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#I see posters of that musical every day when getting out out of the tube when going to the office!
denimbex1986 · 3 months
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'So … did you cry? All of Us Strangers has finally been released in the UK after leaving cinemagoers in the US, and at various film festivals, in floods. It’s won seven gongs at the British Independent Film awards and is up for six Baftas, but no Oscars – whatever. For me, the film’s achievement is the way it’s managed to talk about love, grief and loneliness in such a powerful and original way. I first saw it at the end of September when it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I can honestly say that I’ve thought about it every single day since.
When I interviewed writer-director Andrew Haigh before Christmas, he told me that while he had designed the film to be increasingly dreamlike as it went on, the plot underneath was logical. Nonetheless, he said that he was open to other interpretations. So let’s dig into them, shall we?
When did Harry die?
At the end of All of Us Strangers, Adam (Andrew Scott) returns to his flat after meeting the ghosts of his parents for the final time. He goes to Harry (Paul Mescal)’s apartment, which he’s never entered before, and is knocked back by the smell of a decomposing body. Then Harry’s ghost appears, holding the empty bottle of whisky he was drinking when he came to Adam’s door looking for late night company at the start of the film.
It seems reasonable to assume that after being rejected by Adam, Harry went back to his flat, finished the whisky, took ketamine (Adam finds a baggie) and died of a drug and alcohol overdose, meaning that as well as reuniting with his parents who are ghosts, Adam has been having a love affair with one too.
So, about those sex scenes …
Adam is only able to let his guard down enough start his relationship with Harry once he confronts his past and meets the ghosts of his parents – after he’s first come back from Croydon, he gets together with Harry after their discussion about the terms “gay” and “queer”.
After Adam has come out to his mum (Claire Foy) back in Croydon, he has sex for the second time with Harry, who has encouraged him to take a bath because he’s feverish. It’s never made explicit in the film, but Haigh told me that Adam starts to feel unwell after his mum mentions Aids, and in the bath he tells Harry (who has no such hangups) that for years he had been too frightened of the disease to have sex with anyone. Later on in the film, as Adam runs through the tube train tunnels looking for Harry, there are old public information posters about Aids on the walls. In order to break out of his repression and fall in love, Adam has to lay to rest his terror of catching HIV.
What happens in the club?
Shot in the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London, one of Haigh’s old haunts, this is the only big musical moment that isn’t set to an 80s hit – the soundtrack to Adam’s ketamine trip is Blur’s woozy Death of a Party, from 1997. Haigh told me that there’s a subplot buried within All of Us Strangers in which Adam manages to break out of his loneliness and live as a happily out gay man – so perhaps this is the way he would have gone out partying in his early 20s, in the 90s. While he’s high, Adam imagines himself and Harry having the long-term relationship he has yearned for – though sadly it doesn’t seem to last, with Harry gliding past him in the club after locking eyes with someone else, before Adam wakes up screaming.
What’s going on in the diner?
All of Us Strangers takes place in a mysteriously unpopulated world – a metaphor for Adam’s isolation. He and Harry appear to be the sole residents of their tower block, and Adam and his parents are the only guests in the diner where they have their last encounter, a childhood outing Adam never got to experience. The only other person is the waitress: presumably she can’t see Adam’s mum and dad, since she wonders whether he’ll be able to finish the family meal he’s just ordered.
Adam’s mum asks him whether she and Adam’s dad died quickly after their car crash – he tells her that they did, even though we know that his mum took days to die, a white lie that I felt was Adam kindly parenting his parents, shielding them from harsh truths they didn’t need to know in a moment of mature understanding.
The line that really got to me, though, was the part when Adam’s dad (Jamie Bell) tells him that he’s proud of him, and when Adam asks why, given that he hasn’t done anything, his dad replies, “Well you’ve survived. It can’t have been easy.” Finally, his parents recognise his sadness and pain, and the effort it’s cost him to keep going, even if he doesn’t have a wife, kids, a successful career or any of the other trappings of heterosexual manhood to show for it.
And what the hell is the ending about?
In the last scene of All of Us Strangers, Adam and Harry cuddle up together on a bed. Harry asks Adam to put on a record, and without him doing so, The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood comes on – Adam was watching an old Top of the Pops performance of it from 1984 when Harry came knocking at the beginning of the film. The song contains the deeply romantic declaration “I’ll protect you from the Hooded Claw / Keep the vampires from your door”; in a (to him, unconscious) allusion to the lyrics, Harry had told Adam, as the older man turned him away, “there’s vampires outside my door”.
Now Adam and Harry can truly love, console, protect and care for each other, but it’s a brutally bittersweet image as it’s happening in some kind of supernatural realm, not real life. As the camera gets further and further away from the spooning lovers, it depicts them as one of a constellation of stars in a night sky, perhaps the other lonely strangers of the film’s title.
So is Adam also dead? I don’t think Haigh means us to think that he is. I think the image says that love is strong enough to smash the boundary between life and death, and that it’s our only defence against the infinite darkness that surrounds us, something Adam has come to understand after spending a lifetime running away from his own desperate need for human connection. Now, I think I may have something in my eye …'
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deepseavibez · 3 years
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A Star In Your Sky || JJK
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-> Picture Source - Pinterest
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A Star In Your Sky [Jungkook]
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Genre - Dad!Jungkook; Angst; Sadness; Melancholy; Drabble:
Summary - Helpless as he was, 'what you didn't know couldn't hurt you'... it would have to do. There was nothing else he could do.
Warning - Angst; Sadness; Major Character Death;
Word Count - 1.7k
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Jungkook woke up with a start at the blaring alarm. 5am - his phone flashed in red numbers. Snoozing it, he left it back on the table.
The fog on the windows signifying a cold morning, the dreary grey clouds overcast, the edge of dawn.
Wiping the sleep out of his eyes he righted his shirt, pulling his sleeves over his cold hands, ruffling his hair as he stretched his limbs and swung them over the couch.
The cold hit his bare feet as he stood up and started his way down the hall, switching the lights on as he walked, to navigate his way to the room right next to his.
Door slightly ajar, he pushed on it, the slight creak a normal sound, a part of the surroundings, the many years behind the action of tuning it out.
His eyes fell past the threshold, items he knew by heart, colors he had committed to memory, the scent and the surroundings - his home.
The curtains in this room were purple, deep purple, the hue something akin to indigo, silver moons and stars shone at the catch of even the tiniest bit of light.
There were posters of cartoons, drawings in crayons and paints, a basket of toys in the corner of the room, and Cooky, the pink plush toy staring back on the made bed.
Eyes scanning the toy he remembered the day it came home.
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'Dad, look what Uncle Jinnie got me,' Moon ran up to him, as she giggled in excitement, eyes lighting up at the plush toy in her hand.
Turning toward the sound of his daughter, he bent down on one knee so she could hop into his waiting arms. He held her easily, her form tiny and stable in his muscled hands.
Her momentary glance to the tattoo on his skin, a second nature, something that made her smile, as her name had been carved into his forearm, stars surrounding it with a Saturn ring.
She was Daddy's little girl and she loved every moment of it.
Meeting her fathers eyes, she held up the pink bunny in her arms, a prize worth every drop of attention he could give.
Smiling bemused he asked her, 'What about all the other teddy's in your room, babygirl?'
He nosed at her cheek as he teased her.
Her eyes went as wide as saucers, 'Dad!' she exclaimed in a mock whisper, 'They aren't Teddy's, they all have names.'
'Yeah, Jk, how can you call them Teddy's,' Jin played along, just as scandalized at his dongsaengs choice of words.
Mouth twitching, the mole on his chin, shifting at the movement, he raised an eyebrow at his hyung, 'I'm surprised you didn't get her the RJ.'
'Now, now, I did explain the perks of having RJ, but she is Daddy's little girl.' They smiled, endeared with the toddler between them.
It was the last proper, happy outing they had, ice-cream, feeding the seagulls, playing in the sand, her best days with her father and her Uncle Jin.
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‘I don't care what happens to me, I don’t care about the money! Just please save my baby, please!’ Jungkook was enraged, angry at the world, helpless, desperate.
Stage 4. She was only a child, her tiny body fit in his arms, her form only half of him.
It came out of nowhere, severe bruising and bleeding when she fell down, or got cut. Trouble breathing when she ran, nausea when she ate and sometimes not wanting to eat at all. Waking up to her cries in the middle of the night, sniffling quietly, at the pains in her body.
Too many symptoms, too many blood tests later, too many restless, sleepless nights, she was diagnosed with leukemia.
There were weeks of waiting for results, test after test, of having to sit her in his lap, and explain why she needed to see countless doctors and that things would get better, that it was just for now.
But as he stood opposite her doctor, his hyung holding his shoulder, he had to go home and tell her he lied. He lied.
He'd have to tell her that there was no turning back, and if it was too late for his daughter, the love of his life, the very center of his world, for him, there would be no way forward.
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He stood at the doorway of her hospital room, having just gone home to change up and get her favorite mac and cheese. The sight he met every single time, not something he had gotten used to, despite the number of weeks he’d been at the forefront of it all.
The tubes along her face, her nose, in her arms, something a baby should never have to go through. A parent should never have to think about outliving their child. It wasn’t the cycle. It wasn’t fair.
She deserved, to hit double digits, to find love, to have him fight the need to protect her from every mistake, to always be there for her, she deserved friends, memories, the chance to discover hobbies, she deserved more time.
The saddest part was that she was too young to think of any of those things, and yet, maybe it could also be a blessing.
What you didn’t know couldn’t hurt you, right.
Blinking back tears he plastered a fake smile on his face, the brightest one he felt he could muster. ‘Hey, babygirl.’
She looked up, a small smile, slowly making its way up her cheeks, her face pale. Opening her mouth to speak, he shook his head at her. ‘No, no, shh, baby, don’t hurt your throat.’
Making his way over to her bed, he gingerly climbed in next to her, the nurses used to his presence, the doctors having no objection considering the care he had with her as he slotted himself protectively over her.
Pecking her on the head, he took note of the scrapbook in her hand. She looked at it everyday, pictures of her six loving uncles, Taehyung plaiting her hair, Jimin showing her tiny jewelry pieces, stick-ons for her ears, Namjoon with a bunch of block letters, a tower of it clearly having collapsed around them. Her Uncle Hobi always made her smile, as he had her on his back and his neck, walked her around the apartments like he was her personal chauffeur, Yooni holding her as she slept, light music playing in the background, and her Uncle Jin, her favourite Uncle Jin, always around, choosing school bags, spoiling her with anything she wanted, anything that caught her eye, especially morning blueberry waffles and her dad, Jungkook, her dad, the youngest, the one with the most time, the most allowance to make reckless decisions, the one who adapted his whole life around her inclusion in his life.
‘Hey, remember the story of your first birthday,’ His voice exuberant at her cake covered face,’when you didn’t want to wear the red jacket Uncle Tae gave you, and you cried for his instead,’ he petted her head as he searched her face for recognition.
She pouted at the mention of it, the story recounted so many times before,’Uncle Tae’s jacket was purple, Dad. How could I not want it,’ Her cheekiness earned her a light flick to her nose.
She upturned it crossly, a little zest in her eyes at the familiar chastising.
They paused, looking at each other, before the smile slowly disappeared from her face, the reaction apparently contagious as Jungkook sat up in concern. ‘Dad,’ she started softly, her eyes trained on the blanket covering her legs, ’are you gonna forget me?’
Jungkook’s breath caught in his throat at the innocent question, striving to show no reaction on his face. Moving swiftly, he worked his way around the cables and maneuvered her into his lap. They tried, he tried, and she had been so strong but even at her tender age she knew it, he knew it, the time for sugar coated words, and false hopes were over, acceptance was all that was left.
‘Close your eyes,’ he prompted, wiping tears he could no longer hold back, away from his eyes.‘Can you see me?’
‘My eyes-,’
‘No, keep them closed, can you see me,’ he reiterated, beside himself.
‘No, I can’t see you.’
‘But you can hear me right,’ taking note of her face, her nose, her cute cheeks, he waited for her answer.
‘Yes, I can hear you.’
‘Well,’ he sniffled, head falling against her forehead lightly, the contact needed, ’that’s what it will be like. I will always be here for you. I will always talk to you, and I promise,’ his hand found hers and squeezed it, ’I will never forget you. You may not see me and I may not see you, but you will always be the biggest part of me. And I promise, I will never, ever, forget you.’
He broke at his last words, pulling her into his embrace, holding his Moon, wishing with everything he had left, he would never have to let her go.
Moon passed that night, in her sleep, in his arms, as painless as it could possibly be. Knowing what was going to happen, couldn’t have prepared Jungkook for the real thing. But he knew he had to let go of her lifeless body, he knew he had to call the one person who could handle him or whatever came next for him, and as soon as he saw his Jin hyung, the one that named his perfect girl, he fell into his arms and cried, as his heart shattered into pieces.
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Standing at doorways were his thing these days, he thought, everything he did was not enough, not too much, like sitting on the fence, falling in the middle.
It had been a year, but he couldn’t clean out this room, he still woke up at 5am despite his flexible job because he had to take care of her routine, maybe someday he would have to stop coming in here, but right now, the made bed, the unused room, the stillness of it all, would remind him that even for a time, he had something beautiful, something worth all that pain, a human that he would meet someday again.
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thatmultifandomhoe · 4 years
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Type 2
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Word Count: 10,755
Overview: You were diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in high school and ever since then, you’ve been able to manage it without a problem. Sticking to a schedule and monitoring your blood was easy, but then came Jimin and suddenly, you found yourself hiding it all from him. But when your blood sugar drops dangerously low in the middle of the night, Jimin’s the only one you can call for help.
Pairing: Jimin and Reader
Genre AU/Rating: - Established Relationship AU - Medical Condition AU - Slice of Life AU - Angst - Fluff  Rated: PG-13
Warning: In order of appearance-: Implied bullying, extreme thirst, lack of appetite, weight loss, passing out, type 2 diabetes, drinking, swearing, insecurities, needles, mention of blood while using a blood glucose meter, extremely low blood sugar.
A/N: This is not the story of everyone who goes through Type 2 Diabetes. Not everyone has it when they’re in high school. This fic is loosely based on my experience with caring for my mother who is diabetic, and based on my own family’s history with this condition. My mother who almost her entire family is diabetic, so it was only a matter of time that she would become diabetic, except she was able to keep from being diagnosed until her mid to late 50s. That is not to say you can’t be diagnosed as young as high school or even in middle school, it can happen, I went to middle school with a girl who had a pump in 8th grade. This is just one story.
Master List:​
Music Playlist:
Part of the Intimacy Anthology Project
©thatmultifandomhoe 2020. Do not repost, translate, or use my stories without permission.
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It first started in high school.
But when you actually sat down and thought about it, the early symptoms were there a year prior in eighth grade. More often than not, your throat was dry, so you always had a water bottle next to you. Back then though it wasn’t as bad. Plus, any conversation with one of the girls who wore makeup every single day – it was always shocking when they announced that their mothers let them – swore that drinking a gallon of water a day, would help with maintaining clear skin.
Whether or not there was logic to this declaration was to be remain hidden – many years later you would learn that actually, there was no science between drinking water and having acne free skin – you and all the other girls hopped on the train. It was because of this promise of clear skin, that no one batted an eye when you began going through a bottle a day, or the fact that you were using the bathroom more often as well.
You were fourteen. Your body was changing, nothing made sense anymore. Happy one minute, then curled up in fetal position as that depressing Sarah McLachlan commercial played on the TV, and you were telling your parents that they needed to adopt a kitten because it was the right thing to do. How were you even supposed to know that what was happening, actually wasn’t all that normal?
Mom simply handed over your water bottle, a bag of the secret stash of chocolate, and a heated rice bag for the cramps, and everything was decently better.
You only thought the sudden extreme thirst was…part of it all.
In freshman year, you were going through bottles to the point that you bought a cute reusable water bottle that you decorated with stickers, never willing to admit how many times you had tipped it back for it to be empty. You weren’t exactly the poster child for going green and advocating climate change, but you weren’t stupid either and knew that the plastic bottles weren’t going to help the Earth.
The popular girls from eighth grade had surged up the ladder, and were now the queens of the freshman class and upturned noses. No longer were they giving compliments or suggestions on how to blend eyeshadow, or discussing the latest trends in fashion. Instead, they ignored the good mornings in the hallways from girls, and laughed as they slammed textbooks out of their hands. Smiles turned into grimaces, and helpful tips morphed into jeering and mean comments usually centered around everyone’s looks.
While you tried to not let their lies get to you, you couldn’t help but pause by a mirror and turn every which angle possible, trying to see the flaws that they pointed out all the time. It was confusing because to be perfectly honest, you were average. There was nothing that made you stand out from the crowd, nor did you hide in the shadows, you were simply in the middle and that never bothered you.
You never gave them the satisfaction of letting them see how their words affected you on the simple fact that they didn’t. Maybe you’d shrug, or raise an eyebrow, before turning away to drink from the trusty water bottle by your side. They meant nothing to you, but everyone around you thought that they did. Friends were quick to jump on the reassurance train, their gazes lingering on the food you barely touched. Even when it was taco Tuesday, you’d barely eat half of it or even less before getting full.
No one seemed to believe that you were full, or that drinking two whole bottles of water by noon made it impossible to shove more than a few bites down your throat.
Dinner was always hard. Sat between mom and dad, the looks they’d give each other as they watched you push at the small amount of food on your plate never went unnoticed. You’d lost track of all the times that mom came into your bedroom to ask if everything was okay, if the girls at school were saying things, or if there was perhaps a guy you were trying to impress. If only you’d gotten a dollar for every time someone asked you that, you would have been a millionaire by sixteen.
Soon you were making excuses to not have to eat around people, saying that you had made up a plate of whatever was left in the fridge and weren’t hungry. At school you started bringing a brown bag lunch. Since you weren’t eating the food you bought, it didn’t make sense to waste money on it. It took a while for your friends to get that you just weren’t hungry, but eventually they knew not to bring it up, letting you eat as little as you want and drink water.
That was fine with you. You were fine, that was what you told them and you wanted them to believe them. You didn’t want them to know that every night before bed you stood in front of the mirror on your wall, turning side to side and every which way to see the new curves from your chest to your hips, or the gap between your thighs.
They didn’t need to know that you despite the fact that you’d refill the water bottle three times a day at school, you’d refill it four additional times at home. Or how your belt now had extra holes that you had punched in it an attempt on your part to keep what was happening a secret.
Every weekend was reserved for sleepovers, movies, and at home facials with you and your friends, equally rotating between everyone’s house to keep it fair on who hosted. It was how you were able to relax and have fun, but it was hard to hide the sudden changes. At first, you started arriving already in your PJs, that way none of them had to see you change, but then they stared as you barely touched any of the snacks. The same ones that you all used to bake together. Then every time you got up to use the bathroom they’d sigh, having to pause the movie or wait for you to come back to continue playing whatever board game was out.
After three attempts, you stopped going to the sleepovers, giving some excuse that you weren’t feeling well, or that you were behind on a pile of homework. Whether they believed it or not, your friends accepted it without a second thought.
Those months of confusion and sudden changes felt like they were moving at a snail’s pace, but then one day you blinked and it was two days before Christmas, and none of your clothes fit you anymore. Everything was hanging on you, you were in the bathroom multiple times within a couple hours, and your throat felt like it was filled with sand that no matter how much water you drank, never seemed to offer any relief.
It was a vicious cycle that no one could ignore anymore. You weren’t yourself anymore, barely even a shell of the human who you had once been.
The morning it happened you had once again been in the bathroom going pee. When suddenly, your head felt heavy, too burdensome for your shoulders, so you leaned back against the wall to relieve yourself of some of the weight. Black dots filtered in your vision as you cleaned yourself up, the toilet flushing as you stumbled to the sink. The water rushed from the sink as you stood in front of the mirror, barely able to make out your own reflection and going fuzzy when you walked out of the bathroom, forgetting to turn off the water or the lights as you left. You didn’t remember even opening the door.
Someone had been walking by at the moment, although they didn’t know it, you felt like your mind was underwater, unable to think let alone speak as you tried to go back to your room. It was your mother. She stared wide eye at you stumbling around the hallway like a drunk and when she called out your name, you didn’t even hear her.
She called your name again. Then a third time. It was on the fourth that you looked over at her, your mouth moving and filled with sand, only nothing come out. The last thing you saw was her running towards you. Then it was dark.
The next time you’d open your eyes it was with a stark realization that you were no longer at home. A glance to your left revealed box monitors and tubes of all types, one of them connected to the IV in your arm and the other going to a monitor that was attached to your pointer finger. The bed wasn’t comfy and at some point, someone had changed you out of your PJs and into a light green hospital gown.
The door opened as a nurse in blue scrubs walked in, her blond ponytail pulled high up as she carried a chart, smiling when she saw you.
“Good to see that you’re awake,” she said, coming to your side to read the numbers, marking some notes down. “How are you feeling?”
Wetting your lips, you tried to speak but like always, your throat was dry.
The nurse glanced over and seeing your struggle, held up a finger as she walked to the connected bathroom, water suddenly running before being turned off as she came back with a plastic cup.
“Go slow,” she instructed, helping to bring the mattress up so you were sitting as she gave you the cup.
It took a few minutes, but when your throat wasn’t so dry, you tried again. “What happened? Where…where are my parents?”
She was changing out the IV bag for a new one, and you wondered if your body had really emptied that packet dry. “You passed out hun, but don’t worry, your parents just went to get some snacks from the vending machine. I’ll go get them and then the doctor will be right in to explain everything.”
“Am I okay?”
Her badge turned right side, showing her ID and that her name was Jenna. “Everything will be fine. The doctor will explain and answer any questions.”
You watched as Jenna connected a new IV bag, once again reassuring that she’d be back with everyone before leaving the room as the cold liquid entered your veins, surprising you with how good it felt.
Jenna kept her promise. First bring round your parents who hurried to hug you, telling you how worried they were about you and asking how you felt. In only a few short minutes the doctor came back with the nurse, smiling as she pulled out a chair to sit on.
It wasn’t cancer, nor was it anything uncommon that would puzzle the doctors on how you got, but rather something that you had heard of all the time in health classes.
You were diabetic. Type two to be exact.
