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#3. Rainbow where you can see a little bit of a second rainbow near the bottom of it :0
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Misc. photos from the past year or so ~
#image commentary in tags once again since they don't allow captions anymore and I feel weird using the alt text for that --#1. napping bapy boye sneeping on his own foot as if it were a pillow#2. The little primrose that I have seems to bloom sporadically all year around as long as I bring it inside and don't let it freeze#in the winter. This was a flower that came up randomly like mid november lol#3. Rainbow where you can see a little bit of a second rainbow near the bottom of it :0#4. CHILDREN.... love to see them.....#5. Halloween Candy ranking tierlist. not important enough to post on it's own. so throwing it in with one of these I guess lol#I am also not really a candy person at all and prefer bready stuff like cakes rather than chocolate bars (if I even have to have sweets#at ALL which usually I prefer savory food). I suspect the apple is controversial but.. I do love apples .... huzzah#actually am having applle and peanut butter snack right now as I'm writing this lol#6. Various bowls/cups/etc. that I got from a store at COMPLETELY different times like.. years apart from each other#yet at some point realized that they all mostly match in paint color and seem to be part of the same pattern#But I totally didnt make that connection until a few years ago when I was putting up dishes. I just bought them all invidually because it's#like 'oh cool! a cat' *1 year later* 'oh cool! a cat!' etc. lol.. I guess it must be a popular design if it's been around being sold that#long.#7. carne asada burrito and matcha bubble tea... oughhgh.... again one of my very rare meals where I actually go and get something..#probably my favorite meal currently. Something about the Chronic Anemia makes me crave beef burritos madly despite only having one#maybe twice a year or so ghjbhj.. plus the beans.... onions.... many of my Diet Forbidden foods... Also of course the little aishas#are there.... somehow they shall split the meal together even though it's like 10x bigger than their bodies.. they are also hungry#and vastly anemic... huzzah to them...#8. I've had this shirt for a long time but it fits very weird so I can never find a way to use it in outfits?? But I recently had#an appointment where a doctor needed to be able to look at my back and it's one of the only actual Shirts that I have (mostly i just own#long robes or tunics or jumper dress type of things that would be hard to lift up or etc. like... I dont even own a single normal 't-shirt'#or anyting aside from one giant tshirt that I sleep in in the summer lol.) So I wore this there.. I forget how much I love the pictures on#it.. how pleasant... little hummingbird... AND I think one of the flowers is supposed to be columbine ... !#photo diary
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s3899602 · 7 months
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Blog #12 - Week 12
Light’s Project 
I have been working on Light’s project this week and have asked for feedback from a few of my peers in regards to my sound design which has helped me immensely. Light seems very happy with the direction things are going. The first draft I sent I obviously wasn’t 100% happy with it but they had no notes so right now I’m just tweaking everything and not changing the length of the audio because it’s taking Light several hours to render 3 minutes of footage and I don’t want them to keep doing that. So, I will work with whatever comes out and just create some specific sounds tailored to the video. Hopefully this will be fine. I still have a week. 
Sunday
Rendering took a lot longer than expected. I wish I could've changed some of the sound effects to fit the video better but what are you gonna do if you don’t have the time. It’s okay. Light seemed to be pretty happy with it. It wasn’t my best work but it was alright. Obviously the video looks amazing, I’m definitely happy with how that turned out. From my perspective, I don't know that the video completely fits all of the sound effects I have added, but not much I can do about that because the video is made for the sound and not the other way around. 
Tuesday 17/10
Now having seen it in the Black Box I am actually really liking how it turned out. I think I definitely could have built on it a bit more but I like the basic structure of what I’ve done. Obviously it’s never going to be perfect, but Light really liked it and offered to have me come and work on his major project feature film next semester so I think I should stop being so hard on myself. 
I ended up doing some panning with the sound effects which I think sounded really cool in the Black Box, I would have liked to do a bit more sub bass at the end to create more of a climax but I’m pretty happy with it. I’m going to put the video on Reaper and continue building on it during the summer maybe to be able to use it in my portfolio. 
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Kingdom Dance 
I really listened to Darrin and Nik’s notes about the use of red, I think a lot of the time, red is associated with hurt and danger which doesn’t really fit with my piece, but I think by the end of the song with the amount of different colours I bring in I don’t think the red is particularly menacing when the music is so upbeat, but I’ve changed it so that the red comes in later and there’s more of a build. I added the movie's original colours (yellow and purple) in the step part instead of red which I think fits it a little better, but I like the end red where it is, so we’ll see what the feedback is on Thursday. There were also some other little notes:
On the roof near the start with the shining yellow, take the roof out 
On the roof around the middle when there’s pink, make sure timing is tight and the music warrants the use of the ceiling
I’ve taken out the roof at the start and fixed the timing in the middle, I’ve added a few things there too, I think the red fits there because I’m showing a rainbow of colours, I just realised blue only shows up once in the entire piece but it’s for 0.10 seconds so I don’t think anyone will notice it’s not purple. I keep forgetting blue is a colour to be completely honest. 
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Sara and Helen said that they made up a story in their heads with the lighting which I think is really cool, Ken said the exact same thing when he watched it a couple weeks ago. I think because I know the movie it comes from so well I keep thinking of it as just a dance scene but the lights definitely make it something else entirely, even though creating a story wasn’t in the forefront of my mind.
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Upside Down People 
We met with Sara, Helen and the Upside Down People crew to see a draft of the show and it looks amazing. I really love what Sara has done. This whole experience has been incredibly rewarding and I’m glad I get to be a small part of it.
Sara only had a few little notes about the lighting which Mai Han and I are fixing, just some timing issues with the night time sequence. I’m also doing the lighting design for the Dragon Tree story, which is just flickering lights on the walls which mimic candlelight, just to immerse the audience further, make them feel even warmer and cosier than the story makes them feel. We tried that in the Capitol on Thursday and it looked really nice so I’ll time that to the length of the Dragon Tree Story and see how it looks with the entire thing. Here are the notes from Sara and what we’ve done and the steps we still need to take:
Blend the sunrise sequence and the green/purple morning together so there's no black gap in between as they transition from one into the other.
We have worked on this a lot and I think we have transitioned them quite well, this is something we can definitely show Sara next time we’re in the Capitol. I wonder if we should do another version just to see which she liked better but I think this one where it fades backwards and then comes back around to the front is pretty effective and since there’s not much on screen at that point I don’t think we have to worry about pulling focus, but we definitely need to make sure the transition is timed so that it ends before the animation starts when all attention should be focused on the screen. 
Blend the end of the night and the start of the sunrise so there’s no gap
Mai Han will be working on this, I think we just need to slowly fade the colours into pink/gold. I'll have a chat with her and see how she’s going with it. I have the Pharos session from Thursday so I can always have a look and see what could be done. 
Green/gold morning - I do think this could use a bit more gold/yellow, at the moment it is dominated by the green. But this is in no way urgent and I would suggest only a very subtle addition if you do add - we want it to be clearly distinct from the sunrise. This could be achieved by the blending potentially - bring some of the sunrise colours into the morning rather than adding more green.
This is something we can have a trial version of done in a couple of weeks, definitely something I can work on so Mai Han has a bit of a break!
Green/gold morning can now extend into the animation time too. Once we stitch the two videos together, I estimate a total run time, start to finish of 6 minutes 14 seconds. Work with that timing for now to determine how much longer to program the green/gold lights for.
We need to make sure the timing is really tight here - we don’t want it to be out of sync at all.
I’m excited for the next few weeks!!
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agirlwhoisaphantom · 3 years
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Our Yellow - Dad!Bucky Barnes x Reader
Summary: Baby Barnes's birthday is around the corner, and planning has been a bit stressful. But at the end of the day, everything goes to plan
Word Count: 3800
Warnings: Fluff, slight teasing
Author's Note: I would like to thank my lovely friend for making me write this. It was so much fun writing it. I'm a bit sad that these parts came to an end. I hope you all love this 3 part one shot as much as I did.
Part One: Turning Page
Part Two: To Build a Home
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March 12, the day baby Barnes entered the world. Who would have thought baby Barnes would be born around Bucky’s birthday? Such a beautiful little boy with the same ocean blue eyes and brown hair that Bucky had. Leo was practically Bucky’s mini; they were both inseparable.
Bucky was always excited to go home, especially after long meetings and missions. He was always happy because he knew that his two bundles of joy would be there waiting for him. There would be days where he would arrive late at night, and he wanted to spend time with you and Leo, but he truly didn’t mind because he would catch you holding Leo in your arms fast asleep.
Crazy to think that it had been eight years that Bucky had met you. Suppose you were to ask him if he ever saw himself having a family of his own. He would rapidly answer no, but fast forward years later, who thought that he would have a family of his own with the girl he loved the most.
When you first met Bucky, it was an instant click. Your relationship with him rapidly increased. He was the most handsome guy you have ever met. Meanwhile, you were the most beautiful girl he ever laid his eyes on. You both weren’t ashamed of admitting to each other the feelings you both had for one another.
He wanted to know your story as much as you wanted to know his. It was difficult for you to tell him about the things you have been through, thinking that he would run away at any moment, but instead, he stayed and listened to all your demons. When he first asked you to listen to his story, he was unsure if he should. But you stayed and listened to every word he had to say; he appreciated you so much for not getting up and leaving.
It was nerve-racking for the rest of the Avengers to find out about your relationship with Bucky. You weren’t sure how they would react to you dating him. But when they noticed that you both had smiles on your face, your aura was radiant yellow, and there was nothing but pure happiness. They all knew that this was something you both deserved, especially after a long period of sadness you two had experienced.
Out of everyone, Steve was the happiest. He hadn’t seen his best friend be happy like this in such a long time. But now that you were in Bucky’s life, Steve was grateful. Steve was able to witness seeing Bucky get the happiness that he has always deserved.
There would be days where Bucky stayed up longer than you and Leo. Seeing you hold Leo in your arms brought him peace. He wishes he could go back in time to 2016 when Bucky was on the run in Bucharest and let that Bucky know that life does get better, and eventually, he will smile again and find the peace he is searching for.
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A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you will lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep
Have faith in your dreams, and someday
Walking down the hallway, Bucky was able to hear you sing Leo a lullaby. He tried to walk as quietly as he could, so he didn’t interrupt you nor try to wake him up. Leaning up against the door frame, he continued to listen to you singing and watched as you hold Leo in your arms. Your fingers were running through his hair, softly singing into his ear.
Your rainbow will come smiling through
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true
Leo was asleep in your arms. As you get up, Bucky gets near you. "Doll, I got him." he whispers gently, trying not to wake him up. You carefully hand him over to Bucky. Carrying Leo in his arms to his toddler bed, his little hand reaches out and holds one of his metal fingers as the rest of Bucky's hand rests against Leo's stomach. Placing him down onto his bed, Leo was fast asleep, but with a strong grip, he didn't want to let go of Bucky's metal finger. Bucky gently wiggles the finger out of his grip, making sure he didn't wake up.
You grab Bucky's hand and start quietly getting out of Leo's room. Gently closing the door, you pull Bucky towards the kitchen. He stops you from walking by rapidly pulling you in towards him and placing his hands around your waist. Leaning in forward to give you a brief kiss on your lips, "have I ever told you that you are the most beautiful, amazing mother" he smiles as he rubs his nose against yours.
You quietly chuckle and nod to his response "yes, honey. You tell me that every day," placing your hands on both his cheeks, "and you are a great daddy" you have a smirk on your face and slightly winked.
Without hesitation, his lips were pressed back to yours. His lips were warm and smooth as they brushed against your own. Your lips were parting to let his tongue explore your mouth and your tongue, feeling the pure pleasure of exploring his mouth. Even though you were craving more, you need to pull away. Pulling away, you place your index finger on his lips. "As much as we want more, we have work to do."
Leaning in forward, he moves your hair to the side, pressing his lips on your cheek and gently kissing you from your cheek to your ear, taking a nibble of it. "Do we have to? Tomorrow we can wake up early and work on it," he whispers in your ear and moving his lips from your ear to your neck.
"Yes, we have to, Bucky. I want his fifth birthday to be perfect" these types of kisses you were receiving were your weakness. It was hard for you to say no to him whenever he would tease you like this. "Please, can we work on this" your voice got soft and gentle.
Bucky stops nibbling on your neck and gives out a small grunt. "Fine, but we are waking up late" he places his hand on the back of your head and pulls you in so he can give you a brief forehead kiss.
Letting go of his embrace and turning around, your back was now facing Bucky as you walked towards the kitchen. You flipped your hair and softly chuckled "see, I can get whatever I want," you whispered loudly enough so Bucky could still hear you.
With his right hand, he slaps your ass. The slap was hard that it was a bit loud. If it weren't for the television noise in the background, you would have been worried if that would have woken up Leo.
Bucky places both of his hands on your waist, pulling you towards him. Leaning in forward, "Just you wait till Sunday, Darling, you'll be paying for every little tease you have done for the past week," he whispers into your ear, "okay, bunny." once again but this time gently slapping your ass.
1:35 AM
Blue or Red? Dinosaurs or Cars? Cake or Cupcakes? How many cups of coffee have you taken? Was Bucky already falling asleep? Even though the party was in two days, you wanted to make sure it perfect. As you turn the pages of your planning book, you notice the amount of crossing and pasting you have done for the past couple of days. The moment you thought you were almost done planning, ten other things were thrown at you.
It wasn't a big deal for everyone else besides you. You were worried that Leo wouldn't have any good memories to look back at when he was older. As you stare at the planner, your heart accelerates, hands get shaky as you wrap your arms around you.
Bucky noticed that you were slowly experiencing a panic attack. He gets up fast from the chair causes it to fall onto the ground. He turns your chair so that you can face him. Kneeling in front of you, "Doll, give me your hands" without a second thought, you agreed to give him your hands. "No matter what, Doll, Leo is going to love the party we are planning for him" he looks at you in your eyes; meanwhile, you were staring at how his thumbs moved against your skin. "Even if it's Cars that are Dinosaurs or Cars that are Dinosaurs. He is going to love it and create as many memories as possible" A soft chuckle escapes his mouth.
You take a big breath as you were slowly calming down. Bucky places his hand on your cheek and softly moves his thumb against your skin. "We should go to bed, it's nearly 2 in the morning, and we both are tired. We can work on this tomorrow," he says in a soft, gentle voice. He was right, it was already late, and you both needed some reason.
As soon as you both start walking to the bedroom, you can feel Bucky placing his arm on your back and his metal arm by your calves. He wanted to carry you to bed. You place your arms around his shoulders. He lifts you, now carrying you in a bridal position. He gives you a brief kiss on your forehead as you place your head on his shoulder.
He notices that you were sleeping in his arms. Bucky gently places you on the bed, covering you with the duvet. He goes back to the kitchen, grabs your planner, and starts adding and crossing things from your list. He works on it for an hour, finishing the last details. "Let's go to sleep, baby, please," you mumbled in your sleep, making it hard for him to hear you.
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Five
“Dad, you are going to lose.”
Four
“I’m definitely not losing.”
Three
“My car is the fastest. You have a slow car.”
Two
“Are you sure about that, sport?” Bucky reaches Leo’s stomach and starts tickling him.
One
Leo tries to push Bucky’s hands. He was laughing uncontrollably. “Stop, Dad. You are cheating”
Zero
“And the Race Begins” Bucky was loud enough that you could hear him from the kitchen.
The cars go around the track two maybe three times. Laughter is shared between Leo and Bucky. Leo's car was in 1st place. Meanwhile, Bucky's car was in 2nd place. "I'm catching up" he had a small smirk on his face.
Leo had a concerned look, eyebrows knitting together and his lower lip forward "nope, no, you are not, dad." he chuckles a little.
Bucky's car was now in first place; meanwhile, Leo's was in second "ah. I'm ahead" there was a bit of excitement in his voice. "And dad pulls in, near to the finish line" Bucky was like a little kid all over again. He always made sure that Leo had a fun time whenever he was home.
Leo looks at Bucky with a concentrated look, squinting his eyes nearly shut. "oh, no," he shakes his head, keeping his eyes concentrated on Bucky. Moving his focus to the track, "I'm in the lead! I'm in the lead!" he screams in excitement. "See, I told you, dad, you have a slow car."
With the two cars close to one another. Leo's car crashes into Bucky's. "I'm the winner!" he gets up in excitement and jumps around. "I'm the winner, dad" he starts running around Bucky and the track. Bucky stops him from running around, picks him up, and places him on his back in a firearm position. He has a strong hold of him as he gets up and spins him around.
You were able to hear Leo's screams and laughter. This didn't feel real to you. It all felt like a dream. Hearing them laugh and have a great time brought you joy. As you finish making lunch, you can still hear them.
Bucky kneels so Leo can get down. As soon as Leo is down, he runs to his toy box and gets an unfinished paper snake that he and Bucky started making a few days ago, as well as painting materials. His little hands full of items, walking towards Bucky he would drop the items one by one and get every little piece he dropped "oops, dad, the snake, doesn't want to stay in place. It keeps falling," he pouts as he waddles with the materials, trying to balance himself.
"Throw the snake, and I'll catch it. Just bring the paint." he gently shouts at him. Leo throws the paper snake at him. Bucky inspects the snake, and he notices that it is nearly done. "Leo, we are almost done with this snake."
Leo forms a frown on his face. "It's not a snake, dad, it's a cobra," with a slight grin on his face "be careful, cause I'm going to make it bite you" a small evil giggle escapes his mouth. He gets the snake near Bucky's hand, making a slither noise as it gets near him "ahhh, dad, it bit you" he looks up at Bucky. "Ummm… now…umm… you are infected" he does the same evil giggle from earlier.
"oh no, ouch. Am I going to- "Bucky lays on the floor as he pretends that he just got poisoned.
Leo shakes him gently "dad, wake up, I found the medicine" he shakes him harder, trying to wake him up. Meanwhile, Bucky is trying his best to hold in his laughter. Leo gets up and jumps onto Bucky's torso. This takes his breath away, making him grunt slightly due to how hard Leo jumped. "yay! You are alive. We have to hurry. We don't have much time left" Leo had a concerned look on his face as he tried to 'save' his dad.
Once you finished placing the plates on the table, you decide you wanted to see what Bucky and Leo were doing. Leaning up against the door frame, you see Leo and Bucky sitting down on the floor, surrounded by art supplies and papers everywhere. It had seemed as if an art supply store had exploded.
"The medicine comes from the cobra's guts" He takes the rubber piece of the paper snake and pulls it out.
"Argh," both screamed at each other as they pulled the rubber band out.
Seeing them being goofs and not give a care in the world made you chuckle. This got Bucky's and Leo's attention, and they both wondered for how long you've been standing there. Bucky points at you with the biggest smile on his face.
"Oh, hi, mom. We killed the snake look." Leo rapidly gets the rubber band and throws it at you "now mom has all the guts," He and Bucky scream as the rubber band was launched at you.
Bucky gets up and runs towards you "oh no, we have to save her too" He picks you up and spins you around. Meanwhile, Leo was still screaming about the guts all over you in the background. "I love you, Mrs. Barnes" while he is still spinning you around, he pressed his lips against yours.
"Ewwww, mom, dad."
This made you and Bucky chuckle. Bucky, let's go of you and tackles Leo onto the pillows behind him.
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Leo’s 5th birthday.
Who would think of thought that your little munchkin was going to be Five already, it feels like just yesterday you were changing his diapers. Being able to witness his first word, his first baby steps, his first anything. Made every cry worth it. Especially having such an amazing man by your side, helping each other every step of the way.
As you comb Leo’s hair, these thoughts go through your mind. He was your little man and seeing him grow every day made you sad yet so happy. “Mommy, I want the red shirt with cars on it” Leo interrupts your thoughts. A smile forms on your face, and you did a soft nose scrunch. Leo was always so independent, but he never hesitated to ask for help if he needed it.
Meanwhile, Sam, Steve, and Bucky were outside in the backyard trying to finish decorating the backyard. Bucky looks around. He wanted everything perfect.
Once you were done helping Leo get ready, he runs towards the backyard. He notices that Steve and Sam were there, and without hesitation, he ran towards Steve. He both loved his uncles and would get very excited whenever they were around.
Steve notices Leo running towards him. He lifts him and spins him around. “It’s my monkey’s birthday today.” Leo was practically screaming into Steve’s ear.
Letting Leo down, he was dizzy from all the spinning Steve had just done. He waddles, trying to keep his balance on his way towards Sam. Before he could make it, he falls. Just in time, Sam catches him. “Woah, be careful, champ” Leo couldn’t help but giggle at the fact he had just fallen.
“Hey, where is my hug?” Bucky reaches out his arms towards the direction that Leo is in.
Leo giggles a little and forms a frown on his face. “No, dad. You get a hug later” He wraps his arms around Sam and sticks his tongue out to Bucky.
“Ha, sucker. He loves me more” Sam raises his eyebrows and has a small smirk on his face.
Bucky crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. He walks towards Leo and grabs him, placing him on his right shoulder. Leo gently kicks and punches Bucky to let him down. As soon as Bucky was near the bouncing house, he throws Leo onto it. Leo was scared at first, but he knew deep down Bucky wouldn’t do anything to harm him. As soon Leo felt his body fall into the bouncy house, he bursts into laughter, so as Bucky.
Hours pass by, and everyone was here. Leo was playing with the rest of the kids, running around the whole backyard. Peter was chasing them with a water gun, getting them all wet. Leo and Peter were practically soaked. Bucky, Steve, and Sam were sitting together side by side. Leo decides to walk behind them and spray them with the water gun. After he did that, he runs towards Peter, hiding and giggling.
Sam got up immediately and grabbed the water gun that was on the table, spraying him. Bucky and Steve stayed seated as they both knew that Sam was going to go after Leo. After all, he did mess with Sam.
The moment Leo noticed the cake that Wanda was bringing. He runs towards the table, nearly almost tripping himself to get there. You sit on Leo’s left meanwhile Bucky sits on his right.
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Dear Leo
Bucky leans into whispers into Leo’s ear, “what did you wish for, champ?”
Leo looks at Bucky with a confused look. “I’m not telling you,” he shakes his head.
As Leo tries getting a bite from his cake, Bucky pushes his head onto it. Leaving Leo’s face full of cake. Without hesitation, Leo grabs the piece that his face landed on and shoves it onto Bucky’s face, rubbing it all over. Now Bucky and Leo were covered with blue and white frosting.
As you stare around, you notice Wanda staring at you with a ‘really’ expression on her face. You shrugged and a lopsided grin formed on your face. “I’m so sorry, Wanda,” you expressed using your lips. As you turn around to face Leo and Bucky, the cake was gone, not because everyone took a piece but because Bucky and Leo were covered in it. You were unsure if you should feel upset or just laugh at the fact that for the next few days, their faces were going to be stained.
Luckily, you had cupcakes in the fridge in case if this were to happen. You take a napkin and start wiping Leo’s face, hands, and clothes. You used the whole roll of paper towels on him. As soon as you went inside, you noticed Bucky trying to clean himself up. You get near him sliding your finger against his cheek grabbing a piece of cake. He turns around and looks at you. Meanwhile, you lick your finger seductively as you winked.
You turn around, Bucky grabs your hand and pulls you towards him. You were now able to see the smudges of icing on his face. He leans in forward to kiss you, but instead of kissing you, he rubs his face against yours. You had a smirk on your face as you rolled your eyes. He grabs your face, and with his tongue, he licks you from your chin to your nose to your forehead. Trying to remove as much frosting he just put on your face. “Hmm, that tasted good” there is a small pause as he licks your cheek. “I can’t wait for later tonight,” he whispers into your ear.
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It was already nighttime. Leo crashed on the couch holding his new favorite Iron Man Plush that Tony decided to gift him. Bucky picks him up and cradles him in his arms.
You decide to put on music, so time goes by faster, and you can finally finish semi-cleaning.
Yes, you're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft
There is nothing for me but to love you
And the way you look tonight
You start feeling the music, and you close your eyes for a sec. Bucky leans on the entrance of the living room, watching you as you sway to the music with a smile on his face. He comes up from behind, wraps his arms around your waist, and starts swaying with you. You both were in sync. “I’m the luckiest person on this planet. Having you by my side has been a blessing, doll,” He whispers into your ear. He turns you around, and you were now facing him. You had a smile, and your eyes sparkled as the light hit your face “god, I can’t get over how beautiful you are” He leans in to kiss you.
You put your head on his chest, wrapping your arms around his shoulders. and you both continue to dance to the music “Bucky?” you pause for a minute listening to the music. “I think it’s time.”
“Are you sure, doll?” his voice gets soft. You look up towards him and give him a nod. “Okay, but this time let’s make our princess” He turns his head and softly kisses your head.
