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creampuffqueen · 3 years

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Getaway Car - Cresswell, TLC Shipweeks 2021 (Criminal AU)

a/n: Hello!!!! TLC fandom! It's been quite a while since I did anything for y'all! But here I am, back from the dead, with an unholy amount of one single fic for the ship weeks. I was going to post this yesterday, since that was Cresswell's AU day (I think, I wasn't originally planning to post anything so I wasn't keeping track, but I listened to Taylor Swift's song Getaway Car and got a Vision) but sadly my ideas were too large to complete in one day! So take this now!

Word Count: 13142 (yes, I know)

Summary: In an alternate universe, Cress and Thorne are partners in crime, literally. They may also be in love with each other, literally.

Warnings: Contains mentions of guns, violence, underage drinking, cursing, and a lot of crime

~~~~

“Cress, you got me?” Thorne’s voice crackled over the speaker of the burner phone, right into the waiting ears of the person he needed most.

His getaway car, Cress Darnel.

“Loud and clear!” She replied, twisting the key in the ignition of the old car. The engine roared to life under her touch, and the young woman sped out of the alleyway. “Keep going, I’ll be there. You know what to do.”

“We’ve done this almost a dozen times; I know what to do!”

The blonde cracked a grin to herself, “Sure you do. You’d be lost without me.”

“You got that right! See you in two! Mwah!” With that last endearment, the line went dead, and Cress chucked the cell phone out the window with an exasperated smile. She was parked close enough that the rendezvous spot only took her one minute, sixteen seconds to reach.

Timing was of the utmost importance to this mission. Even a few seconds too late and everything would end.

This was proven approximately thirty-eight seconds later, when Carswell Thorne, renowned criminal, tore around the corner, half-zipped duffel bag slung over a shoulder. He had a gun, but both he and Cress knew it wasn’t loaded, it was just for show.

The doors were unlocked, the car had a full tank of gas, and Cress was a very good driver. “Floor it!” Thorne shouted, and Cress didn’t have to be told twice.

When the police arrived, approximately twenty-two seconds later, they, and all evidence, were long gone.

~~~~

After an hour of driving, it was getting dark. Thorne discreetly hotwired a new car in a full supermarket parking lot, and the duo was on their way.

Another hour of driving, and Thorne took over the controls from the younger woman, letting her nap in the passenger seat. She curled up in a little ball, so small she didn’t even stick out of the seat. When she was fast asleep with her cheek squished against the window, Thorne finally risked a glance over to his partner.

It was strange to think they’d only known each other for a few months. Well, six months, two weeks, and five days, to be exact.

He’d tried to stop himself from keeping count. It hadn’t worked. Six months, two weeks, and five days of Cress Darnel being in his life.

It was about nine o’clock, so the traffic was beginning to thin a bit. They were in one of the busiest parts of the city, easy to blend in with their average-looking car. Someone honked behind him, and Thorne gave a glance in his rearview mirror. Whoops.

The day had been long and exhausting. Time to start working on a place to hunker down for the night. Cress shifted a bit in her sleep, and a loud grumble cut through the car. Okay, time to find some food, too.

He drove around the city a bit more, making sure nobody was on their tail, before finally exiting to the more sparsely-populated areas. Where you paid for your room in cash and nobody asked questions.

It was eleven o’clock by the time he finally found someplace suitable enough. He drove through a fast food joint nearby, then finally parked the car. Nudging Cress awake as he exited, he wordlessly passed her the food before heading inside.

Most of the rooms were sold for the night, but they thankfully had one available with two twin beds.

He found Cress devouring her burger like she hadn’t eaten in years. And-

“Hey, fry-stealer!” He chuckled, snatching his bag, “Eat your own!”

She gave him a look with those big blue eyes and something inside him melted. “I already ate mine.”

Thorne rolled his eyes, but passed her a couple more fries anyway. “This means you have to carry your own bag, you know.”

That statement earned him another pout, but he ignored it, instead grabbing his suitcase and the duffel bag containing today’s goods.

He left Cress to her own devices, heading inside the room and grabbing the shower first. His food would be cold, sure, but at least he’d get all the hot water he wanted.

When he came out again, toweling off his hair and rubbing his freshly-shaven face, Cress was inside, passed out on top of her hotel-made bed.

Thorne sighed, but couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed. It was exhausting, having so much brainpower all the time.

He tugged off her shoes, placing them neatly by the bed, in case they needed a quick escape. Then, gently, almost reverently, he tucked her under the covers.

He couldn’t resist. Making sure she was fully asleep, he pressed a soft, tiny kiss on top of her perfect golden hair.

“‘Night, Cress.”

He was fast asleep himself before he heard her reply.

“Goodnight.”

~~~~

The pair made an early departure, before other residents rose from their slumber and possibly compromised their location. Since Thorne had driven for so long yesterday, Cress felt it was only fair that she drove. It was a bit strange, she admitted, usually she was the night owl and he the early bird. But yesterday had been hard. It took a lot of planning to pull it off that smoothly.

By the time the sun rose, the pair was at least an hour away from the motel. Cress got them both coffee at a little roadside place, then pulled off to the side so they could enjoy it.

“You always get my order right,” Thorne chuckled, leaning against her as they sat in the open trunk of the car. “I’ve got a very sensitive palette, you know.”

Cress snorted, “You sure do. That’s just pure sugar in a cup right there.” She took a big gulp of her own brew, which was almost pure espresso.

“I don’t know how you can drink literal dirt water!” Thorne protested, “It’s so nasty!”

Cress bumped his shoulder again, still smiling. He grinned right back at her, before turning his eyes back to the early-morning sun.

“You ever think you’d get to see stuff like this? Do stuff like this?”

Cress could think of a thousand different witty remarks to toss back at him, mostly along the lines of “Being a wanted criminal? Absolutely.”, but for whatever reason, she held her tongue, instead replying, “No. Back then I didn’t even know when I’d see the sun next.”

Thorne turned his blue eyes over to her, squeezing her hand in a silent comfort. This close, she noticed that he’d shaved last night. And was letting his roots grow out again. Her heart sped up, just a bit.

In the six months she’d known him, he’d changed his appearance so often she was losing count. He always did after a heist, no matter how big or small. He dyed his hair, let his beard grow out, or sometimes simply donned a pair of glasses. Cress hadn’t changed hers since the very first.

~~~~

“Hey, blondie, where are you headed?” Cress whipped her head around to the voice that sounded. Rumbling up beside her was a car, front window rolled down, to reveal a young man, only a year or so older than her.

“None of your business,” She responded warily, curling in on herself a bit.

“Are you lost?” The guy continued, “I could give you a ride.”

“Like I’d get in a car with a strange man. That’s, like, begging to be killed.”

The guy looked actually offended at that. “What? I don’t kill people!”

Cress just rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the offer, but no.”

She turned away, hitching her backpack higher. She’d chickened out again. Sybil would be home any minute and she needed to get home. Her pace quickened, and the car and the guy rolled off.

Little did she know, that certainly wasn’t the last she’d see of him.

~~~~

“Alright, let’s see what we’ve got.” Cress pulled the duffel bag of stolen material towards her, beginning to rifle through it while Thorne watched. The late afternoon sun filtered through the window, turning her golden hair into an illusion of fire.

They’d ditched the car yet again, this time nabbing one from a used car parking lot. Now they were in a small town that the highway ran through, alone in a back alley, the only company being an alley cat in the trash and a couple further down that were too caught up in each other to notice anything.

Inside the bag, Cress pulled out treasure after treasure. A lot of cash; Thorne had the employees empty all the registers, and a lot of what Cress needed: Computer parts.

She had an old, run-down laptop, one of the few things taken with her from her previous life in the quiet suburbs. She would have had Thorne steal another laptop, but those were too traceable these days, even if they were brand new.

So manual upgrades it was.

Computers were her specialty, always had been. And now that she was a part of this merry band of two, her computer and her skills were integral parts to everything they did.

As it turned out, the most recent robbery had yielded exactly what she needed, and more. She gave a squeal of delight after unearthing a certain part, hugging it close to her chest.

A little chuckle sounded behind her, and Cress whipped her head around. Thorne was grinning ear-to-ear, the kind of smile that made her face heat up. “Happy, Goldilocks?”

Her face burned, and she twisted her fingers in her shoulder-length locks of hair. But she met his eyes and nodded. “Really happy. This is exactly what I needed.”

Thorne’s smile softened. “Anything for you, Princess.”

And somehow, deep inside her, she knew he was speaking the truth.

~~~~

Cress sprinted along the side of the road, the grass scratching at her bare legs. Her whole head throbbed, and her left wrist was sprained for sure. Every step pulled at the bruising on her stomach, and it was a struggle to keep moving, keep the backpack on her shoulders, keep moving.

“I’m eighteen now, she can’t hurt me anymore. I’m eighteen now, she can’t hurt me anymore,” She murmured over and over to herself, a mantra to keep her sore legs moving. She needed to leave, needed to keep moving.

She risked a glance behind her. Her heart froze.

Car lights were coming up the road. Fast.

Cress started running faster, biting her lip to keep from sobbing, keep from just keeling over and dying right there. She could beat her. She could escape. She just had to keep moving.

It was the middle of the night, there was no way anyone else but Sybil was driving that car. There was nowhere to hide. All she could do was keep going, and hope that maybe she sped right past. It was foolish, but it was all she had.

Her foot slipped into a small dip in the earth, and her whole ankle screamed, sending her toppling into the dirt. Coughing and sputtering, she pushed herself up, stumbling forward. The tears came, fast and hard and unstoppable. The lights were nearly on top of her now.

And that’s when she saw it. Another car, coming towards her. Her last chance.

Cress nearly toppled over herself in her haste, tumbling into the middle of the road, in the path of the incoming car. As expected, it screeched to a stop, the driver slamming on the horn.

“Help!” Cress screamed, as Sybil’s car pulled up behind her, her face illuminated by the other headlights and frozen in fury. “Please help me! She’s going to hurt me!”

“Crescent Moon!” Sybil bellowed, and Cress backed up against the other car. The driver’s door opened. And out stepped the most handsome man Cress had ever seen in her life.

Okay, she was definitely dreaming. She gave herself a tiny pinch.

Maybe not.

The man… he seemed familiar, somehow. She couldn’t quite place it.

“Cress,” Sybil snarled, stomping over, “Get in the car, now.” Her tone left no room for argument. Cress curled in on herself.

“Hey,” The man replied, “Who the hell are you?”

“Her mother.”

“Foster mother,” Cress interjected softly. “And I’m eighteen. You don’t own me anymore.”

If Sybil’s face could get more furious, it did. The man glanced between them, brows creasing as he took in Cress’s limp, her black eye, the way she held her stomach.

“You heard the girl. She doesn’t belong to you, witch.”

Sybil lunged, grabbing Cress’s sprained wrist. She screamed in pain, and the man moved.

And suddenly he was pointing a gun at her foster mother. Everyone froze.

“Let her go.” He said, “Leave her alone.”

Sybil backed away. “I’ll call the police, boy. You can’t threaten me.”

The gun clicked. He armed it. He pointed it straight at Sybil.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s eighteen. And if she comes willingly, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

And Cress really couldn’t say why, exactly, but in that moment she knew that he was truthful. That his words made sense, and more than that, she would go with him.

“I’m going with him, Sybil.” For the first time in her life, Cress Darnel was being brave. And it wasn’t a dream.

The man turned to her, flashing a grin, and Cress recognized him then. The same one who approached her nearly a month earlier.

“Cress, right?” He asked, when Sybil had retreated to her car and driven away, “Nice name. I’m Carswell, but everyone calls me Thorne. Oh, and sorry to scare you like that. This thing isn’t loaded, never has been.”

Cress glanced down the road, at the car growing steadily smaller in the distance. “Thanks for all that, Thorne. You showed up just in time.”

He offered her a hand to shake. “My pleasure, blondie.”

Despite everything, Cress found herself cracking a smile.

~~~~

“So, where to next, milady?” Thorne beamed, spreading a roadmap before them both. They’d finally stopped for the night, and were sitting on some questionable carpet in an even more questionable motel, figuring out their next plan.

“Dunno,” Cress shrugged, “Wherever’s good, I guess.”

“I mean, where you do want to see?” Thorne elaborated. “What’s your dream destination, Cress?”

She gave him a confused look. “Why?”

“You can say Disneyworld. I won’t judge.”

That earned him a snicker and a shove against the shoulder, and he could almost feel his heart swell with affection. She really was adorable, sitting in a tank top and pajama shorts, thick socks rolled around her ankles. He’d do anything to earn that smile again.

“I’m not sure, really. I’ve never had the chance to really think about it.”

“Well surely you must at least know some places. A place you’ve heard, maybe?”

Cress sighed, leaning further against him. “I don’t know, Thorne. What about you? Where do you want to go?”

“Ladies first, Goldilocks.”

“It’s Disneyworld, isn’t it.”

“You could hack their system and get us free tickets! And fast passes for all the rides! It would be great!” He replied enthusiastically.

“I mean in theory, sure, but Disney’s kinda notorious for being fairly unhackable.”

“Damn it.”

Cress yawned, laying nearly in his lap. “Let’s think about it tomorrow, ‘kay?”

Thorne lifted her, bridal style, to her bed, amidst her soft giggles. She sounded like a fairy. “Goodnight, milady. I shall seek thee out in the morning.”

Cress laughed harder, which turned abruptly into a yawn as she tucked herself beneath the covers. “Goodnight, my knight in shining armor.”

~~~~

Over the next few weeks, they travelled to wherever they felt like. The car they had was stolen from a junkyard, so it wasn’t like anyone was looking for it. Sure, it was a piece of crap, but it moved and it did its job.

They moved intermittently between small and big towns, usually only spending a day or two before hitting the road again. Cash was hard to come by, so they mostly resorted to stealing purses and pickpocketing. Cress felt a little bad about it, but hey, they needed to eat.

Things between her and Thorne were… changing. She couldn’t exactly tell how or why, but she knew they were. The change wasn’t bad, but it was different. And strange. And a tiny bit scary.

She’d find her gaze naturally finding his at any given moment, catch herself staring when she shouldn’t. She laughed at his dumb jokes more, focused on the sound of his voice when she should be focusing on the road.

He hadn’t changed his appearance in a long time. His hair was its natural shade of golden brown again, and he kept his face clean-shaven. The dumb glasses had been broken and dumped some time ago.

And it wasn’t just her that was staring, either. She felt his eyes, sometimes saw them too, when he thought she wasn’t looking. He was doing more and more to make her laugh. And he wasn’t being as careful to make sure she was asleep before he kissed her head goodnight.

Cress didn’t really know what to make of these changes. She couldn’t tell if these were good or bad. She wasn’t used to this, these butterflies in her stomach, this heat in her face. Sybil kept her isolated her whole life, and she was just now starting to really experience the world. Was it right to fall for the first guy her age she met?

Because she realized that’s what it was. They were in a moderately sized town, and were walking around the downtown area, looking for a place to eat and also some easy targets to fund said meal.

Sadly, this wasn’t an easy crowd. They had eyes in the backs of their heads, and after nearly an hour, they only had a meager ten dollars to show for it between them.

“Hey, chin up,” Thorne grinned, “We’ll be fine. I think I saw a fast food place up there, follow me.”

He grabbed her hand, and Cress couldn’t stop the dopey grin that found a permanent residence on her face. He’s holding my hand.

Unfortunately, it was a high end fast food place. The kind that had “gourmet” food at a third of the price of a fancy restaurant. Even the cheapest item on the menu really meant one meal to split between them both.

“You should eat, Cress.”

“No,” She protested, “Let’s find somewhere else. We both need to eat.”

He shrugged. “It’s late. Just promise to give me a bite, okay?”

She would have argued more, but she was really hungry. So, begrudgingly, she made her way to the register and bought dinner.

That was when she really realized what they were. He smiled at her the whole time while she ate her fill, head resting on his hands. He took the bite she offered, and refused any more. She knew he was hungry. And yet, he let her eat.

Anything for you, princess.

~~~~

Surprisingly, the guy hadn’t killed her yet. Weird. It had been three days. And he was still being nice to her.

They’d stayed in a motel nearby. Two separate beds. He’d been a perfect gentleman the entire time. He helped her ice her sprains and bruises every day. He made sure she was comfortable.

“Are you sure you really wanna be hanging out with me, Goldilocks?” He asked on the dawn of the fourth day, “There’s nowhere else you’d rather be?”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” She responded suspiciously. It’s not like she had anywhere to go, anyway.

“No, no, of course not!” Thorne insisted. “It’s just, weird, I guess. People don’t hang out with me willingly too much.”

“Why?”

He dramatically brushed his hair out of his eyes, “I’m just too good for them I guess.” Then he met her gaze with a serious look. “No, it’s because I’m a criminal.”

“Yeah, I kinda guessed.” Also she’d looked him up as soon as she had some time alone. It wasn’t hard to unseal his juvenile record, where she found he’d been arrested several times for theft. And once for grand larceny at seventeen, which was honestly kind of impressive. That also explained where all the money was coming from.

“Oh.”

Cress awkwardly looked away. “I mean, it’s whatever. I don’t care that much how you make money.”

“I promise I don’t steal from old ladies or hobos or anything like that.” Cress blinked at that. How had he known that was worrying her?

He seemed to also understand that, too. “You’re literally an open book, princess. You’re not good at hiding your emotions.”

That was their last interaction for the day. He left around lunchtime with an empty duffel bag, and Cress decided to look the other way, for now. She made herself comfortable the rest of the time, before finally falling asleep around nine o’clock.

She’d barely been asleep thirty minutes, according to the clock on the bedside table, when Thorne burst inside the room with a gasp.

“What’s going on?” Cress grumbled as he flicked on all the lights.

“Get up, we have to go. The police are right on my tail, I won’t lose them for long.”

Well, that was one hell of a wake up call.

Thorne was tossing his stuff haphazardly into his own backpack, shouting at Cress to do the same. The duffel bag on his shoulder was full, and Cress caught a small glimpse of green on the inside. Money.

Being inside the motel for four days, her things were strewn about. She was taking too long. With only her laptop and about half her clothes packed, Thorne decided it was time, and dragged her out of the motel room.

Cress was barely inside the car before he floored it, screeching out of the parking lot. His blue eyes were wide, but nearly as terrified as she expected.

Of course, she realized later, he’s an adrenaline junkie. He lives for these kinds of moments.

But at that moment, all her focus was on the road as Thorne sped through the streets, heading as fast as the car could go for the highway. In minutes, a police car was on their tail. Thorne pressed the pedal harder.

“How did this even happen?” Cress gasped, trying in vain to take her mind off the sirens behind them.

“Someone called 911 before I was done. I didn’t notice the phone until too late. Stupid mistake on my part.”

“You know,” She suggested, the seatbelt holding her tight against the seat as they screamed around a turn, “You could have just bought a signal blocker beforehand, that way nobody could call at all.”

“A what?”

“A signal blocker. They’re super cheap at like, any electronics store. Hell, I could have done it for you. It’s not that hard; it was one of the first hacker-y things I learned.”

Thorne turned to her with a grin. “You can do that?!”

“Yes. Eyes on the road!”

Many terrifying minutes later, they’d shaken off the police tail and made it to the freeway. Thorne’s smile was huge, and his attitude was becoming infectious.

“That was awesome! We totally knocked them off our trail!”

Cress chuckled awkwardly. “Yep. Except now we’re both wanted criminals.”

Thorne raised an eyebrow. “Both?”

Cress flushed. “Yeah, these windows aren’t tinted. They probably all saw me, and now I’m an accomplice to robbery.”

“Well then, Goldilocks, I think it might be time to show you my post-heist ritual.”

Thorne waved off her questions for another half hour, before he deemed it safe enough to get off the freeway and find a gas station. They parked and headed inside, keeping their heads down and both wearing hoodies. (This was the first of many of Thorne’s hoodies Cress stole).

In the abandoned bathroom, Thorne finally showed her what he was talking about. His hair, naturally a golden brown, was dyed black, and the stubble he’d been growing was shaved off as well.

Then it was her turn.

“Cut or dye?” Thorne asked, holding scissors in one hand and a box dye in the other.

She twisted a strand of her long, golden hair around a finger. Goldilocks. He called her Goldilocks. She liked that.

“Cut.”

“Awesome. I’m a great hairstylist. It’s my true calling.”

“So it’s not actually crime you’re called to?” Cress snickered as he began to snip.

“Well, that too. Crime and styling hair.”

“What a combo.”

When he was done, her hair littered the floor of the bathroom. Cress couldn’t stop staring, or running her hands through it.

“Does this make you my official partner, Goldilocks?” Thorne asked with a smile.

“I think it does.”

It was nice to be a part of something.

~~~~

“I’m bored.” Cress complained, splayed out on her bed.

“Uh huh,” Thorne replied, eyes flicking through a magazine he’d snatched that morning.

“I’m tired of pickpocketing.”

“I know you are, princess,” He turned a page, still not looking at her.

“Let’s go rob somewhere.”

That sure got his attention.

“I’m sorry,” Thorne started, “But did I just hallucinate? You want to rob someplace?”

Cress sat up to look him in the eye. “I mean, I don’t want to do the actual robbing. You do that. But I haven’t been your getaway car in weeks, and I’m bored.”

Thorne gave her a thoughtful look. “It has been a while. And I am tired of not being able to afford things.”

“So let’s do it!”

Her partner in crime glanced around the shitty motel room. “Not here. We need to find a better town.”

“Well, duh.” Cress fished around in Thorne’s bag and procured the road map. “It’s gotta be a bigger town than this hole-in-the-wall kind of place.”

So that was how the rest of their night went. Searching for a town nearby that was big enough to have a variety of places to choose from. A quick jog from the freeway, preferably, and with a low rate of crime to ensure police wouldn’t be super prepared for something like this.

It took another day of pickpocketing before they had enough for food and gas money, but they did it. Set out on the road, a plan in motion. Cress almost couldn’t believe it. She was the one who suggested robbery.

That beaten-down girl from the suburbs far away was long gone now. Instead, the new Cress was in her place. The Cress that was confident in her abilities.

And, of course, the Cress who was also hopelessly in love with her best (and only) friend.

They reached the town quickly enough. They’d driven for longer hours before. However, they’d set out later than they wanted, and as such reached their destination much later than they wanted. It was almost one in the morning when they finally pulled up to a motel just outside their chosen city’s limits.

“You got any rooms?” Thorne asked the night manager through a yawn.

“Yeah, just one though.”

“Whatever, we’ll take it.”

The rest of the transaction was quick and wordless. Cress was slumped against Thorne’s side, nearly asleep on her feet. He grabbed the room key and they trudged to the room, both half-asleep.

He unlocked the door. They stepped inside, just like they had dozens of motel rooms.

This one, however, was markedly different.

Instead of their regular two beds, this one only had one.

Taking in the scene, Cress woke up a bit, stiffening slightly.

“Shit,” Thorne mumbled, “This isn’t right.”

“It’s the last room available,” Cress reminded him.

“Right. Okay, I’ll take the floor. Just toss me one of those pillows and I’ll be good.”

Cress snorted. “I’m not doing that. You just drove all day. I’ll take the floor.”

“What? No way. Take the bed, Cress.”

“No, you.”

With a loud groan, Cress finally said, “Fine! We both take the bed! It’s not that big of a deal.”

Thorne’s eyes went a bit wider. Cress could feel her face start to warm. She looked away.

“I- no, that’s-”

“Goddamn it, shut up and sleep in the bed. We’re big kids, you take one half and I’ll take the other.”

And that was that. Neither bothered to change, as tired as they were, instead just slipping their shoes off and climbing into bed.

The first thing Cress noticed about sharing a bed was that it was warm. Really warm. This was fantastic, as she was always cold when she slept.

“Cress, what are you-”

“Shut up,” She sighed, as she curled herself closer to Thorne’s body, “You’re warm.”

“Oh.”

Not only was her whole body warm, but her face was burning. This was a bad idea. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to pull away. Thorne was stiff in her arms, and she squirmed closer.

“Relax. I can’t sleep if you’re stiff as a board.”

“Sorry,” He whispered. He became a little less tense, which Cress decided was good enough.

In minutes, they were fast asleep.

~~~~

Cress woke up cold. Which totally sucked, because she’d gone to bed nice and warm. When she cracked open her eyes, she noticed that the bed was markedly empty.

Sitting up, she looked around for Thorne, but caught no sight of him. She sat up further, looking over the edge of the bed.

Oh.

He was sleeping on the floor, snoring very quietly. He took the scratchy blanket the motel provided, along with one of the towels and a pillow, and had made himself a place on the floor.

Cress’s face positively burned. Burying her face in her pillow, she let out a silent scream of embarrassment and frustration.

She’d thought into it too much. Of course he didn’t like her like that, why would he? She was just some random girl he’d picked up off the road, the brains of his criminal operation. He wasn’t secretly in love with her. He never was.

It was early. And she was still tired. But just to make sure she didn’t wake him up, Cress slipped into the bathroom to have the cry she so desperately needed, before tiptoeing back to bed and falling asleep once more.

She woke up many hours later, to the sun shining bright into her face. Thorne was awake, she determined by the shadow moving about the room.

“Hey there, Goldilocks,” Thorne chuckled, “Was that bed just right for you?”

“Yeah, it was fine,” She replied, not meeting his gaze. “What time is it?”

He snorted again. “Noon.”

“Damn.”

He tossed her a bag, which she caught quickly. “Lunch. Or, for you, breakfast.”

She couldn’t help the small laugh at that. “Thanks.”

The day passed slowly after that. Cress showered, thankful for the hot water to rinse off the grime and the feelings of the past few days. She and Thorne watched shitty reality TV that was on at three pm, laughing when he got way too into Say Yes to the Dress. Finally, they couldn’t ignore the rumbling of their stomachs anymore, and decided to go find dinner.

Of course, in order to get dinner, they needed money. Something they were in short supply of. Time to work the crowd again.

They had morals about who they pickpocketed. Or, really, Cress did. If she wasn’t around she was sure Thorne would definitely be an old lady purse-snatcher. But he always made sure to only steal from well-off people ever since Cress joined him.

Her gaze followed a man dresses in nice clothes from where they sat on a bench, Thorne’s arm slung over her shoulder in an effort to look casual. She nudged him, pointing at the target with her eyes.

“Nah, that Rolex is fake. He’s only pretending to be rich. But that guy over there-” He pointed out someone else, and Cress started up the act.

“Sir!” She chirped brightly, stepping directly in his path. The man started, taking in the tiny girl before him.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes, I’m trying to find my cousin, have you seen him?”

The man glanced around. “What does he look like?”

Cress stood on her tiptoes, gesturing as she spoke, “About this high, same hair and eyes as me. I just saw him, I don’t know how I got lost!”

From behind the man, Thorne gave her a conspiratorial wink as he plucked the wallet from his back pocket. The look was clear. Keep working him.

“I saw him over there last, do you see him? It’s hard to see with this crowd.” She pointed away, keeping his attention elsewhere as Thorne rifled through the wallet, stuffing bills and coins in his own pockets.

“No, I’m really sorry. Maybe try calling him.” The man gave her a smile, and began to walk away. As he retreated, Cress spotted the bulge in his back pocket, where the empty wallet had been replaced.

“Thanks for your help, mister!”

She turned to Thorne as they made their way to a more secluded corner of the street, “How’d we do?”

“Great, actually! That guy had a lot of cash on him. Let’s go eat.”

As they walked, Cress was suddenly aware of Thorne grabbing her hand, holding her close. She glanced up at him, heart pounding.

He just smiled. “Wouldn’t want to lose you for real.”

~~~~

“Drive!” Thorne shouted, slinging his whole body into the car.

“But-” Cress protested.

“DRIVE!”

“Okay, okay, geez!” Cress pressed the gas, but Thorne sat up behind her.

“Faster! Cops will be here any minute!”

Cress’s heart was in her throat as she sped up. “But I blocked the signal.”

“And you said it yourself, it only holds for as long as the satellite is in position, which it will be out of any time! We’ve gotta go! Faster!”

So Cress went faster. At Thorne’s instruction, she did her best to throw off the tail of anyone who could be following. Screaming around turns, suddenly going back the way she just came, tearing through alleyways and side streets. She ran every red light she could, narrowly avoiding accidents multiple times.

“Maybe you should drive,” She suggested after a few minutes, but Thorne shook his head with a smile.

“Nah, you’re pretty good at this. I knew you had it in you.”

Eventually, they made it out of town, a bag full of stolen cash and goods. Thorne took over driving, but only after Cress stopped the car and demanded it.

“So, you hungry?”

“Huh?”

“Are you hungry?” Thorne repeated. “You did great today. You deserve a treat.” After a glance at a sign on the road, he asked, “Does Sonic sound good?”

“I guess. I’ve never had it.”

His jaw dropped. “You’ve never had it? Jesus Christ, your life is sad.”

Cress wrapped her arms around herself, glancing down. Thorne seemed to realize his mistake. “Oh. Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s fine,” Cress lied, not meeting his eyes. “Let’s get this Sonic thing or whatever.”

“You’re gonna love it, Goldilocks. Promise.”

He was right. She did love it. And as they sat, eating greasy fast food beneath the stars, the earlier argument was forgiven and soon forgotten.

