#y’all never had a crush on mr clean and it shows

[jillianallen14]

Spirk fanfic rec

Some amazing Spirk fanfic to bless your dash because I’m falling in love with this shit all over again (this is like the 10th time this has happened lol):

Entering Orbit:  Jim escapes to Iowa to avoid the media frenzy following the Narada incident, but a late-night miscommunication results in Spock turning up on his front porch; rated m; 30,957 words

Papers in the Roadside:  Non-Starfleet AU. Jim owns a small bar in Chicago, keeps on picking up strays and taking care of everyone no matter how hard it makes his own life. Spock is a journalist writing feature articles for the Chicago Tribune; he depicts the world with uncanny skill, but hides more than one personal drama and is possibly under surveillance from the Vulcan royal family. They meet by accident just before their lives start to spin out of control; rated e; 49,637 words

Take Refuge in What You Know:  AU - Kirk has moved into a apartment/house and wants to get to know his neighbors. He meets his neighbor Spock, a loner who suffers from extreme agoraphobia. Kirk thinks he's beautiful enigma; rated e; 120,334 words

Listen, this is not only my favorite Star Trek fic of all time, it’s also one of my favorite fanfics in general. It’s right up there with Text Talk and The Shoebox Project from the HP fandom, which if you’ve read, you know are incredible and frankly life-changing. And this fanfic changed my life. The description the author gives doesn’t do the beauty of this fic justice. I suffer from agoraphobia and Spock’s depiction as an agoraphobic man was probably the most well-researched, sympathetic, empathetic, caring, realistic portrayal of what it’s like to be agoraphobic that I’ve ever witnessed in fiction. It made me cry like a child because I had never felt so seen and understood. This writer is incredible, and this fic is incredible. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s an AU, which I’m usually pretty wary about, but it barely even feels like an AU. It just feels like Jim and Spock. The author’s understanding of both of their characters’ is perfect, like just a spot-on portrayal of who they are. This fic genuinely helped me accept who I am and helped me understand that I am capable of & deserving of love. If you don’t read any other Star Trek fics (and you def should read more Star Trek fics because they’re amazing), then let this one be the one you read. I dare you not to read it three times in a row like I did.

Observations:  First Officer Spock comments on life aboard the Enterprise and his service under Captain James T. Kirk; rated m; 500,000+ words.

So the author of this fic actually did a thing where they made this fic into two books (similar to what The Shoebox Project authors did many years ago in the HP fandom). They don’t get any money from people buying the books; the cost is just to go towards producing the books. This fic is the equivalent of two LARGE novels. We’re talking 600 pages & up. It’s a huge fic. Now, that being said, I read it in one day. ONE DAY. It’s that good. This is another one of my all-time favorite fics, though not quite as dear to my heart as the one I listed above. It’s focused on AOS, and tbh, I forget that what happens in this book isn’t actually canon. Like it’s so well-told, it just feels like it’s now part of the timeless story of Kirk & Spock. The “professional��� Star Trek writers would never be brave enough to do what this author does with Kirk and Spock, though. This fic will make you angry, will make you laugh, will make you cry. It has such a good grasp on every single character. It also shows the love between the crew of the Enterprise, which is always a treat, and it’s beautifully done in this fic. It has a sorta-enemies-to-lovers arc between Spirk and an enemies-to-close-friends arc between Spock and McCoy that is beautifully done and fleshed out. This fic is definitely a journey to go through, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s extremely slow burn, and you will want to slap both Kirk and Spock (and McCoy) upside the head at certain points lol. 

Of Coffee Beans and Green Tea Leaves:  The progression of a relationship, through Coffee Beans and Green Tea Leaves. Basically, it’s an AU where Kirk works at a coffee shop to pay his way through school, and Spock visits often. rated t; 16,429 words

Love, love, love, this fic. It’s cute, it’s in character. They have kind of a rocky start together, so it’s got a little bit of that Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy i-hated-you-but-now-i-love-you-marry-me vibes to it. I’m a sucker for that, if you haven’t figured that out by now lol. It’s really good, and a really enjoyable read. And it’s not too long, if you’re in the mood for something on the shorter end of things.

 Please Don’t Touch the Vulcans:  The "yes" is out of Jim's mouth before he can think about it. Jim is chipper about having time off for the holidays. He asks everyone if they want to spend time together but sadly, everyone ditches Jim over the holidays because they have plans. McCoy visits his daughter, Nyota visits her family, and everyone splits. Not knowing Spock has feelings for him, Jim doesn't even bother asking if he wants to spend time together figuring he has something to do. Something cute, romantic with the boys spending time with one another and confessions; rated m; 17,690 words

Super cute and has lots of Sarek, which idk about y’all, but I’m always a fan of. Sarek and Jim kind of get to know each other a bit, and it’s cute. Sarek knows about they’re in love before Spock & Kirk know lol. If I remember correctly, there’s also some appearances from everyone’s favorite: Old!Spock! You also get a little bit of jealous and protective Young!Spock. So you’re in for a real treat with this one. 

The Ren shat’var Trilogy:  A split-second decision changes Jim's life forever, as he enters into a bond with Spock in the face of certain torture. Enemies to the Federation emerge from unlikely places, and the command team must contend with unexpected threats, as well as challenges within their own intense relationship. In this three-part series, the Enterprise races across the galaxy to confront the unknown, and Jim and Spock discover the true significance of their unprecedented connection; rated e; 184,411 words

Textual Attraction:  Valentine’s Day does not bring up pleasant memories for Cadet Kirk. But the serendipitous switch-up of his cell phone with a particular Vulcan professor’s will make his day far more interesting –and romantic. Perhaps some new memories can be made! 15,900 words

SO GOOD. Just SO good

Spaceman:  Academy AU. Five times Spock realizes he's attracted to a barista at the academy spaceport, and one time he decides to do something about it. rated t; 3728 words

Short, sweet, funny. You’ll love it.

Subtext: Texting your Vulcan first officer in the middle of the night is never a good idea. Especially when you have an obsessive crush on said Vulcan.The holidays are approaching and Jim is left entirely Spockless aboard the Enterprise when his First takes shore leave on New Vulcan. After some midnight pining, Jim sends a text he instantly regrets. That is, until Spock responds and willingly continues their textual communications to an inevitable conclusion; rated t; 13,032 words

Cute, sweet, funny. It’s a texting fic. I think you’ve probably figured out I love those. This one makes me laugh so fucking hard. Like actually laugh-out-loud-omg-did-i-just-snort kind of funny. Spock is great in this one

All Spock Wants For Christmas:  While Jim is away on a delegation mission, he panics about what to give Spock for Christmas. With help from Bones and Uhura, and in between some spam texting with Spock, Jim realizes he already has the perfect gift. And all it needs is wrapping paper and a bow; rated t; 11,966 words

And here we have another cute, sweet, funny texting fic. Sue me lol

The Morning After:  Jim convinces Spock to take shore leave with him on Risa, hoping the time together will help re-solidify their bond of friendship after some recent tension. Meanwhile, Spock convinces himself he's on Risa for one reason and one reason only, to prevent his wayward captain from getting into trouble. After a passionately illogical night of Romulan Ale and chocolate infused liquor, everything changes when Jim wakes with something other than a hangover filling his head. Something he's sure neither he nor Spock can handle. Because if Jim knows anything for sure, it's that his messed up thoughts belong nowhere near Spock's clean, ordered mind; rated m; 50,381 words

HAHA. This fic fucking cracks me up. You’ve got drunk boys pining over each other & not realizing it. You’ve got accidental marriage. You’ve got bed sharing. It’s great, it’s cute, it’s funny. 

Take This Sinking Boat (And Point It Home):  In which Spock pines, Jim isn’t stupid (except he kind of is), and Christopher Pike has had enough of this bullshit; 6698 words

Pike is great in this one, and it’s super, super funny.

Extracurricular Activities:   Spock returns to the Academy from a tour of duty to find an intriguing cadet captures his attention; rated e; 15,433 words

Veritas: Basically, Kirk and Spock are on trial because the Federation thinks they are emotionally compromised by each other, which is putting the lives of their crew in danger. They have to convince a court they’re not actually in love with each other. They think the claims are bullshit. They think it will be easy to prove that they aren’t in love or emotionally compromised, damn it. It isn’t; rated m; 186,80 words

This one is so, so good. A real gem off of Fanfic.net. I remember it was actually one of the first Spirk fanfics I ever read, and it blew me away. The progression of their relationship is really well-done and interesting. It has star-crossed lovers vibes and has some really emotionally intense moments in it, especially for Spock. 

A Habitual Affection:  Living in 1930s New York with the Vulcan you're secretly in love with is no simple thing. But Jim never liked anything simple. And then, the big snowstorm hit...; rated t; 7998 words

A beautiful TOS fic about one of the gayest episodes of Star Trek. Love this one. 

Atlas:  Between what was and what will be stands James Tiberius Kirk, in all his fractured patchwork glory. Because saving the Federation was only the beginning; rated t; 135,529 words

A beaut. Really great characterization, and the progression of Jim and Spock’s relationship is really well-done.

[emsvegetables]

16th: fake-dating with kuroo.

- in which he needs a date to his cousin’s wedding or his mom is going to try to marry him off to a random girl. and who’s there to save the day? you!

no. of words: 2.4k

hi. okay. i actually have no idea how much words this fic contains. and I APOLOGISE BUT I PROBABLY RAMBLED ON TOO MUCH BECAUSE I LOVE THIS TROPE SO MUCH and this is actually kinda shitty and bumpy because i just wrote whatever came to my mind so i hope this isn’t too messy and I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS :”””””)

“just hire an escort.”

you raise an eyebrow when you hear the words drift into the kitchen from the living room, and you take five cans of sprite from the fridge and two packets of chips from the cupboard, and when you pad back into the living room, you meet kuroo’s frustrated face, akaashi’s amused one, tsukishima’s normal face, and bokuto’s excited one.

“what’s this i hear about hiring an escort?” you ask, and try to shift the packet of chips to your other hand so the cans won’t roll out of your hands, and you shoot a smile at kuroo when he pushes himself off the couch and heads towards you to help you take the cans out of your hands. it’s times like these where kuroo makes your heart skip a beat. he was always there to help you carry things if you needed someone to.

you pass the chips to bokuto and tsukishima, and settle into an empty spot in between akaashi and kuroo and reach for the television remote to browse through netflix. kuroo instantly stretches out a hand to rest on your shoulders. it’s something he always did, and it just showed how comfortable he was with you. but recently, it’s been causing your heart to flutter just a little bit.

“well?” you say, when the room still remains silent, save for the crinkling of the chips’ packet and the opening of the cans of sprite.

“didn’t kuroo tell you?” akaashi asks, and you tilt your head slightly to the side when he looks at you with a questioning gaze, and you turn to give kuroo a questioning gaze as well.

he’s avoiding your eyes, which means that he’s either embarrassed or frustrated, and you aren’t quite sure which one he is.

“my cousin’s getting married,” he finally says after a short pause, “the one you met during christmas dinner? do you remember her? the accountant?”

“oh!” you say, and nod fervently and smile when you remember how she looked like, “the christmas dinner two years ago? the one that has tortoise-shell glasses? the pretty one?”

kuroo nods, and he lifts up a hand to run through his messy hair, “yeah, well. she’s getting married this weekend.”

you almost tell him to give her your congratulations, but you frown, “and what’s that got to do with hiring an escort?”

a red flush overcomes kuroo’s cheeks, and you blink when you realise that this is the first time you’ve ever seen him so red.

“that’s n-not my idea,” he finally bites out, and he’s looking away from you, and you raise an eyebrow again because that didn’t answer your question, and you’re really confused.

then you hear tsukishima’s laugh.

“his mom told him that she’s going to introduce him to a girl at the wedding. apparently he’s at the age where he should be dating or he’ll be single forever. he’s trying to find a way to get out of this.”

you let out a snort when tsukishima finishes the sentence, and kuroo turns back to glare at you, his face still a little red.

“guess who that girl is,” kuroo grumbles, and you laugh, but stop short when kuroo doesn’t smile.

“who?”

“yura babbington.”

“wait, what?” bokuto cuts in, and laughs loudly, “you didn’t tell us it was yura babbington!”

yura babbington was your university’s resident entitled drama queen. she was rude to the waitresses in restaurants when she went out for lunch. she was an asshole to the cleaners in your university. yura once made everyone believe that a girl kissed her own cousin because the girl showed interest in yura’s ex boyfriend.

“this is going to be gold, kuroo,” tsukishima smirks, “you and yura babbington? amazing. the ultimate power couple.”

kuroo flips the middle finger at tsukishima, and burrows his head into your neck and groans sadly, “help me, (Y/N).”

you have to force yourself to not allow the flush to rise to your face.

“what can i even do?” you laugh, and pat his his head with your free hand, “i don’t think i can even do anything, mr babbington.”

akaashi snorts.

you laugh again when kuroo pulls away from you with the most scandalised look on his face, and you yelp when kuroo tucks his fingers into your sides and begins to tickle you.

“apologise!” he demands, and you laugh again as you squirm on the couch to try to escape his fingers digging into your side.

“no!”

“you can’t joke about me becoming mr babbington! i’m going to fucking hurl!”

you’re about to tease him again when bokuto cuts in, “i think hiring an escort is a good idea! he can have a date the entire time during the wedding and his mom won’t try to hook him up with yura because he’s with someone!”

you laugh again when kuroo flips the middle finger at bokuto, and slumps back into the couch with a frown on his face.

“i’m not going to hire an escort.”

“why not, it’s still better than being mr babbington, right?” you grin, and grimace when kuroo flicks your forehead.

“because.”

“because?” akaashi prods, and kuroo glares at him.

“because it’s weird, i don’t even know the escort,” kuroo says, and takes a swig from his can of sprite.

“i have an idea!” bokuto says excitedly as akaashi scrolls through the netflix catalogue

to finally settle on which movie to watch, “(Y/N), what if you become his date for the wedding?”

“what? are you serious?” you laugh, and when you meet kuroo’s eyes, there’s a flash of something in there but you’re not quite sure what it is because it’s gone when he blinks. you’re sure that the flush you were try to surpress has risen to your face this time.

“yeah? why not? kuroo’s super comfortable with you. you’re super comfortable with kuroo. just pretend it’s a usual outing? y’all always go on outings together anyway,” bokuto shrugs, and kuroo’s slowly sitting up a little straighter as bokuto continues to ramble on.

“(Y/N)...”

“kuroo...”

“please...”

“what do you want me to do? play your doting girlfriend?”

“...yes?”

you shake your head and turn away from kuroo to face the television.

“please? you’re my best friend. the sweetest person i know. the most nicest person i know. the bestest person i know. the prettiest—“

you scoff (because what the hell—how can he say such things to you so easily?), “you’re just a sweet talker.”

he grins at you, “is it working?”

“can’t you find someone else?”

“you’re the only girl i know.”

you roll your eyes, “that’s a lie. what about kaori? yukie? yumi? miyo?”

it’s kuroo’s turn to roll his eyes,” well, yeah. but you’re the only one which i would actually date.”

“you’re not helping your case,” you say sternly, and try to cover up the fact that your heart is now hammering against your chest.

“please?” kuroo says again, smiling at you, “c’mon, i’ll buy you those vanilla crepes that you like so much.”

you sigh.

-

kuroo blinks when he sees you head towards him and he has to slap himself mentally because holy shit, how can someone look this good? he’s been harbouring a major minor crush on you for a few years now, and every single day he looks at you, you always look prettier than you looked the day before.

you’re looking absolutely beautiful in that dress of yours, and your hair is pulled back into a pretty half-up hairdo, and you look so fucking good, and his mind just goes blank.

“hey, kuroo. what’s up with you?” you shoot him a smile and he just feels like his brain has short-circuited.

“you look really pretty,” he blurts out, and damn it, he didn’t mean to say it out loud, and thank you, he will be ascending to heaven right now.

you laugh, and he has never heard something so pleasing before, “you’re not too bad yourself. you clean up well, huh?”

he manages to get a hold of himself to realise what you just said, and he frowns comically, “what’s that supposed to mean, ma’am?”

you laugh, and dart out of the forehead flick he sends your way, “well—“

“tetsurou? darling?”

the both of you turn, and kuroo watches your smile widen as you recognise the person who just spoke.

“mrs kuroo!” you trill, and you spread open your arms to pull his mom into a hug, and kuroo has never been so jealous of his mom before.

“(Y/N)!” his mom gushes, wrapping her arms around you tightly, “it’s so nice to see you! it been three months since we last saw each other, and you’re still so pretty!”

you laugh, and beam brightly at his mom while she rambles on about what you missed out on on, and kuroo can’t help but think that you just fit in so well in his family.

“oh, so tetsurou brought you here?” his mom asks, and when you nod, she turns to give kuroo a look, “he didn’t mention that he was bringing anyone.”

“it’s not his fault, mrs kuroo! to be honest, it was my fault. we’ve been dating for a while now and i wanted to keep our relationship private, so i told him to not tell anybody,” you say, and kuroo almost laughs at how quickly and smoothly you came up with the lie. and now he can’t stop thinking about what it would be like to date you. he’s been thinking about it for a while now, but he doesn’t want to ruin the relationship between the both of you, so he’s been keeping things to himself.

“tetsurou! why didn’t you tell me earlier? now yura—“

“tetsurou?”

the both of you freeze when you hear the sickly-sweet honeyed voice, and kuroo stiffens when he catches sight of the figure sashaying towards the both of you.

“hi mrs kuroo! and hey, tetsurou! it’s so nice to finally be able to spend time with you! you’re always around that girl—“ yura falls silent when she makes eye contact with you, and smiles at you.

“(Y/N), is it? i believe we haven’t had the chance to interact. i’m yura marie babbington, but you can call me yura marie,” yura sticks out a hand for you to shake and smiles at you expectantly.

“it’s a pleasure, yura.”

“maybe you misheard me, i said you can call me yura marie.”

“yura is easier to pronounce,” you say cheerfully, and kuroo has to choke back a laugh.

you smile brightly as yura tries to mask her scowl with a smile as she turns to face kuroo’s mom.

“mrs kuroo, i hoped that i would be able to get to know tetsurou a little more..privately.” yura reaches forward to lace her fingers with kuroo’s, and kuroo instantly unlaces them and reaches for yours instead.

“yura, call me kuroo. tetsurou is only for people i’m close to,” kuroo says, and he smiles a little when he feels your hand squeezing his slightly.

“i assumed that i could call you tetsurou, because we’re going to be dating, no?” yura smiles at him, but her smile falters when she catches the sight of your linked arms.

“i’m sorry, i assumed that you should be holding hands with me instead of her,” yura says, and reaches forward to try to hold kuroo’s hands, but before kuroo can react, you’re pulling his hands back and smiling at yura.

“sorry, yura, but i’m afraid he’s taken,” you say, and kuroo swears he sees sparks fly around the both of you when you tiptoe up to press a kiss onto his lips.

when you pull back from the kiss, yura merely scoffs and stalks away and mrs kuroo looks like she was torn between frowning and smiling.

“i’ll go clear things up with yura,” she finally says, before giving the both of you hugs, “and tetsurou, i expect to hear details about how you got with (Y/N)!”

when she rushes away, kuroo grins when you let out a sigh of relief.

“i don’t think i’m going to be mr babbington anytime soon,” he smirks, and you let out a laugh.

“oh my gosh,” you say suddenly, and he startles, and turns to face you, “what’s wrong, (Y/N)?”

“i’m sorry i kissed you so suddenly just now, i just thought that it was the only way yura would—“

“it’s fine—“

“no! it really isn’t! we didn’t really establish what we could do and—“

“(Y/N)—“

“i’m so sorry if i made you uncomfortable—“

“(Y/N),” kuroo says firmly, and you freeze in the middle of your words and stare up at him, “it’s fine, okay? the kiss didn’t make me uncomfortable.”

he watches your shoulders sag in relief, and he clenches his jaw when he realises that it was now or never.

“hey, (Y/N)?”

“yeah? oh no, was it the kiss? it was really unco—“

“i like you.”

“i understand if you—wait what?”

he laughs at how adorably confused you look, with your nose scrunching up and your eyes squinting at him.

“kuroo, can you say what you said again? i think i misheard it.”

“you didn’t mishear anything,” he laughs softly, and he feels his heartbeat quicken when you stare down at your feet.

“uh, i didn’t make you uncomfortable, right?” he says after a minute, and he almost wants to punch himself for putting you in this position when you shake your head quickly.

“no. no! you didn’t make me uncomfortable. i was just thinking,” you quickly say, and he nods.

“kuroo?” you finally say after another minute of silence, and you hear him let out a quiet, “yeah?”

“i like you too.”

and just like that, kuroo feels the tension in the air evaporate, and he grins at you before leaning down to press a kiss onto your lips.

“(Y/N)?” he mumbles against your lips after he pulls away slightly.

“yeah?”

“you know you can call me tetsurou, right? you could’ve called me by that a long time ago.”

back to my fluffvember masterlist

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[tchallasbabymama]

M’Baku’s Love- Chapter 3

Let me know if you want to be tagged, and make sure you check out my masterlist HERE for chapters 1& 2 and my other stories. 

Also, just so y’all know, the last scene has paraphrased lines from the movie (which you should definitely go watch if you haven’t yet.)

Enjoy!

Word count: 2392

___________________________________________________

The day of the open house was upon them and M’Baku was more than excited to get to work with Monae some more. The workday crept by and as soon as the clock struck 5 he hurried out of his office and down the two flights of stairs to the arts wing. He wasn’t entirely sure where he was going, but he followed the sound of drums coming from one of the rooms. He walked up to the door and peeked in, seeing Monae teaching a class full of children West African dance. He leaned up against the doorframe and took in her graceful form and mesmerizing hips. He could have stood there and watched her move forever until one of the kids turned and saw him off to the side.

“Hi Mr. M’Baku!”

Monae and the kids turned towards him and greeted him. Monae’s smile was the brightest in the room.

“Hello children, Miss Monae.”

She sent him a small wave as the children surrounded him, all talking at once and all wanting to show him their moves.

“Alright, kiddos, lets all show M’Baku what you’ve been working on before you get out of here, Ok?”

“Ok!” 

The drummers started back up and the kids started to dance, the looks on their little brown faces making Monae smile at their joy. She watched her students with pride as they finished the number and took their bows. She and M’Baku both erupted in applause.

“Very good, class! Ok y’all can go on home now. If you come to the open house make sure you stop by and say hi, Mr. M’Baku here is going to be my assistant for the evening.”

The kids grabbed their bags to head home, some of them stopping to hug Monae and M’Baku on the way out to their guardians. M’Baku was taken aback since he had not had enough experience around young children to know they have no concept of personal space. Monae laughed at the confused look on his face, a near permanent fixture he was becoming used to by being in this new land. He was just happy he could make her smile. 

After the last child ran out, almost tripping over her shoelaces, Monae introduced M’Baku to her drummers Kehinde and Rodney. They bonded for a bit before Rodney slid out of the way to let M’Baku play his drum.

Monae couldn’t help but move with the way he struck the beautifully made instrument.. Her feet and hips took on a life of their own and she let the beat carry her however it saw fit. M’Baku already thought her choreographed dances were beautiful, but this? Her natural movement called to him as he moved her body with each stroke of his hands. Neither one of them were sure how long they were going for, but Rodney had to clear his throat to break the trance.

“Hey so I uh, I gotta head out. Sorry to interrupt whatever that was.” He pointed between the two, obviously picking up on the chemistry.

“Yeah, no, y’all get outta here. It’s late anyway. See you tomorrow?” 

“Of course.”

“See ya Monae, byyyeeee M’Baku.” Rodney and Kehinde snickered as they left the room.

“So, what first?” M’Baku asked, still coming down from the high he just experienced with her.

“Woo, sorry, let me uh catch my breath real quick...you’re good.” She gestured towards the drum.

“So are you,” he gestured towards her body and she cracked a smile.

“I’m aware.” She walked around him to the other side of the room to start straightening up the space. He joined in and the room was spotless in minutes.

“So,” she clapped. “I figured since the kids love you so much you’d be great at keeping them busy while the adults talk to me. Nakia brought us a bunch of Wakandan children’s books, so how about you read to the kids? You have to do voices though, if you don’t do voices I’m putting you somewhere else.” She was dead serious.

“What kind of monster does not change their voice to read to children?” M’Baku asked incredulously.

Monae’s mind flashed to two years ago when she asked Derrick to do something similar at the after school program where she volunteered. He just read it straight like it was a speech, and the kids were restless. It was a nightmare.

“You would be surprised. Ok so take a look through these and see if any jump out at you,” she handed him the crate full of books and he thumbed through them.

“I do not see any Jabari books,” he pulled out a small notepad and began scribbling his thoughts down.

“You don’t use the beads like the others?” 

“I could, but it is unnecessary technology for the most part.”

Monae nodded, remembering that the Jabari preferred to live analog. 

“Let me run this by you real quick, and you tell me what you think,” Monae started as he turned to give her his full attention. “I have sooooo many Wakandan beads I need to get rid of, so how about I set up a jewelry station across the hall? Just some beads and string, nothing too fancy. Then over in the paint lab I was thinking of using these extra textile scraps and old magazines to make mixed media collages. For the last station I have like a million gourds for the kids to paint, and I figured they could do that next door. I have three volunteers set up at each station, so don’t worry, you’ll have help with the kids. I wouldn’t just throw you to the wolves like that.” She winked at him as M’Baku nodded along, processing everything she said.

“This is not my specialty, but that sounds like a good plan to me.”

“What is your specialty?”

“I am a man of many talents, as you can see, but I am a warrior above all else.”

Her cheeks felt hot as she tried to quiet the damsel in distress inside her brain. She cleared her throat and changed the subject.

“You mentioned that there aren’t any Jabari stories in here. You don’t have to use the books if you’d rather go off the cuff with it.”

M’Baku’s gap toothed smile shone through as his theatrical side woke up from its slumber. 

“You might regret that later.” 

______

The children loved M’Baku so much they barely touched the crafts Monae had set up for them. He regaled the kids, and the adults, with Jabari folktales about snowmen and giant gorillas and how the Jabari came to be.

“And then the Jabari left for the mountains. For centuries, the Jabari and the rest of Wakanda were angry at each other until-“

“Why?” interrupted a kid with his front two teeth missing.

“Well because the Jabari cared more for tradition and old ways, but the Wakandans wanted everything shiny and new. They argued so much they had to move away to keep the peace, and that is when Hanuman guided the Jabari to the mountains.”

“Who’s Hanuman?” asked a little girl with beaded cornrows.

“The god who guides and protects us.”

“My mama says theres only one god and his name ain’t Hanuman,” she responded with an attitude. Some of the parents and kids nodded along in agreement. 

“Well, you see, your mother is simply wrong-”

“Ok, that's enough for now. Let's give Mr. M’Baku a round of applause for storytime, huh?” Monae interrupted before things got too heated, and the crowd clapped for their griot. 

People wandered in and out of the room for the next couple hours, enjoying the crafts and M’Baku’s storytime. Monae kept everything running smoothly, including refilling M’Baku’s water bottle multiple times to keep his voice strong.  Shortly before closing time T’Challa wandered into the room and sat with the children listening to the same stories M’Baku had told so many times that night Monae could recite them herself. When it was over and the last guest had left the center all the staff and volunteers breathed a sigh of relief. 

“I think that went well!” M’Baku said, his voice hitching from overuse.

“Drink some more. Oh yeah, they absolutely loved you. You know T’Challa recorded your dramatics while he was here? You could win a Tony with that performance.” Monae gushed, proud of her, uh, friend. 

“Who?”

“It's an award for stage actors. I’ll make you a list like the one Captain America had.”

“What sort of list?”

“Of pop culture and historical things you should know. He spoke about it in an interview a few years ago and I thought ‘that’s brilliant, I’d do that too’ but I never had the chance...until now.”, her excitement was palpable. 

“That is a good idea, I will have to commend him on that the next time I see him.”

Monae froze.

“I’m sorry, you know Captain America?”

“Well yes, he and some other Avengers have been to Wakanda a couple times.”

Monae was speechless. She’d had a huge crush on Steve Rogers ever since he defrosted.

“I- what’s he like?” she asked, barely forming words.

M’Baku found her obvious fawning amusing and wondered if this is how she would look if she spoke about him to others. 

“He is nice,” M’Baku said before leaning in a little closer. “Especially for a colonizer.”

Monae cackled and they continued to straighten up the room. Once the area was sufficiently cleaned for the night, the two headed out to their cars. Monae yawned as they packed her little electric car full of art supplies.

“It seems it is past your bedti-” he was cut off by the sound of his stomach trying to climb out his body. “Well, then.”

They broke out into laughter, only subsiding when her stomach answered the mating call.

“Would you like to accompany me to dinner? It will be my treat. I was planning on going to The V Spot for some more jackfruit tacos.”

“Mmm, they have these vegan nachos that I would sell my arm for, but I’m so tired I’ll probably fall asleep on you. Next time?” she sent him an apologetic grin. 

“Next time it is, then.”

Monae turned to get into her car before stopping and turning back around to face him.

“You know what? I think I have one good hour left in me. Let’s meet there.”

_____

Both of them were too tired to speak, especially since M’Baku had done enough talking that night to warrant a week of silence. M’Baku paid for their food and they left, still in comfortable silence until reaching the sidewalk.

“Let me walk you home, you should not be out here by yourself.”

“M’Baku I can literally see my building from here.”

“And? Anything could happen between here and there. I would never forgive myself!”

The butterflies in her stomach were in full flight mode, and her face grew hot. She playfully rolled her eyes at him and turned away to mask her blushing face.

“Ok fine.” She said with faux reluctance. She wanted nothing more than to spend every moment she could with this man, but the ring weighing down her finger made it challenging. She knew she shouldn’t feel this way, but Derrick is always out of town on business and she can feel the relationship slipping away. Even before M’Baku swooped in, her feelings for her fiance had started to dwindle. However, she did enjoy spending time with M’Baku and she figured there’d be no harm in taking the short stroll between The V Spot and her place.