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Just had some headcanons about Machi pop into my head that I wanted to share with yall. So we know this poor girl struggles with "perfect"/neat things right? Well I was thinking about some healthy coping mechanisms she could develop to replace the whole 'breaking property/living in a dump' thing & here's what I got so far -
1. She always tries to wear odd socks (unless she's invited somewhere nice)
2. Ayame & Mine help her find cool asymmetrical stuff to wear, how to make clashing colours/patterns work for her & teach her how to sew up her old clothes in a more "punk rock" way (after Yuki & Kakeru explain some of her issues with perfection)
3. Tohru gently points out that she dosn't have to tie her laces the same way on both shoes if she dosn't want to
4. Haru & Rin (awkwardly on her part) teach her the power of acessorising (ie. wearing only one earing, putting on an uneven amount of bracelets/rings/necklaces, adding paper clips of different sizes & colours to your clothing & Machi later ends up adding stuff like buttons to her outfits/belongings as well which Haru & Rin are tottally surppotive of despite thier difference in style) & hair/makeup which (thanks to Yuki's advice) they make sure to keep slightly messy (Kimi laughed at it at first until Momiji made her feel bad after he told her that Machi had gone to the bathroon & wiped off all the make up & undid the hair style so Kimi bought her some limited edition Mogeta merch, after asking for Yuki's advice, in apolgey & started referring to Machi's new hair/makeup style as "punk chic" whenever anyone tried to mock Machi about her new look)
5. her & Momiji go on a crazy tie dying adventure (much to Hatori's grumbling & Mayu's amusement)
6. Kormaki gets her into collecting second hand fridge magnets which she then later uses in her work (my version of post-serise Machi is an artist) once the magnetism finally wears off
7. Kagura teaches her how to fix up old plushies (Machi likes creating Mogeta inspired characters) & gives Machi all her old cat ones to work on (Machi descides not to ask why Yuki's cousin was seemingly once obssesd with orange cats because she looks rather embrassed & a little sad when she hands over her collection)
8. Kyo reluctantly teaches her how to cook a few simple dishes (Tohru comes over as well & Yuki insists her food is better but Machi prefers Kyo's simple style of presentation so it's eventually descided that Kyo & her will do the cooking & Tohru & Yuki will deal with the cleaning which Yuki agrees to becuse cleaning is still difficult for Machi but Kyo says it's actually because no matter how much Tohru tried to train him rat boy knows he would never be able to do anything in the kitchen but burn water)
9. Kakeru teaches her the skills of 'excessive badge & sticker decorating' as well as giving eachother fake tattoos (Kisa congratulates Hiro on not saying anything rude to Yuki's girlfriend about her appreance after they first meet her)
10. Cuts her hair short (she delibretly makes it very choppy) once she enters university, where the rules are less strict about your apprence (at least it is if your at art college), & she also regulary wears diffrent coloured wigs (her favourites being a dark red one & a rainbow one) whenever she wants to temporarily change her appearance (beacuse she didn't want to commit to just one look, still wanted to have the ability to quickly "become invisable" again & she heard from Kimi that exsseive hair die-ing could permantly destroy her hair & scalp) it takes her until she's 30 to try out shaving all her hair off (she worried she'd look sick/crazy or not feminine enough) & everyone's really surppotive (though Kimi dose cry a bit, Rin & Haru aren't there when her hair is being shaved & Kyo is a slightly confused as he'd always thought women liked having longer hair then guys) especially Ritsu (who's growing out thier hair again) & they all throw her a big party (Haru & Rin are there for the party bit just not the hair removal bit because it brought up some bad memories) where Kakeru films it & posts it (with Machi's permission) & they give her cut off hair to a charity chosen by all thier followers (despite her disbelief Machi has manged to gain a small group of loyal fans from all her art stuff & her apprences on her loved ones social media), Kakeru also later uploads a video where they help Machi rainbow dye her buzz cut, (she later explores many diffrent types of buzz cut patterns such as flowers & geometric shapes but, at Kimi's insistence, gets them done by a professional)
11. She recycles & D.Y.I's like crazy (Momiji started singing Do Re Mi from The Sound Of Music after she told him that her new dress was actually made from curtains & Yuki cried when she gave him a little rat plushie made from felt, after he came clean to her about the curse)
12. She almost never wears an apron while working on her art because she likes getting messy
13. When her & Yuki go out to eat she loves things like fondoe (both the chocolate & cheese kind), eat N mess & is genreually just a fan of finger food & it becomes a tradition between her & Yuki (& later Mutsuki) to go on a stroll through the park after thier meal & (if it's autumn) look for piles of leaves to jump in (Machi & Yuki also like playing a game where they try to look for the weirdest looking leaf to give eachother & whoever wins gets to pick what they'll eat for dinner that evening & the looser has to cook it, Mutsuki is the "impartial" judge)
14. Machi is amazing at scrapbooking & collarge making (Tohru is more of a dream journal kind of girl)
15. When it's Summer her, Yuki & Mutsuki go down to the beach to see who can find the weirdest looking rocks (the less impressive ones often get used in Machi's art work, the coolest ones Mutsuki gets to keep & any that are too perfect get tossed back in the ocean & Mutsuki likes to score the splashes they make on how big/loud they are)
16. She loves helping Yuki out with gardening for lots of reasons (it's therapeutic & she loves seeing Yuki happy) but she can't deny it's also just fun getting muddy
17. Machi, thanks to Kakeru, devolpes a love of paint ball (but instead of using guns they just throw the paint at eachother like in 10 Things I Hate About You because apparently the gun pellets actually hurt) & will bring it up as an activity idea to her loved ones any chanse she gets
18. Decorates as much of her flat (& later her home with Yuki & Mutsuki) with Mogeta merchandise, random things she collects & her own art work as a big fuck you to her bitch "you have 0 personality/hobbies or talents" of a mother
19. Kisa (happily) & Hiro (reluctantly) introduce Machi to the magic of glitter
20. Machi & Rin eventually become proper friends due to bonding over being abounded by their asshole parents & one of the things they like to do together is work on thier seprete art peices while listening to music (Machi dosn't do any of her "aggressive" art, like plate smashing, around Rin though thanks to Yuki & Haru warnings)
21. When stuff gets to be too much & none of thier other coping strategies are working (like watching Mogeta stoned- which Kisa, Tohru & Momiji do not partake in) Machi & Haru bond by going to rage rooms together to destroy shit & scream (Haru obviously dosn't want Rin around for any of that though so Momiji, Tohru, Kagura or Hana will often take the opportunity to hang out with her, one time Yuki offered & it wasn't bad but it was definitely awkward as they had never really hung out without Haru before & Haru teases her for ages afterwards about her ending up liking Yuki once she actually spent some time with him which, like the precious tsundere she is, Rin will forever deny)
22. (I actually made a whole seprete post about this ages ago but now it seems to have vanished so in case other Machi fans are unable to find it l'll add it here) on the days that it's supposed to snow but dosn't Yuki takes her (& later Mutsuki) skating so she can enjoy scratching up the perfectly smooth ice (they would have gone on double dates with Tohru & Kyo if Tohru wasn't freaked out at the idea of having blades on her shoes & Kyo hadn't claimed to "not trust" ice, he's dislike comes from all the times Kagura had forced him to ice skate with her on the lake near Kazuma's place in the winter when they were kids, so they would instead go with Haru & Momiji - they had thought about going with Haru x Rin & Kakeru x Kormaki once but he proudly revealed that he'd been banned from thier local ice rink years ago for trying "perfectly safe" Olympic level stunts in he's attempt to recreate one of he's favriote episodes of Power Rangers, much to he's fiancee's anger, & Machi reminded Yuki that though Haru & Kakeru were fine with eachother Rin isn't reall able to stand Kakeru for longer than 5 minuites)
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oh-for-fic-sake · 3 years
Note
What is August going to do if his little decides to play with his forbidden knife collection? :3
Omg so this took a while and i'm sorry but im sooo happy with this! It got a little long so im hidig it under a cut but i hope you enjoy! @littlefreya @viking-raider
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August swore vehemently looking around for the blades he'd sharpened specifically for his next assignment.
This needed to be silent and precise, he'd sharpened each blade twice! Not once but twice!
He wouldnt even attempt his 'arm hair' shave test this time knowing he may have gone over board with the sharpening.
But he couldnt help it, he found it therapeutic running his hands over the blades again and again, it was like medatation for him.
But they were no where to be seen! Hed placed them each delicatly in the rolled travelling leather holster, useing the small poppers to lock each dangerous blade in place and then hid it in the small safe in the wardrobe.
"Baby girl! LITTLE ONE HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE SAFE?!" He shouted down the stairs only not to get an answer, the radio on the kitchen drowning him out.
You were baking, well 'bakeing' he had bought a 'unicorn gingerbread box kit' for you both to make today.
It was a small treat he would spend the day with you doing anything your little heart desires befor setting off onto his week long mission.
You were currently rolling out the gingrbread and he had decided to sneak his weapons into his bag while you were preoccupied.
August never liked rubbing innhis occupation with you, never liked faceing the awkward questions, he wont lie to you but in being truthfull he can sometimes frighten you.
In the bedroom he was as ruthless and rough and demanding as he was at work.
But like this when you were little, you drew out a softer side. Well as soft as he was capable of, he was a stern man in everything he did, even in daddying you.
August huffed and zipped his case violently stressing out he needed to go down and pversee ou before you did something foolish, like tried to put the gingerbread in the oven.
Your panicked hyperventilating and bitten 9ff screams drew his attention immediatly!
He bolted down the stairs as fast as he could, so panicked by the cries and screams from the kitchen he raced through the housestomping and crashing with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.
Oh hell.
He froze, face paling mouth agape as he took in the scene.
Then he roared in a way you'd never heard.
You cowered holding your hand tightly as it bled profusely red life blood poured all over the white counter ruining the sheet pan dusted with what was once pure white flour.
The blood was also over the rolled out gingerbread, along with a very familiar knife.
You cried and staggered over you august holding your wound tightly tripping over your feet to him, wandering blindly unable to see much through your tears. Or hear past your frantic crying and yelps of "daddy!?"
August quickly decended on you grasping a teatowel from the laundry basket on the counter and tookover holding your offered wounded hand whislts snappjng at you in worry fueled anger.
"What the fuck are you dojng with that!? They are daddies special knives! You know not to touch thwm you silly little girl!"
"I'm s-so-rry! OUCH, NO-OO DAD-DY IT HURTS!" You cried out complaining as he dabbed the wound inspecting it.
It wasnt to deep just long, across the whole of your palm. He could tell your slipped and probably didnt evwn notice youd cut yourself untill it'd sliced fully across.
He'd sharpened them that much.
"You will be! By god little lady you will ne so very very sorry when im done woth you!"
"Come on sit down before you pass out and bleed all over the kitchen" he said tying a knot in two corners ot the teatowle making a triangle like a sling and looped it around your palm then fetched a wooden spoon slotting it in the large opening and began twisting it tight making a tourniquet.
You hissed as he pulled the clother thighter and tighter then slipped the wooden spoon into your fingers holding the teatowel still, before raising your hand high letting gravityhelp slow the bleeding.
"Now hold that there, dont you move, w need to stop the bleeding so i can mend it" he snipped grunting to himself. He wasnt worried as such, it looked worse than it was he had tended to worse on himself.
"Y-you can fix it da-ddy?" You sobbed tryi g to be brave but you were shaking like a leaf, youd never bled that much before.
"Yes daddy can fix it poppet, daddy can always fix it" he said quickly pulling out his... vast medic kit that was fully stocked to deal with everything from burns and cuts to bullet woulds and decapitated fingers. Because ou never know.
"A-are you mad da-addy?!" You whined eyes wide as he huffed and sighed dragging his hands through hos hair irritated
"Im not angry im very very disappointed. And you can bet your little ass is gonna be meeting that spoon shortly!" He said vehemently trying to calm himself and remind himself it wasnt too serious and he could deal with this cut.
You didnt even argue just looked down, dropping your watery eyes to the floor like a kicked puppy, and it wasnt even to soften him either.
"Why were you touching daddies private things?" He spoke tyring to take both his and your mind off your wound as he located everything he needed from the box.
"A'cos i wa-nted to see...they were shiney after you were polishin'em" you explained hicupping slowly weeping still as the pain and throbbing set in.
"I was sharpening them poppet, not polishing" he uttered quickly with a sigh trying to find a quaze big enough to wrap in a bandage.
"I just wanted to see... Never gon' touch" you sobbed bijng your lip eyes flickingnup the the now red teatowel, your figers were going a ittle numb from the tight tourniquet.
"And then?" He asked quirking a brow as you before waling to the kitchen sink washing and rinsing the washing up bowl thoroughly befpre filling with fresh warm water and a new clean cloth.
"Then the box said cut round the unicorns with a knife... And I already got it out to look at" you said shrugging a little as he moveed down your hand. Luckily the bleedig had stopped.
"I also says let and adult do it" your daddy chided as he slowly and gwntly unwrapped your hand making our fingers sting a little at the renewed bloodflow
"Im an-adult" you argued weakly then hissed as he begancleani g the wound dabbig it ever so lightly knowig he had to use clean water instead of antiseptic that could slow the healing of the delicate skin.
"Your a baby" he said with a roll of his eyes 'a spoilt baby' he added as an after thought to himself.
"...but im carful never cut myself with my big girl knives!" You agrued then gasped giving a small 'uh oh' you mouth had run away with you again.
"You mean the kitchen knives?" August asked quickly coming down on the new information like a... well hammer on a land mine.
"No... my saftey knives daddy" you uttered under your breath hissing as he moved on to the next stage of tending to your wound pressing the gauze to it.
"What do you mean your safety onives little one?" He said paying close attention to the bandages he was unravling over your hand trying to keep it firm but comfortable.
"My safety knives... i-in my purse?... Incase of baddies" you whispered slowly praying he wouldnt hear you. But his fingers paused for a second before quickly tying off the bandage in a knot and gave you a fierce look.
"You have knives in your?- wait hold-" august frowned and held a hand up singnalling you to stay then left the kitchen.
He returned moments later and emptied your pjrse only to growl shaking his had as a plethora of 'cute' weapons fell out. Hello kitty switch blades, rainbow blades, pink pocket knives and suspicious looking comb, key knives, pen knives you name it! There was even a ... cat keyring obviously meant to be some sort of pointy eared knuckle duster.
"Really poppet? Knives and... knuckle dusters- these are" he began scolding you but you cut him off
"I know i know daddy im sorry-" your apology was halted as your daddy spoke over you in a warning to e, he didnt like being interrupted.
"No where near good enough! These are all close range! If your close enough to use these then your already fucked! No you need pepperspray and a tazer!" He growled quickly picking up the feeble knives that had no grip to them, and wasnt ever sharp!
"T-tazer?" You stuttered tiltinnyour head cradling your injured hand to your chest.
"Yes, they are close range but will stop any attacker in their tracks! You can get away whilst your attacker is convulsing and laying in a pool of his own piss!" August growled becoming more and more aggravated as he realised you had now real way of protecting yourself when he wasnt around, big or little!
"Im getting you a tazer- today! Before i leave" he decided nodding to himself as he binned the now soiled teatowel and wash cloth.
"...can i have a pink one daddy?" You asked not being the slightest bit against having a tazer, it would make you feel alot safer then a knife.
Knives needed a proper opening and some brute force to protect you and could really really hurt someone!
A tazer was just a button and could work nomatter where ou hit the baddy and would kill them just make em gall over and pee.
"You can have a pink one princess... or a lipstick one or a tampon one?" Auguast suggested trying to thinl of the best one for you... he was sure a smaller discreet one whould be better than a law enforcement grade.
"That sounds uncomfortable daddy..." you uttered shuddering at the thought of that... being mistaken.
"Its not really a- fuck it... Right come on lets get in the living room you can go pick a tazer online" he said beginni g to pack up the first aid kitpillig everthing neatly into the box.
"O-okay... but no spankies daddy... I'm hurt" you warned cautiously waving your bandaged hand
"Yes spankies! Absolutly spankies! You take this spoon with you and you can pop it on the table as a reminder!" He ordered holding you with a level gaze blue eyes warning you to do as you were told.
"But my hand-" you said sniffling cradling it.
"Will be the least of your problems when I'm tanning your naughty butt! Now go or else" he threataned clipping the first aid box shut still watching you, staring unblinkingly.
"Or else what-" you started but your daddy was havig none of it and cut you off again.
"There is a silicone butter icing spreader in this kitchen that will be much worse than thw wooden spoon! Now get in the living room befpre i make you find it" he growled not about to let you throw a paddy about getting your ass blistered after the stunt you pulled.
Your lower lip wobbled but yu nodded giving up, plucking the wooden spoon and turning around leaing the kitchen in a walk of shame muttering a tiny 'yes daddy, sorry daddy'
Auguast watched with a stern face, before turning his attention to the bloody kitchen he will clean before coming to deal with you.
A good fifteen mineut wait will let you have time to reflect before he comes in and tans you hide.
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Text
Tᕼᗴ ᑕᕼᗩOTIᑕ ᗩᑎᘜᗴᒪ
(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6)
Chapter 5: Don't Jinx It!
·•·—–·•†•·–—·•·
Chloé Bourgeois... A girl that can be described in many words
"She's absolutely ridiculous! I can't believe you have to do an art project with her of all people!" - Alix sprawled out on Marinette's balcony
"She can't be that bad, besides we might become friends." - Marinette sketching some designs
"Believe me, even I think she's a bit much... She's snobby, annoying, rude, immature, spoiled, she basically has the “I'm better than thow” attitude to a T."- Kagami sitting next to the flowerbed while reading a literature book
"See? Even Kagami agrees... Just don't talk to her, actually don't even move if you're in her sights. She's like a T-Rex, she can't see you if you don't move." - Alix
… … … … …
"Hello, I'm Marinette, it's nice to meet you." - Marinette reached out her hand as she smiled
*Que Alix facepalming herself while Kagami lets out a sigh*
"Whatever, I'm Chloé, but I'm sure you already knew that." - Chloé
They started their project and most interactions went the same way, Chloé would sit in a chair near the window and paint her nails while Marinette did all the work. The next day Marinette and Chloé were the only ones in the art room.
"Okay, let's get started." - Marinette skipping her way over to the art supplies
"You do that, I'll just sit over here." - Chloé walking to her chair
"... Say, is it fun painting your nails?" - Marinette looking over to Chloé
"Of course, what girl doesn't like nail art?" - Chloé
"Well, painting on a canvas is kind of like nail art, here try painting something." - Marinette handing Chloé a paint brush
"Please, I don't do art." - Chloé refusing the paint brush
"But you ‘Paint’ your nails." - Marinette
"It's different!" - Chloé
"Okay, how about this, if I can do a magic trick for you, will you try painting just a little bit?" - Marinette
"...Fine, impress me." - Chloé giving Marinette her full attention
Marinette pulled a seed she got earlier that day out of her pocket and showed it to Chloé
"A seed?" - Chloé giving an unimpressed look
"I'll turn it into a flower, as you can see I only have this seed, and there's nothing up my sleeves. When I turn back around this seed will be a flower, are you ready?" - Marinette still holding the seed for Chloé to see
"Just do it already." - Chloé
So, Marinette turned around putting her free hand over the seed, and imagined it growing. When Marinette turned back around, all Chloé saw was a fully bloomed Common Rockrose flower, leaving her stunned.
"How did you do that?!" - Chloé walking up to Marinette to get a better look at the flower
"Family secret." - Marinette with a small smirk - "So, you want to try painting now?"
"... Fine." - Chloé pouted her lips and sat down at an empty canvas while Marinette walked to the table beside it, and Marinette may or may not have seen a small smile on Chloé's face while she grabbed some more paint.
After about 30 minutes Alix and Kagami came in and found Chloé and Marinette flinging water paint at the canvas
"Ha!" - Marinette whiped her arm out, watching as the wet paint from the brush splattered onto the canvas
"Ha HA!" - Chloé doing the exact same motion, but with a little more flare
Kagami and Alix just stared in amazed silence... they had created a master piece... It was a magnificent painting showing a meadow with many flowers in an almost hazy dream kind of look,  it had a blue sky and a faint rainbow in the background behind some clouds on the horizon
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"It's *sniff* Ridiculously beautiful..." - Chloé
"And you thought painting was boring." - Marinette teasing Chloé
"... Isley-Quinzel, look me in the face and say that again." - Chloé
"And you- ("Boop" - Chloé) -Hey!" - Marinette got booped on her nose by Chloé's paint covered finger
"I admit it was fun... to some extent. Now lets act like this never happened." - Chloé getting ready to leave
"How the hell did you get Chloé to paint?!" - Alix snapping out of her surprise, which caused Chloé to get startled and trip, knocking the paint onto Marinette and herself in the process
"Well... that was a colorful entrance." - Marinette now covered in blue, pink, green and red paint
"Utterly Ridiculous!" - Chloé now covered in yellow, dark green, and blue paint
"Ooops?" - Alix shrugging her shoulders
*facepalms* - Kagami
… … …
Marinette and Chloé had to walk around school covered in paint, definitely getting a few awkward stares from the other kids. About an hour later, each pair of students presented their shared work of art. When Marinette and Chloé went up, both holding their masterpiece while still covered in paint, stunned the other students.(Not because Chloé was 1. covered in paint, 2. actually carrying the painting, and 3. had a smile on her face) Needless to say they got an A+, and for the rest of the day Marinette, Chloé, Alix and Kagami hung out laughing and having fun. Not long after that the other kids started making bets on who Marinette would befriend next, and how long it would take for that someone to be an instant friend.
Chloé ended up spending a lot more time with the GPS and eventually...
The girls sat around in a circle within Marinette's room with all the lights off, only having a single lamp in the center of the room to add an ominous glow
"Are you ready to take the oath?" - Alix
"Yes, but why do we have to make it look like some utterly ridiculous ritual summoning?" - Chloe
"I agree with Chloé, I'm not allowed to summon the unnatural or paranormal." - Kagami
"Well, let's forget the paranormal stuff for now, ehem. Chloé Bourgeois, do you promise to always have our backs..." - Marinette
"Through the good and the bad..." - Alix
"To say the truth and nothing but the truth." - Kagami
"Wrong oath Kagami." - Marinette whispering to Kagami
"...... To always stay on the path that is straight and true..." - Kagami
"To uphold the justice in this crazy world..." - Alix
"And to guide those who have abandoned the light... Are you ready to join the GPS?" - Marinette
"Yes." - Chloé
"Girls, time to eat- ... Marinette, please tell me you aren't summoning the unnatural like Harley did that one time." - Selina just opening the door and seeing basically a ritual gathering
"In mom's defense, she was trying to get rid of the spooky spirit." - Marinette
"That was from a story Ed made up that one time, you wouldn't stop seeing the shadows ‘moving’, and then Harley thought she saw them move, and she ended up doing a ritual to get rid of it, but we ended up with the cursed toaster ghost. And now all bread we toast is burnt back home." - Selina
"... But burnt toast is the best!" - Marinette
"Ivy told you that it would make you grow quicker, which then tricked you into liking burnt toast, which isn't tasty at all." - Selina
"*dramatic gasp* You Take That Back!" - Marinette
"Nope, now come down in 3 so we can eat." - Selina closed the door and walked away
"You girls agree with me right?" - Marinette turning to her friends
"... Marinette, how can you think burnt toast is good?!" - Alix
"It's... burnt." - Kagami
"Ehhh, it's okay." - Chloé
"Thank You!" - Marinette hugging Chloé
"... un-second thought, I retract my ‘yes’ to that oath." - Chloé
"Too late." - Kagami
"You're stuck with us..." - Alix then leaned over and whispered in Chloé's ear - "Foreverrrrr."
……… ……… ………
After they had their food they went back up to Marinette's (ritual free) room and started playing Ultimate Mecha Strike 2.
After a few rounds of Marinette dominating Ultimate Mecha Slaughter Strike 2, they moved on to watching some Jurassic Park
"So... your mom cursed your toaster?" - Chloé
"... maybe." - Marinette
"Honestly though, who in their right mind likes burnt toast?" - Alix
"Apparently Marinette." - Kagami
"It's kinda like thin burnt rice crispy treats, just minus the sugar." - Marinette
"*dramatic gasp* You Take That Back Right Now." - Alix
"You don't even know what rice crispy treats are, do you." - Marinette now looking away from the TV and directly at Alix
"Not a clue." - Alix
"It's an American treat, it's actually really good, not to sweet, and not to crunchy." - Chloé
"This is why you are part of the GPS." - Marinette hugging Chloé - "You understand most red blooded American treats, and for that I give you my thanks." - Marinette now starting to tear up
"What are we, chop liver?" - Kagami pointing to Alix and herself
"Well unlike you two, I have seen the other side... I swear, they're all hillbillies, and they live in the worst weather ever! Sunshine state my ass, more like out door saunas 24/7." - Chloé ended up mumbling her last few words
"... That's Florida, and it's not that bad, it never gets hotter than 115°F, and that's during summer." - Marinette
"... No wonder you like burnt toast... your brains were burnt with it." - Alix
"I didn't live in Florida, I lived in New Jersey, and the weather is better there." - Marinette
"That's what she said." - Kagami stuffing her face with popcorn
……… ……… ………
Over the course of the next few months Marinette taught the GPS all she knew about parkour and self-defense, at first they wondered why she knew so many different techniques of self-defense, until she explained where she grew up had a few unpleasant people. They still think she's meta.
When Winter rolled around she was to head back to Gotham for the next month and a half. She was packed and ready when the GPS burst into her room.