Cress promised herself that night that her life would never be sad, not ever again.

~~~~

“This is literally the worst idea, idiot,” Cress groaned, standing awkwardly outside a place she really didn’t belong: The local liquor store.

“Relax, it’s fine,” Thorne assured her, hauling along a case of White Claws. “You’re eighteen, that’s old enough to have a little drink, I think.”

“You’re not even old enough to legally buy it!” She protested.

He smirked, waving a little card with his other hand. “Fake ID, blondie.”

They made their way back to their motel, still arguing.

“We’re going to be here for a while during the planning part! We can at least have a little fun! It’s not like I’m going to a bar or anything.”

“Yeah, but if the cashier knew it was a fake ID and called the police, everything could be done for!”

His eyes narrowed. “Wait. So you’re not against the principle of underage drinking itself, but rather the fact we could get caught?”

She looked away. “I mean, it’s whatever.”

When the door was locked, Thorne opened up the case and cracked one open. “I like the lime ones the best. You’ll probably like the lemonade one better. Or maybe the raspberry. They’re sweeter.”

Glancing between the curtains and the blinds shut tight, Cress assured herself that nobody was outside, nobody was watching. With a sigh, she opened up a White Claw of her own. “You’ve thoroughly corrupted me, Carswell Thorne.”

“It’s what I do best, sweetheart.”

That was a new one.

They got a little planning done as they drank, but as the night wore on, and they both indulged themselves in another drink, then another, they started caring less and less about the upcoming heist.

Cress noticed she felt different by White Claw number two, but had another, just because she wanted to try all the flavors. Lemonade so far was the best, raspberry a close second. Mango, despite being a good flavor on its own, was actually disgusting. And Thorne had claimed all the limes for himself.

Everything around her was fuzzy. It felt like she was swimming in her own head. And everything was also really funny, too. At one point Thorne burped loudly, and while normally Cress would have groaned and scolded him, this time she began to giggle hysterically.

Thorne shot her a concerned glance. “Okay there, Goldilocks?”

Cress snickered. “You’re funny.”

“Right. And you are drunk. How many-” She noticed his eyes widen at the two empty cans, and the one in her hand. “Shit, Cress, that’s enough.”

He snatched the can from her, and she flopped onto the floor, still laughing. “Everything’s so spinny, Thorne.”

“Yeah, I’m getting you some water. Stay right there.”

“Sir yes sir,” She slurred, then giggled at her own voice.

Water began to run in the little bathroom. What had Thorne said about water again? Curious, she pulled herself up, then stumbled towards the sound.

He doing something at the sink. Cress slipped behind him, then in a sudden burst of immense confidence, wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his strong back.

“Cress?” His voice came out almost strangled. “What are you doing?”

“You’re warm,” She mumbled. “I like hugging you.”

Thorne sighed. “Not that I don’t like hugging you too, you need some water, maybe some Advil, and then you need to go to bed.”

He tried to pull away, but Cress held on tighter. “Noooo, don’t leave,” She whined.

Thorne managed to maneuver himself so instead of being wrapped around his back, she was facing him, chest to chest. “C’mon, Goldilocks, drink some water.”

She gave him her infamous puppy dog eyes, but he shoved the glass in her face. “Drink up.”

“You’re mean,” She muttered, but did as he said and drained the glass. She looked up again, her blue eyes meeting his own. “You didn’t wanna be my snuggle partner last night, and I got cold.”

Thorne looked away, and if she wasn’t so buzzed, Cress might have noticed the blush.

“Let’s get you to bed, okay? Can you dress yourself?”

She definitely had too much liquid courage. “You could help me, if you wanted.”

Thorne pulled away. “No thanks. You seem capable enough. He stepped out of the bathroom, and passed her a pair of pajamas from the outside. “Drink some more water while you’re at it.”

When she opened the door again, she instantly latched onto him again. “Cress,” He chuckled awkwardly, “I can’t move.”

“Then you can’t leave,” She murmured. For some reason she felt really sad now, almost to the point of tears. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Never, Goldilocks. Let’s get you to bed.”

He tried to move, but Cress held tighter. “You’re gonna have to drag me,” She warned.

“Not a problem.” In one motion, Thorne swept her off her feet, literally. Carrying her bridal style, her arms wrapped over his shoulders, he carried her effortlessly to the bed. The single bed, that they both shared.

She was laid down on the bed gently, but Cress refused to let go. “Don’t leave me,” She whispered, over and over again. With nowhere else to go, Thorne finally gave in and laid down with her, letting the smaller woman curl against him.

“Goodnight, Cress.”

Her eyes were heavy, but she looked at him anyway. “You always kiss my head goodnight.”

His face flushed harder. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She unlatched one hand, tapping the top of her own head. “Right here. Almost every night.”

He couldn’t resist the puppy dog eyes again, she knew. With a sigh, he leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss on top of her head. Cress gave a happy sigh, and settled down on the pillow.

Neither of them moved all night.

~~~~

Everything hurt the next morning. Her stomach, her joints, her head.

“What in the fuck happened last night?” She mumbled into the shoulder of the person next to her.

The… person in the bed with her.

Cress shot up violently, instantly regretting it as her head throbbed harder. The person the shoulder belonged to groaned, opening up their eyes. Their familiar eyes.

“I feel like shit,” She sighed, as Thorne sat up next to her.”

He chuckled. “I kinda guessed that you would. You overindulged, princess.”

Things were coming back in bits and pieces, though everything was still fuzzy. “Why’d I have so much?”

“You wanted to try all the flavors.”

Right. “Mango tastes like shit,” She lamented, “I’m never drinking again.”

“Then who’s going to help me finish off the case?” Thorne chuckled.

“I would have helped you with the limes if you didn’t hog them all for yourself.”

“Princess, if I let you have a fourth you would have woken up in the hospital.”

“No, not a fourth, I mean instead of the nasty mango-”

Suddenly, as she leaned closer, Thorne winced, and backed away. “Whoa. Hangover breath. You need a shower.”

Cress’s face flushed. “Yeah. I’ll go do that.”

As she washed off the feeling of last night’s mistakes, more memories came back. But not quite everything. She was still missing a chunk: why she and Thorne had woken up in the same bed, after he’d left her alone the night before.

She got dressed, brushed her teeth, and drank some more water, before stepping out of the bathroom with the towel still wrapped around her dripping hair. Thorne stood up to take his own shower, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Hey, did… anything… happen, last night? I can’t remember everything, and if I said something weird-”

“Nah,” Thorne replied with a shrug, “You just got giggly, then suddenly weepy and clingy. You were really set on me not leaving you alone.”

She ducked her head, blushing. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” Thorne assured her. “I mean, you’ve never been drunk before, it’s not your fault you didn’t know how you’d respond.” With that, he stepped away, into the bathroom, which was soon filled with the sound of running water.

Cress sighed, glancing around the motel room. Last night’s activities had left it trashed. So while she waited, she cleaned up.

About twenty minutes later, they were both back in the car, on their way for some coffee. Thorne had even decided to get black coffee for once, in an effort to ward away the hangover.

“So…” He started awkwardly, and Cress’s heart stopped. What was he going to say? Had she really embarrassed herself last night?

“You wanna talk about why you were so obsessed with me not leaving? I mean, I know before all this your life was pretty shitty, so I get it if you don’t want to talk, but-”

“My dad left when I was seven.” She stated simply.

“Oh.”

They got their coffee, and headed back to the motel. Thorne met her eyes again with another awkward smile. “You also seemed pretty upset that I slept on the floor the other night.”

Heat rushed to her face. “It’s not that big of a deal, it doesn’t matter that much.”

“Drunk Cress had other things to say.”

She didn’t answer.

Back inside the room, Thorne spoke up. “You wanna know why I slept on the floor?”

She shrugged. “It’s whatever. It’s fine if it was too much or something. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

His blue eyes got big. “No, no, that’s not what happened. Look, Cress, have you ever slept with anybody before?”

“What?!” Her entire face went red, and Thorne’s did as well, when he realized his words.

“Shit, no, not like that. I mean have you ever shared a bed with somebody before?”

“Oh. No, I haven’t.”

“Listen, Cress.” Thorne leaned in close, and her heartbeat somehow sped up and stopped at the same time. “I liked sleeping in the same bed as you. But…”

Oh no.

“You kick. Like, a lot.”

What?

Cress nearly spat out her coffee. “That’s why you slept on the floor?!”

“Yes!” Thorne laughed. “It was all fine and dandy until you kicked me in the groin at three in the morning!”

Her face fell into her hands. “Oh my God.”

“And I mean, I had to save the boys-”

“Shut up! Stop talking!” Thorne gave a loud cackle, and Cress gave into her own hysterical laughter. “That’s what this was all about?”

Things fell back into place easily after that. In fact, they seemed to fall further into place. They plotted and they schemed, searching out their target and making their plan. They never went in blind, and they weren’t about to start now.

And when they slept, they slept in the same bed. Thorne tucked her into his chest, arms holding her steady, and she never felt cold or alone while she slept. To keep from kicking, Cress twined their legs together.

Neither mentioned the obvious shift in their relationship. But they both knew it was growing deeper by the day. They woke up in each others’ arms. Thorne came up behind her randomly during the day to wrap himself around her waist and rest his head on her shoulder. He kissed her head before they slept each night. Cress was never asleep.

The day came, the day they’d been planning for weeks. They were ready. Whatever happened today, they knew that no matter what, they’d always have each other at the end of the day.

~~~~

“Cress, you read me?”

Sitting in the car, ready and waiting for his voice, Cress replied, “I read you. How’d it go?”

“Without a hitch! Incoming in about three minutes.”

“I got you, captain.”

“Ooh,” Thorne chuckled over the speaker, “I like that.”

Cress rolled her eyes. “Focus on running, doofus. I’ll be there.”

“Mwah!” The line went dead, and Cress tossed the burner phone like she always did. She arrived at the rendezvous in two minutes, eight seconds, leaving the doors unlocked for their quick exit.

Thirty-four seconds later, and the familiar sight of Thorne running for his life arrived. With a wild grin, he threw himself and the bag inside, and Cress sped away. At this point, she was an expert at losing the police.

“How much?”

“Close to five thousand!” He beamed. “It’s gonna last us a long time!”

“You’re fantastic,” She grinned back.

“Nah, sweetheart, it’s all you. I’d totally be in jail by now if I hadn’t met you.”

“I mean,” Cress giggled as she sped out to the freeway, “Prison’s always still on the table.”

“Then don’t get us caught, blondie.”

“You wanna stop at a gas station and change your look?”

Thorne glanced in the mirror, seeing they weren’t being followed. “No, I think the ski mask was enough. Plus, I wore the lifts in my shoes just like you said, so they can’t see my real height.”

“Cool. So, where to now?”

Thorne leaned back in his seat. “Wherever your heart desires, milady.”

Cress smiled softly, finding his hand over the center console. “Okay. Let’s go.”

~~~~

They switched cars that night, then kept driving. The adrenaline was keeping Cress going, even as Thorne finally dozed off. She’d forgotten how good that rush felt. Thorne had fully turned her into an adrenaline junkie, the same as him.

During the planning phase, they plotted their escape route thoroughly. There were multiple directions to exit, and they scoped each one out to see what worked the best. In the process, she’d looked extensively at the road map. And for whatever reason, the tiny, blip-on-the-map town called Farafrah was calling to her.

So that was where she went. It wasn’t too far away, but far enough that they’d be safe from the police of the other city. They could lay low for a bit before continuing on. There were so many other places to go. Cress wanted to see it all.

This time, it was Cress who drove through and got dinner. Cress who rented the motel room for the night. And it was Cress who urged Thorne out of the car and inside. Where the single bed was waiting.

They had their routine down pat. They rinsed off, even though it was eleven o’clock, changed into pajamas, and settled down for the night. Cress curled into Thorne’s side, her safe place.

“Goodnight.” Tonight, his kiss was on her forehead. And tonight, it lingered. Cress was smiling as she fell asleep.

Many hours later, she was woken up by another gentle kiss to her head. “C’mon princess, you’ve had enough beauty sleep.”

She rolled over, a contented smile on her face, even if she had to squint at the light coming in through the curtains. “Morning,” she whispered, voice raspy from sleep.

“I’ve found a nice brunch spot. I think you deserve something nice after everything yesterday.”

Cress sat up, scrubbing the sleep from her eyes. “You spoil me.”

“You know it, Goldilocks. I bet this place is gonna be just right.”

That earned him a pillow to the face, Cress rolling her eyes. “You doofus.”

“OH! I’ve been mortally wounded by my dear lady!” Thorne groaned from the floor. Cress peered over at him, only to have the pillow chucked back at her head.

“You don’t know what you’ve just started,” She warned with a smile. Within seconds they were in a full on pillow fight, flinging pillows bath and forth as they screamed with laughter.

After a few minutes Thorne managed to get the upper hand, smacking her right across the face with a pillow. Cress was knocked down on the bed, and he pinned her down with a laugh. A moment later his fingers found purchase under her arms, and he tickled her until she squealed.

“Stop! Stop! I forfeit!” Cress giggled, squirming away. Thorne was panting with laughter, still sitting on top of her.

“Learned your lesson, princess?”

She smacked his face with another pillow and escaped to the bathroom with her clothes.

Finally, nearly half an hour after she woke up- a new low for the duo who could get up and out in three minutes- they made their way to a little brunch spot in the middle of the littler town.

Their waitress was a woman about their age with a prosthetic hand named Cinder. She had a lot of personality, and had enough sarcasm to rival each of Thorne’s witty remarks.

About halfway through the meal (which was delicious), a little idea began to form in Cress’s mind. When Cinder came back to refill their drinks, Cress decided to ask her a question.

“How’d you end up here?”

The waitress shrugged. “Car broke down. Stayed to get it fixed, ended up making some friends and decided to stay. I could ask the same of you two.”

Thorne and Cress glanced at each other, before Cress replied simply, “Travelling through.”

Later, when she came back to deliver the check, Cress asked another question: “If you could do anything with your life, what would it be?”

Both Thorne and the waitress gave her a quizzical look. Thankfully, neither asked for elaboration. Instead, Cinder donned a slightly puzzled look as she thought.

Finally, she responded, “I want to open up a mechanical repair shop. For all kinds of machines.” Her dark eyes lit up as she began to ramble a little bit, about all the kinds of things she could do, what she could learn. But after a minute, her voice took on a slightly somber tone. “But, that’s not gonna happen. I’m always worrying about rent nowadays, I don’t have enough to save for anything.”

“How much is your rent?” Cress continued. The waitress stiffened.

“Why do you want to know?” She asked suspiciously.

Cress squeaked, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything, but…” She scrambled for a quick lie.

Thankfully, Thorne picked it up for her. “We’re thinking of moving here. We just wanted to know how much rent was.”

Cinder relaxed. “Oh. Well, it’s about $600 a month.”

Cress smiled, taking the check from their waitress. “Thanks, Cinder. It was great. We’ll fill this out in a minute.”

Clearly dismissed, the woman offered them a smile before departing. When they were alone again, Thorne turned a questioning gaze over to her. “What was that all about?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. I just… wanted to know. She seemed nice.”

“I agree. I’ll give her a good tip.”

Cress’s smile got big. “Wait, let me run back to the car real quick. I want to give her a big tip.”

She came back just two minutes later, her pockets stuffed. Thorne’s eyes got big. “How big a tip do you mean?!”

Cress methodically smoothed the $50 bills out, keeping them out of sight below the table. She tied the stack with a hairtie she kept on her wrist, and stuck it inside the little checkbook left on the table. Just to make sure they were really clear, she scribbled out on the receipt, “The money is for the meal. The rest is for you. Good luck.”

Primly, Cress stood up, brushing her leggings off. She offered her hand to the man sitting next to her, whose jaw was pretty much on the floor. Almost in a daze, he took it, and she led him out to the car.

Finally, back in the motel, Thorne rounded on her. “What the hell, Cress?! How much money did you give her? A thousand? Two?”

“Two thousand.”

“What the fuck! Why?!”

“Because,” Cress took his hand, looking deep into his blue eyes, “She needed it. More than we do, really. Thorne, whenever we run low on money we pickpocket and we steal and we rob. That girl, she’s too good for any of that. And if something like that didn’t happen, she was going to spend the rest of her life stuck in that restaurant, in this town in the middle of nowhere where she’d never grow.”

Thorne sighed heavily, rubbing the back of her hand with her thumb. “I wish you’d at least told me before you did it.”

“Why?”

That gave him pause. “I guess… we’ve been so in sync for months now. I feel like I know you, Cress, more than I’ve ever known anyone. And yet, I had no idea you were nice enough to just give away two thousand dollars to a stranger.”

She smiled up at him. “You’re that nice too, Thorne.”

“What? No, I’m not.”

Cress gave his hand a little squeeze. “If you weren’t that nice, you’d have taken the money back. You like to pretend you’re this big bad hardened criminal, but you’re still good, deep down. You show me that every day.”

At that, he pulled her in for a hug. “It’s because of you, Cress. Blondie. Goldilocks. Princess. Every day, you remind me that there’s still good in the world. Even if it’s not us doing the good. But you… you make me want to be good.”

Cress might have been crying. Thorne was definitely crying, his tears falling into her golden hair. “You saved me. Carswell Thorne, you saved my life that night. I always dreamed when I was little that someday I’d be saved. You’re my knight in shining armor.”

Thorne pulled away, still holding her, still sniffling. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Cress. I hope you know that.”

“I hope you know you’re the same to me.”

~~~~

They decided to stick around in Farafrah for a few more days. They had a bit more money to burn on fun before they got moving again and needed to get back in the swing of their criminal ways. The pair spent the day exploring the little down, taking in the sights. And at night, they cuddled in bed, watching whatever happened to be on TV until they got so tired their eyes were falling closed.

It was the morning of their second day when the objective suddenly changed.

Thorne came into the room, bringing coffee and croissants with him. As well, he’d managed to procure a local newspaper, which he handed to Cress alongside her breakfast.

The pair sat in comfortable silence for about twenty minutes, simply basking in the other’s presence as they ate. When she finished with her croissant, Cress opened up the paper.

And stopped dead in her tracks.

“Cress?” Thorne glanced over when he heard the soft gasp. “What’s wrong?”

Wordlessly, she passed him the paper, pointing out an article. It wasn’t hard to miss, in big, bold letter along the top: LOCAL ANIMAL SHELTER UNDER INVESTIGATION DUE TO CLAIMS OF ABUSE AND NEGLIGENCE.

“Shit,” Thorne muttered, “That’s awful.”

“Those poor animals,” Cress lamented with a sad sigh. “I wish we could do something about it.”

For Thorne, he thought that was the end of it. He headed out to go explore some more, but Cress opted to stay behind. He didn’t think too much of it; she was a fairly antisocial personality and had done a whole lot of talking to strangers the past few days. She probably just needed a day to herself to recharge.

What he didn’t expect, however, was to come back several hours later to find empty coffee cups and a couple RedBull cans strewn about, and Cress hunched over her laptop looking nearly frantic.

“Whoa, what’s all this?” She glanced up, and Thorne took a step back. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot.

“Thorne. I’ve got it! I know how we can do something! We can save all those animals! Come here!”

Cautiously, he took a few steps closer. Cress grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him over. She was surprising strong for someone so petite.

And what he saw pulled up on her screen…

HOW TO MAKE A HOMEMADE BOMB

“Whoa! Cress, slow down!”

“But I figured it out! Sit down, I’ll go over it with you!”

He yanked his arm away. “Cress. Look at me. Listen to me. We cannot blow people up because they might be abusing some shelter animals.”

Her blue eyes hardened. “Well, that isn’t the plan. We’re not blowing up people. Even if they deserve it.”

“When did you get so violent all of a sudden?” He took another glance around the room. “I’m never letting you have a RedBull ever again.”

“But-”

“No. No bombs. The police will take care of whatever’s going on with the shelter.”

Cress gestured around the room, almost violently. “How can we trust that?! The police haven’t caught us yet.”

Thorne sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Fine. What the hell. Tell me your plan.”

She almost squealed with delight, but he cut in- “That doesn’t mean we’ll do it though. And if you go solo and get caught, I’m not bailing you out for your own mistakes. We don’t bomb. We rob.”

“Okayokayokay, listen up. Here’s how it goes…”

~~~~

It was exactly two months since they’d met, and the new duo had just completed their third heist. They’d robbed a fast food joint after it closed. Cress was really good at finessing the alarms so they didn’t sound as they emptied the registers.

Now, they were still driving. It was late, and Thorne was beginning to doze off. He needed to find a rest stop soon, or risk running them right off the road.

As for Cress, she was quickly headed in the same direction. Her head would tilt forward as she fell asleep, just for a few seconds, then rapidly jerk back, and she’d go back to fighting sleep.

“You can sleep, you know, blondie,” Thorne offered. “I’m looking for a rest stop so we can sleep for a bit.”

“But you’re driving,” She protested through a yawn, “I don’t want you to be alone.”

He cracked a smile at that. “I’m not alone. I’ve got you now.”

“No, but-” Another yawn- “You won’t have anyone to talk to. I’ve gotta keep you awake so you don’t kill us both.”

“I’m not gonna kill us both.”

Her eyes flicked up, out the windshield. “You’re drifting.”

“Shit.” She was right. He rubbed at his eyes, wishing they’d stopped at that gas station a few miles back to grab an energy drink. The rest stop was about two miles ahead, but Thorne was really beginning to struggle.

“Can’t fall asleep…” Cress mumbled, just as her head tilted forward again. Thorne snorted when, once again, she jerked up with a groan of frustration.

“Just sleep, Cress,” Thorne urged gently. “We’re almost there, I promise.”

She gave a cursory glance out the car, seeming to check and make sure he was still driving correctly. Finally, after another long minute, her head titled. She was falling asleep again.

This time, however, she dozed off with her head against his shoulder.

Maybe it was the time of night. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation. But for whatever reason, having Cress against his shoulder, safe and sleeping, felt right. More right than anything else had in his nineteen years of life.

They made it to the rest stop ten minutes later. Thorne pulled off to the side and put the car in park before turning it off. Cress snoozed on.

Finally, he could relax. Thorne leaned back with a contented sigh, smiling a bit to himself as Cress nestled further against him.

He wrapped an arm over her shoulder, keeping her close by. And, for whatever reason, that felt right too.

Maybe it was the same reason that caused him to plant a tiny, barely-there kiss to the top of her golden head.

Yeah. It was just the sleep deprivation, for sure.

~~~~

They were doing this. They were actually doing this. Thorne was going crazy. Why had he agreed to this again, exactly? He shot a glance at the blonde woman at his side.

Right. Her. Since when had his judgement been so addled around her?

Always, idiot, his brain reminded him.

Shut up, brain.

They were inside the largely-contested Farafrah Animal Shelter. The same one that was under investigation for abuse and negligence.

Holding his hand, Cress smiled brightly at the man leading them among the cages. Her other hand gripped the straps of her purse. To everyone else, the smile was genuine, but to Thorne, who knew her best, it was as fake as could possibly be.

“And these are all of our felines we have at the moment. Do any of them possibly interest you?”

Cress shot Thorne a smile, this one a bit more real. “Let’s look around, darling, shall we?”

“Of course, my dear.” He gave her his best impression of an adoring look. Little did he know it was about as real as it could get.

“I’ll give you two a moment. I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

Cress squeezed his hand harder and dragged him to the farthest cage in the room. As they passed cage after cage, they saw the same things they had with the dogs: matted fur, frightened animals, some so scrawny their ribs were evident even from a distance. Neglect. It was bad. They reached the end of the room, and Cress took a glance inside the cage they stood next to.

Instantly, her face lit up as she took in the cat. It was a black and white thing, scrawny really, the nametag reading “Boots”.

“He’s so cute!”

“No.”

“But-”

“That’s not why we came,” Thorne sighed, making sure the man was really gone.

Cress sighed. “But he’s so cute. And wouldn’t it be nice to have a little companion?”

“A cat? As a roadtrip companion?”

“A cat is better to your criminal look, you know. So you can turn around in a chair dramatically while stroking his fur and say ‘I’ve been expecting you’.”

Thorne rolled his eyes. “Life’s not a TV drama, princess.”

“Life is its own drama! Make it your own!”

“How would we even take care of a cat on the road?”

Cress dragged him closer to the cage. “Just look at him. Look at his sad little face. He’d be the perfect roadtrip cat. I just know it.”

Thorne opened his mouth to protest again, but then the black and white furball gave a plaintive mewl and all the thoughts left his brain.

“Okay… he’s kind of cute… I guess.”

Cress nearly squealed with delight. “He is! Besides, think about it; we need a plan to get into the office. It’s the perfect ruse!”

Boots the cat meowed again. “You wanna go commit crimes with us, buddy?” Thorne asked.

“Meow!”

“He says yes,” Cress whispered conspiratorially in his ear. “Let’s get him.”

As they walked to the office, Thorne hung his head in defeat. “I can’t believe I just let you talk me into getting a crime cat.”

The blonde had a bounce in her step, swinging their joined hands delightedly. “You’re fully at my disposal.” Oh, she didn’t know how right she was.

It took a few minutes to reach the office from the kennels, but they both knew that. Cress had hacked the blueprints for the building several days ago, and they’d both memorized them from top to bottom. The offices were the furthest away from the kennels, likely to keep the noise down.

Finally, they reached their destination. Cress knocked politely on the door, bringing out her most innocent look. The one that always served the perfect distraction while Thorne expertly stole their wallet.

The man answered the door after one knock. “Have you made a decision?”

Cress and Thorne locked eyes, then turned back an nodded in unison. “We have.”

The paperwork was extensive, and Thorne was sure he had to sign his name at least a hundred times. He made sure to read carefully, though; Cress had warned him about possible legal traps. By law, animals shelters were required to vaccinate all their animals before adoption, and strongly push the idea of neutering. But in the paperwork, vaccines were of no mention. The entire time, the man simply sat silently with a small serpentine smile.

Finally, after the paperwork was signed and handed back, the man stood, offering Thorne a hand to shake, which he took reluctantly. “I’ll go pick up your new lovebug, okay?”

“May I come with you? Please?” Cress employed the puppy dog eyes. They were about eighty percent effective on Thorne, and that was after he spent months working to resist them. The man stood no chance.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

“I can’t wait! Darling, hold my purse; I want to hold the precious kitty.”

The man herded Cress out of the room, leaving Thorne to sit quietly by himself.

Or so he thought.

When he was sure they were gone, the young man sprung into action. Inside Cress’s purse was a small package, hardly bigger than his hand. A homemade bomb she’d spent days researching. It was activated by a remote control, so it could be jostled as much as he desired and still wouldn’t explode.

It was important it was planted in the office. They would detonate it after hours, so no people would be injured, and it was far enough away to keep the animals unharmed. Their only goal was to make the place unusable, which would then force the animals to be relocated to other shelters where they’d hopefully receive better care.

Thorne moved quickly and efficiently, like he always did with his missions. There was a reason he was such a successful robber; he didn’t get distracted, and he always got the job done. After a minute of rifling around the room, he settle on hiding the bomb in a bookshelf on the far wall. This office’s wall was also an outside wall, so it was nowhere near another living soul. Perfect.

Five minutes later, the pair returned, Cress carrying a new cat carrier. “Here he is, darling! The newest member of the family!”

The goodbyes were quick after that. They made it to the petshop part, where they bought some food and the most important part: a cat leash. They walked out with their new charge, both of them pretending to ignore the front desk lady’s comment of “such of cute couple!”.

“Phase one, complete!” Cress said with a smile, still holding his hand. In the cage, the cat, Boots, seemed to give them almost a grateful look. Almost like he was saying thanks for getting me out of there.

Thorne gave a glance behind him, to the retreating animal shelter. “Phase two in t-minus eleven hours.”

Cress leaned against him as she walked. “Aye aye, captain.”

~~~~

Phase two of their master plan commenced, as said, eleven hours later. The duo spent the next several hours getting acquainted with their new cat, whom they hadn’t even intended on buying. As it turned out, Boots was a fantastic cat. Affectionate and sweet, he warmed up to both of them instantly. And he didn’t seem to mind the car either, one of the most important factors.

Later in the evening, they packed up. Their motel room was paid for another whole day, but that was just a countermeasure. They already had a secondary vehicle in waiting, and would abandon their current one in the motel parking lot. As always, they had everything planned down to the last detail.

Now for the big finale, and the most difficult part, too. Sneak close enough to detonate the bomb, then get away fast enough to not get injured in the blast and not caught up in the investigation.

The sneaking part was easy enough. They’d done that plenty of times. Sure, Thorne had to boost her over a few fences, and they had to do some real super-spy action in a tree to get over a sleeping dog’s head, but they made it without a hitch.

The concrete walls of the animals shelter loomed before them. They tracked around it once, scanning for anyone who could get in their way, and came up empty. Time for the moment of truth.

Cress and Thorne met up at the point, the spot Cress had calculated earlier to give them the best chance of success based on the bomb’s location.

She took a deep breath. Now or never.

Silently, Thorne’s hand laced with her own. Cress held the detonator out in front of her.

