uni students trapped in the library is not gonna be considered an emergency. We’re not in danger, we’re all breathing, and none of us have been set alight. That counts the big three out immediately.”

“What about a locksmith?” Vanessa shrugged. Brooke screwed up her face.

“Ah, for those locks that automatic doors have on them,” Silky deadpanned. Brooke laughed at the comment, clearly a little too loudly because Vanessa was back scowling at her again.

“Hey, they do so have locks, bitch.”

“I don’t think you can ask a locksmith to open a house that isn’t yours,” Nina frowned. Brooke raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her.

“I love my house, the university library.”

“Shut up! You knew what I meant,” Nina protested, as the other girls gave a laugh again.

“Surely there’ll be some phone number online for the janitor or something?” Brooke thought suddenly, Silky quickly taking out her phone to check. There was a moment of silence as the girls held their breath in hope. Finally, Silky let out an overjoyed cry.

“Cleaning supervisor main area- based in central library! Yes ladies! We’re fucking outta here!”

Brooke smiled so hard that her face hurt as Silky held her phone to her ear. Thank God. The nightmare was over, she could go back to her flat and not be literally trapped in a building with her ex. She would soon be-

The four girls jumped as a faint ringing of a phone could be heard from out in the lobby. For the hundredth time that night, Brooke felt her heart sink.

“I don’t really know what we expected from that,” Vanessa sighed, looking every inch the kicked puppy.

It was quickly decided that their last hope were the girls who weren’t in the library, although this went down the drain fast as it was discovered that Yvie was over at Scarlet’s flat and they were both asleep, neither Akeria nor Monet were picking up, and Plastique had gone home to revise.

“What about Monique, Vanj? Could we try her?” Nina asked. Brooke was confused at the way Vanessa’s face twisted in discomfort, a little line setting deep on her forehead.

“Nah, she, uh…she won’t pick up,” she said simply, Nina nodding quickly and neglecting to ask any more about it. It didn’t stop Brooke from being intrigued.

“What the fuck are we gonna do, then? We can’t just spend the night here,” Silky’s voice was disbelieving. Brooke gave a resigned shrug.

“Silk, I don’t think there’s any alternative. It’s only a few hours, the place’ll open up again at six. We can go upstairs and sleep in those little pods they have for group projects. Then by the time we wake up again, it’ll be morning and we can all go back to the flat,” Brooke explained calmly, although inside she still had a lot of anxiety rattling about and the dark of the library wasn’t helping.

The girls reluctantly agreed that it was probably the only thing that was left for them to do. In nervous silence they climbed the stairs to the first floor, where Silky immediately set up camp in one of the pods, stretching herself out along the seats that had once been cushioned but had been flattened by hundreds and thousands of sets of bums over the years. Nina took one and set her laptop back up again, arguing that she’d actually been on a pretty good streak before she’d had to pack up and wanted to see if she could churn out another thousand words before she went to sleep. Brooke peeled off from the girls and took her own pod, her tall body unable to fully fit along the seats. As she attempted to sleep, one thing kept stopping her as it usually seemed to around this time of day. She sighed, tossed and turned as she thought about Vanessa. It had all gone so badly wrong. The more she tried to get her off her mind, the more memories she was reminded of. Hurting Vanessa was easier than loving her; snapping at her and being snarky made Brooke feel bad and a bit of a bitch, but loving her and torturing herself for what an idiot she’d been made her feel ten times worse, as if her heart had been removed from its sheath in her ribcage and been stomped on, kicked about, stabbed with a blunt knife and dragged through broken glass. Any attempt to sleep was futile. Brooke’s eyes hurt with fatigue as she sat up, rubbed them and stretched. She would go and see if Nina was still awake, maybe sit up and annoy her for a while.

As she crossed the floor she noticed a small movement out of the corner of her eye. Vanessa was sitting on the floor by the window, her legs crossed and eating a packet of crisps she’d managed to procure from somewhere. Brooke thought she looked so tiny compared to the huge pane of glass and the world that sat outside of it. Now that the lights were off, Brooke could see every detail that lay beyond the window- the soft yellow glow of the streetlights that faintly illuminated the park beside the library, the pink and white marshmallow cherry blossom trees that lined each path. A memory shot through Brooke’s mind like a lightning bolt- the eight of them in second year after their exams had all finished, having a barbecue in the park as the sun beat down and frazzled them all to a crisp, the smell of sausages and weed carried on the light breeze and the warmth in Brooke’s heart as Vanessa had teased her about something, the girls all laughing at Brooke’s embarrassment and protests.

God, they’d all been so happy.

Without really knowing what her plan was, Brooke walked over to where Vanessa was sitting and sat down cautiously beside her. The other girl looked at her, as if she was deciding whether to glare or smile. She ended up doing neither.

“Can’t sleep either?” Brooke chose as her opener, immediately regretting it for the cheesy line from a film it was. Vanessa gave a sarcastic chuckle, gestured around her.

“Apparently,” she said simply, Brooke looking at the carpet and kicking herself. There was a moment where the cogs in her brain whirred quickly, trying to come up with something else to say. Vanessa surprised her by speaking again. “I ain’t been sleeping too good lately anyway, though, so. I guess it don’t matter.”

“Me neither,” Brooke felt something click inside her, a surge of adrenaline coursing through her veins as she spoke again. “Vanessa, we need to talk.”

Vanessa kept her eyes trained on the pane of glass in front of her. “We are talking.”

“God, Ness, please don’t make this harder than it already is,” Brooke sighed, her face pleading. Vanessa’s head snapped round to face her and her eyes were what could only be described as murderous.

“Hard? Don’t fucking dare talk to me about hard,” she said, slowly and carefully and causing Brooke’s heart to frost over in fear. “This year has been shit, absolute shit, the shittest year of my life. You broke my heart- no, fuck that. You broke me. I had to take my goddamn feelings and put them all back together again, start from scratch while you swanned about absolutely fine. I am having to fight to get my average up because of the days I spent in my flat crying instead of going to lectures. Do you have any idea, Brooke, what this has been like for me?”

Brooke was silent as Vanessa continued relentlessly. “And then I finally got myself to a place where, hey, maybe I could be friends with you again! Then what happened? All the old feelings came back, didn’t they, and then we fucking…slept with each other and-”

“Hey, no,” Brooke jumped in, frowning and unable to listen to what was to come. “Don’t try to pin that on me, Vanessa, that was all you. It wasn’t me that fucking…straddled you in the hot tub and stripped off and talked about the sex I was having with other girls, was it?”

“Oh, no! You’re right. You’re correct,” Vanessa smiled sarcastically, soon getting replaced with a scowl. “You only got with me incredibly intensely in front of seven of our closest friends, who knew all the shit that’s gone down between us and watched like a fucking soap opera.”

“Well I didn’t hear you complaining at the time!” Brooke bit back, causing Vanessa to fall silent and play with a thread of her ripped jeans. Brooke let out a breath she’d been holding, took in a huge gulp of air. “Look, this is…this is off to a bad start.”

Brooke watched Vanessa’s throat move as she swallowed, her eyes cast downwards. Brooke was good at holding in her feelings, bottling them up like her life depended on it. She was terrified of feeling too much. She had no idea how this conversation was meant to start, but she knew she had to have it.

“Vanessa, I am sorry. I know it doesn’t mean much to you, but for what it’s worth, I am. I’m sorry for going about everything the wrong way. I’d never…done anything like this before, never properly seen anyone like I was seeing you, so I didn’t know how to behave. And fuck, maybe I was leading you on, and I’m sorry for that too. I just didn’t know what I wanted. Well, I thought I knew what I wanted but then I just…didn’t any more. I’m sorry for hurting you. I didn’t realise how much you liked me until it was too late,” Brooke cut herself off, sighing and feeling a bubble of sadness rise up in her throat. “Fuck, I’m trying to put it all the way I want it but nothing’s coming out right.”

Vanessa was looking at her, she knew it, but Brooke’s gaze had dropped to the floor. She brought her knees up to her chest. There was so much she wanted to say to Vanessa but none of the sentences she constructed in her head seemed to be sufficient.

“That night. You said that you missed me,” Vanessa’s voice was soft and small as she spoke, stripped from all the venom it had held before. “Did you mean it?”

Brooke jumped in instantly. “Yes.”

Vanessa was now looking at the floor, picking at her shoelace. “And did you mean…as a friend, or…just the sex, or…”

Brooke took a deep breath. I love you I love you IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou. The words were so close to coming out, but she stopped them. Now wasn’t the right time, nowhere near the right time. She tried to think about what the perfect response would be, sighed, scrapped it, and decided to just simply speak. “I miss you as…everything. I miss you as whatever you want to be to me. I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give me. I just miss you for all that you are, the person you are. I miss us,” Brooke paused, realised her last remark was slightly risky. “Interpret that…however you want.”

Brooke snuck a gaze at Vanessa. A thought struck her as memories ran round her mind, and now she had started talking it seemed she couldn’t stop. “Do you remember after we…after lazerquest. Yvie’s birthday. We met up and we spoke about things and you said something. That whatever happens, we’d be friends always. Do you remember?”

Vanessa gave a little laugh. “You can wear a set of armbands in a current, don’t mean you won’t drown.”

She saw Brooke’s confused look, shot her a bashful smile. “I never expected to…end up feeling so strongly for you at the start. Didn’t expect to get as crazy about you as I got. Man…I wish you could turn feelings off.”

Brooke felt herself frown, a deep regret settling in the pit of her stomach. “I wish that too.”

She didn’t miss the brief look of surprise that flashed across Vanessa’s face. In the lull in conversation that followed, Vanessa wordlessly pushed the packet of crisps towards Brooke. She took one. Chilli heatwave wasn’t her favourite flavour, but it was a peace offering, and she’d take what she could get.

"So I stopped sleeping with Monique,” Vanessa commented, shrugging a little. Brooke blinked, almost choked on her crisp as she raced to get a reply out.

“Uh, yeah, I did notice you were a bit weird about things when Nina said you should call her.”

Vanessa pushed some hair out of her face, puffed her cheeks up with air and blew out harshly. “Monet kinda told me…she was catching feelings, and obviously I wasn’t there for that. So I said to her we shouldn’t keep going.”

Brooke felt a little twinge of pain for Monique. The poor girl had a crush and was just caught in the crossfire. “And how did she take it?”

Vanessa stared through the glass, her gaze steadfast. “I could tell she was sad. Disappointed. She didn’t start cryin’ or nothing, but…God, I still felt bad. I liked her, you know, she was a great girl. Maybe there’s a parallel universe where she took my heart and patched it all up again and we ended up together but…that’s not what it was for me. And the more she said she understood and that she hoped I’d find happiness, the worse I felt for having to tell her I wanted something different.”

Brooke nodded. She wanted to tell Vanessa that she knew the feeling all too well, but she didn’t want to interrupt her. Vanessa turned her head slowly, finally making eye contact with Brooke, and her eyes were the softest they’d been in a while. “I guess what I’m sayin’ is…I know now what it must have been like for you to break it off with me. And yeah, it completely fuckin’ wrecked me but…you did what you had to do. So…I forgive you, Brooke Lynn.”

Brooke couldn’t quite believe Vanessa was in front of her saying all this. Instinctively she wanted to launch herself forward and hug her, thanking her for her change of heart. Just as she’d convinced herself she was almost going to do it, Vanessa spoke again. Her voice held a slightly more steely note to it now. “But I don’t forgive you for kissing me or for that night in the hot tub. That really fucked with me.”

Brooke fought the urge to snap a childish you started it at her and instead said a soft okay. She also fought the urge to reach out and place a hand on top of Vanessa’s. The building was still pitch black and silent and the girls had reached a conversational purgatory. Vanessa had forgiven her for some of her mistakes at least. This was the closure Brooke had wanted. Despite herself, she found herself opening her mouth. There was so much still unresolved.

“You must kind of hate me for that."

Vanessa snorted, tilted her head to the sky. "I do and I don’t.”

A small silence. Brooke knew what she wanted to say, knew what topic she wanted to breach, but it meant plunging head first into the icy chill of the great unknown, and as much as she wanted to talk about it she was terrified of doing so.

“Is that because part of you loves me?”

It was out before Brooke knew it. Vanessa had frozen, her body unmoving with her head still positioned towards the ceiling like a terrifying Exorcist yoga pose. Brooke could immediately predict it, could practically hear it- Vanessa’s quick, sarcastic response, don’t flatter yourself, her getting up and thundering away to another part of the building in some angry game of hide and seek. She couldn’t face any of those options, so Brooke continued talking. “I was in the bathroom at the same time. In the next stall along from you and the girls. I heard you say that you never got to tell me. Did you mean it?”

“Why are you asking me this, Brooke? Is it to add insult to injury? Is it not enough knowing that the girl you broke it off with can still come crawling back into bed with you so easily, you have to rub salt into the wound by getting me to fucking…” Brooke heard Vanessa take a big deep, shaky breath, felt the tears prick at the corners of her own eyes. “…admit that I’m in love with you, yes, okay? I love you. What’s the reason?”

“Because I…fuck,” Brooke jumped in then immediately stopped. She felt her jaw wire itself shut, almost paralysed with fear. She didn’t know if she could verbalise everything she was feeling. “I’m not good at talking about this stuff.”

“No shit, Miss Marple,” Vanessa quipped bitterly, her eyes back looking at the carpet and avoiding Brooke’s gaze. The lack of eye contact helped Brooke. She carried on.

“You know, I used to lie in bed before I went to sleep and rehearse what I would say to you to tell you I liked you,” Brooke gave a laugh, remembering when things were more simple. “Except none of it worked out that way. And now I’ve actually got a second chance at it, I’m almost too frightened to say it. I completely fucked it with you, Vanessa. You’re an absolute one of a kind person. Your smile just makes me happy whether or not it’s directed at me. The love and loyalty you have for your friends makes me proud of you. You’re so determined and hard working and you’re smashing your degree. And you’re kind. You see the good in everyone and you’re not afraid to feel and tell the world all about it. All these things that I just…love about you. It took me being away from you and making the biggest mistake of my life, and that night when we were together like everything was back to normal, it took all of that to make me realise that I’m…fuck..”

Brooke almost hadn’t realised she was crying until a sob bubbled up in her throat, almost choking her. It was almost like her body’s survival mechanism, trying to save her from the potential rejection she might face once the words were out.

Fuck it.

“I’m in love with you. I love you so much that it scares me. It scares me more than being fucking…trapped in the library in the pitch black with no way out,” Brooke let out a hybrid of a laugh and a sob. By now, Vanessa had lifted her gaze to look at Brooke, and Brooke had shifted hers so she could protect herself from Vanessa’s reaction. “Because I don’t want to hurt you again, and you deserve better than someone like me.”

“Then don’t,” Vanessa said quietly.

“What?” Brooke whispered, confused. She tugged the sleeves of her jumper over her hands and jammed them under her eyes, used them to stop the tears from escaping.

“You said you don’t want to hurt me again. Then don’t,” Vanessa repeated patiently. Brooke blinked. She had no idea what that meant, so she went with the knowledge she had at hand.

“I love you, and you love me,” Brooke said softly, finally meeting Vanessa’s eyes. “Can we…do something with that information?”

Vanessa let out a loud blast of a laugh, making Brooke giggle even though she didn’t know what was funny. “God, that’s the most Brooke Lynn Hytes way of asking me out ever. Can we do something with that information.”

Vanessa’s smile was infectious. It lit up Brooke’s heart and she wanted nothing more than to lean forward and kiss her gently, to make Vanessa hers properly this time. As her smile faded though, Brooke felt her hope fade too. Vanessa let out a world-weary sigh. “Brooke, I don’t…I don’t know if I can do this all over again.”

Brooke’s heart dropped to the floor and shattered. She wanted to say something, fill the silence and reassure her, but nothing came out. She had opened up, and it had all been for nothing. This was her karma- she had broken Vanessa’s heart and now here was Vanessa breaking hers. She felt crushed. Lacking the energy to do it properly, she nodded her head once, the action small and probably barely noticeable.

It was so quiet that Brooke could hear Vanessa swallow beside her, hear her breathing deeply to calm herself down before she spoke. “You never hear it in the movies but sometimes…sometimes love isn’t enough, you know, sometimes you need to put yourself first, and sometimes the person you love ain’t necessarily the one who ends up making you happiest.”

Brooke felt her chest grow tight, felt ashamed as her head hung to the floor. She saw two tears fall from her eyes and drop onto the carpet, making identical, miniscule ponds.

“But then also,” Vanessa continued, the but aspect causing Brooke’s heart to dip and soar upwards as if it was on a rollercoaster. “I love you for a reason, don’t I? The way that you say shit that’s all sarcastic and funny. The way you make me laugh. The way you’re always blunt and truthful, and when you say nice things to me it feels like you’re just saying a fact. The way you got this childish, immature streak to you that makes everything feel like an adventure when I’m with you. You listen in the best way, ‘cause you never try an’ force advice down anyone’s throat. You’re always so concerned about everyone you care for and want them to be happy…and even though you ain’t good at expressin’ it, I know you have feelings and I know they scare you. You’re like a fuckin…model, you’re so beautiful and perfect. So that’s as simple as it has to be, right?”

Brooke looked up and saw tears in Vanessa’s own eyes. All the honesty was so raw and painful, like burnt or grazed skin, and it hurt and stung as if it was real. It was real. Brooke hid a sob, took a deep breath. “I don’t, uh. I don’t know where we take this.”

“I want to be with you. I want to love and be loved, feel my heart fuckin’…burst like it’s made of confetti,” Vanessa continued, letting out what could have been a sob or a laugh. “But I want to be happy. I don’t want to be hurt again. I’m scared.”

“I’m scared too,” Brooke nodded, feeling the tracks the tears were making down her face. She sighed, the pain in her heart too heavy for her to carry. “Fuck, maybe we’re just not meant for each other, maybe we got our chance already. Maybe nothing should come of this-”

“But, fuck, I love you, Brooke! And you love me,” Vanessa sighed in exasperation, her mascara collecting under her eyes as her own tears continued to fall. “And that…that means something.”

“I love you,” Brooke repeated, in case it counted for anything. It meant the world to her. Vanessa gave a sad smile, reached out and took Brooke’s hand and laced their fingers together. She squeezed Brooke’s hand twice, and the simple gesture made Brooke hopeful that everything was going to be okay.

“Shit, I waited so long to hear you say that and now it’s like…” Vanessa began sadly, trailing off. Brooke didn’t push her to finish her sentence. Instead, she squeezed her hand like Vanessa had done with hers. The action seemed to work as a prompt, because she spoke again, tilting her head with curiosity. “What do you want outta all this?”

Brooke knew immediately. “I want you. I want us to be us again.”

Vanessa let out a soft sigh, paused. “Okay, well. I don’t know what I want right now, Brooke. An’ it’s gonna be hard to start again. So you’re gonna need to give me time to decide.”

“That’s okay. I’ll wait for you. You can take all the time you need,” Brooke reassured her instantly. “I’ll still be here.”

Vanessa’s hand shifted in her own. Brooke watched as she frowned a little, cast her gaze her way again. "You mean that?”

“I mean it. Whatever you decide. Whether we’re worth an extra chance or not. I’ll wait for you.”

A small smile crept onto Vanessa’s face as Brooke waited for her reply. “That’s the most romantic shit anyone ever said to me.”

“Well, it’s just the truth,” Brooke muttered, feeling her cheeks grow hot and glad that the dark room would hide her pink blush. Then, getting an idea and feeling a little spark of that childishness and immaturity Vanessa seemed to love so much, Brooke let go of Vanessa’s hand and held out her other one for her to shake. The other girl looked at her, a funny, confused smile on her face as she took her hand and shook it obediently.

“Hey. I’m Brooke Lynn,” she began, trying to suppress her smile as she spoke. Vanessa giggled, falling back a little then leaning forward.