“So, which direction?” M’Baku asked and Monae pointed to the right before they slowly took off down the street, arm in arm, in silence once again before Monae spoke up two minutes later.

“Well, this is me.” 

They both just stood there, not knowing how to end the night.

“I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow?”

“Of course...I will say though, where I am from when you walk someone home from a date there is usually a goodnight kiss involved.”

She was stunned at his forwardness, and she could feel her pulse all over her body.

“But I guess this was not really a date, huh?”

“Um, n-no. M’Baku you know I’m engaged.” She said, looking down.

“Yes, but do you?” his eyes narrowed and he tilted his head as stepped closer to her. She didn’t move away, so he took another step forward so that their bodies were almost pressed together. 

“It was date-like.” she conceded.

He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her in tight, closing the tiny gap of space left between the two of them. Her hands found their way to his chest and his other hand came up to tilt her chin upwards before he placed a light kiss on her lips and let her go. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked over his face. She took in his prominent brow and his strong jaw, his pillowy lips and his soft eyes. He was a giant wall of a man and she couldn’t get enough of how he felt up against her, 

“That’s it?” she teased before pulling him back and making him lean down into a deeper kiss. His hands rested respectfully at the small of her back despite his desire to explore her body more, and hers rested around his neck for the same reason. They broke away quickly when the door of the apartment building opened and an older man walked out with his dog, undoubtedly to go on a nighttime walk around the neighborhood before retiring for the night. He looked at them and shook his head before mumbling something under his breath about heathens. 

They looked back at each other and broke out laughing. 

“You should go,” Monae said softly while fiddling with his collar.

“I do not want to,” he whispered.

“I know, but-”

“You are engaged. I know,” he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “Goodnight Monae.”

“Goodnight M’Baku, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He waited for her to get inside before turning around and heading back the way they came to make the short journey to his temporary home. The entire walk back, he hummed along to an unwritten love song in his head with a goofy smile on his face. He could still taste her and, by Hanuman, he wanted more.

Next Chapter

[dylanxmin]

painkiller ∣ 5 ∣ j.hs

breakups are habitual, ordinary maybe even easy for some other people, and maybe it could be easy for you, too, if you haven’t been dumped by your boyfriend after finding out that you were pregnant. no, it wasn’t easy even a bit. and a stranger who wants to be your side doesn’t make this all easy for you, at all.

pairing; jung hoseok x reader

genre; angst, fluff, humor, pregnancy au, strangers to lovers au, single!mom au, slice of life au,,

warnings; little high on angst, swearings, mention of abortion, mention of adoption, mention of miscarriage, unedited(rlly sorry about this)

word count; 5k+

rating; nc17

a/n; heyyy, it’s been a month since i last update this story and i only blame my finals, my sudden lost of muse, and some side effects of my life but there it is, freshly served, angsty episode!! ion know how did this come out but im feeling positive for the next episode! so,,,, hope you all enjoy reading this part, and as always, i do really appreciate a little comment soooo... lol, love y’all  ♡

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taglist; @xxluckydreamsxx​ ,, @parkminhee​

∣ send me an ask if you want to be on the tag list ∣

‘‘Yes, can we have a brief explanation about the story of our current project?’’ 

‘‘Miss Y/N?’’ 

‘‘Y/N?’’ 

Light, red and yellow mixes and crushes down when something hard nudges at your shoulder and brings you the reality. Shake of your body startles Namjoon, who was nudging your shoulder to wake you up. Pairs of eyes currently stares at you, wide, curious and surprised, too, as no one expects you to fall asleep in the middle of an important meeting. But, you did anyway. Surprising yourself with such an action, yet you lost control of your sleep schedule way before this meeting, so you weren’t that ashamed as the sleep still lingers around your head. 

Blinking, blinking, blinking for a couple of times before your vision loses its blur, and the faces look way better to your own eyes. Shock still fresh on their faces, a weird sound rises by your throat as you try to clean it before talking. Namjoon holds his laugh back, but you can see it in the redness of his cheeks and the veins that struggle under his skin. 

‘‘I-’’ you clear your throat, once again as it comes hoarse from sleeping. ‘‘I’m sorry, can you say it again?’’ Mr. Lee stares directly into your eyes, he opens his mouth but closes again. And you know you will try to drown yourself in the sink if the corner of his mouth hasn't curled up. 

You sigh, before he asks again, and listens to your explanation. You try to keep it smooth, and once you start to talk about your work, all the sleep leaves your head, enthusiasm fills it place. 

You love your work. Falling asleep doesn’t mean the opposite. 

‘‘I swear to god if you won’t stop laughing, Kim-’’ 

‘‘But..- but you told the story of our new game, drool drying on your chin, with such an enthusiastic manner.’’ Namjoon’s giggles cut himself, palm hangs in the air, other on his knee. A manager who is in his thirties enjoys his coworkers suffer, laughs his lungs off. Such a mature man. You sigh, hand curled around the cup full of water for you to go to the bathroom after. Countless times. 

Fingertips pinching the tip of your brows, you stand on the kitchen side of your office. Shame still red on your face, you barely able to hold yourself back from either crying or smashing the cup on your friend’s head. Which, you like the last option very much. It’s a shame that you possibly couldn’t do that here. Maybe later, on one of your movie nights. 

‘‘I think it was cute, though.’’ the man in his much more formal clothes rather than his usual sweatpants and his shirt enters the kitchen side. Brown hair brushed neatly on the left side, his features look good. ‘‘Don’t pressure yourself anymore. I’m sure they are used to these things.’’ 

‘‘Thank you for helping my self-reliance to gather itself, but I don’t think it’s that simple, Damien.’’ imitating his smile, even though it’s more faint then he has, you sigh once again. Taking a spot on the table, you let your head fall on it. ‘‘I was literally drooling all over myself. Ugh… such a mess.’’ 

Another laugh escapes by Namjoon’s lips, but he pats your head also. ‘‘Damien is right. You know Jihoon and Yeona will be cool about this.’’ 

You scoff. ‘‘Yeah, but I don’t refer to them by their first names as they are the Ceo’s of this company. Like you,’’ 

‘‘Then you shouldn’t refer to me with my name, too, as I’m your boss.’’ an annoying smirk alive on his mouth, he swipes his body on the table. Gulping down his coffee, his stares never leaves you. Something hot, almost burning coils in your chest. Reminding you red, as you stare at him back. Mouth wrinkled, your breath felt heavy. 

It was anger and you didn’t know how to pressure it back where it came from. Even before your pregnancy, you weren’t good with handling your emotions, but now. With so many hormones not knowing what to do, you were even worse. Sudden crying sessions, constant fury always ready to burst out, and the sneaky, dark anxiety getting you at the worst moment, where you were alone and in the dark. It was hard, and too much. Even before being pregnant, and while being pregnant. You weren’t good with them. 

‘‘You know what, I decide not to cook for you anymore.’’ heartbreak flashes in Namjoon eyes, you crossed your arms over your chest. ‘‘You can buy your own chicken breast from somewhere and eat that shitty sauce.’’ 

‘‘Ouch..’’ Damien who is currently watching the cold vibrations coming from you, stays silent after your gaze lands on him. He is scared, and not ready to be the next target of your stinging tongue. Though, it doesn’t last that long. 

Once you see the tremble of Namjoon’s lips, and his hug follows his sorry’s, your coldness melts away. Shame creeps back, sits heavy as you lower your head on the table. But before you can dive in your bad scenarios in your head, brutal yet familiar bickering starts when Nara enters the kitchen, after she takes her place on the table. Her nose crinkled with disgust while waiting for Namjoon to end his insults, only to throw another to him. Damien tries to cut them off, but it’s useless as he gives up and rests his back on his chair. Hesitant stares gather on you, only to tear them apart while you pretend like you didn’t notice. 

Yet, you don’t want to suffocate yourself with your thoughts, you raise your head, eyes meeting with the brown haired man. Because you don’t and probably can’t break that cold war between your friend and Nara, you find your escape on Damien. 

‘‘So, we have to prepare a meeting for you to put a suit on?’’ cocking your brow high, you ask. His surprise fades after a moment of waiting. Maybe because you aren’t the warmest person or because of the effect of your friends that filled your head with the idea of him having some feelings for you, you never attempt to talk with him first. Not that he isn’t a decent man, but more likely, you weren’t into him and did not want to make a wrong move. For him to get the wrong idea. 

But maybe you are being stupid for believing your delusinal friends about his feelings, and he just wants to be friendly. Though, it’s good to not risk anything, right?

‘‘Suits just not my type, and also, who is wearing these other than him?’’ Damien points Namjoon, who is in a deep, hurtful conversation with your other coworker. You tear your eyes from him to land on Damien once again, his smiling this time. Wide, eyes imitating it. ‘‘Also, doesn’t it hurt your feet? You weren’t wearing heels for a long time.’’ 

After he mentions it, your feet start to pulse with pain. Embarrassment clouded all over your other senses, but his words bring them back. And you wrinkle your face in pain. Of course, it hurts. How it won’t hurt while your feet try to set themselves free by growing bigger inside of its cage and the process isn’t an easy one. Though, these whining are the last thing for your coworker to hear so you simply go with a soft smile. 

‘‘Yeah, a bit but nothing I can’t handle.’’ 

‘‘Oh okay then. Good to hear.’’ he leans closer, eyes gleaming like a child in his pre-mischievous stage. ‘‘Just in case, I have a pair of nice sneakers waiting in my closet. All comfy and less deadly.’’ 

Mirroring the act, you also get close to him. Palm covering the side of your curled mouth, ‘‘I will consider it, but why are you acting like you were selling drugs?’’ whispering the half of your words, you cocked your head aside, watching his face wrinkle due to his growing smile. And seeing him from this side, you realise how good looking he is. Radiant smile adds more point to his charisma as he does, eyes narrow but curls cutely on the ends, and for a second you just stare at his side profile. His spotless skin dips on the cheek as his dimple wants to show off. Thankfully, when he starts to talk the silvery sheet goes away, to your luck. 

‘‘Well, we won’t want other heel wearers to come at my desk for my fancy shoes, right?’’ 

Nodding, you point your finger at him as if he made a good point. ‘‘I see… Of course we wouldn’t want that, of course.’’ 

After the short break, everyone turned in their work the same as you. And you find yourself so tired after talking about the details of the story of your current game with Heejin. Trying to find reliable reasons and motives is hard for some time, as you continue to work on the specific character’s choices in the game, and why and exactly how they should do is sometimes irksome even when you have someone who tries really hard to help you. Yet, you know you can’t put all the weight on Heejin’s shoulders as the poor woman barely had some sleep because of the pre-cold effect. 

When she sneezed for the fourth time in the last five minutes, you had to stop and be sure of her well being. Putting your palm on her clothed arm, you mimicked a smile to look sympathetic rather than annoyed. Even though you were a little bit. Thankfully, she doesn’t have to know that. 

‘‘I know I asked this before but are you sure you are okay? Maybe you should take a rest for the rest of the day. Obviously, you need some.’’ 

She looks hesitant at first, eyes widens at your words but she covers it with a faint smile and nods. ‘‘Oh, I’m okay, I’m okay. You don’t have to worry about me.’’ Heejin bites down her lip before continuing again. ‘‘Did I annoy you? I’m sorry, I just took a pill, so I think that will make me better in a couple of minutes.’’ 

‘‘No, no…’’ pulling your hands in the air, you shake your head in denial. It did bother you but not much for her to apologize for being sick. ‘‘I just wanted to check on you, I’m not… disturbed. It’s okay.’’ 

Your half reassurance works barely, as she tries to lower the voice of her sneezes after that. And everytime, a drip adds to your growing guilt. As Heejin is younger than you for three years, and you have been working here longer than her, it puts some stairs between you two and now with that, you fix the ice between you two. The ice that you have been trying to melt from the first day she was here, and now, thanks to your pregnancy hormones, it started to build once again. Not just with Heejin, but everyone around you was walking on eggshells around you as your rage came out of nowhere, so sudden that sometimes it even shocks you. But for a stupid reason - well, it’s not stupid as you are pregnant and that played with your emotions -, you couldn’t control the sudden change of your feelings. 

One second being calm and the other being tense did tire you for sure as senses flow through every nerve you have. Breathing exercises merely helped, and that led you to staying away from the people around you. As sometimes words come out rude before you can realise. And nobody deserves that kind of attitude, even the ones you know from your childhood. 

For that reason, you turned down Taehyung’s offer to come with you as you know that owing to his nature, he will do something silly to make you angry or stressed even when he does it with all his good intentions. Some days, even when you are in your usual state you can’t stop being bothered by him, and you had no intentions to taste it today. Which, nothing was normal in your current mental state, so that’s for the best. 

Driving past the now familiar streets, you learned a new thing: Driving with a jean without opening its button can be hard, as you have to undo the button while your stomach growls in need. While your stomach become visible, looking like you ate too much for your stomach to handle, sudden thirst for stupid cravings increased day by day. Sadly, it affected your friends as much as you. 

In the middle of night, you woke Yoongi up for him to get you apples, pickles for Taehyung and last but not least, ice cream for Namjoon. As your cravings decide to choose the oddest times, three of them find the solution to fill your fridge until there is no space left. Well, after you sat on your kitchen floor and cried they had to eat some of them with you, as they basically called you fat by doing that, and paid for it. For them, they just wanted to make sure you get what you want but at this point, what they thought barely mattered. 

‘‘Okay, that was tiring.’’ you whispered through your exhale, while parking the car. For the records, parking turned into a hell show for you as going further and back, further and back, further, further and back has your nerves strain like a string. Though, you never liked it anyway. You were ready to leave your car, but the ringtone of your phone cut the act. 

‘‘Hey, mom.’’ 

‘‘Nope. Your voice sounds the same, rather than I thought so.’’ sighing, you brushed your face by your palm. Words like a needle on the skin, your mother always knew how to use them. ‘‘Well don’t ‘ahhh’ at me. As we barely speak, I obviously expect to forget your voice, tell me if I’m wrong.’’ 

Nodding as if she is able to see you through the phone, you put your head on the wheel. She was annoyed as it was very clear by her high and thin tone. 

‘‘Yes, Ma’am.’’ your reply earned another high pitched warning from her so you had to calm her between your giggles. ‘‘Okay, okay… You’re right, Mama. I should call you more but you know work and everything keeps me busy. But I will try my best, promise.’’ 

‘‘Apology accepted. But even though I know you prefer to talk about work, and the video thing you adore talking about, I’m most likely interested in my baby’s baby. So, how’s the pregnancy going?’’ 

This is the exact reason why you didn’t call her more than you did. As she is very interested in your life and interior with it, of course pregnancy will be the same. And you couldn’t ignore the things you can as she will talk about them, will want to know about them and give some advice from her past experiences. Not that you will need any of them, but of course as you postponed everything, you did the same thing to this topic, too, and left your mother in the dark. You will run as far as you can. 

‘‘They called games, not video thing but it’s your choice.’’ while thinking of it itched your tongue, you swallowed all the tensing thoughts down, and ready yourself to talk. ‘‘And the… pregnancy is going good if we don’t count the constant eating, peeing, crying, being tired twenty-four-seven, not fitting in my favorite clothes and all the pain it put me through.’’ 

She laughs as if you just told the funniest joke she heard. Cocking your brows, you run through what you said to make her laugh this much to fail. 

‘‘Ohhh, my baby. Stop talking about this as the things are all bad. You have a baby in your belly, your baby. They will become your everything, and mostly good things because you will love them more than anything you can. Believe me, I could die in return for your laugh. A bubbly, vivid laugh. Ahh… remembering it made me soft, right now.’’ 

‘‘Trying to be unbiased about gender, I see?’’ 

‘‘Well, I don’t want to affect the baby.’’ 

Though you want so bad to ask how that could actually affect the baby, you stay silent. All the baby talk is already pulling you down, it is better if you can stay out of the gender topic as much as you can. Not that it mattered, you thought. 

‘‘What do you mean? Why it wouldn’t matter darling?’’ 

Huh? 

Clearly, you weren’t thinking, but murmuring under your breath as your mom heard it. When you hit your head on the wheel, the horn startles you both. Fixing your posture, you answered your mother’s hurried question. 

‘‘It was horn, I’m in the car. Yes, yes I’m okay, don’t worry. I’m at the hospital- No, no- Mom, for the appointment. Yes… yes, for the baby. I will talk to you later, okay? I will call, I promise- Yes, I promise. Okay, love you, too.’’ 

You sigh once again. A loud one. 

You do hate lying to the woman who would do anything you want, but you know she is not ready to lose her grandchild, yet. You are not ready for the speech you will receive, also. Not that it will be harsh or critical, you just are not ready to accept the whole thing. Yes, you still had problems with the whole pregnancy thing even though you made your mind with adoption. You still had thirty weeks to go, and that won’t go fast. Not in a normal time, or in the pregnancy. 

Head full of blurring thoughts, you missed the man who shakes his hand from afar. The black haired man’s smile faded as you passed by his side without sparing a glance. Too busy with thinking how to calm your mother after you give her the news. The news that she won’t have a grandchild anytime soon. Fuck… that’s gonna be hard. 

Well, maybe not hard as much as the door you decide to welcome it with your face rather than opening. A loud thud, and muffled curse under your breath, instinctively you checked your nose if there is more than the pain you feel, as there is no blood you calm down, shoulders drop their usual place. Apparently, you were conscious enough to lead yourself to the floor where your doctor’s office, past the stairs, and find his door but when it comes to open the door you fail. Tears sit on your eyelids at once as you close them due to the pain that crushes your sight. Trying to massage your nose bridge barely helps but giving it a try won’t hurt, you think. 

‘‘Oh my, are you okay?’’ from your closed and blurred eyesight, you can’t choose who is the one talking but his voice lets you know that he is your doctor, Seokjin. ‘‘I heard a loud thug but couldn’t understand it was a human until you groaned. Are you okay, you bumped your nose? Let me get a look at that.’’ 

Not forgetting to thank him while he guides you inside his office, now you are able to open your eyes and set the tears free as they go down. Seokjin sits you on the white sheeted chair, handles your head to go right and left as he scans your face and nose behind creased eyes. He looks really concerned, more than you, and somehow it puts you on a stage where you feel like you have to make him sure that you were okay and nothing was wrong. It still feels weird when someone gets concerned over you more than yourself, as who would care for someone more than one’s self so it’s still vague. 

‘‘I-I’m actually okay. I didn’t hit that hard as it sounds, it doesn’t even bleed so…’’ wry smile is all you offer him as your voice trails down when his eyes meet with yours, a bit keen rather than you thought they will. 

Seokjin sighs with a line between his brows but he lets go, and when he puts a decent distance between you and himself, professionalism settles in his features as he adjusts his tie. 

‘‘It does look okay, but make sure you put some ice when you can as it could leave a bruise behind.’’ he smiles, both sweet and very technically. As he practiced it for every client he had and now performing it without any difficulties. It looks natural. ‘‘So, tell me how are you feeling? You should still have the early pregnancy symptoms such as morning sickness, sleep issues, and more likely they will hang around for a few more weeks. But it’s more important if you have a symptom that comes unnatural or unbearably painful for you?’’ 

After taking two deep breaths, you feel ready to give him a reply. Nose still throbs by the hit but it’s faint now. 

‘‘Uhm…- yeah, other than the ‘expected’ symptoms, I don’t feel like something is wrong, or not supposed to happen. No more painful urination, though I still need it frequently.’’ you grimace lightly as you share, shifting a bit. ‘‘But yeah, I’m okay.’’ you try to wipe the fresh embarrassment with the non glowing smile you had in your storage. Probably he should but you still don’t know if he needs to know that you choose adoption. As he is your doctor, and the one who is taking care of you and the baby, you know that he must know about it, but unpleasant eerie stops you from doing what you should.  

Old habits die hard, that’s for sure. 

‘‘Excellent. It’s good to hear that everything is going on it’s way, and today, as now you are in the tenth week of your pregnancy, I’m recommending you a genetic test in case there is any birth defect.’’ 

‘‘What is that?’’ even though Seokjin was done with talking, you utter so fast that it feels like you interrupted him, as you shut your mouth with wrinkled brows. It was just getting tiring day by day with all of these tests, things to do and not to do, being extra careful because you have another living creature in you to take care, more than yourself. No more selfish, damaging, stupid choices can be done as your body no longer belonged to you. At least not only to you and this was really, really tiresome. 

As he was expecting this, Seokjin comes up with some papers as you can understand them. ‘‘As I said before, it’s a test to acknowledge any kind of defect in the baby. These tests take two forms: screening tests and diagnostic tests. And a screening test tells you the likelihood that your baby could have a birth defect; a diagnostic test tells you with more than ninety nine percent certainty whether the baby has the disorder.’’ He explains more as you take the papers from him, scanning the words but they are almost identical as Seokjin continues with his further explanation. The blank eerie gets heavier and heavier the further he talks, and when he comes to the risks, it feels like your pulse palpitates on your throat. Tearing your eyes from the papers that sit on your lap, you stare at the man who is still talking. 

‘‘There is small risk of miscarriage, that’s why you need to carefully consider tha advantages and the disadvantages of these test before you make any decision, even it’s small.’’ 

A slap to the face, a weight falls on your stomach after Seokjin is done with his statement. Mouth hangs open, you stay still, silent as the Doctor waits patiently, now he is behind his desk, sitting his hands intertwined. As if he knows the new information would put a heavy dullness in you as he searches your every movement, yet you gave him hardly any. 

‘‘Do I… have to?’’ 

The idea of taking these tests would be tiring is there but the cause of your nausea is not just that. More likely, it’s the idea of losing something. Even though that something doesn’t belong to you because you never wanted it, and nothing has changed since then. Whether it's the guilt of knowing everything caused because of your recklessness, or it’s because you feel obligated to give the baby a good life due to your current maternal instincts - you hardly say you had one -, whether it’s beside you or far away from you, you feel the suffocating necessity. Even if the risk has one percent chance, you can’t take it. Maybe it’s odd to push your one percent chance to become free with the back of a hand, but that would be running away, and both of you already had one runner in your lives, and the baby wouldn’t need another. 

‘‘I know it sounds scary but you can take your time, you don’t have to do it now. You can search it a bit more about the cons and pros but I never had any problems with my former clients if you need any consolation. And you can always ask for me more.’’ 

Chewing your bottom lip, you still look at him in the eye like you need to give him an answer. You do trust your doctor but that doesn’t mean that you purposely rejected the idea of getting abortion while you deal with an unwanted pregnancy only to come across with a risk of miscarriage. Of course it is always there whether you do the test or not, but that's nearly a consolation. 

Nodding, you put all the papers in your bag before leaving the doctor’s office. Biding your goodbyes after ending with this week control. 

You come to the hospital with a dazed head, and you were going to leave it even more wrecked. But you just needed some air, somewhere to ease the wave of emotions that is going through your head. To catch your breath, you adjust your route to the cafeteria in the outdoors. Maybe, that could help you somehow. 

Not temporarily, but taking fresh air in your lungs somehow helped you. The phone call you had with Taehyung while you were at the verge of tears, too, and you sit in the cafeteria during all of these. Mimicking the doctor's words to your friend and Taehyung had listened to you, hang on your every word as much as he can on the other side of the line. Tried to console you, said that things will be alright and nothing bad will happen as if he was as sure as his name. And momentarily, you believed him. Both because you needed it, and he was being a good friend and you didn’t want him to feel useless. 

For good or ill, now, your heart is resting in ease. 

Well at least it was until you see a glimpse of dark uniform in the corner of the wall, and then a familiar face you haven’t seen in a while. A smile that softly shaped as heart, causing your heart to palpitate fast but in a much different way than the news you learned today, or the idea of your mother's future disappointment. It’s more thrilling and in a way even scarier than the other two options. As the opposite of how familiar the face is, the reason for your heart going this insane was abrupt. Even odd when you think the very less time you spent with the owner of the familiar face, yet it was there, forcing you to gulp down, consume every emotion he forced you to feel. 

Contrary to what you expect - and you didn’t know why you were expecting him to be happy after seeing you - his face falls, the shape of heart shutters around his mouth. And to your shock, it put needles somewhere near to your chest. 

The last time you saw him, the atmosphere was intense as you shared things that normally you wouldn’t do with a partially stranger but with him even though feelings were gloomy, you weren’t uneasy. And to you, when he was consoling you, internalizing what you were telling him, he wasn’t disturbed. At least he didn't look like that. But, the more you size him up, the more you get sure of his strange disturbance. And it did burn. Smoke choked you down, and put tears on your eyes. Fucking pregnancy hormones…

Not aware of your action, you caught your hand in the air, in the middle of a shake as Hoseok greeted you by the tiny bow of his head. And expecting more cutted harsly, as a knife in the gut. 

Whether it’s because of your blind act, or whether he feels obligated, Hoseok comes closer to the table you were sitting, leaving the person behind he was talking to before he saw you. With every step, you breathe another air to gather your confidence a bit high, but it’s useless as your hands start to tremble under the table, fortunately away from his sight. 

‘‘H-hi,’’ no matter how much Hoseok tries to sound friendly, it’s not, and you can hear in his voice as it comes out broken. His eyes are still deep and candid but not glowing the way it fascinated you when you first saw him. Still, you greeted him with a tight smile, wave of your hand small. 

‘‘Take a seat-’’ pointing the available chair, you cut yourself to say something else. To correct your words. ‘‘I mean if you want… of course,’’ 

To your surprise, he holds the chair to adjust for him to sit on. But everything feels so forced and awkward that you can’t stop wondering if you said something to him and cause him to feel uncomfortable around you. Your brain works so hard to scan the memories of that day, but you fail to find something so disturbing to make Hoseok shift in his seat, a line between his brows and a noticeably insincere smile. 

It takes minutes for someone to talk first and scare the clouds away only for a moment. 

‘‘Are you waiting for your appointment or has it already finished?’’ 

‘‘Ah, yeah, it’s done. I just needed to take a moment and fresh air because…’’ your voice eventually trailed off as you realised he just asked to look friendly and probably doesn’t want to hear your whelming emotions anymore. ‘‘of stuffs, you know.’’ 

Hoseok nods, his mouth thin as a line, and even though it shouldn’t, it breaks your heart. Yes, this man owes you nothing, and of course he doesn’t have to sit there and listen to how sorry and depressed you feel over the things doctor Seokjin have told you, but it still hurts to see him this… joyless. The curiosity burns deep and wild as you desperately want to know what the hell you did to make him this anxious, but your mind barely helps as you wander in the empty field. 

‘‘I should probably get going-’’ 

‘‘It’s been a while-’’

Words clashing and drowning one another, silence takes over and Hoseok abruptly stops above his chair as he was about to leave before you parted him. And now he looks at you with wide eyes, fear in his chest growing big as your bottom lip trembles for only a second but he catches it. 

He sits back on his seat with hands on the air. ‘‘Oh, yeah, it’s been a while since we last saw each other.’’ he says but you know it’s out of pity, and you would rather die than crumbling under his gaze. So you shake your head with a false smile, though hammers work in your chest. 

‘‘Ah, don’t mind me. Go ahead, you are probably busy and have so much to do. So, you can leave, seriously.’’ 

‘‘No-, no, no, Y/N. I’m sorry, I want to stay and talk to you, really. I really am sorry for acting rude.’’ 

Maybe because the look on his face, or the warm tone of his voice, you decide not to pressure him to leave after you ask if he really wants it for a second time. But he nods and smiles, and this time it reaches his eyes, a hot pink blossoms in you. 

Though, before either of you can say anything, a touch at your back stops you. You hear the breathy voice before you turn your head. ‘‘Ahh, finally I found... you. Care to explain why you are-...not picking your phone?’’ 

And when you turn over, you see a panthing Yoongi. His hand on his knee and looks at you with concerned gaze. Then, they leave you only to land on the man on the other side of the table, and Yoongi’s eyes go wide. 

He extends his hand in a non-moving shake to the air. ‘‘Oh, hi. Sorry to butt in.’’ he stretches his hand towards him, the ghost of a smile appears on his lips. ‘‘It’s Yoongi,’’ 

Voice deep, and it takes long to draw out when the man in dark uniform mirrors the act. ‘‘Hoseok.’’ 

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars CVII (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: I’m not entirely pleased with this book, I could’ve added more stuff but it was already too big so I’ll just write 'em as hidden moments. The last two chapters are still a MASTERPIECE, i can’t wait for y’all to read them -Danny

Words: 3,467

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to ‘Six Feet Apart’ -by Alec Benjamin

Chapter Five: Out of the Routine.

"You think he'll be all right?"

"Harry did nothing wrong– conjure a Patronus in the condition he was... that's impressive!"

"You can make one, can't you? What form does it take?"

"A dog of course," Sirius smiled. "A shaggy, fluffy lad..."

"Mine's an eagle– Matt could conjure a phoenix, but I guess you knew that..."

"So, Sirius..." Mel hopped on the table. "How was my mum when she was younger?"

"I was a loving, rational witch," The woman replied. "Next question–"

"You were loving all right," Sirius raised a brow. "But that wasn't it. I distinctly remember one afternoon when I said you were nowhere near as skilled as James to play quidditch... When you finally made it into the team –as a beater, mind you– you threw a bludger right at my face."

"It proved my point," The woman said. "However, I'm trying to teach this one better manners than the ones I had–"

"Doesn't seem to be working," Sirius teased.

"What I really wanna know..." Mel continued, interrupting their playful banter. "Who was the real heartbreaker of the group? Was it you, Sirius?"

"Me?" Sirius snorted. "I had a few dates but I didn't break hearts. People considered me too childish."

"They were right about that," Emily said. "I used to think James was the heartbreaker..."

"James was harmless! He spent years chasing Lily like a puppy– But of course, you wouldn't have noticed–"

"Remus was quite the catch too," She gave him a pointed look.

"Ah, yes– Remus," Sirius stammered. "Remus... you know what? I reckon we held him back from getting a few lovely girls back in the day."