"Don't leave! I need an Ice skating buddie!" - Alix clinging to Marinette
"You have Chloé and Kagami, besides, I'm pretty sure Kagami is better on the ice than I am." - Marinette accepting the fact she won't be getting Alix off her anytime soon
"It's Not The Same!" - Alix becoming a human koala on Marinette's back
"She's going to see her family, show some restraint!" - Chloé detaching Alix from Marinette
"No!" - Alix getting out of Chloé's grip and reattaching herself to Marinette
"There's a new attraction with a big ramp jump for the ice skating rink." - Kagami on her phone
"Really?! Let me see!" - Alix detaching herself to look at Kagami's phone, only to see the normal boring ice skating rink - "You tricked me." - Alix gave Kagami the stink eye
"It got you off of Marinette at least." - Kagami putting her phone away
"I'm gonna miss you girls." - Marinette gave them a big hug
"You better not do anything stupid while you're back home." - Chloé
"I would never." - Marinette thinking of the time she ran from the Bat-Birds
"What city in New Jersey do you live in again?" - Alix
"That's-" - Marinette
"Kitten you all set for Gotham?" - Selina opened the door and saw Marinette in a big hug with the girls - "Oh, you girls are here, hope you said your goodbyes because we're leaving in 10 minutes." - She then closed the door to make sure everything was ready downstairs
"... ... ..." - Chloé/Alix/Kagami - "You live where?"
"Gotham...?" - Marinette slowly backing up to grab her luggage and make her way to the door
"Oh hell No!" - Kagami standing between Marinette and the door
"You're staying!" - Alix clinging to Marinette again
"Gotham's a death trap!!!" - Chloé joining Alix and clinging to Marinette
... ... ...
After some convincing the girls let Marinette go, and she was now on the plane that would take her back home.
"... They really think Gotham's a death trap?" - Selina relaxing in the first class seats she got them.
"It's not that bad is it? I had asked them what they thought could even go wrong." - Marinette
"... Well literally everything can go wrong in Gotham... It's not to late to get off actually." - Selina getting up
"Not you too!" - Marinette grabbing her Aunt's hand
"I'm joking Kitten... you are wearing the bullet proof vest under that coat right?" - Selina
"Of course." - Marinette
"Then we should be fine..." - Selina now sitting back down and looking 10 times more nervous than before
"..." - Marinette put her hands together and mumbled under her breath - "Please don't jinx it. Please don't jinx it. Please don't jinx it. Pleeeeease don't jinx it."
……………… They had an hour delay, had to switch flights and couldn't eat anything because it looked like it would give them food poisoning, and they didn't get a wink of sleep......... but they made it to Gotham in one piece... at 2 in the morning.
"You jinxed it." - Marinette dragging her luggage sleepily
"It can't get any worse now-" - Selina
"No!-" - As Marinette tried to stop her Aunt from finishing her sentence, a truck past by the curb and sent a blanket of powdered snow flying into them - "-say it..."
"...Okay, now it-" - Selina was cut off by Marinette stuffing her mouth with the last secret cookie she had
"Don't anger the jinx gods, please." - Marinette pleading to her Aunt
After Selina finished the secret cookie she called Ivy to pick them up. They waited about 15 minutes before Ivy, along with a sleeping Harley in the back seat, picked them up. As they got in the car Harley jolted awake
"Are we dere yet?" - Harley rubbing her eyes
"Yes, and in our snow covered glory we entered the car." - Marinette giving her mom a hug
"I missed yuh so much, it just hasn't been de same wit'outcha cupcake." - Harley returning the hug
"And what about me, did you miss me?" - Selina getting comfortable in the passenger seat
"Ehhh." - Harley tilted here hand from side to side as she continued to side hug Marinette
"... Have I ever told you how great you are at warm welcomes?" - Selina giving Harley the stink eye
"She didn't mean it, you know she has no filter at this hour." - Ivy pulling up to the stoplight
"In other words her honest opinion of me being back is ‘ehhh’, I'm glad she thinks so highly of me." - Selina resting her head on the window
The ride to their base was peaceful, they arrived and went to their rooms after Marinette gave her moms and aunt a goodnight hug. As Marinette went to sleep in her bed, Bud and Lou jumped onto the bed and curled up next to her, as she stroked their fur, she couldn't help but feel excited to spend time with her family and friends. She soon fell asleep in the calm silence of her room, the last thought she had before drifting off, was that she was happy to be back home.
·•·—–·•★•·–—·•·
Chapter 5 complete, hope you're all having a magnificent day, rockin' all the positive vibes and staying safe !BUG-OUT! 🐞💮🐞
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honeyspence · 3 years
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a year in clueless love
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the love story that is you and spencer reid. follows a year of the two of you being hopeless (and very stupid) romantics. 
tw: teeniest bit of spice, mentions of canon typical violence and guns
a/n: doesn’t really follow a specific episode or case. kind of all over the place. also i picture like,, post prison reid in this? who’s a little more confident and up front but still terrified of losing you/ getting hurt. enjoy!! :)
In retrospect, it had been obvious. The way the two of you sought each other out in every room, like it was gravity. They way it didn’t matter if you were on the jet, on the field, or just at Quantico, the two of you were always touching each other. Thighs pushed together, hands brushing under the table, an arm around your shoulders, elbows bumping against each other; always touching. The way you were able to communicate by just looking at each other, which Garcia was convinced was simply telepathy. All in all, you probably didn’t do the best job at hiding whatever was going on with you and Spencer, and it didn’t exactly help that your family/ best friends/ colleagues were the FBI’s top profilers. They pretty much had it figured out before the two of you did.
In January, Morgan and Garcia decided to keep track. Keep track of the moments you and Spencer were so obviously, deliriously, stupidly falling in love. Morgan had to restrain Garcia from squealing every morning when Spencer brought you coffee and every evening when he walked you to your car. In January, the BAU took a case in Kansas; your first case on the field with the team. You tried your best to hide the nerves, but Spencer, of course, noticed as soon as you were on the jet.
“You okay?”
“Yup!” you say, a little too enthusiastically. Spencer raises an eyebrow. “You suck at lying.” It's a bit worrying, how you’ve only known each other for a couple months but he knows you oh so well already. You quirk a smile at him.
“I’m fine, really. I guess.. I’m just a little nervous. Wanna make a good impression.”
He laughs, and you wish you could replay it as soon as it’s over. “You’ll do great. Everyone already loves you- especially Hotch.” (This is true, Emily told you she hadn’t ever seen Hotch smile until the day you brought him his favorite coffee and a bagel on his birthday.) “Thanks Spence.” You nudge his shoulder with your own and try to ignore the butterflies in your stomach.
Of course, this exchange didn’t go unnoticed. Morgan, everso dedicated to his “make Spencer find love” mission, added it to his list and texted Garcia so fast you might’ve thought it was an emergency.
In February, Emily and JJ joined Morgan and Garcia in their list making, inspired by an exchange they had witnessed in the office. On a dreary Monday, you had brought a bag of M&Ms and were dropping handfuls in your team’s hands, rambling about how Monday was your favorite day because you got to see your team. When you arrived at Spencer’s desk, smiling broadly at him, hands outstretched with slightly melted, rainbow chocolate, how could he say no?
(He briefly remembered that he hated germs, but with you, he couldn’t bring himself to care.)
Emily’s jaw was practically on the floor.
“JJ,” she whisper-screeched. “Did you- Did you see Spence just-”
JJ is equally shocked. Spencer Reid didn’t even shake hands, much less take warm candy straight from someone’s hand. But of course, to him, you weren’t just someone. Garcia notices this quickly, and in minutes, the three of them are huddled with Morgan, who wastes no time in showing them his ever growing list.
In March, the team went to Chicago. The weather takes a bitter turn, and while you’re outside surveying a crime scene, a horrid wind hits. Spencer immediately noticed your gentle shivering, and without wasting a second, tugs his own jacket off and wraps you in it. His hands wrap around your own, warming your numb fingers without a second thought.
(Again, for a split second, he recalls that he hates germs and that your hands are probably sharing millions right now, but when he sees your grateful smile and feels your hands in his own, he can’t bring himself to give a damn.)
“Thank you Spence,” you sigh through chattering teeth, leaning slightly into him.
The cold turns the tip of Spencer’s nose pink, and it's all you can think about for the next week.
In April, the team had a particularly rough case. 5 children kidnapped, only 3 rescued. The parents of the two lost children’s reaction in front of the team was the worst part.
Rough cases affect everyone in different ways. Morgan gets broody and refuses to talk. Hotch writes in his notebook and facetimes Jack, reminding himself of the good things he has. Emily likes to sketch, says that the pattern of lines calms her. Rossi, believe it or not, chooses to meditate. JJ finds peace in baking, making enough to feed your team for days. Spencer, of course, turns to his books.
In April, Spencer learns that you get touchy. Of course, you already were, but after particularly bad cases, it’s a little more extreme. Hands constantly somewhere on someone (usually Spencer) whether it be hand holding, hair braiding, or cuddles. You just wanted to be near someone. In April, Spencer was that someone. A blanket wrapped around the two of you on the jet heading home, Spencer fighting a blush. Hands knotted together under the blanket, your thumb moving back and forth slowly on his hand. Your head on his shoulder, his head resting gently on top. His fingers thumbed at his book, but in all honesty he was too focused on you, already half asleep in his arms.
In May, Rossi has a birthday party. The team gathers at his home, where everyone enjoys his famous pasta and what is probably far too much wine for 4 in the afternoon.
Wine drunk FBI agents are a lot more fun than you ever expected. You spend the afternoon laughing far too hard at Rossi’s old stories and playing hide and seek with Jack and Henry. You also spend far too long avoiding Derek’s pointed looks everytime Spencer holds a door for you or pours you a drink or, in Derek’s thoughts, does something that proves Spencer is so clearly head over heels in love with you.
In May, as the evening dies down, Rossi plays music you’ve never even heard before. Some old classical stuff you had never cared for, but when you see Spencer’s eyes light up with joy at the opening notes, you make a beeline to Rossi because you would do anything, including make yourself listen to classical music, just to have a reason to make Spencer’s eyes shine with happiness like that again.
“What song is this?” you ask Rossi, who gives you an incredulous look.
“You spend all this time with boy wonder over there and you can’t recognize Beethoven?”
You swat at his arm. He laughs at you, tells you it’s Moonlight Sonata, and then winks at you.
He very much knows why you asked, and his suspicions are proven true because right after, you practically skip towards Spencer.
He elbows Hotch and whispers under his breath, “I think our blind love birds might finally have a moment here.” The two of them quietly move the rest of the team inside, and suddenly it’s just you and Spencer outside.
In May, Spencer thinks he drooled when you told him you loved Moonlight Sonata. In a moment of what he can’t decide was brilliance or utter stupidity, he says to you,
“Will you dance with me?”
You’re a blushing, stuttering mess immediately (although he’s not much better), but you manage to tell him yes, absolutely.
In May, as the sun sets slowly, he takes your hand and you dance. He’s wonderful at it, and you’re dreadful, but he couldn’t care less because he has the most beautiful girl on the planet dancing with him. He can hardly believe he’s not dreaming, even when you trip over his feet and apologize a million times, because all he can think about is how beautiful you are, how the pink and orange glow of the sky lights you up like a goddess.
He twirls you, holding your twinkling gaze and biting back his absolutely massive smile as your green dress flows around you over and over again, the white flowers on it dancing with you.
(He never realized how much he loved green until he sees you in it. Then again, he thinks he’d love a garbage bag on you too.)
The air smells like spring and his cologne and his smile makes the butterflies in your stomach flutter so. Damn. Hard.
He whispers to you, “You’re beautiful,” as you rest on his chest, still slowly swaying to the music.
In May, you both leave Rossi’s house with your hearts doing cartwheels.
In June, Owen from 2 levels down asks you to coffee. Tells you he thinks you’re beautiful and that he would love to get to know you. You say yes, trying to ignore the tiny voice telling you that you didn’t want Owen, you want someone else.
In June, Spencer realizes he is hopelessly, terribly, ragingly jealous. He sees you talking to Owen, the gentle touching between you two, the moments of quiet intimacy Spencer realized he wanted with you so. Damn. Bad.
In June, Spencer just wants to go back to May. The night you two danced to Moonlight Sonata, your feet tripping over his and your perfume surrounding him. He curses himself for not telling you right then that you were all he wanted. He desperately wishes he had had the damn guts to kiss you that night.
In June, you go on two dates with Owen before ending it. He was funny, sweet, kind. But he didn’t go on tangents about The Illustrated Man with you. He didn’t bring you coffee in the morning or wear cardigans to work.
In June, Spencer is quietly overjoyed when you tell him you ended things with Owen, that he just “wasn’t right for you.”
In July, he was terrified. A case gone horribly wrong ended with you in the ICU, a bullet lodged in your side. In the bathroom of the hospital, he cried, thinking about how desperately he wished it could have been him. Should’ve been him who took the bullet, should’ve been him in critical condition. How badly he wishes he told you how he felt about you the moment he saw you with Owen. When he comes out, Morgan wraps his arms around him and he is scared.
When the nurse comes out, he braces himself for the worst, pushing the panic down. The thought of losing you- he can’t bring himself to look up when she stands in front of him. When she says that you’re alright and resting, he nearly collapses with relief. When she says you can have visitors now, he is immediately on his feet and rushes until he is by your side.
You sleep as he sits on the chair next to you, far after the rest of the team leaves. Hotch had asked him to get back and get rest, but he refused, instead sitting on the hospital chair with his hand holding your own, like he had all those months ago when he gave you his coat in Chicago.
He watches your gentle breathing, thinking about how peaceful and happy you look in your sleep, despite your recent brush with death. And when you wake up, he presses your hand to his lips and tells you with teary eyes to never, ever scare him like that again.
“I’ll try,” you yawn. “You didn’t have to stay here, ya know. You need to sleep.”
“As if I can sleep when you’re here. Nope, no way. Idiot.” He says, and you hear how his voice is slightly choked up as he starts rambling about how having visitors in the hospital is statistically more beneficial. You can’t quite lift yourself up yet, but you grab his hand and bring it to your own lips as he had done, and press it there for a moment.
(He is blushing. So hard he trails off and stops talking, instead too focused on the way your lips on his hand are so soft. So pretty and gentle and pink and-)
“Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you for staying. I don’t know what I would do without you.” You say, your heart pounding.
The team comes back in the morning and finds both you and Spencer fast asleep, his head on your hospital bed, your hands knotted tightly. Morgan complains about how long his list has gotten.
In August, Spencer asked you on a date. Well, he doesn’t call it a date. He calls it “dinner with a friend.” But he desperately wants to call it a date. He picks you up from your apartment with a bouquet of pink tulips.
“Spencer! You didn’t have to do that,” you say, batting his arm while trying to hide your delight. (No one had ever bought you flowers on a date before.)
But Spencer is so busy staring at you, all dolled up in a little red dress you just knew he’d love.
“N-No- I mean yes, yes I did,” he stumbled. “I mean, you look… you look stunning.”
He takes you to a new Italian place, where you eat on the terrace under the stars and he absolutely refuses to let you touch the bill. He talks to you about his mom, about Mexico, and at the end of it all, he tells you that you make him feel safe. Like he can be himself and ramble on and on; like he can breathe. In August, Spencer drives you home and walks you to your doorstep with your arm looped through his own, your head on his shoulder.
In August, Spencer kissed you so gently, so carefully in front of your front door you think he feared you might break. He held you like a porcelain doll, delicately but oh-so tightly. His lips up against yours, timidly, softly, sweetly, and you felt yourself melt into a fucking puddle when he pulled away and rested his forehead on yours.
In September, you took him to your favorite bookstore. It was a tiny place with a flower garden in front and shelves lined with hundreds of books. It smelled like coffee and old books and lavender, and when you walked in, arm and arm with Spencer, you knew this was heaven. The two of you sat at a little table in the corner for hours, drinking coffee and sharing doughnuts and reading. So much reading. When you finally leave, he buys you the three books you had been reading (at his recommendation.)
“No- no Spence stop!” you say, trying to wrestle his arm away from the checkout. He just laughs at you and pays for them.
In September, Spencer asks you to be his girlfriend outside of the bookstore. He was a clumsy, nervous wreck, but he was finally your clumsy, nervous wreck.
In October, you and Spencer were a secret from the rest of your team. Work lives and personal lives just needed to stay separate, you decided.
(The irony of this was not lost on either of you.)
October was spent with kisses in quiet corners and sneaking into hotel rooms like high schoolers when you were traveling for cases. It was a month of countless movie marathons and Spencer falling asleep with you in his arms, countless mornings of driving each other to work and Spencer’s hand on your thigh. Longing stares at each other from across the office, little doodles and notes left on post-its on each other's desks. Hands knotted together under tables, quiet hugs whenever they seemed the least suspicious. Spencer bringing you flowers on every date, you kissing the tip of his nose in thanks and smiling when it always turns pink.
(He still says it’s from the cold. You’re starting to think you just have that effect on him.)
Of course, when you work with profilers, they tend to notice these things. Yet, none of them put together that you and Spencer were actually together. They just kept building their now massive list and watched the two of you fall even harder. Watched you take Garcia’s unicorn stickers and leave them on Spencer’s cheek, where he would leave it there for hours. Watched Spencer bring you a new book every Monday and then discuss it with you every Friday.
In October, Spencer had you pushed up against the wall of his apartment, his shirt halfway unbuttoned and yours already halfway off. Gentle kisses up and down your neck, hands wandering up and down your body. Pulled you into his room, stared at you with those warm brown eyes you absolutely adored. Your hands in his hair, his mouth on your own when someone knocks on the door.
“Maybe,” he pants breathlessly against you,”Maybe if we ignore them, they’ll just leave.” You’re in no position to argue; you have no desire to stop. You hum in agreement and pull him back to you when the knock gets harder and you hear, “Spencer! Open the door, it’s Garcia and Morgan!”
Your first instinct is to literally hide. The worst two people to find you like this, but here they were. Spencer convinces you this is a bad idea and throws you your clothes as the two of you scramble to look presentable and like you were absolutely not doing what you absolutely had been doing.
In October, you thought you managed to convince Morgan and Garcia that you two were just hanging out. They left Spencer’s apartment in a whirlwind of giggles and were elated. Needless to say, the rest of your team was alerted to your antics within the next 10 minutes.
In November, you had the “big confrontation.” Also known as Hotch pulling the two of you into his office with a stern look.
(Which he was actually struggling very hard to hold because he was so-very-happy-Spencer-was-happy and the-joy-radiating-off-the-two-of-you-was-quite- frankly-contagious.)
He tells you not to be all over each other in the office and to remain professional and blah blah blah, but Spencer swears that Hotch actually smiled when the two of you left his office.
In November, your team is overjoyed. Garcia tears up when you take Spencer’s hand in front of the team. Morgan and Rossi offer to throw a party the first time they watch Spencer kiss you on the cheek. JJ and Emily squeal when you sneak your arms around Spencer’s waist while he packs up. And Hotch, Hotch struggled to hide how goddamn happy he was. He was so thankful every time he saw you together, because you radiated smiles and happiness and joy, which was something he knew Spencer always needed more of. When Spencer fell asleep on the jet after a grueling case, his head on your shoulder and your head gently on his, Hotch couldn’t resist taking a picture.
For your 3 months, Spencer brings you a gift on your way to work. He’s a burning, blushing red when he hands you the package wrapped messily (and very sweetly) in pastel pink wrapping paper, your name scrawled across the top and decorated with hearts, making your own heart glow.
When you open it, you think your heart actually manages to burst. He bought the two of you fluffy gray cardigans, each with an embroidered pink heart on the right. He’s looking shyly at you, a hand rubbing the back of his neck, a blush still dancing on his cheeks, as if he can’t tell how much you absolutely adore it.
You make it obvious when you fling yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his neck, burying your head in the crook, and you can feel him exhale the nervous breath he had been holding. He smells like fresh laundry and old books and the cinnamon cake you made that morning. He holds you like you’re his lifeline, and you feel his smile against your head.
“I’m so glad you like it, I was so nervous and I- I didn’t know you’d think it was stupid-”
“Shut up.” You kiss him. He shuts up.
“I love it Spencer.”
In November, you learn Spencer gives the best presents and the best hugs.
In December, you have your first fight. It was stupid- you had been working a case and Spencer had asked you not to go to the suspects house with Emily because you resembled the unsub's type. You went anyways, and as Spencer feared, the unsub went ballistic when you tried to apprehend him and you were separated from the rest of the team.
He took you into his car and stole your gun. He pressed it to your temple and attempted to drive away with one hand, but Morgan saved you. Shot straight through the window and into the unsub’s head, his blood all over you. You stumbled out of the car where Morgan grabbed you and hugged you. Took you back to the team, where Spencer could barely look at you.
You reassured him you were fine afterwards nothing had even happened, but he didn’t care. He had asked you, and you had ignored. You were so close to leaving him. Forever. In December, Spencer left the jet and went to his apartment without saying goodbye to you for the first time. In December, you avoided each other for a whole week.
In December, you went to his apartment with a book in your hands. A peace offering. He answered the door in your favorite blue cardigan and you let it out. You apologized, pouring your heart out, and you said it. And to your absolute relief, he wrapped his arms around you and apologized as well. And he said it back.
In December, Spencer Reid told you that he couldn’t bear to lose you. That the thought of it had made him realize- he was head over heels in love with you.
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elphiej · 3 years
Text
Be My Light - Chapter 3: Try to Stay Calm and Move on.
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*Genre: Mafia, angst, eventual smut, slow burn
*Warnings: references to drug usage/ withdrawal, reference to sexual  situations/ sex work/ trafficking.  
Author’s note: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoy the next chapter. True to my style, it’s a little long but I think it flows well enough. Thank you for those who have commented on my previous chapters. I very much appreciate it. Thank you for your patients as well; work has been busy and I found out I had covid. I’m ok now but it did set me back a bit in finishing this. As always, please let me know what you think or let me know if you have any comments. I love them and all of you. Please enjoy!
Tag list:  @lolalalooo @bangtan-sonyeonddaeng, @barbikatherine, @mrsfortune1306, @lovesick-heart0, @iamnamjoonsbxtch, @deathkat657, @deeepvibes, @sugamonster22 , @weiinihao, @hemmofluke , @rainbow-zebra-unicorns
                              Chapter 3: Try to Stay Calm and Move On
                 Central Mercy was one of the largest and most active hospitals in all the city. And as you followed the EMTs through the trauma bay doors, the floor was full of medical staff moving about assessing patients. True to its name, Mercy didn’t discriminate and took in those that smaller practices were too scared to take: gang related cases. They feared retaliation. But Mercy was only interested in saving people. A team from the surgical floor came up beside the fast-moving gurney, listening as the EMT got them up to speed. You added some details, though your eyes never left the man on the gurney; he hadn’t regained consciousness since the police arrived and he seemed even paler than before. One of the nurses whispered that Doctor Na was waiting in the operating theatre. Henry Na was one of the top surgeons in all of Central and you felt a wave of relief knowing that the patient couldn’t be in better hands. But deep down, you knew you wouldn’t be at complete ease until you saw the young man awake and alright. And the fear of the unknown made you not want to lose sight of him.
               Before you could question why you felt so drawn to stay by the stranger, one of the nurses put her hands out in front of her and forced you to come to a stop right outside the OR doors. The doors slid shut and you were left alone in the hallway. And that is where the connection should have ended. Doctor Na and his staff would take good care of him, then he’d be transferred to another floor, and you would move on to your own patients. But you couldn’t stop the feeling of wanting to be near the stranger you found in the middle of a gun battle. But why? Could it be because you were a kind-hearted nurse or that you had just gone through a horrific experience together? You had asked him to explain what you had gotten yourself into after all. Perhaps on one of your breaks you could go visit? Was that weird? What would you say? ‘Hi, remember me? I’m the idiot who saved you after you got shot. Want to be friends?’
               Honestly, you didn’t think you were so desperate for companionship that you’d try to forge a friendship with some random guy who’s background you didn’t know. What were you expecting- a friendly relationship that could develop into something else? This wasn’t one of those romantic comedies you watched with Amber and, based on your track record, you weren’t that lucky. For all you knew, this guy was just as dangerous as the man with the cane. With the increase in U4-1A cases, was this a drug deal gone bad? It would be a shame if someone that handsome turned out to be a druggie. There were supposedly others that had gotten away; it could be a turf war. There were so many dangerous possibilities that ran through your mind. No, you sighed, it was best just to let it go. If you were meant to see him again, fate would make it so. Then, you would get some answers. But for now, it was time to get to work and move on.
               “I’m sure Jax is pulling his hair out by now,” you wondered, out loud. “Wonder what Amber’s going to say.”
               You didn’t have to wonder long, for as you turned on your heels, Amber was standing right behind you. Nerves still on edge, you couldn’t help but jump backwards. Amber was the definition of sweet but intimidating as her eyes bore into you. She was thin and lanky, completely swallowed by her baggy scrubs. She had a sharp face with short blonde hair that had been styled with an undercut. That, paired with her piercings and elaborate tattoos that decorated her arms, gave her a strong androgynous look that caught a lot of attention. She stared at you with a look of mixed anxious worry and anger.
               She crossed her arms over her chest. “Y/N,” she said, leaning in, “what the Pineapple?! Are you crazy or stupid?”
               “Is both an option,” you countered, trying to lighten the mood.