“What are you…”

“Starting again. What’s your name, beautiful?” Brooke teased, all the darkness somehow bursting into colour as Vanessa laughed beside her, swatting her on her arm with her hand. She hadn’t seen this Vanessa in so long; happy, laughing, cheerful and playful. Brooke could’ve cried with how much she’d missed her.

“This is some dumbass shit, you know that?” Vanessa giggled, but Brooke could see the blush on her own cheeks illuminated by the streetlamps outside. Vanessa appeared to see her expectant face, laughed a resigned laugh and indulged her. “Nice to meet you, Brooke. I’m Vanjie. Well, Vanessa, but everyone calls me Vanjie.”

“Can I call you Vanessa? It’s pretty. It suits you.”

Vanessa laughed again, making Brooke give a chuckle too. “Bitch! You never flirted with me this hard the first time.”

“Well the first time we were friends, so I couldn’t flirt with you. Not properly like I wanted to anyway,” Brooke laughed, taking a Dorito and throwing it at her playfully. Vanessa squealed, toppling herself out of the way. “You, on the other hand, flirted all the time.”

“I’m a flirtatious person! You shouldn’t have taken that shit personal,” Vanessa protested, attempting to look offended but unable to wipe the smile off her face.

“So Vanessa,” Brooke carried on, trying to stop herself smiling as she carried on with the charade. “What are you studying?”

They carried on like that all through the night, being silly and getting to know each other again right from the very beginning. They had missed out on so much conversation over the past few months that it was actually nice to catch up, to re-establish herself in Vanessa’s life. She was looking at graduate jobs in events management for after uni and thinking of moving home to save money. For a fleeting moment Brooke almost suggested that they move in together but she was glad she had the sense not to verbalise that, a thought that was perhaps better bottled up and saved for another time. After all, Vanessa hadn’t even decided if she wanted to be with Brooke or not yet. Brooke had to cling on to the hope that maybe she would, because she had nothing else. Well, that was a lie. She had Vanessa’s smile and her laugh, the twinkle in her eyes when Brooke made a deadpan comment. She had the way Vanessa opened up to her, told her how scared she was of trying to navigate the world on her own after she graduated. She had the way that Vanessa shuffled close to her when the sun eventually began to rise, its glow a burnt orange ombre into a soft yellow which faded into the gentle blue of the morning sky. She had the way Vanessa’s head fit perfectly into the crook of her neck as, worn out and exhausted, she closed her eyes and dozed off in Brooke’s tentative arms.

Most of all, she had the fact that Vanessa loved her, and Brooke loved her back. And even though it hadn’t been the movie scene confession Brooke had been expecting, that fact, the sunrise, and Vanessa sleeping softly against her chest was enough for her for the moment.

#rpdr fanfiction #not nineteen forever #n19f #ortega #branjie #scyvie #ninex #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #lesbian au #college au #university au #nina west #silky nutmeg ganache #s11

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dawnwave16 · 5 years ago

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Not what I expected

3; 4(here); 4.5 ; 5 ; Pictures for Interlude ; Interlude

Chap 4

“It's confirmed,” she said with a soft smile, then looked at Hotch. “Congrats, Dad, it's a teenaged girl!”

Hotch was driving home to pack extra things into his bag when he realised that he should probably fetch Jack first. After all, if he remembered correctly, Jack was meant to be having an art day at school and the last thing he wanted to do was take Jack on a plane covered in paint and other art supplies. He had requested that Garcia book accommodation for them as the last thing he wanted was to arrive in Paris and find out the was nowhere for them all to stay, so he knew they would be staying in the Grand Paris Hotel, they would pay for their rooms after they arrived though.

That planned he picked up a very messy, yet excited Jack and got everything else that he needed done sorted and met the team at the airport. He was admittedly a bit nervous, after all, he'd just found out he had a teenage daughter and he had no idea if she knew that Tom wasn't her father. The team boarded without any issues and settled in for the flight. Since D.C was 6hrs behind Paris, despite them leaving at 1 pm they would be landing in Paris at 6 pm.

They had been on the plane for about an hour when Reid, who had been quiet for the most part, spoke up.

“I think we should look into Marinette's teacher as well as the two girls Matt mentioned.” Seeing the confused looks he continued, “While it may be possible that the teacher hasn't noticed what is happening with Marinette. If we go by what Matt said about how she seemed relieved that an adult other than her parents believed her, I think we can deduce that the school hasn't supported her. I read through the records about her that Garcia was able to get and her school file indicates that she has almost been expelled a few times since Miss Rossi joined the class. I find that strange because before that she had an almost spotless record there is even a note stating that she is generally quiet but will stand up to bullies. If you then take Frances' policy of emphasising the teacher's authority and how much they stress analytical thinking, it paints a picture of either a weak-willed teacher or one that just doesn't care.”

“I see where you going with this Pretty Boy, you think that the teacher has seen everything that Marinette is going through but instead of trying to help her, she's making Marinette lock away her natural reaction of standing up for herself in favour of trying to maintain the status quo. Marinette has probably tried to speak to her teacher but been told to simply keep quiet, which has then lead to her classmates thinking that she's been reprimanded and that what they are doing is the right thing.” Morgan sounded contemplative as he spoke.

“I could see that happening if the teacher wasn't very experienced with teens or perhaps was better suited to teaching much younger children.” This time it was Prentiss that spoke up. “Garcia can you-”

“Already ahead of you there. Records sent to your tablets but to summerise what I have found this is Caline Bustier's first teaching position, she applied to only teach art as she wanted to gain a bit more experience before teaching full classes. She has a history through her school career of fading into the background whenever there was any conflict near her. Ironically enough she was always found at the scene of a fight but never seen to be directly involved.” Garcia's fingers were flying over the keys of her laptop even as she gave her brief report.

JJ frowned, “Do you guys think she could have instigated those fights only to step back as the fight got bigger? I don't think I'd want to let her near my kids if that was the case.”

“That's presuming the parents knew about her history in the first place,” Reid interjected.

By this stage, Hotch was glad he had had the forethought to pack a tablet with games and movies along with headphones for Jack. He knew how strong Jack's sense of right and wrong was and knew that if Jack heard about what was happening to his big sister he wouldn't be happy. When he had told Jack where they were going and why Jack had just about bounced off the walls even as he promised to be the best little brother in the world. Apparently, some of his classmates had older siblings then themselves and Jack had been jealous of the bond they seemed to share.

The rest of the flight passed in much the same manner with the only pause in the conversation being for their in-flight meal as Jack took his headphones out while he was eating. They spoke about the backgrounds that had been pulled up for each of the people in Marinette's' class and felt they knew which ones would have been swayed and why as well as which ones would keep quiet out of fear. By the time their plane landed, they had agreed they would have to talk to Marinette first but they were pretty sure she would want to change schools to get away from all the negative memories that had been formed by her class.

The trip from the airport to the hotel was also uneventful however that changed soon after their arrival. They checked into the hotel and received their key card and were just about to gather their luggage when something large and scaley ran past them fairly quickly. It stopped near the doors watching them eagerly, it's tail waving wildly. They blinked then Reid broke the silence.

“Either I am seeing things or that is a crocodile. What is a crocodile doing in Paris, let alone in an upmarket hotel?” The team couldn't answer however it seemed they didn't need to as their answer arrived in the form of a teen with Ravens wing blue hair pulled into pigtails walked through the door, only to drop what she was holding as she fell to the floor with a lap full of the reptile.

“FANG!” she yelped. “Hey, silly boy why are you down here and not upstairs with your dad? You know you not allowed out of the room without a lead on. Did you escape just too great me?” Even as she calmed down and spoke, she was rubbing its jaw showing absolutely no fear of it despite its size. She even seemed to scold it through the giggles that were now trying to escape her lips. The huge croc simply rumbled in what could only be described as a purr. Another teen stalked into the reception hall to see what the commotion was, only for a sneer to cross her face.

“Uugh, it's you. Seriously why are you even here?”

“Hello to you too, Chloé. I'm sure I don't have to explain myself to you so instead of fighting, why don't I simply take Fang back to his room and then you don't have to see me.” As she replied to Chloé, she pushed the croc off her lap and gathered the bags that she had been carrying. They seemed to be clothing bags of some description. She then looked up and the BAU realised who the girl was, Marinette. Why was she here on a Friday night? Shouldn't she be at home? Why was she so comfortable around such a large crocodile?

“Fine! Just get out of my sight. This is ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!” The blond, Chloé, spun on her heel, flicked her hair and flounced off. Marinette looked at the BAU and seemed to read their confused faces as confusion over Chloés' behaviour.

“Don't worry about her,” she said reassuringly, “ Chloé is always like that, her father is the mayor and owns this hotel. She was also one of the temporary hero's at one stage so she likes to act like everyone else is beneath her.” She then looked down at the crocodile, “Right, let's go, Fang, your papa is probably pulling his hair out looking for you. I have his and Penny's order with me, they just need to have their final fitting then we can have some more cuddles, how does that sound?” The crocodile pranced in place, acting more like a big puppy rather than the reptile he was, then as Marinette walked towards the elevator he walked next to her, as perfectly behaved as any army dog. As she got the elevator she frowned then looked at them again.

“Since there are so many of you would some of you like to travel up with Fang and me? He's a big softy who wouldn't hurt a fly, I promise.”

Jack immediately started tugging Hotch's hand, “Please Dad? I want to pet him!”

Hotch smiled softly yet worriedly, he was a little nervous for this to be his first interaction with his daughter but his paternal instinct wanted him to get to know her and find out why she was here with garment bags in the first place. JJ noticed his dilemma and volunteered to go up with them. Hotch smiled at her in relief and the three of them joined Marinette just as it arrived so they all piled in. Marinette quickly showed Jack how to pat Fang and the croc seemed to lap up the attention. It was pure chance that they were all going to the same floor so when the doors opened again Marinette let them out first then walked out only to be greeted by an overly loud shout.

“MARINETTE! And you found Fang for me! Rock on!”

@virgil-is-a-cutie for the idea about madam Bustier

@a-marlene-s for all her support! You Rock!

#mlb #miraculous ladybug #criminal minds #beyond borders #lila salt #au bio dad for marinette #marinette #fang

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j-j-ehlby-writes · 5 years ago

Text

Change Your Ticket (c.e.)

A/N: Just a quick drabble inspired by “Change Your Ticket” by One Direction. I’ve been feeling less than inspired to write lately so I took inspiration from what I could get.

Pairing: Chris Evans x Reader Word Count: ~2.4k Summary: Your boyfriend, Chris doesn’t want you to leave. So he’ll make sure you never have to leave again.

My Masterlist

Chris groans behind me as his muscular arms wrap around my waist. I could picture the pout he’s doing into my messy bun, bringing a small smile to my face in this somber moment. “I don’t want you to leave.”

I looked down at my packed suitcase signaling the end of our weekend together. With him being the most in-demand actor now that he’s left Marvel, and with my simple career in a completely different state, we hardly ever get to spend time together. We treasure the moments we do get but they’re never enough.

I lean back into his chest, his face burying itself into the crook of my neck. “I know,” I interlock my fingers with his, “but I need to get back to work.”

We have this conversation every time one of us has to separate from the other. He says, “I don’t want to go” or “I don’t want you to go,” I argue that we both have jobs to get back to, he says I don’t have to work and that I could come with him, blah, blah, blah... every time. This has been going on for two years but the time we’ve actually spent together seems more like 8 months. As much as it has been difficult, I wouldn’t change the time we’ve spent together for anything.

As usual, he continues the pattern, “You know you don’t have to work...”

I rolled my eyes, turning in his arms to face him. His beautiful, soulful blue eyes gazed down at me with added sadness for our impending separation. His arms tightened around my waist, connecting our hips. “But, I do.” He huffs, even though he knew that answer was coming. I decided to throw him a curveball, “You’re not my husband yet. I can’t be relying on you for everything.”

There was a short glimmer of something in his eye, but he quickly masked it with a cute smirk that I can never get enough of. He conceded as he usually does before he drove me to the airport.

Weeks went by before we were able to see each other again as per usual with his new hectic filming schedule. We talked on the phone and FaceTime’d nearly every day no matter what time it was for either of us as we always do when we’re apart. This time though, he acted strangely when the days leading up to our upcoming reunion grew nearer. Nervousness replaced his typical excitement. His brilliant smile didn’t reach his eyes. I’d ask what was bothering him, but he’d brush it off, which only worried me more. He talks to me about every possible thing. The fact that he’s keeping something from me gives me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. It ate at me every minute of every day until I could see him and ask him in person.

I feared the worst. I feared he was drifting away from me and was going to end it with me. I feared he got tired of me and our boring relationship. It’s true that we didn’t do much while we were together, but that’s what I thought he wanted: for us to live our independent lives and then come together when we could. We also haven’t done much outside of a hotel room or his houses in Boston and LA. We also wanted it that way as well. We weren’t public with our relationship, both of us wanting the privacy we know we wouldn’t get otherwise. Maybe now that he had what he thought he wanted he no longer wants that... I don’t think I could get through that kind of heart-shattering experience. I’m so madly in love with him that living the rest of my life without him by my side would quite literally kill me.

As I fly to Boston now that his newest movie has wrapped filming, I’m a ball of nerves. This could possibly be the last time I come out here. I’d hate to have to say goodbye to everything I’ve come to love on the east coast: the ocean views, the laid-back coastal feel, Chris’ whole family who welcomed me with open arms the minute they met me, Dodger who has become my baby as well, everything...

I get to the house, apparently having beaten Chris here. I keep all of the lights off, placing my keys on the entry table. I leave my suitcase by the door and walk around, taking in every inch of the house making mental notes as to how much I’ll miss it if the worst does happen. I silently walk around the dark house, all of the memories we’ve made in this place together running through my mind...

Like the first time he tried to make dinner for me. Tried. He tried to make my favorite meal but somehow (we still don’t know how), he messed it up. We laughed about it for a solid hour before calling for a pizza. He apologized a grand total of 27 times that night, saying he wanted to do something special for me after dealing with his hectic schedule and all of the time apart because of it. I reassured him that all I wanted was him, I never required anything more. That was the day I realized I was truly falling in love with him.

Our first Christmas we spent here curled up on the couch with Dodger, watching our favorite holiday movies after a hectic day with his family. Dodger was chewing on a new flavored bone he was given, all of our new clothes were laid out on our bed with a pending fashion show to come the next day, any other presents were set aside as we wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet of the night before we returned to his family’s chaos.

Our first vacation together after one of his movies had finished filming and all press was done. We could finally spend more than one weekend together in a four month span. Instead of going somewhere exotic, we stayed here, well actually, we stayed in his family home. It was the most stressful but wonderful three months I’ve ever experienced. The love and comfort I felt while in their home while also experiencing the chaos of having a bigger family was eye-opening into what my life would be like with Chris. I could confidently say after that that I was in it with him for the long run.

Our first major fight was had in this living room. I don’t even remember what it was about. We yelled, we accused each other of things, we took solace in separate rooms... for about 10 minutes. We realized how ridiculous we were being, talked it out like rational adults, and put it all behind us to enjoy the time we had left together.

The tears threatened to spill over as I reminisced. I hated this insecure feeling again. I worked many days and nights not to feel this way in this relationship. Chris makes me feel strong and secure because I know he believes in me... or believed.

I made my way back to the bedroom where I was ready to collapse on the bed. When I did, it made a noise that wasn’t typical of the fluffy comforter. I turned on the lamp on the bedside table and found a note.

“Y/N, I know I’ve been acting strangely these past few days. I apologize if it brought up any negative emotions you’ve worked hard to erase. To make up for it, I’ve placed multiple notes around the house with all of the things I love about you. Find them all and then come find me. I love you. Chris”

With those three simple words, all of my feelings from the past few weeks dissipated. I felt foolish for even thinking something was remotely off.

So instead of wallowing, I got to work on my scavenger hunt. Post-It notes were found around the entire house from the bathroom mirror, on the large framed picture of the Boston skyline by the front door, behind one of the pillows on the couch, on a few of the fake plants he has decorated around the house, on the fridge... all listing what he loves about me: my eyes and how they shine, the way my smile lights up the room, how I blush every time he compliments me, how much I’ve loved Dodger from the very beginning, how independent I am, how passionate I am about multiple things, and many more that made my heart soar. The final note I found said this: “I love everything about you.”

The second I read that note, a dim light path turned on, illuminating the back porch. The twinkle lights lead me down the steps of the deck, continuing out onto the private beach behind the house. The rush of the waves welcomed me back as if I had never left them. I removed my shoes before stepping onto the still warm from the day sand. I followed the path, leading me to the man I love the most in this world.

He stood there with his jeans rolled up to mid-shin and a simple white t-shirt. His dark blond hair is pushed back the way I love it.

“How long have you been out here?” I ask as I approach him.

“Not long.” The smile he made lit up the entire beach more than the lights ever could. He reached out for me as I finally got close enough. He scooped up my hands, moving backwards through the sand until we felt the warm dry sand turn cool and wet. The tide lapped at our bare feet as we basked in the feeling of being together again. He pulled me into a hug which I welcomed. I could feel his abnormally fast heartbeat against my chest. I wonder what could be causing it.

“What is all this for? Did I forget an anniversary or something?” I panicked pulling away from him. Usually I’m on top of that kind of thing, sometimes a little too well.

He chuckled, taking my hands in his once again. “No, baby, you’re not forgetting anything. In fact,” he gripped my hands a little tighter as if bracing himself for what he was about to say, “I hope to have a new reason to celebrate.” He breaks eye contact with me, taking a deep breath before locking his gaze with me again as he goes down onto one knee...

“From the moment you came into my life, you changed everything. I honestly thought I would be alone for the rest of my life. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could find someone who would accept me for all that I am and all that my life entails. But I did. I found you. You showed me what the truest form of love feels like.”

My eyes were filling up with happy tears this time as the man of my dreams was professing his love to me. This is the moment I’ve been dreaming of for many years but never thought I would have until I met him. He says I changed everything for him, well ditto to him. Without him and the love he has shown me for the last two years, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

“Baby, you are… my best friend. You’re the one I tell all my secrets to, even secrets I’m not supposed to share.” We giggle, thinking back to all of the spoilers he told me even though he wasn’t allowed to share. “You’re my rock. You’re someone I can go to for anything no matter how ridiculous it may be at whatever time of day. I can always count on you to listen. You are,” he paused getting choked up himself, the tears threatening to spill, “my life. When you’re not with me, my heart feels like it’s missing its other half. You take it with you whenever you go. You make me want to be better- you make me better.

I can’t even begin to let you know how thankful I am to have you in my life. So how about I start with promising you ‘forever,’” he reached into his pocket and pulled out the most beautiful engagement ring I’ve ever laid my eyes on. “So will you, Y/F/N (Y/M/N) Y/L/N,” he placed a kiss on my hand, “marry me?”

I fell to my knees, in total shock with what is currently happening before wrapping my arms around his neck. He wants to marry me. He wants me by his side for the rest of our lives. He wants to grow old with me. He wants to have kids with me. He wants me.

I whisper, “Yes” into his ear, answering the easiest question I’ve ever been asked.

We echoed “I love yous” back and forth to each other as he slipped the ring onto my finger before picking us both up and spinning us around in celebration, finally kissing me to seal the deal.

Our little bubble was popped when we heard loud cheers coming from a dark corner of the beach where both of our families came out to greet us. We were bombarded with hugs, squeals, tears from both of our mothers and his sisters, and flashes from their cameras wanting to preserve this memory.

We all moved inside the house where we popped a bottle of champagne. Chris quieted down the room by tapping on his glass. His arm tightened around my waist. “I’d just like to take a moment to thank all of you for being here to celebrate this incredible step in our relationship. It means the world to us to know we have so many loved ones supporting us. Cheers to you guys.”

“And I’d also like to give the biggest thank you to my beautiful fiancée,” he turned his attention to me, “without you, I am nothing. I will spend the rest of my life showing you just how much I appreciate you and love you. Thank you for saying yes to me two years ago when you agreed to be my girl and thank you for saying yes to spending the rest of your life with this complicated old man.”