"How come?"

"He would always think that girls were after us– You know, James and I– but I believe most of them were after him and Matt!"

"Can't blame them," Emily smiled.

"Ruddy was the heartbreaker, to be honest..."

"What?" Mel laughed. "My dad? The same bloke that spent years chasing my mother just like James with Lily?"

"He was in love with your mother, but the bastard was clever!" Emily scolded Sirius and he apologized distractedly. "He knew how to flirt his way out of detention!"

"Flirt his way out?" Mel couldn't believe it.

"Those eyes..." The woman sighed. "One look and a dashing smile and you were a goner! I was so glad when I discovered you didn't have 'em! Hard to say no when he was looking at you in a certain way..."

"She may not have his eyes, but she certainly got the look," Sirius smirked. "I could tell you exactly when I've seen her do it–"

"Padfoot, you're playing with fire," Emily warned him. "Teach that girl how to trick others and soon enough she'll have a group of fools under her command!"

"Is that so bad? Ouch!" Mel joked, earning a slap on her arm. "All right– I promise I won't use any tricks with you... What about school, though? You know some kids are bullies, this might come in handy."

"Sounds good to me! Here's what you do..." The man stood in front of her.

For the next hour, Sirius practised with her until Emily gave up and sat as well, sharing a few tricks of her own. By the time they walked out of the kitchen to do their chores, Mel was well versed in the tricks of the Marauders.

She promised that she wouldn't do any of those things for the fun of it, and never to a friend. Desperate times required desperate measures, that was all. She was aware of how she'd rambled for years about hating lies, but she also needed to convince everyone that her crush had vanished. There was no other choice.

Harry announced, looking much livelier than before, that all charges had been taken and he was going back to Hogwarts for another year.

"I knew it! You always get away with stuff!" Ron exclaimed.

"They were bound to clear you. There was no case against you, none at all..." Hermione smiled, but she was a bit pale still.

"Everyone seems quite relieved, though, considering they all knew I'd get off," Harry joked as Emily stood behind him, running a hand through his hair with pride.

"You've got your sense of humour back, then?" Mel asked. "Good, you were starting to get annoying..."

Harry gave her a look divided between amusement and doubt, he didn't know if she was joking. She wasn't planning on clearing things out either.

"He got off, he got off, he got off —!"

"That's enough, settle down!" Mr Weasley told his kids, waving a hand as if that could quiet them. "Listen, Sirius, Lucius Malfoy was at the Ministry —"

"What?"

"He got off, he got off, he got off —"

"Be quiet, you three! Yes, we saw him talking to Fudge on level nine, then they went up to Fudge's office together. Dumbledore ought to know."

"Absolutely– We'll tell him, don't worry."

"Well, I'd better get going, there's a vomiting toilet in Bethnal Green waiting for me. Molly, I'll be late, I'm covering for Tonks, but Kingsley might be dropping in for dinner —"

"He got off, he got off, he got off —"

"That's enough — Fred — George — Ginny!" said Mrs Weasley. "Harry dear, come and sit down, have some lunch, you hardly ate breakfast..."

" 'Course, once Dumbledore turned up on your side, there was no way they were going to convict you," said Ron, sitting down in front of Harry and putting a bunch of food on his plate.

"Yeah, he swung it for me," said Harry.

Mel leaned against the cabinets, examining him carefully. For some reason, Harry acting all giddy and happy only made her feel sadder. She wanted to look like that too, she wanted to pretend nothing was wrong and she was sure that if she were to try and sit next to him, Harry would let her. Still, part of her was hurting, Harry'd walked away because he'd gotten scared about the lifeline and true to his nature he'd tried to protect her.

The idea made her blood boil. Who was he to decide? It was her life! Not only that, but his stupid plan hadn't worked at all, now she could feel even more stuff than the previous year. To hell with pretending they were still friends. She moved away from the cabinet to leave the kitchen when Harry hissed, touching his scar.

"What's up?" said Hermione.

"Scar– But it's nothing... It happens all the time now..." The boy caught her staring and she froze.

"Well," Mel replied crudely. "You should learn to control it– Don't want that happening during class..."

"Mel! Don't be so unfeeling–"

"She's right," Harry agreed, giving her a hard look. "I don't want to give any more ideas to the Daily Prophet."

Sirius was acting like a child and it was driving her crazy. It was half selfishness and half worry. She wanted nothing more but to make Sirius realize he wasn't going to be alone nor unhappy. He had Emily, and Mel was pretty sure that they were on the verge of something.

Without Sirius, she was forced to spend more time with Ron, Harry and Hermione, because if she were to spent time with Ginny she would only think about Harry and their time together.

The twins were excellent distractions, but Fred was always trying to flirt and though it was a joke and wasn't making her uncomfortable, she was starting to like it. That worried her. She didn't want to ruin their friendship.

"You belong at Hogwarts and Sirius knows it. Personally, I think he's being selfish," She heard Hermione say one afternoon while they were cleaning more rubbish.

"That's a bit harsh, Hermione, you wouldn't want to be stuck inside this house without company," Ron explained.

"He'll have company!" said Hermione. "It's headquarters to the Order of the Phoenix, isn't it? Emily is here almost all the time! He just got his hopes up that Harry would be coming to live here with him."

"I don't think that's true– He wouldn't give me a straight answer when I asked him if I could."

"He just didn't want to get his own hopes up even more– And he probably felt a bit guilty himself, because I think a part of him was really hoping you'd be expelled. Then you'd both be outcasts together."

"Come off it!" said the boys.

"Suit yourselves. But I sometimes think Ron's mum's right, and Sirius gets confused about whether you're you or your father, Harry."

"So you think he's touched in the head?"

"No, I just think he's been very lonely for a long time," Hermione shrugged.

"I have to agree," Mel was dying to talk about her suspicions with someone apart from her uncle. "I think that's about to change, though..."

"What d'you mean?"

"I'm saying," She looked around. "My mother and Sirius are spending a lot of time together..."

They looked at her silently until Hermione asked, "Wait, you don't think..?"

"I do."

"And you're okay with it?"

"Mum's been alone for years, it's time. Even better if it's Sirius."

"Dunno," Ron said awkwardly. "Bit weird to think of Sirius and Em together, don't you think? Them being friends for so long... I mean, Sirius was friends with your dad, wouldn't that make things weird?"

"Why?" Mel frowned.

"It'd be like betraying him, wouldn't it?"

"My dad's dead, Ron," She replied bluntly. "Don't you think he would've liked to see my mother with someone that would treat her well? Someone he knew?"

"Maybe..." He shrugged. "I just don't see Sirius as a dad–"

"Whatever," She thought it had been stupid to think they would support her idea.

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Mrs Weasley interrupted.

"Still not finished?"

"I thought you might be here to tell us to have a break!" said Ron "D'you know how much mold we've got rid of since we arrived here?"

"You were so keen to help the Order, you can do your bit by making headquarters fit to live in."

"I feel like a house-elf..."

"Well, now that you understand what dreadful lives they lead, perhaps you'll be a bit more active in S.P.E.W.! You know, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to show people exactly how horrible it is to clean all the time — we could do a sponsored scrub of Gryffindor common room, all proceeds to S.P.E.W., it would raise awareness as well as funds —"

"I'll sponsor you to shut up about spew," Ron muttered, Hermione didn't hear it.

"Have you guys gotten your letters?" Mel entered the boys' room. "You won't believe who's got her Prefect–"

The twins apparated, causing her to scream.

"You twats!"

"Sorry, Lady! We were just wondering who assigned the Slinkhard book," said Fred.

"Because it means Dumbledore's found a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," said George.

"And about time too."

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, we overheard Mum and Dad talking on the Extendable Ears a few weeks back, and from what they were saying, Dumbledore was having real trouble finding anyone to do the job this year."

"Not surprising, is it, when you look at what's happened to the last four?"

"One sacked, one dead, one's memory removed, and one locked in a trunk for nine months," Harry counted with his fingers. "Yeah, I see what you mean."

"The dead one and the idiot without memory had it coming," Mel mentioned, sitting down on Harry's bed.

"What's up with you, Ron? What's the matter?" Fred approached the boy and read over his shoulder, his eyes widening. "Prefect?"

"Prefect?!" George got closer and snatched the letter from Ron's hand, the badge falling from it. "No way..."

"There's been a mistake– No one in their right mind would make Ron a prefect... We thought you were a cert!"

"We thought Dumbledore was bound to pick you two!" said George, pointing at Mel and Harry.

"Funny you mention it..." Mel said, but they didn't let her finish.

"Winning the Triwizard and everything!" Fred continued.

"I suppose all the mad stuff must've counted against him," said George.

"Yeah... Yeah, you've caused too much trouble, mate. Well, at least one of you's got their priorities right, though I must say, Mel, I'm a tad disappointed about you being a Prefect."

"How d'you know I'm one?"

"C'mon! There's no way you're not! Private lessons and all..." Fred walked over to Harry and glared at Ron and Mel. "Prefect... ickle Ronnie and Lady Dumbledore..."

"Oh, Mum's going to be revolting," George rolled his eyes.

Ron, who still had not said a word, took the badge, stared at it for a moment, and then held it out to Harry as though asking mutely for confirmation that it was genuine. Harry took it. A large P was superimposed on the Gryffindor lion. He had seen a badge just like this on Percy's chest on his very first day at Hogwarts.

The door banged open. Hermione came tearing into the room, her cheeks flushed and her hair flying. There was an envelope in her hand.

"Did you — did you get — ?" She spotted the badge in Harry's hand and let out a shriek. "I knew it!" she said excitedly, brandishing her letter. "Me too, Harry, me too!"

The twins turned to look at Mel with matching shocked expressions.

"No," Harry quickly dropped the badge on Ron's hand. "It's Ron, not me."

"It — what?"

"Ron's prefect, not me."

"Ron?" Hermione blinked. "But... are you sure? I mean —"

"How come you're not a prefect?" George asked Mel. "Hermione's clever– but you–"

"I've caused as much trouble as Harry," She shrugged. "And I would've told you so if you hadn't interrupted me! And yes, 'Mione, that badge belongs to Ron."

"It's my name on the letter," Ron straighten his posture as if daring her to speak.

"I... I... well... wow! Well done, Ron! That's really —"

"Unexpected?" said George.

"No! No, it's not... Ron's done loads of... he's really..."

"He's clever, brave, and has done nothing to prove he doesn't deserve that badge as much as Harry," Mel replied. Ron blushed furiously.

Mrs Weasley walked into the room holding some folded robes.

"Ginny said the booklists had come at last... If you give them to me, Emily and I will take them over to Diagon Alley this afternoon and get your books while you're packing. Ron, I'll have to get you more pyjamas, these are at least six inches too short, I can't believe how fast you're growing... what colour would you like?"

"Get him red and gold to match his badge," said George in disgust.

"Match his what?"

"His badge," Fred grimaced. "His lovely shiny new prefect's badge."

Mrs Weasley rose her face in slow understanding.

"His... but... Ron, you're not..?"

Ron held up his badge timidly.

"I don't believe it! I don't believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That's everyone in the family!"

"What are Fred and I, next-door neighbours?" said George, huffing when his mother pushed him out of the way. Mel patted his shoulder, holding back her laughter.

"Wait until your father hears! Ron, I'm so proud of you, what wonderful news, you could end up Head Boy just like Bill and Percy, it's the first step! Oh, what a thing to happen in the middle of all this worry, I'm just thrilled, oh Ronnie —"

Mel laughed, incapable to hold any longer. Both twins were beyond displeased. What surprised her the most, was that she found herself pleased about not being a prefect.

"Mum... don't... Mum, get a grip..." Ron groaned as his mother continued to kiss all over his face.

"Well, what will it be? We gave Percy an owl, but you've already got one, of course."

"W-what do you mean?"

"You've got to have a reward for this! How about a nice new set of dress robes?"

"We've already bought him some," Fred lamented.

"Or a new cauldron, Charlie's old one's rusting through, or a new rat, you always liked Scabbers —"

"Mum... can I have a new broom?" When he saw her mother's look of uncertainty, he added, "Not a really good one! Just — just a new one for a change..."

Mrs Weasley smiled lovingly.

"Of course you can... Well, I'd better go get Emily if we've got a broom to buy too. I'll see you all later... Little Ronnie, a prefect! And don't forget to pack your trunks... A prefect... Oh, I'm all of a dither!"

"You don't mind if we don't kiss you, do you, Ron?" said Fred as soon as their mother left.

"We could curtsy if you like," said George.

"Oh, shut up," said Ron.

"Or what? Going to put us in detention?" Fred smirked.

"I'd love to see him try," sniggered George.

"He could if you don't watch out!" said Hermione.

Mel laughed along with the twins. She heard Ron mumble 'Drop it, Hermione' and she took pity on her poor friend.

"Enough you two!" She hit Fred's arm lightly. "Ron didn't ask to be made a prefect."

"We're going to have to watch our step, George," said Fred, pretending to be fearful, "with these two on our case..."

"Yeah, it looks like our law-breaking days are finally over," said George with a dramatic sigh.

The twins Disapparated after that.

"Those two!" said Hermione furiously, staring up at the ceiling, through which they could now hear Fred and George roaring with laughter in the room upstairs. "Don't pay any attention to them, Ron, they're only jealous!"

"I don't think they are," said Ron doubtfully, also looking up at the ceiling. "They've always said only prats become prefects... Still," he added on a happier note, "they've never had new brooms! I wish I could go with Mum and choose... She'll never be able to afford a Nimbus, but there's the new Cleansweep out, that'd be great... Yeah, I think I'll go and tell her I like the Cleansweep, just so she knows..."

Mel watched him rush out of the room.

"Harry?" said Hermione.

"Well done!" His voice sounded too happy to be genuine. "Brilliant. Prefect. Great."

"Thanks... Erm — Harry — could I borrow Hedwig so I can tell Mum and Dad? They'll be really pleased — I mean, prefect is something they can understand —"

"Yeah, no problem," He had his back to them, still talking with too much joy. "Take her!"

Mel waited until Hermione left with Hedwig, she waited until their friend closed the door... Harry straighten up from packing his trunk and sat heavily on the edge of his bed. He hadn't noticed she was still there and quickly covered his face with both hands as he grimaced.

She didn't know what to do, if this had happened a year back she would've held his hand and they would've found a way to cheer up. She wasn't upset about not being a prefect because her priorities had changed a bit since she was a kid, but seeing the disappointment in his eyes... They weren't friends, but she was decent enough to not walk away.

"I suppose you feel hurt."

Harry gave a start revealing his teary eyes to her, Mel continued calmly.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine," She made her way to Ron's bed and sat down. "But I get it, my twelve-year-old self is rolling on her grave."

"I... I don't..." Harry stammered, then fixed his eyes on the corner of the wardrobe.

He stayed quiet for a few seconds before a bitter, sarcastic laugh came out. He shook his head slowly and cleaned his nose with the back of his hand.

"You're right– Ron didn't ask for this... I shouldn't..."

Mel wasn't going to pressure him. If he was going to talk great, if not, she'd done enough. The sound of footsteps brought them back and Harry composed himself at the speed of light. He stood up and fixed a casual grin on his face at the exact moment Ron burst into the room.

"Just caught her! She says she'll get the Cleansweep if she can."

"Cool... Listen — Ron — well done, mate."

Ron's face changed drastically.

"I never thought it would be me! I thought it would be you!"

"Nah, I've caused too much trouble," Harry admitted. "Mel's right, we're too far gone."

"I have to pack my stuff..." Mel stood up, patting Harry's shoulder but retreating her hand as if he were burning to the touch.

She didn't know what she could've said. That he wasn't completely alone, perhaps. That they could still find a common ground and talk, hopefully soon.

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha​ @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere​ @t-rexs-world

[julieandthephantomsblogduh]

Bright - Episode Two, Part One

DISCLAIMER - I only own Lia. Don’t steal it ain’t right. Love y’all and peace out, be safe 

The Molina Household - the morning before school

Julie and Lia sit together on the piano bench as tears fall between the two of them. They had both lost so much and sometimes words couldn’t express that. Music had been a way for both of them to release their pain and knowing that Julie finally got her voice back brought a tear to both of their eyes. All of a sudden, Flynn runs into the studio crying too.

“Oh sweetie not you too,” Malia says, standing up to hug Flynn, “What’s wrong?”

“We need to talk…”

“Are you okay?” Julie asks, putting the sheet music back onto the piano.

“No I am not okay, you just got kicked out of music! I’ve been up all night thinking of what to say. I might’ve drank seven sodas but I need to get this out.” Flynn starts.

“Wait I have something to tell you…” Julie tries to interrupt her but to no avail.

“No it’s my turn to talk,” Flynn continues as Julie and Lia share a smirk knowing that Flynn’s gonna rant about this now, “You can’t give up music. Your music is like a gift so that would be a tragedy. So you’re basically, like cancelling Christmas, and I love Christmas!”

“Flynn…” Malia tries to talk but she just puts her hand over her mouth.

“Uh huh. When we were six we all promised to be in a band together. Triple Threat?”

“I never agreed to that name,” Julie smiles.

Flynn lets out a sigh, “That’s not the point. Jules, if you leave the music program forever we’ll be apart forever. That’s just what happens. Sure we’ll see each other in the hall sometime but… Malia would be my only friend and…”

“Hey!”

“That’s not true Flynn,” Julie says.

“The only time we’ll ever contact each other would be through instagram likes. Every Time I’ll be hitting that little heart, my heart would break a little bit and when my heart breaks… I’ll turn my sadness onto Malia and you don’t want Malia to deal with a sad Flynn right?”

“Okay first of all,” Lia starts, “I’m starting to feel very concerned about our friendship…” Flynn slaps Malia’s shoulder playfully at that, “also if the seven soda’s hadn’t hit you, you would know that…”

“That I just played the piano and sang again.”

“WHAT! Why didn’t you just say so? Malia I expected a phone call.”

“Hey, I just got here, don't come at me.”

“I was trying,” Julie says, “And then your seven sodas kicked in…”

“Ohh I’m so happy for you. And me!”

“And me?” Malia asks.

“Of course you too,” Flynn says pulling Lia under her arm, “Look at you Julie, looking all… I don’t know, alive again?

“I know right it’s as if I drank seven sodas!”

“What made you play again Jules?”

“I found this song my mum wrote me,” Flynn picks up the manuscript while Malia looks at it over her shoulder, smiling gently. “Woah”

“I know. I was so afraid to play it. Anything involving music reminds me of her. Then I woke up this morning and realised that’s why I should keep on playing. To keep her memory alive.”

“Aww c’mon guys,” Lia starts pulling Julie off the bench, “Group hug”

“Yay.”

“Wait!...” Flynn yells pushing us apart, “We need to tell Mrs. Harrison you can play so you can stay in the program and we can continue to be besties and I won’t have to deal with Lia alone.”

“Hey!”

“C’mon guys, Julie’s back and Triple Threat lives on.”

“You guy’s go ahead,” Lia says, “I need to use the washroom. I’ll catch up with you guys in school.”

Lia heads towards the bathroom - Lia’s perspective

I hear the shed door shut as I get to my business. As I flush the toilet and head to start washing my hands, I hear the boys talk.

“I wonder why Julie didn’t tell us she could shred on the piano?”

“And sing that girl can sing”

“It probably has something to do with her mum. You know? Must have been hard.” I think Alex says. “Anyway, I really feel for her.”

I dry my hands quickly and I reach for the door when I hear Luke start talking, “Yeah but… now she’s got music back in her life. Just like us.”

“”Yeah, I’m not sure you can call what we have a life.”

I hold back a snort. It felt kinda weird listening in to their conversation but like it’s not as if I did it on purpose right? Anyway, I leave the washroom before anything gets too personal.

“Hey boys…”

They all turn to face me as Luke moves closer, “Hey Lia right?”

Oh my, my big brother just acknowledged me and he has no idea.

“Yeah umm… so how is it? Being ghosts”

I can see Alex raise his eyebrows from his loft.

“Look I can poof!” Reggie says moving from the door, towards me and then poofing back to the door.

“Cool… umm I’m gonna go leave now… um bye?” I kinda awkwardly say as I make eye contact with Luke. I quickly walk out and close the door. As I walk away I can hear the boys talk.

“That was weird”

“Yeah…”

I just shake my head and let the confusion take over my thoughts as I make my way towards school.

At School - In the music room with Ms. Harrison

“Believe me Julie. I think it’s wonderful that you sang again. I prayed for this moment for almost a year. But it’s too late,” Ms Harrison says.

“But what if you just hear her play?” Flynn tries, “You know she’s amazing.”

“Yeah this is like turning down Beyonce!” Lia tries causing Julie to slap her shoulder.

“Ouch!”

“I wouldn’t matter. A new student starts tomorrow,” Ms Harrison says taking a breath, “There’s only…”

“So may spots, and if I don’t participate I’m out. I know,” Julie finishes.

“I did everything I could to keep you hear this year. But Principle Lessa was very clear. Yesterday was your last chance. You’ll have to reapply next semester.”

The bell rings

Kids start filling out the room as Lia puts her arms around Julie’s and Flynn’s in hopes of comforting them.

“I’m truly sorry,” Ms. Harrison says walking away.

The three girls hug each others shoulders as they walk out.

Start of Lunch - Lia’s perspective

“Hey guys, I’ll catch up with you later? I have something to do first.” I say to Julie and Flynn, before walking back towards the music classroom. This is going to crush my soul and Flynn and Julie will be mad but I have to do this and Mum might actually be happy.

“Hey Ms. Harrison, do you mind if we talk for a second?”

Ms. Harrison turns around from her putting away her manuscript. She steps off the conductors pedestal and takes a seat in one of the many chairs and I sit down next to her. I used to come in here all the time after school and while Ms. Harrison would clean up or work, I’ll just play my guitar or sit at the piano writing some music.

“Hey Ms. Harrison?” I asked, as a nervous freshman, “Would it be okay if I stick around after school sometimes and just practice here? My parents aren’t too fond at the idea of me practicing at home.”

Ms. Harrison looks at me for a second. I was playing with the string on my hoodie biting my lip. We had just had our first class today and being a freshmen, I didn’t really have any friends other than Julie, Carrie and Flynn. Honestly though - they were all I needed. They had been there for me when my life was crashing and I promised to do the same for them no matter what.

“Why don’t we take a seat and talk for a second?” She had asked.

That day I told her everything - from my brother's death to how my parents despised the idea of me pursuing music. Ms. Harrison had promised me that I would always be welcomed to come in early or to stay a bit after school to practice or write music. For that I will forever be thankful.

“What’s going on Malia? Is everything alright at home?”

“Yeah it’s just…” I sigh, before taking a deep breath, “Would it be possible to drop out of the music program?”

“Malia… I don’t know what to say,” She looks at me confused, “I thought your parents were okay with everything now? Is there something going on? Is this about Julie?”

“It’s kind of complicated but I think… my mum isn’t too happy about my choices and with college applications and graduation coming in a couple years… I think they’d rather me go to Harvard than Juillard. I know Julie has a shot at going big but I know I’ll never try so… why shouldn’t the spot go to someone who actually deserves it?”

“Malia, you are talented and a wonderful person. You have a great voice and the music you write means so much and it’s great. I can’t stop you from dropping out but make sure you’re dropping out for you - not your mum, not your dad, not for anyone but yourself.”

“I love music Ms. Harrison, but I love my family more than anything. I can’t hurt them - they’ve already been through so much. Julie has been through so much. Me dropping out could make so many people happy. I need to do this, just promise you won’t tell Flynn or Julie why i’m dropping out?”

“Okay. Just remember that no matter what happens, you’re always welcomed here and you can always play whatever you want in here.”

“Thanks Ms. Harrison. I guess I’ll stop by the office and make it official. I’m sure mum won’t protest too much.”

I slowly turn to walk out the door, I pause for a second, “Thanks for letting me be who I truly am in here. You will never understand what you did for me when you let me stay here and do what I always wanted to do.”

“Malia, just remember that your music shows who you are - and you are a very talented woman.”

I look towards the ground as tears threaten to fall from my eyes. A sad smile forms on my lips as all the memories I’ve made in here come to an end. I clench my eyes shut and open them up. I give Ms. Harrison one last smile as I quickly walk out, heading towards the principal's office.

Back at the Molina household after school has ended

“So what’s the plan now that…” Lia starts as Julie opens the door to her room.

They walk in and the boys are all hanging out. Julie looked at the boys with a certain twinge. Reggie was laying on Julie’s bed while Alex was looking at her dresser and Luke was looking through her stuff.

“What are you guys doing in my room?”

The guys reply to her with a chorus of high pitched uhhs and umms. Lia just laughs as she drops her bag beside the door. She was going to be staying overnight.

“We were looking for the kitchen?” Luke tries.

“This… this can’t happen. It’s creepy. Get off my bed please.”

Reggie jumps off the bed as Lia laughs and takes his spot, laying down and hugging a pillow.

“Hey Julie,” Luke raises his hand, “What’s in the box?” He asks, pointing towards Julie’s dream box.

“That’s off limits.”

“Oh…” he chuckles, “Okay. Girl stuff.”

“Ohh… like butterflies and glitter?” Reggie asks, as Lia throws a pillow at him that ends up going right through him.

“Oh come on,” Alex says looking embarrassed for his friends, “I’m sorry about them.”

“It’s none of your business. And yes there might be some glitter,” Julie says while Reggie smirks only for another pillow to be thrown through him by Lia, “And Lia stop throwing pillows at them. Try a rock.”

“Hey!” Alex exclaims, picking up a picture of Julie and her mum and walking towards the bed, “I actually picked something up!”

He then proceeds to drop it on top of Lia.

“Ouch!”

“I dropped it,” Lia throws a pillow through him too.

“Uh is that you mum?” Luke asks.

“Yes and it’s my favourite picture of us. So if you break it,” she says picking up the picture and giving them the death stare, causing Lia to snort at their facial reactions, “I’ll break you.”

Julie puts the frame on her bedside as Alex says, “Ok well sorry but we’re kind of unbreakable at this point.”

Lia and Julie both throw him a WTF look.

“I don’t get it, “Julie starts, “You guys can mess up my bed, pick up your instruments but you can’t pick up other stuff?”

“I know right? It’s hard,” Luke says shrugging, “But for some reason, our instruments, easy.”

“Yeah like super easy,” Reggie adds from the edge of the bed, “Oh and check out what I learned today.”

He stands up and holds his hands out “Ah” Suddenly his guitar is across his chest and he falls backwards.

“SICK,” Lia says sitting up in bed. Luke smiles down at her as Julie says, “Yeah that looked super easy.”

Reggie continues groaning as Luke starts talking again, “It’s like I always thought, our instruments are attached to our souls.”

Julie looks towards Lia. All of a sudden Julie’s dad walks in says “Hey,” startling the boys causing Reggie to do a backflip and Luke and Alex to hold hands. Lia smirks at them before giving her attention to Mr. Molina.

“Everything ok?” He asks.

“Yeah… I’m fine.” Julie says, looking towards Lia before looking back at her dad. Luke and Alex look down to their hands, back at each other before dropping their hands. Lia watches the interaction and laughs before putting her hand in front of her mouth. Reggie smirks while Mr. Molina gives her a concerned look.

“I thought I heard you talking to someone.”

“Yeah me!” Lia says from the bed.

“Someone other than Lia”

“Must have been my laptop… that I just closed.”

“Ok… if you need anything,” he gestures towards the doors making a closing motion, “Yeah okay.”

He closes the doors. Julie turns to look towards the boys.

“Your dad looks like the kind of guy who likes to barbecue. I bet he has a great ribs recipe,” Reggie says.

“Oh my he does!” Lia laughs.

“Look I don't know but if you guys want to talk to me you have to do it in the studio. He’s worried about me enough as it is.”

“He seems chill. You should just tell him about us,” Luke says, smiling as if he just solved all the issues, as the boys agree with him.

Lia and Julie share a do they not have brains which they don’t but still look.

“Umm what?” “You’re kidding right?”

Luke’s smile falls and he ends up looking like a sad golden retriever.

“This past year, everyone’s been watching over me, being super nice as if they’re waiting for me to snap. If I tell my dad I met a ghost band. I’ll be back to talking to Dr. Turner 3 times a week.”

“Yeah… Turner is not fun,” Lia says falling backwards on Julie’s bed and staring at the ceiling.

Luke looks towards Julie, “You probably shouldn’t tell him…” he walks back towards the box, “Julie”

Lia lets out a small laugh “I thought I told you to leave that alone!”

“I know. You should have just said nothing because now I can’t stop thinking about it. Soo… What’s in the box Julie?”

Julie looks back to Lia, rolling her eyes at annoyance towards Luke, “It’s just my dream box okay!”

Luke slowly looks towards Julie as Lia’s phone buzzes. She pulls it out of her back pocket and opens it up.

“Whenever I get a thought, I write it down and get it out of my mind.”

“Like lyrics?”

“They would be if I still wrote music like I used to with my mom. Now it’s just full of stuff that doesn’t make me sad.”

The boys all look sad at her confession and Lia sits up suddenly.

“But I mean you do play. We heard you this morning,” Alex says standing up all of a sudden.

“In the garage!” Julie looks frustrated. Luke and Reggie scrunch up their faces towards him. Luke flicks his shoulder as Lia throws another pillow aimed at all three boys.

“So you were there too?”

“Uhhh… I don’t…” “Uhh he was like…” “We were… somewhere”

Lia stands up before the situation would escalate.

“I have to head home for a sec… but I’ll be back tonight. Good luck boys,” She says sending them a wink and leaving the room.

Lia’s perspective - Once she gets home

Now I don’t know why mum called me but I think I have an idea. It probably has something to do with me quitting the program. Things are gonna be awkward and suddenly I’m glad that Mr. Molina actually likes me and I was already sleeping over. As if I don’t basically live in their house. I take a breath before walking in.

“Mum! Dad! I’m home!”

I hear pots and pans clash, so I make my way towards the kitchen. As I walk towards the fridge to grab a snack Dad turns off the stove and Mum looks up from her spot at the table.