They had run some blood tests and from what they were able to tell, your blood sugars had dropped low during your sleep and hadn’t gone back up when you woke. Combined with the loss of weight and dehydration you were experiencing, your body’s natural instinct was to protect itself and, in this case, that meant passing out.
The doctor reassured that it at least explained the various changes you had been experiencing, and as grateful as you were to finally understand what was going on, it now meant that your way of life was going to change, again.
Now your life revolved around using a glucose meter to check your blood sugar throughout the day, taking medicine that would help regulate your numbers, cutting back on sweets and various other foods that had tended to make them high. Slowly but surely you were able to gain back some of the weight you had lost, and the trips to the bathroom slowed down. You were living a new life trying to find the perfect balance.
One thing had been made clear by the doctor that day. This was lifelong. It was never going to go away; it was something that could only be managed.
So, you managed. All through high school, and then all through college, you managed to maintain your numbers, discovering that when you felt sluggish and off it usually meant your blood sugar was either really high or really low. Besides that, you normally felt fine and took shots at mealtimes and before bed to help regulate your levels.
That was the second, biggest change in your life. Every pill and medicine that the doctor prescribed to help with your levels had its side effects, and the world must have had a grudge on you because every single one made you ill or have a reaction. Usually insulin was a last resort option, but in your case, it was the only thing that appeared to help.
Downside to taking the shots were the prices, they were the true killer, but like everything in your life, you managed it all. Your parents of course worried, and the day you had moved out was perhaps the most nerve wracking for them. You were going to be on your own for the first time ever, it was a big moment, and as much as you appreciated and loved them, it was time for you leave home.
Having this new lifestyle didn’t mean you couldn’t do anything; your life was perhaps more or less the same as any other adult that you knew who was your age. Went to work five days a week as a dental hygienist, spent the weekends catching up on chores, and binge watching the latest shows on Netflix.
The only thing missing, was a love life.
It wasn’t that you didn’t try. There were multiple first dates and a couple second dates, but rarely was there a third. No matter what you did or how you tried to explain it, they all got uncomfortable when you mentioned that you were diabetic. At first it didn’t seem like it would be an issue. But when you’d get up a few minutes before the meal came and you’d explain that you needed to take a shot, they all clammed up. Like they were suddenly realizing that what you were more trouble than you originally appeared to be. That you actually had a condition that affected your life.
After that they’d stop calling, the texts they’d send were more apologetic and that they were busy. There were never anymore dates after that, and unable to help yourself you’d check their social media, not surprised when there were new pictures with a new girl, usually captioned with some type of heart emoji.
If they were dumping you for something that was out of your control, then you were the lucky one for avoiding what could be a toxic relationship. At least, that’s what you told yourself. It was good that you were waiting for the right person, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. How could anyone decide that you weren’t worth the time simply because you needed to take insulin?
You were a human being. Nowhere did it say you didn’t deserve love.
Despite that mindset, you once again found yourself coming home from a date that had no future of a third. Tossing your keys on the bed, you rummaged around your purse for the two cases stashed inside, still dressed in the cute outfit that had taken a majority of the morning to decide on. The cases themselves were adorable, and pretty cheap on Amazon. The first was purple and no bigger than your palm while zipped up. The second one was a light blue wristlet that was slightly longer.
You sighed while setting them on the nightstand, resentment filling your heart. The purple bag contained your pen and glucose meter with the test strips, and the other had your insulin, alcohol wipes, and spare needles. They were the very things that you needed to stay alive. They told you your numbers, it was how you decided on how many units to take with meals, and yet, they appeared to be a part of the reason that you couldn’t seem to hold on to a relationship.
It just fucking…sucked.
No longer caring that you had spent several hours to get the curls just right, you ran a hand through your hair. Mike had made it clear after your explanation for why you needed the light blue case just to go to the bathroom, that there wasn’t going to be a second date.
Which is fine, you thought, kicking off your heels and pulling your legs up to sit criss cross on the bed. He only talked about himself the entire time. And his ex-wife.
Maybe it was because you were telling them early on. Wasn’t there some unwritten rule about not talking about medical things on the first couple dates? Granted, a majority of them wanted to go out to eat for the dates and you couldn’t exactly not take a shot, but it wasn’t like you were doing it right there at the table. You always went to the restroom and used the stall with the changing table to be able to lay everything out.
Glancing at the two cases, you pressed your lips together. This was a major part of your life; it was part of your identity. But maybe…maybe if they didn’t know? What if you hid this from the next guy? It probably wouldn’t do much, if it did, were you really going to hide such an important part of yourself in the name of love?
They always seem to run off when I tell them, you thought. What’s the harm in waiting, and seeing if it’ll last more than a few dates before I tell?
It seemed pretty extreme. But there was only one way to find out.
As you settled back against the pillows, turning on Netflix once again, you couldn’t but hope that this didn’t backfire on you.
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“You did what?”
Pressing your lips together, you rested your forehead against the fridge. It was a bad idea to tell you best friend what you had done. You knew that she’d say it was wrong to lie, to hide such an important part of your life from him. She was the voice of logic and reason, which was terrifying at times, but that was Kayla.
Grabbing the milk from the fridge, you glanced over your shoulder. She was staring at you, eyebrow raised as she tapped her nails against the table, waiting to hear your excuse.
“I…I haven’t told him.”
“And you’ve been dating for how long now?”
You stirred the mug until it was caramel in color, starring down at the coffee and partially wishing that you could shrink and run away from her reaction. “Three months.”
“Dude!”
Wincing, you stashed the milk away to carry the two cups of coffee to the table, setting Kayla’s down on the cozy you had out. She thanked you, absentmindedly stirring the spoon out of habit.
It was a Saturday ritual the two of you had since meeting in college. The two of you bonded while waiting in an excessive line for coffee on campus, and despite it being ridiculously long, neither one of you was willing to leave. Coffee was what you considered your life blood, and funny enough, so didn’t Kayla.
That day forward, the two of you always got coffee together before classes, and on Saturdays you bought a box of munchkins with iced coffee before retreating back to the lounge to relax and bitch about anything and everything. She knew about your diabetes, didn’t mind that you could only have a few treats before stopping, and when she hung out in your dorm room, she hadn’t been uncomfortable with seeing you having to take a shot.
After that semester, the two of you became roommates for the reminder of college. Even after graduating and moving out in the real world, getting real jobs, Saturdays were still for coffee and bitchin’.
“Walk me through this decision again?” She asked, reaching over for one of the glazed munchkins.
You lightly tapped the spoon against the rim of the coffee mug, slouching in your seat as you wrapped your fingers around it. The warmth spread through your fingers instantly, soothing a few nerves for the moment. Kayla was your best friend yes, but she also had very strong opinions.
“I was just, sick of finding dead ends,” you answered, staring down at the mud colored coffee. Just the way you liked it. “Every time I had explained that I needed to take a shot to manage my blood sugar, they all froze up. And then they’d tell me after the date ended that it wasn’t going to work, or they’d ghost me without any warning.”
It sucked. It really did, but for once you just wanted to be with someone and be happy. There had already been too many times that you’d gotten your hopes up over a guy only for it to end, without even an explanation no less.
Kayla covered your hand with hers, gently squeezing when you looked up at her. Her red hair was pulled up in a ponytail, her freckles scattered across her face and body. She refused to cover them up with makeup, and even then, you wouldn’t dare let her do so either. As much as you treasured her, you had witnessed first-hand her attempting to do makeup so badly that it nearly sent you to cardiac arrest.
“Hey,” she softly said. “Those guys were dick bags, there’s no need to beat yourself over them.”
Chuckling, you raised the mug to your lips, glancing in the living room. The apartment wasn’t the largest or the fanciest, but you were able to leave a piece of yourself in each room. Sunlight streamed through the bay window and through the dream-catcher you had hanging on the lock. Bailey, Kayla’s little teacup terrier, was taking advantage of said light and was napping on the couch.
“I’m guessing I should have sent them all to you?”
“Of course,” Kayla agreed, leaning back in the chair. “I would have kicked their asses and told them what type of scum they are.”
You reached over for your own munchkin, placing it on the saucer to break it in half. “Sorry, but I think you’ve missed your chance.”
“Dammit.”
Amused, you popped a piece into your mouth, enjoying the sweetness of the chocolate. Life had certainly taken the two of you in directions that neither of you expected, but you treasured these Saturdays. It was like nothing had changed and you were back in college, talking about the classmates that annoyed the crap out of you, pointing out the cute ones, and procrastinating on the assignments that needed to be done.
“So, are you going to tell me about him?” Kayla asked. “Last thing you said was that your neighbor was setting you up. Does he deserve the best friend approval?”
At the thought of Jimin, you were grinning into your coffee, coyly trying to avoid eye contact with her as she squealed. Her reaction was so strong that it woke Bailey up, causing her to bark a few times. Which was more adorable than it was intimidating like the dog probably thought.
  Flipping your phone screen side up, you went to go find a picture of him for her. “He’s very, very sweet,” you said, handing the device over for her to scroll through. “And kind. He works at the animal shelter in town, loves to take Polaroid pictures, and he indulges in my coffee addiction.”
“I love him already.”
You grinned at that, taking a drink as she cooed and laughed at the various photos, and you began to tell her the story about how you met him.
As much as you hate to admit it, you had been apprehensive about your downstairs neighbor set you up with his friend for a blind date. It wasn’t that you were complete strangers with Taehyung - the guy was pretty chill and kept things interesting with constantly dying his hair - it had been more along the lines that you didn’t know much about him besides the conversations the you shared before going your separate ways.
According to your neighbor, your dating life – or non-existent one – hadn’t gone amiss on him either, and conveniently had a friend who was also in the single pool for quite some time, so he thought it would be nice to help you out. Actually no, he flat out told you he was setting the two of you up for a date. With only a moment’s hesitation were you able to say no dinner dates before he disappeared inside, tossing a thumb’s up over his shoulder for you and shut the door.
The next morning when you left for work, there was a sticky note on your door telling you to be at the 10th annual Flower Shower festival that Saturday for one. Jimin would be waiting at Paws for Days, the animal shelter.
The Flower Shower festival the town’s way of sharing their love of flowers and nature with everyone. Every shop that decided to participate in the event was assigned a different type of flower, and with that, they decorated their stores with it. They were then automatically entered into a contest to see who was the most creative with their assigned floral. First place was given a trophy stating that they were the winners of that year’s festival, and second and third were given ribbons and a plant of their choice.
What made it such a hit, was perhaps was the event that gave it its namesake. During the day, not only were there flowers decorated on the storefronts, but each company was able to hand out coupons for their flower that could be turned in at one of the many floral shops in the area. There were stalls for making and selling flower crowns, jewelry, perfumes, anything and everything imaginable that could incorporate flowers into a product filled the streets to be sold. Even food vendors went all out with all the stops.
Filling in any empty spaces were local artists, using any and all varieties of flowers to create sculptures, sometimes of small animals that a person could hold in their hands, to ones so large that it required ladders and multiple hands to help. Face and body painters had kids and adults of all ages waiting in line, eagerly handing over the few bucks to be decorated with flowers and various other decorative forms of flower power.
It was like the hippie movement met modern times for a day.
Perhaps the most beautiful of all the events, was the parade that happened at the end of the day. The festival couldn’t last all night since it would be hard to see the flowers, so the ending parade occurred at six. All the contest participants and winners walked along with the vendors and painters, each carrying baskets with flower petals or single flowers to throw out to the crowd, and while they held the attention of everyone, up on the rooftops of all the buildings were volunteers who waited for their to cue to toss buckets of petals on to the crowd below. It was as if the entire world was hitting pause on the bitterness of life, to enjoy a moment of beauty to take a shower, made out of flowers.
You never knew what it was about flowers that had the entire town obsessed with them, there were at least six shops dedicated to flowers and bouquets – one at least in particular focused mainly on gardening tools, sculptures, and fountains – within the downtown area.
Which made having your first date with Jimin at the Flower Shower festival all the more pleasing. It was more exciting and had plenty of things to do than going to another restaurant, but at the same time, a bit nerve wracking. Not only was it another first date, with a guy that you’ve never met in your life, hoping that your neighbor hadn’t set you up with some weirdo. This was the first date you were going on with the decision to not tell him about being diabetic.
Even though you weren’t going to bring it up, you still packed the cases into your purse, not wanting to risk needing it and not having them on you. After dressing in shorts and a loose flowery blouse with sandals, even doing your makeup lightly to match with the summer theme, you were ready to go out. Butterflies were fluttering in your stomach, but your hand had been shaking to the point that you had to set down the mascara brush or stab yourself in the eye with it.
This was your first chance at seeing if it really made such an impact on your love life, making it felt like you were stepping into the dating scene all over again. That was what made it terrifying. This simple date would tell you whether or not you weren’t able to hold a relationship because of your lifestyle, or if it was because of you.
If it was because of the needles, then that you could understand. Not everyone was fond of them, and dealing with having to give yourself shots four times a day can be annoying at times, but if it was because of you in general…well, that was the ultimate sucker punch to the gut.
Before you could let yourself get lost in the sink hole of self-doubt, you forced yourself to leave, locking the door without even thinking to double check that you had everything that you needed. Luckily, you did.
It was to your advantage that you lived downtown. Walking to the shops only took five, maybe ten minutes if you were feeling lazy and with the location of Paws for Days in mind, you headed down the street in its direction.
The sun was high in the sky, occasionally blinding you when you passed by the tall buildings and gaps in the trees, but you felt the heat of the sun on your arms, and saw the clear bright blue sky overhead. It all helped to take your mind off what Jimin was like. Hell, you didn’t even know what he looked like. All that Taehyung wrote was that he would be outside by the shelter’s sign.
Nearing the heart of town, you weren’t all that surprised to see that nearly everyone in town was walking the streets, making it almost impossible to tell them apart from the people who were working.
Paws for Days was a street down from being smack in the center of town, and resembled a large farmhouse with floor to ceiling windows on the front entrance, allowing everyone to look in and see the cats and occasional dog walking around the front of the store. They took in animals of every breed, and were also a no-kill shelter. During the warm months it was common to hear dogs barking in the larger fenced in area behind the building as the animals played and ran about, enjoying the time out in the sun.
As you neared the shelter, it was the sound of barking and kids laughing that made you smile. In their front lawn, staff had set up play pen areas for the smaller dogs to sit out on the grass and roll around. Parents with babies carefully held them as they leaned down, allowing their child to gently pet animals and laughing as their palms get licked. There were other areas for the larger dogs, but a large banner that was attached to the shelter’s roof stole your attention.
Paws for Days 10th Annual Adoption Day!
You hadn’t realized that in addition to it being the tenth anniversary of the Flower Shower festival, it was also an anniversary for the shelter as well. Staff was walking around with blue shirts with the name of the shelter written in black, a little black paw print serving as the period. Flower crowns made out of orange cream roses sat on everyone’s head, and as you looked around, a group of people around your age appeared to be constructing a giant sculpture of a…well, it had paws and the lower half of an animal body.
Maybe later you’d come back and see what it turned out to be.
Continuing towards the shelter, you tried to look for the sign, but with a swarm of people walking in your way so they could either play with the animals or actually go inside to adopt, it took a little longer to reach your destination.
  When you finally broke through and stepped away to the side to catch a breather, you were able to see the shelter’s wooden sign. To no one’s surprise, there was a stone statue of a cat and dog sitting next to each other, with a bird on top of the dog’s head. It was adorable.
The man standing next to the sign however, was godly looking.
“No, fucking way,” you said, taking advantage of the fact that he was looking at his phone to stare at him.
The fact that his hair was dyed wasn’t shocking – you had partially expected that considering Taehyung was always dying his – but the mix of pink and orange hues suited Jimin so perfectly that it appeared natural on him. The sunlight glinted off of the silver chained earring he wore along with the silver rings on his fingers, all while standing out in a black t-shirt and jeans despite it being warm out. To top it all off, an orange cream rose flower crown that matched his hair color perfectly, was carefully placed on his head to resemble a halo, and he held on to a spare in his free hand.
Taehyung had completely, and utterly, forgotten to mention that his single friend, was insanely hot.
Maybe…maybe that’s not him, you thought, carefully wetting your lips as you walked over to him. Maybe this is some other guy, standing right where Taehyung had said, and was waiting for someone else.
He slipped his phone into his pocket before you were able to reach him and looked up, meeting to meet your gaze. The wire framed sunglasses he wore were tinted with pink lenses.
“Hi,” he said. His voice was soft and gentle, putting your nerves at ease as he smiled widely when you got closer. “You’re Taehyung’s neighbor, right?”
You shyly smiled, nodding as you supplied your name, which only helped to make the corner of Jimin’s eyes crinkle as he repeated your name. To you, your name was just that, a name. Nothing more and nothing less. But hearing he say it, it was like a pretty melody slipping out of his mouth.
Jimin held up the spare flower crown, pressing his lips together as he chuckled. “I hope you don’t mind, but I got you one. Is it okay if I…?”
“Of course,” you answered. It was sweet that he had gotten one for you, and as he stepped closer to put it on your head, you felt your cheeks warming up at how close he was. You were even able to catch a whiff of his cologne, just the faintest scent that wasn’t overwhelming like how some people tended to bathe in perfume.
“They’re roses,” Jimin explained, adjusting the crown so it sat on your head like his. “Orange roses. I had to ask for them specifically in case any of the animals tried eating them. Roses at least, are not as poisonous as a lot of other flowers.”
“They’re still toxic to them though, right?”
Jimin leaned back, quirking an eyebrow as his smile softened to grin. “Well, I don’t recommend eating them, for either animals or humans. They’ll probably make you sick...”
“He’s a smartass just like us,” Kayla interrupted, grinning as she handed you back your phone.
Laughing, you nodded in agreement. “Yeah, he can be. But he’s just, one of the sweetest guys I’ve met.” Double tapping your phone, the lock screen revealed itself to be a picture of Jimin. You had taken it one day when you went and visited him at the shelter. He had been holding one of the calico cats, even rubbing his nose against hers, and your heart melted at the sight. Now your heart melted every time you turned on your phone.
“And he really has no idea?”
The room fell silent then. Which wasn’t surprising considering that the two of you were introverts at heart, but together, you were loud and proud. Add in coffee and the entire world better watch out.
“Jimin’s seen me check my blood,” you slowly answered. The phone screen went black when you didn’t swipe it. “He saw the meter one day, so I explained that with my family history, that I have it as a way to monitor my blood.”
Usually, you had been so good about hiding your meter and needles when Jimin came around to your home. For some reason on that day, it had slipped your mind and the next thing you knew, Jimin was holding it up and asking about it.
You weren’t outright lying. The family history wasn’t that decent, and you did have to check your blood, so it was more of a partial truth. Maybe it was because he had seemed curious and interested in the item, but ever since that day, guilt had been gnawing away at your heart. You were still avoiding the truth, and if you wanted this relationship to work out, the only way it could would be if you told him.
Looking away from the coffee, you pressed your lips together upon seeing the way Kayla was gazing at you, her eyes softening as she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly. There were no words needed however. You knew that it wasn’t going to end well if you remained silent, but the lingering fear was still there.
What if it was too much for Jimin? What if after you told him, he decided that it wasn’t worth it? That you, weren’t worth it?
It was all just…terrifying.
“You know,” Kayla gently said, reaching out and reassuringly squeezed your hand. “If for some reason, it doesn’t work out…Bailey and I got a spare room for you to have.”
She had offered you the spare room more times than you could remember, especially after graduation, but you loved the town you grew up in. It was home and had everything you always wanted. But you squeezed her hand back tightly, looking up at her with a smile.
“I thought that was Bailey’s room?”
“Oh, it is. She’s fucking spoiled rotten. You’re the only human being I’d sacrifice my queen-sized bed for a bunk bed.”
Laughing, you shook your head as Kayla joined in. Even Bailey tried barking at the sudden noise.
You had to tell Jimin the truth. There was no if, ands, or buts about it. For right now, you were willing to pretend for a little bit longer, wanting to savor in his love before it all came crashing down.
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You leaned over Jimin, stretching your hand out for the wine glass on the coffee table, his palm sliding down your back to your hip as you moved about. When you settled back against his side, the wine glass in hand, his chest shook as he chuckled when you tried to take a sip only to realize that you would have to sit up to get a decent drink.
“Oh shush,” you murmured, lightly swiping at his shoulder.
It only made Jimin giggle even more though, and a glance at his own wine glass that was sitting on the wooden floor by the couch revealed it to be empty. You were still on your first, knowing full well that there was a chance that a glass of your beloved Witching Hour Red Blend wine might spike your blood sugar, but Jimin had finished his first one within a half hour after arriving for dinner.
Not that you were going to judge. It was Friday night, neither of you had work tomorrow, and it was so damn good. There was no harm in letting loose and indulging in the fun adult drinks.
His keys were on the coffee table next to the black wine bottle along with his phone, and you must have eyed them for longer than you thought because next thing you knew, his hand was trailing up your back as he pushed himself up, capturing your attention.
“Sleepover?” Jimin said, locks of his pink hair falling into his gaze.
Smiling, you hummed in agreement, partially relieved that he wouldn’t go out driving, and partially thriving at the idea of waking up next to him tomorrow morning.
“Good, that means I can do this then…”
You frowned at first, suddenly gasping as the glass clinked against the rings on his fingers when he took your glass and raised it to his lips, successfully drinking about half of it in one gulp.
“You have your own glass,” you whined, pouting at the small amount he had left for you.
Jimin only grinned, setting the glass down on the table before pulling you close until he was able to claim you for a kiss. His lips tasted rich like cherries, and whether it was the wine talking or not, but he felt more intoxicating than anything you’ve ever had.
He swiped his tongue against your bottom lip before slipping in, his arms wrapping around your waist as the kiss grew in intensity, your hands unashamedly going under his t-shirt to roam up his body. Before you were able to crawl on top of him, he broke the kiss.
“No offense,” Jimin said, kissing your forehead to make up for suddenly stopping. “But your couch sucks to have sex on.”
That put a halt to where you mind had been going, recalling the one time the two of you ended up fucking on the couch. It had been rushed and both of you were too horny to even think about going to the bedroom.
“Yeah,” you agreed, giggling as you stood, taking the bottle and slipping your own glass between your fingers. With a coy smile, you walked backwards to your bedroom. “Good thing I have a fucking awesome bed though.”
