#we ran out of turkeys today…

[happybird16]

Annual reminder to please please please be extra kind to retail workers this week!!

[shitsndgiggs]

Can you write where the reader hook up with Joao Felix before the reader got with Kenan

A/N: I changed it a little

OLD FLAMES - KENAN YILDIZ

Kenan is jealous of your friendship with Joao

Kenan Yildiz x fem! reader

︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿

The stadium was buzzing with excitement as Turkey faced off against Portugal. The atmosphere was electric, and my heart swelled with pride and nerves as I watched Kenan warm up on the field.

I found my seat in the stands, surrounded by other enthusiastic fans, eagerly awaiting the match's start.

As the game began, I cheered for Turkey, feeling a mixture of emotions. It was always intense watching him play, but today had an added layer of tension. The match was critical, and I could feel the pressure.

Portugal scored their first goal, and the portuguese crowd erupted in cheers. Seven minutes later, an own goal by Turkey put Portugal ahead by two.

My heart sank, but I continued to cheer, hoping for a comeback.

The first half ended, and during the halftime break, I noticed João Félix glancing up at the stands. Our eyes met briefly, and he smiled, giving a small wave.

I waved back, feeling a bit awkward but knowing there was no harm in being friendly.

The second half started, and Portugal scored their third goal in the 56th minute, just two minutes before Kenan was subbed in.

I cheered loudly, my eyes glued to Kenan as he ran onto the pitch. He played with his usual intensity, but I noticed he kept glancing up at the stands where I was sitting.

After the match ended, with Turkey losing 3-0, I made my way down to the area where the players would come out. The crowd was bustling, and I felt a mix of relief and tension.

I stood there, waiting for Kenan to come out so we could head back to my hotel together. The anticipation was making me anxious, and I kept glancing around, hoping to spot him soon.

"Y/N!" a voice called, and I turned to see João Félix approaching, still in his kit, looking tired but cheerful.

"João! Hey!" I replied, giving him a friendly hug. "Great game out there."

"Thanks," he said, flashing a charming smile. "It's been a while. How have you been?"

"Good, good. Just here supporting Kenan," I replied, glancing around for my boyfriend. "You played really well."

Before João could respond, Kenan appeared, his face a mixture of relief and frustration. He spotted us and made a beeline toward me, his eyes narrowing as he saw João.

"Hey, babe," I greeted Kenan, smiling as he reached us. I leaned in to give him a kiss, but he pulled back slightly, his eyes locked on João.

"Who’s this?" Kenan asked, his voice tight and a hint of a growl in it.

"This is João Félix. João, this is my boyfriend, Kenan," I introduced them, feeling the tension rise.

João extended a hand, smiling politely. "Nice to meet you, Kenan."

Kenan shook his hand, his grip firm and a little too long. "Nice to meet you too," he said curtly, his eyes still narrowed. "What were you two talking about?"

"Just catching up," I said, placing a hand on Kenan's arm. "João and I go way back, but it's nothing, really."

Kenan's jaw clenched, and he took a step closer to João, his posture aggressive. "I don’t appreciate you hanging around my girlfriend."

João raised his hands in a placating gesture, his smile faltering. "Hey, no offense meant, man. We’re just old friends."

Kenan's eyes flashed with anger. "Well, now you know she's with me. So, you can walk away."

João glanced at me, then back at Kenan. The tension in the air was palpable, and I could see the discomfort on João's face. "Alright, no problem," he said, backing off. "Good to see you, Y/N. Take care."

As João walked away, Kenan's grip on my arm tightened. I turned to him, seeing the possessiveness and jealousy still burning in his eyes.

"You didn't have to scare him off like that," I said softly, trying to soothe him.

Kenan's eyes softened as he looked at me. "I just can't stand the thought of anyone else near you."

I couldn't help but tease him a little. "Oh, so you were watching us?"

"Of course I was. You’re my girlfriend. I don't want anyone else near you, especially not him," Kenan said, his voice still tinged with jealousy.

I smiled, trying to ease his tension. "Kenan, you have nothing to worry about. I'm yours, and only yours."

He pulled me closer, his arms wrapping around me possessively. "I know. But seeing him with you just... it got to me."

I leaned in, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "You’re cute when you're jealous."

Kenan pouted, his arms tightening around me. "It's not cute. I just... I can't stand the thought of anyone else trying to take you away."

I kissed him softly, trying to ease his insecurities. "No one could ever take me away from you, Kenan. You're the one I love."

He sighed, resting his forehead against mine. "I know. But I'm still going to be a little jealous."

"That's okay," I whispered. "Just means you care."

Kenan's pout turned into a small smile, his grip on me relaxing slightly. "I do care. More than anything."

We stood there for a moment, wrapped up in each other, the noise of the stadium fading into the background.

Eventually, Kenan pulled back, his eyes searching mine. "Promise me you'll always tell me if someone bothers you."

"I promise," I said, squeezing his hand. "But right now, all I care about is you."

He nodded, finally letting go of his jealousy. "Let's get out of here."

[marvelfanfn2187a113]

Jolly Holidays

Dean and Sam Winchester x little sister!reader

Requested by anonymous

Synopsis: Reader likes to celebrate every holiday, no matter how small

“Where’d you get that?” Sam asked, trying desperately to put on a stern face, but unable to hide his smile when you placed the birthday cake on the table.

“The store,” you said innocently.

“And how did you pay for it?” Sam asked, but just then he noticed the lettering on the cake. “Happy Birthday…Samantha?”

You winced. “Ok, so maybe it wasn’t exactly meant for me, but it was just so close to your name that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

“And Samantha?” Sam asked.

You shrugged, “Should’ve picked up her cake on time.”

Sam rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. He leaned over and hugged you.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

You grinned.

“Happy Birthday, Sammy.”

…

“We need this.”

Dean just stared at you, not moving to put the item in his basket.

“Why?”

“Because it’s Thanksgiving,” you scoffed, reaching around Dean’s arm and dropping the small plastic container in his basket. “So we need turkey.”

“That’s Deli meat, it barely qualifies.”

“It’s not like we’re ever gonna get one of those,” you gestured to a display of large frozen turkeys. “So this’ll have to do.”

“What are we arguing about over here?” Sam stuck his head in between two aisles to join the conversation.

“Thanksgiving dinner,” you told him. He stared at the items in Dean’s basket.

“Deli meat, licorice, and a six pack of beer?”

“Hey, if we’re doing Thanksgiving, then I’m getting pie,” Dean declared, wandering off to another aisle.

“You’re never gonna get Thanksgiving to be a big thing, no matter how many years you try,” Sam told you after Dean was gone.

“It doesn’t have to be a big thing,” you assured him. “This is enough.”

…

“Y/N, please go to bed.”

You ignored Sam’s request, opting to remain sitting at the motel window, staring out into the night.

“I don’t even know if he’s gonna be home tonight, it might be tomorrow.”

“Just let her be,” Dean insisted from his bed. “If she wants to wait a little longer it’s fine.”

You stayed silent throughout your brother’s conversation, too intent on your own thoughts. You didn’t often wait up for John, mostly because you knew he was usually late. But today, today was different. Today you really wanted him to be on time.

“Sweetheart, please-“

“He’s here!” Your outburst when you saw John’s car pull into the motel startled both brothers.

The moment that John stepped into the motel room, he was forced back when you threw yourself into his arms.

“Whoa, hey,” he greeted, confused and more than a little exhausted. “Why are you still awake?”

“She insisted on waiting for you,” Sam explained while you stepped away from your dad and ran over to the fridge.

“Why? Kid, you should be in b-“ John cut himself off when you emerged from the small fridge with a sloppily decorated chocolate cake in your hands and a huge grin on your face.

“What’s this?” He asked softly.

“Happy birthday,” you sing-songed, placing the cake in the middle of the tiny motel table.

“You made this?” John’s voice was still uncharacteristically quiet.

“Yeah,” your grin faltered a little. “Well, mostly, I mean it’s from a box mix, but I figured since this motel has an actual oven that…” you stopped, suddenly self conscious. “Is this ok? I mean I know you don’t really do birthdays but I tho-“

You were cut off when John wrapped you in his arms, and you relaxed in his tight embrace.

He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to.

“Happy birthday, dad.”

…

“Ouch! What was that for?” Sam grumbled when you leaned over and pinched his arm.

“Wasn’t me,” you said innocently. “It was a leprechaun. They do that when you don’t wear green on this sacred day.”

“Sacred day? It’s just Saint Patrick’s Day, no one celebrates that,” Dean insisted. “And if you even think about pinching me, I’m gonna punch you in the face.”

You huffed, leaning back in your seat.

“You guys are no fun.”

Dean laughed, leaning back in his seat and reaching back to ruffle your hair.

“Better luck next year, leprechaun.”

…

“I’m telling you, something’s wrong.”

“I don’t know, Dean. She seems fine.”

“She didn’t even get one of those little plastic candle things for Hanukkah.”

“Maybe because we’re not Jewish,” Sam scoffed.

“That’s never stopped her before.”

“So she’s growing out of the holiday thing, what do you want me to do about it?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know, you’re usually the one who wants to talk about feelings,” Dean grumbled. “I figured you’d have an idea.”

“Well, I’m not even convinced that something’s wrong,” Sam argued, but at the look on Dean’s face he began to relent. “Do you really think something’s wrong?”

“Yeah. I think it’s this search for dad, man. It’s wearing on her. I wanna do something about it, she’s been acting weird for a couple of weeks now.”

“I mean, she’s been quiet, but-“

“Look, Sam, I don’t think you get it. You were gone for a while-“ Dean held up his hands innocently when Sam opened his mouth to protest. “And I’m not about to argue about that again. I’m just saying, maybe you don’t see it because you haven’t spent as much time with her. I just need you to trust me on this, we gotta do something.”

“Ok,” Sam sighed. “Ok, I have an idea.”

…

“They didn’t have coke so I grabbed…” your voice trailed off as you entered the hotel room. “What’s this?”

“Christmas,” Dean grinned at you from under a Santa hat.

“You guys…decorated for Christmas?” You looked around in awe. “Like…the two of you? No threats, no gun to your head?”

“Well, you didn’t seem in the mood so we did it for you,” Sam explained. “What do you think?”

You were silent for several moments while you took it all in; a little plastic tree on the table, a couple of red and green balloons, Sam and Dean wearing matching Santa hats, and even a couple of newspaper-wrapped presents under the tiny tree.

“I think I wanna Santa hat,” your voice came out quietly, almost reverently, like if you spoke too loud you would wake up.

“They only had two,” Dean said, reaching into his bag, “but we did get you this!” He pulled out a headband with pointy plastic ears, and a cardboard green elf hat sticking out of the top. You giggled and snatched it from his hand, placing it on your head.

“Even better.”

The three of you spent that night opening gifts and drinking hot chocolate, before ending the night with you falling asleep to Elf.

Dean carried you to bed when the movie was over, setting you on one side while he climbed in on the other, pulling the blankets over the both of you. Sam came over to the bed you and Dean were sharing to give you a good night kiss on the forehead, before he went over to his own bed and quickly fell asleep.

“Dean?” You whispered sleepily.

“Yeah baby?”

“Merry Christmas.”

Dean grinned, leaning over to press a kiss to your head, and when he laid back down you scooted closer to him, and he wrapped you in his arms.

“Merry Christmas, little sister.”

[bia-wayne-west]

Boyfriend — Hwang Hyunjin X Reader

Summary: You are one of JYP Entertainment's makeup artists and are in a secret relationship with Hwang Hyunjin.

Warnings: Fluffy, a little smut, hot, secret dating.

A/N: This is my first k-pop imagine, I hope it's good. Remembering that I'm Brazilian and I don't speak fluent English, so please forgive any writing errors you find.

Request are open

MASTERLIST

I ran towards JYP's door, knowing I was late. My alarm clock didn't go off, and I had to take a taxi to avoid being too late.

I wished good morning to the security guard, who let me through with a smile on his face. He was really nice, and even offered to help me carry my heavy backpacks when I needed to take makeup and brushes to the car.

She had been working for JYP for three years, being the makeup artist for a single group during that time. I was assigned to Stray Kids from the first day, and I was very well received by everyone.

The boys are always very kind, and include you in conversations, they don't treat you like a robot but like another human being. I also go on tour with them, so everyone's makeup looks perfect for any occasion.

It was during one of the trips that what no one expected happened. During one night of the show, it was very cold and I hadn't brought any coat. Furthermore, I really missed my family who lived in another country. When I least expected it, Hyunjin appeared, offering me his sweater.

