#Army School Answer Key
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Respaldar (Alexia Putellas X Reader)
Did anyone actually expect me to get the second part out so soon? I bet not, but here we are so enjoy. Part one can be found here
The first week of work was pretty low key for you. Alexia had gone from home to the training ground and back, it was an off week for games so it was relatively quiet. You had spent your first day wondering the training facility and learning the buildings. It was nice that the security was pretty decent and covered the areas you wanted already.
The staff was very friendly and they left you to your own devices, which meant after you did a lap of the facility you found a spot higher up looking down on the field and you got to watch them train. As much as you tried to deny it to your self, it was hard to take your eyes off anyone that wasn’t Alexia. The more you watched her the more you could see why she was the captain and the best football player in the world, she was unreal.
You had played football growing up but at 18 when you decided to join the army instead of school, you stopped playing. It didn’t mean you weren’t a fan but you didn’t have the time to follow it anymore, so this job was actually becoming a treat.
The other benefit of this job was it gave you a lot more down time, you were able to use the facilities gym when the team was on the field. You took advantage of it and generally got a good workout in during their training session. Having perfected your routine you were able to get a work out in and zone out to the music blaring in your ears, which meant you quite often didn’t notice the others in gym.
What you didn’t know was that they noticed you, it was the injured players that couldn’t train with the team, but they told the team all about the hot visitor that was in the gym. Within the week every player had known who you were and the brave ones were teasing Alexia about her hot babysitter. They made sure you weren’t around but when they walked out of the door talking about you and noticed you leaning on the SUV waiting for Alexia the conversation immediately dropped you knew something was up.
“Hola Ms Putellas and teammates” You smiled a them, refusing to lift your sunglasses. It has been warm so you have taken to wearing button up shirts and dress pants, leaving the suit jacket in the car.
You can see the blush on Alexia’s cheek and watch it deepen as her blonde haired tattooed teammate says “Oh hi gorgeous, you know Alexia is super boring, I will make sure to keep you more entertained.”
As she finishes a tall dark haired teammate whacks her across the back of the head and says “Shut it Maria, and start the car.”
The tattooed one is throughly chastised and moves to the car park with the tall dark haired one following with a smirk. You feel a small smirk lift the corner of your mouth as you watch Alexia walk towards you. You move to open the back door and when she stops at the door she says “the blonde one is Mapi Leon our centre back, and the tall one that put her in her place is her girlfriend Ingrid Engen, one of our Defence midfielders.”
“thank you, I think?” you say to her, as you turn to her asking “you know there is no need to be embarrassed.”
“I am not embarrassed Y/N.” she says and you see the blush creep on to her cheeks again as she moves to get in the back of the car.
As you close the door you chuckle and move to get into the driver seat, you meet her eyes in the rearview mirror and say “The blush gives you away Mrs. Putellas.”
Before she has a chance to respond her phone rings and when she looks down with it, she says “I have to take this” and she answers and start talking in Catalan to someone on the other end.
You smile to yourself and put the car in gear starting the drive home, you have to think about the upcoming event and the logistics that you need to handle in order to get her cute blush off your mind so that you can focus on the job and not her.
**
The next two days you spend trying to focus on work only, and keep any conversations with Alexia to pleasantries only. When Saturday rolls around, the team has an early training and by lunch Alexia has a whole team in her apartment getting her dolled up for the event she has tonight. You had ran down to change and get yourself ready when Alexia was in the shower, and you had spent the last 3 hours sitting in Alexia’s kitchen with your laptop open, but also watching the people move around Alexia.
It was fascinating to watch, you thought she looked the most gorgeous without all the makeup, but watching the crew doll her up was an experience and she looked gorgeous like this as well. When they disappeared into her room to get her into her dress, it was a formal fundraiser event where Alexia was in attendance to represent the woman’s game, you took the moment to collect yourself and remind your self how professional you need to be.
When the team files out without Alexia, they all say their goodbyes and you walk them out leaving you alone in her front entry way. You check your phone and see a text from the driver saying he is out front ready, Turning you step back into her living room and say “Alexia, driver is here, we should be heading” before you can finish you meet her eyes from across the room and are speechless.
You are sure you look like an idiot as you take in the way she looks in the deep blue dress fully dolled up, your eyes are running from head to toe. She moves closer and asks “Is it too much?”
Without thinking about it you answer “No you are absolutely stunning.”
“Thank you” she says with a blush and steps closer to you. “I have to say, the full suit is working for me Y/N” as she runs her eyes up and down your body.
Immediately you can feel the blush move up your neck and you have to dig your nails into your palm to make yourself focus back on the job at hand and you say “we should go.”
She nods and moves to grab her bags and slip on her shoes as she says “let’s go.”
You both get down to the car without another word and you move to open the door, you offer her your hand to help herself get into the car and she takes it with a small smile. The sparks that run up your arm are hard to ignore but you get her into the car without incident and then move to get in the other side to sit beside her in the back seat.
When you are about half way there, you turn to her and say “Ms Putellas, I need you to understand that if I say something about your safety here, you need to listen to me. My job is to make sure you are safe, and I need your cooperation to ensure that happens.”
“Nothing is going to happen Y/N.” she says as she turns to you.
“Humour me then, if something happens and I need to step in, let me and listen to me.” you tell her and you add a bit of pleading to your voice.
She looks at you for a moment and says “okay, Y/N, but nothing will happen.”
You smile and say “Thats the hope.”
The car stops and you look out to see some cameras pointed at the car trying to see who’s getting out. “Damn, I didn’t think there would be this much photographers.” she says with an eye roll.
“I can get you through them Ms. Putellas” you tell her. When she nods you say “put your hand on my back and follow me through the crowd okay?”
“okay” she says in a small voice, before you can get out of the car, she reaches across and puts her hand on your forearm and with a small voice she says “I really dislike crowds.”
You smile at her and move your hand to her cheek, your thumb rubbing circles as you say “I got you Alexia, just trust me.”
She smiles and nods and says “okay, let’s go.”
You move to get out of the car and you elbow your way through the crowd to get to her door, you open the door and make sure your body is blocking the view as you ask “you ready?”
Nodding she says “I know you got me.” With a smile you turn and wait for her place her hand on your back. You start moving slowly and wait for her to balance behind you, she’s got a hand on your shoulder and one on your hip balancing her self. You have to dig your nails into your palm again to focus on the job and not how nice her hands feel through your suit jacket.
When you look back and meet her eyes with a smile and she nods you start to move forward. As soon as she’s in the view you feel the hand on her hip drop as her name is shouted from every side, the one on your shoulder squeezes and you can see her free hand waving to the crowd. You use your training and push through the crowd and when you get about halfway there you can feel two more security guards from the venue push their way through and make you both a path through.
When your free of the crowd she squeezes your shoulder and moves to stand beside you on her own, meeting your eyes for a moment with a soft smile you see her facade fall into place, and the soft moment from the car is forgotten. She moves into the venue and you follow behind, once she’s in the main banquet room you do a sweep of the room with your eyes and keep your attention on the exits noting security at every one.
Smiling internally you know she should be okay here, and you wait till she’s seated before you move to the wall behind her table but a bit away and lean on it watching, but out of sight of most of the guests. Before the speeches start Alexia turns her head and looks around and when she meets your eyes you see the small nod and smile, and you can’t help but to wink at her with a smile.
The rest of the night is uneventful, until it’s time to leave, you see Alexia move to get up and she meets your eyes and nods towards the bathroom. You nod back and watch her disappear through the door where there is a security guard in place. A few minutes later you have your eyes locked on that door waiting for her to come through them, when she doesn’t you trust your instincts and move to pass through them.
When the security guard on the door moves to stop you, you flash him a glare and push past him. What you see in the hallway makes your blood boil. Alexia has her back flat against the wall with two men in her space with recording devices held up to her face, you notice their free hands holding her wrists on the wall. You take stock of how to handle this, you aren’t worried about your safety just hers.
Moving closer to them, when you get within arms distance you say “hey you” and when the first turns to you you grab him by the shoulder immediately pushing the heel of your hand into his nose and he howls in pain and grabs his nose releasing his grip, once he’s bent over you raise your foot and kick him hard in between the legs where he falls and gasps.
Unfortunately it took you a moment to deal with the first one, that the second noticed the commotion and turns once you stand and says “you bitch” and you see the punch coming and you have a second to brace yourself against it to lessen the blow.
The force makes you step back and when he moves to you, you can see Alexia over his shoulder looking with wide eyes and you yell out “Alexia go back to the ballroom now” as you finish he tries to throw another punch and you immediately grab is arm and duck back using his own momentum to put him in an arm hold behind his back and you press him against the wall.
You have your body weight pining him to wall as you hear footsteps behind you and 3 security guards coming towards you. Once you turn and see the guard who came out to help you with crowd control you nod and let him take control of the guy you attacked you.
Stepping back you wipe you nose and lip and see the blood on your hand as the second guard grabs the guy whining on the floor and the third steps up to you and says “we called the police, they should be here soon, they were on standby for anything to happen her.”
“thank you” you say.
He chuckles and asks “need a job? I am impressed you could take out two guys double your size.”
Smiling you nod saying “Most people underestimate me that way.”
Before he can answer you, you feel someone move right up to you and press a clean towel on to your face and hold it to your bloody lip. You meet Alexia’s eye as she says quietly “they’re bringing you ice.”
You nod and move to grab it but she shakes her head holding the towel to your face still and you tell her “I am okay. Are you okay?”
“You saved me Y/N” she says with a small smile.
Before you can say anything else you hear footsteps and look up to see the police coming towards you. Moving to grab the towel from her hand, you step past her and meet the officers.
Almost an hour later, where you refused to let Alexia leave your line of sight you are both done with the police and they release you to go home. They had allowed you to clean up your face and you noticed how your eye was going to bruise, but you do not need any stitches which is a relief. Once you are both sat in the car on the way back, you take a moment to relax back in the seat and close your eyes. You can feel her watching you but you know this is not the time for this conversation.
After a tense ride, you follow her into the lobby and move to go to your apartment, but she reaches out and squeezes your forearm and asks softly “I don’t want to be alone tonight, will you come up with me?”
“Is there someone I can call for you Ms Putellas?” you ask trying to maintain the professional side.
Shaking her head she says “You make me feel safe Y/N, I can sleep on the couch, I just don’t want to be alone.”
Nodding you hold your arm out letting her go first to her elevator as you both wait for it you say “But only if I take the couch.”
Chuckling she smiles and you both ride the elevator in silence. Once you get into her apartment you silently follow her as she kicks off her shoes and goes into the kitchen, where she grabs two glasses and a bottle of wine, she pours you both one and then hands it to you saying “I am going to change, I’ll be right back.”
You nod and grab the glass, removing your blazer you roll your sleeves up and unbutton the top button. Other than that you stay standing in her kitchen, the whole scene running through your head wondering why the heck you didn’t protect her. You can feel the tears in the corners of your eyes and when she walks out in pjs you have to look up at the ceiling to control the tears.
“oh Y/N” you hear and when she moves closer to you, you meet her eyes and cannot take the comfort you see reflected in them.
You shake your head and say “no please Ms Putellas I can’t” as you move away from her and press your back against her cabinets.
She steps closer and softly says “It’s okay Y/N, you do not need to pretend here.”
Shaking your head again you look up at the ceiling as you say “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
Feeling her step closer but not touch she says softly again “you did Y/N.”
“It shouldn’t have come to that.” you say but you still haven’t looked at her.
She steps closer and reaches up to put both hands on your cheeks, she softly pulls your face down to meet her eyes and says “you did Y/N, I am here un harmed because of you.” She then uses her thumb to run over the cut on your lip and she softly says “you put your self on the line for me, you could have been seriously hurt, so thank you for protecting me.”
Looking into her eyes, you can see the comfort reflected and you want to lose your self in them, when she leans in to close the distance you can feel her breath on your lips. Before they meet you slowly push back and say “I can’t right now Alexia.”
She lets you pull away, but only far enough to meet your eyes as she says “its okay Y/N, tonight has been a lot. Since I saw you come to rescue me all I wanted was to wrap you in my arms to thank you.”
You chuckle and pull her into you wrapping her up and you whisper into her ear “I will always protect you Alexia” and you press a kiss to her hair. You stand there thinking about how things could have ended differently, but you are glad the night ended with her in your arms.
#woso x reader#woso imagine#alexia putellas x reader#alexia putellas imagine#alexia putellas#espwnt x reader#woso imagines
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You mentioned fanon turning barty crouch jr. into an uninteresting character. I don't know much about what the new fanon characterisation has really done with him, but I'm curious for your thoughts on why he's a canonically interesting character. I agree that he is, but it sounds like you might have some interesting thoughts on it that are already fleshed out.
thank you for the ask, @jamesunderwater, and i'm sorry for taking so long to drag myself around to answering this.
as you may have gathered if you’ve read my views on jegulus or wolfstar, the common fanon interpretation of marauders-era characters and i don’t really get on.
this is not a new development - me and goofy fanon sirius have been beefing for over a decade at this point, i fear - but our enmity has taken on a new form since (roughly) 2020, when the emergence of what we might call the modern marauders subfandom brought with it a whole series of expectations about characters, ships, personalities, and appearances in first war stories which, let me state my position immediately, have absolutely nothing to do with the characters as they are in canon.
i could talk about sirius or regulus or james or snape or lupin until the cows come home - as, i’m sure, could many of us - but i also dislike the expectations the marauders subfandom has around its supporting cast. these characters - who largely fall under the categories of women, slytherins, or both - have names that we might recognise from canon, but they are - to all intents and purposes - original characters.
to do some marauders fan defending, i do understand the rationale behind this. hogwarts is a school, and it needs to be filled with the sort of incidental characters that lightning-era writers can pull from the canon text (shoutout to ernie macmillan, the mvp). if you’re writing about lily, then she needs friends - why not have them be alice, marlene, dorcas, emmeline, pandora etc.?
[well, because dumbledore isn’t running a child army. it makes no sense for the entire order of the phoenix to be in the same school year - and the idea that alice is probably around ten years older than lily, that pandora is around the same age as narcissa malfoy and isn’t a pureblood, and that marlene, dorcas, and emmeline are hard-nosed ministry bitches in their fifties who can have mad-eye moody quaking with just a look is something which can be prised from my cold, dead hands.]
and if you’re writing about the epic highs and lows of high-school football going to school during a sectarian conflict, then you need some antagonists. which is to say, you need some slytherins.
the issue i have is that the three key slytherins who seem to have been elevated to principal cast in the marauders pantheon - regulus black, barty crouch jr., and evan rosier - get what can only be called the smol bean treatment. that is, that three teenagers who all canonically join a terror organisation are turned into soft and tiny babies who thought lord voldemort was just feeling silly when he said, ‘my aim is the eradication of the muggleborn population through violent means.’
and even fics which do acknowledge that the three willingly become terrorists often go out of their way to provide justifications for this which don’t contextualise their decision (something which is important - you can’t write about snape becoming a death eater without acknowledging the way that poverty, loneliness, and a sense of hopelessness make someone an easy target of radicalisation) but which minimise it. sometimes, their violence is turned into romantic vengeance - i’ve seen a fair amount of suggestions that barty goes to torture the longbottoms because frank was the auror who killed evan. sometimes, authors imply - or even outright state - that there’s no need to see these boys as aspiring villains: voldemort is right; the class system is good and should be maintained; and purebloods (usually james, sirius, regulus, barty, evan and maybe a token woman or two) should stick together while the half-breeds and the mudbloods go hang.
this - like all aristocracy wank in this fandom - annoys me enough with regulus and evan. but it’s particularly grating when it comes to barty crouch jr. because - unlike evan, who is literally just a name in the text, and regulus, who isn’t much more - he actually has a canon personality.
and it’s fascinating. indeed, i would even go so far as to say that barty crouch jr. is the greatest villain in the harry potter series.
[my apologies to lord voldemort.]
after all, even though he’s been imprisoned under the imperius curse for over a decade, barty is still so lucid and powerful that he is able to:
produce magic capable of tricking the goblet of fire, which is treated by all the adult characters involved as unprecedented.
pull off a year-long impersonation of a man whom dumbledore evidently knows extremely well without being clocked until his mission has been successful, even though his opportunities to observe the real moody can have been virtually non-existent. he is in character within seconds of his ambush on moody’s home - after the intruder-alert dustbins are set off - and is able to persuade ministry personnel who can be presumed to have met moody personally (including both amos diggory and arthur weasley, who appear to know him not only personally, but well) that he is the real deal. he maintains his performance even under close scrutiny from the teaching colleagues he has to interact with daily at hogwarts, despite the fact that he presumably can’t get a great deal out of the real moody, since he’s having to be kept deliberately weak and docile under the imperius curse.
manipulate multiple people into become accessories to his crimes, without ever being suspected of doing so. with the hindsight of knowing who he is, the first defence against the dark arts lesson in goblet of fire, in which ‘moody’ deliberately distresses neville by using the cruciatus curse directly in front of him, before swooping in to be the person to cheer him up so that he can plant information which will help harry win the triwizard tournament and deliver him to voldemort, is chilling. he just gets unlucky that harry has the biggest martyr complex in human history.
commit murder on hogwarts’ grounds without ever being suspected of wrongdoing.
execute lord voldemort’s plan to kidnap harry and use him in his resurrection ritual flawlessly. the plan itself may be convoluted - but dark lords are allowed to have a flair for the dramatic, as a treat - but, crucially, it works, and barty succeeds in every respect.
but, i concede, we’re talking about the adult barty here. perhaps he was once a sweetheart who went unfortunately off the rails after his father sent him to prison and then - in effect - drugged him for years. that wouldn’t be a ridiculous suggestion.
except for the fact that - canonically - the teen barty was just as clever, sly, manipulative, and - above all - ardent in his support for voldemort as his adult self.
at his trial in the early 1980s, young barty gives the performance of a lifetime. he screams, he shakes, he looks terrified of the dementors, he is pale and weak and harmless-looking, he begs his mother to help him, he pleads with his father for mercy, he maintains his innocence as he is dragged off to his cell. he gives off the impression of simply having been in the wrong place at the wrong time so well that harry potter is almost certain that his conviction is illegitimate. so too, it is implied, is albus dumbledore.
indeed, barty plays the part of the wrongfully imprisoned so well that - as canon tells us - he not only influences public opinion to be broadly in favour of his probable innocence (or, at least, his diminished culpability - sirius suggests that the widespread view was that he was probably there, but that he only ended up involved in what was clearly bellatrix’s idea because of his father’s failure to relate to him properly), but also changes public opinion against the government’s anti-death-eater strategy entirely. following his imprisonment, his father - a man who never met an extrajudicial punishment he didn’t like, and whose ruthless approach to dealing with the death eaters in the first war (such as his use of internment for suspected terrorists, his order to aurors to shoot to kill) was, we are told, enormously popular with the wizarding public - is forced to resign in disgrace from his role as head of the department of magical law enforcement. crouch sr. is quietly shuffled off into a boring bureaucratic position, his ambitions to be minister in tatters, and his only way forward to free his son from the prison cell where he is languishing for the crime he very literally did.
[as an aside, i do think that we are supposed to read that bellatrix is the ringleader of the torture of the longbottoms. but, all too often, that gets reduced to her doing everything while rodolphus, rabastan, and barty just stand there gormlessly. they were clearly performing the curses too!]
now, barty’s unusual cunning can - of course - be explained by narrative reasons. the text needs to conceal that he’s the villain (since, as with philosopher’s stone, it wants to imply that the dark lord’s faithful servant at hogwarts is severus snape) until the very end - and this naturally requires dumbledore to not think too hard about whether his good judy alastor is behaving even more strangely than usual.
the text also needs to suggest that he is innocent in order to properly stick the landing on the narrative role of his father - barty crouch sr. as with dolores umbridge in order of the phoenix, crouch sr. exists to show harry (and the reader) that the rot in the wizarding world was not caused by - and will not stop with the defeat of - voldemort. his ruthlessness and inflexibility, his lack of respect for due process, his astonishingly cruel treatment of winky (brutal beyond even the standard way in which wizards abuse their enslaved elves) all serve to teach harry that the anti-voldemort cause can become just as easily corrupted as the disillusioned young men in voldemort’s orbit. the suggestion that crouch sent his own son to azkaban without good reason, simply because he would not deviate from his beliefs, is an important lesson to harry about what ‘justice’ actually means.
but, despite this, barty is also able to pull off his deception because he’s spectacularly talented. it’s not all just narrative.
and his talents are caused by characteristics which aren’t good or bad in and of themselves. he’s clearly very intelligent (he got twelve owls, the series’ benchmark for genius). he’s hyper-observant, creative, adaptable, good under pressure, and possessed of nerves of steel. he shares these traits with other villains in the series - voldemort above all - but he also shares them with plenty of the heroes. harry, for one.
which is to say that all of his personality traits could be put to non-criminal uses. but - as with harry, who is capable of being quite sinister when he wants to be (for example, when he manipulates slughorn into giving up the horcrux memory) - they would give a non-criminal barty an edge. and this doesn’t seem to be present in his standard fanon persona - as sweet and goofy as all marauders-era men - to any great extent.
finally, there is another aspect of barty’s character which is absent from his fanon version - that he clearly has some sort of childhood trauma, but that this does not excuse any of what he does.
even though crouch sr. is right to send him to azkaban, he was clearly also a cold and distant father, who had absolutely no idea how to relate to his son.
[as another aside, this emotional negligence is bad enough without it needing to be written as having been accompanied by extreme physical and/or sexual abuse. there seems to be a real tendency in fan-fiction - not only in marauders-era stuff, although the exaggeration of orion and walburga black into despotic villains is one example of this - to make childhood misery ‘worse’, in order to justify a character’s later actions.]
voldemort demonstrably uses barty’s terrible relationship with crouch sr. (and his absolutely flagrant daddy kink) to groom him into taking the dark mark (not least because there’s otherwise no explanation for why he cheerfully informs him that he too is named after his dad), which he may very well end up taking when he’s still at school. my reading is that he’s recruited to inform on his father - since voldemort would undoubtedly wish to keep the head of the department of magical law enforcement under constant surveillance - and that this is why the dark lord pays him the attention he is so obviously lacking.
but, as with snape and regulus and draco malfoy and all the other young death eaters, barty also colludes in his own radicalisation. voldemort is a master at ensnaring recruits, sure, but he’s also a busy man. he only bothers to make the effort because the clever, creative, cunning, manipulative young man - who wishes to avenge himself on the father who never paid him attention (sound familiar?) - he finds before him is very much determined to become a spectacular part of his terrorist organisation. and stories which feature him owe it to him to give him that dark complexity of character
show the series’ best villain some respect.
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Happy Monday Wonderful fandom. Are you still breathing after that little kiss teaser? Cause I was gonna pass straight out when I saw it haha We are a little over 3 weeks away from S6 premiere. Can you believe it? I need it to be Wednesday already for that trailer. Feels like we've been in this hiatus for years LOL But let's get back to the rewatch eh? Ahhhh the Valentines episode. So much goodness inside this one. From start to finish this ep is glorious. I knew from the promo alone was gonna be fantastic. The ep name is pretty apt. Off we go.
5x16 Exposure
We hit the ground running in this one. Just a glorious shot of them sleeping in Lucy’s bed. The many ways I love this. Clearly he’s living there part time at this point. Staying over more often than not. If the man has a key i’m sure he has a drawer at her place as well. No way he doesn't at this point. My guess is Kojo having lots of sleepovers at Auntie Genny's with the kids too.
I love how peaceful they look in this shot. His body pointed towards her's in slumber. His head is damn near on her pillow. So close to one another. That gravitational pull just innate. Even when Tim is sleeping he is drawn to her. Just the little things that make me squee so very much. The domesticity of this moment has me reeling. As does this entire season for them really.
Unfortunately their peaceful co-habitation is interrupted by Lucy’s phone going off. Tim groans sleepily. Asking who it is? Lucy says she doesn’t know as she goes to answer it. It sounds like a drunk dial. Lucy hops out of bed immediately. Tim reaching out to her side of the bed is so cute all sleepy. I vote for more sleepy Tim. Asking half awake if it was wrong number?
He watches Lucy moving in a panic and the sleep drops from him. Asking her what’s happening? Lucy informs him It was a distress call from a UC she trained with. We see Tim go from sleepy to fierce protector mode quickly. Hopping out of bed ready to back her play. He doesn’t even know what’s going on but he’s there for her. My damn heart. No hesitation whatsoever to back his girl up.
It’s written all over Lucy’s face how much she love this. Her appreciation and love for this man so apparent as he scrambles to join her. She didn’t ask him to and that’s what she’s loving here. He was coming whether she asked for it or not. He’ll always have her back. No matter the scenario. Also never be over the jammies and sharing a bed. I wanna squee into my pillow haha
Something about Lucy driving Tim’s truck that is doing things to me. Like another version of wearing his clothes. I love it sfm. Tim waiting in the backseat with his gun at the ready. Phew lord started off this ep strong af. Lucy jumps right into character. God she’s good at this. She gets Noah out of trouble fairly quickly cause she’s a Queen. Lucy gives Tim the all clear to get out of the truck. Noah walks up and introduces himself to Tim.
Mentioning it was impressive she got backup this fast. Lucy proudly announcing it helped he was sleeping in her bed. Heh. Yeah he was. Noah then puts it together saying he’s THAT Bradford. So many questions stem from this statement I have to say. Clearly Lucy spoke about Tim ad nauseam at UC school. Not only that but the way she spoke about Tim Noah doesn’t seem shocked they’re together now. She clearly wasn’t with Tim during UC school so this is so damn fascinating to me.
I wanna know what she told Noah LOL As does Tim. Saying he’s curious to know what that means… Getting a small taste of some jealous Tim here I don’t hate it. I adore Lucy’s full bodied ‘No!’ in reply to Tim wanting to know more. Gotta love how expressive Melissa is. From her face to her body mannerisms. Why she’s always been the perfect Lucy. Just embodying her so well. Also am I crazy to think that’s Tim’s flannel? Cause looks a little big on Lucy. A girl can dream right? It’s possible...probably isn't but I want it to be LOL
Lucy asks him what they just recused him from? He says ‘The Army of Freedom.’ It’s a militia group born in Victorville. Said his OP started about a month ago. Unfortunately hasn’t been able to breach their inner circle yet. Tim asks if he pushed little too hard tonight? Noah replies maybe…but he had to roll the dice. They’re about to move something big. He’s going to need a local assist.
Tim says he can set up at their station. We then get to see a little more jealous Tim come into play. I don’t hate it everyone. He’s also a little grumpy from the lack of sleep. Ha Not loving the 'hot pants' nickname clearly. Tim then makes the most obvious and dramatic eye roll at end. Clearly not amused by this inside joke of their’s in the least ha It’s ok love, you’re the only hot pants she wants. LOL
Jealously thy name is Tim Bradford in this scene though. He runs the gambit for emotions at the end here. He goes from confused in the cutest way about the nick name, then a little intrigued, but we end with his jealous dramatic eye roll haha I love this man so much. He is tired and over this rescue now. Goodness what a great cold open for them. Whenever we get the cold open usually gonna be a damn good ep.
I’ll never be over how excited they both get when they find each other in the station in this season. Way she speed walks up to him. It’s so cute. Lucy hears the end of Tim’s conversation. All she hears is ‘You’re kidding.’ Lucy asking kidding about what? Tim’s clipped answer throws her off for a moment. But she doesn’t let it deter her too much. Touching his arm sweetly. Saying he left so early. That she had a whole Valentine breakfast planned for them. Gah I love that so much I can’t even stand it.
Of course she did. Damnit Tim why did you leave so early? Tim telling her she was up late he wanted to let her sleep in. Which is very sweet actually. Lucy apologizes but says it was nice to catch up with Noah. Lucy asking ‘We didn’t keep you up did we?’ Tim continues his grumpy short replies. Lucy is picking up on all of your being grumpy vibes. Did you think she wasn’t going notice you beautiful fool?
Love of your damn life knows you better than you know yourself. We get a SECOND sweet arm touch. *squee* Clearly something off with him. So Lucy approaches it with another soft touch to start. Knowing it’ll get his attention. Then sweetly asks if he’s ok? He lies and says he’s fine. Her face saying it all. Knowing he’s lying to her she’s just not sure why… Believe or not this is growth for Tim. His terrible lying showing how much she’s opened him up. He was as closed off as possible when they met. Now he's out here expressing feelings even if he's trying hard not to.
Grey has Tim ride with Lucy and Noah today. Normally they’d be excited to ride together but you can feel the tension above. Mostly from Tim. He is an open book about how he feels about this today. Lucy is more concerned than she is tense in this scene. Wade wants Metro on scene ASAP for this situation. If he’s riding with Lucy and Noah that’ll happen. They’re looking for a random van that has explosive chemicals in it. It was meant for a meth lab Noah’s team took down. Now it’s floating around the city and needs to be found before it does damage.
Another great shot of their day starting in the shop. Reminding me of 5x08 opening sequence. Lucy can see Tim is acting off still. Being Lucy she can’t let that stand. Having no idea it’s her that’s put him in this foul mood. Being the sunshine human she is tries to get him to engage with some UC school stories. I LOVE her putting her hand on the back of his chair. Crossing that invisible line of theirs that existed for years in the shop.
Getting as close to him as possible without actually touching. When Lucy sees the story isn’t working she makes a joke. Then touches his shoulder. Gah it’s so cute. She wants to get him through whatever this is by just loving on him. Trying to get him to smile. Sadly Tim doesn’t respond like she wants. Thought she was going to get the normal sassy reply back from him and nada. Lucy withdraws her hand confused but determined to figure him out.
Lucy brings up Noah’s GF asking if he’s contacted her yet? He says no they broke up. Well that she broke up with him. Noah bringing up the elephant in the room that plagues them the rest of this season. Being a UC and being in a functioning relationship. I do adore Lucy being confident af in front of Noah about it. About them. Saying it depends on the couple.
Basically saying I’m sorry yours didn’t work out but mine will. She is all in and it shows in so many of her comments and decisions. I truly love it so very much. Noah makes a comment that has Tim shifting in his seat. Even turning the grumpy off for a moment. Looking over at Lucy when Noah tells her be a shame if she didn’t take the plunge.
So much being said in the looks above. The ever present issue they struggle to talk about is here. Rears its ugly head for first time since they got together. Gotta love Eric and Melissa’s chemistry especially in moments like this. Communicating so much without saying a damn word. Gah we’re lucky to have them.
This next part is glorious for so many reasons. Angela, Harper, Nolan, Celina and Aaron are all gossiping on an open channel. Tim interrupts because well it’s Tim. He’s already grumpy today so this is last thing he wants to listen to. Angela calling him out for being so damn surly. Because she wouldn’t be his best friend if she didn’t. Saying he should be basking in the glow of new love.
Look at Lucy when Angela says this. Heart eyes for days for that man sitting next to her. As transparent as glass. Celina giving into the continuous gossip asking what they’re doing tonight? I love Lucy snatching the radio out of his hand. Even mad as hell at her he allows it because it’s wifey. Nothing he wouldn’t do for that woman angry or not. Lucy projecting what Tim is thinking. Saying they’re not talking about this on an open channel.
Look at how he has rubbed off on her I love it sfm. Also something about her jumping in and defending his side. *sigh* Gah getting me all in the feels. Also look at the way Lucy is looking at him when she does chastise the group. So in love with that man. Heart eyes nation in this shop. We can also see Tim fighting a proud smile wanting to stay mad. When he’s so impressed with her for doing that. Let’s not discount Noah being chill af in the back. None of this affecting him whatsoever LMAO
Lucy can’t take it any longer and confronts Tim about it. We can see her studying his body language. Noticing how tense he is. He is broadcasting his feelings like a radio station. She knows something is amiss. Deep in her soul she knows something is off with her person. Love the way she is studying him then reaches out with a soft touch. Knowing it’ll get his attention and be an ice breaker into her asking. Her whole demeanor screaming 'Timothy my love what is going on?'
