#watch Sarah couple together code in under three days

[readingwriter92]

Me: I can program a whole ass functional site in four hours sure

Also me: *spends two hours making two tables sit next to each other in css*

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Caring for Zero; Four/Billy x reader

*Author’s note*

Wow so many updates for you guys (even though the last two have been done for years) but still. Now ever since watching 6 underground like all of you out there I have been DYING to make a Four/Billy fanfic and so this was born. Now I apologize for the laziness in the main mission idk how to write an action sequence Michael Bay style (even though it’s all action and explosions and that’s it). So I hope you all can forgive me for it.

Warnings: MAJOR swearing, like rated R swearing, ANGST, some fluff, paralysis (you’ll find out I won’t spoil it for you), explosions, cultural references.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things​

@psychosupernatural​

@waddles03​

@ixchel-9275​

@mexifangorl​

@fan-of-everything-and-nothing​

@bohemiansweede​

@simonedk​

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“But the entire perimeter is patrolled not only by guards but by air fleets.” Said Three as the entire 6 Underground was looking over the map of their next missions, well mission and a half, maybe a quarter.

“Wait an air fleet? Why the fuck would someone have an air fleet patrol?” Four snapped.

“Because the guy’s an arrogant, cheap asshole that has cause too much military abuse of power. But no worries guys we’ve got an Ace up our sleeve.” One stated proudly.

“And just who is that exactly?” asked Seven.

“To answer that question with a question of my own, how do some of you deal with the cold?”

“Wait you don’t mean….” Started Five.

“Oh I mean.” One grinned.

“You know she won’t do it.” Two stated coldly.

“I agree with Two on this One, she said she never wanted a part of this again.” Four said defensively.

“Coming from the guy that slept with her.” One snapped at him like the smartass billionaire he was.

“Okay wait, wait just who are you all talking about?” asked Seven.

“No more questions, we’re going to see her now. Pack the gas jugs and let’s go.”

With that the group were forced to packed up their stuff from their haunted house in California and headed up North to the Yukon Alaskan provenience.  When all they saw was nothing but forests, Seven just had to ask Four.

“So who exactly are we going to see? And did One really mean what he said about you slept with her?”

“Look you’ll find out soon but I guarantee she’s not gonna help us.” Four spoke with a hint of pain and heartbreak in his voice.  Eventually after another hour of driving through the endless forest, they soon came up to a cabin that stood all alone in the middle of the woods.

From the chimney smoke came up which indicated that someone was home.

“And here we are.” One stated as he got out of the jeep in front.  Suddenly jumping out from the woods was a pack of wolves.  All ranging from light tan color to pure black.

“Oh shit!” Three cried out.

“In the cars now!” screamed Two.  But before they could make a run for it, two charcoal wolves came in front of the team snarling and snapping their fangs almost telling them ‘Just try and get past us!’

Soon the pack of almost over 10 wolves surrounded the team and just circled them.  All the team members withdrew their guns but it did nothing to stir the wolves out of fear.  The pack continued to circle the group and that’s when Five said.

“Still think this is a good idea One?”

“Well I could be wrong.”

It was then one of the wolves, particularly the large white one came right up to Four.  To say that Billy wasn’t scared shitless right now, he’d be lying.  He’s done many dangerous things in his life being the ‘Skywalker’ of the group, but staring down a possibly rabid, giant wolf was something he NEVER in a million years thought he’d be doing.

The white wolf looked at Billy and sniffed him a couple of times before ceasing his snarling and walked closer to him and sniffed his leg even closer.  It was like—the wolf detected something familiar on him. It was a faint scent but it still lingered there on his pant leg.

Then something caught the wolves attention as every single one of them ceased snarling and their ears erected as they turned towards the house.  The white wolf looked back towards Billy and Billy looked down at the haunting golden eyes of the black wolf before it took off running. Followed by the rest of the pack who barked and howled away as they disappeared back into the forest.

“Okay what just……” started Seven and that’s when a voice came out from the speakers of the cabin.

“You’re lucky I let them spare you, otherwise I’d let them rip you all apart.” With that the team slowly approached the cabin and when One was the first to look inside, he saw just a few feet away a young woman with (h/l) (h/c) doing pullups on a set of monkey bars.

“Sarah Connor, from Terminator 2.” One proclaimed.  The woman then flipped herself around and just hung onto the bars and sneered.

“Fuck you’re old!” At that One just let out a fake gasped-out laugh as he mocked her.

“Fake laugh, hiding real pain.”

*My POV*

I can’t believe this guys would come back, and what’s with the new guy? Where was six? I swear if this is the new six I’ll call my children back and have him ripped to pieces.

“Whose this guy?” I asked gesturing to the gunman still holding the AK-47 in his hands.

“This is Seven.” One simply stated.

“It’s Blaine actually.” Seven or should I say Blaine answered.

“Okay I’m still not gonna get used to that. Yeah a lot’s happened since you left.” One told me.

“So what? You’re now all chummy with each other? Going to café’s together to sit on a couch like you’re a group of Friends?”

“Yep that’s our Queen of the North, heart like Ice. This past two years have not done you well socially.” Said Three.

“Like you’re one to talk Three. Our last mission in Budapest you nearly killed our target just because he wouldn’t cooperate with the kidnapping.”

“Oh and he did it again with our real mission.” Said Two.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” I muttered.

“Look we came to ask for your help. Can you come with us?”

“Why would you need me One? I told you I can’t help you. Not in that way anymore.”

“You can’t or you won’t?” asked Blaine.  At that point I knew I had to show him.  Might as well get it over with.  I released my right hand and touched my watch with my nose and soon my automatic wheel chair came rolling under me.  I released my grip and landed right on my wheelchair and just stared at Blain like I was expecting the sympathetic eyes.

And there they were. His eyes widened and his jaw unclenched and dropped even though his mouth remained closed.

“Yeah, you can take a picture it’ll fuckin last longer you know.” I then took the motor handle and moved my chair towards One.  “And as I told you before, I won’t help you. I know the only reason you would come up here in person, with the whole team for that matter, is because you physically need me.”

“C’mon Zero we need our Ace back. For the new mission. It’s right up your alley and you know military corruption like no one else.”

“True but that still won’t make me help you.”

“(Y/n),” I heard Billy’s voice say.  I looked up at him and he looked at me with those kicked puppy dog eyes of his. “We need you.”

“You don’t need me. None of you do. Now please leave my cabin. I’ll give you the weapons you’ll need by tomorrow.” I wheeled out of my cabin and headed out to the backyard.

I looked out into the lake that stood by my backyard and that’s when I heard his voice say.

“(Y/n)—”

“I already told you Billy nothing you say will make me change my mind!”

“I already knew that.” I turned and looked at him and said.

“You do?” he nodded. “Then why are you here?”

“I just—wanted to see you. It’s been…..awhile.”

“Yeah, a long time since we—we’ve seen each other.” God the awkwardness you could just cut the tension with a knife.  Why did I have to fall in love with the cute green eyed thief? Why?! WHY!?

“Can’t we talk about….what happened between us?”

“Billy we talked about this.”

“No you just decided that we should end it! Why couldn’t you give me a chance to speak about how I felt!?”

“BECAUSE I DIDN’T WANT YOUR FUCKING SYMPATHY BILLY!!! Every day all I kept seeing was the look of sympathy in your eyes after that day. I knew you’d try to make me stay out of sympathy, not just for what you wanted. One knew I was practically useless except for building weapons. He wants all of us on the field or none at all. Cause if you aren’t, then you’re nothing but collateral damage.”

“He’s actually started to loosen up on the rules.”

“Oh really? The day I see that is the day I can walk again, and without the help of machines.”

“(Y/n), please.” He then kneeled down beside me and gently cupped my face in his hand.  I tried to fight back his touch but I couldn’t help but swoon at finally feeling that calloused touch that I’ve missed so much. “I’m sorry okay. I never wanted you to think I was acting out of sympathy, I was—you don’t know how hard it was for me to see you in that pain. I’d give anything for it to have been me in that crash instead of you. I thought I lost you that day, but in the end I did end up losing you. I’d give anything to go back in time to that day and stop you from getting in that plane.”

As he spoke, he pressed his forehead to mine (a common form of affection the two of us did to each other) his nose gently brushing against mine.  I then felt the familiar, intoxicating taste of his lips on mine. It was a brief kiss but it still held so much love, passion and regret behind it.  He then kissed my cheek, then my jaw, but just before he could kiss my neck I stopped him and rolled away snapping out.

“NO BILLY! Don’t! You can’t just—kiss me and expect everything to be okay! I already told you…..it’s over. So please don’t make this harder than it has to be.” His eyes were full of pain as he looked at me in shock.

“As you wish.” Damnit why say that? He knew that was our secret code for ‘I love you’.  And with that he just walked away.  I sniffled and wiped the tears that were starting to form in my eyes away.  I then heard a soft grunt at my side and there I saw my white wolf mixed German shepherd “Ghost” standing beside me.

He whimpered and sniffed my hand and licked it comfortingly before placing his head down on my lap. All the while he let out another whimper as he looked up at me with those haunting yet beautiful golden eyes.

“Oh Ghost.” I stroked through his thick white fur and I told him. “I know you smelled me on him. But I can’t go back to him. He—deserves better than a handicapped.”

“So you do still care about him?” we both turned around, Ghost snarling defensively as we turned and saw Blain standing behind us just a few feet away.

“Ghost Platz!” He turned toward me and using his former commands that he once learned as a K9 officer, he obeyed immediately.

“You taught a wolf K9 commands?” asked Blaine.

“He’s a wolfdog actually. All those dogs you saw were in some degree a species of wolf dogs. From mixed huskies or German shepherds like Ghost here, to the traditional Czech wolfdogs.”

“So what you just—rescued them?”

“Some. Others I found as puppies at the puppy mill just half an hour away from here. I found them, busted them out and raised them. But of course I kept my distance because of the wolf blood within them. What people don’t seem to understand with wolfdogs is that they are just dogs that look like wolves. But they are also half wolf too, and sometimes that trumps the dog half within them. Two different species colliding together trying to overcome till one just takes over whether dog or wolf. And when the wolf takes over, people reject it. Fear it.”

“You say that like you’re talking from experience.” I grinned.

“You could say that. My team didn’t call me ‘Bad Wolf’ for nothing.”

“You mean the others?”

“No. My old team, my flying team. Before I got this job I—was an officer in the US Air Force. Officer (Y/n) “Bad Wolf” (L/n).”

“Wait. I think I heard about you from a former friend of mine. Carol Larson.”

“Ahh good old Carol. How was she last time you ever saw her?”

“She seemed fine. Last I knew she was gonna have a baby.”

“Ahh my older sista from another mista. That girl taught me everything I needed to know. I became the female Maverick thanks to her.”

“Now I hope you don’t mind me asking but from one Military officer to the other, was it a field mission that—”

“Oh no this? Nah this was from working with those sons of bitches you’ve got roped in with. Can’t say I blame them, hell none of us saw it coming.”

“What exactly happened?” I sighed heavily and turned towards him.  Sensing my distress and anxiety, Ghost came up to me and placed his head back on my lap and I explained.

“It was while we were still looking for information on the Turgistan dictator. One of our quarter missions. I was the eye in the sky for the team to take out any in coming police choppers or dick face’s military birds. I was having the time of my life, taking down one bird after the next. I was on point, before I knew it I had a bandit at my six. I tried to shake it off but it wouldn’t get off, nothing I did deterred it. Next thing I knew I was flying dead stick.”

I lowered my head remembering that horrible day like it was yesterday.  It’s true what they say about PTSD.  It never leaves you, even when you’re no longer part of the military.

“As you know One was gonna leave me out there, the entire plane was leaking of fluid and gas. It was gonna blow, but—for some miracle Billy managed to find me and he—pulled me out of the wreckage just as the plane blew up. Next thing I knew when I woke up, I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. At first I thought Five had to amputate my legs. Then again I wish she had.” I chuckled icily. “L3-L4 spinal injury, been paralyzed from the waist down for the past two years.”

“But you should be thankful that you’re alive.” Said Blaine.

“Is it really worth living when you have to look down at your feet and be reminded that they are useless. Like I said, I wish Five had amputated them. So that way I wouldn’t have to fucking look down at these useless mother fuckers and be reminded of my screw up! And Billy he—”

“Deserved better. Yeah I heard that, but did it ever occur to you that he would rather want you alive than to see you dead that day? On the way up here he just got this heartbroken look in his eyes. And I know he tries to hide it but I’ve seen the picture of you two together in his trailer.”