He sat next to me, on the floor, and started talking to me. We had already had interactions together, but this was the first time I was alone with him.

After the show, I received a turkey breast sandwich from one of the staff, with his cell phone number. We started talking a lot.

It didn't take long for Hyunjin invited me on a date, and I thought a lot before accepting. That was four months ago, and we've been dating ever since.

It's extremely confusing to date an idol, especially when you work for their company. We cannot be together in public, nor show feelings around the staff.

If anyone found out, I would be fired, and if our relationship became public, Hyunjin could be kicked out of Stray Kids.

“How are you, Y/N?” Felix said, sitting in the high chair in the makeup room. He had clips in his hair, while Hani, my professional colleague, applied foundation to his face. “Did you wake up very late?”

“My alarm clock’s fault.” I said, throwing my bag on one of the dressers. I sanitized my hand with some alcohol gel and read my schedule for the day.

I should do makeup on Changbin and Lee MinHo, and then I should only be available in case one of them needs to touch up their foundation or powder.

“Good morning, Changbin.” I said, pulling out the chair for the man to sit down. He laughed, sitting down and starting to scroll through his smartphone. “What is today's event?” I asked.

“Let's take photos for our new album, and then we can leave.” He explained.

“So, I will apply more natural makeup on you , okay?” I said, and he nodded, agreeing. I did the makeup, and after that, I met with MinHo, who talked the whole time.

After that, I sat at one of the tables in the break room, waiting for someone to need me. I bought a coffee from one of the vending machines, so my tiredness would disappear.

“Unnie?” Hani called me, with her hands crossed behind her back and a grimace on her face. “Can you do me a favour?”

“Yes.” I said, throwing the disposable cup in the trash. “What do you need me to do?”

“Can you help one of the boys in my place?” She asked. “I have to leave early today, and EunHee told me that I could only go if I finished my work.”

“Who's the last boy you have to put makeup on?”

“Hyunjin.” She said.

“Of course, I can do his makeup for you.” I said, with a small smile on my face, almost imperceptible.

“Thank you, Y/N, you are an angel.” She thanked, bowing and leaving celebrating. “I'll take you to barbecue tomorrow, as thanks.” Hani shouted at me, making me laugh.

I went to the makeup room, seeing that most of the group members were no longer present. Hyunjin was already sitting in the chair, and Felix was waiting for the hairdresser to finish fixing his hair.

“Hi.” I whispered to my boyfriend, seeing him smile when he saw me.

“Hello, jagiya.” He said, also in a low tone. “I almost celebrated when Hani told me she would ask you to do my makeup instead of her.”

The brunette threw his head back, with a wide smile. He had his hair tied up and his face clean.

“Oppa, how do you want your makeup?” I wanted to know. It was bold to be so intimate with him, but Felix knew about our relationship, as did the rest of Stray Kids, and they kept it quiet.

“Do what you think is best, beautiful.” He murmured close to me, emphasizing the final sentence. “I trust you."

“You shouldn't trust me." I commented, taking a little of the foundation of his tone and depositing it on the acrylic plate. I chose one of the sponges, starting to apply the product to his soft skin. “I could do ridiculous makeup on you.”

“It would still be good, because you made it.” He argued, making me laugh.

“Oppa, you are so cheesy.” I spoke, a little louder than I should have , attracting Felix's attention, who looked at us, laughing.

He looked at his friend, seeing that Felix was making fun of us. Hyunjin rolled his eyes, looking back at me.

“When we finish the photos, we will have the day free.” He said. “I want you to go to my apartment.” Hyunjin suggested.

“I have to finish organizing the product counter.” I explained. “ can't go today.” I whispered, looking for concealer in the drawers.

“You do this every day, and the other makeup artists take advantage of it.” He said. “No one will die if you don't wash your brushes or store your foundations. Other makeup artists never do this, they leave all the work to you. This is not just your obligation.”

“Oppa, But what if my boss gives me a warning?”

“Stop worrying, Y/N. The other staff have to clean up their own mess, instead of waiting for you to clean it up.” Hyunjin raised his eyes, looking at the ceiling as I applied concealer to his dark circles, which were barely visible. “Let's go to my apartment, I have a surprise for you.”

“It's okay, Hyunjin.”I whispered, bringing my face closer to his. “I'll come to your apartment as soon as I can leave.”

He smiled broadly.

“You won't regret it, jagiya.”

I finished the makeup, applying small layers of lip tint to his lips. I forced myself not to give him a kiss, seeing him smile at me, almost guessing my thoughts.

“Thank you, Y/N.” He thanked me, getting up from the chair and looking at me. He walked past me and sat on the couch next to Felix, starting an animated conversation with his friend.

[...]

After saying goodbye to my colleagues, I requested a taxi through the app, entering the address of the building where Hyunjin lived. It wasn't too far from the company, but it would take a long time if I walked.

I didn't have time to touch up my makeup, so I took advantage of my time in the elevator to reapply my lipstick and blush.

His apartment was on the fifteenth floor, and had an electronic door lock. Even though we had only been dating for a few months, Hyunjin told me what the password was. After entering the code, I opened the door.

The light in the living room was on, and when I entered the room, I heard the sound of water coming from the master bedroom, indicating that he was taking a shower.

“My love?” I called him, closing the door and walking to the suite bathroom. “I already arrived.”

“Honey?” He asked, and as soon as I confirmed, I heard the sound of the shower turning off. After a few seconds, the door opened, revealing my boyfriend, with wet hair and underwear.

He had a white towel in his hands, and started to dry his hair, while I sat on his bed, watching him walk around the room. Hwang went to the closet, coming back with sweatpants and a white t”shirt.

“Come closer.” He pulled me by the hand, making me stand up. I was inches away from his body.

Hyunjin closed the distance between us, pressing his soft lips against mine. My hands went towards his neck. He was a little taller than me, meaning I had to stand on tiptoe to reach him.

His mouth was wet and sweet, with the minty breath of someone who had just taken a shower. My boyfriend's left hand reached my hip, while his right went towards my face, caressing me.

I started running my fingers through his soft hair, the soft, wonderful smell of the shampoo. Hyunjin's perfume had a woody tone, with the soft scent of roses and a slightly discreet refreshment. It looked like paradise.

Reluctantly, he turned away from me, with a wide smile that made his eyes close.

“I have something for you.” He announced, pulling me into the living room. Hyunjin told me to sit down, while he went to his small painting studio, returning with a painting in hand. “I did something, and I think it might please you.” The idol smiled, shyly, handing me the painting.

It was packaged, with grass green wrapping paper and a small bow. He waited anxiously, watching me open the package.

As soon as I took out the paper, I let out a surprised sigh.

It was me.

He had painted me. Made my portrait.

It was a prettier version of me, much more beautiful than I saw myself in the mirror. Hyunjin painted me with a smile on my face, and without lipstick or eye shadow. It was so beautiful I almost couldn't stop looking at it.

“Happy four month anniversary together.” He said, making a shy face, seeming to fear that I wouldn't like the gift.

“Hyunjin...” I tried to say, but I couldn't stop admiring the beautiful way my boyfriend saw me. “ It's so beautiful...” I said, in a whisper.

“Did you like it?” He wanted to know.

“I loved.” I confessed, smiling. I placed the painting carefully on the couch, and stood up, facing my boyfriend. “But I didn't buy you anything, sorry...”

I bit my lip, feeling ashamed that I had forgotten that today was our anniversary.

“I don't need any gifts, Y/N.” He said. “You are my greatest and best gift.”

I laughed, throwing my head back.

“I’? really sorry, love.” I said, running her hand over his face.

Hyunjin held my hand, leading me to the kitchen.

“Stop it, I told you I don’t need anything.” The rapper said. I sat in the chair, watching him take dishes from the fridge. I offered help, but he refused. “The surprise is not over yet.”

“Do you have one more surprise for me?” I asked when I smelled the tasty aroma coming from the dishes.

“I cooked for you.” He announced, taking the lid off the container and showing me the food he had prepared. “Tteokbokki!” He said, proudly.

“You did that?” I asked, surprised.

He smiled, grabbing clean dishes from the cupboard. Hwang also placed two glasses and glasses on the table.

“I wanted to do something special for you, darling.” He said. “I always go to your house and eat the food you make, so I wanted to give back.”

I smiled at him, helping myself to a portion of the meal. My boyfriend also bought bottles of Soju and some wine. Because he was the oldest, he insisted on serving me the drink.

“Thanks.” II thanked him. “Everything is perfect, Hyunjin.”

I ate the first spoonful, tasting the food. He also tasted it, making a small face, usual when he liked something.

“It's so good.” I spoke.

The rapper and I finished eating, and even though I offered to wash the dishes, he forbid me from going near the sink. The brunette invited me to see a horror movie.

I sat down on the soft sofa, right next to him. Hyunjin began the horror film, adjusting himself on the upholstery. I rested my head on his shoulder, feeling the idol's hand slide over my shoulder, caressing me.

We hugged for most of the movie, until he put his hand on my thigh. It was an innocent gesture, but the hair on my body stood up, and I bit my lip, deciding to stop the movie.

I pulled the rapper by the neck, making him turn towards me. I kissed him very cheerfully. He returned the gesture, taking his hand off my thigh and placing it on my face.

In a bold move, I lay down on the couch, pulling him on top of me. Hyunjin wasn't heavy, but he still stayed on his knees so he didn't put all his weight on me.

The kiss continued, and the man let his mouth roam my face, distributing kisses until he reached my neck. I wore a black tank top, which left him free to leave me with several hickeys.

I took my hand to the hem of his shirt, letting it penetrate the fabric, feeling his slim abdomen. I felt him get goosebumps from my touch, and I gave a cheeky smile when I saw that Hyunjin kissed my breasts.

Suddenly, he stopped, sitting on the sofa and taking off his t”shirt, leaving just his pants on. I smiled when I saw the red marks I had left on his skin, probably my neck was equally marked.

“We're going to miss the end of the movie.” He said, laughing.

“We can see it again tomorrow.” I spoke. “However, we would lose the ending the same way.”

The brunette came back on top of me, taking his hands to the hem of my blouse, asking permission with his eyes. I nodded, biting my lip and stretching my arms to help him with the task of getting me naked.

Hyunjin unbuttoned my dark wash jeans, and pulled them off, throwing them on the living room floor. The man looked at me, seeing that I was wearing a burgundy lingerie set.

“You are beautiful.” He said.

I smiled.

“You too, Hyun.” I said, pulling him again so that he was on top of me.

The idol's mouth went straight towards my breasts, which were still covered by the bra. I let out a low moan, caressing the back of his neck.

Hyunjin continued moving down with his lips, placing kisses down my abdomen, and stopping at my panties. He sent me a smile. To my surprise, he came towards my lips again, kissing me.

I reciprocated, letting the rapper's tongue enter my mouth.

My nails made small welts on the man's pale back, who sighed at the sensation.

“I love you.” He confessed, between the kiss.

“I love you.” I said, feeling his hand go down my body, stopping at my panties. The feeling was wonderful, and he looked at me, as if asking if he could continue with the touches. If I think, I kissed him again, authorizing Hyunjin to do whatever he wanted with my body.

[skeletondeerart]

Stories of the Sky People

Sully Family x GN!Dream Walker Reader (Platonic) | Word Count: 1209 Words

Synopsis: Tasked with watching the Sully kids while Jake and Neytiri are away leads (Y/n) to recite the ‘Ugly Duckling’ story by Hans Christian Anderson, one of their favourite stories back on Earth to keep the kids occupied until their parent return.

The reader is the same age as Jake.

I never knew my life would turn out like this, taken in by a world many light years away from my birthplace. I have finally found my place amongst the people of Pandora. In particular. In the embrace of the Sully family.

Back on Earth Jake and I were both marines. Him an ex-soldier since he became paralysed. And me? I was a Captain yet also resigned alongside Jake when I lost my leg from a mine.

It was tough for the both of us. But our injuries bound us together through the worst times in our lives. We quickly became like siblings to each other, and we mourned together when we got news that Tom was killed in action. That was when we were both requested to join the Avatar program. They needed Jake to pilot Tom’s avatar and my own avatar was approved to begin the growing process since they deemed me a suitable candidate to gain information on the Na’vi.

We had nothing left to loose, so we signed the papers without hesitation and began our new lives.

That leaves us with today, I sat in the family home with Tuktiery in my lap. Kiri sitting to my left, Lo’ak to my right, Neteyam sitting cross legged in front of me and Spider laid beside Neteyam. I was one their own, like an Auntie/Uncle to the young Na’vi. I made jokes and orchestrated pranks on their Father just to see Jake flick me the finger as we all ran from the scene of the crime.