Lucy being as direct but soft as she can in her delivery. Telling him ‘Out with it.’ Tim ridiculous answer of ‘What?’ Like she hasn’t noticed him stewing all damn morning. You’re full of a lot of shit Timothy haha The disbelief on her face is so telling. Asking him what’s wrong with him today? He continues to be short with her. Lucy calling him the hell out on it. In a way only she can.
Noting he hasn’t even called her hot pants once. If Tim wasn’t being such a grumpus he would’ve been all over that. She is so right and knows him so damn well. Then she asks if it’s Noah? Is he jealous? Tim immediately saying ‘No.’ I mean it was a little last night…but it’s definitely not that now. It’s not helping but not the main problem here either.
Tim FINALLY fesses up it’s her he’s mad with. Lucy is taken back but it becomes clear when he brings up Metro. Lucy tries to deny it and Tim gives that disapproving stare he’s so good at. Lucy giving in and saying he was SO miserable riding the desk. That she had to do something for him. Tim then shoots back the optics of it aren’t great for him. Lucy shutting this down asking if it’s fragile male ego thing? I mean it is a little bit. It's not the whole reason IMO (I'll touch on that more later) but it is part of it. Tim has grown leaps and bounds. Truly he has.
But he also still has to deep stubborn steak in him. One built on pride and earning everything he’s ever gotten. This is making him question if he deserves the position he now has. Negative grooves in his brain he still defaults back to. Now I know some may have hated his reaction to this. I won’t lie it wasn’t great. His reaction reminds me of myself pre-therapy. I would shut down and be one worded. Lash out if someone tried to get me to talk. My whole body would emulate frustration and annoyance. Just like he has been. I so relate to him reacting this way.
Once again not the best but the man is still human. Tim has earned everything in his career with hard work and his strong skill set. This was a blow to his ego 100 percent. He’s not admitting to this but it was. Lucy smells BS and is letting him know as much. I love how she holds steady and strong despite his boiling anger. Even making a joke Tim is just mad she solved it better than him LOL I mean she did…Lucy saying ‘We’ just wanted to help. Tim getting more ramped up hearing this. Lucy cracks me up stumbling on her words saying we? I meant Me. Ha smooth…
This scene in his office is *chef’s kiss* I remember being excited this was their first fight as a couple. Because it’s so healthy to be fighting from time to time. Something neither of them had in their previous relationships. This was an important fight for them to have. They come out the other side of it stronger because of it. This is good angst. Productive fighting. I’ll take that any day damn if it moves them forward as a couple. This most definitely did.
Lucy comes into his office ready to confront this problem head on. Their talk in the shop leaving too much left unsaid. Lucy is a lot like me and can't let sleeping dogs lie. She has to clear the air and confront things. I do love her patting herself on the back as she launches into why she did what she did for him. I mean she did spearhead a miracle for him. She just needs him to see WHY she did it.
His anger has clouded that all day and it's part of why she is here now. Tim barely looks up from his paperwork as she starts her explanation. Still so angry about this whole thing. Lucy starts out with saying she gets why he’s angry. He looks up at her finally. Lucy going on a mini rant about why she did what she did. That she did it masterfully (I mean she most definitely did) Kudos to her amazing brain.
Lucy finishes off saying despite all that she shouldn’t have done it behind his back. Tim being a sassy sass pot asks if that was an apology? My goodness Timothy. The salty sass. You can see there is still a lot of seething going on under the surface. Lucy immediately says yes. Tim not seeming less mad just replies ‘All right.’ Her apology feeling like it's made zero difference in his anger about what's happened. Also Lucy's 'Yes' doesn't seem whole hearted either because she's holding back and decides to let it rip instead.
We see this is not sitting right with her. So she backtracks and says ‘No!’ I love her for this. Could've taken his half hearted acceptance but she didn't. Knew it didn't feel right to her. She wouldn't be Lucy if she just let that happen either. Knowing things felt unresolved still and not being able to stand that. The whole purpose of her coming to him was the clear the air. Tim looks exasperated af with her reply. That famous he can't believe she just said that look. He's about to be taken to school and probably knows it.
Lucy launching into exactly why she is sorry but not sorry. I love this fireball of a woman. (So does Tim) That he never would’ve let her work her magic if he knew. She’s not wrong… Same goes for her. If Lucy had known he was taking that desk job she wouldn’t have allowed it. What makes these two dopes so perfect for one another. That she would’ve ended up transferring just to save him from himself. Which was what they were trying to avoid in the first place.
Lucy stands her ground and lets him know this worked out SO much better. I mean it really did. That if he can’t see that she’s sorry not sorry. This is where we see Tim turn the corner. What I love the most about this part is how she stood up so confidently. Strongly stood by her decision on what she did. Her sorry not sorry is perfect. Basically saying ‘I love you, you idiot and I don’t regret doing this for you.’
It’s not the apology that soothes Tim’s anger. No it’s her conviction in why she did this for him. Seeing that fire she has and he is feeling so lucky he gets to have her in his corner. Lucy is 100 percent unapologetically herself in this moment. Her standing up to him is one of the many reasons Tim fell for her in the first place. So naturally her ‘non’ apology is what gets it done. Not her I don’t really mean this but you’re mad at me one.
He loves that woman standing in front of him so much. It shows when she’s done. It’s why he’s smiling at the end of her ‘non’ apology. She is his rock, his compass and his sunshine lighting his path when he needs it. But mostly she is a guiding force in his life. Kicking him back onto the right path whether he realizes he needs it or not. Beautiful thing is she has his back. He’s so not used to this type of love and support. It's a throw back to 2x01 in a way with his reaction to it. How visceral and angry he was then and now. Once again doesn't see her protecting him and helping him as a positive thing. And just like in 2x01 he didn’t see it this way until she stood up. Smacked some sense into him. Let him know why she'd done it.
Doing it this time around because she loves him so much. Only wants the best for him. Let's not forget this man has been put second in all of his other relationships. His needs being put on the back burner to take care of those he loves. Had to suppress his emotions for years. When you let yourself start to feel after years of not it's a tidal wave that drowns you. It's overwhelming really. Luckily Tim has Lucy to drag him to dry land. So when he's taken care of he doesn’t know how to handle it. It's not something you just get used to in an instant. Just like in the beginning with Lucy when she would push him to open up. We got surly angry Tim but he eventually came around. This is no different. He isn’t used to be put first. His gut reaction was hurt and being defensive.
Not oh Lucy did this because she loves me. Because he probably in the back of his mind still doesn't feel worthy of that love still. And although he has grown. So very much. He still isn't used to having someone fiercely love and defend him the way Lucy does. That's why this scene was so important for her to back her decision. To make him see exactly why she did this. It’s why he’s smiling at the end of it. This beautiful, driven fireball is his and she’s in his corner. What’s hitting him is that realization. She put him first and put in a massive effort to do so. Not only for him but for them as a couple. He is so very lucky to have someone as wonderfully understanding as Lucy to love him through these types of moments.
I love how once the dust is settled they just morph back into them. How it should be. Fighting is meant to be cleansing. To confront the issue and then be done with it. Confrontation gets a bad rap. It’s meant to clear the air so both parties feel better after. Her cute. ‘So are we going to dinner or what?’ Haha They already missed her breakfast. She wants to do something with her man.
Tim couldn’t be cuter saying they are. But her outfit is missing a little something. Lucy being very confused by this. Saying 'What?' Then seeing the jewelry box in his hand and melting like butter. Tim could not be cuter handing it to her. Love struck as he gives her his gift. Telling her ‘Happy Valentines Day.’ The biggest grin on his handsome face. Lucy beaming right back at him. Her eyes screaming how much she loves this man.
She is so impressed with him. So impressed she’s shocked he picked this out LOL He knows his girl. Tim is offended asking her if it’s that shocking? Lucy soothing his ego saying ‘No.’ Letting him know he clearly has good taste. I mean he does. He is in love with her after all. He really did a good job. That is the perfect Lucy necklace so he nailed it. The man has noticed a trend is what she wears. Well done Timothy. Your girl is mighty impressed with your gift giving skills. How far you've come since your days with Rachel ha
It’s so intimate and sweet the way he puts it on her. Lucy is radiating joy as he does this. The way she looks at him while he puts it on and slides his hand down to adjust it. *heart clutch* She is revved up and wants to skip dinner now. More than ready to ‘Thank’ him for her gift. I love her being the one to suggest just skipping dinner and having her way with him instead. Tim saying 'No I'm hungry.' Lucy is feeling a little rejected like ‘Oh. Ok..’
Tim doesn’t let that feeling linger for long. Touching her back intimately mentioning she’s gonna need fuel for later. OMG. He just said that and I’m reeling. I rewound it I remember being so damn giddy. Basically saying she needs fuel to keep up so he can have his way with her. Tim Bradford talking about sex in his office. Not only that but they’re gonna have so many rounds he wants her fueled up. *fans self*
Lucy’s face is everything afterwards. She is blushing but also so ready for their night together. Man has some pent up tension to burn off but needs food first LOL Lucy is very ready to go to dinner now. Especially knowing what awaits her when they’re done hehe I can only imagine how antsy she was to get back to either his or her place following that dinner. I love how the writers constantly insinuate their sex life is spicy and active af. I adore it so much. I mean did we really expect anything less? Doesn’t make me love it any less though.
Anyone else just in shock we got all these goodies still? I keep saying feels like a fever dream because it does. In the best way possible. After last episode this was start to finish incredible.
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Side notes-non Chenford
Wesley accidentally hiring a beautiful woman to guard him is hilarious. A non pregnant Angela wouldn’t be amused. A very pregnant one is ready to wring his neck.
Celina’s murder case gets brought back up. This SL is so good. It was my turning point for her as a character I needed that to care and give her more depth.
I did love how all the couples started off rocky and ended up fine by the end was growing a little from it. I do love Nyla and James so much.
Thank you forever and always to those who like, comment( love dem comments) and reblog these. S5 been so fun to analyze thank you all for still being invested in these all these months later. See you all in 5x17 :)
#Caitlin Rewatches The Rookie#chenford#chenford hiatus#waiting for s6#winter rewatch#S5#5x16 Exposure#the rookie 5x16#otp: doing my job#otp: you know me so well. too well.#otp: some things matter more#otp: you did good#otp: you're nothing like him#otp: just doesn't feel like pretend#otp: unless it is#tim x lucy#tim bradford#lucy chen#lucy x tim#eric winter#melissa o'neil#the rookie#tim bradford x lucy chen
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Ok I'm so obsessed with "Dai Nippon Gothic" and Suehiro Maruo's artwork and manga, I ended up getting a lot of inspiration from that to continue Akumu's mistery lore. I'm doing characters for the secret occult club investigating her death. They're called "Mugen no Kagi" (夢幻の鍵) or just "Fantastic Dream Key". I'll post the other members during the week bc I think each one deserves a post only about them, so here's the first one: Gou Kurogane
His backstory may contain some extreme/disturbing topics, be warned:
Gou is a 17 y.o teenager who is part of the secret occult club that investigates the entity Akumu. He is fascinated by death in every way. Coming from a traditional family and a lineage of samurais who served the Shogun, he follows a strict code of honor since he was a child. His family has a strange tradition of preserving the corpses of men who brought honor to the family in a sacred room in the house. His dream is to bring honor and die heroically in the war to have his body mummified alongside his ancestors, keeping the illusion that "war is honorable" due to his family tradition and the nationalist education given by the schools during the Showa period. He constantly has the job of serving food to the corpses and taking care of them as if they were alive.
Gou's father divorced his mother when Gou was very young and lost himself in alcoholism and prostitutes. Because of that he rarely sees his father and was raised most of the time by his older brother, who has a toxic and abusive relationship with him. Gou's brother is an imperial soldier, and constantly puts pressure on him, saying that "he will never bring honor to the family". Even though he gets excellent grades and being very good at swordsmanship, his brother invalidates his success, and nothing ever seems to be enough to please him. Although, Gou greatly admires his brother's position in the army, and dreams of becoming a soldier just like him and is deeply ashamed of his father and has vowed not to end up like him.
Despite all the problems and oddities, he is a very respectful and modest person in public, which makes people see him as someone exemplary in society and they don't even imagine his creepy side.
All this fascination with death made him start looking for more answers in black magic, and so he joined the secret occult club. Out of all entities and Yokai, he has the most interest in vengeful ghosts (like the Yurei type of ghost) and the Gashadokuro (giant skeletons made of the skulls of people who died in the battlefield). He is constantly desecrating warriors' graves and taking their skulls in the hopes of one day summoning a Gashadokuro. He doesn't usually work with curses and tends to focus more on summoning disturbed spirits and finding definitive ways to invoke each one of them, recording everything in his summoning notebook. He believes he can free Akumu's spirit and find out what happened to her.
*I don't condone the japanese imperial army and their actions nor the act of desecrating graves/disturbing the dead. The character is just inserted in this specific moment in history. Take his attitudes and traumas as a critique of how nationalism and extreme traditions affect people's minds in the worst way and how war is romanticized by some people.
#art#digital art#my art#digital drawing#drawing#oc#dark#aesthetic#wwii#historical#historical oc#dainippongothic#horror#japanese horror#corpse#Oc:Gou#also the asks are open again!#original character
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The Bangtan Gal Chapter 91- Tub Big Enough For Two
Chapter Summary: BTS promote BST as viewers and fans freak out and wonder what is going on between Jennie and Taehyung due to what they saw in the MV. Jennie suffers a wardrobe malfunction during a show. Jennie and Jungkook become stressed trying to juggle school and promotions. Pissed about having to take an exam the next morning, Jungkook's angry emotions are shown while performing late at night for a show and Jennie helps him calm down back at the dorm.
Words: 8,000+
Author's Note: Years ago, when I saw that fan cam of Jungkook on October 18th 2016 it inspired the last part of this chapter. I really love it and thought it was super cute and fluffy. I hope you enjoy! It'll take me a bit to write the next chapter after this but I hope this chapter can hold you until I update this story again!
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At the music show, Jennie wore one of her outfits from the music video and had a personalized earpiece. Her earpiece had Smartie written on it with two small drawings of Smarties under it. What excited Jen about performing BST was that for her verse, she would be able to switch up the choreography and switch it with a different member. For their comeback stage, Taehyung would be the first. And then on another day, it would be another member instead. She hoped viewers would enjoy it as it kept the performance fresh and improvised.
Jennie and Jungkook got to reunite with GOT7 when they weren’t recording. Jumping on Bam Bam’s back, she outstretched her arms like an airplane while Jungkook picked up Yugyeom on his back. Mark laughed as he started taking photos on Bam Bam’s phone which consisted of them laughing and doing funny faces for each one. Jackson and Namjoon even photobombed a few with funny facial expressions of their own. When Bam Bam noticed, he laughed and showed it to his 97 Liner friends.
After getting the photo from Bam Bam, she posted the photo on Twitter and Instagram with the caption, ‘Reunited~! Squad! Missing the rest of the 97 Liner gang’
As the music show went on, Bangtan did a mini fan meeting as fans with Army bombs screamed for them while SHINee’s Key and GOT7’s Bam Bam were the MCs.
“Alright, these people who have set the music industry on fire with HwaYangYeonHwa have properly announced their declaration to soar this time! BTS!” Key announced.
“2! 3! Bang-Tan! Hello, we are BTS!”
“Could you please introduce your second full album, WINGS for us?” Bam Bam asked the group.
“Yes, our second full album, WINGS, consists of 16 tracks and we can say it is an album full of dark, dark, sexy, sexy charms that you have never seen from us before!” Suga answered as some fans covered their faces with the WINGS album and waved away their Bangtan Bomb in the background.
“Alright, we heard that your concept this time is boy meets temptations and so we have investigated what temptations each of the members have met. Bam Bam?” Key asked.
“Jungkook, who has turned 20 years old this year has indeed met sexiness properly!” he announced as Jungkook smiled at the camera and raised an eyebrow. “I am also 20 years old this year but I don’t know why I haven’t met sexiness. So please show us some sexiness in element!”
“You want me to show you?” Jungkook asked.
“Yes!”
Grabbing onto his belt, Jungkook body rolled and bit his bottom lip as fans ate it up, screaming. J-Hope dropped his jaw and then placed an arm over Bam Bam’s shoulder, body rolling with him. Watching the duo join Jungkook in body rolls, Jennie stared at them like they were crazy.
“Woah, woah, woah! Please stop!�� Key exclaimed.
“Y’all are clowns,” she laughed.
“That was great, alright. But Jin, is this the end?” Key asked.
“Of course not! Rap Monster and I, the outer wings of dance in BTS, have met our temptations from dancing! We shall show you the choreography point of Blood, Sweat and Tears!” he answered.
“Now, 5, 6, 7, 8!” J-Hope counted as they watched them perform a small section of the dance. “That was just fantastic!” he praised with Jungkook.
“Everyone, that is not the choreography point. The 95 liners, who have met temptations from both sexiness and dance will show you the choreography point move properly!” Jimin spoke up.
“The friends who were born in ’95!” Key said.
“Yup! 5, 6, 7, 8!” J-Hope counted down again as they danced with Jin singing the chorus.
“Jennie has shown an enticing persona that has captured the hearts of many fans. What temptations have you encountered?” Bam Bam asked.
She stood there, pondering for a moment after taking the mic. Then she suddenly took out a handful of Smarties from her pocket. “Smartie galore~!”
The boys laughed with her as she dramatically presented the candy on screen. She turned around and gave some to a few lucky fans. When some asked her to throw some in the back, she tossed the rest.
“If you watch M Countdown’s live broadcast, the temptation of revealing it for the first time, what temptations are there to this, Jennie?” Key asked her.
Holding the mic as she stood next to Suga, she pointed out the signed BTS WINGS album he was holding. “If you watch the broadcast, you could win a signed copy of our new album! All you gotta do is take a picture of the live broadcast on your screen and mention it to M Countdown Twitter! So, tweet away!”
“Jennie, I want to watch your performance of Blood, Sweat and Tears now and get the signed CD!” Bam Bam pointed out.
“Woah, woah, before you watch our performance stage of our title track, aren’t you curious about the temptations that I, J-Hope have encountered?” he asked. “These days I’m into the temptations of elegant and gleaming women~. Yeah~.”
“BTS’ first comeback stage of 21st century girl will be revealed for the first time, very soon and if you continue to watch the live broadcast after that you will be able to meet our title track as well!” Jungkook pointed to the camera.
“Before that, the first revealing performance of the most mystic ones, Ladies Code!” Rapmon announced.
“And Monsta X’s stage too, M Countdown-“
“Let’s go, let’s go!” they all shouted and jumped around.
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For the recording of 21st Century Girl, as the group got into formation, the audience began to loudly sing Happy Birthday to Jimin which warmed Jennie’s heart. He grinned and bowed before sending fans a heart. Throughout the entire performance, she had a big smile on her face, clearly indicating that this was if not her favorite song out of the album.
As the broadcast went on, it was finally time to perform Blood, Sweat & Tears. The setting BTS was in looked similar to how it was in the music video as Jennie's demeanor turned into work mode and her expression turned serious. Getting into her BST persona, she stood in the back for the opening pose.
As Jimin’s ethereal vocals started off the song,
nae pi ttam nunmul
They raised their heads to looked at the ceiling and then down,
nae majimak chumeul
da gajyeoga ga
They moved smoothly on beat as fans screamed.
nae pi ttam nunmul
Covering their eyes, they began to hip thrust. For this, Jen chose to place her hand on her thigh while the others either had their hand on their belt or crotch. As they swayed their arms fluidly, the crowd fan chanted their names.
Kim Namjoon! Kim Seokjin! Min Yoongi! Jung Hoseok! Park Jimin! Kim Taehyung! Jeon Jungkook! Jen Walker! BTS!
nae pi ttam nunmuldo
nae mom maeum yeonghondo
neoye geoshin geol jal algo isseo
igeon nareul beolbatge hal jumun
Peaches and cream
Sweeter than sweet
Getting on a knee on the floor, she body rolled sensually looking right directly at the camera.
Chocolate cheeks
And chocolate wings
But neoye nalgaeneun akmaye geot
neoye geu sweet apen bitter bitter
Kiss me apado dwae
eoseo nal joyeojwo
deo isang apeul sudo eopge
Baby chwihaedo dwae ije neol deurikyeo
mok gipsugi neoran wiseuki
nae pi ttam nunmul
She slowly let herself fall on the floor and turned on her back, thrusting up.
nae majimak chumeul
da gajyeoga ga
nae pi ttam nunmul
With a sexy smile, she began to caress her body as her hands went down slowly.
nae chagaun sumeul
da gajyeoga ga
wonhae mani mani mani mani
wonhae mani mani mani mani mani mani
wonhae mani mani mani mani
wonhae mani mani mani mani mani mani
As she sang, the boys rushed in close and crowded around her. They body rolled as they had their attention on her while she stared at the camera instead. Every day she was finding more ways to improve on this sexy persona she was told to do for this comeback. Her appearances weren’t enough, so she chose to do what she did best and make the camera her best friend.
“How much longer before you consume me? No matter how much I resist, I can’t fight what you’re doing,”
Looking behind her and then back at the crowd, she snapped her fingers and everyone dropped to the floor except for V.
Staring at her with desire, he had a playful smirk on his face and got behind her. Covering her eyes and having his other hand hold onto her securely, they lean to the side.
“My mind is telling me to break free but my body is freaking out. No, I can’t want you, get out of my head. As you love every inch of me you see that I want it too.”
Once he removed his hand from her eyes, she felt his breath on her neck.
“Breath on my neck, I bit off more than I can chew. Reflecting on my choices, I’m wonderin’ if there’s any way out of this,"
Once she turned her head back to look at him, he leaned in close like he was going to kiss her, hence loud screaming occurring. She pushed him away and turned her attention back to the crowd, to dance.
"I’m losing this battle, I just can’t resist. Only a matter of time before you screw me up and I’ll be stuck reminiscing,” she covered her mouth and joined the rest of the group who got up as J-Hope rapped his verse.
apado dwae nal mukkeojwo
naega domangchil su eopge
kkwak jwigo nal heundeureojwo
naega jeongshin mot charige
Kiss me on the lips lips
dulmane bimil
neoran gamoge jungdokdwae gipi
niga anin dareun saram seomgiji mothae
almyeonseodo samkyeobeorin dogi deun seongbae
nae pi ttam nunmul
nae majimak chumeul
da gajyeoga ga
nae pi ttam nunmul
nae chagaun sumeul
da gajyeoga ga
wonhae mani mani mani mani
wonhae mani mani mani mani mani mani
wonhae mani mani mani mani
wonhae mani mani mani mani mani mani
As V stood in front of the camera to sing, Suga reached for his neck while J-Hope grabbed his wrist on the other side.
nareul budeureopge jugyeojwo
The trio bent down to reveal Jungkook with Rapmon and Jennie covering his eyes along with theirs.
neoye songillo nun gamgyeojwo
As everyone bent down to reveal Jin in the back, he sang his lines, ducking over Jen and Rapmon’s hands.
eochapi geobuhal sujocha eopseo
deoneun domanggal sujocha eopseo
niga neomu dalkomhae neomu dalkomhae
neomu dalkomhaeseo
nae pi ttam nunmul
nae pi ttam nunmu
After their ending pose, the lights went out and the audience cheered loudly.
Once the staff announced the recording was over, Jennie’s excited sound effect and “Woo! That was hot! We did it!” was heard which made everyone laugh.
“Whoops, I thought my mic was off,” she giggled and took off her earpiece.
-------
After their recording, in the dressing room, Jennie and Jin prepared the cake. They were recorded for a Bangtan Bomb to surprise Jimin for his birthday.
“Fancy packaging,” she commented as they carefully opened the box.
After setting it up, Jungkook lit up the candles while their manager went to call Jimin back into the room.
“Oh! Ya, that looks delicious!” Hobi said.
With the lights off and Jin holding the cake while V had flowers in his hand, “Happy birthday to you!” everyone sang while Jennie jumped and clapped around with Hobi.
“Happy birthday to you! Our dear Park Jimin! Happy birthday to you!”
“Blow!” Jin presented the cake in front of him.
With a big smile, Jimin happily blew out the candles.
“Look at this! Your dad sent it to you,” V presented him with the flowers.
“Wow, my dad is daebak!” Jimin said and took the flowers.
“To show how much he loves you,” Suga joined in the conversation.
Jimin pointed out that the cake was the same cake he bought Rap Monster when he spent his first birthday with him. The cake was even meaningful.
“Also the members individually bought you presents,” J-Hope told him.
“YEAAAAAAH~!” the birthday boy shouted.
After they celebrated with cake, Jen saw that Jimin had finished recording for a Bangtan Bomb to talk about how grateful he was for the birthday wishes. She thought it was the best time to give him her gift.
“Happy birthday~!” she sat next to him, holding a photo album in her hands. “Thank you for being born and being such an amazing soul. This is for you! I made it myself. Remember I asked you for all the Polaroids you’ve taken over the years? This is what I was working on,”
When he opened it, he saw that all his polaroids were in a collection by date. It had captions of the memories along with some stories she had written as she thought about the memories BTS has had so far.
“Oh wow...Ennie, this is...wow,” he said breathlessly as he was in awe at the gift.
Her nervousness for his reaction went away when she saw how thrilled he was. “I’m glad you like it!”
"Thank you,” he set it down and pulled her in for a hug. “This is beautiful. I’ll cherish it for a long time,”
Back at the dorm, Jimin took the time to look over the entire album. He looked at the polaroid of her, Jin, and him spending the day together during their trainee days.
‘Remember when you and Jin took me to this Korean BBQ place? You guys made me try out so many things. We should go back there sometime!’
At the end of the album, he noticed there were five custom themed Jennie Bakery coupons for whenever he wanted her baked goods.
‘Anything baked for you is on me! Just hand me the coupon! :)’
Grabbing one of the coupons, Jimin made his way to her room.
Jennie felt a gentle hand on her shoulder while she was seated at her desk on her computer. Glancing at the coupon, she smiled and looked up to see Jimin smiling warmly.
“I could use some of your cookies, right now,” he said kindly.
“You got it, birthday boy,” she stood up.
“Could I...bake with you? I don’t want you to do all the work,”
“Sure! Let’s do it,”
---------
For another Bangtan Bomb, dressed in her BST outfit in the dressing room, Jennie held baby Jordan, bouncing in beat as Bang Bang Bang by Big Bang came on shuffle from her phone. She was listening to music to pass the time while the rest of the members got ready.
‘Jennie feeling the energy of Big Bang while holding baby Jordan’
As she danced around to TOP’s rap, Hobi, who was done getting ready came to join her in dancing.
BANG! BANG BANG!
Standing next to him, she held Jordan securely against her chest with one arm and with the other, moved her arm around to perform the choreography of the chorus.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Ppangya ppangya ppangya
BANG! BANG! BANG!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
After dancing, Jen was asked to explain why she had a baby with her since fans would be curious why a baby toy was going everywhere with Bangtan.
Seated on the couch, with Jordan in her arms, she explained, “Jungkook and I are in a class where we have an assignment to take care of a baby. We named him Jordan. It’s kinda funny because taking care of this robot baby is like a sims game but in baby toy form. I hope we pass. So far it’s been smooth sailing. But apparently, it’s supposed to get harder as the assignment’s due date approaches. The teacher is very strict about making sure everyone does well on this project. Cheer us on, please,“
When Namjoon and Suga asked to play with the baby, Jungkook sat on the couch with Jennie and watched the rappers play around. Their fingers were intertwined as they sat comfortably while amused at the pair playing around with Jordan.
“Let’s teach Jordan how to rap. The ninth member of Bangtan. Baby Jordan, right here, and he about to be on the next rap line song!” Suga shouted proudly.
“I love! I love! I love myself!” the rappers began rapping the song to Jordan.
Sensing the Bangtan Bomb camera turning towards them, Jungkook quickly removed his hand from hers. They both scooted away to avoid looking too close for comfort in the nick of time as the camera caught them casually watching the two rap. Although it could just be edited, they still didn’t want to take any chance since ARMY is like the FBI these days.
“What are y’all doing?” Jen exclaimed as the camera caught the Golden Duo staring at them like they were crazy.
"I'm surprised Jordan hasn't cried. Maybe he likes it," Jungkook spoke up.
"Shit, you could be right," she replied as they heard the baby robot laugh.
------
With WINGS out, fan signs began for Bangtan as Jennie was met with the most common questions on whether she was dating V and what color she would be dyeing her hair next.
‘IS THIS REAL!? Did he really say this!?’
‘IT’S REAL GUYS! It is from today’s fan sign! He answered this for a fan!’
‘Taehyung and Jennie cannot be left alone in a room together no more. I don’t trust it!’
‘I knew something was up with the way they were staring at each other at music shows’
‘I’m maaaaaad as helllll rn. Why can’t it be me!?’
‘I lowkey be replaying THAT scene on the low because there is just no way that was acting’
‘PAUSE! The music video’s rating was supposed to be higher!?’
‘They were supposed to KISS!? I WANT TO SEE IT!’
‘Jennie! V! Explain yourselves!’
‘I’m amazed by their acting abilities to do what they did in front of the staff for the MV. I could never.’
‘All right dispatch, reveal that they’re dating! We waiting for that article’
‘Missed opportunity to kiss. BH made a mistake!’
‘I still have this image of Jennie being a baby. She’s acting sexy too quickly. Slow down PLEASE! I can’t handle this!’
‘Now I want them to kiss. Dammit Big Hit! Y’all dropped the ball!’
‘Imnotjealousimnotjealousimnotjealous’
‘I just want to know HOW she survived that scene because there is just no way,’
‘Can somebody please confirm if they’re dating or not because I cannot get over this’
‘Confirmed! Taennie is too hot for music videos’
‘Big Hit fix this NOW! #LetVAndJenKiss’
‘I believe it because the way he was with her against the wall was intense and had me screaming’
‘From all the YouTube reaction videos of BST, that scene was replayed the most by viewers’
Army on Twitter was in a frenzy when a K-Fan posted Taehyung’s answer regarding scenes that did not make the cut in the music video from today’s fan sign.
The photo consisted of a written response on the note the fan provided which had Taehyung say: ‘The music video was originally supposed to be rated 12 but due to Ennie and I, it was boosted to rated 15. At one point in the music video, Ennie and I were supposed to kiss. But they chose not to do it because the rating would have been even higher for the video. Kekeke’
---------
Backstage after recordings, BTS sat to watch their performances of 21st Century Girl and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Jennie took Jungkook’s seat next to Yoongi when he decided to stand behind the group with Hobi.
21st Century Girl was being shown and they commented on how good they looked.
“Look at me working hard!” Yoongi pointed out.
“V knows what’s good,” Rapmon said as he watched V in the front during the chorus.
“I love this song, oh my gosh,” Jen giggled as she watched herself dance around with Yoongi. She swayed a little to the beat.
“You and Yoongi had a lot of fun on this stage,” Jin noticed.
“They really did,” Rapmon chuckled.
“Jimin’s acting here is really good,” Jungkook said.
“Doesn’t he act well?”
Jimin laughed. “I’m going crazy over Rap Monster,”
“I didn’t know my eyes were that big until today,” Rapmon went on.
“Music Core always captures us nicely on camera,” Hobi praised. “The colors are so pretty,”
“It’s our first time watching our performance on TV,” Jin said as Blood, Sweat & Tears came on.