And she pressed it.

~~~~

Smoke. Smoke and fire. Smoke and fire and haze and blood and pain-

“Thorne-” Cress gasped, throat rasping, “Something went wrong!”

There was no answer.

Cress suddenly became aware that she was alone. She was lying in the dirt, still gripping the detonator. And Thorne wasn’t with her.

A massive section of the wall was complete dust. Fire and smoke billowed out, clearly originating from the point where the bomb must have been. A few stray papers fluttered about, before they were quickly seized by the flames.

“Thorne?” Her voice was quiet.

“Thorne!” Louder.

“THORNE!” Cress shoved herself up, testing each limb. Everything was in working order. Despite that, she knew something was wrong, so wrong.

The explosion shouldn’t have been that big. She calculated it over and over again, even explained the math to Thorne so he could do it himself. They both got the same answer.

This was not their answer. The fire was spreading quickly. Alarms went off inside, but the spray of water was doing little to quell it.

Nearly robotically, Cress pulled her burner phone from her pocket. She and Thorne had gotten them in case of emergency. They hadn’t expected to use it.

“911 what is your emergency?”

“There was an explosion at the animal shelter. There’s a huge fire. Hurry. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Don’t let anyone get hurt. Please.”

She hung up before the operator could speak again. With all her might, she hurled the phone into the fire. By the time they found it, it would just be an unusable hunk of metal.

And then she ran.

All the scheming, all the plotting, all the plans went out the window. It was the dead of night, and Cress ran. She didn’t dare yell for Thorne; she had that much sense left. But with every step she felt it.

Something had gone horribly wrong, somehow. She must have forgotten something in her calculations. Maybe her information was wrong.

If both of them got out unscathed and unarrested, it would be a miracle, she knew it.

So lost in her own thoughts, she nearly ran face-first into someone who had stepped out onto the sidewalk. With a scream, Cress came to a screeching stop, standing and panting as she assessed the situation before her.

The woman was young, with dark hair and eyes and tan skin. And her hand… it was strange. A flash of recognition appeared in her eyes.

“Cinder…” Cress breathed. The other woman startled.

“Oh my God. It’s you.”

“I- it’s not what it looks like-” She followed Cinder’s gaze. Right to the detonator still in her hand.

“I swear, nobody was supposed to get hurt. I already called the fire department, if they get there in time they’ll save the animals-”

“Cress,” Cinder whispered, “Stop talking. Just go. If I see police I’ll cover for you. I promise.”

She stood still. Flabbergasted. “W-why would you do that?”

Cinder shrugged. “Because I know you’re a good person. Maybe you’ve got a convoluted way of showing it, but you’re good. Besides,” she cracked a tiny smile, “It’s thanks to you I might have a shot at my dreams.”

Then her voice took on a note of sudden seriousness. “Get out of here. The Farafrah police are no joke. Take the back alleys.”

Cress nodded numbly. “I will, I just have to find Thorne first.”

Cinder stepped closer, pulling her into a sudden hug. “Thank you. Both you and your dummy boyfriend.”

Cress found herself blushing, despite the situation. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

The other woman smirked. “He should be. He’s madly in love with you. He’d move the heavens and earth for you. Maybe consider telling him how you feel. Of course, after you’ve gotten out of here.”

“Right.” Cress chuckled. “Bye, Cinder. It was lovely meeting you.”

With that final goodbye, Cress began to sprint. Just as Cinder suggested, she took the back alleys. Thorne would be okay. He had to be. He’s okay. He has to be.

By the time she made it to the abandoned parking lot, the rendezvous point, police sirens had joined the firetrucks. The stolen red car… it was on! Idling in one place, waiting for her.

“Cress!” Thorne shouted, flinging the door open and throwing himself at her. He pulled her into his strong arms, pressing his face against her soot-stained hair. “God, I was so worried. I couldn’t see you in the dark so I headed back here. I was just about to go searching.”

Cress didn’t want to let go of him. Not now, not ever. But… “We’ve gotta go.”

“I know,” Thorne breathed, “But I was just so worried. It made me think… what if I lost you?”

She pulled back, just slightly, just enough to see his face in the dark. “What do you mean.”

“I mean, I started to think about you, Cress. How much I’d miss you. And how much I’d regret it if I lost you, and I hadn’t even done this…”

His voice trailed off, and Cress was about to ask what on earth he meant, when suddenly his lips were on hers.

Carswell Thorne is kissing me. Kissing. Me.

Her brain might have short-circuited, just a bit. But after a moment of frozen hesitation, she was kissing him back with just as much fervor, taking his face in her hands to pull them impossibly closer.

Thorne’s head tilted, and their lips fit together like they were always meant that way. His hands stroked at her golden hair, the hair he loved to much. What the hell; the girl he loved so much.

He might have told her as much when they finally came up for air, and she might have said it back. But all words were forgotten moments later, when they both spotted the flashing lights in their peripherals.

A police car, heading to the scene. If they were seen…

“Hey,” Cress whispered, beaming so wide her face hurt as she tugged on Thorne’s sleeve, “How about you be my getaway car for a change?”

“Yeah?”

She stood on her tiptoes, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. Risky, in their situation. “Yeah.”

Thorne brought her hand, so small and delicate, to his lips. “For you, Cress, you know I’d do anything. Crime for the sake of crime. Crime for the sake of justice. Whatever it is, wherever life takes us, just know that you’ll always have me. I promise I’ll never let you feel alone, ever again.”

He stroked a stray tear from her face. “C’mon, Goldilocks. It’s time to make our grand exit.”

She made herself comfortable in the passenger seat, glancing where she knew the gun lay, tucked inside the glovebox, just for show, never loaded. The gun that saved her life.

Thorne tore out of the parking lot, speeding down the streets of the tiny town at three am, just begging to be chased as they passed the animal shelter. The fire was nearly out, animals being evacuated by the second.

She caught his gaze with her own. Blue on blue. “Police chase, huh?”

He smiled, gripping her hand in his own. “You know I like to show off.”

Sirens blared behind them. Cress’s grin grew. “Then let’s give them a show.”

Thorne leaned down and kissed her over the center console. “I thought you’d never ask.”

~~~~

a/n: Oh my gosh. I cannot believe I just wrote that. All that. I haven't written in a month and this felt fantastic!!! I hope y'all enjoyed! Reblogs and comments are so appreciated! <3

#mal's fics #the lunar chronicles #tlc #marissa meyer #cress darnel #carswell thorne #cresswell #cress x thorne #tlc au #tlc ship weeks 2021 #tlc ship weeks

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selfwriting-sugarquills · 4 years

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70 George Weasley headcanons in celebration of 700 followers!

A/N: I hate to repeat myself but I do still love and appreciate all 700 of you! Thank you for reading my stuff and here’s to 700 more! <3

Find the 70 Fred Headcanons: Here

George is well known to be the brains behind the twins’ operations. He sorted out finding the location for the shop in Diagon Alley, he came up with most of the names for their products, even if Fred came up with the idea for the product itself, and for the longest time, he was the one who sorted out sales and orders for stocking their wares as well as overseeing the owl post-service while Fred sorted the more practical parts.

It might sound crazy, but if you ask George, he didn’t actually like Fred very much until they were about eight or nine years old. George was a lot more quiet and emotional than Fred and frankly, probably feared his mother more than his twin, and so George always thought Fred was too brash for his liking. Eventually, as we know, Fred’s crazy ideas rubbed off on George, and he started liking his twin more and more until they became the inseparable duo we know and love today. Mostly this was because the two found out how well they complimented each other, which meant that whatever they got up to turned out a lot better than when they’d attempt the same alone.

Fred added an extra oomph to their escapades, daring to aim just a little higher, and George was sensible enough to make sure that a little higher wasn’t too high.

It’s only their older siblings who noticed this change and remember the times where Fred and George didn’t get along as well as they did, which is why Bill, Charlie and Percy tend to treat the twins more as individuals whereas Ginny and Ron are more likely to see them as a duo.

Since George is more sentimental, he’s also the bigger worrier. Did they like that joke? Did that prank go too far? Is this worth it and what are we going to do if it isn’t? He’s usually also the twin who’s more likely to step back and apologise to anyone they’ve pranked or teased, not liking the idea of upsetting someone.

This also means he’s incredibly considerate concerning relationships, he’s not afraid to voice his concerns and worries. If his s/o is struggling with something, he notices, worries and tries his best to support them.

Essentially, if their s/o is upset: Fred is more likely to make a joke to make them laugh and take their mind off it, George is more likely to take them aside and talk to them about it, letting them let their feelings out for as long as they need, he’ll listen for hours if that’s what his s/o needs.

Speaking of letting feelings out: It’s been pondered if the reason George is the better beater, despite Fred being the more brash and extreme of the two, is because he uses the quidditch pitch as an outlet for his aggression and considering his anger doesn’t just involve beating bludgers but also resorting to elbowing people in the face (or beating Malfoy up) I’d say that this is incredibly true for him. Most people share the opinion that if something angers George, he’d let it build up until he explodes (myself included) and playing quidditch is a good way to let off steam without it being directed at anyone in particular, making him extremely violent on the pitch, though after every game he plays, he’ll probably be in his most zen and relaxed state of mind.

I do also like the idea of George being very emotionally mature in the sense that he knows how his feelings tend to build up, and since George is also a worrier, he probably doesn’t like the side of him that explodes in people’s faces and yells until he’s done being angry, so: He does try to confront his feelings as soon as he feels them so they don’t get a hold on him. If he’s angry with you, he’ll tell you, if he’s upset because of something that’s happened he’ll tell you. If he doesn’t and seems all quiet and broody (cause he’s not a saint and sometimes he doesn’t confess his feelings) then it’s probably a good idea that you ask him about it.

George is also not afraid to cry, or at least he’s not as afraid to show it as Fred. He actually cried quite often as a small child, as Fred will happily remind him. The only times George will hold his tears back is when he doesn’t want to make the people he loves the most worry, like when he lost his ear.

He was so close to crying he thought his throat would split open but he kept it in while his parents and Fred were there; he couldn’t bear to worry his mother more. Not to mention Fred for that matter. Instead, he waited until he was allowed to take a shower and let it out as quietly as he could, though little did he know Fred was standing guard on the other side of the bathroom door, crying as well.

George doesn’t want a lot of children, he’s so used to the large family dynamic. It’s not that he disliked having many siblings but he’d prefer to have a few kids, three at most and be able to spoil them rotten.

George has only broken one bone. It was his collarbone from a bludger. Besides that, he has dislocated his arm once due to hitting a bludger too forcefully from a wrong angle and sprained his ankle from landing too quickly more times than he can count. He’s also been concussed from taking bludgers to the head twice.

George is actually a bit of a neat-freak. He likes having things in order and in the right place so he doesn’t lose track of things. He can’t put too many things in cupboards because if he can’t see them he’ll forget he has them and buy more and more (cause ADHD, baby), so instead he keeps things where he can see them, though in racks and specific orders which Fred often messes up.

Generally, once they moved out, George was better at doing the housework and he didn’t mind at all. Doing all the housework means it gets done the way he wants it done.

His favourite season is winter and his favourite holiday is Christmas because it’s “a time for family”.

George prefers Molly over Arthur (though it’s a tough pick), and he especially loves spoiling her once the shop takes off. He’ll buy her gifts often and always writes to remind her how much he (and Fred) appreciate her.

He’d never admit it but he also does this as a way of proving himself to her. It really hurt him in those years where Molly would disapprove of his and Fred’s plans and even when he found success he still grappled with the feeling of his mother not being proud of him, despite her telling him that several times. All this just added to his disliking of Percy when he was at his going through his insensitive-git-phase.

George’s favourite time of day is the evening. When everything’s quiet and still he can concentrate better. He wrote most of his essays and came up with most products for the shop during this time.

George loves intimacy. He’s not big on PDA. Cuddling alone together, being all tangled up in each other and having whispered conversations when everyone else is asleep are more his thing.

He does love being close to you in public though, he’ll sit next to you, hold your hand, have an arm around you, lean his head on yours, bump his knee against yours under the table if you’re in a lesson or at a meal together. Small yet intimate touches are George’s romantic love language.

George’s favourite sweet is chocolate. Anything with chocolate is good. If there’s caramel or coffee involved too then even better, mint is also accepted (his favourite flavour of ice cream is mint chocolate chip and he will fight you on why it’s the superior ice cream flavour)

George prefers tea over coffee and drinks AT LEAST two cups a day but can easily have up to four or five depending on how long his day is.

George takes a lot of naps. He’d occasionally nap at Hogwarts, like most students. He really started after he lost his ear because Molly kept fussing over him and forcing him to go lay down and rest, then it became even more of a regular thing after the battle of Hogwarts when he’d stay with Fred at st. Mungo’s, while he got better, and then when Fred forced him to go back to work because “sitting here, is not going to make my leg work, now go make us some galleons you git!” he’d work the shop mostly by himself, well, actually completely by himself beside his employees, which was still a small team at the time and he’d often just have to excuse himself to go upstairs and take 30 minutes to nap before he’d pass out from exhaustion.

George struggles with some sensory problems since losing his ear, he gets a faint ringing sound in his ear every now and then, and though he can hear out of his missing ear, it’s less than his other one and he struggles determining where sounds are coming from which is distracting sometimes. He also got a bit of vertigo every now and then as well as some nausea for the first few years after he lost the ear, it got better and better and today it barely bugs him, though he gets dizzy easily.

On the subject of the ear: George enjoyed telling his nieces and nephews (and heck his own kids too) these wild stories of how he lost his ear: he paid it as a toll to an ancient spirit to gain superpowers, it froze off on a particularly cold camping trip with their uncle Fred, a bludger blew it right off, he was possessed by the spirit of van Gogh…. the list goes on.

George was also slightly self-conscious of his ear for a while, he often worried if people were grossed out by it, though with time he forgot about it more and more until he hardly noticed it himself. Now he doesn’t notice if others notice and frankly, he couldn’t care less if they do.

Fred and George mention in OOTP that they took turns testing products, George tested puking pastilles and ended up taking several days off because of what Madam Pomfrey thought was a bad case of the stomach flu, nosebleed nougat (he said himself how it kept bleeding and at that point he let Fred do more testing because Madam Pomfrey was starting to get wayyy to suspicious of him having some terrible disease that was thought to be long gone) and fever fudge though Fred also tried that one.

George takes after his mother as a parent, his platonic love language is definitely cooking for his kids, making them hot cocoa and baking with them during Christmas breaks.

Does he fuss over his kids as Molly does? Noo, absolutely not no. no way. no. no. (yes)

George’s boggart is being left alone.

Despite that, he hates it when people assume that he and Fred are interchangeable and incapable of being without each other. He loves his friendship with Fred, he’s very happy to be his twin but he’s still his own person and it would be nice to be seen as such and not just “one of the Weasley twins”

Mostly his hatred of being seen as “one of the Weasley twins” stems from the fact that people always assume Fred first, meaning George has been mistakenly called Fred more times than he can count.

George is very timid, to begin with, in any relationships because he’s worried his s/o wants him to be like Fred, and that they don’t really care about him as a person but see him more as an asset or “the next best thing to Fred” Which is also why he’d never marry Angelina after she’d dated Fred, even if it was just for a while.

George spent his first salary from the shop on a gift for his mother, a necklace, and a mixed bag of sweets from Sugarplums'...He knows it’s stupid but he just wanted to buy as much candy as he wanted without feeling guilty about spending money for once.

George is not squeamish what so ever. He has got a stomach of steel. It’s almost kind of freaky how unfaced he is but then again, he did invent and test puking pastilles and a product called you-no-poo, so he’s seen a lot.

George’s favourite dates are movie nights and going for ice cream.

George (and Fred) regularly attends quidditch matches, they also love to go back to Hogwarts to watch their kids play (you know at least one of their kids would be into it, considering the Weasley’s history with the sport) and they always yell out their support v e r y loudly.

George really likes wine. The older he gets he appreciates it more and enjoys talking about it without any knowledge on it at business dinners, he’s impressed quite a few potential clients and business partners by giving them a long tirade about wine, without a single thing of it being necessarily true.

George (+Fred and Lee, lol) experimented with eyeliner for a short while, they stopped because it was quote-unquote: “too much work” which made a lot of their female friends roll their eyes because, oh you’ve no idea, do you, Weasley?

I mean someone had to test the wonderwitch products, right?

George is a very light sleeper, and since Fred is anything but that- what with his sleepwalking and tossing and turning- George rarely got a lot of sleep, meaning there’s a large percentage of his detentions in school that were solely from “inattentiveness” aka “falling asleep in class.”

George always thought that if he really really couldn’t work with the joke shop, he’d be a healer. He doesn’t know if he’d be any good at it but it’s a nice thought and he does have a caring gene from his mother.

George’s first sign of magic was when he was a year old. He summoned a blanket into his crib, so it wasn’t much. His first noticeable thing he did was three years later by blasting Fred off him when they were play-wrestling, he basically shocked him with a defensive charge which sent Fred flying onto his back. Fred’s reaction was sitting up, looking shocked, rubbing his head and then whispering: “cool!” They spent days trying to recreate it but to no avail. The story of the event has been greatly exaggerated by both Fred and George to their nieces and nephews.

They still joke that George has a secret superpower that can only be unlocked by play-wrestling him.

As George gets older, he requires glasses like his father, though mostly for reading and sometimes for working on products.

George’s favourite genre of music is soft rock, he’ll belt out an 80’s power ballad any day (and preferably while cooking)

Oh, cooking. George gets super into cooking and baking after the twins move out, he tries his best to recreate his mother’s recipes and is still to this day attempting to perfect her cornish pasty (a personal favourite of his) and every Christmas, George and Molly practically never leave the kitchen in the burrow, as George desperately tries to learn everything he can.

George is the godparent of all Fred’s kids as well as Albus, Dominique and Lucy.

George buys the best gifts, I’ve already touched on this, but he has a weird ability to get you not only what you wish for but what you really need.

Also, his gift wrapping skills are out of this world (his kids + nieces and nephews will never not receive those gifts that are wrapped in like 100 layers of paper)

George loves pet names, he loves the overly sweet, cliché ones and the simple, common ones. His favourite to call his s/o is darling, sweetheart and, weirdly, pumpernickel (he just thinks it’s a funny word).

George’s favourite dates he’d take his s/o on is: museum dates, cooking for them at home, picnics and going to the beach.

George actually kind of liked the Hogwarts uniform. It was easy to keep track of and it meant he could spend minimum time in hand-me-downs that rarely fit perfectly.

George would love to have (and probably has already got) a dog, he doesn’t care what size or breed (but personally I can see him getting on well with a cavalier or a Stabyhoun)

George (also) has a small size kink: He loves wrapping his arms around his s/o from behind, enveloping them in his jacket when it’s cold and resting his head on top of theirs.

George is either full of energy and wants to do five things at once or wants nothing more than to lay flat on the nearest soft surface he can find and watch movies until he falls asleep.

He often takes his s/o on random adventures, he does it as a way to escape boredom or if he’s lost his inspiration. He finds it helps to come up with new ideas if you throw yourself off your rhythm (if you get it you get it) by doing something random you don’t normally do.

George has big John Mulaney energy and if his s/o ever showed him his shows, he’d probably never stop quoting them.

George’s favourite body parts on his s/o: Neck, hands, lips (and butt) (this is where it gets steamy just fyi)

George is very respectful in bed, he’s the type to ask “are you ok?” and “is this ok?” a lot, at least the first couple of times he’s together with his s/o until he gets to know them better.

George def. has a praise kink, he loves giving praise but he also loves feeling like he’s appreciated and loved and doing a good job, you know?

We all know George has a thing for lace, we’re way beyond that at this point. Consider silk, though. He’d totally be into silk over the lace, it’s a light fabric, pretty and really easy to tear away…. *wink*

George is surprisingly good at opening bras.

Generally, he’s really good with his fingers…

He has a pretty dirty mind when it comes to sex but is also super embarrassed about it so he’d only admit his kinkier thoughts when he really trusts and knows his s/o.

I think he’d be pretty two-sided in bed, he loves the intimate, sweet sex but also the rougher, tearing-your-lingerie-off-you sex.

He prefers receiving more than giving oral but it is by such a small margin, he’ll happily give.

He can only last one round (maybe two if you give him a long break) but he’ll absolutely make it count.

George’s fav position is missionary. As much as he likes trying other positions, he prefers the intimacy of missionary. Plus he thinks being able to see your face as you unravel under him is really hot.

#700 follower celebration #george weasley #george weasley headcanon #george weasley x reader #george weasley fanfic #hp headcanons #harry potter headcanon #weasley twins x reader #weasley twins headcanons #weasley twins #selfwriting-sugarquills 700 follower celebration

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geekys-corner · 3 years

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Mind listing the OCs/personas and a couple facts about them? (Might help with questions lol)

Sure! I’ve written 16 below lmao *sticks in a read more*

Anthony - Originally my version of Anti, he’s now a sweet bean who really likes plants. In his backstory and the start of his story, he was found in a tiny pocket dimension inside his old apartment while he and the place around him fell into disrepair with the only thing truly alive being his plants. After losing his entire family, he was very fragile and hurt himself quite a bit, but my other characters rescued him and nursed him back to health and stability!

Onyx - My angsty punk dude who I adore. He is on the autistic spectrum and is mostly non-verbal, once going 4 months without speaking before breaking the silence to tell his best friend that Viggo Mortenson broke his toe in that one scene in Lord of the Rings. They have a twin sister who is 13 minutes older and a firm witch while he is a firm nonbeliever. Sometimes he goes to the junkyard with a baseball bat to let out their anger.

Leon - His backstory is very dark so I won’t get into it, but he’s a very shy bean with one arm and a love for sewing. He has the fluffiest light pink hair, and is just the embodiment of pastel.

Kyle - The older brother of the duo! He’s friends with Onyx and also has a punk look with spiked blue hair, but he’s an absolute sweetheart! He’s eight years older than his brother, and ran away with him when he was a newborn to escape their abusive mother. He raised Joey on his own in the streets, escaping care systems that would split them apart and shove them in to foster homes, and grew up to be completely independent, albeit unaware of what it is like to have a loving family besides his brother. He may be quick to resort to fight or flight to protect his brother and grumpy to strangers, but he’s built them a good life!

Joseph - The little brother! Joey is a smart little kid, (ranging from 10 - 14 depending) with very bright ginger hair and freckles. He’s on the far side of the autistic spectrum and is completely nonverbal, but he’s very expressive, spunky, and loving whenever he’s able to. He adores peanut butter and milkshakes, and would very happily have them six times a day. While he can’t speak, he will send Kyle countless facts from astronomy or marine life through text at any time of day or night. He’s always seen in his blue skateboarding frog hoodie, a beetle backpack filled with his supplies, and his headphones and tablet. He loves to draw and he’s great at it, and always draws sharks, especially whale sharks.

Caelan - Another punk, but this time in bird form. He is a griffin, and in some AUs a dude with prosthetic feet. He has messy blond hair covering his eyes and is based around an Egyptian falcon. He’s very quick witted and very annoying to people who don’t know him, but would go to hell and back for his family.

Marioma - The model of a modern major general- this dude is the only one like him, meaning he has no AU counterparts! He’s different from my other characters since he’s technically self-aware, and acts in my stories if and when I want him to! He’s a grumpy, determined dude who’s trying to quit smoking per request of his boyfriend, Arthur. Before him, he was a sly, hardened, and cunning man who needed someone to rely on who wouldn’t die on him.

Arthur - Foster fails: 5. He owns a bookstore in the universe he inhabits and, just like Mari, he’s one of a kind! He lives the ideal rainy city aesthetic, with an apartment above his store with open windows, plants, cosy blankets and homemade food, handmade clothing, and animals. He’s got curly hair and his scarf is his comfort item, and he takes in animals if and when he can. He and Mari just live a comfortable life :’)

Clyde - A duo with Anthony, he was originally a version of Henrik, but is now completely different. This boy is a classic OC and therefore my teenage angst punching bag. He’s a doctor in his husband Lucas’ mafia, and is very strong-willed and the biggest sweetheart. He has water powers that I always forget about, and could very easily drown someone if he wanted to. Besides that, he does cry a lot over small things, and Lucas has walked in on him crying over their cat in a business-tie.

Levi - If he and Clyde fused, they’d make Henrik. He’s my 55 year old doctor who just the embodiment of grumpy cat and expresso. He’s very lanky and has joint problems after trauma in his late 20s, and sometimes you can hear his bones cracking as he walks. He has, can, and will slap the sense into Clyde when he needs to and hated him to begin with, but warmed up to him. But, he’s completely different to his husband Sage, and in the end, is a very caring guy who won’t take any shit. He’s also therapist, and gives sessions to most of my OCs- (he’s also the doctor at the end of Don’t Leave! Dr Allison!)

Tyrell (Cloak) - So I split the same OC into two halves, essentially from two AUs but in one? They’re not twins, they’re the same guy with separate families but they’re the same. They’re both POC with the same face, hair texture etc. Cloak-Ty is very grumpy, and is called Cloak because of the cloak he wears in his fantasy-based AUs! He wears an eye patch and lost his eye depending on the AU, and went through a lot. You can tell he’s angsty because half of his hair is buzzed off. He tried to push away his now-husband Demitri, but luckily he’s an absolute himbo who doesn’t know when to quit, and eventually melted through the icy layer to a loving, sarcastic, hard-working man.

Tyrell (Ponytail) - Same as above description wise! He’s taller and buff with a ponytail. He went through the same backstory, but was found by Daniel who took him to Lucas’ mafia where they recovered together and eventually fell in love. Half of his face is badly burned and the eye has pin-hole vision, but it doesn’t stop him from being the best sniper on the team. When at home, he loves tea, hanging with his family, and painting. He’s amazing at watercolour and earns money on the side from selling his work! Sometimes he and Dan team up and draw together!

Bloodbranded:

Wayde - He lives in the Winter Forest Region and hunts for his family with his exceptional archery skills. He’s witty and pretty spontaneous, making him good under pressure, but incredibly reckless. He has a bad claw scar across his right eye which cuts into his hair, but he can see just fine! He has beautiful green eyes with central heterochromia, so they turn brown in the centre. While he may be annoying and hot-headed, he cares a whole bunch and grows as a person to fall in love with Milo. He’s a hopeless romantic and protective as all hell, even when Milo can handle himself just fine.

Felicity - She wasn’t born in the WFR like Wayde, she was adopted by her two mothers and is Wayde’s cousin! She’s a POC with beautiful dark skin, and her parents style her hair in unique braids that are decorated by gold rings. She’s a magic user and a very skilled one at that, even when she’d just started out, and wishes to revive the old form of magic that had been taken over by the modern, corrupted magic form that’s based entirely on nepotism. She uses a staff and a book, and is clumsy to start out, but soon becomes a mage to be admired, or feared if you’re an enemy!

Milo - Unlike Felicity and Wayde, he was born in the desert region, and ends up in the WFR by mistake (which is a vast change in temperature for him). Because of the contrast in temperature, he’s always wrapped up in winter clothes, even in places where the others are sleeveless, just because he’s spent his whole life in the heat! When he’s at home, he lives with his Mother and goes out to collect lightning glass after the nightly storms to sell and turn into jewellery or windows etc. Milo was born deaf and uses sign language to communicate. He’s smart, energetic, and excited to see new things, but can handle himself with ease, and knows how to take care of himself through quick thinking and fighting skills from living in the desert. When he and Wayde start dating, he likes coming up behind him and cuddling him or giving him quick kisses!

Prism - Much like their name, they are very colourful. They are a dragon hybrid and live in a kingdom of others like them, but unlike any other dragon, their scales are - like their name - prisms. They gradient between rainbows across their body, but each scale has a rainbow shimmer when they move. Their wings are like stained glass, and their hair (as of now, it might change) is like labradorite! Prism is mute and doesn’t express much, usually communicating through eye rolls. They live as the King’s new heir after he took them in as he believes Prism is the symbol of their kingdom and species’ beauty. Because of this, they are completely untouched by any blade and don’t have a single blemish or scar as to preserve them. Many guards have died to prevent them from obtaining even the slightest scratch. Beyond their anxiety, they join the crew and act as the voice/sign of reason! Even if they are assigned to their kingdom, they soon learn that their friends truly care about them more than their appearance.

That’s most of my OCs, this is already super long so I don’t want to drag it on! If anyone is interested in any OC, feel free to drop an ask, I’d love to write one shots or answer questions! <3 ^^

#geekyfox1's ocs #oc #oc list #bloodbranded #bloodbranded development #oc description

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vintagedolan · 3 years

Text

mixtape | track eight

| masterlist | faceclaims | playlist |

“Left or right?”

“Don’t look at me, I never fucking graduated.”

“Right, then you move it to the left,” Lisa offered, attempting to get past Grayson. He was having none of it, sticking out his tongue a bit while he focused on getting Indy’s cap arranged correctly, making sure her tassel was in the right spot.

Indy had passed her finals with flying colors, which came as no surprise to anyone who knew her. Top of the class, which was enough for her to feel a tiny bit proud of herself. The Dolan’s on the other hand, we’re over the moon, ready to celebrate her as if it was the greatest achievement anyone could accomplish. Grayson had picked her up from her last final, coaxing her to take a nap in the truck while he drove them out to Jersey, her head in his lap as she was finally able to relax after so many days of stress. He was glad - he wanted her energy to be high when she got to the house, considering he’d planned out a big family dinner as a surprise. He’d even caved and bought her her favorite non-vegan ice cream. She was so surprised that she cried as soon as she went in and saw Ethan and Lisa in the kitchen with little fake graduation cap headbands on.

Even though surprises weren’t her favorite, he hoped he could sneak in another, considering the real one wasn’t until the next day, and it’s arrival came as a text that buzzed in Grayson’s pocket.

Here!

He cleared his throat quickly, trying to hide his excitement as he stepped back from his girlfriend.

“Hey Indiana, I think there’s something at the door for you,” he said.

She squinted at him in accusation.

“You just called me Indiana.”

“Indeed I did.”

“That’s sus.”

“Just go to the door Dee.”

“Sus.”

“Dee.”

“G.”

“Indiana Jamie Cross, will you please open your door,” he said as formally as he could, knowing it would make her laugh enough to give in.