“Take a seat Malia.”

Oh crap. I make my way towards the table, a clementine in hand. I take a seat and take in the death stares burning into my face. I slowly start peeling my clementine while Mum takes in a sigh.

“Why’d I get a phone call saying that you wanted to quit the music program?”

I set aside the peels as I pull of a piece of clementine, “I thought you’d be happy.”

“So that’s it? You’re done with music? For years you fought us to get up to buy you your guitar and your violin and all the other instruments and now you just give up on it?”

I swallow a couple of pieces down, “I’m not giving up on music. I just think that… I need to focus on other things for now. Maybe I’ll reapply next semester or maybe I won’t. I just want you to be happy and okay with this.”

“In the end we aren’t going to stop you from this but. Yeah maybe it is better that you focus on your studies than music right now.”

“It’s still going to take some time to process everything but starting next week I’ll officially be out of the program then,” I chow down on the rest of the clementine before standing up and going to throw the peels out. I rapidly blink to force the tears back, “I’m staying over at Julie’s house so I’ll see you guys tomorrow?”

I quickly head up the stairs towards my room, finally letting the tears fall. Once I’m behind the closed doors I let the tears fall freely while I pick up my guitar case. I bring it over to my bed and open it up. I take out my guitar and make my way towards Luke’s room. Walking in, I quickly grab his guitar and bring it back into mine and set it into my guitar case. I move to wipe the tears from my eyes. This might be a choice but it still hurts. I’ve spent my entire life trying to please my parents and apparently the only way I can do so is by giving up my number one love - something tied so closely with my family but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past year its that family should mean everything. I quickly pick up my case and leave to walk back to Julie’s house.

Masterlist part two

[ladypogue]

Used to This (part 3)

Summary: Ella starts her first shift at the Wreck. While working a certain blue eyed boy comes in looking for Kie but stays with Ella. The pair hangs out during and after her shift. This is the start of something new. 

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: the slightest little bit of swearing at the end. but other than that none :)

A/N: hello all! I am still eternally grateful for you if you are reading this story. Sorry for the late update, I’ve been having migraines recently so its been hard to stare at a screen but I’m feeling better so I hope to be back on a normal update schedule again. Also would you guys be interested if I started writing imagines, one shots, blurbs, etc? If so lmk and send requests! I have a few ideas....as always feedback is greatly appreciated. love y’all! :) 

Series Masterlist

Part 3

Ella woke up excited for the day, today was her first day working at the Wreck as a waitress. Heading downstairs to start on her breakfast, she pulled out her phone to see if JJ had texted her. Slightly disappointed that she didn’t have a text from the boy, she shook off the feeling and carried on with her morning; scrolling through her phone, taking her breakfast upstairs to start getting ready, not wanting to be late for her first day.

Making her way down to the restaurant popular with tourists, 15 minutes early for her shift, she walked through the doors looking for either Kiara or her dad, not quite sure what she was supposed to be doing today. One of the other waitresses showed Ella where she could put her things and gave her an apron, telling her to sit at the bar and Kiara would be out to show her the ropes.

Kie came out from the kitchen greeting Ella and giving her a brief run-down of what her days will look like. Kie then continued to explain that for the day she would just be working register in order to get her used to the computer system. Completely fine with that, Ella smiled and watched intently as Kie showed her how to ring people up and how to open the register drawer when it got stuck, it was old, so the drawer was sometimes sticky. Excited to officially start her day, Ella took her place behind the register while Kiara went back into the kitchen to help her dad. She was prepared for whatever the day may bring, though she was hoping that it would be an easy first day.

-

The sun shining brightly through the windows of the chateau is what woke JJ as he had passed out on the pull out couch the night before. Pulling the pillow over his head, JJ groaned and rolled back over after checking the time, relieved to realize that he didn’t have to get up for school, not that he went that often anyways. Sleeping in for another few hours, he re-awoke and made his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day. JJ practically lived with John B at the chateau, especially since Big John went missing. He’ll tell anybody that asks that it’s because he doesn’t want John B to get lonely and that his friend shouldn’t have to go through this alone. And while all of that was true, JJ would never admit out loud that it was also because he was avoiding his own problems at home. John B knew about JJ’s homelife, so he graciously accepts the company that his best friend since third grade offers him. It’s nice to know he’s not alone in that house, but also because he knows JJ is safe if he stays with him. Ready to start his day, JJ laced up his boots, grabbed his phone and went outside to wait for Pope so they can go to the Wreck to get food. Looking at his phone he suddenly remembered the girl from last night, Ella. Just thinking about her put a smile on JJ’s face. He opened his contacts, shooting her a quick message.

To Ella: Hey! It’s JJ. Sry I didn’t txt you last night, after cleaning up I went straight to sleep. I wanted to say it was nice meeting u and I hope to see u again. :)

Pressing send, JJ laid back on the hammock letting his mind wander about the girl. What was she like? Did she have any pets? JJ hoped she had a dog. What were her likes and dislikes? Was she single, and if she was would she even go for a guy like JJ? He couldn’t help but imagine her as a part of his life. He pictured them spending the day together at the beach, him teaching her how to surf and her not being good at it so they give up and just swim in the ocean, his arms wrapped around her waist and hers around his neck. Eventually he would get the courage to pull her in for a sweet kiss, imagining how she tastes. He imagines she would taste sweet, her lips soft and her tongue warm.

JJ’s daydream was cut short by the sound of footsteps approaching. He looked up and locked eyes with Pope. Swinging his legs over the edge and standing up, he rubbed his hands together walking towards his friend, “Ready to go?” JJ questioned.

“Yeah, but I told my pops we’d help him with a delivery before we go.” Pope told him while walking away from the chateau. JJ just groaned, wanting to go see Kie and get some food. Checking his phone once more before putting it in his pocket, JJ sighed seeing no response from Ella. It was stupid of him to get his hopes up, a beautiful girl like that giving him the time of day, as if. Shrugging it off, not letting it affect his mood, JJ picked up his pace and caught up with Pope, jumping into conversation, letting the boy’s rambling distract him from the small twinge in his heart at the thought of being rejected.

-

Back at the Wreck, Ella’s first day was going smooth. She had a few mishaps here and there but that was to be expected and Kiara was always right there to help her. Throughout the lulls in customers, Kiara and Ella got to talking. Having essentially known each other their whole lives, it was amazing how little they knew about each other. However, the conversation flowed seamlessly between the two, and they both could tell that they would end up being good friends.

The two girls were stood at the counter, giggling with each other, when they heard the bell above the door chime, signaling that it was time to go back to work. Kie grabbed a cloth and went to wipe down tables, preparing for whoever it was that walked in the door. Ella turned ready to great her new customers, when she froze, breath caught in her throat at the sight of JJ Maybank. He had yet to see her as his was searching the floor for Kie, ready to beg her for food. As he scanned the restaurant, his eyes skimmed past the girl standing behind the counter, having to do a double take JJ broke out into a grin once he realized who it was. Ella made eye contact with the blonde, timidly smiling, feeling a blush creep up on her cheeks. She was definitely more nervous, not only over the fact that he was even more attractive in the daylight, but she didn’t have any alcohol in her system to calm her and give her a confidence boost. JJ sauntered over to the counter to talk to the girl who’d been running through his mind while Pope made his way over to the table Kie was currently wiping down.

JJ couldn’t help but admire her natural beauty as she stood there in her uniform with her hair tied up in a messy ponytail, small pieces of her hair framing her face. She wore light makeup, only concealer under her eyes and mascara, but JJ still thought she was beautiful. He didn’t know she worked here, especially since they spent a lot of time at the Wreck as a group, he was sure he would have noticed her, and Kie didn’t mention any new hires. Sitting down in front of her, JJ felt his confidence waiver. She hadn’t responded to his text, so maybe she didn’t want to see him.

“Hi JJ.” She smiled at him lightly, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear, his confidence slowly rising.

“Hey.” He replied simply, “I didn’t know you worked here.”

“Today’s my first day.”

“Ahh, well congrats on your first day, I think you’ll like it here.”

“I already do, everyone is super friendly and made me feel welcomed.”

“Well that’s great!”

A silence fell over the two, it wasn’t awkward, but it wasn’t comfortable either. Ella was debating if she should bring up the fact that JJ never texted her. She didn’t want to seem desperate, but she was also playing into what her friends had planted in her mind, that JJ was only going to use her. She didn’t want to believe her friends, but she kept the wall up around her just in case, not wanting to get hurt. Meanwhile, sitting across from her, JJ’s brain was turning a mile a minute. He was trying to get a read on the girl, but to no avail. She kept herself heavily guarded and only let JJ see what she wanted him to see. It was frustrating. How was he supposed to get to know her if he couldn’t even pick up on subtle things?

“Are you gonna order anything or are you just gonna sit there?” Ella asked curiously, not trying to be rude but also not wanting to get in trouble with Mr. Carrera.

“That all depends, what time do you get off?”

Taken aback by his question, Ella shook her head lightly, “What does that have to do with if you’re going to order or not?”

“Well, if you work for a couple more hours, I’ll order so I’m not sitting here starving.” JJ said, even though he had every intention of just getting the food from Kie, knowing she would bring food out soon enough for the boys.

“I get off in 2 hours.” Ella stated simply, looking back down at her receipts making sure everything is in order.

Just as he was about to reply, Kiara came back over to the pair, ready to scold JJ for undoubtedly flirting with Ella. “JJ Maybank, you better not be harassing my newest employee, we need the help and I don’t need you scaring her off.” Kie half joked but was also half serious, she knew his tendencies and Ella was nice girl who didn’t need corrupted by her flirtatious friend. JJ put his hands up in surrender, “I wasn’t flirting, I promise.” At this Ella felt her heart break a little, of course he wasn’t flirting with her. She was just caught up in her crush, so she was seeing and hearing what she wanted to. Shaking her head and smiling at the two, Ella walked away, going to find anything to keep her busy and away from JJ.

JJ shot Kie a confused look, to which she just shrugged her shoulders. The boy went after Ella, wanting to continue to hang out with her and wanting to make sure they were still good. As he got up, Kie shot him a warning look, reminding him that she was there to work and not hang out. As Ella’s shift starts to wind down, she continues to entertain JJ’s antics while keeping focused on her work. While JJ continues to follow her around like a puppy, Pope and Kie sit in the back at a table just watching the two, bemused. It was weird for them to see JJ act this way, but it warmed their hearts that maybe JJ had a shot at love. They would have to tease him about it later.

Taking her place behind the counter one last time, with JJ sat in front of her on a bar stool, Ella started finishing up her tasks, ready to leave for the night.

“What are you doing after this?” JJ asked, noticing her finishing up and not ready to part ways.

“I was planning on going home and watching Netflix.”

“Would you maybe want to hang out more? I want to continue to get to know you.”

Ella felt her cheeks and neck heat up, agreeing, happy to spend time with the boy not during her work shift.

Clocking out and grabbing her stuff, she waved bye to Kie and Pope. Ella follows closely behind JJ, not sure what he had planned, if anything. JJ leads the two of them down to the beach, kicking off their shoes they start to walk along the warm sand. Falling into conversation easily, the two found a spot and sat down, sitting closer than necessary. In her head, Ella said that it was because it was a starting to get chilly with the breeze and the lack of sun, but really, she knew it was because she wanted to feel his skin on hers.

“So, am I not good enough to receive a text from the notorious JJ Maybank?” Ella joked, nudging her shoulder with JJ’s.

“I did text you. Because you are far more than good enough. You just never responded.” JJ looked at her confusedly, shrugging his shoulders trying to seem unbothered.

Pulling out her phone and going to her messages, she sees a message from an unknown number. Guilt washed through her and she smiled sheepishly at JJ as she added him to her contacts.

“I was at work already so I must not have seen it. And then you showed up, so I didn’t have to wonder if you texted me.”

JJ chuckled, teasing her lightly, “you were looking for my text?”

“I wouldn’t say looking so to say, but I wouldn’t have been upset at seeing your name on my screen.”

Slinging his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer, he felt his insides warm at the thought of her wanting JJ to text her.

“I was nervous when you didn’t reply that maybe you didn’t want be friends.” JJ replied, mumbling under his breath hoping she didn't hear him.

She had heard him loud and clear. “Of course, I wanna be friends JJ” she smiled up at him, resting her head on his shoulder.

JJ smiled back down at her, happy she wanted to have him as a part of her life. The two continued to get to know each other, telling stories from their past, both cracking up at what the other would share. Neither was sure how things felt so easy, but they weren’t complaining. They were just soaking in everything about each other. Checking the time, Ella realized she had to get home as it was almost midnight and her shift ended almost 4 hours ago. JJ offered to walk her home, stopping outside her front door, he awkwardly shuffled back and forth with his hands in his pockets.

“I guess I’ll see you later then?” JJ asked, hoping that the girl would want to hang out again. Maybe he could bring her around the pogues.

“Sure. Text me when you get home, so I know you’re safe.” Ella said with a soft smile coating her face. JJ returned her smile with an “of course” before he turned around and started his commute back to the chateau.

Ella made her way into her house and up to her room, tip toeing, not wanting to wake her parents. Quietly making her way into her bathroom and taking a shower, Ella couldn’t help but smile to herself as she recounted her evening with the Maybank boy. She wished she could have taken a picture to remember how he looked in the moonlight as they sat by the water. She relinquished in the feeling of his arm around her, wishing it never had to have ended. All Ella wanted to do was text Sophia and Grace and tell them about her date, could she call it date? She didn’t even know; all she knew was she wanted to tell someone about what had happened. Instead she settled for squealing into her pillow and flopping on her bed. Shooting her friends, a text about how her first day went, leaving out the parts about JJ, not ready for them to remind her that he wasn’t good for her. She opened their text thread and sent him a message;

To JJ: Had a really nice time tonight. Thank you for making my first day at work one to remember :)

Pressing send, Ella turned over and fell asleep, hoping to dream about the boy with ocean blue eyes.

-

JJ walked into the chateau and was greeted by John B sitting on the couch watching some reality show on the TV. Nodding to his friend, he went to the kitchen to grab himself a beer and joined John B on the couch. Upon sitting down, John B smirked at him, just waiting for him to notice. Feeling his gaze, JJ looked over, confused at the look on his face as he brought his beer bottle up to his lips.

“What?” JJ asked incredulously.

“Nothing. Nothing. Just Kie and Pope stopped by, said you went off with the girl from the kegger. Ella was it?” he continued to smirk when he noticed JJ start to blush.

“Shut up. We’re just getting to know each other.”

“Uh huh, ‘getting to know each other’. JJ you have never gotten to know a girl, you’ve always been a love ‘em and leave ‘em type”

“I don’t know man. Somethings just different with her. When she bumped into me, I just felt this almost instant connection with her. Like she was meant to bump into me. I can’t explain, all I know is I enjoy her company.”

John B smiled at his friend, seeing how much Ella already meant to the boy even though they really just met.

“Bring her around some time. If she means that much to you already then I’m sure she’ll mean a lot to us as well.”

“I will. For sure. Just maybe not yet, I don’t even know if she likes me and I don’t need you guys fucking this up for me, at least not more than I’m bound to.” JJ didn’t want to think about his destructive tendencies when it came to relationships. He wasn’t ready to let this one go.

“I’m offended that you think we would fuck this up for you, but I get it. I really do.” John B knew how his friend could get, so he would do everything in his power to make sure that this worked out in his favor, even if that meant postponing meeting the girl that seemed to have captured JJ's heart. He wanted nothing than to see his friend be happy.

“Yeah, yeah. You know I love you guys. I’m gonna go to bed, I’ll see you in the morning” JJ stated before making his way into the guest room before collapsing on the bed. Shooting Ella a text, seeing she already texted him, he grinned to himself.

To Ella: Had a really nice time 2night too :) I got back safe, maybe we could hang tmrw if ur not busy? Just lmk! Good night Ella :)

JJ expected that the girl was probably already in bed so he turned off his light, crawling under the covers, falling asleep while scrolling through his phone, looking forward to the days to come.

[peterparkerstarker]

hello it is me and I want to request that part 2, pretty pretty please 😭😍❤️ *peter kneels in front of you and offers his whole body just for this one request* PLEASE I LOVE YOU

First of all you’re adorable and I love you 3000 and holy crap this ask made me smile.

Secondly, I’m apparently a slut for praise cause this was originally gonna be under 500 words in my head, and turned into 2.3k of smutty filth. This one is from Peter’s perspective, and it gets nasty fast, y’all. It continues off right after my Kinktober Day 5: Age Difference (Starker) fic. 

I’m tagging everyone on my Kinktober list, but this one is just a bonus that doesn’t fit into any of my prompt days really.

@readysetstarker @jwolf18791 @warathena418 @pray4meireadstarker @thotticusmaxximus @mvrphyblooms @morgoona-stark @silkystark @untold-royalty @pollyparrot8 @sthefystarkersworld @katzenbaby1 @another-starker-hoe @tony-is-my-daddy @mystarkershame @plsstopgivingpetertrauma @hoeforthegays @lonleystarker @awesomeimportantfan @friendlyneighborhoodlosxr @hpspazz @starker-obsessions @starkershomelife @tightaroundthewebslinger @animefan1998-love @peterpissparker @starkercandy @loki-helmet @petecake @starkercrossedlovers @nerdylocksandthethreebears @thirstyhoe4yoongi @starker-reader @starkerissemiok @petersmoan

————–

Peter was laying in bed, staring up at his ceiling, glow in the dark stars casting an odd light across the room. A couple years ago, he and Ned had spent hours putting them up, trying their best to do an accurate representation of the night sky. 

All it made him think of now was Tony. 

Tony, who had been to space and back. Tony, who was old enough to be his dad. More than 30 years too old for Peter. But it was Tony that his mind wandered to on cold nights like this. Tony who made his heart race when they worked together in the lab. 

He knew it was wrong. Knew he shouldn’t be having this childish crush. Knew Tony didn’t see him as more than a goofy kid. Besides, Tony treated him like the son he’d never had. He’d been so good to Peter.

And in return, all Peter could think about was Tony showing up at his and May’s Queens apartment like he did that very first time. He imagined the older man crawling on top of him in his bed and pounding him into the mattress. 

That filthy smile aimed at him, kissing and sucking and licking up and down his bare chest, making him shiver and cry out. 

Tony holding him down by the wrists. Peter knew he was stronger. He could easily break Tony’s hold. But he didn’t want to. He wanted to be dominated and told what to do and punished for disobeying. He wanted to feel the sharp sting of Tony’s hand on his ass as he took his punishment, all the while rutting against the older man’s leg like a dog in heat.

Peter got himself off every night to the thought of Tony holding him down and fucking him, slapping his face until he cried desperate sobs, holding his hand over Peter’s mouth so he couldn’t make a sound, couldn’t cry out against how mean and teasing and incredible Tony was to him. 

He wanted to come untouched, with only the sensation of Tony’s cock slamming into his needy ass. Wanted to shoot his load all over his stomach and have Tony scoop it up and make Peter lick his fingers clean. Wanted Tony to come in him and play with his ass as it dribbled out of his abused hole, sopping wet and gaping. 

Peter wanted Tony more than he’d ever wanted anything. 

He wanted to feel filthy, fucking the man who was like a father to him, a man more than twice his age and more experienced than he could ever imagine. A man who had seen it all, and still couldn’t resist a piece of virgin ass like Peter. 

He wanted to tease Tony, show up at the lab in short shorts or a crop top, drive him mad with need until Tony shoved him up against the work bench and fucked him senseless. Peter wanted to be made a mindless, fucked out mess on Tony’s aching cock. 

And he’d grasp onto Tony’s hair, streaks of silver making him look distinguished and sexy, and he’d feel absolutely incredible, being the focus of a dirty old man’s desires. 

He stared up at his ceiling, glowing yellow-green in the dark, and came, shoving his pillow into his mouth to dampen his cries, and desperately wished he could have all that and more. 

Silent sobs of want and desire wrenched through him, and he lay there, gasping for air as he came down from it all.

There was noise, something muffled and melodic, but it was there. He groped around on his bed covers, trying to find its’ source and finally gripped onto his phone. It was ringing, the screen blinking to life as he picked it up. 

Tony Stark, it read. 

Peter gulped, still panting from the exertion of his orgasm and trying to find his phone. 

He hit the Accept Call button.

“Hey Mr. Stark. Are you okay? It’s like 3 in the morning,” he asked, hoping he just sounded tired instead of turned on and desperate. 

“Hey kid, you’re up.” Tony sounded surprised. “I need to talk to you about something. Can we meet?”

“S-sure Tony. When?”

“Right now. I’m in the car outside.”

Peter slipped out of bed to peer out his window and saw a sleek gunmetal grey sports car. 

“Get dressed and meet me outside in 5 minutes, Peter. And don’t wake up May. Don’t want her to worry.” There was an edge to Tony’s voice. Something rough and tight and so unlike him. Something dominant and powerful. 

“Sure. I’ll be right down Mr. Sta- I mean Tony. Be right down.”

“Good boy, Peter. See you soon.” The phone call clicked off, and a shiver ran down Peter’s spine. Good boy. He didn’t know what was going on, but he couldn’t wait to find out.

He shuffled quietly into some joggers and a hoodie, slipping on a pair of shoes and padding down the hall, careful not to wake May. The door quietly clicked closed behind him and he made sure to lock it, pocketing his keys. He didn’t know when he’d be back, but something told him it might be a while. 

His hands shook as he made his way down to the street level. What if Tony knew? What if he could smell the come on his sweaty stomach?

Shit. He’d been in such a rush he hadn’t bothered to clean himself up. He was sticky and damp with his cooling fluid on his chest and stomach, and it made his hoodie cling to his skin. Surely Tony would notice something was off. His excitement was quickly turning into anxiety.

Peter spotted the expensive car, glad to see it was just Tony. No Happy in the driver’s seat. He didn’t want an audience to whatever this was going to be. It was 3 in the morning for fuck’s sake. This surely couldn’t be good.

Maybe Tony was going to tell him he couldn’t come by the lab anymore. It would make sense. Why would a nearly 50 year old man want to hang out with a 17 year old kid still in high school? That had to be it. 

He opened the passenger door, slipping into the seat with an awkward wave hello to Tony, who had turned to face him. He braced himself for the inevitable let down. It had been good while it lasted. But he couldn’t take advantage of Mr. Stark’s hospitality any more. He just hoped he could keep it together enough to not cry in front of him. God that would be mortifying. 

He looked at Tony, who still hadn’t said anything. He looked tired. Stressed. He probably hadn’t been eating well, if his history of working himself to death was anything to go off of. 

Peter opened his mouth to speak, and was silenced by Tony raising a hand to stop him. 

The older man’s eyes looked haunted. Like he was terrified of what he was about to say. 

“I’m only ever going to say this once. If you’re not interested, you’re completely free to leave this car and we never have to talk about this again. I don’t want you to feel like I’m making you do anything you’re not completely okay with.” His eyes darted around the car interior, anywhere but on Peter. “Fuck,” he continued, scrubbing a hand down his face. “This is crazy. What am I doing here Pete? This is insane.”

Peter opened his mouth to speak, to ask for clarification, but one steely look from Tony silenced him once more. 

“I want you, Pete. Wanted you for a long time. I tried so hard to resist it. Tried to convince myself I just saw you as my kid. Tried so hard not to want you. But it’s not working. I don’t want to have these thoughts. These dirty, ugly thoughts about holding you down and having my way with you. But I am. I can’t deny it anymore. Fuck! I’m a disgusting old man, chasing after you.” His voice was hoarse, and it made Peter’s gut clench. 

Was this a fever dream or something? Tony’s words swam in his mind. Holding you down and having my way with you. Had Tony really just said that?

Tony let out a frustrated sigh, turning to stare at the car’s dash panel. “Fuck, forget what I said. I’m sorry. You should go back up to the apartment. We can just pretend that this never happened, yeah?”

Panic rose in Peter’s throat, No! He didn’t want to pretend. Didn’t want to sweep this under the rug. Not if Tony was saying what he thought he was saying. 

“No!” He called out, making Tony wince in shame. 

“I’m so sorry kid, I should never have come here. Should never have confessed all that to you. You’ll never have to hear from me again, promise.”Peter realized his mistake now. Tony thought he was turning him down. Shit.

“I mean, no. Don’t leave. Please don’t leave. I want you. Wanted you since the day you showed up and asked me to join your team. I’ve spent every night since dreaming about you. About what it would be like to be with you. Like, like that. 

Tony’s eyes widened, and Peter noticed his hands were shaking as they gripped the steering wheel.

He continued, “Please, Tony. I want this too.” And as he spoke, he laid a hand gently on Tony’s own. Tony let out a held breath, stuttered a laugh, and then suddenly he was leaning in to kiss Peter and it was everything.

Scorching hot and softness turning rough and Tony. He breathed in the heady scent. Cologne and motor oil and metal. Tony.

Tony gripped his hips, pulling him closer over the dash, desperate for more contact. His hands roamed Peter’s body, slipping up under his hoodie, eyes alighting with confusion as he made contact with Peter’s come-damp skin.

“I uhm… I may have been thinking about you right before you called,” he mumbled by way of an explanation. 

Tony let out a deep laugh, kissing him once more, this time softer, sweeter, taking his time. They stayed like that, groping and kissing and feeling the other, Peter half in Tony’s lap, thankful for super strength because there was no way his pre-Spidey self could have held that position without getting a leg cramp.

And then hands were roaming down, Peter fumbling with Tony’s zipper as he unsheathed Tony’s cock from the tight fabric. It was huge, thick and long with a slight upwards curve that made his mouth water. And then Tony was guiding him down, muttering happy hums of praise as he took Tony’s cock head into his mouth, savoring the salty sweet flavor of his pre-come. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but he let Tony guide him, made little adjustments as Tony recommended.

He licked and lapped at the head, delighting in the steady stream of fluid dribbling into his hungry mouth. He took Tony deep into his throat, trying his best to relax his muscles, and bobbed his head like he’d seen in porn. Tony let out a grunt of appreciation, which was enough approval to encourage Peter to go faster, suck harder, until Tony was thrusting his hips, rutting up into his warm, wet mouth. 

A stream of filthy praise made his head swim. “That’s it, Pete. Fuck. you’re so good. Bet you’ve never done this before, but you’re taking me like a pro. You’ve been dreaming about this, haven’t you? I can tell. So hungry for me. My little Spider slut. God, imagine how good it’ll feel when I pound into your tight hole. Wanna mark you up, claim you as mine. I’d be your first, wouldn’t I, baby boy?”

Peter hummed a noise of approval and took Tony deeper, until his cock hit the back of his throat. He fought the urge to gag, but Tony seemed to like that, was turned on by the fact that Peter was choking on his cock.“‘M gonna come. You ready Petey? Ready to swallow my come?” Tony’s voice was raw and strained, and he let out a low groan as he emptied himself into Peter’s throat, the milky warm come dribbling out even as he desperately tried to swallow every droplet.

Tony ruffled his hair, leaning back into the driver’s seat, gasping for air as Peter lifted his head. He kissed Peter, hungry and blissed out and all smiles.

And Peter felt safe, here in this car with the man he loved. He didn’t have to deny it anymore. Didn’t have to pretend he didn’t notice how good Tony’s ass looked in his jeans, didn’t have to try to hide his erection in the lab behind chemistry books and workshop tables.

They sat there for a while, in the quiet of the car, considering what this new development meant.

Eventually Tony kissed him again and with a sad look told him, “You should probably go back up to bed. Don’t want May to wake up and start worrying.”

Peter knew he was right. Knew this perfect moment couldn’t last forever. As he got out of the car, he turned back to ask, “Are we still on for Monday afternoon in the lab?”

Tony grinned back, “Absolutely baby, but somehow I think we’ll find ourselves too preoccupied to finish that new blaster we’ve been working on.” He winked and Peter shivered with anticipation. “Call it a hunch, but it might be quite some time before we’re back to working on anything productive.”

[crashdevlin]

It’s Not Christmas

Author’s Note: Written for @ne-gans 5k Xmas Challenge. The prompt I chose was Decorating the Tree.

Summary: Y/n is the Winchesters’ Omega. It’s her first winter in the bunker and she’s not happy with the lack of holiday cheer in her new home.

Pairing(s): Sam x Omega!Witch!Reader, Dean x Omega!Witch!Reader

Word Count: 2659

Story Warnings: fluff, slight angst, A/B/O dynamics, small surprise (which is listed in tags), mentions of Daddy!Kink and breeding!kink (very lightly)

“You know we killed Santa, right? And Mrs. Claus, so… all this is pointless.” Dean gestured at the tree you’d brought into the bunker and placed in a tree stand, which you were currently filling with water and crushed-up aspirin.

“That’s not the point of Christmas.” You grumbled.

“And we’ve met God and he was intimately knowledgeable of escort services. I can’t imagine he had a hand in creating the Messiah.”

“I'm a witch, Dean. You think I care about Christ?” You rolled your eyes and straightened up, setting the pitcher on the map table and turning to him. “Look, I had to deal with Sam being a Halloween grump last month and that’s my favorite holiday. You don’t get to Grinch me outta Christmas.”

“But it’s November. We haven’t even done Thanksgiving, yet.” Dean complained.

“We’re not having Thanksgiving.” You said, shortly.

“What? What- why?” His eyes were wide and you fought back the smile that wanted to take over your lips.

“Why would I make a holiday you like happen when you refuse to participate in the ones I like?” You put your hands on your hips and cocked your head. “I got Jack all excited about Halloween and what’d you guys say? ‘Jack looks too old to go trick-or-treating’. So, I said ‘Fine, we’ll just get dressed up and do something here’ and you said you weren’t going to put on a costume and Sam proceeded to poison Jack’s enthusiasm with his ‘Our every day is Halloween’ bullshit and Jack ended up watching Hocus Pocus with me in the safety of my room to escape y’all’s negativity.”