“Oh boy,” Jennie grinned nervously as she watched herself. She also analyzed how she moved so she could improve for their next performances.
“The set is really pretty,” Hobi looked on.
The boys started to tease Jimin about having a motor on his body with the way he moved and that Jungkook couldn’t imitate his movements.
“Of all the outfits he wore, this suits Jimin the best, I think,” Rapmon pointed.
“Agreed. This is definitely his era,” Jen praised.
When they saw his shoulder showing after his jacket slid off a little, the members laughed and pointed it out.
“His clothes came off! He’s showing off his body~!” Hobi shouted.
“Here he gooooooo~.” Jennie threw her head back, laughing with him.
“He practiced it all,” Jin declared.
“No, no~!” Jimin giggled and leaned forward.
“I think we should focus. Suga said he came out great on this performance,” Hobi changed the subject.
“Jennie~! Look at you go!” Rap Monster cheered.
“You’re growing up too fast for me,” Jin joked. “Are you trying to make ARMY nervous?”
“Perhaps,” she grinned sheepishly.
“Jennie’s expressions are no joke,” Suga said in amazement.
“Oh my gosh, I don’t remember making that face,” she pointed out as she watched herself sing.
Watching his girlfriend on the screen, Jungkook smirked softly and raised an eyebrow, taking in how good she looked.
“Jungkook’s outfit is very...” Jimin tried to think of the right word.
“It makes him look like an adult,” Rapmon answered
“He’s like an adult. It looks really sexy on him,”
‘You can say that again. How lucky am I? Whew,’ Jen thought as she bit her bottom lip softly, staring harder than usual at the screen when Jungkook appeared.
Once they saw Jimin back on the screen again, they watched as he did his shoulder accident once more, which caused them to go crazy.
“WOW~!”
“YASSSSSS!” she clapped.
-------
For SBS Inkigayo, BTS performed BST in a different stage setting. As soon as Rapmon said Peaches and Cream, Jennie felt a few buttons from her top pop off, revealing more cleavage than she wanted as she heard fans scream at the unexpected exposed skin and bra.
‘Nice...frickin’ nice...’ she thought as she professionally continued to dance while keeping a tight grip on her top.
After getting up from the floor, she was forced to dance with one hand.
Jin immediately noticed what was wrong when something in his gut told him to glance over at her. And there she was with a wardrobe malfunction. The audience screamed louder when they watched him take off his red jacket. As she desperately gripped her shirt to block her chest from being seen, Jin improvised their dance by having his red jacket in his hands to give to her.
“How much longer before you consume me?” she sang as she felt him place his jacket over her.
Putting her arms in it, her chest was now covered as she wore his jacket for the rest of the performance. It felt warm and it was pretty large on her. She was grateful.
Smiling, she caressed his cheek to go back along with their choreography. Gently pushing her hand away, he looked ahead like he was trying to go to the other side. Watching him walk past her where the rest of the boys were, she rushed up and hugged him from behind.
After the performance was over, Jennie was quick to rush backstage with Jin following behind her as they went to the dressing room.
“Is she all right? What happened?” Rapmon asked with concern as the rest of the members went into full protection mode to get to the bottom of what was wrong.
“That was embarrassing,” Jen cringed as her entire face was on fire from the sudden moment. Feeling angry about the situation, some tears went down her cheeks.
Hobi and Jin stood in front of her, trying to calm her down.
“Don’t do that. Don’t cry. It’s okay, Jennie,” Hobi cupped her face after Jin told him what happened. He used his thumbs to wipe her tears. “None of this was your fault. You’ve done so well, today. This hiccup will not overshadow that. You hear me, munchkin?“
She nodded and felt him kiss her forehead.
“I brought smarties to cheer you up,” Jin presented her with a bag, making her eyes light up. He always brought some with him just in case.
“Guys...thank you. And Jin, I owe you. What you did with your jacket, thank you. I appreciate you so much for what you did out there,”
“You said you wanted to be my daughter for a long time. I too want you as my daughter for a long time. I’ll always be here to protect you,” he blew her a flying kiss. “You know what? I recall this dad joke I heard a while ago. You know what it was?”
“What was it?”
“What kind of cheese can never be yours?”
“Um...not sure. What is it?”
“Nacho cheese!” he laughed.
She didn’t know if it was the dad joke or his infectious laugh that caused her to burst out in laughter but whatever it was, she was feeling better already.
“There’s that smile! Yay~!” Hobi jumped up and down with Jin.
Once the rest of the boys came in, they were told what happened and saw that Jin and Hobi boosted her mood. They were glad Jennie was doing better and kept praising her professionalism today. After the stylists had fixed her shirt and she leaned up against one of the tables, on her phone.
Jungkook lifted her chin and smiled softly when he approached her. “You all right?”
“Yes. I’m feeling better. Thank you,” she smiled.
“Wow, so we both had our shirts ripped together. How convenient,” he joked.
On this day, it seemed like the Golden Duo’s clothes couldn’t handle the performance. It looked like only one button was trying to hold on from Jungkook’s shirt as he performed. He understood that his situation was different given that he could easily reveal his chest unlike her.
“Yours was like BAM! Didn’t the arm rip, too?” she laughed as he showed her after unpinning the closed hole. “Wow, it did!”
After settling down in the dressing room, Jen tweeted. ‘Welp...#Jen’
Fans were quick to reply to express their sympathy for her:
‘Girl don’t even worry about it!’
‘She taking the sexy persona to a whole new level oml I am shooked’
‘Wait...what happened!?’
‘It’s okay! It happens to the best of us!’
‘Are you ok bby?!’
#ItsOKJennie trended after fans found out about the sudden malfunction. Even as they recorded a few times, for some reason her shirt would not function right and kept popping open. But what made their hearts soar was that Jin was the first to notice on stage and loved that he had given her his red jacket. Jin was praised all over Twitter for his quick action as fans called him a positive father figure for her.
On her Instagram, she saw a few antis coming in to express their disgust for the wardrobe malfunction.
‘What you did might be how you get famous in the West but in Korea we go based on talent. Showing your body won’t get you anywhere,’
‘Can you go a DAY without forcing your Americanness in Korea? No one wants to see your chest. Bad enough you’re all over the members on stage. It’s gross. I honestly think you planned that. There was no way that was an accident. You’re trying to be like Jimin and it’s not working. You’ll never be like him. Stop acting slutty’
'Hah...I got time today,' she thought as she decided to comment on the last one.
Jen typed, ‘Lol Bruhhhh. How come when the boys act sexy, it’s fine but when I act sexy I’m forcing my Americaness? Jeesh. I’m just trying to perform the best I can for you all. I look and feel amazing. Learn to love yourself and not be so hateful to others. With that being said, continue to support BTS and listen to WINGS’
The person deleted their comment and went private immediately, unable to take the heat of fans protecting her on social media. Dismissing the hate comments, Jen went on to stay in a positive mindset and focused on the supportive comments.
Scrolling through Twitter and Tumblr, the memes and gifs were already made from her incident which made her laugh. The K-Pop stans that enjoyed sexy moments were having a field day, trying to get any chance they could to see more sexy Jennie. What took her out was the slow-motion gifs of her top popping.
“I cannot with peopleeeee,” she laughed wholeheartedly, forgetting all about the embarrassment.
She tweeted: ‘These gif and photo reactions, y’all thirsty AF, ahahaha XD I don’t even got nothing. #Jen’
When she saw fans clowning her for not believing she had a nice chest and poked fun at her to help boost her mood, she tweeted, 'Issa whole push up bra. You know how that goes. Mistakes happen. I’m glad you find amusement in this. I do too thanks to U! #Jen'
She took the time to see a hashtag about her trending which made her heart soar. K-Pop fans really knew how to make idols feel great when they were at their lowest.
‘Thanks for the hashtag. I see it. Your tweets made my day better. I’ll be all right. Continue to support Bangtan and WINGS! I love y’all #ItsOKJennie #Jen’
-------
As promotions for Blood, Sweat & Tears continued, Jennie and Jungkook had been visibly stressed with juggling school and idol life. So, when they found out they had to record and perform at the KBS Open Concert on October 18th, the duo was not too pleased since they had exams the following day.
With no time to study due to practice and promoting? The duo was pissed.
Jennie seemed to have calmed down when she arrived at the show and saw her friends. She soon had the mindset that it was what it was and she would just have to go with the flow and do the best she could for the exam. Jungkook on the other hand was still irate and remained silent as his mind wandered to how he was going to be able to get any studying in. He even brought books to attempt to cram but did not get the opportunity to look over his notes because he was called for other tasks.
“Girl, I am going to fail tomorrow. This written exam is going to kill me,” Jen began venting to Hayoon as they walked together backstage.
“What? Why do you say that?” Hayoon asked in astonishment.
“Yoonie, they got me performing today and promoting left and right. Fan signs and I had no time whatsoever to study for this exam. I am so annoyed. You know how I am about school,”
“Oh gosh. And this is such a successful comeback for Bangtan. So more demand for you guys, huh?”
“Right? I’m so grateful for the success but it would be nice if the industry could give idol students a break to prioritize with our studies. But it seems like things don’t work that way, here. I dunno what I am going to do, girl. I’m worried about my grades,”
“Oh nooooo. And I saw Jungkook earlier. Is he all right? He kind of scared me with how visibly angry he looked tonight,”
“Oh boy. Yeah, he’s taking this situation harder than me. He is not happy. I’m trying to give him his space. I don’t want to annoy him,”
“Understandable. You think you’ll get any studying in after recording?”
“I need to. I have no choice. I’m going to have to just sacrifice sleep, tonight,”
After catching up with Hayoon, Jennie met up with BTS to prepare to perform BST and Fire. Bangtan walked on stage and got ready for their opening pose of BST. As the song began and they danced, Jungkook’s annoyance visibly showed on camera as well as looking like he wanted to be somewhere else instead of on stage. Jennie had a serious expression on her face as she performed, not even bothering to portray her trademark sexy persona for this performance. If anything, she just wanted to get this over with so she could study. She even found herself trying to think of what she had crammed for before arriving at the venue.
'Science was it? Damn it, I need to remember those formulas. Oh wait, I need to sing,’ she thought as she heard background music and saw some of the members glancing over at her when she almost missed her cue. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts and began to sing.
It was Suga’s turn to be with her for her part of the song and fans screamed louder when he came up and gently grabbed her neck. He held her close from behind as she leaned to the side. He spun her around and the pair continued to dance with one another.
“Only a matter of time before you screw me up and I’ll be stuck reminiscing,” she sang as she pressed her forehead against his.
Amused about their closeness, the two ended up smiling as they broke away and went back to their places as J-Hope rapped. As she performed, Jennie noticed familiar faces of her fansites that she met up with during her time in America. She smiled brightly at their cameras, acknowledging them. She even blew a kiss at one lucky fansite that was bound to get thousands of views alone from that moment. While hearing fans screaming and screeching out the lyrics, she couldn’t help but chuckle softly as she continued to move smoothly.
Once Fire came on, the members were hyping up the crowd. Jen glanced over at her boyfriend who was still visibly mad on stage.
'Oh boy. Fansites are going to have a field day with this,’ she thought.
ni meotdaero sareo eochapi ni kkeoya
As they leaned on one side, she locked eyes with Jungkook, initiating another nonverbal conversation.
'You good?’ she shot him a look of concern.
His eyes softened a bit as he didn’t want to take out his frustration on her. So, instead of rolling his eyes or giving her a cold response, he shook his head slightly while remaining serious on camera. The look he gave her was clear as it told her that he was still pissed about the situation they were in and that he just wanted to go home and study.
Oof. This was bad.
Whenever she glanced over at Jungkook with worry, he looked more irritated by the second as they performed. She didn’t blame him. The fact that they had to go to school after performing at this event late at night should be a crime. What she was not expecting was for him to be this angry at the situation that he would show off his emotions on stage. After the song ended, he rolled his eyes and walked off the stage. Meanwhile, Jennie hissed at the aching foot that had been bothering her all night. She had been on her feet all day and dancing in heels did not help. Once she was able to sit backstage, just keeping weight off the foot made her feel better. A massage would do the trick. And perhaps putting heat on it.
Nothing like a pair of comfortable Nikes to help as she put on a pair.
--------
The car ride back to the dorm went quickly as Jungkook silently seethed over having to cram for the exam in the morning. Once the car stopped at the dorm, he immediately got out after Jennie and Hobi did and slammed the door shut. The sound of him slamming the door made some of the members flinch.
“Jeesh, I didn’t think this was going to affect him this badly,” Hobi murmured, a little frightened at Jungkook’s demeanor.
Jennie exhaled and followed the group inside the dorm.
What do girlfriends do to help calm their angry boyfriends down, was the question on her mind as she watched her annoyed beau walk towards her bedroom door, ignoring everyone.
Jungkook turned and looked at her as if asking if she was going to follow him to her room. Once he saw that she was, he opened the door and let her go inside first.
“Leave the door open-“ Jin tried to warn but heard Jungkook shut the door after he walked inside. “Okay, but don’t lock it!”
Once he heard a click, indicating the door was locked, he sighed in annoyance while the rest laughed at him being ignored.
“Ah...let them rest. They have a long day tomorrow.” Namjoon advised.
“I hope he’s all right,” Hobi murmured.
“He will be,” Yoongi reassured. “Give the kids their space,”
“Ennie will make sure he’s fine. Let’s not bother them,” Taehyung thought positively.
“That means no knocking on their door. I fear he may get really angry at us and end up shouting or something,” Jimin added while keeping baby Jordan so they could try to study.
--------
With Jennie, she watched Jungkook lay face first into the covers. Her soft sheets made him feel comfortable as he rested, trying to control his emotions. He just wanted a moment of silence before cramming.
‘Should I give him space or...’ she pondered, not sure what to do in this situation.
She didn’t take it personally on him being in a foul mood and not wanting to speak to anyone. Everyone has their bad days. The main thing she wanted to avoid was saying the wrong thing and making him angrier. Deciding to leave him be, she went to her bathroom to set up a bubble bath. He could really use one. He had been working extremely hard during Blood, Sweat & Tears, she could only imagine how tense his muscles were tonight.
‘This’ll do for sure.’ she thought after being satisfied with the amount of bubbles in the hot water.
She put a ton of vanilla bubble bath liquid in the tub, making a bunch of bubbles. She then set up some scented candles around to enhance his relaxation. You can never go wrong with candles. When she came back to her bedroom, she found him standing up, wondering where she was.
‘Poor thing...you look so distressed.’ she thought with a sigh.
She smiled understandingly and pulled him in for a warm hug. The hug made him exhale as her arms wrapped around his waist, gently squeezing him. She felt him engulf his arms around her as she rested her head against his chest. They stood there for a while, enjoying the embrace. A hug could do so much as Jungkook’s frustrations began to melt away. The hug seemed to have started to make him feel better as Jennie felt his body relaxed. But she also noticed how tense his back was like she predicted. It began to bother her and she wanted to do something about it.
Looking up at him, she said, “Kookie, you’re tense,"
"I know...I'm just a little stressed out,"
"Here, take off your shirt and lay back down on your stomach. I’ll massage you for a little bit,”
Looking down at her, he smiled softly at her gesture but shook his head. “Ah, it’s fine. How about we just try to study and then go to sleep?”
She frowned and removed herself from his arms. “No, you’re stressed out, Kookie. I don’t like that. And I do not want you studying and going to bed with a tense back,”
“Baby, I’ll be fine.”
She rolled her eyes. “For goodness sake, what is with men being so stubborn? You know what?”
Quickly, she removed his black jacket, taking him by surprise as he watched her toss it on her bed. He was left in his black V-neck shirt which showed a large amount of his chiseled chest.
“Arms up. Now,” she demanded.
Amused by her sudden demanding voice, he smirked softly and raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, Miss Walker,"
“Stop, I'm being serious,” she cracked a smile, earning a low chuckle from him.
He did what he was told and she grabbed on the bottom of his shirt, slowly lifting it. Once it was over his head, she tossed it on the bed.
“Lie down,” she directed him.
She watched as he got on her bed and laid on his stomach. Feeling her weight on him, Jungkook relaxed under her touch as she went to work on his back, feeling the warm massage oil from her hands. He should stop being so headstrong and listen to her when it came to her massages. He was feeling a difference already as he let out a sigh of bliss. After finishing up, she got off him and he stood up, feeling refreshed as he stretched.
“There!” she happily announced. “All done. I prepared a bath. Go in there and relax. My iPad is there too for whatever you want to watch. And once you’re done, we try to cram and then get some sleep. Now while you’re doing that, I need to start cramming.”
After thanking her, Jungkook went into the bathroom to see the bubble bath prepared. He smiled at the bath. She always found the smallest things to pamper him with.
As he began to unbuckle his belt, a sweet vanilla aroma filled his nose as he looked at all the Bath & Body Works candles she set out.
‘You are always taking care of me. What did I do to deserve you?’ he thought with a smile as his previous negative emotions went away.
With Jennie, she stared at her textbook, confused by the science questions.
‘The heck is this? All I know is that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. What am I supposed to do with all the rest of this science stuff? I’m not going to go to college for science. Why am I learning this? Why is this on the exam? Ugh!’ she whined in her head.
“Screwed...definitely screwed...that’s a thing? I don’t remember this...mega screwed...aw damn it, I forgot I need to know these formulas,” she rambled, skimming through the pages. "Why can't we just use a cheat sheet? Fuck my life..."
“Baby?”
“Yes?” she looked up from her textbook to see Jungkook wrapped up in a towel, leaning against the door frame.
‘Oh my...’ she thought as she tried to keep her eyes up.
“The tub looks big enough for two,” he said smoothly.
Two...?
Her face began to heat up at his words.
Did he mean...
“You want me to join you?” she asked with surprise in her voice.
He nodded like it was the simplest thing ever.
“You should relax, too,” he added.
“U-um...all right. Can you just give me a moment?"
Jungkook seemed pleased that she accepted his offer and nodded again. "Yeah. I'll be waiting for you," he smiled and went back inside, closing the door.
Once her boyfriend was out of sight, she fell back on her bed and began freaking out in her head. She then proceeded to punch and kick the air in excitement and nervousness.
'Oh my God! A bath!? With Jungkook!?' she exclaimed in her head.
She got out of bed and started pacing around, trying to pull herself together.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! OKAY! BREATHE!' she rambled in her head as reality set in that she just agreed to take a bath with him.
She looked at herself in her large mirror, taking in her appearance. She was still in the attire she danced in for the event which consisted of a black dress with both slits high up and safety shorts. Grabbing a hair tie, Jennie put her hair in a high bun so her hair wouldn't get wet.
'You can do this. You can do this. It's just a bath. A relaxing...intimate bath. Girl...stop stalling. He's waiting on you.' she thought.
She let out a breath and then looked at her clothes. 'Should I...be the one to take this off...or should...'
Jennie glanced at the bathroom door and then back at her reflection. "Okay,"
When she went inside the bathroom and closed the door, she saw that Jungkook hadn't gotten in the tub yet and was patiently waiting for her as he leaned up against the sink.
"Hi," she smiled as she met his loving gaze.
Drinking her in, he returned her smile. "Hi,"
She noticed that he had dimmed the lights to set more of a romantic tone instead. What a view it was as she admired the new setting he provided for them.
“Wow, this is romantic,”
"You like it?"
"Yeah, this is sweet,"
"I'm glad. We never did anything like this before, have we?” he asked as he slowly made his way to her.
“This is a first. Um, could you help me?"
"Yeah, I got you,"
She turned around and once she felt him behind her, her heart rate quickened. Caressing her arms, Jungkook lightly kissed her left shoulder and grabbed the zipper of her dress.
“Relax, Jennie,” he said as he pulled the zipper down. “Let’s relax together and get our minds off the stress, okay?”
“Sounds good,”
As they both got in, Jungkook told her to sit across from him. The bath water was warm as the fragrant suds covered their bodies, relaxing their muscles. She then felt him grab her left foot gently and massage it. It happened to be the foot she felt the most aches and pains with. Despite being mad on stage, Jungkook was quick to notice her discomfort and made a mental note to take care of it.
“I-I thought YOU were supposed to be the one relaxing,” she exclaimed.
“I am,” he smiled. “Seeing you relaxed helps me relax, too. And besides, you hurt your foot. You need this bath as much as I do.”
“I thought I hid it. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. The ache would go away after a day or two. I just needed to get off of it for a while. And I was kind of planning on massaging it myself while you were taking a bath,” she sighed in content as his large hands worked wonders on her foot.
“Lucky you have me, right? I prefer you to let me massage you, instead. So just tell me, all right?”
“I will,” she promised. “So, do you want to vent to me about how you've been feeling?"
And he did, expressing himself about how frustrated he was that they had to perform so late despite having an exam in the morning. After venting to her, he felt much better and they continued to enjoy their bath.
She watched Jungkook, who had his eyes closed with his arms stretched out, resting on the tub. Deciding to be playful, she made her way over to him and grabbed a handful of bubbles. Jungkook opened his eyes to watch her place bubbles all over his head, shaping it like a hat. He let out a laugh and she commenced to put bubbles around his face like a beard.
“There. My masterpiece is done.” she giggled, moving back slightly.
“How do I look?”
“Amazing, all thanks to me,”
Before he could speak again, she splashed him. The bubbles washed away from his face and his hair also got wet. He shook his head and wiped his face while she laughed out loud.
“I’m sorry, I had to. The look on your face!”
“That’s how it is?” he smirked and began to lean forward.
Widening her eyes, she quickly moved back until her back hit the back of the tub. “Back up! Stop!” she pleaded with laughter and shielded herself from his assault.
The splash was bigger than anticipated as it hit the iPad hanging against the wall. A few candles got drowned out, and some water spilled over to the floor, too, making a huge mess.
“Jeon Jungkook!” she exclaimed, wiping her face.
“Whoops. Maybe I overdid it,”
“You think!?”
“Sorry, honey! Oh no, your iPad!” he noticed and turned Jungshook immediately. He stopped freaking out once he heard her laugh.
“You are so damn extra, oh my God! Look at the mess you made. It’s waterproof. The case is waterproof,” she said, waving his concerns away. “No worries. As for the floor,” she glanced over to the large puddle along with their soaked clothes.
“We’ll live,” he replied and gripped the tub for support as he leaned over her to kiss her deeply.
As their bath continued, Jungkook said, “Come here,” and gently grabbed her to let her lean her back against his chest while his back rested against the tub. Feeling safe and relaxed in his arms, Jennie agreed to watch one episode of anime with him before leaving the tub. As the episode went on, Jen felt him kiss her temple.
"You are so good to me. Thank you for this. I love you," he said in her ear, making her smile.
She turned her head to look back at him and kissed him in response. "I love you, too,"
Things were going to be all right.
After their bath, and changing their pajamas, the couple stayed up to study, sacrificing their sleep. They sat on her bed with books and papers scattered around as they tried to refresh their heads on what the exam would entail.
“Remember, this is going to be on it. It’ll talk about these two topics. I remember the teacher pointing this out. Look at the notes and highlights,” she told him.
“Got it. We need to know about this one, too?” he asked with full concentration.
“Nah, they decided not to put that on the exam so we straight,”
“Good. I hated learning about that,”
“You and me both,”
Jungkook pointed out the Korean grammar to her. “We’re writing an essay on this topic. How’s your grammar looking?”
“It’s going. But it could be better,” she admitted.
“Let’s start with the basics and work our way up just like you did with me for English,”
“Do we have time for that?”
“I’ll make time,”
“Okay,”
A few hours went by as they continued to stay awake and make sure what they studied marinated in their brains.
“Oh, and the formulas. You gotta convert this to that. And then minus that from the second number, not the first,” she pointed it out to him.
He quickly did a practice problem and used his calculator.
“This it?” he showed her his answer.
“Hmmm, I got a different answer. Um...yeah, that’s wrong. You forgot to do this part,” she demonstrated.
“Ahhhh, okay. All right, what about this?” he did another practice problem and showed her his answer.
“Outstanding,” she praised.
A wide grin came across his features and he leaned in to give her a quick kiss. “Golden Maknae does it again,”
“You’re a dork,” she giggled and grabbed another textbook.
After another hour, Jungkook continued to work on math, getting the hang of what was needed.
“I think I got it. Babe? Babe? Jennie?” he looked up to see that she had fallen asleep.
He smiled at her sleeping form and then yawned himself. With sleep overpowering him, Jungkook found himself sleeping next to her with their books and papers still scattered on the bed. The couple had about two hours of sleep to spare before it was time to get ready for school. They were going to enjoy it while it lasted.
#bts 8th member#jungkook x oc#bangtan boys#bts#bts additional member#the bangtan gal#bts fanfic#bts fluff#jungkook fluff#bts fanfiction#jungkook x black oc#kpop black oc#kpop oc#bts added member#bts female oc#bts female addition#bts female member
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betty
genre: angst with a happy ending
au: high school au
warnings: swearing
word count: 0.6k
pairing: gn!reader x lee minho
song: betty by taylor swift
mini series: cruel summer // august // betty // cardigan // the 1
a/n: the reader in this is not the same reader as cruel summer and august. this reader is minho’s ex and is also featured in cardigan.
I’M ONLY SEVENTEEN, I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING.
There’s an unfamiliar blue car parked underneath the maple tree in front of your house, and Minho sharply inhales as he drives past it. Up until three months ago, that was his spot. At every single party you hosted, his car would be parked there. It didn’t matter if he showed up late; all of your friends knew that the maple tree was reserved for Minho. Boyfriend privileges.
He misses them. He misses you, of course, but as he scans the block for any open space, he really misses being your boyfriend.
He heard about your back-to-school party secondhand from Dahyun of all people, the same person who told you what happened in the summer. You didn’t send him an invite, but why would you? It still stings though. He should have been helping you set up for the party.
Buying stupid gold balloons that spell out “SENIORS.” Dumping chips into a bowl and sneaking in his favorite songs onto the party playlist. Kissing you whenever you purse your lips in contemplation. Just like last year.
He finally finds a parking spot near the end of the block. What will he say to you? The speech he planned suddenly feels wrong, and he can’t craft another one in the time it will take for me to reach your house. What does he say? How will you take it? Lost in thought, he swings his car keys around his index finger, nearly dropping them when he realizes that he’s standing on your porch. Muscle memory, he assumes. He has stood in this place so many times before.
The porch light is on, as if you expected his arrival, and two moths flutter around the glass. Muffled music and laughter can be heard through the walls. Before he can think about it any longer, he rings the door bell.
Cursed as he is, Dahyun answers the door. She blinks twice before shouting into the house, “Minho is here!”
Almost immediately, you appear in the doorway, a crowd backing you like an army. Your cardigan hangs off of one shoulder, and you hastily pull it back up as you take in the sight of him.
“Hi,” you say, your fingers limply waving hello. “What are you doing here?”
“Can we talk?”
“What do you want to talk about?”
He doesn’t want to do this in front of an audience, but you cling to the threshold for support. Three of your close friends huddle behind you, metaphorical teeth and claws bared.
“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, meekly. His shame increases tenfold as dozens of eyes bore into him. “I fucked up, and I don’t know how to fix it or how to make it up to you, but I want to. Tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it. I’ll spend my whole life making it up to you if I have to. Please. You’re the only one for me. It’s only ever been you.”
“I know.”
Then you step onto the porch and kiss him.
He doesn’t care that everyone is watching or that Dahyun will tell the entire school on Monday. Normally he would, but the feeling of your lips on his again is better than he dreamed it. When you draw back, a shy, soft smile forms. His hands find yours.
“Let’s go for a drive?” you suggest.
“What about your party?”
You glance back at your guests, some of whom are recording with their phones. Your smile turns mischievous and God, he’s missed you. “They can handle it. C’mon.”
The walk to his car is long, but the drive is short because, at the next streetlight, he pulls over to pull you in for a longer kiss.
BUT I KNOW I MISS YOU.
#stray kids#skz#lee know#lee minho#stray kids imagines#skz imagines#lee know imagines#lee minho imagines#stray kids scenarios#skz scenarios#lee know scenarios#lee minho scenarios#stray kids x reader#skz x reader#lee know x reader#lee minho x reader#stray kids fluff#skz fluff#lee know fluff#lee minho fluff#stray kids angst#skz angst#lee know angst#lee minho angst#stray kids au#skz au#non idol au#high school au
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Quick facts about me that no one asked for:
Figured since I’ve posted more here and answered some asks, I would share some facts about me on my blog both BTS/Jikook related and non related.
1.) I became ARMY during quarantine era. A friend got me into them. After I watched their MMA 2019 performance I was blown away. She was a Yoongi bias so that is whose content I initially watched and gravitated towards. When I ventured out on my own and watched more performance stages and Run BTS I knew immediately that I was drawn to Jimin. Everything from his stage presence, gorgeous vocals and dance lines, funny and sassy personality, but also super empathetic and caring. He was it for me and still is. But I do love all seven of them. I could probably rank them in order of my “favorites” but Jimin would be number 1 without a doubt.
***super fun fact is that I actually first was exposed to BTS in 2017 :( that’s right, I could have stanned back then. I frequently kind of kidding but not really refer to this as my biggest regret. An undergrad in my research group was obsessed with them. She showed me a clip of them dancing and probably because I didn’t like her that much (she was friends with someone toxic) I chalked it up as so they sing and dance? Who cares. I ended up reconnecting with her later when I stanned and found out that she was a low-key TKK shipper and loved reading their fanfics. By that point, I was already sus of Jikook so we clashed and I don’t talk to her. 🤣
2.) That brings me to point number two. The most important: Jikook. I wish I could remember the first time I was like yep this is a thing but I don’t. I do remember the first Jikook moment that I was exposed to was their Black Swan pas de deux. I remember finding their chemistry palpable and bold of them to perform a romantic dance together but that was it. The more I watched Run BTS and being a Jimin bias I couldn’t help but notice JK too and their closeness. What was the nail in the coffin so to speak? The cliches. GCF Tokyo and Rosebowl did it for me and I’ve been endeared by them ever since.
3.) I’m a sort of Jikook fanfic writer on A03 who I guess is on a hiatus and has been for awhile now. I love fanfiction and have been reading it and writing it a little since I was like 12. I was never a RPF girlie until BTS but I view them as characters in a story because that is what they are when I’m reading or writing fics. Not the actual people.
4.) I’m asexual and probably aromatic to some extent too. Asexuality is so misunderstood, I could go on about it for days, but I’m not the authority on it by any means. I like the idea of sex in the abstract. Fanfics, great. M/M where I don’t feel inserted in the act, even better. I’m not a prude, I just don’t experience sexual attraction. The idea of looking at someone even the tannies and wanting to fuck them makes me uncomfortable and it’s something I can’t relate to and have never felt. I’ve had sex of course, but it’s never lived up to the hype for me. I can definitely live without it. As far as being aromantic that I’m not sure. I love the idea of romance or I wouldn’t be so smitten with Jikook and other cute couples. I don’t actively seek romance in my life. I don’t date or want to date. I haven’t had a crush on someone in like 10 years. I’m not opposed to it. Their gender wouldn’t matter to me but it’s not something I feel like I need in my life. If you are anywhere on the ace spectrum or are LGBTQIA+, hi you are more than welcome here.
5.) I’m educated! I have a PhD in chemistry. I am on the Professor track and I teach organic chemistry. I spent 7 years in grad school combined for my masters and PhD.
So yeah! This way you know a little about me when you send in asks. I am terrible at formatting and use my phone only for Tumblr, so my blog probably won’t ever be pretty. I’m just here for connections and content that is more in depth than Twitter. Yes, I’m still calling it twitter. Sorry not sorry Elon.