“I love you.” I smile before tapping glasses with him before bringing my lips to his again.

After everyone left, my handsome fiancé hoisted me up over his shoulder and brought me into our bedroom. He threw me on the bed causing me to burst into a fit of giggles.

“You’d better change your plane ticket home ‘cause I’m not letting you leave any time soon.”

Taglist: @elusive-beauty @drakesfiance @im-a-slut-for-an-accent @fantasy-is-my-reality @the-marvel-imagines-blog

#chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans imagine #chris evans #chris evans drabble #chris evans oneshot #change your ticket

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fanfictionaries · 5 years ago

Text

Love and Academia Ch. 4 - First Impressions and Freak Outs

Pairing: AU Professor!Bucky x OFC

Warnings: Swearing, smut, NSFW/18+ only, mentions of death/violence/suicide

Author’s note: We finally get to see how Emily reacts to seeing Bucky again! Scandalous!

And as always, I do not currently have a beta reader so please excuse any larger issues. it’s just little ol’ me!

***

“Hey Doc, did you want your books packed alphabetically by author or by subject?” Emily yelled, looking at the numerous shelves of books. Leave it to Dr. Erskine to wait until the last minute to pack thirty years’ worth of stuff.

When Emily didn’t hear a response, she huffed and began to take books down from the shelves. “Subject it is,” she said to herself, separate the books. She was in the process of deciding whether The Psychology of Scientific Research would go under self-help or hard science when her phone chimed. Shrugging, she threw the book in the self-help pile and grabbed her phone from Dr. Erskine’s messy desk.

Natasha:

Ready to talk about what happened?

Every day for the past week Natasha had sent her the same text and every day she had ignored it. She had shown up to Emily’s apartment the morning after their night out with a giant iced mocha and blueberry muffins insisting that she talk about it. Emily couldn’t blame Natasha for being so concerned. Even though she kept trying to forget what had happened, the night continued to play over and over in her head.

Emily had stayed in the dark alley for probably longer than she should have. The pulsing music from inside of the bar like a faint and distant heartbeat as she leaned against the cold brick and tried not to cry. She took deep breaths, but it was no use. The more she tried to calm herself down, the more her eyes began to sting, and her breathing picked up speed. Finally, she pushed herself off of the wall and reentered the bar. Emily pushed through the crowd until she spotted a flaming head of red hair in a distant corner. Natasha sat atop Steve’s lap, whispering something into his ear that made him look excited and horrified all at the same time. Emily all but ran to her, feeling herself quickly losing her cool. When Natasha noticed her friend approaching, she looked at her with a mask of confusion.

“Babe, what are you still doing here? I thought you left with—”

“I need my stuff,” Emily said, looking anywhere but at the happy couple in front of her. Natasha stood from Steve’s lap and pulled Emily’s things from her back pocket. Steve stood too, looking at her with the same concerned face as Natasha.

“Is everything alright?” she asked, handing Emily her things. Emily quickly pulled up the Uber app and busied herself with it.

“Yea…well no. I’m going home,” she admitted, feeling tears begin to well.

“What happened honey?” Nat placed a hand on Emily’s shoulder, but she shrugged her off, knowing that any kind of comfort would cause her to break down. She was not going to sob in the middle of a bar. She absolutely refused.

“Nothing. I’m just going home.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

Emily’s head shot up, looking at her best friend fully for the first time. She looked worried and scared and Emily realized that she was making things seem much worse than they actually were, “No, no, you stay here—" she forced a smile on her face, “—It’s just been a lot today. I need to go home. But you stay, let the hunky farm boy take you home.” She shot Natasha a teasing wink but could see from the look on her face that she didn’t really believe her. Yet, Natasha didn’t press anymore. She merely nodded and told Emily to let her know when she got home safely. Emily agreed and waved Natasha and Steve a goodbye before exiting the bar and standing on the street corner as she waited for Mark, her driver, to get there.

It wasn’t until she locked the door to her apartment behind her and saw the empty spaces where Clint’s stuff used to be and the key left on the kitchen counter, that Emily sunk to the floor and cried.

So, instead of fessing up to what was probably the most embarrassing moment of her life, Emily said that she didn’t want to talk about it and eventually was able to change the subject to how things had gone with Steve. Apparently, Steve was from Minnesota, but most of his family now lived in and around Pocatello. He did not call his mom or grandma every Sunday, but that was because he went with them to Church. Truthfully, she had never seen Natasha so excited over a guy before. It surprised her to find out that they hadn’t slept together that night. It surprised her even more when Natasha confessed that she didn’t mind – no one, man or woman, had ever bothered to get to know her outside of a sexual manner.

Shaking her head, Emily closed the text message and opened up her music. If she was going to do this job by herself then she was going to do it with a bit of music. Finding something punky and upbeat, she pressed play and turned up the volume. She bobbed her head to the heavy drum beat and bounced slightly from foot to foot as she continued to pull books from the shelves. She let the music take up space in her mind as she worked, hoping it would keep her from thinking. Unfortunately, just like every other moment for the past week, Emily couldn’t stop thinking about that last Friday. God, she was such an idiot. She hadn’t been good enough for Clint to not cheat on and apparently, she hadn’t even been good enough for a complete stranger to have sex with, in an alley. What was wrong with her? Why was she not good enough? What happened with Bucky was so completely out of character for her. Never in her life, through everything, had she ever wanted to be anyone but herself. Then, she has one failed relationship and all of a sudden, she felt the need to try and be someone else? Maybe she was just desperate to connect with someone after finding out about Clint and Sharon. They dated for two years, they lived together, and then he just cheats in their bed? She should be upset about that. She should want to fly off the handle and have sex that means nothing with a stranger in an alley to feel wanted, right?

Taking a deep breath, she willed herself to think of happy things. Like the fact that dinner at the Erskine’s that past Sunday had been nice. How they had told her all about their plans to travel the Pacific North West and see some of their extended family. She also had working with her idol to look forward to. Dr. Erskine hadn’t mentioned what day Dr. Barnes was due to show up, but as classes started Monday and it was Thursday, she imagined he’d be there to set up his office soon. She had taken the time this past week, while trying to distract herself, to compose a list of all the questions she wanted to ask him. The questions ranged from life/career questions to specific research methods from a few of his papers and she was stoked to get the chance to ask them. A particularly favorite song of Emily’s started to play from her phone, and she smiled, tossing a book in the history pile as she got into it.

“So, you were born in an electrical storm. Took a bite out the sun and saw your future in a machine built for two!” she sang loudly, shaking her hips and whipping her hair back and forth.

“Um, excuse me. I think this is my office,” a voice called over the music, startling Emily in the middle of what she thought to be a private moment. She scrambled for her phone and turned the music off before looking to the doorway and feeling her stomach drop all the way through her lower abdomen and out of her body. In the doorway looking, if at all possible, even more handsome than she remembered, stood Bucky. What the hell was he doing here?

“What the hell are you doing here?” Bucky asked. Apparently, he and Emily had the same thought process. Except, he was asking the right questions while she was busy doing her best impression of a fish out of water.

“Seriously, what are you doing here?” Bucky stalked towards her; his height even more apparent now that she was in her usual pair of sneakers instead of sky-high heels. Emily tipped her head back to look at him as he continued to talk, eyes frantic and wild, “Look, I don’t know how you found out where I work, but you need to leave.” He grasped her upper arm and attempted to lead her towards the door.

“Back off man—" Emily pulled her arm from his grasp and walked back to the desk to grab her phone, “—I work here you crazy.”

“What? That can’t be right!”

Emily picked up her phone, opening the keypad, “Listen man, I’ve been here for three years and there are plenty of professors that would vouch for that. I doubt they could say the same for you, so give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call campus security on you.”

They stared at each other, Emily’s heart beating out of her chest. Pride filled her at her ability to think so quickly on her feet in a tense situation. When Bucky didn’t answer, she began to type in the number.

“Ah, Emily, Dr. Barnes, I see you’ve already started introductions without me,” Dr. Erskine announced as he entered the office. Oh no. No. This could not be happening. “Sorry, I wasn’t here to introduce you two, but you know how Dr. Addison gets. She wanted to give me all types of travel advice. Took forever to get away. Now, Emily this is Dr. James Barnes and James this is Emily—”

“Colvert. Emily Colvert, my graduate student,” Bucky, or Dr. Barnes now, finished for him, his eyes boring into Emily as he finally put all the pieces together. While Dr. Barnes appeared to be fitting the last pieces into place, Emily was dying on the inside.

“Yes, and your teaching assistant for the year as well. You’re very lucky, she’s one of the best in the department,” Dr. Erskine stated matter of factly. Emily smiled tensely at his compliment and ran her fingers through her hair. Dr. Barnes hadn’t stopped staring at her since he’d entered the office and it was beginning to freak her out.

“Well, Dr. Barnes, I apologize for the office not being ready yet. Turns out a lifetime career of things is a lot harder to move than I originally thought,” Dr. Erskine laughed, “Had to call in reinforcements to help.” He motioned to Emily and she forced a laugh at his attempt at a joke.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Dr. Erskine. I just came by to finish up some paperwork at Human Resources and I thought I’d check out the workspace first. And please, call me Bucky,” Dr. Barnes said, finally looking away from Emily. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“Of course, Bucky. Feel free to call me Abraham. You know, since you’re here, why don’t we all grab some lunch?” the older man suggested. “It’ll be a great opportunity for us to discuss the position and Emily’s research.” Dr. Erskine gave her a wink, clearly under the impression that he was doing her a favor. If only he knew how wrong, he was.

“Oh, I couldn’t intrude. I don’t want to interrupt the work you’re doin—”

“No, no intrusion at all, it’ll be fun. I know a great Mexican place just five minutes away.”

“Well, alright, it would be nice to ask you some questions about the university,” said Dr. Barnes.

“Perfect! El Herradero it is!” Dr. Erskine slapped a hand on Dr. Barnes’ back and started to exit the office before he turned back around to face Emily, “Coming Marty?”

“Yea, Doc. Right behind you.”

It was a long and awkward five minutes to El Herradero. Dr. Erskine continued to chit chat away, completely oblivious to the thick haze of tension present. His constant talking was only interrupted by the occasional response from Dr. Barnes. Doctor James Freaking Barnes. You’ve got to be freaking kidding me! Emily wanted to scream. She wanted to run. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole! But instead she sat quietly in the back seat, freaking out internally. This could not be happening. She had almost slept with not only her new advisor, but her academic idol. She had no idea what this was going to mean for her future. Would he still agree to take her on as a graduate student? Or would she be left to fend for herself among the other professors? What if word got out and she was socially shunned from every ecological convention in the country? She’d never get her PhD. She’d never get a collegiate teaching position. She’d end up teaching science to a bunch of middle schoolers that just wanted to know where farts came from. Worst of all, she wouldn’t be able to answer that. She wasn’t that kind of scientist!

“Marty.” Dr. Erskine waved a hand in front of Emily’s face, bringing her from her spiraling thoughts.

“Sorry, I was just thinking. What did you say?”

“I was just telling Dr. Barnes here how you based your thesis on his work. Are you alright? You’re usually very present.” Dr. Erskine assessed her with a shrewd expression. Why on earth would he say that? The day just kept getting worse and worse.

“I’m fine, it’s just been a crazy week. You know, classes are starting soon, and I’ve got to format the last of my data and start drafting an outline for my thesis,” she lied and looked down at her menu even though she knew she’d get the same thing she always got – chicken enchiladas.

“Ahhh of course. Emily here is one of our hardest workers in the department. I’d say you’ll find her in the building more often than not,” Dr. Erskine bragged, and Emily couldn’t help but feel a tad embarrassed. The whole thing felt similar to when a parent won’t stop bragging about you to a stranger that’s clearly uninterested. Emily could feel her face begin to heat up and bit the inside of her lower lip.

“Really?” said Dr. Barnes a heavy layer of surprise in his voice. While it might have seemed innocent enough to anyone else, Emily couldn’t help but feel insulted that he would be surprised at her abilities. Was it because she was a woman? Or was it because he had his mouth wrapped around her nipple less than a week ago? Her face turned pink at the thought. Her mind began to spiral again. Was he surprised because he thought she had known who he was that night? Did he think that she had purposefully tried to sleep with him to gain some upper hand? The thought made her skin crawl. Emily Colvert was a lot of things, but she most certainly was not a woman who slept her way to the top.

“Well, while she’s incredibly bright, it takes much more than brain power to accomplish what she has. Why don’t you tell Dr. Barnes, sorry, Bucky, a bit about your research? I’m sure he’d be very interested to know more,” Dr. Erskine raised his eyebrows at her, his way of communicating that now was her chance to impress the man she hadn’t shut up about for three years.

Emily cleared her throat and sat up straighter. If Dr. Barnes did think that she was incompetent, then she needed to prove him wrong. “Well, the origin of my studies is quite simple actually. Large populations of whitebark pine, pinus albicaulis, are dying in Northern Idaho and no one knows why. Certainly, the common threats to the species are present: wildfires, pathogens such as Cronartium ribicola, you might know it as white pine blister rust, and the mountain pine beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae. Wildfires tend to really only affect the southern regions; my focus is on the northern regions where the death rate is significantly higher than in past years. It appears that the number of trees infected with blister rust has nearly tripled in the last five years. The same can be said about the pine beetle. No one has looked into what has caused these two threats to increase in the location. My hypothesis is that it’s due to climate change. Longer, warmer summers and shorter, wetter winters has made it possible for each to thrive in the areas where whitebark pine are most prevalent.” During her whole explanation, she felt the nerves leave her body and her confidence return. By the end, Emily was looking Dr. Barnes in the eyes.

“That’s where you research comes in of course,” Dr. Erskine added. “Your work on the linkages between climate change and the dynamic aspects of large-scale forest extinctions in North American climates, was very enlightening for Miss Colvert.”

Dr. Barnes brought a hand up to his chin and rubbed at the stubble there as he stared at her. The expression on his face made her feel a bit smug. He was clearly impressed. However, her smugness was short lived when a few seconds later a flash of light caught her eye and drew her attention to his hand. His left hand to be exact. There, where it most definitely had not been before, was a wedding ring.

“Are you going to tell me why I had to fake an emergency call this afternoon or are you going to just continue to pace back and forth?” Natasha asked from her place on the couch.

When Emily had seen the ring on Dr. Barnes’ hand, she immediately texted Natasha from under the table to call pretending to have some kind of emergency. Lucky for her, Natasha had gotten the message right away and a few seconds later she was out the door of the restaurant with a few apologies before someone even came to take their order. Emily stopped her pacing and picked up the bottle of wine from the coffee table. She took a second to ponder the thought of pouring it into one of the glasses in front of her, before chugging straight from the bottle.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Nat said, getting up from the couch and tearing the bottle out of Emily’s hand, “I’m just going to keep this.”

“I almost slept with my advisor!” Emily blurted the words out, unable to keep them in anymore.

“Gross, isn’t he like a billion years old? I mean, we’ve all got daddy issues to a certain extent but that’s…”

“No, not Dr. Erskine! Dr. Barnes!”

“Who’s Dr. Barnes?” asked Natasha.

Then it dawned on her. In the crazy whirlwind of her Clint dilemma, Emily never told Natasha about Dr. Erskine retiring. Taking a deep breath, Emily ran her fingers through her hair and decided to start from the beginning. By the time she had finished, Emily plopped herself down onto the couch beside Natasha.

“So, let me just make sure I’ve got this right. Your current advisor is retiring and being replaced by the Justin Timberlake of ecology who also happens to be the incredibly hot guy you hooked up with the other night at the bar and to top it all off he’s also married?”

“Yup.”

“Fuck—" Natasha took a deep swig of wine from the bottle and handed it over to Emily “—I think you need this more than I do.”

Emily took a sip as she nodded, staring in the deep abyss where Clint’s TV used to be. Now it was just an empty entertainment center. The longer she sat there, the more anger began to bubble up inside her. Who did this guy think he was? He was a married man and he’d made her the other woman!

“What are you going to do?” asked Natasha, voice cutting through the muffled haze the wine created.

“I have no clue.”

#loveandacademia #fanfic #fanfiction #smut #marvel #avengers #au #bucky #bucky barnes #bucky x ofc #professor!bucky

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theonewiththefanfics · 6 years ago

Text

The Miles Between (one-shot)

Synopsys: The distance can take a toll on even the most close of couples. And that is what happened bewteen the Reader and Roger as she makes the ultimate choice for them both.

Pairing: Ben Hardy! Roger Taylor x f!Reader

Genre: angst, SMUT, fluff

Warnings: SMUT (unprotected sex (wrap it up, you guys) and all that good jazz), swearing

Word count: 5787 (strap in, lads)

Her lips were pressed together in a thin line as she tried to contain the sob about to escape her throat. Y/N placed the last piece of clothing inside her suitcase and zipped it up. She was leaving her home and taking everything with. Well, not everything. Roger’s stuff was obviously staying, for it was his apartment and no longer theirs. At least that is how Y/N felt. A sharp pain went through her chest when she walked through the almost bare hallway and glanced upon the pictures. Her and Roger. Her and Freddie. John, Brian. Her and Queen. Group photos and individual and pair and everything in between, commemorating the life she had led and was leaving behind. They had been together for six years now. Six wonderful, love filled years until they weren’t. No, Roger hadn’t even once stepped off of the trail, his mind hadn’t even gone to that possibility knowing Y/N was by his side. Even hundreds of miles away, his only thought was of the gorgeous woman waiting for him back home. People would call her a fool for leaving like that, leaving her faithful world-wide Rockstar boyfriend behind, but it wasn’t his status or occupation that she couldn’t deal with, nor were the groupies that tried to seduce him every possible moment. It was those hundreds of miles that stretched between them. Y/N had grown tired of going to a cold bed and waking up the same. She could never hurt Roger like that, she would never make him choose between a career he was passionate about and their relationship, so she made the ultimate choice for them both.

Queen had been on tour for the past two months with two more months to go, but it was during that second one, things had shifted. Roger always made sure to call before a show and after, and Y/N always made sure to pick up no matter the time, but that time she let it ring through. For a feeling had overcome her. Roger was the one, she obviously knew that, but the thought of marriage, kids, of making a family when his band was exploding like a supernova, was an impossible dream. And she had grown tired of waiting. It was a surprisingly easy decision, yet the headrest one to actually accomplish. So, while Roger and the rest of the boys were out conquering the world, Y/N had slowly started to pack up her stuff in boxes and move to a small apartment just outside of the city centre. Her job easily covered the rent for the new place and her half until Roger’s and her lease was up. It would end in a month anyway. Right as Y/N was about to exit the phone rang. Her heart lurched up to her throat, and all she could hear was blood pumping in her ears. She’d left the calls unanswered a few times, but not enough to make Roger suspect that something was wrong. Her hand itched to pick up the phone, to hear his raspy voice and melt as he said, ‘I love you’. But she was leaving him. With a choked back sob, Y/N placed the key to his apartment on the kitchen island and exited, the only sound in the flat left was the ringing that would be forever unanswered.