“Oh my god I thought I told him to burn that picture.”

“Billy loves you (y/n). And he still seems to.”

“I wish he didn’t.”

“Why is that?”

“Because after my accident I can’t give him what we once had. I’m just dead weight to him at this point. A Zero. And nobody cares about Zero.”

“He does. But then again I guess that is you. So if you wanna sit here in self-pity licking your wounds, that’s fine by me. But if you’re as good as One says you are, then prove that not even losing the ability to walk can’t stop you.”

“You know you speak as if this is from experience yourself. What branch were you from soldier?”

“Army. Delta Force.”

“Huh, and just what were you to them?”

“Sniper.”

“Ohh well look whose special. Got a Hawkeye on the team now.” Blaine grinned softly.

“Yeah. Survivor’s guilt is a bitch so I know about military corruption too. What it’s like for you to try and do your own thing but your superiors won’t do that. So if you can find it in your heart to save those soldiers under Hassan’s ruling from making the biggest mistake of their lives, then come with us. Or like I said just sit here and wallow like a wounded dog. Your choice Officer (l/n).” he saluted me before walking off.

*3rd Person POV*

After the failed attempt at getting their Ace back, Two asked as they arrived back at the cars.

“So now what? We knew she wouldn’t help us, so what do we do now?”

“We still stick with the plan and hopefully those weapons she gives us tomorrow won’t fuck us over.” One stated as he got back in the front car.  As Billy and Blaine got in the second car, Blaine couldn’t help but notice the heartbroken expression on his face.

“She’ll come around.”

“I doubt it. Two years and she still doesn’t want to see me.”

“Every soldier goes through grief differently. But when she snaps out of it, she’ll be back, and she’ll need you when she does.” He gave Billy a brotherly pat on the shoulder as Five drove them out of (y/n) home and they drove all the way back to their home base.

The next day the weapons arrived from (y/n) and so the team decided to go on and move forward with the mission so they were on their way to Iran through one of One’s personal jets.

After awhile they arrived just a few miles away from where their target, Iranian military General Hassan Yazin was currently residing in his home palace just behind the Iranian military station.

“I still can’t believe this guy would choose the build his palace behind a military station.” Said Three.

“Look the quicker we’re in the quicker we’re out.” Snapped Four.

“I don’t know something doesn’t feel right here, usually a military base wouldn’t allow anything not even a jet to land within 100 miles of their base perimeter. So how were we able to get close enough?” asked Seven.

“I don’t know, but I prefer not to question it. Four’s right the sooner we get him, the sooner this mission is done. And I don’t want any fuck ups like what happened on our first mission.” One said.

“Okay fine, fine.” And with that the team moved forward.  Quick as they could they raced towards the base towards the first hiding spot they could find which was a tank.

“Alright I think I can make it to the east side of the tower and get a clear viewing of Hassan’s palace but I’ll need backup.” Seven said.

“Three and I got you covered till you clear it.” Two told him.

“You know I’m beginning to agree with Seven. I mean we haven’t even seen a single guard on patrol. And usually we run into some by now.” Said Five.

“Again not questioning it! Now get into your positions.” At that point the team started to move forward.  Seven raced towards the tower with Two and Three covering him in case of an ambush. Once they cleared the tower, Seven proceeded to scale up the tower thanks to the tools designed by Zero.

But just as he was about halfway up the tower, suddenly the sound of a jet flew right over head.  However it wasn’t just any jet or plane for that matter, it was a C-5 Super Galaxy.

“Ahh shit!” Seven swore.

“Motherfucker!” swore One.

‘Did you all really think I would make it easy for you?’ through the speaker’s Hassan’s voice rang out.

“Shit, he knew we were coming for him.” Two snapped.

‘Now I may not know who you six are exactly, but it seems you all are of unimportance. So your death wouldn’t even matter. Especially if it were from shall we say…..an accidental base explosion.’ The Galaxy C-% opened up and soon about 20 jets flew out of it and began to circle around the base.

Then faster than anyone could blink, all 20 jets rained fire down onto the base.

Seven scaled down the tower as fast as he could but was soon caught in the explosion and fell the rest of about 6 feet from the ground before he, Three and Two made a break for it before the tower could crush them.

Meanwhile One, Five and Four tried to find cover but every step they were blocked off by an exploding blaze of fire.  They knew they were majorly fucked.  With this constant rain fire, One knew there was no way he or his team was gonna get out of this alive.  As he managed to crawl

From his palace, General Hassan Yazin watched with pride as his military force rained fire on the supposed coup were now nothing but ants ready to be disintegrated one by one with each shots each of his jets dished out.

But suddenly the ships stopped firing down at the six members and changed their firing from the ground to further out into the sky.

“What the hell? Lieutenant what is going on?” he snapped into the commlinks.

‘Sorry General, our radars have detected something from the upper atmosphere.’ His Lieutenant spoke out.  Peeking out from their hiding spots, all the members just looked up confused.

“The hell are they shooting at?” muttered Two.  But it was then they saw it.  Something came right out of the clouds and it turned out to be a Grumman F-14 Tomcat was heading straight for the giant C-5 Super Galaxy.  The Tomcat soon then just rammed into the side of the C-5 like it was nothing as it exploded.

It was soon the team began to realize that this was a very familiar Tomcat that circled back around towards the underbelly of the C-5 and it was at that point Three laughed manically as he cheered out.

“OH YEAH KAMIKAZE!!” The tomcat once again went through the C-5 from bottom to top and the explosion boomed like a firework as the team were in awe.

“God I love that psychotic bitch.” One said in awe. While Billy couldn’t help but smile and laugh ecstatically.

“That’s my girl.” He muttered softly.

*My POV*

As I shot back up over the roof of the C5 Super Galaxy jet, I watched as it fell to the ground in a grand overture of explosions knowing that not only that giant ship was now gone, but the rest of the artillery inside was gone too.  I knew the team was dealing with more jets than they had out there, so I downsized the problem.

Because no one messes with my family.

“You guys take care of the General and his ground fleet. I’ve got your back on the aerial ambush.”

‘It is good to see you again Zero, cutting it kinda close aren’t yah though?’ One’s voice spoke through my radio.

“C’mon One you knew I was one for dramatics. Plus you gotta admit I looked like Captain Marvel back there.”

‘God you and Four with your millennial references.’ I grinned smugly.

‘Glad to see you’ve come to your senses Zero!’ I heard Blaine say.

“Thank me once you guys get that son of a bitch in his palace. You all finished one mission without me, I intend to see this one to the end.”

‘You got it. Care to be our eye in the sky?’

“It’d be my pleasure sniper.” I then pulled the accelerator and my Tomcat took off.  I flew after the jets that were still out that didn’t get caught in the C-5’s takedown and had them chase after me, leaving my friends alone down there.

So far I managed to take five of the 20 jets so far and nearly got shot out of the sky by a few others.  But it wasn’t until I saw Billy was in trouble from not only the ground assault but the incoming aerial attack he didn’t know was coming right at his front.

‘Billy 12 o’clock!’ I proclaimed as I chased after one of the jets and fired at ready.

*Billy’s POV*

I heard (Y/n)’s voice in my earpiece and I saw one of Hassan’s jets heading right for me.  Just before I knew I was a goner, the jet exploded right before my eyes and I watched as (Y/n)’s tomcat flew right past me.  Up and down I saw her fly with ease and grace taking down each plane in her sight.

Even when some of Hassan’s soldiers tried to take down her plane, she fired at them blowing the ground from beneath them.  Doing her famed loop-de-loops and even going in between a tag team of jets forcing them to lose control before firing at them before they could get the chance to recover.

As I fired at any soldier nearby I could help but cheer for my baby. As he place flew right over me once again I couldn’t help but cry out.

“TOM CRUISE DOESN’T COMPETE WITH YOU LOVE!!!”

‘Damn straight he don’t!’ She cheered.  I widely grinned and shook my head at seeing her in her element.  She really was like a Falcon in the air, but a She wolf on the attack.

‘Hate to interrupt the little love fest going on here but can we please focus back on the mission? Four I want you, Three and Two to head into the mansion and get that slimy son of a bitch before he tries to deck out.’ One’s voice rang out.

“Got it.” I then raced on ahead with Two and Three coming right beside me and the two of us entered the mansion.

For some reason and I have no idea why but Hassan barely had any guards left to protect him inside which was suspicious to me.  After I had just taken down a guy along the upper hallway near where Hassan’s room was said to be, I looked out the window to see Hassan trying an escape attempt through a chopper.

“Fuck!”

‘What’s going on Four?’ Five asked.

“He’s making an escape in a chopper.”

‘Not for long he won’t.’ (y/n)’s voice said.  Soon enough I saw her flying in and with just a few dropped bombs I saw the fireworks blow up his chopper.

“Two, three he’s outside let’s go!” I slid down the railings before successfully landing on the ground and we raced out the backdoor.  There I saw the rest of the team surrounding him, my girl’s Tomcat having an addition to it as she now aimed a GAU-17A machine gun aimed right at Hassan.

He turned towards us and he must’ve known he couldn’t win.  Wow what a pussy.  He surrendered right then and there and we exposed him to the Iranian President with the recorded confession Two got out of him.  Soon the news blew up with News about the military corruption Hassan had played in the Iranian government.

And with that another mission concluded and we all once again went our separate ways, except (y/n) and I.

*My POV*

After the mission, Billy and I went back to my cabin because the two of us deserved to talk about what happens now since I’m officially back in the game.  Billy and I were lying on my bed and the two of us were staring at each other, our hands softly and occasionally brushing up against one another’s.

“You were right Billy.” He grinned and said.

“I know I’m right.”

“I’m trying to be sincere here, don’t push it.”

“You’re right, you’re right I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t give you a chance to explain because—well I thought you could do better than me. You know that I—can’t perform well anymore so I’m basically a rag doll from the waist down. How could you love someone like that?”

“For one thing that girl’s got a whole lot more to offer than just the incredible sex we used to have together.” He tipped my chin upwards so that I was caught once again in the spell of those enticing green eyes. “Love the sex was just a plus from you. What I really fell in love with was your wicked sense of humor, you’re a fucking badass pilot, you’re beautiful inside and out, and even when you fall down like shit on the ground, you pick yourself up and brush yourself off and keep moving forward. Like today for example, you didn’t let your paralysis stop you from flying that plane and taking down a C-5 Super Galaxy. A fuckin C-5, do you know how big those things are?”

“75.53m in length, 19.84m in height and wingspan of 67.91m.”

“See? Even your brain is beautiful love.” He praised as he cupped both sides of my face.  The two of us smiled as I felt his thumbs brush against my cheeks.  “You see love, there is so much I loved about you. That I still love about you. So can we—pick up where we left off?” I thought about it and I said.

“Will you still make me those warm pancakes in the morning?” he laughed and said.

“I will make you pancakes for every single meal if it means that we can be together again.”

“Okay I’ll take you back.” He cheered and leaned forward and began to frantically kiss me all over my face.  I giggled as he was now starting to act like Max, my youngest pup who was such a lovebug even after the hell his owners put him through.

“Oh you won’t regret it love, I promise! I’ll help take care of the dogs, I’ll help with the chores, I’ll be your workout buddy, I’ll even push your wheelchair around—no screw it I’ll carry you from place to place.”

“Billy, I’m paralyzed but not incompetent.”

“Oh c’mon love, please let me just spoil you. Just this once please?” he cooed out as he pouted his bottom lip out and looked up at me with those puppy dog eyes again.  I groaned and said.

“Fine. But you can carry me only once a month.”

“Seven times a week.”

“Twice a month.”

“Ten times a month.”

“Billy!” I laughed.

“Okay, okay fine. Three times a month, that’s as low as I’ll go.”

“Twice a month.” I confirmed again.

“Okay. Twice a month.” We then kissed each other to seal the agreement.  “Why must you be so cute in order to get your way?”

“Not my fault.”

“No I think it is.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.” It was then he gave my sides a quick tickle which made me jerk up and take his hands in mine.

“No don’t do that!” I laughed.

“Why can’t I?”

“Because you know what tickling does to me, and I’m at a disadvantage now that I can’t kick you away anymore.”

“Oh really? Well then I think I may be tempted even more.”

“Billy!”