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J2 Main Panel Nolacon 2023
The stage the boys are on has a catwalk so they play around and do a model walk at the beginning.
Also, before the questions, Jensen shares that he had a senior moment recently, he was taking the kids to school and In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins came on the radio. His daughter asked if they could change it and he told her no and as they were waiting at a stop light he told her to wait for the drum solo, because for those that have never heard this song before- do so but also this song has a very iconic drum solo, and when the drum solo came up he threw his neck out playing along to it. And Jared tells that he did the army certification training during his USO Poland stop and it was like the 2nd day there and there were all these jacked up 25-year-olds and they explained what they had to do and his knee is all jacked but he can’t say no so the time comes for the deadlift portion and he ended up tweaking his lower back a little bit. Then out of frustration, the last part of the test is holding a plank for like a minute and 15 seconds but he decided he was gonna stay in that plank till he dropped so he so he did a four and half minute plank. And then could barely walk and was all hunched over.
Into questions we go, what’s the weirdest space they’ve shared a convention with? Jensen starts to say that they don’t normally share a space but is then reminded they once shared with a furry convention that was going on. Jared says he recalls that probably around 2009-2010, in the first couple of years of them doing cons, at the same time they were doing a con there was a doctor convention a couple of doors down and some of them would get lost and you would just see physicians walk into the room and then back out slowly looking very confused due to some of the questions they were hearing for example about killing Lucifer. So they joke that if you don't know what SPN is or watch the show and you hear the questions they get, you're going to be wondering where you are. x
If they were in a Freaky Friday situation and swapped bodies what are some of the first things they would do as each other? Jared shares that the episode Swap Meat was initially an idea for an episode where Sam and Dean swap bodies and it was pretty wacky but as they started developing it he thinks the network shut it down but Jensen says that he thinks it was changed in an effort to give them some time off because they tried to give the boys a break every once in a while, and if they had gone with this idea they would both be working a lot of hours every day like 14 hours.
Jared answers that if he was body-swapping with Jensen different answer but Sam body swapping with Dean would probably go to the fridge and throw out all the unhealthy shit and swap it for salads and fruits. If he was body-swapping with Jensen, he’d probably get up and play a concert. Jensen would go get his knee surgery and then he’d go play any game of pick-up basketball there was and block the throws. They say that Jared did that the day prior, someone had thrown like car keys and Jared automatically slammed them down to the ground mid-air. Jared says that both with his friend group now and also the one he grew up with if anything is thrown in the vicinity of one of the friend members he'll smack it off the air. And Jensen says that Jared will do it without meaning too, it's just a reaction he has, that there was a scene where Dean throws C something, and Jared without thinking smacked it to the ground and then immediately regretted it cause they had to shoot the scene again. 😂
If they had to rule the world for a day either together or separately how would they do so? Jared says he would make social media not anonymous. You’d have to face all the hate- he thinks the world is a nicer place on the elevator with somebody than when people are behind a computer. And then he'd eat a bunch of candy. Jensen says he’d force government buildings to play New Orleans-style jazz music all the time, he thinks the world is a better place when there’s music involved. x
Are they going to do more voice acting? Do they enjoy it? Jared says he does enjoy it but that there’s a difference between voice acting when the animation is already done like with the SPN anime it was originally in Japanese but there were some sentences that in Japanese are like two words but that wouldn't be the case in the translation to English so he had to speak as fast as possible while trying to act so he’s not interested in dubbing. As Jared is saying this, Jensen laughs and says that it feels like Jared was traumatized by that experience and tells him that those difficulties are why he did not do the dubbing for the anime, and when Jared tells him that he didn't tell him Jensen replies that he tried.
Jensen says the normal process is the voice gets laid down and then the animation gets done like they did for Scoobynatural. He shares that he’s got a recording he'll be doing on Tuesday for a new project. And there are some he’s already done that are being animated, they’ll probably be out maybe later this year. He does enjoy voice acting because it’s such a departure from what they normally do on camera, they go in and deliver dialogue but it's not with a scene partner, he's in a booth by himself so it's odd when you meet someone who you had already done a movie with without actually meeting them. And each line of dialogue has a number next to it so the director might ask him to skip to a certain number and do multiple different readings of it. He looks forward to doing more voice work, it's something his father has made a living off for most of his career, his dad does voice-over for commercials and such, and says that it's a difficult part of the industry to get into.
Jared also mentions that they realized, especially during the early seasons of spn, that if there was something difficult to do but they did it over and over again and they did it well it would be written more so there would be things he enjoyed doing but didn't want to do often so he'd sandbag a little bit and Jensen would do it with Latin incantations, he'd pretend he wasn't good at it so he wouldn't have to do them. x
Is there an episode of the show that is memorable for them or that they feel changed their lives? Jared replies that the short answer is so many, and the shorter but more detailed answer would be when Sam opens up to Dean about some struggles going on in his head and Dean is supportive, that made Jared realize that he could talk about embarrassing stuff because people can respond not judgementally but be supportive. A lot of the eps are special but the Pilot as well holds that importance for him, says there are things in their industry where they know they have lightning in a bottle but it doesn’t matter if the people who are paying for them to play pretend want more viewers or a better streaming situation you can have something great but it get cancelled after an episode or a season or two. So he feels like to the best of his recollection even from the Pilot he felt like they had lightning in a bottle and they had something that was really freaking good but that it might not ever get aired then jokingly says that 15yrs later they were wondering when it was going to end.
Jensen gives two answers, one that changed from the show's perspective and one from a personal perspective. From a personal perspective, Wendigo. That it wasn't one of the amazing episodes of the show but for them, it was really their first step in their journey together. The Pilot was something they were going to do that had no promise of a future, they hoped it would be picked up and turned into a series but when they stepped foot into the set of Wendigo they knew the show was going to see the light of day, they knew they would have multiple episodes and they knew this journey they were about to embark on was going to happen and they didn't how long it was gonna happen but they knew there was at least a journey to be had so that changed him personally. From a show perspective, he’ll say Lazarus Rising because that’s when the show expanded their universe into heaven and hell. x
What’s the best and worse thing about being on such a long-running tv show? Jared can’t think of the worst. He says that the sacrifices if they can be called that are pretty obvious like the long hours, and having their family in Texas while shooting in Vancouver was rough but he just spend a week in Poland with people who are away from their families for nine months at a time so he’s not bitching, but there was a toll on his body like having wrist surgery and having to go into work the next day but on the other side of it the feeling of letting your head hit the pillow after a hard day at work there’s nothing like it. The best would be making lifelong friendships and relationships. He feels like if he had to go to Van tomorrow he'd be texting the SPN cast and crew to catch up, and it would be as if no time had passed.
Jensen would say worst part was the walking away, if you’re on a show for 1-3 seasons it’s much easier to walk away from that than it was to walk away from 15yrs of relationships and laughter and friends and family, and not just walking away from set and the people who made that set but also walking away from a story and characters they had truly grown to love. But that was also the best part being able to build that family, and build that set, and build those relationships and journey with the characters and friends and family for that amout of time that was the best part. x
What non-hunting related habits and quirks do they think Sam and Dean inherited from John? Jared jokes the voice. Then says he thinks Sam fought a lot against turning into who John was for him, and something that having three children and talking to other parents he has learned is every kid is born into a different family. So he thinks the John Sam got was different from the one Dean got if for no other reason that Dean's first 3 or 4 years were with mom still, Sam didn't have that so he thinks Sam put up a facade, he takes after his father and his brother anyways but he tried not to emulate John. Jensen says definitely the voice for Dean also maybe some driving skills and he would say on a more serious level the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the ones you love. x
Can Jensen share some stories about the finale of The Winchesters and Meg Donnelly driving Baby? Jensen says Robbie Thompson knew he wanted to make that happen for the finale quite a while before they even broke that story, it was something to spice up the season finale they try to do that in just about every show wether it's bringing back a familiar character or paying for a very expensive song which they also did, he says that Kripke actually called him and asked how he got Zeppelin and Jensen replied "name your kid Zeppelin you get Zeppelin". So they knew they wanted to somehow incorporate the car and he was on the docket to come back, and they wanted some other familiar faces so luckily Jim Beaver was available and Alex Calvert was available then he says MC offered but he said no. And you might be tempted to think he's making a mean joke but he says it’s true that MC told him he would came back that he wasn't doing anything and Jensen was like oh it's okay, we're good and if you're laughing right now just know you're not laughing nearly as hard as Jensen and Jared were cause those two were cracking up on that stage. Jensen says there was a reason for that but he can’t get into it but depending on the future of the show he’ll say why at sometime, which is professional speak for I'll never tell (and that's professional speak for I didn't want him there).
But getting the car back over there was something they knew they were gonna do so when they did he then saw on the script Meg was going to drive it even though she had just gotten her license the previous week but luckily Meg is a skilled performer but also she's a truly talented singer and dancer so she's very athletic so she has very good spatial awareness and motor skills which are a necessity when you're driving. So when she went to drive he was like okay, don't mess this up, and he did know that if anything happened to it the car was immediately going back to a shop and getting fixed. But she did great and he's glad it worked out that way and he was really proud of what everone did in that finale, he thinks it turned out really well and it's something he's very proud of. x
If Baby was possessed and had to be put down what would their last words be to Baby? Jared says Sam would probably be like 'hey Baby, can you just hold here a second I’m gonna try and find Crowley to put him in the trunk before we take care of business'. On a more serious note he thinks Sam would be like 'all right, get up to Heaven and wait for my brother'. Jensen asks the fan if they have seen Marley & Me but the fan hasn't because they know the ending is really sad. Spoiler alert for a movie from 2008, the dog is put down at the end. But Jensen says it would be like Marley & Me for Dean there would be tears and him uttering the words I'm so sorry Baby.
Jared shares a quick story about how years ago like 10-15yrs ago they were on a flight to somewhere and the way they were situated he was facing Jensen and D, and at one point he looked over at them and they had their headphones in like they were watching something but they were a wreck, silently crying and it was because they were watching Marley & Me. Then on the flight back Jared watched it and he was the same, a silently crying wreck. x
Any possibility they’d do an SPN movie? Jensen says yes. Jared asks him if he would prefer doing a limited series or a movie? Jensen answers, yes. Jared says that when they walked away from SPN they weren’t saying goodbye it was see you later and they looked at each other and kept going 'don't think about it too much because we’ll talk again in 2025'. So talk to them in 2025. Jensen says that they decided they were gonna wait 5 years, and then talk about what it would look like to bring it back out that obviously a lot of people need to be involved in those conversations, there's a lot of legalities and business affairs but obviously they can't do it without them and that's something they'll be talking about in a couple years. x
If somebody stole the Impala what would Dean do? Jensen answers that it would be all four John Wick movies rolled into one. He thinks if somebody stole Baby, Dean would go a little nuts, he would get Baby back no matter what the cost. The fan also asks if Dean's answer when Sam asks him that question and Dean says he'd murder them all was improve or if it was in the script, Jensen believes that one was improve.
Also, he does the Dean voice and we get some fangirl!Jared ❣️ x
When they were little kids was there any show they used to act out like if they were one of the characters? Jensen says Zack Morris. Jared says Home Improvement, Jonathan Taylor Thomas. That he was the same age and all the girls he liked had a crush on him and he liked the show, and thought he was funny, and liked that he had brothers and he wanted to be an actor like him so he would have loved to have been one of the brothers on Home Improvement.
Jensen tries to think about some of the shows that were on at the time when they were kids, and Jared asks him what Golden Girl he'd be, he answers Blanche. But he wanted to be Sam from Cheers, they watched that a lot and he just thought that character kinda had the world revolve around him a little bit and that's not to say that's what he wanted but he wanted to be the guy in the middle making it all happen, fixing the bar, making the drinks, having everybody know his name. x
The next question is a long one: of all the projects they've done was SPN their favorite show to act in? If it was what was their favorite part about working with the cast? What was their favorite episode? And what was their favorite Sam and Dean quote? Jared replies that he feels like every emotion he has ever had in his life he's had at some point in time during SPN so it's certainly the most complete, that it's like asking which child is his favorite. It was great, he fell in love and met some friends and got to do everything as Sam, he played every version of Sam he could; that it was awesome to explore and in a sense, especially in the beginning, it was nice that they weren't in LA because in Van they basically went to work, went home, went to bed and every now and then they'd get off early enough to go get a steak and watch some sports but they weren't distracted by like the next red carpet event in LA they just kinda were loving the process. For favorite line he says: "What kind of house doesn't have salt?"
Jensen says it's easy to make an argument why SPN has been his favorite project to work on and it's crazy because you work on a show for 15yrs, you would think there would be plenty of negative aspects to it that would maybe reveal themselves or whatever but he would say there was the least amount of drama, problems, issues on SPN than any other project he's worked on and to have that as long as he did that's his favorite- he would say that's why SPN is his favorite because he's known it the longest and he got to know it the deepest and most engaged with it than he ever has been with any other project. Line wise he goes with the first one that comes to his mind: "That was scary" x
Last question time, the fan first asks Jared when he’s going to bring G to see the fans at a con. Jared answers that it sounds like an awesome idea but then who’s gonna watch the kids…….I could make so many comments but I’m just gonna keep it moving. Jensen asks the fan what they would ask G if she were there and Jared pipes up and says "when are you gonna go back home?" What a loving husband.
Anyway, the actual question is what was their favorite or most memorable ep to film? For Jared most memorable is a little difficult to answer because there are so many but for favorite French Mistake, that it was a lot of fun and he doesn't think he'll ever get the chance to do anything similar to that again. Jensen says Inherit the Earth. x
And at the end of this panel there's also a butt pat! 🍑
J2 Main Panel Nolacon 2023
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Fits of Passion and Idiocy | eddie munson
CONTAINS SPOILERS
fandom | Stanger Things
character | Eddie Munson
reader | he/him (she ver.)(they ver.)
requested | anonymous
warnings | brief mention of drugs, canon character death, fandom typical blood & violence, mild angst
word count | 14,814
keys | (Y/n) = Your name, (L/n) = Last name, (f/c) = favorite color, (D/n) = Dog's name
summary | eddie fix it fic PLEASE im begging literally you an do anything you want just fix it my heart was BROKEN
editor | @feliscatus-exe
>> back to prev <<
Keep reading
“So, uh, speaking of monsters, uh, Lucas has to do his, uh… balls-in-laundry-baskets game. So…” Dustin trails off, chuckling. “He’s not gonna be able to make it to Hellfire tonight.” His attempt to lighten the mood while talking about such a thing seems to have no sway on Eddie.
“And I know there’s no way we can beat your sadistic campaign without him. So, me and mike, we were talking, shooting the shit, and we were thinking that ma-maybe we- we might-”
“Postpone.” Mike cuts his rambling short.
“Postpone!?” The rest of the Hellfire Club shouts in anger. They begin talking over each other, most of their sentences overlapping and inaudible.
“Shut up!” Eddie shouts over everyone else. Gareth sighs and swallows his frustration.
“You saying Sinclair’s been taken in by the dark side?” Eddie asks.
“Uh. Something like that.” Mike replies.
“Something like that?” Eddie hisses as he throws a pretzel at him.
“Jesus Christ.” Dustin whispers, his voice high-pitched and somewhat trembling.
“And rather than find a sub for him, you want… you want to postpone ‘The Cult of Vecna’?” He asks, another pretzel in his hand. Whether for eating or throwing, they’re unsure.
“I… I don’t want to postpone it. We don’t want to postpone it. It’s just that, you know, most of the subs will be at the championship game.” Mike begins to plead his case, but Eddie stands up from his chair halfway through his sentence.
“Oh, it’s the championship game?” He asks.
“Yeah?” He replies, his words coming out as more of a question than an answer.
“Can I level with you? Jeff graduates this year. Gareth’s got, what? A year and a half? Me, I am army-crawling my way toward a D in Ms. O’Donnell’s. If I don’t blow her final, I’m gonna walk that stage next month, I’m gonna look principal Higgins dead in the eye, I’m gonna flip him the bird, I’m gonna snatch that diploma, and I’m gonna run like hell outta here.” He’d made his way around the entire table by the end of his spiel, pumping up the theatrics as he always did, which made Dustin laugh.
“Didn’t you say that last year?” Gareth asks.
“And the year before that?” Jeff chimes in. Eddie half jogs back to the table.
“Yeah, yeah, and I was full of shit. This year’s different. This year is my year. I can feel it. ‘86 baby.” He relays with a shit-eating grin—the rest of the group chuckles.
“You know what that means?” Eddie asks. Dustin and Mike shake their heads.
“It means you boys are the future of Hellfire. I knew it the moment I saw you. You sat on that table right over there, looking like… looking like two little lost sheep.” He says, leaning down to the boys' level with his hands on either of their shoulders.
“You were wearing a Weird Al T-shirt, which I thought was brave,” Eddie says to Dustin.
“Thank you.” He replies, his voice hardly even a whisper.
“Mike, you were wearing whatever shit your mommy bought you from goddamn Gap,” Eddie says to Mike, causing them to laugh much louder than before. At the moment their guards were down, Eddie pulls them up from their chairs by their shirts, forcing them to walk alongside him.
“And we showed you that school didn’t have to be the worst years of your lives, right?” He asks.
“No,” Mike replies.
“Okay, no, no. Well, I’m here to tell you that there are other little lost sheepies out there who need help. Who need you. And all you guys gotta do is get your Bo-Peeps on and go and find one.” He says, giving them one final shove away from the table.
>><<
Mike and Dustin groan as they sit on the brick wall surrounding the outside benches.
“I hate high school,” Mike says. Dustin grunts in response. As he looks away from Mike, he notices something in the distance.
“Hey hey look, two o’clock.” He says. Mike looks in the opposite direction of two o’clock, seeing as he’d never learned what that meant. Dustin rolled his eyes and pointed.
“Over there dipshit.” He said. They watched as a (f/c) backpack with a D20 keychain on the zipper disappeared into the library. He looked at Mike as Mike looked at him, presumably having the same thought. They both stood up and rushed toward the building, throwing the doors open fervently.
“Where did he go?” Dustin whisper-shouted.
“I-I don’t know Dustin! Maybe we should look for him in the aisles.” Mike replied. Dustin sighed as he walked further into the library, checking behind every shelf for any sign of life. Finally, he’d found you, all the way in the back where you were putting books back on the shelf.
“You!” He shouted. You jumped, so startled by the loud outburst that you dropped the book you were holding. You bent over to pick it up and turned around to see who was bothering you. You looked down at who you could only assume was a freshman.
“Please keep it down. Library policy. Do you need help finding a book or something?” You asked. A second freshman rounded the corner and walked to stand next to the first.
“You play DnD.” The one with curly hair stated, almost matter-of-factly. You raised your eyebrows.
“Um… No. I don’t.” You replied as you turned away from him, starting to put the books back once again.
“Then why do you have a D20 keychain?” He asked. You sighed.
“Because I used to play.” You said.
“So you know how?” He asked.
“Well, yeah, but the last time I played was like four years ago. Plus, why do you care? I don’t even know you.” You replied.
“I’m Dustin Henderson and this is Mike Wheeler. We’re part of the Hellfire club and we need someone to sub in for the campaign tonight. So will you?” He asks, his voice desperate.
“No.” You reply simply.
“W-What? Seriously?”
“Yeah. Seriously. Truly. No.” You say, turning around to face him. Dustin looks at Mike, silently asking him for help but Mike only shrugs in response. Dustin sighs and turns back to you. He notices the school ID around your neck and reads your name, before deciding to take a page out of Eddie’s book.
“Can I level with you for a moment (Y/n)?” He asks. You raise your eyebrows at the use of your name.
“We need you, so I’m willing to sweeten the deal on your end.” He says. You scoff.
“Dude, you know nothing about me. How could you possibly ‘sweeten the deal’?” You ask, putting air quotes around what he’d said.
“Well everybody loves movies! I can make it so you don’t have to pay to rent a movie for the next month.” He replies. You raise your eyebrows.
“Oh yeah? And how exactly are you gonna do that Dustin Henderson?” You say, leaning on the cart of books.
“I have a buddy who works at Family Video. He’ll waive your fee for the next month, I swear.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“I’ll pay!” He shouts.
“Shhh!” You shout back at him.
“Sorry. Sorry.” He whispers. You roll your eyes.
“So you’ll get your buddy to waive my movie rental fee for the next month if I play DnD with you for one night?” You ask. Dustin nods. You think for a second before sighing.
“Alright fine. But I swear to God if you try to pull a fast one on me, I’ll make your life hell. And I mean it, kid.” You say, poking your finger into his chest.
“Yes! You won’t regret this (Y/n)! Come on Mike!” He says as he bolts out the library doors with his friend in tow.
“You think Steve will let him rent for free?” Mike asked.
“Who cares? We have found a sub for tonight and that’s all that matters.”
>><<
The leader of the Hellfire Club sits on his throne. Hands folded together as he eyes you standing next to Dustin and Mike.
“Absolutely not.” He says after a pause of silence.
“You asked for a sub. We delivered.” Dustin said as he motioned toward you.
“This is Hellfire Club. Not Sports club.” He says, pointing at your Indiana Hoosiers T-shirt. You rolled your eyes.
“It was the only shirt I had clean. Plus, it’s comfortable you elitist piece of shit.”
“My, my. The sports fan knows big words.” Eddie replies, eliciting chuckles from his friends. He stands up from his throne, walking toward you.
“So, what’s your name, sports fan?”
“(Y/n) (L/n).” You reply. He laughs.
“So you’re the boy who works in the library.” You scoff and turn to Dustin.
“Wow, intuitive, isn’t he?” You say, earning a laugh from his friends. He turns and glares at them, shutting them up immediately.
“What’s your class and level? Level one half-orc?” He asks, once again earning laughter from his buddies.
“My name is Akzire the Wretched. And I’m a chaotic neutral Tiefling Fighter, level 15. And I will valiantly protect my party members by beheading any monster you throw my way with my scimitar. And I will brandish their head for all to see as a token of my victory. So, we gonna do this, or are you gonna keep pestering me like you’re a little girl in need of attention?” You ask. The five members stare at you as you face off with Eddie, shocked at how effortlessly you’ve challenged him. They wait in stunned silence, but after a moment, he breaks out into a cheeky smile and offers you his hand to shake.
“Welcome to Hellfire.” He says. You roll your eyes one last time, but with a smile, as you shake his hand.
>><<
You sit at the table, listening intently as Eddie relays his campaign onto the club.
“The hooded cultists chant, ‘Hail Lord Vecna. Hail Lord Vecna.’ They turn to you, remove their hoods. You recognize most of them from Makbar. But there is one you do not recognize, his skin shriveled, desiccated. And something else. He is not only missing his left arm, but his left eye!” He shouts, covering his own with his hand. The party erupts in protests, strings of “no”s and “come on man”s.
“Vecna’s dead!” Jeff shouts.
“He was killed by Kas!” Mike yells, to which Eddie smirks at.
“So it was thought, my friends. So it was thought. But Vecna… Lives!” He exclaims, placing the figurine on its podium with unmatched vigor. He resigns back to his throne.
“You are scared. You’re tired. You are injured. Do you flee Vecna and his cultists? Or stand your ground and fight?” He asks. Mike reclines in his seat as Dustin ponders the options.
“Come on.” Eddie prods. After a few seconds, he speaks up.
“I say we fight. To the death.” He states.
“To the death.” Mike agrees, nodding his head. They look toward you. You sigh.
“Fuck it. To the death.” You reply. The rest of the table breaks out into smiles.
“To the death! To the death! To the death! To the death! To the death! To the death! To the death!” Everyone chants while slamming their palms down. Eddie’s large smile is plastered on his face as he watches.
“To the death!” Dustin screams as he pumps his fists in the air. You grab the dice and roll, watching as they slide over the surface of the table. They all shout in triumph, some even clapping. It’s Mike's turn to roll, but it lands on 8, a miss. Eddie pushes over his figurine and the club begins to groan in protest. Jeff rolls. Miss. Miss after miss after miss and Eddie begins to laugh maniacally.
“Time out time out!” One of the members calls. You all step away from the table and huddle up.
“Guys, I hate to say this, but we've got to flee,” Gareth says, clear tiredness in his tone.
“I concur.” The person who called the time-out replies.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t we just agree on ‘to the death’?” You asked.
“That wasn’t literal,” Gareth replies.
“Vecna just decimated us. We can’t kill him with two players.” Jeff argues. You sigh and turn to Dustin, who’s already on the defense.
“You too? He only has 15 hit points left. Don’t be pussies.” He practically growls.
“Pussies? Really? Cause we’re not delusional.”
“Delusional? How about ‘not cowards’.” You retort.
“Hey!” Eddie calls from across the room, grabbing everyone’s attention and breaking the huddle.
“If I may interject gentlemen. Whilst I respect the passion, you’d be wise to take Gareth the Great’s concern to heart. There is no shame in running. Don’t try to be heroes. Not today, ‘kay?” He says, that cheeky shit-eating grin back on his face. It would make you furious if part of you didn’t find it so cute. Dustin holds up a finger.
“One sec.” He says before reforming the huddle circle.
“What do you think Mike?” He asks.
“How many hit points do you and Akzire have left?”
“Twelve.” Both you and Dustin proclaim in unison.
“It’s risky as hell… But you’re the ones on the battlefield. So it’s your call.” Mike says. You sigh and look at Dustin.
“What do you say Akzire the Wretched?” He asks. You smile.
“Do you even have to ask?” You reply. A moment of silence hangs over the Hellfire Club as Dustin contemplates.
“Screw it.” He finally mutters, pulling away from the huddle.
“Let’s kill this son of a bitch.” He states. Everyone approaches the table.
“The chances of success are 20-to-1,” Jeff says. Dustin holds up his finger.
“Never tell me the odds. Give me the D20.” He demands, holding his open palm out. Eddie picks up the die with that damn smile painted on his face and tosses it toward him. He catches it and holds his hands over his shoulder, shaking it vigorously. You watch with bated breath as he tosses it. It rolls and rolls and rolls until finally… 11.
“That's! A! Miss!” Eddie calls out, shaking his head after every word.
“Shit! Shit!” Dustin shouts, and in his anger, he knocks one of the soda cans off the table. But now, you were up. The entire game hinged on your role, and you could feel every bit of pressure as you picked up the die. You closed your eyes and shook it in your hands, feeling the intense stares on you as you did so.
“Please!” You could hear Gareth shout beside you.
“Come on!” Dustin called out. But their words fell on unlistening ears. You were too focused on the cool feeling of the die gently hitting the palms that encased it. Finally, without thinking about it, you released it. Watching with unmatched intensity as it rolled, the quiet clacking against the wooden table sounded immeasurable in magnitude. And then, it reached the end of its road. No more cascading down the table. It stopped. And it landed with the 20 side facing up.
“Crit hit!” You shouted, the rest of the club exploding in cheers alongside you.
“What? What?” Eddie shouted in disbelief, laughing and clapping his hands.
“That’s why we play!” He said, bending over and extending his arms, almost as if he was presenting your victory to someone. You smiled, much brighter than you had in a long time. Maybe this Hellfire thing wasn’t so bad after all.
>><<
You whistled as you pulled your car into the parking lot of the Family Video, double-checking the address Dustin had written down for you. It seemed like it was the right one so you put your car in park and gathered your keys and wallet. As you were doing so, you saw Dustin rush into the store, a redheaded girl following right behind him. What perfect timing.
Nobody paid you any mind as you walked into the store, perusing their many isles of movies, searching for something that may come of interest to you. Dustin was behind the counter with the redhead you saw earlier and two people you vaguely recognized from school.
You shuffled through the shelves closest to the front counter. It was by pure happenstance that you heard their conversations. Dustin, along with the two girls you didn't know were all on the phone, and it sounded like they were talking about Eddie, meanwhile, the older guy was cheesing up a customer with some romcom, which you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at.
“Hey, guys, I might have a lead.” The redhead called out as she hung up the phone.
“Seriously?” Dustin asked as he turned around in his chair to look at her.
“Yeah. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there.” She replies. You whistled as you approach the counter, having decided which movies you wanted to take home.
“Now that is a name I haven’t heard in a minute,” You say, setting your items down.
“(Y/n), what are you doing here?” Dustin asks. You shrug and push your tapes toward the worker.
“Cashing in on the sweet deal Dustin gave me to play DnD with him.” You reply. This statement catches the older guy's interest and he walks over.
“Wait wait wait. What’s he talking about Dustin?” He asks.
“Shit. Now, before you get mad at me Steve, I was desperate.”
“Dustin. What. Did. You. Do.” He demands, dropping his palms on the counter. Dustin sighs and closes his eyes.
“I may or may not have told him he could get movies here without paying the rental fee.” He says, getting the words out as fast as he could.
“You did what?!” Steve asks. You smile and lean your head on your palm, which you lean on the counter.
“For a month.” You interject. Steve looks at you and then at Dustin.
“For a month?!” He shouts. Dustin rolls his eyes.
“H-Honestly Steve it’s not that big of a deal. You can just-”
“Not that big of a deal? Not that big of a deal!? You have the nerve to- to-to-”
“Pimp you out?” You suggest.
“Pimp me out! Thank you (Y/n). And then tell me it’s not a big deal. Who do you think-”
“Guys shut up!” The redhead silenced them. They did so without question and she turned to you.
“You said you hadn’t heard that name for a while. Reefer Rick?” She asks. You nod.
“I used to hang at his place and get high before he got busted.” You reply, tracing your finger along the cover of the VHS on the counter.
“You smoke?” Steve asks, obviously perplexed by this fact. You shrugged.
“There ain’t exactly much else to do in this shithole town.” You reply.
“But that means you know where he lives? That-That’s great! Get me a pen so I can write it down!” Dustin says, searching for a piece of paper.
“Now hold on there Dustin. I’m not just going to give you the address. What kind of a person would that make me?” You reply innocently, but before he can speak, you continue.
“At least… not for free.”
“Jesus Christ (Y/n) seriously? Now is not the time to dick around.” Dustin practically yells at you.
“Who’s he gonna pimp out this time?” The older girl said as she nudged Steve. You chuckle as you hold your hand up.
“I don’t want anything supermassive. Free movies for a month are profit enough. I just want to tag along. Be a part of the know, you know?” You reply. Dustin looks at the redhead who shakes her head.
“(Y/n), I don’t think you want to know this know, okay. It’s in your better interest to just give us the address and forget this ever happened.” He said, placing a sticky note and pen in front of you. You raise your eyebrows and sigh.
“Alright, fine.” You say, grabbing the pen and writing on the paper. Once you were done you slid it over to him. He grabbed it with fervor but paused when he read it. Not a chance kid.
“I told you. I want all the details, or you guys will never find Reefer Rick. Well… you might but, it could be too late.” You say, gathering the VHSs you’d set down.
“But if you guys don’t want to know, I'll just be on my way.” You walk away from the service desk, hearing Dustin string out profanities.
“(Y/n)! Wait.” He calls out. You turn around, a coy smile on your face.
“We’ll tell you on the way there, 'cause it’s a long story.” He says with a sigh. You smile and grab your car keys from your pocket.
“Shall we?”
>><<
“So just to recap. Chrissy Cunningham is dead, last seen with Eddie Munson in his trailer by you, Max Mayfield, but you didn’t go straight to the cops with this information, instead, you go to Dustin Henderson's house to tell him, and even after that you still don’t go to the cops, you go to Family Video where you relay the entire situation to your friends Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley, and might I just add it’s a bit concerning how many young adults you’re friends with. What is it now, four?” You say, your hands on the steering wheel of your car.
“Wow, he’s got a great memory. When did we even tell you our last names?” Robin asks.