His laughter filled the room as he swiped up his own glass, hurrying after you, and not just because you were holding the rest of wine hostage with the promise of sex, but because you were the one sweetly carrying his heart.
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Blinking your eyes open, you frowned as you stared up at the ceiling, cold sweat making your hair stick to your forehead, the sheets wet underneath your back. You glanced to your side, the bright red numbers of the clock reading 3:00 A.M in the dark room, and on your right, Jimin’s soft snores reassured you that he was still asleep.
So why were you wide awake?
With careful movements, you moved so you were sitting on the edge of the bed, ignoring how the air hit your wet back. It was as if someone had turned up the heat despite it being summer. Everything was pointing towards a bad dream, it wouldn’t have been the first time that you woke up from a nightmare, unable to recall it but be drenched in sweat. It was with that mindset that you leaned down to pick up Jimin’s shirt, slipping it on to go to the bathroom, but the moment you stood on your own feet, the world slanted.
You barely caught yourself against the wall as you stumbled forward, feeling lost in a haze as you kept walking until you felt the sharp coldness of wooden floors on the bottom of your feet. The faint glow of the orange nightlight in a socket was blurry, acting as a guide as you stumbled around, trying to reach the kitchen table.
The meter. You needed your meter.
Head heavy, your heart raced in your chest when you suddenly felt the floor underneath you. A sharp pain slicing through your hip and a harsh whack had your leg aching, but it cleared away the haze, allowing you to think as you leaned against what you felt to be the couch.
Your eyes had adjusted to the darkness but you didn’t dare risk standing, but you couldn’t just sit there. There was nothing within your reach for you to grab and make noise. The last time something like this had happened was back in high school, and that had been when you ended up in the hospital. Whimpering, your body felt heavy as you tried to move, the soft pap sound of footsteps echoing in the short hallway barely catching your attention.
“Baby? I heard a thud, you okay?”
The light suddenly came on, burning your eyes as you tried to move, but like when you had first stood up, your head felt twenty pounds heavier, forcing you to lean back against the couch.
“What the fuck? Baby?!”
Jimin’s feet slammed against the floor as he hurried to sit in front of you, eyes wide awake as he cupped your cheek and wrapped an arm around your waist to bring you to rest against his chest. His fingers were blissfully cold compared to your heated skin, and for several moments, all you could focus on was his touch, unable to hear him call out your name several times.
Squeezing your eyes shut, you shakily inhaled as you tried to focus and ignore the way the world seemed to suddenly tilt again. “My meter,” you said, your voice hoarse. “I need to check my blood. Something…something’s wrong.”
Vaguely you pointed towards the kitchen table, but luckily, Jimin had seen you place the meter there on multiple occasions. After leaning you against the couch again, he hurried to the table, pushing random notebooks and mail out of the way to find the purple bag. With a tug at the zipper, it revealed the meter and pen you needed.
“Hey baby, stay awake, please.” Jimin said, gently touching the side of your face, still holding on to the bag and its contents. Despite having watched you use them; he didn’t understand how to work the machine.
Maneuvering his way behind you once again, his legs were on either side of you as he pulled you to his chest. The shirt you wore was damp and he tried to move your hair off your neck and forehead.
It took a few moments, hands fumbling as you put a test strip into the meter and using the pen to prick your finger, the blood pooling up without even having to squeeze the area. The screen beeped as it calculated the glucose level, beeping again with a final result.
“It says fifty,” Jimin read aloud. “Is that…is that not good?”
“No,” you said, eyes wide as you stared at the meter, knowing that it would get worse if it got any lower. “It’s too low, I need…sugar. Orange juice, ice cream, something.”
Lifting your hand up to the arm of the chair, you tried to pull yourself up to get something, but Jimin’s heart raced at the prospect of you trying to walk around in this state, so he held you tighter to keep you on the ground and stood up himself.
“I’ll get it,” he said. He didn’t even give you a chance to argue. Instead he hurried to get the food you had mentioned, already figuring that you needed stuff that either had natural sugars, or were found in the junk food.
His arms were full with food and dishes when he came back, not knowing what exactly you wanted or would be best for this situation. Even though he wanted to help out, wanted to make this easier and go away, he had no idea what to do. Never in his life had he come across a situation that was like this. All he knew was that from the way you were moving so slow and how there was little to no color to your skin, this wasn’t normal.
This wasn’t how you wanted to tell Jimin. Out of every scenario that you’ve mulled over, this wasn’t even in the top twenty. To find you in a state like this so soon in the relationship must be a scene out of a nightmare for him.
Seeing the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream he had gotten out, you reached over and grabbed it along with the spoon. The treat was rarely touched since it was stashed away for special occasions that you treated yourself to, but this time you took a spoonful of the Half Baked delight, wishing that this was a chance where you could relax and enjoy it.
While you were eating that spoonful, Jimin quietly removed himself from you. He didn’t speak as he went into the bathroom, the water running loudly in the otherwise silent house before it was turned off just as quickly, and returned to his place behind you. It was without a word that he gently gathered your hair, bringing it into the messy bun that you always threw it up in when the two of you decided on having a lazy day. The task at hand was almost all but forgotten when the cold cloth was set on the back of your neck.
The gesture itself had your eyes stinging, the reality of everything suddenly crashing around you and how this could have gone if Jimin wasn’t here. The shirt was originally Jimin’s and while his clothes usually hung on you, had been clinging to your skin and making it impossible for you to forget about. It hadn’t been the biggest concern you had at the moment, which forced you to put it to the back of your mind for the time being.
A stray whimper escaped your lips, capturing Jimin’s attention as you set the ice cream container down to cover your face with your hands, silencing the cries and trying to hide from him. He wasn’t running away or staring at you like something was wrong, nor was he accusing you of lying and deceiving him. Instead, he simply rested his chin on your shoulder, leaving soft kisses on your neck and cheeks.
“Don’t cry baby,” Jimin murmured, tilting his head to add a kiss to your shaking shoulders. “We’ll discuss this later. Right now, let’s get your blood sugar where it needs to be.”
As reassuring as that was, it only made you cry harder, the tears slipping through your fingers and dripping on to your thighs. He was right. You needed to focus on your blood sugar, but his soft whispers and the way his hands gently rubbed and squeezed your legs meant so much more.
For the first time in so long, a guy wasn’t disgusted by you. Instead he was here, doing the things that he could to help, and he was loving you.
When you finally felt like you could keep going, you sniffed and lifted your head, the lightest of touches caressing your cheek had your heart thumping. Again, you checked your blood. It went up ten points, but you sighed, and scooped out another spoonful of the ice cream in an attempt to raise it. It would probably be sky high by the time morning arrived, but it wasn’t going up fast enough at the moment.
Over the course of an hour, you sat on the floor in-between Jimin’s legs, checking your blood every ten minutes to see if it had gone up, and alternating between spoonsful of ice cream, cups of orange juice and peanut butter crackers, a combination that had your nose scrunching up every time.
Jimin stayed the entire time, only getting up to put away some of the food that you weren’t eating. Even after that he retook his spot and held you just tight enough to remind you that he wasn’t letting you go.
By the time it finally reached one hundred, you pushed the container of ice cream away from you and leaned back into Jimin’s embrace. It was still low. No longer did you feel out of control of your body, the sweat had dried to your skin and if you were to stand, you were certain that there wouldn’t be any more stumbling on your part. Although you doubted that Jimin would let you out of his sight for the next few days.
Neither of you spoke right away.
Wide awake in the dead of night, apparently not seeing any other option, Jimin reached out for the ice cream and took a spoonful for himself. The gesture itself was so simple, so ordinary, as if the two of you always woke up at the hour dedicated to artists who found solace under the stars and moon, to share a pint of ice cream on the living room floor, that you giggled.
Raising an eyebrow, the corner of Jimin’s mouth curled upwards at the sound of your laugh. He hadn’t realized that this scare would make him miss such a pretty sound so much. Licking the rest of the spoon clean as he maintained eye contact with you, he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively to make you laugh once more.
As much as you would rather spend the rest of the time making each other laugh and eating to your heart’s desire, you knew that he was owed an explanation to everything that’s happened.
“I was diagnosed in high school,” you said. Your gaze fell from his face to the floor, only then noticing that Jimin didn’t have any pants on. He had come rushing out in only his boxers and stayed in them this entire time. “I’m a type two diabetic, which means that my body produces the insulin that it needs, but for some reason my body doesn’t process it and rejects it.”
Jimin patiently listened to your explanation. As you spoke, the invisible weight that had settled on your shoulders when you decided to hide this part of your life was being chipped away at, piece by piece until it felt like you were free. The nerves didn’t fly away, instead they settled nicely in your stomach for the time being, not making themselves known until you closed your mouth, waiting for his reaction.
He took a deep breath, moving his hand to run it through his hair. “Does this happen a lot? Your levels dropping like this?”
“No. This…” you set a hand on his thigh, shaking your head. “I don’t know what happened. I took my shot before dinner, and then I took my night one.”
“Baby, I never saw you take any shot.”
Pressing your lips together, you closed your eyes, the butterflies having found the perfect moment to take flight right then and there. This was it, the moment you had been dreading this entire time. “I… I had my bag with my insulin pens and needles hiding in the bathroom.” You admitted.
His eyes scanned over you, making a mental note that you wouldn’t look at him and how your kept on rubbing your arm. Suddenly it made sense why you were always sneaking off to the restroom anytime the two of you went out to eat, and how you’d tap your nails and watch for the waiter when it took longer than you expected for the food to come out. “How long have you been hiding this?”
“Since we started dating.”
Jimin’s arms tightened around your waist, the reassuring weight of his head on your shoulder was now gone, and in that split second, your heart stopped. He was moving away, he didn’t want this, he didn’t want to be with you anymore, he—
Suddenly you were no longer staring at the floor in front of you, but Jimin’s bare chest until his fingers lifted your chin, forcing you to look him straight on. His dark brown eyes that usually disappeared when he was smiling and laughing, appeared to be drowning in the tears that slid down his cheeks.
“Why…why wouldn’t you tell me?” He asked, his voice light and cracking with every word while his bottom lip trembled. “What if I wasn’t here? You…you could have been on the floor until morning. And if this is how you get when it’s this low, it would have been worse if you waited to get help, or until someone found you.”
His hands were roaming around your back as he spoke, unable to settle down, like he had to constantly reassure himself that you were conscious and talking to him. It was only when he shook his head, a soft coo leaving his lips as he cupped your cheeks to run his fingers underneath your eyes, that you realized that you were crying too.
Leaning down, he pressed his forehead against yours, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that you had hid this from him. All he could think about was you being alone when this happened. It tore at him the possibility of you ending up in the hospital, or worse, you laying on the ground until you either made your way to a phone, or someone stumbling upon you on accident.
It plagued his heart, making it ache as he tilted his head to gently kiss your forehead. “Baby, why didn’t you tell me?”
It was such a simple reason for why you didn’t, but one that was without a doubt, rooted in your own selfish desire to protect yourself. Most importantly, to protect your heart from having to deal with constantly being let down by the men you let into your life. The idea had sprung out of fear and doubt, but every day that you spent with Jimin was enough to set those thoughts aside.
All the silly dates. The terrifying night where he let you help him dye his hair, the way his fingers traced your body with paths he long since memorized, and an afternoon where the two of you stayed inside while rain pattered against the windows when he suddenly said I love you, were enough to make you realize that Jimin wasn’t going run away.
Your eyes stung and tears slipped faster down your cheeks as you moved to press your forehead against his chest, his arms hugging your tightly. There was nothing for you to grip on to except his body, but you held on to him anyway.
Sensing that this ran deeper than you were ready to admit, Jimin gently kissed your cheek, resting his head against yours as he held you, softly stroking your back. His own back was sore from being hunched over for the last hour or so, and sitting on the floor was starting to leave an ache in his ass, but he was going to stay right there. As long as you needed him, he was going to be there, wherever and whenever you wanted him.
“It’s okay baby,” he said once your tears slowed down in volume. “We’re in this together, I promise.”
Those words had you wanting to cry all over again. For the first time in so long, someone wanted to stay with you, to help you, to love you for you, and that included the fact that you needed to constantly check your blood sugar and take insulin with your meals, and an additional one before bed. It was terrifying, a first, but so freeing at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” you whispered, shakily kissing his chest in an attempt to fix some of the damage your secret has done. “I’m so sorry Jimin.”
He didn’t speak. Instead, he kissed your cheek again, his arms tightening just the slightest. Condensation from the ice cream was pooling on the floor and the mini candy bars that he had found were scattered about. Your meter was right beside him. Outside, the birds that had made their homes in the trees near your apartment were singing their sweet lungs out, a noise that usually made both of you want to bury your faces in the pillows. This time, it had Jimin looking towards the bay window and the sheer yellow curtains.
It was still dark out, but within an hour, the night sky would give birth to morning.
Glancing down, he saw that your legs were already wrapped around his waist. With no other reason not to, Jimin carefully stood up, using one arm to pull himself up by the couch and the other keeping a hold on you. He ignored the yelps and questions that left your mouth.
Instead, he settled down on the bay window and stretched his legs out in front of him, only loosening his grip on you when he was certain you wouldn’t slip and fall on the ground.
“What are you doing?” You said, cautiously letting go of Jimin to straighten up. It wasn’t the first time that he ever picked you up without warning, in fact, his habit of doing so was close to becoming normal. That didn’t mean you wouldn’t like a warning in advance occasionally.
He leaned backwards against the window pane, drawing his right leg up until he was able to prop his arm on his knee as he smiled at you. “Have you ever seen the sun rise?”
The question was so random, so opposite of everything that had been happening for the last hour and yet, your mind honed in on it and took advantage of the its simplicity. Shaking your head, Jimin’s smile grew as he tapped his thigh. His own way to gesture for you to turn and rest against his chest that you had learned early on in the relationship.
“The ice cream’s going to melt.”
You turned around however, once again leaning backwards against Jimin’s chest as his free arm encircled your body, pulling you firming in place.
“We’ll take care of that later. We’ll take care of everything later, I promise. Right now, I just want to watch the sun rise, with you.”
“You’re not mad at me?” You suddenly asked, staring at the early morning sky.
The other apartments and houses in the neighborhood were nothing more but shadows for the time being, and you weren’t entirely sure if the living room was facing the east or not. You didn’t tell him that though.
“No baby,” Jimin softly said, staring at the sky as well. “I’m a bit disappointed, and honestly, I’m still a little scared about what happened. But I’m not mad at you.”
Feeling his chest lift with a deep breath, you relaxed in his embrace. This wasn’t the end of the conversation. He deserved a real explanation for why you never told him, and he would get it this time.
As you shifted slightly, Jimin adjusted his arm with your movements, a soft chuckle escaping when you played with some of the silver rings that he had forgotten to take off before going to sleep.
“I love you.”
Your fingers paused, watching his fingers move and lace themselves with yours, calming your heart so it was no longer racing. Any butterflies that had been hanging around in-case there was a to be a second round of sudden doubt finally settled down, allowing you to enjoy this moment with Jimin. Instead of fear, a blanket of content draped itself on top of you.
“I love you too,” you said, bringing his hand up to your lips to kiss.
Somewhere out there, a bird was returning the melody of another song under the moonlight, and running on only a few hours of sleep wasn’t ideal. While it wasn’t the night that you planned or expected to have, as you waited for the sun to rise, Jimin occasionally running his thumb over your knuckles, there wasn’t anywhere else you wanted to be.
It wasn’t planned, nor was the leading up to it ideal, but it was pretty damn perfect.
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hphmmatthewluther · 3 years
Text
HPHM April Prompts 2021: Day 7: When Your Reflection Plots Against You (Part 3)
What is this, a crossover episode?
Okay, so funny story! The end to the story I’ve been doing recently and today’s prompt are about the same thing, so I sort of have to have them both be the thing for today because yeah! Part 1/3 Part 2/3
Anyway, onto...
Prompt 7: MC’s First Kiss
When Matthew finally came to, he had a pounding headache. He pushed himself up with the guitar case, getting back onto his face, before noticing the mirror. He wasn’t in it. Of course, Matthew thought, I’m the reflection now. He looked behind him, hoping to see where that light had come from. There was nothing. Apart from him, the bathroom was empty. Suddenly, he heard a door creak. On the other side of the mirror, in the real world, Charlie Weasley had walked in. Matthew moved towards the mirror.
“Charlie!” he tried, but to no avail, “Charlie!” 
But there was nothing. It was like he was a ghost. Actually, I’m less than a ghost now. He sighed, moving back towards the guitar case. With nothing else to do, he picked up the instrument and slung it onto his back, before leaving the boys’ toilets. It occurred to him that he needed to find Edwin before he did anything too embarrassing, or before he got to his friends.
It was bizarre to see the halls of Hogwarts empty, but with all the same buzz of people moving up and down. It was rather like there being a conversation happening in the other room, but you couldn’t for the life of you find that room. He tried to marshal his thoughts as to where Edwin would go with his body. The lake, obviously, he thought to himself. But something rather strange happened to this alternate Hogwarts as Matthew approached the school grounds. What should have been the quidditch lesson area and the whomping willow, and the Forbidden Forest, was instead an inky black void, with large tubes of light jutting into it from various windows. It was solid, and Matthew couldn’t pass through it. A good way away he could see the grass around the Black Lake.
“So I can’t go anywhere that isn’t reflected.” he deduced aloud. Matthew tried to relax his breathing. This was just another riddle, and he would have to solve it. And for that, he’d need to focus.
“Shut up, Barnaby!”
Matthew twisted around, noticing the images of Merula, Ismelda and Barnaby hanging in the air through a small shield-shaped window. A Prefect’s badge, Matthew thought before leaning in to take a closer look.
“What is it?” Barnaby asked quietly.
“I just...I thought I heard him...” Merula said, her violet eyes scanning the corridor.
“Who?” asked Ismelda, irritated at having to stop.
“Luther, of course!” she snapped. Matthew’s eyes widened. “He was saying something about reflections...”
“Yes, I’m over here!” Matthew yelled. He didn’t care how it had happened, he was just happy that it did.
Merula moved up and down the corridor. “Luther, where the hell are you?!”
Ismelda and Barnaby watched, both very much confused by all of this.
Matthew felt relief wash over him. “Merula, I’m-”
“I’m right here.” came his own voice. Coming into view from the side of the badge was Edwin, wearing his body.
“Oh, there you are.” she said stiffly. Matthew watched as Edwin flicked his braceletless hand at the badge, and he knew he had placed a Silencing Charm on it. Matthew could only pray Merula could sniff Edwin out.
“What’s got you so happy?” she asked with a scowl on her face.
“Oh, nothing really...” Edwin said absentmindedly. “Anyway, what did you want?”
“W-What did I want?” she asked incredulously. “You’re the one who called me over!”
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t.” he said, shrugging. Matthew felt a surge of anger at him.
“Yes you did!” said Merula, exasperated.
Edwin cocked his head, then turned to the other two Slytherins, “Did either of you hear anything?”
“No, I didn’t.” said Ismelda.
“No, nothing.” said Barnaby. 
“Well, there you go.” Edwin concluded, “Maybe you’re hearing things.”
“I am not!” Merula yelled, going slightly red.
“Sure. Whatever.” he said, running a hand through Matthew’s hair, “So, you going down to the lake later?”
“W-What? No...” said Merula, confused. Barnaby, however, nodded.
“I am! It’s gonna be great fun!” he exclaimed.
“I don’t care.” Ismelda sneered.
“Mm, it’s just that everyone is going to be there. And I thought, seeing as you can’t go to Hogsmeade, you’d want to go to a party when you could.”
Matthew felt his heart break as he saw Merula’s expression. This wasn’t fair. Nobody treated his mortal enemy like this, especially not someone like Edwin.
“F-Fine, I’ll go.” Merula conceded. “C-Come on, you two.” They stepped into the inky void, Merula wearing an expression that Matthew knew all too well. Fear.
“You could have been a bit nicer, Matt.” came a voice. Matthew realised just which Prefect’s badge he was looking through. And Edwin had no idea.
“Oh...I guess I could.” he admitted, “But I got her to go to the party, and isn’t that what matters?”
“It does if she doesn’t actually want to go.” said Bill Weasley, “You of all people should know that.”
Edwin shrugged, before heading into the void too. Bill must have followed him, for the Prefect badge vanished too. He had to get to the lake quickly, and find Merula and tell her what was happening. From there, however, he was at a bit of a loss. Maybe if he got the book back and managed to reveal the ink, he could find a way to return to his body. That would explain why he didn’t want me to get the book back, he thought. But before all that, he had to actually get to the lake in the first place. He looked up at the tubes of light which splintered the void. Matthew grinned. He’d had an idea, and it wasn’t half bad. He headed up towards Ravenclaw tower at breakneck speed, avoiding the void that appeared in corridors with less mirrors. Eventually, he found his way up to the door to the Common Room. The Eagle knocker looked up at him.
“You are here, yet you are not here.” it said. “Curious. Now, I am at the start of every race, the end of every Bludger, and in the middle of Paris. What am I?”
Matthew thought for a moment, before smirking. “R.”
The eagle nodded, before the door opened.
“Hmm, that’s odd.” said Rowan,as Matthew came in. “ Wonder why the door’s opened...” Matthew sighed as he and the other Ravenclaws looked up and saw right through him.
“I’ll tell you when I get out, Rowan.” he said. There was no reaction. Matthew headed up to his dormitory, where he found his Cleansweep resting against his four-poster bed. He reached for it, hoping, and while his left hand went straight through it, his right hand gripped the wood, the silver bracelet’s carvings glowing as it happened. Matthew grinned, before looking back at the mirror. In it, he could see the Black Lake out the window. He also saw the Cleansweep floating in midair. This gave Matthew another idea. He crept back down to the Common Room, and saw the Ravenclaws’ expressions of pure shock at a floating broom.
“Hey, isn’t that Matthew’s Cleansweep?” said Andre. Matthew couldn’t help but grin as he twirled the broomstick in his hands, causing it to spin. Then, he started to back up into the boys’ dormitory. Rowan, Andre, Tulip and Talbott all followed it until they came to Matthew’s four poster bed. He used the broom to wave at the four, then tried to make a beckoning gesture. After that, he hopped on and flew out the window, leaving them flabbergasted as the pilotless broom headed towards the lake.