               Amber reached over and flicked her middle finger against your forehead. “I’m serious, dumbass, you really gave me a heart attack. You didn’t answer my text and I hear from the dispatch that you’re at the scene of a gang shooting?! I can’t begin to tell you the images my brain was coming up with! I thought I’d find you on a stretcher, covered in blood. I mean,” she gave you a meaningful look up and down, “more so than this.”
               You followed her gaze and, finally, got a good look at yourself. Your simple grey hoodie was covered in dark, splotchy patterns. The cuffs of your sleeves were dried dark from when you had tried to apply pressure to his wounds, there was a large stain on your side that had soaked through to your scrubs from carrying the young man behind the counter, and splattering decorated all over the rest of you. You were glad that the EMTs let you ride along in the ambulance; it would have made your bus ride more interesting looking like a slasher movie victim.
               You held up your hands, defensively. “It’s not mine. I promise, I didn’t get hurt. It’s from the real victim.”
               Amber sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “Come on,” she said, ushering you away from the Operating rooms, “let’s get you cleaned up. I’ll tell Jax what’s going on after I get rid of these clothes. There’s no saving them.”
                ~*****************~
               Having skipped your shower this morning due to time, you were quite thankful for the warm water that eased the anxiety still rampant. Once Amber was satisfied that you weren’t injured, she brought you some new scrubs and bagged up your soiled ones to dispose of them. You were annoyed that you were losing your hoodie, since it was the only one you had since coming to Central and you hadn’t had time to go buy new clothes yet. At least you had packed the extra long sleeve shirt to help against the seasonal chill. Amber had left you a pair of grey scrubs that would help you blend in to your work shift. Once you changed, you made your way to your supervisor’s office. Jax was an older gentleman who always seemed to be on the edge of some emotion. The second he saw you, he flung himself at you and made you swear you were to never scare him to the point of turning his hair grey ever again. It took you promising five times before he let you head to your station.
               You weren’t surprised to see Amber sitting at the desk. However, you were surprised to see that she had surrounded herself with a wall of binders and notebooks while she typed away at the computer.
               “Are you preparing for an invasion?”
               “No, you have to stay away,” Amber cried in the most melodramatic tone she could muster. “You can’t come near me. Flee while you can!”
               You tried to contain your laughter with truly little success. “Okay? What happened since I showered? Were you exposed to something or are you just being weird?”
               “No, you just have to avoid me! I’m dangerous! I’m a girl with tattoos,” she exclaimed, holding her heavily tattooed arms out for display. “You have to avoid me!”
               You almost fell over from how strong you rolled your eyes. “You must have seen Mr. Young this morning.”
               “Well, someone had to since you decided to be an action star. And he was extremely disappointed to not see you.”
               You sat down in the chair next to her and wrapped your arms around her and rested your chin on her shoulder. “I’ll pop in on him later. For the record, I like your tattoos. I think they’re super cool.”
               “Don’t think you being cute with all those compliments are gonna distract me from your stupidity. What the heck were you thinking?”
               “I know,” you sighed, “I’m sorry that I worried you.”
               “Worried? That doesn’t even begin to describe that. You didn’t answer my call this morning. Then, I get a text from a random number, apparently you. Only to find out about the shooting. I had a feeling something bad was gonna happen this morning. Spill it, Y/N. What happened?” You gave your friend a quick recap from when you left your building to when the police found you behind the counter trying to keep the young man conscious. You decided to leave out the creepy encounter with the man with the cane and the encounter with the other gang member you had hit with the crowbar; you didn’t want her to worry any more than she already was. The entire time, Amber’s face was stern and she had crossed her arms over her chest. “See, this is why you should have just stayed with me at my loft. You’re all alone down there. Clearly I was right about it not being safe.”
               “Don’t be like that. I know you keep saying that you didn’t mind me staying with you, but it was time for me to start trying to live my life again. It may not be as nice as your place but it’s mine. And, this incident excluded, nothing bad has ever happened. It’s just that I couldn’t stop thinking about what I went through and being stronger than the bullies. You taught me that.”
               “Yeah but I didn’t mean going against a gun wielding psycho. It was a metaphor for the nightmares and that piece of shit you call an ex.”
               “I’ll remember that for next time.” You flashed Amber some pleading eyes and pouting lip. “I’m really sorry.”
               Amber groaned, but smiled back at you. “You’re lucky I like you. But I get one more bad feeling, I’m dragging you back and never letting you out of my sight.” She slid you a cup of coffee that you greedily took. You were sure that you had lost your tumbler somewhere at the bus stop, never to be seen again. “By the way, what was the random number you texted from? Did you get a new phone without telling me?”
               You almost choked on your coffee. You had hoped she wouldn’t have asked about that, knowing full well she was not going to be happy about the answer. You cursed at yourself for texting her from it. But with her staring at you, you knew you couldn’t get around it. You reached into your pocket and handed it to her. She, instantly, knew what it was and snatched it from you.
               “Why do you have this still? I thought you got rid of it?”
               “I didn’t mean to grab it. I was in a hurry this morning and it fell into my bag. I left the one you gave me at home and didn’t have time to go back up and get it.”
               “But you had time to run after gun shots?” She tapped around on the screen. “All the settings are back to normal. The locations and notifications are back on, too. Did he call you? Look at all the voice mails.”
               “I didn’t call him. The last message was days ago. I just texted you and read a couple messages. Don’t give me that look, Amber. I was just curious. I have no desire to call him or see him. I’m starting to get somewhat normal. Last thing I want is to fall back into a bad mind set. I just read a few texts to see what he was saying while I was walking. I swear, that’s all. Don’t worry about the settings. He’s not as smart or as tech savvy as you. He couldn’t grasp the concept of emojis, I doubt he’s gonna try anything you’re thinking of. I honestly just needed a phone for today. When I get home, it’s getting shut off and it’s going away for good.”
               “He’s such a scuzzball, trying to still contact you after all that.  This would be less stressful if you gave me his address. I’ll kick his ass up and down the coastline for what he did.”
               “I don’t doubt that. But I have to listen to the group’s advice and just let it go. And I think it’s time I try to focus on other things. That’s the way I’m gonna start to really get better, right?” You had been saying that for a while now, not really knowing how to move on or if you could. But something had changed. You couldn’t help but think back to the gang member, and how he reminded you of Daniel in those last moments you were together. There was a sense of relief and freedom that you just couldn’t help but relish in. It had almost been a cathartic experience that your body needed, the strength to take back yourself. To give back what you felt, to let all that rage and hate that you held deep inside out. It may not have healed you completely, but it was a start.
               The two of you started going over the case load for the day. Even as short staffed as you were, Amber had taken care of most of the early duties: checking on patients, dropping off medicine, and dealing with Mr. Young. You started going through the new files that were stacked on the station while Amber read the report from some of the other floors. It was interesting to see what was happening elsewhere in the ever-busy hospital. There was nothing about your gunshot victim yet, and you crossed your fingers that he was going to be alright. No news was good news, you figured. Amber had started talking about the new U4-1A cases that had been admitted since you were last there. There were four more cases since your last shift. And one of the new cases didn’t make it past 2 days. U4-1A was a highly addictive drug that played off of peoples’ want to feel good and exploited it to deadly consequences.
               “I can’t believe how many cases there are now.”
               “Tell me about it. It’s the new hot thing on the streets. Everyone wants to find ‘Euphoria’.”
               You gave Amber a confused look. “Find ‘Euphoria’? Is that what they call it?”
               Amber grabbed a paper and wrote it out. “Yeah, it makes sense when you look at it and read it out. Change the 1 to an I, and it says euphoria. It sounds better when you’re trying to score without drawing attention, I guess. Remember that one guy who was going through withdrawals at the underground club? He kept asking me if I could ‘help him find Euphoria’.”
               “Seems way too intense for a club drug. If it’s supposed to be like ecstasy and make you feel really good, why does it make you go through the worst kind of side effects and an even worse withdrawal?”
               “The theory the cops believe now is that it was made, primarily, for the sex trade industry.  Very little doses make you feel nice and all that. But pure U4-1A does all that and more. It needs to work its way out of the system fast else it causes heart failure and other bad things. Whoever made it added chemicals that affect the brain and senses, so the user loses all inhibitions and is in a constant state of intense arousal.  So much so that the user is willing to do anything to find a release with anyone. I heard Mary, the lady who’s been on the most U4-1A cases has had to do a lot of things just shy of actually fucking them. That considered, it makes sense that it would have started in the sex industry; a willing participant is better than one that fights in their eyes.”
               It was true that U4-1A, or Euphoria, made people feel euphoric and intensified the pleasure of touch. But from what you had heard from Amber and some of the other nurses, when the patients are under the influence of the powder, they beg anyone to do any kind of sexual act to help them chase the feeling. Whatever sick bastard who created it made it so the user couldn’t find relief on their own, either.  Another hospital had thought that if the patients were aroused that it should be enough to let them handle it on their own, since it seemed release was the way to increase the heart rate and move the substance through the system. But the first few patients were in distress for hours until their hearts gave out from the effects of the chemicals in their blood. Doctor Na had been trying to see if any kind of physical activity, outside of sexual, could be the key to rehabilitating the Euphoria addicts. But it hadn’t seemed to be working. With more cases rising, there didn’t seem to be a treatment unless you had only the smallest amount. And survivors from the withdrawal seemed to be just as slim. The patients went through intense fevers, tremors, breathing problems, and pain without the substance. One of Central’s patients didn’t last two days of withdrawals.
               “I’m telling you,” Amber went on, drawing you out of your thoughts, “I don’t care who or how many are rocking my world or how long since my last date. No orgasm is worth dying for.”
               You let out a small chuckle at her attempt to push away from a not-so-fun topic. You nodded your head in agreement, though you couldn’t really remember the last time you had experienced anything other than a kiss from your ex. You could feel Amber’s eyes on you as you shuffled through the rest of the files.
               “So, speaking of orgasms,” she segwayed, leaning over with an eyebrow arched, “since you seem to be ready to start making some changes in your life, when are we gonna get you out for a date night?”
               “I didn’t say I was ready for a relationship.”
               “Whoa, who said anything about a relationship? I’m just saying have some fun, get a dinner, meet someone and start getting more confident with yourself. I have some friends I could set you up with. All of them are sweet and know I would kill them if they tried anything.”
               You hadn’t really thought about dating or anything like that. You had been so focused on healing your mind and getting settled into a new routine that it hadn’t even crossed your mind. You want to tell her ‘No’ but you found yourself considering it. Maybe it would be a good idea to just try to hang out with someone other than Amber. “I don’t know…,” you mused.
               That was all Amber needed. “Let’s just imagine. What’s your type? I mean, besides the complete opposite of your ex.”
               “I don’t really think I have a type. I know that Daniel was my friend and we were always together, so I think that’s why we started dating. But I don’t think I have one other than being a nice guy.”
               “Okay, let’s think about this. How about my friend Bryce?” You made a face, remembering the one time you met Eric when Amber and you went shopping and he spilled his drink all over you. “Okay, maybe not. How about Lee or Michael?”
               “They’re nice, I think.”
               “Oh, what about Dean from the kitchen staff? He’s so hot!”
               “The guy with the guitar and the smooth voice? The one who flirts with everyone and shows off his tattoos? Yeah, he’s definitely hot. Maybe too hot for someone like me. I feel like you two would fit together better.”
               “Stop that, you are so cute. I’d date you. I’d even give you a kiss goodnight.” Amber moved in to kiss you on the cheek, only to find her rolling chair being pushed by your foot. “Fine, see if I kiss you ever again. How about Eric from the pediatric ward? I’ve seen you two talk and he’s really easy to be around. Ooh, or Chris? You know, the one with the cute accent and hot body to match? I think you two would be able to reach your own version of euphoria.”
               “Ok, I’m done with you. You are ridiculous. I have patients to get to. And, even if I didn’t, I would rather get hit on by Mr. Young than have you start talking about me and some random guy.”
               Amber busted out laughing as you grabbed some charts and all but ran from the desk. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep workshopping it. This is just the next project in the ‘make my precious friend feel normal’ plan.”
               Despite the way your day had begun, your shift was free of any real excitement. And to be honest, you were happy to have a normal shift. You handed out medicine when it was time, changed the dressing of a girl who had been in a car accident, and took the time to pop in on Mr. Young since he was so upset that you hadn’t been there that morning. You figured listening to the old man’s reveries from his youth was a good punishment for your tardiness. Though, as you sat there, you couldn’t help but let your mind wander to the blond man. You wondered if he was still in the O.R. or if he had been moved. Were his injuries as bad as you thought or worse? You wanted to go see if Doctor Na was out of surgery and if there was any news. Stop it, you scolded yourself, stop focusing so much on that. Just do your job. Stay calm. You pushed yourself to go through the motions of your job, putting your body on autopilot as you tried not to think about him anymore. For the most part, it seemed to work; every time you blinked, you were off to the next task. Even as Amber dragged you away for a quick lunch, you focused extra hard as your friend excitedly recounted her night of online gaming, and her ever continuing feud with Seagull-eye97. Based on the color in Amber’s cheeks as she complained about them snipping her during their last dual, it was a struggle.
               By the afternoon, you had enough distractions to not think too much about the blond stranger. Amber had found out that Dr. Na was no longer in the OR, and it seemed like everything was alright. You felt some relief from such small information. While the thought to check up on the stranger popped back into your mind, you decided to stick to your plan to let the universe decide if you were going to meet again.
               And the universe had it’s funny way of making that happen.
               You were back at the station helping one of the patients get discharged. She was a nice girl who had been in a car accident and was finally being released. You were printing out the doctor’s orders and getting her prescriptions in order when one of the girl’s friends, one you had seen during visiting hours often, came to take her home. As you handed the friend the paperwork, you noticed they had matching tattoos, a Roman numeral II, on different parts of their arms. They called them friendship tattoos and you thought that was cute. Though, you weren’t sure if you would get one with Amber anytime soon. Once the girls were gone, you sat back at the station to finish up your paperwork.
               A voice caught your attention and made you look up towards the hallway that led to the elevator. Doctor Henry Na stepped off with a few other nurses, talking quietly and laughing about something you couldn’t hear. You couldn’t help but find yourself smiling at the sight of him. And not just because it further proved that he had finished up the surgery. Henry was someone you had come to be friendly with, like with Amber. He was one of the nicest people you had been introduced to and he made a point to see you on your shift. He was tall and broad, with a smile that was just as kind as his demeanor. He had shared many coffee breaks talking about things, getting your mind from whatever was making it panic, never making you feel like he was just going through the motions. You couldn’t help but feel a certain way whenever he was around, something you couldn’t remember feeling before. A feeling of safety and happiness. Amber’s conversation from earlier seemed to pop into your mind about your type of man. Based on the excited feeling that crept up into you, you couldn’t deny that you liked him. But so did everyone else in the hospital and he probably didn’t see you that way. He had glanced over towards the station and gave you a little wave as he finished his conversation. And that butterfly feeling intensified.
               “Why do you look like that?”
               Amber had the strangest ability of just appearing out of nowhere at the worst moment. You felt yourself jump and heat rise in your cheeks. You tried to hide yourself in your hands but Amber followed where you had been staring at. And a teasing smirk appeared as she put the pieces together.
               “I guess I figured out your type. Look at you going for the most eligible bachelor in this hospital. I like it;  skip the boy and go right for the man.”
               “You are so embarrassing! We’re friends. He’s just nice to me. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to be with someone with such baggage.”
               “I don’t know. You should have seen the way he looked at you when you started blushing.”
               You went to shove her away as she started making kissy faces at you, when you noticed Na shaking hands with one of the nurses and starting towards the station. Your body acted on its own in an excited and nervous frenzy, as you reached into your pants pocket and pulled out a small bottle of body spray you had brought with you after changing and ducked down. You sprayed the lily scented water over yourself, trying to rid yourself of the sterile smell of your clothes. You froze when you felt Amber’s smug and judging glance. “What? I like to smell nice and I forgot to spray some this morning after I changed.”
               “Sure, honey. Hi, Henry,” she greeted and you sat straight up.
               “Hi Amber, Y/N,” he greeted back, his gaze fixed on you. “How are things going up here?”
               “Oh you know, same old stuff. Though, I think I left my pen somewhere. I should go find it. You two talk.” And she abandoned you, throwing you a thumbs up and some faces that you had to remember to beat her for.
               “Hi, Doctor Na,” you said, “did everything go ok this morning?”
               “I feel like I should be asking you that. I heard you ran into the building with an active shooter. That’s something I never thought I’d hear you doing.”
               “You and everyone else it would seem. I just wanted to help and let my body run on autopilot.”
               “Well, it was tough in there for a bit but, because of you, our John Doe is going to see another day. He’s responding well and I had him moved from post op. He lost a lot of blood and he’s gonna be in some pain for a bit. We have him on some pain medicine that’s going to have him out for a while. But he was responding to the outer stimulus. I think they’re moving him to the room at the end of the hall. Can you just promise me that you won’t worry me like that ever again? I don’t like the thought of someone as sweet as you doing something so dangerous. How are you feeling, honestly? Anxious at all? Anything you want to talk about? I haven’t had any luck identifying that prescription yet, and my friend in the pharmacy hasn’t gotten back to me yet. So, I just want to make sure you’re good.”
               He knew your anxiety had been active since you had come to him to try to find exactly what your medicine was. His calming eyes looked down at you with concern. “I’m alright,” you said, trying to control the color in your cheeks as you tried to maintain eye contact, “when I got here, I just jumped into work so I didn’t have time to think about anything else. I’m okay, thank you, Doctor Na.”
               “I thought we talked about you calling me Henry, remember? See that’s what I like about you, Y/N. You care so much about everyone else. You really are a good nurse. I just wish you’d do the same for yourself. I suppose I’ll have to make sure you’re really ok. How about we talk about it over dinner this week?”
               You’re sure you must have looked like a deer in the headlights. “What?”
               “Well, someone who risks their own safety to help others should get some kind of reward, shouldn’t they? Figured why not let me treat you for once. How about it? Maybe we can talk about other things, too. Not work related? Maybe get to know each other better?”
               You felt like the whole world had just turned upside down. Was the most handsome doctor who you had been friendly with over the last few months just asking you out? You, out of every other good-looking person in this hospital? Did he actually ask you out? The way he was looking at you, like he was nervous you’d say ‘no’, made it seem that way. He had been extra attentive recently. And Amber was always saying you were kind of oblivious when it came to flirting having not really experienced it. You, suddenly, found yourself too nervous to say anything, and nodded. His smile returned, all wide and excited, which made you shyly smile back.
               True to her fashion, Amber came slipping back into the conversation, which you were happy with, fearing you’d burn a hole in the ground with how hot your cheeks were. “Okay, you guys look far too cute over here. Time to get back to work. Did you have a reason for coming to our side of the floor, Henry, or are you just gonna make goo-goo eyes at everyone?”
               Henry cleared his throat, trying to hide his slight awkwardness. “I was telling Y/N that we moved that patient to this floor for recovery. He should be in the last room down that hall. And I was hoping she wouldn’t mind taking this to his room?” He placed a clear bag on the station. It had the patient’s personal effects in it. “I figured that since she was with him, he might be more comfortable with someone he recognizes.”        
               You nodded and took the bag from him. “I’ll keep an eye on him for you.”
               “I’d appreciate that. Umm… I’ll get back to my rounds now, before I’m banished by Amber here. I’ll talk to my friend about that prescription and see you later, Y/N.” He turned to leave with a little wave at you and Amber. Before he got too far, he turned over his shoulder. “Nice perfume, by the way, Y/N. It really suits you.”
               He made a quick exit as Amber made a funny noise and you were alone with her gaze on you and a smile on your face.
               “You two should really get a room. Like the one at your apartment or his. I can just imagine it.”
               “You are so awful. He just asked me to get dinner. It may not even be a date. He’s just being nice, I’m sure.”
               “Please, he wants to talk about non work related stuff. Plus, I saw the way he was looking at you. He thinks you’re cute. And you are still blushing. Trust me, I know.”
               ‘We’ll see about that.” You looked at the bag in front of you. It had ‘John Doe’ written on it. There was a wallet, cellphone, a watch, and a few pieces of jewelry. The EMT’s had cut his shirt open to get to his injuries, and you were sure the rest of his clothes were being held for the police, whenever they came to get evidence and statements. You thought it was odd you hadn’t seen any since you left the construction site. You opened the bag and pulled out the wallet, hoping to find some kind of name. The wallet was empty, save for a few dollars and a key card. You reached for his phone. It was dead. You reached into your desk and pulled out a spare cord and power bank. There had to be something on there to figure out who he was or get ahold of someone who did. You plugged it in and put it back in the bag. You pushed off from the desk and made for the room at the end of the hall.
               The room was dark when you entered, save for the dim light above the bed and the glow from the heart monitor. You pushed the privacy curtain aside, and were welcomed by the sight of the blond stranger that had occupied the edges of your mind. The bed made him seem so small and his pale skin made him appear so fragile. His eyes were closed, but the steady rise and fall of his chest gave you some relief. His hair was still damp from where the staff had rinsed the blood from his hair. There was a bandage near his hairline. The cuts on his face had been treated and the bruising was much more visible now. There was an oxygen cannula tube strapped across his face and nose. And you could just see the edge of bandages peeking out from under the patient’s uniform they had dressed him in. He looked awful but he was alive, and you were so relieved you thought you might cry.
               “So, this is the man you ran into gun fire for?” Amber followed you in with his chart in her hand. “I can understand why.”
               “I’m so happy he’s ok. He looked so bad when the ambulance came. I promised him he’d be ok, that I’d get him out.”
               Amber patted you on the shoulder, giving you a sympathetic smile. “He’s gonna be fine. Hopefully, he wakes up soon, then you can stop worrying so much. And we can get a real name for him. He doesn’t look like a John. We should give him a nickname. With hair like that, I’d rather call him ‘popstar’.”
               “I think his name is Agust. Someone kept saying they were looking for Agust. I assume that’s him.”
               “He looks more like an Agust than a John.” Amber took out her pen and started making some changes. “Agust Doe. No, that sounds weird. How about just Agust D? Sounds more like a pop star name doesn’t it?”
               You nodded your head; Agust D sounded better than a blank identity. Amber placed his file at the end of the bed, and patted your shoulder. You gave a reassuring smile before she decided to leave the room. And you were alone with the blond stranger, or Agust. You took a couple steps closer to the bed, worried that he might wake up. But he didn’t; he continued to sleep in the drug induced state. In this forced, relaxed form, you couldn’t deny he was more handsome than your initial thought at your first meeting. Leaning forward over his form, your fingers reached out to check the bandage near his hairline, moving some of the stray blond hairs aside. You had no doubt that the others had done an exceptional job, but an odd sense of protectiveness made you look at everything extra close. Must be because of what happened earlier, you had concluded. There was an IV bag hanging above the bed, along with a transfusion bag replacing what he had lost. Absentmindedly, your fingers had slowly moved across his hair and down to his cheek. You were glad that it wasn’t as cold and clammy as it had been.
               “See, I told you I was gonna get you out. Now, you need to make sure you get better soon so you tell me everything,” you said with a small smile. The boy in the bed inhaled deeply, before pressing his cheek further into your light touch. The sudden movement startled you. “Agust? Can you hear me?”
               But he was still again. And your question was overtaken by the soft beep of the instruments around him.
               Suddenly, a shrill ring exploded in the room, making you jump back away from the bed as if you had been shocked. You whirled round trying to find what was causing it. Your eyes caught the flash of light on the end table beside you. It was the cell phone. Had it turned on by itself once it had enough power? Odd as it was, someone was trying to get a hold of him and you knew you should make sure they came to be with him. Maybe they knew what he was doing at the construction site and who had attacked him. You reached into the bag and pulled the phone out. The screen was flashing with a contact name, ‘God of Destruction’, and with a notification that this number had called multiple times, as well as other numbers over the last few hours. You slid your fingers across the screen and brought the phone up to your ear.
               Before you could say anything, your ears were bombarded with multiple voices all speaking in a chaotic chorus. One voice, whomever had the phone, spoke loudly over the din. “Hyung! Finally, I was so scared. Where are you? Are you okay? Tell me what the bastard did and I’ll fuck him up so bad.”
Someone else had pulled the phone closer to them. “Hyung, I’m so sorry. We should have never split up..”
Another struggle for the phone and another voice that sounded older than the last rang in over the continuing strings of conversations they were all trying to have. “Yah! Where have you been?! What were you doing, getting a coffee instead of giving us some kind of sign that you were alive?! You prick!”
The first voice must have got the phone back, as his was the most dominant voice again. “Guys, shut up, I can’t hear anything. Hyung, say something. Where are you?”
“Hello,” you responded in a small voice.
The chaotic voices all stopped, and for a moment you were scared the call had dropped. The voice seemed to drop into a serious octave. “Who is this?”
“Umm… my name is Y/N. I’m a nurse at Central Mercy Hospital. We brought the owner of this phone here after he was involved in a shooting.”
“Is he okay?” It was a different voice, sounding genuinely concerned.
“He needed emergency surgery. But we have him stable now. But he’s gonna need someone here. Are you his family or someone who can get here?”
“You said Central Mercy? What level is he on now? Who’s the doctor who saw him?” You gave him what he had asked for. “Alright, listen to me very closely. I’ll be there as fast as I can. Stay calm but do exactly as I say and it’ll be okay. Do not let anyone enter that room but you or this Doctor Na until I get there, do you understand me?”