“Okay, okay I won’t tickle you. Yet.” I groaned and punched his arm which made him groan in pain. “Ow what the fuck that was hard!”

“Oh you big baby it didn’t hurt that bad.” He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me to pull me in closer to him.

“God I love you.”

“I love you too. And I really did miss you Billy, really.”

“Of course you did.”

“Don’t push it.” He smirked before capturing my lips with his again.  This time our kiss deepened as I felt him cup the side of my face. When air became a desperate thing, he separated from me and our breaths intertwined with each other’s.  “God I’ve missed kissing you.”

“How do you think I’ve felt?” he kissed my cheek and snuggled close to me.

“So you—you don’t mind if we don’t…..”

“(Y/n), it’s fine. The sex was just a plus with you. I don’t mind just cuddling close with my best girl.” He lay down and pulled me close so that my head was resting on his chest and I felt him stroke my back, specifically my lower back where my L3-L4 spinal points were located at.

“So you don’t mind having a paralyzed girlfriend?” I asked him.

“So long as that paralyzed girlfriend is you. I’m always gonna love you (y/n) no matter what. Never, ever doubt that.”

“I—I think I may need to be reminded again.”

“I’ll gladly tell it to you a million times a day if it’ll get you to understand.” I felt him kiss the crown of my forehead lovingly and I breathed in his intoxicating scent that I always found addictive.  His cologne mixed with a bit of sweat from his parkour scaling.  I closed my eyes and buried my face into his chest and embraced my love once again for the first time in two years.

“I love you Billy. My King of the skies.”

“And I love you (y/n), my Queen of the skies.” And with that the two of us fell asleep together holding each other close and exchanging kisses every now and then.

[finalfrontierpioneer]

2019 Fic Recs

To celebrate the end of 2019 (and also to procrastinate on my own fics!), I figured I’d round up 19 of my favorite fics of the year! Now, to be clear, these were all written (at least partly) during 2019, and they’re all complete. But that’s like all they have in common. They’re from random fandoms and some are def explicit and they’re in no particular order, but mostly it’s Riverdale lmao. Bc i’m trash and i ain’t ashamed.

Starting out with the Riverdale here babyyy:

Things unrequited by Bearfacedcheek

New Veronica, new type?

Set after S01E01 Veronica decides that Jughead Jones is the perfect antidote to all the bad romantic and moral choices she always seems to make. But making Jughead hers doesn't prove as straight forward a task as she expects

No peace nor rest by Bearfacedcheek

They're not stupid. They know there's no peace in revenge. But the sight of Betty and Archie together makes them stupid and whisky makes them weak, so they take the only revenge they can.

Set post 2x08 Betty and Archie enter a relationship, leaving Jughead and Veronica heartbroken and a night of drunken revenge sex morphs into something far more complicated.

have i been too discreet? by partyhardy

In which Betty realizes she slowly watched Jughead fall for Veronica. 

keep telling myself i'm not the desperate type by Krewlak

The new kid at school argues with Veronica and it sparks something inside of Jughead. 

Supporting Characters by torombolo

Maybe this was inevitable, Jughead thought, staring at the couple in front of him. He spared a glance at Veronica. From the look on her face, she thought the same thing. Betty and Archie. Archie and Betty. Perfect. The American Dream.

“Fine,” the dark-headed girl had told him, “I’m fine.”

“Me too,” he said convincingly. Whether he was trying to convince her or himself he wasn’t sure.

But Darling, Who Ever Said That Love Was Fair? by bothromeoandjuliet

There is no room for blood and thorns in the bubblegum scented word that was Betty Cooper's life, and both Jughead and Veronica know it. But that doesn't mean that they can help what they are or what they feel. Only, nothings fair in love and friendship. 

Hindsight, As They Say, Is Twenty-Twenty by bothromeoandjuliet

Betty's always wondered why Jughead Jones broke up with her, and now, eight years after the fact, she finally gets her answer. (A one shot/drabble ft. past!bughead, and past!veggie, with a healthy dose of jeronica sprinkled all the way through.) ((Also I manage to write fluff that doesn't just turn to angst!)) (((So thats exciting)))

Some Stucky:

This Side of the Blue by notlucy

Tucked against a set of crumbling, stone steps was a tank made of metal and glass, filled to the brim with greenish water, distorted sunlight filtering through and casting strange shadows. Playing tricks on the eye. A trick was the only explanation for what Steve saw floating there. This figment of his childhood. This myth. This legend.

Within the tank, the siren bared its teeth.

Paper Tree by Ellessey

Bucky just laughs and shoves another bite of egg in his mouth, giving Steve a shrug and a full-cheeked smile. He's so damn cute Steve wants to shout at him, but he can't seem to say any of the right things. "Shoulda got you a comb for Christmas," is what he comes up with instead.

"What did you get me?"

It's Steve's turn to shrug now, and if he looks more terrified than cheeky as he does so, he can only hope Bucky doesn't catch it before Steve hurries out the door.

--

On December first, Steve wraps up a letter for Bucky and sets it under their Christmas tree. Now he has twenty-four days left to figure out how to tell Bucky what he wrote, face to face.

Political Animals by crinklefries, Deisderium

Okay, so the real problem is that you shouldn’t fuck your arch-rival, political enemy, and the person you loathe the most in the world where you work. Or like, at least, you shouldn’t keep doing that.

But okay, the thing that Descartes or whoever didn’t know was that Steve really tries, but Bucky Barnes has a mouth that should probably constitute an eighth sin or something.

Jesus fucking Christ, Sam’s going to kill him.

(or—Steve’s best friend is the U.S. Constitution and he can’t seem to stop fucking a hot Republican. They shouldn’t fall in love, but somehow they do. That’s it, that’s the fic.)

like heaven stood up in you by napricot

“You said you were gonna miss him,” says Bruce slowly. “He was supposed to be back in five seconds, but you hugged him and said ‘I’m gonna miss you.’”

Bucky’s face is serene again now, and gives nothing away. “I know Steve,” he repeats. “You think you can hand him a time machine and some rocks of unspeakable power and he’s just gonna go put ‘em right back where they belong?”

Steve does put the Infinity Stones right back where they belong. He just does a couple other things too. Or: three timelines and a Reverse Time Heist.

Drive It Like You Stole It: A Bodyswap by AggressiveWhenStartled

Steve had gone fully red-faced with pedantic altar-boy fury. “Did your computer forget how to Google translate?” he bellowed, sticking his head up and over. Bucky yanked him down again. “What are you even trying to say?”

Bucky tried to shake the sparkles off the grenade he had been planning on lobbing over the divider. “It sounded like Latin to me,” he said reasonably, pursing his lips and frowning at the explosive. It dripped a sparkle, and a puff of purple smoke curled up where it hit the concrete.

“That’s because you spent Sunday school flirting with Sarah Cunningham,” Steve accused, bobbing back up to throw his shield and ducking back down to dodge a shining ball of blue light. “You wouldn’t know Latin if it came up and kissed you on your ugly mug.”

“I’d sure know it if Sarah Cunningham did, though.” Bucky grinned, struck by the memory. “That gal really knew what she was doing.”

Some DC stuff (Halbarry):

Iconoclast by the_mythologist

When an alien race’s covert invasion and assassination spree decimates the Supercommunity, the survivors must band together to defeat against an unseen, invincible enemy. With many of their greatest heroes off-world or dead, the remnants of the Justice League, Teen Titans, Birds of Prey, Batfamily, and a few unaffiliated ‘heroes’ are all that stand in the way between the ‘Iconoclasts’ and Earth’s annihilation.

John Constantine is most unamused.

Slowing Down by Cinderstrato

It hadn’t been long after they first met before Barry began to suspect, in a vaguely-formed way, that it would be easy to fall in love with Hal.

sweating out a hot day by magnetocent

it's a hot day, but barry decides it's not hot enough 

Okay now some one-offs from random fandoms/pairings:

Off The Record by crookedswingset

Peter Parker is a corporate lackey whose sole job is to root out problem executives who waste Oscorp’s money and time. Wade Wilson is a reserve Avenger on the hunt for a prize even Iron Man couldn’t nail down: the real identity of everyone’s favorite webhead.

Too bad most people think Spider-Man is Harry Osborn.

Stars Beneath His Skin by ElloPoppet

On the white piece of paper was a smattering of small, black dots. McCoy turned the paper, in search of a pattern or alignment of some kind but not finding even a trace. The dots appeared to be drawn at random or rather, McCoy noticed as he squinted, printed. He looked up at where Spock was standing over him and returned a cocked eyebrow of his own.

“If you need help cracking some kind of code, this isn’t exactly my specialty, genius.”

Rather than banter back, Spock responded immediately and smoothly. “It is not a code. That is the alignment of stars that would have been visible in the night sky from Earth should one have been standing at the coordinates where my Mother was born at the moment of the occurrence.” Silence blanketed the room, McCoy not having a goddamn clue how to respond to that. Luckily, Spock wasn’t finished.

“I wish to memorialize her with what most races would call a tattoo, and I would like your help with the matter.”

Too Close To Love You by stylescoalition 

Aleks used to have a big crush on Brett but he doesn’t anymore, which is great considering they work together, on top of being good friends (suuuper lit). Now, Aleks is going to be living with Brett in LA until he finds a place of his own, but just because he isn’t crushing on Brett doesn’t mean that Brett isn’t crushing on him. Suffice to say, it makes things complicated… except it really isn’t as complicated as they think. 

drawn to wilder nights by detectivemeer

Scott and Derek start a frenemies-with-benefits relationship, and it goes about as well as one would expect.

[deafwestnewsies]

and oh, don’t you want to get better?

Davey reaches the end of his wits, while Jack finally gathers his. 

companion piece to from his lips came forth the world, read that first! both on my ao3 and ff.net. 

jack kelly x davey jacobs

Of things to be grateful for, the fact that Spot’s looks couldn’t actually kill was very high up on Jack’s list. If the hypothetically deadly glares had any weight behind them, he knew that Davey would have been a goner by the time he had stepped into his apartment. 

Spot came stumbling in after Race, groggily rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “I’ll kick yer ass, Kelly, swear on me mother’s gra-” (The gaelic accent tended to rear it’s Irish head whenever the boy was especially tired) Just as his boyfriend had been taken aback, Spot stopped in the middle of the hallway behind Race. His gaping stare was illuminated by the light seemingly coming from the inside of Davey, making him glow in a forbidding way. 

Jack, tired of the evil supervillain act, flicked the living room light on and sat down on the couch. “I found him crying in an alley.” 

This caused Davey to break, sputtering out excuses and suddenly the electricity crackling up and down his body lessened. “Sorry,” Spot cut him off. “Who the hell is yer boy?” 

“My name is David Jacobs, and I am not his boy.” Jack scoffed from his comfortable position on the couch.

“You’re mine enough. I’m not the one wearing handcuffs.” 

“I could have killed you, Jack, do not start-” 

“Who was holding a knife to your throat?”

“Who drives a shitty blue Honda?” 

“Are you seriously making fun of my car right now? You’re my hostage!” 

“Which is totally illegal in the state of New York, by the way!” 

“So is robbery, dumbass-” 

Clearing his throat, Race raised an eyebrow. His facial expressions betrayed the humor he felt in the situation, watching his best friend bicker with the boy who had nearly killed him on a number of occasions. “Babe, if you haven’t caught on already, this is Override.” 

Spot had not caught on because of the exhaustion, but these words roared his brain to life. “You’re Override?” Race placed a gentle hand on his arm, reminding him that this was still an apartment building at three in the morning. “The puny little wimp who hides behind clouds?” 

Since Davey was now available to ask questions and figure out his dastardly plans, Jack was relieved that Spot’s looks could not kill. His fists, however, curling together, were a different story, and possibly just as lethal. “I do not hide behind clouds, thank you very much.” Davey sniffed. “The clouds are under my control. And it’s really an emphasis on lightning.” Jack rolled his eyes, tired of listening to the boy with the egotistical complex speak. He got to his feet and took Davey by the shoulders, steering him towards his bedroom. “Where are you taking me?” He questioned, struggling against the handcuffs. Why didn’t I get super strength instead? What the hell is energy going to do for me? “You have to let me go!” 

“Think of this as penance for the whole throwing me into a rosebush thing, asshole. You’re staying with us.” 

“Where are we going to keep him?” Race questioned, walking into the kitchen for paper towels. The coffee was staining the carpet. 