It was an odd sensation, flying down a thin strip of the Hogwarts grounds, going over a small fraction of the Whomping Willow, watching students blip in and out of existence. He sped down the hill until he was over the lake, when he noticed a large gathering of students reflected in the water near the shore. He saw that there was a table with food laid out before them. He slowly moved down a few yards away, landing his broom and resting it against a nearby tree. He couldn’t risk Edwin finding out he was here again. Matthew shook his head. He had hoped that third year would be a little less eventful than last year, though he should have known that this would be impossible. Rueing his bad luck, he headed towards the party, not registering four Ravenclaws show up behind him.
“I’m so glad you all made it!” he heard Penny cheer, as the party got underway. At least, it did in the waters of the Black Lake. Matthew, meanwhile, only had a few feet of ground to work with before it gave way to the void. He saw people enter and exit the darkness, until he finally saw Merula. He knew he couldn’t just talk to her, as much as he wanted to. No, he had to find another way. Then, it occurred to him that he had Edwin’s guitar on his back. He set it onto the floor and undid the zip on the leather, before pulling it open.
For an acoustic guitar, it was pretty impressive. It had several magical runes on the wood, and the strings were a brilliant blue, just like the ropes which had pulled him through the mirror. He silently thanked his father for being part of a band when he was younger and pulled out the guitar, putting the strap around his shoulder. Even from here, he could see Edwin moving everyone’s groups away from the lake, especially Merula’s. Matthew had been where she was several times before, feeling like everybody knew how to act at a party except for you. Matthew gritted his teeth,  moved towards the lake, both him and the guitar invisible, and started to play.
A A A A, D D, Em Em Em Em, D D…
***
Merula looked up, hearing the sounds of a guitar. It wasn’t a song she recognised, so she assumed it was some Muggle music. She could recognise the chords though. A A A A, D D, Em Em Em Em, D D… though she couldn’t see anyone playing. She walked through the students, ducking out of the way when she saw Matthew. He was talking with Chiara and Penny, but it didn’t look like how Matthew usually talked. Normally, he was reserved, quiet, a little hunched over. Not here. No, here it reminded her of some of the irritating sods in Preston’s gang. Merula scowled, before heading towards the music. Strangely enough, it seemed to be coming from inside the Lake… but that couldn’t be…
“Psst, Merula!”
She looked down into the water. There was her reflection, but next to it stood Matthew Luther, with a rune covered guitar.
“Don’t look at me!” he hissed, “Turn around and act like you don’t see me!”
Merula obeyed, turning on the spot. Secretly, she had been hoping for an explanation for his behaviour today; he had been amicable enough at first, but over the last few hours or so he had become rather cocky and boastful.
“Merula, that isn’t me.” he said, still playing the guitar, “That arse took my body!”
Her eyes widened. “He’s a changeling?!”
“If...if that’s what they’re called, yeah.”
Merula found it in her to smirk. “Really Luther, I forget how little you know about the Wizarding World.”
“It’s not my fault our Defence against the Dark Arts teachers have been rubbish.” he remarked.
“Eh, you’re not wrong there, they have been awful.” she admitted. “So how the hell did this happen?”
“Long story short: Some guy named Edwin appeared in the mirror saying he was trapped and needed help escaping.” Matthew explained, “I agreed, though I didn’t realise just how I’d be helping him.”
Merula stared at Edwin. Yes, she saw it now. It was like a Metamorphmagus had turned into him, or someone had used Polyjuice Potion. That’s why she’d felt so uncomfortable around him. Because it wasn’t Matthew. “So, how do we get him out?”
Matthew looked a little surprised. “Oh, I thought you’d suggest leaving me here.”
She laughed, genuinely, before shaking her head. “Luther, if I left you there this Edwin would have to be my rival. And I don’t like the sound of that at all. You’re my mortal enemy, Luther, and nobody gets to doom you for eternity except me.”
Matthew grinned through the water. “Thanks, Merula. Now, do you have anything reflective on you?” She shuffled through her pockets until she pulled out a silver comb.
“By the way, since when could you play guitar?” she asked, as Matthew appeared in the comb.
“Oh, my Dad taught me. I just know a few songs, though, not much.” he confessed.
“Alright...” began Merula, nervously moving towards the throng of students, “What do we do?”
“There’s a book in my bag called The Ramifications of Our Reflections.” Matthew explained, “It has some text in invisible ink that Edwin really didn’t want me to see, to our best bet is grabbing the book and finding out what it says.”
“Ah, so we’re stealing from him!” she declared quietly.
“Well, no, it’s my book!” Matthew yelled, before adding, “Well, it’s technically Snape’s, but he took it from me, so there.”
They neared the pile of everyone’s bags, and Merula bent down to grab hers, before manoeuvring towards Matthew’s satchel. Slowly, while eyeing the changeling, Merula bent down and grabbed the book, quickly placing it in her own bag. She took a sigh of relief, and quickly walked away.
“Now what?” she whispered, before seeing Ismelda.
“This party's boring. I’m heading back to the common room.” she declared.
“Good idea.” Merula said, walking with her. 
“Don’t worry, she can’t see me.” Matthew reassured her, “Now all we need to do is heat up the book and we can see the information.”
Merula nodded as they headed away from the party, but they were stopped on their way back by Edwin.
“Hey, wh-where you going?” he asked, his usual cocky demeanour in full swing.
“We’re leaving.” Merula declared, “This party is boring, and you shouldn’t have invited us.”
Edwin stared at her for a moment. “Is that so.” he said, not even trying to make it a question.
“Yeah...I’m leaving now...bye.” she said, heading off. Ismelda looked at her, then at Edwin.
“Wow, she really doesn’t like you.” she said, “What’d you do to her?”
“I would worry more about what I’m going to do.” Edwin growled.
“Merula...” Matthew began, “Get to my broom. It’s right by the lake.” When she looked at the comb, confused, Matthew just shouted “GO!” and that got her moving.
She sprinted back down the hill, where she saw the Cleansweep resting by a tree. She grabbed a hold of it and saw Edwin racing after her.
“Just wait a minute!” he yelled, as Merula kicked off the ground. Matthew quickly put the guitar onto his back as the ground fell beneath them, and soon they were soaring over the grounds once again.
“Now how’d she know the broom was there?” Rowan asked aloud. “Matthew, do you-”
“Curse them!” Edwin bellowed, heading off after her, wand in hand. Ismelda hissed.
“Oh no you don’t...” she muttered, running after him. Bill stood nearby, very much concerned.
“Something’s going on here...” he deduced, before joining the chase. Of course, Merula and Matthew had the advantage of having a broomstick, which allowed them to get to the other side of the school in very little time. They ended up on the second floor, just above the Great Hall.
“Nobody uses these toilets.” Merula explained, “Myrtle’s always kicking up a fuss.”
They headed into the girl’s bathroom, which was oddly quiet.
“That’s strange.” said Merula, “I wonder where she’s gone.” Matthew appeared in a mirror near the sink.
“That was close.” he admitted, looking on as Merula pulled Ramifications out of her satchel. “Now all we need to do is heat it up and we’ll be set. Be careful though, we don’t want to set it on fire.”
“Right.” Merula said, placing the book on the ground. Matthew moved closer, appearing in a puddle of water. “Incendio Parvus!” A small flame appeared on the tip of Merula’s wand, which she moved down towards the paper. “Hey, it’s working!” she said excitedly.
“Great! Find the part about freeing people from mirrors!” Matthew implored, placing down the guitar.
“Okay, okay...” she said, flicking through the pages.
“Um...Merula...” Matthew began, “Sorry for dragging you into this.”
“Hmph...it’s...I mean, it wasn’t you, was it? It was that changeling who was the arse.”
“I know, but I made the deal with him...” he lamented.
“Yeah, I know, but...” she paused, looking over at Matthew’s puddle. “Oh come on. He gave you what you wanted, right?”
Matthew considered this. “Yeah. I guess he did.”
Merula smirked again. “What’d you even ask for?”
Matthew suddenly looked nervous. “I...um, I just wanted advice. We’d had that argument yesterday, and so I was just...I didn’t want to make things worse every time I saw you, or anyone else.”
Merula frowned. “Th-That’s it?!”
“Yeah...that’s it.”
She looked at him through the water, before bursting into laughter. “What?” he asked, more confused than ever.
“Sorry, it’s just...” she paused to wipe her hair out of her face, “It’s weird how little you trust yourself. I mean, you make friends all the time. I’m the one who can’t make friends and can’t go to Hogsmeade.”
Matthew frowned at her. “You don’t have to talk about-”
“It’s alright.” she reassured him. “I-I just...it’s my aunt. She says I’m not doing well enough in Defence against the Dark Arts.”
“But that’s not fair, the teachers are total tw-”
“I know that.” said Merula, “But my aunt thinks that I need to revise more...and she’s my legal guardian...so...”
“Merula, I’m sorry. You know...if you wanted to, I could give you a hand with...you know, studying and stuff.”
“Is that so?” she said, flicking through the pages with her other hand. “I don’t know...we’re mortal enemies. I don’t know how I’d feel about- Ah ha!” she exclaimed suddenly, “Freeing those trapped in the Reflected Realm! Bingo!”
Matthew craned his neck to see, but to no avail. Merula seemed to notice. “Oh, right, sorry. If a wizard or witch has been trapped within the Reflected Realm, they must be freed by breaking the contract forged between them and a changeling. To do this, one must return to the mirror of entry, destroy the surface they made the deal with and recite the phrase “Contractus est inanis. Corpus meum.” From there, the changeling will return to the Reflected Realm once it touches any reflective surface.”
“Brilliant!” said Matthew, “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Merula extinguished the flame. “Okay, okay! You remember the phrase, right?”
“Course. Contractus est inanis. Corpus meum.”
“Good. Where’d you make the deal?” she asked, packing the book away.
“The boy’s toilets. Sixth floor.” This caused Merula’s face to scrunch up.
“Look, it won’t be for long. Once I get to the mirror, we can leave right away and find Edwin.” he explained.
“...Fine. I’m gonna get you for this one day, Luther...”
“I hope you get the chance, Merula...I really do...”
A minute or two later, Merula had made her way to the sixth floor, and was standing right outside the boy’s toilets.
“C-Can’t I just wait outside?” she asked. Matthew nodded, before heading inside on his own, the guitar still on his back. He instantly came back out.
“I’m afraid you can’t, Merula.” he said nervously. Merula groaned, before poking her head into the room. Standing in the U-bend, in front of a large magical field, was the body of Matthew Luther, and the vile grin of Edwin.
“We meet again. I’m so glad I don’t have to hide from you anymore.” he said. Matthew sneaked into view on one of the nearby mirrors, glaring at the sphere.
“Listen to me, Edwin. I am the Most Powerful Witch at Hogwarts,” Merula announced, “,and unless you vacate my mortal enemy’s body this instant, I will rain hell upon you!”
Edwin stared for a moment, before bursting into maniacal laughter. “Ooh, that’s a good one! I see why Matthew likes you!”
“I’m getting to that mirror, Edwin,” declared Matthew, “And you won’t stop me.”
Edwin pointed Matthew’s wand at Merula. “I somehow doubt that. I haven’t had a wand of my own in so long, I-”
“You still don't!” Matthew butted in.
“Silence!” Edwin yelled, sending Charm after Charm at the various mirrors. Merula watched as Matthew tried to mouth his words, before opting for a simple hand gesture. Merula pointed her own wand at Edwin.
“Sorry, I don’t take orders from you.” she sneered. “Flipendo!”
A burst of magic shot out of her wand at Edwin, who quickly moved out of the way, before yelling “Incendio!”, causing fire to leap towards Merula. She moved quickly out of the way, before pointing her wand back at Edwin, but he was faster. “Petrificus Totalus!” he shouted, sending a wave of paralysis at Merula, who felt herself fall to the ground. Matthew leapt towards the field of magic. He stepped through it, ending up on the other side with relative ease. Oh, the joys of the Reflected Realm, he thought to himself before reaching the mirror. Now he had to destroy it. He loosened his silver bracelet until it became a sort of fisticuff around his hand, and pulled back his arm.
“No!” roared Edwin, pointing Matthew’s own wand at him. “CRU-”
“Expelliarmus!”
Matthew’s wand flew out of Edwin’s hand over to the other side. Into the room came Rowan, Bill and Ismelda. But it wasn’t them that fired that disarming spell. It was Merula.
“It’s funny.” she said, “I never bought into that ‘wand chooses the wizard’ crap. But I think it well and truly has this time...changeling. Now, Luther!” she yelled, as the three newcomers looked around confused. Matthew took the bracelet and bashed it into the mirror. There wasn’t a scratch on the silver, but the mirror cracked into a thousand pieces.
“Contractus est inanis. Corpus meum!” he recited, as the several shards of the mirror began to glow. Blue ropes appeared between Matthew and Edwin, which snapped in two with a loud twang. Rowan pointed at the mirror. 
“Matt! What are you doing in a mirror? With a guitar?” they asked, flabbergasted.
Edwin glared daggers at his double. “Matt...my guy Matt...” he snarled, wiping the hair out of his face. “If you think getting that mirror broken was difficult, you’ll have one hell of a time putting me back-”
“Glacius Maledictus!” Matthew yelled, having picked up his wand. His bracelet glowing, ice began to coat the floor of the toilets. Perfect Ice.
Edwin looked down at his blue reflection. Matthew looked back up at him.
“...It’s a fair cop.” Edwin admitted. He looked at Merula. “A very fair cop...You know what Matt, I’ve changed my mind about you. You’re no coward. You just needed a push is all. And here I am to give it to you.” he stepped forward to Merula, grinning. “It’s been fun. You’ll thank me later.” Edwin leaned forward. There was a great flash of light, and Matthew was pulled up from the ice and into the motion. When he opened his eyes, his lips were on Merula’s. Rowan audibly gasped. Ismelda actually stopped picking her nails. Bill took a deep breath, knowing what was about to come next.
“Uuurgh!” They both said, disconnecting instantly, Matthew bringing a hand from behind Merula and her placing her feet firmly back on the ground. They both, however, couldn’t hide their very red faces.
“Oh, that bastard!” Matthew groaned, wiping his mouth.
“Yuck, yuck, yuck!” said Merula, spitting onto the ground. Suddenly, they heard his laugh. Rowan pointed downwards. Inside the glass was a boy in denim and a flannel shirt, scowling.
“I was just the first of the monsters of the mirrors.” he announced, “There’ll be more, trust me! And when they get out, they’ll-” “Incendio.”
There was a horrifying screech as the ice suddenly melted, until the bathroom floor was covered in water. Then there was silence. Ismelda smiled, before placing her wand back into her pocket. “That’s for messing with my friends.” she droned, before turning to Matthew. She looked at him for a moment, before slapping him across the face. “And that’s for kissing Merula.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Matthew said, rubbing his cheek, which was red for a completely different reason to Ismelda. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two figures appear in the mirror for a moment, nod, then vanish.
“Ok, now can someone please explain what’s going on?” Bill asked.
“I can try.” said Matthew, stretching his jaw. Merula was still a bright pink, and was still wiping her mouth. “Was I really that bad?” he snickered.
“It was...just a surprise, Luther.” Merula said stiffly. “Don’t worry. I won’t slap you. Just don’t get any ideas.”
Rowan looked at them all, aghast. “Sorry, but are we overlooking the fact that Ismelda just killed a man?!”
***
“So, in summary...” said Dumbledore, sitting at his desk, “It’s been quite an eventful day or two for you, hasn’t it?”
Matthew nodded rapidly. They were all now in the Headmaster’s Office, along with Professors Snape, McGonagall and Flitwick.
“I am just glad that you are okay, Matthew.” squeaked the smallest wizard. “Changelings are very dangerous forces of nature.”
“I would like to remind Mr Luther,” sneered Snape, “That the next time he sees something unusual in the mirror, he is to come straight to a Head of House...and that goes for all of you, too.”
The students all nodded. “Well, if that’s everything,” said McGonagall, “I do believe you will all need sleep after a long day like this.”
“Minerva is correct.” said Dumbledore, “Though, if you have any questions or concerns...”
“Actually...” said Merula, “There’s one thing I still don’t understand. Why was I the only person who could see Matthew in the Reflected Realm?”
Dumbledore smiled. “Now that is a very interesting stroke of luck. You see, a very powerful Artifact of Protection can sometimes lend its protection to others around them. It is likely that Matthew’s bracelet,” he explained, leaning towards the boy, “Has seen your connection as the closest, and has decided to protect both of you. And perhaps, more. I imagine Mr Khanna was unable to find Edwin while he was in Matthew’s body for a reason.”
“So...what does that mean?” asked Merula
“It means you, Matthew, are Merula’s Artifactidal Guardian.” he declared. Matthew looked down at his bracelet. Was that why he gave it to him?
“Hang on...how much of a guardian?”
Dumbledore’s eye twinkled knowingly. “Enough of one, Matthew.” he said.
Merula looked at him, turning a little pink still. “What does- What do you-” But Matthew understood. He pulled out the sheet that the riddle was written on, as well as his pen, and began to scribble on the back of the parchment. Then, he gave it to Merula. She read it. Her jaw dropped.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I Matthew Luther, Artifactidal Guardian of Merula Snyde, hereby give her permission to visit Hogsmeade.
Merula passed the letter to Dumbledore in silence, who read it and nodded. “Very well. Now, off to bed, chop chop.”
As they all walked down the stairs, Matthew felt Merula grab his shoulder.
“Thi-” she stammered, “Th-Thank you, Matthew. I don’t… You know, I-”
“Don’t worry about it, please.” Matthew said, smiling. “This changes nothing. You and I can still be mortal enemies.”
Merula grinned. “Gotcha.” she said, smiling. “Also...um...that was my first kiss.”
Matthew nodded. “Oh. Um...mine too.” He could see something flicker over her expression after that.
“Oh...well, I’m going to say it was with you, because if I don’t it would have been with Edwin, which is even worse.”
“Yeah, I understand.” Matthew said, a smile forcing its way onto his red face. “Well...there’s another Hogsmeade trip tomorrow...see you then...”
“Y-Yeah...see you then.” Merula said, before marching off. It took only a few days for them to get back to their usual bickering selves, but people noticed that for some reason they never argued and never insulted each other when they were in Hogsmeade. The few who knew why kept that secret close to their chests.
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aizawaskittenwhore · 3 years
Text
headcanon: they have a s/o that listens to a specific female artist
featuring izuku, bakugo, todoroki, kirishima, and our pros before hoes hawks and aizawa lol
words: 1k??
warnings: some slick lil nasty comments (cause when aizawa’s involved i can’t write fully sfw) and language that’s it lol
𝕚𝕫𝕦𝕜𝕦 𝕞𝕚𝕕𝕠𝕣𝕚𝕪𝕒 𝕨/ 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕤 𝕦𝕞𝕚:
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the first time he’d ever heard of her was when the two of you went on a drive one night
he’d already liked the vibe of a few of the songs you’d played
and then lullaby came on
man when i say this boy didn’t think he could fall for you any harder until that moment
he was so wrong
hearing your voice softly harmonize with the melody had his heart skipping beats
the street was deserted cause it was so late
and all he remembers is copper streetlamps illuminating your face
left hand out the window, right hand on the wheel while the wind blows your scarf in all different directions
and when happy again plays???
and you blissfully kiss him while you’re stopped at a red light???
while your hand is already holding his?????
izuku is sold
he goes home and downloads all her music
and she becomes “your” artist
“babe wake up umi just dropped music”
he even took you to see her in concert for your birthday lol
𝕜𝕒𝕥𝕤𝕦𝕜𝕚 𝕓𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕘𝕠 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕠 𝕟𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕪
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now why would you put him on to rico bruh
but in your defense it’s not your fault
he was helping you with dinner one night
and you hated working in silence so you’d asked him to play something from your playlist
he chose “smack a bitch” cause he liked the title💀
and from that point forward he was obsessed
he was already attracted to your no-nonsense, take no shit type attitude
so knowing that you listened to the same kinda music made you ten times hotter
you knowing all the lyrics had his dick on HARD LMFAOOOO
anger management is his favorite album
you fell tf out when he said that cause...have you met katsuki that mf is the poster child for anger issues
secretly likes sugar trap too but refuses to admit it
on bad days y’all will blast all of rico’s aggressive songs and rage
your downstairs neighbors hate you.