You felt a little annoyed that he was ordering you around, but there was something in his tone that gave you the sense that this was not a joke and something to take seriously. “And who are you.”
“Call me RM.” Then the line went dead.
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not-reagan · 3 years
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milf: man i love forests
pairing: deforester boo seungkwan x frat boy mirror demon han jisung (side pairing reagan x rainbow)
genre: crack, strangers to friends to lovers, non-idol au
warnings: cursing, brief supernatural elements, i don’t know if this applies but all lcase, and i listened to christmas music and abba while writing this
word count: 2.7k
authors note: happy birthday @miyuuraiura !! i am so sorry about this monstrosity being your birthday gift but you asked for it so it's your fault entirely. i was gonna include some context on this story for those who are not rainbow and i but actually i don't think i will.
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seungkwan did what he could to get by. he loved nature, he really did, but sometimes you have to make moral sacrifices to survive. he was a college kid strapped for cash, and when he saw a sign reading “GET RICH QUICK, INVEST IN DEFORESTATION” in the summer going into his freshmen year, he jumped at the opportunity. sure, he would have rather been a freelance singer, hired for bar-mitzvahs and children's parties, but that job market was flooded at the moment.
jisung, on the other hand, had no care for nature. actually, he didn't care for any human things, apart from “banging parties, booze, the boys™, and bitches”. he hated quite a bit about earth, the worst of all to him being college. as a demon, he had no reason to attend university, but after he was summoned in the bathroom of a frat house by the school’s power couple; rainbow and reagan, he felt obliged to follow the two around and keep them company.
for seungkwan, his main job rarely required in person work. he usually just chose plots of land to demolish, and sent plans to local managers. the only time he actually had to knock down any trees himself was during his summer break. he has a part time job of course, but it didn't provide him enough cash to survive. for someone with a job as a deforester, he truly did do what he could to save the environment. he joined his schools environmental club, becoming vice president his sophomore year because of his work with them. he kept his job a secret, not even telling his parents where the influx of cash was coming from. he kept a low profile and went through the motions of life. he didn't have much of a social life, with his small amount of friends being from the environmental club.
han jisung found joy in witnessing his professors and fellow students lose their minds over his lack of effort in class. he did the bare minimum and still passed with flying colors. most of all, it angered his seatmate in earth science, who happened to be none other than boo seungkwan. seungkwan was a hard worker in everything he did, particularly in school. he didn't get the best grades, but by no means was he the worst. averaging a steady B+, seungkwan spent most of his nights studying or working, rarely going to parties and enjoying himself only through one person karaoke rooms.
this fact upset jisung. he didn't know why, but seeing seungkwan so tired every day made him feel sad(? jisung wasn't sure what it made him feel. it was an emotion he had never experienced before. rainbow told him it meant he had a crush. to this he threw an empty soda can at them). not to mention seungkwan’s upsetting karaoke addiction, which he knew all about the danger of because of reagan, who spent most of her weekends drunk and singing. jisung didn’t know why he took such a liking to seungkwan. what he did know was that he was ecstatic to find that they would be paired together for a project. a project that required quite a bit of teamwork, and a lot of after school work sessions.
seungkwan liked to think that he didn’t hate anyone. he hated evil people, like hitler and stalin and jyp, but he didn’t really hate anyone besides the worst of the worst. that was until he experienced jisung. he wasn’t sure why jisung always talked to him when he was trying to take notes in class. he especially wasn’t sure why he was so excited to be partnered up together for the project that was worth 25% of their grade. seungkwan was less than happy to have to cooperate with jisung for an extended period of time, and he was not looking forward to letting him into his dorm room, or going anywhere near jisung’s frat house. seungkwan had no idea what he was pushed into.
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they planned to meet at the cafe on campus at 5:00 pm after class. seungkwan was less than happy. jisung was thrilled. when jisung arrived seungkwan was sitting at a table drinking an americano and working on an english essay. he wasn't sure how to approach him, slowly walked closer before tapping on his shoulder. seungkwan jolted in his seat.
“jesus fuck jisung. you scared the crap out of me,” seungkwan gasped. jisung’s ears flushed as he brought his hand to the back if his neck.
“sorry,” he started, pausing for a second before starting again, “why don't we get started?”. he swung his bag down to the ground as he took a seat. seungkwan offered a small, non genuine smile before pulling out the project’s guidelines.
“let's try to finish this as quickly as possible. im pretty busy and don't have much time to fool around.” seungkwan said. jisung felt his heart drop. did seungkwan really think that little of him? granted, he always dozed off in class but he got his work done on time and in an orderly fashion. he felt his mind begin to wander. if seungkwan felt this way about him now, how would he feel when he found out that jisung was a demon. would seungkwan start to like him if he knew him better? jisung couldn't figure out why he cared so much about how seungkwan perceived him. he had never had an issue with others opinions of him before, so what made seungkwan so different? for some reason, jisung felt the need to connect with seungkwan. if not for himself, then at least to help him let loose.
after working silently on each of their portions of the projects for 3 hours, jisung finally spoke up. “do you want to maybe come to my party next month? well, it's not my party, it's for rainbow’s birthday. i know you're not one for social interaction but it would be cool to see you there. i’ll give you the details if-”
“i’d love to go,” seungkwan cut off jisung’s rambling. to be honest, he wasn't exactly sure what he was agreeing to, but he knew it would shut jisung up, and seungkwan valued his peace and quiet. part of him also just felt downright bad for the other. he seemed to be trying awfully hard to become friends with seungkwan, and he wouldn’t admit it, seungkwan had started to warm up to the boy. he really wasn’t as much of an issue as he had thought before, and was actually really respectful of seungkwan’s wishes. maybe i’ll give him a chance, seungkwan thought before going back to his work.
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over the next month, jisung and seungkwan continued meeting to work on their project. seungkwan was less short with the other, and jisung was still red faced every time seungkwan decided to talk to him, which became quite frequently over the next few weeks. jisung was starting to realize that the feelings he had for seungkwan were not simply platonic, and that he didn’t just want to be friends with him. with the help of rainbow and reagan, he had come to the conclusion that he really, really liked seungkwan, and that he was going to do something about it. remembering that he had invited seungkwan to the party, he devised a plan to not only tell seungkwan about his whole “i’m actually a demon” thing, but also about his true feelings. it wouldn't be easy, but it was what he had to do.
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a month later, seungkwan still wasn’t exactly sure why he had agreed to go to jisungs frat house at 9:00 pm on a saturday night. yet there he was, standing on the front porch of a large house, wondering if he should bite the bullet and walk in, or spare himself and leave right then. he didn't get a choice, however, as rainbow and reagan stepped out of the house giggling while clutching onto each other. both stopped in their tracks when they saw seungkwan. the couple and seungkwan stared at each other for a good minute before seungkwan shook himself from his trance.
“hey rainbow!” seungkwan started, “and reagan too. i know we aren’t super close, but jisung invited me and i thought i’d just drop by and wish you a happy birthday.” he passed her a birthday card filled with $50 bucks and then turned to leave. “i’ll leave you guys now. have a great birthday!” before seungkwan could get very far, however, rainbow grabbed him by the arm.
“hey, i’d love if you’d stay! at least go say hi to jisung. i’m sure he’d like to see you,” she said, silently making note to have jisung pay her back for being a great wingwoman.
“he’s probably hiding in the second floor bathroom. if you don't see him in there, just say his name three times in front of the mirror. he’ll appear.” reagan explained. seungkwan thought she was joking. how wrong he was.
following his entrance to the house, he had to refuse not one, not two, but three different people who were looking to give him bottles or cups of something which seungkwan presumed to be various types of alcohol. navigating through the house was difficult, reaching the stairs to the second floor only after running into numerous people borderline fucking on two large couches in the living room, a smoke circle taking place in what seungkwan assumed to be a dining room, and a very aggressive makeout session against a wall. once he finally reached the second floor, he had some difficulty finding the bathroom, accidentally walking in on reagan and rainbow, who had miraculously made it upstairs faster than he had.
“if you don’t stop shitting constantly i am going to break up with you! also, stop taking feet pics! it’s weird!” he heard rainbow shout.
“at least i can eat seafood! how does it make your head hurt? you’re the weakest link! that fucking seafood platter was delicious. and you know what, i’m glad i didn’t have to share it with you!” reagan responded. seungkwan quickly shut the door, not wanting to get involved in whatever drunken argument was going on there. after a bit more searching, he finally stumbled across the right room. knocking first to see if anyone was in there, he entered, and to his surprise, nobody was there. jisung was nowhere to be seen. seungkwan reviewed his options. he could a) leave the party, or b) continue to look around the packed house. but there was another option. he thought about it for a second.
“what's the harm in trying,” seungkwan thought out loud, before staring directly into the mirror.
“han jisung, han jisung, han jisung.”
nothing happened. that's what seungkwan thought, until a minute later the lights in the bathroom flickered off and the mirror began to glow. “what. the. fuck,” seungkwan managed to squeak out before falling backwards into the tub. first a leg emerged, then two arms, and finally the rest of jisung’s body.
“i feel like the genie in aladin every time i have to get into a fucking mirror,” jisung complained before seeing seungkwan toppled over. to that view, he jumped down off the counter and moved to help him up. seungkwan, aside from falling, seemed to be reacting well to the whole situation, at least in the sense that instead of freaking out he seemed to be in a state of shock. jisung took this as a good sign, and lifted the motionless body up onto the toilet seat.
“hey seungkwan, you there?” jisung waved his hand in front of seungkwan's face as he slowly came to his senses.
“what kind of twisted party trick was that?” seungkwan asked, pretty seriously. jisung just laughed.
“you summoned me from the mirror. i’m like a funny version of michael jackson except i'm a demon and not a man in the mirror.” jisung explained. seungkwan just stared. “are you ok kwan? do you want me to get you some water?”
“it was… kind of sick.” seungkwan stated. he didn't know why he wasn't scared. under any other circumstance like this one, he probably would have shit his pants. for some reason he felt comfortable around jisung. he felt warm. he felt seen. it was something he hadn't felt before. that's when he realized. he wondered why it took himself to long to figure it out. he never hated jisung. he just didn't know what to do with the fact that he made him feel special, and that he felt as though he belonged when they were together. it had hit him why he was so nervous the whole night, why he had wanted to make such a good impression, and why he was willing to embarrass himself by calling out jisungs name as opposed to just choosing to go home. it was because he loved him.
“can i tell you something?” both of the boys said at the same time. jisung giggled and seungkwan flushed red. **authors note! bonus starts here**
“you first,” seungkwan offered. he wasn't exactly sure he would be able to make it through a sentence without getting any redder than he already was.
jisung took this opportunity to finally get his true feelings out into the air, “i like you… uhh like, i like like you. i have since we first became seatmates. well, i think that's when i've liked you since. i knew whe-”
“you're rambling again,” seungkwan told him. jisung flushed a dark shade of pink. “it's a habit of yours. i think it's cute actually.” seungkwan wasn't sure where his sudden surge of confidence came from, but he was glad it came. he was standing up now, holding jisungs hands in his. jisungs heart was racing a mile a minute as he looked down at their intertwined hands and them back up, catching seungkwan looking directly at his lips. “can… can i kiss you?” seungkwan stuttered out. jisung couldn't find his words, so he opted to just nod.
when their lips connected, seungkwan could have sworn he heard fireworks. he did later find out that someone was setting off a firework in the back yard, but it was the thought that counted. their lips melted together perfectly, and seungkwan wondered why it took him so long to admit his feelings to himself. he could have been kissing jisung for a month before this.
once they finally parted, seungkwan spoke softly, “i like you too. i think that's pretty obvious now but just in case you didn't know.” jisung had the dumbest, most confused face on, and seungkwan had the brightest smile he'd ever had. seungkwan had rendered jisung speechless, for once in his life. not long after, they started kissing again, content with their emotions and their new relationship.
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seungkwan was never one to believe that good things were permanent. he was overdramatic, stubborn, and hated interacting with people outside his small social circle. that was until han jisung came along. he was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, he could let someone else into his life.
jisung was a simple man. well, not a man, but he was simple nonetheless. he liked banging parties, booze, the boys™, and bitches. well maybe there was one more thing he liked. he knew for sure he liked boo seungkwan. maybe he loved him. maybe seungkwan even felt the same way.
-fin
**BONUS**
reagan and rainbow leaned up against the door to eavesdrop on their matchmaking work.
“holy shit!” reagan gasped.
“what is it?? tell me what happened. you're hogging up the door!” rainbow hissed.
“our boy is so grown up,” reagan pretended to cry. “put your goddamn ear up here.” rainbow felt her ear connect with the cold door just as jisung confessed his feelings.
“i like you… uhh like, i like like you. i have since we first became seatmates. well, i think that's when i've liked you since. i knew whe-” his next words were cut off on the girls side of the door as reagan squealed.
“shut your mouth! seungkwans saying something!!” rainbow said, obviously annoyed that reagan was obstructing her ability to hear the exchange.
“can… can i kiss you?” they heard seungkwan say. both looked at each other in shock.
“oh. my. god.” was all rainbow could say.
“i think we should give them some alone time,” reagan suggested as she tugged rainbow down the hall.
“i think we need some alone time for ourselves,” rainbow said as reagan pushed her into a random room and locked the door behind them.
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natromanxoff · 3 years
Text
Queen live at Hammersmith Odeon in London, UK - December 26, 1979
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Queen performed as part of the Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea [Cambodia], which were performed over a few days at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Other performers included The Who (who played for three hours), Wings, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, The Clash, and the members of Led Zeppelin (minus Jimmy Page). A 2-LP set was released in 1981, including Now I'm Here from Queen's set. Freddie's vocal range is still top notch on this last show of the tour, although he doesn't always hit the high notes cleanly as he did earlier in the month. Still, these versions of Somebody To Love and We Are The Champions are dripping with passion from him and are among the best ever performed. After Somebody To Love, Freddie pours some water on the front rows. "I'll keep the lager for myself," he says, as he grabs a beer. He continues, "Now listen, I know it feels like a Cecil B. DeMille production of the Ten Commandments here tonight but don’t worry about the cameramen. They're getting paid. Right now we’d like to do a song... my god it’s quiet in here." It suddenly isn't quiet after he makes that comment. "It's always like this at Hammersmith. I don't know why. Are you supposed to be a sophisticated crowd? I suppose you are." He then introduces If You Can't Beat Them, and what follows is a great final performance of the Jazz album rocker. Soon thereafter, Brian plays the trills near the end of Mustapha beautifully. During the middle section of Get Down Make Love, Freddie passes down the mic to an audience member, who then sings part of the "La la" part of The Prophet's Song. The mic is then immediately taken away! Before Love Of My Life, Brian gives the audience a brief background on the purpose of the concert, and adds: "The reason for all these cameras is that it's proposed to make a composite show of us and the other people who have performed this week, and to sell that to make some more money for those people as well. So we hope it goes well." A few audience members boo at the thought of other artists being on the film, and one of them shouts, "Just you!" After the song, Brian says, "Hammersmith sings; very nice." He continues, "we're gonna have a little bit of fun with this one. We usually do this one. It doesn't sound quite it does on the record, I don't think. But this is called '39. Sing along." In his solo spot, Brian plays a few chords that loosely resemble In The Space Capsule which would appear on the Flash Gordon soundtrack the following year. He then plays a specially rehearsed version of Silent Night, a gesture much appreciated by the audience. At many shows on this tour, the audience (led by those "Royal Family" fans) would continue singing Crazy Little Thing Called Love after the band finished the song. The band even joins in tonight. Here is a review of the show:
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Here's an article (1, 2) with a few pictures from this show (although some are from other shows).
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Pics 1 to 6 were taken by Dave King and submitted by Mark Alexander (and later colour corrected by Nino Trovato). The last picture was taken by Gillian Parry (her picture was snapped at almost the exact moment as pic 5).
...
According to an article in the June 1989 issue of Record Collector, the entire concert was shown at a "recent fan club convention," and it even mentions Keep Yourself Alive and Brian's solo specifically. It continues, "If Queen ever follow Bruce Springsteen in issuing a live boxed set of albums, then this show must form part of it." Over twenty years later, Queen fans are still waiting for a release that is truly representative of the band at this very vital point in their career. This concert features the final performances of If You Can't Beat Them, Don't Stop Me Now, and Spread Your Wings. '39 would be dropped from the setlist for good as well, but it would be performed (in part) once more in 1984. Brian would sporadically play the main guitar theme a couple times as well (1, 2). Within a few days the 70s would come to an end, and Queen would never again be the same. The success of The Game in North America would shift their gears as a band, in concert and otherwise.
Fan Stories
“If I'd have known how special and legendary this gig was to become, I would have taken notes at the time - fortunately this concert was filmed - I've seen two clips of it recently to my absolute delight: this was an incendiary show. I remember seeing it afterwards on TV, severely edited down for TV consumption with all the voiceovers by Peter Ustinov... The footage is great but to be there was simply amazing and I know in my life I will never see another show like this one. I don't remember anything about getting there but I remember where I sat at Hammersmith, towards the back and to one side, around row S. I'd already seen them at Brighton and marvelled at the latest rig, the Pizza Oven... and then I went with a friend to the Rainbow to see them where we practically hung off the balcony singing - another great gig, where I believe they drilled a hole in the roof(?) for the lighting rig or maybe my memory is failing around this point... Now if I could have gone to another gig on this tour I think it would have been to Purley Tiffany's, which was really tiny and reports were afterwards that they nearly bought the ceiling down, the noise comparable to a jumbo jet taking off - which is so wonderfully rock & roll... and of course, so them! But I digress... this night was also extremely loud, punishingly loud in fact. Yes I remember Brian's 'Three Blind Mice' solo very well - a quiet bit - but then it got bloody loud, the 3-part digital delays reverberating from the stage monitors to behind me at the back and across to the other side of the venue at the back, then back to the stage, round and round. I remember that vividly. Another memory from this night: Fred's fight with the monitors during Sheer Heart Attack... the monitors lost. Another great rock & roll moment - possibly the most potent I've ever witnessed - a moment of sheer exhilarating wildness, in a tremendous show. I know I thought, "what the hell's he doing" whilst really laughing and thinking, yeah, I know, because I feel exactly the same - I can't explain it very well to you who are reading this, just to say it again: it was an intense, incendiary night. A third and last fragment of memory - Fred arrived on the shoulders of Superman for the second encore, We Will Rock You, which was great fun... After depositing Fred, he ran off the stage in a suitably manfully Superman fashion, which I can still see now. Well, there you are - I'm sorry I don't remember anymore but you got the bits that are indelibly burned into my memory for all time... “ - Jane
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pyrotrolls · 3 years
Text
Cursed
Vednir and Anttan are vibin in the club while Badaui’s little curse takes place. 
tw: blood, bone breaking, violence, murder, drugs, a tasty little Snapped!vemili
Here’s the google doc link since this ended up being 2.5 pages lmao
but right before Anttan calls Tuuya <3 story also below the readmore. i did not reread this we live with my mistakes like men
The burn in his nostrils only added to the headrush he felt as the world around him grew distorted. He knew that there was blood dripping down into his mustache as Vednir’s eyes locked onto his lips. It fell into his teeth when he grinned and tugged the jade closer to kiss him. 
Maybe he was a bad influence, it’s what Vemili would say if he saw them in the hallway of the club. It’s too busy for Vemili to do anything about them. Anttan knew this building enough to slink around unnoticed- no one cared about a washed up movie star getting his blood drained by a blooddrinker, both too coked out to notice anyone noticing them anyway. 
Vednir licked the blood from his teeth, his lip, and against his nostril, getting the little bit of powder around it as he shivered and scraped his fangs against his lip. His kisses trailed down to his shoulder- knowing well enough by now that Anttan’s throat was off limits. With the deep scars that marred it, he wouldn’t get a good bite anyway. So the junction of his shoulder where there was already littered hickies and healing bites from last adventures. More frequent than they used to be, the more and more Vednir was hooked on drugged blood. 
“You think they’ll notice if I stole a bottle of bourbon?” Anttan cooed, tipping his head to the side while the light headed feeling embraced him. Mixed with the effect of the drugs, with the warmth washing over him that happens when your body loses blood. Vednir didn’t answer him at first, but after a couple ounces of blood that he could drink in one bite, he pulled away and started to kiss the bites better. 
“Lemme get it, I’m quicker than you, Ants.” 
Vednir did the sacrifice by standing up, his mouth was coated in blood, and then was transferred to the sleeve of his tan coat. He gave a toddler-like half wave with his hand and then quick stepped out of sight. He knew he had a minute or two before the drugged blood hit him, long enough for him to snatch a bottle from behind the bar.
The club was crowded, more than normal with loud music and lights distorting his focus. Vednir always wondered what they looked like to someone who could see more than four different colors. 
Somewhere else, a man with black horns and fuchsia/violet cusp blood was finishing a curse. 
It’s funny, it didn’t hit like a switch being swapped in his mind. No, this was sudden, but Vednir saw it happen, the way the shadows crept up in his sight, literally fogging his head. He felt the burn in his throat, it felt like something was setting his senses on fire. And before he could even fight it, the part of him that could reason was shoved back into his head, no consciousness left in him, just a body with hunger. 
Bottle forgotten, Vednir snarled and grabbed the first body near him. He tore the boy’s throat out and let blood spray over as he drank eagerly. With the noise, the lights, the bodies- no one noticed what was happening, not until a war path of six bodies fell around him, did someone scream. It didn’t stop him, with more and more blood he was able to just start snapping necks for the fun of it. One girl’s arm was snapped so the bone broke through and he drank the blood from it for seconds before the next moving body distracted him. He might not have drained the bodies empty, but the wounds he did leave were killing ones. Arties punctured to bleed out in a rainbow on the floor, shaking from the vibration off the screams and music stirring the puddles. 
Back to Anttan, who began to wonder where his kismesis was, had stood up and used the wall to walk out towards the main club room. The bloodshed didn’t quite register at first, not really. He didn’t think about it until Vemili’s voice, in ear shattering volume screamed out 
“EVERYONE FREEZE.”
Across the room people stopped moving, despite the music playing, the lights going, and Anttan tried, but his body literally couldn’t- it felt like ice painfully stabbing his muscles when he tried to step forward. He didn’t know Vemili was so powerful…
He watched helplessly as Vemili stormed through the crowd, hidden from sight. 
Vemili pushed through bodies, unfortunately knocking them to the ground where they couldn’t even move to catch themselves. He tried to be cautious, but his main mission was to get to the center of the chaos. 
He found that drinker- the one Anttan kept bringing around, found him so clearly fighting against his voodoos. 
“Sorry, even a dog can listen.” Vemili snarled under his breath and reached out to grab Vednir’s arm. “Walk with me,” he commanded, the voice echoing only to Vednir’s ears. Even cursed- he could hear his words- and be affected by the control. The drawback was how unpracticed Vemili was- how long he suppressed his powers that with his focus on trying to keep Vednir’s animalistic state under control, the command to ‘freeze’ began to lift from the farthest end of the radius of his power. By the time he had dragged Vednir to Anttan, well aware of their little hallway they used, the command was lifted entirely from the crowd. Panic set back in and soon his manager and the bouncers began to crowd control hard. 
“What the FUCK, Anttan.” Vemili snarled, shoving Vednir into his arms. His snarling felt so unlike him that even out of his mind, Anttan knew something was wrong. 
“He’s not himself!” Anttan defended, his arms feeling puddy like as he tried to keep Vednir’s body restrained. 
“Put him in that office there,” Vemili hissed, fishing out a keyring to unlock the door. As he did, Hexaly ran up to him, out of breath. 
“Vemili, what the hell is happening? Gre, Braxtn, and Colo are getting trolls out- holy SHIT- is that him?! Is he HIGH.” 
“I’m shoving him in here till he sobers up.” Vemili explained while Anttan dumped Vednir’s body into the windowless room. The door was closed behind him, sealing him as the effects of Vemili’s voodoos began to fade, and as the lock was clicked into place, Anttan could hear Vednir’s growling and snarling while he started to pull at the door handle. It like inhuman. 
“Wait- wait I know someone- uhhh. Fuck uhh he has a descendant! He can help him.”
“You want to invite MORE blood suckers into my club?!” Vemili balled his fist, readying to swing at Anttan- but Anttan instead scrambled to find Vednir’s phone from his bag, discarded by their original spot just a few feet away. He didn’t have a lot of coordination, but he shakily began to go through it, finding the recent message thread with a troll named Tuuya. Was that his kid? He coulda swore the kid’s name was something with an H.
He pressed call anyway, praying for an answer.
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mourntheantagonist · 3 years
Text
Billy Hargrove’s Exploration Of Beauty
| part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 |
Part 7: When Blue Met Pink
chapter one: joyce
also on ao3
Billy pulled into the parking space outside of Melvald’s with a screech of the tires. The body of the car slightly jerked forward once he finally came to a complete stop just before he would hit the yellow parking block. The right tire sat just outside the white line, a rookie looking parking job to say the least.