You pursed your lips in anger. “We could’ve had a lot of fun on Halloween, but you ruined it, just like you’re trying to ruin Christmas. So, why would I spend two days prepping and cooking a turkey, and mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, deviled eggs, my grandfather’s famous sage sausage stuffing, and pumpkin and apple pies for you, if you don’t want to participate in the things I like?”

Dean’s eyes went wider with hunger at every food item you listed. “Sam! Jack! Get your asses in here! We’re decorating a Christmas tree!” He called, pulling open the box of 160 shatterproof ornaments you bought at the hardware warehouse where you picked up the tree.

“We’re what?” Sam asked, walking into the War Room with an incredulous look. “Christmas already, huh?”

“If you want Thanksgiving, you’ll put some Holiday cheer on your face.” Dean warned, starting to slip hooks on the ornaments.

Sam laughed. “She’s threatening to withhold food if we don’t participate in this shit?”

You chuckled. “Well, I could withhold something else, but with your rut right around the corner, I think that’d be a cruel and inhumane punishment.”

“You wouldn’t.” Sam said, seriously.

“I considered it.” You answered, just as serious.

“You’d deprive me of my Omega, when I need her most, over stupid Christmas shit?”

“I said I considered it, but I decided that getting to Dean through food was a better plan than getting you, either of you, with sex. Threaten the feast, get results.”

“She does know me well.” Dean said, handing an ornament to Sam by its hook.

Sam rolled his eyes and started to hang the ornament near the top of the tree. “What are you doing?” Your exclamation forced him to stop and turn to you. “That’s a big bulb, it goes near the bottom.” You scoffed and shook your head. “I get that you’ve never done this before, guys, but come on. It’s just like the tree, itself. Big at the bottom, medium in the middle, small at the top.”

“And you put the topper on last!” Jack exclaimed, rushing into the War Room.

“How do you know that?” Dean asked, looking around Sam to Jack.

“Y/n signed me into her Hulu. There are a bunch of Christmas movies and a lot of them show people decorating the trees.”

“You didn’t set him up watching Hallmark flicks, did you?” Dean raised an eyebrow as he turned to you.

You shrugged. “He asked! He walked in while I was watching A Crown for Christmas and wanted to see more. Not my fault.”

“It’s your fault you were watching A Crown for Christmas.” Sam sassed back.

“It’s cute! I like Christmas! I like romance movies! I like Christmas romance movies!” You swatted Sam and Dean each twice and turned back to the tree.

Dean chuckled. “You’re such an Omega.”

The teasing comment hit you a lot harder than intended, and you knew he didn’t mean to be such an asshole, but it hurt when he made fun of your presentation. “And you never have a problem with that when you need a ‘mega, do you?”

“Sometimes we just want one.” He responded with a smirk.

You bit your lip and turned back to the tree. “This is our first Christmas as a pack, you guys. We have to do it right.”

“It’s not Christmas, yet.” Sam and Dean argued together.

You sighed and shook your head, your lips turning down deeply at the sides. “You know what? Fine. You guys don’t wanna play, we won’t play. It’s not Christmas and it’s not gonna be.” You pointed at the tree and swiped your hand through the air. The tree followed the path your hand took, flying through the air and across the map table to crash on the floor. “Fuck me for trying to have something nice.” You growled as you stomped away toward your bedroom, leaving Sam, Dean and Jack looking completely shocked by your outburst.

You thought sometimes Sam and Dean regretted taking a witch as their Omega, especially one who obviously couldn’t control her emotions. They had to. It was weird, though, how they could make a woman so powerful feel so powerless, how they continuously made you feel completely out of control. How they made you completely lose control. You were crying overwhelmed tears into your pillow when the door opened. “Go away.” You demanded.

“Come on, y/n/n. You have to know that was an overreaction.” Dean said, softly.

“I just wanted things to be Christmassy. I just wanted us to do something together. My favorite childhood memories are of decorating the tree with my family and you guys are my family now and you wouldn’t do this one fuckin’ thing with me.” Your words were muffled by the pillow, but you knew that your Alphas had heard you. Your mattress dipped on each side of you and two large, warm hands dropped soothingly to your back.

“We were just messin’ around, baby. We wanna do this Christmas stuff with you.” Dean said, softly.

“We’re just not good at it, yet. This family stuff isn’t… I mean, all Dean and I had was each other for our whole lives, you know. We didn’t… Christmas wasn’t… it wasn’t like you had.” Sam concluded.

“Yeah. Neither of us have decorated a tree. I mean, the only time that was even close to an option was with Lisa, but she didn’t believe in the tree thing. Said it was a waste of an evergreen.”

“Well, I mean…” Sam started, before clearing his throat. “Amelia and I decorated a tree, but she did most of the work. She didn’t trust me with her ornaments. She only had me put the star up because I was tall enough to reach it.”

You let out a sob at that. Dean sighed, loudly. “Great job, Sam.”

“Should I have lied, Dean?”

“When she's like this? Yes! Lie, make her feel better! Jesus Christ, Sam, I can’t deal with her cryin’ like this.” Dean’s hand moved soothingly across your back. “Baby, turn over and look at us, please.”

“Why? Just go away.”

“Come on, Miss Emotional. You’ve been on edge and over-sensitive for days, what’s up with you?” Dean asked. “You sick? You on your period? What can we do to fix this?”

You sniffled and turned over, wiping at your eyes. “It doesn’t matter, guys. Just… just go away. I’ll get myself sorted and then I’ll… I’ll clean up the tree mess.”

“The kid’s already on that. Think he said something about, uh, stringing popcorn?” Dean said, leaning forward. “Now, come on. What’s got you all fucked up?”

You shook your head. “It’s not… I just… I…” You sighed. “I’m sorry. I just feel a bit overwhelmed about everything. You know, when I left my coven to come here and be with you, I knew things would obviously change for me, but…”

Sam took a deep breath and his eyebrows tucked together. “You change your shampoo?” You shook your head and Sam leaned closer to you. “New perfume?”

“You know I don’t wear perfume.” You responded, pushing him away to get some distance, but then Dean just leaned into your personal space, sniffing at you.

“Yeah, he’s right. You smell weird.” Dean leaned back. “Not bad-weird, just different-weird. Like, not as sweet as you usually smell.”

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. “Great. First you ruin my Christmas plans and now, you tell me I stink?”

“I sense a deflection.” Sam said, grabbing your chin and forcing you to look up into his eyes. “What’s going on, y/n?”

You took a deep breath and slid off of the bed, swatting at the Alphas’ hands when they tried to stop you. You opened your top dresser drawer and pulled out a long, thin box. It was a bracelet box that you’d repurposed, with a red bow and a tag that said ‘To My Alphas’ in the neatest, prettiest script you could manage. “This was gonna go under the tree when we got done with it. I was gonna suggest you open it early. It was gonna be your reward for doing the domestic thing with me.”

You set the box on your mattress between the two men and bit your lip as they each grasped one end of the lid and shook the box open to reveal a pregnancy test. A positive pregnancy test. They stared at it for a few moments before looking up at you with wonder in their eyes. “Pups?” Sam whispered. You nodded, tears popping up in your eyes.

Dean sighed, heavily. “We’re assholes.” He stood, suddenly, wrapping his arms around your shoulders. “You just wanted to do something nice and we fucked it up.”

Sam moved around the bed and wrapped his arms around to splay his hands across your belly. “How long?”

“I’m three weeks late, so…”

“Three weeks late? When’d you do the test?” Dean asked, moving to cup your face in his hands and look into your eyes.

“Last week. Little Miss Patience called and told me it’d be a good idea to take one.” You whispered.

Dean smiled, brightly. “Let’s go get that tree dressed up and pretty.” He pressed his lips to yours and moaned happily when you nibbled on his bottom lip.

“You know what’s great about you being pregnant?” Sam started to walk away with your hand in his, pulling you away from his brother.

“Besides the fact that she’s gonna look amazing all round with baby Winchesters?” Dean grabbed your other hand and followed you out to the War Room.

“She’ll be able to call us both ‘Daddy’ without it being something weird.” Sam looked back with a smirk.

“Was that something weird before? ‘Cause you’ve been havin’ her cryin’ out ‘Daddy’ since her first heat.” Dean teased. “And you know I prefer a simple ‘sir’.”

You were smiling when you got to the War Room and you gasped when you saw the work Jack had put in, already. The tree was back in the tree stand, the mess of water and pine needles cleaned. There were strings of lights blinking on the ground, a huge bowl of popcorn that Jack was halfway through stringing on a roll of fishing line, and the ornaments had been divided into three piles by size. He looked up with a smile. “Are we going to decorate now?”

“Yeah, buddy. We’re gonna decorate now. Let me take the monotonous part off your hands.” You smirked as you pointed at the popcorn and fishing line and the two moved through the air, popcorn forcing itself onto the fishing line. “I have to focus on this. You guys start stringing the lights. Complete coverage. Don’t neglect the backside.”

“Do we ever?” Sam joked, pressing a kiss to your cheek and swatting his palm across your ass before walking away to grab a set of the blinking lights.

By the time you turned around with the string of popcorn, they had the tree blinking brightly and Jack had started to place large bulbs near the bottom of the tree. You smiled brightly. “You guys are doing a great job! Popcorn time. Sam, take this end, it goes at the top.” You handed one end of the string to the younger Alpha and started to roll the string around the tree and down.

It didn’t take long for there to only be one step left on the tree: the star. You bit your lip as you looked down at the expensive yellow crystal heirloom you’d taken without asking when you left your coven, trying to determine who to hand it to. Sam and Dean were both tall enough to reach the top without an issue, but Jack was a child and this was his first Christmas tree.

Sam made the decision for you, picking you up and putting you on his shoulders in one quick move. You hugged his head with your thighs as you leaned forward and secured the star to the tip of the tree. He stepped back and the four of you surveyed your work. “Huh. We did a pretty damn good job.” Sam said, reaching up to pat your thigh.

“You gonna let me down?”

“Nah. I kinda like you there, ‘mega.”

Dean smirked and looked up at you. “Only time she’s ever gonna be the tallest.” Then he looked at his brother. “But you better let her down, because we’ve got celebrating to do, and it can’t be done with her up there.”

“Are we celebrating the pups?” Jack asked, innocently.

“You know, if I hadn’t already told them, I’d be pissed at you for dropping the ball, Jackie.”

“He knew?” Sam exclaimed as he pulled you off of his shoulders.

“He smelled the difference in my scent a couple days ago. I made him promise to keep it a secret.”

Sam and Dean both shook their heads. “Okay, so, let’s call Mom, we’ll go get some pie and-”

“We can go somewhere to celebrate and then get pie on the way back. I don’t wanna go to Shari’s or Biggerson’s, dude.”

“But Shari’s is amazing, babe.” Dean argued.

“The closest Shari’s is in Nebraska, Dean!” You argued back.

“And I’m kinda tired of Biggerson’s.” Sam supported.

“See how it is. Fine. We’ll go to a real restaurant that doesn’t have a pie bar.” Dean rolled his eyes and pulled his phone out. “We wanna tell Mom at the restaurant or over the phone?”

“In person. Always do big news in person.” You coached.

“All right. Go get a pretty dress on.” Sam instructed.

“Okay, Daddy.” You teased, skipping off toward your bedroom.

Sam and Dean watched you disappear into the hallway and smiled at each other. “You know, sometimes I’m really happy we were able to steal her away from the Calla Coven.” Sam mused.

“Yeah, like every damn day.” Dean said, sending the call to Mary through and putting his phone to his ear. “Hey, Mom, you busy?”

Jack stepped up next to Sam and smiled up at him. “I think y/n’s going to be a very good mother.”

“You know, I think you’re right.” Sam said, reaching over to straight the star on top of the tree.

Hunters- @mrswhozeewhatsis, @adoptdontshoppets, @letsby, @spnskinnyballs

Everything- @heyitscam99

[notveryglittery]

a walk in the park (1)

summary: “It was almost too good to be true. I'd never find another pair like that, not if I looked for a hundred years.” ships: romantic royality, platonic moxiety. platonic logince, eventual romantic analogical. platonic lamp. / words: 2,800 notes: here it is !! i’ve been working on this since may with help from @euelioi!! literally, this au would not exist without jack. i hope y’all like it!! keep an eye out for updates on sundays, if all goes according to plan <3 

@fandersfic-royality @fandersfic-moxiety // read on ao3

ch. 1 | ch. 2

Early morning light filtered into the lobby. Sunrise was especially lovely on Thursdays. It was Pastry Day, and Sanders Day, and Jeopardy Night, and Sleepover Night. Thursdays, for the last year, had been consistently the Best Days Ever. Patton sighed dreamily, staring out the windows to the empty parking lot. He leaned against the desk with his chin resting on his palm. He was looking forward to lunch, since he would get to go to his favorite bakery with Virgil. He was looking forward to that evening, because the lovely, handsome, charming nice Sanders man would be by to pick up his dogs. He was looking forward to that night, for the weekly sleepover and Jeopardy marathon with his parents.

Patton snapped out of his daydreaming quite suddenly at the sound of a bell ringing. He jolted up and snatched a clipboard off the desk, clutching it to his chest. Not a moment later, the door behind him swung open. Virgil was yawning, mouth wide open and eyes squeezed shut. His hair looked like it’d only been half brushed and his shirt was inside out. Patton giggled and Virgil groaned, already knowing what he was going to say. It was routine, after all.

“Good morning, kiddo!”

“What’s so good about it?” Virgil asked, right on cue.

“I get to see your smiling face!” Patton replied excitedly, just like usual.

“I know you want to scold me for staying up until 3am on Tumblr.”

“Who, me? Scold you? Never!”

For a moment, the two were silent. Then they both snickered and met for a hug. Virgil held on a little longer than normal and Patton made a note to ask him later on if he was feeling okay. They pulled apart and Virgil seemed to have drawn some energy from Patton in their brief embrace.

“Alright,” he said, clapping his hands. “Let’s get started, then.”

In the hour they had before opening, a number of things needed to be finished. For the most part, Virgil took care of the behind the scenes tasks. He got together all of the personal items for the boarding dogs that would be picked up sometime during the day, as well as setting up the food and water bowls for today’s daycare dogs. Patton took to cleaning, making sure that each room sparkled as best as possible; he tried to fix up the laundry and groom rooms so they were prepared for when they’d be used later on. Catching up on paperwork went to Patton, too, which is what he liked doing the most. Thankfully, he had extra time to spare to do so. Knowing that he and Virgil would both be working doubles today was daunting but if Patton just focused on all the stuff he had to look forward to, it made it bearable! By the time they finished, the clock was chiming 7am. Virgil sighed, loudly and over the top for Patton’s amusement.

“I guess we ought to open the doors.” Despite his pretend exasperation, there was a bounce to his step as he plugged in the Open sign and propped the doors open with stoppers. A breeze came through, curling around the wind chimes in the corners of the room. Virgil rapped his knuckles on the desk as he walked by it. Patton was counting the money in the till.

“I’m going to fix my shirt,” Virgil told him. Patton giggled and nodded, waving him off.

For a little while, it remained quiet. The sound of cars driving by on the street beyond the parking lot added to the soft ambience of the empty lobby. Throughout the rest of the building, Patton could hear muffled barking as Virgil went through and checked on all the dogs they were currently taking care of. It was what Virgil preferred to do; the less interaction with people, the better. Patton’s dad would be by any minute now to get started on paperwork and then his mom would be in later, no doubt bringing snacks for them all. Slowly, more employees would trickle in, until the business was running like a well oiled machine.

It was just another reason Patton loved Thursdays so much. For whatever reason, these mornings tended to be more calm than most. Still, customers had busy lives to lead, and no one to pet sit, and so that’s when they turned to Foster Dawg. The establishment had been owned by Patton's family for roughly a decade (in fact, they’d be celebrating ten years in the fall). The Foster came from their last name and the Dawg from a television show Patton’s father had watched growing up. Patton thought it hilarious and not a day went by that he didn’t laugh over the name. He loved explaining it to customers that asked why it wasn’t spelled “dog.”

Sure enough, David Foster arrived the same moment that their first customer did. He patted his son on the head as he made his way to the office, where he’d take care of any accounting that hadn’t been finished the night before.

“Good morning, Mrs. Dungey!” Patton chirped, waving from his spot behind the counter.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” the woman responded kindly, with Madison trotting along patiently at her side. She may very well have been the biggest dog they took care of; Virgil, standing at a full 6’2” when he wasn’t slouching, weighed about the same as she did (170lb, no matter how much Patton fed him). He was sure that if Virgil wanted, he could ride the bull mastiff into battle like a war pony. The image had him giggling helplessly and when he shared it with Mrs. Dungey, she too found it very amusing. After some back and forth chatter, Patton updated Madison’s file for today’s stay, and handed Mrs. Dungey her copy of the form.

“We’ll take good care of her,” Patton promised, wrapping the leash a few times around his hand. He allowed Madison plenty of give, though; it was something he tended to do with all the dogs, even if they tugged Patton along faster than he could keep up. Virgil kept telling him he had to be better about having them heel, but Patton couldn’t help it. He got just as excited as they did.

“I know you will,” Mrs. Dungey said sweetly, patting him gently on the cheek. She headed out to go have brunch with her friends before she’d go play bingo with her mother at the senior home.

Patton gently led Madison out of the lobby, down the hallway, and into the back of the building. Passing the kitchen and laundry room on the way to Big Pawz, he made a mental note to double check that the meals for their boarding dogs were all sorted. Nudging the door open, Patton peeked into the room.

“Virgil?” He called, when his best friend was nowhere to be found.

A couple seconds later, the door leading outside slid open, and Virgil squeezed through. Bella Martens was at his heels, trying to follow, but he patted her on the head, and shut the door carefully before she could get in.

“Yeah, Pat?” Virgil responded, wiping sweat from his brow. His face lit up when he saw who Patton had with him. Crossing the room and kneeling in front of her, he cooed, “Hey, Maddie. How’s my big girl doing?” He scratched her ears and along her neck before standing up again.

At the fond expression on Patton’s face, Virgil’s cheeks flushed hot.

“Shut up,” he mumbled, undoing her leash. Patton took it and made to zip his lips shut but the sound of his father calling him from the front distracted him before he could. Virgil continued leading Madison away, knowing exactly what time it was, and exactly who Mr. Foster was getting Patton’s attention for.

Shutting the door behind him and hurrying back to the lobby, Patton dropped Madison’s leash off in the closet, and ducked through the groom room, as if that would be faster. At the front door stood Declan Sanders, looking incredibly frustrated. He had four dogs with him: a husky, pompoodle mix, corgi, and British golden retriever. Patton almost squealed at the sight of them, all so well groomed and well behaved. Regardless of their manners, Declan was still irritated, and that simply wouldn’t do.

“Good morning!”

“Is it?” Declan snapped, approaching the desk. Despite his mood, he didn’t drag the dogs along with him, or pull harshly on their leashes. “My stupid brother can’t even drop his own nuisances off. I hope he’s perfectly on time for his audition. Hope he breaks a leg.”

Patton’s hand went to tuck his hair behind his ear, even though there weren't any loose locks. It was more of a nervous habit. “How… how is Roman?” he asked hesitantly, busying himself with the paperwork Declan would need to give to his sibling later.

“Oh, right,” Declan drawled, eyebrows raising and disappearing behind his bangs. “I forgot about your little… crush, on him.”

That… seemed unlikely. Patton, according to Virgil, was pretty transparent about his feelings for Roman. Deciding he’d worry about it later, Patton slid the clipboard across the desk to Declan, who snatched the offered pen out of his hand, and signed at the bottom of it.

“He’s terrible, by the way,” Declan finally answered. “Woke up late, couldn’t find his favorite pair of sunglasses.” He rolled his eyes. “Picked the lock on my door and went searching through my dresser as if I’d stolen them.”

Patton couldn’t help giggling. He hadn’t had very many interactions with Roman but that sounded like something he’d do. Declan’s glare sharpened at the laughter. Patton went quiet.

“Sorry,” he offered, smiling sheepishly.

“Whatever.” Declan took the pink colored page while Patton filed the yellow and white ones. He was tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for Patton to come around the desk, and take the dogs off of his hands. Patton did so with grace, handling four leashes as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Declan didn’t say anything else before turning and leaving.

“Bye! Have a nice day!” Patton called after him.

Declan gave him a rather rude gesture in return.

Patton only let it bother him for a second before shrugging it off. Sure, he wished he could help everybody, all the time, but some people didn’t want to be helped, and Patton had to respect that… For now, anyway. Patton gave each of Roman’s dogs equal love and attention as he took them to their rooms.

The husky and the British golden (Walt and Shadow) were left to Terrence in Medium Pawz. He passed the pompoodle and the corgi (Cooper and Einstein) to Talyn in Small Pawz. The two had arrived during Patton’s short interaction with Declan. They were both incredible employees, who really loved their jobs here; then again, Patton thought, any career working with dogs was pretty good. The morning continued much the same: customers arrived, signed their paperwork, left their dogs. Patton would take them to the appropriate room (sometimes, it wasn’t the physical size of the dog, but the size of their attitude) before returning to the lobby to do it all over again.

He was in the middle of a very complex coloring page when someone behind him cleared their throat. “Working hard or hardly working?”

Patton jumped and shoved his book away.

“Working hard!” He yelped, only to turn around and find Virgil snickering behind his hand. Patton pouted at him.

“Virgil,” he whined. “You know I startle easily!”

Virgil shrugged, only partly sorry. “I know. It’s lunch time. Ready to go?”

Patton lit up like a child on Christmas morning.

“Pastries!” he shouted and even though Virgil winced at the volume, he couldn’t help but to feel just as excited.

They clocked for lunch and let Patton’s father know they’d be back in an hour, before heading out the front door and into the parking lot. The daycare was located conveniently within a shopping center. There was a speciality groomer just two storefronts down, and Foster Dawg often partnered with them to offer deals for their customers. On other days, Patton and Virgil would stop in at Subway or Chipotle. On Thursdays, though, they made the short trek across the street to the Porto’s Bakery & Cafe.

The California-based bakery had a line out the door, but this wasn’t anything new to the pair. While they waited, they talked about all the dogs that had come in today, and new video game releases, and what show they wanted to start watching next. By the time they were inside the building and cooling off in the air conditioning, Patton felt it safe enough to ask if Virgil was feeling okay.

“How come you up were so late last night, kiddo?”

Virgil visibly stiffened, eyes going slightly wide in alarm. He hoped to play it off as nothing but Patton had always been very observant. He tried, anyway. “Tumblr, remember?”

“Virgil.” The Dad Voice was in full effect.

Virgil sighed. “Ugh, fine. I had a nightmare, okay? I went to bed at an actual normal time and had a nightmare and couldn’t fall back asleep after it.”

Patton frowned. He linked his pinky finger with Virgil’s. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Virgil swung their connected fingers back and forth, humming. “Not… really.” His gaze had gone distant, as if remembering, and when he shuddered, Patton fully took his hand, lacing their fingers together. Virgil gave him a shaky smile. “I’m fine, Pat. Thanks for asking, though.”

Patton nodded and squeezed his hand. Virgil returned it. “Just let me know if you want to, okay? You know I’m always here, even if all you need is for me to listen.”

“Next!” The employee at the counter called, interrupting their moment. Virgil pulled Patton up to the register and looked to him, knowing he had the list of what their coworkers had requested. It was a lot of turnovers and strudels, but a few savory treats made the cut as well. They obviously ordered a dozen of the infamous Potato Balls, as well as enough drinks to warrant two carriers. They grabbed a table at the outdoor seating area to spend the last half hour of their lunch before heading back. Patton sipped at his Jamaica Strawberry iced tea.

“How was dealing with Declan earlier?” Virgil asked, picking at his sandwich.

“How’d you even know it was him?" Patton returned instead of answering, tilting his head curiously. “You were on the complete opposite side of the building.”

“Oh, you know,” Virgil said vaguely, waving his hand.

Patton waited for him to elaborate. When Virgil went back to his lunch, Patton just huffed an amused sigh, and resumed silently eating his tuna melt. Fifteen minutes later, they were waiting at a stoplight. They carried a drink tray each and both had a to go bag looped around their wrists. Patton was bobbing his head to the music playing from a car with its windows down.

“Excited to see lover boy today?” Virgil asked abruptly, shooting Patton a knowing smirk.

Patton startled so suddenly, he nearly dropped his goods.

“Virgil!” He squeaked, cheeks coloring. The crosswalk sign switched over and they stepped carefully into the street; Virgil looked right and left despite them officially having the right of way. Patton remained resolutely quiet though he was starting to get that dreamy, far off look in his eyes. Virgil transferred the carrier to one hand and caught Patton by the elbow before he could trip on the curb.

“Pay attention!” He laughed, too amused to fret very much. “I really should know better than to mention him unless you’re sitting down.”

Patton groaned, wishing he could hide his face in his hands. “Do you have to tease me so much?!”

“Yes,” Virgil answered immediately. “It comes with being best friends.” He flicked his wrist as if to prove his point; the sleeve of his hoodie slid down to reveal the friendship bracelet Patton had made for him. At this point, the drink carrier and bag of food were both in one hand, and Virgil decided it was for the best. It’d make watching over Patton easier, given his clumsiness.

Patton scowled at the outerwear. “Aren’t you hot, by the way?” He asked, intentionally choosing the more shaded walkway back to the daycare. “It’s, like, 80° out.” He lifted the tray closer to his lips and sucked up the last of his iced tea.

“Eh, you know me,” Virgil shrugged. He was always perpetually cold but Patton never did fail to ask him how he managed to wear jackets and sweaters in the sun. They arrived back at work with five minutes to spare. Handing the food and drinks out to their coworkers, they clocked back in right on time. Before Virgil returned, however, he threw an arm around Patton’s shoulders, hugging him.

“By the way, don’t think I didn’t notice you avoiding my question.”

Patton swatted him away, spluttering. Virgil shot him a wink as he disappeared into the back.

[thechocoboos]

Headcanons: The Bros as Roommates

I’m going off to college soon and was thinking about roommates, so this was born

Warnings: swearing of course

Noctis

Noctis just showed up one day looking for a roommate

You had no idea he was the Prince of Lucis, all you knew is he showed up with your ad and a wad of cash in hand (good enough for any broke person, right?)

You didn’t even find out he was the fuckin prince until like… four, five months into it? When you did find out, you were more pissed than anything else cause that meant he totally had enough money to buy a new microwave when he accidentally blew the old one up

He didn’t even tell you about him being a prince, you found out when his dad (the fucking goddamn King of Lucis) showed up one afternoon like “Hi I’m looking for my son” with the Shield of the King behind him

Schools might not have showed pictures of the King’s son, but you damn well knew what the King looked like and seeing him at your apartment door when you were in your bum clothes was terrifying

Noctis had a lot of explaining to do that night (after Regis and his shield, Clarus, joined you two for supper, of course)

Overall tho, he was an alright roommate

He didn’t bug you (in fact, he barely talked to you unless you initiated conversation or if he had to give you a heads up about some guests)

And much like yourself (probably, if you’re on this hell hole of a websight), he was a bit of a night owl. Dude stayed up until 2 am at the earliest, and usually slept to noon (unless he had a prince thing to do)

Your biggest two complaints? He constantly made messes and the boi had no fucking independence (you had to show this manchild how to do his own laundry ffs)

Oh, he’d also use your hair products and shit, too (so make that three)

Anyways, you’d come home after a long day of work and school and the damn apartment was a fucking mess like…? What the hell? There’d be overcooked mac n cheese on the coffee table, blankets and pillows all over the living room, crumbs everywhere…

Turns out, it wasn’t just him making those messes

One day, you showed up and there were just three other grown ass men in the room, roaring with laughter and playing poker with bags of chips all over the place and various drinks in their hands

It was the first time you had ever met Noctis’ best friends (and it was not the last, either), and you were a lil pissed that they had been making so many messes

Still, they were cool dudes and sometimes you’d play video games together

In fact, the more you saw of Noctis’ friends, the closer to Noctis you became. It was thanks to his little blonde friend, Prompto

Lil Prom always felt bad about the messes and noise, so he’d drag you into their fun and games (you both loved and hated him for that)

ANyways

The closer you became with Noct, the more you saw of his weird shadow, Ignis

You’d get up in the morning, walk out into your living room in nothing more than your undies and a sheerish shirt, and there Mr. Scientia would be, chillin’ with a cookbook in hand while wearing his best clothes

It was creepy; half the time it felt like you had a third roommate who didn’t pay rent

He’d just… be there. Sometimes he’d nag Noctis, other times he’d cook (always made some for you, too), and occasionally, he’d just talk to you (you lowkey got a crush on him as this went on)

Still, Noct was a great roommate at the end of the day, especially when you two became friends

Prompto

You were the one to find his ad, this time around

Saw a tiny ad on the craigslist of Insomnia and were just broke and desperate enough to take it

You had prepared yourself for the worst, but when you met Prompto, you found all your worries were in vain

He was the sweetest, most polite roommate you’d ever had (and probably would ever have, tbh)

He pretty much lived around your schedule, he’d always ask if you had to be up early so he’d keep the noise down if need be and he was super conscientious of your schedules

Boi was like a saint

If anything broke, he’d fix it in a jiffy

If anything needed replacing, he took care of it

And guess what else? Prompto Argentum can cook. He’d make meals a good few times a week (usually in bulk so he could have leftovers and save stuff), and he would always, always make you some

Honestly? If it wasn’t for Prompto’s cooking you’d probably have fed off of nothing but frozen food and stale chips

He wasn’t a master chef or anything by far, but he had some basic knowledge of cooking and he used it regularly

Sometimes you’d joke about having to marry him for that and he’d blush a bright tomato red every time (it was super cute, too)

The boi also C L E A N E D

To be fair, tho, he was also messy. Always making messes. BUT, he cleaned, which was more than you could ever ask for

He’d clean up his messes, your messes, the messes of friends… Just, he was a clean boi.