“So, what happened then?” Tuk gasped her yellow eyes wide with wonder.

“The Mother duck came to realise that one of her babies didn’t look like the rest, they were grey and much larger than their tiny yellow siblings. Yet that didn’t matter to her. She leads all the babies into the water watching them swim along with her, even the grey baby. The mother was happy that her grey baby swam like the rest and thought to herself “Why, that's no turkey," she said. "See how nicely he uses his legs, and how straight he holds himself. He's my very own son after all, and quite good-looking if you look at him properly. Quack, quack come with me. I'll lead you out into the world and introduce you to the duck yard.” My quaking impression got a chuckle out of the kids as my smile also grew at their happiness.

All the Sully Children were wrapped up in the story, maybe it resonated with them in a sense. Being half human and half Na’vi, well in Spider’s case, a human amongst the Na’vi. Feeling like an outlier in their clan.

“The Mother duck’s friends complimented all of her children yet insulted the grey duckling, the grey duckling was pecked at and shunned by all the different animals, the other ducks, the hens, the humans. So, when he grew up, he left.”

A gasp left the five children at this twist.

“Oh no! Poor grey duckling!” Tuk whimpered. I ran my hand up and down her back in a comforting manner.

“The story isn’t over yet Tuk.” I stated with a smile as I continued, “The grey duckling flew away from his Mother, sick of the treatment from all the other animals. He then found his way to a lake that had elegant white swans. The grey duckling said to himself "I shall fly near these royal birds, and they will peck me to bits because I, who am so very ugly, dare to go near them. But I don't care. Better be killed by them than to be nipped by the ducks, pecked by the hens, kicked about by the hen-yard girl, or suffer such misery in winter."

“The poor grey duckling thought himself as ugly because that was all anyone, but his mother had told him. But in fact, he was quite wrong. As he lands in the clear waters exclaiming to the beautiful swans to kill him, he bowed his head and caught his reflection. He was no longer the reflection of a clumsy, dirty, grey bird. He himself was a swan! Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.”

“He was praised by the other swans and the other animals of the yard. He felt so very happy, but he wasn't at all proud, for a good heart never grows proud. He thought about how he had been persecuted and scorned, and now he heard them all call him the most beautiful of all beautiful birds. He sang out "I never dreamed there could be so much happiness, when I was the ugly duckling."

“Awwwwww~” Kiri cooed, “I’m glad the duck- I mean swan had a happy ending.”

Tuktiery had a big smile on her face as the conclusion of the story. Neteyam had a warm look in his eyes and Lo’ak lent back on his hands with a smile on his own face. Spider has a grin on his as he looked to the woven floors.

“I loved that story when I was little, Mum used to read it to me every night” Jake stated with a warm smile recalling his memories, as he entered the home alongside Neytiri. I gesture to them ‘I see you’ and the kids quickly follow suit, as Jake and Neytiri sign back.

“Got into any trouble when we were gone (Y/n)?” Neytiri asked with a smirk on her face.

I gasp in mock horror. “Me Neytiri? Never” I said with my own smirk. “I was just telling the kids some of the stories from Earth.”

“Yes Mum! (Y/n) always has cool stories from the sky!” Tuktiery excitedly stated, yet stifling a yawn.

“Earth, baby. We came from Earth.” I correct.

“Yeah, Earth!” Tuk giggled.

“That was a wonderful story (Y/n), thank you for sharing it with us” Neteyam thanked with a warm smile and nod.

“No worries Neteyam, anytime.” I smile as I lean forward to ruffle his hair dragging a laugh from him.

“I think it’s time for bed, I think” Jake says as he watches Tuk drift in and out of sleep in my arm. This gets a hum of acknowledgement from Neytiri and I as we all move into bed. Jake gently pries Tuk from my arms as she settles quickly into her Father’s arms. Jake lays down in the middle, Neytiri to his right and me to the left. Kiri curls up by my side as Neteyam cuddles with his Mum and Spider wedges his way in-between Jake and I, that’s when Lo’ak decided to lounge across everyone gaining a groan from all of us.

“Lo’ak move your butt!” Spider groans and he kicks Lo’ak in the shin.

“Owwwww! Spider lay off!” Lo’ak wines yet doesn’t move an inch.

“Enough boys!” Jake scolds through his teeth, trying to keep Tuktiery asleep. That was enough to get Lo’ak to move and let poor Spider breathe.

“Sleep.” Neytiri states with her eyes shut.

I could only smile at Neytiri’s blunt parenting style.

“Sweet dreams everyone.” I murmur.

“Goodnight.” The Sully’s reply before we all fell into the embrace of sleep.

I would do anything to protect this family.

[littleadaline]

Thank you for the sandwich [F.T7]

Warnings: some smut content [18+], some light swearing

Word count: 1.5k

A/N: whoooops hihi

———————————————

“Oh and another thing,” Flick told you before exiting his office. “Ferran had his Adidas commercial canceled today. If you want to get ahead on the YouTube channel content, today is your day. He came in early for training, I have no reason to keep him this late.” He handed you back your bag.

“Thank you. I’ll grab my equipment from my office and head down to let him know. Have a nice day, mister.”

‘You too.” He softly smiled at you before closing his office door shut.

You walked back to your office, head in your notebook, scanning for the ideas you had jotted down for Ferran content. You had made it to your desk when an unknown figure sitting in your chair made your heart jump.

“Ferran, coño, you scared me. What are you doing here?” You put down your material in the now-empty chair.

“I had my Adidas shoot canceled for today. I wanted to know if you wanted to catch up on some content we had to shoot.” He shot you a smile, nervously fiddling with the pens at your desk.

“That’s funny because I was going to ask you to do the same. But I need to finish editing tomorrow’s video, if you don’t mind waiting for me.”

“Can I wait here?” He kept playing with the stationary on your desk.

“Will you be quiet?” You raised an eyebrow, plugging your computer into the wall.

“Yes… at least I’ll try.” He shot you a smirk. You giggled, signaling him to sit in the chair next to you.

You spent the next 30 minutes putting the clips together, selecting audios and playing with the visual effects. You always felt a great deal of pressure when tasked with editing the videos for the club’s social media. You wanted to be proud of your work, all while having the fans' approval. You were deeply focused on your work, when Ferran’s voice pulled you out of your bubble.

“Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Are you done yet?” He playfully threw a few balled-up Post It’s at your face.

“Ferran! What did we agree on?” You said through gritted teeth, the frustration of your work getting to you.

“But I’m bored!” He whined. You looked to your left, only to be met with a pouting face and arms crossed across his chest.

“I am almost done, I swear! Have some patience.” You diverted back to your screen, only for your stomach to betray you. An idea flashed through your face. “How about you get us some food?”

“Sure! What do you want?” He got up, straightening his pants.

“I’ll have a turkey sub, extra pesto, hold the tomatoes please. And a mango Jarritos.”

“Anything else?” He ruffled the top of your hair before leaning into the doorway.

“No, thank you!” You re-arranged your hair in a hurry.

After Ferran had left your office, you took a quick glance at yourself on your computer screen. You had trouble hiding your reddened cheeks at Ferran’s touch. You liked it when he subtly crossed the boundaries of professionalism and into friendship. Ferran was the first player you really clicked with when you got started. He made sure you were well welcomed, and treated with respect. 2 years into the job, you had each others’ number and addresses. You would often meet up on days off to spend time with your newly formed group of friends. But these past few months, you have wanted to spend less time with the group and more time with just him.

Ferran came back just as you were saving the video on your hard drive.

“I got you something extra. Little sweet treat for all your efforts.” He handed you a brown bag. Your ears perked up, your arms extending for the bag.

“You got me… red velvet? You remembered.” You sighed in awe.

“Of course I did! It’s your favorite.” He shrugged nonchalantly. He sat back in his chair, kicking his feet up. You ran up to hug him, your sudden move throwing him off the chair and onto the floor.

Ferran’s arms softened your fall, your faces merely a few inches away. You could feel his breath on your lips, and it took all your might to stop yourself from violating the code of professionalism. Ferran’s eyes lingered on your lips, unable to pull away. He had one hand on your back and the other on the back of your thigh, his touch leaving a burning sensation on your skin.

“We-um…We should get up before someone walks in and sees us.” You breathlessly said, pushing yourself off of his chest. You tried to hide the fact that your little interaction had caused a not so small chemical reaction in the Barça player’s shorts.

“Yeah… that.” He said, disappointed.

You both ate your food in an awkward silence, before cleaning up and heading downstairs to film the video. The vibes were off, which prompted you to call off the shoot earlier. It would just have to be a shorter video than usual. Nothing bad. You both said your goodbyes and parted ways for the rest of the evening.

“I’ll see you…” Ferran asked, climbing into the driver’s seat.

“Monday. I’m off for the weekend.” You waved him off as he drove away.

———————————

You had finished loading up the dishwasher when the doorbell rang. You opened the door only to find Ferran standing there, his hair and clothes soaked by the rain.

“Ferran? Oh my God, come in! How long have you been standing outside?” You pulled him by the sleeve of his jacket. “Let me get you a towel. Give me your jacket.” You undressed him from the many layers he was wearing.

He sat on your couch, droplets of water tainting his sweet face, and dripping onto the floor.

“Aye, Ferran, what the fuck happened to you?” You knelt in front of him, towel in hand. You dried his face the best you could, giving extra attention to his face. Your heart fluttered at the sight of the water droplets clinging to his eyelashes. “What were you doing in the neighborhood?”

“I told Flick.” He blurted out.

“You told Flick… what did you tell him?” You hummed softly, your hand resting on his cheek.

“I went back to his office after you left. I told him that I love you. I told him I was in love with you, and I was planning on asking you out, one day or another. I wanted to suppress my feelings, protect you and your heart…But after today’s incident in the office… the way your lips just…Fuck.”

He grabbed you by the neck, pulling you into his lap, before crashing his lips against yours. Your body took no time reacting to his touch, choosing to melt into his embrace. Your hands found the nape of his neck, gently stroking the hair, nibbling behind his ear, subtly leaving a hickey. His hand lifted your ass before gently placing you in his lap, his hands never leaving the curve of your ass. You moaned into his mouth, as his fingers found the hem of your shirt, peeling it off painfully slow.

“May I?” He gestured at your bra. You nodded feverishly, your body itching to tear his clothes off and leave trails of kisses along his chest. Ferran’s eyes grew hungry as he slowly undid your bra. You trailed your arms alongside his body, searching for the hem of his shirt. Ferran’s hands found yours as you peeled away his soaked t-shirt.

You got up from his lap, shimmying out of your shorts and underwear, before extending your arm out to him, inviting him to do the same. He rapidly shed his clothes before grabbing your hand and dragging you to the bedroom, where your bed was a witness to your sexual activities.

The next morning, you woke up to Ferran’s soft snores. It was still dark and early in the morning. You snuggled back into bed, Ferran’s hand instinctively wrapped around your waist. He hated to admit it, but he was a snuggle bug. You turned back to face him, his lips slightly ajar, and his hair merely ruffled. You snuggled against his chest, letting his heartbeat lull you back to sleep.

The next time you woke up, it was once again because of Ferran. But he wasn’t snoring in your ear anymore. He was leaving hot, feverish kisses at the base of your chest.

“Good morning hermosa.” He came out from under the covers, his cheeks covered in a faint pink hue, his hair still disheveled. “I must say, that body of yours, is a 10/10. Love every freckle, dimple and scar this body has. My love.” He said as he snaked his hand down to squeeze your ass as you giggled from the sudden move.

You both spent the rest of the day in bed, as neither had any obligations. As the day dwindled down, you both sat on your couch, your head in his lap.

“So… when you said you would ask me out one day or another, to Flick, did you mean it?”

“Princesa, I meant every word I said to Flick. I would steal the Milky Way for you if you asked me to.” He bent down to leave a kiss on your lips. “Which is why I want to ask you… would you like to go on a date with me?”

“Yes!” You giggled with excitement, feeling a part of your dream come true. You swung your arms around his neck, dragging him down for a heated make-out session.

[archangeldyke-all]

Oooh for Roach Verse, what about:

-Holiday funtime antics?