𝕥𝕠𝕕𝕠𝕣𝕠𝕜𝕚 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕖𝕪𝕒𝕟𝕒 𝕥𝕒𝕪𝕝𝕠𝕣
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okay so todoroki is painfully introverted
which isn’t his fault cause endeavor isn’t father of the year by any means
so i hc him with someone who’s extroverted and outgoing
teyana makes music for bad bitches who work hard and play harder
but have a soft side too and just wanna love/be loved bro
he loves that you can put on such a brave face for the world every day no matter what
he’ll never forget when he knew he loved you
he was getting in pretty late from a patrol that had run overtime
and he’d found you, crying on your shared bed after an awful day n this man’s heart just splinters cause he don’t know how to comfort people🧍🏾‍♀️
but you don’t ask him for much, just for him to hold you and he does
the next day he wakes up to you just bopping to “never would have made it” and you just glow as you pull him outta bed to come dance with you like you weren’t just crying last night which has him confused asf
“you can be strong and still be vulnerable baby.”
that shit hit home for him
lowkey wants to recreate the shower scene from the “fade” video with you now
𝕙𝕚𝕥𝕠𝕤𝕙𝕚 𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕛𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕖
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y’all can’t tell me this mf don’t be zooted 25/8 and most def has a smoke playlist with jhene on it
so when he finds out that you like her too???
oh baby the vibes here are immaculate
you can’t tell me he wouldn’t have chilombo goin in the background while y’all smoke
and if you don’t personally smoke then he’ll just cuddle with you while he practices tricks<3
will ask you if you wanna get licked too if you stare at him as he’s rollin
the energy here is so balanced it’s crazy
shinsou hates drama and all that other bullshit
so when he’s with you he’s the most relaxed he can be
also he loves that you’re not opposed to deep conversations about your purpose on this earth and how you can feed off other people’s energies
y’all definitely burn sage together on sundays
but don’t get it twisted
cause he knows better than anyone that while you may be chill your hands are still rated E for everybody
been on the receiving end of your anger once or twice and he said never again lol
𝕖𝕚𝕛𝕚𝕣𝕠 𝕜𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕞𝕒 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕜𝕒𝕝𝕚 𝕦𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕤
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there is nothing more attractive to kiri than someone who’s not afraid to take a leap of faith
you’d known each other since second year, and honestly you were itching to change up your energy
you were tired of being the same old, boring, timid y/n
so you started small: you experimented with your hair more, tried out new makeup, and clothes that accentuated your...ahem..assets
sweaters became tube tops, lip balm turned into brown liner with a thick coat of gloss, skirts became bell bottom jeans with the occasional pair of heels
don’t be fooled, you still loved your old clothes, you just needed to branch out
and as your new style grew so did your taste in music
honestly when you started listening to kali you really hit peak Bad Bitch Energy™️
kiri was, in short, enamored with you
the way you woke up one day and decided to be a whole new person was so manly to him
and he loved the way you knew you didn’t need shit from him but still let him spoil you
which only made him wanna spoil you more
and the way you shifted from a goddess who could step on him with a perfectly manicured foot to kiri’s baby who demanded cuddles before 11am????
the duality has wedding bells going off in his head lol
pros before hoes lol
𝕙𝕒𝕨𝕜𝕤 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕟
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“fell too fast for me, now the nigga hurt”
that lyric is your dynamic with keigo in a nutshell.
he’d met you while he was in fukuoka on a “business trip” .....which was code for a booty call🙄
and figured he’d try to get another pyt on his team
...only problem was, you were a whole hot girl coach (with ya own draft picks no less)
you had heard about playboy (and no.2 hero) Hawks from here to the States
so, you’d decided to play dumb, hoping he’d slip up and you’d get another pro on your list
all it took was a few sleepovers and calling him keigo over breakfast in the morning...dude was stuck
this man was trying to run game and now you had him throwin you some money to get your hair and nails done “just because” n buy you birkins....embarrassing 💀
however despite him being a sweetheart you didn’t forget what this was, and he wasn’t the only egg in your basket since you knew you weren’t his
this man saw edgeshot’s name come through with a “you up?” text while you were in the shower and cried to brent for a week straight LMFAOOO
but what did he expect from the same person who knew every lyric to meg’s wap verse...come on baby do better
long story short if you can’t handle a stallion don’t try to tame one.
𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕥𝕒 𝕒𝕚𝕫𝕒𝕨𝕒 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕫𝕒
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whewwww okay the amount of scorpio energy flowing through here is borderline suffocating
honestly if you listen to sza you’re either a scorpio, heartbroken, manifesting, have low self esteem with sudden confidence bursts or all the above don’t lie
in all seriousness shota didn’t see himself getting into a serious relationship due to his pro hero status
that, and he didn’t feel like there was anyone out there that was just...on his level mentally???
but then he meets you and you throw him for a loop though he’ll never admit it
you didn’t just throw yourself at him at the beginning
and while sure you made it known that the attraction was mutual you treaded lightly
he could tell you’d been hurt before and would kill before you let someone get you in a position to hurt you again
pretended not to notice you crying to supermodel when he was supposed to be sleeping
which he understood, for him trust issues came with the territory so there was a mutual understanding between you two
you don’t mind his schedule since you prioritize your alone time and he loves that
you definitely get him into meditation and crystal/chakra alignment
at first he thinks it’s a bunch of bullshit
until it helps him sleep better...mf is a secret hippie now
he loves that you’re trying to heal/become a better version of yourself and he gets to be a part of that growth :,) it makes him a little more optimistic for his personal goals
the sex is elite lol had to say it the vibes are too good here
𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜𝕤 𝕤𝕠 𝕞𝕦𝕔𝕙 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕝𝕖𝕥 𝕞𝕖 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕘𝕦𝕪𝕤 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕤𝕖!
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izzyizumi · 3 years
Video
vimeo
I can hear it now I can feel the encore This endlessly thrumming beat Let it RING OUT once more {Jou Kido appearance} I just want to know what’s out there Beyond the furthest reaches of the sky I set my sights on the beyond In my desire for an infinite shine {Mimi Tachikawa appearance} [+Tachikawa Family] No matter how hard it got You gently wrapped me in those kind arms of yours These feelings too overflowing to express in words {Takeru Takaishi appearance} [+platonic Takaishi-Ishida Brothers] Let me express them to you now Take your voice And this dream of mine Let’s bring them together {Sora Takenouchi appearance} This LIVE {LIFE} is beautiful Let my song dance and rise high above {Koushiro Izumi & Tentomon appearance} Though this may be goodbye It would make me happy if YOU could KEEP SMILING Even if I can’t see you anymore This place will always be special to us
{Yamato Ishida appearance} No matter how many times I’m reborn or travel the stars I want to find you again I’ll embrace you in my kisses {Taichi Yagami appearance} Let my love RING OUT to the farthest futures {Hikari Yagami appearance} [+WIZARDMON friendship] Take your voice And this dream of mine Let’s bring them together This LIVE {LIFE} is beautiful Let my song dance and rise high above This love of mine This song of mine The voice calling for it all This encore is forever I wish you endless happiness {Adventure Chosen & Digimon} I sing out in THIS moment because IT WON’T LAST F O R E V E R {02} I can hear it now I can feel the ENCORE This endlessly thrumming beat Look, a rainbow spans the sky Instead of saying goodbye Let me hear you call for me one more time Believe that it will start once more in the future A call for us and only us {tri.} We’ll CREATE TOMORROW This love of mine This song of mine The voice calling for it all This encore is forever I wish you endless happiness I wish for the beginning of eternity Our love lasts through the encore
{ WE L O V E ... }
- M A M O R U . M I Y A N O ; E N C O R E
“When my {Quality of Life} is so diminished that I can no longer enjoy even eating, {when I can only be fed through a feeding tube lying in a hospital bed}, That’s when it might be time for me to go.”
“... BUT I’M NOT A F R A I D.”
- Dedicated to my Grandmother C., Z”L*, (*May her memory be a Blessing) 1926 ~ August, 2015 (passed near 89 years old) - Jewish, she also lived through the years of the Holocaust, (1941~1945) and her entire Jewish family got safely through those years. [Not long before WWII ended, she met my Grandpa.] My grandmother was one of my closest family members. When I was little (around 8 years old myself when first watching), she wholeheartedly supported my strong interest in Adventures/Digimon when I was first getting into this series, even if she didn’t know anything about it, (other than small bits I told her) even she could see how much I loved it. (Because she was one of my closest family members, she was also the one who overall learnt the most about my health. When I was, few years after discovering Adventure as a child, diagnosed Autistic and with generalized Anxiety disorder as well, she continued to support me all throughout, educated herself & our other interconnected family about my conditions, and continuously encouraged my interests and growth.)
Original Posters [Mine] commentary: I made this quick A.M.V edit a handful of days ago to this gorgeous song by Miyano, one of my favorite JPN voice actors/singers, {You may know him as: Dent[o] in JPN Pocket Monsters, Tamaki in Ouran, Rin in Free!, Tokiya in Utano*Prince-sama (where this song comes from), Konoha, Haruka & “Clearing Eyes” in Kage-Pro, among many more} mainly made with thoughts of general appreciation for this series in mind. I also made it with thoughts of my Grandmother in mind, who passed late August 2015, (yes, August). Tri had been announced, but wouldn’t yet air until November. I didn’t start much more actively blogging about Digimon until a bit later on, starting from a couple years later, because I was still heavily grieving. However, I still enjoyed reblogging Digimon posts I enjoyed to other blogs I had at the time even in the pre-Tri and early Tri years.
This was made very quickly, so it’s not perfect, has minimal editing, and the 1st Adventure portion is straight from the final battle with no editing done to it, but it fit the music well enough, so I included it as-is for now. I’ll probably re-arrange scenes if I remake it later and include much more other, varied scenes from Adventure, (for example, during end of Yamato’s portion, I was also thinking of the Yamato&Sora+Jou scene from the end of Dark Masters Arc).
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(^One of my favorite Adventure scenes regardless of personal favs) But until I can edit those in, I’m just leaving this as it is. The middle portion with 02 is edited slightly more timed to music. A major Tri ending spoiler for the final battle’s result appears during the end. Kizuna is not included in here as of yet, but it may be in the future, along with Adventure 2020. All of this will probably be rearranged in a remake overall, but I’m keeping the general themeing & feel as-is for now, along with the Tri ending scenes.
Because this was made in appreciation of this series and out of respect to and with thoughts of my grandmother, please be respectful when interacting with this post. Thank you.
{& Pretty soon, in a few days, I’m getting my 2nd C.O.V.I.D shot.} (So I’m posting this now as-is, but I’ll see if I can work on it more later. It’d be nice if I could manage to finish it in time for August 1st, but we’ll see.)
{because every August, I think of not only this series, but also my grandmother.}
(August 2021 will be the 6th-year anniversary of her death.) Please remember this if you interact with my blog during the month of August. Or just during the summer in general.
This blogs’ queue will be ongoing in general for a while after this post.
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{Additional note: this post is mainly intended GENERAL CHARACTER/SERIES SUPPORT-FOCUSED. please remember + RESPECT this when interacting} {my other major ship/O.T.P. is Taichi x Koushiro, though I’d probably keep this A.M.V. more gen[eral] overall later} [I also enjoy various other ships with all characters on the side anyhow]
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[Note: commenting/tagging positively/respectfully is ok!] (Please AGREE TO BANNERS BEFORE interacting) (Note: click on the images/banners to enlarge!)
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lostinmirkwood · 4 years
Text
Gendrya Kinktober Day 15- Costumes
Find on AO3 here.
Lommy had been begging them to come out for Halloween for weeks. He had promised to cover their entrance to the club if they made an appearance, in costume, and stayed for at least one drink. Hot Pie said he would bake them his famous bourbon apple cake the next weekend if they came out and stopped Lommy from whining about it. Arya agreed for the delicious cake, promising that she and Gendry would be there costumes and all.
So here he was, standing in their kitchen waiting for Arya to finish getting ready. He was wearing his work clothes from the day with the addition of his reading glasses and had styled his hair. Arya had laughed when he’d told her his uni Halloween standard but went along with it, even giving him a Superman shirt to wear under his button-up. He could hear her clattering around their bathroom and half-jokingly shouted, “Fifteen more minutes and I legally don’t have to go!”
“Liar!” came her reply, “it’s not like you’ll turn into a pumpkin at midnight! Besides,” he could hear her coming down the hall, “I’m done. Just need to grab a few things from my bag.”
She turned into the kitchen and Gendry’s heart stopped as he took her in. She was wearing a navy jumpsuit that hugged her lithe body and sturdy boots that gave her an extra inch of height. Her hair was braided into a crown around her head with a red and white polka-dot kerchief tied into a headband. Her lips though, her lips were painted a sinful, shining red. Gendry caught her around her waist as she went to step past him and pulled her to him. He dipped to kiss her, slipping his tongue into her mouth as he did. She gave a soft noise, hands briefly clenching at his shirt before she managed to step back with a grin and went to dig through her purse.
Pulling a few items out and placing them in her pockets Arya moved towards the door, before pausing and looking over her shoulder with a wink. “By the way Gendry,” she purred, “this lipstick is no-smudge but you know what they say,” she flexed her arm, lips stretching into a mischievous grin, posing for a moment like the classic poster her costume was modeled on, “we can do it!”
Gendry managed to unscramble his brain enough to check his phone, “Okay Rosie, our ride is here. I want to get this over with and come back to test that claim.”
---
The club was loud and crowded, costumed people in every direction. A Robin in a short green skirt was grinding on a Batman while two girls in tiny black outfits with cat ears were taking a selfie nearby. A tall woman in a tight red dress and a flaming crown eyed him appreciatively before Arya grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the bar where a man dressed as a vampire with red and white hair was ordering a drink in a strange accent. He could see their friends waving at them nearby. Lommy and Hot Pie were dressed as Robin Hood and Friar Tuck respectively, holding three plastic cups between them that were smoking from the liberal use of dry ice by the bar. As they approached Lommy thrust a non-smoking plastic cup into his hand. Gendry gave the cup a glance before wrinkling his nose, saying, “It has whipped cream on it.”
“It’s pumpkin beer, be festive and drink it Clark Kent,” Lommy rolled his eyes. Gendry eyed it suspiciously before taking a sip. The whipped cream was weird but the beer wasn’t terrible. Arya had flagged down a passing waitress and was taking a lurid green test tube shot off the rack on her tray. As she finished it Lommy handed her one of their smoking cups and the group moved towards a table recently abandoned by a group of girls all dressed as Batman villains.
Arya let him finish his beer before dragging him out onto the dance floor. The pounding beat echoed in his chest as he pulled her in close to him, hands settling on her hips as they ground and swayed together. The flashing lights caught in her silver eyes when she’d tip her head to the side to look up at him, dark lips parted slightly. Her sensual movements against him encouraged his hands to wander a bit as they danced, the anonymity of the crowd spurring him on. One crept up the inside of her thigh briefly as the other caressed a breast before sweeping down her toned stomach to grasp her hip tightly. Arya pushed herself against him harder as they moved, grinding her arse against his growing hardness. She turned in his arms after a few minutes and tugged his face down towards hers. Whatever she was planning to say was lost for a moment as one of Gendry’s hands dropped to give her arse a squeeze and tug her up against him, grinding his erection against her waist while his mouth briefly plundered hers as they continued to sway to the music. Arya managed to disengage long enough to grab his hand and began tugging him towards a side hallway, eyes darkening rapidly.
They stumbled into the alleyway kissing frantically. The music from the club could still be heard faintly through the brick as Arya shoved Gendry against the wall, up on her toes to reach him as her hands fisted into his shirt. His hands kept moving from her shoulders to her hips, warm through the thin fabric of her costume before one settled tight on her waist and the other found its way into her loose curls and grasping her hair at the base of her neck. He tilted her head slightly to move his mouth from her red lips down her neck, nipping at her skin and feeling her pulse race as she panted into the cool night air.
Her hands loosened on his shirt, smoothing over his shoulders and down his arms to reach for his belt. Shaking fingers fumbled at his belt for a moment before releasing it, working at his button and fly next to give herself room to slide her hand into his boxers. Her small hand grasped his straining erection, giving it a slow stroke in opposition to their frantic movements moments earlier. Gendry growled into her neck at this. Her jumpsuit made it impossible for him to get at any intimate part of her without completely baring her to anyone who might step out the side door of the club. Arya’s painted grin up at him at his noise told him she knew that and he was at her mercy. She began to kneel when Gendry grabbed her shoulders and spun her to the brick wall, bracing his forearm above her, muttering, “I don’t want anyone to see you Arry. That’s for me alone.”
Arya’s heart raced at his possessive tone before moving back to her knees. Her fingers found their way under his shirt as she looked up at him before scoring her nails down his stomach and snagging on the elastic of his boxers. With a quick grin she snapped the waistband against his skin before tugging them down far enough to release his leaden cock. She rested one hand on his thigh, nails pricking slightly through his pants as her other hand stroked him a few times. Gendry groaned, dropping his head to his arm and running his free hand through her hair as she slowly began to lick and suck the tip of his cock. Her warm mouth was heaven around him , the contrast with the cool night causing him to shiver lightly. As she began to work him deeper into her mouth his hand in her hair tightened, not directing her movements but because he knew she enjoyed the sensation. Arya’s hand tightened around the base of his cock, using the slick she left behind to help work him over, stroking and sucking. She glanced up to see him staring down, eyes dark with arousal as he watched her kneeling before him.
The sight of her gazing up at him, those sinful red lips stretched around his cock, caused his hips to stutter, thrusting into her mouth before he could stop himself. “Sorry,” he gasped. Arya’s eyes squeezed in a smile before taking him as far as she could, enjoying his noises and the slight pump of his hips, the tip of him bumping the back of her throat. He growled, his grip in her hair tightened further as he began to hold her head still, beginning to fuck into her mouth. Arya moaned around his cock, hand still stroking what her mouth couldn’t reach, the vibrations spurring him on, bringing him near the edge, his balls tightening and electricity tingling up and down his spine in time with their movements. “Gods Arry,” he muttered, “you’re so fucking perfect. I’m close sweetheart, you’re so good for me. Can I come down your throat, love?”
Arya nodded as best she could, humming her assent with her mouth full. His blown pupils and rutting hips were making her squeeze her thighs together, her knickers soaked with her own arousal. It was rare she could get Gendry like this, without the immediate option to reciprocate. He’d be insatiable the moment they got behind a locked door. A few more thrusts then his grip on her hair became nearly painful as he held her in place growling quietly, his cock deep in her throat. His legs were shaking as she felt his cum shoot down her throat while she swallowed around him, hand on his shaft milking every drop she could from him. As he finished his hand in her hair softened and he began to gently stroke her head. She drew back and let his softening cock fall from her lips, both hands running up and down his shaking thighs.
Glancing up at him she grinned and wiped her shining mouth, her still-painted lips swollen and perfect. His eyes squeezed shut as he tried to slow his breathing, the sight of her below him not helping to calm him down. When he felt her begin to move he reached down to help her to her feet, holding her close to steady her before dropping his head to her shoulder and groaning. “You’ll be the death of me, woman,” he mumbled into the fabric of her jumpsuit.
She smiled, “But what a way to go.”
She began to tuck him back into his pants, fondling him slightly more than necessary to enjoy the punched out sound he made before squirming away from her hands and fixing himself up. He tucked her into his side as they moved towards the side door they’d stumbled out of earlier. Gendry leaned down to press a kiss to her temple and whispered into her hair, “Just wait till we get home, I'm going to smudge that lipstick.”
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knybits · 4 years
Text
THE HATING GAME — 2
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PAIRINGS —
↳ kochou shinobu x reader
SUMMARY —
↳ Geniuses within the same field yet rivals within each other’s eyes, your colleagues wonder when the sexual tension will break so that you two will become the department’s powerhouse couple so that they can enter you two into the couples contest against the other departments. Some things might have to be done by force.
WARNINGS —
↳ cursing, alcohol, smut  
[ Navigation ] 
Shinobu Kochou absolutely loathes you. 
And she doesn’t have a reason why. 
So because of this, she keeps her nicely painted lips curved upwards when she sees you. And when you pass her without a single glance, the words “fucking asshole” cross her twisted mind.
Neatly combed hair and glasses perched on your nose during lecture is (F/n) (L/n). The smell of coffee and always being surrounded by a group of friends is (F/n) (L/n). You’re the spare bit of warmth during a dead winter and you act like you work harder and are better than everyone else. 
That attitude is something she can’t stand, but you pull it off so well that your friends believe that you’re some genius and hang off your every word. 
But when Shinobu pulls up in skinny jeans and a frilly white crop top, red heels to pull the outfit together, and she sees you dancing without a care in the world, something inside her snaps. She’s glad that she talked to Mitsuri over call before going, else she would have never decided to go to the club and celebrate (celebrate what she doesn’t know.)
She quickly tips a shot down her throat, relishing in the burning satisfaction, before patting her cheeks and strutting onto the dance floor.  When someone makes a move to grab her wrist she bats them off, a dangerous look in her eyes. 
“What’s wrong sweetcheeks!” They yell over the music, advancing on the petite woman. Shinobu takes a step back before bumping into someone, hearing your slurred voice right in her ear. Shinobu quickly apologizes under her breath before backing up even more and swaying her hips into your lap. 
Surprisingly enough, you’re quick to respond, hands cupping her waist and she allows herself to press her back against your chest. Sure, the stranger is looking at her as if he doesn’t believe her, but she feels safe in your chest (as ironic as that may seem, considering how you’re both grinding up against each other.)
The man makes another step towards Shinobu and she clicks her tongue in distaste. As a final move to tell him to back the fuck off, Shinobu takes your hand to grope her breast. The man looks surprised, and she sticks her tongue out at him before mouthing “I have a partner, you prick.” 
That’s enough to finally steer him away, and he rolls his eyes obnoxiously before walking over to the bar and surveying anyone else that might catch his eye. Shinobu yelps in surprise when fingers loop her waistband, spinning her around to face your flushed face. She can’t help but look at your lips, a fire fighting within her. 
Are you even aware of what you’re doing? A year and a half of ignoring each other, but do you really even hate her? Or was your silence a sign of shyness? 
Does she even hate you? 
“Fuck it,” she thinks the minute you open your pretty mouth to ask for consent, her her arms slide around your neck. 
She can taste the alcohol in your mouth, tongue exploring as she hums with delight. But something in her feels empty as she realizes you’re intoxicated. She pushes on, fingers dancing under your shirt and feeling the warm skin underneath. She can’t help but gasp when you move your hand to grip her ass, and your tongue immediately dominates. 
Shinobu hates how easily she let you have your way. Her hate is weak, but in your arms she’s weaker. 
It’s no secret that your tongue is what gets her screaming the loudest. Shinobu remembers the whole night in vivid detail. She couldn’t help but gasp your name over and over while she was strapped to the chair, big doe eyes blindfolded from the rest of the world. 
You were aggressive when you rammed her up the wall, mouth biting and sucking at her neck and jaw while you mercilessly thrust your fingers into her very wet pussy. She remembers how she whimpered and begged your name to fuck her harder, faster, deeper, and the second she came onto your fingers you called her a “good girl,” and that drove her wild. 
And now Shinobu is sore and confused. Every inch of her body throbs while you snore lightly by her side. You barely have any marks on your body and she’s pissed that she’ll have to wear some heavy makeup for a while. 
To be honest, Shinobu could go for another round with you right now. Morning sex hits differently to her, and now that you’ve most likely slept off the alcohol you’d be sober enough to know what you’re doing. But there’s the chance that now that you know what you’re doing, you’ll run out of her apartment without a second thought. 
She hates how you make her feel. Just yesterday she hated your guts for acting like royalty, for ignoring her “hello” with a roll of your eyes. And now you’re in her bed, the smell of sex so strong it makes her head spin. 
Her perfectly manicure nails skim over your skin, and she finds herself writing the kanji character for ‘hate’ before you stir. Shinobu is quick to draw her hand back, and she’s amused with how slow you are to figure out where you are. 
Finally, you turn your head to face her, but the look on your face screams “regret.” And now Shinobu has her answer. Despite the twisted carnage that rages within her, she smiles. 
“Good morning, (F/n). Did you sleep well?” 