Once again, not super masterful at it, but he could clean pretty damn decently and you were not about to complain

Fun fact: Prompto forgot about the existence of periods, so if you happen to be a female who gets periods, good fucking luck lmao

Whenever you’d roll around in bed from the pain of cramps (or puking or crying or other such horrible things), he would absolutely panic

And when he caught sight of a bloody tampon or pad? Or a lil bit of blood on the toilet? Oh god, he was a wreck. He ran into your room, eyes wide and worried, demanding to know if you were okay. Boi even offered to take you to a doctor

Of course, when you told him that it was just your period, he was just embarrassed

Much to his credit though, he would make sure that the kitchen was stocked with chocolates and that there was a heating pad for you to use (and some pain meds), so yeah, probably the best roommate in the world

But the negatives?

He liked to talk - a lot.

You’d come home and if he was there, you bet your ass there was conversations to be had. Not a morning person? Too fucking bad. Prompto’s got some juicy convos to have with you at 8 AM

It was cute, yes, but more annoying than anything else (as precious as he was, it was sometimes too much)

Still, if you asked for a lil bit of quiet time, he would listen and back off immediately

That went with any complaint, he always listened and changed his behavior accordingly

And in saying that, if anything you did happened to bug him? He would bottle that shit up until he broke down crying

You never really saw many of his friends, but you quickly picked up that he usually went to their places (you eventually found out that it was so they wouldn’t bug you, bless his lil considerate heart)

The one friend you did see regularly was Noctis, and he was so chill that you usually barely noticed he was there (and when you guys did hang out, he was just as chill)

Sometimes, Prompto would have breakdowns or anxiety attacks tho

You weren’t always sure what to do, but you did your best to help him out or to comfort him (he appreciated it more than you ever knew)

In the end, you guys became great friends that knew each other pretty damn well. You guys would always end up accommodating for the other person in your daily lives without ever realizing it

Basically, you guys were G O A L S

Gladio

Gladio was the one who answered the ad

You were scared to death at first, but you had bills to pay and were desperate af

You were surprised when he was moving in, a good half of his boxes were books and he had a whole box of scented candles (the man had good taste, too)

Gladio was pretty gruff and he kept to himself for the most part

However, if something was bugging him, you bet your ass he would bring it straight to you to talk things out, and he expected the same in return

That was how he worked as a whole; he would do his best to make your life not shitty and expected the same from you

It wasn’t hard to avoid bugging him; he was hardly ever home (you later found out it was his job as the Prince’s shield, which explained a shit ton of his life)

Gladio noticeably left you and your shit alone, but eventually you two became closer (you probably bond over a book series or a TV show, things like that)

You bet your ass that once you guys became close, he borrowed your shit, teased you a bit, and boundaries went out the fucking window

He’d stolen more blankets than you even knew you had. There were times when he stole your hair brush or your shampoo, hell, he even started using your damn body wash (“That shit is fucking expensive, Gladio!”). You swear he even used your toothbrush once, but you could never prove it.

Still, y’all were close (Noctis once made a comment about the sexual tension, but neither of you ever acknowledged it)

Even tho Gladio intimidated you a shit ton in the beginning, when you two became comfortable around each other, his presence made you feel safer than anything else

If a robber or a murderer tried to break in, he would handle it faster and smoother than anyone else

Plus the creepy neighbor next door was too scared of Gladio to be weird towards you anymore (bless)

His little sister showed up a lot, too

You liked her so it was never a problem (in fact, you looked forward to her sudden visits). You always got a kick out of her nagging Gladio about his messy room or how he makes the apartment “smell like man”

Anyways, when he actually graced the apartment with his presence, there would be a candle lit and a book in his hand. Sometimes, he’d have some chill music playing and it wasn’t uncommon for him to hog the bathtub for a solid hour

Surprisingly, Gladio could cook. He didn’t do it often, but when he did, the apartment was full of delicious smelling spices and you could count on there being a great big steak waiting for you at dinner

More often than not, he just helped himself to massive cup noodles tho (it got to a point where you were concerned for his health)

You met his friends a few times, but it was usually in passing whenever Gladio had to grab something

The friend you saw the most was Ignis; sometimes he and Gladio would be up late drinking in your shared apartment, but they were fairly quiet and respectful (minus Gladio’s loud laughter and Ignis’ mild chuckles when they got too tipsy)

Despite seeing Ignis the most, you knew the most about Noctis simply from Gladio bitching about the shit Noct pulls with Prompto. Sometimes he’d just complain about his job, too, and through that you learned what kind of people his friends were and that was actually how you pieced together his job enough to get a proper response as to what he did with his time

Sidenote: Gladdy was never great with technology

You never, ever saw him watching TV or playing video games (unless it was with his other friends), and the few times you saw him on a laptop, it was a noticeably old model and he was grumbling about how he “couldn’t work the damn thing”

More often than not, you had to help him out with technology troubles; he was pretty shit with computers and such (it was pretty comical at times)

From there, you learned that he hated driving and didn’t even have a license. In fact, he just hated technology; the only reason he had a smartphone was because his job pretty much required it for communication purposes

In summary: Gladdy was old fashioned and you didn’t trust him alone with your computer

But yeah, you guys had a weird roommate relationship

He was hardly there, but you guys got along surprisingly well and even had some “self-care days” together (it was your idea, but when you guys tried it, he found he liked it)

Ignis

When he showed up, following up with the ad you put in the newspaper, you were pretty surprised like...

Those designer shoes? The impeccable hair? High quality glasses? The man could probably afford the best apartment on his own, yet there he was, at your own front door (turns out, he chose your apartment due to its close proximity to the Citadel and Noct’s  apartment)

When he actually was home, it was like he wasn’t there 

In fact, half the time you were like “Sorry? Roommate? What roommate? I only know the mysterious check that appears in the kitchen that always pays half the rent!” (dude was home even less than Gladio and his apartment)

The only way you knew he was actually in the apartment was when you could smell food being made or hear noise from the kitchen

In the beginning, Ignis was strangely firm with boundaries. He never went in your room or messed with your stuff unless it was out in the open (hell, even when you two actually became friends he wouldn’t get in your business)

You had to specifically tell him it was okay to go put your shit back in your room if he mentioned that you left something out

And if you went into his room or touched his stuff without asking? Oooo boi, be prepared for some saltiness in the few exchanges you had with him

The more you got to know Iggy, the saltier he was about things. Like if you purposefully did something to annoy him, he would be the most passive-aggressive person in the world

Even so (especially in the beginning), Ignis was very forward with problems or annoyances. If anything was wrong, he’d call it in to be fixed and let you now right after. He’d also tell you if you needed to clean something or if your appearance was… lacking. The closer you two got, the more forward he was

There were quite a few times when he’d tell you your room is a mess or that you look like a slob

Still, it took quite a bit of time and effort to get there. He was hardly home, and when he was, he pointedly left you alone after a quick nod of acknowledgement

In fact, he was usually doing work at the dining room table or actually sleeping for once, so if you wanted to talk with him, you’d have to initiate it

As mentioned earlier, he did cook or bake when he was home. Usually, he was trying to master a recipe and always had you test out his food

When you asked why, he merely told you that he had been exposed to the smell too long to viably give a proper response to its taste (in response, you told him he was a dork)

The more you got to know him (over a painstaking year, might I add), the more of a dork he seemed to be (he totally is a dork, btw)

At first, he had been uptight and mildly intimidating, but as time went on, you caught sight of the occasional fumble in his step, heard the dumb puns he said, and listened as he eagerly told you of one of the few hobbies he genuinely enjoyed

He also grew fond of you, much to your own surprise

He’d even make your favorite foods out of nowhere sometimes (he’d always say it was for practice, although you both knew the truth)

Iggy kept his job surprisingly private, even when he would stay up late working on documents at the dining room table. It took a long time for you to find out he was actually the adviser to the Prince. In fact, Noctis had actually been over a good seven or eight times before you found out

Still, even when you knew, Ignis never really told you what was going on in his job for the longest time. Part of you thought it was due to important secrecy, but when you asked, it turned out that Ignis didn’t want to burden you with anything (“Your life is rather stressful on its own, wouldn’t you agree?”)

It took several different conversation to actually get him to talk about work for once, and when he did, it was mostly just complaints and salty bitching about certain employees or mistakes others have done (it was pretty funny, actually)

Ignis never really had company over, either

In the beginning you seriously doubted that he had any friends at all

Despite how many times he told you that he had friends, you didn’t believe him until three of them showed up unannounced at the apartment at 11 AM on a Satuday, proclaiming that they were having a card game session whether “Specs wants to or not!”

You never thought Ignis would be friends with guys like the other chocobros, but when you saw them interact, it seemed like it shouldn’t be anyone else at all

In the end, even if Ignis wasn’t home a lot and even if you didn’t really know his friends too well, you guys did care about each other in a weird, subtle way. But hey, it worked

[psychnerd47]

Monster College Part 2

Rating: G, warnings none. 

Characters: Jackson Jekyll/ Holt Hyde, Invisi-Billy, Deuce Gorgon,  Frankie Stein, and Operetta

Invisi-Billy pulled out his phone, and started to call Abbey.

“Um, hey Abbey, it’s Billy.”

“Why are you calling so early in the morning?” the abominable snowwoman asked abruptly.

“Heath, has an 8:00 class, but he is still asleep, I was wondering if I should awaken him?”

  “You are not his mother, but if you think it’s a good idea?” Abbey added.

 The disappearing boy walked over to Heath’s bed and gave him a slight shove. But Invisi-Billy soon realized that really didn’t think this through, as all of a sudden Heath jolted awake with a head full of fire, triggering the sprinkler in their bedroom. Billy pushed his now soaked, blue-black hair out of his face, he didn’t have time to change he was now going to have to meet Scarah all soaked. Heath sat up, totally unfazed by the large amount of water in the room.

“Oh, look at the time,” Heath said as he jumped out of bed, “I need to get to class”.

 In the meanwhile Holt ran down the hall towards Jackson and Deuce’s room. “I just need to grab my swimsuit, Holt’s headed to the pool!” the blue skinned monster announced. But since subtlety was not one of Holt’s greater talents, as he crashed the door open he awoke Deuce. Deuce who was actually a morning monster, immediately knew what to do after he saw Holt’s presence.   “Hold it there dude,” Deuce called out, “Jackson, has to get to class.” The gorgon boy grabbed Jackson’s headphones and put them on the head of the blue-skinned monster. Instantly turning him back into, nerdy human boy Jackson.

Jackson started to freak out, “Why am I only in a towel? Where are my clothes? I need to get to class.”

 “It’s ok dude, Holt showed up, probably while you were showering.” Deuce said calmly, “I���ll go get your stuff for you and then you can go to class, might save you some embarrassment,” Deuce said in a supportive voice.

“Thanks,” said Jackson sheepishly.

    Invisi-Billy made finally made it to the dying-hall, to meet Scarah. The Banshee girl was sitting at a table waiting for her disappearing boyfriend. “Are you alright?” she asked when she saw how soaked Billy was.

 “Heath had an accident this morning, and he set off the fire sprinkler,” Billy explained.

 “You poor dear,” Scarah said. Since Scarah was telepathic Billy always had to tell the truth, even if it was embarrassing.

       After Jackson got his backpack and clothes back, he started to run to get to class. He didn’t have time to grab breakfast so he just grabbed a Zombie Energy drink, since he didn’t want to fall asleep in class. When Jackson made it to Coding 101 he spotted Ghoulia Yelps. She was a zombie, who also had a prefect GPA in high school and was even valedictorian for their class, so it was not surprising to see that she also bypassed Introduction to Coding. Jackson grabbed a seat next to her.

The coding teacher was a middle age cyborg who looked like he had been working with computers since they first came out. The class was going well until Mr. Cybernik decided to share his favorite music video about coding with the class. Jackson spent that time hiding under his desk with his hands over his ears. The coding class ended with Mr. Cybernik assigning a whole caskets worth of homework.

 Billy went to find his Monster Anatomy and Physiology class, he had written that it was in room 235 of the Stoker Building of Natural History and Science. The disappearing boy spotted room 235. When he walked in he spied some fellow students he recognized from high school: Jinafire Long, Skelita Calaveras, Rochelle Goyle, and Deuce’s mummy girlfriend Cleo de Nile. Invisi-Billy was so glad he would be in a class with people he knew. He found a seat next to Jinafire. “I didn’t realize you were all taking this class,” the invisible boy started, “but I’m greatful.”

The Chinese dragon girl just smiled awkwardly. A pompous looking gargoyle walked into the class room. She was large and wore an expensive looking pink dress. Billy was confused, she didn’t look like the teacher on the My Campus page for his class. He had been expecting a skinny, mad scientist with a long beard.

The gargoyle teacher had a list she was starting to call off for attendance, when she got to Billy she asked him who he was in a voice that sounded like she did not have time for any nonsense. “Um, Invisi-Billy Mann,” the disappearing boy answered.

 “You are not on my list, you are taking Introduction to Monstropolgy aren’t you?” the instructor asked.

 “No,” Billy answered, “I’m supposed to be taking Monster Anatomy and Physiology.”

The gargoyle instructor rolled her eyes, “You supposed to be in room 235 ‘B’, this is room 235 ‘A’”.

Billy blushed, and then started to turn invisible from the embarrassment. The rest of the class watched as what appeared to be a hoodie, jeans, beanie and back pack walked out of the classroom.

Invisi-Billy quietly sneaked into the correct classroom. Luckily for him the professor Dr. Choppenguts had not begun to call attendance yet. The dark-blue haired boy spied Lagoona Blue and Gil Webber, and grabbed a chair next to the beautiful Australian sea monster girl. “Crikey, Billy. You were almost late for class, that is not like you at all,” Lagoona said.

Insvisi-Billy blushed again, “ I accidently went to the wrong class room,”

Gil laughed, “It’s ok, Billy that could happen to anyone. Yesterday I showed up to the wrong dormroom and I thought I was going to have to be roommates with Kieron Valentine instead of Clawd,” the river monster laughed.

Billy smiled, “I would never want to be roommates with Valentine, with his extra Southern Accent, and he’s so uptight you would think his underwear is three sizes too small.”

“That’s really funny,” Gil whisper laughed, “but you know who won’t be laughing? Johnny Spirit. Operetta says that he and Valentine were assigned to be roommates.”

 Johnny Spirit was a Rockabilly Greaser ghost, who played the fiddle and was Operetta’s boyfriend. Operetta was the sassy, high octane Rockabilly daughter of the Phantom of the Opera’s daughter.

Billy laughed again, but then turned to face Doctor Choppenguts who started his lecture about how even though how all monsters are very different, their bodies all function very similarly. Billy started to mentally drift off, he doodled in his notebook, maybe he shouldn’t have followed Mr. Rotter’s advice about being a doctor and followed his dream of being a stage tech.

Frankie Stien, the beautiful and sweet daughter of Frankenstein’s monster and his bride, invited Jackson to an early lunch with her at the campus Ick-Fil-A. Jackson still felt a little awkward with his relationship with Frankie because she had previously broken up with him, when his going back and forth between Jekyll and Hyde had gotten out of control, but he still harbored a crush on her, even if she just saw him as her best friend. “I actually kinda miss having my mom around,” Jackson admitted to Frankie, “she kept me company and helped me to remember the silliest little things I always forget such as clean underwear,” Jackson sighed.

Frankie put her hand on his shoulder, “It will be ok, at least you get to be roommates with two of your best friends. I’m sorry you are feeling discouraged by the ‘Holt’ episode this morning, but don’t give up yet.” The stitched together girl encouraged.  Jackson didn’t say anything a quietly sipped his soda, but the quietness was not going to last.

A lilac-colored skinned girl, with a bright red Victory Roll hair style waltzed over to the two of them, it was Operetta Phantom. “Hey, y’all,” she called out with her smooth, charming Southern accent, “Johnny and I are hosting a big ‘ol  rockin’ shindig tonight, we got permission to use the student union hall, which is just a floor above this here dying hall. So be there or be square,” she laughed.

“That sounds amazing,” Frankie said in awe, “what is going to happen at the party?”

 “Well,” the Rockabilly phantom answered,“ Johnny and I are going to play rockin’ live music for us all to dance too. I’ve even gotten Deuce to help me cook up some of my family’s dang famous gumbo recipe,” she turned to Jackson who looked super uncomfortable about going to a party with hot music, “you are going to come right?”

Jackson grew even more awkward, he jumped to his feet clumsily, “I just remembered,” he started awkwardly, “I really have to go to the bathroom.” suddenly the human boy shot out of the room.

*                       *                                   *

 Jackson sat on the floor of a bathroom stall crying and hoping no one would notice him. Why did people have to keep inviting him to parties, didn’t they understand that he couldn’t come.

From his hiding place Jackson heard someone else walk in, “Hey Jackson dude,”

Jackson recognized the voice to belong to Deuce, “are you alright? Frankie sent me to check on you. She’s concerned.” The Gorgon boy explained, “you need to come out. I know you have been having some setbacks with Holt. But you can’t keep avoiding everything,” Deuce continued, “you really need to get out more often. Frankie and I will look after you, even if you turn to Holt, we won’t let you get out of control,” the snake-haired boy assured his friend.

“Ok,” Jackson answered quietly as he started to leave the bathroom, he hoped that Deuce wouldn’t notice he had been crying.

 Meanwhile, Invisi-Billy sat alone in the dying hall with a very pathetic piece of cafeteria pizza, as he sat in his misery, a certain red-haired Rockabilly phantom waltzed up to him. “Why so glum sugar-plum? I bet ya haven’t heard about my party?”

Tags @queenofworry

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Amortentia

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): Final Fantasy XV/Ignis Scientia feat. the Chocobros

Rating: PG/K+

Original Idea: This thing!

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) Hogwarts AU y’all!

^^^^^

Slytherins usually had potions with the Gryffindors. It was obnoxious. I swear there was never a noisier house than Gryffindor. Like, Hufflepuffs could be chatty but come on—the Gryffindors didn’t know when to shut their traps.

Which was why sixth year NEWT advanced potions with the Ravenclaws excited me. Maybe they’d be a bit easier to work around than the Gryffindors.

Also it meant Ignis and I would be in the same potions class so I could finally see if he was as good as everyone boasted he was.

When I reached the dungeons, the Ravenclaws were already there, in their seats, browsing idly through their textbooks. Except Ignis. His was sitting closed on his desk and he was reading something entirely unrelated to the class at hand. He was sitting alone at a desk. I immediately went and sat next to him. “Morning,” I greeted.

“Good morning,” he replied distractedly, pushing his glasses up his nose.

The other Slytherins and I were running a tad late because of Professor McGonagall’s lecture on advanced Transfiguration, so Professor Slughorn began the moment the last Slytherin was in their seat.

“Good morning, class,” he said. “Welcome to your first day of NEWT-level advanced potions. You’re all in here because you got O’s and E’s on your OWL exams. Congratulations! This morning I have an assortment of potions up here on my table that we will be brewing throughout the term. Would anyone venture a guess as to which ones they are?” He gestured to a row of bubbling cauldrons.

Ignis and I raised our hands at the same time. Ignis’ went up faster, so Slughorn called on him.

He got up and approached the teacher’s workbench, peering at them. “The little one in the middle is Felix Felicis. Otherwise known as Liquid Luck.”

“Well done. We won’t be brewing it this term because it’s devilishly tricky and takes six months. Do carry on.”

“The one on the far left is the Draught of Living Death—an incredibly powerful sleep potion.” He rattled off two more before he caught everyone else’s attention again. “This one is Amortentia—the most powerful love potion in the world. Although—” He put on his Know-It-All expression. “—it cannot create actual love. That’s impossible. It mimics powerful infatuation and obsession. It’s one of the most dangerous potions on the table due to that. Supposedly it smells different to each person—based on what attracts them.”

“Well, what do you smell?” Slughorn encouraged.

Ignis took a deep breath through his nose, leaning over the cauldron. His glasses fogged up for a moment. “I smell… perfectly brewed Ebony… freshly fallen rain… and…” His ears turned red. “And yeah,” he finished. Quickly he returned to his seat next to me.

I smiled at him. “Show off,” I whispered. “Identifying them by sight.”

“And smell,” he added. “I could smell the rain and the Ebony from down the corridor.”

“Normally, I begin the term with having you brew the Draught of Living Death—but I think this time I'm going to do a pretest on how well you make Amortentia. You’ll find the recipe in your books—can’t quite remember the page. It’s in the table of contents. You’ll find it. You’re all bright students.” Slughorn smiled at us. “Work in pairs. Ingredients are in the cupboard. Chop-chop!”

Everyone got up to gather their ingredients. Ignis and I got ours first. Out of habit I gravitated to the Slytherin tables. It wasn’t that we couldn’t mingle with the other houses. We just didn’t. Probably because we were most comfortable with our own houses.

As I got everything set up, Slughorn slunk around the room like an oversized caterpillar, muttering numbers under his breath.

“Well,” he said. “It seems we’ve an odd number of both Slytherins and Ravenclaws in this class this year. Miss Constellatio?”

I turned, eyebrows raised. “Sir?”

“Would you mind pairing up with Mr. Scientia?” He gestured to Ignis.

I scooped up my supplies. Good thing I hadn’t started the fire yet. “Of course not, sir,” I said. I joined Ignis at the desk in the front of the room.

Slughorn came over and leaned against the opposite side of the desk—the old wood creaking under his weight. “I'm doing this for selfish reasons, you know,” he said. “The two of you have always been some of my best and brightest. I’d rather not pit you against one another. I expect you two will do very well together.” He winked at us and left.

Ignis pushed his book at me, already open to the recipe. “After you,” he said.

As we set to work, I glanced at the potion description above the recipe. “Says here that most people smell three scents in the vapor,” I remarked. No one else seemed to hear me. I looked over at Ignis. He was cleaning more steam off his glasses on the blue lining inside the sleeve of his robe. “Well?” I nudged him playfully with my elbow. He looked up, squinting slightly to see me in the dim light without his glasses.

“Well what?” he asked.

“What was your third scent?” I prompted.

“New books,” he said. His ears turned red again.

“Liar,” I said. But I didn’t press it. Clearly the third scent was something he was embarrassed about. I could tease him about it later.

The class period dragged on. Ignis and I kept working doggedly. I had Ignis to thank for that. He was pretty determined to finish it.

As we worked, I finally figured out what I kept smelling—Ignis’ cologne. It was spicy but not overpowering. The rest of the room beyond our table was a mix of the individual ingredients’ scents and… was that the cookies Ignis baked for me over the summer? And rain on pavement?

“Are we doing this right?” Ignis asked, peering at the potion and then at his book. “It looks more burgundy than plum.”

“Clean your glasses,” I suggested sarcastically.

“Ha-ha,” he deadpanned. “But seriously, are we? It should start smelling different about now.”

“Well I wouldn’t know,” I retorted. “I can’t smell anything around this table because someone put on too much cologne this morning.” I snorted and nudged him with my shoulder. He scrunched his eyebrows.

“Well it’d certainly be easier for me to tell if you had backed off on the jasmine body wash,” he said sharply.

I opened my mouth to argue—but stopped.

Someone was giggling behind us.

I used jasmine body wash usually, yes, but I’d run out over the summer and hadn’t had time to get more so I’d brought my back-up bottle of strawberry-coconut to school to use till my mum could send me more. I didn’t smell like jasmine at the moment.

As I passed behind Ignis, I took a deep breath through my nose. I couldn’t smell his usual spicy cologne clinging to his robes. Something clean but calmer hit my nostrils in its place. Maybe vanilla?

Oh. My. Word.

A blush spread over my entire face and down my neck. My ears grew warm.

I almost dropped the knife in my hand. I was smelling Ignis’ cologne from the Amortentia.

It took a massive amount of concentration to finish the potion without thinking about what I just realized. I peeked at Ignis every chance I got. Had he… realized the same thing? I didn’t smell like jasmine today.

If he had noticed, he didn’t say anything. Or react.

Great.

^^^^^

“Gladio!” I called, running to catch up to our friend. He was a seventh year Gryffindor and taller than pretty much everyone in the castle—including the teachers. Ignis was pretty tall for sixteen, but Gladiolus looked like he might have had some giant blood in him. He was probably just tall.

“Hey! What’s up?” he asked brightly, giving me a side-arm hug.

“We, uh, we brewed Amortentia in potions today,” I said.

Classes were over and since it was September second, it was still fairly warm outside. I’d caught Gladio heading outside to hang out on the hill and fell into step beside him, intending to join. Wouldn’t get much more time outside once it got cold.

He chuckled. “That so?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“What’d you smell?”

“Freshly-baked cookies. Rain on pavement. And…” I trailed off and looked at the ground.

“And?” Gladio prompted good-naturedly.

I cleared my throat. “Ignis’ cologne.”

Gladio burst out into laughter. “Ohhh, that just made my day,” he said, throwing his arm around my shoulders again and giving me a tight squeeze. “I have been waiting for this day for so long!”

I scrunched my eyebrows. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

“Oh come on!” Gladio protested, flopping down onto the hill and yanking me by the sleeve of my robe to sit next to him. “You and Iggy have been crushing on each other since you were, like, first years, Constellatio.”

I squeaked. “Have not!”

“Have too!”

“What are we arguing about?” Ignis asked, dropping his bag down onto the grass and taking a seat on my other side.

Gladio waved a hand dismissively. “Nothing,” he said.

“Hey guys!” a new voice shouted. Two figures slipped a bit down the hill and scrambled to get back up to us. Noctis and Prompto. Both of them with their yellow-lined robes dropped over their arms so they only wore their dress shirts, ties, and slacks since it was pretty warm outside. “Guess what?” Prompto was the one that had spoken. His eyes were bright and his hair seemed messier than usual.

“What?” Ignis, Gladio, and I all asked at the same time with varying degrees of curiosity and enthusiasm. Noctis and Prompto were two years younger than me and Ignis and three years younger than Gladio but still managed to surprise us with their shenanigans.

“I asked out Cindy Aurum—and she said yes!” Prompto exclaimed.

I started laughing. Gladio did too. Ignis was smiling.

“That’s awesome, Prompt,” I said. “I'm excited to hear how it goes.”

“As am I,” Ignis agreed thoughtfully.

Noctis plopped down on the grass below us. “Speaking of,” he said. “When are you two going to go on a date?” He pointed between Ignis and me.

“What?!” Ignis and I asked at the same time.

“C’mon. It’s clear you two are crushing on each other. Just have a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks next Hogsmeade weekend and get it over with. I'm sick of watching the two of you pine after each other. I swear every longing glance is shaving a year off my life,” Noctis complained.

Nothing like the honesty of an angsty fourteen-year-old.

Ignis’ ears turned red. He looked away from Noctis and I—and sharply paused. “Wait,” he said, whirling back to look at me. “Why do you smell like strawberries and coconut?”

“I ran out of jasmine body wash over the summer,” I admitted.

“So what was I… in potions… oh my goodness,” he muttered. “The Amortentia.”

I cleared my throat. “Yup. Same on this end,” I said.

Gladio jerked his head at Prompto and Noctis. The three of them got to their feet and moved away from us to another part of the hill.

“When you say, ‘Same on this end,’ what exactly do you mean?” Ignis asked, staring at the Black Lake and the giant squid’s tentacles lazily flapping around at the third years pestering it instead of meeting my eyes.

“Your cologne. The cookies you baked for me over the summer when I visited your place,” I said.

“Perhaps… perhaps Noct has a good idea. Would you… care to accompany me to Hogsmeade this coming weekend trip?”

I curled my knees up to my chest. “Yeah,” I said, watching the lake too. “Yeah I’d like that.”

“Splendid. It’s settled then.”

I leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. “Yeah,” I said.

He looked surprised. “You missed,” he said.

“What? I don’t miss,” I retorted.

Ignis had a pianist’s hands—long elegant fingers. He set one on the side of my face so I had to look him in the eyes. “You missed,” he insisted, leaning closer.

I closed the distance. “Fine,” I breathed. Ignis smirked and pressed his lips to mine.

“SEE?! I TOLD YOU GUYS!” Noctis shouted from somewhere behind me. I snickered and tilted my head to the side for a better angle. Ignis copied me.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars LXXI (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: I have so many fun surprises for y’all in this book!! I can’t wait to share them uwu -Danny

Words: 3,883

Warnings: Violence, rude language, bad french

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Chapter Six: Into the Woods.

"Tell us, Lady," Fred said, handing a cup of hot chocolate to her. "How does it feel to be the silly one for the first time in your life?"

"What are you talking about?" She grinned, making room for him to sit next to her.

"You said it was a stupid bet," He explained. "We won."

"I feel quite alright, thank you," She raised a brow. "Beginners luck, that's what this is. Let's make this time the first and last, okay? I'd hate to see you losing all you have on stupid bets."

"We were only trying to win a bit of money so we could restock our shop."

"I hope you find a way to keep it safe," She sighed. "I love your Mum, but you deserve a chance..."

"Don't worry about it, Mum's always angry about something, we're used to it by now... Harry's been having a rough day, hasn't he?"

"Why?"

"First Cedric being all friendly with you–"

"He was being polite–"

"–And now he's been glaring at me all afternoon," Fred continued, unbothered. "I'm telling you this in the kindest way possible, just tell him already."

"Tell him what?" She hid her face behind the cup, feigning innocence.

"That you like him," Fred rolled his eyes, "C'mon, look at him! He looks miserable!"

Harry was indeed looking at them, but it was hard to read his expression. When he noticed her staring, he turned quickly towards Ron and Bill.

"Maybe he's just upset because..." She shook her head. "I've been hiding things, that's all."

"Yes, exactly," Fred insisted. "Your feelings being right at the top of the list."

"You don't know shit!" Mel hissed quietly, losing her temper. "Don't even think about going around telling everyone that I like Harry!"

"Hey, keep the knives out of this!" Fred pushed his chair away. "I'm just trying to help!"

"You're not helping!" She looked around the table to make sure no one was listening. "Don't worry about me, okay? Harry's fine, and I'm even better."

"Sure..." He frowned.