-Jinx has a school bully and those chuckleheads create the most over the top plots to help her out, lol

-Jinx brings home a stray

-The gang gives Roach the day off from cooking/ healing/general caretaking and it goes about as well as you'd imagine

-Jinx has a crush on some kid, and Silco/Sevika are not coping well

That's off the top of my head, I gotta go reread the Roach series now! lol

these are so fucking fantastic, i might revisit this a few times to do some of the other prompts too omg. but the one with jinx bringing home a stray??? chaos i love it.

men and minors dni

lock's been avoiding you all day.

it's strange. usually, you, lock and ran are like the three musketeers-- always getting into and back out of trouble together.

but today... lock's been avoiding you like the plague.

it's a little funny. the man's three hundred pounds of pure muscle, tattooed and pierced on nearly every inch of his skin, but each time he walks in a room with you there, he turns on his heel and runs away like a scared little girl.

mostly, though, you're just worried that you've pissed off your friend.

"he really hasn't said anything to you?" you ask ran. they're 'helping' you make sandwiches for lunch-- eating more than they are assembling, but still. you appreciate the company.

"nah, he's been jumpy around me too." they mumble around a mouthful of turkey. you cringe in disgust as you watch them squirt a dollop of mustard directly into their mouth, on top of the mush of turkey on their tongue. "don' worry. we'll get 'im drunk and interrogate him tonight." ran promises, patting your shoulder. you giggle, smacking your friend's hand away from the cold cuts.

twenty minutes later, you're making your rounds across the bar and delivering sandwiches to the crew.

singed and deckard barely notice you, both of them searching the lab for something when you drop off their sandwiches. singed shouts a distracted "thank you roach!" before the basement door slams behind you.

thieram's still asleep-- preparing to stay up all night tonight for work. you put his sandwich on his desk and gently nudge him. "'s almost two." you whisper. he grunts.

"thamk y' r'ch." he mumbles.

your next stop is silco's office, since lock is still hiding from you. you gently knock on the door. "lunch!" you call.

"come in!" silco shouts.

silco's laying back in his office chair, his feet propped up on his desk, a cigar between his lips as he scrubs at his temples. you raise an eyebrow at his haggard appearance, gently placing his sandwich beside the papers littering his desk.

"rough day?" you guess. silco groans. from the sound of his groan alone, you know he needs a bitch-session. you happily plop down on the couch next to his desk, tearing into your sandwich and nodding at silco. "spill. but make it quick, i still gotta feed the kid."

silco groans again at the mention of his foster daughter, and you burst into laughter. of course it's about jinx. silco's never this angsty about business. "she's been avoiding me all day." he sighs, dropping his hands to look at you. you furrow your brows.

"it's only one." you say. he huffs.

"she was acting cagey last night too. has she said anything to you?" he asks. you shake your head no.

you're usually the first person jinx goes to bitch about silco to. you or sevika. so the fact that you haven't heard anything only makes her behavior stranger. silco groans again.

"i don't even know what i did! we were perfectly fine at lunch yesterday, and now she won't even let me in her room!"

"she's probably just hormonal. puberty, silco, it's different for girls man." you try to explain. he just shakes his head.

"no it's not that."

you take another bite of your sandwich, gesturing at silco to do the same. he huffs and rolls his yes, but he at least takes a bite, so you're happy. "lock's been acting jumpy around me too. maybe it's just somethin' in the air." you suggest.

silco's eyes sharpen at your words. the second you hear yourself say it, you figure it out too.

"oh, shit." you mumble, jumping off the couch. "what did those shits get themselves into now?" you ask, scooping up the last few sandwiches you have left to deliver and running toward the office door. silco starts to chuckle behind you-- a defeated laugh, one that means he knows he's about to have an even bigger headache that he did when he just thought jinx was upset with him.

"don't let them drag you into it, roach. i need you as my informant." he begs. you laugh.

"i'll let you know what i find out." you call over your shoulder as you stumble into the hallway and slam silco's office door shut behind him.

you take off toward jinx's room, not bothering to knock, knowing it would only give them time to hide whatever shit they're up to.

you slam the door open, and your eyebrows fly up your forehead when not just jinx and lock; but jinx, lock and sevika all turn to look at you with big guilty eyes.

you groan. "what did you do?"

"now, hold on, why do you assume we--"

"babe, i promise i had nothing to do with it until just this morn--"

"i am so sorry roach, i told her not to--"

they all start to speak at the same time, flailing wildly as their voices overlap. and then, from a pile of blankets and plushies on jinx's bed, a raspy 'meow' floats above all the rambling voices.

they all cringe simultaneously, their heads snapping over to the bed. you burst into defeated laughter.

"a cat!?" you ask, walking over to the bed. jinx's eyes grow a little wider at the smile on your face, and she's the first to run up to your side. "oh, janna." you groan through your smile as you look down at the mangy thing. "fuck, jinx, it's probably getting fleas and lice all over your covers."

she blinks up at you with wide eyes. "but she's so cute, roach!" she squeals. you giggle at the girl, then look up at your friends.

lock's cooing down at the cat, gently patting its forehead as it purrs into his hand. sevika's watching it with a smile she's trying and failing to bite back.

"you're all suckers!" you cry. they both look up at you guiltily.

"jinx is gonna name 'er shitstorm." sevika supplies. you laugh despite yourself, reaching out to ruffle jinx's bangs. it's the perfect name for the poor little cat.

"where did you even find this thing?" you ask. jinx shrugs.

"i heard meowing in the lab last night. found her hiding in a corner, all scared and alone." jinx pouts, reaching down to pet the cat. it seems to know jinx is it's savior-- licking at her hand and closing its eyes as she pets it.

it occurs to you that this is probably what deckard and singed were looking for earlier. you have to bite back a laugh-- this cat is one lucky fucker, narrowly avoiding a brutal death of shimmer experimentation to become a little girl's fur-baby.

"roach..." jinx whispers. you look up from the little cat, rolling your eyes at the wet puppy eyes jinx is blinking at you. "please can we keep her?" she whines.

you huff, throw each of your friends their sandwich, then lean forward and pick the cat up, holding it to your chest. it's a docile little thing, cuddling against you the second you got it in your arms. jinx is wiggling with glee before you, already knowing what your answer's going to be. you flip her off, and she grins.

"fine." you grunt. jinx and lock burst into happy squeals, jumping up and down as they hold each other's hands. sevika's grinning behind the pair. "but you three gotta help me take care of this mess understand?" you ask. they all nod.

"whatever you need, roach." lock promises, grining. you giggle.

"okay. lock, take jinx's bedding out back and burn it-- it's easier than trying to wash out all the bugs and diseases." jinx pouts a bit at the thought of losing her star-themed sheets, and you nudge her with your foot. "you still got your dinosaur sheets in the closet. and i'll buy you a new set next time we're at the markets, okay?" you ask. she nods up at you. lock gets to work stripping her bed.

"jinx, go talk to silco. he thinks you're mad at him."

"you think he's gonna let me keep 'er?" she asks, worried. you snort.

"jinx, you could ask silco for the moon and he'd find a way to bring it to you." you say. jinx smiles shyly at this, and you ruffle her bangs again. "tell 'im i say that pets are good for kids' social development, or some bullshit like that. she'll be good for pest control in the bar. get him to take you shopping for some food and a litter box for little shitstorm, okay?" you ask.

jinx grins and nods up at you, wrapping your legs in a quick hug before taking off down the hall to talk to silco. you laugh as you watch her go.

sevika's the only one left, blinking at you guiltily from across jinx's room. you snort at the sight of her. "come help me clean this little shit." you mumble, nodding toward jinx's bathroom.

sevika follows with a smile.

"you're the sucker." she teases as you pass her the cat, plugging the sink and filling it with warm soapy water. you snort.

"you know she was supposed to be one of singed's test subjects?" you ask. sevika bursts into laughter, scratching the cat under her chin. she purrs so loud it's like a little motor. "i went down there today, he and deckard were tearing the lab apart looking for the cat." you laugh.

sevika snorts. "after her bath i'll go break the news to 'em."

down the hall, silco's shocked voice rings out. "a cat!?"

you and sevika burst into giggles.

you take the cat from her hands, firmly holding it as you start to scrub it's skin free of bugs. she yowls at the water, but settles down once you start to scrub her, seemingly liking her bath. sevika wraps an arm around your waist, kissing your head as you work.

"she is a cute little thing. makes me feel bad for all the creatures jinx didn't rescue from singed." you whisper. sevika chuckles.

"honestly, babe, we're just lucky singed hasn't started experimenting on humans yet." she jokes.

thumping footsteps come running toward jinx's room. you both look up in time to see ran round the corner, a manic grin on their face. "a cat!" they squeal, pushing into the bathroom to coo down at the sweet little thing. "awe, hello sweet girl!" they cry, taking the cat out of your hands and into their arms.

you giggle at sevika's shocked expression-- ran's just a ball of sunshine under their bangs and eyeliner-- and pass ran a clean towel to wrap the cat in.

"you got it from here?" you ask your friend, trusting that they know how to care for the creature better than you. they grin, pressing kisses to the wet cat's head.

"jinx already named me godparent. suck it, bitches." ran says, sticking their tongue out at you and sevika, hugging the cat closer to their chest.

sevika snorts and you roll your eyes fondly.

taglist!

@fyeahnix @sapphicsgirl @half-of-a-gay @thesevi0lentdelights @sexysapphicshopowner @shimtarofstupidity @chuucanchuucan @badbye666 @femme-historian @lia-winther @gr0ssz0mbi3 @ellsss @sevikaspillowprincess @leomatsuzaki @emiliabby @sevikasbeloved @hellorai @vikasub @glass-apothecary @m0numents @macaroni676 @vixel352 @artinvain

[multi-fandom-enjoyer]

Today was Thanksgiving, and you were invited to have dinner with your girlfriend's family. Currently, you her flying next to her, traveling to their house. Mary was panicking due to it being your first time meeting them.

Mary: Darla will try to attack you with hugs. Freddy likes to spout out random facts. Eugene might ignore you and play his video games. You'll have to be aware of Billy. He's a bit over over protective of the family.

You kissed her on the cheek and reassured her that,

Y/n: Mary, if there anything like you, then I'm sure their lovely.

She smiled at you before landing outside of the house, letting you down and saying, "Shazam!" A lightning bolt then hit her suit, and after a bright flash, she was in her normal clothes.

As soon as you walked into the house, her family begins to surround you, introducing themselves. As Mary predicted, Darla ran and gave you both a hug.

Suddenly, the fire detector goes off, and smoke comes out from the kitchen.

Darla: Oh no! The tofo-turkey!

She runs to the kitchen with Victor following her after telling you,

Victor: Don't worry, we also have real turkey.

Later, you were in the kitchen helping set the table while Freddie was holding the plates and asking,

Freddie: Did you know that the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured Central Park Zoo animals instead of giant floats.

Before you could reply, your attention turned to a loud thud outside. Through the back door, you could see the hero known as SHAZAM in the backyard holding a pie.

SHAZAM: Sorry I'm late. I had to beat an old lady with a stick for this.

Y/n: Billy?

Billy: Oh hey, Y/n. Shazam!

A lighting bolt strikes him, turning him back into a child. He then enters the house and sets the pie on the table.

Mary: You two know eachother?

Y/n: We teamed up to defeat Teth Adam a few times.

Darla and Vicitor came out of the kitchen. Each was bringing their own turkey to the table. After everyone had sat down at the table, Mary placed her hand in the center of the table.

Mary: All hands on deck.

A few hours after dinner, you said your goodbyes before flying back home.

Y/n: It was nice to meet your family. Is there any chance I can come back for Christmas?

She chuckled and kissed you before saying,

Mary: I think so, it seems they loved you as much as I do.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Yesterday, there was an independent terrorist attack carried out, where the terrorist stabbed two people. The terrorist was a 23 year old Israeli Arab from East Jerusalem. He was neutralized. His victims are a young man and woman, 20 and 25 years old. Today, there was another independent terrorist attack, this time the terrorist ran over with his vehicle no less than 4 people, and one of them, a 25 years old man, is in a condition defined as "between moderate to serious." All four of the wounded are in their 20's. The attacker was neutralized. He was 16 years old, from Hebron.

It is now confirmed that in addition to Hamas and the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), another Palestinian terrorist organization that participated in the Oct 7 massacre was the DFLP (the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another Palestinian terrorist organization). The terrorist attack for which they're most known in Israel is the 1974 invasion of an Israeli school, holding a group of 100 school girls and their teachers hostage, and then massacring them as Israeli soldiers broke into the school, trying to save the hostages. This terror attack happened before I was born, but I think like many other Israelis, this image of it is forever etched into my brain, Israeli soldiers carrying away bleeding, but saved students:

Along with the drone attack on Israel's north yesterday, there were also rockets that hit Kiryat Shmona, which is in the same area.