Metal cuffs. Green wiring. ...Some room for escape. “Materialize.” Before anyone could react, Jack cuffed one of his wrists to the chain connecting Davey’s hands. “Only I can make a key for these, and they’re resistant to your...” The gesture with his free hand was vague, waving at the glow still emitting from the body. “Whole thing. Hope you’re comfortable sharing a twin bed.” 

___

There were flaws in this plan, as there are in any half-baked ideas. The first was getting zapped awake by Davey, stating that he had an eight o’clock class where attendance was mandatory. Next was finding out a schedule for which the boys called ‘Davey Duty,’ where they each went to his classes with him to make sure that he didn’t run at the first chance he had. Last, and possibly the hardest roadblock of them all, was getting the boy to talk to them. 

“I’ll talk to you about literally anything else, but not my powers. I already told Jack everything.” Spot crossed his arms, irritated at the fact that they had held him in the apartment for almost two weeks and were getting positively nowhere. Soon, he was going to resort to making Davey stick his fingers in electrical sockets to see what happens, but Jack had called it ‘inhumane’ and ‘against our code,’ whatever the hell that meant. Race had been totally on Spot’s side. 

Jack and Davey couldn’t be in a room without picking a fight with one another, arguing about the lack of information Davey was giving over, or the fact that Jack had warmed up soup that Davey didn’t like the smell of. They found ways to push each other’s buttons until the other had to leave the room, hands flung in the air, frustrated. When they weren’t together, however, Spot and Race noticed the change in tone when the other boy was brought up. Davey, on more than one occasion, had praised Jack, “He’s good at what he does. There isn’t a hero I’d give the time of day that isn’t him.” On the other hand, Jack stopped Spot from conducting his experiments on the boy, and the couple knew exactly what that meant. If Jack wasn’t up for wacky tests on evil subjects, it could only mean one thing. 

“So r’we gonna talk about you and Kelly?” Spot questioned, casually leaning back in his chair. If he couldn’t do his research, he might as well have a little fun with it. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Davey answered, his tone final. He didn’t want to talk about Jack, the idiot in the latex rainbow suit who had caught him. Especially not since the fighting had been growing worse between them, the air in a room changing immediately the second they were both inside of it. Davey would be the first to admit that yes, he had done some terrible things to him in the past, but he didn’t know Jack was inside of the suit! Like, couldn’t he get over it already? 

It made his insides burn that Jack wouldn’t forgive him for his past actions. He would never understand that he did everything for his family, his brother and sister who worked so hard, his parents who bleed themselves dry for their children. Les was going through a rough patch and he shouldn’t have been punished for this. What was the point of having magical superpowers if you couldn’t use them to saving your own fucking family? The added financial stress began to make his head ache with worry. The next pay period for school was over in four days, and he had to pay both him and his brother’s tuition statements. 

There was no point in asking Jack to go home, even if for a moment, to explain to his parents what might happen. They would just fight and Davey would leave feeling worse than before. He didn’t want to think about the implications of these feelings, the ones he hadn’t felt since Stanley Eidelman wanted to be his lab partner junior year of high school. Stanley wasn’t just a lab partner in the end, but they ended things the same way Davey was trying to end things with Jack: fighting constantly. But that was ridiculous to say, because they were not anything, not lab partners, certainly not boyf- No. They were captor and captive. Tormentor and hero. Good and evil. 

“I won’t talk to anyone but Jack.” He crossed his arms to signify that he was done and he wouldn’t speak to Spot anymore. 

“Thas what I thought you’d say, Sparky.” The smirk on Spot’s face was enough punishment for Davey’s lifetime. 

___

A knock on the door rang through the room, startling Davey out of his quiet thoughts. “Heard you wanted to speak ta me?” Jack stood at the doorframe. 

“You don’t have to knock if you’re the one keeping it locked,” Davey spit at him. 

“Don’t get me started today, Jacobs. You’s the one who kept disagreeing the whole time we was talkin’ about Jane Austen and makin’ everyone feel weird.” 

Davey huffed loudly, turning to face the wall. “It’s not about that, even though you were wrong. She’s a great example of female literature.” 

He entered the room, sitting on his bed. “She believes too much in’er written men, but whatever.” It was strange, seeing his room inhabited by someone else. There were more textbooks on the desk, an extra pair of shoes by the door, the laundry basket piled up faster. He couldn’t find himself to be annoyed by the new additions, however, and he couldn’t figure out why. (You know the reason, his brain nagged at him.) “What’s it about then?” 

“Tuition is due on Friday.” There was no point in beating around the bush. Everyone in that apartment knew the motive behind Override’s evil acts of theft, and had watched as Davey Jacobs tried desperately to fix his family. “If I can’t pay it on time, I swear I’ll kill you.” 

Davey didn’t turn around to face him, and Jack was glad for that. The crestfallen look that had shadowed over his face for a split second was just a sign of weakness. The steely tone of Davey’s voice cut him as he threatened, “I’ll drop you in another lake and make sure you never come back up.” 

“All this for school?” Jack questioned, his tone pleading. 

“You don’t understand!” Davey roared, turning around in his chair. 

Backing up, growing closer to the doorway, Jack held out his hands. “You’re right. But Davey, please. Make me get it. Let me help you.” 

The words he was prepared to throw like bolts of lightning died in his throat at Jack’s soft tone. They reminded him of the days when his father asked him to help with bills, his barely educated mind not understanding what was due when. Or how his mother would look at him and Sarah at the grocer’s till, waiting for them to translate what was expected of her into Hebrew so she could understand. Make me get it. 

“You won’t get it. You’ll never understand.” There was nothing Davey wanted to do more than shoulder his way past Jack and storm out of the room, but he was trapped there. Trapped in this room, trapped by his money, trapped by his own feelings. 

There was a soft click as the door shut and locked behind him. 

Trapped. 

___

He should’ve known the moment there wasn’t an answer to the knock on his door. Assuming Davey was asleep, Jack settled to try later in the day, but no one answered then, too. In a panic he flung open the door, finding an empty room with the window curtain fluttering in the breeze. The broken panes of glass littered the grass beneath it, with no body or blood to be found. Jack breathed a deep sigh of relief, Davey was still alive, he could still be rescued. 

Not that he’d call being held captive rescue. More like rehabilitation. 

It wasn’t difficult to find him, he was being sporadic with his movements and weather patterns. Race tracked him within thirty seconds, giving Jack an address to a park that wasn’t too far away, about a five minute drive if Jack really tried to ignore speed limit laws. (Which he did normally.) Throwing on his suit and leaping into his car, Jack careened down roadways until he pulled up next to Larkin Park. 

Immediately he knew that Davey was still here, the air was charged with energy and the clouds swirled around overhead angrily. He felt damp, like it had just finished raining but his socks were wet, so the discomfort lingered but the aerial magic was gone. “Davey?” Jack called out, the name echoing in the wind. Race hissed at him to be quiet, Davey could be in an unstable state and Jack wanted to have the upper hand in the situation. 

After some rooting around in the trees, Jack came across Davey sitting quietly on the floor. He was surrounded by trees, a carpet of grass underneath him, and looked almost peaceful if it were not for the pile of money sitting in front of him. The image stopped Jack cold, and Race asked if he was okay, his heart rate was fluctuating, did anything happen? Instead of answering him, Jack slowly walked toward Davey. The wind whistled in his ears, hard and fast. 

“Davey?” At the sound, the boy turned around in shock. The speed of the wind picked up, making Jack shiver with terror. He could feel the electricity in the air, he could taste it on the currents. 

“I told you, Jack.” His voice was low. “I told you I would do anything for my family.” 

“But you didn’t! You never said it was about them! It was always about school!” 

His laughter was maniacal and Jack swore his heart stopped beating for a moment. This was not the boy who he had been teasing for weeks, bickering about classic literature and which poptart is the best. This was another man entirely. “You’re a fool, Jack. It’s always been about my family. My parents worked so hard to get here. My sister is a genius, but they won’t see her as anything but the coffee girl. My brother wants so much but I can’t give it to him!” Thunder rolled across the sky to mask the quiver in his voice on the last words. 

“I’ll do anything for them.” 

Grey. 

“It’s a waste to not use what I have for them.” 

Steel. 

“I could do anything for you too, you know.” 

Slick to the tou- What? 

The thought of the throwing knife abandoned itself in his mind as he thought about the sentence Davey had just said, the quiet tones of embarrassment evident. I could do anything for you too, you know. Just as he was about to respond, a gust of particularly strong wind blew the words right out of him and took the pile of cash with it. Money fluttered around them in different directions as Davey howled, desperately grabbing at the air. The swirling eye of the storm gathered most of it and left the boy hunched over on his knees. 

“Davey,” Jack moved to touch his shoulder, thinking the storm had finally passed. 

“No!” He howled, shooting a bolt of lighting back at Jack. He ducked in just enough time, but the energy hit the tree behind them and erupted into flames. The dark, grey light of the storm above was now terrifyingly mixed with the orange glow of the fire, illuminating the tears running down Davey’s face. Jack didn’t hesitate this time. 

Grey. Steel. Slick to the touch. “Materialize,” he whispered, the sound barely audible against the bouts of thunder. He flicked the knife with precision, landing it into Davey’s leg and wincing at the scream of pain. 

He rushed to Davey and hunched over him with care, tears running down his own face, and Jack finally looked into Davey’s eyes. He was defeated. He was tired. Jack was not. “Jack.” Davey tried to speak, but it came out in more of a croak. “I’m sorry.” 

The fire roared behind them, the lighting cracked across the sky, but Jack held Davey in his arms. “Yea, Dave. I got you.” 

I Am Emotionally Drained. Be Ready For Lesbians Next Part Of This. 

[pandawritesmanythings]

Break Dance (Part 1/???)

We all knew it couldn't last forever. But it didn't mean we wanted it to end.

It all started when Jenna disappeared from our room one night. I had been sheltered my whole life and my parents had always been on top of me to make me the perfect child they wished for. So I was scandalized when I heard that my best friend had broken the curfew and escaped the girls' dorm.

"Where were you!?"

"Shhhhhhh! Not so loud" She giggled. I was just amazed at her lack of worry for the consequences this could bring for her.

"You don't get it, do you? You could get expelled for this! What will your parents say?" I angrily whispered.

"Well, what they don't know won't kill them."

I gaped at her. "Who are you and what did you do with Jenna?"

She laughed. "Sarah. I'm fine. I just wanted a night of fun, that's all!"

"And you got it by sneaking out? What were you even doing?"

She bit her lip smiling, her eyes had a spark of mischief that I had only seen in her when talking about Andrè Lozano who studied on the Academy next door for boys.

"If I tell you, you have to swear silence."

"Jenna-"

"I can't tell you otherwise! And I know for a fact that you won't report me."

She had me there."Okay, I swear."

She squealed, apparently happy for being able to tell me whatever were her adventures. She pulled me to her bed and we sat next to each other. Her hands held mine, in confidence.

"You know how there were rumours about Cecile planning a little get together with the best dancers on the academy?" I nodded."It's bigger than that. She is recruiting people for secret dance practice."

"A secret dance practice? Why not do it after class then?"

"We call it that. But it's really... A dance battle. Between the boys and girls."

"WHAT!?" She covered my mouth quickly and we both tensed up, a feeling of dread creeping up our stomach. After what seemed an eternity we both quietly sighed in relief.

"You guys are meeting with boys!?" I quietly panicked.

"It's not what you think! We are not doing anything... forbidden... We just challenge each other to dance battles. It's great practice."

My breath quickened, this was wrong, it was against the rules! Couldn't they see that!? "Hey. Hey. Calm down. I promise it's just dancing. Nothing else."

"It doesn't matter Jenn. You guys are, number one, sneaking out of the academy, number two, breaking the curfew, and number three, seeing boys without supervision! This is terrible, it must be breaking at least 5 more rules in the book of law!"

"Okay. Look, don't freak out, okay? You are my best friend and I really can't hide it from you." Is this what best friends do? I wondered.

"I need you to do something for me."

"What?" I almost snapped. This was not okay, and she knew it.

"Cover for me, would you?" I scoffed and stood up, I walked towards the window. I saw a couple of girls climbing up to their rooms, probably coming back from that forbidden meeting that Jenna had just arrived from. 

I took another look at her. Her hair was messy and pointed in many directions, her clothing under her black coat seemed to be all messed up, and her soft makeup ran a little down her cheeks thanks to the intense sweating from climbing up here and dancing."I need to think about it." I concluded. "For now, let's clean you up, you look like a mess."