There was a loud thud that cause her to jump. Ginny had fallen asleep and accidentally dropped her mug, spilling hot chocolate everywhere. Mr. Weasley took this as their queue to go to bed, cleaning the mess and sending the girls to their tent, Emily going with them. Mel climbed to her bunk bed, her mind still thinking of what Fred had said. She couldn't pretend anymore. For the first time, she had the feeling that maybe what her friends were telling her was true, maybe Harry liked her.

If that was the case though, then what about Cho? She could see it, whenever Harry looked at the Ravenclaw, she could see that he liked her. Could he be crushing on both girls? Was that even possible? She only liked Harry... But that was wrong too! She couldn't like Harry! Their friendship was the longest she'd ever had and she couldn't risk it. She just couldn't. Not even... not even if Harry liked her back.

They were just confused, Harry and her. They were young, and didn't have enough experiences to be sure that their feelings were real, throwing all he meant to her away for a silly crush? Not in a million years.

She'd barely managed to fall asleep when someone shoved her agressively out of bed. Mel scrambled to her feet and looked around, her eyes trying to focus on the person standing in front of her.

"Mum?" She grumbled. "What's goin' on..?"

"Put on your shoes and get your wand," Her mother demanded. "Don't leave the group."

"Leave the group?" Mel inquired.

"Hurry!" Emily insisted, throwing her a robe so she could cover herself.

Mel, Hermione, and Ginny ran out of the tent with Emily following close behind. When her eyes grew used to the fire light, she was capable to see the nightmare unfolding in front of them.

High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled.

They were setting everything on fire, and people was struggling to ran out to a safer spot. As the crowd approach their tents, she finally recognize the victims.

Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.

"What is going on?" Mel asked in horror.

"Come on, girls," Mr. Weasley guided them towards Harry and Ron, who were standing a few feet away. "Don't break the group..."

At the same moment, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot — get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers; Mr. Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the family was coming closer.

"Be careful," Mel told her mother before watching her ran towards the group of masked wizards.

"C'mon," said Fred.

He grabbed Ginny by the hand and started walking towards the trees. The rest of the group followed.

They all looked back as they reached the trees. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever; they could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the center, but they were having great difficulty. It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Roberts family fall.

The colored lanterns that had lit the path to the stadium had been extinguished. Dark figures were blundering through the trees; children were crying; anxious shouts and panicked voices were reverberating around them in the cold night air.

She held onto her own wand, ready to attack in case they needed to. The silence was making her more and more anxious, without saying a word she reached for the closest hand -Harry's hand- and held onto it, feeling slightly calmer. Then Ron's yell made her jump, and she turn hot on her heel, her wand pointing towards the sound.

"Ron?" She asked.

"What happened?" said Hermione, and she heard Harry yelping after crashing against her. "Ron, where are you? Oh this is stupid — lumos!"

"Tripped over a tree root," He grumbled, standing up and brushing off some dirt.

"Well, with feet that size, hard not to," said a voice behind them.

Mel then turned her wand towards that direction. Draco Malfoy was standing there, leaning against a tree like it was just another normal night.

"Why don't you go to hell, Malfoy?"

"Language, Weasley. Hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Granger, they're after Muggles," said Malfoy. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around... they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."

"Hermione's a witch," Harry growled.

"Have it your own way, Potter," Malfoy replied calmly, wearing a nasty grin. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."

"You watch your mouth!" shouted Ron.

"I could seal it for you, if you find it difficult to achieve on your own," Mel added, her wand still pointing at his face.

"Never mind, guys," said Hermione, Ron tried to stepped closer to the other boy but Hermione seized his arm to stop him.

There came a bang from the other side of the trees that was louder than anything they had heard. Several people nearby screamed. Malfoy chuckled softly.

"Scare easily, don't they?" he said lazily. "I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to — trying to rescue the Muggles?"

"Where're your parents? Out there wearing masks, are they?" Harry spat at him.

"Well... if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?" Malfoy smiled.

"Oh come on," said Hermione urged them forwad. "Mel, put your wand down, let's go and find the others."

"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger," sneered Malfoy.

Mel tried to replied but Hermione's free hand grabbed hers and dragged her away from the boy.

"Come on," She repeated.

"I'll bet you anything his dad is one of that masked lot!" said Ron once they were out of ear-shot.

"Well, with any luck, the Ministry will catch him! Oh I can't believe this. Where have the others got to?"

They continued walking for about five minutes when a girl approached, she talked to them quickly and anxiously.

"Où est Madame Maxime? Nous l'avons perdue —"

"Er — what?" said Ron.

"Nous ne savons pas," Mel replied, inmediately regretting her awful accent. "Uh– sorry..?"

"Oh..." The girl eyed her up for a bit before turning back to her group of friends and shaking her head mumbling, "'Ogwarts."

"Beauxbatons," Hermione explained to her.

"Sorry?" said Harry.

"They must go to Beauxbatons," said Hermione. "You know... Beauxbatons Academy of Magic... I read about it in An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe."

"Weird name for a School..." Mel said.

"Oh... yeah... right," Harry nodded. "Hogwarts isn't exactly nice or normal either..."

"Is anyone going to ask how the bloody hell does she know French?" Ron asked, staring at her. "What was that?"

"Uncle Lupin lived in France for two years when I was younger, we used to watch the telly and the movies were almost never dub, so I had to read the subtitles, I learned a little but nowhere near enough to be an expert. Wouldn't be surprised if it turns out I told her to fetch a toilet for me..."

"It sounded good enough to me," Ron raised his eyebrows. "I don't know why I'm surprised, you're a Dumbledore after all..."

"Shut up, Bilius."

"Don't call me that!"

"It's your name, isn't it?"

"You know I don't like–"

"Shut up," Hermione groaned. "I can't stand bickering and a walk on these terrifying woods at the same time, please..."

"Fred and George can't have gone that far," said Ron, carefully pointing his wand forward and illuminating the path.

"Ah, no, I don't believe it," Harry exclaimed beside her. "I've lost my wand!"

"You're kidding!"

"Maybe it's back in the tent," said Ron.

"Maybe it fell out of your pocket when we were running?" Hermione suggested.

"I don't remember seeing your wand when we left the tents," Mel tried to recall the moments before running into the woods. "Perhaps you left it inside your room?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "maybe..."

Mel took his hand again, this time so she was sure he remained close and out of danger, considering he was the only one without a wand.

A rustling noise nearby made all three of them jump. Winky the house-elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby. She was moving in a most peculiar fashion, apparently with great diffi- culty; it was as though someone invisible were trying to hold her back.

"There is bad wizards about!" she squeaked distractedly as she leaned forward and labored to keep running. "People high — high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"

And she disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path, panting and squeaking as she fought the force that was restraining her.

"What's up with her?" said Ron, looking curiously after Winky. "Why can't she run properly?"

"Bet she didn't ask permission to hide," said Harry.

"You know, house-elves get a very raw deal! It's slavery, that's what it is! That Mr. Crouch made her go up to the top of the stadium, and she was terrified, and he's got her bewitched so she can't even run when they start trampling tents! Why doesn't anyone do something about it?" Hermione replied heathedly.

"Well, the elves are happy, aren't they?" Ron said. "You heard old Winky back at the match... 'House-elves is not supposed to have fun'... that's what she likes, being bossed around..."

"It's people like you, Ron," Hermione continued with anger, "who prop up rotten and unjust systems, just because they're too lazy to —"

"Mione, I think that what Ron means," She interrupted. "Is not that they enjoy being treated poorly, but surely not all of them live like Dobby. Besides, Winky is just dedicated to her work. If she really wanted to be free, bet she would've followed Dobby's path years ago... right?"

"Let's just keep moving, shall we?" said Ron, and continued walking.

They followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still keeping an eye out for Fred, George, and Ginny. They passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold that they had un- doubtedly won betting on the match, and who seemed quite unperturbed by the trouble at the campsite. Farther still along the path, they walked into a patch of silvery light, and when they looked through the trees, they saw three tall and beautiful veela standing in a clearing, surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.

"I pull down about a hundred sacks of Galleons a year!" One of them shouted. "I'm a dragon killer for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures."

"No, you're not!" yelled his friend. "You're a dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron. . . . but I'm a vampire hunter, I've killed about ninety so far —"

A third young wizard, whose pimples were visible even by the dim, silvery light of the veela, now cut in, "I'm about to become the youngest ever Minister of Magic, I am."

Harry then erupted with laughter. Mel tilted her head, squinting to see his face clearer. Harry grinned and leaned closer to whisper at them.

"Stan Shunpike, he's a conductor on the Knight Bus. He's as close to be the Minister as I am to become a house-elf."

Mel let out a giggle, she knew who that boy was, and she was about to reply when Ron spoke -more like yelled- at no one in particular.

"Did I tell you I've invented a broomstick that'll reach Jupiter?"

Mel and Harry shared a look, and bursted into a laughing fit while Hermione grabbed Ron's arm and pulled harshly.

"Honestly!" She rolled her eyes. "Harry! Stop laughing and help!"

The boy, still grinning, took a hold of his friend's arm and pulled him forward.

After another fifteen minutes of walking without having any idea of where they were going, Harry stopped to look around.

"I reckon we can just wait here, you know. We'll hear anyone coming a mile off."

A man emerged from the shadows, causing Mel to scream.

"Who's that?" It was Bagman, and he looked disoriented. "What are you doing in here, all alone?" They looked at one another, surprised.

"Merlin's beard..." Mel sighed, clutching her chest.

"Well — there's a sort of riot going on," Ron explained, looking at his friends with uncertainty.

"What?"

"At the campsite... some people have got hold of a family of Muggles..."

"Damn them!" Without adding anything else, he disapparate.

"Not exactly on top of things, Mr. Bagman, is he?"

"He was a great Beater, though," said Ron. "The Wimbourne Wasps won the league three times in a row while he was with them."

"Yeah, and it seems he took several bludgers on the head during that time, didn't he?" Mel raised her eyebrows.

They made their way to a clearing and stopped. Ron pulled out Krum's figured that he'd bought before the game and let it walk around the grass, Mel and Harry sat down next to him and watched it move around in circles.

"It was a beautiful day," Mel sighed, hugging her knees. "It's a shame it ended like this..."

"Not everything's bad," Harry responded, supporting one arm on his right leg.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, at least we're not hurt," He explained, "And once this is over, it'll be a great story back in School."

Mel nodded, a vague smile on her face. For some reason, now that they were there, her mind had drifted to the events of the game.

"Before the game started," Harry said, like he'd read her mind. "While the veela... Were you really angry about it?"

Mel stared at him, watching his smirk -a smirk, out of all the smiles he could've shown to her while asking that question!- and the way he seemed to know the answer without her saying a word.

"Are you trying to make me angry now?" She asked bluntly. "Because it's not working. There are better ways and you know it."

"Okay then, answer the question."

"Do I find upsetting that my best friend was all set to die in order to impress some dancers? Yes, of course. I can't believe you fell so easily!"

"Hey, that's their magic!" He defended. "If they weren't good at it, their existence would be a failure!"

"If it were up to me, I'd let them have miserable, good-for-nothing lives so you wouldn't have to risk yours and die like an idiot just because of a pretty face!"

"Even if the pretty face was yours?" He inquired humorously.

Mel stuttered a few incoherent words before huffing and facing forward in order to avoid his eyes.

"Especially if it's me."

Harry laughed again, but this time, when he spoke he sounded nervous.

"It's not like you could avoid it, if I had to I'd do it and that's it. Save you, that is."

Mel was about to argue that she was perfectly capable of stopping him when Hermione spoke up.

"I hope the others are okay..."

"They'll be fine," said Ron.

"Imagine if your dad catches Lucius Malfoy," Harry said. "He's always said he'd like to get something on him."

"That'd wipe the smirk off old Draco's face, all right," said Ron.

"Those poor Muggles, though," said Hermione. "What if they can't get them down?"

"They will. They'll find a way."

"I'll be an Auror once I'm older," Mel said out of the blue.

"I thought you wanted to be an explorer," Harry replied. "Or a Magizoologist?"

"I could be all," She shrugged. "An Auror that explores during her missions and saves all the magical creatures she can find..."

"Being an Auror it's a big deal," Ron raised a brow. "You have to be smart and all... Though you're already a brainy."

"Bugger off," She rolled her eyes. "Really, imagine being able to stop the bad guys and save lives while doing so! Protecting wizards and muggles..."

"Mad, though, to do something like that when the whole Ministry of Magic's out here tonight!" said Hermione, bringing her back from her daydream. "I mean, how do they expect to get away with it? Do you think they've been drinking, or are they just —"

A few branches broke behind Hermione's back and they froze in place. Mel stood up, waiting.

"Hello?" Harry stood up, then walk past her and peered into the trees.

"Be careful, Glasses..." Mel said, holding her wand tightly.

"Who's there?" Harry insisted.

Five seconds passed, and just when she was about to ask Harry to step back, someone yelled:

"MORSMORDRE !"

A green lightning shot up a few feet ahead of Harry's figure, Mel sprinted towards him and pulled him back, standing in front of him with her wand ready.

"What the — ?" Ron stood up abruptly, his eyes fixed on the sky.

It was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation.

"Who's there?" Harry called over her shoulder again, trying to move further. Mel raised her arm and stopped him.

"This isn't right," She mumbled. "I can feel it."

"Move!" Hermione was pulling both of their sleeves.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked in confusion.

"It's the Dark Mark!" Hermione grunted, unable to move both of them. "You-Know-Who's sign!"

"What?" Mel frowned, looking up again.

"Voldemort's — ?"

"Come on!"

Harry forced her to move, but they had only started walking when multiple apparitions caused them to stay still. She felt the hairs at the back of her neck raising at the same time Harry yelled 'DUCK!'

The four fell and covered their heads, she heard the people around them screaming "STUPEFY!" and the unmistakable sound of spells flying everywhere around her.

"Stop!" A voice roared through the fight. "STOP! That's my son!"

She felt something heavy on her shoulders and when she lifted her head, she found Harry's arm holding her closer to him.

"Ron — Harry" Mr. Weasley panted, finally stepping into the light. "Mel– Hermione — are you all right?"

"Out of the way, Arthur," Mr. Crouch stepped closer as well. "Which of you did it? Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't do that!" said Harry, finally letting go of her.

"We didn't do anything!" said Ron. "What did you want to attack us for?"

Mel stood up hastily, rubbing the dirt off her clothes.

"Do not lie, sir!" Mr. Crouch was pointing his wand directly at Ron. "You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"Barty," whispered a witch in a long woolen dressing gown, "they're kids, Barty, they'd never have been able to —"

"Where did the Mark come from, you three?" said Mr. Weasley quickly.

"Over there," said Hermione shakily, pointing at the place where they had heard the voice. "There was someone behind the trees . . . they shouted words — an incantation —"

"Oh, stood over there, did they?" said Mr. Crouch, turning his popping eyes on Hermione now, disbelief etched all over his face. "Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, missy —"

"Sir," Mel replied in a soft tone, almost as if talking to a baby. "We're fourteen..."

"We're too late," The same witch from before replied. "They'll have Disapparated."

"I don't think so," Mel jumped a little at hearing Amos Diggory's voice. "Our Stunners went right through those trees... There's a good chance we got them..."

He walked over to those trees, a few gasps were heard.

"Amos, be careful!"

"Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's — but — blimey..."

"You've got someone? Who? Who is it?" Mr. Crouch demanded.

Mr. Diggory came carrying a small figure, she immediately recognized it as Winky.

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@tiphareth2018​ @vampiregirl1797​ @siriuslysirius1107​ @stardusthigh​ @vernon-dursley​ @kylosleftbuttcheek​ @tomshollandz​ @bloodorangemoonlight​ @thesuitelifeofafangirl​ @reverse-hxlland​ @omiwashere​

[five-hour-anxiety]

CREEPY HAUNTED HOUSE TOUR: DON'T FOLLOW US IN 👻💀👽😦😈 | The Theory of Real-Activity | LOGAN FOUND A BODY YOU GUYS

@zerogettie  @spacevirgil  @tree4life25 @thebiggestnaturaldisaster@pailettehazel @jordandobbertin @thecityofthefireflies @the-fabulous-kimball @azuranightsong @virmillion @erlenmeyertrash @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch  @the-sanders-sides @punch-you-with-friendship @captaincantatrice @clovenpinetree @jughead-is-canonically-aroace @aplaceinthevoid @zennyo

Word Count: 4500

Warnings: panic attacks, arguments, haunted houses, talk of demons

Pairing: platonic analogical

Summary: Logan and Virgil run a vlog together, and have decided to film in a haunted house.

“Virgil, for the last time, ghosts aren’t real.”

“Yes, I know that! You know that! Roman and Patton don’t, though, so we need to go ‘ghost hunting’ to prove it once and for all!”

 “I understand where you are coming from, but do we really need to do this? There must be a better approach to the issue – one that will not cost as much and save us the tour of a condemned building.”

 “Oh, that’s hilarious – you think I want to step foot in there? My anxiety is spiked at the thought of what could go wrong on the way out there, much less once we actually go in.” Virgil sighed and ran his hands down his face. His grape colored bangs fell back into place, and he blew on them in an annoyed manner. “Unfortunately, Roman has access to our Twitter and already made a poll.”

  “You mean to tell me-”

 “Yep. The people want a ghost busting episode.”

 “Why on Earth did I give him the password for the account? What was I thinking?” Logan brought his tie up to his mouth, and Virgil strained to hear the muffled curses over the mouthful of cotton.

“Roman basically just challenged you to a giant game of chicken – a public one, and are you really gonna let him win that easy?”

 “Grammar, Virgil, but you have a point. I cannot let that day-dreaming ditz best me. Clear your weekend schedule, we are going on a… what did you call it? Spirit pursuit?”

 “Okay, first – I have no weekend plans as that would require having more than three friends, and two – it’s a ghost hunt so unless you want me to meme the shit out of you again, never call this a spirit pursuit again.”

 “Oh, please, our audience does not need another joke – it’s bad enough you got everyone and their cousin to call the video blog ‘The Theory of Real-Activity” instead of its official name.”

  “Look, that’s better than ‘VirgeofDiscovery’, and it’s a vlog Logan stop trying to sound smart for once in your life.”

***

“I think that I saw this on Buzzfeed Unsolved, once. Just put the flashlight down and ask… something… to turn it on.”

“You know this won’t work, right?” The camera’s mic picks up Logan, who was exploring another room. “And it’s Buzzfeed, why were you watching that garbage?”

“Because I love Shane Madej, the only perfect human.” The camera swings upward so that we see Virgil’s face, and he points at the lens. “You can all quote me on that – make sure he knows that Virge from The Theory of Real-Activity loves his work.”

“Oh my God, Virgil, are you using our video blog in a sad attempt to get your internet crush to notice you?”

 “I-No! It’s a squish! And stop calling it a video blog!”

“If I were as childish as Patton, I would begin to sing one of those schoolyard chants about you and Mr. Madej sitting in a tree.”

“Well, gee, thanks for-”

“I am going to rap it instead.”

 “LOGAN, I SWEAR TO GOD.”

“Virgil and Shane, sitting in-” The camera stops recording.

***

 “Alright, do we have everything we need? My bag has a portable charger, extra batteries, and some water bottles as well as the camera I plan to use.”

“I have the salt.”

 “Virgil, didn’t we agree that ghosts aren’t real?”

 “Yes, but you can never be too safe. Besides – Patton wouldn’t let me leave without it, so now we have a pound of salt.” Virgil shook it around and shimmied. Logan groaned, and reached for the other’s bag, looking to see if anything else was in there.

 “Oh, I see you have a first aid kit – that’s a good addition. You also have the snacks, flashlights, and a camera but I don’t see your stress ball? Are you sure you wish to go without?”

“No worries, man, I got it in the car.”

“Why is it in your car?”

 “Roman had to drive me to my therapy session, and the chariot-”

 “You mean that disgusting minivan?”

 “Yeah, the chariot. Anyway, I have it in there because Roman was driving.”

Logan frowned at the thought, knowing that the man often bragged about having a lead foot while driving. Virgil just shrugged and hoisted his bag over his shoulder, shaking the salt container as he went out the door.

 “Hey, we both made it to the office in one piece, it’s all good. Moving on, we should probably do the intro before we leave the house. Get at least one shot with decent lighting.”

“Ah, yes, that is a good idea – do you wish to hold the camera or should I?” Logan locked the door behind him, making sure the spare key hadn’t been moved in case he misplaced his set.

“I’ll film, whenever you try to do anything in selfie mode you trim off half our heads.” Virgil threw his bag in the trunk and moved over to the passenger side door.

 “Why is it whenever we go anywhere in i car you refuse to drive, Virgil?”

 “If you didn’t leave your car at the university this weekend, we would’ve taken yours. And driving makes me anxious.”

 “Then why do you own a car?” It was a question Logan asked frequently, and never got a satisfying answer to.

 “I have a car because I’m too lazy to skateboard everywhere.”

  Logan rolled his eyes, and slipped into the car, taking the keys from the lanky man. He tied his hair back into a ponytail and motioned to Virgil to start filming.

 “Sup everyone, we still need an official video intro so keep sending in ideas. And I’m sure that you read the title, so y’all know we’re going on a ghost hunt today.”

 “Please, Virgil, don’t make it a clickbait title. Please don’t hurt me like that.”

 “I do what I want, nerd.” Logan groaned and started the engine as Virgil continued to talk, only interrupting to correct the brand name and to offer his stance when Virgil asked if he believed in ghosts. Despite his easy tone, though, Virgil seemed tense and his shoulders were drawn up close.

 The drive was by no means a long one, but by the time they finally reached the old house, Virgil had somehow managed to go through his entire playlist, having skipped each song after one or two measures. Logan found it annoying but said nothing, as he could see Virgil gripping his stress ball out of the corner of his eye.

This wouldn’t end well.

***

 “Logan, Logan it turned the flashlight on please, please tell me there’s a logical explanation for that!”

“I don’t know! Maybe it’s a faulty battery, or… or the switch isn’t fully on so it’s flipping between its off and on mode!”

 “OH MY GOD IT’S MOVING!”

 There’s a high-pitched scream, and the sound of footsteps retreating. The recording cuts to Virgil’s camera and shows Logan sprinting away as fast as he can.

 “YOU COWARD, DON’T LEAVE ME HERE! LOGAN!”

***

 “So, this is the place – leave it to Roman to pick a fucking mansion.”

 “Yes, well, I would expect no less from him. The Victorian style is quite breathtaking, despite it’s less than perfect condition.” Logan was leaning against the car, cleaning his glasses. Virgil shifted from foot to foot and fiddled with the straps on his bag.

“Do we really have to go in? We could just tell Roman there was like, a cop here or something, and he of all people should know that trespassing on private property doesn’t end well.”

 “I do not believe breaking and entering the theatre to steal a prince costume is quite the same, Virgil, and Roman would find that story compelling. No, we would have to mention that the officer was angered by our intent to enter a condemned area – we would at least have Patton on our side with that.”

 “Please don’t remind me of how unsafe this is. Not while I’m holding the car keys.”

 “You won’t drive anywhere.”

“At this point, self-preservation would let me do anything.” Virgil sighed and threw the keys at Logan. “Just hold on to these – don’t think you want me driving off without ya.”

 Logan hummed in agreement, pocketing the keys as he walked towards the front door. By the time he reached the porch, he looked back to Virgil who still hadn’t moved. Logan gestured towards the door.

 “Okay! Fine! But if something happens, this is all on you and your ego!”

 “If I recall correctly, you were the one who wanted to come here.”

 “Well, I changed my mind. C’mon, let’s just get this over with. Camera’s rolling.”

***

 “Logan, this isn’t funny!” The camera picks up a breeze from Virgil’s jacket as he sprints in the direction he thinks Logan went, his cries ignored.

The camera shifts suddenly, and we come face to face with the man himself. Virgil had stopped running and is standing in the front room.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I wish I was back in Logan’s basement listening to him rant about Mothman again.” He sighs, putting his free hand behind his head. “I’d rather listen to him confess his undying love for the thing than be here, choking on dust.

 “But! Instead, I let Roman win – which, by saying that, I feel nauseous – and now we’re here running around a death maze. There’s a ton of rusty nails and if we get cut on those we aren’t gonna get to a hospital in time. I think I saw a bat earlier? And where there’s bats, there’s disease-carrying mosquitoes. Not to mention those jacked up stairs.” The camera focuses on a flight of rotted stairs, the floorboards broken and, in some spots, missing altogether.

 “Yeah, stairs aren’t supposed to be bouncy. I’m just-I’m just gonna call Patton and see if he knows what to do from here.”

***

“I think there’s more dust in here than in Aunt Patty’s attic, and that’s saying something.”

 The house was older than anything the two had ever seen, and there was a fine film of filth covering every available surface. Logan couldn’t help but notice the numerous cobwebs and think of Patton – specifically, how much the man would hate being around so many.

  “Hey, do you, uh…” Virgil moved his flashlight over to one of the webs and stuttered out a few more false starts. “Do you think any of the spiders who made those things are, like, poisonous?”

 “If there are any venomous spiders, they will not bite you unless you give them a reason. They cannot eat you, so there is no purpose in wasting their venom on a large creature like you.” This seemed to calm the taller man down, and Logan moved over to the staircase.

 “Hey, don’t go up those, nerd, I already checked them. They’re not safe – the wood’s so rotted it’s squishy and soft.” Logan nodded and made a mental note to locate a different way upstairs.

The two continued to look around for a while longer, not finding anything remotely interesting. After about half an hour of quiet observation, Virgil suggested they started filming, claiming that the sooner they wrapped this up, the sooner they could drive away and never come back.

 “Salutations, class-”

“Logan, you’re boring.”

 “I am talking like I normally do, Virgil, how else should I speak? Like Roman, perhaps?”

 “God, no, please. Anything but that.”

“Well, in that case – greetings one and all! We’ve finally arrived at our grand destination and have been parading around the grounds for a few hours!”

 “I will throw this salt at you.”

 “Little grains of salt are no match for a prin- oof!”

 “I told you I would.”

 “You threw the entire container at me! Like a savage!”

 “What, you can pretend to Roman and I can’t?”

***

“Okay, so calling Patton was a bust. He told me to use the salt like a weapon and I had to tell him I already chucked it at Logan’s face.” Virgil snickers, running a finger under his nose. “That was the best thing to happen today if I’m being honest. Pat didn’t really appreciate it, though.

“Roman was also a wasted call – apparently he’s at some audition and when he answered, well, he just started screaming about newspapers.” Virgil pauses, and we hear something shatter off-screen.

“H-Hello? Demons?” The camera slowly pans across the room, almost making a full circle as even more thumps can be heard. Before it can finish, Virgil screams and drops the camera.

The screen is filled with static.

***

It had been about two hours, and in that time Logan had somehow managed to: find a way upstairs, provoke something into turning that flashlight on, proceed to run upstairs, get lost, and find a new respect for supernatural beliefs.

 “I cannot believe I’m saying this, but I believe in ghosts now.” His words echoed around the attic, unheard by anyone but him and perhaps the mouse he saw earlier. At least, he hoped that’s what it was. He couldn’t stand the thought of sharing space with a rat.

 “I believe in ghosts, so can we stop playing this juvenile game? How on Earth do I get back downstairs?” He waited for an answer as the logical part of his brain scolded him for speaking to thin air.

 He didn’t get one.

“This is ridiculous, I should know better.” He paused and listened again. “If I change my mind and say ghost are not real, will one of you tell me how to get back downstairs?” Logan removed his glasses and began to pace the room. The amount of dirt that had gathered on his frames was astounding – perhaps he had stumbled through a cobweb in his hasty exit.

“Well, what would Patton do in this situation? At present, he may make a joke about his poor eyesight and lack of- ow!” As he spoke, Logan ran into an old china cabinet – it didn’t fall, but he still held his breath as it swayed back and forth.

“Well, that was embarrassing,” Logan whispered, moving to the front to see if anything was inside. He found a few plates and teacups, though none were particularly impressive. If he were Roman or Patton he may have found the painted flowers beautiful, but he wasn’t, and he didn’t. The maroon one rimmed in gold paint did remind him of a set Roman owned, however, and made a mental note to come back for it if there was time.

But first, he had to find his way downstairs and reunite with Virgil.

***

“So, as you may have seen – though I can’t be sure because obviously, I do not know how this will be edited – I was forced to make a hasty, yet calm, retreat from the study.”

The screen cuts to a replay of Logan fleeing the room, and trombones play as he screams. Text pops up and it says “logan lies” in comic sans.

“After my exit, I managed to find my way upstairs and now I am unsure how to get down – much like a cat climbing a tree. But I did stumble across a cabinet full of teacups that I think a friend of mine would enjoy. I have also concluded that there are too many mothballs in this house and I will not cross meeting the Mothman off my bucket list today.”

Logan crosses the room as he paces, chewing on his lip in between sentences. “Despite my own disappointment, I find myself upset the most over being separated from Virgil. I do not believe he is well – I am ashamed to admit that I have only now realized he was suppressing a panic attack as we drove out here.

“To be quite honest, camera, there is a very good chance this footage won’t be posted online. It depends on how Virgil is doing and whether he is okay with releasing footage taken of him during an atta-”

Logan trips and falls into the china cabinet once more, a plate shattering upon impact. The camera swings around to show the floor and a trap door that was slightly ajar. A ladder falls from the floor, designed to be hidden when not in use.

“Well, here is my way down. This ladder does not look up to code,” He steps down on a rung, testing his weight, “but it should hold long enough for me to get down.”  He begins his descent but stops suddenly. Logan moves over to the cabinet and pulls out a teacup, placing it carefully in his bag. His footsteps are heavy and echo as he travels down the ladder.

At the bottom, he screams out Virgil’s name.

 ***

  “Virgil! Virgil, can you hear me?”

Logan shook him hard, but he got no response.

 “Virgil, please, you need to get up. I need to know you are okay.” Logan had spotted him collapsed in the middle of the room and jumped down the ladder as soon as he could, forgoing the last four rungs and sliding over to where Virgil lay.

“Mm, not so loud Logan. My ears are ringing.”