With his wallet in one hand, and his keys twirled around the index finder of his other, as he heard the metal pieces clank, he walked through the glass doors into the store. He heard the chime of the opening door ring through the mostly empty space.There were only a few people. An old lady who was carefully inspecting the soup aisle, and a middle aged woman with her toddler son who were walking past the ice cream. The little kid with his hand up in the air, his finger pointed to the tub of rocky road that was barely visible through fogged over glass. He noticed the exhausted eyes of the woman masked by heavy mascara and shadow. “I already said no Daniel.” she sighed. Joyce Byers was at the counter, her elbows resting by the cash register, head propped up in her hands as she stared blankly in front of her with her head tilted in a way that indicated she was thinking about something that the rest of the world just couldn’t comprehend.
He ignored the total three figures that roamed the aisles of the small little corner store, offered a wave and a smile to Mrs. Byers that went completely unnoticed, and got to the task at hand. Not there to pick up some milk or butter like Neil always had him do whenever they ran out, as if he was the one sneaking spoonfuls of butter at two in the morning. No, that was all Max, the fucking weirdo. He also wasn’t there to pick up a pack of cigarettes, though he probably would once he got to the counter, considering the phrase “pack of reds” served as his default greeting to every cashier. He was there, at Melvald’s, at three in the afternoon, like a fucking sap, because he was buying little treats for the boyfriend he had waiting for him at the big house off of 3rd avenue, a movie and hopefully more as their evening plans.
He knew what Steve liked. He hated what Steve liked. But despite his utter disgust over strawberry fruit snacks tainting delicious cheddar cheese popcorn, the smile on Steve’s face whenever he tossed a new box of Sunkist Fun Fruits at him was worth the effort of sifting through the bowl. He located the snack aisle and picked out the familiar yellow and red box, along with some Orville Redenbacher. The time on the clock overhead read only a quarter after three, and Steve wouldn’t be home from dealing with the nerd herd until at least a quarter ‘til, so with his extra time, he continued to browse.
He picked up a couple of other things. A box of Twinkies so he could make some of his favorite jokes, some Ho Hos so Steve could make some of his. The basket was slowly filled to the brim with junk food, indicative of a truly wild night ahead of him.
On his way to the refrigerated section to scope out the drinks, the glimpse of a carefully assorted rainbow of colors stopped him in his tracks. It’s a small section, no more than two and a half feet in diameter, but at almost the instant he recognized the familiarly shaped bottles on display, he went on complete pause. There was nobody anywhere around him, no sound of nearing footsteps, so he let himself stand there and ponder. Let himself imagine just reaching out and touching something on display as he kept his eyes averted, locked straightforwardly toward the cases of beer behind translucent refrigerator doors. He just stared blankly, with an inner attempt to form some reasonable excuse to be a man who was looking at makeup.
“Oh, Max asked me to pick it up for her.”
He settled on that one.
And turned his head.
He was just going to look. That was all.
There held a whole magnitude of various beauty products, from polishes, to moisturizers, to lipsticks…
That rosy pink stared right back at him like it was screaming at him to pick it up. To look. To swatch. To taste. To feel that velvety cream cover his lips. A tint similar to that of his own lips but just more… pretty. Smooth and elegant and airbrushed. “Soft matte look,” it read.
He wanted it.
He wanted to add it into the basket of goodies he’s already collected as another treat for himself. Maybe a treat for Steve if he decides he likes it.
They discussed it in the past in a very, tip-toed around the subject kind of way. Steve gently held his hand in his as he applied a light pink varnish, similar to that of the lipstick shade, onto his nails. Steady hands perfectly coated the area without any sign of streaks or rough edges. They’d reached a point where that was routine, a little thing Billy could have of himself while they were alone together. Another thing they could add onto the list. It was something Billy felt just a little bit of safety around taking with him that one time. When the night had gone so perfectly with hot cocoa by the furnace, and the added bonus that Neil wouldn’t be home to inspect his appearance, he said no to the cotton balls and acetone and the clear coat replacement and instead let color coated nails remain under the cloak of his jacket pockets. He was on cloud nine as he walked through the door of his own house with concealed hands and no questions asked. He locked the door to his room and allowed himself to stare down at his hands. Fingers splayed against his bedding looking at how the pink contrasted with the blue of his sheets, and he felt an overwhelming sense of contentment and a little dash of pride.
That same night, while his nails were going from bland to bold, Steve popped the question like it held no weight at all. Like it was just a casual sort of thing used to fill the silent gaps.
“Have you thought about wearing makeup at all?”
He didn’t even look at him when he said it, completely enthralled in the way the bristles contacted the nail, so he didn’t see Billy's eyes widen like saucers. However, he did notice as the hand in his hold began trembling.
Steve ever so slightly tightened his grip to help reduce the shaking, his eyes angled up at Billy finally, the painting temporarily discontinued. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.
No. Yes? The thing was, with Steve’s first question, the answer was yes. He had thought about it. All the damn time. Like a woodpecker pecking away at his skull, he thought about it. Every time he saw a woman with a shimmer on her eyes, black in her waterline, a shine to her lips, a rosy tint to her cheeks… he felt unbridled envy. He wanted to feel the way they felt. Billy wanted powder to clog his pores and give his face a uniform color. Become a blank slate. He envied that soft and smooth and gentle and pretty appearance.
He found himself on more than one occasion sneaking into the master bathroom where Susan had kept all of her make up. Too scared to touch it, he would just look at it. Try to psyche himself up to reach for that little tube of Mary Kay mascara and shove it into his pocket before the rumble of the truck outside would shake the house.
Instead he would slam the drawer shut and rush back to his room and forget it even happened as he bit away at his clear coated nails. He’d fall back onto his pillow and let his eyes fall shut. He would let the darkness consume him into a dream where he didn’t have to be afraid to add volume to his already long lashes or add a tinted gloss to his lips. He’d enjoy the free feeling for as long as it would last.
So yeah. He thought about wearing makeup.
He didn’t tell Steve that though. Instead he chose to only respond to the second question. Because some things were just a little too hard to say out loud. Some things were a little too foreign.
As much as Billy wanted to bridge that gap between femininity and masculinity, he also had every desire to keep them separate. To push away all of those urges to wear lacy lingerie and silk panties. Keep his hair short, face and nails bare and unkempt. Smell of sweat and hard work like a man. “I’m fine.” he said in lieu of the complete truth. It didn’t feel or sound like a lie when he said it. But later on he figures out that it definitely was.
They had that conversation already, but it didn’t keep those thoughts from lingering. His mind was boggled with confusion about who he was and what he liked and the additional bafflement over how simple it all was to Steve.
So simple in fact that he said the most perfect thing as if it was just another instinctual flick of the tongue.
“Well I can bet you’d look real pretty with lipstick.”
It was said like he wants it. Not just for Billy’s sake, but his own, and that right there felt amazing.
That was the first night he finally let his hands sift through that drawer of Susan’s and sneak away a couple of items. Susan and Neil had yet to arrive home from their trip into the city so Billy was safe. He had painted nails that felt like a shield. When he held the tube of mascara, the nude bullet lipstick, and the only bottle of polish he could find in his own hands, he felt completely untouchable.
He locked himself in his own room and stood in front of his makeshift vanity. Tossed the stolen objects into the mess of cologne, hairspray, and cigarette ash. He just studied himself for a moment. Hunched over taking deep and shaky breaths, in and out. Every logical thought in his mind was shouting at him to go put it back. To put it somewhere other than his room. That dreadful thought that just its temporary occupancy in his room would be easily detected by Neil, even if he chucked it out of his window right then, scared him. It was all too risky to be doing in his own house, yet he still twisted open the cap of the mascara and pulled out the wand.
It was in that moment that Billy had no fucking clue what he was doing. Didn’t even know where to begin.
He just closed it right back up, slipped it underneath a stack of records, and moved on. He twisted open the lipstick only to be met with a very light shade. Lighter than his own skin color. Applied to his lips it just looked absolutely ridiculous. It didn’t give him that pop of vibrancy he envied in the women he saw. It made his lips feel more sunken in and lifeless, rather than big and beautiful.
And he already knew he hated the nail polish. He didn’t even have to apply it. It was a rust color, like a dirty orange. Billy hated the color orange, and mixing it with brown didn’t fucking improve it.
It was all a total bust. A complete waste of his energy. With his sleeve he wiped the lipstick from his lips and stowed away the rest of the contraband. He went to bed feeling extra shitty, the despair of empty darkness was the only thing included in his night.
He stopped letting himself think about makeup since that night. All it achieved was making him feel disappointed and just... bad. No other way to describe it.
But it all came flooding back when he saw the display. Not the bad feelings, the good ones, the ones he had in his dreams. The feeling of completion that couldn’t be realized with the makeup Susan guilt purchased off of a friend’s “growing small business.” There was a little hope growing in the pit of his stomach as he let himself peruse the many options at his disposal. A little bit of hope that maybe he just didn’t have the right stuff.
He just held the pink lipstick in his hand. He debated between dropping it into the basket or hanging it back up on the hook. Twiddling it in between his fingers, he let his mind race to many different places. Emotions of fear and joy clashed in his mind, like he couldn’t have one without facing the other.
But fear wasn’t dependent on joy. Because a small woman cleared her throat next to him and, surely enough, the only thing he was feeling at that moment was complete terror. Not an ounce of happiness to be seen.
It was Joyce Byers.
Well shit.
“Whatcha got there?” she asked, neck craned to the left to make out what he had tightly clasped between his fingers.
“It’s for Max.” he said, too assuredly. Like it was clearly a prepared statement, the lie obvious in the pitch of his voice.
“Really? Max doesn’t strike me as a makeup girl.” It’s not really accusatory, not necessarily. But he could hear it. That ever so slight undertone in her voice that had disbelief written all over it. Her head was cocked just like it was when he first walked into the store, and it felt like she was reading him like a goddamn open book.
Billy couldn’t seem to find the words, unsure how to defend himself in the situation he was completely unprepared for. Stood there in silence as he let the words filter through his brain, waiting for the right ones to pop up in front of him, but they never did. He never really knew how to talk to older women other than through excessive and overdone flirtation.
“What shade did you pick?”
With no other choice in his immediate thoughts, he handed the lipstick tube over. She slowly took it away from his slightly too tight of a grip. She had a slight smile when she pulled off the cap to see the rose colored tip slowly rise out as she twists the bottom of the silver tube.
“This is pretty, though I think a shade like this would complement a skin tone more like your own. Wouldn’t you agree?”
That was the invitation, right there in that subtle little nod. She made eye contact with him before she quickly turned her eyes downward at his hands. the same hands that were nervously chipping away at dried, hideous, rust colored nail polish that he painted just before he left as a little surprise for Steve. Even though he hated the color, even though his right hand looked much better than his left. Ambidexterity was not something in his wheelhouse. He immediately stuffed his one free hand into his pocket, and tossed the other one that was currently holding his basket of groceries behind his back. As if she hadn’t already seen. She’d figured him out like some elementary math problem. The lipstick and the nail polish was just a 2 + 2 = 4 kind of situation.
“I don’t - this isn’t…” He couldn’t get a full sentence out because he really had no clue as to how to deny it, and there’s also a weird feeling that he loathes where he’s not sure he even wants to. She was just Joyce Byers. His only connection to the woman had a pretty long chain. Steve’s ex’s boyfriend’s Mom. Or Max’s friend’s Mom. Nothing direct. Nothing so close that he had to truly fear. Additionally, she was being nice? She wasn’t doing the things he’d always expected people to do. She wasn’t spewing slurs or making fun. There was a genuine motherly interest in the way she asked for the color that wasn’t completely foreign, but it was something so far away in his past that it might as well have been.
His face got red from just his own natural blush. His heart was racing, beating out of his chest until he could hear the blood pumping in his ears. He felt like he’s being submerged under water until there was a small, cold hand pulling at his own.
“Come with me.” she says, her voice soft and planned. Billy just let her guide him, giving up and giving in to the little temptation to let someone else inside of the little sanctuary he built for himself. Even if all it was was just a small little glimpse into Billy’s secret world he’d only just begun exploring. He had so many things left to discover, things he wouldn’t find if he let his fear and shame dictate everything.
Joyce led him into the compact supply closet in the back of the store. They’re surrounded by shelves filled with boxes and various miscellany. He felt slightly suffocated in the small enclosure, but simultaneously a weird feeling of warmth in the way Joyce smiled at him. A soft upturn of the corners of her mouth, lips still sealed but the sincerity clear in the brightness of her eyes and the slight rise of her brows.
“What were you looking to get?” she asks. Unspecific yet specific. She left a name unattached to the end of the question on purpose to give Billy the opportunity for an out, if he wanted to deny the thing they both knew to be true.
“Lipstick? Gloss maybe? I don’t - I’m not sure I…”
After taking the full basket from his hands and setting it onto the floor, Joyce took his hands into her own again.
“It’s okay, y’know, if it’s not for Max.”
She was so straightforward. She just got right to the point without it feeling like an attack. Just strode right in with unwavering acceptance and affirmation. Letting him know that it was okay.
He looked at Joyce and saw his mom. Not the mom who abandoned him with Neil, but the mom who did things like this. The one who would cradle him after a nightmare and who told him he was destined for greatness. The one who encouraged him to be himself even when his father had other ideas.
“You know who you are. Nobody else gets to say differently.” she’d tell him when his father forced him into baseball and threw out his stuffed animals. Neil would go on to replace the keepsakes that represented softness with model cars and legos. It was just an act of toughening him up and preparing him to become a man at the ripe old age of seven. He was reminded daily of his role as a man in society with little tests just to make sure he stayed in line.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Red.” he’d say, when he wanted to say purple.
He’d get berated when he cried when he got hurt.
“If you want to cry I’ll give you something to cry about,” Neil would say, as he stuck a hydrogen peroxide saturated cotton ball into the open wound.
Billy’s Mom never did that. Always warned him about the sting and rubbed his arm the whole way through. Preaching the opposite of everything his Dad would say. “It’s okay to cry, honey. Just let it out.”
His Mom was beautiful. He loved to sit in the bathroom and watch her as she put on her makeup. He’d seen the way her mouth dropped open when she applied mascara to her eyes, the way she smacked her lips together after she swiped on her favorite red lipstick... he wanted to be just like her.
He’d stolen from her once, and it didn’t end well. It was just a red lipstick. He was caught, almost literally, red handed. When his father had barged into his bedroom without so much as a knock, the red on his lips turned into red elsewhere. It was a mistake he learned never to repeat.
After all that, there he was, in a store where he listened to a woman tell him that all of the things he was raised to believe were far from okay, were perfectly okay. With Steve’s voice in his head echoing that of his Mom’s and Joyce’s, he let himself actually believe it this time.
“Thanks.” Billy said. It’s the closest thing he’ll get to an admission. He can’t outright say it, but in the way her smile widened before she turned around, he knew she understood.
“So,” she said, “–I have some product we can’t sell because the seals were broken. They’re still perfectly fine if you would like them.” She pulled a couple of things from the box on the lower shelf. The same lipstick he’d held out in the store along with a clear gloss, a small eyeshadow palette, some face powder and mascara. A full face worth of makeup moved from the palms of her hands into his own, accepting them with a nod of his head and the sniffle of someone trying to hold back tears.
“Are you sure?” he asked. A question with multiple meanings. All of which Joyce seems to pick up on. She pulled him into a tight hug. A warmth encompassed him all around that made him feel so overcome and just… good. Joyful and free like a painful growth was painlessly removed along with the truth’s reveal.
“Yes. I’m sure Billy. It’s okay.” An answer with multiple meanings.
They both exit the small closet, it felt like a metaphor for something. He headed up to the counter to buy his items, and Joyce began scanning his things when she got another smile on her face.
“Special occasion tonight?” she asked.
“Yeah. I got a hot date.” Not a lie.
She laughed a little before she punched the keys on the register.
“Anything else I can get for you Billy?”
Billy smiled.
“A pack of Reds.”
- : -
When Billy pulled into the driveway of Steve’s house he barged right in through the front door. He held the paper bag close to his chest and he shouted an “I have arrived!” that echoed up the stairs and all the way up to Steve’s room. Billy could hear the springs of Steve’s bed before he got up and rushed down the stairs to greet him with a little peck on the lips, immediately taking the bag from Billy’s hands to begin the formal review of his selections.
Steve set the bag onto the coffee table and began to sift through all of the things Billy bought. He tossed the cigarette pack at Billy with aggressive force before going right back into the bag.
The real surprise laid close to the bottom of the bag, hidden beneath the Twinkies and the popcorn and all the other junk food that had Steve beaming. Food was truly the easiest way to Steve’s heart.
Billy stood there tapping his foot and grabbing at his hands behind his back as he waited for Steve to see all the other things he got, to give him that little reaction he always knew would be positive, no matter the voices in his head that told him otherwise.
He seemed to have reached the bottom of the bag when he stalled. He just stared into the bottom of the brown paper bag, the table already covered in scattered candy and snacks, the only things left in the bag were the gifts from Joyce.
“Please tell me you’re going to put this on tonight.” Steve finally turned to look at him with an absolute ridiculous smile on his face. His mouth and eyes couldn’t possibly get any wider than they were right then. He seemed so fucking excited and it all radiated straight into Billy, and all he could do was walk up to him and kiss him. Billy pulled Steve’s face with both hands and practically consumed him like he was one of those Hostess desserts. Two untameable smiles pressed up against each other.
Billy reached for the tube of lipstick out of the bag and held it in between the two of them, he asked, “Are you going to help me put it on?”
Billy was wrong. Steve’s smile could get wider. Steve took Billy by the hand and sat him down on the couch, taking the bag with him as he straddled Billy’s lap.
“You know what you’re doing pretty boy?” Billy asked. He pushed Steve’s hair behind his ears as he looked up at him in awe. He relished in Steve’s excitement that was perfectly matching his own. It was all he could ever ask for.
“Yeah,” he said, “I’ve seen Nancy do it enough times.” Billy rolls his eyes at the mention of her name. Steve poked him in the face, causing Billy's face to scrunch. “Oh get over it Billy, I am.”
Billy was already shaking with anticipation and just wanted to get on with it without the mention of Steve’s former girlfriend. “Just shut up. Make me the prettier one.”
“Oh you already are, gorgeous.”
Steve twisted open the lipstick and carefully held Billy’s chin up so he was looking directly at him. With a steady hand and a soft touch, the smooth cream brushed against his lips and coated them to perfection. No overdrawn lines or transferring to his teeth, the color suited him so well, just a soft pink just slightly darker and more vibrant than the color of his own. It made his lips look bolder and fuller than they already were.
“Now look straight forward for me,” Steve said before he reached into the bag for another piece of product. “–and raise your eyebrows.” Steve twisted and pulled the wand from the metallic gold tube, the black bristles looked like spider legs. “Okay, hold still.”
“I swear to God Steve, if you poke me in the fucking eye–”
“Have some faith in me, damn!”
Fortunately for both Billy and Steve, none of the black goopy liquid found its way into Billy’s eyes. There was only a minor sting that, with time, he could easily see himself get used to. The sensation was followed by the feeling of soft bristles going in circles around his cheeks. Steve had asked him to smile for the application, but that wasn’t the reason he was doing it. The look of focus in Steve’s eyes along with the slight exposure of the tip of his tongue through his mostly sealed lips had sent Billy reeling.
Steve leaned back to get a complete view of his work. “Wow, I’m good.”
“Okay, hot shot,” Billy said with a nudge to his shoulder, “show me then.”
In a moment of surprising strength, Steve hoisted Billy up and over his shoulder by the grab of his ass. Billy’s stomach had come to rest right on the point of Steve’s shoulder, which sent him into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. His voice fluctuated and bounced with each step Steve took down the hall toward the bathroom. Billy clung to Steve’s shirt, hiking it up past the midpoint of his as he did so.
“Oh my god! Put me down!” he laughed.
Billy’s legs flailed, with the result of a knocked over a lamp and a bruised ankle from the abrupt contact with the doorframe.
“Ow!”
“Sorry!”
Steve sat Billy on the edge of the sink, his face still faced away from the mirror. They were still coming down from their laughter when Billy, seemingly having forgotten about the makeover that he had just been given not even a full minute ago, leant down in an attempt to lay one right onto Steve.
“Hey, don’t ruin it before you even see it!” Steve pushed him back away from him and then helped him down from the sink and with a comforting grip of Billy’s biceps, he turned him around. “See? it looks so good on you!” Steve stood behind Billy with his hands trailing down to his waist, head over his shoulder, looking at him like he was his brilliant creation. Steve Harrington’s masterpiece, his most prized possession. “Wait right here, I got you something.”
Left alone in the bathroom, Billy was able to just let himself stare. Let himself lean in close to the mirror, his nose nearly touched the glass as he studied the tint to his lips, the definition to his lashes, the slight pink to his cheeks... It was the first time he ever looked at himself, like really looked at himself, and saw someone pretty. He truly believed it this time.
Steve came back with a bag of his own. It was a small bag with a French name on the side of it Black, and elegant, and Billy already had an idea of what’s inside. The day just kept on getting better. Billy tore the tissue out of the bag, and pulled the pieces of fabric out. It was a dust rose garter belt with stockings, panties, and a bralette, a perfect match for his lips. The lace was so sheer and the baroque floral patterns were so elegant he wanted nothing more than to just put it on right there. Strip himself down to the bare essentials and allow the openwork to protect him.
“You think you wanna give me a fashion show?” Steve asked, pulling the sleeves of Billy’s jacket down over his shoulders. Billy smiled and pushed Steve gently out the bathroom door and shut it right in his face.
He wasted no time putting it on. The way the fabric sat on his hips and his chest felt almost like it was tailored specifically to him. Enough room in the crotch area while also perfectly hugging his hips. The stockings squeezing his thighs just the perfect amount. There was no uncomfortable overhang in the bralette. He had never felt more comfortable wearing anything before. The pink on tan skin, the emphasis on every curve of his. He felt so soft and pretty and almost totally complete. He was just missing one thing.
Billy strutted out of the bathroom with a genuine conviction he’d never had before. There was no fear this time, no tears. Just pure elation at the prospect of Steve seeing him like this. Loving the way he looks in lingerie and makeup. Loving him for who he is and thinking he’s still hot. Still sexy and attractive.
“Holy shit you look fucking amazing baby.” Steve slowly walked toward him. He took in the whole view, committing the entire sight to memory because it was absolutely glorious. “I hope you aren’t mad,” he began, his hands finding Billy’s hips. “but I had my Mom pick it up while she was in Paris. I found out they make men’s lingerie there and I wanted you to have something special. She doesn’t know who it was for, but she knows I’m dating a guy now.”
They had never really discussed the topic of coming out. It felt like something that didn’t need to be said. Telling people was something so far off the radar of possibility that Billy felt a creeping sensation of absolute dread before he was finally able to open up his mouth to speak.
“And she was okay with it?”
Steve smiled and bowed his head just slightly. “Surprisingly, yeah. She was the one who wanted to pick something up for you. So I jumped on the chance.”
“Does your Dad know?” Steve laughed and shook his head.
“God I hope not. His brain would probably explode.” Billy pulled Steve in by the hold of his cheeks, and let their foreheads touch while they stared deep into each other’s eyes. Steve’s hands traced up and down the curves of Billy’s body, fingers dragged against the lace and their smiles were uncontrollable. “I’m sorry, I should have asked you first.”
“Hey,” Billy’s voice was soft, “I’m happy for you.” Steve's sigh of relief was hot against Billy’s mouth. “And thank you, for this.” he said before the distance between them was finally closed and lips were pressed to lips, pink color smeared all over each other’s faces.
The only thing better than wearing that lipstick was having Steve ruin it.
next part
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lost-in-the-80s · 4 years
Text
It’s You pt. 1
Pairing: Duff McKagan x (fem) reader
Words: 2,002k.
Summary: You and Duff are best friends and you help him to impress a girl. You should be happy for him, but then why do you feel sad? You couldn’t like him, could you? (fluff + angst) 
A/N: 1- So, it got bigger than I expected, so I'll post the second part in the future.
         2- I didn't want to use a name for the girl, just in case it was someone's name, because it would be weird lol. Therefore, we are always calling her "She".
Tag list: @roger-taylors-car​ @ladieswttda​ add yourself to my tag list :)
Part 2
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It was the year of 1983, Y/N was at The Rainbow with her friends, drinking and laughing about something, when he entered the place. He had blue hair and almost didn’t pass through the door due to his height. 
He looked so lost, checking booth after booth, trying to find something. He moved towards the bar, where he sat and asked for a beer. 
Y/N didn’t know why, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. So she decided to go and start a conversation. Draining the rest of her beer she stood up and moved towards the open seat beside him.
 “I’ve never seen you here.” He looked to the side and saw a tall girl with a kind smile on her face. “I’m Y/N, by the way!”. She extended her hand for him to shake. 
“I’m Duff.” He gave her a small smile and shook her hand, wishing he had put on a nicer jacket. “Funny name.” She said while asking for another beer. 
“So, where are you from?” She drank from the bottle and his eyes moved to her lips. He looked to her eyes and realized she was staring at him, waiting for his answer.
He cleared his throat. “Seattle” 
“Cool, I’m from Sitka.” He looked at her as if he was trying to think where the hell that city was. “It’s in Alaska.” She stated and saw his eyes light up a little with realization.
“So… What brings a Seattle boy to California?” He looked into her eyes and said firmly “I’m going to be in a band!” From hearing that Y/N had no doubt, he would be. The way he said it as if it was the only thing he was sure in his life, made her even more curious about him.