In Turkey, 32 ISIS terrorists were arrested for planning to attack local synagogues and churches.

There's been a lot of speculation regarding who knew about the planned Oct 7 invasion and massacre, since clearly a lot of the funding, training and planning was done by Iran. Yesterday, a Hamas senior in Lebanon said that Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy) was only alerted to the plan about to be implemented half an hour before it started. Currently, according to Israel's Minister of Defence, Israel is being attacked on 7 physical fronts (Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and independent terrorist attacks) and one front online (cyber attacks), BUT it's only fighting a full fledged war with Hamas in Gaza. Had Hezbollah been alerted earlier, would it have joined Gaza's terrorists? Would Israel currently been in a full out war on two fronts? Due to not knowing enough time in advance, Hezbollah lost the element of surprise, and ended up joining in attacks that are far from a full scale war.

I was made aware that antisemites are posting about the existence of Israeli military censorship as some sort of "proof" that Israel is not a free, democratic society (as if other democracies don't apply similar censorship to intelligence and operational details, when they believe publishing the info might endanger lives). So I just wanna point out that there is a LOT of info that isn't being censored, stuff that isn't comfortable for Israel to be published (like the story of the hostages being accidentally shot by IDF soldiers. No one else was there, it could have been so easy to bury that story, but Israel published it. Not any external journalistic source. That's who we are, as a society), and explain how some of the info that IS censored is specifically what can be demonstrated to endanger people's lives. For example, journalists can write about the hostages, but not about certain details regarding their professions or military service, present or past. We KNOW Palestinian terrorists follow the news, and if they find out they hold someone they can try and extract info from, they WILL torture that person. If journalists discuss everyone BUT a specific hostage in terms of this aspect, that's also telling the terrorists who to look at. So that's why they're just censoring all of it in regards to this specific aspect. Or another example, when it comes to rocket attacks, some of the details will be censored, because past experience has shown that the terrorists listen to reports on where their rockets hit, and they use that intel to finetune their aiming at Israeli targets.

Here is a NYT piece on the sexual violence of Hamas during the massacre, and in case this is behind a paywall, here is a report on that piece, which details some of what was published. At what point will the people who screamed for evidence of rape, actually come forward and apologized for the way they victimized those sexually brutalized by Hamas, a second time?

This is a CNN host choking up as he reads the letter of Liora Argamani, as she writes to the US president, begging to see and hug her daughter one last time, before she died of brain cancer:

These are Liora Argamani, and her daughter, Noa:

And these are Gadi Chagai and his wife, Judy weinstein:

I've shared their picture once before, when it was discovered that Gadi was actually murdered on Oct 7, and his body was kidnapped to Gaza. At that point, his wife 70 years old Judy was known to have been wounded on that day, but she was still believed to be alive, and the oldest woman in captivity in Gaza (the oldest man is 86 years old Shlomo Mansour). Yesterday, we got confirmation that Judy wasn't just wounded, she was killed on Oct 7, and her body was also taken hostage. May their memories be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[asshlyyyy]

Thanksgiving

Fic Warnings: There are no warnings from what I know. Reader and Elvis do have a baby. Davada is mentioned for a bit, but this is just wholesome content. There may be spelling and grammatical errors. Author's note at the end.

Masterlist | Next Part

Thanksgiving. A day to get together with family. Yet, it is also a very stressful day for the cook. Which so happened to be you. Typically you had Thanksgiving at your parent's house, yet for some stupid reason, you spoke up and took the chef’s hat. You didn’t know the first thing about how to cook a turkey! Thank god they made Thanksgiving cookbooks because lord knows you would’ve messed up big time.

Your eyes fluttered open gently as you felt your body forcing you to wake up. You scrunched yourself up as you reached over for your husband. You let out a hum as his body turned over. You looked up at his face, your eyes still adjusting to waking up. The sunshine was slowly creeping past the blackout curtains. The sounds of birds chirping filled the air gently. 

“Mmm, mornin’,” Elvis spoke groggily, still trying to wake up himself. 

“Morning,” you responded back softly. These were your moments of silence before you two would be forced awake to tend to your son. “I have to get up, I have to start prepping dinner.”

“Already?” Elvis asked confused as he brought his thumb up to your cheek, caressing it gently. 

“Well, I have to do breakfast first. Then I think I read that the turkey can take anywhere between… two up to six hours.” You explained to him.

“That’s a long time…”

“It just depends on how many pounds it is,” you explained as you tried to pull yourself away. 

“Mm, come back,” he hit you with that thick, raspy, southern accent. You hummed at the sound as he pulled you back to him. 

“I have to get ready,” you said as you looked into his blue orbs.

“And I think we should stay in bed a bit longer,” he mumbled as he pressed his lips against your neck, leaving soft kisses behind.

“We have a son to tend to,” you hummed as you lifted your chin, giving him more room.

“In a second,” he muttered and ran his hands up your shirt, grasping the two soft breasts. You let out a light moan and closed your eyes gently. You didn’t know what got Elvis in a touchy mood, but you weren’t complaining. Then again, you had to start prepping for Thanksgiving… You didn’t want to flop and no one wants to come to yours ever again. 

“Elvis,” you whispered. He hummed and pulled away knowing if he didn’t stop you would yell at him. 

“Alright alright,” he pressed a kiss to your lips. You returned the kiss happily and got up. You made your way into the closet, just as Elvis got up to check on your son. 

You had him when you two first got into a relationship. He was an accident, yes, but you both love him so much than that. Elvis was a little reluctant at first, not really knowing if he could handle kids. Yet, he turned out to be one of the best fathers ever. You both were scared honestly. 

You were only twenty-one at the time, Elvis was twenty-seven. You’ve known him for a couple of months before you two got together, but… for some reason you got pregnant, no matter how many times you two did it, you didn’t get pregnant till you were together. Weird how the world works out sometimes. 

As you came out of the shower you wrapped yourself up in a towel to dry off. You walked over to the sink and did some light skincare before going and drying off completely. You slipped into your robe and went over to your vanity to get ready. 

“There he is,” Elvis smiled as his son finally opened his eyes up. Your son responded by rubbing his eyes, confused as to why his father was waiting for him to wake up. “Mornin’ bub.”

“Hai,” Theo responded still tired from waking up. Elvis reached down for him and picked him up. 

“Do you know what today is?” Elvis questioned as he walked over to the closet, Theo’s hands tightly holding onto the robe Elvis threw on. 

“No,” he responded with a soft voice and a shake of his head.

“It’s Thanksgiving,” Elvis said as he made his way downstairs. 

“Wot danktdiving?” Theo asked confused as he picked his head up to look at his father. This was only going to be his second Thanksgiving, and even so, you knew Thanksgiving was gonna have to be explained for many more years to come. 

“It is a time when families gather together and feast upon a big feast while giving thanks for things we are thankful for,” Elvis explained, though he doubted Theodore picked up on any of that. 

“Wot you dankful for?” The young boy curiously asked. 

“Your mama,” Elvis answered in a heartbeat as he pulled out the milk. “Yourself,” Elis smiled as he tickled Theodore’s belly. Theo responded with a fit of giggles. He was surely awake now. 

Elvis placed Theodore on the counter and turned the sink on to warm water, just to warm up the milk a bit. “My family, your mama’s family. Ma fans, I’m thankful for a lot.” Elvis continued down his list.

“Mama!” Theodore explained. 

“Yes, I am thankful for her,” Elvis responded and handed him the milk bottle. Theo took it in his hands and started to drink out of the straw. You two always prepared a bottle of milk for him so you wouldn’t have to worry about prepping it in the morning. 

Elvis walked over to the coffee maker and started to get the coffee ready. He knew you both were gonna need a lot of coffee to make it through the day. He looked over at Theo to make sure everything was okay with him. As he did he noticed you coming down the stairs. Dressed all beautifully in Thanksgiving colors. 

“What?” You asked confused as you noticed two sets of blue eyes on you. “Is my makeup smudged?” You asked as you walked over to Theo and pressed your lips on the top of his head.

“You look beautiful,” Elvis admitted. You always looked beautiful in his eyes. No matter what you looked like or what you wore. He found you beautiful. 

“Thank you,” you responded with a smile and walked over to him. “You should get dressed.” You said as you smoothed out his silk robe.

“But-”

“No buts, now go on,” you whispered and pressed up on your toes and pressed your lips against his for a short kiss. Elvis hummed against your lips happily and placed his hand on your hips. Once the two of you pulled away he gave your hip a squeeze and made his way up the stairs. 

“Who’s ready for breakfast?!” You clapped your hands together as you went over to Theo, who had just finished his milk.

“Me!” He exclaimed with a smile. 

“Yeah? What do you want?” You questioned him with a smile. 

“Um…” Theodore started to think about what he wanted. 

“Do you want… pancakes?” You questioned. Theo responded with a shake of his head. “Oatmeal?” Another shake. “Eggs and bacon?”

“Wes!” He exclaimed happily. You smiled and picked him up from his spot on the counter, dragged over his high chair, and placed him in it. 

You went over to the fridge and pulled out the things you needed. Eggs, bacon, sausage, butter, jelly, hashbrowns, etc. You grabbed out a big bowl and started to make breakfast. You hummed lightly and worked elegantly around the kitchen. 

Elvis came down after he finished getting ready and opened the fridge. He pulled out glasses from the cabinet and started to fill them up. In the background, Theo was babbling about a story. “Yeah?” Elvis urged him to go on. You smiled looking over at him. “No way,” Elvis turned to look at him shocked. Theo giggled and nodded at his father. 

You two enjoyed breakfast and you cleaned up the kitchen while Elvis got Theodore ready for the day. You prepped the turkey and got Elvis to put it in the oven. You had some time to relax before you had to slave away in the kitchen. Elvis offered many times to help, but to be honest… Elvis in the kitchen can be a bit too much sometimes. He was best playing with your son.

The sound of the doorbell filled your ears as you worked on mashing the potatoes together. “Elvis! Hun! Can you get that!” You called out to him. You knew he was right in the family room next to the door, but it couldn’t hurt. 

Elvis stood up from the pile of toys he was in and made his way over to the door. He pulled it open and was greeted by your family. Both your parents and your younger brother. “Hey,” Elvis said with a smile and moved out of the way. “Please come in.”

Your parents both thanked the tall gentleman and walked in. As they did they started to take their coats off which Elvis offered to take. It didn’t take long until your mother made her way over to your perfect baby boy. Your father on the other hand made his way into the kitchen. They always say that a way to a man’s heart is through food. 

“There’s my hardworking daughter,”

“Hi Dad,” you smiled as you plugged the hand mixer in. “Mama with, Theo?” You questioned as you turned to look at him.

“You know it,” he chuckled lightly, “it smells amazing.” He complimented. You smiled softly as the words fell into your heart. Elvis was saying it all day, but to hear it from an outsider's opinion who wasn’t surrounded by the smell all day… it meant something more. 

“Thank you, Dad, it means a lot. I was actually nervous… but… we just took the turkey out and… it looks really good.” You didn’t want to speak too well on the subject just in case things would fall apart. 

“I’m sure everything will come together.” He smiled, and with that, he left you to finish up. There were just a few last things that needed to be put together before it could be eaten. Not to mention you were still waiting on a very important someone. 

“Oh my gosh, he’s just growing so big.” Your mother gushed at the two-year-old.

“He really is,” Elvis nodded in agreement. He felt bad for not helping you in the kitchen, but someone had to watch Theodore. He did help with the turkey though so maybe it wasn’t a total loss. He just didn’t want you to feel like you were a housewife, even though you were. He didn’t want to make you feel like you had to be one. 

Even if it was your idea to host Thanksgiving. Truth be told, you’ve been wanting to host for a while now, but Theo was one last year… then he was still just a newborn, and then you were pregnant. So the last three Thanksgivings weren’t a possibility. This was your time to shine, and you really wanted to make it perfect so that you could host again. 

It didn’t take long until the doorbell went off again. Elvis excused himself from your mother’s conversation and answered the door. His face dropped, and he swore his eye started to twitch. What was she doing here? Was all he could think of. He remembers specifically himself, and you, telling his dad HE was invited, not HER.

“Elvis,” Vernon said with a smile as he held a disclosed box in his hands. A favor you called in.

“Hi Daddy,” Elvis responded, but his eyes stayed on the fake Barbie standing in front of him. “What are you doing here, Davada?”