***

“Come on, love,” Roger muttered into the phone as a hand went through the messy mop of blond hair that sat atop his head. “Pick up.” They were at a gas station just outside of New York when the drummer decided to call Y/N. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder almost making him drop the phone. “Is she not answering?” Brian asked eyebrows scrunched up in concern. Roger could only shake his head and bite his bottom lip. “And the thing is, this is not the first time it has happened. She always picks up, no matter what, but in the past month she’s missed at least ten calls.” As the call rang through without an answer Roger slammed the payphone back into its place. “Maybe she’s out. Buying groceries or something,” Brian tried to reason, even though he himself had had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right. You see, Brian and Y/N had been friends since forever. He couldn’t remember a time the two of them weren’t attached to one another’s hip. He had been the one who introduced Roger to Y/N. Admittedly, he had threatened the blond man to not even try and flirt with the girl, otherwise, her broken heart would be nothing compared to his broken nose. But as time passed by, as Smile evolved into Queen, he saw just how much the pair truly cared for one another, and now almost six years into their relationship, Roger had promised Brian that when they got married, he could be his best man. He had even shown his friend the ring and everything. Brian had cried, thinking about how the gem would sparkle on her finger and how happy she would be. The curly haired man patted his friend’s shoulder and left for the bus. Y/N had been distant, that much was obvious. She had missed even some of Brian’s calls, and whenever they talked, she kept things short and concise, completely opposite of how they used to talk for hours upon hours about everything and nothing. Freddie was worried as well. He absolutely adored the Y/H/C haired woman. Only Mary and Delilah came before Y/N. So, when he saw Roger’s head hang low and Brian chewing on his lips, Freddie’s intuition said a bad thing had happened. “Deaky, darling, are you gonna call Veronica?” he yelled over the gas station parking lot, and when John shook his head, saying he had called beforehand, and she was most likely asleep, having just put the kids down, Freddie took the phone off the hook and dialled Mary. “Hello, Freddie,” her voice was sweet as honey, and the man instantly melted. “Hello, my love.” “How is the tour? How’s America?” the excitement in her tone was palpable, but Freddie didn’t really have time for that. “I’m so sorry, darling, but I cannot talk about this right now. There are bigger issues we have to deal with.” Instantly Mary’s heart dropped. “Fred, is everything alright?” “No,” he sighed, glancing to Roger who was taking a long drag of a cigarette as he leaned against the bus. “I think Y/N is about to do something stupid or she already has, and I need your help to fix things.”

***

Mary stood at the airport, looking over the heads of hundreds of people, searching for a specific mop of curls that would be recognisable anywhere. For two months she had been trying to track down Y/N, per Freddie’s request, and she had been unsuccessful. As Freddie came in view and walked up to her, pressing their lips in a sweet kiss, he muttered in her ear, “Anything?” “No,” she gently shook her head. “I tried everyone, and it’s like she’s disappeared into thin air.” She felt Freddie audibly sigh as he tightened his grip. “Should we tell Rog?” “And say what?” He pulled back and looked his fiancée from head to toe, before begrudgingly agreeing. Together they all made their way to the taxis and jumped in. Roger had been fidgeting throughout the flight, and as they neared his home, with every mile driven his hand pulled at the loose thread from his jacket harsher. He didn’t even say a proper ‘goodbye’ to the rest of the band when the driver stopped. Roger just jumped out of the car, grabbed his suitcase and rushed up the three flights of stairs before harshly jamming the key in the lock and throwing the door open. “Y/N!” Roger called out in the dark apartment. “Love, I’m home!” He was just about to walk to their bedroom when his eyes finally adjusted to the turned-on light and saw everything. It was empty, the whole place completely void of things. Everything that was hers. Everything that made the place his home. Their home. Roger didn’t even think his heart was beating as he slowly made his way through the apartment. It was like Y/N had never even set foot in the place. Walking inside their bedroom was the worst, for even her smell had vanished, which meant she hadn’t been there in a while. He felt numb. It was like his body was no longer his, but a shell of someone else going through the motions of seeing, feeling and smelling. In a haze, he walked back to the hallway and looked around. All of the pictures were still there, but none of the love and warmth was left. It was like Y/N had taken all of it with her. The drummer’s hands started to tremble, and to somewhat diminish the rising panic, he went to get a glass of water when a small piece of white paper caught his eye. On the kitchen counter stood a tiny note with a phone number scribbled on, and the words ‘call me when you get home. Y/N’. That was it. With shaking fingers, Roger went to the telephone and punched in the numbers, stomach churning at what was going on. What the girl’s absence implied. The line rang three times before it was picked up, and he heard silence. “Y/N?” Roger asked tentatively, and there was a heavy intake of breath. “Hey, Rog.” She sounded so small, so petrified, and it broke Roger’s heart even more than the fact she was no longer home. “What’s going on? Where’s all your stuff?” “I think you know what’s happening.” Y/N didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to admit what choice she had made, but the girl had left her new number for this very reason. If she was gonna leave without notice, Roger at least deserved to have an explanation. “Honestly, I don’t because I come home, expecting to see my girlfriend of more than half a decade waiting for me, only to walk inside a cold and empty apartment with a single bloody piece of paper left on the table.” He heard her sniffle, but that didn’t deter the man. “Why did you leave?” “Tell me honestly, Rog,” Y/N was choking back the tears now, “how sustainable do you think a relationship, where one half is gone more than half of a year and when they’re back all they do is work and party, truly is?” “Please,” he begged, not even sure what for, just as long as it got Y/N back. “Please, love. I’ll stay home more. We’ll go on a vacation. Please.” “And if we had kids?” she asked. Roger’s heart leapt at the thought. Just imagining Y/N with a baby bump or little mini-them, blond hair and blue eyes, or Y/H/C and Y/E/C eyes, or a mix of both made his chest ache. “I couldn’t raise them alone. I don’t want my children, if I have any in the future, to grow up with a father who is never there.” “I’d take time off, you know I would.” “For how long? Rog, your career is exploding. Queen is bigger than ever. I won’t take that away from you. I won’t make you choose between something you love to do and someone you have affection for.” Now Roger was becoming angry. “Do you honestly think I wouldn’t voluntarily stay home? To watch our children, grow and take their first steps and say their first words? And affection? Really? That’s how little you think I care for you after being together for how long we’ve been a couple?” “And after that?” Y/N’s voice was a whisper, disregarding the last jab, cause of course. She knew Roger loved her. Yet it was easier to try and pretend that his feelings were less than they actually were. It made it hurt not as much. “You’d have to go back and go on tour. You’d have to miss graduations and plays and recitals and everything else… Rog, I’m not trying to guilt you into anything, but we both know it is true… and I don’t think I’d be able to do that all on my own, especially when I’d have to be both parent’s in one.” “So, this is really it? Six years down the drain? The future we could have- burnt just like that?” Roger’s voice broke, knees shaking as he said the words. And when Y/N confirmed it, he collapsed on the floor. “I just can’t take the distance. I thought I could, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I was obviously wrong,” he heard her own voice tremble, courtesy of the tears streaming down her cheeks and closing up her throat. “I’m always lonely. Not alone, that I can deal with, but lonely. And even when you’re back, it’s like you’re still miles away. And I’ll never be able to break through that wall that now has formed between us.” “Then climb over it!” Roger almost roared. “Bomb it, fucking hell, dig a hole underneath it, please Y/N! Don’t give up on us. Don’t give up on me…” The silence was deafening through the line. “I’m sorry,” Y/N whispered and disconnected the call, leaving Roger alone and lonely with miles between where he was and where his heart was.

***

Mary was in shock as Brian relayed the information to her, Freddie and Deaky. They were in the giant house the two lovers shared when Brian had quietly come in and told them what had happened after he’d pestered the drummer for a whole week. “Only thing she left was this piece of paper and a phone number,” he dropped the scrap onto the table. “How is Rog?” Mary asked, holding onto Freddie’s hand. Brian hung his head and ran a palm through a chunk of the curls. “Devastated.” “Of course, the poor lad is devastated. How else could he be?” Freddie was outraged and saddened and heartbroken all at once. “The love of his life has left him with something that is barely a reasonable explanation and now expects him to just move on!” “Fred,” Deaky tried to calm their eccentric lead singer down. “You don’t know how it is to be in Y/N’s place.” The look he gave his friend as his eyes flitted to Mary told everything- ‘just think about how she feels when you’re gone’. Freddie sighed, knowing Deaky was right. “Well, what can we do? Those two are meant to be together! We cannot just leave it like that!” But surprisingly enough, as much as Mary had tried to help and intervene, she spoke up. “Maybe we should. Maybe this is what they both need.” “How can you say that?” Freddie was astonished. “How can you let our two friends ruin such a good thing?” “Because obviously, it wasn’t!” Mary defended Y/N’s decision. “Do I think she should have told him right up front that things weren’t working and not left just like that? Yes! But do I also know how hard it is when the person you love most, leaves for months at a time with only calls to say how much they miss you? Also, yes.” The singer’s heart hurt at Mary’s words, for they were true. “But he was going to propose,” Freddie managed to get out, which made the woman’s breath hitch. That she hadn’t known. “It’s true,” Brian said. “Rog even showed me the ring.” Mary and Freddie shared a glance, and then both pairs of eyes looked down at the diamond band that adorned her own finger. It sparkled in the sunlight that was streaming through the windows. That’s when an idea struck him. “Brian, pass me the phone please.” “Freddie, what are you going to do?” Deaky’s tone was full of warning, Mary’s eyebrows raising up in question. “Just putting together, a little party to celebrate the end of the tour.” Quickly Freddie snatched up Y/N’s new number, and with nimble fingers punched it in. For a few seconds, loud beeps could be heard until a tired voice rang through. “Hello?” “Y/N, my love! How good to hear your voice!” “F-Freddie!” she stuttered out. “How- wha- how did you know where to call?” “Oh, I have my ways darling, but enough about that! Listen, Queen is throwing a party to celebrate the end of our successful tour, and you have to be there. Just have to.” A seep sigh entered his ear. “Fred, you know it isn’t my scene…” the singer could practically hear her chewing her bottom lip. “Besides, Roger and I are no longer together, which you must know by now, so I don’t really think it’s a good idea.” “Nonsense, it’s an absolutely wonderful idea. Just because you’re no longer dating our dear Rog, does not mean you should stop communicating with the rest!” “Fred, I reall-“ “I won’t take no for an answer.” Mary was practically biting her nails as everyone listened in on the conversation and waited for Y/N to reply. “Fred, do you promise to keep Roger away from me? In every capacity?” Y/N’s heart hurt just saying his name. “I give you my word darling.” The line was silent for a while before he heard her huff and agree. “Now,” Freddie smiled, placing the phone back on the hook. “We just have to figure out a way to put those two in a room together."

***

The party was in full swing, but Roger was feeling none of it. Despite the insane number of groupies that twirled around him and tried to get under his arm, the blond kept to his glass of champagne and staring at the wall. “Darling, at least fake a smile!” Freddie leaned over to the drummer and patted his leg. “The last thing I wanna do is smile,” the drummer grumbled and slammed down the last bits of his drink. “You know what, you need a smoke” Freddie said standing up, “Come, let’s go to one of the balconies.” Roger had already stuck a cigarette between his teeth and was fumbling for a lighter as the pair went up the steps of the mansion, bodies of guests sliding against theirs as the musicians pushed past, but his little task was left unfinished when Freddie opened a door, and Roger froze in place upon seeing who was in it. Y/N had wanted to use the bathroom to freshen up, and Freddie had instructed for her to go to the left bedroom, for all others were being renovated but upon seeing Roger’s face in the doorway, his features distorted by complete shock, she knew the singer had broken his promise. In fact, he had done the exact opposite, as Y/N saw him smile, flash a wink and slam the door shut behind Roger, who didn’t even flinch at the sound, too preoccupied with drinking in her body and rememorizing her face. “Y/N,” Roger breathed out her name, and it was like homecoming. It was like all of the things in the world had finally found their right place once more, and it was this feeling she was running away from. Pushing past the man, Y/N leapt to the door and grabbed at the handle only to jerk it and realise it was locked. “Fred, open the fucking door!” Y/N hollered, but she knew it was futile. He was most likely back down at the party, and even if he was on the same floor, the pounding music would drown out her yells. There was no response, and honestly, Y/N wasn’t surprised, so she just let her forehead lean against the door and sighed, desperately trying not to acknowledge or give Roger any kind of attention. But he had different ideas. Tentatively he had made his way over to the girl and wrapped a hand around her wrist, making her turn around. She didn’t even try to struggle back. Instead, Y/N kept her gaze down to the floor, noting how shiny his shoes were, London lights illuminating the bedroom from the outside with a warm glow. Roger's hands shook as her cupped Y/N’s face between his rough palms, but his touch had never been gentler. His baby blue eyes roamed all over her face, each birthmark once again ingrained in his memory, each worry line and smile crinkle reforming the picture of his soulmate in his mind. “Why?” he whispered. She didn’t need more than one word to understand what he was asking “Because I missed you! I missed you every bloody day and I just couldn’t keep living my life like that! I couldn’t keep living and feeling like my heart was miles away... And I just couldn’t… I couldn’t go on… so, it was easier to let you go…” She saw him gulp, eyes darting to her lips. “But you haven’t have you? Let me go?” And to this, she couldn’t reply. She also couldn’t lie, because Roger knew her better than anyone, he’d see through the façade instantly. Which had been one of the reasons she’d moved out and left a number for him to call. Face to face confrontation would have broken Y/N. “Tell me you don’t love me, and I’ll leave,” his body moved closer, voice dropping to a dangerous husk. “Tell me, you have no feelings left for me and,” he had to close his eyes to get the words out, “and I’ll let you go. Forever.” “I can’t do that,” her voice was barely a whisper as she said after an almost agonising minute of silence. “Why?” “Because I could never lie to you.” His lips were one hers in a matter of a split second, hands reaching down and sliding up her dress to bunch it up around her waist. Roger grabbed her thighs roughly and squeezed them. Y/N instantly knew he meant for her to jump, so she did, wrapping her legs around his midsection, while her fingers fumbled with the few buttons of his dress shirt that had been left unopened. It was more than two months of pent up desire, of heartache and heartbreak, lust and love manifesting in a heated make-out session, and in the way, the pair ripped the clothes off from one another. Roger’s many necklaces felt clod against Y/N’s exposed chest as he had managed to make the straps of the little black number slide down her arms and then the whole top of it down to her waist. Desperate hands tried to touch her everywhere, reacquainting themselves with Y/N’s shape, with how her shoulder blades moved underneath his palms, how her spine curved and dipped and moulded against Roger so perfectly, he was sure they had been created to fit one another like two pieces of a puzzle. “No bra?” Roger mumbled as he helped Y/N get rid of the dress completely, yet his lips attached themselves to one of her nipples. A sigh of content made its way out of her mouth and reverberated through the air. “Are you complaining about that?” she asked, lust clouding her mind as her fingers quickly pushed Roger’s shirt off and threw it to the ground. Y/N let both her palms trace his muscles, feeling them clench and unclench as she made her descent to unzip his trousers, his abs tightening in anticipation. “Not one bit, love,” he let go of the nipple with a pop, a purplish bruise already appearing around it, before assaulting the other one the same way. “Not one bit.” Somehow Y/N managed to get rid of Roger’s pants, leaving him in only his boxers, the fabric creating a delicious friction against her uncovered clit as it dragged along to the motions their hips were making. He was growing harder by the minute, and if he was being honest, he was forever in debt to Freddie. Big time. An hour before this, Roger had still been home, dressed in his pyjamas and downing the second glass of whiskey when the singer had barged in his place, practically hauled him out of the sofa and made Roger look somewhat presentable. “Can you imagine how it will look when Queen shows up to celebrate their tour without a member of Queen!” “Fred, I really don’t care,” Roger had mumbled as his friend brushed out the blond tangled locks. “Well, I do. It’s time to stop moping,” Freddie had said as they exited his apartment. “Besides, maybe it’ll be a lot better than you think,” he’d said with a wink over his shoulder. And now, as Y/N slipped her hand beneath the waistband of his boxers and grasped at his length, Roger really didn’t think things could get any better. Cause there he was- kissing the love of his life once more as his arms steadily held her body close to his while she made slow work on his shaft. “Please, stop teasing,” Roger moaned in Y/N’s mouth as his own had moved from her breasts up to kiss her lips. “Not tonight, please. I just need to feel you, need to be inside you.” And she stopped just like he had asked, clambering over the bed, and helping Roger strip down from his boxers revealing the already sweaty man in all his glory. His skin practically glowed as he crawled his way over to Y/N, whose head rested on one of the many plush pillows that adorned Freddie’s guest bedroom. Her Y/E/C eyes watched as the light shifted around his body, catching onto his biceps and making them seem starker, to his chest, where dark flowers bloomed, down to his abdomen, abs clenching with every movement, and to his shaft that stood proudly against his stomach, the tip leaking with precum from the neglect. Y/N would have almost clamped her thighs shut from how much she needed Roger, if not for his body that hovered over her and pressed down on her. Once again, he softly cupped her cheeks and kissed Y/N. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and she didn’t even need to grasp him to guide his member to her centre. That position of Roger being on top while her arms wove around his shoulders was as natural as breathing. Slowly, he slipped between her folds, but not inside. With gentle rocking movements, Roger coated himself and groaned at the slick warm feeling, a grin overcoming his face just thinking about how it would engulf him once he was sheeted inside of Y/N. “Now who’s teasing,” she mumbled against his lips, and tucked a matted down strand of hair behind his ear, nails soothingly scratching his scalp. “I just,” his heart stuttered in his chest, but Roger was going to speak his mind. “I just need to hear you say it.” Her eyes opened to look up in the two cerulean pools she adored to get lost in. “Say what?” “That you need me just as much as I need you…” he bit down on his lip, and the words were much quieter than before. “That you still love me just as much as I love you.” “I love you, Rog,” Y/N said, only sincerity and what was in her heart shining through. “I never stopped.” That was all the confirmation he needed to position himself and slide in Y/N’s soaking centre. The feeling of her velvet walls clasping onto his member was almost too much. His whole body went rigid, and his breath hitched, as Roger tried to compose himself and somewhat clear his mind from the haze that had settled over it. Y/N’s chest had arched up into his, easily allowing Roger to hug his arms around her back and get a better grip on her. “Move, Rog,” she breathed out through a whine. “Please, I need you to move.” And how could he not oblige to such sweet begging? First, he rolled his hips into hers in an attempt to find that spot deep inside that made Y/N curl her toes and dig her heels deeper in Roger’s ass. The moment he located it, her enchanting gasp being his confirmation, he pulled almost completely out, only leaving the tip in before slamming back down. Instantly, Y/N’s eyes rolled to the back of her head, the familiar sensation of pleasure rippling through her veins as Roger worked her up to the inevitable explosion. Y/N was already writhing underneath him, the sheets drenched not only from their sweat but from the slick that had slid down her thighs and onto the bed, having coated Roger’s legs in the process as well. The bed shook violently against the wall, though neither cared much, the lust and bliss having overtaken every atom in their bodies. Also, the loud music would be able to cover up the screams of a murder, but that was beside the point. “ ‘M not gonna last much longer,” Roger groaned out, swollen lips pressing a bruising kiss to Y/N’s plump ones. “ ‘S okay,” she moaned, as he repeatedly hit that spot, “I’m almo-“ yet Y/N never get to finish her sentence, her mouth remaining in that perfect ‘O’ as her orgasm crashed down upon her. It was like a tidal wave, washing away all sense and matter from the world, leaving her only with satisfaction and fire burning through her veins. Her look of pure pleasure was Roger’s own undoing. A violent shiver rippled down his spine, making the almost brutal pace of his hips stutter, and blissful warmth spread throughout his body, starting from his abdomen to the very tips of his toes, as Y/N clenched all around him, and he succumbed to his release, painting her walls with white thick ropes of cum. Their breathing was laboured as they tried to come back down to Earth, after being flung into the stratosphere. With trembling hands he cradled her face in his hands and kissed her, showing just how much Roger truly cared for Y/N, for words would never be enough to explain his feelings. He sagged down to the side and somehow was able to stand up, on very wobbly legs, mind you, and go into the bathroom to grab a warm washcloth. Y/N was splayed out on the bed, eyes still closed and mind reeling, but her whole body flinched away as Roger dragged the wet towel between her legs, even though he had to admit- seeing his seed leaking out of her was the hottest thing he’d ever gazed upon, and the only reason Roger didn’t pounce on her again was because he saw just how spent the girl was. “Sorry,” he apologised, kissing Y/N’s hipbone. She mumbled a soft ‘ ‘S okay’ and shimmied over the duvet to be under it. Her eyes had already closed, ready to drift off when Roger returned after having dropped the cloth in the dirty wash, but she was still conscious enough to lift the bedding and allow Rog to slip under it. Without even thinking, he wrapped his arms around Y/N and intertwined their legs. Both were out like a light in a second.