“I recognized you two from the yearbook.” You said with a shrug. The familiar sound of gravel on your tires was somewhat pleasant as you pulled to the side of the house. The sun had long since set, so most were carrying flashlights as they approached the door and rang the doorbell. Waiting not even a second before the first bell finishes, he rings it again. He rings it seven more times before he starts to bang on the window.
“Okay. Well, that’s settled. I guess he’s not here.” Steve says, but you knew he wouldn’t give up that easy. And true to your thoughts, he leans over and yells into the window.
“Eddie! It’s Dustin!”
“Great.”
“Look, we just wanna talk okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help.” He shouts as he pounds on the glass pane.
“Eddie!”
“Shhh!” Robin shouts at him. He begins to ring the doorbell again.
“Rick!” He calls out as he pounds in the door.
“Is he always like this?” You whisper to Steve. He sighs and nods.
“Reefer rick!” Dustin yells.
“Don’t scream that.” Steve scolds him.
“Rick!”
“He’s not there!” You turn your attention away from the loud door pounding and their incessant bickering to see Max making her way around the house.
“Reefer Rick!” Dustin’s shouting pulls your attention back to him.
“Just-”
“He might just be really high…” Dustin suggests.
“Is that a foot?” Steve asks. You roll your eyes.
“No, that’s just a shoe,” Dustin replies.
“Obviously dumbass.” You mutter.
“Hey, guys!” Max shouts. Everyone looks at her for a brief second before leaving the front porch and stationing behind her. There was an eerie-looking boat house staring back at you.
“Despite it being a terrible idea, why do I have the feeling that we’re gonna go poking around in there?” You asked. Max looked over her shoulder at you before looking back at the boathouse. She slowly approached it, shining her light in the windows. You sighed.
“Yep. How did I know?” You say as you roll your eyes and follow close behind her. Once you’d made a full circle around the building, you reached the door. Robin was the first to push it open.
“Hello?” She called out to the vast darkness.
“Is anyone home?” She said, sweeping her flashlight across the room. She stepped inside, Max following her. Then Dustin, then you, then Steve bringing up the tail end.
“What a dump.” He said, looking around.
“Yeah well, I’m sure Eddie wouldn’t be hiding out in the Hilton.” You replied. Steve rolled his eyes and clicked off his flashlight so he could put it away. Once he did, he grabbed what looked to be an oar off the wall and began to violently poke whatever the tarp covered in the center of the room.
“What are you doing?” Dustin asks. Steve responded by poking it again. Dustin repeated his question and Steve shrugged.
“He might be in here.”
“So take the tarp off!” Dustin exclaimed while Steve continued to mess with it.
“If you’re so brave, you take the tarp off.” He replied. They both continued to circle the boat, neither of them removing the tarp.
“Hey, look over here,” Max called. You and Robin walked to her side, examining whatever she was ushering to.
“Someone was here.” She said, picking up the wrappers scattered access the surface.
“Maybe he heard us. Got spooked and ran.”
“Don’t worry. Steve will get him with his oar.” Dustin replied sarcastically.
“I know you think you’re being funny Henderson but considering almost everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don’t find it funny in the slight-” Steve was cut off by the sound of glass shattering and movement so fast you could barely perceive it. Eddie had emerged from the tarp and was backing steve against a wall, holding the jagged edges of the broken glass bottle toward his throat.
“Wait wait wait wait wait!” Steve shrieked in horror. You speechlessly watched, unsure of what you could do.
“Woah, woah, woah, Eddie! Eddie! Stop! Eddie! Eddie!” Dustin called out as you all rushed toward him but still kept a reasonable distance. Eddie turned his head to stare at him. His eyes were wide with terror, and you couldn’t help but wonder what the hell you’d gotten yourself into.
“It’s me. It’s Dustin. This is Steve. He’s not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?”
“Right. Yeah.” Steve replied meekly, his voice hardly above a whisper.
“Steve, why don’t you drop the oar?” Dustin asked. There’s a quiet thud as Steve does what he’s told, but in doing so Eddie only pushes the bottle closer to steve's neck. He groans in pain and fear.
“He’s cool. He’s cool!” Dustin shouts.
“I’m cool, man. I’m cool.” Steve practically begs.
“What are you doing here?” Eddie asks, his voice is rough and terrified, so much different than the way he’d sounded that night at hellfire.
“We’re looking for you,” Dustin says softly.
“We’re here to help.” Robin chimes in.
“Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band.” Dustin says, ushering to the girl behind him, who mimics playing trumpet.
“And (Y/n), from Hellfire. You remember him, right?” He says. You give a weak smile from behind Dustin, waving at Eddie.
“This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play, D&D. Eddie. We’re on your side. I swear on my mother. Right guys?”
“Yes. Yes. We swear.” Max pleaded.
“On Dustin’s mother,” Robin replied.
“Yeah. Dustin’s… Dustin’s mother.” Steve chimed in. There’s a moment of silence that seems to last forever before Eddie finally pulls away from Steve, who gasps in relief.
“Jesus christ…” He mumbles to himself. You watch Eddie walk away, sinking down the wall until he’s sitting. Dustin approaches him.
“Eddie… We just want to talk.” His words are slow as he stoops to Eddie’s level. He gently reaches for the broken bottle, but Eddie flinches away.
“Okay…” He whispers, removing his hands.
“We want to know what happened,” Robin said as she knelt next to Dustin. Eddie sniffles and shakes his head, looking at her.
“You won’t believe me.” He says, making eye contact with you for a split second before looking away.
“Try us,” Max replies. Eddie stares at her before standing up and slowly beginning to pace. He seems to be psyching himself out. Dustin adjusts his position, as do the rest of you as you wait for him. He pulled a chair in front of everyone and sat down, looking at his hands in his lap for a few more minutes before finally looking back up.
“Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh… and she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones… Uh, she…” He seems to whimper at the thought and his voice becomes shakier as he continues.
“Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It… It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I… I didn’t know what to do, so I…I ran away. I left her there.” He pauses for a second before scoffing.
“You all think I’m crazy, right?”
“No. We don’t think you’re crazy.”
“We don’t?” You whisper, not wanting him to hear. Steve nudges you in the side and gives you a look which you’re tempted to argue with but stop when Eddie begins to yell.
“Don’t bullshit me, man! I know how this sounds.” His voice cracks.
“We’re not bullshitting you,” Max says.
“We believe you,” Robin interjects. Maybe you missed the memo because it seems like everyone else was on the same page. Dustin was right, you were in way over your head.
“Look, what I’m about to tell you might be a little, difficult to take,” Dustin says.
“Okay,” Eddie replies.
“You know how people say Hawkins is… cursed? They’re not way off… There’s another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours.” You were just as perplexed as Eddie seemed to be.
“Like ghosts and shit?” He asks. You snicker quietly, earning a glare from Max before she turns back to Eddie to continue.
“There are some things worse than ghosts.” She replies.
“These monsters from this other world… we thought they were gone. But they’ve come back before. That’s why we needed to find you.”
“If they’re back again, we need to know,” Max says, her voice firm, demanding almost.
“That night, did you see anything?” Robin asks.
“Dark particles, maybe?” Max adds on. Eddie shakes his head.
“It would almost look like dust, swirling dust.”
“No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh… or touch… You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn’t move. It was like she… she was in a trance or something.”
“Or under a spell,” Dustin suggests. Eddie looks at him.
“A curse.” He whispers.
“Vecna’s curse.”
“You don’t mean from…” You trail off, mostly thinking out loud rather than talking to anyone. Dustin nods, and steve looks at him confused.
“Who’s Vecna?” He asks.
“An undead creature of great power,” Dustin replies.
“A spell caster,” Eddie adds, meeting his gaze with yours.
“A dark wizard,” Dustin whispers. You remembered the horrors you’d read about him in your books. But that’s all they were. Books. Works of fiction. These people you’d known for a combined total of a few hours couldn’t possibly be trying to convince you otherwise, right?
“Sorry, did I miss a chapter or something? Cause if Eddie’s not the crazy one here then I think I might be. What the fuck is going on?” You asked. Max sighed.
“It’s a long story.”
“And very unbelievable,” Robin says with a slight chuckle. You closed your eyes and rubbed your temples.
“Condense it and consider me open-minded.” You replied, leaning against the wooden pillar behind you.
“A few years ago our friend Will was kidnapped by a monster from the upside down, that’s what we call that other world we mentioned earlier. We found this girl, Eleven or El as we called her and she has superpowers. She fought the Demogorgon, the monster that kidnapped Will, and we thought she died after that but turns out she was just being kept hidden by Hopper, the chief of police. Will tried to return to normal life but failed since he now had some sort of connection to the upside down and could see into it, causing a new monster to possess him, The Mind Flayer. We were able to defeat him, or so we thought. He returned, this time with Russians on his side.”
“Russians!?” You exclaim.
“That’s where we come in!” Robin said with a smile. Steve scoffs.
“Correction, that’s where you come in. I was there since the Demogorgon.” He replies.
“Ehhh, more like since Dart,” Dustin says.
“Who’s Dart?” You ask.
“Not integral to the story. Back to the Russians. They were running an underground operation with a mall as the front. Eleven returns, another victory, yadda yadda. They move to California to escape the craziness of Hawkins but we’re still here, thus still having to deal with it.”
“And now there’s a new monster… Vecna… who’s… framing people for murder?” You ask. Dustin looks at Eddie and shrugs.
“More or less.” He says. You sigh, trying to take in the information you were just given.
“I tried to tell you (Y/n). You didn’t want to know this know. It’s not too late to back out now. Just go back home and pretend this never happened.” Dustin said as he stood up. You rolled your eyes.
“Yeah right. If any of this shit you’re saying is the truth, it’s gnarly as hell. Besides,” You hold up your keys. “How else would you guys get home?” You say with a smile. Dustin sighs.
“You really wanna do this?” He asks. You nod.
“In fact, I’m about to get myself into even deeper shit. Eddie can’t stay here.” You say, pointing at the subject who was still sitting in his chair and chewing on his nails. At the sound of his name, he stared up at you.
“Why not?” He asked.
“You have a very tangible connection to reefer rick. If I knew that, other people are bound to know that. If some dumbass kids were able to find you, I doubt the cops are that far behind.” You reply.
“He’s right,” Max replies. Dustin groans.
“Of course he’s right but where else could he go? This town isn’t exactly crawling with good fugitive hiding spots.”
“Why can't he just stay with me?” You ask. Dustin looks at you, along with everybody else in the room. Steve is the first to make a noise, which is a somewhat awkward laugh.
“Listen, (Y/n), as much as we love the knight in shining armor move, I doubt your parents will be too keen on you hiding-”
“Who says I live with my parents?” You cut him off. He raises his eyebrows.
“You… don’t?” He asks.
“No. I live on my own. In a pretty secluded area. My neighbors are at least ten minutes in either direction so they wouldn’t see anything. The only people who know I’ve ever interacted with you are the Hellfire club. And considering I was only there one night, there are probably plenty of other people they’d talk to first. It’s perfect.”
“How old are you?” Steve asks, still seemingly shocked that you live on your own.
“19.” You reply.
“How do you-”
“Steve. Shut up.” Robin cuts him off. He looks at her, his face almost offended that she would do such a thing.
“That could work… Eddie, what do you think?” Dustin asks as he turns to the man of the hour.
“You’re asking me what I think?” He replied. Dustin shrugs. Eddie sighs, standing up from the chair and crossing his arms.
“You’re really gonna harbor a fugitive (L/n)?” He asks. You shrug.
“Why not? I’ve already done plenty to get me jailed tonight, might as well make that list as long as possible. Get me more cred in the yard if we get caught.” You say with an almost devious smile.
“(Y/n)’s house it is. Anything beats this shithole.” Eddie replied.
“Let’s get a move on then.” You grabbed your keys out of your pocket but pause for a second.
“Hold on, I’ve got an idea.” You said, putting your keys back into your pocket and removing the tarp from the boat.
“What are you doing?” Dustin asked. You began to unhook the boat from where it was being held.
“Sending this bad boy out to sea. With any luck, the police will find it and think Eddie jumped off ‘cause he couldn’t handle the guilt.” You reply. Eddie smiles.
“Smart.” He says as he crosses his arms. You return the smile.
“I try.”
>><<
You pulled into the driveway of your house, hearing your dog barking. Poor boy hasn’t seen you all day, he must’ve missed you. You quickly locked it down before stepping out. You held your keys in your hand as you turned around.
“The dog is very friendly, don’t worry. He’s a total sweetheart. He might nibble your arm but that’s about it.” You say as you unlock your front door. True to your word, your dog came barrelling toward you, greeting you by jumping on your legs. You laughed and pet him gingerly, waiting for the others to pile in.
“Everyone in? Good. I’ll lock up, you guys can make yourself at home.” You said. He weaseled around you to sniff the new people. Max smiled as she began to put him.
“He’s so cute… What's his name?” She asked.
“It’s (D/n).” You reply, walking toward your tv so you could kneel and store your new VHS rentals with the others. Once everything is neatly sorted, you stand back up and turn around to talk to others.
“Since we dropped by your place to grab your car Steve, you should get these kids home now. It’s pretty late. Eddie and I will be fine.” You say.
“Are you sure? What if the cops come?” Dustin asks. You laugh and gently push down his hat.
“You worry too much. Get out of here already.” You reply, walking back toward your door to unlock it for them. He begrudgingly makes his way over, pausing for everyone else to follow him.
“We’ll be back tomorrow to check up on you two,” Steve says. You nod.
“Fine by me. See you all then.” You say as they slowly begin to exit. Once they’re in their car, you lock the door and turn to Eddie who stands awkwardly. You laugh.
“Relax dude.” You say.
“Relax? I’m on the run from the police and you want me to relax? I’m surprised you’re not losing your head right now considering you’re the one hiding me.”
“We’re just two friends hanging out, alright? Listen… You look like shit. Why don’t you take a shower while I cook dinner?” You suggest making your way into the kitchen to check what you could make.
“Shower? And what exactly do you propose I change into?” He asks.
“I’ll let you borrow some of mine while I toss yours in the washer. I’m sure I have something that’ll fit you. Might be a bit big though.” You say, exiting the kitchen and walking down the hall to your bedroom. You can hear him follow behind you. You push open the door and make your way to your dresser, beginning to shuffle through the top drawer.
“Oh… Wasn’t expecting your room to actually be cool.” Eddie says as he leans on the door frame. You glance at him with a cocked eyebrow.
“And why is that?” You ask.
“Well, you’re like a sports fan aren't you?” He asked. You rolled your eyes and went back to sifting through the clothes.
“Like I said. It was laundry night. I got that shirt from my dad ages ago. Couldn’t you tell from how beat up it was?” You replied, grabbing a couple of garments before standing up and tossing them toward him. He fumbled to catch them but eventually did. He unfolded the shirt to see a Mötley Crüe album cover staring back at him. He smiled.
“You’re hard to pin down (L/n).” He said. You rolled your eyes and tossed him a towel.
“That’s cause I like to be on top Munson.” You reply with a playful wink. Eddie’s face became red, holding the clothes close to his chest. He opened his mouth to reply but only sputtered. In order not to embarrass himself more, he opted to make his way to the bathroom for that shower. Maybe even a cold one.
“Make sure you toss your clothes out so I can wash them.” You shout. You see Eddie reach his arm out and drop everything in the hallway. Once you gathered his items, along with a couple of your own to make the load more substantial, you started the washer and made your way back to the living room.
You quietly whistled as you gently ran your finger along your shelf of cassettes, deciding which you wanted to listen to while you cooked. Eventually, you settled on Black Sabbath’s self-titled album and popped it into your radio.
The familiar sound of the rain from the opening song soothed you as you pulled out the pot you needed to boil water in. You hummed along once the music began to pick up. You continued cooking, enjoying the music in pair with the sound of the shower in the background.
A substantial amount of time had passed and you were close to finishing the meal you were preparing when you paused. Your favorite song on the album was starting. N.I.B. Instead of humming, you began to sing along.
“Some people say my love cannot be true / Please, believe me, my love, and I'll show you / I will give you those things you thought unreal / The sun, the moon, the stars all bear my seal.” You sing quietly to yourself.
“Woah, you’ve been holding out on me.” A voice spoke from behind you. You were startled, jumping slightly and flinging sauce onto your shirt. You groaned.
“Come on man.” You said, turning around and placing your hands on your hips. You planned on being annoyed but when you saw him standing in front of you with his curly hair damp and sticking to his forehead, you couldn’t help but swoon. Your shirt looked great on him, which caused a smile to creep onto your face.
“Tomato sauce?” He asked. You nodded.
“Spaghetti. I hope you like it.” You reply, turning back around to stir the sauce. Eddie leaned on the counter next to you, watching as you did so.
“I meant it though. Your voice was good. And your song choice? Impeccable.” He says. You roll your eyes and push him with your shoulder.
“Quit fucking with me Munson.”
“I mean it! Seriously.” His voice is soft and gentle, and your heartbeat starts to thump loudly in your chest. You turn the heat off your stove and look at him with a smile.
“Dinner is done.”
>><<
Eddie sighed as he reclined on the couch.
“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a home-cooked meal like that?” He asked with a laugh. You smile.
“So, you liked it?” You ask.
“Are you kidding me? That shit was delicious.” He proclaimed. You stood up and collected both of your bowls, placing them into the sink before standing in front of him.
“I'm glad you liked it. Wanna get some sleep now? It’s super late.” You said. Eddie checked his watch and nodded.
“Wow, you’re right. It is late. Am I taking the couch?” He asks. You shake your head.
“Nah, you can take my bed, I’ll take the couch.” You reply. Eddie raises his eyebrows.
“Wait what? Seriously?” He asks, sitting up straight.
“Well, yeah. The couch is super uncomfortable.”
“So why are you sleeping on it?”
“Because I don’t want you sleeping on it.”
“So… neither of us should sleep on it.”
“Where am I gonna sleep then? The floor?” You asked with a laugh.
“We could both sleep on the bed.” Eddie was quick in his response, almost too quick. You were a bit surprised by this and felt that funny feeling start to well up in your stomach again.
“We could… If you’re okay with that.” You say, trying to sound nonchalant. He shrugged, averting eye contact.
“I am if you are.” He says. You smile.
“Yeah. You can go to the room and get comfortable, I have to use the restroom so I’ll be there soon.” You say, stretching before walking down the hall.
Eddie did as you said, going into your room as you went into the restroom. He laid down on your bed, sidling under the covers and finally relaxing for the first time in a long time. He hadn’t realized how tired he was until he was resting. As he held the blanket close to him, he inhaled. It smelled like your cologne. He’d only ever caught gentle hints of it when you stood close to him, but now, he could smell it as clear as day, which was so soothing.
What has been going on with him lately? He’d only known you for two days, and everything about you seemed to make him act a fool. He needed to get himself together, he had bigger things to worry about now. Not how good your cologne smelled or how comfortable your shirt fit him or how melodic your voice sounded or how you were honestly starting to look like the perfect man for him the more time he spent with you.
You walked back into the room, hairbrush in hand as you raked it through your tangled locks. Once you finished you placed it on your nightstand. You smiled at the sight of him all cozy and comfortable in your bed. He seemed like he was already starting to drift off to sleep. God knows he needed it.
“I can’t stand the feeling of sleeping in pants, do you mind?” You asked, hands hovering over the button of your jeans. He raised his eyebrows but shrugged.
“Go ahead.” He muttered before breaking into a yawn. You chuckled.
“Sleep Eddie. You need it.” You replied, gently crawling into your bed so you didn’t disturb him. He looked at you with half-lidded eyes and gave you a sleepy smile.
“Thanks. For everything.” He mumbled before closing his eyes. You opened your mouth to respond but seeing as it seemed he’d already gone to sleep. You opted for a fond smile as you stared at him for longer than you would’ve liked to admit. The funny feeling in your stomach and heart was back, but you didn’t fight it this time. You laid with it as he laid with you, your hand only centimeters away from his. So close, yet so far. But that was okay. He was there, and that was okay.
>><<
The horrible sound of bones crunching met his ears as he stared up at her floating body. Blood was pouring from her empty eye sockets but it still felt like she was staring right at him. Into his very soul. Despite her broken jaw, she spoke to him.
“It’s all your fault, Eddie.” She whispered. Her voice was so hoarse it didn’t even sound like her own.
“No…” Eddie pleaded.
“It’s all your fault!” She was yelling now. Eddie collapsed to the floor and began to cry, covering his ears in an attempt to block out her screaming. He rocked himself back and forth, sobbing uncontrollably.
Eddie sat up with a fervor, his hands shaking violently as he swung his head around to look at the room. His eyes trained on the ceiling, waiting to see if she’d appear there. It was so hard to breathe and he was so fucking scared. He was goddamn terrified.
All the motion had woken you up. You rubbed the sleep from your eyes and planned on asking what was wrong, but quickly sat up when you heard Eddie crying. You could feel his body tremors on the mattress due to how violent they were. What had happened to him while you were sleeping?
“Eddie? Eddie, what’s wrong?” You whispered. You kept your voice low and avoided touching him in case it would upset him further.
“She was there… She was there and she- s-she-”
“Who was there Eddie?” You asked.
“Chrissy! She said it was all my fault and-” It was hard to catch the rest of his words over his sobs.
“Hey hey hey i-it’s okay! Chrissy isn’t here. None of that was your fault alright? Just breath. Can I touch you?” You asked gently, hovering your hands over his shoulders. He nodded something no short of desperation, and you wrapped one of your arms around his back, the other holding his arms.
“It’s okay Eddie. It’s okay…” You whispered. He cried harder as he clutched fistfuls of your shirt with an iron-tight grip. His entire body was shaking in your arms. You weren’t sure what else you could do other than whisper that he’d be alright and gently rub his back.
“You’re safe here, okay? You’re safe…”
>><<
Eddie woke up, the smell of your cologne much stronger than it was when he’d gone to sleep. He opened his eyes and yawned, taking a few seconds to blink away the tiredness before realizing he was laying on your chest. His arms were wrapped around your midsection and yours laying atop his back.
He vaguely remembered what happened. Having that horrible nightmare, waking up in tears, and you soothing him back to sleep, but he didn’t remember this level of intimacy. Had he really fallen asleep clutching onto you like this? Furthermore, you let him?
He pulled his arms out from under you, trying his best not to disturb you, but it was fruitless. You slowly began to stir, stretching your limbs and shaking them gently in an attempt to wake yourself up further. You looked at Eddie and gave him a small smile, remembering the events of the night clearly.
“You alright?” You ask quietly. Eddie gives a half-hearted laugh before leaning against the headboard of your bed.
“Yeah. Sorry, you had to see me like that. How embarrassing.” He muttered. You chuckled and sat up as well, bumping your shoulder into his as you did so.
“You went through something traumatic Eddie. Don't be so hard on yourself.” You replied. He looked at his hands which he’d folded in his lap.
“I was acting like a baby though. Crying and shaking? I mean seriously-”
“Eddie.” You cut him off. He looked at you with those big brown eyes that made you weak in the knees.
“You’re okay. I mean it.” You say, placing your hand on his shoulder. He stared at you, his cheeks dusting that familiar shade of pink that seemed to be happening much more often now that he was around you. He looked away, a small smile on his face.
“Just don’t tell Henderson, alright? I don’t want him to think I’ve gone soft.” He says. You laugh.
“Deal.”
>><<
A few days passed and you found yourself growing much closer to Eddie. You bonded over music and books, played board games, and marathoned some of your favorite movies. The more time you spent with him, the harder you seemed to fall for him, and unbeknownst to you, it was the same for him.
Every time he looked at you from across the couch he felt his heart beat faster than it ever had in his life. He had crushes before, but none like this. None that would've given him a second glance, let alone let him stay in their house as he was suspected of murder.
You were reclined on the couch, your dog wedged between you two. Eddie had grown quite fond of him, and it was mutual. (D/n) loved having another person around to play with. It started to make you feel like you were your own little family. But a loud knock on your door disturbed that peace, causing (D/n) to start barking.
“Who is it?” You called.
“It’s Dustin! Let us in!” He yelled through the door. You sighed and got up from your comfortable position, unlocking the door for the others to pile in. But there were two faces you didn’t quite recognize.
“Hold on there kid. Mind catching me up on these two characters?” You asked.
“Oh, right. (Y/n), this is Nancy and Lucas, Nancy and Lucas this is (Y/n). We’re all caught up now? Great, good, because shit just hit the fan.” Dustin replies. You raise your eyebrows, and Eddie adjusts his sitting from being reclined to attentive listening.
“On our way here, we drove by Rick’s place. It was swarmed with cops and reporters. Patrick was Vecna’d last night at Lover’s Lake. Jason managed to convince them that it was you and they’ve just released your name to the public.” His words come out so fast that you almost don’t register what he’s saying.
“Shit. shit… fuck man!” Eddie yells, standing up and beginning to pace the room.
“But, there’s a bright side to this,” Dustin says.
“Oh is there Henderson? Please do enlighten me.” Eddie replies sarcastically.
“Another thing I noticed on my way here was that my compass was slipping the further east we went.”
“And we’ve seen this before.” The one named Lucas chimed in.
“Mhmm. In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power.” Dustin says.
“Meaning…?” You ask.
“There’s another gate.” He answers.
“So what do we do now?”
“We follow the compass to the gate,” Dustin replies excitedly.
“Eddie’s still a wanted man. What do you expect us to do? Go for a nice stroll in the woods?” You ask.
“This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie. What say you Eddie the Banished?” Dustin asks. Everyone fixes their eyes on Eddie, even you. You’re not sure what you’re hoping his answer is.
“I say you’re asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I’m totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But, uh, the shire… the shire is burning. So Mordor it is.” Dustin excitedly opens the front door, waiting for Eddie to walk out. You walk to step out after him but pause to speak before you do.
“For the record, if anything happens to him, you’re all dead meat. Got it?” You say. A couple of shocked faces dance around the room, but there are nods of agreement. Once your gone, Steve looks at Dustin.
“Since when does he care so much about Eddie?” He asks. Dustin smirks.
“Young love Steve. Young love.” He replies as he pats his arm. Steve makes a noise of shock as Dustin walks out of the house.
“A little bit of elaboration would be nice.”
>><<
“Dustin? Can you slow down? Dustin?” Eddie called out. You felt like sheep, blindly following this kid through the woods.
“I think we’re getting close,” Dustin yelled over his shoulder. In his distraction of telling you so, he didn’t notice that he was about to walk straight into Lover’s Lake. Eddie grabbed his backpack and placed his arm in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.
“Watch your step big guy.” He said. It took everyone else a little bit to catch up, but once you did, you sighed.
“Oh, man. You gotta be shitting me.” Steve groaned.
“Yeah. I thought these woods looked familiar.” Eddie replied.
“Lover’s Lake.”
“This is confounding,” Dustin whispered.
“There’s a gate in Lover’s lake?” Max asked.
“Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening. Maybe Vecna’s the same way.” Nancy suggested.
“Yeah, only one way to find out,” Steve replied. Eddie sighed and cracked his neck, walking down the shoreline. He pulled the tarp off the boat which seemed to be an integral part of this story. Steve and Eddie began to push it onto the water.
“Easy I… I said easy, man.” Steve said.
“Sorry, dude,” Eddie mumbled. Steve holds his hand out to help Robin into the boat but she opts to use their heads instead.
“Yeah that works too.” Steve mumbles. Eddie climbs in after, offering a hand to help you in. You snicker.
“How gentlemanly.” You reply sarcastically as you climb in. Nancy quickly follows behind you. Dustin is right on her heels, but Eddie flicks his hat downward and pushes him away.
“Hey, hey, hey, you trying to sink us? This thing holds four people tops, okay?”
“It’s better this way, okay? You guys stay here with Max. Keep an eye out for trouble.” Nancy said.
“You keep an eye out!” Dustin rebuttals. Nancy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
“It’s my goddamn theory!” Dustin argues.
“You heard Nance.”
“Who put her in charge?”
“I did,” Robin states, almost matter-of-factly. Dustin looks at her confused while Nancy holds out her hand.
“Compass.” She demands. Dustin begrudgingly forks it over as he walks back to stand next to the other younger teenagers. Steve stands up and tosses his backpack before pushing the boat into the water and hopping in.
“You said four!” Dustin protests.
“Sorry,” Steve whispers.
“Bedtime at nine kiddos! Miss you already!” Robin yells. You chuckled.
Robin and Eddie use the oars to propel the boat on the water while Nancy watches the compass. You quietly begin to whistle a tune, one that Eddie recognized. The same one you sang the first night he stayed at your house. He was sure his face was flushed, but he didn't mind since it was shrouded in the darkness of the night.
”Whoa, whoa, woah, woah, slow down. Slow down, guys.” Nancy called out. Robin and Eddie stopped rowing, turning around to look at her. You all gathered around the compass, staring at it as the needle went crazy. You heard the walkie-talkie chime with Dustin’s voice.
“Guys, what’s going on? Come on, talk to me. What’s going on?” He asked. Robin grabbed the walkie and spoke into it.
“Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capitol ‘aah!’” She replied. Steve began to pull off his shoes and socks.
“Steve, what are you doing?” Nancy asked.
“Yeah, seriously man, nobody wants to see those. Or smell them.” You say, fanning his feet away from you. Steve rolls his eyes.
“Somebody's gotta go down and check this thing out. Unless one of you four can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then… It’s gotta be me. No complaints, alright?” He asks.
“Hey, I'm not complaining. I do not wanna go down there.” Eddie replies as he fishes a grocery bag from his battle vest pocket. Steve pulls his shirt off and you roll your eyes.
“Show off.” You mumble. Eddie looks up at you and smiles.
“Tell me about it.” He whispers before handing Steve the flashlight wrapped in the plastic bag safeguard.
“Hey. Good luck.” Eddie says. He pulls out a cigarette while Steve thanks him but Robin quickly grabs it and throws it in the lake.
“Steve?” Nancy calls out. He looks over his shoulder at her.
“Be careful.” She says. He nods before diving in.
“Gross.” You mumble, taking off your hoodie and bunching it up. You toss it in Eddie’s lap before laying your head onto it, reclining as comfortably as the small boat would allow. Eddie’s a bit surprised by this, looking down at you as if questioning why.
“Who knows how long he’ll be down there? Might as well get comfortable while I can.” You reply with a shrug. He relaxes a little but is still somewhat on edge.
“Where we at, Wheeler?” Robin asks.
“Closing in on a minute,” Nancy replies. She exhales and nods. More time passes as both of them stare intensely at the water, wondering when he’s gonna resurface. You, on the other hand, find yourself close to drifting off. You wouldn’t have expected it considering the high-stakes situation you were in, but something about laying in Eddie's lap made you feel safe enough to doze off. You were snapped out of that peace quickly though when Steve burst through the water gasping for air.
“I found it!” He exclaimed. You sat up and pulled your hoodie back on.
“You found it?” Nancy asked.
“I found it. Yeah. I found it.” He replied as he clutched onto the side of the boat. Robin smiles and grabs the walkie-talkie.
“Dustin you are a goddamn Einstein. Steve found the gate!” She spoke into it. She waited for a response, but nothing came. She furrows her eyebrows in confusion but disregards it when Steve starts talking.
“It’s pretty wild. It’s more of a snack-sized gate than the mama gate but still, it’s pretty damn big.” He says, almost out of breath. When his sentence finished, he dips back under the water, seemingly struggling against something. He pops back up with a look of confusion on his face before being pulled fully underwater.
“Steve!” Nancy calls out.
“No no! What the hell was that, man?” Eddie yelled.
“Nancy, really, what happened?” Robin asks, her voice filled with terror. Nancy stares at the water for a moment before she stands up. She looks like she’s going in after him.