“If something jumps out and scares me, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Holy shit just go open the door before I do it for you.”

She walked slowly but she listened to him, pulling the door open cautiously.

“I was wondering if you were gonna let me in.”

Indiana’s mouth fell open.

“Charlie?!”

Grayson Dolan had learned in the last week that the Cross women were stubborn beings, especially when it came to money. Which was why it took so long for him to convince the older Cross sister to let him buy her and Devin a plane ticket at Thanksgiving.

“We would love to be there, but I just bought the ticket to get out here, and money is kinda tight for us right now. I don’t know if we can swing it so soon again.” Charlie kept her voice down, pretending to look at some of the picture frames on the bookshelf while Grayson talked to her.

“I’ll buy your tickets, both of you, first class.”

“Grayson, no, I can’t ask you to do that,” she shook her head.

“But you didn’t ask. I offered, there’s a difference. C’mon, you know that she’d love to have you there.”

Charlie hesitated, bit her lip the way Indy always did. The back door opened, signaling that everyone was coming back inside and that their conversation needed to end. She looked up at him quickly, eyes darting across the room.

“I’ll think about it.”

It had taken her four days to finally agree and let Grayson send her the money for the tickets, though she insisted on flying coach, sending him back the rest of what he’d given her to cover first class, down to the cent.

Which was how she ended up getting tackled by a very excited Indiana outside her apartment door, so hard that they almost knocked Devin over in a whirl of blonde hair. Grayson caught her cap as it flew off.

“What?! What are you doing here?! How did you get here! I thought you couldn’t come, what the fuck!”

“Ask him,” Charlie laughed, lifting her chin towards Grayson.

She spun, eyes wide and shocked.

“You did this?”

He couldn’t help but laugh. “You look exactly like the soft eyes emoji right now, you know that?”

“Shut up,” she smacked his chest before she buried her face in it, sniffling.

“Hey, you don’t have to cry, you’ll mess up your mascara,” he said, pressing a kiss to her hair before she stood up straight again, letting him swipe his thumbs under her eyes.

Ethan was watching the interaction from the couch with a bit of a frown. He pulled his eyes away and picked at some lint on his henley, but he kept his ears towards the kitchen. There was a tenderness, a careful nature in the way he spoke around Indy. It reminded him of the first time that Grayson had gotten a girlfriend. Peyton. They’d met on the first day of 7th grade, in science class, where Grayson didn’t care to pay attention, especially not with Ethan and the prettiest girl in the grade at his table. Ethan had teased his brother relentlessly until he finally got his words handed back to him when she actually agreed to a date - which involved him picking flowers out of his mom’s window box garden (he got in trouble for it later) and hiding them under his jacket when Sean dropped him off at the movie theatre. They’d kissed each other during the end credits, with tongue according to a very excited Grayson who came home and plopped himself on his brother’s bed and spilled every little detail. Ethan was single at the time, so he could only listen, and watch. Watch the way he carried her books for her to class and then sprinted to his own with only a few seconds to spare before the bell. Watched him beg his mom to dye his hair blonde when Peyton said she thought it would look cool. Watched him pass her notes all of class, not caring when Mrs. Patterson took one and read “I love you so much, you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen” in front of the whole class that included the majority of his wrestling team. And, he watched the pain on his face when they stumbled across Peyton kissing Jacob Bates behind the bus when she thought Grayson was at wrestling practice. He tried to keep it together, but he sniffled his way through Lisa dying his hair brown that night. Ethan had tried to cheer him up with his usual tactics - stupid inside jokes, making fun of Cameron, even making fun of himself. But Grayson didn’t laugh.

That was when he knew his brother loved hard. He was halfway convinced the reason that Grayson was the bigger twin in the womb was because of the size of his heart. That being said, it wasn’t unusual for Ethan to watch his brother be kind, and sweet, and loving to his girlfriend.

But there was something different with Indy. It was the first time that he could look at Grayson with a girl and see Grayson - unfiltered, unaltered. His twin brother, in his full form, not having changed a single aspect of himself to fit another person. And it made him happy. So happy that for a moment he was able to ignore the guilt that started to rush over him as he remembered all the things he’d said, about how their relationship wouldn’t work, and how Grayson needed to address it. It made him feel worse that he knew he was still right, no matter how in love his brother was.

In the kitchen, Charlie was flicking through settings on her camera.

“I know we have to leave soon, but we have to get at least a few pictures before you get all sweaty cause you get sweaty when you’re nervous,” she said, grabbing her sister’s arm and leading her over to the windows, positioning her with the right lighting.

They took a few normal portraits, some with her cap and some without, a few candids where Charlie did her best to make her laugh as Grayson watched on, the proudest smile on his face.

“Alright, I want one, I want one!” Devin chimed in, surprising both the Cross sisters. They turned to him with the same expression that had him laughing so hard he held his chest. It was the loudest sound that any of the Dolan’s had ever heard come out of him, but it was contagious enough to have them all smiling.

“What?! It’s not every day my little sis graduates college!” He teased, going to ruffle her hair but thinking better of it at the last minute, instead choosing to wrap her up in the biggest hug, her face adorably squished in the picture that Charlie captured.

After that, it was a revolving door of poses with everyone. Lisa fixed Indy’s hair for her before their picture, and Ethan stole her cap and wore it himself. He offered to take the camera, thankful for Charlie’s settings that seemed to work magic as he took a few cute one of the duo, even a few with Indy on Charlie’s back. Devin joined in and they recreated the shoot from their engagement party that Indy still had on the top shelf.

By the time it was Grayson’s turn, Indy’s cheeks were sore from smiling. But she couldn’t help but beam at him as he waltzed over to her in his dress pants and button down, all dressed up for her big day. She did her best to ignore the click of the camera as Grayson fixed her cap, moved her honors cords so they were even where they hung. They took the normal formal poses, and Grayson stole Ethan’s idea of borrowing the cap. But Indy gasped when he tossed it to the side and scooped her up bridal style, laughing as he held her tight and kissed her cheek, even dipped her a bit and looked up at Charlie for the photo op. Indy put it on her mental to-do list to get them printed as soon as she could, beyond excited to see them once Charlie sent them over.

“Okay, we gotta go or we’re gonna be late,” Lisa said, making sure everyone had what they needed for the short walk to the university. Everyone layered up, but while Grayson disappeared in search of his dress coat, Indy pulled her sister aside.

“Hey um. Did… did Dad talk to you at all this week?”

Charlie’s face melted into pity. “I’m sorry bubs.”

“No it’s fine, it’s no big deal. Didn’t expect him to, I just wanted to check so I didn’t get blindsided or anything if he showed up.”

Charlie just nodded and gave her a small smile. She didn’t tell her little sister that she’d told Kenneth about her graduation - four times, actually. He’d never responded, though she could see that he’d read them. Charlie was so used to making excuses for him that she had a whole list of them backed up. He had to work. Traffic. He wanted to come, but something came up. But when she looked at Indy, who wasn’t so much her little sister anymore, she bit her tongue, put her arm around her and headed out the door.

The ceremony was in the science building. John Clark University didn’t have anywhere big enough to house the entire graduating class, so they opted to split it up into smaller ceremonies by discipline instead.

“It should be pretty quick actually, there’s not a ton of us,” Indy said when they arrived, looking over her shoulder at all the graduates moving to get checked in and lined up.

“We’ll wave when you come out so you can find us!” To Indy’s surprise, Lisa’s eyes were teary. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Li,” Indy smiled, pulling her in for a last minute hug, trying not to get emotional herself at the fact that a woman who had no obligation to love her cared so much.

“Don’t trip,” Ethan grinned, nudging her shoulder to lighten the mood.

She turned to Grayson, kissing him quickly before she finally headed off, looking back a few times before she disappeared around the corner.

“Okay seats, seats, we gotta get good ones!” Charlie exclaimed, immediately leading the group through the rows - it was a massive lecture hall with the flip down chairs Grayson had only seen in movie theatres and movies. When they finally found five seats together, he found himself wandering what it was like to be in class somewhere so big, with so many other people learning the same thing.

Despite feeling like they were running late, there were plenty more graduates and families that filed into the building, taking their seats and patiently awaiting the procession.

Thirty minutes later they finally began to file through, a straight line of black robes and red and white tassels. Charlie spotted Indiana first, with Grayson a millisecond behind her, both of them standing up to wave until she saw them and waved back. He kept track of her as she went to sit down in her row, kept his eyes on her as best he could while the main speaker began his speech. He didn’t care what he had to say - he only had eyes for his girl, who looked back every so often and offered him a little wave that still had his heart fluttering like they were hiding in the curtains of Emma’s room all over again.

Grayson hadn’t experienced a lot of moments of pride in his lifetime. There were a few he could pinpoint - when Ethan won one of their wrestling tournaments in middle school, when their team won their lacrosse championship. When his mom’s salon won best in the city a few years back, when his sister graduated college. But what he felt in that next moment topped every single one.

The dean of the college of sciences asked everyone to hold their applause, and without any prior consulting, Indy’s entire squad ignored the rule.

“Indiana Jamie Cross. Bachelor’s of Biological Sciences. Summa Cum Laude.”

“WOOOOOO, YEAH DEE!” Grayson yelled it at the top of his lungs, not even noticing the way everyone turned to look at him. He could see Indy’s blush all the way from the stage as they all continued clapping until the next person was called.

For a moment he was afraid she was embarrassed, but when she took her seat again he saw her turn around and blow him a quick kiss. He caught it in the air and threw her a wink, excited to get to her to give her a real one, which was exactly what he did when she finally made it out of the stream of people at the end of the ceremony. Everyone’s hearts melted when he spun her around and planted one on her.

Charlie took a few more pictures of her with her diploma before Grayson spoke back up.

“Alright, coffee’s on me!”

It seemed to have gotten somewhat colder outside as the wind whipped around the buildings, and Indy curled into a much warmer Grayson as the group headed down the sidewalk. He moved his finger to her palm.

P-R-O-U-D-O-F-U

She leaned her cheek against his shoulder, her blush almost warm enough to soak through his coat.

But it was nothing compared to the redness that spread over her cheeks when she walked into Jets.

“HAPPY GRADUATION INDIANA!”

The cry was championed by Patrick, who stood in the lobby absolutely beaming at her, below a banner that they’d hung above the espresso bars that read the same. Indy didn’t have to ask - the grin on Grayson’s face gave it away. She wanted to ask him how long he’d planned that surprise, how many more he had in store. She felt woefully undeserving, especially when she realized that Patrick had shut down the store for an hour just for her.

“And I thought you giving me free coffee was bad for business,” she said in his ear when she hugged him.

“I don’t know what lover boy over there does but he covered normal sales for the hour and then some,” he mumbled.

One of the baristas handed Ethan a sign that read “closed for private celebration” to hang on the door, and then it was truly time to celebrate. Indy walked behind the bar like she had a million times before, happy to see that everything was still in the same place. Patrick threw her an apron that she jokingly tied on over her robe before she clapped her hands together.

“Alright, who wants what?”

She made some of her best latte art that day - leaves, a flower for Lisa, a slightly lopsided swan for Devin per his request. It felt nice to be in a familiar place doing something she was good at - it blanketed over the uncertainty that had begun to settle in when she realized that everything was on a trajectory of change. She would never sit in another undergraduate course, never have some of her favorite professors again. And there was always the factor of possibly looking at other schools - they all started their programs in the fall, which meant she had time to truly look, if she really wanted to. From her first tour of campus she’d always thought she would be at JCU for her whole academic career, but her mind began to wander when she heard the buzzing of all the other top schools that her cohort were applying to - Baylor, Harvard, and the one that had piqued her interest the most, UCLA.

She’d googled their admission rates one night when Grayson had fallen asleep during a back scratch, and her chances looked good. Really good. But she’d closed the tab quickly - LA was too far away from New York, from home.

“Hey. Where’d you go?” Grayson’s voice was soft as he clinked his mug against hers to get her attention.

“Just thinking,” she smiled, turning her head and tilting up until he kissed her quickly. “I’ll be right back.”

Indiana hopped off her barstool and headed back behind the bar, following Patrick who had disappeared to the back storage room. It was like walking into a friend’s house you hadn’t been to in a while when she passed through the swinging door. The freezers on the left and the syrups in organized rows on her right, just like before.

“Don’t even think about trying to do any dishes while you’re here,” Patrick said, his back still to her as she moved to the sink. She’d had too much time to think while she sat and waited for her name to be called during the ceremony - too much empty mental space that could be allotted to all the things she should be doing. Which meant she’d managed to hatch up a whole plan to better herself in more ways than one in a mere 20 minutes.

“Do you guys still have the same insurance policy for employees? Like the new health benefits, the mental health ones that you all put in like two months before I left?”

Patrick turned the water off.

“Yeah, insurance is the same, it covers four therapy sessions a month for anyone who qualifies. But that’s just for full time employees. But I could probably pull a few strings and get you some benefits with part time hours… is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah everything is fine! I was just curious. Thanks.”

Indy turned to leave, jumping a bit when she realized that Charlie was behind her.

“What’re you doing back here?”

“I was looking for Patrick, there’s a delivery guy here with milk,” Charlie explained, but there was a seriousness in her brows that let Indy know that she had not only heard enough of the conversation, but that she was definitely going to have to talk about it later.

Damn.

She pushed the thought aside and put on another smile before they all exited the backroom, laughing at the sight of one of Ethan trying to steam milk. He turned at her entrance and lost his focus, moving the pitcher down too far and spraying almond milk everywhere before the barista who was helping him flipped the wand back up.

“Eden’s on facetime for you over there!” He pointed towards the counter and his phone, which Indy happily picked up to find a beaming Eden, who informed her that she’d sent a card that would probably be there a few days late, but she’d tried. She stayed on FaceTime while they all thanked Patrick again and headed back to the apartment, Lisa unveiling the gift pile and vegan cookie cake she’d managed to sneak in while Grayson had distracted Indiana with questions about his outfit choices. Almost every gift made Indiana cry - just the idea that they’d spent any time thinking about her was enough to have her emotional anyways. But between the blanket that Lisa had embroidered with JCU 20’, Ethan’s gift of a JCU Alumni sweatshirt and Indy’s dream record player that Charlie and Devin had got her, she was teary-eyed. Her mouth fell open when Grayson came out with a giant box from the spare room - she couldn’t for the life of her figure out how he’d managed to sneak it in past her - but she didn’t care when she unwrapped it and realized it was a Mastrena.

“You bought me an espresso machine? Grayson! These things cost a fortune!”

“Yeah, but you graduated college! And now you can make lattes all the time.”

“Gray-”

“And you can make me lattes,” he teased, knowing it would take her a while to fully accept it. She just shook her head when he kissed her cheek, overwhelmed.

By the time the night was coming to a close, everyone was piled onto the couch, with Charlie and Indy on their boyfriend’s laps to make room for everyone as they watched Collateral Beauty at Indy’s request. Grayson frowned when she sniffled and held her when she cried, eyes more focused on her than the screen. And he couldn’t say he was too sad to see Lisa and Ethan say goodbye, or for Devin and Charlie to say their goodnights before they disappeared into the spare room.

The duo brushed their teeth in the sink side by side, and Grayson snapped a picture of them in the mirror with a foamy smile before they stripped down to underwear and scurried under the covers.

Indy was just as glad to have him to herself for the first time all day, and she soaked in his warmth, sighing when he pulled her closer.

“I love you. Thank you for today.”

Y-O-U-R-E-W-E-L-C-O-M-E he traced on her shoulder blade, lips on her forehead.

T-I-R-E-D?

“Why?” Grayson smirked, laughing quietly when she smacked his chest.

“It’s been a long day, that’s why.”

“For you,” he corrected.

“You had to sit around and watch me all day though.”

“You say that as if it’s something I wouldn’t enjoy. I could celebrate you everyday baby.”

She blushed at his words, burying her face in his neck.

“For someone as accomplished as you, you really suck at letting people acknowledge your accomplishments,” he teased, running his fingertips over her skin lightly. She did the same over his chest, tracing a hexagon.

“I’m… I’m not used to people being proud of me I guess.”

Grayson frowned and pulled back and looked at her, really looked in her eyes. They were still the color of the jellyfish, just a bit duller in the low light of her bedroom.

“I’m proud of you Indiana.” He paused, offering her a small smile. “But you know what? I’m not the most proud.”

Indy waited.

“Your mom. She’s gotta be the most proud of you. She’s seen every single minute you put in to get where you are right now.”

She crumpled into his chest, and the tears that had threatened her all day finally fell, hot and salty as they traveled onto his skin. It was quiet in the room for a while, and Grayson waited patiently - quietly, until she spoke again.

“I felt her today. She was there.”

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t see her or anything. But I had a dream about her the other night though, and it felt like she was really there with me. And it felt like that today too. Does that ever happen to you? With your dad?”

“Oh all the time. He’s always with me. Sometimes it’s stronger than other times - like when I’m about to do stupid shit, or make a mistake, I can hear him clear as day in my head. But it’s comforting, you know? Knowing they’re there, watching over us.”

“Yeah.” Indy’s throat was tight all over again. She wished she could have met Sean for a moment, and then she realized that in some ways, in knowing Grayson, she had.

“You know, one of the things that really stuck with me, towards the end, was something his nurse said. Her name was Charlotte, and she must have been working fucking overtime because she was always there. But one day I was in the hallway, cause I just needed a break, and she came and sat down next to me on the floor. And at that point, I mean we knew. We didn’t know when, but we knew. And she looked at me and she said ‘sweetheart, this is a gift for him. He gets so much more time with you, because he can always be with you instead of only sometimes.’ And I remember, I was so fucking mad at her, because who the fuck says that shit to someone whose about to lose their parent? But she was right. She was so fucking right.

“And while the doctors were in and out, giving us all these numbers and all these timelines and all that, Charlotte was the only one who really told me anything that mattered. I don’t know if I ever told you this, but my dad didn’t want to know anything about his… his cancer. He didn’t want to know his counts, or how much time he had left. He never asked, and she was the only one who stood by him in that, made sure that he didn’t know anything he didn’t want to. And it meant so much to him, in the end, that he had that choice. That was one of the only things he asked us to do, before he went. He told us not to cry, and he told us to take care of Ma, and Cam, but he told us to look out for Charlotte too. When we could think, we went back to the unit, asked the other nurses if there was anything she needed, and it turns out she’d been driving a 1995 Honda for a decade, and she didn’t think it would make it through the rest of the winter. We bought her an SUV, and I still don’t think she knows it was us, but I swear my dad told me which one to get for her. And he was so fucking proud.”

Indiana hung on his every word, watching him as he watched the ceiling, like he always did when he talked about his father.

“He has so much to be proud of Grayson. He helped raise a wonderful, wonderful man. The best, actually.”

Her voice snapped him out of his own head, and he turned to her quickly, worried.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.”

“Hey, don’t ever apologize for that. I like hearing about your dad, and it’s good to get it out sometimes. You can tell me anything that’s on your mind, you know that.”

He looked at her, there in his arms, eyes a bit puffy from tears passed, that soft smile on her lips that was somehow more endearing than her full one, and he felt tears of his own start to prickle. He knew she meant it, knew she would be understanding, and that somehow made it worse.

What was he supposed to say? I love you so much, and I think you’re the love of my life, but our lives are completely different, and I promised I wouldn’t ask you to go to LA, and I’m terrified of losing you and I don’t want to hurt you.

His lips parted, and then he closed them again. She yawned so hard that her nose scrunched, and when she was done she curled back up against his chest, wrapping her arms around him.

“M’tired,” she mumbled, which meant she was already half asleep.

He pulled the covers over her shoulders and kissed her hair.

“I love you,” she whispered, tracing the same letters she spoke.

“I love you more.” His voice was tight as his finger moved against the back of her arm, and he turned the lamp off before any of his tears fell.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

When Indiana woke up, Grayson’s arms were like a cage around her. Usually, they were still somewhat intertwined when they woke, but she’d never had to maneuver her way out of his arms with so much force before.

She finally managed it, and replaced herself with a pillow that he gladly pulled to his chest. Indy couldn’t help but to lean over and brush some of his floppy hair out of his eyes, staring for a moment before she pulled herself away and headed into the kitchen.

The reason for her early wake up was standing in front of the fridge, with a head of blonde hair that resembled a birds nest.

When she turned around, she looked guilty as ever.

“Shit, did I wake you up?”

“Nah,” Indy reassured her sister with a smile, moving over to the coffee machine. “It’s 10 anyways, I’m surprised I slept that long.”

Grayson had gotten her a newer version that was actually fairly quiet, but she made sure both the bedroom doors were shut before she ground the espresso for her latte, and Charlie’s flat white.

Charlie was nice enough to wait until she had her mug to bring it up.

“So.”

Indy sighed. “So.”

“You asked Patrick about insurance stuff.”

“Yes.”

“So you’re going to work there again?”

“I have to pay rent somehow, don’t I?”

“Dad pays your rent.”

“I don’t want dad to pay my rent, that’s the whole issue.”

“Okay, but you didn’t ask Patrick about salary, you asked him about insurance. For mental health specifically.”

“You know, it’s not polite to eavesdrop.”

“Are you okay? Because you know that you can always talk to me about stuff, whatever it is. And I know I’m not the best about talking about mom, but I can try, I’ve been doing better with it and-”

“Char. Stop. It’s not about mom.”

“Oh.” It was obvious by her long pause that she hadn’t considered an alternative, but Indy waited anyways.

“Then… what’s going on?”

Indy toyed with the foam on her latte with her finger, ignoring how hot it was.

“I was thinking about trying to get a handle on the plane thing.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t want it to be such a big deal for me to just, fucking fly somewhere. I gotta get over that shit.”

Charlie pondered it for a minute, and she chose her next words carefully.

“Just to fly? Or to fly to a specific place.”

Indy laughed.

“You know, you’ve never been good at subtle. You got that from mom. But no, I’m not just doing it because of Grayson.”

“Did he ask you to?”

“Of course not, he wouldn’t do that.” Charlie’s shoulders relaxed. “But he does live in LA, which means I’ve gotta be able to fly out there.”

“How often?”

“I don’t know, we haven’t really talked about it.”

“Oh. Doesn’t he leave soon though?”

“January.” She said it casually.

“Inds that’s next month.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

Charlie had a million more questions, but she held her tongue and sipped her coffee.

“I’ve gotta pack, our flight leaves in a few hours. I’m assuming you don’t have any breakfast food.”

“Actually, I do, but I’m not the breakfast chef around here.”

She sat her mug down on the counter and threw Charlie a wink before she headed back into her room as quietly as she could, sneaking up to the edge of the bed. Grayson had rolled to his stomach, something in his unconscious realizing that the pillow that he’d tossed away was in fact not his girlfriend. He almost looked too adorable to disturb.

Almost.

She went the gentle route, changing her mind on the pounce plan that she’d originally made. Instead, she crawled up the mattress and over his back, laying down on top of him with her cheek pressed to his warm shoulder.

He grunted a bit, but it turned into a sigh when she started peppering kisses along his skin.

“Mornin gorgeous,” he grumbled, eyes still closed. “What’re you doin’ back there?”

“Just hanging out.”

“Well- “ he rolled slightly, just enough to pull her over his side and onto the mattress so he could move right back with her underneath him -” maybe you should hang out down here instead.”

She relaxed into him like she always did, peppering kisses against his chest. Her hands ran over the ripples of muscles in his arms before she stopped and traced.

B-R-E-A-K-F-A

“Ahhh, so you didn’t just come in here for cuddles huh,” Grayson cut her off with a smile, quirking an eyebrow when she looked up at him.

“If you make us all avocado toast I’ll pay you in cuddles,” she offered. It puffed up Grayson’s chef alter ego just enough to convince him to get out of bed and throw some pants on. Indy stayed closed to him, soaking up the last bits of warmth from the morning as she helped him prep everything for breakfast. She could have done it, but Grayson’s pride at a very nicely laid out plate of avo toast, strawberries and honeydew was the best addition she could make. So she stuck to the coffees instead, passing over mugs as Devin appeared and Charlie followed, though she was still working on her cup from earlier.

“Well, now I see how he turned you into a breakfast person,” she said, graciously accepting a plate. They ate over quiet conversation, enjoying the last little bit of time they had before the airport and the inevitable goodbye. Grayson had bonded with the duo even more during their visit, and he was sad to see them having to leave again so soon. When Indy went to change, Grayson followed her, frowning when she didn’t pick her warmest jacket.

“It’s supposed to get really cold out, you’ll probably want your big one,” he said as subtly as he could, popping his knuckles as he spoke.

“I thought it was supposed to be a little warmer today,” she pouted. “We’re only gonna be outside to walk to the car.”

“Right, but you’re always cold. Just wear that one.” He gave her his most dazzling smile and she gave in, sliding in on before she left. Grayson was grateful that she listened - it meant he didn’t have to reveal his final graduation surprise too soon. He bit his tongue on the drive to the airport, gave out his hugs to Charlie and Devin, squeezing Indy into his side when she sniffled at the sight of her sister disappearing into the terminal.

Indy didn’t have a single suspicion until Grayson took a different turn into the city, much earlier than usual - 50th, instead of 26th.

“Bub? This is the wrong way.”

“No it isn’t.”

“We get off on 26th for the garage.”

“We aren’t going to the garage.” He couldn’t keep the smile off his face - the sheepish one that always made Indy’s heart flutter. She’d seen it so many times, but it still had the same effect on her every single time.

“Well then where are we going?” There was a childlike excitement in her voice that made Grayson laugh. He pulled her hand up to his face, kissed her skin softly.

“You’ll see.”

The first stop it seemed, was a jewelry store.

“This is not the surprise by the way, just an errand. Gotta pick up a christmas gift for mom.”

“I was gonna get her a sweater for christmas, do you think she’ll like that?”

“Li does love a good sweater. She’ll love anything you get her though, you’re the favorite.”

Indy rolled her eyes but didn’t respond as one of the workers came up and asked what they were there for. When Grayson gave his name she headed to the back and came back out with a small box.

“May I?” She asked.

Grayson nodded, waiting for her to open it. Inside was a beautiful ring, silver and delicate, with a large light blue stone in a princess cut.

“It’s beautiful,” Indy mused.

“Blue topaz. My dad’s birthstone. Mine and E’s too. You think she’ll like it?”

“Gray she’ll love it, of course she’ll love it.”

“I hope so.” His nerves were evident - he was always on a mission to make sure that his mom still had a good Christmas, although she always said all she needed was to have her kids back under her roof for the day. He paid the final portion of the ring payment and slipped the box into his pocket, waiting until they were back outside to turn to Indy with a wide smile.

“Now, we really celebrate.”

They walked hand in hand down the street. Indy kept her protests to herself - she wasn’t used to being spoiled in any way. In fact, it still made her uncomfortable when anyone spent money on her in any form, but she tried to remind herself that money didn’t mean the same thing to him as it did to her. So when they strolled up to one of the nicer restaurants in the city for a late lunch, she bit her tongue and tried not to think about the prices, following him inside to the warmth. It was dimly lit, the type of place where the host would take your coat off and pull your chair out for you.

Grayson beat him to it, fingers brushing over her shoulders while he pulled her coat off. She felt underdressed in just jeans and a sweater, but he looked at her like she hung the moon for him and him alone, and she wondered for a moment if there would ever be a day in their lives together that he couldn’t make her blush just by looking at her.

The menu didn’t even have prices next to the items, and it made Indy’s mouth dry enough for her to finish her water before the waiter even came back for their order.

Grayson noticed. He always noticed. He reached a hand across the small table for her hand, thumb running over her smooth acrylics that she’d gotten pre-graduation.

“Why are you nervous bub?”

“This place is expensive,” she explained after a moment’s hesitation.

“And graduating college a year early is a feat worth celebrating,” he reminded her, raising up his wine glass filled with water. “Despite the fact that you seem to hate being celebrated.”

“I don’t hate being celebrated. I’m just… not used to it I guess. Wasn’t a big Cross family thing, even before.”

“Well, it’s a big Dolan family thing.”

“I guess I better get used to it then.”

She clinked her glass against his as he swallowed hard, the movement of his throat hidden by the lighting. He pushed the thoughts from his head, the constant nagging he seemed to never be able to escape from, the better part of his conscience begging him to do the right thing, to tell her what he was thinking. She didn’t deserve for him to drag it out if he really was going to end things - she deserved so much more, more than he could give her with the life that he led. But every time he thought he had the courage to say something she’d reel him back in with a smile, or a witty comment, or just a look, entirely unaware of what she was doing. And he couldn’t imagine her anywhere else but the spot that she’d managed to carve out in his soul in just a few short months. He knew deep down he’d never find anyone else to fill it, but he also knew that she deserved to live the life she wanted to. A life without a boyfriend whose life interfered with hers. He just didn’t know how to reconcile with the fact that he would break her heart, and his own in the process.

So, he ignored his conscience and gave in to the selfish side of himself.

When she asked where he’d gone, he said he was planning, and it wasn’t a lie. If he was only going to have so many days with her, he wasn’t willing to sacrifice a single moment.

So he held her hand on top of the table while they waited for their food, striking up a conversation about college memories and her classmates that she would miss the most. The food was as incredible as he expected, and he made a mental note to thank Ethan for the recommendation. Grayson made sure that Indy didn’t see the inside of the bill when the waiter brought it, even being careful to slip the $200 in cash in the billfold practically under the table.