***

Y/N woke up with the sun shining in her face and she groaned. The feeling of a warm body pressed against hers immediately calmed her down, the strong arm of her drummer pulling her closer to him. “Good morning, my love,” Roger mumbled kissing up the column of her neck. She hummed at the way his lips softly glid along her jaw, to her earlobe, teeth gently nibbling at it, then to her cheek and finally to her lips. “Morning,” Y/N replied once they broke apart, but kept their foreheads together. “Good morning, you lovebirds,” came the sudden voice of Freddie who had unlocked the door and poked his head inside the room, a wide grin stretched across his face. “We’ve made pancakes, so get decent and come downstairs!” Roger threw a pillow in his friend’s direction, but that only made the three of them laugh. He settled back down on the bed, pulling Y/N’s head to once more rest on his chest as he let his fingers weave through her Y/H/C strands. “We should get up,” she mumbled, kissing right above Roger’s heart and glancing upwards to look at the man, only to be greeted by him worrying his bottom lip. “Rog,” Y/N leaned on her elbow, a palm sliding up his cheek and making him look at her. “Are you alright?” “I am,” he quickly reassured her. “I am. It’s just, I wanna ask you something and I’m kinda petrified to do so,” he nervously chuckled and ran a hand through that messy blond mop before jumping out of the bed. He quickly pulled on some boxers and went over to where his trousers had been discarded on the floor last night. Roger let out a deep breath before taking the little velvet box he always carried with him in his hands and going back to the bed. “I didn’t intend on asking this way. I had planned a whole grand speech, and I was gonna cover the floor to our bedroom in rose petals and shit… but I guess this will have to do…” Slowly, gauging her reaction, Roger opened the little square, revealing a glimmering sapphire ring. Y/N’s breath hitched, and a hand went to cover her mouth, tears already streaming down her face. “I know, I’m a fuck up. I know I’m away all the time, and I know I’m not the boyfriend you deserve. But I vow, to be the best fucking husband I could ever be. I vow, that our family, our kids will always be a priority to me. No matter what, you’ve always been the one constant, the one person I could rely on, and I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, so I’m not asking for it. I’ll do everything to earn back your trust, no matter how many lifetimes it may take me. But the one thing I am asking is- will you grant me the honour of letting me be your husband?” Her throat had closed up almost at the beginning of Roger’s speech, so the only thing Y/N could do was furiously nod. Despite the miles that stretched in between the two, the miles that would need to be crossed together to once again get back to that point of complete trust, Y/N knew it was the right decision. And as Roger who had tears streaming down his own face, chest shaking as he tried to contain the sobs, and a wide grin splitting his face apart, she knew she was on her way home.

Tags (crossed out wouldn't take): @lumelgy @palaiasaurus64 @supernaturalbaesduh @breezy1415 @crazy--me @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @sea040561 @staryeyedgirl @deathbyarabbit @s-c-a-r-e-d-po-t-t-e-r @reblogger-not-a-blogger @m-a-t-91 @dalilx @i-need-a-hero-i-need-a-loki @maladaptive-ninja-returns @averyrogers83 @in-the-end-im-still-trash @gallifreyansass @dewy-biitch @avxgers @unlikelygalaxygiver @sweet-ladyy @magicwithaknife @ollyoxenfrees @rawbucky @16wiishes @wanderingsami @desir-ae @thiccio-and-thicciet @roseslovedreams @vesoleil @gloomybisexualemo @kostyaownsmyheart @perriwiinkle @screaminggalileochickenwrites @barbarairene-k @aylinnmaslow @harrysgonnapayforthis @rockyroadthepastryarchy

A/N: holy shit, this might be the longest one-shot I’ve ever written :D

Also, just watched ‘The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals’ on youtube from Starkid and holy shit, if you haven’t seen it yet- DO IT!!!! It’s literally the best thing that’s ever happened to me :D

P.S. what did ya think?

P.S.S. my tags are always open, just drop a message :)

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bazzybelle · 5 years ago

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Carry On Countdown - Day Three

Notes: I wanted to try my hand at writing Agatha. I kind of see her taking care of magical creatures, especially unicorns. I liked giving her a purpose, like saving and caring for vulnerable magical creatures. I find that Agatha gets treated unfairly at times, so I wanted to give her a bit of agency and some direction.

This was also inspired by my dear friend, @fight-surrender . She is an absolute angel, and you all need to go on her page and read her Simon-Werewolf fic because it’s brilliant!

Thank you to @carryonsimoncarryonbaz for beta-reading. Your guidance and thought discussions give me direction and have made my stories a million times better!

TW: Mention of blood and injuries.

Day 3 Prompt: Magical Creatures

Title: Keep Calm and Save a Unicorn.

__________________________________________________

AGATHA

I had not expected to enjoy the type of work I was doing. It has been about a month since I started volunteering at this shelter for displaced magical creatures. This one in particular has an outstanding number of unicorns. I enjoy it very much. I already love spending time with normal horses with my Normal friends, and I consider unicorns to be horses who could talk to you. They are magnificent, and the shelter is a place for them to be free.

Amongst the magician elite, unicorn is considered a delicacy. I would never admit it to the clientele here, but I had tried one when I was younger. It was during one of my parents’ soirees. I had been quite young when it happened and when Helen told me what I ate, I spent the next few days in tears. My mother thought I was being overdramatic, but since then, I have insisted on solely eating Normal food.

Bugger to the magician social ladder!

Since coming back to England, I’ve had a bit of a struggle to figure out just what I wanted to be and where I wanted to place myself when it came to the world around me. I had not meant to stay back home for more than a week. But life never does turn out how you expect it to, does it? So a week turned into a month, and a month turned into six months. By Christmas, I had called Ginger back in San Diego, to tell her that I was not coming back. It was a good thing that Ginger had fallen in love with Lucy and decided to keep her.

I realized that perhaps running away from my problems was not really the best option. I am a magician. I am a strong magician (I had saved both myself and Penelope Bunce from a horde of techie-bro vampires). For once in my life, I was not the damsel in distress. And I was happy about it. It felt good to take matters into my own hands and decide my own destiny. So while back home, I’ve been trying to find something that would make me feel that way again.

Six months later, and I had not gotten close.

My father had noticed that I was floundering, trying a different job every week. So he suggested that I spend some time at the shelter. He was friends with the owner, an older magician named Sophie; Sophie McGill. She is an odd one; She often dresses as if she took all of her style advice from Janis Joplin’s ghost. Long skirts, beaded vests and peasant shirts. But she is well off and that allows her to open up and manage the shelter without the aid of anyone else. She has a large plot of land to her name, where she keeps the creatures. Some of them are there purely for rehabilitation purposes, but others, who cannot be rehabilitated, are given a permanent place to stay. Sophie does not have much help at the shelter and, at the time, she was looking for someone to help with the creatures. She took me in immediately and put me to work right away.

Within the month, I have seen a phoenix die and reincarnate, I have helped a baby dragon hatch from its egg, and received hair remedies from a very talkative mermaid. Every week or so, new arrivals would show up to the shelter and I have gotten quite good at triaging their needs and either setting up a plan for rehabilitation, or arranging for alternative options. I have been considering making this into a career. My father will most likely approve, being that he is a magical doctor himself. My mother is another story. I really don’t care to think about the inevitable disappointment my mother will have upon learning of her daughter’s future path.

I begin my days visiting the unicorns. There are quite a few of them. Sophie has a soft spot for them, seeing as they are the national animal of her native Scotland and all (I have to laugh at that. Sophie’s branch of her family has not lived in Scotland for a couple of generations). Sophie is very active in collecting unicorns from breeders who intend to sell them for food. They are kept in the stables for the morning, and then they are given time to roam the grounds. They are intelligent enough to know to come back by the end of the day.

That morning starts off just like all the others. I am refilling the troughs in each individual stable, ensuring that the unicorns have food to eat for the day. I stop at the stable of one of my more favourite charges, a young unicorn filly named Helga. I was there when Helga arrived and the little one took to me straight away. I laugh as Helga gives me a little jump, her silver hair shining.

“Agatha! Agatha! Hello! How are you today!? I’m doing very well!”

“Good morning Helga. I am doing very well, thank you.” I hold out my hand and wait for Helga to approach me. No matter how friendly I am with the animals, I am always mindful of their personal boundaries. Helga trots towards me and nuzzles my hand. I scratch her behind her ears. I place my bag of emergency supplies on the ground beside the stable. I never carry much, just a few medical supplies, a mobile to contact Sophie in case something happened, a few snacks for myself, as well as some water. I then enter the stable.

“Agatha! I saw a rather lovely butterfly the other day. Now, I can’t remember if it had bluish purple wings, or purplish blue wings!” The little unicorn hops in excitement.

“I am pretty sure those are the same thing, Helga.”

“Perhaps. But it was very lovely.”

“I’m sure it was.” I pick up a brush by the stable door and proceed to brush Helga’s mane. Helga nuzzles my shoulder. I reach up and gently touch the horn on Helga’s head. I have grown to treasure the friendship we have. As much as I wish to spend the day there, I have other duties to attend to. I finish up brushing Helga’s mane and exit her stable.

“Goodbye Agatha!

“See you later, Helga.”

I finish up my morning routine of caring for the unicorns. I then open up the stables, in order to give them some time to run amongst the grounds.

I grab my backpack and move onto my next task that involves caring for the merfolk. The shelter has access to a pool of water that, through a series of rivers, eventually leads to the Atlantic Ocean. The merfolk are free to come and go as they choose. My duties involve bringing supplies and food to the opening of the pool. Typically, if the merfolk need anything, they will just show up, and I will be there to offer assistance if I can. There is a small building next to the pool of water in case of emergencies which holds water tanks and supplies for charges who need to be monitored overnight.

Today, as I arrive to the pool’s entrance, I notice a large gathering of merfolk. This is a pretty good indication that something is very wrong. A mermaid that I had befriended, Rhiannon, waves me down. She is perched on one of the rocks, with a terrified look on her beautiful face. In her arms, is a severely injured merman. Rhiannon’s hands are trying to put pressure on a gaping wound in the merman’s chest. The merman himself seems to be drifting in and out of consciousness. I rip off my backpack and begin to search through it for some gauze and my mobile.

“Rhiannon! What happened?”

“Blasted fishermen! We were just swimming! I think we got too close to the surface! Some humans saw us and I think they thought we were giant fish! Next thing I know, Dylan’s got a slash in his chest and I’m trying to swim away with him as deep as I could go.” Rhiannon begins to shake Dylan as the young merman drifts off again. “Oh! Dylan! Stay with me!”

I quickly get to work. I take out some herbs and lotions, as well as a mortar and pestle. I proceed to mix the ingredients into a paste. Sophie had shown me how to make some basic healing concoctions during my first week. It is good enough to keep most of the creatures at bay if they are injured, so that Sophie can get to them and administer proper care. I meticulously apply the paste to Dylan’s wound. I pack the wound with some gauze and wrap it up. I pull out my mobile and call Sophie. It does not take many rings before the older woman answers the phone. Her raspy voice booms through the line:

“What’s happened, Agatha?” Sophie never says hello, preferring instead to get right to the point. While I understand her curtness, a little courtesy will not kill her.

“Young merman got slashed up pretty bad. I’ve administered the healing paste and bandaged up the wound, but it looks pretty concerning. He may need more care.”

“I’ll be there soon. Monitor him closely. Keep the crowd at bay.” I look towards the gathering of merfolk -- some appear concerned, but most look at me in apprehension.

“Yeah. Thank you.” I hang up the phone and turn back to Rhiannon. “Think you can help me to get him onto the shore? Sophie will be here soon.” Rhiannon nods. She carefully grabs Dylan’s tail, while I grab his torso, being extra careful so as to not disturb the bandaged wound. A few of the other merfolk join up to help us. It isn’t an easy feat, but we eventually manage to get Dylan on land.

Rhiannon perches herself next to Dylan and cradles his head in her arms. She softly runs her fingers through his long ashy blond hair. I tie my own long golden hair into a high messy bun. I try to disperse the merfolk crowd in the small pool. Most of them leave at my insistence, but some of the other more dubious folk decide to remain behind. As much as it irritates me, I understand their lack of trust. Merfolk and humans have a contentious relationship at best, and while they trust Sophie whole-heartedly, I am still a novice.

I settle down next to Rhiannon, and lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. Dylan is starting to get a little colour back, but I fear that I am being too hopeful. I place two fingers on the side of his neck and time his heart beat. As far as I can tell, it sounds stable. I just wish Sophie would get here soon.

As if Merlin above grants my wish, Sophie appears from beyond the fields. All bright smiles and unruly grey hair flowing in the wind. Her lengthy brown skirts shifting as she runs towards us. She carries a large duffle bag, filled with more medical supplies. She shifts the scarf used to push her hair back as she kneels beside the small group.

“Alright. Is this him then? Oh my! That looks quite nasty then, doesn’t it?! Excellent work on the bandaging Agatha!” Sophie is one of those folk who can speak a dozen words a minute. It was difficult to comprehend her when I first met her, but the more I spent time with her, the easier it was for me to follow her speech. Sophie carefully undoes my wrapping and begins to inspect the wound. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see that the paste has begun to work its magic. The bleeding has stopped and the edges of the wound are slowly beginning to close.

“Oh Agatha dear! You’ve done a wonderful job! You didn’t need me here, at all. I can see that you’ve treated him very well yourself! Do I detect some aloe vera in your concoction? I wouldn’t have thought to use that myself, but it is certainly aiding the calendula! Now, I would try to keep this wound out of water, at least for the next 24 hours. I know it’s difficult for you merfolk. We can bring him inside and keep the rest of him well hydrated while he heals. But I would say he should make a full recovery!” Poor Rhiannon shakes her head as she tries to follow the torrent of words coming out of Sophie’s mouth. I grab her hand and speak to her in a calm reassuring voice.

“Dylan is going to be fine. We need to monitor his recovery for the next 24 hours. But we have a space for him and for you. We’ll make sure he remains properly hydrated. I’ll make sure he remains properly hydrated.”

Rhiannon nods and grabs me in a desperate embrace: “Thank you. Thank you, Agatha!”

I smile and slowly get up. Carefully, Sophie and I carry Dylan into the small care building. We set him up on one of the beds. I move the bed close to the water tank we keep inside. We then go back for Rhiannon. We carry her inside as well and gently lift her into the tank, so that she may remain with Dylan. I am about to place a compress on Dylan’s head, when Sophie beckons me to come outside. I dutifully follow, worried that I have done something wrong.

“Agatha. I just wanted to let you know that you did a marvelous job back there!” Sophie is beaming at me, like a proud parent watching their child graduate with honours. It isn’t a look that I was used to seeing. It feels nice. I blush awkwardly and tug the sleeves of my pink hoodie.

“Oh. Thank you, Sophie.” Sophie grabs my shoulder and pushes me to look up at her.

“Agatha, I think you have a natural talent with these creatures. I think you should consider the care of them as a career for yourself. Now, it isn’t posh like what you’re used to and the field is painfully underserviced and ever changing. But you could help a lot of members of the magical community. Members who often do not get a voice of their own.”

That final line is what does it for me. Helping those who do not have a voice of their own. Yes. That’s perfect! After years of being seen as someone’s “reward” or as “the damsel in distress”, helping those more vulnerable members of the community sounds fantastic to me. I grab Sophie in a tight embrace and whisper to her: “Thank you. For a very long time, I’ve wanted to find a way to make a difference. I feel in my heart that this is my place.” Sophie smiles and pats me on the back. She slowly pulls away and nods back to the building.

“Now, now. There will be plenty of time to talk more about this. For now, maybe you should keep an eye on your patient.” Sophie turns and walks away. I wipe the tears that have fallen from my face, as I walk back to the building.

Agatha Wellbelove, caretaker of magical creatures. Yes, that sounds very good to me indeed.

#carry on countdown #coc 2019 #agatha wellbelove #magical creatures #my writing #fanfic #finding purpose #agatha love #seriously #wayward son #wayward son spoilers

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jurassicwinchesters · 6 years ago

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Papercut (Owen Grady x Reader)

Summary: The reader gets injured on the job, but tries to hide it from an overprotective Owen.

Pairing: Owen Grady x reader

Word count: about 3100

Warnings: blood, injury, swearing

I wrote this at two am when I couldn’t sleep so it may be a little rough, but I hope you guys still enjoy!! xoxo

I was a natural at my job. I had always loved animals since I was just a little girl, and growing up I always had such a deep connection with our family pets. So naturally I majored in animal behaviors and got a job at a private zoo right out of college. I worked with larger cats, imprinting on them at birth, and studying the way their minds and bodies worked as they grew up. I was very good at my job, and I had even published a few research papers on tiger imprinting and social skills. So when Jurassic World first opened, they needed someone who could help imprint on baby dinosaurs and teach them social skills. Unfortunately, by the time I responded to their call, all the cozy trainer jobs were taken up, like the triceratops or raptor positions. Which left me with the t-rex babies.

~Six months ago~

“You’re delusional! You can’t just move thousands of miles away to some jungle filled with dinosaurs, you’re gonna get yourself killed,” my roommate and best friend Lily shouted at me. She had always been super protective over me, especially with my tendencies to be impulsive and reckless.

“I’m going to be just fine, they’re just like any other animal I’ve trained,” I retorted as I continued to crumple clothes, tossing them into the suitcase laying on my bed.

“But they’re not animals, hell they’re not even natural. Some wack job scientists just cooked them up in a lab and tossed them on an island. Plus, you don’t even like lizards,” she said, frowning at my messy suitcase.

“Lily, they’re not lizards and I will be completely fine, you know me I can handle anything. I’ll call you every night and we can Skype whenever you want. It’s not like I’m just falling off the face of the earth,” I explained, giving her a look that told her I’m going whether she liked it or not.

She sighed, and shook her head before saying, “Fine. But I don’t like it, and I expect lots of pictures of the overgrown reptiles.”

I laughed and gave her a big hug, happy that she was finally conceding. I would’ve gone without her support, but I felt much better about the whole thing with it.

“Now stop packing like an animal and fold your clothes,” she scolded, dumping out the pile of clothes in my suitcase, helping me reorganize. I smiled sadly at her, thinking about how much I would miss my best friend.

~Now~

I worked as a baby t-rex trainer for about five months before they offered me a “promotion.” It certainly came with a pay raise, but also a much more dangerous workload. Instead of working with the tiny, harmless babies, I would be working with more adolescent dinosaurs. They put a halt to breeding t-rexes due to overpopulation and not enough room on the island, so they needed me to begin working with the “teenage” t-rexes, which is usually the age that I stopped training them. It would definitely be a risk, but I think I may just be crazy enough to do it.

“Absolutely not. You are taking that job over my dead body,” Owen said with a scowl. I had been dating the raptor trainer for about four months now, and I just broke the news about my new job, but he wasn’t exactly happy.

“I mean I didn’t plan on committing a felony today but…” I said with a laugh. Owen just glared at me and continued getting dressed for the day.

“It’s not happening. I mean you could barely handle the baby t-rexes some days, so how do you plan on handling them when they weigh two hundred pounds more, and are three feet taller than you?”

“Your raptors are taller than you, and they weigh a hell of a lot more than you too,” I shot back angrily. I was starting to get really frustrated with him. I get that he is protective and just wants me to be safe, but it’s my career and my choice.

“That’s different. I’ve bonded with my girls since they hatched, you haven’t. The bond won’t be as strong so they’ll be less trusting of you, and harder to control,” Owen explained as he pulled on his boots.

“Owen, please. I can handle myself, I’ll be fine. Just trust me,” I pleaded, my tone softer now. He stood up and walked over to me, placing one hand on my waist, tangling the other into my hair.