“Wait, wait, wait. You’re not going in there, are you?” Eddie asks, grabbing her arm to stop her.
“Just wait here.” She demands.
“No Nancy!” Robin yells, but she’s already in the water.
“Goddamnit!” Eddie yells, running his fingers through his hair. Robin begins to perch herself on the edge of the boat.
“No no no no no no. What are you doing? She said wait.” Eddie protested.
“Yeah, I heard her.” She replies.
“She’s in charge.”
“Are you kidding me? I made that shit up.” She says before plugging her nose and beginning to lean back.
“Don’t you go. Don’t you-” His words are cut off by the splash of Robin's body meeting the water.
“Goddamn it!” He bangs his open palms on the edge of the boat. You stand up, causing him to look at you.
“(Y/n), don’t even think about it!” He says. You smirk and hold out your hand to him.
“Come on, don’t make me do this alone.” You reply.
“Son of a bitch. This is so stupid. This is so stupid. This is so stupid.” He practically chants to himself, but he grabs your hand anyways. You dive into the water together, all while he’s stringing out profanities.
>><<
You all huddle under skull rock, shaking from fear and possibly hypothermia. After saving Steve from those creatures and running through the entire forest to hide from them, it was safe to say that you were exhausted. The screeching becomes more distant, and Robin is the first to peek her head out.
“Oh… okay. That was close.” She says.
“Yeah. Too close.” Eddie replies, his voice shaking with fear. As you begin to walk farther out, you hear steve mutter something. You turn your head and see him lean against the rock.
“Steve? Jesus.” Nancy says as she notices the same thing you had.
“I’m fine. I’m fine.” He protests.
“No, no, no. You’re not. You’re losing blood. Come on, sit. Alright?” She coaxes him down He groans in pain as he removes his hand from the open wound. Robin kneels next to him as well.
“Okay. So the good news here is I’m pretty sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies. But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me or something, then you should totally let me know, okay?”
“Robin.”
“Yeah?”
“I kinda wanna punch you.” He replied. Robin laughs.
“Sense of humor’s still intact. That’s a good sign.”
“Yeah…” He mumbles. Nancy finishes tearing off the piece of fabric that she needed to dress his wounds, so Robin steps away.
“You ready?” Nancy asks.
“Yeah. Just do it.” Steve replies. She pushes the fabric against him and he stifles his groans. He locks his hands behind his head as she apologizes, doing her best to wrap the fabric around him properly.
“Too tight?” She asks.
“No, that’s good.” He replies. He lets out a few final grunts of pain before she finishes by tying it into a knot. You hear Eddie walk away from you, so you turn to see what he’s doing. He’s climbing up a rock, trying to get a better view of the land in front of him.
“So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?” He asks. Nancy helps Steve stand, putting his weight on her shoulders.
“Pretty much.” She replies. He nods and starts to walk back down, but Nancy stops him with a warning.
“Wait, watch out for the vines. It’s all a hivemind.”
“It’s all a what?”
“All the creepy crawlies around here dude. They’re like, one, or something. You’re stepping on a vine, you’re stepping on a bat, you’re stepping on Vecna.” Steve says.
“Shit,” Eddie replies, now very carefully stepping around the vines.
“But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people obviously?” Robin asks.
“As far as I understand it, yeah.”
“So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate.”
“I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah, sure.”
“Well, we don’t have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom.” Nancy replied. Eddie finally manages to jump down from the rock.
“You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?” He asks.
“Full of surprises, isn’t she?”
“A Russian Makarov and a revolver.” She states.
“Yeah, you almost shot me with that one,” Steve says.
“You almost deserved it.” She replies. Eddie rolls his eyes and slips off his battle vest, tossing it at Steve.
“For your modesty, dude.” He says. You can’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy culminate in your abdomen, but before you have time to even think about why that is, a loud rumbling shakes the earth. It’s so intense that you lose your balance, falling into Eddie as the others fall into each other as well. His arm falls onto your waist and you would've been flustered by the fact had you not been preoccupied with the earthquake. There was a loud snarling in the distance that sent chills down your spine.
“Yeah, so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, me too.” You reply, realizing how close he is by how loud his voice is in your ear.
“So what are we waiting for?”
>><<
After the highs and lows of finding the wheeler house, realizing there were no guns because the upside down was three years stuck in the past, finding a way to contact the overworld, and biking seven miles to Eddie’s trailer, you were almost relieved when you saw that fleshy interdimensional portal on the ceiling. But something about the way it squelched and breathed as if it were alive made you have second thoughts.
“This is where Chrissy died. Like, right where she died.” Eddie said, looking over his shoulders at you and the others. You could tell there was a lot of pain in those memories.
“I think there’s something in there,” Robin replied, her eyes never leaving the ceiling. There was a crackling sound as the red barrier was pulling downward as if something were pushing it in. You felt your stomach go queasy at the sight.
“What the hell is that?” Eddie asked. Seconds after the question left his mouth, the gate popped open, the fleshy parts and vines all retreating into the ceiling. The sudden movement made all of you yelp in fear and back up, eyes still fixed on the now open gate. You exchanged worried glances with Eddie.
Steve slowly began to approach it, and you followed his lead, right behind Nancy and Robin. The steps you took toward it were slow and timid, waiting for the slightest sign of danger. Finally, as you got closer, you could see into it.
“No way,” Steve muttered. On the other side of the gate stood Dustin, Lucas, Max, and a little girl you didn’t recognize. Dustin had a huge smile plastered on his face, jumping on the balls of his feet.
“Hi there.” He said as he waved, prompting Lucas to do the same.
“Hi…” Nancy, Steve, and Robin replied. You were too shocked to speak.
“Holy shit, this is trippy,” Robin said.
“Tell me about it…” You mumbled. Dustin laughed again, excitedly looking at his friends before looking back up at you.
“Bada bada boom!” He exclaimed.
“Henderson, your childlike joy is refreshing, but could we maybe, I don’t know, figure out a way to get us the hell out of here!” Eddie shouted. Dustin stopped giggling and nodded.
“Right right sorry, Eddie.” The children began to disperse out of your view. You could hear shuffling and after a few minutes, Max and Lucas dropped a mattress below the portal. You raised your eyebrows at the state of it.
“Those stains are, uh… I dunno what those stains are.” Eddie said.
“Mmm,” Robin replied, a questioning look on her face. Dustin walked into view, a makeshift rope of tied-together sheets in hand.
“Not quite sure how these psychics are gonna work. But uh… here goes nothing.” He says as he throws it up through the portal, but once it meets your end it begins to cascade down.
“There we go. And if my theory is correct…” He says before removing his hands from the rope. It stays in its place, causing him to smile.
“Abracadabra.” He whispers.
“Holy shit,” Max says, looking up at the rope on your end.
“All right, pull on it! See if it holds!” Dustin shouts to your group. Robin looks around before grabbing onto the rope, giving it her best yank. She smiles and laughs incredulously.
“This is the craziest shit I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’ve seen some crazy shit.” The girl you don’t recognize says as she high-fives Dustin. You laugh.
“Starting to think that’s a common experience.” You reply. Robin grabs hold of the rope once again.
“Guess I’m the guinea pig.” She says as she begins to climb up the rope. The younger teens on the other side begin to disperse to make room for her on the landing pad. She grunted as she climbed upward, but once her head was on the other side, she fell onto her back on the mattress.
“Oh thank God. That was fun.” She said with a sigh of relief. You watch her grab Dustin’s hand to help pull her up. You look at the others, Nancy looking at Eddie, then you, then Steve, the other teenage boys looking at each other until somebody volunteers.
“All right, guess I’ll go,” Eddie says with a shrug as he approaches the rope. He grunts as he begins to climb it, inching his way back to the overworld. Finally, gravity takes hold and he falls onto the mattress. He sits up abruptly.
“That… was fun. Shit.” He says with a large smile before getting up.
“Don’t mind if I do.” You say, grabbing onto the rope. Climbing it felt reminiscent of gym class, which made you feel a bit queasy, but once your head passed that gap between the worlds, all the blood went rushing to your face and you felt like you were freefalling. You laughed as you began to cascade onto the mattress and blinked a few times once your back finally hit the surface.
“(Y/n) approved.” You said as grabbed Eddie’s hand so he could help you up.
>><<
You sat wedged between Dustin and Eddie, on your way to what could very well be the end of your life. Thanks to Nancy being Vecna’d and that trip to the War Zone, you were as well prepared as you could’ve been, but that didn’t quiet the loud thrumming of your heart, or the sinking feeling growing in the pit of your stomach.
The car slowed in front of the dilapidated Creel house to drop off the Sinclairs and Max. And then it kept driving. You looked out the window, watching their bodies become smaller as you drove further and further away. The sun was dipping lower into the sky as the drive continued. It was nightfall by the time you reached your destination. Nancy stood up from her seat and turned to look at every one.
“Okay. I wanna run through it one more time. Phase one.”
“We meet Erica at the playground. She’ll signal Max and Lucas when we’re ready.”
“Phase two.”
“Max baits Vecna. He’ll go after her, which’ll put him in his trance.”
“Phase three?”
“Me, Eddie, and (Y/n) will draw the bats away,” Dustin replied. Eddie nudges you in the side with a smile before giving Dustin a noogie, an oddly pure moment despite the given circumstances.
“Four.”
“We head into Vecna’s hopefully newly bat-free lair and… flambe,” Robin replies, sloshing around the Molotov cocktail in her hand.
“Nobody moves on to the next phase until we’ve all copied. Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?” Nancy asks. You all chime in with ‘got it’s before dispersing and piling out of the RV. You trek through the small span of woods in front of you before making it to the trailer park and shortly after, Eddie’s trailer. Once you're inside, you’re relieved to see the makeshift rope is still intact.
“Be careful,” Dustin says.
“Thanks, buddy. Here goes nothing.” Steve replies as he begins to climb the rope. Since there’s no mattress on the other end, he’s extra careful to land on his feet, which he does somewhat majestically. Robin sarcastically makes noises of praise.
“What does he want us to do, applaud?” She asks. It takes Steve a few seconds to bring the upside-down mattress under the portal, giving those athletically challenged a safer landing strategy.
“Alright, let’s go.” He calls up to you. Nancy is the first go, Robin kneeling next to her to provide even more assistance. She nods at her before climbing and subsequently falling onto the mattress. After Nancy, Eddie drops down his gear and follows right after. Then you, then Robin, then Dustin, who takes far too long to stand up which results in him being pulled to his feet by you and Eddie. You begin to walk out of the trailer right behind Steve, with the rest of your team in tow. He turns back to you.
“Hey, guys, listen. If things here start to go south, I mean, at all, you abort. Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep ‘em busy for a minute or two. We’ll take care of Vecna. Don’t try to be cute, or be a hero or something. Okay? You guys are just-”
“Decoys. Don’t worry. You can be the hero Steve.” Dustin cuts him off.
“Absolutely. I mean, look at us. We are not heroes.” Eddie says with a laugh as he looks between you and Dustin. You feign offense as you nudge him in the side. Steve hesitates for a moment before turning around and walking toward Robin and Nancy. Eddie takes a step toward him.
“Hey, Steve?” He calls out. Steve turns around.
“Make him pay.” He says. They nod at each other before Steve’s team begins to walk off.
“Now that all that mushy gushy bullshit is over, it’s time for the fun part.” You say, hitting Eddie’s stomach with your arm. He laughs as you make your way into his bedroom. Once he’s in, he stops.
“Jesus christ… It’s like… She was destined for an alternate dimension…” He mumbles as he approaches his guitar.
“What do you say, guys?” He asks, picking it up from where it hung.
“Are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?” He asks, turning to face the two of you.
“That a rhetorical question?” Dustin asks. Eddie smiles and puts the strap over his shoulder.
“Let’s do it.” He says, swinging it over his back. As if you didn’t find him hot enough as it is.
>><<
You waited tentatively for the crackle of the walkie-talkie to sound and tell you when to move forward. Finally, after what seemed like hours, you heard Robin’s voice on the other end.
“She’s in. Move on to phase three.”
“Copy that. Initiating phase three. Let’s hope they hear this.” Dustin said as he pulled the extension cord up to plug in the amp and subsequently turned them to their full volume. He looks at Eddie, who grabs the pick from around his neck.
“Chrissy, this is for you.” He mutters, mostly to himself, before he starts to strum. You recognize the beat immediately.
Dustin is crouched beside you as you lean one hand on the amp, enjoying Eddie’s impeccable performance of one of your favorite songs. You would’ve enjoyed it more, had it not been for the predicament you were in. Dustin checks his binoculars a few times, but this time, he calls out to Eddie.
“We gotta lock down in T minus 30 seconds.” He yells over the noise. Eddie nods, focusing back on playing his guitar.
“T-minus 20!” Dustin shouts. You look over at Eddie, who’s now shredding the guitar solo, which you wish you could appreciate more, but the screeching bats inching closer in proximity make it difficult. Dustin begins to count down from 10, and Eddie finishes right as he reaches one. The bats are way too close for comfort, so you shove Dustin in the direction of the truck you used to get on the roof. He begins to climb down, you following and Eddie just behind you.
They’re shouting incoherently at each other as you rush into the gated area, which Eddie shuts just in the nick of time. You watch the bats attempt to claw at you through the fencing, but they have no luck. You give a relieved half laugh half sigh, but it’s short-lived as more begin to fly toward you.
“Hurry! Come on!” Dustin calls to the two of you. Once you’re inside, you lean against the wall, panting heavily.
“Dude. Most metal ever!” Dustin yells, causing both him and Eddie to jump with excitement. You laugh and can’t help but smile at the two fondly. They take a few minutes to bask in their excitement before finally winding down and walking to the portal. There’s a thump against the trailer wall that makes you turn your head. Then another. And another. And then they’re not stopping. The bats outside seem to be thrashing their bodies against the walls. Hard. But then, just as soon as it started, it stopped.
“Hey, dipshits! Give up that easy!” Dustin yells.
“Is that really necessary?” Eddie asks.
“Both of you shut up!” You hiss. They stop bickering long enough for you to hear the bats have moved.
“They’re on the roof,” Eddie says, looking upward. Dustin begins to string out profanities as you all follow the sound of the bats traveling. You fix your eyes on a small circular vent.
“Uh oh.” You whisper.
“They can’t get in through there, can they?” Dustin asks, but right as the words leave his mouth, the demobat breaches the flimsy metal. It screeches, and the three of you begin to stab at it furiously with your spears. After a few seconds, Eddie backs away, much to Dustin’s protests.
“Get out of the way! Get out of the way!” He calls to the two of you. You back up just in time for Eddie to throw down a chair and wedge his nail shield into the ceiling.
“Holy shit… Holy shit.” He says in between pants.
“Nice,” Dustin says.
“Thanks.” He replies, giving him a high five.
“Are there other vents?” Dustin asks. Eddie seems to realize his answer is not the one you’d hope for as he rushes to his bedroom. You all begin to run toward it, and as soon as you enter, bats come flying through the vent on the floor. He pushes you and Dustin out, shutting the door as quickly as he can.
“That’s not gonna hold!” Dustin yells as you back away.
“No shit genius!” You yell back.
“Let’s go!” Eddie yells. Dustin begins to climb the rope. You’re quick to follow, not sparing another second. Once you're on the other side, you look at Eddie who starts to climb but stops halfway.
“Eddie, what are you doing? You have to hurry!” You yell at him. He stares at you and then at the door before dropping back onto the ground.
“Eddie! Come on man!” Your shouts seem to fall on deaf ears as he walks away to grab a spear.
“Eddie don’t you fucking dare! Eddie-” He cuts the rope, severing the way to travel between the worlds. He moves the mattress and you can feel tears begin to well in your eyes. Dustin is watching this unfold with you.
“Eddie, what are you doing?” He asks. Eddie looks at the two of you with a smile on his face.
“I’m buying more time.” He says before walking out of your view. Dustin looks at you as if he’s asking what to do and for the first time in a long time, you don’t know. You’d never felt this way before. Scared and lost and heartbroken all at the same time. You couldn’t breathe.
“No fucking way. You’re not fucking running this time Eddie.” You say as the tears fall out of your eyes, but you wipe them away ferociously. You grab the chair and set it right underneath the center of the portal. Standing on it, you’re just tall enough to reach it when you jump. So you do just that. Grunting as you pull yourself through, you hang on for dear life when the gravitational pull hits. You sigh and swing back and forth so you can roll when you let go. It’s messy, and you're gonna be left bruised, but it’s enough to have gotten you down. You pull the mattress back, giving Dustin a safer way to land than you had.
“Come on!” You yell, offering a hand to help him up. Once he’s on his feet, you rush out the door, him following close behind you. You run as fast as you can, pushing yourself farther than you ever have before. You can see the bats swarming him. God, why did you have to fall in love with an idiot?
You see them wrap around his legs and arms, rendering him defenseless. More begin to pile onto him and you can only imagine what they’re doing. Tears blur your vision as you start to run even faster, faster than you thought was in your capability. You pull the machete you’d nabbed from the war zone off your back as you were finally in distance. You swung it at the bats in your path but saved your deadliest blows for the ones gnawing on his torso.
Dustin was close behind you, picking off those that he could as you fought with the ones latched onto Eddie. He seemed to recognize you, a bloody smile on his face. You kept swinging and crying and fighting, all at the same time. It seemed like an impossible fight that you swore you would’ve lost, but then, out of nowhere, the bats all fell from the sky.
You dropped your machete and began to cry harder. You were going to hold Eddie but found his wounds held a higher precedent. You wiped away your tears in an effort to see better as Dustin kneeled next to him as well.
“Bad, huh?” He asked.
“No. You’re gonna be fine.” Dustin replied.
“Damn fucking right you will.” You yelled, pulling off your hoodie. You sliced through the fabric with the pocket knife you had and began to tie it tightly around his torso.
“You’re not dying on me that easy Munson. Don’t even fucking think about it.” You reply. He opens his mouth to respond, but you cut him off by placing his arm around your shoulder.
“Whatever sappy shit you’ve got to say, you can save it, 'cause I already told you. You’re not fucking dying today.” You say as you stand up, carrying his body weight as well. He groans in pain.
“Help me out here Henderson.” You say, staggering to hold him up by yourself. Dustin rushes to your side and grabs Eddie’s other arm, splitting his weight between the two of you as you hobble back through the upside-down.
>><<
Eddie sat up in bed, gasping and looking around, then clutching his sides in pain. He recognized the room he was in, but he wasn’t sure why. The door to his right creaked open, and you walked in with what looked like medical supplies in your arms.
“(Y/n).” His voice was hoarse as he spoke your name. You were surprised to see that he was awake, and felt tears prick the corners of your eyes,
“Finally you’re up. I was starting to think you were holding out on me.” You said, trying to act as if you weren’t bursting at the seams with excitement. He chuckled.
“Why am I here?” He asked. You shrugged and sat next to him on your bed, pulling the covers off of his body. He hadn’t noticed he was shirtless until he felt the cold chill nip at his body.
“Would you rather be at Hawkins High with the rest of the town? I’m sure they’d all love to see their darling Edward, wanted murder suspect.” You reply. He smiles.
“Guess you’re right.” He says as you begin to unwrap his bandages.
“Someone’s getting a bit handsy.” He teases. You roll your eyes and finish unwrapping the bloodied bandages before starting to wrap him with new ones.
“That was really stupid, by the way.” You say.
“What?”
“Running into that swarm. You could’ve been killed.” You scolded. Eddie sighs.
“They needed more time and even if I had been… What difference would it have made?” He said with a shrug. You felt tears well in your eyes again.
“What difference would it have made? Just because Jason got a few hicks to be against you doesn’t mean everybody was. There are still people who care about you and love you, Eddie. I fucking love you! Do you really think I just ran back into that hell dimension because it wouldn’t have made a difference whether you lived or died?” You said angrily, pulling his bandages around him tighter.
“Wait wait wait. Do my ears deceive me? Did you just say you love me?” Eddie asked. You were so frustrated that you couldn’t take it anymore. You grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a kiss.
At first, you were angry, pressing your lips against his just to get him to shut up for once in his goddamn life but then, as his hands gently held onto you as if you were a delicate piece of fine china, you broke. Tears began to stream down your face as it all hit you at once. You needed this. You needed him.
He pulled away, far too soon for your liking, and stared at you as his chest heaved to catch his breath. He blinked his beautiful brown eyes and smiled his stupid grin. There he was, in all his glory, and you’d just kissed him in a fit of passion and anger at his pure idiocy.
“If I get a kiss like that every time I act a fool, then I’ll have to remember to risk my life more often.” He whispers. You laugh and wipe your face of your tears, shaking your head before standing up.
“Eddie Munson. You have changed my life.” You say with a laugh.
“Then I guess we’re even. Cause I think you saved mine.” He replied. You gathered the bloody bandages and began to walk to the door. Your hand was just above the knob when you paused at the sound of Eddie’s voice once again.
“If I ever beat these charges and things ever go back to the way they were… or at least as much as they can… I’d like to take you on a normal date.”
“If I liked normal, I never would’ve found you.”
“Then can I take you on a not normal date? Affective immediately?” He asks. You laugh and open your bedroom door.
“Tell you what Eddie. You heal from the damage those hellbats did to your stomach, and I’ll think about it. Deal?”
“Deal.”
#stranger things#stranger things fanfiction#stranger things fanfic#stranger things ff#stranger things fic#st#st fanfiction#st fanfic#st ff#st fic#eddie munson x reader#eddie munson x male reader#eddie munson x masc reader#eddie munson imagine#male reader#masc reader#eddie munson one shot#eddie munson fanfiction#eddie munson fanfic#eddie munson ff#eddie munson fic#canislupus.txt#fits of passion and idiocy
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Run These Streets {5} || Street Racer!Bucky
Summary: With a new car and a new found freedom, Bucky is ready to take back his streets.
Warnings: 18+ only, nsfw, fluff, smut (unprotected sex, fem rec oral)
WC: 2.3k
Bucky Masterlist || Part One || Part Two || Part Three || Part Four || Part Five || Part Six
“I’m gonna be in jeans all damn summer.” Bucky grumbled after the ankle monitor was unlocked and dropped in the probation officer's bag. “Look at this tan line.”
“I didn’t think you could even tan.” You giggled behind your hand as he massaged the free limb and scoffed. “Pretty sure I’ve only ever seen you burn.”
After signing a few documents Bucky walked his probation officer to his car on the street and grinned when his sneakers hit the pavement, something he hadn’t been able to do for months. You couldn’t help laughing as he punched the air triumphantly and stuck his tongue out. It was like a window to the past seeing him so excited, for a second Bucky was 17 again.
“Wanna take a road trip to Miami?” He asked suddenly. “Plenty of rich kids down there to sell the Cali to.”
You looked at the candy red Ferrari parked in the garage and pouted. “It was kind of growing on me.”
“You said that about the Supra too.” He smirked. “What happened to eww it’s an import!”
“First off, I don’t sound like that.” You said before pausing. “And…I don’t have a comeback to that.”
His fingers were already twirling the keys that he had pulled from his pocket as he waited for you to give him an answer.
“This is what you want to do with your newfound freedom? Drive for 20 hours.” You reconfirmed, his eager nod making him look so young and innocent that you immediately caved and agreed. “Fine, but you should invite Steve and Hannah along too. He’s been dying to see you wearing more than just boxers.”
He laughed as he pulled you into his arms, shaking his head at the reminder of the many days on home detention where he couldn’t be bothered getting dressed. “Bullshit, Steve’s always enjoyed perving up on this.”
“I can understand the appeal.” You said as you bit your lip and trailed your eyes over his body. “But I always did feel like a third wheel in your bromance.”
“Fuck I’m sexy.” Bucky stated boldly as he walked into the room with a pair of bright red heart shaped sunglasses. “I am rocking this look.”
“I’d say you’re a solid 8.” Steve said seriously before going back to plugging in his PlayStation in your tv.
“Will you stop going through my closet?” You huffed as you tried to take the silly glasses back but Bucky’s lanky height towered over you. “I have things in there.”
“I know.” He smirked as he watched you try and fail to reach the cheap costume glasses, his eyes fixated on the lace of your bra peeking out of your top with each jump. “I wish our school had a uniform like the one you have.”
“Bucky…” You growled, forgetting the glasses as his words caught Steve’s attention and his head popped up from behind the tv. “That was a halloween costume and that is all I will say on the matter. I’m going to do my homework and pretend you don’t exist okay.”
“Goodluck with that, doll.” He winked, shoving the sunglasses atop his head and dropping onto the couch as Steve tossed him a controller. “What’d you get this week?”
“Gran Turismo.” Steve said as he sat on the floor in front of Bucky.
“Again?” Bucky chuckled. “Just give up already, you can’t beat me.”
Steve didn’t answer as he concentrated on picking the car and race track that might give him an advantage.
Every Friday night was the same, staying up until dawn playing video games, eating junk food and planning extravagant adventures that would likely never happen. The only thing that changed was whose house you were at. This week was your turn to host since Steve’s mom was sick and Bucky’s dad was on an Army training exercise.
After closing your books and packing them away for school on Monday, you fell across the couch, kicking your feet up on the armrest and laying your head on Bucky’s lap. His arms came down around you without missing a turn on the track and your heart beat rapidly as you watched how his fingers moved across the controller.
“Alright, I’m tired of spanking your ass Rogers. Tell me you brought another game.” Bucky teased as he won yet another race and dropped the controller so he could rest a hand on your waist.
“My turn.” Steve chuckled, holding the plastic cover up. “Call of Duty.”
Bucky grinned as he sat up a little straighter and your pillow shifted until he was in the prime position to play the new game. “You’re on.”
“What’s the point of this?” You asked as they ran around like headless chickens, shooting anyone they came across including each other. “You’re on the same team.”
“So?” Steve laughed. “He can’t get more points if he’s busy respawning. Fuck!”
Steve dropped the controller as his half of the screen turned red and replayed the killshot, Bucky’s abs bouncing against you as he tried not to laugh too hard.
“You were saying, punk?” Bucky teased, before patting your side to get you to sit up so he could pull you onto his lap. His arms wrapped around your waist and he placed your hands on his so you were holding the controller with him. “This is how you aim and this is the trigger.”
“I think I should stick to racing games.” You growled as you died once again. “Sorry, I’m ruining your stats.”
“Ugh, don’t apologise to him, just keep playing,” Steve begged. “I’m only one kill away from winning.”
You could never understand how a man could pack so light or fast but Bucky was ready to go in minutes with the necessities; a bottle of whiskey, a change of clothes and some cash left over from the sale of the Supra. With your bag finally packed and sitting with Bucky’s in the trunk of the Ferari, you were heading to Steve’s house where he was waiting outside practically chomping at the bit to get in the car along with Hannah.
“Do you know how long I have been dreaming of this road trip?” He grinned as he climbed in the back. “This is how we should have spent the summer of senior year. It’s not like those college visits did us any good.”
You laced your hand with Bucky’s as he wove through the traffic to get on the interstate south. It was a beautiful day for a road trip, the sun was shining and a tepid breeze blew through the windows that were down. Steve had made it his mission to steal the auxiliary cord and plug his phone in to control the music despite knowing the lifelong rule that whoever rides shotgun is in charge but he had fallen asleep somewhere around Richmond, Virginia, Hannah soon following after laying her head on his shoulder.
Bucky looked more content than you had seen him in months and the carefree smile was something you had sorely missed. Everything about him looked perfect and you couldn’t help taking a photo to capture the moment as he rested his arm along the open window and slapped the steering wheel in time to the beat of a Lynyrd Skynyrd song.
Tossing your phone back in the centre console, you placed your hand on Bucky’s thigh and watched the terrain go by in a blur. Your thumb massaged the denim material mindlessly, slowly creeping closer up his leg without any conscious thought. It wasn’t until you reached the crease of his pocket that he cleared his throat and you looked across to see him smirking down at your hand and you froze.
“You should be concentrating on the road, Barnes.”
“You know, I am trying to focus…” He groaned. “But I can’t deny that it doesn’t feel good. Keep going, please.”
You looked over your shoulder and found Steve’s mouth open as he snored with Hannah in a similar state. Satisfied they were fast asleep, you teased your fingers over the fly of his jeans and watched him take a sharp intake of breath. The sound sent a bolt of lightning to your core and you crossed your legs to ease the friction that was suddenly as necessary as air to survive.
From the throaty chuckle he gave you knew he had noticed your reaction and reached over to run this thumb along your neck. “I love how your pulse races for me…”
“You better find a motel for the night.” You warned as you caught his hand and brought it down to the apex of your thighs. “I need you.”
The rev of the car woke Steve and he sat up, rubbing his eyes as he looked around and spotted the sign for Virginia Beach.
“Sunset on the beach…romantic.” He grinned, waking up Hannah as Bucky pulled into the first motel that had a vacancy sign. “This dump, not so much.”
“You’ve slept in worse places.” You teased as you grabbed your handbag and followed Bucky to the reception.
Bucky’s lips were on yours before the door to the room even closed, the bags getting dropped unceremoniously beside a second before he dragged you to the bed.
“You get off on teasing me don’t you doll.” Bucky moaned as he unwrapped you with all the vigour of a child at Christmas. “Getting my blood pumping.”
You sighed longingly as his lips left a trail of fire down your collarbone and over the soft flesh of your breasts. “What can I say, I love where it leads.”
Your squeal of surprise filled the room when Bucky suddenly fell back on the bed and pulled you with him but you quickly recovered as you straddled his hips. Bucky’s large hands guided your body down on his and your head fell back with a moan as he filled you.
“You feel so good baby.” He moaned as you rolled your hips and teased your nipples, pinching and rolling them to stiff peaks as he watched on hungrily. “Lemme taste ‘em.”
He pushed your hands aside so he could suck your nipple into his mouth, his tongue soft and warm like a velvet dream that left your core tightening around him. The need to climax spurred you to move faster, the cheap headboard and the spring mattress bumping and squeaking with every movement. You bit your lip as you tried to stay quiet, not wanting to add to the noise knowing who it was on the other side of the wall, but it was mission impossible and you cried out when Bucky thrust up into you.
Quiet moans echoed through the wall and you shook your head as if you could shake away the knowledge of what Steve and Hannah were doing. Bucky smirked as he heard them too and he flipped you over, the glint of his competitive nature bleeding into his eyes as he pulled out.
“Bucky, please…” you whined as your pussy ached to be filled by him again.
“Patience sweetheart.” He chuckled as he settled between your legs. “I didn’t get to say hello to my best girl.”
Stars shattered your vision until the outdated wallpaper was replaced by a galaxy and you cried out as his tongue delved between your slit with a kiss he usually savoured to dominate your mouth. Your legs squirmed from the sparks that jolted down them but Bucky’s hands held you tight and kept you from wriggling away. You were so close to coming and he could feel it as your clit bounced over his tongue.
“Oh god, Bucky!”
Bucky crawled up your body, kissing the soft skin along your belly, stopping to give some love to the breasts he salivated for until he got to your lips. “I love you.”
Your words were lost in a moan as he filled you and hooked your leg over his hip. Bucky’s eyes were practically glowing in the reflection of the neon sign outside the window and you were enamoured by the love they held for you. If only you had listened to your gut all those years ago, you could have saved both of you a lot of time and heartache.
“I love you too.”
His thumb caressed your cheek and he smiled the kind of smile that left your stomach somersaulting and your pussy clenching. He always smiled when you said those words, like he was still surprised that you would say them to him.
You took his hand and laced your fingers with his as his slow strokes turned frantic, every thrust aimed at the sweet spot that left your head spinning. The room was filled with heady moans and the delicious sounds of your bodies joining in a heated dance, an overload to your aural senses of the best kind. Heat spread across your skin until you were slick with a sheen of sweat and the elastic band in your core snapped, sending your body convulsing beneath his touch.