– 
“Hi (F/n)! It’s Araceli. Shinobu said she would take you back to her apartment since you were too shitfaced, so I hope you’re okay! I went home with Michael tonight so you don’t have to worry about me. Send me a text when you can, and I’ll see you in the lab!” The voicemail ends as you enter your apartment, body and mind exhausted. 
The second you crash land onto your bed you grab a nearby pillow before yelling into it. 
Because god damn you fucked up. 
Not only did you have drunk sex with the one person you hate, you also said something completely dickish as you walked out the door. 
“This was a mistake,” were your last words as you shut the door to Shinobu’s apartment. You didn’t get to see her face throughout the whole 10 minutes of shame, adamant about putting your clothes on with your back facing her, and she didn’t say anything the whole time. She just let you leave. 
The clock ticks away as you grovel on your bed, head pounding while flashes of last night whiz through your head. You should've known it was Shinobu. 
The same purple eyes, the same petite figure (she’s 4’11” and the shortest in the department, hell yeah you know her general figure size,) the same high pitched voice that screamed your name- 
You groan in annoyance, hands raking through your hair before you decide to run a hot shower to burn away any trace of the witch from your body. 
When you finally walk into the lab all eyes turn to you. With eyebrows raised you decide to just make your way to your usual station, waving and greeting everyone a good morning. Maybe they’re looking at you because you finally found the time to go home and take a shower? 
The most you do in terms of keeping up appearances is taming your hair to the best of your abilities, so maybe they can tell that you aren’t wearing the same clothes from the last three days.
Once you’re at your station you see the stupid “department couples” poster sitting there again, and everyone shies away from your razor sharp glare as you survey every potential perpetrator. 
You pick the poster up to crumple it and throw it away when you see a picture of Shinobu and you shittily photo shopped together with stupid hearts around you two. That’s when you scream in frustration and everyone jumps. 
Araceli spots you the minute she walks in and she rushes over with some water, seeing as how drained you are. When you’re about to thank her, lo and behold the witch herself waltzes into class. 
You almost spit up your water when you see how she’s walking, stiff and with a small limp, and you almost feel guilty. Araceli gives you an odd look, and you try to wave her off. But Shinobu- that snake- sits herself beside Rama one station away from you and Araceli. 
Rama looks at her quizzically, considering they don’t talk too often, but he shrugs to himself and goes back to texting his physics major boyfriend. 
You’re trying to mind your business (sans Araceli because she’s taking her sweet time wiggling her eyebrows at you and glancing between you and Shinobu. Her words: that sexual tension is thicc. If only she knew.) and conduct your experiments, but once Rama finishes his conversation with his boyfriend, he and Shinobu start some small talk. 
Shinobu gives you a quick look when she asks Rama if he went to the club last night and you pale considerably. 
“Oh, I spent the night in with my boyfriend,” Rama smiles politely before continuing. “Is that why you’re a little stiff today? Too much dancing?” He laughs to himself and Shinobu gives him a close eyed smile. 
“Things were just super hot and heavy last night!” 
Araceli’s eyes widen and she stares at you with her jaw dropped. You snap at her to keep working, but you can’t help but stop working too. In fact, everyone else in the room goes dead silent, and you pray that Shinobu will keep her damn mouth shut. 
“Wha-“ 
“I take this night yoga class, you know!” Que a sigh of relief from you. 
“I’m super flexible,” she boasts before adding in. “I can spread my legs quite wide!” You fumble with your test tubes, mind flashing to a few events from last night. 
Araceli begins to laugh silently at your red face and you nearly throw her out of the window. When you turn to secretly glare at Shinobu you find that despite the fact that she’s facing Rama, her eyes are pinned onto you. A malicious smile makes its way onto her face when she knows that she has your attention. 
“And then right after, I have a pole dancing class to keep me fit.” 
Rama laughs, “Oh really? Sounds fun!” 
“It is! But yesterday I was dumb and I jumped onto the pole and uhh……. rammed my…” She looks down and onlookers flush red. “So I’m quite sore today!” 
There’s the sound of shattering glass from another station (not your own, but you’re damn near close to breaking the Erwin Meyer flask in your hand.) Now, Shinobu’s just trying to rile you up. 
And it’s working. 
Also, you hate to think it but THANK G O D HE’S GAY. 
“Ow, well that sounds rough…”
“If I could, I would take the classes on different days, but there aren’t many classes available so my hands are tied.” 
Everyone in the lab startles when you slam your hands onto the counter, stool screeching against tile as you stand from your seat. 
There’s a look of victory in Shinobu’s eyes and your stomach twists with rage because she’s such a bitch. She relishes in the dark look in your eyes, your tense shoulders and the way you make your way up to her. 
“Can I help you, (F/n)?” She asks innocently, and you feel something in you snap. Everyone holds their breath when you whip a hand out, gripping the lapels of her lab coat and bringing your face down to her’s. 
Shinobu shivers when you leans in close to her ear and murmur under your breath, “How about you stop being such a dirty whore, be a good girl, and meet me behind the building, hm?” 
You smirk when you see how she shifts in her seat and crosses her legs, and you shove your hands into your lab coat pockets, walking out of the lab with a shocked puppy in tow. 
[ Next Chapter ]
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ghostofbrock · 4 years
Text
I’m drunk, remember when you needed me?
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never in a million years did mattia think he would have to be the strict parent yet there he was grounding luke for getting into trouble at school. mattia always thought that he was going to be the fun parent, the parent that his kid could tell anything to and bond so easily with.
luke’s school called both of his parents which haven’t spoken or seen each other since the little intervention at the cosentino household. they only talked through text which was mainly about the kids schedules and stuff like that, nothing else.
sara and mattia stood outside of the school with luke, talking about what his punishment should be and what it not should be. as usual mattia wasn’t cooperating with sara’s suggestions and didn’t listen to anything she had to say.
“he can’t control his actions sometimes, mattia! you know that so don’t be so harsh on him.” sara clenched her jaw. “but he knows better! and he’s getting too old for that ADHD excuse, sara. you can’t always blame that for his behavior!” mattia raised his voice at her.
“for fucks sake, mattia, the doctor even said the ADHD is the reason he has bad behavior and can’t control it sometimes!” she reminds him. “we have to be there for him when he struggles with it, mattia. not punish him.” sara adds making mattia roll his at her.
“it doesn’t even matter anymore, sara. you’re leaving in a few days so you won’t even be here most of the time.” mattia scoffed at her and folds his arm over his chest. “you’re right. so tonight i’m taking the kids and i’m not taking them back to your place until the day i leave. so for right now luke is coming with me.” she holds luke’s hand and smirks at mattia who had steam practically coming out of his ears.
“like hell he is!” mattia tries grabbing luke but he moves away from mattia’s grip. “you can’t do this. we had an agreement, sara.” mattia sighs in annoyance. “mattia, calm down you’re acting like it’s the end of the world.” sara rolls her eyes.
it feels like it since we aren’t together anymore.
he thought to himself.
“you sure you want to go with your mom?” mattia asked his son with a stern look. luke looks up at his dad and nods, slowly going behind sara to hide from mattia who was starting to scare him.
“what a momma’s boy.” mattia mumbles to himself.
“fine. you two have fun doing whatever you guys do when i’m not around.” mattia gave them a sarcastic smile before harshly giving luke’s backpack to sara. he walks off, pulling his hair as he does so and walks to his jeep.
sara and luke walk to her car, hand in hand. once they get into the car, the eleven year old breaks down.
“i-i’m sorry, mommy. i didn’t mean to upset you.” he sobs as she wraps her arm around him. “no, baby. you didn’t upset me. your dad did.” sara sighs as she messes with her son’s hair to sooth him. “don’t ever think that i’m upset because of you.” she adds and kisses his little head.
“i don’t like living with him anymore. i feel trapped.” he confesses. “why?” sara asked. “he’s so strict and mean. i don’t like him like this. i miss how things used to be.” his words were breaking sara’s heart.
she had no idea her baby was feeling this way. usually her kids tell her everything, but now it feels like they can’t tell her anything because they’re either scared or just don’t want to worry her.
she also wanted to defend mattia since luke called him mean which wasn’t true at all. mattia is and will never be a “mean dad”. he’s just strict so his kids won’t end up in the streets in the future and wants what’s best for his kids. they’re too young to understand him but eventually will understand him when they have their own kids.
she brushed off what luke said and changed the subject.
“let’s grab some mcdonald’s for lunch and then head to my house, yeah?” she asked making a little smile appear on his face. “as long as i get a happy meal then i’ll be fine.” he remarks making her chuckle before starting her car.
they got their food from mcdonald’s and went to her house after. they ate, watched movies and luke showed sara some dances he learned from dance class.
“not to brag or anything, but i’m learning some of those tik tok dances dad did when he was younger.” luke laughs as he places his hands on his hips. “so you gonna show me or what, lukey?” she asks with a laugh.
the next thing you know he’s doing the renegade and sara’s dying laughing on her couch while her son does the renegade better than mattia, alejandro and kairi did.
“okay, you’ve officially got it in the bag.” she smirks at him while he turns a shade of pink on his checks. “now i think it’s time to pick up your brothers and sister, yeah? maybe we should build a blanket fort and order some pizza and watch some disney movies tonight.” sara suggests with a warm smile.
“you really are the fun parent.” luke comments before putting his shoes and jacket on. it was almost five o’clock when sara arrived at mattia’s house where her kids were waiting for her on the porch with huge smiles on their faces. mattia had a frown whilst leaning against a pillar with his arms folded over his chest. he stood up, telling the kids to go ahead and kissed them each goodbye before they went with their mom and drove off with her.
mattia let out a sigh before turning in his heels and walking back into his house. he went into his kitchen and opened his pantry to see what he would make for himself for dinner. he observed all the food yet he wasn’t one bit the hungriest. he thought to himself for a moment, he reached into the pantry and moved the box of cereals at the top out of the way to show bottles of liquor in the way back that he had hidden there.
for the record, mattia hadn’t had an once of alcohol in his system for almost a year thanks to his sponsor he met at a rehab center once he and sara split. mattia was supposed to throw out every bottle of alcohol he had in his household and he did for a while. then when he’d have little get togethers with his close friends or his parents and younger brother, they’d bring liquor or wine as some sort of offering or gift for the little gathering. mattia kept them out of sight and hid them where his kids or anyone else wouldn’t find them besides himself.
he was pulled out of his thoughts by his phone ringing in the island in the kitchen. he puts the cereals back on the top shelf quickly and closes the pantry before getting his phone and answering it.
“hey bitch ass, me and kairi got permission to go out tonight and we were wondering if you wanted come with us?” alejandro’s voice came from the other side of the phone. “where?” mattia asked with a sigh. “that new bar they opened up like two months ago. robert said that it’s pretty good and they play all of the throw backs. so me and kai wanted to try it out.” alejandro explained.
at the moment, mattia really didn’t want to go out, he wanted to be left alone. that’s how he’s been feeling lately, the need of wanting to feel alone. he feels like he deserves it as a form of punishment to himself for what he did to sara and what he told her. the hate for himself grew ever since the day he kissed her which was something he needed.
“you still there?” alejandro asked when mattia wasn’t responding and got lost in his own thoughts. “uh yeah, sorry i zoned out for a minute. but yeah, i’ll go with you guys. just send me the addy.” mattia said as he cleared his throat after. “great. see you there.” alejandro responded before hanging up.
mattia changed out of his sweats and into some jeans and a polo shirt before leaving his house. he pulled up to the bar and went inside looking for his best friends.
“over here!” kairi’s voice yelled was heard from the other side of the bar where he and alejandro were sitting at. mattia walked over to them with a small grin.
“this place is kind of a vibe.” mattia lightly laughed as he looked around the bar. there was color changing lights on the ceiling, a glass counter at the bar, posters of movies that came out in the early 2010’s and of music artists from 20 years ago. it was definitely something that looked like it came straight out of the 2010’s. either way it was mainly for people from that generation.
“it really is. i feel old.” alejandro laughs. “anyways, let’s get this night started yeah?” alejandro smirks at his best friends. “first round is on me.” he adds.
“dude, you know i don’t drink anymore.” mattia says through gritted teeth. “and i’m not forcing you to. i’ll get you a water if you’d like.” he winks at mattia before walking off to go get some drinks.
“how does it feel to not have one once of jack daniels in your system, tia?” kairi asks as a joke. “oh shut up, kai.” he rolls his eyes playfully in response. as the night went on and the good times occurred, about two or three hours the trio had been at the bar, a familiar face come into the bar looking pretty and lonely.
mattia nor his best friends payed attention to anyone at the bar since they were just there for each other and wanted a good time with the boys, that’s all it was going to be.
so when the boys broke out into laughter at the table they were sitting at, a few people glanced at them but not for long. however, this particular girl stayed staring at the three before she realized who they were. she drowned the shot she just bought minutes prior before walking over to them with a smile filled with confidence.
“oh my god, hey guys.” they all snapped their heads to face her. she wore a yellow tube top with a white mini skirt with her hair curled. “oh hey, kristina.” mattia said slightly awkward. kairi and alejandro immediately felt the tension between kristina and mattia and were going to find out why as soon as she leaves.
“you know her?” alejandro asks. “yeah. she’s ellie’s cheer coach.” matti explained making alejandro and kairi glance at each other. “what are you guys doing here?” she asked with a warm smile.
“it’s boys night.” kairi answers before taking a sip of his beer. “which means it’s just for the boys so... bye.” kairi said rudely which caught mattia off guard.
“bro, don’t be rude. she’s really chill.” mattia defended her which made ale and kairi even more curious in why mattia was defending a girl who wasn’t his wife, mother or daughter.
“pull up a seat. you can sit with us so none of these creeps will think you’re alone and vulnerable.” mattia told kristina with a smile which made her blush. meanwhile alejandro and kairi got even more pissed since it really was boys night and they wanted to spend time with each other. plus, alejandro and kairi are still with their wives and if the paparazzi were to barge in and take photos of them with kristina then their wives would kill them, literally.
“it’s really weird seeing you guys together in person. i remember i used to be obsessed with all of you when i was a teenager.” kristina comments. “really? why?” kairi asked which made mattia shoot him a glare.
“who was your favorite?” alejandro asked out of curiosity and took a sip of his beer. “at first it was you, alejandro. then i lost interest for some reason and went to mattia’s lane.” alejandro chocked on his beer. “wrong pipe.” he managed to say as he coughed.
“well you made the right choice. i am more handsome than these two.” mattia jokes making kristina laugh with a blush on her cheeks. kairi rolled his eyes and alejandro shook his head at how.... flirty the two were being towards each other.
“mattia, can i talk to you for a second?” kairi asked his best friend. “why? if you have to say something then say it out-“ kairi didn’t let mattia finish his sentence and instead he got up from his seat and dragged mattia away and took him outside of the bar.
“what in heaven’s sake wrong with you?” he yelled at mattia which caught him off guard. “chill out. i have no clue what you’re talking about.” mattia laughed but stopped when kairi shoves him.
“yo, what the hell?” mattia asked.
“why are you flirting with her? you two fucking on the low or what?” kairi asked in frustration. “what? hell no.” mattia answers immediately.
“she’s just a friend, kai. you’re being dramatic.” mattia rolled his eyes. “me? dramatic. i’m trying to help you, mattia!” kairi yelled.
“help me? what do you mean, help me!?” mattia raised his voice, panting as well.
“i’m trying to help you save your marriage because apparently you don’t give a shit about it! you walk around here like nothing is wrong, when it is! your family is falling apart and you don’t even know it! i hate to be the one to tell you this, bro, but if you don’t fix things with sara and your kids then you’re going to lose everything that you’ve worked so fucking hard for! and if you keep this shit up with not only kristina but with other women then i don’t want to hang around you anymore. sara’s not only your wife but she also a sister to me and alejandro. she plays a huge part in all of our lives yet you’re willing to let it go for some chick who doesn’t even know your middle name. seeing you with someone else besides sara feels like i’m betraying her. she’s been through so much and the fact that you’re not there anymore to comfort her sucks. and i get it, you guys might not get along anymore but deep down i know you two miss each other so damn much. i can tell you still love her and she loves you too. she’s the only girl who’s given you the chance to have a family of your own and more, why let that all go, mattia?”.
kairi pretty much lashed out at mattia which caught him off guard. reality had just hit mattia once again like a lacrosse stick to the head. mattia grabbed kairi’s arm before speaking.
“mind your own business. the shit that goes on in my life has nothing to do with you so stay out of it.” mattia was being stubborn which made kairi let out an annoyed sigh.
“you know what, bro? i’m done. i’m done trying to be a good friend to you and your family. i’m leaving.” kairi scoffed at his best friend and shrugged him off. he then walked away and got to his car. and if things couldn’t get worse, alejandro barged out of the bar with a stern face. he shot mattia a death glare before walking passed him and to his car.
mattia stood there and watched them drive away before going into the bar again. kristina was still sitting at the table where the boys were sitting at minutes prior. she sat there awkwardly but then it all washed away when mattia sat back down next to her.
“what happened?” kristina asked as she placed her hand on his shoulder. “nothing. it’s not important.” mattia answered lowly. “well in that case, let me buy you a drink?” she smirks at him.
mattia wasn’t thinking anymore at this point. he needed closure and wasn’t getting it so he nodded because he didn’t want to feel things anymore and that’s what the alcohol always provided him.
it always took the pain away.
the two chatted and shared a few beers together until mattia realized how late it was getting. he definitely was drunk but he could care less. he up from his stool but was pushed down by kristina.
“come onnn, just a little longer.” she slurred and licked her lips. “naw, i-i can’t. i have to get home.” mattia rubs his temples and moves away from her grip. “mattia, baby, just one last drink and i’ll take you home.” she got closer to him and whispered in his ear. he got goosebumps down his spine but not the good kind. it felt wrong to him, even though he was drunk he wasn’t wasted enough sleep with her.
besides, he couldn’t do that to his sara.
“no. i appreciate the company but i want to go home.” he forced himself to say and let out a burp right after. she then tried grabbing his hand and placing it on her ass but he immediately moved his hand and pushed her away harshly.
“what the fuck is wrong with you? i have a wife!” he raised his voice at her making a few people turn their direction then looked away. “a wife that doesn’t love you anymore? yeah, she’s a keeper.” kristina laughs at him for being pathetic about sara’s love for him.
“she’s a worthless whore, mattia. when are you going to realize that?” she added with a scoff. mattia apparently become a little bit more sober once he heard what she said about his wife which boiled his blood.
“the only whore i know is you, kristina. sara is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life, she’s more of a woman than you’ll ever be. and if i hear you say another bad thing about her then i won’t hesitate to tell your boss that you tried sleeping with one of your cheerleader’s parent. got it?” he said through gritted teeth and with smoke coming out of his ears because of how mad he was.
there was no way he was going to let anyone talk bad about sara, together or not. he wouldn’t let that slide.
all kristina did was nodded and whimpered when mattia let go of her harshly.
mattia doesn’t know how but somehow he drove safely to sara’s house. the whole way there he couldn’t stop thinking about her. about how much he needed her right now because he had no clue what to do. his best friends are mad at him and are willing to end their friendship if he doesn’t get things together and some girl tried hitting on him. not only that, he touched her which made him feel disgusted with himself.
the kids were in bed, the blanket fort was cleaned up and put away for the next time they built it again, sara was cleaning her dinning room table which had empty boxes of pizza and empty cups that once held juice for her kids during dinner.
she heard a knock at her door which scared her since it was now passed midnight and no one in their right mind would be out this late. she walked towards her front door and checked the peephole to see a drunk mattia at her doorstep. she did a double take and checked again because she thought she was going crazy. once she realized that she wasn’t going crazy and that he was actually waiting for her to open the door she mentally prepared herself for anything that could happen.
she opened the door slowly, he looked up at her and his vision blurred with the tears that were dwelling in his eyes the moment he saw her.
“mattia, what are you doing here?” she asked softly. he didn’t answer her, he simply walked into the house and plopped down on her couch. usually, sara would’ve snapped at him for coming into her house and acting like he owned the place but no, she didn’t snap. instead, she went to sit next to him and observed his drunk state.
“i thought you weren’t drinking anymore.” she said quietly. he took a sip of his beer before speaking to her.
“i wasn’t until i needed something to take the pain away.” he answered but before she could respond he spoke again. “i promise this will be the only time i drink again. i’ve just been having a hard time getting through this.” he gestured is hands between them.
“why’d you come then?” she asked.
“because i needed to see you.” he answered bluntly. “i needed to see you so i could at least feel the tiniest amount of comfort.” his voice cracked slightly. her jaw dropped and she didn’t know what to say. she wasn’t expecting him to say that as all, how was she supposed to respond?
they sat in silence for a moment before drunk mattia spoke again.
“i’m drunk, remember when you needed me?” he turns to face her but she was already staring at him with tears in her eyes. he hated seeing her cry, it hurt him a lot to see her like this.
“don’t cry, baby. you’re too beautiful to be crying.” he leans over and wipes her tears away with his thumb. “too beautiful.” he repeats as he wipes her tears.
“i’m sorry for doing this to us. i promise i’ll fix it.” he adds and looks into her eyes. “we’re gonna get through this.” he moves a strand of her hair behind her ear gently. he looks at her like she’s his entire world and she is. always has been and always will be.
he pulled her into him and held her as she cried into his chest. they didn’t talk at all once she stopped crying. they fell asleep together on the couch, mattia holding her close as if she was going to slip away from him. holding her close as if he was protecting her from the monsters of the world.
for the first time in months, they slept with ease. plus, sara didn’t have a nightmare.
and when she woke up in the morning, he was gone.
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fanatic-kay · 4 years
Text
Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
Pairings: Pre-romantic Prinxiety, brothers!analogicality Word Count: 1535 Rating: General Audiences Summary: Roman works at the Disney store when a shady looking person walks in.
Read on AO3 Here!
Roman Prince loved his job. Sure, the work of retail could be especially tedious at times, but at the end of the day, it was worth it. As long as he could see the young children coming in, eyes full of stars, as they tried to comprehend the overload of Disney paraphernalia staring back at them. How they would jump up and down, tugging at their parent’s sleeve before running towards something that caught their attention. How their older siblings, usually teenagers, would pretend to act cool or annoyed since they were ‘too old for this stuff’, but even they would let their inner child shine through as they perused through the racks. Sometimes they even got adults, never letting the Disney spirit die, excited to shop for themselves. No matter how old you got, everyone could relate to the excitement Disney lit in your soul. Well… almost everyone.