He led her back out into the cold, for once thankful for the early sunset of NYC that already had the city lights glowing against the fading sky. There was something magical about it, about existing on the streets with so many other people, knowing each one of them had their own story and life that they led. Indy people watched as Grayson led her safely down the streets, letting her cling onto his arm for comfort and warmth. It was only a few blocks until they saw the metallic flags and turned the corner to find the Rockefeller Center tree, massive and glorious in its height. It was speckled with what seemed like millions of lights, all twinkling in bright colors amongst the branches.

“Wow.”

Grayson watched the wonder on her face with a chuckle. “You’re a New Yorker, aren’t you supposed to be used to this shit?”

She smacked his arm, but kept her eyes forward. “I haven’t been to see it in years. It’s beautiful.”

He looked at her. “Yeah. Beautiful.”

He let her admire it as long as she wanted, resting his cheek against the top of her head when she leaned over on him.

“You wanna get closer?”

She frowned at him. “How?”

Grayson started walking with her in tow, down the stairs and around the plaza until he got to the ground level, fishing two tickets out of his jacket pocket for the attendant at the front of the ice rink. Indiana squeezed his arm.

“Gray. Baby, this is so sweet, but I can’t skate for shit.”

“Why am I not surprised,” he laughed, shaking his head before he kissed her forehead. “I won’t let you fall. Promise.”

They checked out their skates quickly, lacing up on one of the benches before Indy rose on wobbly feet, immediately letting out a squeal and reaching for her boyfriend. He caught her with a laugh, adjusting his own balance before they started walking to the edge of the ice. That familiar Grayson confidence was evident as he stepped on, getting his bearings before he reached out a hand for her.

“C’mon, I’ve got you. You got this, just one foot at a time.”

She grabbed both his hands and let him counteract her weight as she tried to get her footing, finally finding her balance after a moment of wobbling.

“Okay, now push off with one foot and glide with the other. Like this.”

He went to let go to demonstrate, and she clung to his hands with a squeak. “Don’t let go!”

Grayson’s cackle bounced off the ice. “Okay, okay! I’m right here, you’re good. Just try.”

Indy didn’t like not being good at things. But god was she terrible at ice skating. It didn’t matter how much instruction Grayson tried to give her, it was like it refused to translate into the movement of her legs. She was adorable when she was frustrated, but Grayson wanted it to be enjoyable for her too, so after a few laps around of watching her struggle he slid behind her, hands solid on her hips.

“Just keep your legs and feet straight, and I’ll do the rest.”

She held onto his hands as he started to push her along - she’d forgotten that he was annoyingly athletic but the feeling of actually gliding across the ice kept her from teasing him about it. It was peaceful, and despite the crowd both on the ice and above them by the tree, she felt like they were the only two in the city.

Grayson took them through the middle after they’d gone around a few times, towards the center for one pass and she squeezed his hand when they got there.

“Wait, stop!”

He turned his skates, throwing a bit of ice onto her ankles on accident, peaking over her shoulder.

“What’s up?”

“Turn me around. Please.”

He did as she asked, faster than he meant to, and it had her nails digging into his shoulders as he tried to hold her up without them both going down. She was breathing fast when he got them steady, quirking an eyebrow.

“We gotta take a picture in front of the tree!”

He obliged, pulling his phone out of his pocket and turning them slowly until the tree was behind them, snapping a few of the two of them smiling before he kissed her cheek, and then her lips, randomly pressing the button and hoping they were still in frame.

Her lips were cold against his, and tasted like the vanilla chapstick she’d put on before they’d left the restaurant. It sent tingles down the back of his neck that made him put his phone back in his pocket and pull her closer to him.

Wrong move. He’d never met someone so uncoordinated in his life, and it was the closest call of them all when her legs started to flail. His only hope of saving her from hitting the ice was to pick her up fully and hope that he could keep his balance with the sudden weight shift.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly, clinging to his neck while he laughed.

“What am I gonna do with you,” he teased, and in a moment of confidence he dipped her down like they were dancing and kissed her again. The same tingle went down his neck, the hair there standing up, still there even when he sat her on her skates again, keeping an arm wrapped around her waist.

Above them, as if someone had turned on a machine, it began to snow. Big fluffy flakes fell around them, disappearing into Indy’s light hair and speckling the top of Grayson’s. It was magic in its simplest form, and Indy couldn’t help but beam at him.

“I love you. So much.”

“I love you more,” he said, and he meant it.

They headed off the ice a few minutes before their session expired, unlacing their boots with numb fingers that they shoved in their pockets for the walk back to the truck. As soon as they climbed in the cab Grayson blasted the heat and opened an arm for Indy to cuddle up next to him. Once they were thawed enough, Grayson proposed the idea of hot chocolate, specifically to help the fact that Indy’s teeth were still chattering. Which was how they ended up at Jet’s 40 minutes later, squished together in the blue chair by the window, watching the snow fall as they sipped peppermint hot chocolates that Patrick had given them on the house. Grayson dropped a 20 in the tip jar anyways.

The lobby was busy, with people in and out constantly, wiping the snow off their shoes as best they could on the small doormat. They shuffled through the line, a few of them sitting down for a moment to wait for their names to be called. Indy was used to the bustle, though she felt a bit guilty that she wasn’t behind the bar helping out when she had the skills to. Instead, she just smiled any time a barista looked her way, and spent the rest of her time watching the snow outside.

Grayson’s eyes were on a girl. A few girls, actually, who looked oddly familiar though he couldn’t place where he’d seen them before. They’d sat at a table towards the back of the store, having come in right behind him and Indy. But since then they’d moved forward one table, and then another, and the not so subtle way that two of them had angled their phone had that familiar prickle at the back of his neck rising again. He shifted in his chair quickly, turning his head away and attempting to do his best to block the view of Indiana.

“Hey, you ready to get outta here?”

“Did you finish already?” She asked, surprised considering her cup was still half full.

“Yeah,” he lied. “Just figured we could get home and change into some cozy pjs is all.”

“That sounds nice.” Indy moved in to kiss his cheek, and though he tried to pull away, he didn’t do it fast enough.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” Two for two. “Let’s just get home.”

The walk was as short as ever, but it was enough time for Indy’s mind to race. Had he been annoyed that she said something about the restaurant being expensive? Maybe he hadn’t wanted to help her ice skate - most people could at least hold themselves up on the rails at least. But he’d seemed so happy, which somehow made her feel worse, that she’d missed it somehow.

By the time they made it to the elevator, she was borderline panicking.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Did I do something?”

Her words broke Grayson out of his own thoughts, and he rushed into reassurances.

“No, it’s not you baby. It’s not, I promise.”

“Then what is it? And don’t say it’s nothing.”

“I’m good, really. Just wanted to get home.”

For the first time in her almost three months of knowing Grayson, she didn’t believe him. But she knew when to drop a subject, so she just nodded and followed him out of the elevator.

Half of Grayson’s wardrobe seemed to have migrated into Indy’s apartment, so it wasn’t hard to find cozy clothes that had them curled up together on the couch in no time. Grayson felt guilty, and tried to distract himself by running his fingers through her soft hair, tried to focus on the weight of her leaned against him. She was quiet as she scrolled through show after show, not really looking. She picked a random cooking show eventually just to fill the silence in the room, moving to lay across Graysons lap. His hand moved under her shirt, fingers still a bit cold as he ran them lightly over her skin.

She didn’t say anything, just glad to have him there with her. She traced on top of his sweatpants, shapes and words, L-O-V-E-Y-O-U and T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U. The fabric was so thick that he could barely make out what she was writing.

“Thank you? For what?”

She rolled over so she was looking up at him. “For today. For celebrating me.”

He traced a thumb over her cheek. “You’re welcome. I love you. So much.”

“C’mere,” Indy said, reaching up for him. It took some shifting, but eventually they got settled where they were laying together on the couch, with her pressed between the cushions and his chest. She was warm as she kissed him, slow and calculated, trying to get across to him that she was there for whatever he was going through without the words. He reciprocated, but his mind was still spinning, images of the girls and their phones behind his eyelids.

The kiss faded out into cuddles which faded into an uncomfortable silence that Indy was desperate to resolve.

“What’s the update on the tiny homes? Weren’t the floor guys supposed to come in yesterday?”

“Yeah, Ethan went out there and said they were almost done. We’ve got some interior designers coming out tomorrow and then they’ll be done-done,” Grayson explained, heart rate rising as yet another opportunity to tell her came up.

“They really got those done so fast. I guess that’s a perk of a tiny home though, not much floor space to floor. How often do you guys think you’re gonna come out and stay in them?”

He licked his lips, trying to find the right words to tell her.

“Well, actually-”

His phone buzzed in his pocket - a call from Ethan.

He didn’t know whether to feel grateful or annoyed, but he fished his phone out of his pocket anyways, sliding over to answer.

“Yo.”

“Hey, mom wants to put up the christmas decs tomorrow cause she still doesn’t have them up. You remember where we put the lights?”

“Yeah, they’re in the attic I think, with the tree.”

“Well, you’re the family santa, so get your ass out here early tomorrow to hang some lights. And bring Indy too, I’ll make breakfast.”

“Don’t make breakfast, we’ll bring donuts or something.”

“Fuck you, be here at 10.”

He hung up, making Grayson roll his eyes and look down at Indy.

“You up for Christmas decorating tomorrow at home tomorrow?”

“Yeah, that sounds like fun! But I’m sure as fuck not getting on the roof.”

He kissed her forehead. “I’ll do the roof, you can do the stuff inside with Ma. Deal?”

“Deal,” she smiled, wiggling up to kiss him again, trying to chase out the rest of her worries before she curled up into his chest.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The snow had piled onto the sides of the highway in ugly mounds stained with dirt and asphalt drudged up by the plows. So Indy kept her eyes on the trees as they flew by, specifically the evergreens she saw, with their green bristles weighted down with white, heavy and thick.

“Are you sure you guys wanna get on the roof with all this? Won’t it be slick?”

“Nah, Dad used to do it all the time. I’ll just make E shovel while I try to find the clips we put up there last year. Besides, if I fall off I’ve got a doctor to mend me up,” he teased, squeezing her leg.

“I’m not a doctor yet.”

“Okay, well an almost doctor then. How many years until you’re actually one again?”

“11 years minimum. Well, 10 for me cause I skipped a year in undergrad. But it could be up to 16, depending on how long my residency would go.”

“And you’re gonna do it all through JCU?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan right now,” she mumbled, eyes still focused out the window.

“Hey,” he got her attention, waiting for her to turn to him. “You’re gonna be an amazing doctor someday. You’re gonna help so many people. Just having you in the room, doing the little things for people, that’s gonna mean more to those people than you even realize. They’re gonna be really lucky to have you.”

The sentiment seemed to arise out of nowhere, but she still blushed at his kind words. “The little things are actually more the nurses, but thank you.”

He let her watch the trees for the rest of the drive, and she was so focused on them that she barely noticed Ethan already on the roof when they pulled in.

He had a bright orange shovel in his hands, the scoop full of snow that he began to swing back and forth once they stepped out of the car, shoes crunching the snow below them.

“Don’t you dare!” Indy called, but it was too late. The snow was already flying and she squealed, grabbing Grayson and pulling him out of the way while it rained down right where they had been standing.

A moment later and Lisa was outside, hands on her hip with the menacing energy only a mom could produce.

“Ethan Grant! That’s how you fall and bust your fucking head open! Knock it off!”

Grayson bit back a laugh when Ethan kicked a tiny bit more snow off the edge so it sprinkled down by Lisa.

“Will you get up there before he falls off please?” She turned to Grayson, exasperated. “Indy, come in, it’s cold.”

It was Indiana’s turn to laugh when Lisa hooked their arms together and led her into the house, leaving Grayson out in the snow. He grabbed the lights that Ethan had already gotten out, looping his arm through before he headed up the ladder at the lowest point of the roof.

“I’ve already done the other side of the house, so I’m just here for moral support and to save your ass if I need to, my job is done,” Ethan explained, moving over to a spot by the chimney to sit down.

“Oh yeah, you shoveled on a downhill slope, the horror,” Grayson muttered, but in all honesty he would rather do the lights himself anyways.

They talked about the tiny homes and the final touches they needed while Grayson moved around the roof carefully, trying to counteract his balance when he got closer to the edge, cursing his mom silently for having roofs so high that they couldn’t do it from the top of a ladder.

The front of the house went without incident, and Ethan begrudgingly helped by holding the extra lights while Gray strung them. But when Ethan went down the ladder to get the next strand to connect, he took a minute too long to come back up. Grayson tried to use what little patience he was born with, but it fizzled out quickly, making him stomp across the roof to the edge.

“Yo, what the fucks taking so long?”

“Gray.”

“Can you not find them or what?”

“Grayson.”

He didn’t like the tone of his brother’s voice.

“What? What happened?”

“Come down here.”

Grayson took the ladder so quickly that his feet almost slipped, but he was at his brother’s side in a moment, taking his phone that he had outstretched.

His stomach dropped into the snow under his feet as he began to scroll with a numb thumb. There were pictures. So many pictures, and Indy was in every single one of them. Tweet after tweet with different screenshots of the two of them - looking at the tree, ice skating, sitting in Jets, even walking down the street. He pieced it together, realized that the reason the girls had looked familiar was because they’d followed them.

“Fuck. Fuck.”

Bile rose in his throat when he found a video, zoomed in as far as it would go with surprising quality as he pushed Indy along on the ice, towards the middle of the rink. He watched her squeeze his hands and laugh, watched himself turn her around so they could get their picture, watched himself kiss her cheek and her lips.

He didn’t want to read, but he couldn’t help himself. There were a few familiar handles that talked about how happy they were for him, but the majority of it was exactly what he expected.

So much for ‘working on himself’ he’s back on the constant girlfriend trend

Didn’t think she was his type but okayyyyy I guess 🥴

When we said we didn’t want Grayson to end up with an LA girl, we didn’t mean ~that~

Her insta is indiana.jamie, i’ve never even heard of her

The worst was a two set of images from Jet’s, where her face was in plain view. The second one had edited lighting, and was zoomed in on his pocket, with the text above it.

Look I know I sound crazy but WTF IS IN HIS POCKET? IS THAT A RING BOX? GRAY BABY NOOOOOOO

“Fuck.” He couldn’t find another word, and Ethan was no help. A call from Adele came in on his phone, and E looked at him for approval. He just nodded and let him answer, turning away and heading into the house, not even bothering to clean his boots.

“Dee! Indiana!”

“In here!” She called back and he jogged into the living room, not realizing he was breathless until he got there and saw that the tree had been assembled. She had an ornament in her hand when he ran in and she put it on the tree quickly, her stomach tightening at the look on his face.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“Where’s your phone, have you looked at your phone?”

“It’s over there, it’s just been playing music. Baby what’s wrong?”

He ran over to it, muttering out a ‘shit’ when the screen lit up, both at the flood of notifications and the fact that her lockscreen had changed to their picture from the ice.

“Woah.” She took her phone from him, unlocking it and heading after all the notifications on instagram. “Holy shit. I got 3,500 new followers, what the fuck?”

“Indy, I’m so fucking sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She closed her phone and looked at him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “For what?”

“I should have thought about it, there’s not usually paps in New York, I didn’t even think about fans, and now everyone’s tweeting a bunch of bullshit about you, I’m just, fuck, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“Slow down,” she murmured, hand moving to his face. She saw Lisa leave the room out of the corner of her eye, but she kept looking at Grayson. “It’s okay. We knew this was going to happen.”

“They saw the ring box in my pocket in some of the pictures, they probably think we’re fucking engaged, and they’re gonna be relentless. Every time you get online you’re gonna see some bullshit about you because of me.”

“Gray, it’s alright. It’s okay, I can handle it.”

“No, you can’t, nobody can, it’s gonna get to you. If you say it doesn’t effect you, you’re fucking lying.” He ran his hands through his hair and then down over his face, sucking in a breath that Indiana recognized.

“Gray, don’t cry. Look, look.” She unlocked her phone again, exited instagram and held down until it shook, deleting it quickly from her phone. “I don’t even post much anyways. And I don’t have a twitter, I’m not gonna see what they say about me. I don’t care, I promise you I don’t.”

Her gut told her a different story. Though it wasn’t her favorite quality of herself, Indy liked to be liked. It was natural, but she sought validation from other people more than she wanted to, and it made her dangerously curious to see what had caused such a visceral reaction in her boyfriend.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, dropping his head. She got up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“It’s okay. We’re okay. It’s not your fault.”

And for the first time in his almost three months of knowing Indiana, he didn’t believe her.

#WOOOOOO #I hope you guys like it!#let me know what you think pls :')#mixtape #grayson dolan #grayson dolan fanfiction #grayson dolan fanfic

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lobothepunkwolf · 4 years

Text

Alexander Hansen | Interlude Self Para Part One | Heavy

[TRIGGER WARNING: Death and Description of Attempted Suicide]

June 15th 2020

The rain came down hard against the window of the building, sounding like pebbles hitting concrete. Normally rain was calming for Alex. It was something that was a rarity for his part of Texas. In the little town of Driftwood, rain was a relief from the dry heat. It meant that the ranches and farms around were going to flourish. It meant that the creek was closer to a river, which was much more fun to swim in. It was a blessing from Heaven.

Today, however, that blessing felt like a curse. He sat in the room, across from the Psychiatrist he's come to know as Dr. Thomas Mallory. The man was older, his once dirty blond hair graying from age, his sharp features softened. His eyes were like a deep dark sea, filled with a curiosity and understanding that Alex wasn't used to. It pissed him off beyond belief, and he couldn't figure out why the man filled him with such rage. Maybe it was the fact that the man had shown him kindness that the world has seemed to forgot? Or maybe it was the absolute hope that the man had.

Sitting cross legged on the couch in front of Mallory, Alex played with the sleeves of the dark blue long sleeve shirt issued by the hospital he was in. His clothes were taken from him once he arrived… god knew how long ago. All of it felt like a fever dream. The black slipper socks and same colored pants almost felt like his scrubs. At least that was a comfort in the long silence that set between them.

"Dr. Kenzie told me you haven't been participating in group therapy." Mallory finally spoke up, his deep voice filled with a softness that nearly made the man cringe. He didn't need coddling and understanding. He needed out, back to the operating room. Back to Grey-Sloan, back to the distraction that was his job. Still playing with his sleeve, he didn't look up at the man.

"Mr. Hans--"

"Dr. Hansen." He looked up and snapped quietly at the man, a frown on his face. "I worked for that title. I'd like to be called it."

A surprised look crossed Mallory's face as the man finally spoke up, but a smile quickly replaced it. "Anger. That's a sign of progress. It can be productive. Let's go off of that. What are you angry about?"

Alex opened his mouth to speak before closing it, frowning. Taking a moment, he turned to face him. "I'm angry that I'm stuck in this room, in this hospital, when there's patients out there that need help. When I was workin' on ground breakin' work with one of the most brilliant surgeons in the U.S. I'm angry that I'm stuck here in a room with you and your stupid face."

"That's a bit mean, Dr. Hansen. But very telling and very understandable. It's understandable to feel this way, especially in these times. It's understandable to feel helpless, when your entire career is dedicated to helping the helpless." Mallory chuckled a bit, leaving back in his chair. "But, I hope you understand I'm not the one who put you here. We're trying to help you be the best you can be, that way you can get back to doing what you do: helping the helpless." Placing his hand in his lap, the man continued, "I've read over your medical file. This isn't the first time you've been in a facility like this. How about we talk about that?"

Hansen fell silent, looking away from him and back down at his lap, fidgeting with his hands. Mallory raised an eyebrow, giving the man an encouraging smile. "Okay. Instead of talking about your time while you were there, how about we talk about what led your there? We can compare similarities to what happened now, detect patterns of red flags to help you in the future."

Alex looked at him, before closing his eyes.

July 20th 2002

"Arg-- I've been shot--" a boy about eight years old with dark brown hair clutched his chest as he fell in the grass of the backyard with a dramatic groan. A girl with long hair of a similar color ran towards him with a white bag. Kneeling beside him, she pulled out a toy stethoscope and put it up to his chest, pretending to listen.

"Sounds like the bullet entered your lung. I gotta do an emergency removal!" The girl said, a dramatic tone tinged with her southern accent. She then pulled out her toy forceps and pretended to remove the imaginary bullet, pressing it a little harder into his chest than she meant to.

"Ouch-- Allie, be careful--" the boy pouted. Allie stuck her tongue out at him, pulling them away.

"Don't be a big baby, Alex. Besides, I got the bullet, which means I'm the best trauma surgeon around!" She giggled and tossed it to the side. Alex puffed his cheeks out, crossing his arms.

"I'm not a big baby, and only 'cause I'm the best cop around."

Allie rolled her eyes and laid in the grass next to him, looking up at the summer sky above them. "You're gonna be the easiest target out there with your big ol' dumbo ears." She turned to look at him, grinning widely.

"Uh-huh, and you won't be able to see your scalpel with that big nose of yours." Alex smirked back at her. The two started giggling to each other and sighed, enjoying the summer breeze that was blowing. A silence fell between them, before Allie spoke up.

"When we graduate, we can move to Austin together. Best brother-sister duo out there, Cop and Doctor. Gonna be savin’ the world!"

Alex looked at his sister with a smile and nodded. Reaching his hand out towards her, she took it, and they laid there together. Summer days seemed to last forever. And he was grateful for every moment he had.

August 12th 2004

"Alex, Allie. Time to get up and get ready for school!" A motherly voice called out from downstairs. Alex sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes. It was their first day of fourth grade. They had the same teacher, and he knew that they'd be sitting next to each other. Smiling excitedly, he got up and quickly got dressed, rushing out to the hall. Allie came from her room, groggily holding her stomach. "Mama.. I don't feel good." She called out.

Alex looked concerned at his twin sister, seeing how pale her face was. A woman with dark graying hair and brown soft eyed came upstairs and frowned worriedly when she saw her daughter.

"Oh, baby… you don't look so good.." that concern only grew between everyone when Allie turned to vomit in her room. The woman rubbed the girls back and shushed her. "It's okay.. it's probably just a stomach bug.. c'mon, let's get you cleaned up. I'll take you to the doctor.." she turned to Alex, "Go get ready for school. Your Pa'll take you. Virgil?" She called down the stairs, "I need you to take Alex to school. Allie and I are goin' to the doctor."

Alex pouted a bit, unsure about starting a year of school without his sister. He was even more worried about her. "But I wanna be with Allie, Mama--" he said

"Do as I say, Alexander." She said, a little sharply, causing the boy to turn on his heels and towards his room.

September 20th 2009

"Jenny said she misses ya, and wishes she could come and see ya. She made the cheer team at school." Alex, now fifteen, sat next to Allie in her hospital bed, smiling at her. "Darren is.. still a dick. But, I mean, that's what ya get when you got a crush on a dumb jock."

"Alex, be nice." Allie chuckled quietly, laying back in her bed. She looked a little more sickly than Alex was used to seeing. Her skin was pale and she was losing so much weight. It was a big concern with him. He pushed his parents to take her to a doctor in Austin, something. Finally, they listened when she started throwing up blood. They rushed her thirty minutes into the City where they got the diagnosis: Stage Four Stomach Cancer. When he heard the news, Alex was filled with anger. They could have caught this before it got this far if they just went and got her checked by someone more qualified than the town doctor. If they did more than hope and pray. Now, here his twin sister was, his other half, dying in a hospital bed. There was nothing the surgeons could do but make her comfortable. And Alex made sure he drove every day to see her. He couldn't stand spending a moment away from her.

"You know.." she said, breaking him from his thoughts, "You grew into those dumbo ears of yours. Now they're only slightly too big."

Alex looked at her and smiled a bit, "Wish I could say the same 'bout your nose."

She laughed and laid back, shaking her head as she reached her hand out for his. He looked at it and took it gently, intertwining their fingers carefully. They sat there in silence before she spoke up again. "Smile more. Girls might actually like you… Maybe even boys." She teased, laughing a bit when he gave her a worried look, "I haven't told Pa or Ma 'bout you and Dylan, don't worry… but you got that dopey grin when you're really happy. And it's a great thing to see. Share it with the world."

"Ain't much to smile 'bout these days." He admitted, mostly to himself. She gave him an incredulous look. "I mean with how the world is." He backtracked a bit, shaking his head. "It's all crazy."

"Alexander Joseph Hansen, I ain't gonna let you die inside." She pouted at him, squeezing his hand. "Go see Dylan after this. Go out to eat somewhere. Live your life, Alex. At least for me."

'I don't know how to do that without you' was what he wanted to say. Taking a deep breath, he smiled and nodded at her. "Alright, sis. I promise."

October 17th 2009

[Come up to the hospital now]

That was the only text he got from his older brother as he left the cafeteria towards the parking lot and to his car. There was nothing stopping him as he tore out of the parking lot and towards Austin. Something was wrong, and he knew it this morning when he woke up. Something felt off and this text just confirmed the feeling in the pit of his stomach. He rushed as fast as he could on the highway and nearly skidded into a parking spot. Putting the car in park, he quickly got out and ran into the building as fast as he could. Once he got up on his sister's floor, he saw his mother sobbing into his father's shoulder. His brother looked up from his spot on the floor, his face covered in tears. He barely recognized the tears that were streaming down his face as he looked at the room, his body consumed with anger and sorrow. No. He couldn't lose her this way. It wasn't happening. It was a nightmare. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't wake up from it. His world was underneath that white sheet, behind that hospital room door. And despite her being only yards away, he's never felt lonelier in his life.

July 18th 2010

"You sure you don't want to come to service with us tonight?" His mother stood at the door, leaning against his door frame with a worried look on her face. Alex sat on his bed, cross legged and playing with the hem of his shirt.

"Nah, Ma.. I'll be fine." He looked up at her, a smile on his lips that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm just tired.. I'm gonna go to bed early. So I can get up and help the Dillon's with their barn."

She let out a sigh and walked into the room, wrapping the boy in her arms and gently kissing the top of his head. "Alright, baby… get some rest. We'll be at the church next door if you need anything. I love you.." With that, she left the room.

Alex laid in the bed, staring at the ceiling, as the hours passed. He was exhausted beyond belief, but every time he closed his eyes, all he saw was his sister. His heart felt empty, and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't move past that day. The world was colder and duller without his twin. They had done everything together, ever since they were little. A lump in this throat, he got out of the bed and stumbled to the bathroom. He just wanted to feel her one last time. Be by her side again. He rummaged through the medicine cabinet, pulling out the painkillers that Dr. Shelley had prescribed her for her pain. The stupid idiot who took his sister away from him. But now, they would be together again. Forever.

As he felt the darkness overcome him, he thought he could hear his mother scream and the clatter of a pill bottle on the floor.

June 15th 2020

"I think that's enough for today. You're making progress." Mallory smiled brightly as he sat the pen down on the notebook in front of him. "And that's the first step towards recovery. Is being open. I'm sure you've heard this all the time… but if you ever need anything during your stay here, don't hesitate to ask. We're only here to help you. Now, I think it's rec time. Go get some fresh air out in the yard. It'll definitely make you feel better.

Alex frowned a bit and rubbed his neck. Despite hours of talking with the man, he still felt like there was a weight on his feet, dragging his down beneath the dark cold water. Looking out the window, he saw that the rain had started, revealing a summer sky. Maybe his sister really was looking down at him, now happy he finally spoke about that bottled up emotion.

#Hansen #Self Para #Interlude #Heavy #Trigger Warning

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kryptcnborntbd · 4 years

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LUTHOR-DANVERS CHILDREN: 002 What lies in the future.(Part 2)

The following children respectfully belong to LUTHCRBORN & KRYPTCNBORN. They are strictly from our heads for OUR canon only. DO NOT STEAL ! ! ! THESE HEADCANONS WERE THOROUGHLY THOUGHT OUT AND TOOK A LOT OF TIME.

KYAH ELLE LUTHOR-DANVERS (KYAH-EL); With the early preparations for little Kyah, it had been planned for her to be born in the comfort of the couple’s home. Completely natural with no drugs and little doctors present. Wanting it to simple be just Lena, Kara and a midwife so that after the two could settle and be with their little girl. The couple had set out a whole birth plan in attempt to prepare for Kyah’s birth in May. Unfortunately in late march when the couple woke up, something wasn’t quite right. Kara, who by now was use to hearing both Lena’s and their daughter’s heart beat every morning only heard one. Both Lena and Kara in denial schedule a check up which had been when the denial turned into reality, they had lost their little star. Being so far in the pregnancy, it was clearly that labor would have to be induced so the couple set up a date. A week later on March 20th, instead of the original birth plan Lena had to be induced at the DEO where they had prepared for the procedure to be done in a private med-bay. Besides the fact that Kyah is half Kryptonian, the DEO was the only place that seemed appropriate to deliver. It was much homier then the hospital and it was a place where Lena could be monitored and watched over constantly by Kara and her sister in law Alex. With her body not prepared to deliver just yet, the induction took two days for the methods to take effect. Those days where brutal and painful for Lena, full of tears and aches of both emotional and physical pain. Finally on MARCH 22ND had labor began, after thirteen long hours had Lena finally delivered Kyah Elle, who weighed 4lb 7oz

Kara and Lena spent hours holding on to their girl, despite her already being gone they admired her features. Telling her how much they love her despite not getting to meet her. Stroking her cheek and brushing the light strands of hair on the top of her head. Both spending individual time with her and for the last hour together Kyah, had she been laid to rest on Lena’s chest.