We spent the next thirty minutes fixing her for bed as quietly as we could. I repeatedly asked her to be honest with me. If something besides dancing had happened I had to know. But she kept saying the dancing was just very intense. I wasn't fully convinced but there really wasn't anything that could serve as evidence of any illegal activities happening. When we finally went to bed it was late. Like, very late. But I had made up my mind.

"Fine. I'll cover for you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But if something illegal happens you have to tell me, okay?"

"I promise."

"And don't drag me with you."

"Awww, come on! Not even once?"

"No. Not even once."

She ended up dragging me with her.

I kept telling myself that I was just going to be watching for her, but I knew that on the back of my mind there was a nagging curiosity that I needed to satisfy. The first time we sneaked out it was the day right after finals were over. Jenna agreed to it since she knew there was a lower probability of us being caught, and my stress over finals would be over. 

After lights went off we dressed in the dark with some of our home clothes. It felt good to be wearing something besides our regular uniforms. Our dark clothing meshed with the darkness of the night, so leaving our room unnoticed through the window wasn't very hard. When we touched the ground I started to panic though. The guards were doing their rounds and passed us every minute and twenty seconds, but Jenna seemed unaware of the pattern and her movements around the faculty campus were erratic, guiding herself by her hearing and instinct, instead of simple calculations like we were taught.

"Okay. I can't keep on like this, wait." I whispered.

"You are not chickening out are you?"

"What!? Of course not." I desperately tried to quiet her down. "I just want you to follow my lead."

I moved in front of her to have a clear view of where the guard would be when he passed by. After less than a minute he walked by, whistling a happy tune. It didn't make me feel better, in fact, it made me tenser, I felt like I was about to blow up in embarrassment and guilt!

I waited about ten seconds for him to leave enough time for us to go. I grabbed Jenna's hand and sprinted quietly towards the 9-foot tall fence.

"Now what?" I panicked.

"Over the vines." She commanded.

We quickly got to a closed section of the fence that was covered by vines to the point where you couldn't see the fence at all.

"Move it here." She grabbed one of the vines and softly pulled it opening a section of vines that covered the fact of how the fence had a hole on it. I gaped at it, but knowing that we probably had about 20 more seconds I quickly went through it. Jenna followed and we waited in the little pocket that the vines created for both of us to hide slightly squished together.

I heard steps both to my left and my right. The guards were positioned not only inside, but also outside. We gave it ten seconds so we would be out of sight for them and we exited the vine pocket.

Jenna held my hand and from here on we ran, down the hill and through the forest, I started seeing little, barely noticeable marks on the trees we flew by. Like little repetitive dents in the form of a half moon.

After running for about ten minutes we came to a small abandoned town. The buildings were mostly run down, but still standing. I was amazed at seeing a town that had not been yet rebuilt by The Council. The windows were dirty from time and inside I could still see some of the old furniture. Every building had a different sign:

Pub

Mia Pizza

Music Shop

Florist

Melany's Crafts

And so on and forth.

I saw one that said books, and a little idea made me stop. I had already read every book that the library at Julius Academy could offer, and I knew a lot about the now, but... What if inside I could find more about Before? I shook my head at my idiocy. 

Every book that wasn't approved by the council was burned to ashes! It was impossible for the rundown town to have anything I hadn't already read. We kept moving until the end of the town where a building, that didn't seem to have any doors, was standing.

Jenna stopped in front of it. "Now. I'm just going to prepare you, there is loud music, and people dance all squished together, but if you want to leave I'll take you back to our room, okay?"

I took in a big breath. "Okay. I'll be fine!" I smiled at her, but I was honestly telling that to myself more than her. I was terrified.

On one of the sides, there was a graffiti with the phrase: "Live. Laugh. Love." In gigantic letters. She knocked in the middle of the "u" of "laugh" three times. I jumped when someone knocked back two times, and she knocked back once more. Then the door opened.

A boy with red hair opened the door, and my ears finally catch the sound of muffled music. 

"Spot! Welcome back! Coming to celebrate after finals I suppose?" He said motioning us in and closing the door behind us.

"Yeah! This is my friend, I wanted to show her the place. Tell her the rules." She said excitedly.

He smiled at me tenderly, my expression probably being of sheer terror because I was in a room with a boy for the first time of my life.

" 'Sup, my name is Nyel. Welcome to the UnderBeat." He extended his arm and stood at his distance from me. This made me relax a little bit more.

"Hi, my name is-" "NONONONO!" Jenna interrupted me. "We don't know each other's real names. We go by name codes so if we get busted no one really knows who the others are."

I stood thinking for a moment. "Well, I guess that makes sense." I looked back at the green-eyed guy and cocked an eyebrow. "But isn't Nyel a name?"

"Nah, it's a part of my name slightly changed and re-arranged, but it would be too complicated for your little head to comprehend." He slightly leaned in towards me.

I didn't blink. "I believe some of the possible names could be, Nathaniel, Daniel or Nile."

He gaped at me. "Well, remind me to check on my personal biases. Spot, this girl is smart, be sure to drag her back every once in a while. Some guys here could really use some setting straight on what girl power means." He smiled at me and I smiled a little prouder. "Welcome to the family."

He was still keeping his distance and I extended my hand to shake his. He hesitated for a moment but shook my hand with excitement nonetheless.

"Welp! Formalities aside, let's get you started. First, you need a code name. Don't worry, I'll tell you if any is currently occupied." He said while grabbing a clipboard.

"What should I choose? I have no idea."

"Well, many choose something that represents them, or something that they like or an encrypted part of their name." He signalled himself.

I looked at Jenna. "Spot?"

"My style of dancing. Ballet on the spot. Long stationary pirouettes." She twirled to prove her point and I giggled.

"Then... Maybe... Swan?" I looked shyly at him and he beamed at me.

"Lemme guess! You like ballet?"I nodded and looked away with a tiny smile."Good, if you chose is 'cuz you like it!" He walked over to a shelf that held a variety of paints and started picking some out. "So, black and white?"

"And some pink, if you can..." I added.

"Deal." He said grabbing the last paint.

Moving a chair closer he sat in front of me. "Okay, look. I'm going to get closer than arm's length, but I need to be close to see what I'm doing. If at any point you feel uncomfortable or you would like me to step away, you tell me. Okay?"

I shuddered a breath. "Okay."

"Good. Now, let's get started."

I closed my eyes shut. In the darkness, the bass of the music still pumped into my ears. I felt his rough fingers touch my face and I slightly flinched away.

"Hey, it's okay! You are fine. Spot is right here."

"Yeah, I'm right here." Jenna reaffirmed me while putting her hands on my shoulders.

He grabbed my face softly and almost immediately I felt the soft pressure of the brush and the coldness of the paint spread through the bridge of my nose, my cheekbones, temples and forehead. He worked slow and progressively, expanding throughout my face, making spirals, small strokes and touches that were parallel on both sides of my face. I slowly relaxed and focused on feeling. Feeling the strokes on my face. His hand searching for a soft way to support himself without making me feel uncomfortable. Jenna's hands massaging every once in a while my shoulders when I tensed up. Feeling what I had never felt before, knowing that one day I may not be able to experience new feelings again, so I wanted to engrave these feelings on my memory. Forever.

"And, voila! Let me tell you, this might be my best one yet, it's simple, yet elegant and unique." I opened my eyes and saw Nyel holding a mirror his hands showing me my face.

"You look stunning Sa- I mean! Swan." I gasped when suddenly my brain processed the art on my face. It started white on my nose and slowly turned into soft looking black feathers on both my temples. Completed with pink swirls that seemed to come out of the sides of my face, from my hairline on.

"So. What'cha think gorgeous?"

I choked a laugh. "Wh-What do I think?" I asked softly touching my face. "I-I love it." 

"Aw, just part of the job darling." He said saluting me. "Besides, we had to make sure your virgin little ears would become accustomed to the pounding bass the goes on down there. Now go to Fatima over the booth, she'll give you something more comfortable to wear." He said pushing me towards a girl that was moving clothing racks around.

"Aren't we on code name basis?" I asked Jenna.

"Yeah, Fatima is her code name. She doesn't talk about why though, so better not ask."

"Oh, okay."

The girl wore a green and pink neon outfit, her dark curly hair slightly lighter than her natural complexion."So, Swan, right?" She said blowing bubblegum.

"Y-Yeah..."

"Great, come in here I have two ideas for you. One is very according to your style of dancing, the other is more... Flexible if you ever want to learn new styles. Which let me tell you, that often happens down here."

She led me inside a covered booth and tossed me two outfits. One that looked like a white ballet outfit but had a military black jacket over the top and the other one looked like comfy white sweatpants with soft pink dyes. A black strapless top and sports pink and white jacket with the words Nik on it. I was pretty sure there was another letter after the k but it was faded so I couldn't make it out.

I chose the second since it looked way comfier, and, honestly, I didn't want to wear another tutu out of practice.

"Ah! You look ravishing my dear!" Fatima squealed and hopped. 

"Absolutely gorgeous Swan!" Jenna confirmed. I gaped at her as I saw what she wore. More scandalized than anything. She wore red shorts with black tights and knee-length military boots. Her shirt was long sleeved on one side and the other showed her whole shoulder. Her slick brown hair tied into a high ponytail and red lipstick on her lips. 

"Was I in there for too long?" I worried.

"About ten minutes, we decided by the second that we were going to get me ready to go. Now, Fatima will do your hair, and I'll get my paint job done." Jenna explained and walked away.

Fatima looked at me with a smirk. "You have a fabulous friend. Let her give you fashion advice often, okay?" 

"Okay." I smiled shyly.

"How do you want your hair honey?"

"Simple, if possible, and make my makeup as simple as you can too." Fatima cocked an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless. "Your wish is my command!" She quickly raised my light brown hair into a messy bun and applied some shiny gloss over my lips.

"Okay, ready to see the UnderBeat?"

"I guess."

"Then look over there..."

It was amazing as if I couldn't recognize myself. That is not me in the mirror. Sarah Bell is not the one doing this... This is Swan.  

And suddenly, Swan seemed invincible.

"Ready to go down?" Jenna asked while her chin was resting on my shoulder. 

I took a deep breath. "Yeah, let's go."

We got out of the booth and I waved towards Nyel and Fatima as we approached the door. Jenna grabbed the handle and opened it. Immediately I felt the heat and bass coming out at its full strength. My heart quickened as we stepped down to be greeted with a dim lit room, with red and pink soft lights on the corners that gave a very mysterious vibe to the whole room. Honestly, if someone else that I knew was in the room I wouldn't have known. It was dark, everyone's clothes were shining with neon colours, the areas with pink on my outfit and makeup were brightly lit, but it seemed like Nyle and Fatima had made an effort for being minimalist with the neon. So as I did in school, at first at least, I seemed to fit in and be almost invisible on the sea of dancing bodies.

At the end of the room, there was a box with discs and buttons that a girl with a tiger makeup was playing the music. We made eye contact at some point and she did finger guns my way, I just waved.

I thought Jenna would stay by my side at all times, but almost immediately someone pulled her away and I found myself lost in the crowd. Without my friend. In an unknown environment. Finally, I decided it was safer to stay by the walls. So there I stood for about thirty minutes, looking at the people dance in various styles to the rhythm of pumping salsa music.

If someone had paid any attention to me they could have thought I was bored. But you know what? I never felt happier. I was amazed at the girls who did a double step to the rhythm of the song, the guys who seemed to throw their bodies around doing acrobatics. Boys and girls danced next to each other holding hands and twirling together, but besides their hands, their bodies weren't actually touching.

I wished to join them... But I couldn't. I honestly didn't dare. I was already here and even if Swan seemed invincible, I, Sarah, was scared to death thinking of how many rules we were breaking and how many more I could break if I decided to join.

"Okay! Everyone having fun!?" The DJ talked into an old-looking mic. The crowd cheered back. "That's what I like to hear!" She pumped her fist on the air. "Now! I had a little idea that I would like for everyone to try!" I think she glanced my way.

"Your ideas suck Tigress!" A girl shouted laughing at her.

"Not as much as you do in math class Creak!" A chorus of Oh's and laughs followed. "Anyway. Boys on one line and girls on another. Let's mix this little party up!"

Everyone got in line and I saw Jenna beckoning me to come over, so I stepped in line next to her. I leaned over and whispered since the music had stopped. 

"What are doing?"