It was his turn to stock shelves, not that Roman minded. He was mostly left to his own devices, singing along with the music playing overhead, but sometimes a lost child or confused parent would ask him for the location of specific items.
“Thank you!” A charming young girl gushed at him as he handed her something from the top shelf.
“Of course, princess! Have a magical day!” Roman smiled, waving goodbye. He turned to return to his work, and that’s when he saw him.
Really, Roman wasn’t sure how he didn’t notice him walk in. The boy stood out like a sore thumb. Between all of the colors and happiness, he seemed to exude angst, wearing all black, like some sort of… emo nightmare. It was a punk, bad boy look. He would’ve been described as attractive by some. Roman couldn’t help but be suspicious, watching the other’s moves like a hawk. He knows he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Beauty and the Beast taught him that, but something about him was giving Roman a feeling he couldn’t quite shake.
He subtly watched him look around as if he were searching for something. He picked up a Lion King t-shirt, surveying it before placing it back down. His eyes, a deep brown, almost black, scanned his surroundings. His hair was dyed purple, and an eyebrow piercing glinted in the store lighting. Paired with his ripped black skinny jeans, studded leather jacket, and steel-toed combat boots, he seemed to be the depiction of ‘troublemaker’. Maybe he was trying to steal something? There was no other obvious explanation to his shifty demeanor.
Roman tried to focus back on his task while glancing at the hypothetical thief every few seconds. However, he must’ve not been as observant as he thought, as he nearly jumped out of his skin when someone cleared their throat behind him. He bit back a string of profanities when he realized it was the boy he had been watching earlier.
He mustered up his customer service smile, the one he used when he was dealing with a dragon witch of a Karen that demanded to speak with his manager, and in his best false cheer said, “Hello! Do you need any help?”
The emo raised an eyebrow unimpressed, “No, I just wanted to get your attention for the hell of it,” he snarked.
Roman immediately dropped the niceties. “You know, Hot Topic is just three stores down,” he gave him a once over, “they’re probably a bit more your style.”
“I have eyes, I can see where I am,” the other shot back. “I was just wondering if you had any Black Cauldron merch in here.”
Roman blinked, trying to process his question for a count of three before shaking his head slowly, “No, we don’t.”
He scoffed, “Figures, it’s one of the most underrated Disney movies of all time, even if it is the best.”
“Yeah,” Roman nods, “it’s a shame it doesn’t have a bigger fanbase.”
Out of nowhere, two boys, twins, Roman realized, sporting matching glasses, appeared. One attacked the emo’s middle and the other let out a long, sufferable sigh at the action. He took that as his cue to resume his restocking, involuntarily listening in to their conversation.
“Virgie! Look! I found the Winnie the Pooh stuffie! And Lo-Lo got a Baymax one!” one exclaimed. He was the complete opposite of his- older brother, presumably- dressed in a soft, pastel sweatshirt and a knee-length skirt. He pushed the stuffed bear up for him to see.
“Virgil can see that, Pat,” his twin stated. Despite the fact of being so little, he wore a collared shirt and blue necktie, like a mini businessman, though there was a light of excitement in his eyes too as he hugged his own plushie.
Virgil laughed lightly, “Patton’s just excited, let him be, Logan,” he ruffled Patton’s hair as he continued. “And it’s great, Pat. Are you both happy with what you found?” The twins nodded enthusiastically.
“Did you find what you wanted?” Lo asked, both looking up at their brother with large, expecting eyes.
“Uh, no, no Black Cauldron stuff here,” he replied, a hint of disappointment in his voice.
Patton’s shoulders slumped, “No Gurgi or Hen Wen?” he asked, sounding so upset, as if he was the one who longed for the merch instead of his brother.
Roman felt his heart drop, he did take this job to see the smiles of kids- and the discounted Disney items- but mostly the smiles.
“It’s alright, kid,” Virgil gave him a half-hearted smile. “I’ll just get something else. Maybe a Nightmare Before Christmas poster.” Patton, however, seemed unconvinced.
Roman could sense Virgil’s gaze on the wall of posters behind him. He subtly tried to follow his gaze and saw it land on the matching posters of Jack Skellington and Sally. They were limited edition, Virgil obviously had good taste. All of the posters were almost sold out, the shelf where they had been, empty. Roman had managed to nab the last one, placing it in one of his boxes to purchase once he got off of work. Was it fair? Not really. But he had wanted them really bad! They would look perfect on his wall!
Virgil chuckled humorlessly to himself, patting the space where the item would have been. “Or not.” Patton looked as if he was about to cry, clinging to Virgil’s legs. Even Logan looked mildly upset by the outcome.
At that moment, Roman realized he had royally messed up. Virgil wasn’t trying to cause trouble. He, like most everyone else, grew up with Disney and was sharing the magic with his younger brothers. He should’ve known better than to judge him by appearance. Disney was never wrong in their teachings. He made the split-second decision to help make the twins smile, and perhaps even give a proper apology to Virgil.
“I’d hate to interrupt,” Roman started, ignoring the questioning look Virgil sent him, as he crouched down to address Patton. “But did you say you liked Gurgi?”
Patton looked at him with his big sad eyes, sniffling before nodding.
“Well, we don’t have any Gurgi plushies, but,” Roman pretended to tap his chin thoughtfully before brightening as if an idea had struck him. He searched through one of the boxes he had still yet to stock, and in his, rusty, but decent Gurgi impression he said, “Munchings and crunchings in here somewhere.” This got a small giggle out of Patton, even his twin seemed to brighten at the quote. They both tried to peer over Roman’s shoulder to see what he was getting, but he blocked the view.
He grabbed the poster he had put away for safekeeping. He supposed there would always be new posters he could buy later on. He dramatically turned on his heel in his crouched position. He pulled the rolled tube into view as if he were unsheathing a sword and held it out to the twins with both hands.
Patton gasped in delight before looking down a bit confused, his enthusiasm ever-present. Logan, however, smiled in recognition. “Virge, it’s the poster!”
Roman looked up to meet Virgil’s eyes with a small smile, standing up and offering it to him. “Lucky for you, it's the last one. Worthy for a dark and stormy knight like yourself.”
Virgil’s gaze softened considerably at Roman though he rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips. “If I’m the knight who’s the prince?”
He opened his mouth to speak, about to gesture to the twins when Patton beat him to it. “He is, silly!”
Virgil and Roman both widened their eyes, fighting blushes, realizing the implications of the statement. Virgil wouldn’t meet Roman’s eyes as the employee tried to remedy the situation. “I- I mean, I won’t deny that I’m a prince, but I was talking about you little princes right in front of me.”
Patton and Logan both grinned at that, as Virgil cleared his throat. “We should get going, Mom will be calling soon,” he said, rounding up his brothers and pushing them to the direction of the checkout lines. He looked over his shoulder, sending Roman a crooked smirk. “Thanks for the posters, Princey.”
Roman swore his heart skipped a beat. “You’re welcome.”
Taglist: @starry-knight-skies @space-captain-lars @viana-dascolli @wistful-wish
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jojoreadwhat · 4 years
Text
i didn't get much sleep last night, but that's alright. / honey & smoke - m.h. x OFC story
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Warning: Drug use.
Lucy's POV.
The hem of my grey sweater roused above my skirt when I outstretched my arm. Placing a hardback onto the top shelf of the book case. The light dust dancing against the sun peering from the large windows.
It was a sunny Saturday morning at the library, restocking shelves and taking in the serenity of a now typical weekend for me. Watching a variation of students spending their time during my cover. I couldn't complain as the nostalgic thoughts of being back in New York came waltzing into my mind.
I had another thing invading my mind in the process. The recurrence of events from a few days ago.
When I kissed Matty.
I. With my own gut and feelings. Kissed Matty without him knowing it would happen. Took the plunge and not caring if would lead to good or bad. Believe it or not, it took a better turn than I had anticipated when his lips moved along with mine shortly after the big move. And I still seen him the next day. I've been containing the excitement and relief until now while I restocked books. Still feeling the lingering tingle that grazed my lips whenever I thought about it. Leaving a small smirk planted on my face.
"Someone is happy today." Matilda comment startling me from my thoughts. I nodded, "Yeah, I was just thinking about a joke told yesterday." Fibbing through my teeth, but she knew that it wasn't that in the slightest. "Mhmm," She replied, taking clipboard of the list of check outs placed back on the shelf. I realized her presence meant I'd be clocking soon.
Sooner than later, actually.
"Well I'm here and there's only a few students now studying." She announced, making a new pile of books. "You can head out earlier than scheduled."
I didn't waste time.Before leaving UNI I stopped by the school's cafe to see it had closed 20 minutes before. Defeated and feening for another coffee. I knew of nothing close, which gave me a good reason to head to the tube and into the city.
++
When I had stepped onto the platform and walked up the stairs from the underground. I was greeted with the sun and the rush of the weekenders. The same crazy amount of people that New York would've had on a day like this. Busy enjoying the day venturing the city but in different aspects architecturally and minus all the bright boards.
I pulled out my phone for a second to lead me to the nearest bookstore from where I stood. The first one listed was independently owned and had a small coffee shop inside. All traded and used books, I was completely floored and cozy here. I sat in one of the aisles, reading some Walt Whitman material, as recommended.
Spending majority of my afternoon in First Chapter Books. Weaving in and out of the other genres they offered. Soon my visit came to a close after two coffees and a mint edition purchase.
I took advantage of the time I had left, finding another coffee shop but for a bagel this time.. and another coffee of course. I then found myself in One World Thrift, trying on a few knit sweaters. Finding a cute backpack that had pretty embroidered florals all over it. The employee working there was so much help, bringing me more sweaters and wouldn't stop complimenting my scarf.
I was now heading back to the tube when I seen a sign above that read 'Rocket Records' shrugging to myself that one more store wouldn't hurt.
When I entered the place, it echoed sounds of earlier Death Cab For Cutie. It was dressed head to toe with records and posters along the walls. With a huge island of crates holding more records down the center of the room. Watching some people going through them. I was soon greeted from the counter before I moved further into the place and to the alternative section.
-----------------------------------
Matty's POV.
I hate getting stuck with backroom duties. Sorting out the new shipment we received earlier this morning. Watching all the cheesy new upcoming groups making their ways to our shelves. For all the hipster, Instagram obsessed teenagers could come in. Taking snap shots without buying and messing up our conversions. Sounds a bit narcissistic for being in a band that could hit shelves like these. I just always had my judgments of hitting it 'big' I guess.
Humming along to what the boss had playing and tagging everything. I was starting a new pile when Jimmy came in and asked if I could cover the front. I brought out what I had done so far, lots of restocks of yesterday's new releases. The place only had about four people nearby, two sets of couples.. until I spotted the one I couldn't stop thinking about.
Lucy was looking through the back. One hand occupied by a record she was reading, the other holding little bags. I smiled as I watched her cross her stocking covered ankles before she moved along.
"That's their best." I commented, watching her shoulders jolt from startling her. She looked over at me, before setting down the record. "A fan?" She replied, then. Turning to face me now, I shrugged at her question first, "Some what, but that's probably my favorite by far."
She nodded, taking into consideration the note. "What brings you here?" She asked, I chuckled. Waving the tag gun, watching her cheeks grow red. "I could ask the same." Smirking at her naivety.
We got to talking a little bit, she asked about how the day was going. Telling her how Jimmy was being a bloke and I couldn't help but smile as she chuckled at the nickname. She walked with me as I continued to tag a few more things, telling me about her findings and adventures. Soon it grew silent for a moment, but I could tell something was on her tip of her tongue.
"What are you doing later?" She asked, looking at the time on her watch before back at me. "I don't know," I replied, pausing from my work. "What did you have in mind?"
This was completely different coming from Lucy. I could tell she was a bit nervous about it, reading her face as she thought about it. It was adorable.
"Why don't you stop by? I could order a pizza, we could watch a movie?" She suggested, then. Searching my face for relief, I smiled. "Sounds perfect." I replied, "I'll see you around 7?" Making sure the timing was right.
Shortly then, Jimmy was asking for my assistance, but she nodded in time, "Okay." before I excused myself and I kissed her cheek.
++
Jimmy was trying to get me to stay late even with opening this morning. There was no way in hell. Luckily I fought that and was able to grab a pizza and wine before heading to Lucy's.
When I pulled up to her house, the windows were dark except for one upstairs.
Me: "Hey, still up for company and pizza?"
I texted Lucy, seeing that her phone must've went off when I seen a shadow pass the window.
Blue: "Of course, what's up?" She double texted, then.
Me: "Cool, cause the pizza is getting cold and so am I" I wrote back as I stood at her door. Hearing the commotion of her coming down the stairs and the locks clicking.
"Hey, I thought I was buying pizza?" She questioned, I shrugged. "I made a nice commission today. It's my treat" I explained, then. "I also brought wine." She just shook her head, "You and your wine." She stated, taking the bag off the box and moving to let me in.
I followed Lucy up the steps, Her long cardigan swaying with every bounce made onto the cricking wood. Little ways down the hall leading us to a door with a big Nirvana poster covering it.
"Sorry it's a bit messy." She announced before she opened and led me in.
Lucy had turned down the music from her turntable, placing the bag of wine on her nightstand before turning towards me. Her purple long cardigan hanging loosely against her small frame. Tightly bounded by her grey cami that exposed her new feather tattoo along her left collarbone.
I silently asked where to place the box before the curves of her black covered legs in tights began to fold under her on the bed. "Right here is fine." She smiled, taking the box from my hands as I followed suit. Kicking off my shoes and sitting pretzel legged across from her.
We ate a few slices among each other, taking subtle glances and smiling from time to time. I'd chuckle whenever she lost the running cheese that didn't want to stay on her slice. Watching her pick up with her fingers and savor it.
Afterwards, I stood up to open the bottle of wine. Taking a swig before I handed it to Lu. Fishing my pockets for my pack of fags with a few spliffs I saved.
Lucy was flipping the record, "Mind if I smoke?" Gesturing I'd open a window first. She shook her head before she took a double look at what I was going to smoke. "Is that a blunt?" She questioned, I nodded. "Is that okay?.." I spoke again.
"Yeah yeah, I was just wondering." She explained before going back to what she was doing. Leading me to believe, she's never smoked before. "Blue?" I said, "Hmm" She hummed.
"Have you ever?" I asked, she looked up at me again. She shook her head. "No, not for any reason. Just never got around to it."
I then brought the spliff to my lips, opening my zippo and lighting it before I took a drag.
"Here," I offered. She looked at me like I was crazy at first, but then took it between her fingers. "I'm not gonna like die or something, am I?" She joked, I just chuckled and shook my head. "It's great, I promise." I replied, watching her placing it on her lips and inhale. Like a natural.
++
I never thought I'd see Lucy intoxicated but it was the most cutest, most silliest thing (in a good way) I had ever witnessed. Filling the room with her sweet laugh against the smells of our own party. She was playing her favorite records, swaying around the little space she had in her room.
I sat on her bed, smoking a cigarette. Smiling, watching as she enjoyed herself. She caught me staring, smirking a bit before she moved closer till she stood in front of me. Her soft fingers placing themselves close to my lips. As she grabbed the cigarette hanging from them. Kissing them softly after.
I looked up at her and watched as she took a drag. Her lips puckered around the filter and her closed as she inhale. Admiring the smoke in eyes as she exhaled, my favorite thing of the night. Before she looked back down at me.
"Are you having a good time?" I asked, then. She nodded, placing the cigarette back on my lips. I took another drag before putting in the cup on the nightstand next to us.
When I brought my attention back, I noticed the pretty sparkle from the red ruby she wears everyday. Hanging against her pale complexion. I felt her watching me as my hand grazed her skin and I brought the pendant closer to see.
"This is beautiful." I commented, her reach over mine gently. "It was my mother's" She stated, the past pretense caught me off guard and I felt terrible. I looked back up at her, "I'm so sorry." I insisted, quietly. She just smiled, running her hand through my hair. "It's okay. It's kind of a long story, I'll explain it eventually." She went on, still smiling soft.
"Just first, dance with me." She said, then. The substances still inebriating her sense. I stood up towering over her as I moved her hands around my neck and mine met her waist.
Donna Lewis' "I Love You Always Forever" began playing throughout her room. We danced slow, my body molding into hers as she hugged me and brought her head to my chest. Continuing to sway and smell the lavender scent of her hair. It left us in a comfortable silence again, my mind wasn't so silent as we danced. I began to worry about where this would lead and how it would go. I wasn't scared but at the same time, I was. I had a reputation for ruining things, treating any opportunity of relationships like phases.
But as I thought about it, overthinking as any worrier does. I realized there wasn't anything to worry about. Specially when she looked at me the way she did.
"Matty?" She spoke up, softly. Bringing me back to the moment. We were still swaying, "hmm" I replied, then. Pausing as she adjusted herself to look up at me.
"Stay."
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evietheninja · 4 years
Text
It’s on site, Bitch.
Side story to a fan fic my friends and I are writing. They wanted a fight, they got one lmao. 
New Message!
Pikachu 2.0: Yo, what do you guys think of this?
Evie glances down at her phone, reading the message out loud to the guys accompanying her in the living room. Attached to the message is a poster for an event happening tonight. "2000s night huh?" Kiri asks sitting on the couch. "Sounds MANLY!" He practically yells, excitement in his voice. "When was the last time we all went out anyway?" He asks, looking over at Bakugo and Evie who are sitting on the floor. "It's been some time, that's for sure." Evie says, closing the picture and typing out a reply.
Glowstick: Sounds like fun!
PoisonIvyWHO?: CAN WE GET READY TOGETHER LIKE WE USED TO??
BigTittieGothGF: YESSS
Evie laughs as she looks over to the boys who are staring down at their screens as the messages come through. "What the fuck babe, you kicking us out?" Bakugo asks, a smirk across his face. "No, dumbass. I may be getting ready at someone elses place." She says looking back down at her phone.
PoisonIvyWHO?: Evie's?
BigTittieGothGF: YEah! Evie, you okay with that?
BakuBITCH: Really? We JUST got this fucking place and you're already kicking us out?
DaddyShark: That's not very manly of you guys.
Glowstick: Kiri.. We're not men..
Kiri laughs. "Why the fuck are you texting me that I'M RIGHT HERE." Evie and Bakugo laugh. "You fucking texted us instead of SAYING IT." She says, leaning on Bakugo as she laughed.
PoisonIvyWho: I'll be there in 20.
BigTittieGothGF: Too bad, Bakugo. We're already going. Get whatever ur wearing and GO TO DENKI'S
Pikachu2.0: Yeah... Cal already told me you guys were getting kicked. Sorry lmaoo
Bakugo rolls his eyes. "Well FUCK Kiri, I guess we're getting kicked out of our own place." He says, standing up. "Let's go pick what we're gonna wear and get out of here before the girls get here. I'm not trying to fight with Cal when she gets here, and lord knows Nina will tell me some shit and they're gonna piss me the hell off before the night even starts." Bakugo finishes, holding out a hand to help Evie up. She laughs, making a loud HUMPH as she gets up. "Babe, seriously suck it up stop being such a baby." She says, laughing.
"Shut the hell up, dumbass. I'll fight your ass too." He says, pulling her in for a kiss. "UGH GET A ROOOOOMMMMM" Kiri says, tossing a ketchup packet at them. "Oh my GOD Suki when did we adopt a CHILD?" Evie laughed pulling away from Bakugo. She picks the ketchup packet up and throws it back, casuing Kiri to swat at it. It hits the wall, splattering. "BRO WHAT THE FUCK" Bakugo yells, walking over to Kiri and grabbing him. "BRO SHE FUCKIN THREW AT ME WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?" Kiri yelled back, attempting to put Bakugo in a headlock.
Evie takes her phone and snaps a picture, sending it to the group chat.
Glowstick: Alright, who had two weeks?
PoisonIvyWho?: ME BEECH RUN ME MY MONEEEEYYY
Glowstick: *Paid PoisonIvyWHO? $20*
BigTittieGothGF: *Paid PoisonIvyWHO? $20*
Pikachu2.0: *Paid PoisonIvyWHO? $20*
BigTittieGothGF: Here's Shota's piece.
BigTittieGothGF: *Paid PoisonIvyWHO? $20*
PoisongIvyWHO: HELL YEAH IM GETTIN FUUUCKED TONIGHT!!
Pikachu2.0: You bet your ass you are. ;)
Glowstick: BROOOO
Evie laughed, watching the boys continue to wrestle. "Damn a little less clothing and I'd be questioning if I was just a cover up." She says, walking over to the hall towards her and Bakugo's room. Eventually, she heard the boys stop and she assumed one of them looked at their phone, because next thing she knew the boys were at the doorway, glaring at her.
"What?" Evie said, looking between the boys. "You fucking bet on us?" Bakugo says, his hands sparking lightly. "Hey, calm down. I wasn’t the ONLY one who bet. Even fucking Aizawa was in on it! You can't put that on me alone." She says, keeping her distance. "What were the lengths of time?" Kiri asks, genuinely curious. "Uh, Cal said 2 weeks, Ni said a week, Aizawa said an hour, Denki said 3 days." She says. "And YOU?" Bakugo asks. "Me? I gave you guys the benefit of the doubt and said a month. But nooooo." She says laughing. "ANYWAY. You two need to get the hell out.” She says, pushing the boys out of the room. “Wait, dumbass! I kind of need clothes to wear.” Bakugo says, pushing past her to get into the closet inside their room. Kiri laughs and walks over to his room to get some clothes to change into. 
Bakugo packed a WHOLE ASS BAG of clothes, a few shirts and a couple pairs of jeans because he wanted to make sure he looked really good. Kiri did just about the same, a whole backpack with clothes inside. What the fuck? Are they spending the night? Why the fuck. Evie laughed lightly as they made their way to the door. They may be men, but god DAMN they take forever to get ready. 
“Alright, we’ll be at Denki’s. Text me if you need anything.” Bakugo says, planting  quick peck on Evie’s lips before leaving. “:Yeah yeah, have fun I’ll let you know when we leave.” She says as she opens the door. “Wha- why the fuck are you guys taking backpacks? I thought you guys were going just to change not spend the week there.” Nina’s voice echos through the hall after seeing the boys. “FUUUCK I thought we’d be gone by the time you guys got here.” Bakugo complains, nodding at Cal and Nina as they enter the apartment. “Shut the hell up, boom boom boy.” Cal says walking past him. He tugs at her sprout on her head, causing her to yelp. “Stop it, asshole! i’ll get Frank on your ass.” She warns, rubbing her sprout as he lets go. 