LOGAN ASTRA LUTHOR-DANVERS (LOGAN-EL);The preparation for Logan’s birth was something that had not been made until the very end of Lena’s third trimester. Taking it into consideration Lena had already done a natural birth that however involved drugs and how everything strayed away from the original birth plan. The couple was determined to finally allow themselves to feel excited about their daughter which finally allowed them to reach the decision of having an at home water birth, once again they planned for no drugs and to simple go the natural route. Slowly this time they prepared for the little girl with only a few months to get what they needed. With the events of the past still haunting them, during the last month of the pregnancy Lena was put on bed rest by her ever so demanding wife. Where she spent majority of her days talking to her fur son, Arakan El, who was just as protective of her little baby bump as Kara. On November 7th at around 10 pm, as soon as Lena finally had been able to shut her eyes after a long restless day had she woke up with excruciating pain which had been caused by contractions. It caused fear to run through her being, never before feeling what was ‘normal’ for a natural delivery. The labor took 11 hours and a slight change in the birth plan. Instead of Kara being the one to aid Logan in entering the world she had to settle a panicked Lena. Jumping into the inflated pool and holding her wife from behind. Calming, assuring and comforting the woman as they both reached the last leg of their long awaited journey. Logan was born on NOVEMBER 8TH at 9:30 a.m, weighing at 7lb, 6oz.

Finally, Kara and Lena had their family, the child they desperately waited for. The first day with her was completely blissful. She slept most of it, laying on either of her mother’s chest as they took in her scent, watched as she took every little breath and smiled in her sleep. Unknown to them the following days would be filled with exhaustion and chaos dealing what seemed like a colicky baby. However, later discovering Logan’s kryptonian DNA had been burning off calories faster then she was getting them through breast milk alone. The infant having a heavy diet to gain healthy baby weight as she got older, with both breast milk and formula. Other then that, Logan proved to be a normal baby but clearly just simple a cry baby, always wanting to be carried or simple even wrapped in Kara’s sweater or cape.

LYONEL JACK & KALYN LILY LUTHOR-DANVERS (LY-EL & KALY-EL); The twins preparation had been slightly different than their older sister’s. For one before they even began preparing for their babies, during the implant procedure Lena and Kara where expecting one baby, a boy. Who they planned to be the second addition to their family. One particular morning, Kara’s super hearing picked up two heart beats over her own but she did not think very much of it at first. Perhaps it had been unknown side affects of a procedure not done before on an alien causing her abilities to go out of wack. When the sounds of the almost in sync beats of two hearts thumped out of rhythm of her own refused to stop and still denial stuck on the stubborn hero she disclosed the information to her wife. Informing her how she hadn’t felt right all day, how the powers she had seemed to be reacting to being pregnant. Concerned for Kara, Lena set up a scan. Though her mind kept moving processing the information. While Kara might not have believed it was twins, Lena had a suspicion on that fact. Finding out about the twins was a game changer for the couple, shifting gears from preparing for a little boy to preparing for two kids. Considering through out the pregnancy the twins had depleted Kara of her abilities, rending her powerless multiple times and had her completely exhausted that it endangered both her safety and her children’s it seemed only right that Supergirl went dark and when the twins where to be born they would be have a water birth, with no drugs at the DEO. On AUGUST 20TH after about three hours of labor at the department of Extra normal just as planned Lyonel was born at 6lbs 3oz at 5:00pm perfectly healthy, Kara making it look effortless. However it wasn’t over, for a few minutes they enjoyed the peace with Lyonel but tragedy struck quickly. Kalyn was in distress, loosing oxygen as her umbilical cord had become wrapped around her. Losing time, the only option was to switch to a c-section the only trouble is, Kara’s impenetrable skin. With Kara placed under sunlamps, they had to wait until her skin was penetrable putting the little girl at more risk. Frustrated and scared for the infant more then herself, Kara demanded they not wait any longer by using Kryptonite to make her weaker much faster then the sunlamps. Unsure what the affect could do on the infant it was a long but quick debate about wither the idea was a good idea. The affects of kryptonite on a new born unknown to anyone, they had to take a risk. Despite Lena’s objections in fear of losing Kara from the affects of the kryptonite, she agreed with it. Hoping they could move quick enough to save her daughter and get rid of the kryptonite so Kara could heal. Doing all that they can, Alex helped to deliver her niece bringing her safely into the world at approximately 5:30pm, Kalyn was born at 5lbs 9oz, healthy despite being born completely deaf.

Yellow radiation lamps had been placed over her as she rested, helping her to heal remarkable fast once the kryptonite had been stored away. Lyonel doing well as expected and Kalyn put under oxygen just in case but over all stable, a smiling happy little baby.

KIERAN ADAM LUTHOR-DANVERS (KIE-EL); Having had already three children, it was easy to prepare for this little boy however it being eight years since they had a baby in the home it took some time to adjust the older kids to the idea. Once the couple ensured nothing between their family would change other then a new addition, it had been decided Kieran would be born at home, seeing as Logan’s birth went successful they opted to use the same methods. However Kieran had other plans.Despite being a very settled baby during the pregnancy, he came early then expected. Just before he was born the family of five had planned for a last outing without a baby, a small vacation just a week before spring vacation that was set to drag on until the very last week of spring break. While cutting it close to the due date the family planned to be back just in time for Kieran to be born in the comfort of their home.Vacationing over seas in Ireland after an exciting day out and about the family settled into their private villa for the night. While sitting among another enjoying each other’s company with a fun game had Lena’s water broke. Unprepared in their villa, Lena and Kara rushed to the hospital. It was a rather quick and easy labor compared to the others.With eight hours of labor and it already being fairly late Kieran was born at 6:15 am on April 15th weighing at 6lbs 7oz.Even though the little Irish boy was born early, he was born perfectly healthy. Both Lena and Kieran spent only a day in the hospital and another day resting in the villa while Kara made arrangements to register their son as a US citizen. Granting him duo citizen and allowing the family to go home in a timely manor when their vacation came to an end. Making sure the kids vacation didn’t come to a halt, the couple made sure to continue on the adventures they had planed for their time in Ireland. While on vacation and even when they arrived home, the little boy proved to be quiet a calm and easy going. Quite abnormal for a family who has delete with complications or colicky babies. However it was welcomed, Kieran proved to be the last piece the family needed to be whole.

#( kyah ) / ❝ 🇱🇮🇹🇹🇱🇪 🇸🇹🇦🇷 🇾🇴🇺🇷 🇱🇮🇬🇭🇹 🇼🇦🇸 🇹🇴🇴 🇧🇷🇮🇬🇭🇹 🇫🇴🇷 🇹🇭🇮🇸 🇼🇴🇷🇱🇩.#( logan ) / ❝ 🇳🇪🇻🇪🇷 🇹🇭🇴🇺🇬🇭🇹 🇹🇭🇷🇴🇺🇬🇭 🇱🇴🇻🇪 🇼🇪·🇩 🇲🇦🇰🇪 🇴🇳🇪 🇦🇸 🇱🇴🇻🇪🇱🇾 🇦🇸 🇸🇭🇪.#( lyonel ) / ❝ 🇱🇮🇸🇹🇪🇳 🇹🇴 🇲🇾 🇻🇴🇮🇨🇪 🇦🇳🇩 🇨🇴🇺🇳🇹 🇹🇴 🇹🇭🇷🇪🇪 ━ 🇮 🇬🇴🇹 🇾🇴🇺.#( kalyn ) / ❝ 🇾🇴🇺 🇩🇴🇳·🇹 🇳🇪🇪🇩 🇵🇴🇼🇪🇷🇸 🇹🇴 🇧🇪 🇸🇺🇵🇪🇷.#( kieran ) / ❝ 🇱🇮🇹🇹🇱🇪 🇮🇷🇮🇸🇭 🇧🇴🇾━ 🇾🇴🇺 🇦🇷🇪 🇹🇭🇪 🇧🇪🇸🇹 🇴🇫 🇺🇸.#( headcanon ) / ❝ 🇳🇴🇹 🇦 🇹🇦🇧🇱🇴🇮🇩 🇼🇪 🇫🇪🇦🇹🇺🇷🇪 🇫🇦🇨🇹🇸 .

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luthcrbornarchive · 4 years

Text

LUTHOR-DANVERS CHILDREN: 002 What lies in the future.(Part 2)

The following children respectfully belong to luthcrborn & kryptcnborn. They are strictly from our heads for our canon only.

Kyah Elle Luthor-Danvers (Kyah-El); With the early preparations for little Kyah, it had been planned for her to be born in the comfort of the couple’s home. Completely natural with no drugs and little doctors present. Wanting it to simple be just Lena, Kara and a midwife so that after the two could settle and be with their little girl. The couple had set out a whole birth plan in attempt to prepare for Kyah’s birth in May. Unfortunately in late march when the couple woke up, something wasn’t quite right. Kara, who by now was use to hearing both Lena’s and their daughter’s heart beat every morning only heard one. Both Lena and Kara in denial schedule a check up which had been when the denial turned into reality, they had lost their little star. Being so far in the pregnancy, it was clearly that labor would have to be induced so the couple set up a date. A week later on March 20th, instead of the original birth plan Lena had to be induced at the DEO where they had prepared for the procedure to be done in a private med-bay. Besides the fact that Kyah is half Kryptonian, the DEO was the only place that seemed appropriate to deliver. It was much homier then the hospital and it was a place where Lena could be monitored and watched over constantly by Kara and her sister in law Alex. With her body not prepared to deliver just yet, the induction took two days for the methods to take effect. Those days where brutal and painful for Lena, full of tears and aches of both emotional and physical pain. Finally on March 22nd had labor began, after thirteen long hours had Lena finally delivered Kyah Elle, who weighed 4lb 7oz

Logan Astra Luthor-Danvers (Logan-El);The preparation for Logan’s birth was something that had not been made until the very end of Lena’s third trimester. Taking it into consideration Lena had already done a natural birth that however involved drugs and how everything strayed away from the original birth plan. The couple was determined to finally allow themselves to feel excited about their daughter which finally allowed them to reach the decision of having an at home water birth, once again they planned for no drugs and to simple go the natural route. Slowly this time they prepared for the little girl with only a few months to get what they needed. With the events of the past still haunting them, during the last month of the pregnancy Lena was put on bed rest by her ever so demanding wife. Where she spent majority of her days talking to her fur son, Arakan El, who was just as protective of her little baby bump as Kara. On November 7th at around 10 pm, as soon as Lena finally had been able to shut her eyes after a long restless day had she woke up with excruciating pain which had been caused by contractions. It caused fear to run through her being, never before feeling what was ‘normal’ for a natural delivery. The labor took 11 hours and a slight change in the birth plan. Instead of Kara being the one to aid Logan in entering the world she had to settle a panicked Lena. Jumping into the inflated pool and holding her wife from behind. Calming, assuring and comforting the woman as they both reached the last leg of their long awaited journey. Logan was born on November 8th at 9:30 a.m, weighing at 7lb, 6oz.

Lyonel Jack & Kalyn Lily Luthor-Danvers (Ly-El & Kaly-El); The twins preparation had been slightly different than their older sister’s. For one before they even began preparing for their babies, during the implant procedure Lena and Kara where expecting one baby, a boy. Who they planned to be the second addition to their family. One particular morning, Kara’s super hearing picked up two heart beats over her own but she did not think very much of it at first. Perhaps it had been unknown side affects of a procedure not done before on an alien causing her abilities to go out of wack. When the sounds of the almost in sync beats of two hearts thumped out of rhythm of her own refused to stop and still denial stuck on the stubborn hero she disclosed the information to her wife. Informing her how she hadn’t felt right all day, how the powers she had seemed to be reacting to being pregnant. Concerned for Kara, Lena set up a scan. Though her mind kept moving processing the information. While Kara might not have believed it was twins, Lena had a suspicion on that fact. Finding out about the twins was a game changer for the couple, shifting gears from preparing for a little boy to preparing for two kids. Considering through out the pregnancy the twins had depleted Kara of her abilities, rending her powerless multiple times and had her completely exhausted that it endangered both her safety and her children’s it seemed only right that Supergirl went dark and when the twins where to be born they would be have a water birth, with no drugs at the DEO. On August 20th after about three hours of labor at the department of Extra normal just as planned Lyonel was born at 6lbs 3oz at 5:00pm perfectly healthy, Kara making it look effortless. However it wasn’t over, for a few minutes they enjoyed the peace with Lyonel but tragedy struck quickly. Kalyn was in distress, loosing oxygen as her umbilical cord had become wrapped around her. Losing time, the only option was to switch to a c-section the only trouble is, Kara’s impenetrable skin. With Kara placed under sunlamps, they had to wait until her skin was penetrable putting the little girl at more risk. Frustrated and scared for the infant more then herself, Kara demanded they not wait any longer by using Kryptonite to make her weaker much faster then the sunlamps. Unsure what the affect could do on the infant it was a long but quick debate about wither the idea was a good idea. The affects of kryptonite on a new born unknown to anyone, they had to take a risk. Despite Lena’s objections in fear of losing Kara from the affects of the kryptonite, she agreed with it. Hoping they could move quick enough to save her daughter and get rid of the kryptonite so Kara could heal. Doing all that they can, Alex helped to deliver her niece bringing her safely into the world at approximately 5:30pm, Kalyn was born at 5lbs 9oz, healthy despite being born completely deaf.

Kieran Adam Luthor-Danvers (Kie-El); Having had already three children, it was easy to prepare for this little boy however it being eight years since they had a baby in the home it took some time to adjust the older kids to the idea. Once the couple ensured nothing between their family would change other then a new addition, it had been decided Kieran would be born at home, seeing as Logan’s birth went successful they opted to use the same methods. However Kieran had other plans.Despite being a very settled baby during the pregnancy, he came early then expected. Just before he was born the family of five had planned for a last outing without a baby, a small vacation just a week before spring vacation that was set to drag on until the very last week of spring break. While cutting it close to the due date the family planned to be back just in time for Kieran to be born in the comfort of their home.Vacationing over seas in Ireland after an exciting day out and about the family settled into their private villa for the night. While sitting among another enjoying each other’s company with a fun game had Lena’s water broke. Unprepared in their villa, Lena and Kara rushed to the hospital. It was a rather quick and easy labor compared to the others.With eight hours of labor and it already being fairly late Kieran was born at 6:15 am on April 15th weighing at 6lbs 7oz.Even though the little Irish boy was born early, he was born perfectly healthy. Both Lena and Kieran spent only a day in the hospital and another day resting in the villa while Kara made arrangements to register their son as a US citizen. Granting him duo citizen and allowing the family to go home in a timely manor when their vacation came to an end. Making sure the kids vacation didn’t come to a halt, the couple made sure to continue on the adventures they had planed for their time in Ireland. While on vacation and even when they arrived home, the little boy proved to be quiet a calm and easy going. Quite abnormal for a family who has delete with complications or colicky babies. However it was welcomed, Kieran proved to be the last piece the family needed to be whole.

#stillborn; tw #stillborn; trigger warning #death; trigger warning #death; tw #child loss; trigger warning #child loss; tw #head canon #⊰*•°✘Bᴇʜɪɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪᴘꜱᴛɪᴄᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱᴘʀᴇᴀᴅꜱʜᴇᴇᴛꜱ » Hᴇᴀᴅ Cᴀɴᴏɴ°•*⊱#long post

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staytheb · 5 years

Text

iPad Mini

Pairing: SKZ’s Lee Know x OC [Melanie] Genre: college!au, slice of life, slight fluff Word Count: 4,333 Summary: Melanie just wants her iPad Mini back. But it’s a bit hard when one of the hottest guys on campus has it and is holding something like an audition with his friends to figure out who it belongs to. Minho just wants to know who the Blue Fairy was that danced circles around him that night.

Warning: curse words. um... college stuff. i dunno really. lol

this was actually inspired by me watching Selena Gomez in the Another Cinderella movie. it’s actually quite good now that i’m older. lol anyways, i always wanted to write something like this, but with my own twist and i just never could get around to who would be in it and then bam it happened and now it’s here. but um, yeah that’s about it really despite the lame title, but the whole reason the story is here is because of an iPad Mini so yeah happy reading and kthxbai, Admin Lia~

revised. 9.10.20

"So what's the plan, Mel?" Jasmine asked as the quartet huddled while discussing on how to get back Melanie's iPad Mini from Minho and his friends who were in a way holding a little thing where girls could line up and try to claim the iPad as theirs.

"Well, I was gonna go up to him and straight up asked for it back because obviously it's mine." Melanie answered. "But then everyone would know it was me he had a dance battle with as the Blue Fairy and I hate having the spotlight on me."

"I mean," Serena interjected with a nonchalant manner, "The DJ was seriously playing a sorry ass playlist and your iPad was the one that was quickly available and I knew the pass-code to, to play a bomb ass playlist instead. So, yeah, my bad about that."

"You did pull out some moves on him though." Katherine added with a laugh. "No other girl was down to dance like that with him."

"No guys either besides his friends." Jasmine stated with a chuckle. "Mel definitely danced circles around him. Honestly speaking, if all four of us showcased our skills instead of Mel, who knows what would of happened last night."

"I know right." Serena commented. "The four of us would have never been left alone again after that."

"Well, obviously since Melanie wasn't the only one who danced with someone that night." Katherine inputted with a chuckle. "I remember you, Serena, was dancing with Minho's friend, Chris. You guys were pretty cute I must say."

"We weren't dancing with each other and no we're definitely not cute, Kat. He bumped into me and we did the whole weird dance of trying to get out of each other's way and kept going back and forth." Serena explained with a roll of her eyes. "It was kind of dumb and took a little longer than it should have even when I just stood there for him to move around me."

"Yeah, right, Rina. I'm pretty sure there's another story behind it." Katherine cooed while nudging Serena playfully.

"Whatever." Serena dismissed before directing the attention elsewhere. "Well if I recall, I wasn't the only one having a moment. Jasmine was totally dancing with Jisung, too, and I think they may have sneaked off somewhere before we dipped earlier than expected. I'm surprised that he's your type, Jas."

"We just danced and maybe kissed." Jasmine answered with a small smile. "A few times. I didn't think he would be my type either."

"That's cute." Katherine cooed. "I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, right." Jasmine disagreed. "I saw you and Changbin getting down and being all touchy, touchy with one another in the dark corner."

"We both were feeling the music. The vibe was good." Katherine reasoned. "Plus, it was less crowded in the corner and it wasn't even that dark."

"Y'all's moments are cute and all with the guys you like kinda like me, but like can we get back to my current situation at the moment please?" Melanie cut in to return them back on topic, "Anyways, how are we supposed to get my iPad back?"

"Wait. You like Minho?" Serena redirected the conversation elsewhere. "Since when?"

"I said kinda like. He's cute." Melanie clarified.

Jasmine let out a low whistle before speaking. "Ohh, this makes it even more juicy. I wonder how it'll turn out."

"Well, we won't know unless I get my iPad Mini back, right?" Melanie retorted with a sigh. "I was supposed to catch up on my dramas last night after the dance."

"Okay, then. How about we steal it back?" Katherine suggested.

"How though?" Serena wondered. "There's like nine of them and they won't easily let it just sit there unattended."

"Rina's right. Minho's adamant about finding out who it belongs to." Jasmine stated. "We really need a good plan."

"I just can't believe I dropped it when I ran away from him though." Melanie scolded herself. "Even though Rina got it away from the DJ. I hope it's fine."

"Yeah and that shit wasn't easy since the guy was mad we interrupted his session earlier, too." Serena reminded them. "Your iPad is fine. It's got a good case."

"It's fine, Mel. I agree with Serena about the case." Katherine reassured her. "We'll figure out how to get it back for you."

"How about all four us distracts them?" Jasmine suggested before explaining further. "Like, Melanie is gonna give him an answer, but while they're all distracted the three of us try to swipe it out of his hands and just scattered."

"That could work because then they wouldn't know which one of us took it." Serena reasoned with a smile. "I like it, Jas. Good thinking."

"But will it work though?" Katherine inquired.

Melanie shrugged before letting out a sigh.

"I guess we'll just have to try and see how it goes."

The quartet looked at one another as they silently agreed before nodding in confirmation. Melanie gave out the orders before they all went to their respective places until it was time to get Melanie's iPad Mini back. They just hoped that it wouldn't take too long or someone else wounds up with it instead.

It was finally Melanie's turn after waiting almost like ten minutes since there were a lot of girls and even guys trying to get something that wasn't even theirs. The twins, Jasmine and Katherine, were off to the side waiting for their signal to start the distraction. Serena would later come, grab, and run off with it once her sister, Melanie, gave her the go-ahead to do so. When Melanie calmly stood before the males who were sitting behind a clothed table like they were holding auditions for something, Minho was actually in front leaning against it.

Minho cast Melanie a surprised look, but remained calmed before asking her the first question. "What's the color of the case?"

"It's blue." Melanie answered while describing the case further. "On the outside and kinda hard, but it's dark grey on the inside and of the same material. It's designed by iHome and the case is like a book cover with a rubber band that keeps it in place and the iPad Mini itself is also white."

"Okay, impressive." Minho was impressed by her answer before casting her a smug look. "What's the picture of the lock screen?"

The only reason Minho was asking this question was that every person who answered always got it wrong and was unable to actually explain it in detail. It was the same for the question about the color of the case. No one could describe it in detail until Melanie came along. So, Minho was curious if this device actually belonged to her. It was the same for the other eight males who grew interested upon Melanie describing the case in depth.

Melanie tsked before answering. "It's a generic lock screen wallpaper, but it's mainly blue with shades or hues of orange and white as well. Kinda like you're looking in to a wave's vortex or something like that."

"Wow." Minho let out in awe with a nod of his head. "That's pretty accurate."

"Obviously." Melanie muttered, but refrained from letting him know that.

"Then," Minho reached from behind him and brought forth Melanie's iPad while speaking, "You should be able to put in the pass-code, right?"

The nine males anticipated what would happened upon Melanie entering the pass-code. It was because they wanted to know if Melanie knew it or not as she was the first and only one to actually be presented with the item itself since they started. Everyone else failed to describe the actual lock screen and so were unable to see the actual iPad Mini previously. All the others behind Melanie hoped that she didn't get it correct because they wanted a moment to be focused on by the nine hottest boys on the campus of Seoul University.

"Yeah, of course. It's mine." Melanie stated in a firm voice although she was dying inside about all of this.

Melanie then cast her gaze over to Katherine and Jasmine who were waiting for her signal which was the look that Melanie was giving them. Because the duo had stood near the table which no one really gave them much notice, they set the rest of the plan into motion and started arguing on the spot. They also started to push each other making them clash with the table from time to time to make an even bigger commotion.

It drew everyone's attention towards them and when that happened Melanie quickly looked for Serena who was standing off to the side on the opposite end of where the other two were. Compare to the others, Serena actually wore a hoodie that could disguise her appearance more since the other three wore jackets instead. So when Serena caught Melanie's look, she rushed over towards Minho, plucked the iPad out of his hands with ease and took off. Serena didn't dare to glance back and prayed for herself to outrun whoever was about to chase after her.

"Hey!" Minho called after her as he took off to catch her.

His friends noticed this and did the same thing leaving everyone to look after them. Jasmine and Katherine stopped what they were doing knowing that the plan had worked and ran up to Melanie. The trio looked at one another worried and also ran after Serena in hopes of catching up to her first.

"Fuck my life." Serena muttered to herself after placing Melanie's item into the pocket of her hoodie while still running away from Minho and his friends. "Why did I have to wear a freaking hoodie and not a jacket today?"

She held one end of her hood of her hoodie while placing a protective arm over her stomach to keep the iPad mini from tumbling out as she ran across the school's campus towards her dormitory. Serena hoped that she'll make it before being caught because the adrenaline was soon running low. She hoped too soon when she felt arms wrapped themselves around her waist and was tackled to the concrete. Her and the person crashed to the ground and she tried to fight the person off of her, but she felt herself being slightly lifted up and then slightly slammed back onto the concrete again.

Serena got the wind knocked out of her as she groaned in pain after being tackled and then slammed to the floor. She swung her arms out in hopes it'll make contact with the attacker and it did. The person backed away from her to tend to his face after Serena blindly punched him in the cheek. Serena removed her hoodie so that she could breathed better and another friend of Minho's reached them first and realized that she was a female.

"Oh shit, Chris. It's a girl." He exclaimed in a shocked tone. "You just injured a girl."

"How was I supposed to know that, Changbin?" Chris retorted while casting a glance at Serena. "She was covered up and I couldn't tell."

The rest of their group of friends finally reached them with the female trio huddling over Serena while pulling her up into a sitting position.

"Serena, you good?" Jasmine asked first upon reaching her first.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Katherine asked while holding up three fingers on one hand.

Serena didn't replied to the duo as she reached into her hoodie's pocket to retrieve the iPad Mini and held it towards Melanie.

"Here."

"Thanks, bro." Melanie thanked her friend while taking back her device. "I owe you one."

"Boba and crispy chicken would do, but you're welcome." Serena informed her with a smile despite wincing in pain.

Just then Minho snatched the iPad Mini from out of Melanie's hand and she glared at him.

"Excuse you, but that's mine."

"If it is, then put in the pass-code." Minho replied with a smirk.

"I don't need to prove anything to you by doing that. Can't you see my friends and I try to steal it back so that I wouldn't have to do that?"

"She does have a fair point." Minho's friend, Seungmin, reasoned. "Besides, it's not even yours to take."

"Hey, you look familiar." Another friend, Jisung, suddenly let out upon seeing Jasmine up close. "Very familiar. Do we have classes with each other?"

"No." Jasmine denied even though the duo had like three classes this semester.

"Wait, wait, wait. They do look familiar now that I think about it." Felix, another friend, said as he looked at all four females while thinking. "I feel like we've seen them at that dance room we used with the others."

"Oh yeah, may be we've seen them in class, too." Hyunjin, another friend, exclaimed with a smile. "I mean, there's a lot of girls in my classes, but I know these four look very familiar to me."

"I dunno. I mean, do we really recognize people even if they look familiar?" The youngest of the group, Jeongin, wondered out loud while looking at everyone clueless.

"We have never met before. We honestly don't know each other. We also don't do any form of dancing whatsoever. We definitely don't have any classes or the likes with each other either. So basically, this is the first time we have ever met and interacted in our lives." Serena responded in a firm tone while standing up and going strong with her lies. "And now we're leaving. Bye."

"Oh, that's it!" Felix spoke excitedly upon remembering while pointing to Serena and Melanie respectively. "You're Eric's sisters! Serena and Melanie. I remember when I stayed over at your guys' house that one time like a few weeks ago. Wow, time really does fly by."

Felix then faced the twins and smiled at them while pointing to each one respectively while speaking. "And the twins, Jasmine and Katherine, who are also like older sisters to him. You guys were there, too. We had like a sleepover with all that inside camping thing."

"Fuckin' Eric, man." Melanie muttered. "He's so friendly and talkative."

"Of course Eric would be friends with one of them and we eventually get busted in the end." Serena mumbled in annoyance. "Dumbest shit ever."

"You know what, Serena, I blame you." Jasmine stated a second later.

"What? Why me?"

"If you hadn't suggested to go to the Masquerade Dance last night, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Excuse you, I'm blaming Katherine for that shit."

"What? What did I do?" Katherine asked confused. "I didn't even know about the dance until you said something, Serena."

“So Serena’s still to blame.” Jasmine mused.

"Not even. If Kat hadn't busted out with those fairy costumes I wouldn't have suggested in going to the dance in the first place."

"Hey. That's not my fault that you fell in love with the red dress." Katherine reasoned.

"That's only because Jasmine wanted to wear the purple one and you wanted the orange one. Of course that left me with the red one because Melanie doesn't like red and so she got her favorite color the blue one. That's how we ended up being fairies for the Masquerade Dance."

Melanie shushed them, but it was a little too late for that. The girls had just exposed themselves, well more on Serena's part than anyone else, and they were really hoping that neither of the boys would piece all the info together to realized that.

"Purple Fairy?" Jisung inquired while looking at Jasmine. "So that was you last night?"

"Yes. Now, how about we continued where we left off? Yeah?" Jasmine responded in a flirty tone while leaving Serena's side and grabbed Jisung's hand.

"Okay. That was like a one-eighty." Serena muttered.

The pair walked off and paid the group no mind. On the other hand, Changbin happily skipped over to Katherine with a boyish look.

"Hello, Miss Orange Fairy." He greeted her in a confident, but cute manner.

Katherine shot him a similar smile while also leaving Serena's side.

"Hello to you, too, Dark Masquerader."

"How about we ditched these guys and get better acquainted?"

"Totally."

The pair walked off hand-in-hand also not paying any attention to the others.

"The fuck just happened, bro?" Serena muttered more to herself than anyone else while watching her friends run off with the guys they were basically hooking up with last night. "This shit is so freaking weird and unexpected."

"So you were the Red Fairy?" Chris asked with a charming smile, but Serena glared at him while pointing a finger in his direction before talking. "Don't you start."

"Aww. I thought a third couple was about to successfully happen right now." Hyunjin interjected with a pout. "It was getting good since Chris wouldn't stop talking about the Red Fairy he had a thing with."

"Did I?" Chris asked with a sheepish laugh.

"This is not a dating show. It's college." Seungmin remarked with a laugh.

"What he said." Serena pointed at Seungmin before shooting Chris an annoyed look. "Also I didn't forget about how you basically beat me up not that long ago."

"Oh that's true." Jeongin remembered while looking over at his friend. "You did tackle her and then threw her down. I wouldn't want to date you either."

"Who said anything about dating?" Serena let out in an incredulous tone despite appearing flustered.