“Bucky!” You whined as he kept his relentless pass and chased his own release. “Oh fuck.”
Bucky shuddered as he buried himself to the hilt and let a deep growl claw out from chest before collapsing atop you, his lips pressing gentle kissing to your racing pulse.
“We should shower and get ready to go.” Bucky murmured as he reluctantly sat up.
“Go where?” You asked as you caught him and pulled him back, still not finished with his cuddles.
“I can’t handle 14 more hours of Steve’s music.” He smirked, dragging you up with him and letting him lead you to the shower. “They have got to get their own ride and I know the perfect place to win one.”
Click here for part six.
#streetracer au#streetracer!bucky#bucky barnes x reader#bucky barnes x poc!reader#bucky barnes imagine#bucky barnes fanfiction
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Just One Kiss
Chapter Three
Pairing: Elvis & female!reader
Summary: Once upon a Memphis time, you and Elvis were very close friends who turned lovers. After he went into the Army, you both drifted apart, leaving you heartbroken. Time passes, and you go on a Vegas business trip with your long-term boyfriend, Edward, and find out that your old lover is performing at The International Hotel. Old feelings surface once again, and you plan on making this a trip neither of you will soon forget.
Word Count: 9K
Warnings: Keys to the past. Smut is available. Heart ache and heartbreak.
Author's Notes: Welcome to Chapter Three, y'all! Grab a tissue box. If you love this chapter, please send me a like, comment, follow, and repost! If you want to be tagged in the next chapter, message me! I appreciate all your kind comments! Let's Go!
✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ💋✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ
January of 1956
You were just a girl from Beale Street who fell in love with a boy from Tupelo. You remember the first time you heard Elvis on the radio. You couldn't stop bopping your head to the music. It was so much fun. The singer had a liveliness to him, and that intrigued you from the start. You fall in love with a voice.
You went to one of the local stores on Beale to purchase an Elvis record, and that's when you first saw his picture. He was a dream. That beautiful dark greaser hair style and that energy he gave from the cover of his record made you swoon.
"Elvis fan, huh?" A strange peeks over your shoulder and surprises you.
You turn around to look at him. Tall guy with red hair. You've never ever seen him before in your life, but he finds it his place to step out of his way to talk to you.
You look back down at the record you intend to buy and look back up to this red-headed stranger.
"Yeah, a little." You decide to make little conversation.
"You know, I know Elvis. He's a friend of mine."
You giggle at the comment. The guy looks at you like you're crazy.
"What's funny?"
"You know Elvis Presley?"
"Yeah, I do. We were buds back in high school."
You shake your head and say, "Why is it guy will say almost anything to get into a girl's panties?"
He laughs out loud and says, "You're hilarious, kid!"
"Thanks. I'm going to buy this record now."
"Say, kid. How's bout you buy the record and we go see E.P. and get it signed?"
You give a funny look. Is he serious? You just met, and he wants to drive you to god knows where.
"I don't think so, Red." You answer him. "You could be some crazy lunatic. How do I know you aren't taking me to the middle of nowhere to kill me?"
He gives you a surprise expression.
"How did you know my name was Red?"
"I was commenting because of your hair. I didn't know your name."
"Well, kid, let me tell ya, you're too funny to want to hurt. E.P. is throwing a mini party at his house on Audubon Drive, and I need a date."
"And you thought you'd pick a random chick from Beale Street?"
He shrugs his shoulders, hoping you come with him.
"Okay, I'll go with you, but just to let you know, I can defend myself if you think about getting fresh."
"Okay, kid." He puts his hands up in surrender.
He walks you to his truck, and you two head over to Audubon Drive. The gate is crowded with people, and you get the feeling that maybe Red wasn't lying to you. You get through the crowd of people and closer to the house inside the gates. He parks the car and asks, "I'm sorry. I never got your name."
You raise an eyebrow and say, "It's kid, remember?"
He gives a look like he really walked into that one. You extend your hand and say, "All jokes aside, I'm Y/N. And your name is Red?"
"Yes." He takes your hand and softly shakes it. "Let's go."
You walk up in the house, and you hear music playing. It definitely is a party. Girls running around with guys dancing and whatnot. Red spots a guy from across the room and shouts, "E.P.!"
He turns around, and as sure as day, it's him. It's Elvis Presley. You were in Elvis Presley's house. You didn't want to be one of those rude girls who screamed in his face, ripped his clothes off, and ran away. You remained calm, cool, and collected. Red grabs your hand and leads you over to Elvis.
With his free hand, he shook Elvis' hand.
"Red, you're late."
"Get off it, E.P. you know the party does start til dark."
Elvis was better looking than his album cover. He was tall, a bit slender with broad shoulders. He had a beautiful set of pouty lips that girls would want to worship, and his eyes were spectacular. The prettiest baby blue eyes you've ever seen. You could get lost in those eyes.
"Who do we have here?" Elvis stares at you with those beautiful eyes and the infamous smirk, and you smirk back.
"Who, kid? This is my friend, Y/N. She wanted to meet you. She didn't believe that I was your friend."
"Yeah, I told him to make a believer out of me. Well, I'm a believer."
Elvis gives you this laugh that's almost contagious. He had an energy about him that made you want to be around him. It was comforting and fun.
Elvis extended his hand to you.
"Y/N, kid, you're funny. We gotta keep you around. You wanna Cola?"
"I'd love a Cola."
Elvis gets you a ice cold Cola. You take the bottle from him and wrap your lips around the mouth of the bottle, taking a sip.
"This is good. It's different." You say.
"That's because it's a Pepsi-Cola." Elvis says.
Elvis looks you up and down and then says, "What you got there?" Gesturing to your hand.
"Oh, this? It's my new record I got from the old record show on Beale Street. New guy." You smile.
"Oh, a guy. He any good?"
"He's pretty good. Gets the girls going."
"But not you?" Elvis questions.
"He gets me going enough to buy this record." You hold up the bag and Elvis takes it from you. He looks in and realizing it's his latest album gives you a false laugh.
"Hahaha. You're so funny." He says.
"Well, Red said to buy the record and you'd sign it for me." You say, grinning at him.
"Whatcha want me to write to you?" Elvis says, grabbing a pen.
"How about, To Y/N, this is the beginning of a new lifelong friendship. Sincerely, Elvis."
He looks at you and grins. "Actually, Love Elvis. I love all my friends. Especially the pretty ones."
You get a laugh out of it. Getting to know one another bonding over cola. And just like that, you were in.
Before you knew it, you were a special part of Elvis' life. Anytime there was a party with Elvis and the guys you were there. You were just one of the guys.
You became a trusted friend to Elvis. You didn't travel to any of the big city concerts he had, but if he was playing in Memphis, you had a backstage pass! All access to the King of Rock N Roll!
Slowly, the closer you got to Elvis, the more your crush on him develops. He was more than the King of Rock N Roll. You got to know the man behind the music. More than the image. More than the icon. The man with feelings and a heart of gold. The man who wanted to help his family out of poverty. The man who would have been happy singing in a gospel quartet. You told him that God had bigger plans for him, which is why he was singing the way he was. There would be times you'd glance at Elvis and get lost in thought. You tried not to stare too long in fear that someone may catch you. You harbored your feelings to yourself. You tucked your love safely away in your heart so you wouldn't be hurt. You were content being one of his closest friends and left it at that.
You grew close with his mama, Gladys. She was a dear soul and gentle woman with a spunk to her. She didn't like a lot of people around Elvis and was very protective of him. Her only living son.
✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ💋✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ
Summer of 1957
Elvis had his heartbroken back in March by the woman who got away, June. You hated to admit it, but you envied June. She got to be with Elvis on his trip to Florida while you had to work at home. You wanted to hate her, but you didn't. When she spent time with Elvis in August of 56, you got to know her. She wasn't all that bad. June was kind, and she kept Elvis on his toes. She didn't tolerate disrespect from everyone, including Elvis.
You knew you could have been one of those girls that spread rumors or lies about her, but you didn't because you could see the love between them. The way Elvis lit up when June was around. Even Mama Gladys loved her. The least you could do was be happy for your friends. Besides, June had enough to worry about with Nick Adams nosing around asking inappropriate questions.
When Elvis came back in March without her, he stayed in his room, it seemed like for days. He put on a brave smile because he had a surprise for his Mama. You would have loved to have seen her face when Elvis pulled up to Graceland. You were working that day, so you got wind of it in the morning paper. Headline reading, "Elvis Buys Graceland."
The way the grocery store had you working, you couldn't even think about visiting. Until one night, Red and Billy came by your house for a surprise visit.
"Y/N! Come on out, E.P.'s throwing a party!"
They nearly disturb your mother. To keep them quiet, you get dressed and leave with them for Graceland.
"Guys, quiet. Mama's sleeping."
You three drive from your home past Beale Street to the ten mile stretch to Graceland. You drive up this grand driveway up to this Southern style house with the columns. Graceland was in a word magnificent, and you hadn't even seen the inside of the house yet.
Red opens the front door for you to enter, and you are in awe of the house. The carpet is red, and it leads into the living and dining rooms. You can't view the space the way you'd like to with people running all over the house.
Someone places a hand on your back, and you turn around to see who it is. Standing there with a big smile on his face.
"Elvis." You say with relief and a bit surprised. You didn't think you'd see him tonight. Not with all the people (girls) around. He gives you a hug, and you reciprocate. This hug was unlike any other hug you received from him. Sure, you've hugged him countless times before. He's even wrapped his arm around your shoulders, but this hug was different. It was loaded with unspoken things between you both. He looks at your face again, looking into your eyes. You aren't sure what he's searching for, but you see something different in his eyes. It's as if Elvis is truly seeing you for the first time. Ever.
"Hey, Y/N."
"Hey, E."
You stand there for a moment, smiling at one another for a moment. Until someone shouts out,
"Hey, Elvis! Get over here, man! Check this out!" His cousin, Billy, grabs him away from you, and your left standing there wonder just happened.
"Y/N, where have you been?" You turn and see Pat (Red's girlfriend) running toward you.
"Hi, Pat. I've been working. I'm so tired."
"Well, come on. Let's get you a Cola." She grabs you by the arm and pulls you toward the kitchen where the girls are gossiping about. The cola you drink only sustains you for a brief period.
You lean against the counter of the kitchen and listen to the ladies' talk about how beautiful the house is and how much money Elvis spent. They even mention how he didn't just buy the house for his parents, but for June too, and she got engaged to another man.
You stay silent because you know as well as others about Elvis' wondering eye. You put his actions in the back of your mind. He had to be a man, and you were only his friend. You couldn't tell him what to do with his life.
You feel a pair of eyes burning into your back. You place your hand under your chin, lean your elbow on the counter, and turn your head. Elvis is staring you down like a lion ready to pounce on his prey. You are usually the one that stares at Elvis when no one's looking. You start to think, "Is he really looking at me?" You turn away and look back at the ladies.
You notice in the corner of your eye that there's a back door with a window. You gaze back at Elvis, who is still staring now with that smirk on his face. You stand away from the counter and ease your way to the door. The ladies were so deep in conversation that they didn't even notice you leaving out the back door. You turn once more and smirk at Elvis, silently begging him to follow you as you walk out the door.
This is a first for you. You hope he follows you. You'd love to spend more time with him for a bit. You sit down on the ground and glaze at the evening sky in hopes of spotting a shooting star. You hear the door shut behind you and hear footsteps come closer to you.
"Hi, E."
"Hey, Y/N." He says as he sits down next to you on the lawn.
You bring your eyes to his face and smile. "The house is incredible, E. Congratulations."
"Thank you, baby. I...I-I-I been looking for a better home for Mama since we went to New Orleans last year and saw the house that looked like Graceland."
"Oh, so this is way past due?"
"Yeah." He looks down at the ground, and you know he's got something heavy on his heart.
"E, tell me honestly. How are you doing?"
He shrugs and says, "I'm okay. I-I-I think about her every once in a while. You can't forget someone you're in love with even when they stop loving you." He pauses.
You stay silent because you know he has more to get off of his chest. You've always listened, which is why Elvis considers you a great friend.
"I called her mama's house the other day and... June officially got hitched on June ninth. Just like that. It's over, Y/N. I'm not sure if I'll find love again. Not like that."
You place your hand on his shoulder. "E, look at the night sky." You turn his attention to the heaven above. Not ignoring what he said but trying to bring him some comfort.
"Look at those beautiful stars burning brightly. There's a star for all of us, even you, E."
You grow quiet for a moment, and then Eureka! A shooting star passes across the sky.
"Whoa! Elvis, look! Did you see it!?!"
"What?"
"A shooting star!" You exclaim. You close your eyes and make a silent wish in your heart. A yawn passes your lips, and you regret closing your eye for a moment. You feel as if you could fall over right now.
"I'm truly sorry about June. Sometimes, E. We ignore the good things that are right in front of us. We should never forsake those good things. We never know what we got til it's gone." You say, leaning your head on his shoulder, yawning once again. Elvis leans his head on top of yours and sighs.
"E, I'm sorry, but I gotta get back home. I'm so exhausted."
"Why don't you stay here? I can get someone to make up a room for you."
"No, Elvis. My mama doesn't even really know I'm out. I left because Red and Billy were being too loud and disturbing the neighbors plus Mama. I knew they wouldn't stop until I came."
"Okay, kid. I'll take you home."
You look at him with drowsy covered eyes. "Are you sure, E? I'd hate for you to miss your party. I can get one of the boys to take me home."
"No. I need a break. A drive might do me some good. Let's go."
Elvis gets off the grass and offers you his hand to get you off the ground. He walks you around the backyard to the front where his purple Cadillac awaits. He opens the door for you to get in the passenger side and shuts you in. You slide over to the driver's door and open it for him. Elvis looks at you for a moment and chuckles as he starts the car.
You both drive towards your house in silence. You're too sleepy to carry on a conversation, and Elvis needed the time to consider some things.
Elvis pulls up in front of your house and parks his car. He opens his door, and you lightly grab his arm.
"E, I can make it up the stairs and inside."
"I bet you can, but I'm walking you to your door." He says, getting out of the car. He shuts his door and opens yours. He takes your hand and leads you to the front door of your house.
"Y/N, baby, will you come back to the house tomorrow morning? I wanna talk some more."
You nod your head yes and unlock. "Goodnight, E."
"G'night, Y/N. Lock your door and I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow." You do as you're told and lock your door.
You're so sleepy that you don't even make it to your bed. You make it to the sofa, and there you stay in deep slumber.
✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ💋✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ
The next morning:
"Wake up, baby girl. Wake up. You fell asleep on the sofa."
You feel a gentle hand on your back and blink your eyes. As your vision focuses, you see the features of your mama's face.
"Morning, Mama. I didn't mean to fall asleep on the sofa. I was just so tired."
You rub your eyes, trying to wake yourself up. You feel well rested from yesterday. You could use some more sleep, but you shrug off the sensation and sit up.
"What's on the agenda for today, Y/N?" Your Mama asks curiously.
Then you remember what Elvis asked you last night about talking to him today.
"Oh, Mama, what time is it?"
"Baby girl, it's after eleven thirty."
"Oh, I'm late!" You rush off the sofa and into the bathroom to take a quick shower.
"Y/N, what's the rush?" Your mama, forever the curious one. "What are you late for? I thought you were off today?"
"I am. I was supposed to see Elvis this morning!" You shout from the shower.
"Why are you rushing over to see that Presley boy? Doesn't he have his hands full already?"
You turn off the shower, get out, and grab a towel to dry yourself off. You look at your face in the mirror and decide to brush your teeth first, then do makeup.
"What do you mean by that, Mama? He has his hands full?" You ask as you start to brush your teeth.
"Who you trying to hide from? I know you have a crush on the Presley boy. It's no use, baby girl. He has girls from Memphis to Biloxi to Jacksonville and to Atlanta."
You rinse your mouth out and spit out the remaining water. You glance at your mama in the mirror and reply.
"Mama, I'm fully aware that Elvis will never feel that way about me, but he is my friend first. If he needs me as a friend in his hectic life, I'll be there because that's what friends do. You taught me that."
Your mama uncrosses her arms and places her hands together in front of her. "Well, it seems I raise my daughter right. Better than I thought. You're not a girl anymore but a young woman."
You smile at her and face her. "Thank you, Mama."
She walks towards you and plants a kiss on your head. "Promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise, Mama." You kiss her cheek. "So... May I borrow the car, please?"
She rolls her eyes and huffs. "Okay."
"Thank you, ma'am!" You rush past her to your room to pick out some clothes. You decide on a light blue sundress that compliments your figure. You put on your white baby doll flats and run out the front door.
"Love you, Mama! I'll see you when I get back!" You shout before shutting the front door.
The excitement you feel inside knowing you're going to spend time with Elvis is unbearable. You haven't seen Mama Gladys in a while, so you know you must spend and talk to her.
As you pull up to the driveway at the gate, there are a few fans standing there. The guard at the gate flags you in, and you surpass the fan, making your way up the driveway to the house. You park your car behind one of his Cadillacs and walk up to the front door. You notice the house is pretty in the daytime. You look at the house once more before knocking on the door.
The door opens, and you see Vernon stand there with a grin on his face.
"Hey, Y/N."
"Good afternoon, Mr. Vernon."
He widens the door and lets you inside. You get a better scope of the house now that no one's here.
"Elvis is upstairs. I'll fetch him for you." Vernon starts up the stairs.
"There's no rush, Mr. Vernon. Where's Mama Gladys?"
Vernon pauses and points towards the dining room. "She's with Mama and Alberta in the kitchen."
You smile at him and head towards the kitchen with a bounce in your step. You enter the kitchen and see Mama Gladys help Ms. Alberta, bake what looks like a cake.
"Hey, Mama Gladys." You greet her.
She looks up, sees you walking in, and a smile dons her face.
"Oh, darling, Y/N. It's good to see you. Let me finish this with Alberta."
"Take your time. Hey, Ms. Alberta. Hey, Dodger." You acknowledge everyone in the kitchen.
Mama Gladys quickly walks over to you with her arms wide open to give you a hug. Mama Gladys' hugs are the best next to your mama's and the one you received last night from Elvis.
"Oh, you darlin' girl. Welcome." Mama Gladys says to you with her arms still wrapped around you.
"Thank you." You both pull away from each other, and you look at her. "Do y'all need any help?"
"If you'd like to grease these cake pans, come on over." Ms. Alberta says, whipping up the cake batter.
You wash your hands and put on an aprion. Not wanting to mess up your dress. You take a stick of soft butter off the counter and place it on the inside of the pans, greasing the circumference of the corners. You then take a hand full of flour and sprinkle it inside the pan so that the cake won't stick.
"So, how do y'all like the new house?" You ask.
The ladies all look at you silently.
"It's just fine. I think it's a bit much, but don't tell Elvis I said that. He wanted this to be a gift for me. I appreciate it. My dear son is doing everything he can to make me happy." Mama Gladys says.
You consider what Gladys is saying. You know everything Elvis does is for her. His mama is his everything, so he gives her the best of everything.
"I think the house is quite charming. It's a bit much but better than what I grew up in. That old one room shack." Dodger says. "What do you think about the house, darlin'?"
"I think it's gorgeous. It's huge, and with the gates out front, I'd say it's safer for all of you. I believe Elvis was also thinking that. Mama Gladys, I think he was thinking about taking care of you. He's sweet like that." You grin at her, and she softly grabs your face, pulling your head down to kiss your forehead.
"Ahem." You look over, and Elvis has his arms resting on the kitchen door frame. He has a grin on his face and stares at you.
"What are my girls up to?" He asks, walking into the kitchen.
"Nothing." You all say simultaneously.
He stops in front of you, leaning against the counter.
"Hey, Y/N. What kept you?"
"Hey, E. I overslept. I'm sorry."
"It's no problem, baby. Would you go on a walk with me? I'd like to show you the grounds."
"Yeah." You answer him. You remove your apron and wash hands.
"Baby boy, it's supposed to rain today. Please have Y/N back before then."
"I'll take care of her, Satnin. I promise." Elvis says, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Alberta V05, save us some slices of that cake, please? Don't let Daddy eat it all."
"Yes, Mr. Elvis." Ms. Alberta replied.
Elvis walked you out the back door into the backyard. The weather is perfect. The sun hits your skin just right, warming you up from the inside out. Elvis is walking close to you, causing goosebumps to rise on your arms, and wrap your arms around yourself.
"You okay, baby?" He asks.
"Hmm. Just fine. I think there's a chill in the air. How are you since last night?"
"Better. Much better."
Elvis takes you down a trail that leads you both on a type of nature walk. The tree branches hang over on the trail, making this beautiful canopy hallow.
"Oh, E. This is gorgeous."
"Isn't it?"
"Seriously, E. This path is breathtaking."
There's a silence that grows between you two. It's almost frightening cause Elvis is never this quiet. You knew at times he was shy, but he was never that way with you.
"Y/N, baby." He breaks the silence. "I-I-I been thinking about some things you said last night."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, Y/N. You've always been a great friend to me, and I'm truly grateful for that. F-For you."
You smile at his words of appreciation. "Thank you, Elvis. I'm grateful for you, too. You're one of the best friends I've ever had. You and the guys."
"I'm glad to hear you say that, Y/N cause..."
"Oh, E, look at this those!" You interrupt him and run over to a vine covered tree with freshly blooming flowers. "Aren't the beautiful? These are morning glorys. Their a bit out of season, but they love the heat." You pick one of the flowers, sniffing in the lite aroma.
"Y/N, I didn't know you liked flowers."
"E, every girl loves flowers. Any girl that tells you differently is lying." You tell him, walking back toward the path. He follows close behind you.
"I'm learning new things about you every day. Like the way you talked about the stars last night. Noticing the things that are right in front of us." Elvis stops walking, but you keep walking ahead of him, sashaying slowly down the trail. As you play with your flower, letting his words sink in.
"What things have you missed, E?"
"Not thing. Person. You." His words stop you dead in your tracks. "Y/N, baby, you have been right here the entire time. I-I-I just been to b-blind to notice."
You stop dead in your tracks at his words. Did he miss you? You've been right in front of you this whole time, and he's finally noticing.
"Elvis..." You turn around, and he is right in front of you. He sneaked right up on you, and you didn't even hear. You are caught right in his cerulean gaze. You stop breathing or thinking.
Elvis lightly touches your hands and slowly moves up your arms until your neck. You are frozen. Your heart is beating fast. Your breath is shallow. What is he doing to you?
Elvis smiles softly, placing his hands on your face he plants a kiss on your lips. Your eyes grow wide with shock. Elvis is kissing you. This is actually happening. You close your eyes and wrap your free hand around his neck. Totally losing yourself in his embrace.
Then you feel something fall on your cheek like a tear. You pull away from Elvis, and you both notice that rain is falling. Elvis grabs your hand, and you both start to run, trying to lose the rain.
"I'm so sorry, Y/N! I didn't mean to get you caught in the rain!" Elvis yells.
"It's okay!"
"We'll never make I back to the house in time!" He shouts.
You run further down the hollow, and at the end, you spot an old wood cabin. You both run on the small porch and stand for a moment, trying to catch your breath.
"Elvis, is this yours?" You ask him, peeking through the windows.
Elvis shakes his head. "No. I've never seen this before. I wonder if..." Elvis puts his hand on the door knob and it opens up to you. Unlocked.
You both are hesitant to walk in, but the rain is pouring, and you need to wait out the storm.
"Hello? Everyone home?" You ask walking in the little cabin. It's a small one room cabin. A sofa in the center of the room directly in front of the fireplace. In the corner of the room lies a small kitchen area with a sink with two cabinets on either side of the foggy window. You see a door that may lead to a bedroom, but you dare not explore further.
"Y/N, I doubt someone's here. Look at all the on the mantle." Elvis points out, sliding his hand across the surface to display the dust.
"Baby, are you cold?" Elvis asks you.
You wrap your arms around yourself as another chill hits you. You shake your head. "N-No. I'm f-fine, E. Really." You stutter out.
"Nonsense. Y/N, you're shakin' like a leaf, baby." He approaches you, placing his hand on your shivering arms. "You're freezin'." He says.
"M-Maybe a little." You confess.
"There's some wood in the fireplace. Hopefully, it'll burn. Just need some paper." Elvis scrambles around the room to find some paper for the fire. He ends up finding some old newspaper in the kitchen area. He takes the old box of matches off the mantle, takes a match out, and strikes it to light the fireplace.
It's too late to worry if the cabin will catch on fire or not. You're too cold for that. You get close to the fireplace as possible, letting the heat warm you up. Elvis goes into the closed room. You wonder if you should follow to be safe. A moment later, he emerges with some towels.
"Here, baby. This is what I could find to dry us off with." Elvis says giving you two towels. "You're gonna have to take your clothes off."
"Elvis!..."
"You don't want to catch pneumonia, do ya? We got caught in the rain, and I promised Mama that I wouldn't get you wet and we're drenched. I gotta take mine off, too." Elvis explained, making more sense than you believed.
That kiss got you discombobulated. You shake your head and agree. "Okay. Go on turn around."
Elvis gives you a smirk as he walks around to the other side of the sofa away from you to undress. You start to unzip your dress, letting the arms of your dress fall pass your shoulders. You pull your arms out and hold dress to your chest.
As you step out of your shoes, you hear Elvis unzip his pants. Curiosity gets the better of you, so you quietly look over your shoulder to see Elvis undressing. His back is turned away from you and his shirt is off. He sides his fingers on the side of his pants and pulls them down revealing his ass. You turn a quickly in shock. You were unaware that he didn't wear underwear.
You feel yourself flush at the thought. Hoping you didn't screech or breathe too loud, you let your dress fall down around your ankles and take off your panties. You wrap yourself in one of the towels Elvis took from the bedroom. The other towel you dry your hair off with which you soon regret because of the old stale scent the towel holds.
"You descent, Y/N?"
"Yes." You say, a bit shyly. You don't turn to face Elvis. Instead, you let him come to you. He rounds the sofa walking towards you, and you see him out of your peripheral on your right eye. You don't acknowledge him. You watch as the ambers and cinders buzz up the chimney, warming your chilled skin.
You feel him right on you. Staring at you, and your soul is a blaze burning hotter than the fire before you.
"Y/N, baby, look at me." Elvis whispers. He takes his hand and places it on your chin, turning you to face him. You look into his deep oceanic hues and drown.
You hold as tight as you can to your towel. If you move your hands, the barrier between the two of you will be broken, and you can't go there with Elvis. Not today. He just realized he has you. You don't want to destroy that. No matter how much you care or want him, and oh, do you want him.
You smile at him, and Elvis smiles back at you. He caresses your face, taking a good look at you.
"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" Elvis whispers, ghosting his lips over your forehead. Your heart sinks, and you place your free hand on his shoulder.
"No. Never." You whisper, breathing him in. His scent is intoxicating.
"Forgive me, Y/N. Let me make up for lost time." Elvis pulls away from you just a little to glaze into your eyes. He sits you down on the old sofa next to him. The sofa's actually quite comfortable. "You are so beautiful. Your eyes. Your smile. I love your laugh. I love the way you lean against your hand and look at me."
Oh, no. He noticed? You thought you were being discreet. You look away embarrassed, but Elvis places your face back to look at him.
"No, baby, it's okay. I was looking at you too."
"I'm so embarrassed."
"Don't be." Elvis takes your face in his hands and gives you the most passionate kiss you've ever received. The excitement that erupts in the pit of your tummy is enough to make you lose your breath. You let go of your towel to caresses him with both hands.
Elvis slowly lays you down against the sofa. The only thing between you two are towels. Elvis kisses your neck, and you lightly place your leg over his leg.
You moan with excitement. The thrill that Elvis gives you at this moment is overwhelming to say the least. At the most, your heart is racing, your blood is stirring, your chest is heaving. You feel yourself getting wet down below. Elvis starts to grind into you and you inhale sharply.
Is this really happening? Is Elvis really kissing you? Is he really grinding into you?
"Elvis? Are you sure about this?" You ask.
"I-I-I want you, Y/N. I want you."
"I want you too, E."
You start kissing again. You rake your fingers through his hair. Elvis slides down your towel past your breasts and puts his tongue over your nipples. The feeling is incredible. You feel as light as air.
You slide your hands down his back and, under his towel, gently rub his ass. Elvis looks up at you, then slow unwraps your towel from your body. Leaving you completely exposed to him. He raises himself to undo his towel, and in the next second he is bare to you.
You both smile at each other and kiss once more. Elvis safely tucks his hand in between your legs into your sacred peace, making you gasp in surprise.
"Y/N, baby? You've never been touched?" Elvis asks you, nuzzling your nose.
"I...I was... waiting." You speak in between breaths.
"For what?"
"For this. I...I was waiting for you." You say wrapping your arms around him, looking deep into his cerulean hues.
Elvis smiles and says, "No more waiting. You ready?"
You nod your head and brace yourself for what's to come. Elvis enters you slowly with his hardened shaft and you inhale sharply.
"Relax, Y/N. I'm gonna take good care of you."
You relax yourself as much as possible. Elvis pulls himself in and out of you slowly. No rapid movements. He wants you to enjoy this moment with him. You both breathe off beat from one another, as your passion drives you over the edge. You wrap your legs around him and hold on tight. How could you just start doing this? How could you wait? How can you go back?
Elvis thrusts become more frantic now, and you love it. You love the feeling of his weight on top of you. You love the way he's inside of you. The heat of the fireplace is nothing compared to the heat inside of you at this moment. You feel yourself coming undone and you grip onto Elvis shoulders.
"I love you, Y/N." Elvis says looking you directly in the eyes.
"Really?"
Elvis nods his head as a tear falls out of his eye.
"I love you too, E." At that moment, you combust underneath him. The second, Elvis pulls himself out of you and cums on his towel. He collapses on top of you, placing his head on your shoulder. Elvis finds your lips to kiss you deeply once more, and you return his kiss.
The rain continues to fall and you both hold each other in front of the fire. You are completely spent, nestled in Elvis's arm. He kisses your forehead and rocks you gently. You speak, breaking the silence.
"Elvis?"
"Yes, Y/N."
"Please don't let this be the last time we do this. Be with each other in this way. Tell each other how we feel."
"I promise. I won't."
"Did you mean it? What you said?" You pull away from him to look in his eyes.
"Did I mean 'I love you'? Yes, I meant it. I mean it. I love you, Y/N. I'm crazy about you." He takes your face in his hands and kisses.
An hour or so later, the rain stops, and your clothes aren't as wet as they were. You both decide to make your way back through the canopy trail to Graceland. As you walk back, you hold hands and you say, "E, no matter what happens. I will never ever forget this day as long as I live."
"Me either, baby. Never."
As you make your way into the house, Gladys is standing there waiting for you.
"Elvis Aaron Presley! I told you not to get Y/N caught in the rain!" Gladys scolds him.
"I'm sorry, Mama. Honest."
"The rain just stopped fifteen minutes ago. Where were you two for the last two hours?"
A silence grows among the three of you as Gladys waits for an answer.
"We found an abandoned cabin in the woods, Mama Gladys. We stayed there until the rain stopped."
"Yeah, Mama. There was a fireplace and some dry wood. I made us a fire to keep from freezin'. I tried to keep her as dry as possible. I promise, Mama." Elvis explained.
You smirk at yourself and think, "Well, not that dry..."
Gladys looks at you both. "As long as you both are safe. I worried."
"We're sorry Mama Gladys. Truly. I better get going. I need to dry off and get cleaned up." You say, staring at Elvis.
He gives you a look like he doesn't want you to leave.
"E, could you walk to my car?" You ask.
"Yes, I will."