“Fine, but if anything happens to you, and I’m talking even a papercut, then you’re done,” Owen said gently, but passionately. I just laughed at him and stood on my toes to place a sweet kiss on his lips. He pulled me closer and kissed me deeper, more intensely before releasing me and saying goodbye as he left for work. Even after four months he still gave me butterflies every time he kissed me like that. Like I was the only thing that mattered. I snapped out of my thoughts and headed out for my first day at my new job.

When I arrived at the t-rex cage my excitement and nervousness both increased tenfold. I wanted to prove to Owen that I could do this, but I was also nervous that I wouldn’t be able to. What if I couldn’t control them? What if I did get hurt? I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind as I entered the cage. I had a couple of exercises to try out with them, but the first week or two would mostly be about establishing a bond, and more importantly trust.

“C’mon girls, I know you’re out there,” I called out, waiting for them with a bucket of treats in my hand. I heard the ferns rustle in front of me, and a large head peaked out from around a tree. I tried not to be scared, but she already looked bigger than I was expecting. Plus there was going to be two of them.

“I see you, c’mon,” I said encouragingly. I needed her to trust me again, for them both to. I trained both of the dinosaurs until they were about four months old, but then they go too big and moved to this new cage. It had been about a month since I’ve seen them, so I’m concerned our bond may have been weakened.

To my surprise, they both came stomping out of the bushes at the sound of my voice. The slightly bigger one was named Daisy, and the smaller one Bunny. Owen laughed at the names when I first told him, saying they were “too soft” for such an aggressive species, but that’s what I liked about them.

“Did you girls miss me?”

The first day flew by smoothly. The girls were shy at first, but our connection was still completely there. They weren’t aggressive at all, especially for their age, and Daisy only growled at me once. I could tell I was going to like my new job, as much as I was going to miss snuggling with my little babies.

“And then Bunny just kicked the ball right after I showed her, without me even having to bribe her with treats. Isn’t that amazing?”

“Yeah babe, that’s great,” Owen called out from the bedroom. I was currently in his kitchen, making us stir-fry for dinner to celebrate my first day. I was humming to myself as I was mixing in the sauce when I felt two large arms wrap around my waist from behind me. Owen planted a kiss on both my cheeks, and I leaned back into his warm body.

“That smells absolutely incredible,” Owen mumbled onto my neck. I leaned my head back, giving him better access and he placed a light kiss there before pulling away. “Do you want beer or wine tonight?”

“Beer,” I grumbled, sad to lose his touch that I craved so much. He cracked two beers and placed one on the counter next to me. I turned to him and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him down for a deep kiss. His lips were warm and soft on mine, making me feel very safe and at home.

“You know I’m really proud of you,” Owen said breaking our kiss, gazing down into my eyes. “And I bet you looked really sexy out there today.”

I laughed and hit him playfully before returning to the stove to finish cooking. I knew I wouldn’t be getting much sleep tonight.

It had now been a week that I have been working with my t-rexes. Everything was going perfectly, and they obeyed me completely. Today I had decided to focus less on training exercises and more on fun. I wanted them to be able to play and roam around today, making it a more relaxed day. The two girls were eyeing up a giant inflatable beach ball curiously as I watched from behind them. They were always so funny when I gave them new toys, acting so tentative at first, before becoming completely enamored with it.

Bunny kicked the ball away from Daisy, basically stealing it from her, which pissed Daisy off. Daisy whipped around to steal it back, but when she swung her tail behind her, it caught me right in the torso, knocking me to the ground. She didn’t even notice, and the two of them stomped away, chasing after their ball.

“Shit,” I breathed as I felt the stinging on my side. I looked down to see my tank top torn, and bleeding underneath. I groaned and started to panic when I thought about what Owen would say when he saw this. Maybe it was better if I didn’t tell him, I mean it looked like a pretty shallow cut, I could definitely take care of it on my own. I got up and opened the gate to exit the exhibit. I walked to my car and opened the trunk to grab my first aid kit. I rolled my tank top up to my chest and took at look at the cut.

It was pretty shallow, but long. It started right below my armpit and wrapped down to the front of my ribs. It was bleeding lightly, but it definitely looked worse than it actually was. I mean it barely even hurt, it just stung a little. But as I was about to clean it, I heard Bunny growl impatiently from the cage behind me and I looked down at my watch to see that it was their feeding time. I knew they would get very crabby if they didn’t get fed on time, so I just grabbed two big bandaids and threw them over my wound before heading back into the cage to feed my impatient girls.

I was able to get away with keeping my injury effectively hidden from Owen for the past couple days. I stayed late at work both nights, and left early in the morning before him, which was very early. Tonight would be harder though, he decided he wanted to cook for me, and I knew what followed after meals like tonight. I would just have to find a way around it somehow.

I arrived at the t-rex cage early today, as the sun was just beginning to paint the horizon. I decided it would be an easy day today, because I wasn’t feeling the greatest. I woke up with a fever and I was even a little light-headed. I decided it was probably just something going around the park, and pushed through it. To my dismay, the girls decided to be quite hyper today, and really wanted to play. I took some advil to help with my sickness, and because it was the only thing I had in my first aid kit. I ran the girls through all sorts of games like soccer, tug-of-war (with their mouths), and who can hunt down the treat first. The latter was always their favorite. I would hide a dead mouse somewhere within the patch of trees in the cage, and on my command they would take off, searching for it. Whoever found it first, usually Bunny, would get to eat it, so it was a very competitive game. Toward the end of the day though, I was starting to feel really shitty. My whole body felt like it was on fire, I was starting to develop a splitting headache, and I was feeling extremely dizzy and lightheaded.

“Bye girls,” I called out on my way out the exhibit. Right as I reached the other side of the gate, I really started to fade. The sides of my vision were starting to be brushed with black, and I was seeing lots of spots in front of me. My cut felt like it was on fire, white hot pain was now tearing through the entire right side of my body. I tried to make it to my car to grab some water, but right as I opened the door, I collapsed.

~Owen’s POV~

I stared down at Y/n’s limp body panicking. This couldn’t be happening, she had to be okay. When she didn’t make it home on time for dinner I got a little concerned and drove down to the t-rex exhibit. When I got here she was laying unconsciousness next to her car, and I felt my stomach drop right away. Something was wrong but I didn’t know what.

I kept shaking her limp body, but she wasn’t coming to. Her entire body was slick with sweat, and her face was very pale, too pale. All of a sudden I noticed a wet spot on her tank top, on the side of her torso. I practically ripped off the thing, and what I saw made me sick to my stomach. She had a huge gash across her ribs that was half-healed, but the wound was reopened and was now actively bleeding and there was puss coming out too.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath as I noticed the infection. I scooped her small body into my arms, and threw her into the backseat of her car, deciding I could come back for my bike later.

I ran her inside the minute I got home, and laid her on the bathroom floor, a towel underneath her. I grabbed the first aid kit and found alcohol, gauze, and some sort of pain medication. I also grabbed an ice pack and put it against the back of her neck, because she was burning up more and more by the second. Right as I was about to start cleaning her wound, she came to.

~Your POV~

I woke up to Owen calling out my name. I felt like shit and I could barely keep my eyes open, but the desperation in Owen’s eyes woke me right up. I must’ve been worse off than I thought.

“Damnit Y/n, what happened?” Owen demanded once he saw I was awake. He was fumbling with some gauze, dabbing it on my wound to soak up the blood.

“It’s nothing, just a little papercut,” I said with a laugh, hoping to make him feel a little better. He just gave me a pointed look, and told me to explain. “Fine, I was doing some exercises with the girls, and as Daisy turned around her tail swiped my side. It was nothing at first, but then today I didn’t feel good, and now I’m here I guess.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped you,” Owen asked aggressively.

“You were just so protective about me getting hurt, I didn’t want to concern you with a silly little cut,” I whispered, feeling my body start to weaken again.

“Don’t ever think that I wouldn’t want to help you,” Owen said softly. I smiled weakly, and closed my eyes, feeling the darkness starting to take over my body again. “Hey, hey, eyes on me Y/n. Look at me, you don’t get to close your eyes yet, damnit.”

My eyes fluttered open at the panic in his voice, and I stared up at him lovingly. I really loved this man, even if I haven’t got the chance to tell him yet. I would tell him now, but I was just so tired, I just wanted to close my eyes.

“Okay, Y/n, you’re really gonna hate me for a minute here, but I’m gonna need to clean out your wound, so just stay with me here,” Owen told me as he opened a bottle of antiseptic alcohol. I flinched at the pain I knew was about to come, and I reached out to grab Owen’s hand. He gave my hand a squeeze and kissed my brow before pouring the liquid onto my side.

I screamed out at the burning in my side, arching my back as my muscles tensed up. I knew Owen was shouting at me in the background, but I couldn’t hear him through the pain. Tears fell from my eyes as my weakened body still burned. I felt a calloused hand snake around the back of my neck to comfort me, but I could feel myself slipping away as pain still shot through my body. I let my head roll to the side and I finally let my eyes close.

I woke up surrounded by blankets and fluffy pillows. I knew I was in Owen’s bed from the scent of him alone. It smelled wood and moss and citrus. I inhaled the intoxicating smell deeply before opening my eyes and attempting to sit up, which didn’t work out too well. As I tried to pull my body up, a flash of pain shot through my side, and I cried out.

“Woah, woah, easy there. You’re not going anywhere for awhile,” Owen said immediately, rushing to my side. He laid me back down, and helped me settle into his cozy bed again. He then walked around to the other side of the bed, and got under the covers with me. He laid beside me, and I rested my head on his shoulder as I looked up at his smiling face.

“I guess you’ll just be stuck in here with me for a couple of days then, you know for protection,” I said with a smirk. He returned the smile before leaning over to kiss me. The kiss was filled with hope and relief, and it was the perfect amount of sweetness and neediness. I pulled away and ran a hand along the side of his face. I built up the courage to tell him how I really felt about him, but right as I said it, he blurted out “I love you.”

We both burst out laughing at the timing of our confessions, but then he looked at me more seriously before saying, “I really do love you, and man it scares the shit out of me, but I just can’t help myself.”

“Thanks for fixing my papercut,” I replied sweetly, pulling him in for another kiss as he chuckled. I then settled into his arms, and laid back happily, thinking about how much I really did love Owen Grady.

#owen grady #owen grady x reader #owen grady fanfiction #owen grady fic #jurassic world #jurassic world fanfiction #fanfic

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pinksausageduo · 7 years ago

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ong seongwoo|bad boy

member: ong seongwoo genre: fluff summary: college au! badboy au! a reformed bad girl and the resident bad boy, she’s hard to get but he loves a challenge. will it end in disaster or love? collab: with iris!! @alliwannado-w1

seongwoo was bad and everyone knew it

he was in a top secret gang and had very dangerous friends

but that didn’t mean he wasn’t popular quite the opposite actually

he had heaps of friends and he was the one people usually went to for “party favours” but it was never talked about people just knew

though seongwoo himself was definitely talked about on every corner of campus

and he knew it

the girls loved him

and he knew that too

he might not wear a leather jacket because it’s too “cliche”

even if he does wear one occasionally

you can tell instantly he’s a bad boy

from the ripped jeans, worn converse, a tight white t shirt showing off his toned and defined muscles, his messy black hair, the way he holds himself and his attitude

but most of all the cocky smirk he has plastered on his face

he never hung around campus, barely attended lectures but still got really good grades?? but he visited the occasional party

where girls would throw themselves at him for one night with the resident bad boy

truthfully it was pathetic but you didn’t really care that much either

you were in your first year of college and it wasn’t bad

mostly it was better than high school

but in high school you were a completely different person

right now you’re just another everyday normal college student

in high school you were known as the school’s bad girl, you were in a gang and mixed up with “bad people”

but to you they were like family

and you ended up leaving your gang

because it started to getting really dangerous because one of your members upset one of the most dangerous gangs around leader

more and more people were going to hospital because of the feud between the two gangs and they wanted you to leave

in all honesty you didn’t want to but you ended up leaving

two years later you’ve still not been able to contact them, you miss them a lot but you’re moving on with your life

but then ong seongwoo comes into your life like a bloody hurricane and basically steals your heart

you two met at a party

the dance floor was packed and you were right in the middle of it having fun

and then suddenly someone grabs your hand, spins you around and brings you close to them

you instantly thought to kick them but then you meet those gorgeous enticing brown eyes

and your heart stops for a moment and you’re breathless

you felt a rush of love?

but you pushed your feelings straight down thinking it’s just the alcohol talking

then you realise it’s ong seongwoo

he smirks at you and whispers into your ear in a low seductive tone

“having fun?”

though you ain’t buying this crap, you were sure he did it with at least a million different other girls

and you are not the one to throw yourself at a guy with one sentence

“i was when you ruined it” you said coldly taking back your hand

he looks at you with a mix of surprise and shock

you give him a smirk as you say

“try another girl ong seongwoo and maybe they’ll fall for your bad boy charm” you rolled your eyes as your voice was dripping in sarcasm

seongwoo was so surprised since no girl has ever rejected him

well except in primary school when he pulled her pigtails while asking her out but that doesn’t count

though seongwoo always loved a challenge and you were exactly that

before approaching you, he was staring at you from afar and something hit him just wave of emotion

he never felt anything like it

everything about you was so beautiful, enticing and captivating

he just had to talk to you

even if he thought it was bullshit it kinda felt like love at first sight

but now his plan horribly backfired

usually if he did that move he’d already been able to steal a kiss from most girls

you were different though and he liked that

he liked that a lot

“what bad boy charm?” seongwoo “innocently” said back

“oh gosh please stop you know exactly what i’m talking about” you say amused by his antics

‘okay maybe i do” he says with a cheeky smile before continuing

“but how do you know it won’t work you?” he says with a heart melting look

and that’s exactly how your heart felt

he was good and he knew it

but you still couldn’t fall for him well at least not on the first night

and strengthened your resolve

“because i don’t date bad boys” you say with a raise of an eyebrow

“oooo do we have a good little girl here” he teases

you scoff at that statement nearly laughing

“trust me even if i wanted to be i couldn’t” you say some longing in your voice thinking about your gang

seongwoo looks at you curiously before you snap out of your thoughts

you lean and whisper into his ear

“night seongwoo, have fun and try not to think of me when you’re kissing another girl”

you smirk at him and walk away without a second glance

while seongwoo can’t help but grin even if he was rejected

he knew right then and there he was gonna fall for you big time

and even he tried to he couldn’t stop thinking about you

the next day seongwoo greeted you the moment you were out of your dorm

“hey” he says with a charming smile leaning on the back of the wall literally looking like he was filming a commercial but it was all EFFORTLESS

at least that’s what you thought and didn’t know he spent one and a half hours on his hair making sure every strand was in place

“it’s 7 in the morning seongwoo and i have to get to a stupid lecture what do you want?” you say tiredly

“i didn’t get your name last night” he says stepping closer to you

“that’s because i didn’t want you to know it” you retort sassily

then you grabbed his coffee cup and took a sip

“HEY! THAT’S MINE!!” seongwoo whines

“nope it’s mine now see you later pretty boy” you say turning around to leave

“oh come on at least let me get your name” he says

“you know where my dorm is but not my name, i’m not stupid seongwoo” you say sassily before walking off

“i’m picking you up after class” he shouts as you get further than away from him

“STALKER” you teasingly shout

seongwoo sighs as he sees you walk away but he can’t help but smile

you were definitely a piece of work but in his eyes you were a masterpiece

your quick comebacks and teasing made him feel things he’s never felt before

you were gorgeous, witty, smart, confident, funny and independent

how could he not fall for you but he need you to fall for him

seongwoo was going to win your heart

but unbeknownst to him you were waiting for him too

something attracted you to seongwoo and it wasn’t his bad boy charm as you so eloquently put it

but it was what was hidden beneath, the small signs of care when he was around you

that coffee was warm and not a single sip was taken from it and you knew he was going to give it to you, it was also your favourite drink

the fact he actually put effort into finding out where your dorm is

and how he didn’t knock on the door but waited for you

that was just the interaction tis morning

you couldn’t help feel all fuzzy and warm thinking about him

you didn’t admit it to yourself but you couldn’t spend any bit of your lecture concentrating and thinking about a certain someone

a whole month went by and you could 100% say you were falling for seongwoo

and him? well the whole school knew he was infatuated with you

for the first time in his whole college career he went to the library

just because you wanted to study

and spent more time on campus those for two weeks than 5 months

he always made sure to give you space to live your boring ass life

but would always meet you when you finish up your last class of the day

and of course bring you coffee in the morning

you spent a lot of time at your dorm, eating, talking, studying, watching netflix and just spending time with each other

the witty comebacks and flirty teasing was a constant

but you two had a lot of real conversations

about life, your future, the problems, insecurities, worries, fears and all the happy memories you had too

though neither of you mentioned gangs at all

seongwoo not ready to share that bit of his life because he was so scared that you’ll be running fro the hills the moment you hear about it

and you did not want to visit the past

it was genuinely amazing

seongwoo wanted to ask you out the only thing stopping him is how you would react about all the details of the gang

though you guys were already like a couple

while you watch netflix you two cuddle all snuggled up

occasionally you two hold hands too

he’s even sneaked in a few cheek kisses here and there

the first time he did it he remembered you shouting at him and chasing after him as he laughed

but you loved it

then seongwoo suddenly disappeared

you instantly knew something was a miss when he wasn’t there in the morning then no contact whatsoever for the whole day

then after you left him several calls and texts

and he didn’t reply and the calls went straight to voice mail

you were worried out of your mind

all you wanted to know that he was safe

after a whole week passed, you went to his dorm

it was locked and you instantly unlocked it by using your skeleton key

everything was like what you imagine a guy’s college dorm to be

but when you searched the bedroom something caught your eye

it was the symbol of your gang, a pagan symbol for protection

on a letter which was written with a code that your gang produced

you still remember it by heart

it only gave you an address and a change of password

there was anticipation and excitement rushing though your veins

maybe seongwoo was there

you were instantly shocked that you didn’t think of your old gang members first but seongwoo

and clutching the letter you realise in such a short span of time you really have fallen for him

but you were also so excited to meet your members again

you went straight back to your dorm and brought out your box

which had your old outfit you always wore to headquarters

black high waisted cuffed shorts, chunky black heeled boots, a plain black singlet, your old worn leather jacket and your red bandana

you quickly put your hair up into a high pony and wore the outfit, before putting some red lipstick on

also making sure you were armed with knives just in case

you left and when you arrived at the location which was a plain steel wall with the symbol painted onto it

but there was three small knobs and you twisted them according to the instructions

the door swung open and you were welcome to a dark bar

“who the hell are you” demanded a low voice as a gun was pointed right into your temple

you looked at the guy with no fear in your eyes

“wait woojin stop, i can recognise that outfit from a mile away. i got her that leather jacket and she loves that red bandana.” said a very familiar voice

as the guy called woojin lowered his gun you could see daniel’s face

and you broke out into a bright smile as he did the same

“welcome home y/n” he says happily

as you run into his arms and he spins you around laughing

“where’s everyone else? is everyone safe? why did you stop all contact with me for three years?!!!” you demand

he chuckles and says “that’s the y/n i know, and most of us are out, more people got hurt but it all sorted itself out, and by the time it was safe we didn’t know how to contact you”

“you still should have” you grumpily say before you hear you name called out

a brown haired teenager came barrelling into you and you reprimanded daniel instantly

“JINYOUNG IS UNDERAGE WHY IS HE HERE??”