"What if," Chris began in like he was making a deal, "What if I was the one that owe you boba and crispy chicken instead?"

Serena was about to decline, but she went speechless instead.

Melanie chuckled as she nudged her sister before speaking. "I see that he got you there."

"Shut up." Serena responded while nudging her back.

"Ohh, ooh, I know, I know!" Felix happily piped up remembering something his friend, Eric, said about his sisters. "I think Eric said something like that Serena also likes cute things like stuffed animals and Rilakkuma and friends and similar stuff that would make her not hate you if you did her wrong."

"Eric needs to shut his damn mouth." Serena mumbled before looking over at Felix with a puzzled expression. "Why do you even remember these things?"

"I just do. Eric talks a lot."

"Yeah he does." Melanie agreed before lifting Serena to her feet while speaking to her. "Just go with Chris. I know you're dying to do so."

"I am not. I don't like Chris like that." Serena disagreed with a firm tone. "And I'm not looking into dating."

"I didn't say anything about you liking Chris or dating." Melanie confirmed with a smirk. "But now I do and I meant the part about getting boba and crispy chicken."

"Sure you do." Serena mumbled with a pout. "I hate you."

"Uh huh. Anyways, have fun you two, and take real good care of her, Chris!" Melanie exclaimed while pushing Serena towards Chris.

"I will. Thanks!" Chris replied as he offered a hand for Serena to take and she reluctantly took his offered hand with him leading the both of them off somewhere.

"So that leaves the two of you." Jisung concluded as he looked at Minho and then at Melanie. "I highly approve. You're a great dancer. Maybe even better than Minho himself. Anyways, c'mon guys. Let's leave first so that we're not looking like we didn't get chosen."

"I hope the fourth couple is successful, too." Jeongin commented with a smile. "It would be nice so that the older ones can have someone to take care of and leave the younger ones alone to do their own thing."

"Hmm, true. I absolutely agree." Seungmin agreed with a nod. "Maybe they'll stop badgering us to hang out, too, and I can just do my homework in peace."

"But love is in the air." Hyunjin reasoned with a pout. "I wanna see how they act around others that isn't us. I'm sure they have a different attitude."

"Let's just go before Minho attacks us or something because we're ruining his alone time with Melanie." Felix said with a giggle. "I can see his eyes starting to twitch and he's about to speak to us with his eyebrows."

"Ah right!" Jisung agreed happily. "Let's go and we can more info later."

The five males scattered off once Minho shot them a stern look, but the five boys were laughing as they ran away causing Melanie to watched them amused.

"So, you were my Blue Fairy, huh?" Minho asked Melanie to which got her attention.

"Your Blue Fairy? I don't remember belonging to you." Melanie informed him with a once over. "I'm pretty sure there were like other girls and maybe guys throwing themselves at you. There were other people in blue, too, y'know."

"Yeah, but none of them danced the way that you did that night."

"Oh yeah? All I did was just shimmied my way into your line of sight and you were already smitten? I'm touched."

"Well, I mean, I couldn't take my eyes off of you when you danced circles around me. Then when you ran away like Cinderella afterwards, I was crushed. Luckily," He held up her iPad Mini, "This gave me the opportunity to search for my Blue Fairy."

Melanie tried to reach for her device, but Minho moved it out of her reach.

"But who would have known that it was the quiet Melanie that always sat close to the door to make an escape when class was over."

"That sounds kinda stalkerish."

"I wouldn't say it's stalking, more like observing."

"Oh, yeah, okay. What else did you observed, hmm?"

"That you're left-handed like me, but not someone who's ambidextrous."

Melanie shot him a bored look.

"Okay, Minho, cool story, but can I have my iPad back. I miss watching my dramas on that."

Minho shook his head.

"I'll give it back on one condition."

She scoffed.

"What? Like a date or something with you?"

"You can say it's something like that."

"Why? You can literally date anyone on campus just like your friends, yet somehow we catch your attention and you wanna get to know us better? Not uh. I don't wanna be the fourth and final person to do so. I mean, the twins can since they're more out-going. As for Serena, she needs a life so that's also a different story."

"Who's to say that I haven't been interested in you before last night?"

"Is it because when we were partners earlier this semester I didn't drool all over you and we managed to passed the assignment?"

"No. It's when we started our first year together you threw a paper airplane at me with your number on it."

Melanie's jaw dropped upon that memory.

"No way. That was you?"

Minho nodded with a fond smile.

"You're lying and that wasn't me. I didn't throw the airplane. That was Jasmine to mess with me because she threw it upon the first person that walked up the steps."

Minho shook his head being all serious.

"I'm not, but you know, it was kinda messed up that you never replied back when I sent you a text to say 'hi'."

"Did you? Yeah, my bad. You didn't know this, but I had to get a new phone and number so I didn't know."

"Wow. You could have just told me."

Melanie cast him a weird look.

"How would I know that you were waiting this whole time to received a 'hi' back? I wasn't even the one that intentionally did that in the first place."

Minho was about to comment back, but closed his mouth while shooting her a smirk.

"What's up with that look?"

Melanie cautiously eyed him while taking a step back.

"Let me take back what I said earlier and make it on two conditions." Minho said while making a peace sign with his other hand that wasn't holding the iPad Mini.

"Why?"

"Because I wanna add something."

"Which is?"

"The first condition is that you go on a date with me. The second one is..." He trailed off to give it some suspense.

"Which is?" Melanie probed becoming a little impatient. "I don't have all day, y'know."

"You give me your new number and we can start over."

"That's kinda childish, don't you think?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. What do you say?"

Minho taunted her by holding her iPad Mini out to her and moving it back and forth.

"If I say yes, then would you give me my iPad before and after doing so?"

"After."

"Figures, but alright."

"Glad we can come to an agreement."

Minho fished his phone from his pocket, unlocked it, and passed it to Melanie to input her phone number.

"Is this how you normally get numbers?" Melanie asked curiously while typing in her number.

"No, but I'm glad it worked through you."

"Sure."

She handed him back his phone and Minho took it back while reading her information. A second letter, Melanie's phone went off and looked at the unknown number.

"I'm assuming this is you?"

"Mmhmm, but save my number as Handsome Prince."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I changed yours to Blue Fairy."

"That is so cliche."

Minho shrugged, but a smirk was still evident on his face.

"Fine."

Melanie did so and even showed him the proof. Minho smiled even wider.

"Alright. Are you hungry?"

"A little. Why?"

"Let's grab something to eat and then I'll return you your iPad Mini."

"Okay, but if the other couples are there I'm so leaving."

"Fine by me. Let's go."

Minho offered a hand out for Melanie to take. She glanced at it before placing her hand in his. Might as well go with it as it was already happening. Minho cast her a sweet smile before leading the both of them in the opposite direction than the other three couples had taken.

#staytheb #stray kids scenarios #lee know #lee minho

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caged-crows · 2 years

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beep boop tag time

#{ snail speaks.#{ the pig king. | techno.#{ angel of death. | philza.#{ dirty crime boy. | wilbur.#{ the big man. | tommy.#{ we're like brothers. | crimeboys.#{ for you; the world. | emerald duo.#{ welcome home. | bedrock boys.#{ older by eight minutes. | twins duo.#{ stop eating sand son. | sand duo.#{ by another pair of wings. | angel duo.#{ found family (real not clickbait.) | sbi.#{ drabbles.#{ lore spoilers.#{ headcanons.

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patronize-remade · 5 years

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0: The world is formed under the King's rule. King's Island and the Caldera are created.

THE NEW BIBLE

1958: Evena and Tierney arrive on King's Island

1958: The Seer and Paladins are killed and the Paladin's States are created

1959: The Caldera breaks out into war over religious disputes, splitting into three sides. Country A believes in the old god, Country B believes in the new gods, Country C believes in revolting and governing themselves

PANDORA'S BOX

1984: Kismet falls in love with a human named Pandora

1985: Cheris and Shiloh are born in Eden. They are raised alongside each other and remain each other's best friends until 2005

1985: Lucy is born in Yorterra

1986: Frey has twins Adam and Eve

1987: Niles is born in Windsor

1988: Sirius is born in Ravenlog

1988: Pandora traps Kismet and "kills him", pretending to become the goddess of fate when indeed, Kismet was alive

1988: Seto is cast out of Eden for his suspicion that it was an inside job

ORIGINS

1989: Seto has an affair with a human woman on Ciare and she gives birth to Tatiana Crusoe. Seto keeps her and travels the world with her

1991: Lorelei is born to a family of rich entrepreneurs in Ranger Heights, who die the same year

1991: Natalie is born in Ranger Heights, and was raised alongside Lorelei

1991: Conner was born in Domepolis

1992: Cherry was born in Virginia's Edge

1992: Icarus was born in Chalott

1992: Twins Luca and Leon are born to Kismet and Pandora. Pandora throws them into the ocean, but they are saved by Seto

1992: The rest of the Neo-Paladins are born at some point this year

1993: Seto leaves Leon in Wisteria with close friend Clairan Chess and intends to keep Luca, but ventures across the Caldera and leaves Luca with one of the warring leaders he befriends

1993: Plura was born in Evangeline

1993: Berlin was born in Foxwood

1994: Damien was born in Porthawhyte

1994: Clara was born in Edremit

1994: Alexandria was born in Castleview

1994: Anna is born in Vianna

1995: Cecilia was born in Lapis

1995: Charlie was born in Wellston

Y2K

1999: A rumor starts that once the year 2000 hits, the gods will be killed by a much greater threat. It became this world's Y2K

2000: In light of nothing coming of "Y2K", suspicion of the gods heightened. The gods blamed Kanri for the incident and cast her out of Eden

2000: Icarus is sacrificed at a festival in J'Reve, but escaped just in time and tricked Leon into thinking she was imaginary and lived with him for a few years without anyone knowing

THE PILLOW BOOK (tw for this part stuff gets bad)

2000: In light of suspicion of the gods, Haisse starts working on risky projects in case they have to rebel. One of them is Frey's healing unit, which he uses to heal his children

2001: Lia, Logan, Lily, and a few other kids are put into the healing unit, dubbed "the Library"

2001: After a few months of testing the product to no avail, Haisse cancels the project and begin the process to take the kids out

2002: Haisse is put under new management and the project is put back into testing. The sudden interest in the project attracts the attention of future Government employee Hikaru Himura

2002: After finding out the project was put back on, Frey kills himself

2003: Six kids go missing in Nakamura after straying away on a field trip, only five of the bodies were found

2003: Ciare and Pollore engage in a minor war over a misunderstanding. All of the Ciaran royal family is killed except for Princess Anna, who is only 9 at the time

2003: Rogue shooters kill everyone in Yuki Village Middle School except for two sisters. One dies in the hospital and one goes missing

2004: The younger sister of one of the Nakamura victims goes crazy and releases fire in Kiraishi

2004: Hikaru, now the Head of Security of Haisse, releases The Pillow Book, a book detailing all the shady things Haisse has done. He is publicly executed for its publication

AFTERMATH

2004: In light of both the Ciare-Pollore War and the Pillow Book, all communication and travel between countries are cut off

2004: Because of the Pillow Book's mass publication, people band up under Frey's name to take down the governments of their countries, using Frey's name as a guise to commit terrorist acts. Icarus, inspired by Frey, leaves Wisteria

2005: Kanri saves the Morris triplets under one condition- they have to collectively decide who will be Kanri's host. Logan and Lily decide that Lia will be the host and walk free

2005: Iase puts Cheris in charge of SNAKE (formed by the victims of Kanri's attacks) under the condition he leaves Eden. He does, and Shiloh leaves alongside him, joining the Polloran priestess Mara as a retainer

2006: Every Frey unites under the terrorist group Frey, led by Icarus. None of the countries can conduct any countermeasures while divided and Frey continues to reign terror

2006: Olygia breaks out in a civil war after Frey starts to control all access to timber and food

2006: Icarus hires Bella to work alongside her, promising to end the Olygian Civil War

2007: Cheris abandons SNAKE to work under Icarus. Iase, being the goddess of the future, knew this would happen, and manages SNAKE directly

BEGINNINGS

2007: Conner moves to the outskirts of Virginia's Edge and starts pestering Cherry

2008: Seto meddles in the affairs of the Caldera war, alongside Remi, Ellian, and Adonis. As a result, they are cast out of Eden

2008: The gods couldn't have a major god like Ellian against them, so they wiped his memory and stranded him in the sea

2008: Lorelei starts to build the Skyfarer and starts on her trek

2008: Leon, now 16, is old enough to become a musketeer

2008: Luca, now 16, starts training to become king

2008: Cherry turns Conner into a cat and flees to a hard to find part of Virginia's End, making it look like she'd left for Porthawhyte

PALADINS

2009: The 50 Year War in the Caldera ends after the three nations come to a temporary agreement

2009: The same day, Luca is visited by Seto and, believing this to be a prophecy, starts to think he's a seer

2009: Seven other kids start to exhibit signs of being a seer, which actually end up being signs of schizophrenia caused by the trauma of the war, and all eight of them are sent to King's Island to become the new paladins

2009: Seeing the new paladins as a threat, Country C sends missiles over to the Island. It's protected in a last burst of energy from Seto, Remi, and Adonis, who send the missiles to the Caldera, destroying it

2009: The New Paladins are now safe but surrounded by the destroyed Caldera, preventing them from leaving. All their distress calls are silenced by the Gods

2009: Seto, Remi, and Adonis go to lie low on the Adonisian Islands. Seto meets with Lorelei and tells her to pick up Leon and to tell him "his stepdad says hi"

2009: Iase helps Seto by keeping the gods off his trail

2009: The idol group Little Star is formed, with notable members Soryn Green (vocalist) and Clara Faron (drummer)

ODE TO FREY

2009: Lorelei picks up Leon, but has to abandon ship at the last minute to get the gods off Leon's trail

2009: Leon, joined by Plura, Ellian, Berlin, and Lorelei, find out that Icarus is the leader of Frey

2009: When visiting the Adonisian Islands, Seto tells Leon that Kismet is being held prisoner in Rashida, and only an extremely powerful magic user can free him

2009: Leon and co. take down Icarus and Frey for the most part, urging the countries to join together once again to be able to counter large threats

2010: After the countries merge together once again, an era of development and prosperity took place

2010: Plura and Leon, instructed to go west from Wisteria by Seto, come across the Neo-Paladins and rescue them

2010: Lorelei enlists Cheris to search for kids with magical powers, and thus starts the Demigod Project headquartered in Porthawhyte

2010: While Cheris looks generally for kids with powers and houses them, Seto and Lorelei scout for extremely powerful surges of energy. They're led to Virginia's End

2010: Clara of Little Star is arrested on suspicion of being involved with Frey, which ending up being a set up by Soryn. She gets taken to Wellston holding facility

VIRGINIA'S END

2010: Virginia's End opens its doors for housing, and people moved in by the masses in hopes of discovering more about the town's strange history. A few of these newcomers are Niles, Sirius, and Natalie. Niles records everything that happens in letters to his niece Clara

2010: Vergil and Bonnie start to suspect Natalie is their missing daughter, Cherry enlists Conner, Sirius, and Niles to keep her safe

2010: The five team up to uncover the plans of Vergil and Bonnie, who are being used as puppets to kill Cherry and destroy Virginia's End. They are captured, but Seto and Lorelei arrest Vergil and Bonnie before anything can happen

2010: The five alongside Seto and Lorelei are taken into Porthawhyte custody, but they refuse to talk, so they remain there for about four months

2010: Damien and his older sister get into a car accident. Damien, who took the blunt force of the damage, lives without a scratch, but Damien's sister dies. Damien is taken to the Wellston general hospital to be tested on

2010: Cheris goes to Rashida to scope out the area, and finds a guard alone and near death. He saves her and brings her to his base in Porthawhyte, where she remains in a comatose state

THE DEMIGOD PROJECT

2010: Alexandria gets transferred from Pollore to Amantea for an arranged wedding, but gets stressed out and causes a major power outage

2010: Because of the outage, Clara escapes from prison and Damien from the hospital. The two team up, Clara being the blunt force of the duo with her quick thinking and reflexes and Damien tends to her wounds. The two become good friends and continue like this all the way to Porthawhyte, where Clara hopes to get in contact with Niles

2010: Cheris takes in a scared Alexandria and her rescuer Charlie, the younger brother of her arranged fiancé with the ability to fly acutely

2010: Shiloh, who is helping Cheris from the sidelines, goes to bail Clara out of prison and finds her missing, instead finding the letters from Niles

2010: Cheris trains Alexandria and Charlie and in that time, the guard from Rashida wakes up. She tells him that her name is Celeste and she knows the trails needed to break into Pandora's Box. Both Alexandria and Charlie try to complete the tasks, but can't

2010: Shiloh drives back down to Porthawhyte and rescues Damien and Clara from a dangerous scrape with the cops, then takes them to Cheris and tells him about the letters. They start devising a way to break the five, Seto, and Lorelei from prison

2010: They do so with mild success, but become wanted criminals throughout all the Paladin's States

2011: The group splits up, one team (Niles, Cheris, Damien, Clara, Sirius, Shiloh, and Cherry) goes to the Adonisian Islands in hopes that Remi, Ellian, or Adonis can shelter them, or Plura and Leon can return from the King's Island to protect them. The other team (Alexandria, Charlie, Conner, Natalie, Lorelei, and Seto) go to hide out in Yorterra

2011: Plura and Leon return from the King's Island with the Neo-Paladins and books upon books about the old gods and the appearance of Evena and Tierney

alright, notes, the story doesn't end here, this is just where i stopped :pensive:. and the story starts with paladins, i didn't talk about them because the post was already long enough so. yeah :) i hope if you got to this point you enjoyed!

#oc tag #long post #i'm so sorry

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devilsmagic · 6 years

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more than just a game for two | chapter 3

The girls bond with their not-parents.

AO3 Link

Lucy placed a loaded plate of bacon, eggs and toast in front of Iris with a flourish.

"Breakfast is served."

Iris looked up at with a smile before picking up her fork and pushing a piece of bacon around the plate. Lucy sat opposite the young girl, peering at her as she sipped at her coffee.

“Are you feeling okay?” She asked, leaning over to press the back of her hand flat against Iris’ forehead.

“I’m fine, Mum.”

“Are you sure? You hardly ate your dinner last night and now you’re not eating breakfast.”

“I’m just tired, I promise,” Iris gave her a bright smile before shovelling a forkful of egg white into her mouth. When in doubt, fill your mouth with food, she remembered Amy telling her.

“Well, I’d be tired too if I were making mysterious phone calls in the middle of the night. Do I want to know what that’s about?”

“Oh that!” Iris stammered, shocked at being caught. “I was calling a friend from camp. Denise. She lives in New York.”

“Ahh, I see. And you wanted to call Denise at a time that was convenient for her, because of the time difference,” Lucy carefully chewed on a piece of bacon.

“Exactly! The time difference.”

“Right. So you waited until it was three o’clock in the morning for her? Makes perfect sense.”

“Actually, it was eight in the morning. You see, she lives in New York but she was on vacation with her family in Europe.”

Lucy stared at her. “Please tell me you did not make an international call from our house phone last night.”

Iris exaggerated a wince and shrugged, making Lucy to groan in response. “Amy,” she chastised.

“Come on,” Iris took a final sip of her orange juice. “Day’s a-wasting. Let’s go!”

"Day’s a-wasting?" Lucy whispered to herself as Iris ran out of the room.

It wasn’t until later as they were walking down the beach, sandals in hand and licking their ice cream cones, that Iris brought the subject back up.

“We should do that, too, you know?”

“Hmmm?” Lucy licked at the trail of peanut butter ice cream melting down her cone. “Do what?”

“Go on vacation. Like my friend, Denise.”

Lucy laughed. “I don’t think you quite understand how much a university professor earns, Amy.”

“It doesn’t have to be to Europe. It can be anywhere. Just you and me. And maybe Jiya."

“Is Mason invited?” Lucy asked dryly.

“Sure!” Iris agreed, not catching on to Lucy’s sarcasm. “I just think it would be fun for us to get away for a few days as a family. I missed you when I was gone, Mum.”

Lucy sighed, guilt tickling in her chest. “I’ll think about it.”

Iris grinned, wrapping an arm around Lucy’s waist and squeezing tight. Lucy smiled fondly at Iris, slinging her own arm across the girl’s shoulders.

“Are you ready for our daddy-daughter day?” Garcia asked as he popped his head into Iris’ room.

Amy was lying on the bed, stomach down and legs kicking in the air as she tried to read one of Iris’ many books. She honestly could not understand why Iris enjoyed reading so much. Her brain kept losing track of the words and before she knew it, her eyes had reached the end of the page but she had no idea what she’d read.

“God yes! Let me just put my shoes on,” she literally rolled off the bed and shoved her feet into Iris’ single pairs of sneakers.

They caught a ferry at Dubrovnik Old Town. As they boarded, Amy grabbed hold of Garcia’s hand and pulled him to the front of the boat, smiling as the spray of the ocean hit her cheeks. The wind whipped her hair into her face and her grin only grew as she brushed it back.

Garcia reached deep into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a hair tie. He used his fingers to brush Amy’s hair back and secured it into a high ponytail. It looked a little worse for wear but he figured it would hold for the rest of the 15 minute ride to Lokrum Island – one of Iris’ favourite places.

“Can you take a photo of me?” Amy asked and Garcia chuckled before complying.

Pulling out his phone, he took a few quick shots of a grinning Amy, red cheeks and lumpy ponytail. The sea glistened in the background, the same shade of blue as the summer sky. She leaned over his arm to see the photos and laughed at the expression on her face.

“Thanks, tata.” She kissed him on the cheek.

When they arrived at the island, Garcia led the way to the Botanical Gardens. Amy had no real interest in examining a smorgasbord of flowers, but it was the kind of thing Iris loved to do and so she was stuck, fake ohhing and ahhing over the flowering cacti and other unidentifiable plants. She could feel the strap of her bathing suit dig into her shoulders and couldn’t wait to jump into the crystal water.

After an hour of roaming around the gardens, the duo sat on a large patch of grass. Amy was sufficiently bored out of her mind, the only remotely fascinating thing to happen was when a peacock had crossed her path, tail open and majestic as it stalked past like it was walking down a runway.

“Walk, walk, fashion baby,” she whispered as the peacock disappeared from view.

She tried to hide her boredom, throwing all of herself into faking enthusiasm. Her twin sister really needed to get out more if this was her idea of a good time.

Garcia reached into the backpack he was carrying and pulled out a couple of sandwiches and large bottle of water. She flung herself onto her back, eating her sausage and tomato sandwich with one hand as she brushed the other through strands of grass. Garcia followed her lead, lowering his large frame until his head was next to Amy’s. He pointing out interestingly shaped clouds as they ate with Amy chiming in at irregular intervals.

She grew groggy and tired, the warmth of the sun and her filling stomach mingled until her eyelids drooped and she fought against sleep. Garcia laughed to himself as he watched her struggle. Just as she was about to slip into a nap, he shook her out of her stupor with two words.

“So, swimming?”

Her eyes immediately sprung open as she sat up. “Definitely.”

They walked over to the other side of the island. The sun was bearing down on them from its spot in the middle of the sky as they found an unoccupied swimming hole.

Ripping off her t-shirt and denim shorts in a single swoop, Garcia caught her around the waist before she could dive from the rocks and into the water. He laughed as she struggled.

“Dad!” she groaned.

“Sunscreen first, draga.”

Amy huffed but stood still as Garcia slathered the cream onto her back. She squeezed a large dollop onto her own hand and covered the rest of her exposed skin. Taking pity on the large man, she smothered his back in a patchy layer of sunscreen before climbing over the rocks and to the nearby ladder. She descended down to the lowest rung and dipped a foot into the warm, cool water. Groaning, she hurled herself off the ladder and into the deep blue.

Iris’ dad was content to sit on a smooth rock, reading from a thick book that he’d pulled from his backpack. Every now and then we would look over to check on Amy before falling back into the pages.

The waves were calm as Amy floated on her back. Iris’ words from the day before crept into her mind. The idea that Lucy was dating someone was hilarious. For the past 10 years of her life, it had been just Amy and her mum. She couldn’t imagine that a simple 7 weeks away was enough time for her mother to meet a man and decide to give dating another shot. It was impossible. And so with the water gently lapping at her skin, she pushed the conversation aside and let her mind go blank.

She never wanted to leave.

Reality hit her hard and fast when she arrived her with a friend request from a Denise Christopher. Amy squinted at the profile picture of a generic Indian girl. She hovered the cursor over the “Delete Request” button, having seen enough Catfish and America’s Most Wanted reruns to be wary about adding unknown people on Facebook, especially when their profile was blank. She clicked on “Accept” curiosity piqued. She figured she could always delete them if they turned out to be shady.

Denise Christopher: Amy! It's Iris. Accept my friend request.

Denise Christopher: Where are you?

Denise Christopher: This is serious! They’re going on a double date tonight. I don’t know what to do.

Denise Christopher: AMYYYYYY!!!

Denise Christopher: Nemoj me jebat.

Iris Flynn: y do i get the feelin that uve just insulted me?

Denise Christopher: FINALLY! Amy, what do I do???????

Iris Flynn: k hold up

Iris Flynn: break it down for me

Iris Flynn: wats happening?

Denise Christopher: Your mother is currently in the bathroom putting make up on! There’s a really pretty red lace dress lying on her bed and Jiya’s mum is coming over to babysit me.

Denise Christopher: …Are you still there Amy?

Iris Flynn: ye im thinkin hold on

Iris Flynn: ok so heres wat u do

“I’m sorry I ruined your date,” Iris moaned pitifully from where she was burritoed in her comforter.

“That’s okay, sweetheart,” Lucy replied, running her fingers through Iris’ “sweaty” hair and placing a kiss on the top of her head. “It wasn’t a date anyway.”

Iris wrinkled her brows. “Are you sure?”

“Am I sure about what?”

“That it wasn’t a date.” Iris moved her head from its position on Lucy’s chest, turning her neck until she could see the older woman’s face. Lucy’s eyebrows were crinkled in confusion.

“I promise you that if I ever go on a date, I’ll tell you.”

Iris bit her lower lip before smiling up at Lucy. Then she lowered her head back onto Lucy’s chest and fell asleep with the woman’s fingers gently brushing through her hair.

Denise Christopher: It worked! Crisis averted…for now. But honestly Amy, we have to switch back. I’m not prepared to deal with this!

Iris Flynn: look i know ok? im sorry

Iris Flynn: any ideas?

Denise Christopher: I have one, but you’ll have to be very convincing.

Denise Christopher: And you may need some help.

#garcy #garcy ff #lucy preston #garcia flynn #lucy x flynn #timeless #lol 11 months later #this is a thing i will finish or so help me god #*#my fic

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somethinglacking · 6 years

Text

Saving Privet 707

Nari watched the GPS and security cameras on his laptop as Saeran raced his brothers borrowed car towards their destination.

"Holy shit! Saeran I know time is an issue, lives are on the line, but slow down, your speeding" Nari gasped looking at their speed.

"I acknowledged the sign's speed recommendation." Saeran informed her in a serious tone that caused her eye to twitch.

"You're doing 30 over the speed limit!" Nari informed him a little irked which caused him to side glance and smile fondly at her. Nari met his eye for a moment and smiled back feeling safe with Saeran. That was before his smile turned into a smirk and his foot stepped on the gas and they flew down the highway.

_____

"Can't you just hit him with your knife?" Nari asked her boyfriend eyeing the guard at the back entrance.

"I believe the technical term is 'stab, which I could, but I can't guarantee it won't kill him." Saeran chuckled as Nari puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

"But we need in there." Nari contemplated and

Saeran sighed picking up a sizable rock and huffed it at the man standing at his post. There was a smack at impact as Nari watched the man fall to the grow groaning in agony as he dropped to the ground.

"Now we can get in there." Saeran informed her as he grabbed her hand slyly guiding her around the injured guard and threw the door without incident.

_______

"Okay what did I do?" Saeyoung asked his brother who haunted his steps to look at his brother with an confused expression.

"What do you mean?" Saeran asked looking toward the ground still unable to look his brother in the eye.

"You look like you want to rip my head off, which would be counterproductive since this was your rescue mission to make sure I didn't die." Seven babbled nervously placing at his twin shyly.

"Sorry that's just how my face works." Saeran shrugged and started to continue down the corridor.

______

"What's our exit strategy?" Vanderwood asked the twins.

"Our what?" They asked in unison

"Oh my god! We are all going to die!" Nari half sobbed at the lack of planning and covered her face with her hands.

"Well how did you two get here. You have a car right? Just gotta make it out and-" Vanderwood was cut off by Nari.

"Well if someone didn't drive our escape plan off at bridge..." Nari mocked a scolding tone as Saeran huffed

"It was on FIRE!" Saeran half yelled in his defense.

"Wait what?" Seven asked looking at the duo bewildered.

"It's painful enough to think about let alone talk about. Let's move on." Nari sighed crossing her arms.

"We owe you a car." Saeran clarified as he began to move farther down the hall.

"What happened to my baby!?!" Seven cried following his brother.

"Don't worry me and Saeran where unharmed." Nari informed Seven sarcastically storming after the boys.

"Once this is all over, I want my sanity back." Vanderwood muttered mostly to himself following the others.

______

"You honestly don't storm me as a professional criminal." Nari deadpan watching the red head before her dab after picking the lock.

"Hahaha! That's what makes me so good at it!" Saeyoung winked opening the door ushering the party inside

_____

"Is that blood?" Saeran asked with worry eyeing the blood pooling down his brothers arm.