“Please, I’ve told you plenty of times it’s Dee, Elvis.” She laughed obnoxiously. He wanted to rip his ears off. They hadn’t even planned for her to show up, let alone with her three sons. 

“I hate to do this, but my wife simply hasn’t planned on this many people. We only planned for seven people.”

“You and Y/n finally got married?” Davada looked at him confused, ignoring that he was basically denying her entry. 

“Still engaged, but that’s none of your business. As I said, we simply don’t have the room or food to serve any more people.”

“Son,” Vernon put on a stern voice. 

“Daddy, I invited you. Y/n invited you. We planned for seven guests, not ten.” Elvis responded. You came out from the kitchen when you first heard her name, you only just came around the corner once you knew nothing was going to burn.

“Vernon,” you spoke with a small voice and a smile.

“There’s my daughter-in-law,” Vernon said with a smile as you welcomed him in with a side hug. “I got that cake you wanted,” he whispered in your ear. Your smile widened as you took the box out of his hands.

“You clean up very nicely, Y/n,” Davada broke you out of your calm thoughts. You let out a hum and turned towards her. 

“Hi Davada,” you spoke, refusing to use her nickname, “I’m sure Elvis has already told you, but there’s nearly not enough food.”

“Oh please, there’s always leftovers.” She tried to push herself in but Elvis stood his ground. There was one thing he wasn’t a fan of… strangers in his house. While she may have not been a stranger, he certainly didn’t like her. 

“Well, I planned according. There may be a few things left over, but not a lot. I do greatly apologize, but we had only seven people in mind for a month now at this point. I hope you do understand.” You responded to her. Elvis knew you meant business when you got fancy. You were always one to try and keep your cool, especially when your son was able to see you. 

“Well, I- Vernon,” she turned towards the older man for help. Vernon didn’t want to leave his family on Thanksgiving, but he also didn’t want to leave his wife and stepsons. 

“I’m sorry, maybe I’ll sneak you a slice of dessert.” Vernon frowned at his wife. Elvis felt a sense of happiness. He was honestly worried his father would either force her stay or leave with her. Shocked by Vernon’s response, Davada left upset. Elvis closed the door behind her and offered to take his father's coat. 

You made your way back to the kitchen and placed the cake in the fridge for safekeeping. At this point, everything was just about finished. You just had to wait for the buns to finish warming up. Elvis had already cut the turkey up… so all you really had to do was make your son’s plate. 

You picked up the plate that had divides in it and started to place the foods you knew he would eat. The turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, beans, and a little bit of gravy. You weren’t sure if he was going to eat the stuffing or cranberries but you put a little on the plate just in case. 

You heard the ding of the oven and placed the plate down. You walked over to the oven and opened the door and pulled out the buns, after putting on a pair of oven-safe gloves. You pulled out the buns and placed them over on the counter. You picked up your son's plate and brought it over to the dining room and placed it down on the high chair table. 

You made your way across the way and watched as your family played with your son. You smiled and walked over to Elvis where you wrapped your arm around his waist. Elvis wrapped his arm around your shoulders and placed a kiss on your head. 

“Dinner is ready,” you said softly as you looked up at him. 

“Yeah?” He rubbed your back gently. “I’m sure it’ll be amazing.” He reassured you and looked towards the group around your son. 

“Dinner is ready y’all, head to the kitchen and fill up,” Elvis announced. Everyone muttered words and got up. Your mother picked up Theodore and brought him over to you.

“I’m sure everything will taste amazing, Y/n,” she said as she handed Theo over to you. With your son now in your arms, you smiled at your mother. 

“I hope so,” you chuckled lightly and fixed Theo’s hair lightly. 

“It will be,” she smiled and walked past you to meet with the others in the kitchen.

“I already prepped his dish ahead of time so we don’t have to worry about that. Can you get the wine though?” You asked your fiancé. Elvis nodded in return and pecked your lips before going to do that. 

You walked over to the dining room and placed Theo in his high chair. “Now remember to use your fork and spoon okay? No hands,” you said to him as you showed him his silverware. More like plasticware but… same thing in the end. You and Elvis were still trying to train Theodore to use silverware, but he got confused about when he should and shouldn’t use them.

“Oday,” he responded and picked up the fork. You pressed a kiss upon his head and walked into the kitchen. 

“Everything looks and smells amazing,” your younger brother, Johnston, complimented. 

“Yeah, I can’t wait to dig in. You did amazing,” Your dad added. You felt your face heat up from the compliments. You never thought of yourself as the best cook, but being a stay-at-home mom taught you otherwise. 

“Thank you,” you smiled softly and walked over to the cabinet to grab the wine glasses out along with regular glasses to fill with water. 

Before you knew it, Elvis was back with the bottle of wine. He popped it open and poured it into the glasses you had prepared. He would fill two up, and you would take them out. Rinse and repeat until everyone had wine and water, and your son had juice. Then and only then did you and Elvis prepare your own plates. 

It didn’t take long until everyone was finished. Dinner was filled with laughs and stories, and some light tears from your son, but overall it was a very relaxed and happy dinner. 

“I hope everyone left room for dessert.” You spoke up once everyone had finished all their food. “It’s not your typical pie, though we do have some.”

“There’s always room for dessert,” your father spoke up, to which everyone laughed in response. You nodded at his response and stood up.

“Do you need help?” Elvis asked, to which you shook your head in response. You made your way into the kitchen and pulled out the box that you had Vernon bring. You brought it out to the dining room and placed it down. 

“Now I know that cakes are not typical on Thanksgiving… but this one comes with an announcement.” You explained as you opened the box up. In front of you was a round cake with a turkey made out of icing. It had four notable feathers. Each one with an initial. And Y/i for yourself, an E for Elvis, a T for Theodore, and then a question mark on the last one. 

Everyone looked at the cake confused, though it slowly clicked for each and every one of them. You turned your head over to Elvis, nervous for this reaction. You two have spoken about having more children before, just after you got married. Not to mention, things got difficult with his filming schedule. 

“You’re pregnant?” He spoke softly at first. You nodded softly answering his question, though, part of you knew he already knew the answer to that. Elvis stood up and walked over to you, wrapping his arms around you. “When?”

“I found out last week. I’m eight weeks,” you replied. Elvis smiled and leaned down kissing you gently. You hummed against his lips and kissed back before you two shortly pulled away. You looked over at your family who congratulated you on the news. 

“Do you know when they are due?” Your mother asked.

“They’ll be a summer baby, no current date as for their arrival though.” You answered as you eased into Elvis’ side. 

“I hope they’re a girl,” she smiled softly. 

“I hope so too, but I’ll be happy with a boy as well,” you commented as you looked over at your son. He was your light in darkness just as Elvis is. They were your boys, and they were everything you needed in life. 

Special Tags: @darlinboypresley @austinstyles

Author's Note: Hi, I know it's been about... two months since my last post I believe? Well, my last fic posted. I had this whole list of what I wanted to do, and obviously... this is not the winning fic. I have been writing for different things. A fic I'm writing for my girlfriend (which will be posted once completed, I'm at five parts right now) Then just other things on my own.

I first came up with this idea back in 2017 for a different person, but I wanted to bring it back for the holidays. Yes, I know I am a bit late- but... There is a part two, for my annual Christmas post. It will be posted on the 20th to leave room for a Christmas post. Anyways, I want to get back into this account and finish some series... (I'm looking at you Fairytale. All you have left is one post!) Then I want to focus on my Personal Nurse fic. Since the original brought so much people to my account.

I'll see you again on the 20th, maybe sooner. Just know that those who still come and are active on my account I really appreciate it. I appreciate each and every comment received. Along with reblogs. They mean a lot, and it means more people can enjoy this.

[brokenjere]

details (j.f)(pt.3)

a/n: hey guys, sorry it's been a minute. just trying to figure out life right now haha but it's here! sorry for the wait!!

Thanksgiving, last year

I was sitting on the couch with my feet on the coffee table and a book in my hand when Conrad walked in. He leaned against the door jam with his hands in his pocket and I’m pretty sure he was watching me for a while before finally speaking up, but when he did, he had a smile on his face. “What are you doing hiding in here?” 

I held up my book for him to see the cover. I don’t think he read it, just nodded and started walking toward me. “I’m not hiding,” I said. “Just getting out of the way.” When Susannah was in the kitchen, everyone was just a waste of space. If you weren’t chopping or peeling, you had to go and I was doing neither. 

“Where’s Jere? He wasn’t in the kitchen.” I close my book with a bookmark and set it aside. 

“He’s probably upstairs,” I told him. Conrad lifted up my legs by my ankles and sat down next to me, putting my legs on his lap. His hands rested on my thighs. “I think he’s a little overwhelmed with everything that’s going on.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” He scoffed and I shook my head. Of course, he didn’t know what I meant because he was never around anymore. He didn’t see all the stuff that Jeremiah did every day. He wouldn’t understand. 

“He’s just tired, is all. Taking care of your mom.” Conrad looked at me, his eyebrows knitted in confusion and he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. “She needs a lot of help these days.” 

“What do you mean? She’s in there right now cooking Thanksgiving dinner,” he said, a little laugh under his voice. 

“She’s making mashed potatoes and veggies. You didn’t see Jeremiah cooking the turkey all morning and feeding her health smoothies so she’d have enough energy to even do what she’s doing,” I told him. “She’s not doing well, Con.” 

“You don’t think I know that?” He whispers. 

“You don’t seem to act like it.” Hurt flashes across his face. “You’re just never around anymore.” I tried to keep my tone light so maybe his feelings don’t get hurt but I can tell that they are. He opened his mouth to speak but then Jeremiah’s voice booms from behind us. 

“Dinner is ready,” he said. We both turn to look at him. His blonde hair is still a curly mess but he tried today. He spent too long in the bathroom with his hair gel trying to make the curls fall in the right spot. His eyes dart between Conrad and I before they land on my legs on his lap. I shift uncomfortably, swinging my feet to the ground. 

“Let’s eat,” I said, standing up and tossing my book next to Conrad. I met Jeremiah in the door, taking his outstretched hand. I can’t help but notice Jeremiah watching Conrad on our way to the dining room. 

Later that night, Jeremiah told me he was going to football camp over the summer. “It’s our last summer in Cousins. With Susannah,” I said when he told me. His eyebrows crinkled and he shook his head at me. 

“My mom is going to die before we can go back to Cousins. You know that.” 

“Don’t say that,” I snapped but he wasn’t phased. He blinked slowly and sighed. “You don’t know that.”

“I do know that. And my dad wants me to go this year, finally. So I’m going to go.” He sounded so certain. Adam always asked Conrad to go to football camp. Conrad was always his star but now that Conrad quit, I guess Adam has no other option. I almost said this to him, just to hurt his feelings, but I didn’t. “I thought you’d be happy.” 

“Why would I be happy?” I asked. “You’ll be gone for three months.” 

“You supported Conrad when he went,” he spat. Always just when I think he’s over it, he throws it back in my face. Conrad. Always, always Conrad. 

“I didn’t care if I saw Conrad for three months or not.” Liar. “He’s not my boyfriend.” 

Jeremiah stood up and ran his hand through his curls. No longer perfectly placed but a disheveled mess. “I have to go check on my mom,” he said after a minute. He turned toward the door. 

“Conrad is in there with her,” I told him. After dinner, Conrad took her up to bed and has been locked in the room with her since. 

“Of course you’d know that.” 

“Oh, shut up!” I yelled. He turned, startled that I raised my voice. “Just stop with that.” His shoulders dropped and he crossed the room swiftly, wrapping me in his arms. I let him hug me and I hugged him back and we didn’t talk. 

Conrad went home the next day. He knocked on my front door, bags in hand and dropped them on the stoop when I opened the door. “Just wanted to say bye,” he said quietly. 

“I didn’t know you were leaving so soon.” 

“I just-” he stopped and looked at the ground and he didn’t have to finish. I knew what he was going to say before he said it. I pulled open the door a little further, just enough for him to squeeze inside the house. He did without question. 

My dad forced my mom to go Black Friday shopping with her so they’ve been gone for hours. I had the entire house to myself but I still led him upstairs. He collapsed onto my bed and covered his face in the crook of his elbow. “It’s better for both of them if you stay,” I said quietly. I always felt like I was walking on eggshells talking about Susannah when she was sick. I was always afraid of saying the wrong thing. 

“I can’t see her like that,” he said. “I kept that secret to myself for too long. I can’t handle it anymore.” His voice was muffled from his arm. I sat down next to him. So close his leg was touching mine. “Plus, Jeremiah acts like he couldn’t care less whether I’m here or not.” 