"I don't know, sometimes Tigress comes up with some crazy fun ideas!"

I thought back at the girl who had insulted the DJ. "You think she is going to get kicked out?"

"Who?"

"The girl who said the DJ's ideas were bad?"

"Ah, Creak? Nah, that's what we call down here as friendly bullying. Anywhere else it would be considered an offence, but for us is a totally laughable joke. I'm pretty sure nor Tigress nor Creak are mad for roasting each other." She shrugged.

"Roasting?"

"You know, when you say a hurtful truth on a joking -or not so joking- way." Oh dear, I was going to have to get used to this, wasn't I?

"Okay, everyone! Just follow my instructions and by the end, you'll challenge against whoever remains in front of you!"

I will what!? Nah man, that ain't gonna cut it.

"Jen- Spot, I don't think I can-" "Oh don't worry! As long as you don't end up with Wire you must be fine!" Jenna interrupted me while secretly pointing towards a guy who very clumsily tried to get in line. "He would trip you in a second." She laughed.

DJ Tigress began shouting out instructions on where to move. Soon I lost sight of Jenna, again. My thoughts screamed at me to keep alert, to not let my guard down on the sea of dancing people. 

"Stop!" We all froze into place. 

"Now look up at your partner."I looked up and my eyes met with a pair of brown ones.

"Hey." 

Was I sweating? I swear I was sweating.

"H-Hi." Don't stammer you, idiot.

"And now, get ready! Cause the competition is about to begin! Just come and sign in with your partner!"

I tried to gulp the knot on my throat down."You wanna go?" He asked cocking an eyebrow.

"A-Actually, would you mind waiting a bit... I don't really feel comfortable in crowds." 

He seemed surprised for a moment but his eyes softened quickly and smiled. "Sure. Let's wait until the bunch of people leave."

We stood by the wall maintaining the 3 feet distance established by the state between boys and girls. As the flow of teens reduced by the sign-in table we both just stared in the distance, a tense silence between us.

"So," He stretched the word. "What do you wanna dance to?"

I met his eyes but turned my face fairly quickly in embarrassment. "I-I... I like ballet..."

He grinned. "I'm best at breakdance, but I'm fairly good at ballet." He did a little twist and winked at me playfully.

I giggled and nodded. "Do you know if they could do some kind of mash of the two genres?"

"Yeah! Tigress is the best DJ on the west coast." 

We finally got to the table and he did all the talking. Tigress seemed like a very nice girl, her dark curls had green, blue and pink neon extensions and her face had a paint job that resembled the stripes of a tiger. They both agreed on a song and we quickly went back to our wall and waited for our turn. 

It could have been awkward, but between planning how I was going to beat a guy in a dance I had never seen before and the performances of the other contestants I was deeply busy the whole time. 

The couples varied. Somewhere two boys or two girls and some were like us. It didn't really matter because all of them danced in a beautiful and different way. They taunted their partner in many ways, but if they were of different gender, they barely ever made contact. Although we were under no supervision, it was no surprise that a group of teens who had been raised on the strict gender rules of our society still feared someone finding us not only dancing up close... But touching someone of the opposite sex. 

Soon enough, it was our turn. The boy beckoned me to follow him and he stood in the middle of the circle that the other teens had formed to get a good view of the dancing couple. Some had left after a while, especially if the dancing was uninteresting and repetitive, so I was grateful that we didn't have such a large audience. 

Violins started playing through the stereo. I stood in my tippy toes, the familiar song coursing through my veins. I raised my hands over my head and closed my eyes doing a small turn while still standing on the tip of my toes. 

Suddenly there was a change on the song that made my eyes fly open. The blonde stood closer to me. He smiled smugly, his stance defying me. 

Through the stereo, I heard the familiar singer of the song... "Figaro!". 

I returned the smile, even though the feeling of failure started to creep up on me. He stood up in his hands as the beat dropped and rotated with his hands, legs expertly swinging around. As soon as he stood back up I knew it was my turn so to the beat I did as many pirouettes as I could, my foot lifted to his eye level as I got slowly closer to him and he backed up with my movements. To finish him off I place my foot on the ground in the first position to stabilize myself and did one last pirouette using the impulse to wrap my act in an attitude. 

He seemed impressed by it but he didn't miss a beat as I untangled myself and he placed his back on the floor and used his legs to turn around like a windmill. After a bit, he threw himself up and stood up to me. 

We circled each other as the beat dropped once more and when he least expected it I threw myself backwards and stood up in my hands elegantly twirling while standing on them.

"Heh... You're getting the hang of this." He smiled at me with something like pride in his eyes. 

I did a pirouette as I got closer to him and smiled smugly at his surprised expression. "Focus," I whispered to warn him that the song hadn't ended.

More people seemed to get closer, I heard cheers every time he did a trick on the floor. And oh's, ah's and whoa's when I mixed gracefully some of his "breakdance" dance moves with ballet.

As the song finished of we circled each other once more, both panting and tired. But adrenaline rushing through our veins nonetheless. 

I did a series of kicks as he jumped with his remaining energy all about, sometimes freezing for periods of seconds at a time. We both got closer together at the same time and as I did a Jette to finish off, I felt his hands on my waist lifting me off to help me get farther and help me fall in one foot as the other raised behind me. 

The song had ended and everyone burst into cheering and celebration for both of us. 

But I really couldn't hear them. 

I just could feel the burning sensation of the blonde's hands on my waist. 

Even though he touched me with such delicacy as if he was afraid I was going to break under his touch. 

We stared at each other for what seemed forever, searching in each other's faces the reason for our unity and the spark that happened when we dance together as if we could read each other's minds. We tried to find a reason for this, but we found none. Only each other.

"I didn't catch your name." He said as I softly returned my foot to the ground.

"Call me Swan... What about you?" He removed his hands from my waist when I regained my own balance.

"Beatbox. You can call me Beatbox."

[levi-inthesun]

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Summary: following a freak accident after your 27th birthday, you stopped aging. In 1942 you joined the war effort as a nurse on the front lines. In 1943 you met and fell in love with one Sargent James Barnes. In 1945, you learned of his death. Now, in 2018, you meet a man who looks just like your long lost lover.

A/N: I just watched Age of Adaline for the umpteenth time and decided to use a similar idea for my main character. Sorry if this isn’t very good. 

Memories are noted by ~~

It was always the cold, rainy days that took you back, acting as a time machine. As you walked to the cafe a few blocks from your apartment, images flashed behind your eyes.

~~It had been so cold. The winter in Italy had been unforgiving and cruel to everyone, especially the injured soldiers. The rain had been pounding on the tent around you acting as a soundtrack, balanced out by the sounds of bombs and gunfire in the distance. Somehow, it soothed you. You had gotten into a steady flow, humming a tune that somehow fit the music of war and rain.

“Hello, I am your nurse tonight, Amelia,” you started as you introduced yourself to a soldier who had just entered the infirmary. “Can you tell me your name, Sargent?” you asked, a gentle smile tugging on your lips.

“James Barnes, ma’am,” a flirty grin spreading over his tired features.

“Very well. If you would sit down here so I can examine your injuries that would be helpful. Where are they located?”

“My chest and back,” he responded, grunting slightly as he sat down on the cot.

“If you would remove your shirt that would be very helpful,” you said as you put on a pair of gloves.

“For you doll, anytime,” he sighed as he carefully unbuttoned his shirt, then pulled off his under t-shirt.

You rolled your eyes but didn’t respond. You were used to getting comments like this from the soldiers. Once his shirt was removed however, you gasped lightly to see the deep cut running along his back.

“This will certainly need stitches,” you informed him as you quickly gathered everything you would need. You quickly cleaned him up and sat on the edge of the cot, facing his back.

“Now, this is going to sting, but only for a few moments. I am giving you an anesthetic to numb the area.”

James nodded and hissed as you injected the numbing liquid into his back, and watched him relax as it immediately began to do it’s job.

“This is going to take a little while, the cut is long,” you began suturing the wound carefully, methodically moving the needle in and out of his skin, knotting, and continuing.

“Doll,” James began, “Tell me something about yourself that no one knows.”

“Hmm, and why should you be privy to that sort of knowledge, Sargent?” you asked, knotting another stitch.

“It’s not that I am more deserving of that type of information, I am just in need of a distraction and the things no one knows about a person tend to be the most interesting.”

You thought for a moment, still focusing on the sutures as you tried to remember some memory you could tell him that would give away the dark secret you held within you that certainly, no one knew about.

“Well, when I was 13 my very best friend and I ran off into the wooded area by our houses and decided we would live there as wild-women for the rest of our lives. We were quite convinced of it.” You tied off another knot and started another, “partway through the day, we decided we should start a fire. We had prepared before hand and had any supplies we thought we would need. We piled up the driest sticks we could find and I pulled out the matches and lit the fire. Only, we had failed to make a clearing in the dirt, you know, move anything flammable away from the fire. There were dried, dead leaves everywhere, and you can guess what happened next.” James turned to you slightly, eyes wide, “You started a forest fire?” he asked, amused.

“Indeed we did,” you said, voice still as even and calm as it always was. “We only realized it too late so we gathered our things and ran back to my house, hid the bag of supplies, and then left the house again to pretend we had only been on a walk. We walked past the woods where we could smell the smoke and slightly see flames, so we ran to tell any adult we could find,” you chuckled slightly at the memory. “To this day, no one knows it had been us. I’m convinced that if we had waited any longer to tell anyone we would have burned the entire neighborhood down.”

You finished the last stitch and carefully placed a dressing over it to protect it.

“And you aren’t lying?” James asked, to which you shook your head no and held up your right hand.

“Scouts honor, I actually burned down half of the woods by my house and almost the entire neighborhood,” a mischevious grin spread over your face as the man took in your words.

“Well doll,” he started, shaking his head, “that is probably the most fantastic thing I ever heard.”

There was a glint of something in his eyes, and it was that that kept drawing you to him.~~

You made it to the cafe and ordered your drink before finding an empty booth next to a window.

The horrors of war would always follow the good memories. The friends you made and lost. Too many lost. The sound of gunfire drawing closer to camp. Sometimes you’d dream what would have happened had you been able to live a normal life. You would have gotten married, had babies, grow old with someone you loved… but those dreams only lead to more heartache.

You shook your head, trying to rid yourself of all the thoughts circling around your head and observed the other patrons, taking a sip of your coffee, but your thoughts dragged you back to James’ blue eyes staring deeply into your own as you traded stories that night while everyone else was asleep. He told you about his best friend Steve, the tiny, chronically sick man who lied so many times to enlist. How many times he had had to make sure Steve wasn’t killed- apparently he was apt at picking fights, but not winning them with his small stature.

After the coffee shop, you made your way to the bookstore you worked at, greeted by the little bell that rung out as the door opened and closed behind you.

“Goodmorning Ruth,” you called out cheerfully as you passed the owner to put your things away.

“Morning Mia,” she called after you.

The day had been relatively slow, rainy days were like that. The rain would bring in nostalgic feeling readers who would find a comfortable spot to sit and read through some book that had piqued their interest. Neither Ruth or you minded these people. They helped add to the warmth the small shop already held.

You were re-doing the display that showed out to the street when someone caught your eye. He was tall, broad, longish hair, full beard, very handsome. He felt familiar somehow. You did your best to focus on the task at hand but found yourself looking at him again and again, only to catch him looking back at you, too.

“Mia!” Ruth called out from the register, “Remember that large order you put together yesterday?” she asked as you approached her.

“Yes, I left it in the back since it was quite hefty,” you responded.

“This gentleman is here to pick it up, would you show him to it and help him take it to his car?” she asked, eyes flitting between you and the man.

You narrowed your eyes at Ruth, only momentarily so that only she would notice it. “I would be happy to,” you responded cheerfully and led the man to the back room where his order was currently being kept.

“I take it you are Steven then?” you asked as you showed him the piles of boxes containing all the books he had ordered.

“That I am,” he said, “and you are, Mia?” he asked, looking at your nametag.

“Yes, not that Ruth yelling out to me made it even more obvious,” you shrugged. “May I ask why you have bought so many books? Don’t get me wrong, if I didn’t watch my budget I would be buying this amount every week,” you said chuckling.

“I haven’t read much lately,” he replied, picking up all three boxes at once as if it were nothing. “It felt like it was about time to get back into it.”

You opened the door for him and smiled, “You picked out some amazing books. I was delighted to find someone out there was going to enjoy so many of my favorite books.”