“What about you? California doesn't seem like something Alaskan people are into.” She laughed slightly and he thought that was a heavenly sound. “I got tired of nothing happening in my life. Wanted some change. So one day I decided I would come here.” 
“What do you do here?” He asked after he drank from his beer. “I'm a photographer!” He raised his brows. “Maybe when you find a band I can take the pictures for you!” 
He smiled at her. She was the first person to be nice to him in that town. Ever since he arrived the only human contacts he had were with the grumpy lady from the hotel he was staying at, and a man who he bumped into, on his way to the bar. 
“When did you get here? You still look kinda lost.” Duff looked at her and asked for another beer before answering. “Yesterday. I’m staying in a hotel down the street until I find somewhere to stay.” 
“If I were you, I wouldn’t stay there. A friend of mine stayed and got one of his bags stolen. Nobody really checks to see if the rooms are safe and shit.” 
This made Duff worried. He had all his guitars there. “Where do you think I could stay?” 
“There is a nice place near the beach, but it’s kind of expensive.” He frowned worriedly. 
“I haven’t got a job yet, can’t stay in somewhere that costs too much.” 
She finished her beer and thought for a while. “You know what? Fuck it. You can stay at my place for a while.”
“Re-really?” She got him surprised, that’s for sure. She nodded her head and giggled at his expression. “But you don’t even know me.” He said.
“Yeah, but I know how it is to be new in somewhere you don’t know anyone.” She paused for a while. “Plus, you’re a nice guy. I can see it in your eyes.” 
“Are you sure?”
“Fuck yeah, Duff!” He laughed at her exasperation. 
She stood up and took a ten-dollar bill out of her jeans pocket putting it on the counter. “Come on, let’s take your stuff from that place before it’s too late.” 
-------
Now it was 1986. They became best friends after that night. Duff stayed at Y/N’s place for about two weeks until he found someone to share an apartment with. She helped him find a job and went with him on his first rehearsal with Road Crew.
She saw Road Crew slowly fade as Duff was invited to this new band Guns n Roses. She saw how in doubt he was about leaving a punk band to be in a rock one. She also saw how happy he was after his first gig with them and from that day on, she knew they would make it big.
She was always there, helping them with everything and being their number one fan. 
It was a strangely cold night in March, she was at the hell house with the boys, watching a horror movie and eating pizza. That’s when Duff entered the house. He slammed the front door shut and went straight to his room. Something had happened.
Taking a deep breath, Y/N followed him, closing his door behind her. He was walking from one wall to another while mumbling something. “What’s going on Duff?” 
He looked at her for a while before he started to speak. “She said I’m nobody!” Y/N frowned. “Said my band is nothing.” He was so exasperated. “Said that I can call her when we are famous” He ran his hands through his hair.
Y/N knew who he was talking about. She was a secretary Duff met a couple of weeks ago at The Rainbow. He was head over hills for her since day one. Always trying to impress her, but she always dismissed him.
“Fucking bitch.” Y/N said. “Fuck her, you deserve better than someone who cares for this crap.” 
He rolled his eyes. He didn’t like it when Y/N talked like that about her. He knew she never really liked her, always saying that she wasn’t nice or that she didn’t like her personality, but still, he liked her.
It was true, Y/N didn’t like her at all. But it was because she was a bitch. Y/N didn’t like calling someone that, but it was true. Every time Duff was around, she would ask him if she was beautiful, touch his arm suggestively or call him “Duffy” and then, when he tried to start some sort of conversation, she would completely ignore him or answer in the rudest way. Y/N hated that because she knew how bad Duff got every time it happened.
“I’ll make it big Y/N! I’ll prove to her that I am somebody. And then we will finally be together!” Y/N rolled her eyes. “You never listen to me do you?” She said, exiting the bedroom and closing the door once again. 
Two weeks passed after that, and on March 26, Guns signed with Geffen Records. That was it. That contract said they were serious and said they were starting to make it big. 
She went out with the boys that night to celebrate, drinking until late. Around 3 am she helped Izzy and Axl drag the other three back to their house. She was so wasted that she ended up passing out on the couch. 
The next morning she woke up to someone talking excitedly. She looked to her side and saw Duff on the phone. “Probably telling his mom.” she thought to herself. Closing her eyes she decided to sleep a bit more. 
Before she could sleep again, she felt someone shaking her. “Y/N! Wake up!” It was Duff. 
“What?” She said. Her voice raspy due to her sleepiness. “I called Jane and…” Before he could finish she interjected. “Who the fuck is Jane?” 
“Her friend, the one with black hair.” Y/N thought for a while. “The nice one?”
“Yeah Y/N, the nice one. Continuing… I told her we got the label and said I wanted to make her a surprise, and Jane said they are going to the amusement park tomorrow, so I guess I’m going too.” He laughed a little. 
Y/N didn’t say anything, because she had nothing nice to say. She just wanted to roll her eyes and say that he was being stupid, but decided to remain silent. 
“Can you paint my hair today? I want to look nice.” He was smiling like a child. “Fine, but only if you let me sleep.” He nodded fastly and left the living room.
She didn’t know why, but she felt a tightness in her heart. She thought about Duff and her together and she started to feel a certain sadness fill her chest. She sighed and covered her head with a pillow, hoping that she could sleep soon, so she wouldn’t have to think about that anymore. 
The afternoon arrived and she was awakened by Slash, who slightly touched her shoulder, telling her they had made lunch. She got up stretching her body and moving towards the kitchen. 
After lunch, she went to the drug store with Duff. They bought all the necessary products to bleach his hair and she had to hear him talking about her the whole way. She wanted so bad to throw the plastic bag with the products on his head and tell him to shut up, but decided against it. 
Back at the house, duff grabbed a chair and sat in front of the bathroom mirror with a bag of Doritos in his lap, while Y/N worked on his hair. 
All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix started playing on the small radio they took along. Y/N lightened a cigarette taking a drag from it while dancing. She loved Hendrix. 
She moved with every guitar note she listened, and Duff could do nothing but to watch her from the mirror, almost as if she had hypnotized him. She was the coolest girl he knew, with so much attitude and sweetness at the same time, he didn’t even know why, but she fascinated him in every single way.
He laughed as she stopped moving and started to pretend she was playing guitar. She was horrible at playing, Slash, Izzy and even him had tried teaching her, but she always got frustrated after a few minutes and damned that to hell.  The music came to an end, and she started to focus on Duff’s hair again.
After a good 1 hour, Duff's hair was done. He smiled at his reflection in the mirror and high fived Y/N, thanking her. They exited the bathroom and went to the backyard, where the boys were. 
Duff grabbed a beer and sat beside Axl and Izzy on the bench while Y/N moved to the grass area and started playing with Izzy’s dog. 
“Feeling ready to impress her now?” Axl asked. “Fuck yeah!”
“I still think you’re making a mistake by going after her.” Axl said and Duff frowned. “If she didn’t want to be with you while you were growing, she doesn’t deserve to be with you now.” 
“Cut it, man, you don’t know her” He replied while drinking from his beer. “And do you?” It was Izzy. Duff rolled his eyes and watched Y/N. She giggled while playing with the dog’s ears. 
"You know… I always thought you and Y/N would end up together" Axl said.
"Why?"
"I don't know man, but there is a strong connection between the two of you." Hearing that Duff looked back to Y/N, he saw she was now fake fighting with Slash and a small smile appeared on his lips.
"Plus, friends don't look at each other like that!"
"What do you mean?" Duff frowned.
"Like, the way you look at each other, is as if you loved each other." 
"Just like you were looking at her now." Izzy added.
Duff didn't say anything, he drank from his beer and started to think. Could he love Y/N in a way that friends shouldn't love each other?
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Text
Red Has Always Been My Favorite Color
@kiingz made a post, and the tags said #i do be shipping carmen and roman because of the projection And so, obviously, I had to write something so I can finally make content again.  Carmen is @nachosforfree‘s oc for Nico’s sides, as seen here! (I have just learned that technically Ender and Elliot/@iridescentmolars came up with Carmen, but how he looks is in the linked post)
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Summary: Thomas isn’t the only person that falls in love at the mall. But, as a side, dealing with love is a lot harder than it is for humans. So Roman looks for the perfect moment to talk to this crimson cutie.  Also called the 4 times Roman saw Carmen and the 1 time he did something about it
Ships: Nico’s creativity (Carmen) and Thomas’ light creativity (Roman), background Intrulogical
Warnings: Swearing, ask to tag!
Ao3
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1.
The first time Roman saw him was across the food court at the mall.
Roman could wax poetry of a faux setting and a romantic mood as much as he liked, but his first sighting of this new special someone was no where near as exciting. The truly exhilarating experience was the one he felt in his chest when the man turned around, adjusted his gold rimmed glasses and gave him a sweet smile.
Roman was lovestruck.
He assumed so, at least, as a rhyme fell from his lips and Thomas turned to stare in confusion. It certainly made sense, he decided, as the man in the pink cardigan tilted his head delicately and whispered something into his host’s ear.
He wanted to be lovestruck, that much he knew. He wanted something like his brother’s, something more than the tug at his heartstrings that he felt every time Thomas fell for a new guy. He wanted love because it felt right.
So he locked eyes with the man in the pink sweater while Thomas tried the same. He wiggled his eyebrows and tried to get a point across as Thomas dropped his head into his hands. He grinned in satisfaction as he got his new crush to laugh, and felt a warmth in his chest grow, a feeling that was beautiful and powerful, and felt much better than the bare scraps of love Thomas’ crushes let him feel.
“Talk to him!” Roman would hum, hoping the interaction would get him closer.
“Just walk up!” He huffed as Virgil pushed Thomas away.
And perhaps it was selfish, to want Thomas to spend time with someone just because of the pretty boy that came with him, but Roman felt something so pretty bubble up in him when the side so much as glanced his way, and he thought that maybe -  maybe  - he’d let himself be selfish this one time.
Then Thomas went to the washroom and stared at himself and talked and spoke from his heart and everything Roman and Virgil has asked him to do and Roman felt something else, so unlike the feeling he’d become used to, build up in his chest that hurt so, so, so much more than it should’ve, and he wondered if he was doing something wrong.
A man came out of the washroom stall, and Thomas lied, and Roman felt the lump in his throat grow.
Virgil got upset, and Thomas was rude, and Roman felt his eyes prick with tears.
Thomas’ crush - Nico, they learned - was alone now. No handsome man in gold rimmed library glasses and a pink sweater and a sun stitched onto his breast.
Thomas and Nico sat down to talk, and Roman felt his heart sing with Thomas’ love.
It was far more dull of a song than he remembered.
2.
The second time Roman saw Pretty Pink was when Thomas and Nico went on their first proper date. It was a simple date, only a walk along a trail in the cold afternoon. It was fall now (Or “Halloween: The month,” as Virgil had dubbed it), and the leaves were slowly changing color, giving a lovely new look to the trail’s normally green and brown theme.
“It’s prettier now,” Logan said, curled up on the side of the couch, a heavy blanket tossed over him.
Roman nodded from the kitchen as Virgil made a noise of vague agreement from his spot lying face down on the other half of the sofa.
Roman brought himself over to the living room, mug of hot chocolate warming his hands, and kicked Virgil’s thigh lightly.
“Move,” he hummed, bringing the mug to his lips and taking a loud, if not impatient sounding sip (Virgil likely wasn’t paying much attention, so it likely hadn’t gotten across, but it was the thought that counted).
Virgil turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. “Sit,” he said, getting a bit more comfortable. “I really need the weight.”
Roman shrugged and plopped himself down onto Virgil’s lower back and crisscrossed his legs.
He looked at the tv screen, with it’s wonderful view of the beautiful trees and Thomas’ very focused view of Nico and his red face (Roman liked to think it was because Thomas had made him blush with a smooth line, but his whole was a terrible flirt, so it was far more likely to be from the cold).
Something danced just out of Thomas’ vision though, and Roman furrowed his brows and took a quick sip of his hot chocolate-
-and nearly spit it out when Rainbows and Sunshine stepped into frame. He looked exactly the same as he did last time Roman saw him, except this time he was closer, and as such, prettier, and making it a lot harder to choke down his drink then it could’ve been.
Roman held his mug up with one hand, hoping to keep any of it’s contents from spilling out, and pressed his other fist to his mouth, coughing heavily into it. His throat burned, and he grimaced, rubbing it carefully.
“Holy shit, Roman,” Virgil said, trying to look back at him. “Are you good?”
Roman shrugged, forcing up another cough in hopes of it clearing his airway. “It’s nothing, really, I’m just- surprised.”
Both Logan and Virgil stared at him for an awkward moment, before looking at each other and sharing a silent conversation. Roman looked very deliberately at the screen (and maybe also at the pretty guy walking with Thomas and Nico, although if his eyes happened to catch, that wasn’t on him) rather than his two fellow sides.
“Surprised,” Logan said dryly, his mouth quirking up into a smirk as he looked over at the tv and the two very similar looking men on it.
“Yeah,” Roman squeaked, sounding far less confident in himself as he saw Virgil glance at the tv, Logan, and him in slowly dawning realization.
“You have a crush,” Virgil breathed, looking extremely excited for some (hopefully not blackmail related) reason.
Roman looked at the inside of his mug rather than at his friends and hummed a noncommittal sound. All it took was one glance up at the tv screen while Pretty Pink looked Thomas in the eyes, and Roman buried his face in his free hand in hopes of covering his blush.
He wasn’t sure it was working.
Logan grinned. “Oh, I can’t wait till your brother gets back, he’s going to  love this.”
Virgil rolled himself out from under Roman, falling off the couch in the process. “Hey, I don’t mean to like, be a jerk or anything, but I think this is really cute and as your best friend-“ Roman made a quiet sound of mild disagreement. “-It’s my job to make fun of you for this.” Roman made another, far louder and offended, sound of disagreement.
Roman shook his head. “There is totally something a problem with this relationship, and I don’t know what it is, but Logan is going to tell me and it’s going to make it so that you do not get to make fun of me.”
Logan snorted. “Absolutely not, this is your crush, and as little as I want to get involved with your love life, I think you should go for it.” He grinned down at the green stone that hung from his necklace. “It’s what got your brother and I together, so I’m certainly going to give the advice I can to you.”
Roman made a whining noise and Virgil hummed sympathetically.
“It really sucks to suck man,” he said comfortingly, though the words weren’t as kind as Roman thought they could’ve been. Virgil looked over towards the front door with a grin. “I do really enjoy the thought of you just going outside and saying something real quick, but you’re very nervous right now, it’s cold outside, and I’m starting to think you’re ceasing to function.”
Virgil was right, because of course he was. Roman glancing at the tv every three seconds to look at Nico’s side was turning his brain to lovestruck mush. And with mush for brains, Roman’s supposedly carefully crafted defense was a weak, “He’s very pretty.”
Virgil snorted. “Okay, lovebird, I think that’s enough of Thomas’ date for you. Next time I see that guy, I’m shoving your ass out the front door to greet him though, got it?”
Roman sighed as the tv clicked off, but shrugged none the less. “I’m not going out there without a fight, I hope you know.”
Both Logan and Virgil laughed, the latter elbowing Roman in the side. “I know! It wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”
3.
The third time Roman saw his crush was when he was with Patton.
Padre was trying (and failing) to make cookies, often misreading the instructions and adding too much of something.
The tv was on in the living room, showing Nico and Janus sitting on the edge of Thomas’ bed as the man himself recited his lines for the new play.
Part of Roman wanted to be out there, but he and Janus were in a bit of a fight, one that neither of them were interested in apologizing for. At some point they’d settled on a switching schedule, changing who got to be Thomas’ critic every time he practiced (Roman was quite sure they’d gotten to a point where neither him nor Janus would actually be upset with the other should they work together, but it would be awkward, and he didn’t much feel like dealing with that).
Roman grinned as Patton managed to spray batter in his face, slipping off the counter to try and help wipe a droplet off his face. “Take a break, padre, I don’t know if the kitchen can take any more of this,” Roman laughed.
Patton frowned at the flower and sugar scattered across the counter and his arms. “This is true. I  do really want cookies though.” He turned to look at Roman as he snapped his fingers to get rid of the mess. “Can you summon some? The ones you summon always taste  great .”
Roman put a hand to his chest. “How kind of you!” He brought his other hand up as a tray materialized on it and bowed down to reveal the perfectly crisped cookies to Patton.
Patton giggled and took one of the still warm snacks, taking a bite and giving Roman a thumbs up. “It’s awesome!”
Roman smiled in return. “Now, let’s eat these on the couch and see what mistakes we can catch Thomas make.” Patton nodded enthusiastically, though Roman was pretty sure it was at the prospect of eating cookies in the warmth of the couch.
“Actually,” Roman handed the tray to Patton, “Go sit on the couch, and I’ll make coffee.” As the fatherly side dropped onto the couch and began creating a nest for himself Roman called to him, “Oh! Tell me if anything interesting comes up!”
Patton only just finished touching up his area when he stared at the screen, confused, and hummed, “Roman, something interesting just popped up.”
Roman rolled the phrase through his mind, wondering if there was a pun hidden inside, and glanced at the tv screen, took a double take, and squealed.
He was there. He was  there.  He was there.
It was his nameless crush, sitting beside his whole and watching Thomas fumble over his words. Amusement shone in his eyes, and he leaned over to whisper something to Nico, making the human stand up and ask Thomas for the script.
Janus looked over at the other side, tilting his head to examine him.
Roman and Patton, on the other side of the tv screen, were in chaos. Roman was avoiding looking at anything but the coffee, blush deepening every second that passed. Patton was staring at the tv, mouth running a mile a minute.
“Is that-? Roman is that the guy Virgil was telling me about? Is that the guy you have a crush on? Am I supposed to push you out the door? Virgil told me that was what  he was going to do but I don’t really want to. Should you go out and talk to him? Wait actually, for sure, for sure, that’s your crush-?”
Roman buried his face in his hands as Nico grinned and told Thomas he would read the other character’s lines. “Patton,” the princely side groaned, “I’m this close to combusting.” He held up a hand and held his fingers so they almost touched.
Patton blinked, then covered his mouth. “Oops!” He gasped through his hands.
Roman waved him off. “It’s whatever, but I’d much rather watch Thomas’ mediocre acting skills then discuss this with you.”
“Don’t you mean watch your new  cru -“
“Patton!”
Patton giggled, leaning back into the couch and stuffing a cookie in his mouth. There was a moment of silence, just long enough to make it feel awkward, and Patton turned to Roman and opened his mouth.
Janus, on the tv, cut him off.
“Who are you?”
Both Patton and Roman snapped to attention as the other side blinked in surprise. “Oh, me? My name’s Carmen! I’m Nico’s creativity.”
Roman bounced, excitement running through his veins as Janus held his hand out. “My name is Janus. I’m Thomas’ deceit.”
Carmen smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Janus!”
“Absolutely dreadful  to meet you too,” Janus hummed, letting Carmen sort out the sarcasm.
Carmen paused, and Roman and Patton exchanged disappointed glances. Roman couldn’t help but flap his hands when his crush spoke next. “Do you know of a side wearing all white with a red sash?”
Janus carefully didn’t react, but his lips tilted up and he leaned back. “Oh? Are you looking for Roman?”
Carmen nodded. “I want to talk to him.” A hand came up to play with the chain on his glasses. “He looks like a fun person to be around, you know?”
“He’s certainly exuberant,” Janus agreed. “Do you want me to tell him something for you?”
Carmen looked down at his hands for a moment, contemplative. “No, no I don’t think so. I just want to talk, face to face.” His eyes flickered up to where Thomas and Nico were giggling, faces close. “Thank you for the offer though, Janus.”
Janus didn’t respond, looking at Carmen carefully. After a pause, he narrowed his eyes in almost suspicion, but said nothing, only relaxing in his spot.
“Have a good day, Carmen,” Janus said, standing up swiftly. “I highly doubt Thomas will be doing any proper acting anymore.” He walked over to the door and lay a hand on the doorknob, pausing. “I’ll make sure Roman comes out next time he sees you out here.”
Carmen smiled. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
Janus tipped his hat and opened the door, shutting it quietly behind him. He turned around, freezing when he saw Patton and Roman’s eyes on him. There was a minute of awkward silence before Janus marched toward the stairs. “You better have heard that, Roman.”
Roman blinked. “Was- Did you do that for me?”
Janus snorted. “Of  course  not, Roman, I’m  definitely  the type for small talk with some random side.”
Janus made his way up the stairs and out of view, and Roman recognized his attempt at an apology. It wasn’t a sorry, but it was Janus trying to reconcile. The least Roman could do in return was meet Carmen next time he saw him.
 4.
That next time ended up being about a week later, when Roman was laughing with his brother and Logan. They were in the living room, the tv turned on for background noise and a nest of pillows strewn about the floor for Roman’s comfort.
“Remus!” Roman snorted, attempting to pull yet another pillow from the mustached menace’s hands. “Remus, give me the pillow!”
Remus gave a sharp tug, sending Roman tumbling face first into the couch. “No,” he said, grinning.
Logan pulled his boyfriend closer to him, angling in for a kiss, and stealing the pillow when Remus went soft.
Roman cackled at his brother’s pout. “You know what?” He asked, falling back into his pile of fluff. “I’m gonna let Logan have it.”
Remus gasped in mock hurt, even as his mouth twitched up into a smile. “How could you? First my brother! Then my boyfriend! And then my brother again!”
Roman rolled over onto his stomach to look at the tv. “Sucks to be you I guess,” he sang.
Remus leaned back, crossing his arms. “It  does suck to be me,” he whined.
Logan pulled his boyfriend close, cuddling into him. “The pillow was a trap to get you to cuddle me,” he hummed into Remus’s chest.
Remus grinned. “Well then! Consider me trapped!”
There was a pause as Remus and Logan curled into each other, and Roman inspected the tv. He watched Nico as he leaned over the desk, pencil scratching.
He wondered if Carmen would come out soon.
“Hey, guys,” Roman hummed, eyes still on the screen. “What did you do when you found out you liked each other?”
Logan shifted to look at him. “We talked it out. Why?”
Remus laughed. “You kissed me and then said that you’d wanted to do that for a year. My response was ‘same.’ That’s not talking it out.”
Roman turned to look back at the two. “I feel like despite the fact that you’re the only couple I can ask, you’re the exact wrong people to talk to.”
Logan sighed. “I think you might be right. We’re disasters.”
Remus nodded. “Hell yeah, but,” he turned to look at his brother. “Why do you ask?”
Logan looked Roman over for a second before shooting up with a gasp. “I didn’t tell you about Roman’s crush yet!”
The twins froze simultaneously.
Remus tackled his brother with a shout, finding himself sitting cross-legged on the other side’s back. “You didn’t tell me about your  crush? ” He huffed, flicking his brother between the eyes. “That’s illegal.”
Roman shrugged, glaring at Logan. “Be gay, do crime, right?”
Logan smiled. “Remus, come here, let me hug you, and we’re going to talk about Roman’s crush.”
Roman whined loudly as Remus settled himself in Logan’s arms. “You guys better not make fun of me,” he said, looking back at the tv.
“Don’t worry,” Remus sang, “We will!”
Logan sat his chin on his boyfriend’s shoulder, a laugh rumbling from his throat. “So first, you need to know is that it’s not any of us.”
Remus nodded, looking confused, but patting Logan’s leg. “That’s fair, the hottest side is already taken.”
Logan grinned. “Not a celebrity crush either!”
Remus tilted his head, brows furrowed. “Wait,  not a celeb crush?”
Roman narrowed his eyes. “Are you dragging this out on purpose or are you torturing me on accident?”
Logan huffed. “Come on, let me have this.” He waited a beat. “Anyway, it’s one of Nico’s sides. The creative one, I think.”
Remus blinked. “Wait, you’ve seen Nico’s sides?” He stared at the tv, eyes narrowed. “Is it him?”
Roman turned around, eyes falling onto Carmen, sitting on the counter of Thomas’ kitchen, watching whatever Thomas and Nico had put on the tv to cuddle to. A strangled noise escaped his throat and he buried his face into his knees.
“Oh-“ Remus said, surprised. “He’s, like- gay.”
Logan snorted. “He’s never even met him properly.”
Roman groaned, flipping off the boyfriends. “I don’t want to yet.” Far more muffled: “I’m scared.”
Remus frowned, reaching an arm up as if to put it on his brother’s shoulder. He stole it back after a moment of hesitation.
“Hey, Ro-bro,” Remus tried, “You wanna hear a story?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Okay, so there were these two guys who were  really fucking gay for each other but they didn’t talk too much. Why? Because they were dumb.”
Logan made a noise of disagreement.
“Because the system was rigged so they couldn’t see each other often,” Remus amended. “So at one point, when they had the chance, they decided to have a talk. Nothing bad, nothing good, just spending time with each other. It was whatever they wanted.”
Logan squeezed his boyfriend tight, nuzzling his head into the crook of his neck. “It wasn’t big, it wasn’t really special, or anything like that, but...” Logan paused. “They knew where they stood with each other. It was the first step in their relationship and it meant that they could do everything else, could escalate to more. It was because they did that one talk first.” He sighed, a hand coming up to play with a lock of Remus’ hair. “Everything we are right now, it’s because of a  talk , Roman. It’s important that you can communicate with him comfortably, because you need it.” He brought his hand down to clasp with his boyfriend’s. “You need to talk to him, Roman. Please.”