“That’s not true, you’re his brother.” Conrad peeks his eye out at me and I give him a look that makes him roll his eyes and cover them back up. 

“What are you going to do this summer when he’s gone?” He asked, changing the subject. I shrugged which makes the bed move up and down. “Maybe I can come home for a while.” 

“What are you going to do for the rest of break with no one else on campus?” I asked. It was his turn to shrug now which made me blow a laugh from my nose. 

“Lots of kids stay home for break. I’ll be back for Christmas.” I picked at my nails and thought about Conrad in a knitted sweater, his hair pulled down by a beanie. He stood up then and said, “I should get going.” I nodded and stood up with him, following him downstairs back to the front door. “Call Jere,” he said as we stood on the front porch. My hand gripped the door tighter. 

“I will.” He nodded and touched my wrist as a parting gesture. We no longer hug. Not since summer. I don’t close the door until his car is down the street. I pull out my phone and see three missed texts from Jeremiah. 

Hey, con left

Hello???

Where are you? 

I don’t call him, instead I put on my shoes and cross the lawn to his house. He’s sitting in the living room, his phone on the coffee table and the TV on quiet. He turned around at the sound of me entering and he smiled. My Jeremiah. My heart jumps at the way his eyes crinkle. “Susannah sleeping?” I asked and he nodded. I walk toward the couch to meet him and can’t help but notice the perfect view of my front porch.

taglist: @things-that-make-sa-happy@marajillana@calpurnia2002@revemixer@harrysswhore@liltimmyst @chickunn-nuggett @rottenstyx @queenofthehellfireclub @lilbazzi@drikawinchester@gillybear17@shamelessbluebirdsong @romantics-and-eternity @1kbkbkbkb0 @wolfinthestars @junnniiieee07 

[jungle-angel]

Lessons In Dinner Prep (Calvin Evans x Reader)

Summary: You and Calvin are busy preparing for the chaos that is Easter Sunday and nowhere is that more apparent than in your own kitchen.

Tagging: @floydsmuse

Looking at your list, you could already tell that Saturday and Sunday were going to be hectic. The house was immaculate, but the nightmare that was prepping for Easter dinner was already giving you a headache.

You looked over at your husband who had been laying on his back on the red checked picnic blanket, arms straight up as he did gentle little airplanes with Ellen, your daughter, her little baby giggles causing you to break out in a smile. Up above, the birds were already chirping, the flowers in the front garden blooming while you remained protected from the sun under the shade of the big trees in the yard. Six-Thirty lay in the grass, lifting his head when he heard Ellen erupting into a fit of giggles.

"Why does this have to be so frustrating?" you groaned.

"What's frustrating sweetheart?" Calvin asked.

"Holidays," you answered. "Last time I was this stressed out was at Thanksgiving and Christmas."

Calvin drew Ellen protectively to his chest as he sat up, kissing her head. "Alright," he said. "Do we know who's coming?"

"Your mother and father, your brothers, your sisters," you rattled off. "I think Dr. Powers said he, his mother and Doris were both coming."

Calvin made a face as he tickled Ellen's cheek. "What about the chain?" he asked. "Anyone we know there?"

"Henny, Marie and a couple of others," you told him. "Rose said that she and Abe were gonna try and come since we celebrated Passover with them."

Calvin could easily see the dilemma you were in, unsure as to how many people would be convening en masse to the house. "Not sure when Ma will be getting together with the ladies for mah-jongg but maybe they can help."

You weren't so sure yourself, but perhaps it was worth a shot.

*****************************

Friday came at last and you were home early since classes at the college only went half days. Calvin had gone to help his father for a few hours, leaving you and Six-Thirty a little time to relax.

Into the house you went, not surprised in the least at hearing chatter in the dining room. Sometimes Pat and the other ladies played until dinner, especially on days like today.

"And ya'll should've seen the shade of red that ol' witch turned," Henny King laughed.

"Oh my God, she must've been redder than Zelda's lipstick," Rose laughed.

"That's still no excuse for being nosy," Marie Bianchi said, handing two of her tiles off to Rose. "And if Freida thinks that she's going to be getting any of my seven layer cookies at the bake sale next week, she has another thing coming."

Six-Thirty yipped and all eyes were suddenly on you, the ladies all greeting you happily and rushing to give you a hug, beckoning for you to come into the dining room with them.

"Oh honey you look stressed," your mother-in-law remarked. "What's on your mind?"

"Just trying to figure out Easter dinner that's all," you said. "The usual stuff."

"Oh God I remember my first Easter when Louie and I moved here," Marie groaned. "First time I ever burned a ham."

"That's nothin," Henny chuckled. "When Paul and I moved it on up here from Georgia, I tried my hand at making a pecan pie and the damn thing turned to mush on the inside. Almost made my mother-in-law sick."

"Oh you wanna hear horror stories," Rose said. "Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law and I made a turkey and it sat too long in the oven. Drier than a popcorn fart."

You laughed a little bit, but you were still a little anxious about the whole thing.

"Don't worry dear," Marie assured you. "We'll finish this round and then maybe we'll see if we can help."

You waited patiently until they all finished before descending on the kitchen to help you with whatever you needed. You and your mother-in-law took care of most of the preparations while Marie and Rose ran to the store to grab all the grocery items on your list.

"Now honey, remember," Henny told you. "The secret to a good blackberry pie ain't just the berries. Gotta put a little bit of lemon zest in it and some cinnamon."

You took it all in, following their advice as best you could and in no time at all, you had everything prepped and ready to go into the oven or the fridge on Saturday.

"Oh wow!" Calvin remarked as he and his father came through the door with Ellen in tow. "You guys did an amazing job!"

"Thank you," you chuckled, kissing your husband. "Though I did have a little help."

Calvin kissed you sweetly before joining you and Six-Thirty in the living room, relieved that after all the chaos, you could finally relax.

[mayakern]

I am being nosy. Right now Minis skirts are retired/ on hold due to business things. I am just morbidly curious about the 'extra logistics this entails' and if that is something on the horizon (6-12 months) or like a 5 year plan. I also don't totally understand the difference in your new manufacturer. I think the fabric will be more detailed with the new manu? Thank you in advance!

so, miniskirts were retired for 2 main reasons:

1. when you sells two products with minimal differences (i.e. two different lengths of the same skirt design, two of the same style of shirt with different sleeve lengths, etc) it doubles the amount of variations you have to account for in inventory without necessarily doubling sales. some people are only interested in either mini or midi skirts, but a lot of people are happy with either, and for us midi skirts were more popular ever since we introduced them and by the end made up about 60-70% of our skirt sales.

2. our old manufacturer fucked up really, really bad. in march 2021 we ran the most successful round of preorders we had ever run. in two weeks we made sales comparable to almost our entire sales in 2020. we made a huge order with the manufacturer we’d been working with for around 5-6 years at the time and we stressed (as we always had) that we preferred quality over speed, that we would pay extra and wait longer to make sure the skirts were made well, that they could be made and sent in batches so we wouldn’t overwhelm their holding capacity. well. they didn’t fucking do that. our old manufacturer changed skirt materials without informing us and about 60% of the entire skirt order was defective and specifically around 90% of miniskirts were defective. most of the midi skirts defects were minor printing errors (so a few white dots where there was dust on the fabric when it went through the printer, or a couple dark splotches from some splattered ink, or some minor print banding) but about 60% of the defective miniskirts were unsellable because they were literally falling apart. we are still dealing with the ramifications of this. we’ve sold through a bunch of the horrible miniskirts, selling them as scrap material below cost in the hopes that literally anyone can find a use for them so they don’t end up in a landfill. we still have a ton left that we need to sort and list in the store, but it is a truly staggering amount of work. we had to pay out of pocket to remake those skirts, which sucked.

so the difference with the new manu is about more than just material or print fidelity. it’s about consistency and quality. with the skirts from our old manu, we spend a ton of time quality checking every individual garment because there are so many defectives. that’s why the restocks had to be broken up into smaller, more frequent restocks: because that QC takes a TON of time. the new factory does their own, extensive QC, including wash tests, which will likely cut down our processing time to a 10th of what it is currently because we won’t have to scour every individual garment. defectives will be the outlier instead of the norm, meaning if someone gets a defective item without our knowledge it’ll be easy and painless to replace it because it’ll be at most 5% of garments instead of like 60%. if we had to process returns/exchanges on 60% of our orders it would literally shut us down. and we likely wouldn’t be able to process most exchanges bc we wouldn’t have that many non-defective skirts to exchange with defective ones.

i don’t have an ETA yet on the return of miniskirts, but i would guess either later this year or some time next year. i just wanted to get things settled with the new factory, to make sure we know our production timeline/etc and have midi skirts 100% figured out/squared away before we add other variables. unfortunately there have been delays with the first batch of midi skirts (i talked abt this earlier today but there have been a number of earthquakes in turkey, where our new factory is) so we are running behind on that, but we’ll be getting part of our first batch of new manu skirts later this week and the rest will arrive some time in the next few weeks. after that devin and i will sit down with ash (our lovely supply chain manager and pattern maker) and go over an action plan/logistics for miniskirts, among other things. we have a lot of projects cooking right!

[minihotdog]

Good ol' fishing boy

Pairing: Simon Ghost Riley x gn!Reader

a/n: idk. Simon is a big ol softie in this one

Summary: Simon learns how to fish

c/w: fake worm, maybe a swearword

Word Count: 1k

***

The weekend had finally come around. The usual hustle and bustle of the compound died down as everyone ran off to enjoy the little free time they’d been given. 

“Hey, Lt!” You beam at the sight of your superior. “Whatcha got planned for today?” You stood with your fishing rods tucked under your arm and a backpack stuffed to its brim.

“Nothin’.” He sat at the table with his morning tea. He always had such a cold look, with or without his mask, but you were determined to try and break down at least one of his walls. You’d been working for the task force for about three months now, and he was the only one who you still didn’t know a thing about.

  “You ‘otta come fishing with me. It’d be a good time, I promise.” You raise your eyebrows at him, waiting for his response.

“Not up my alley.” He swiftly declines, leaving you taken aback. 

In all my years, I’ve never heard a military man say no to fishing.

“Wha’d’ya gonna do? Sit here all day?” You say in disbelief.

“Yes.”

“Oh c’mon, Lt.! What if I fall in the water and I can’t get out and I’m all by myself!” You clasp your hands in front of you as if you were about to get on your knees and beg. He sighs at what he referred to as your ‘American dramatics’. 

“Fine, but keep the talking to a minimum.”

“Yaay!” You celebrate, causing the stern Brit to groan in annoyance.

***

The air nipped at your nose as you and Simon sat on the bank of the river. The mountains off in the distance were topped off with fresh snow. The warm sunlight would occasionally peak out from behind the grey clouds. 

“Here ya go,” You hand him a rod and open your tackle box between the two of you. You start tying your hook to the line and reaching into the box to pull out a long black fake worm. You look over to Simon, motioning to the worm, “See this little guy? Bass love this shit.” He snorts lightly but you notice him go still when he looks at the contents of the box.

“So what do I do?” He asks, a little embarrassed. Most boys learned how to fish with their dads, unfortunately, his dad had been set on being a nightmare rather than an angler. You stop dead in your tracks, eyeing the man.

“You ever been fishing before?”

“No.”

You almost drop your worm, 

“What?! Really?!”

He shoots you a look that says, ‘Cool it or else’.

“Your dad never took you when you were a kid?” You probe.

“We weren’t very close.” His eyes avoid yours and look out at the bend of the river. Simon wasn’t one to feel embarrassed about his upbringing, he saw it as something that made him the man he was today. It motivated him to be better than what he witnessed and to maybe even eliminate the horrors that many were forced to live with. But it came with a cost and that cost was the simple things other people had gotten to experience that he didn’t.

“I wasn’t close with mine either,” You sigh, hoping that you hadn’t brought up painful memories. His eyes were back on you at the revelation.

“I actually learned how to fish from the locals when I was stationed in Turkey.” You smile, recounting the memories from your time overseas. “I rented a pole out and asked a taxi driver to take me to a fishing store. The taxi driver could barely speak English but it was clear as day that he loved fishing. We talked the whole way to the store and he even went inside with me.” You chuckle, “I’d run into a group of ‘Turkish Uncles’ out fishing and they’d try to show me their tricks.”

You place your rod down on the rocky ground and motion for him to give you his. “I’ll show you,” Your words come out softly. “This part is easy.” You place the rod between your knees and grab a hook out of the box to show him. 