“I have gotten a lot of recommendations over the last few years. A good friend of mine just… moved back into town and we ended up challenging each other to a read off, and well, here we are,” his eyes sparkled as he spoke of books and his friend and again you had the odd sensation that you knew him. But, you reached his car and helped him by opening the door so that he could put the boxes in.

“Enjoy your books, Steven,” you called to him as he got in his car.

He waved at you and pulled out into traffic.

When you went back in, you gave Ruth the stink eye.

“What, Mia? Can’t an old woman like myself wish love for a younger one? He is handsome and loves books. You only just need to make sure he is kind and you are good to go!”

You simply rolled your eyes, “Yeah, okay Ruth.”

The rest of the week went by slowly. Between shifts at the bookstore, hanging out with your cat, and going out a couple times with your best friend Sarah to get coffee, you didn’t really do much. So when Friday finally rolled around you were pretty content to just read in your apartment while Donna, your cat, curled up around your feet.

The dream was quickly shattered with a phone call.

“Mia, before you say no, I just need you to think about me for a moment,” Sarah began as soon as you answered the phone. “There is a new bar that just opened up in Brooklyn and it is owned by that dreamy man I’ve gone on a few dates with and we have to go. Please? I will owe you so much for this!” she begged.

You took in a deep breath and did your best to not shut down at the thought of not staying in. “Okay fine. What’s the dress code?” you asked, giving up.

“Eee!” she squealed in your ear, “I will be over in 20 minutes and we can get ready together!” she said quickly before you could change your mind.

“Bring pizza!” you added before she could hang up, and said goodbyes after she promised she would bring pizza.

40 minutes later, Sarah walked into your apartment, pizza in hand, along with a bag of clothes.

“Ah, you beautiful thing you!” you said to the pizza as you opened up the box and took a bite before letting her drag you off to your room.

“Okay there is no way in hell I am ever wearing this,” you stared at your reflection a moment longer before turning to your friend who was currently perched on your bed.

“Babe, you look smoking hot! You could kill people with how hot you look!” Sarah complimented.

“Good enough reason for me not to wear it then!” you shot back.

“Ugh, I know you grew up in the 40’s and all, but you’d think you would have learned to better dress with the times,” she said shaking her head.

“Well, I guess I haven’t,” you said as you unzipped and slipped out of the revealing dress.

“This one,” You said, holding up a deep green, off the shoulder dress flared out slightly from the waist and would hit a few inches above your knee.

“This is more me,” you got into the dress and took in your appearance. It was much shorter than you would have liked, hitting you mid-thigh, but it reminded you of a dress you wore once in the 50’s.

“Okay, yeah you’re right,” Sarah said dejectedly, “that one is way more you.”

Sarah ended up wearing the black mini dress you had refused earlier, and soon you were both out the door.

The bar absolutely blew you away and you walked in mouth hanging open. It was designed after the bars from the 40s and they absolutely nailed it.

“Why- why didn’t you tell me?” you asked Sarah quietly as you looked over the nostalgia-inducing space around you.

“Because then I wouldn’t have gotten to see you with that particular look in your eyes that you have now,” she replied softly. You gave her hand a tight squeeze before walking off to let the good memories take over and Sarah went off to get drinks and find Luke.

“Hey, it’s Mia, right?” a familiar voice asked.

You turned around to see Steven from earlier that week. He was wearing a dark blue button-up with a loose tie, suspenders and dress pants.

“Yeah, it’s good to see you, Steven,” you said as you took his extended hand.

“Call me Steve. Are you here alone?” he asked, curiosity in his voice.

“No, my best friend brought me here, I was completely surprised to find the theme so, familiar,” you said before you could think about what was coming out of your mouth. “Uh, I mean I studied history, and took a great interest in architecture and decor throughout the decades and this is, spot on.” You breathed a silent sigh of relief when he accepted your explanation.

“I would have to agree with you,” he responded warmly. “Very authentic.”

Sarah was now by your side, handing you a beer.

You thanked her and took a drink from the bottle, “Oh, Steve, this is Sarah, Sarah this is Steve, the guy who had to have ordered a hundred books the other day?”

Sarah nodded, “Damn, you didn’t mention he was good looking too,” she said under her breath so only you could hear her. “Good to meet you!” she said, shaking his hand. In which he responded likewise.

Soon she was dragging you off to meet some friends and her most recent beau, Luke. You were pleased that besides being charming, he was kind. You could see it in his eyes how much he cared for Sarah.

You had only been there an hour and you were already beginning to feel drained. You were able to find an unoccupied table in the corner and sat down as a band took the stage. Like the environment around them, they were dressed in 40’s like fashion and began to play the tunes you knew so well.

You had gotten so lost in the familiar tune, you hadn’t noticed that Steve had approached you.

He cleared his throat, “Mia?”

Startled from your trance, you turned to him quickly, “I am so sorry, I hope you haven’t been there for long.” “Not at all,” he said, “mind if we join you?”

Unaware there was a second person, you turned to look at the other man.

You thought your heart stopped.

“James?”

The words came out quietly but he had heard, and a confused look spread over his face while Steve watched the exchange with curiosity.

“I am so sorry, you just look like someone I knew a long time ago,” you said shaking your head, “clearly I’ve had too much to drink,” you chuckled, trying desperately to save the interaction.

“It’s okay,” the man said as he stretched out his hand, “I’m Bucky.”

“Mia,” you said quickly, voice still hushed, shaking his hand.

“So, Buck, Mia is the woman from the bookstore,” Steven said hoping to relieve some of the tension.

“Oh, that Mia,” he said, a smile spreading over his handsome features.

“How is your reading challenge going, by the way?” you asked.

The two men looked at each other sheepishly, “We haven’t even started yet,” Bucky replied. “Haven’t had the time,” he shrugged.

“It happens, I was just curious.”

“What books should we start with?” Steve asked.

“Oh my, there are so many good options,” you thought for a moment going over what you remembered from the large order. “Definitely anything by Jane Austen, but you have to remember that she is the queen of satire as you read her books,” you told them.

The conversation moved from books to movies to anything imaginable. Soon, it felt as if you had been friends your entire, very long life.

“I have to say,” you started, taking a sip from your beer, “you both look so familiar to me it’s… absurd.”

The men eyed each other cautiously, but you didn’t notice.

“Sorry, that is probably so weird, the feeling just won't leave.” You shook your head, slightly embarrassed.

“It does feel like we knew each other a long, long time ago,” Bucky said quietly, voice distant.

You and Steve both nodded.

If only the three of you had realized then the truthfulness of Bucky’s words.

Bucky paced the hallways of the compound all that night and the next trying to figure out why Mia was so familiar to him. He could feel it from the moment he laid his eyes on her, and it only grew once they shook hands and talked through the evening.

Everyone had had enough of Bucky’s pacing and sent Steve to “for the love of God, make it stop,”.

“Buck, man, what’s gotten into you? Still thinking about Mia?” Steve asked as he approached his agitated friend.

“I don’t know why or how, but she was important. I can just feel it.”

In the meantime, you were absolutely certain you were going insane.

“He died,” you whispered into the darkness of your room. You remember the day you found out as if it were yesterday. ~James had been sent out on a mission with the ‘Howling Commandos’ and the man called Captain America- who you quickly realized was your new friend Steve. (You felt stupid for not realizing that one sooner). ~~You were relaxing, having just gotten off a shift when you overheard some of the superiors going over the list of men lost from the mission.

“Sargent James Barnes,” was the only name that caught your attention.

Tears began streaming down your cheeks as you ran to your bunk where you spent the rest of the day, sobbing quietly into your very flat pillow.~~

The coincidence, however, of the man who looked like James being good friends with Steve Rogers- who had been James’ friend back in the day, could not be overlooked. Steve was alive today thanks to the super soldier serum given to him during the war. What if Bucky really was James?

Your dreams were full of James, but, like everytime you dreamed of your love lost long ago, he was always just out of reach.

Tell me what you think! 

[davidcarner]

Buy More High Ch 7, The Coup d’Etat

A/N: I've been working on some fics that you all haven't seen yet, and they've been a little heavy (well for me they are, for everyone else, eh). We went from tomfoolery, which I always enjoy, to maybe a touch of angst. You know I hate angst. So let's try and find a spot somewhere in the middle. Welcome to Ch 7, The Coup d'Etat

A/N 2: I've just struggled with this chapter for days. I'm not in love with it, but I'm posting it and moving on. I don't think it's the best, and I'm sorry, but I just don't know how to fix it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, but neither does Emmett.

Chuck woke up, opened his eyes, and stared up at the ceiling. He felt around him, and realized he was alone in bed. He heard sounds in the kitchen, thought for a second, and pulled the covers over his head. Today…today he refused. Today he just didn't care, and no one could make him go in. This was him adulting, and today he was going to take an F in adulting. His mother was back, causing more problems in his life. He knew it was a bad idea to say anything to her about the play, but it was the only way they could afford the rights. He groaned. Hee just wanted to stay in bed, but it was lonely, but what was going to be even lonelier, was after lunch when he was with Roan Montgomery, and Sarah was with Cole Barker. UGGGHHHHH! Cole. Barker. He was good looking, smooth, and had that British accent that made all the girls swoon. All the girls swoon? Was it the 70s? He bet Cole Barker never used the phrase, make all the girls swoon.

"Are you going to hide in bed all day?" he heard Sarah's voice ask. He loved hearing that voice, and he was going to miss it today. Today SUCKED! So hard. UGGGHHHHH!

"Yes," he said as poutily as humanly possible, burrowing further under the covers.

"Are you going to pout all day as well?" she asked, humor in her voice. Why was there humor in her voice? Didn't she realize today was going to SUCK? Didn't she care?

"Maybe," he huffed, a little irritated that she wasn't bothered by this at least as much as he was. Weren't girlfriends supposed to be sensitive when their boyfriend was feeling insecure about the British hunk?

"Charles Irving Bartowski," she said. Welp, she was done kidding around.

"Uggghhhh," he replied, throwing back the covers and seeing Sarah. He paused in mid-throwing of the blankets. Sarah was wearing a pink button up blouse, and a tan skirt. Chuck got a grin on his face. That wasn't Buy More attire. "Saarrrahhh," he said, sing-songy and grinning. Maybe his girlfriend was more sensitive to his needs than he realized.

"See something you like?" she asked, the smile on her face enough to light the room.

"Emmett is going to be so mad," Chuck said, laughing. How did he get so lucky to have this amazing woman in his life? He'd take having the worst mother in the world if the trade off was Sarah freaking Walker. He got an idea.

"What is he going to do?" she asked. Chuck smiled, hopped out of bed, and grabbed his shoes.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm going to get my own clothes," he said gleefully. He bound out of the house, stopped, and then came back.

"Keys?" she asked, an amused and knowing smile on her face.

"Keys," he confirmed.

}o{

Sarah glanced at Chuck. His light lavender button up shirt and black slacks were a whole lot better looking than the nerd herd outfit he had been forced to wear since school started. She asked him if he was okay with her teaching with Cole, and he quickly said no, but that was his problem, not hers. She squeezed his hand and he grinned at her. They pulled up into the parking lot, and exited the car.

"We got this," Sarah said, winking at him. He gave her a quick hug and kiss and started toward the school when he felt her hand yank him back. She kissed him hard, and he forgot where he was for a moment. She released him and ran her thumb over the back of his neck. "We got this," she said again.

"Walker, Bartowski," Casey grunted walking by. He looked…pleased, which worried Chuck. They started toward the school and Sarah took his hand in hers. He looked at her, a little surprised, and she smiled at him, encouraging him. They heard footsteps behind them.

"Charles, Sarah, good to see you both," Roan said, a mysterious smile on his face, like he knew something they didn't.

"I'm sorry about yesterday, Roan," Chuck said. "I just needed sometime to adjust to some…personal conflicts." Roan waved his hand.

"Think nothing of it, my boy," Roan said. "Diane told me the entire situation."

"I guess I need to get caught up," Chuck said, a little worried about teaching history. Roan grinned.

"Yesterday we talked about bloodless coups," he said, a grin on his face. "We talked about leaders and the styles of leadership they use, and how a good leader can adapt. I think today we'll try a social experiment, we might all be in for a suprise." Chuck nodded, having no idea what he was talking about. Roan parted from them once they got inside. "Charles, Miss Walker," he said, nodding. They watched him walk off.

"Do you feel like that should have meant more than it did to me?" Chuck asked. Sarah shrugged and grinned.