"Mama Gladys, thanks for everything. I'll come to get a slice of that cake soon." You say giving her a quick hug.
"Anytime, baby girl. You go get dry now." She says.
Elvis walks you to your car and you give him one last kiss before sliding in.
"Call me when you get home, please." He asks, pushing a curl behind your ear.
"I will. I promise."
He kisses your forehead, letting go on your way. You drive home in silence, contemplating your day. Elvis loves you. You never thought he would. At least, not in that sense. Perhaps something between you both changed, and you didn't realize it. When exactly did you two go from friends to lovers? Must have been that kiss.
As you enter the driveway, you think about that phone call you must make. You rush inside, realizing that you're alone and don't have to explain your current state to your mother. You call Graceland. The phone rings a few times, and a familiar voice answers.
"Hello?"
"E, I'm home."
"I'm glad to hear it, baby. I started to worry."
"Did you really?"
"I always worry when you're not around me."
Your heart swoons. "You know all the right words to say, don't you?"
"You inspire me, baby. Come back to see me tomorrow."
"Yes."
And there you were almost every day. This summer belonged to you and Elvis. When you weren't working or with your mother, you were with Elvis. Doing the things that lovers do. Sneaking away for a kiss or hug. Conversations about the future. Making love. If there was a party you were there. You didn't want to miss a moment.
Then came the day of the draft. After all this time of finding each other, the Army was taking him away from you. Not before he went to New Orleans to do one final film.
You called each other every night to talk about the on location film. Elvis was extremely excited about King Creole.
You could still hear the excitement in his voice.
"This is it, Y/N. This is the film that's gonna get people to see me as a serious actor. Just like Jimmy Dean."
"I'm excited for, E. You deserve this! I'm proud of you and I love you."
"I love you too, baby. God, I wish you were here."
Some time had passed and the production wrapped up. Almost time for Elvis to go back to basic training before officially going to Germany. You got one moment with Elvis before he left. You didn't let it go to waste.
Then the unthinkable happened. Mama Gladys fell ill and was sent to the hospital. It was a time when everyone was on edge. Terror and worry swept through the inner circle. You could feel the worry in Elvis. He was able to get leave to be with his Mama.
Two days later, Mama Gladys went home to be the Lord. You mourned for her soul to rest in peace, but most of all, for Elvis. You were able to get off of work to make it to the wake. A few of the guys told you that Elvis wouldn't let Gladys go. He cried over her body for three days now. It broke your heart.
As you enter the house, you could hear Elvis wailing. The sound echo in the foyer of the house. It ripped through you like a saw, breaking you into pieces. You feared upsetting him more but you wanted to be near him, to comfort him.
You slowly walk to him, tears pouring down your face. You place your hand in his back.
"Elvis?" You whisper.
He looks at you with the saddest eyes you've ever seen. You can't help but cry. He stands and grabs you into his arms. You reciprocate his hug and rub his back.
"E, it's time."
"No, they can't take Mama away."
"Elvis."
Red and Sam Phillips come to sit Elvis down as the undertakers come to escort Mama Gladys' body out the front door. Elvis sobs as her body passes by him, and he follows behind.
The funeral at the burial sight was worse. Elvis wrote a list of songs for the Blackwood Brothers to perform for Mama Gladys. Elvis could not let them bury his beloved Satnin. The boys had to hold him back as they lowered her into the ground. His screams and wails are enough to destroy you. You hated seeing him in all this pain.
When everyone was able to get Elvis away from the cemetery, everyone headed back to Graceland to mingle. You and Elvis were able to sneak away upstairs to spend some more time together. Sadly, he had to leave in another day, and you had to work. This was it. You worried he'd forget you or fall in love with another.
"E, what's to become of us?" You ask, holding his hand.
"What do you mean? You're my girl, and that's never gonna change. Understand?" Elvis says, grabbing your face in his hands.
You nod, and he kisses your lips.
"I will write to you once a week. If I can do more I will. Hopefully, I can call you."
"I'll write to you too. Twice a week. Don't make me any promises you can't keep, E. My heart can't take it. You're already leaving me for two years."
"And I will come right back to your arms." He says, wrapping his arms around you.
"Dear God, bring him back to me swiftly. Make these two years fast."
"Amen." Elvis says kissing your forehead, rocking you gently.
You stay together for the night and around six the next morning you say your goodbyes.
The next two years without Elvis were a bit sad, but true to his word, he wrote you once a week. He wrote about the weather and how different it was from Tennessee cold. He spoke in the home he bought in Germany and how his daddy and Dodger are doing. He doesn't go out unless he has to. He explores the region and meets new people and he found that exciting.
You write to him twice a week as promised. You write about how much he's missed in Memphis by this fans, but not as much as you miss him. You tell him about your mama and her good health, and you talk about your promotion to manager. This promotion meant more work than before but more money to help around the house. You'd speak about the cabin and the fireplace.
You both express how much you miss one another and can't wait to be in each other's arms again. Elvis talks a little bit about marriage and that thrills you more than he'll ever know.
The last year seemed to fly by and soon Elvis would yours again. In late February of 1960, you received a long distance phone call from guess who.
"Hello?"
"Hello, baby? It's me."
"Elvis, baby, how are you?!" You express, your heart overflowing with unspeakable joy.
"Better. So much better baby. It's so great to hear your voice. I miss you so much, Y/N."
"I miss you too. If I wanted to hear your voice I'd put on an old record."
"I'm not as lucky to have my girl's voice recorded."
"What part of March are you coming back to Memphis?" I'll be back in Memphis on the seventh of March, baby. I want to see you."
"I'll be there, E. I'll be late but I'll be there. You have my word. I love you, Elvis." You whisper.
"I love you, too, baby. I can't wait to see you."
Before you knew it. March seventh had arrived. There were signs all over the city saying: "Welcome Home, Elvis." He's the Memphis hero who had returned home an All-American boy. Sadly, you'd catch him after work, and you could hardly wait.
Work ended swiftly, and you flew to the clock. You rushed home to get ready for your reunion with your love. Your mama wasn't home, so the car was yours for the evening. You sped to Graceland and thankful there was no police on the road to pull you over. You make through the gates and up the driveway to park.
You're shaking so much you're so nervous. All this time away from him has you anxious. You get out the car and rush to the front door. You hear some laughter and you know it's Elvis.
You don't open the door. Instead, you look through the side window by the door to see him, and the view is amazing. Elvis is beyond gorgeous. The army made him cut his hair, and he was no longer able to dye it the jet black color he liked. He grew his hair back, and it was the natural dark blonde of his childhood. Elvis also filled out in all the right places. The army knows how to get a man fit and keep him fed.
You were just about to knock on the door until... you see her run into his arms.
"Elvis! My love! What kept you?" Anita said, embracing him.
"Nothing. Not one thing, Little." Elvis said, kissing the top of her head.
You were aware of Anita, but you just thought she was a friend of the girls. She wasn't always around like you. You questioned her presents once, but Elvis said she was just a friend, and you left at that. The next scene shocked you enough to break you. Elvis and Anita kissed, and they did not even know you were there. Your heart was broken. How could he?
You covered your mouth and run down the stairs to your car. The tears stained your face, but you didn't care. You just needed to get away from Graceland as soon as possible. You made it back to your house faster than you made it to Graceland.
You ran to your room and to your nightstand where you kept all of his letters from Germany. Lies! Lies was what they were! Empty promises of love, marriage, and yearning! Over! All over! All you could see was red. You destroyed every last letter he gave you. They were meaningless. The tears and screaming filled the room as your broken wandered.
You collapse on your pillow and cried. For the man you loved replaced you. How could he? You see images in your head of the cabin and the fireplace. The way he sat you down on the sofa. The way he laid you down and kissed you. The way you made love... the tears enter once again. He said he loved you. What does it mean now that he's with her.
Your next plan was leaving Memphis. Leaving Tennessee. You couldn't stay with him around. Small city you were bound to run into one another and you couldn't face him.
You could only think of one way out. Your Aunt Lily in Florida. You realize it's late but you must try and speak to her. You dial her number and patiently wait for her to answer.
"Auntie Lily, please pick up."
"Hello?"
"Auntie Lily, it me. I'm so sorry for calling you this late but I was wondering is that offer still on the table? Can I move in with you?" You are particularly begging her and she can her it in your voice.
"Yes, darling. Of course. I'm so thrilled to see you. I'll get your ticket ready for the train. When can I expect you?"
"Tomorrow night."
There's a pause in your aunt. She's ready for your arrival but she did expect you so soon.
"O-okay. I can send you the money through Western Union and you can get to Florida with that." She tells you.
"Thank you, Auntie Lily. You will never know how much I appreciate this."
"Is there something you want to tell me, darling? I have a feeling that your mother isn't even aware of your plans."
"I promise to explain everything when I see you. Thank you so much. You'll never know how much I appreciate this."
"Yes darling. Good night and I love you."
Those words sooth your broken heart and warm your soul. "You'll never understand how much I needed to hear that. I love you too, Auntie Lily. I'll see you soon."
You hang up the phone and start packing your bags for Florida. It's eleven o'clock at night, but you don't feel like crying yourself to sleep. You can't take it all with you, so you start eliminating the things that are bound for the trash.
You pack up all your clothes, which includes: underwear, socks, stockings, braziers, pants, shirts, and dresses. You come across the dress you wore on that rainy day with Elvis. You hate looking at it. You throw it out the room. You make room for your shoes.
You break all of his records because you never want to hear his voice in any form again. You clean up your mess from all the letters you tore.
You sit on your bed and start writing your resignation letter. After that, you glance at the clock and realize that it's one in the morning. You are drained from the active of the day. You don't bother undressing. You just lay on the bed and sleep.
The next morning: you finish packing up the last few things and tell your mama your plans. She doesn't understand and you aren't in the mood to cry again. Instead, you express how it's time for a change, and Florida sounds like a great idea. An entire new beginning.
You go to work, your resignation letter in hand. They are sad to see you go, but they are understanding all the more. You finish your work day and say your goodbyes. Receiving your last check, you know it's more than to be expected. You head to Western Union to pick up your money for your ticket.
As you get home to further prepare for your trip, you hear your mama's in the kitchen on the phone.
"No, Elvis. She's working." She says. You turn the corner and realizing what she says, you shake your head no. Please don't let him know I'm here, Mama.
"I believe she gets off around six o'clock tonight."
...
"I will let her know, yes. You take care." She hangs up.
Elvis actually called you? What could he possibly say to make what he did better? Nothing to change your mind. This the end. You head to the train station and get the first ticket available today bond for Florida. Aunt Lily gave you more than enough. There were two tickets just for you. Jacksonville, Florida by way of Atlanta, Georgia. This is it you think. You look at your mama with tearful eyes and hug her goodbye. You silently get on the train and there's nothing left to say, but... Goodbye Memphis. Goodbye Beale Street. So long, dear mama. I will miss you. Goodbye, Red and Sonny and Billy and Pat and Little Jerry. All the guys at that. Graceland. Elvis...
No words. Maybe when your heart mends more there would be kind words to give but at this point in time all you feel is anger. Goodbye, Memphis. Goodbye.
Taglist: @missmaywemeetagain @beeandheroddobsessions @headfullofpresley @everythingpresley @epforeverohyes @plasticfantasticl0ver @pianginferno @powerofelvis @ab4eva @foreverdolly @searchingforgravity @thatbanditqueen @daffieapple @18lkpeters @dkayfixates @epsgirl @richardslady121 @literally-just-elvis-fics @thememphisflash1935-1977
#elvispresley#elvis fans#elvis x reader#romance#elvis#vegas#elvis x y/n#70s elvis#JustOneKiss#ElvisPresleySeries#elvis smut
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22-year-old Jennifer Servo grew up in Columbia Falls where she joined the Army Reserve at 17-years-old. She graduated from high school in 1998 and went on to study broadcast news at the University of Montana. While conducting her studies, she worked at KUMF radio as well as KPAX-TV and KECI-TV.
In 2002, Jennifer graduated from the University of Montana. Following her graduation, she landed her dream job as a television reporter with KRBC-TV in Abilene, Texas. She had also been an Army reservist.
Jennifer had always had massive ambitions to hit it big in broadcasting, and become a news anchor on national television. She had told her friends she intended to “go all the way.” Bill Knowles, chairman of the Radio and Television Department at the University of Montana, said: “Her goal was to be Katie Couric. She would have made it. She was that good. She had that kind of drive. She understood how to find people to tell the story.”
On 18 September, 2002, Jennifer failed to show up for work. When she was a no-show, her co-workers attempted to make contact but all phone calls went unanswered. One of her co-workers drove over to her apartment in Abilene. Jennifer’s car was parked outside, but when the co-worker knocked on the door, Jennifer failed to answer. The co-worker was concerned and reported back to KRBC news director, Toby Dagenhart.
Dagenhart called up Jennifer’s landlord, who entered her apartment with the spare key. He called out Jennifer’s name but was met with silence....
𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞:
https://morbidology.com/who-killed-krbc-presenter-jennifer-servo/
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THE SLAP
@themousefromfantasyland @the-gentile-folklorist @softlytowardthesun @grimoireoffolkloreandfairytales @princesssarisa @professorlehnsherr-almashy @the-blue-fairie @adarkrainbow
(Senegalese Folktale)
In a small country, a despot had taken power. He was not the first, nor will he be the last.
To rule, he needed - as every tyrant needed - his people to be afraid of him and ignorant.
The fear part wasn't difficult: anyone who disobeyed would have their head cut off. Whoever contradicted him would have his head cut off. He who did not bow his head to him would have his head cut off. Sometimes he cut off heads for no reason, just for fun. Later, he chose the most foolish, cowardly, weak, hypocritical and selfish men and placed them in key positions in the kingdom: in the army, in the police and in spy services.
Making people dumb is a more time consuming process. As a first measure, the despot forbade children to learn to read and write and ordered the schools to close. But those who could read read the books to those who couldn't. So he had all the books in the kingdom burned.
Tyrants have always hated books. But the storytellers arrived and began to tell what used to be read in books. The despot banned tellers, talkers and stories.
But at night, in the seclusion of the houses, mothers still told old legends to their children to rock them and fill their dreams. Tyrants are suspicious of dreams at night, for they can turn into ideas during the day.
He really wanted to ban the mothers, but they soon advised against it.
Without them, the country was in danger of disappearing.
So the despot covered them from head to toe with a cloth. They were completely hidden, you couldn't see anything. And he ordered them to be silent. Only his hands - which washed, prepared food and moved - showed.
One day, a spy warned the despot that in a distant village a lady taught children to read and write by tracing words in the sand. When the lesson ended, they erased everything.
The despot then decided to apply an exemplary punishment. He gathered all his people and had the bound woman brought. With a brusque gesture, he ripped the cloth that covered her wrinkled face. The wrinkles of suffering were inextricably mixed with finer lines, resulting from all the smiles that the woman offered during her life. And in the midst of these scrambled lines two huge eyes, deeply black, shone.
“Then, decrepit old woman, how dare you withhold knowledge and, even worse, pass it on?”
"Oh no!"
Answered the woman.
“What I know is but a drop in the ocean of knowledge!”
“Very well, let us see whether this drop of yours will float or sink in the ocean! I'm going to ask you a question, and if you can't answer it, I'll cut off your head, as usual... And then I'll cut off the heads of all the children you wanted to teach to read and, why not?, to think!”
Before the despot, there was a small fire. With tweezers, he took a very red ember and threw it into a pitcher full of water.
Psssshhhhhhhiiiiittttt!!!
“So, ridiculous old woman, tell me if this pshitttt you just heard is from water or from ember?”
“I believe it is as much from the water as from the ember…”
Answered the woman.
“Yes, but what is the exact proportion of intensity?”
mocked the despot.
The old woman didn't know how to respond. She turned pale and waited for death. But suddenly she remembered that the children would also have their heads cut off. Then, rage surged through her. An enormous, fantastic, cataclysmic rage, a historic rage!
And that anger was a good adviser. Mastering it for a few seconds, she approached the despot with great respect, humbly bowed, raised her arm and, with all the strength of her hatred, her hand - clack! - slapped the tyrant's face.
“Who made the cheer you just heard, my hand or your face? And, above all, in what exact proportion of intensity?”
the old woman asked.
The despot, stunned, rubbed his face. He looked so astonished that the people began to laugh, a laugh with such ardor, so much intensity that even the fear they felt was dissipated. And they were many! They threw themselves on the generals, on the spies and on the king. They tied them up and left them completely naked in the forest.
Certainly the lion attacked them, the crocodile devoured them, the leopard chewed them, the hyena licked their bones and the terrible red panther sucked their little brains... But let's not cry!
Then, in that country, all the children learned that anger and laughter are the weapons of the poor.
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{ * 𝒞laire 𝑀aria 𝒩uñez 🎀 . . . she seems the perfect ingenue but there is a thread of shadow that cuts through the sweetness; you can tell when death has touched someone like that
▍ disclaimer: claire is a character that was originally set in an urban fantasy setting. this will still be a key genre in her portrayal but i am choosing to write her primarily in a more dark academia based verse which chronicles claire's university years while attending college on the east coast. will be drawing inspiration from certain books within this genre such as ninth house and the legendborn cycle.
𝜗𝜚 DOSSIER.
FULL NAME: claire maria nuñez
TITLES / ALIASES: shadowdancer, sorceress of shadows, lady claire, master of riddles, apprentice and handmaiden to morgana le fey
AGE: 19-24 years old
BIRTHPLACE: the suburbs of los angeles, california
GENDER: cis female ( she / her )
SEXUALITY: bisexual
SPECIES: witch / shadowmancer
ETHNICITY: latina ( mexican )
BIRTHDAY: april 24th
ZODIAC: taurus sun, libra moon, pisces rising
OCCUPATION: student, aspiring stage-actress, drummer for her band las calaveras
CURRENT RESIDENCE: arcadia oaks, california ( home ), new haven, connecticut ( while she attends yale )
ABILITIES: please refer to the wiki this post is long enough i fear lol
𝜗𝜚 APPEARANCE.
HAIR COLOR: dark brown, with either blue or white streaks of color in her bangs
EYE COLOR: nearly black but they turn a lambent violet when she is casting spells
HEIGHT: 5'5" / 165 cm
BODY TYPE: of average height with a fair amount of curves, she is in shape but not overly athletic
NOTABLE FEATURES: a significant amount of white hairs, flecks of amethyst in her dark eyes, the veins of her inner wrists seem uncharacteristically dark in color, shadows bend towards her wherever she goes
𝜗𝜚 HISTORY.
claire is first introduced as an honors student and talented actress at arcadia oaks high school. when she is casted opposite james lake jr, better known as jim, in their production of romeo and juliet she begins to notice something is amiss. jim continues to miss countless rehearsals and can't give claire a clear reason as to why he keeps breaking his commitments. this is when claire begins to start digging into jim's whereabouts and she finds out about his possession of an ancient artifact known as the amulet of daylight. the holder of the amulet is known as the trollhunter, a title conceived of during the age of merlin, who created the amulet to choose a champion capable of being a protector of all trollkind until the day of his/her death.
once his secret is out jim reveals that claire's baby brother, enrique, has been replaced with a changeling child and he has been desperately trying to find a means to return him. in order to save her brother she starts to help jim with his trollhunting responsibilities on the condition that he continue his search for her brother. as they hunt for answers the pair and their mutual friend toby become entrenched in a battle between two troll factions. one being the army of gunmar which originally orchestrated the fall of camelot and that of heartstone trollmarket which falls under jim's domain.
as a means to better ready herself for this battle claire begins the process of learning shadowmancy after she comes into the possession of a rare artifact known as, skathe-hrü, the shadow staff. this weapon gives her access to the shadow realm; a mysterious space between worlds, a plane of chaos, devoid of light or reason. there the great witch morgana le fay has been sealed away and once claire opens the doorway between these two worlds the witch begins to sneak through.
claire starts to show signs of possession as her personality gradually shifts from good-natured to utterly hostile. her eyes glow gold and black, the cadence of her voice loses all its characteristic sweetness, and she becomes extremely paranoid and irritable. during this time it is revealed that morgana was actually the one behind gunmar's original machinations. she orchestrated the fall of camelot and she is trying to use claire as a way to destroy the trollhunter and thus clear her path to destroying merlin's legacy. eventually morgana takes full control of claire's body and traps her in the shadow realm. claire only regains control after jim and toby both travel into the shadow realm to shake her from her looping nightmare.
𝜗𝜚 PORTRAYAL NOTES ( TLDR )
most of the canon events listed above still occur but they all take place during claire's senior year of high school. she leaves arcadia oaks to attend university after morgana is "defeated".
while at university it becomes clear to claire that morgana's possession had long term effects on her and she still experiences episodes where she loses time and ends up somewhere without remembering how she got there.
her baby brother, enrique was never saved. this becomes the only reason why she hasn't tried to banish morgana from her body completely again because of thewitch's ability to restore lost souls.
she becomes somewhat of a hedge witch while away at school attending classes during the day and then practicing dark magic by night, in secrecy to better understand her capabilities and how she might be able to resurrect her brother.
claire is a performing arts and english literature double major. she also is the drummer of las calaveras, a band she started with a few of her classmates upon arriving at university.
her being a practicing witch will be on a need to know basis. the only people who are aware of this are her friends back at arcadia oaks but claire is toying with the idea of starting a coven.
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for that character prompt exercise (feel free to pick and choose lol): 7, 9, & 10 for Al; and/or 1, 3 & 8 for Lupa!
For Al I answered #7 here!
9. What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.)
Christmas!! Al loves it a lot. She likes making presents for people if possible, she loves decorating, she loved her grandmas' and mom's cooking. she gets so into the Spirit of it. She used to create drawings and comics for her mom/cousins all the time as gifts! She would spend the morning at church, then with her whole family for the day afterwards, and though there was a tinge of sadness bc of her dad's death, Christmases were always core memories for her. her first glove and bat, first bike, the pair of glasses she really wanted--her mom would always splurge to get her what she really wanted bc she loved her so much, and so along with the good times she also remembers her mom that way. None of the other monsters really like Christmas but they come around to make an effort bc they're helplessly endeared to Al :']
(here u go. mistletoe sketch <3)
least favorite holiday is halloween bc of a Certain Traumatic Event (it's a spoiler!). it didn't always used to be bc as a child she hated the how loud fireworks were on the 4th of july and that soured it for her for a long time. she would eat her consolation hot dog under the bed covers and try and read comics with a flashlight.
10. What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.)
Baseball bat for. a weapon djkjf. her bandana obv. a med kit for the other monsters (it has a lot of bandaids). a million crumpled lists in her pockets of things to remember (that she forgets). on a carabiner: rubber bands or hair ties, mostly there to be fidgeted with; swiss army knife; key to her mom's old house in georgia. no wallet. you don't really need an ID if you can get away with starting an interaction w/ 'Be not afraid'.
1. What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)
my girl Lupa loves beer. probablyyyy modelo. and presidente when she can get her hands on it. she doesn't really care how people perceive her taste. she can't drink it too much bc she went a little overboard in high school and so now she has just the perfect amount of high tolerance that makes her think Just One More Will be Fine (not only is this bad for her as a werewolf bc they have a generally lower alcohol tolerance but also she's a stupid sad drunk past her twenty minute fun stage. the thoughts don't stop running. oops!)
3. What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)
Lupa really doesn't have disposable income until her late 30s so within the story i'm telling uhhh . probably the windbreaker she wears in the third season.
OH wait i remembered. she saves up a whole summer to get herself braces as a teenager bc she was super embarrassed abt her teeth and her parents couldn't afford and also refused to help her with it. she also saves up a good amount to apply to the colleges she wants to get into. that's it's own story.
Oh and I also answered #8 here!! i really like this answer too it's v in depth
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ok the initial post for brotzly fake couple's therapy au has already gotten way too long, so i take this as a sign i should start posting things separately and establish a new navigation tag
so, either way, a lil background on the characters
todd: exactly the same shit as canon, just imagine that instead of the seer-of-universal-truths syndrome there's some regular non-magical neurological disease running in the brotzman family.
farah: mostly similar to canon, just a bit toned down. she's not exactly an one-woman army, but she is freakishly physically fit, combat-ready, and proficient with common types of firearms — significantly more than you would expect any random person to be; she had always wanted to become a part of the police force like her brothers and father, but never passed the screenings due to debilitating anxiety, ocd and autism (never tried to join the fbi or the military tho; both her skills and her family expectations aren't That high).
her father had gotten terminally sick when she was a teen, and that significantly cut their income and added to their spendings, usa healthcare system be damned; old family friend, successful enterpreneur patrick spring, had stepped in to support them both financially and morally. farah ended up being halfway raised by him, always hanging out at his house and playing with lydia; out of all her family, save for her father, farah was the closest to patrick.
some time before the main timeline events, maybe half a year or a year ago, farah, patrick and lydia were having a nice family outing — up until patrick had been shot to death in broad daylight. his history of rising to success hadn’t been exactly pretty, you see, and the organized crime eventually took what was due. farah still blames herself for letting that happen despite her training and her worrying habit of never leaving the house without her gun; but if you asked her, really asked her how would she go about preventing that, she wouldn't be able to give you a good answer — it's just that one second he was alive, and the next he was not.
lydia, as both the key witness and the fortune's inheritor, had been taken into the witness protection program; farah hasn't heard from her since. she misses her like crazy, possible even more than patrick. therapy was meant to help her cope with the ruinous ptsd from those events, and she's been slowly, slowly making progress. that day she was having an especially Bad One — after which she and dirk got shit-faced — was soon after her father's death.
dirk: he grew up in the foster care system, and as a pre-teen was adopted by a kind and soft-bellied, if a little strict, ex-military man on a good pension, scott riggins. dirk had always been a bright kid, fascinated by complex mathematics (oh, the patterns! the beauty chaos and order! the language of the universe!) and some strains of physics (especially quantum studies; it all started with an article on shrodinger's cat and went downhill from there), quickly picking up on underlying logic within numbers (way quicker than his little undiagnosed autistic brain picked up on most social cues); teachers always promised him a bright future, even with the chronic lack of resources. scott had made sure dirk would get access to the best education possible, be taught by best tutors available, enroll into the best school imaginable; he gave dirk everything, and all the boy had to do is put in some effort. and he tried, oh god did he try; but he didn't do it hard enough. the new schoolwork load was multiple times bigger and harder than the worst he had ever experienced before, and he would often grow exhausted, distracted, unfocused and loose-minded (the adhd never got diagnosed either). some days a new and curious configuration would catch his attention and he would crack down on it with fervor, but some days he would just sit there and chew on the same three problems for hours on end to no avail. on those bright days scott saw his potential, his true and exciting and wonderful potential, and wanted the kid to live up to it; on the brain-foggy days, when he failed to do so, scott grew dissappointed. and whenever he felt disappointed, dirk felt it tenfolds on his skin. scott wasn't violent, godforbid, he's not a monster — just a little strict: it's just that he frowned, and tutted, and shook his head, and told dirk off, and didn't kiss him, and said things that dirk deserved to hear no matter how it felt, and took his books away (if there was anything the kid loved as much as math, it was thrilling detective stories, and sci-fi, ans fantasy, preferably all at once, read in one sitting) so that he wouldn't get distracted, and sometimes wouldn't call dirk down for dinner until he was done with the homework.
it hurt terribly to have the only person who'd ever cared about dirk, who had chosen him out of everyone else, who had chosen him and stuck by him, the only person in the world who loved him, be upset with dirk. for the longest time, dirk was convinced that he simply was lazy, and awful, and ungrateful, and hopeless, and the worst person to ever live, with how he let his father down time after time. but over the years, his self-hatred got so large he couldn't carry it anymore, and it spilled onto the mental image of scott, just so that he could breathe again; over the years, he grew bitter and disillusioned. as a young adult, he still couldn't tell if scott's demands and ambitions were fueled by simple materialistic hopes of fame and monetary grants, or a vain desire for glory, or some weird roundabout way of achieving personal fulfillment, but he knew for sure: scott riggins wanted himself a pet boy genius, not a son.
when the time came to attend college, dirk picked cambridge over harward, mostly because he would take any excuse to get an ocean away from scott. and he passed the exams — with flying colors! he was, after all, exceptionally smart. the teachers were delighted to have him; three months later he got booted because he missed half the classes and didn’t do any homework: drunk on the newfound freedom, stressed out by a trans-atlantic move, and lacking the only accountability system (however flawed) he'd ever had. he didn't tell scott, of course — he wasn't ready to go back home, he would do anything to avoid going there. so he took the college-student-allowance his foster father kept sending him, none the wiser, and set out backpacking across britain and then the rest of europe. soon it turned out that travelling cross-country is slightly more costly than living at the dorms, and there were only so many plausible excuses he could use to cajole more money out of scott, and coming clean about his strategical-omissal-of-crucial-information-that-wasn't-tecnhically-outright-lying was out of the question, so dirk had to cut some costs: skip a meal here, sleep on a train station bench there, get chased out by foreign policemen once or twice, a few times of staying overnight at some shady moldy place with some shady people whose language he didn't speak too well — nothing any other travelling young person hasn't seen, truly. he was coping alright. eventually scott caught wind anyway, and dirk, not that dirty and scrawny, had been forcibly dragged home. from there it's been a steep decline in the relationship: more harsh demands and more desperate pleading, more affection followed by more coldness, threats and promises from scott, and a few failed attempts at coninued education, a few move-outs followed by a few move-back-ins, plus a few ultimately abandoned career choices from dirk, who never seemed to grow out of whatever it was that was wrong with him, even as a decade slowly passed and gave way to another one.
when todd meets dirk for the first time and asks the inevitable "so what do you do for a living?", dirk introduces himself as a writer, which, combined with his rather frivolous spending habits and impressive disposable income, leads todd to assume that dirk must be some literary genius, top-nyt-bestseller, author-of-future-classics madly successful type of guy — but in reality, he sits on his arse and writes experimental-storytelling-style sci-fi/fantasy/whodunnit fusions that no agency interested in commercial success wants to look at, he's been published only once by a tiny indie house that paid him jack shit and a penny in royalties, and half his money still comes from scott. that financial dependence is the main reason dirk's in the us at the moment — he's been pulled from his latest bout of doing volunteer work for a queer nonprofit in eastern europe by the threat of cutting his whole goddamn allowance off. as a compromise, he returned to the country but not to the city, claiming that he needed fresh scenery to inspire his creativity and maybe actually write a profitable book for once; really, he just hadn't been mentally ready yet to be in the same town as scott so soon. so, settle, washington it is, why the hell not.
by the way, "dirk gently" is his pen name — legally, he's still dirk riggins. also, in the skype calls he's sometimes talked into having, dirk still calls him "father", but behind his back it's been "scott" for almost two decades now: at some point growing up he felt the need to put some mental space between himself and that man in order to stay sane.
after his fateful Big Talk with todd, where dirk admitted the less pleasant parts of his childhood and youth in most detail he had ever did in his whole life, todd convinces him to start looking for a better job to support himself, change his legal name, and someday cut riggins off for good. also get some therapy, for fuck's sake, god.
#fake couple's therapy brotzly au#vikarambles#vika's personal dghda tag#gun violence mention#dghda#dirk gently's holistic detective agency (tv 2016)#dghda au#farah black#dirk gently#child abuse mention#......silly fake dating au innit?#farah black 🤝 dirk gently: ptsd 🤝 cptsd#colonel scott riggins#long post#.... im so glad ive decided to make this a separate post. yesterday evening i thought 'oh ill just jot down some thots'#but it grew into a monster of 1.5K words that ate most of my time today#if you catch any typos pls do let me know im not rereading All That#kp as this thang's main fun i hope you enjoy this generous serving of. uh. angst
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