“Now, there are all sorts of knots you can do but I use the Y/L/N special.” You put the line through the hole at the top of the hook and wrap the loose end a couple of times around the line coming directly from the rod.

 “So you wrap it however many times, then you put it through the loop at the bottom. Pull it and then tie a knot.” He nods at you showing he understands, and his eyes examine the funny-looking knot. 

“One time I went fishing with a friend of mine. He was the Bill Dance of trout.” You pause briefly to explain, “Bill Dance is an old man in the States that strikes fear in the hearts of Bass everywhere.” Simon laughs softly at your dramatics. “But, he took one look at my knot and I thought I was gonna die from embarrassment. He was too nice to tell me it looked awful, but it works just like any other.”

You gently clap your hands together, “Moving on, you know what these are?” You point to the contents inside your tackle box. Simon shakes his head, a smirk still playing on his lips. He almost felt like a young boy again, recanting the stories he’d heard in school of the other boys going out on the lake with their dads. Here he finally was.

“These are lures, a.k.a. Fake bait. They come in all shapes: Frogs, worms, little fish. Depending on the fish, some work better than others. Bass like the worm. Snakeheads, those angry demon fish, like the frogs.” You trail off stating the different lures for different fish as you grab a black worm out of the box. 

“You can hook however you want, but I think this is what separates boys from men.” Simon’s little smirk grows briefly. He found the way you explained things to him to be endearing.

You grab the hook in one hand and hold the fake worm in the other. “You could do this,” You put the hook through the side of the worm and let it dangle. 

“But you’d probably lose your lure on the weeds or from a strong bite.” You pull the worm off. “This is what I do because I’m a big fishing man,” You joke. Simon silently laughs again. He’d hear you constantly calling yourself jacked and joking that you were as big as him. Here you sat, looking about as big as the worm in comparison to him.

You put the hook through the top of the worm’s head, coming through the side. Your now cold fingers slide the worm to the top of the hook and poke through the middle of the squishy lure with the pointy tip nudging back into it. “This way, your hook stays weedless.” You hand him his rod before hooking your lure.

“Now we can rip some lips.” You laugh at your own joke as you stand and walk closer to the water. You point to the button your thumb rests on, looking back at him. “Hold that down when you cast.” You turn back to the water and give your rod a swift jerk. Your hook goes flying out to the middle of the river. Simon follows and casts his line out, the hook barely lands two feet away. He tuts quietly.

“Here,” You place your rod down and come up behind him. You place one hand on his left shoulder and the other over his hand on the base of the rod. “Keep your body facing the water, and swat it like this.” You run through the motion twice before backing away to watch him. This time he casts without a hitch. “Right on.” You smile at him and for the first time, he smiles back.

The two of you sit back down on the log. “Give it a couple of little tugs every once in a while and reel it in little by little. Or how the Turks taught me: Reel, reel, reel, action, action, action.”

“Reel, reel, reel, action, action, action.” He talks himself through the motions. 

“Just like that. Now we wait.”

Moments pass of silence. You couldn’t complain, the view was beautiful.

“Is it true that fish can hear you?” Simon asks you, a bit of humor in his voice.

“No, I think that’s something dads made up so their kids would be quiet.” The two of you laugh. You liked this version of Simon. Relaxed, still quiet and reserved, but he wasn’t the same cold person you met as Ghost.

“Thank you… For teaching me.” He said suddenly.

“No problem, I could use a fishing partner.” You nudge him with your elbow. “Just don’t catch more fish than me or we’ll have a problem.”

[ejzah]

A/N: I blame @mashmaiden for this, who jokingly suggested the prompt below and then brainstormed possibilities.

Prompt

***

So Very Thankful

“Shhh, not so loud,” Deeks hushed Kensi, creeping around the side of the garage. The smell of turkey surrounded them, drifting over from the patio. Sam had insisted on frying a turkey, even though Roberta and Julia were baking a turkey and ham between them. Along with every side imaginable.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked. “Maybe we should go back to our room.”

“You wanna have sex in our room while there’s a dozen people hanging around?”

They’d decided to take advantage of the multitude of family and friends visiting for Thanksgiving to sneak out for a clandestine rendezvous under the guise of going out for more whip cream. When they’d left, Caleb and Sophia had been surrounded by no less than their moms, Rosa, Callen, and Fatima, so Deeks didn’t feel all that bad.

“We could go in the closet,” Kensi suggested.

“Like that would stop my mom,” Deeks drawled. “You know she’s shamelessly nosy.” They slipped in through the side door like they were breaking into a suspects house and not finding a quiet place to make out.

As soon as they were inside, Kensi tugged Deeks’ mouth down to hers while he guided them back into the corner farthest from the window. He groaned, cupping Kensi’s jaw with one hand to hold her even closer, his other hand dropping to pan down the length of her back. Kensi made an encouraging noise, gently rolling her hips into his as she attacked the row of buttons on his shirt. She had them undone in an impressively short time.

“I knew this shirt would drive you crazy,” Deeks teased breathlessly when they broke away for a few seconds.

“Well, it’s not exactly like I can take off my clothes,” she replied with a smirk, referring to the long-sleeve dress she wore. If Kensi came back wrinkled and curls awry, everyone would definitely know what they’d been up to. “And yes, it’s been driving me crazy. You know I love you in blue.”

She ran her hands across his bare chest, sending pleasant shivers through him. Not to be outdone, Deeks dragged his fingers up her leg, beneath the soft fabric of her skirt, and didn’t stop until he reached her hip. He toyed with the edge of her underwear, chuckling when Kensi ground against his hand.

“Somebody’s in a hurry.”

“I’m not taking any chances that we get interrupted,” Kensi said seriously, right before she dipped her head, and sucked the spot directly over Deeks’ collar bone while simultaneously unzipping his pants. She cupped his bulge, making a desperate sound as Deeks laughed breathlessly into her hair.

She stroked him several times, their gasps mixing between them to create a heady sound. Deeks lifted her at the same time she grasped his shoulders for leverage, wrapping her legs tight around his hips.

“I’m so thankful today,” Deeks groaned as Kensi moved against him.

***

A/N: Credit to @mashmaiden for not only the original idea, but the garage and turkey details.

[numinousmysteries]

A Miracle, Perhaps

@eightnightsofmulder

@today-in-fic

Eight Nights of Mulder Day Five: Miracles

[on Ao3]

November 1994

Hanukkah falls early this year, beginning the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Mulder hasn’t mentioned anything about going to visit his mom so Scully isn’t surprised to see him in the office on Monday morning.

“How was your Thanksgiving?” he asks as she turns to hang her coat up.

“Fine,” she says, not wanting to elaborate.

In truth, it had been an awkward affair. She hadn’t realized how much her family’s congenial rapport depended on everyone being on their best behavior for her father. Without the captain to steer them, tensions flared. Thinking he’d be free of Bill Scully Sr.’s judgment, Charlie made his first appearance at his mother’s table in years with his long-term boyfriend Harry, only to face Bill Jr.’s wrath. This led to a very drunk Melissa “accidentally” knocking a full glass of red wine onto Bill’s shirt as she gestured wildly in her little brother’s defense. Once Charlie stormed off with Harry trailing behind him (apologizing to Maggie and thanking her for the food as quickly and quietly as he could) Bill turned his anger on Dana. He argued that by staying with the FBI even after her abduction she was only asking to get killed.

It all ended with Maggie retreating to her bedroom to cry, Melissa vomiting in the bathroom, Bill cursing into his whiskey at the table, and Dana silently washing dishes in the kitchen.

“Did you spend the holiday with your family?” she asks, coming to sit across from him at his desk.

Mulder shakes his head. “Nope. Frohike made his famous chicken wings, which is close enough to turkey for me.”

“What about Hanukkah? You celebrated with your mother last year,” she says, hesitating as she eases into new territory.

Two years into their partnership and they still do this awkward dance around each other when it comes to anything remotely personal. She’s more than partly to blame herself since she doesn’t willingly share much about her own life.

“‘Celebrate’ is a generous word,” Mulder says. “We didn’t exactly light the menorah and spin a dreidel around. My mom started taking her sleeping pills earlier and earlier each day until she was basically conking out after lunch. I don’t think she really likes having me around.”

“That can’t be true.”

Mulder shrugs. “I think I just remind her of Samantha. Or rather Samantha’s absence.”

“What about your father?” Scully says, trying to change the subject.

“It’s funny,” he says. “My dad’s family was Jewish and my mother only converted before they got married, but as long as I can remember he never wanted anything to do with religion. Besides, Hanukkah isn’t even a very significant holiday. It just happens to fall around Christmas so it’s gotten swept up in that all-American, gift-giving, capitalist fervor.”

“What’s the story again?” She’s familiar with the basics of the holiday but she knows Mulder likes weaving a tale for her, and she likes to listen as he does.

“Well, it all started with the rise of the Greek king Antiochus the fourth in the second century BCE. The Greeks had a mostly live-and-let-live attitude toward the Jews until then, but Antiochus wasn’t a big fan. He forbade Jews from practicing their religion and demanded they worship Greek gods instead. This all came to a head when Antiochus invaded Jerusalem, killing thousands of Jews and turning the Holy Temple into a shrine to Zeus. He also forced Jewish people to eat pork, which was strictly forbidden by the Torah, but now that I mention it, oddly puts me in the mood for bacon.”

Scully smiles but shakes her head at him.

“Anyway, a small group of Jews known as the Maccabees formed an army and managed to overpower the much larger Greek forces. They retook the temple and got rid of all the Greek idols but ran into a little problem when they went to rededicate it by lighting the menorah with pure olive oil. Because the Maccabees were soldiers returning from the battlefield, they themselves couldn’t produce pure oil until waiting seven days after having handled dead bodies. All the oil in the temple had been defiled by the Greeks except for one jug that supposedly only had enough to last for one night. But of course, as the legend goes, it ended up keeping the menorah lit for eight days, just in time for the Maccabees to start churning out their own oil. Since this all went down after the Torah was written, the only biblical allusion to the Hanukkah is actually in the New Testament when Jesus visits Jerusalem to observe the holiday—”

“—in the book of John,” Scully finishes his sentence.

“Someone paid attention in Sunday school,” he says, and she fights the feeling of a blush rising to her cheeks.

“Are you surprised?” she asks with a smile.

“Not at all,” he says, returning her grin. “Of course, some scholars consider the Maccabees to be religious fundamentalists who even killed fellow Jews they didn’t consider to be hardcore enough. And some versions of the story don’t include any reference to the so-called ‘miracle of oil,’ so who’s to say what really happened?”

“Mulder, you are willing to believe in claims of parasitic alien life forms, shape-shifting mutants, and widespread government conspiracies, but miracles don’t pass muster?” Scully asks, the corners of her lips creeping up into a smile.

He shifts in his chair, leaning forward, closer to her. “I recently witnessed one miracle that I believe in.”

“Which was?”

“Watching you go from the brink of death in that hospital bed a few months ago to sitting here and debating Talmudic wisdom with me right now. If that isn’t a miracle I don’t know what is.”

She instinctively pulls back, bracing her hands on the armrests of her chair. He doesn’t budge, keeping his eyes locked on her.

“Mulder, I can’t clarify what happened to me, why I was returned or why I recovered,” she says quietly, “but when I was unconscious in the hospital, I saw things that I believe can only be explained by the existence of a higher power.”

She hadn’t confessed this to Mulder before and she isn’t sure why. This is a man who believes in werewolves and time-traveling killers. Why is she scared to tell him about her own visions?

“What did you see?” He asks, softly, leaning in towards her.

“I saw my father. I saw my sister—and I saw you,” she says quietly. “But it wasn’t just seeing. I felt your presence.”

Mulder pauses for a beat, opening his lips to speak but not saying anything.

“Scully, I’ve heard about near-death experiences, people believing their seeing through a portal into the afterlife. But in nearly every case they can be explained by low-oxygen levels or misfiring neurons in the brain.”

“No, Mulder,” she says, looking down at her hands now. “I read my medical report. I never suffered from hypoxia or unusual neurological activity. There’s no scientific explanation for what happened.”

“So you think it was God?”

“I don’t know, Mulder,” her voice quavers. “But I can’t say for sure that it wasn’t.”

“Whatever it was, I’m glad you made it through.”

“Thank you,” she says, feeling the heat rising in her chest.

She doesn’t tell him that along with sensing his presence she felt something more—a fierce devotion bordering on love. Maybe he’s right and it was a miracle that brought her back to him. Or perhaps the miracle is whatever brought them together in the first place.