‘we have even younger members” quipped in woojin

and you look at daniel ready to rip his head off while he takes a step back

“but you were in the gang when you were underaged plus i only do the motorcycle races and the underground fights” jinyoung answered still hugging you

“you rascal i missed you so much you better be safe during the races and fights” you reprimand sweetly

“i will i will, you still see me as that 8 year old kid you used to baby sit don;t you” he says with a cute pout

“yuppp you’ll always be my lil bro” you agree with a soft smile

“hey y/n sorry about the whole gun thing” says woojin shyly

“oh don’t worry about it, it’s protocol i know” you say nicely

“thanks for understanding” he says smiling showing off his snaggletooth

and you can’t help but smile back

“wait daniel the reason why i came here was because of ong seongwoo do you know him?” you asked daniel seriously

“does he know him of course he does they’re best friends” interrupted a new voice

you look up to see minhyun

“minhyun!!” you say brightly going over to him to hug him

“it’s so nice to see you again” he says genuinely

“are you still the resident healer?” you ask

“of course none of these idiots would be alive without me” he says jokingly

“very true” you agree nodding while the other guys started protesting

“but where’s seongwoo he completely disappeared on me without a single word, and i found this letter in his dorm” you said handing the letter over to minhyun

“wait wait how do you know seongwoo?” daniel asks bewildered

“OHHHHH I GET IT!!” jinyoung says loudly

as the realisation dawns on woojin the same time

woojin loudly announced “y/n’s THE GIRL”

“the one he talks about constantly, refuses to give her name to us, who’s basically the love of his life and the one he complains that he’s gonna lose if he tells about all of us??” minhyun asks

while your mouth kept on dropping at his words while you yourself were melting at his words

“YES THIS IS AMAZING I CALL BEING THE BEST MAN AND GODFATHER TO THE FIRST BORN!!” daniel shouts in excitement

you shake your head not understanding how this the same guy to be able to beat up 3 guys ruthlessly all at once and go 180km an hour with no hesitation in a street race

“guys for fucks sake i just want to know where he is that’s more important than an IMAGINARY wedding and future child” you say dryly

“we’ll make that a reality one day won’t we?” you hear seongwoo’s voice oozing with cheekiness and happiness

and you can’t help but burst into a huge relieved grin

you rush to hug him but you gently wrap your arms around him just in case he has any injuries

“you absolute idiotic moron you scared the shit out of me” you whisper softly as seongwoo’s wraps his arms around you gently

you instantly feel safe and like it was home in his arms

“aww you care about me” he cooes teasingly

“oh shut up” you mutter breaking apart slightly disappointed

“seongwoo why the hell are you out of bed you woke up from your concussion literally an hour ago and you have TWO BULLET WOUNDS” minhyun stressed urgently

before seongwoo could reply woojin gently swept him up and led him to the infirmary and put him on his bed

“i’m sorry okay!! i just wanted to see y/n” he says totally not sorry

“he’s so whipped” jinyoung comments with a smirk

seongwoo flipped him off for that but never denied it

“why didn’t you tell me that you were going??” you asked impatiently

“um because i thought it would be a quick job but ha yeah i got beat real bad” seongwoo mumbles embarrassed

“i literally broke into your apartment and found the letter, you really need to keep this stuff hidden” you say telling him off

“wow you were really worried weren’t you” seongwoo says happily totally ignoring the comment about his incompetence

before you can answer he adds “guys can you give us moment”

“OOOOOOOO don’t be making out when we’re back!” daniel teases

you flip him the finger as he leaves with everyone else

“seongwo-” you start before seongwoo interrupts you

“y/n just let me say this first” he begs which makes you agree instantly

“okay i’ve been meaning to say this for a while. gosh y/n i’m in love with you, i never believed the bullshit love at first sight thing but that’s exactly how it felt when i first met you at that party. over the course of month i fell for you and the only reason why i didn’t tell you about all this is because i thought you would leave me, now i see that really is not the case.” he says slightly nervous but mostly hopeful

“i wanted to ask you will you be my girlfriend?” he ended hesitantly not meeting your eyes

your heart felt like it was going to burst in happiness and love

“of course i will, i love you too seongwoo” you say your voice filled with affection

then seongwoo gives you his signature smirk/smile making you instantly melt

and brings you close with two fingers leading your chin towards his lips

you guys finally kiss after a whole month of flirting back and forth

seongwoo smiles as he kisses you gently at first then deepening it

you run your hands through his messy black hair making sure not to hurt any of his injuries

his arms wrap around your waist while kissing you with even more love and affection that before

the kiss was light flirty but passionate and full of love

just like your relationship with seongwoo

and you broke apart gently still noses touching

with sweet smiles and seongwoo whispered to you sounding very full of himself

“you totally do fall for bad boys”

you shake your head laughing before saying

“nah i just fell for you...” you stopped a moment before continuing because of seongwoo

he can’t help but smile at you making you want to kiss him all over again

and you ended up doing just that

which the guys totally interrupted on

but not before you said

“my bad boy”

this wasn’t anything like i planned it to be but oh well. i planned this collab with iris for ages but won’t be doing all the members. just the ones we feel that is most like a “bad boy” i hope you guys like it!!

as always please leave an anon or a message about anything love you all!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!!! @kpopsincejune07 i hope this wrecks you to core and that you like it! i hope you have an amazing day work free and with friends and family. thank you so much for always being one of my biggest fans and i’m so glad we started talking. i love you heaps!!

#wanna one #wanna one scenarios #wanna one imagines #ong seongwoo #ong seongwoo scenarios #ong seongwoo imagines #ong #seongwoo #ong seongwu #ong seongwu scenarios #ong seongwu imagines #wanna one fluff #wanna one bad boy #kang daniel #hwang minhyun #bae jinyoung #park woojin

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little-chimchim · 7 years ago

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20 (Vernon Fluff)

Copy of ask: Can I request a Vernon fluff based on the song 20 by the vocal unit?

Rating: PG

Word Count: 2757

Genre: Fluff!

Pairing: Vernon x Reader

A/N: Thank you for the anon who requested this! I know it took a few days to do. This one was a bit hard to write. I had to listen to the song and read the lyrics on loop to get a story in mind. So thank you once again! Love you all! -Kay

He sprung awake, the alarm blaring through his room. He felt around his empty bed for his phone. Once he found it, he clicked the alarm button off and threw the phone gently on to his now messed up bed.

He sighed and walked to the mirror on his wall. Vernon ran his fingers through his hair excitedly, hoping he looked a little bit presentable. He glanced back at the phone on his bed, anticipating the call to come through soon.

Once his ringtone rang, he stumbled over himself to grab it. He slid the accept button and saw your face pop up on his screen. He smiled pleasantly and waved to you. You wanted to wave back but you had your phone in one hand and a coffee in the other.

“Vernon!” You said happily, you looked at his tired appearance and smiled. “Did you get enough sleep?” You asked him. It should have been around seven in the morning in Korea. Vernon nodded and looked away from your face to look at your surroundings. “You’re not in the office?” He asked.

You shook your head and held up the coffee in your hands. “The boss wanted some coffee so I had to grab it.” You told your best friend. Vernon laughed and admired your face. “It looks busy in New York today.”

“Vern...it’s always busy in New York City. It never sleeps here. You should know this, you were born here.” You giggled as you walked through the streets of the bustling city. You had moved to New York a couple of years prior with your family. Your father had gotten a job that transferred him to the city and so naturally you went along with him. You were a Freshman in college now, working as an intern at a news station while you attended college.

Vern shrugged his shoulders and smiled cheekily, “I suppose it’s been awhile since I’ve been there.” He said. He got up from the bed and carried the phone to the kitchen, still having a full on conversation with you.

You and Vern had been best friends since you were five, when he had moved to Korea. The two of you had never been separated until your own move. It had taken a toll on your friendship for a while but the two of you were able to mend it quickly. As long as you promised to call each other at least once a day the two of you were content.

You sighed as you got closer to the station. “I might be able to call you later tonight but I have to get going now.” You blew him a kiss and clicked off your phone.

Vernon set his phone on the counter and groaned. It was exactly those things that you did that made him crazy. The cute things that he couldn’t handle. Those exact things made him realize just how much he missed you. Without you by his side every day was the worst thing he could imagine. Especially now that you were on the other side of the world.

He loved the daily calls, but after a while he realized that they weren't enough to keep him from missing your smiling face every day.

He sighed to himself and took a quick drink of water. He turned around when he heard the soft sound of footsteps enter the kitchen.

“Was that Y/N?” Joshua asked. Vernon nodded his head and set the glass down. Joshua laughed breathlessly and shook his head at Vern. “It's not fun seeing you like this, Vern. Why can't you tell her already?” The older man asked.

Vernon shrugged his shoulders. “She's on the other side of the world, she's just now starting to live her dream. I can't confess to her feelings I've had since we were ten. That's not fair to her. Plus, I have my own career with you guys. I have to focus on what's important.” Vernon said everything like they were lines out of a script.

Joshua reached out and ruffled Verns hair playfully. “I'll talk to the manager about the possibility of you going to New York for a couple of days. You should at least go and see her. It's been too long.”

Vern shook his head and moved Joshua’s hands away from his head. “No need, I'm not going to go and bother her.” He grumbled.

Joshua rolled his eyes “Because that would be so unwelcome by your best friend.” He joked, mocking Vernon’s voice. “Suit yourself Vern,” Joshua said before exiting the kitchen.

You tapped your pencil against the wooden desk of your boss's office. He was late for the meeting and you didn’t know where he was. Minutes wore on until he finally came into the office, files and papers in his arms. “Sorry I’m running late Y/N. I just got a call about a new story that we will be covering.”

Your boss, Mr. Jones, was the lead reporter for the entertainment section of the news company. He covered everything from celebrity gossip to concerts around the country. He did everything. The aging man smiled to you and set everything down on the desk in front of you.

“There’s a very popular Korean actor who will acting in a movie here in America in the next few months. I want to get everything there is to know about him so we can start doing segments about him.” He paused and looked to you happily. “So, to start your reporting career, I want you to travel back to Seoul and interview Kang Jin-Woo. I’ve already set it up, you just need to pack and head to the airport by tomorrow morning.”

You looked to you boss in shock. He was finally going to let you handle an interview and you were finally able to go back home, even if it was just for a few days. You beamed brightly.

“Thank you sir!” You shot up from your seat at the desk and shook his hand. Mr. Jones pat your back and gestured for you to leave the office. You nodded and quickly made your way out of the large room.

Once you were out of there, you grabbed your phone and quickly started texting a message for Vernon. You hesitated before sending him the message, announcing your news. You wanted to surprise him and you weren’t going to ruin that by instantly texting him.

You hadn’t seen Vernon in a couple of years. They were a long, boring years that you wish didn’t happen. Despite the big move from Seoul to New York, you had never been able to become adjusted to New York. It never felt like home.

Being apart from Vernon made it even worse. He had been the only one in this world to stand by you, even in the worst of times. You missed him more than anything. Now was your chance to finally visit him again and you couldn’t be any happier.

Vernon had called you that afternoon after dance practice. He looked messy and disheveled from the hours of dancing and working out. He tried straightening his hair out before you answered his video call, but it was no use because it still clung to his face from the sweat. You smiled to him when you answered his call. You quickly moved to the other side of your room, careful not to show your suitcase and give away any hints of your arrival. “Someone looks like they need a shower.” You told him blatantly.

Vernon blushed and looked away quickly. He made eye contact with Joshua, who only made odd faces towards his friend. Vernon rolled his eyes and focused his attention back to you. “And it looks like someone needs to do a better job on their makeup.” He retorted back quick. You gasped and your hand flew to your face, but you knew he was kidding.

The two of you went back and forward like this for a few minutes before Vernon started talking about the new song he and the group was working on. You loved to see him so excited like this, but you also hated that you couldn’t see it in person. Every single thing about Vernon was perfect and you regretted not telling him about your feelings before you left for New York, now you were stuck video chatting him on the daily. It was nowhere near the same feeling as seeing and holding him in person.

When the two of you said your goodbyes, Vernon clicked off his phone and set it next to him. “Why is she so perfect?” He groaned loudly. The other members stopped what they were doing and looked at Vernon.

Vern stood up and threw up his arms in frustration. “She’s thousands of miles away and I still can’t get her out of my mind! There’s no point in confessing that I love her because she still probably sees me as the little kis she grew up with!”

Joshua held up a finger and winked, “You said probably, that doesn’t mean she does though.” He smirked, trying to push Vernon further. Vernon gave a sarcastic side glance and muttered something in English under his breath. “Hey!” Joshua yelled, “That wasn’t nice.”

Vernon rolled his eyes but replaced his sarcastic look with a sweet smile. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I’m tired of growing older without her next to me. I’m almost twenty and before I know it, I’ll be thirty and I would have lost her all together.”

He saw Jihoon shrug his small shoulders lightly. “Then why don’t you use your twenties to find her and confess to her?” He said it so plainfully, like it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Because maybe it was.

Vernon’s eyes grew wide. He looked to Joshua and nodded, “Tell the manager that I’m leaving for New York tomorrow. Say that I’m visiting family for a few days. I need to go find Y/N and tell her what I’ve been trying to say for years now.” He ran up and hugged the two boys tightly. “Thank you,” he whispered. He gave them both a thumbs up before he stumbled out the door, too excited to keep his body from falling.

The flight was long and tiring. Your head pounded from the pressure of being thousands of feet in the air, but that didn’t keep you from being excited. To ease your nerves, you looked over your notes for the interview with Jin-Woo. You were nervous and excited at the same time. Though, you were most looking forward to finally seeing Vernon again...well, maybe.

The same time you were flying to Korea, Vernon was on his was to America.

You didn’t realize this until you walked into the dance studio after you were finished with the interview. You waited for them to finish their current song before you walked in unannounced.

The first one to notice you was Joshua, who looked at you as if you were a ghost. He dropped the water bottle he had been holding and looked to everyone else. You had known the boys before their debut, not well but you were all on friendly terms with one another. “Holy shit it’s Y/N,” He muttered, starting to worry.

You cocked an eyebrow and looked around, Vernon was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Vern?” You asked them all.

Jihoon laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “He’s traveling to America right now to go and surprise you.” He said, elongating each note. You stopped in your tracks, too shocked to register anything. You came back home to surprise him yet he was already in America coming to surprise you. You sighed to yourself and looked to the boys.

You bowed to them and backed into the door. “I-I’m sorry for intruding, I should get going now.” You sputtered, fumbling around with the doorknob until you could get it open.

Once you were gone, Joshua looked to the others, shaking his head. “I’m telling this story at the wedding.” He mumbled before the others started dance practice once more.

Vernon had gotten the special surprise from your boss. He walked into the station and started asking everyone around him where you might be. No one had any idea about where you were until you ran into Mr. Jones.

“You’re looking for my lovely, Y/N?” Mr. Jones’s deep voice asked from behind Vernon. He quickly turned around and nodded his head shyly. “Yes sir!” He said enthusiastically, straightening out his posture and looking Mr. Jones straight in the eye.

Mr. Jones smiled and pat Vernon on the back. “Why...she’s in Korea right now doing a story for me. Can I ask what your name is young man?”

“Hansol Vernon”

Mr. Jones’s eyes grew wide as a broad and bright smile spread across his face. “The Vernon? The one my sweet little intern never stops talking about? Wow, it’s a pleasure to meet you. What brings you to New York?” He asked Vernon.

Vernon, now realizing what had happened took a deep breath before answering your boss. “I came here to visit Y/N. She’s my best friend and I needed to see her.”

Mr. Jones looked at him suspiciously, he wasn’t just your best friend, he could tell that from a mile away but he didn’t want to push Vernon too far. Mr. Jones, his smile still on his face, pat Vernon on the arm. “Wait at the airport young man, once she realizes that you’re not in Korea, she’ll come back to see you right away.”

Mr. Jones let Vernon go and waved his hand. “Good luck, young Vernon.” He gleamed. Vernon smiled and quickly exited the station and headed towards the airport to wait for you.

You saw Vernon sound asleep in one of the waiting chairs just outside the terminal. You nudged him awake. Your heart pounded out of your chest. Vernon slowly and groggily woke up from his nap. The second he saw you, he was wide awake. He got up from the chair and wrapped his arms around you like he was about to lose you again.

“I missed you too much.” He whispered. You hugged him back, a small set of tears formed at your eye. “I missed you more.” Vernon pulled away and pressed his forehead against yours.

He had always done this when you needed to be cheered up. He would simply press his face close to yours and murmur sweet words to cheer you back up. You didn’t need to be cheered up this time, not even close. You were just happy to have him right in front of you one more time.

“I’m going to make it really clear and I’m going to rip the bandaid off. I came to New York to tell you that I love you and that I want to spend every morning with you by my side. I’ve loved you for so-”

You raised his finger, a faint blush creeping to your cheeks. “I love you too.”

Vernon shook his head, “Let me finish. Don’t reject it quite yet. I love you so mu-” His face fell when what you said registered in his brain. He looked down to you, unsure what to do with his mouth. Should he smile? She he be surprised or be blank faced?

You answered the question for him when you pulled him into a deep and passionate kiss. He pulled your body towards his so he could feel your warmth against his own. He had been dreaming of the day when the two of you finally kissed. For a while he had thought that it was impossible, that you would never see him in any way other than his best friend.

Now he knew that he was proven very wrong.

You pulled away from him and leaned against his chest. “I want to be with you every morning too, Vern. I want to spend the rest of my twenties having adventures with you then I want to spend my thirties settling down with you.”

Vernon smiled and pecked your lips softly. “I love you,” The feeling of the words on his tongue made him happy, finally being able to say them to you was exciting. It was a rush and he was so excited to say it to you every morning and all through his twenties.

#vernon #seventeen #seventeen fic #seventeen fluff #hansol vernon choi #seventeen vernon #kpop #kpop fic #joshua hong #seventeen joshua #seventeen kpop #fanfiction #vernon fluff #little-chimchim

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evakteket · 7 years ago

Text

Watchlist update

The usual: When it’s been more than three weeks since a fic was updated we consider it to be on hiatus and remove it from the watchlist. However, we don’t cancel our subscriptions and if one of the removed fics gets updated again, we’ll put it right back on the list.

The usual II: feel free to send us an ask if you have suggestions for fics we should check out – even if they’re not Evak-centric!

Update summary:

Completed: 2 Added: 4 Removed: 0 (hallelujah)

News:

Alphabet Aerobics by @nofeartina NEW

Rating: explicit. And is it ever. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, and the author has set out to write 26 chapters of pwp, one for each letter as Isak and Even play a letters sex game. And yes this is smutty, yes the plot is virtually non-existent, but there are feelings and character development as well as very well-written, imaginative smut. - kit and immy

tender (is the night) by kittpurrson (@towonderland72) NEW

For the record, this is written by one of the Evakteket librarians. She has not been allowed an opinion on whether to put this on the watchlist or not, as the other librarian thinks it's amazing. In this magic AU Isak and Even accidentally soulbond - however, while a bond mate is something Isak has desperately yearned for, Even is not at all enthused. Deliciously understated, fine-tuned angst and a well-built magical concept will keep the reader on tenterhooks. - immy

a careful hypothesis of the heart by StMisery NEW

This AU, while not extremely Norwegian although it's set in Oslo, shows Isak and Even as co-workers who inch their way from quite a bit of dislike for each other towards, well, we would be very surprised if Evak isn't endgame. Engaging and entertaining as the guys slowly make progress, and featuring an adorable Magnus. - kit and immy

I Tveksamhetens tid by Always_and_ever (Swedish) NEW

Even is having doubts about his and Isak's relationship in this angsty fic, set ten years from they got together. The updates are short, but every one packs a serious punch, escalating the inner and outer conflicts. Isak and Even are very human and real as grown ups here, and if you can read Swedish you should definitely check this out. - immy

Vivid in Black and White by @fxckxxp COMPLETED

Complete, rec here.

All Stories Are Echoes by sebastianL (@e-sebastian) COMPLETED

Complete, rec here.