Roman looked up at them, close physically and emotionally and tried to imagine himself in their place. With Carmen wrapped around him and their clasped hands and just knowing, without a doubt, that they loved each other. That they trusted each other, that they cared.
He found, with a jolt of surprise, that he couldn’t.
He couldn’t because they were  right . He needed to take a first step, a step outside his comfort zone (and hopefully into Carmen’s arms). He needed to talk to him.
“Hey guys?” Roman looked up at his friends, eyes shining with hope. “Thank you. I’m gonna talk to him.”
Remus grinned, squeezing Logan’s hand. “Go get him Ro!” He squealed, leaning into his boyfriend.
Logan, from behind him, nodded at Roman. “Have fun,” he said, a soft smile gracing his face.
Roman walked out the front door, listening as Logan and Remus joked to each other behind him.
“Oh wow, they just- they grow up so fast-“
“Yes, your brother is certainly growing a pair.”
Roman closed the door behind him, smiling. He knew they were proud of him. Now he just wanted to do something to earn that pride.
 5.
The fifth time Roman saw Carmen, he was star struck. Seeing him through a tv screen or from across a cafeteria was so different from now, only feet apart, with nothing but empty air between them. Carmen, here, now, in the dark of the 9:00 night, glowed. His hair seemed to emit it’s own light, a soft pink casting shadows around the room.
He turned to look at Roman and the princely side’s breath caught in his throat. His eyes, a deep, beautiful, chocolate brown before, were bright, sparkling like cider, and looked like a million different colors reflecting off of each other. Rimmed with gold glasses, he made Roman think of copper - under appreciated but so, so, pretty.
Roman smiled softly, walking forward until he stood in front of Carmen. He pat the spot next to him. “May I sit here?”
Carmen nodded, lips pulling into a smile, freckles shifting, reflecting their own light. There was a moment of silence, and then Carmen spoke. “You’re glowing.” When Roman looked over, Carmen flushed, looking down at his hands. “I know it sounds weird but-“ he snuck a hand over to grasp at Roman’s in a light grip. When Roman made no move to stop him, he pulled their interlocked hands up, Roman noticing the soft trails of pink that followed Carmen’s fingertips. “You  shine.” Roman realized after a moment that Carmen seemed to think that it was  him who was glowing. Perhaps he was right.
Roman let out a quiet laugh, whispering, “Bright like a diamond!”
He took Carmen’s hand carefully, bringing it down to look at the glitter painted nails. “You’re glowing too, you know?” His eyes were drawn back to the light in his hair. “The tips of your hair, your freckles, your eyes...” he trailed off, a warmth in his chest growing.
Carmen smiled. “You’re a bit of a poet, aren’t you?”
Roman leaned forward, embarrassed. “Sometimes, if I have a sort of muse.”
Carmen sat there for a moment, processing Roman’s words before letting out a squeak. “You-!” He curled into himself, falling into a fit of giggles.
Roman smiled at Carmen’s flustered state before tilting his head with a small frown. “I just realized something, you know.” Carmen paused, looking over. “I’ve never properly introduced myself.”
Roman stood up and took one of Carmen’s hands in his own, bowing down to touch Carmen’s hand to his lips. “It’s wonderful to meet you, my good sir, and it would be my greatest wish fulfilled if you could tell me your name.”
Roman knew his name already, of course, thanks to Janus, but he wanted to hear it here, now, spoken to  him for the first time. “My name is Carmen,” he hummed, pulling his hand, interlaced with Roman’s, to his chest. “Now, my prince, would you be willing to tell me yours?”
“Roman,” the side said quietly, distracted by their sudden closeness.
There was a moment of silence, before Carmen’s face split into a grin. “Oh my gosh, that was just like out of a Disney movie-“ he giggled pulling Roman an inch closer.
Roman gasped. “You like Disney movies?” He grinned, a squeal building in his throat, and the former tension disappeared, swapping for bright eyed excitement.
Carmen clapped his hands together, laughing. “Of course! What’s your favorite? Mine is probably Finding Dory, but only because Nico has been watching it a lot lately.”
Roman flapped his hands in excitement, mouth opening and spilling out everything he knew about the four movies he thought might’ve been his favorite in that moment.
When Carmen’s eyes shone with interest rather than boredom, Roman thought he could tell him he loved him, just like that. He didn’t though, preferring this easy talk about whatever they wanted to anything that might have happened should he say something wrong like that.
They talked for hours, their excitement never dulling, conversation only stopping when Nico leaned up to kiss Thomas with a quiet, “It’s late, I should go.”
There was no kiss, no confession, not there and not then. They’d only  just properly met, after all. But it was love, and they both knew it.
It was going somewhere, because they’d taken that first step.
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higuchimon · 3 years
Text
[fanfic] Her Best Welcome
Asuka drew in a steadying breath, trying to get herself settled.  Warm sunlight brushed against her skin and when she breathed in, instead of the stench of unwashed bodies having baked in the sun for days there came the aroma of the ocean and the trees brought by the wind.  She wondered if she could get away from here long enough to get to Obelisk Blue and get a shower.  She didn't envy the Red and Yellow students, who would likely have very long lines to get cleaned up.  She didn't want to live in Obelisk Blue right now but she still had access to it for certain things like getting washed up.
She'd barely taken three steps away from Juudai, who didn't seem interested in anything outside of his own thoughts right now, before a voice cried out her name and a pair of arms wrapped around her, hugging her hard.  Asuka sighed and for once, didn't step away from her brother as he hugged her, at least not right away.
"Hello, big brother,"  she said, trying to get a little farther away.  She really wanted that shower.  Bu Fubuki kept his arms around her.
"You're back!"  He squealed.  "You're safe!"
"Yes, I know."  Asuka wouldn't mind talking to him about this once she'd had that shower and maybe something to eat.  But the shower first.  "Everyone's safe."  Well, almost.  She tried not to think too much about Johan and what had happened there.  She didn't even know what happened, but he wasn't there.  They'd figure out something about that later. 
Fubuki hugged harder. "I knew you'd be all right.  What happened?"  He turned her around so they could look at each other, and she was surprised to see the worry in his eyes, no matter what he said. 
"It's a really long story,"  Asuka told him.  "And I don't' want to tell it right now."  She didn't even know all of it.  She thought Juudai might know more but he wasn't in any condition to tell anyone the time of day, let alone anything else. 
Fubuki nodded, but she knew that he still wanted to know.  Maybe she'd be able to tell him later.  Her stomach rumbled and she frowned, still wanting that shower before she ate.  Fubuki sniffed lightly.
"Come on,"  he said, still with one arm around her, and guided her towards the Red dorm.  Her first thought was that everyone else there would need the showers before she could get to them.  Then she remembered; Manjoume had set up that magnificent bath.  That would definitely do.
She could see Shou making his way over to Ryou as the two of them headed away.  She wouldn't mind having a talk with him herself.  She'd heard about what he'd done the previous year, but she'd never yet had the chance to talk to him about it.  Once she'd no longer been part of the Society of Light, she'd been more interested in learning what she'd missed around school than anything else.  After getting that sorted out, she'd tried to e-mail him but he hadn't responded.  Maybe I can talk to Fubuki about it?  Ryou was his best friend, after all.  If he knew anything, then he'd let her know.  But whatever Ryou's problems the year before were, clearly they didn't prevent him from helping now.
Fubuki guided her to the Red dorm.  She could still feel the grit of the desert on her skin and if she hadn't wanted that shower so badly she would have demanded to get something to eat first and foremost.  Priorities first.
"You go on,"  he said, nudging her towards the blessed clean and unlimited water.  "I'll get you something to eat."  She caught sight of the grin when she looked up at him.  "If you don't eat something soon, you're going to start chewing on me and I'm not that kind of delicious."
He paused for a second, mouth opening, and Asuka shook her head.  She had a good idea of what he wanted to say, and she didn't really want to hear it.  She waved one hand, wanting him out of there, and once he headed out, she closed and locked the door to the bathing area, sagging against it for a few moments.
Home.  They were really home.  Fubuki was really there, and being his usual pain in her side self.  She'd never been so glad that he was there and bothering her.  She'd missed him during the last few days, far more than she'd been willing to admit.
It's probably for the best.  He might've become a duel zombie.  She trusted in his dueling talents, but she also knew him.  The first moment he'd seen Manjoume as one of those creatures, he would have rushed out to try to help him, and it would have been all over for him. 
Would she have tried to save him?  As much as she wanted to think she would have known better, a tiny part of her suspected otherwise.  She'd lost him once already.  If it had happened again, and he'd still been there in front of her, she suspected she would have done exactly like he would for Manjoume.  That would not have been good for anyone in the long run. 
At least it hadn't happened like that.  They were home.  They were safe.  That thought glowed warm and secure in the very center of her heart. 
Getting the dust and dirt and sweat off didn't take all that long.  But Asuka couldn't stop herself from just soaking in the water once she'd cleaned up, at least not until a knock came on the door.
"Little sister?"  Fubuki's voice drifted through.  "I brought you your favorites!  It's unagi and Hatakosen Raspberry!" 
Asuka jerked up; she hadn't thought she'd been in here long enough for him to get food.  Especially not her favorite food.  Fubuki didn't make up stories about food, though.  She quickly dried and found one of the uniforms she'd kept in here before heading out. 
In the main room, where most of them gathered during quieter and happier times, Fubuki set up two places.  At least her meal was set out there and there were two chairs, one across from the other.  He settled into one, staring at her as if he thought she might not be real.  Asuka settled down into her own chair and quickly started eating, satisfying the first surge of hunger before she looked up at him again.
"What happened here while we were gone?"  She asked.  She could guess a few things; she knew that Edo and Ryou were involved, as well as that strange Professor that Misawa seemed to know.  But most of the details had escaped her.
Fubuki trailed his fingers over his side of the table.  "Well - once Principal Samejima knew what happened, he counted up who was still here and who wasn't.  Then he started calling for help from KaibaCorp.  Kaiba-san sent President Pegasus."  His lips twitched a little.  "I heard him talking to Principal Samejima about it.  Something about "He's the one who designed the cards.  Let him worry about a world where they're real.""
Asuka held back a small giggle.  From what she knew about Kaiba, that was a lot like him.  As she kept on eating, Fubuki told her more - about how they'd finally found Johan's Rainbow Dragon and started to make arrangements to make it a card. 
"Something did happen there, but I'm not sure of what."  Fubuki shook his head.  "We already knew then we were going to need a strong duelist, and Edo suggested we find Ryou."
She sipped at her drink, listening.  It sounded somewhat bland compared to what they'd been going through, and bland was exactly what she wanted right now. 
"He wasn't there when I showed up at his apartment,"  he continued, "but he got back pretty quick.  I told him what was going on and then we headed over here."
Asuka raised one eyebrow.  "Is that all?"  She'd seen somewhat how Ryou was these days.  She doubted that just telling him of what was going on would have been enough to persuade him to come and help. 
Fubuki shrugged.  "More or less.  I kinda of did have to explain it a bit more, though.  Anyway, Edo brought us back here on his boat.  Do you know how fast that thing can go?"  He shook his head, eyes wide and gleaming with delight now.  "I have got to get him to take me out on that again!"
Asuka drew in a breath and smiled.  Even if Fubuki had been a duel zombie, he wouldn't have changed a great deal.  She wondered if he would have been going "Surf!  Surf!  Surf!" instead of "Duel! Duel!  Duel!"
He picked up the tale again, though there wasn't much left to it.  "Once Pegasus finished the card, we got it ready to go to you guys, and got Ryou ready to duel Johan."  He leaned his head back and sighed a deep sigh.  "I saw it.  Ryou's gotten so much better than he used to be and I didn't think that was possible."  Again his fingers danced over the table.  "It's weird, but I think being Hell Kaiser has really been good for him."
Asuka wasn't ready to go that far just yet, but she'd not talked to Ryou enough to be sure.  She made a noncommittal noise and listened as Fubuki told the tale of the duel from what he'd seen.  She'd been too busy trying to survive in that world to notice if he'd been in sight or not, and it was good to know that he'd been safe regardless. 
She rubbed her wrist as he talked, still trying to get adjusted to the fact her Dis-belt wasn't there anymore.  She'd worn it for so long -  over a month - that it seemed strange for it not to be there.  She glanced over to Fubuki
"Do you still have your Dis-belt?"  She'd noticed that everyone who'd been in that world had lost theirs . But those who wore it and hadn't been taken along?
Fubuki raised his wrist.  "Nope.  It fell off just after you guys got back here.  What were they for, anyway?"
"As far as I can tell, gathering duel energy.  It helped create those zombies."  She wasn't sure of what else it had done.  She wondered how much she'd missed, being half unconscious after the charge to get Juudai to the duel against Martin.  Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to find the others and have a talk.  She didn't think Juudai would be helpful, not unless Johan had suddenly turned back up in the last hour or so.
"I wish I'd been there for you,"  Fubuki said, a little more serious than he usually sounded.  "You were in danger and I wasn't there.  What kind of a brother am I?"
"The kind who was safe where I didn't have to worry about you!"  Asuka snapped back without a breath of thought.  Fubuki stared at her in surprise, before he softened and smiled. 
"You worried about me?"
Asuka closed her eyes.  "All the time you were gone.  And I'd rather not do it again.  Stay safe.  You've been gone long enough."
Fubuki leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. She wasn't sure what he thought about but she had her own thoughts to consider.  Slowly she pulled herself to her feet.
"I'm going to go find the others."  She thought by now they'd probably also cleaned up and might be feeling better.  They needed to figure out how to help Juudai and maybe get Johan back - if there was a way to do that.  She wasn't even certain of what had happened to him. 
Fubuki nodded, getting up as well, clearly going with her.  Together they headed out, and Asuka couldn't help but smile.  It was true. They were home. 
The End
Notes: Of course they won’t stay for long. But Fubuki should have shown up sooner in season three. I have done my best to repair that in a little way.
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slippinmickeys · 3 years
Text
The Earl (3/13)
If you’d like to read this on AO3, you may do so here. 
CHAPTER THREE
“A sporting holiday?” Scully asked, smiling, “Oh, that sounds lovely.” She had paused with her soup spoon halfway to her mouth, Mulder fairly bursting to tell her of the invitation he’d received, over dinner.
Mulder smiled at her, encouraged. He set down his wine glass, his soup sitting in front of him, uneaten.
“I got the invitation just today,” he said, “Sir Byers is an old friend from Eton -- a baronet with a small estate in Kent. As a sporting holiday, one month from now -- I would be expected to go shooting with the gentleman at least part of the time, but a fortnight away… we could treat it as a honeymoon.”
The thought of the fresh air and quiet of the country sounded heavenly. She smiled warmly at him and lowered her spoon back into her bowl.
“Should I tell him we accept?” Mulder asked.
“Please do,” she said.
Mulder looked as pleased as anything, and went on to tell her about school-related hijinks with much enthusiasm. When the final course of the meal had been taken away by the footmen, he sobered and looked at her earnestly.
“I hope you know how pleased I am that you came into the garden the night of the Halford ball,” he said.
“I hope you know how pleased I am that you decided to kiss me there.” He smiled at her.  “Why were you in the garden that night, Mulder? I never thought to ask.”
“I was hiding.”
“Hiding?!”
He looked chagrined.
“Miss Spender was there,” he said, “at the ball. I had of course already made the decision not to court her, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her. Not in such a public setting, anyway. It would have amounted to giving her the cut direct. I loathe her father, but she’s a young lady who doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
“Or that kind of father.”
“Indeed.”
“Well. I suppose Miss Spender’s loss is my gain.”
“And mine,” he said, and raised his glass to his wife.
XxXxXxXxXxX
“You’ll have to tell me all about it, my lady,” Prudence said, while she affixed a ribbon through Scully’s perfectly coiffed hair. “I’ve heard it’s the most splendid sight imaginable.”
Mulder was taking her to Vauxhall for the evening. Scully had always wanted to go. It was said to be the most spacious pleasure garden in all of England, filled with high hedges and trees, and had gravel-paved walkways and promenades. There were pavilions, lodges, groves, grottoes, lawns, porticoes and rotundas; the whole of it illuminated with an infinite number of lamps in every color. Mulder had reserved them a booth not far from the Royal Box and had promised to waltz with her until she could no longer stand.
She reached her hand up and placed it over Prudence’s.  “I won’t leave out a single detail,” she said.
Prudence smiled at her in the mirror.  “You’ll fit in perfectly,” she said, “no other lady could compare to your beauty tonight.”
“You’re too kind, Prudence. I thank you for all of your help.” She tapped a bit of color into her cheeks and took as deep a breath as her corset would allow. “Is everything packed and ready for tomorrow?”
They would be leaving for Kent in the morning for a fortnight at Ashford Park with Sir Byers and his other guests.
“It is, my lady,” said Prudence, though her face had fallen.
“Prudence,” she said, turning from the mirror to face her maid, “whatever is the matter?”
“I shouldn’t be saying anything, Lady Wexford,” she said. “It isn’t my place.”
“I hope you will anyway,” said Scully gently, trying to catch Prudence’s eye.
“It is Samuel, my lady,” Prudence said, stealing a look at the closed door of the chamber, as if afraid Mr. Bixby or Mrs. Paxton might come barging in, demanding to know why she was speaking to the lady of the house about the workings below stairs.
“The footman?” Scully clarified.
“Yes,” Prudence said, “he was taken ill, not two days ago. Very ill. He may not survive. He had been looking forward to traveling to Kent with you and the Earl. He was honored when Mr. Bixby picked him to accompany you.”
“Oh that is very sad,” Scully said. “Is he being well attended to?”
“Oh yes,” Prudence rushed to assure her, “Lord Wexford insisted upon his own physician being sent below stairs. It sent the scullery maids all in a whirl.”
Scully could sense there was something else Prudence wanted to tell her. She stayed quiet and Prudence went on.
“The footman who was hired to replace Samuel is being sent to Kent instead.”
It seemed as though she were about to go on when there was a knock at the door connecting her and Mulder’s chambers and he stuck his head through the doorway. Prudence nodded at Scully, and curtsied at Mulder.
“Thank you, Prudence,” Mulder said, excusing her, “you have done a fine job. The Countess looks exquisite.”
Prudence smiled and left the room.
“Are you ready?” he asked her.
She stood and turned to him.
He nearly took her breath away. He was wearing a new coat, cut very tight to his figure, the shirt beneath it was white as a cloud and the collar impeccably starched. His cravat was folded with the utmost care and pinned with a large emerald that complimented his eyes, a perfect match to his silk waistcoat. The buckskin trousers he wore clung to him like a second skin and his Hessians had been rubbed to a mirror shine.
“Whatever you are paying your valet, you should double it,” Scully said to him as she took his arm. “If the Prince Regent is at Vauxhall tonight, he’s likely to try to hire him out from under you.”
“It wouldn’t do to let Mr. Valadeo hear you say that,” Mulder said, as he opened the door of her chamber and held it open for her, “it will go straight to his head.”
XxXxXxXxXxX
As Mulder stepped off the boat and onto the island on which the gardens of Vauxhall sat, Scully pulled up short next to him, her mouth agape at the sight before her. There was a grand entrance gate and a long series of stairs that led up to where the gardens really started, though there were colorful lanterns lining the steps and perfectly groomed shrubs running along the rise.
“Come,” he leaned down and whispered in her ear, “there is much to see.”
When they had finally been seated at their reserved booth, Scully finally stopped looking around and said, quite earnestly:
“My apologies, Mulder. I have been struck speechless by the splendor.”
He had been so himself his first time at the gardens when he was but fifteen. He had been held captive by a balloon ascension -- a special event that evening that he had not seen since -- great balls of colorful fabric taking men to the stars.
When the waiter arrived, Mulder ordered champagne, beef, ham and salad, as well as the arrack punch that was so well known in Vauxhall that the mention of it always brought him back to the gardens.
When they had eaten their fill, he rose from the booth and pulled a watch from his pocket.
“Come along,” he said to Scully, “we must hurry or we will miss it.”
“Miss what?” she said, her mouth quirking up into an intrigued smile that sent no small amount of blood rushing below his waist.
When she rose, he noticed the jealous looks of the other gentleman nearby, and could hardly blame them. She was a rare beauty and carried about her both an innocence and an erotogenic mien that confused his senses and assaulted his deep-seated and well-bred commitment to public propriety. In short, he was continually beset by an aching cockstand whenever she was near. It was downright inconvenient.
He walked her as quickly as he could through the gravel lined promenades and turned down a walkway that led into a line of trees. It was darker here and empty of people. Perfect. He found a small bench along the path and sat with her there, leaning back and looking around them in anticipation.
“Mulder what-” she began to say, but he stilled her with a hand to her knee.
“Shh,” he said, and pointed into the trees above them.
Their timing could not have been better.
Suddenly the lamps that were hung from the trees above and around them -- hundreds of them -- thousands -- began to light one by one in every color of the rainbow. She inhaled in surprise.
The lamps were all connected by a series of fuses he knew, but even with that knowledge, it was no less magical. After a moment the quiet of the night resumed but the lights remained, a sparkling wonderland, shining arcs of color throughout the small forest.
Scully stood and walked into the trees a little way, her eyes turned to the lights. He followed her.
“I feel as though Titania and Oberon and their lot will come prancing through at any moment,” she said, her voice almost a whisper, as if she were worried any noise might break the spell of the place.
He moved to stand in front of her and ran his finger from the top of her jaw to her chin, tilting her face up to his for a kiss. He let his lips linger at hers, feeling their connection in the depths of his chest, to his very soul.
“A fairyland fit for a countess,” he whispered.
“I must know how it all works,” she said, “do you suppose they use some sort of timer? Did you know, there is a Chemist by the name of-“
He kissed her again, deeply, keeping his eyes open until he saw her own aquamarine orbs roll back into her head. She ran her fingers up through his hair, pulling him toward her, and all rational thought left him. He kissed her, drinking her in, pulling her body flush against his so that she could feel how much he wanted her. Finally, she pulled back.
“Sea water,” she said.
He looked at her in confusion, his hands still framing her face.
“My father told me that at sea, as thirsty as you may get, drinking sea water will only make you thirstier. Your thirst can never be slaked. Being with you… it’s like drinking sea water. The more I’m with you, the more I want you,” she said. “My thirst for you cannot be quenched.”
His heart clenched just as his groin ached, and he moved her with deliberate slowness backwards until he had her up against a large oak tree. She looked up at him with blind trust.
“And I you,” he said, his voice a low rumble, “I want you even now.”
He leaned down and bit her lightly on the neck, and in answer she moaned quietly. He licked the skin he’d bitten and ran a hand into the front of her gown, pulling her breasts so that they spilled over the top of it.
She had absolutely perfect breasts -- a Renaissance painter could not have improved them. Her nipples were the same pinkish-red as the soft lips of her sex and the mounds themselves, soft handfuls of pure delight. He lowered his mouth to them. They tasted of berries. How on earth was it that they tasted of berries? If he wasn’t inside of her soon, he would burst.
He reached down and unbuttoned the fells of his trousers, freeing himself. She reached out with greedy hands and wrapped one around his shaft, the other going lower until it was gently cradling the soft sac underneath. He groaned into her bosom.
Reaching down, he gathered the skirts of her gown, pulling them up and over her hips, then reached down to find her dewy center, only to encounter more layers of tulle and fluff.
“Blasted petticoats,” he grumbled, and she emitted a delicious peal of laughter that he decided was his duty to elicit from her at every future opportunity. She reached down to help him, and at last he moved his hand over the humid rise of her mons, sliding a finger into her to find her slick as a ripe peach. He could take it no longer. Shaft in one hand, he maneuvered himself to her slippery entrance. With the other he pulled her knee until it was over his hip, and then slid straight home.
They both moaned. He would not last long. Whatever magic was in the air had riled him to a fevered peak. He licked a thumb and reached down to rub it along the swollen nub at the crest of her sex. She panted and grabbed his waistcoat in both hands, grinding her hips into him on a lusty breath.
He felt like a rutting beast surrounded by the cold fresh air of the night, amongst the calls of owls and crickets. He lifted her other leg until he was holding her up completely, her back to the rough bark of the oak, her breasts bouncing above the top of her lavender gown. He would never see a more erotic sight, he was sure of it.
She began a low, long moan in the back of her throat that he was learning meant she was close to reaching her climax and he increased his efforts with his thumb with a renewed vigor. In moments she was coming apart at the seams, going limp in his arms. He pulled her tightly to him and felt his own climax rush upon him, and he locked his knees so as not to drop her, thrusting into her once, twice, then one final time. He held her solidly in his arms but sagged against the tree behind them. After a moment, her legs dropped back to the ground, first one, then the other, and he felt himself slide out of her.
One bracing breath and she pulled herself to her full, if modest height, her skirts falling gracefully back into place. She pulled her gown up over her exposed breasts, reached a hand up to tuck a piece of loose hair expertly back into her coif and gave him a small smile.
“Shall we return to the pavilion?” she said with practiced dignity, “I believe I hear a waltz.”
He was in love. Abject, soul-quaking, irrevocable love.
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