"No?" Saeyoung Asked Examining His Arms

That's not a question your suppose to answer with another question!" Nari scolded moving toward the older twin.

"Don't worry about it, it's just a paper cut." Saeyoung informed the party.

"It's the length of your arm!" Nari snapped assessing the wound.

"You know what they say, panicking burns a shit ton of calories." Seven stated trying to lighting the mood as Nari doctored his arm the best she can with what they have.

"Who even says that?" Vanderwood asked deadpanned

"Me. Just now." Seven jested causing everyone to groan.

"He was right though, it's not deep just decided to blood a lot." Nari assured the crowd.

"It was merely a flesh wound." Seven said in a silly voice causing Saeran to turn and walk out of the room.

______

"We have five people trying to kill us right now, what are we supposed to do?" Vanderwood asked as the group sat down to take a break.

"It's more like eight people." Saeran corrected his brother's handler wrapping his arms around Nari who snuggled herself into him.

"Oh, sorry if I wasn't specific enough for you." Vanderwood snapped back as Seven sat away from them facing the corner.

"Seven are you okay?" Nari asked with a worried tone.

"Debating my life choices." Seven informed her sulking.

"Instead why don't you come up with a plan to get me, you, your brother, and his girlfriend out of here." Vanderwood scolded.

"Excuse me! I was a superhero for ten whole minutes." Seven stated.

"And in that time you managed get kidnapped a second time, and we had to come save you... again." Saeran informed his brother in a cocky tone that caused Nari to cover her mouth as she laughed.

#mysticmessenger #crackwriting #humor #saeran x mc #spoliers #mysme 707 #vanderwood #saeran choi

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roronoaxd · 7 years

Text

dream daddy

Kurodai Weekend Day 3: Single Parent AU

Summary: Kuroo has just moved to a new cul-de-sac with his son Kenma. Thanks to his new neighbors, he's able to rekindle a relationship with his newly single college crush, Sawamura.

Additional Info: Dream Daddy AU pretty much

Word Count: 2803

AO3 LINK

Piling into the car, Tetsurou took one last glance at his old house. “I can’t believe we’re really moving.” He commented to his sixteen-year-old son, Kenma, who’s face was buried deep in one of his handheld games. “Aren’t you just a little sad? I mean, you grew up here. I raised you from adoption as a baby to the tender age that you are now.”

“Are you sad?” Kenma asked, not even bothering to look up.

“Of course! There are so many memories in this place, and here we are, moving to an entirely different neighborhood!”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“How are you so indifferent?” Tetsurou definitely did not pout, but it was something close, “Remind me to talk to you later about the importance of showing emotions for things you might view as mundane when other people are clearly not taking it well.”

“That’s a lot to remember.”

“Then just remind me to teach you about faking it until you make it.”

Upon arrival, Tetsurou wasn’t that surprised that Kenma barely took in his surroundings or appreciate the outside of their home, and instead just headed straight for the door, eyes still trained on the game. “Humor me, will ya? Pay attention at least a little bit to where you’re walking.”

“I am.”

“Make it more visible.” Tetsurou complained, unlocking the front door and allowing Kenma to enter first. “Well, this is it. Home sweet home.” Kenma kicked off his shoes and paused to give one quick look around and then returned to his game. He walked over to the couch, collapsing down on it.

“Nice.” Kenma commented in his monotonous voice, which Tetsurou would accept for now.

“It’s more than nice, Kenma. The movers did quite a decent job…not my favorite spot for the couch but it will do until I feel like moving it. Oh, and you’re not going to sit around and play that thing all day, come help me unpack.” Kenma groaned dramatically, clicking a few buttons before putting the game away.

Kenma helped Tetsurou unpack for approximately…five minutes, before he managed to sneak off to his room to continue playing games, leaving Tetsurou alone with a bunch of boxes and a box cutter. He put things away rather quickly, not really trying to make it look pretty, but instead just trying to get rid of the boxes. The doorbell sounding off gave Tetsurou a reason to take a break. “Kenma! We have neighbors!”

“Obviously.” He could hear Kenma mumble.

“Come help me greet them, so they can think we’re friendly and social butterflies.”

“But that’s a lie.” Kenma complained, walking over to stand next to his father.

“Yes, but they don’t have to know that.” Tetsurou opened the door, smiling widely at a guy who appeared to be his age, with large brown eyes and thick black hair. He was holding a plate of brownies.

“Hi! I’m Moniwa Kaname. I saw the moving van in the driveway earlier, and then saw your car, and figured I’d stop by and welcome you to the neighborhood! My son Kenji made these.”

“Brownies?” Kenma questioned, walking over and taking the plate from Kaname, before disappearing into the kitchen.

“Ke-Kenma? Come back here.” Tetsurou could hear Kenma removing the Saran wrap, a clear sign that he would not be coming back. “Sorry about him. That’s my son, Kenma.”

“Is he your only child?”

“Yes, yes he is.”

“I have four. Takanobu, Kenji, Kosuke, and Kanji. All boys.”

“Sounds…tough.”

“Yes, yes…boys are tough. Children are tough in general, but that's not why I came over. I’m having a barbecue for the whole cul-de-sac, you’re welcome to come on by and meet the others in the community! It'll be fun! We'll have burgers.”

“Sure, Kenma and I will be there. We appreciate a good burger.”

“Great! It’s Saturday at noon! I…better get going, and check up on my rowdy quad. I’ll see you on Saturday?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” Tetsurou knew he already agreed, but maybe Kaname needed a more definite affirmation or something.

“See ya neighbor! Enjoy the brownies!” Kaname gave a final wave before turning around and heading off to his own home. Tetsurou closed the front door, turning to find Kenma coming out of the kitchen. “Did you save me any brownies?”

“Uh…no… they weren’t very good, so I had to eat them all to save you.”

“…I appreciate your noble acts. Moniwa probably wants his plate back, so let’s clean it up and deliver it to him.”

Tetsurou pushed Kenma to put on some shoes, and then nicely shoved him out the door. “Which house do you think he lives in?”

“The one with the fighting kids.”

“Should we just drop the plate and run in fear of getting dragged into the fight?” Tetsurou teased.

“Sounds like a plan. I want to get back to my game!” Kenma explained, though he had said game in his hands.

The duo walked over, dodging the little fists, “Hey kids! It’s not nice to fight.”

“He started it!” One of them called out, he had straight brown hair, looked to be at least eight and had frown on his face, as he pushed what Tetsurou assumed was his older brother.

“I did not, Kenji!” The one who looked like he was straight from that Angry Birds game that Kenma was obsessed with for about three hours.

“Look… I just wanted to return this plate. Ken—Kenji? The brownies were good, or so my son said.”

“Really? Thanks, strange guy!” The Kenji kid commented, taking the plate happily from Kenma.

“Al-alright, we’re just going to leave… quickly, come on Kenma.” Tetsurou placed a hand on Kenma’s shoulder and started guiding him away again.

“That kid called you a strange guy.”

“Now that I think of it, it is a bit strange to have a neighbor you never met come up to you, giving you a plate, and thanking you for brownies.”

“This appears to be a strange place. You would think kids these days would know about stranger danger.”

“You don’t even know about stranger danger! Must I remind you of the time I lost you at the park because some random lady had homemade rice krispies.”

“She was giving them out to a lot of kids, not just me.”

“That’s not the point, Kenma.”

They began to make their way back home when someone called out to Tetsurou. He stopped walking, turning around to see who it could be. “Daichi?”

“Small world.” Daichi commented, smiling brightly, with his cropped hair, strong muscles and a baby strapped to his front.

“Uh yeah it is! Dude, I haven’t seen you in so long! Kenma, this is Sawamura Daichi, we went to college together and were roommates.”

“This is Kenma?! I haven’t seen him since he was as small as the one strapped to me.” Daichi exclaimed, pointing down to the baby with bright orange hair who was giggling madly, kicking both his hands and feet.

“You a professional babysitter now?” Tetsurou questioned, waving at the baby and causing happy gurgling.

“No, this is my kid. The youngest, Shouyou.”

“Youngest?”

“Yeah, I have thirteen-year-old twins… Kentarou and Ryuu. They’re not really twins, but they're the same age and we adopted them at the same time, so we refer to them as twins.”

“We? As in you and Iwaizumi right?”

“Well—yeah.”

“How is the old brute anyway?”

“He’s good. We’ve, uh, been separated for a bit of time now.” Daichi shared, scratching at the nape of his neck.

“Oh! I’m sorry, man…”

“It’s fine, you didn’t know, and we’re still on good terms. He's met someone knew anyway, a great guy, and I'm happy for him.”

“I can’t believe you’re a father to three kids! I always knew you’d be a great dad.” Tetsurou changed the subject, causing Daichi to blush.

“Y-yeah, uh… I have to get going. I was just doing my daily jog and now I have to take the twins to volleyball practice.”

“Daily jog??”

“Yeah, I have to keep in shape, running after three boys. Y-you should join me sometime.”

“I’d—like to.”

“Cool, cool. I guess I’ll see you around now that we live in the same neighborhood, huh?”

“Yeah, see you around.” Tetsurou said, giving Daichi a wave as he jogged away, with Daichi turning around at a distance to wave back and smile.

“You’re giving him googly eyes. Stop it.” Kenma complained as he continued walking the short distance to their home.

“I was not!” Tetsurou protested, keeping up easily with his wider strides.

“The last time I seen you look at someone like that…you were looking at yourself in the mirror.”

“Zip it you!”

“Did something go on between you and Sawamura-san?” Kenma stopped in front of their door, waiting for Tetsurou to unlock and open it before stepping in, not even bothering to look up from his game.

“Like I said, we were college roommates. Besides the basic college shenanigans, nothing too major happened between us. We were young and he had his own relationship back then to worry about.”

“It sounds like you’re jealous.”

“Do I need to send you to your room?”

“Please do.”

Tetsurou did his best to ignore Kenma’s comment about him being jealous of Hajime and Daichi’s relationship. He was so not jealous! Sure, it bothered him when they would make out on the couch, or hold hands during movies, or show up to hangouts with hickies all over their—those things would annoy any roommate! Sure, he had a tiny crush on Daichi back in college, but that was probably his own loneliness manifesting itself and latching onto the nearest male who happened to be Daichi. And sure, that crush seemed to return as soon as he heard Daichi call out to greet him. And the news that Daichi was a fellow single dad did have Tetsurou’s heart thump with excitement, but he wasn’t going to get his hopes up. If things couldn’t work out in college, why would they suddenly turn in Tetsurou’s favor now?

Saturday came around quickly, and Tetsurou was actually looking forward to Kaname’s barbecue party. “Kenma! Let’s go! We should get there early, make a good first impression.” Tetsurou called out, grabbing the watermelon he bought last minute to bring over with them.

“Why do I have to go at all? I hate barbecues.”

“In order for me to make a good impression, I should probably be a good dad and force you to suffer with me.” Tetsurou said putting an arm around Kenma’s shoulder and guiding him out the door, “Plus you never know, there may be apple pie there.”

“If there is, I say we drop off the watermelon, grab the pie and leave.”

“Not going to happen, kiddo.” Tetsurou smirked as they walked over to Kaname’s yard, which was already packed with people and kids.

Spotting Kaname was easy, since he was dawned in a white ‘Grill-Master’ apron with painted handprints, probably a gift from his children. Tetsurou waved at him, before heading over, dragging Kenma along too, who tried to escape once he spotted a chair off to the side. “Kuroo and Kenma! Welcome to my humble abode, and you brought a watermelon, how thoughtful!”

“Thank you for inviting us.”

“It’s no problem at all, please, let me introduce you to my children. This is my oldest at thirteen, Takanobu, then we have twelve-year-old Kenji, ten-year-old Kosuke, and seven-year-old Kanji.”

“Nice to meet you all.”

“Hey strange guy!” Kenji greeted before dragging his brother Takanobu towards a water slide set up in the east of the yard.

“I’m so sorry about him! He’s quite a handful!” Kaname apologized, unnecessarily. Tetsurou understood kids...kinda.

“It’s…fine.”

“Well, enjoy yourself and mingle! We have some food already set up over there by the garden, help yourself to anything you’d like.” Kaname patted Tetsurou on the arm, patted Kenma on the head, and then made his way back to the grill.

Tetsurou led the way over to the food table, grabbing a plate and grabbing a few beef skewers, while Kenma headed straight for the desserts. “There sure are a lot of fellow dads around…”

“Yeah, have fun.” Kenma commented, nibbling on a cookie as he piled more onto his plate, trying to run away.

“But, I can’t just leave you by yourself. What kind of father would I be if I did do that?” Tetsurou asked, grabbing Kenma by the shirt to stop him.

“A good one?”

“Kenma, no…and stop with the sweets. Eat at least one beef skewer with some veggies before you indulge yourself.”

“Fine, go mingle.” Kenma fled, going over to confiscate the lone chair he spotted earlier, leaving Tetsurou alone in the crowd.

Tetsurou looked around briefly, the only people he could recognize were Kaname and Daichi, but Daichi was laughing with some loud guy with black and grey hair. Tetsurou didn’t want to interrupt that conversation. He headed over to Kaname, watching the guy grill some burger patties instead. “You probably don’t know this, Kuroo, but Kaname is definitely as masterful at the grill as his apron reveals.” Daichi spoke up, suddenly appearing behind Tetsurou, who did his best to hide his surprise.

“He’s un-grill-ievable!” The grey/black haired guy called out.

“This is Bokuto Koutarou. His daughter Yukie is running around here somewhere.”

“Nice to meet the famous Ku-bro! I’ve heard a lot about you from Daichi.” Bokuto exclaimed, giving Tetsurou a hearty handshake. “Our buddy Ushijima should be around here somewhere with his son Tsutomu.”

“Amazing how all of us dads live in the same cul-de-sac. I feel quite welcomed.” Tetsurou admitted.

“It’s great, right? Really helps you feel supported too, since we’re all in the same boat. Just a bunch of single dads trying to do what’s best for their kids.” Daichi commented.

“Yeah, which one is yours?” Bokuto then asked, looking around. Tetsurou quickly scanned the crowds.

“The blonde one over there playing with Daichi’s baby?” Weird. Tetsurou felt oddly proud watching Kenma prevent baby Shouyou from getting his eye poked out with one of the skewers, while two boys, who Tetsurou assumed were the ‘twins’, tried feeding Shouyou a mandarin.

“They seem to be getting along.” Daichi cooed.

The barbecue went pretty smoothly after that, Tetsurou was able to get to know some other dads and not embarrass himself in front of Daichi, all while watching Kenma mingle with other kids. As the sun went down, Tetsurou went to collect Kenma and herd him home. “You made friends.” Tetsurou started off the conversation he knew Kenma would rather avoid.

“They’re all younger than me, I wouldn’t count them as friends.”

“Shouyou really took a liking to you.”

“Well, he’s a baby. You can’t be mean to babies.”

“His siblings seemed to like you too. You had fun.”

“What about you? Did you flirt enough with Sawamura-san?”

“Stop, someone might overhear you!”

“No one’s around.”

“I wasn’t flirting; I was being friendly.”

“Are you going to add them all on DadBook?”

“How do you know about DadBook?”

“How do you not know about DadBook?”

“Social media isn’t really my thing, dear Kenma.”

“I can help you.”

Tetsurou was surprised that Kenma was so willing to help him set up his profile on the social media network for Dads, and then helped Tetsurou add all the dads from the cul-de-sac. His son usually wasn’t up for teaching him anything to do with technology, always running low on patience, so it was all…weird. “Are you going to message Sawamura-san?”

“Maybe.”

“Do it. Make friends…or boyfriend, whatever.” Kenma suggested, taking his leave and locking himself up in his room to play games probably. Tetsurou sat in front of the computer, staring at the ‘message’ icon on Daichi’s profile. Should he do it? Should he not? If he does, it can be a start to a beautiful rekindled friendship which can ultimately lead to an even better romantic relationship. If he doesn’t, he could just continue pining until this crush ultimately kills him.

A ding on the computer caught Tetsurou’s attention, and he clicked on the little messenger icon.

Daichi: Hey neighbor! Want to come to a community volleyball game tonight? After we can grab some pizza together? Just like old times.

Well… looks like Tetsurou doesn’t have to think too much anymore. He smiles to himself as he quickly replies.

Tetsurou: Sure sounds like a plan!

Daichi: Great! It’s a date!

It’s a date. It’s a date?? Tetsurou had to stop himself from jumping up and shouting for joy. “Kenma, I scored a date without even trying!”

“Gross.” Kenma responded back, and Tetsurou ignored him, thanking whatever gods for the sudden turn of events and favors.

#kurodai #kuroo tetsurou #sawamura daichi #kurodaiweekend

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shellsan · 5 years

Text

30 Day Writing Challenge

Day Six: Shatter

Fandom: Ouran High School Host Club

Pairing: Takashi Morinozuka/Haruhi Fujioka

Disclaimer: I do not own OHSHC.

Shatter

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Everything happened almost too quickly when Haruhi bumped into the pedestal, adrenaline running through her body as she tried to stay away from this so called Host Club “King” who was so eager to disregard her personal space , touching her without permission like it was something that was acceptable.

Her eyes flickered to the ground and around the room, sounds muffled as she tried to breathe deeply and not panic at the sight of the shattered pieces of porcelain on the floor.

“Aww, now you've gone and done it. That rune vase was supposed to be featured in the school auction.” Hikaru informed, amused by the reactions they were getting from the normally silent and composed honour student.

“What are we going to do? We were going to start the bidding at eight million yen.” Kaoru tacks on, sighing and shaking his head in false disappointment.

The numbers flashed in Haruhi's head as she tried to figure out immediately just how many payments that was. Ridiculous, was the conclusion she came to.

“I'm going to have to pay you back...” She trailed off, body still on edge, all of her senses screaming for her to get out of the room and as far away from these people as she could. They were insane. She would never understand rich people.

“How are you meant to do that when you can't even afford the school uniform?” The twins spoke at the same time, condescension clear in their tones and making Haruhi bristle, panic forgotten for the moment.

“I'll figure it out. I'm assuming you know where to find me, Kyoya-senpai. If you'll excuse me, I have some money to go organise.” Haruhi informed briskly before turning heel and leaving the room before anyone could say another word.

The twins pouted, immediately bored again before turning to find something else to do.

From off to the side of the room, Honey-senpai tugged gently on Mori's uniform sleeve making the quiet member look down at his cousin.

“That wasn't very nice, was it Takashi?” He commented, voice a little sad at the scene he'd witnessed. He cared for his friends, but there were times when they were a little bit mean.

It wasn't like that vase was all that important after all.

Mori only grunted in response, but something about the way that he'd looked at the door after Haru-chan had left gave the older boy hope for his cousin. It was time that he found someone else to look out for other than Honey-senpai.

Despite the incident however, hosting continued as normal for the rest of the afternoon and by the end it seemed that Tamaki and the twins had already completely forgotten everything that had happened.

The same could not be said for Takashi who waited until the room was almost empty to get a chance to speak with Kyoya.

Giving his cousin a knowing look, Honey smiled brightly. “I'll wait for you in the car, okay Takashi?”

He would just go home on his own but that was moving a little too fast for his friend. Baby steps.

Mori grunted, waiting for the door to click shut before he walked over to Kyoya who was beginning to pack his things up.

“Mori-senpai. What can I do for you?”

“I'll pay.”

If it was anyone else, they would have been confused, but Kyoya Ootori was not anyone else. Pushing up his glasses, he tried to understand where Mori was coming from, what he would gain from this, before giving up and shrugging.

“If you're sure.” He said finally. “I'll await your transaction. I'm assuming it will be complete tonight?”

Mori grunted in assent, before turning and leaving the room, content now that the problem was solved.

But who would tell the honour student?

Frowning further, Takashi sighed internally. He'd have to do it himself the next time they were in school. At least she would be easy enough to find. He knew the twins were in her class and he knew where their first class was.

'Tomorrow.' He decided, before slipping into the car with Mitsukini and grunting when he asked if everything had gone fine.

“I think we should visit Haru-chan and make sure that she's okay tomorrow.” Honey informed, easily understanding what his cousin wouldn't know how to request.

Mori smiled a little, grateful, before nodding.

The first plan was in place.

The next day left Haruhi with the sinking feeling that it was going to be harder than she thought to pay off the debt for that vase. Not impossible, but definitely detrimental to her own studying. Thus far her father had no problems supporting them and making enough money to keep them going, but if they were to pay off an 80 000 yen vase, she'd have to pick up a part-time job.

That of course meant getting permission from the school board to be able to take up paid work, and then proving that she could keep her studies up while juggling said job which wouldn't be an ideal situation, but she'd have to make do.

Sighing, she stepped into her home room and took her seat, ignoring the twins on either side of her easily enough and pulling out her notebooks to get some extra study in before classes started.

Or at least that was her plan.

“Haru-chan!”

The brunette's head snapped up at the sound of her name being called like that, eyebrows furrowing when she spotted the third-year duo that had been in the club room yesterday.

Sighing, she pushed herself away from the desk and walked over to the door, ignoring the stares she was getting from her classmates with practised ease.

“Look Takashi, she heard me.” Honey pointed out excitedly as he stepped out of the doorway so that they could talk in the hall.

There was a grunt of agreement.

Wracking her brains, Haruhi tried to remember their names. Mori-senpai and honey-senpai?

“Can I help you?” She asked, not seeing a reason to beat around the bush when they could get this over with.

Honey pouted a little at the no-nonsense attitude but brightened immediately after, flowers seeming to float in the air around him.

“We just wanted to stop by and say 'hi'. We're sorry for how everyone treated you yesterday. Takashi paid for the vase so you don't need to worry about it at all, kay?”

It took Haruhi a moment to comprehend the words before her eyes went wide.

“You did what?” She managed to choke out finally, looking over at the taller man to direct her question.

He just shrugged a shoulder slightly in response making her sigh.

“You didn't need to do that. I would have figured something out.” She insisted, still a little shocked.

Honey giggled a little. Haru-chan was so cute.

“Wasn't your fault.” Mori said finally.

Haruhi didn't argue against that. She knew exactly whose fault it had been. “Not yours either.” She pointed out.

Honey giggled as her cousin shrugged a shoulder again.

Sighing, Haruhi rubbed her temples to stave off the oncoming headache.

“And what do you want in exchange?”

Honey titled his head in confusion, a similar look appearing on Mori's face.

Shaking her head, Haruhi gave them a pointed look. “I've learnt that no-one in this school gives anything for free. And even if this was some form of no strings attached debt payment, I'd rather not have it weighing on my conscious. So, what do you want in exchange?”

Mori frowned. “80 000 yen is pocket change for us. I don't need anything.” He insisted finally.

Huffing, Haruhi crossed her arms and looked up at him with an unwavering gaze. “Then consider things like this. You have done me a favour and I am now in your debt whether you acknowledge it or not. I'm honour bound to do something equal to make up for the service you've done for me. Please choose something.” She insisted.

Watching his cousin struggle, Mitsukini couldn't help but grin wider. Without meaning to, Haru-chan had just increased the pace of his plans exponentially.

“Haru-chan could help with the clean up at Judo and Kendo club?” He suggested, looking up at Takashi with wide eyes.

Mori hesitated. He didn't want to make the honour student do anything, but it was hard to argue against her fierce determination. Being honour bound was an idea that he understood well and it felt wrong to ignore that the concept did apply in this situation.

“Fine.” He agreed, exasperation clear in his eyes for anyone that cared to look closer.

Haruhi nodded, feeling relieved to finally have a solution to her problem. “In that case I will see you both at kendo and judo?”

Nodding, Honey grinned widely. “Of course. We have kendo on Wednesday afternoons and judo on Friday afternoons.” He informed.

Haruhi nodded, noting the information. At least she knew where the dojo was. Today was Tuesday so it would be tomorrow when she saw them again. And giving up a couple of hours on two afternoons a week was much easier to juggle than an entire work schedule.

Noticing the teacher walking towards the classroom, Haruhi gave them a small smile. “Thank you. I'll see you both tomorrow afternoon. You'd better hurry if you don't want to be late to class.” She pointed out, waving to them as she heading back inside and took up her seat.

Ignoring the other students she couldn't help but be in a good mood, situation lifted off her shoulders.

'Maybe all rich people aren't the same after all.' She admitted to herself.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by and before either Mori or Haruhi knew it, it was Wednesday afternoon and he was getting ready to go to kendo, having been released from class ten minutes early so that he could get to club before anyone else.

“Do you think Haru-chan knows where to go?” Mitsukini asked, titling his head in worry and trying not to smirk at the small show of concern that flashed on Takashi's face.

“She'll be fine.”

Honey pouted. Why did his cousin have to be so stubborn?

“You should go get her just in case. I can get things ready, just this once.” He suggested, looking up with wide eyes.

Narrowing his eyes, Mori tried to follow the thoughts that were running through Mitsukini's head but found himself unable to understand what was going on. But despite knowing that something was a ploy – even if he didn't know the why yet – he found himself unable to refuse the almost-order.

“Just this once.” He grunted, giving his cousin a stern look before he turned to head towards Haruhi's last class to grab her.

Honey giggled, not in the least worried by Takashi's knowing look before turning and skipping towards the dojo, more excited than ever to attend kendo.

Haruhi sighed in relief when the majority of class had left the room finally, rushing out like being in school for a moment longer was going to kill them.

Rolling her eyes, she slung her bag over her shoulder and headed towards the door, stepping out and turning right to start heading towards the dojo only to almost bump into a familiar, tall boy.

Stumbling back, she blinked when she felt herself being righted quickly, preventing the tumble she'd been prepared for.

“Thank you.” She said, manners on autopilot before the situation started to make sense and she titled her head at Mori-senpai. Was it just her imagination or did he look a little amused?

Shaking that thought from her head, she focused on more important matters. “Why are you here Mori-senpai? I was just about to head over to the dojo and I would have seen you there...”

Mori gave her a look in an attempt to convey his meaning, offering to take her bag.

Shaking her head, Haruhi smiled to soften her refusal. “It's fine, I'm capable of carrying my own things.” She insisted, tightening her hold on the bag just in case.

Even though it didn't feel right, Mori let it go, starting off in the direction of the dojo at a slow pace so that Haruhi could keep up with her shorter legs.

“You're here to help me find the dojo then? I did have some idea of where to do, but it occurred to me later that this damned school might have more than one dojo.” She informed him.

Mori's lips twitched slightly and he nodded.

“I thought so. In that case, thank you for the escort.”

The rest of the walk passed in silence, and before Haruhi knew it they were standing in front of a very different dojo to the one that she'd been preparing to go to.

Watching curiously, she observed as Mori opened the door and stepped into the dojo, bowing when he entered as a sign of respect and immediately removing his shoes.

Following suit, Haruhi also bowed in an attempt to be respectful and took her own shoes off.

“Study.” Mori stated- pointing towards an area off to the side.

If she was going to insist on helping out then he could at least give her a semi-quiet place to work before clean up.

Haruhi smiled and nodded. “Alright. Thank you, senpai.”

Mori watched as she padded over to the corner quietly, absently noting that her posture and quiet movements would be perfect for martial arts, before shaking the thought away. It was time to focus on kendo now.

“Hi, Haru-chan!”

The sudden call of her name breaking her from her work was quickly becoming something that she was getting used to, jolting out of the equation she had been trying to solve.

“Hello, senpai.” She greeted, voice much softer, but she couldn't help but smile at his attitude. “Is it time to finish up already?”

Honey nodded. “Yup. Takashi and will show you how clean up usually goes. Thanks for helping out, it'll make everything run even smoother.”

Haruhi shook her head, packing her things into her bag before leaving it in the corner. “It's fine. I'm more than willing to help out. I owe Mori-senpai.” She reminded.

Pouting, Honey wanted to huff at her bold response. It wasn't like he had expected anything other than Haru-chan being debt bound right now though, so he let it go, instead focussing on showing her around the dojo with enthusiasm an demonstrating how to clean up and where everything went.

Picking up one of the shinai from the ground, she tilted her head at it.

Noting her interest, Mori padded over to her, standing nearby but not touching her.

He nodded towards her hands in request when he finally got her attention.

“You want to show me how to hold it properly?” Haruhi guessed, quickly becoming accustomed to his tendency to use gestures as opposed to words.

Mori nodded.

Haruhi smiled. “Sure.” She agreed, loosening her grip and letting the bigger hands dwarf over her own, adjusting her grip and showing her how to hold it correctly.

She picked it easy enough and grinned. “Thanks, senpai.”

Mori shook his head, lips twitching. “Would you like to learn?” He offered.

Biting her lip, Haruhi shook her head sadly. “I'm not against it, but I don't have the time for hobbies right now...” She trailed off.

Understanding, Mori couldn't help but place a gentle hand on her head, similar to how he did whenever Mitsukini was upset, and shook his head to show he wasn't sad.

“If you ever change your mind.” He offered.

Haruhi smiled softly, nodding in agreement.

From across the room, Honey grinned at the sight of his cousin getting along so well and openly with someone else, satisfied that step two had been going so well.

Now all he had to do was convince Haruhi that it was a good idea to pick up kendo and he could progress to step three.

But they had plenty of time to get that far. They barely knew each other and Honey was just as keen to get to know Haru-chan. There was something about the way she'd spoken of being duty bound that made him wonder what kind of life she'd had until now.

Perhaps, it was time to investigate.

#ouran koukou host club #ouran high school host club #ohshc #ohschc fanfiction #ohshc fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #30 day writing challenge #mori/haruhi #rarepair #they need more love #might continue later

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