 “Well, I expected that. You must have hit your head when you collapsed – can you tell me if I sound muffled as if I were underwater?”

 “No, everything’s just beyond loud.” Virgil winced as he sat up, Logan taking note of where he grabbed his head.  “Logan, are you okay? You’re crying!”

 A quick swipe at his eye revealed that a few tears had formed and escaped.

 “Well, of course – I am not without a heart, Virgil. The sight of you sprawled out like that was… immensely alarming, to say the very least.” Logan’s breath shuddered, and a few minutes of silence passed between the two, interrupted by an occasional hum from Virgil.

 “The ringing is gone.” The silence was broken, and with its absence came Logan’s ability to breath deeply.

 “That is wonderful, Virgil.” Logan stood up and dusted his jeans off before offering a hand to the other man. “May I ask what circumstances led to you losing consciousness?”

“I don’t know.” Virgil kicks at the floor. “So, don’t ask.”

 “Well, may I share some theories I have developed?”

“Knock yourself out.” Logan winced at the phrase, and Virgil mumbled an apology as he collected his equipment.

 “Virgil, I knew you were edging toward a panic attack on the way here – so I would like to start by offering a sincere apology for not saying anything sooner.”

    “Don’t. I didn’t tell you, so it’s my fault. I just didn’t want you to worry too much – or to turn around. I know Roman would have given you a hard time if we didn’t film an episode here, so I figured I would just deal.”

 “As I have told you many times, there is no ‘dealing’ with these situations alone in our friendship. Regardless, I knew you were not okay and didn’t say anything.”

 “God, Logan, can’t you let me blame myself for once? At least let me share the blame.”

“Fine, we shall share at your insistence. Moving on, I believe the building panic caused you to experience an irregular breathing pattern. I deduce that the lack of oxygen led to you losing-”

“No. You’re wrong.”

 “I beg your pardon? You just told said you did not know what happened how can you say I am wrong?”

 “Because it’s embarrassing, okay?! Damnit, Logan, it’s embarrassing how bad this attack was and how ridiculous my shit brain makes me react.” Virgil strode away, and out of the room, calling over his shoulder.

“Just help me film some stuff so people don’t know that the passing out act was real. I’ll lay down over there, and just… I dunno we’ll improvise.”

“Is it wise to publish this footage? Roman and his teasing be damned, it is more important that you are okay, Virgil! These cameras likely have footage of you panicking and us arguing! Are a few views really worth it?”

“Yes, because I wanted this episode! I put the poll on Twitter, not Roman, okay? So please, let’s film something stupid, make the whole thing look staged, and leave.”

 “Virgil-”

 “Please, Logan.”

 “No.” Logan crossed his arms and stood up straight. He was taller than Virgil, and his glare was cold enough to give Virgil goosebumps.

 “I’m sorry, ‘no’? Oh, so now you say no! Not when I asked to come here, not when I asked for demons to turn a flashlight, not when-”

“Virgil, stop this. You are behaving in an immature manner and this needs to stop. How was I supposed to know that you wanted me to tell you ‘no’? I am not a mind reader, so you cannot blame your poor communication skills on my inability to instantly know what you want.”

Virgil said nothing. He glared at Logan and sat down on the floor, eventually inviting him to do the same. They sat there for a while, as both needed time to calm down before speaking.

 After what felt like an eternity later, Virgil finally spoke up.

“I’m gonna start, but you need to let me finish before you cut in, okay?” Logan nodded, and Virgil took a deep breath. “I wanted to film at a haunted house because I knew we would get way more views than we normally do.

 “I thought, hey! More views means more add revenue – and yes, I know it’s not a lot – but with that extra money, we could start building up the funds to rent an apartment. I’m sick of living with my parents, Logan, and I know you are too.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Virgil, but I would rather endure a few more years with them than have you hurting for the sake of loose change.”

 “Yeah, well. What’s done is done, I guess.” Virgil sighed and leaned over on Logan. “I lied, you know. I do know why I passed out earlier.” He sighed and buried his nose into Logan’s shoulder.

“I will not deny that I want to know why, Virgil, but I do not want you to share if you are uncomfortable.”

 “Heh, well, maybe you’ll learn something new – did you know that anxiety can make you see hallucinations? Specifically, when the fight or flight stuff kicks in?” Logan raises an eyebrow but remains silent. “When the, uh, the – instinct, for lack of better word – kicks in, your pupils dilate.

 “And when that happens, the sudden light change can cause a person – like me – to see shadows and figures at the edge of my vision.”

 “Fascinating – but I assume this is a rare situation and does not happen to you often?”

“No, it doesn’t. But it did when… did you break something upstairs? Because something shattered, there was a lot of thumping, and then they just- appeared. I think that made me panic even more, and then yes – the lack of oxygen probably did the rest.”

“Ah, yes, I fell into a cabinet of china, and I believe a plate was shattered. I apologize for my involvement.”

“Nah, no worries about that. It was just shoddy circumstances. And,” Virgil looked up, offering a weak grin to Logan, “As cheesy as it sounds, we are probably a bit closer than we were before this whole trip.”

“You are right, that is extremely cliché. I appreciate the sentiment, however, despite how infuriating your statement is. Shall we film the ending of this video, now?”

Virgil snorted, pushing himself up using Logan’s shoulder.

“Yeah, let’s this thing wrapped up.”

 ***

  “Virgil! Virgil, please get up!” Logan is frantically shaking Virgil’s shoulder, his voice wobbly. The camera has been left on after being discarded in a hurry.

“Logan… Logan no, don’t- don’t go in the closet.”

 “I spent ten years in the closet, I have no intention of going back in.” Logan sniffs as he speaks, and Virgil gasps awake, shooting upward.

“Huh? Wait, what happened? …Why would you go back in the closet?”              

 “You said not to go in there – what happened to you?”

 “I don’t- I don’t remember. There was a- I think I saw something, Logan. A shadow, maybe?”

 “You must have seen my shadow as I came down the ladder.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Virgil pauses and stares at a spot on the wall behind Logan. “Where is the ladder you came down?”

 “To your left.” Logan gestures with his head as he hoists Virgil to his feet.

 “That means it couldn’t have been your shadow. The light wouldn’t have hit you correctly to cast a shadow over there.” Virgil points to a closet off to the side of the ladder. “Besides, the shadow didn’t look… well not to be cliché, but it didn’t look human.”

“Preposterous.” Logan has moved over to the camera, and the screen goes black as he picks it up. A few moments later, it’s aimed at Virgil as he talks about what he saw in detail.

“…and it had, well they weren’t horns per say, but they were definitely not something that’s on your head, nerd. But, whatever,” Virgil rolls his eyes, “I can tell you don’t believe me. Let’s just get out of here.”

  Logan hums in agreement, and the screen goes black.

 ***

  “Goodbye, murder house, see you never!”

 “Well, this footage is unusable.”

 “Wait, why?”

 “I am not ending the video with you flipping off an old house.” Logan sighed and turned the camera off. Virgil pouted and turned to finish packing the equipment into his car.

“Hey, I know what I’mma call this video. ‘Logan finds a body’!” Virgil spread his arms out in emphasis, narrowly missing Logan’s face in the process.

 “That is absolutely morbid, Virgil, and uncharacteristically short.” Logan shut the trunk with a slam and fished the keys out of his bag as Virgil moved to the front seat.

 “Yeah, no, it’ll have emojis in it, the vlog title of course, and-”

  “By chance, will it be the proper title?” The car started with a roar, and the two were met with a blast of warm air. Virgil scrambled to open his window and Logan quickly shut off the air flow. “Because the channel is called ‘VergeofDiscovery’, not the childish pun Patton came up with.”

 “The Theory of Real-Activity is an amazing name, and I will fight you on this. You’re just jealous that you didn’t come up with it.”

 “Falsehood!”

 “Keep telling yourself that, nerd. Pass me the aux cord.”

The drive home was lighter than the last one – Virgil never once changed the music and the two could be heard screaming along as they flew down the road. The stress ball remained in the cup holder, untouched until the next big adventure.

[buckyscrystalqueen]

Half Blood, Whole Heart: Part 26

Pairings: Jax x Reader, sister Winchester!reader- SOA/SPN Crossover

Warnings: Swearing, fluff, angst, murder (sort of SOA canon), character torture. This part is a little dirty, y’all.

Word Count: 5,000

A/N: So I decided to repost my novel- the story that someone stole from my old blog and put up on Wattpad. PLEASE don’t be an asshole and steal my stories. It CRUSHED me when it happened and almost ran me off Tumblr.

Half Blood, Whole Heart Masterlist    Aesthetic by @ravenangel33​

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Jax pulled into your driveway, bringing you and your newborn son home from the hospital, you saw Crowley waiting for you on the porch.

“Wonder what he wants.” Jax said as he pulled the SUV the two of you had recently bought toward the garage.

“Welcome home his new nephew, possibly. He didn’t swing by the hospital at all.” Jax shrugged as you zipped your jacket up, grabbed the strap of the diaper bag and got out of the car.

“Welcome home, kitten. I trust you’re feeling well?” You looked up at him as Jax grabbed the car seat and nodded.

“Good as I can be after 18 hour labor.” He nodded slightly as the two of you walked up the steps.

“Finally settle on a name?” He asked as he looked at your son. Jax nodded as he held the car seat up a little higher.

“We did just this morning. After 9 months of debates, we decided on John Filip after our fathers and a good friend from Charming.” You smiled at the choices you had agreed on and went to take a step toward the door to get out of the snow and freezing cold but Crowley put his hand out in front of you.

“Love the meaning behind the names. I have some business to discuss with the pair of you quickly. This ‘Juice’ character has been dealt with.” He said as he pulled out a folder from his coat pocket and handed it to Jax. “Painful and messy; proof is there. The message that it was from SAMCRO was given to him and only him. No evidence was left behind.” Jax set down the car seat on the porch and opened the folder. You knew right away what he had found to complete the job.

“Werewolf?” You asked as you looked up at him and he nodded with a laugh.

“Can’t get anything past a Winchester. Now, as for Clay and Gemma. Getting hellhounds into a prison is not difficult for me to do; however, I know both of you would love to be the ones behind the bullet, so to speak.” You and your husband both nodded slowly.

“Where are you going with this.” Jax asked. Crowley smiled and chuckled.

“Using the werewolf gave me an idea I think you would both find pleasurable. Shape shifters.” The concept clicked in your head and a giant smile spread across your face.

“Can you pull it off?” You asked excitedly. Crowley’s smile dropped and he looked at you with mock annoyance.

“Really, darling; must you insult me?”

“So what, you’d put shape shifters in the cells that look like Clay and Gemma and bring the real people to us?” Jax asked and Crowley nodded.

“And kill off the shape shifters immediately with hell hounds so they can’t shift into someone else.” You and Jax looked at each other for only a second before looking back at Crowley.

“Do it.” You said simultaneously.

“Wonderful. Get settled in; I’ll be round in an hour. I’ll call first so Lyla can distract Thomas.” You nodded as Crowley bent down, snapped a little teddy bear into his hand and tucked it into the carseat beside your sleeping son. “A gift from Uncle Ree, little John.” He stood up and smiled at the newborn before disappearing.

“Talk about a welcome home present.” Jax said as he picked up the car seat and headed inside.

“Now the fun question is how are we gunna do it? We’re home!” You called out; receiving a screech from your son from upstairs. The two year old ran as fast as he could to the gate to wait for you to come up.

“Is that my brudder?” He asked as he wrapped his little hands around the banisters and looked down at you.

“That’s your brother. Did you tell Uncle Opie and Aunt Lyla what his name is?” You asked as you headed up the stairs, even though they already knew. Your oldest son looked up at Ope and Lyla with a big grin.

“That’s my brudder, John. I’m big brudder now.” He said proudly as he stepped away from the gate to let you and Jax through.

“John Filip. Spelt the way Chibs spells it.” You said as the five of you headed toward your room.

“I picked Filip, She picked the spelling.” Jax said as you sat down on the far side of the bed. Opie put Thomas up next to you as Jax put the car seat on the bed. “So we ran into Crowley on the porch.” He told your friends as he picked his tiny son up proudly.

“Yea, he was here for a little bit before you got home. Said he needed to run something by you.” Lyla said as Jax gently handed her his youngest.

“Yea and he gave me this.” Jax said as he handed Opie the folder. “Proof of delivery of Juan Ortiz.” Ope’s eyebrows flew too his hair line as he opened the folder and leafed through the photos.

“This is brutal.” He said as he handed Jax back the folder.

“He was given the message that it was from the MC and got what he deserved.” Jax said as he walked over and put the folder in the top drawer of his dresser so it could be put in the safe in the basement later. “He also had an idea.” He sat down on his side of the bed and Opie and Lyla sat down at the end.

“So he is gunna get some shape shifters and drop them in… the other hit’s cells.” You said as you glanced down at your son, knowing that he would recognize his grandparent’s names. Jax did the same and continued in code.

“He’s gunna bring the real marks here so they can meet Mr. Mayhem in person and he’s gunna send in the mutts to clean up the other end so they can’t give it away.”

“When?” Ope asked as Lyla passed him your son to hold for a bit.

“Hour; before the boys get here. So Lyla if you don’t mind distracting…?” You said and she nodded vigorously. 

“Absolutely. I’m not good with… stuff.” You smiled as Thomas got up and walked over to Opie.

“Can I have my brudder now?” He said as he put his hands on his hips. Ope smiled as Jax reached out and grabbed his son by the sides.

“What do you say?” He asked his son as he pulled him to sit back against the pillows. Ope passed John to you as your oldest sighed.

“Pwease.” You smiled as you laid John in Thomas’ arms with Jax’s help. You smiled as you looked at the two little loves of your life.

“Wait, I wanna get a picture. Don't look up at me stay just like that.” Lyla said as she jumped off the bed to stand at the end. You stayed put with a smile on your face until you heard the click.

“Alright, let me see.” You said as you reached out for your friends phone. She handed it over with a smile. You leaned back against the pillows as Jax leaned over behind Thomas to look and your heart instantly melted. 

Both of you were looking down at Thomas and John. You had your hand on top of Thomas’ resting on John’s side and Jax had one hand on Thomas’ shoulder and the other on John’s head. Some of Jax’s blonde hair was hanging in his face and you could honestly say you had never seen him look that happy before.

“God, you’re so beautiful.” Jax said as he looked away from the picture to look up at you. You looked over at him and smiled as you handed Lyla her phone back.

“You happy?” You asked as you pushed the fallen strands back behind his ear.

“Never been happier, babe.” He leaned forward and gave you a chaste kiss before sitting back and looking at his sons.

“Just call us when you’re ready.” Ope said softly as he ushered his wife out of the room.

“I want one.” She told him softly and you giggled as you looked at your boys.

—— 

“So the boys are three hours out and Crowley is on his way. We’re all set on my end.” You said as you stepped out on the back porch and laid your mug of hot chocolate on the arm of your chair. You looked at Opie, who was building a small fire in the fire pit you had pulled up onto the porch and gave him a small nod before looking over at Jax. You could see that he only partially heard what you had said just by the look on his face. He wanted revenge and you could tell he was almost excited to get it. He leered down at the porch railing at the various tool and weapons he had there; plotting and planning the demise of Clay and Gemma.

“Lyla has Tommy in his room watching ‘Aladdin’ . She’ll call me if the baby wakes up.” You nodded at him as you heard the settling of chairs in the snow in front of you.

“Baby? What baby?” Gemma’s voice called out. You looked up toward the sound. Hate, rage and joy filled your heart as you looked at your two in-laws, tied to chairs in your backyard and an evil smile crossed your face.

“No. See, you don’t get to ask questions about my children, ‘mom’.” You sneered as you walked to the edge of the porch. “You lost that chance months ago when you tried to have it killed.” She looked at you, shocked and put on an act of offense.

“What?! I did nothing…”

“Don’t lie!” Jax growled at her as you pulled your your gun from the small of your back and fired a shot through the meaty part of her left arm. Her cry of agony echoed with the shot over your property as you walked down the stairs to stand in front of her.

“See, Gemma. Here’s the deal. We all know you are lying right now. After all, you did sign off on JT’s murder all those years ago…” Tears filled her eyes as they shot up to her son on her porch. Jax simply glared at her with a look of pure hate and disgust. 

“Jackson…I-I didn’t…”

“Save it.” You told her as you crouched down in front of her. “He read the letters; all of them. You were right to have been worried about them.” She glared back down at you with all the hate she had. You simply smiled, raised your gun and pointed it at her face. 

“Oh, I know what you must be thinking. ‘You did this to take my babies away, you stupid gash.’ But I gotta say, that’s only partially true. You see, I never wanted to take him away from you. I would never, ever purposely hurt my husband and my family like that by just showing him letters that showed what kind of mother you are. But you kinda forced my hand, Gem. Because you made me show him those letters… after he saw the video of you trying to make a deal with a demon to kill his wife and unborn child, I had no choice.” Her face dropped and you laughed. 

“Yea, he saw that too. He also heard the voicemail that Clay left for the cartel assassin to have him killed.” You said as you glanced over at you father-in-law. He kept looking forward but he tightened his hands into fists as you got up and stood in front of him. “Just so you know, that 30k bought us a new car, so thanks for that.”

“What do you want?!” Gemma shouted. You giggled and walked back over to her with a shake of your head.

“I don’t want anything for you. You’ve already given me what I want.” You told her as you pulled the collar of your shirt down and tapped your gun against your crow. “Now, I would love to stay and chat; maybe show off a little something I learned in the eight years I spent in hell but my cocoa is getting cold and… well, no one likes cold cocoa.” You smiled as you fired another bullet into the fatty part of her right arm and looked up at Crowley who was standing behind the two of them.

“Photo evidence of the other half of this transaction are on their way. Anything else?” He said over Gemma’s sobs. You gave him a short nod and gestured to the two prisoners with your gun.

“Can you put a heater down here or something? Don’t want to lose them to the weather. And their voices; well, my kids don’t need to hear them so we could do without those as well.” Crowley nodded as you headed back up to the porch. You stopped in front of Jax, who you knew was only seeing red as he looked at the two people who had raised him. “They are all yours. You got about two hours.” He finally looked at you with a slight look of confusion.

“You’re not taking her?” You shook your head and cupped his cheek in your gloved palm.

“No, baby. She only tried to kill me. She actually killed your dad. That’s your revenge to take. I get mine by watching her suffer.”

“Fuck, you’re just as secretly twisted as I am.” He said as he gave you a chaste kiss and grabbed a pair of pliers. “Let me know when I’m running out of time.” You nodded as you pulled off your gloves and walked over to the fire place. You sat down on the edge of you chair next to Ope to warm up as Jax dropped his winter jacket on the porch and headed down the steps.

“I was hoping to see what you had learned in hell.” Crowley said as he snapped a seat on your other side.

“Yea, well it’s not my revenge to take. Beside’s that, I’m not big into the torture game, anyways unless I’m trying to get information.” You picked up your mug, sat back in your chair and smiled over at the King of Hell. “That and it’s more fun to torture demons. You guys are human shaped glow sticks.” You smiled into your mug and Crowley chuckled as a demon appeared with a folder similar to the one the pictures of Juice came in.

“Yes, well I would appreciate if you wouldn’t torture my demons for the light show, kitten.” He said as he flipped through the photos before handing it over to you. “Now, I have some other business to take care of. You have a pair of guards out front and this one will be stationed roughly an hour away. He will let you know when Sam and Dean are close and they will clean up any mess you need them too.” You smiled at him as he stood up and looked down at you. He hesitated just a little longer than usual and a wave of unease washed over you.

“Shit… what?” His eyebrows arched and he shook his head as he bent down to kiss your cheek.

“Nothing, darling. Simply… admiring your radiant glow.” He disappeared and you shook your head.

“What was that?” Ope asked.

“I don’t know.” You said as you looked at the empty chair left next to you.

“You don’t think he would turn us in…?” He inquired nervously. You shook your head and looked over at your friend.

“No. He sees the boys as his family which means we are his family. He won’t betray us. That look…” you said gesturing to where he had been standing moments before. “… means something is wrong with one of my brothers or there is a supernatural problem. He feels guilty he can’t warn me.” 

“Why can’t he warn you?” You sighed and took a sip of your drink, letting the hot liquid warm you from the inside in the below freezing temperature.

“I told him not to. I’m not a hunter anymore, Ope. I know me well enough to know that if I knew about all the evils my brothers were facing every day, I would want to help. I won’t do that to my family. I won’t let my sons be raised the way I was… I can’t. We just got them some semblance of normal getting out of Charming, I’m not gunna throw them back into chaos if I can avoid it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Jax asked as he walked up the steps. He dropped a few tools in a bloody pile at the top of the stairs and grabbed his pack of cigarettes.

“Something’s going on with Sam and Dean and I was just tellin’ Ope why I won’t dig into it.” Jax, knowing your reasoning already, handed you the now blood covered pack of smokes.

“Light me one, babe.” He said as he put his Zippo on the arm of the chair before showing you the blood covering his latex glove covered hands. “Well, boys will be here in a few hours, you can ask them if you want.” You shook your head as you held the lit cigarette up to him. He bit it between his teeth while you lit one for yourself.

“Nope, I know myself too well for that. I’ll either hear about it when it gets too extreme or when it’s all done.” You took a long drag of the first cigarette you had in nine month and sighed. “God, you two have no idea how good that tastes.” The men chuckled as Jax collected more tools and his knife from the railing.

“We spent time in prison, we know.” Ope said. You shook your head and looked over at him as you pointed at him with the smoke.

“You have no idea. People don’t smoke around you in prison. I’ve been around you assholes smoking every day for the last 9 months. That’s like the cock tease to end all cock teases right there.”

“No, babe. The cock tease to end all is how we got our newest addition.” Jax said around his cigarette through grit teeth. He stopped at the top of the steps with a smirk. “So it serves you right.”

“You got another kid out of it and a cute one at that!” You called out to him as he headed back down the stairs. You looked up at the bloody mess in front of you and sighed. “I hope this gives him the closure he needs.” You said softly as you watched your husband take a screw driver and slam it into Clay’s knee. Clay’s face contorted and he opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. You glanced at Gemma who was silently sobbing as she watched her husband and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes.

“It will. This is how Jax gets his closure.” You nodded at your friend as you took another drag off your smoke. You remained quiet for the rest of the two hours as Jax went back and forth inflicting the pain he felt fit the personal crimes the Morrow’s had committed against him and his family. 

Jax used every tool in his arsenal; from knives to common household tools, salt and bleach. Alternating back and forth from offender to offender; more Clay then Gemma. Sometimes he spoke; voicing the dark thoughts in his mind or happy family memories he shared with his son or real father. Every word maliciously chosen to inflict as much damage as the bleeding wounds and open holes on the bodies. He never once gave them the satisfaction of knowing the gender or name of his youngest child.

You couldn’t look away; like a car accident that was careening out of control. You didn’t notice Opie get up and head inside or the demon that popped in at the beginning of the second hour to check on progress. You couldn’t feel the cold seeping into your bones as the fire died down. All you could focus on was how much pain your husband was in because of the family members that tried to take everything from him.

“Mrs. Teller?” A small, male voice said as Jax was standing over Clay’s dead body. The mutilated flesh looked so foreign against the crisp white snow that surrounded the rest of the backyard. The blood that pooled at your husband’s feet had started to freeze long ago. You forced yourself to look away; taking a moment to realize it was the first time you had moved a muscle in over two hours. You nodded as a young, black eyed man stepped over at you. “Sam Winchester just past the hour away mark.” You nodded as you went to look back at Jax before the demon’s words permeated the fog you appeared to be in.

“Wait, just Sam?” The demon nodded and you stood up. “Alright, thanks.” You said as you cracked your neck and back. “Jax, time to wrap up.” He nodded as he looked back at his mother. His chest, now bare and blood splattered, heaved from the adrenaline that had coursed through him. He pulled out the gun in the small of his back and cocked it. You stood up with a sigh as the Glock shook in his hand. Gemma, a fighter like she always was, tried to look up at her son and you could see the resolve in Jax break. With a small sigh, you stepped off the porch and walked over at him. As gently as you could, you wrapped your hand around his and took the gun. He looked up at you and you gave him a small nod. “I got it.”

“Together.” He said as he shifted to stand behind you, holding your hand and the gun in his hand. He slipped his finger over yours on the trigger as you aimed the gun at Gemma. She looked up at the two of you and with the smallest nod and a single tear, you squeezed the trigger as Jax’s simply hovered in place. You both stood there for a moment, saying good bye to a huge part of you life before you turned toward Jax.

“Let’s get you inside and cleaned up, baby.” He put his wrist under your chin and tiled your head up to look at him. As you searched his tear filled blue eyes, his own searching yours with so many various emotions, you took a deep breath and brushed his blood stained blonde hair back behind his ear. “I know.” He pulled you in for hug, holding you tight as he buried his face in your neck. You could feel his tears falling on your skin and your heart broke for him. The two of you stayed there until the cold finally got to him and you pulled yourself back. 

“Go get cleaned up, baby. Sam is an hour out. Leave your sneakers and your jeans at the top of the basement stairs so I can get the blood out. I’ll be up in a second.” He nodded as he ripped off the latex gloves and cupped your cheeks in his hands.

“I love you so fucking much, (Y/N). I’ll never let anyone hurt you or our boys.” You smiled as you reached between his arms and brushed his tears away with your thumbs.

“I love you too, baby. So much more than I could ever put into words.” He nodded in agreement as he pulled you in for a gentle kiss. After a moment, he pulled back and sighed. With one final glance down at Gemma and Clay, he crinkled his nose slightly and spit on the ground between their heads. Without another word, he headed into the house to get cleaned up. 

“I have a list of the shit he used, please clean the blood off it all and give everything to Crowley to return.” You said to the demon that was still standing on the porch as you gathered all of your husband’s blood covered clothes to bring down to the basement. “Make sure that there is no blood left in the snow or on the porch and I want photos of this.” The man nodded at you as you grabbed your forgotten cocoa mug, the folder of pictures of the shape shifters to add to the safe and the pack of cigarettes.

“Burn or bury the bodies?” He asked as you opened the door. You glanced back and scoffed.

“Burn them in the fires of hell where they belong. Crowley got the souls as payment for this.”

——

“We named him John.” You said softly as you laid your newborn son gently in your brother’s arms. “After dad and Jax’s dad. Birthday is November 14th.”

“I like it.” Sam said as he settled back against the couch. “I know he would like that, too.” He smiled down at his nephew, his dimples visible a mile away as Thomas climbed up next to him.

“That’s my brudder, Unca Sam.” He said as he kneeled on the couch. Your brother chuckled and ruffled your son’s hair.

“Yea he is kiddo, and you’re gunna be the best big brother ever, aren’t you?” Thomas nodded as Jax strolled into the room, his wet hair slicked back and beads of water glistening on his bare chest. He had been in the shower for nearly an hour and you knew him well enough to know that that was his was of decompressing the heavy shit he had dealt with that day.

“He looks like (Y/N).” Your husband claimed as he sat down on the arm rest of the couch next to you. He put his hand on your back in-between your shoulder blades.

“I can see it. It’s funny that the boys are the exact opposite on who they look like.” Sam said as he looked up at you. “Tommy looks like Jax with your eyes and vice versa for John.” You nodded as you rested your arm on Jax’s leg.

“See I see Jax in both boys,” you said as you looked at your sons. “but I guess that’s just a mom thing.” Sam nodded in agreement and the room fell silent. You glanced up at your husband for a moment and almost as if he could read your mind, he nodded.

“Hey son, why don’t you go see if Aunt Lyla needs help with dinner? It would help mommy out a lot.” Thomas, who loved cooking with Lyla, practically flew off the couch toward the kitchen while calling out her name. You rubbed your husband’s knee and took a deep breath as Sam looked up at you.

“I don’t wanna know what, I just wanna know if he’s OK?” Sam sighed as he put his ankle on his knee and ran his free hand through his long brown hair.

“He’s…sick.” You sighed as you rested your elbows on your knees.

“I’m guessing it’s not the kinda sick Cas can just zap away either?” Your brother shook his head slowly and looked down at John to avoid eye contact.

“Crowley and Dean got themselves in a sticky situation but we’re handling it. We are at the point where we even have Crowley’s witch mother involved.”

“Oh shit…” You groaned as you got up from the couch. You walked over to the fireplace, fighting against your natural instincts to find out more. “How’s that working out for you?” Sam huffed a laughed and looked up at you with a half mouth smirk.

“I spend half my days in Scotland and half my days in England listening to one squawk about the other. How do you think it’s going?” You rolled your eyes in sheer annoyance and smiled.

“Serves you idiots right, gettin’ in way above your pay grade.” You looked over at Jax, tossing the next question around in your head but Sam cut your thought off at the knees.

“I won’t tell you even if you ask.” You looked over at him curiously and he shook his head. “You’re my best friend, (Y/N), I know that look. You’re out and I’m keeping you out. You got two boys, a husband, a job and a house. I won’t let you come back for this. We’ve dragged you through enough… I’ve got this one. It’s not pretty, harder than what we have seen before but not impossible.” The two of you looked at each other for a moment, having a silent conversation that could reach the greatest depths of the oceans with just micro face expressions. With a sigh, you threw your hands up and sighed.

“Fine… just bring him back in one piece, OK?” Sam nodded as Thomas came running back in the room.

“Nn-t Ly says it dinner time.” You smiled at your little boy as Jax jumped off the couch.

“Dinner time?! It’s dinner time?!” He exclaimed as he picked your son up, and threw him over his shoulder. You heard your son burst into a fit of giggles as Jax blew a raspberry on his side and headed into the dining room. You looked over at Sam.

“Do I need to be worried about the issues behind why De is sick.” Your brother shook his head as he got up and met you half way with John.

“We got it all handled already. Just trying to dig out of the grave we dug and staying out of the grave at the end of the day.” You looked up at your brother and sighed before you rolled your eyes and headed toward the dining room.

“Crowley was right. You two are flannel clad morons sometimes.”

Part 27