"You better read up on your history, Mr. Bartowski," she said.

"I would but my mate keeps me busy most nights," he replied.

"Well, your mate should probably stop then so you can catch up," she said, looking at him, pointedly.

"Uhm, well, you see, I'd rather she didn't," he said. She nodded, an amused smile on her face.

"I thought so," she said.

"What are you two wearing?" they heard the voice of Emmett say. The two kept looking at each other.

"Do you think if we ignore him the bad man will go away?" he asked. The two started down the hall away from Emmett.

"I'm talking to you," Emmett said. "Beckman, tell them I'm talking to them." Beckman was walking down the hall toward them.

"If you two would join me in my office," she said. "Also, Emmett is talking to you."

"We're ignoring him," Chuck said. They walked into Beckman's office, and Diane locked the door. Emmett pounded on the door for a minute and then went away.

"I loathe that man," Beckman said. She turned to Chuck and Sarah. "We should hurry, I have a feeling he'll be back. I owe you two an apology for yesterday."

"I think I owe you one," Chuck replied, looking ashamed.

"No, Chuck, what we did to you yesterday was…inexcusable," Beckman said. "If I were you I'd be prepared for anything today." She looked at them for a moment. "I approve of the wardrobe."

"We felt there were no real consequences to not dressing the way we wanted," Sarah said. The door opened and Emmett had the keys. Beckman was fuming at the invasion into her office.

"What do you think you are doing?" Beckman yelled.

"Talking to these two for their inappropriate dress," Emmett replied. Beckman gave Chuck a look and nodded.

"I talked to Mrs. Vanderbeak yesterday," Chuck said to Beckman. "She wanted to thank you for the recommendation of the hotel."

"How is she?" Beckman asked.

"Excuse me," Emmet said.

"She seems to be doing wonderful," Chuck replied.

"Ahem, I need to talk to you two about your dress," Emmett said.

"She said she's finally getting the time to be the aunt she wanted to be," Chuck said.

"I'm talking!" Emmett bellowed. All three continued to ignore him and he stomped out.

"Quick, let's go out this side door," Beckman said, and they all hurried out. Emmett came back in holding a megaphone.

"EXCUSE ME!" he bellowed into the megaphone. It was then he noticed the office was empty. Chuck and Sarah found themselves in Chuck's classroom, laughing about the insanity of the situation.

"You know," Sarah said, walking into a hug, with Chuck sitting on the edge of his desk. "In a few minutes, this could be scandalous."

"Well, we wouldn't want to upset the students now would we?" Chuck asked.

"God forbid they see a couple in a respectful loving relationship," she said. She saw something in his eyes. "What?" Chuck shook his head, an amused smile on his face.

"Loving?" he asked. Sarah blushed, but stayed where she was and bounced a shoulder.

"Gotta problem with my terminology?" she asked.

"I do believe we have already established you are the linguist in this real-"

"Ahha! There you are!" Emmett exclaimed. "Now, I'm going to need you both to get into your proper uniform."

"I'm really getting tired of this tool interrupting us," Chuck said to Sarah, making her laugh.

"We are within the school dress code, Emmett," Sarah said.

"We had a deal," Emmett said, trying to draw himself up to look important.

"We did, and then you altered it," Sarah said, pulling away from Chuck and walking toward Emmett. He started backpedaling. "Pray I don't alter it further."

"I don't know if you could be any hotter," Chuck muttered. She turned to him and winked. Emmett fled the room before Sarah hurt him. She gave him a kiss on the lips with an emphatic smack and headed toward her room. For the next several hours the two of them taught their classes, and then the bell rang for what used to be their joint planning period. Sarah and Chuck had decided they would keep this period together until someone told them different. Chuck noticed very little traffic in the hallway as Sarah came in. He kept watching the halls, until it looked like a ghost town well before the bell rang.

"Something's going on," Sarah said. The two walked out of the room, and saw no one in any of the halls. No one was in the classrooms, no one was in the lunchroom, or in the gym. They walked to the front office where Emmett was fuming and Mary Bartwoski was watching him.

"This is your doing," he said, stomping toward Chuck and shoving his finger in Chuck's face.

"Would you like me to remove that for you, Chuck," Sarah said, venom dripping from her voice. Emmett pulled his finger back, quickly. "Now what are you talking about?"

"Those children," Emmett said. Chuck looked outside where all the teachers and students were.

"Some of those are teachers," Chuck replied. Emmett was stewing.

"Don't be smart," Mary said. Chuck turned towards her slowly.

"Chuck, she's not worth your time," Sarah said, putting her arm around him. Chuck looked at her, and the two walked outside, their arms around each other. The crowd cheered.

"What is going on?" Chuck asked.

"A coup, Charles," Roan answered. "A bloodless coup." Emmett came outside with his megaphone.

"If you are not back inside this school within one minute, all of you will be given failing grade," Emmett said. Students began to panic, and many started back inside, apologizing to Chuck and Sarah. They told them they understood, and not to worry about it. Chuck thought they would all go in, but they didn't. In a bit, only the teachers and the students that had Chuck and Sarah, or were in the play, were outside. "Seems your little stunt didn't work, Mr. Bartowski," Emmett said, gloating.

"He had nothing to do with, you pompous twit," Casey yelled out. "We just all hate you." Emmett's eyes were opened wide in shock.

"Students, you have been led astray," Emmett said into the megaphone. "I will give you one more minute to come inside or you will all be given failing grades."

"Why did you split up Miss Walker and Mr. Bartowski?" one of the students yelled.

"Because of their inappropriate behavior," Emmett said, with a tone in his voice that the student was stupid for asking.

"What inappropriate behavior?" a voice yelled. Chuck found the student. It was Luke Carter.

"They were making unprofessional sexual advances on each other," Emmett said.

"When?" Luke yelled back.

"At the football game," Emmett said, proud of himself.

"No they weren't," an adult female voice came from the same direction as Luke. He looked over and saw it was Luke's mother. "They were watching a football game, cuddled together, like any other couple out there. I saw the entire thing. They also saved my sons life at the dance. How is any of that unprofessional?"

"Well, it's not proper," Emmett said.

"I wish I had a boyfriend treat me the way Mr. Bartowski treats Miss Walker," a voice yelled. Chuck was pretty sure it was Olivia.

"I wish I had a girlfriend as hot as Miss Walker," some boy said.

"Hey, watch it," Chuck warned.

"See," Mrs. Carter said. "They are not unprofessional."

"It's out of my hands," Emmett said, proud of himself.

"Well, so is the check I wrote you," another male voice said. Emmett paled.

"What?" he squeaked.

"I'm going to move my son to a private school since he can't learn from those two, and I won't be making the rest of my donation," Dr. Carter said. Chuck thought Emmett might pass out.

"Now, wait just a minute," Emmett said. "We had a deal."

"It got altered," Chuck said. Sarah smiled at him and Emmett went pale.

"What do you want?" Emmett choked out.

"Everything back the way it was, plus whatever those two want," Dr. Carter said.

"I can't just go and fire Mrs. Bartowski," Emmett said.

"I didn't say you had to, but those two go back to teaching together, running the play, and whatever else, and if they don't, I don't pay the instalments that I planned on paying," Dr. Carter replied. Emmett looked defeated.

"But you said a lump sum," Emmett whined.

"He altered the deal, Emmett," Sarah said, shoulder bumping Chuck.

"I hate Star Trek," Emmett muttered. Chuck just shook his head.

"Why don't you use Mrs. Bartowski with curriculum, testing, and helping you run the school in an environment more suited for the students," Sarah offered. Chuck looked at her.

"That's a great idea," he said.

"You can live with it?" she asked. Chuck shrugged.

"She's good at what she's good at," he replied. "Another thing," he said out loud. "These stupid Buy More uniforms go." Emmett nodded.

"Mr. Bartowski, Miss Walker, I will check in with you before I release a check to him each month," Dr Carter said.

"Thank you, Sir," Sarah said. "You're helping these kids."

"You save child's life, I figured it was the least I could do," Dr. Carter said.

"Okay, if we're all good back to class," Beckman ordered. The students all turned to Chuck and Sarah.

"You heard them kids, back to class," Chuck said. Sarah gave him a hug. "Careful, we'll get separated," he joked.

"Give him a big kiss," one of the girls yelled out. Sarah laughed and they all went back inside.

}o{

They sat in their booth at the restaurant that night, Ellie and Awesome joining them. Chuck raised a glass.

"To my big sister, who still watches out for me, and saved me, yet again," he said.

"Here, here," Sarah said, as they made the toast. Ellie grinned.

"So I happened to know a guy who could help you out," Ellie said, shrugging. "You two literally did all the work. All I had to do was point out how bad things were going and he had the solution." She looked at Chuck and Sarah and Chuck thought she was going to explode.

"What, Ellie?" Chuck asked, a grin on his face.

"So, you two, how serious?" she said.

"We're mates," Chuck answered. Sarah rolled her eyes, wrapped her arms around him and looked at him.

"I can't speak for him, but it's as serious as I've ever been involved with someone else," Sarah replied. "Oh, boy." Chuck looked up and his mother was heading toward them.

"What is SHE doing here?" Ellie hissed. Sarah was taken back at how much venom there was in her voice.

"Eleanor, how are you?" Mary asked as she approached. Ellie just looked at her. "Charles, I need a word with you in private."

"No," Chuck said, sitting there, shaking his head.

"Charles," she said, in a voice that was used to being listened to. Chuck continued to sit there. He took a chip, dipped it in salsa, and ate it slowly. He then began to choke, because he dipped it in the hot salsa. Sarah rubbed his back as he coughed it up. "It's obvious I have made a terrible error in the past, and have not been a proper mother, that's why I'm here." Ellie and Chuck both looked at her. "You're going to have to refinance your home."

"Why would I do that?" Chuck asked.

"Because I co-signed for it," she said.

"What?" Chuck said. "How, you were never there!"

"You were going to be denied and the loan officer knew me and that I was your mother," she explained. "She went around your back, and did break some laws, but we did it for you. I will not be on that loan as long as you are seeing her."

"First, what the hell business of yours is it who I see?" Chuck asked. "Second, you two broke the law, not me."

"I will sue to have my name removed," Mary said.

"Fine," Chuck said, throwing up his hands. "I'll refinance it. Now go away." Mary didn't move.

"You will be denied," she said. Chuck turned toward her.

"Then I'll figure something out," he said. "You know what, I won't pay it, then it will screw with your credit too." He turned back to the chips, but felt the eyes of the other three on him.

"I will refinance it in my name and you will quit dating her," Mary said. "Every since you've begun this dalliance you have made terrible decisions." Chuck turned to Sarah.

"You're the linguist," he said.

"A casual romantic or sexual relationship," Sarah said.

"I wouldn't call it casual," Chuck replied. Sarah bit her bottom lip to try to control her smile. This wasn't the time. "Like you said, it's the most serious I've ever been."

"That means nothing," Mary said.

"Why don't you go away," Chuck replied. "Just go far away."

"You will not live there and be involved with her," Mary said.

"Sarah Walker is her name, and you will not tell me what to do," Chuck said, his voice rising. Sarah grabbed his hear arm.

"Hey, hey," she said, and he turned to her. "Not casual?" she asked with a grin. He nodded. "I know how to fix this."

"Girl, do not get involved," Mary said. Ellie slammed her hand down and stared at her mother.

"You will not disrespect Sarah one more time or I will throw you out of here myself, are we clear?" Ellie asked, daggers in her eyes. Mary stiffened, turned, and walked out. "I'm sorry," Ellie said looking back to the others, ashamed. Sarah reached across and grabbed her hands.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Sarah said, beaming. Ellie smiled at her.

"Welp, looks like she's back," Chuck said.

"This is my fault, I told you to talk to her," Sarah replied.

"No, that nut decided to act that way because," Chuck replied. "Now, what is your great idea that will fix this." She grinned and bounced a shoulder.

"Simple, you move in," she said. Chuck wasn't sure what to say.

A/N: David…are you seriously ending it there? Yep….til next time…hope you enjoyed it! Reviews and PMs are always welcomed!

DC

[vincentbnaughton]

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.

[statusreview]

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

[interiorstarweb]

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? published first on https://novaformmattressreview.tumblr.com/

[lowmaticnews]

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? published first on https://landscapingmates.blogspot.com

[statusreview]

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

[vincentbnaughton]

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.

[vincentbnaughton]

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.