Still on the watchlist:

Er vi lykkelige no? by Frieda Echte @friedaechte (Norwegian)

Mixed POV of Isak and Even’s first summer together, starting on Isak’s birthday. Gorgeous, understated everyday scenes, where some days are good and some are not so good, sometimes there are misunderstandings and mistakes, but being Isak and Even they figure it out as they go. A moving, lovely read for those who can read Norwegian. Note that it’s rated mature. - immy

Blood vs. Water by bri_ness (@brionbroadway)

This author’s Big Brother AU was a gameplay treat, and this Survivor AU promises to be just as addictive and fun. We’re looking forward to another round of Snakesak playing the game, skilfully written nods to canon and messy relationships. There’s no need to have watched Survivor, the game is explained in the notes as you go. - immy

I skyggen av solen by Kudzibisa (Norwegian)

Charter holiday AU where Isak and Even meet on the plane. Isak is on holiday with his dad and little sister, while Even is travelling with Sonja, for one week of sun and sea and things getting in the way of spending time together. Norwegian charter tourists are perfectly portrayed in this, expect to cringe a lot if you can read Norwegian. - immy

glovarm/iskald by liljesmoothie (Norwegian)

Isak is so deep in the closet in this AU in Norwegian that he’s managed to get to 27 without experiencing love, and has basically run away from Oslo to a job on Svalbard. Enter Even, coming to film at Isak’s workplace, the Global Seed Vault. The setting is fascinating and the progress towards a relationship is sweet, but note that there’s homophobia, internalised and otherwise. It’s not rated by the author, but I’d say it’s mature. - immy

Legitimate Expectations by @champagneleftie In this AU Isak is a lawyer specialising in matters of freedom of the press, and the setting seems wonderfully real. His life as a successful young lawyer (with some interesting SKAM character colleagues) is all neat and tidy, until there’s an Even-shaped spanner thrown in the works. Beautifully written, this is perfect for fans of grown-up Isak and Even with careers. - kit and immy

the truth about my disguise by mikaeloboukhal

The first chapter of this childhood friends AU is the beautifully paced story of Isak and Even growing up, until Even moves away, and it continues to be well worth reading from there. This is a lovely, well written, well characterised take on the reunion trope. Watch out for your heart though, it’s it for some breaking. - kit and immy

Digging upwards by Allieverwas (@grensevokter)

Few fics go into season 2 Isak, but this AU (where he meets Even in April 2016) does, and the author does it excellently. It’s a captivating story about Isak’s life while living in Eskild’s basement storage room, with a lot of details making it very realistic, and the characterisation is amazing. It feels very true to canon while being an AU, and I absolutely love how this important period in Isak’s life is depicted in this fic. - immy

all i wanna do is be near by hippopotamus (@evenshands)

A 5+1 future AU where Isak and Even were friends as teenagers and meet again a couple of years later, this has a confident Isak and lovely dialogue. So far it’s bittersweet and a bit heartbreaking, and we’re very excited about where it goes. Mind the explicit rating. - kit and immy

Like barn leker best by Kikki1 (Norwegian)

In this AU, student Isak has just broken up with his boyfriend, but he knows Even from school and is not a fan. Since his crap boyfriend is (mostly) out of the picture Isak needs a roommate. Enter Mikael. An engaging story featuring an annoyed and a bit weary Isak, amusing rather than angsty, and quite realistic about being a young gay man in Oslo. A very satisfying read for those who can read Norwegian. - immy

You’re my (arche)type by @evakuality

This is a fairytale AU that isn’t based on a specific story, but rather on the archetypes found in fairytales worldwide, where the interaction and characterisation is shaped by the archetypes each of the characters belongs to, and by the struggle against the confines of the archetypes. It’s an interesting and very well written take on nature vs. nurture and rigid societal structure, and the characterisation is wonderful. - immy

Hjerterytmer og ekstraslag by Without your breath (@livreddare) (Norwegian) Hospital AU where Isak is a nurse and Even is a surgeon in training at an emergency department, packed full of realistic detail and gorgeous slow burn (so far). I adore the characterisation in this, and it’s always a treat to read a well-written AU in a setting the author knows really well. If you can read Norwegian, don’t miss out on this. - immy

Forsvarlig behandling by Frieda Echte @friedaechte (Norwegian) In this hospital AU get-together, nurse Isak gets a patient (oh yes) with a somewhat annoying girlfriend (oh no) tagging along to the ED. Vividly detailed, engaging and funny, this promises to be a very special treat for those who can read Norwegian. - immy

#wip watchlist

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bleedingcoffee42 · 7 years ago

Note

"i prefer blondes honestly" royai? i feel like it calls for it very obviously, yet your writing always takes an unexpected turn that leaves me pleasantly surprised

Did you say a Gentlemen PreferBlondes AU? No? Ooops, here is that unexpected turn.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Roy Mustang had been a privatedetective long enough to never be surprised by what rich people wouldspend their money on. He could have gone to college, maybe joinedthe military, but growing up in his Mother’s bar had shown him therewas a much more lucrative and mentally engaging career out there forhim and it was in private investigations. He had a way of thinkingthat allowed him to see connections that most people would miss andhe could fit in in any situation which made him a perfect candidatefor the job. This particular job, however, was going to be a wasteof his intelligence but certainly paid enough to be worth his time. He took a moment to finally sit down in the chair opposite of Mr.Armstrong’s desk and accept the offer. “I’ll take the case.”

Thaddeus Armstrong breathed a sigh ofrelief. “Thank you Mr. Mustang, I know you are discreet andcareful about your work. I hope my reservations about Miss Catalinaare wrong, but you do understand how I can not risk my son or theArmstrong family being ruined by a gold-digger.”

Roy gave an understanding nod that didnot betray his real thoughts. He always found amusement in theridiculous lines people came up with when they explained theirreasoning for hiring him. The truth here was that the Armstrongfamily wanted Alex Armstrong’s fiance gone, and if that meantbreaking Alex’s heart by showing him pictures of her deception orforcing him to tears listening to recordings of her confessing thatshe was interested in money not love….well they would be here tocomfort him and only occasionally say ‘I told you so’. That was noneof his concern though. “Please tell me as much background as youcan.”

“Rebecca Catalina is a showgirl.” Thaddeus said with a heavy sigh. “Sings, dances….lets rich menbuy her things. My son fell head over heels in love with her. Proposed. They are planning to wed in Aquroya and I have managed todetain him for business here in Central for a few days. His fiancewill go ahead and ensure plans are in place for the wedding. He hasgiven her a blank check and I…am ashamed I have raised such a blindfool.”

Roy nodded. “She will be travelingalone?”

“No, she will travel with her bestfriend and maid of honor. The girl who sings and dances with her inthe show. Her name is Riza.” Armstrong said. “They leave onthe train tomorrow using my Pullman car as their own. Mr. Mustang Ineed you to watch Rebecca and report to me her loyalty to my son andher intentions if she will divulge them. Please sir, the wedding isthis weekend, so I need quick results.”

Roy watched the man pull an envelopefrom his desk drawer. “Yes, sir.”

xxxxxxx

Roy was not disappointed in the leastby the amount of activity on the train. Rebecca was in fullcelebration mode, buying rounds and keeping the dining car livelyfrom the minute the train left the station. He was worried thiswould be a difficult job, that she would have enough sense to keepherself hidden away in the private car, but he was rather fortunatethat she was not inclined to be quiet about her upcoming nuptials. He was glad he got a seat early as the train car was packed tocapacity within a hour of her ‘open bar’ announcement.

He sat in earshot of the bar for hours. Rebecca showed off her ring, talked about her dress and finallyflirted a little bit too much with a very married man by the name ofYoki who owned a diamond mine out East. It was bad enough the man’swife pulled him away and out of the car, but he could see the glintin Yoki’s eye and the not so subtle wave that said he was far fromdone with their conversation about the rock on her finger.

He had yet to determine if Rebecca wassimply a flirt or was the loose woman the Armstrong family feared shewas. It was, however, quite the show as the girl was loud and thelife of the party. He was also apparently going to get a free showas someone brought in a record of a song the showgirl happened to bea fan of. She called her friend Riza over, shouting above the hum ofthe crowd for her friend to join her on the bar for a show.

Roy leaned back and wondered how thiswas going to go as these two ladies danced on a bar on a movingtrain. The crowd however was thrilled and took their seats, clearedthe way for these girls to put on some impromptu number in thecrowded car and they were not disappointed. Rebecca entered fromthe head of the train and her friend Riza from the back. They sang asong that had been wildly popular this year called “Again” asthey walked down the aisle towards each other. Roy found himselfentranced, they were exceptionally good at what they did. They sangin harmony, advanced towards each other with perfect strides and metin the middle during a key part of the song…then separated to dancewhile they sang towards either end of the bar. With practicedprecision and elegance he couldn’t quite comprehend from two ladieswearing high heels steeping up chairs and bar stools, they finallyreached the bar-top and the real show began.

Roy found himself not paying attentionto Rebecca anymore, but to her friend. He always did prefer blonds,honestly, but that was not what he found so incredibly attractiveabout her. Despite being in a profession that required him toscrutinize emotions and motives, he couldn’t think beyond the factthat she was beautiful and athletic and made him shift uncomfortablyin his seat when she took her hair out of that hair clip and threw itinto the audience. At least he could think clearly enough to goover and pick it up out of the aisle so he could give it back to her. Or not think clearly at all because the worst thing he coulddo was be noticed by these two when he was working a case.

The song ended and the car erupted inapplause and whistling. Roy held the hair clip and realized it wastoo late to turn back now. Perhaps he could use this as a way to getcloser to the girls which would help him get recordings if needed. Photo opportunities on the train car would be difficult. He waitedfor a little while, another round of shots for the crowd courtesy ofRebecca, and he saw the other girl trying to find her way back to atable. He stood up and got her attention. “Miss, I believe thisis yours.”

Riza smiled at him, he was handsome andlooked like he wasn’t even trying hard to look that good: Messy hairthat almost covered those intoxicating dark eyes, and pinchablecheeks. She hoped he would be the one to pick the clip up. “Thankyou.”

“I’m Roy.” He said and waved tothe empty seat opposite him. “Would you join me for something toeat? I’d offer to buy you a drink but it looks like your friend hasthat covered.”

“I’d love to.” Riza smiled and puther hair up before taking a seat. He had ordered appetizers and shewas starving. Rebecca was like a whirlwind normally, it only gotworse when she was excited about an upcoming event. There was notime for necessities.

“So what’s the occasion?” Royasked and watched her pick out a mozzarella stick from his plate.

“My friend is getting married.” Riza said. “This weekend.”

“Usually you outsource the dancing ata bachelorette party.” Roy said. “Incredible dancing by theway, I had my doubts about your stability in a moving train car.”

Riza smiled. “Occupational hazard Iguess, why let someone else have the fun?”

“Is that what you do for a living?” Roy asked and she answered without any shame, she was quite contentwith her life choices. He liked that in a girl.

“Yes, we have a show at the GrandHotel..” Riza said and tried a fried dough ball. “I should saywe are the show.”

“Yeah, the Grand is a little above mypay grade.” He said.

“And what do you do Mr. Mustang?” She asked.

“I’m a journalist.” He answered. It was his standard response. It was close to what he did and itgave him a reason for watching, studying and traveling.

Riza was amazed that she could behaving a normal conversation with a man only five minutes after shehad danced on a bar top. Most men would have already been implyingthey were interested in a private showing, maybe this one just took alittle longer to get around to that. Too early to get her hopes up. “Are you heading to East City to cover the Olympics? I wastalking with those gentlemen over there who are on their way to somequalifiers for track and field.”

Roy turned around and looked at the menin question. God. They were all buff and ready to explode out oftheir shirts. He hoped that wasn’t her type. He had nice abs, butwas a long way from having biceps that could lift this train car offit’s tracks. “Uh, no. I’m going to Aquroya for a travel pieceabout the sinking city.”

“Really, that’s where my friend isgoing for her wedding!” Riza said and leaned over to whisper. “I’m having to plan this for her without much preparation. If youknow something about the city it would be a great help. I couldintroduce you to the Olympians over there if you want something thatmight get you published in a better section than Travel. Mr. Milesand Mr. Scar have some interesting stories. Mr. Havoc has thathometown hero thing going on for him.”

Roy cocked his head. He liked thatshe knew the value of articles in certain sections of the paper overothers. That showed promise, it wasn’t common knowledge. “I’m ona tight deadline, unfortunately, but I appreciate you trying to getme a some attention for a special interest piece versus the travelsection.”

“Least I can do for you saving myhair clip and sharing your food.” She smiled.

“I’d be happy to share my researchwith you about Aquroya, but at this point it’s all places of interestand history that you probably don’t care about.” He said. “Ijust realized I didn’t get your name.”

“Riza Hawkeye.” She said and puther hand out to shake. “It’s nice to meet you Roy….sorry yourlast name was?”

“Mustang.” He said and took herhand and gave it a kiss. He knew she was looking to shake, butthought the added flourish would hit a mark. He looked up and shewas blushing.

Riza wasn’t used to being treated likea lady, she was used to being looked down upon for being a showgirl. That was what Rebecca said had really made her think twice aboutAlex, he treated her like a goddess not a dancer. “I should getback to planning the wedding. Maybe I’ll see you again at dinner?”

It was Roy’s turn to blush. “I’dlike that very much. 6 pm?”

“Sounds early enough. Rebeccaprobably wants to party all night before this train reached it’sdestination.” Riza stood up. “I’ll see you tonight Mr.Mustang.”

xxxxxxx

The train made a few stops and he wasable to move around more when it did. Most stops were in excess oftwenty minutes because of train traffic and passengers woulddisembark to visit the local train depot or vendors to pass the time. It was at one of these stops when he was able to finally get theinformation he was here for thanks to Yoki, the mine owner.

He knew more about Yoki than Rebecca,mainly because the man was arrogant and a braggart and was trying touse his fortune to woo the pretty young showgirl in the quickestfashion he could. Time was limited for Yoki since he was on his wayback East and his wife was in their own car, he had to try to makeprogress with Rebecca whenever he could. It was a good thing Yokihad money because he sure didn’t have tact or a winning personality.

“Oh and in the mines it’s dangerous.“ Yoki played with his mustache. “Snakes, mine collapse. Terrible.”

The only snake here was him. Royrolled his eyes as he took out his camera and snapped some shots ofthe train from the windows.

Rebecca spun the postcard rack andsaid, “That’s terrible. Something so gorgeous always comes withsuch a heavy cost.”

“At least it’s just snakebites, wehave anti-venom to cure that.” Yoki said. “In some places theyhave snakes that will wrap around you and crush you.”

Roy moved around and tried to get abetter angle of them. It wouldn’t surprise him if Yoki offered toshow her the 'snake’ in his pants next. Rebecca jumped as Yoki ranover and wrapped his arms around her, and Roy snapped the pictures.

“Squeeze you just like this!”

Rebecca tried to laugh off the attemptto fondle her that was passed off as 'demonstration of python’sability to strangle it’s prey’. God, like she hadn’t been the victimof that 'snake attack’ before. Men were so fucking stupid.

Roy heard the 'all aboard’ and left thedepot with his camera in hand. He almost ran into Riza and theshock of that, of being almost caught taking an incriminating photoof her best friend, made him look guilty for a split second. Hecomposed himself and said. “I’m so sorry!”

Riza looked at the camera. Why did helook guilty? He was just taking travel pictures. “No I wasn’tlooking where I was going, my apologies Mr. Mustang.”

Roy pointed to the train, “Betterhurry up or you’ll be late to that wedding.”

“I have to get the bride.” Rizasaid and walked into the dept to see Yoki with his arms aroundRebecca and she stormed over. “Train is leaving, we need to go.”

xxxxxxxxxxx

“What do you mean he took pictures ofme?” Rebecca asked. “Shit! I bet Alex’s Dad had him follow me! He’s trying to stop the wedding!”

“Although I would ordinarily shootdown your jump to conclusions, I am inclined to say that is probablythe case. There is nothing in that town he should be taking photosof because it is a waste of film.” Riza pinched the bridge of hernose. “Why are you flirting with that idiot? WHY?”

“Men are dumb, they’ll just give youthings if they get some attention.” Rebecca replied honestly. “Diamonds are a girls best friend.”

“You have to stop this, you have tostop manipulating men for gifts. You’re getting married!” Rizasat down and sighed. “If we can figure out how to get that filmback.”

“Get him drunk. Get the film back.” Rebecca said. “That man likes you. Bring him back here andsearch him for that film. He’ll have it on him if it’s reallyimportant.”

“Why is this my mission?” Riza asked. “This is your mess?”

“Because you’re my best friend andI..screwed up.”

“Fine.” Riza said and closed hereyes. “I really liked him.”

“Well he’s taking pictures of meand…that’s shady.”

“And you are flirting and lettingsome nasty mine mogul put his hands on you when you are gettingmarried in three days.” Riza said. “This is exactly whythe Armstrongs are worried about you. Dammit Rebecca, we’re nothaving to do this to survive anymore. You have something good,don’t ruin it.”

“Old habits are hard to break.” She replied. “I promise, I’ll stop. Please…please get thatfilm back.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“What is with you girls and buyshots?” Roy asked as he held another round of whiskey in front ofhimself and rubbed his eyes. He appreciated that he had beeninvited to the private train car for dinner with Riza, skeptical ashe was about her motive, but had quickly been suckered into a cardgame. He was losing. Riza was quite the poker player and he wasfinding out she had an incredibly high tolerance for alcohol.

“It’s part of my job.” Riza saidand put down another winning hand. “They don’t pay me for singingand dancing, they pay me for bringing in the patrons and encouragingthem to spend money.”

“I get it.” Roy waved and realizedhe was going to have to drink this as a price to pay for losing ahand. Why couldn’t it be strip poker? He’d show those damnedOlympians what real abs look like. “My Mom owns a bar. I grew upthere.”

“Really?” Riza asked as he finallydrank and she watched him close his eyes and swallow. She liked himmore and more, which made it hard for her to follow through with hermission.

“Yes.” Roy said and put the shotglass down. “Not as classy as the Grand. Not as reputable. Christmas’s Bar, every hear of it?”

“Actually I have.” Riza said. His Mom owned a brothel? Dear god, no wonder he wasn’t judgmental. “We send frustrated men there when they learn we’re not for saleand the hotel concierge will arrange for the girls there to visitwith guests.”

“Yes.” Roy nodded and his headhurt. “They do that.”

“You look like you need to lay down.”

“Yes.” Roy replied and stood andwobbled a little. He didn’t even realize Riza was beside him beforeshe took his arm. “You really are good at cards.”

“You should see me play chess.” Shesaid.

“God…are you even real?” Heasked and she helped him over to the couch. “You’re beautiful,atheltic and smart and I can’t even be mad you lured me here and gotme drunk.”

She put a pillow on the couch andpushed him back onto it. “You saw though it and still came?”

As she leaned over him and he smiled. God she was beautiful. “I thought you were keeping me busy whileyour friend searched my room.”

“I…knew the film would be valuableand you wouldn’t store it there.” She said and started to friskhim. She started with his shirt pockets and hated herself forfeeling the muscles underneath and wishing this was on differentterms. “So who are you really? Do you work for the socialsection of the paper?”

“No.” Roy replied honestly as sheworked her way down his shirt and he remained powerless to toanything about it. The alcohol hit him hard. It was good shit.The Armstrongs didn’t spend money on any less. Her hands felt nicethough. “I’m a private eye.”

“A dick?” She asked as she ran herhand over his pant pocket and then blushed realizing the doublemeaning behind it all.

“No, that’s on the left. You’refondling film.”

She put her hand in his pocket andgrabbed the roll of film and leaned closer to him. His eyes werewatery and glazed over, his breath stank of booze and he looked sohelpless. “I meant 'Dick’ as in Private detective.”

“Yes, that too.” He replied andtried to move, but knew if he did he’s just get sick. The alcoholand the movement of the train was not a good combination. A terriblething to feel while underneath a beautiful woman.

She palmed the film out and then placeda light kiss on his lips. “I have to save my best friend. Thiswill ruin her and it’s not what is happening.”

“She’s lucky to have you watching outfor her.” He said and closed his eyes to succumb to the effects ofdrinking way too much.

Riza gave him another kiss andwhispered, “I wish would could have been in this position underdifferent circumstances. I really do like you, Roy Mustang.”

#fic #royai #gentlemen prefer blondes au

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