“Who the fuck is Frank:?” He asks, Kirishima laughing next to him. “None of your business,  leave! You take any longer and we’ll be fucking late.” Nina says, closing the door as they walk in. “I thought we’d never get rid of them.” They joke as they smile and hug Evie. Cal jumps onto them, laughing and giggling as they regain themselves. 
The next hour and a half consists of the trio getting dressed, comparing outfits and making sure they looked really good for the night ahead. Cal is wearing a green lace bralette, with gloves to match. Shes got a tight black skirt, with thigh high stockings with guarders with heels. Her hair is down and tame, the black skirt and green top complimenting her every feature. Nina is wearing a black and white cheetah print tube top, with leather shorts, thigh high platform boots with her chains rearranged in a choker fashion, with a loop in the middle for an attachable leash, her mullet slick back. Evie is wearing a green long sleeve crop top that ties around her stomach, with a deep v cut, ripped skinny jeans and thigh high heel boots. Her hair is half up, the other half tamed beautifully to compliment the outfit. She puts on her favorite black choker with a silver heart in the middle. She only wears it when she wants Bakugo to replace it with his hand, which she was sure he would do later. 
The group looks at each others outfits, gushing on how ridiculously good they looked. After a very long photo shoot, the group locks up the apartment and heads out. They meet up at the club, excited to get the night started. They are (not surprisingly) the first  ones to make it. They stand around, waiting to hear from their significant other’s and Kirishima. Denki, Bakugo and Kirishima show up next, Denki walking up dressed from head to toe in black, a silver chain on his belt loops and black and silver jewelry complimenting his outfit. Kirishima has on red cargo shorts, a white t shirt on with a windbreaker jacket that says “Riot” in red letters on the back. Bakugo is in black jeans with an orange tee shirt, with orange converse to match and a black blazer. He, for once, slicked his hair back and hot DAMN he looked good to Evie. Cal and Evie couldn’t help but gawk over their men as Aizawa finally made his way to the group. Aizawa is dressed in a grey v neck t-shirt, skinny jeans, a loose fitting leather jacket with his scarf covering his neck as it always does. His hair is half up in a bun on the back of his head. He probably looks the most comfortable than every one in the group. 
They gather in their group, Denki pulling Cal closer as he looks her up and down. Bakugo smirks as he watches Evie approach him, eyeing her figure. “You... you are SO lucky we didn’t get ready at the same place.” He growls as he throws an arm over her. “We would’ve never made it to this damn club.” He finishes, hearing Denki and Kirishima laugh in agreement. “I wouldn’t have heard the end of it.” Kiri says under his breath. They laugh and enter the club.
After a few drinks, dedicating drinks to their accomplishments ranging from graduating college and getting their own places, to them just being happy they were all finally getting to hang out. Feeling the light buzz, Evie urges Bakugo to go out and dance with her. He complains, although in actuality, she knew he loved to dance with her, able to show the girl he was with. 
Cal and Denki were laughing and talking amongst themselves for a bit before finally heading out to the dance floor. Lets be honest, they were only a few drinks away from starting their dance battles, and everyone for once was ready for it. 
Aizawa and Nina stood close together, Nina dancing to the music while Aizawa watched, almost entranced by her movements. God, the way he looked at her, the way he undressed her with his eyes. Anyone who’d watched them grew jealous of the love they had for each other. Every so often, he would pull them in and says something that would physically cause Nina to shudder. It always entertained Evie. She’d always laugh watching the way just words would make Nina squirm. 
Evie looked up at Bakugo, urging him again. He laughed and nodded over to Kiri, inviting him to dance with them. Many people questioned the relationship they shared, were they all in some kind of relationship? Was it just as simple as Bakugo and Evie were just comfortable with Kiri? Pretty much. Nither Evie nor Bakugo saw Kiri in that way, and Kiri just really loved to dance. 
The trio makes their way to the dance floor as the music bumped through the speakers. Evie let the music take over, feeling Bakugo behind her, molding to her body with ease. Kiri does the same, only in front. Nina had stopped dancing for a sec to watch her friends dance, and smirked at the three. They knew Bakugo wouldn’t hold his composure long, and would claim Evie in about a song or two. 
The song Goodies bumped through the speakers, with it being Evie’s favorite song, she danced harder feeling the boys match her tempo. Every so often, because Bakugo couldn’t make his mind up about how comfortable he was with Evie facing either towards or away from him, he would turn her. She laughed, feeling the drinks work their way into her system, giving her a good feeling. 
The song Me&U begins to bump through the speakers. Evie starts to sing the lyrics, the front of her body facing Kiri. Kiri begins to sing as well, looking Evie in the eyes while doing so. Bakugo takes notice, and whips her around, glaring at Kiri from over Evie. She laughs, noticing Kiri pick up his hands in apology and decides that’s the time for him to go find another dance partner. Evie grabs Bakugo by his cheeks, forcing him to look at her as they grind. For a while, it feels like they’re the only two in the room. 
Sweat drips, their bodies bumping to the sound of the base. Evie smiles up at Bakugo and kisses him. Then, she jumps, feeling a cold, wet feeling run down her back. She whips around, seeing Ururaka looking her up and down smirking. “Oops, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.” She says smugly in a monotone voice over the music. Ururaka then turns her attention to Bakugo, her smile turning sweet. “Hey, Kachan, how are you?” She says, taking a step closer to him almost pushing Evie out of the way. Evie looks to her left, seeing Nina already making their way to her with Cal close behind, a worried Denki behind them and Aizawa looking from the distance. “Don’t fucking call me that, one. And two we’re in the middle of something, so if you could, you know, fuck off that’d be great.” Bakugo says, bumping her shoulder and returning to Evie. 
“Oh, you’d rather be with that? HA, okay.” Ururaka says, scoffing as she looks at the couple. “Listen here you broke ass bit-” Cal starts, ready to lunge at her. Nina stops her for a second, looking Ururaka up and down before speaking. “Is there a problem?” they ask. “Oh, can’t fight your own fights?” Ururaka says, turning her attention back to Evie. “Oh, I can fucking fight alright.” Evie says, rolling up her sleeves and removing her earrings. “Hold these baby please.” She says, handing them to Bakugo who takes them and places them in his pocket, taking a step back to watch Evie do what she did best. “Oh you got the wrong bitch” Nina says, cracking their knuckles. 
Ururaka pushes Evie. She stumbles lightly, and recovers quickly. Ururaka looks at her in confusion. She’s...not floating. Evie looks over to a golden eyed, floating haired Aizawa, who’d activated his quirk, disabling Ururaka’s. Evie smirked, returning her attention to Ururaka who was already on the floor due to Nina using her chains to restrain her, and Cal straight out kicking her on the ground. She laughed, bending down as Cal got in another kick. No one around noticed, nor cared about what was happening to Ururaka. 
“Oh honey, you should’ve known better.” Evie says in the sweetest way possible as she stands and gets her kick in. Nina unrestrains her and they step over her, turning to return to Aizawa when Ururaka gets up, grabs Nina by the shoulder and throws a punch. Before the punch even makes contact, Cal jumps on her, throwing punches as Ururaka turns her attention to her. Somehow, she manages to get a hold of Cal’s sprout on her head, making her even more mad. Evie grabs Ururaka by the hair, pulling her off of Cal and punching her a couple times before Bakugo steps in. He grabs Evie, stopping her from injuring her anymore. “It’s not worth it, babe.” He says, attempting to calm her down. 
“She isnt worth it!” Ururaka screams, getting up because this girl STILL hadn't had enough. Nina uses her chains to grab Ururaka, throwing her to the ground and planting a platformed boot on her chest. They lean in real close, speaking loud enough for her to hear. “Listen here, bitch. YOU, are a piece of shit, and if we EVER see you trying it again, it’s on site.” They say before getting up. Cal walks up, kicking her down as she tries to sit up. “Oh, the 99 cent store called, they want their dress back.” Cal says, spitting on her before leaving as well. Evie calms herself enough for Bakugo to let her go, and they turn back once more before laughing and walking off. 
Before any kind of authorities are called, the group leaves the club, making their way to their favorite after club place, a 24/7 boba tea place just down the street from the club, They order drinks, and all make another toast to a great night. “I’ve really been wanting to do that shit since the situation.” Cal says, beaming. “Same” Nina says, clinking cups and laughing. Bakugo walks over to the table, with drinks in one hand and his phone in the other. The fact they’d forgotten Kiri was fucking hilarious to him. Kiri slams through the door, asking about what’d happened. He was SO upset he’d missed it. 
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n0-eyedtaissa · 5 years
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The Gargoyle Gang : An Introduction to the Descent into Madness
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Aiden Kurtz: He can remember how it started, but he can’t seem to put the pieces together in order to figure out how things got this bad. It wasn’t always like this. It started at Southside High School, in Mr. Phillips’s English class. The man took a particular liking to Aiden, told the teenage boy that he had potential but he needed to apply himself more. Started calling him by his last name, “You know, like the character from the novel? Or have you been skipping out on your readings?” The kind teacher looked at Aiden with expectant eyes, holding up a well-marked copy of Heart of Darkness. Not wanting to be chastised for spacing out in class, Aiden nods along, zipping up his black JanSport and throwing the backpack over one shoulder. “Come by my office after school, kid. I think you and I could help each other out.” He trusts his teacher enough not to think ill of him, so he reports to Mr. Philips’s room right after seventh period ends. “Ah, Mr. Kurtz! Glad you could join me!” Aiden liked the way his last name rolled off the man’s tongue, he made a mental note to tell his friends that he just wanted to go by “Kurtz” now. The trusted teacher clapped a friendly hand over the boy’s shoulder, steering him down the hallway and down the chilly metal stairs and into the depths of the old school’s basement. Fizzle rocks. It’s an invitation to a world that Kurtz wouldn’t be able to get out of until it killed him. “You can’t tell anyone about this, Kurtz” And he doesn’t. 
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Hunter Alex: Seeing red was easy for him. Anger was a palpable emotion, one that was easy to relieve himself of. There’s a fist-sized hole in the drywall of his bedroom, he covers the hole with a poster of a loud band that really couldn’t be classified as “music,” just noise. The pills get handed to him every morning before school, and again just before he goes to bed. Mom used to keep the orange plastic bottles in the bathroom medicine cabinet until she caught Hunter double-dipping one too many times. He was torn between wanting to feel everything and nothing simultaneously. Hunter can remember his mom crying after he broke the hallway mirror, glass shards poking out of the peaks of his now-split knuckles. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with him! He scares me, I’m scared of my own son! What kind of mother can say that?” The woman lit up a cigarette as she ranted to Clint, or as Hunter liked to call him, husband number three. “Send his sorry ass off to military school, that’s what my dad did with me and I turned out to be a damn good man!” The big man is boisterous as he takes another long swig off a warm can of Coors Lite, the neckline of his wife-beater soaked with a thin layer of sweat. When Hunter notices the hand-shaped bruises on his mother’s arms, he corners his step-father in the kitchen, pushes the man in the nook between the refrigerator and the stove and delivers a swift uppercut to Clint’s jaw before repeatedly punching him square in the nose. “Who’s a good man now?” 
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Jackson Schulz: When he was a kid, he remembered telling his parents that he wanted to be a scientist; a physicist or a doctor. He couldn’t even spell the word “physicist,” but he thought that he would make a good one. His parents are supportive — they buy him the toy kits, the plastic test tubes and the junior microscope, take him out to dinner when he wins first place at the science fair, brag to all of their snooty co-workers about how smart their boy was. He thinks about those days, when everything was innocent and no one was getting hurt. The prodigal son of a doctor and a lecturer, meant for greatness but always falling short. Jackson can remember the first time he watches his father exchange his stash of medical-grade pharmaceuticals for money; There’s a young man with curly hair and wide eyes standing at the back door of the big yellow house, waiting for the sleight-of-hand exchange of money for the big sack of pills. It was right after Grandma got her diagnosis, the cancer came back after being long-dormant and it was aggressive as ever. The insurance company wasn’t going to be able to cover the cost of all the expenses anymore, so the family was forced to reevaluate their options. Jackson watches the shallow rise and fall of her breathing as she sleeps, Hospice set up a bed in the living room now, complete with all the tubes, bells, and whistles. He tiptoes over to the staircase and watches as his father injects something into the IV drip. It’s the first time that he realizes chemicals have a certain kind of power. 
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Wyatt Hudson: Curiosity may have killed the cat, but hey, at least the cat got its answer. He was born with too many questions and not enough answers. Wyatt’s mom swears to God in Heaven that her son’s first words were “But why?” The young boy had a hunger for knowledge and thought that he could answer every question in the world if he asked the right people. When the family was forced to move into a different, smaller house; But why? When mama said that daddy wasn’t coming back now or ever; But why? When Wyatt’s older sister Raven ran off and left her newborn baby at home; But why? There were so many questions he had yet to have answered, but some that he was too scared to ask. He finds a boy who’ll answer almost anything (within reason), and promises that he’s found a way to make sense of things, to make sense of everything. “It’s just a game, what’s so special about it?” Kurtz smiles, which is an unnerving expression with his gaunt features, lifeless eyes and pupils that look wrong and too big. “It’s not a game, it’s so much more,”. He grabs Wyatt by the hand and leads his friend over to the locker bank. Kurtz’s fingers are cold and shaky as he dials the combination, pulling out the worn paperback player’s manual. Turning on his boot-heels, he tosses the book at Wyatt, who fumbles to catch it. Gryphons and Gargoyles. It scares him and excites him all in one. When things get bad, when it becomes more than a game, and Wyatt can’t bear to look himself in the eye, he has one question for the person that got him into this mess in the first place. 
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curiositydooropened · 4 years
Text
Will’s Day
He caught his reflection in the full length mirror and paused to run fingertips along the scars of his abdomen. It was a daily occurrence, itching odd bits of skin that prickled, scrubbing himself in the shower, occasionally enjoying his hot tub alone, but since today was what it was, they struck different.
[In which Will is inundated with memories of a day he’s been trying to forget.]
Word Count: 5,116 words
Characters: Will, the Byers clan, and the rest of the Party
The buzzing of his cell phone against his writing desk indicated several texts coming in at one time, and Will stared at it over thick-rimmed glasses, graphite pencil poised in one hand. He regretted bringing it into his office, having done so out of habit. He’d answered e-mails from clients that morning while sipping his coffee, and he’d read the news after that. He was currently using it to broadcast ambient sounds around his studio while he sketched out his latest piece. He was annoyed at how dependent he’d become to the tiny hunk of metal and glass.
He supposed he wouldn’t have been annoyed if it wasn’t that day. That day, it came up every year, November 6th, the anniversary of the day he went missing. He tried to forget it, push it back into the recesses of his mind, lock away the horrors he’d been forced to speak about his entire life, the horrors that inspired his comic book series, made him famous. He owed his career to that day, and yet he wished it never happened.
It was also impossible to forget about that day when, like clockwork, every November 6th, he’d been inundated with texts of love from people he’d rarely spoken to since they went to college in different cities, had careers across the world, learned to distance themselves from their tortured pasts.
So, tossing his pencil gently aside, he took a deep breath, leaning back in his squeaky wooden chair, and he grabbed for his cell phone to read the latest well-wish from someone he missed who’d moved on with their life. Surprisingly, his first message was from his brother.
Jonathan: Mom said we’re going to yours for dinner. Want me to talk her out of it?
He loved his brother’s astute sense of awareness, but he knew there was no use. Mom would pound the door down just to see him. Especially today. He couldn’t do that to her. 
No. Don’t want to upset her. Come on over around 6. Bring the family. 
It had been a while since he’d seen his niece and nephews. Maybe having family around was what he needed to rid his shoulders of tension and his dreams of rows of teeth and growing vines. 
On days like today, he hid his comics in a chest in the corner. It felt childish, but on Halloween, he’d rolled up his posters and pulled down his shelf of accomplishments, locking them away in the oversized trunk with his old purple wizard’s outfit and the super comm. He couldn’t have flower-shaped faces and the ghostly face of a teenaged girl staring back at him while he worked.
Another buzz in his hand startled his focus from the chest in the corner, and the device in his hand notified him of an incoming phone call from his mother. He removed his glasses, rubbing at tired eyes, and answered her call for the third time today.
“Will?”
“Hi, mom,” he sighed. The room around him went quiet from the lack of music, and there was the faint buzz of static in his ear, sending chills down his neck. His mom’s voice went in and out of the receiver. “Mom?” He felt frantic. He pushed off from his chair.
“Will, honey, can you hear me?”
“Mom, where are you?”
“Sorry, we’re at the grocery store. I never get any damn service in here.”
His breathing regulated, relief coursing through him. So it was going to be like that today. He sighed, exiting his office to find the pill cabinet above the kitchen sink. “What’s up?” He asked over the phone, filling a glass of water.
“Jonathan texted and said he’s bringing Nancy and the kids. Mike and El are coming too, is that okay?”
He sighed. He supposed he couldn’t avoid seeing his adopted siblings either, even though their faces haunted his dreams worse than the others. Their relationship had been strained in the past few years, not wanting their stories told as detailed in his comics. He understood it was for El’s safety, but they had to understand his need to tell his truth, his full truth, even if the general public thought it was a brilliant work of science fiction. “Of course. The more the merrier.” Did she want to invite Dustin and Lucas too?
“Is there anything you want us to pick up at the store? Hop’s thinking prime rib.”
“Sounds great, mom, as long as he’s cooking it.”
“You know I don’t let your mom cook anything,” Hop yelled over the noise of the store. “Don’t want to burn your nice house down.” Lovely, she’d dialed him on speaker phone at the grocery store. He supposed he should be grateful it wasn’t a video chat.
“Good call, Hop,” he grit his teeth, downing his dosage of anxiety medication and chugging water to wash them down. 
“Listen, sweetie, we’ve got to go. We’ll see you tonight.”
“Okay, love you.”
“Love you too.” Click.
Once again, his house was drowned in silence. He hit play on his music and waltzed back into the office. The trunk continued to stare from the corner as he hunched back over his work, throwing his glasses on to sketch small details for his latest client. Oftentimes, he’d do artwork for several ghostwritten comics. He did an issue of X-Men once, which had been his ultimate dream. Getting the news of that was probably the best day of his life. He didn’t have anything else to compare it to, no weddings, no babies.
He glanced upward at the picture of his family rooted to his shelf next to a myriad of awards. His mom and Hopper took up the center, one massive and one tiny, hands intertwined on her shoulder. Mike and Eleven were to the left, cradled in each other’s arms with beaming faces. Jonathan and Nancy were clutching at her swollen stomach. Their other two kids made funny faces at the camera, striking goofy poses. Will was in the back, a half-hearted smile on his face, wondering when he’d have a partner to show the family. That was ten years ago, before Teddy had been born. 
Two hours into his work, desk vibrations signaled a new message. He stretched his hands, cracking at tired knuckles. He’d made some significant headway on his drawing, allowing his art to distract from the day or the time or even the real world around him. He supposed that’s why he’d turned to art in the first place, as a distraction.
Now, grappling for his phone, he glanced to see the familiar name pop up with a photo.
Dustin: Look who I stumbled upon! Miss you, buddy!
Dustin’s curls had been cropped short and tight, but he had the same infectious smile, one arm cocked around the shoulders of an aged Steve Harrington. The older man still had the hair, though it was graying significantly, and wrinkles had formed around his brown eyes. The selfie was cropped too tight for Will to make out a location, and he wondered if Dustin had gone to visit Hawkins that week, or perhaps Steve was in DC. He realized he wasn’t sure where Steve was living now, what he’d done with his life. 
Blast from the past. Miss you too. Hope they haven’t kicked you out of Washington yet.
The response came quicker than he anticipated. 
I would say ‘never’, but with this administration, who the hell knows? Hope Chicago’s treating you well. Any good comics to watch out for?
Dustin always was his biggest fan. Although he didn’t appreciate the portrayal of the loud-mouthed, chubby kid, Will knew Dustin was ecstatic to be the star of a comic book. They always geeked out together about X-Men among other things. They’d drifted apart of the years when Dustin moved away and had a family, but they’d always have long nights perched under Cerebro, making calls to Salt Lake City. 
New volume closer to Christmas. I’m actually working on something for DarkHorse at the moment. 
Awesome, man. I’ve gotta head back to work. Maybe I’ll call you later.
Will knew he wouldn’t hear from him again until his birthday in March, except for the family picture Christmas card, Dustin’s wife, Jody, will send in December. He had a growing pile stashed in one of his drawers, ready to pull out in case any of his friends visited. They never did.
He paused his work to eat some lunch, a haphazard egg salad sandwich that had somehow dribbled down the front of his t-shirt. He’d have to change before mom showed up or she’d worry he wasn’t taking care of himself. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, setting his phone down on the couch-side table, and walked down the hall to his bedroom. He pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it into the laundry pile, auto-walking into his oversized closet for something more patterned, in case he spilled his snack later. He didn’t want to change twice.
He caught his reflection in the full length mirror and paused to run fingertips along the scars of his abdomen. It was a daily occurrence, itching odd bits of skin that prickled, scrubbing himself in the shower, occasionally enjoying his hot tub alone, but since today was what it was, they struck different. 
He’d had a few scars from his first trip to the upside down, mainly under his jaw, from where that feeding tube had suction cupped to his face. He had a burn scar in his side from where Nancy prodded him with a white hot iron fire poker, Thanks Nance. He had several scars on his knees from glass shards on the floor of Starcourt Mall and a burn on his hand from a mis-placed firework fuse. All of these injuries paled in comparison to the long claw mark leading from the collar bone to his navel. It had been over thirty years, but he could still feel the frigid sting, could still see the open mouth, rows of teeth, playing with its food. 
The loud ring of his phone down the hall startled him back to reality, and he threw on a nearby black t-shirt, scurrying past any mirrors until he reached his phone. MADMAX flashed on the screen. He sighed and clicked to answer.
“Hey,” he mumbled.
“Today’s the day, right?” Ah, yes, the ever-tactic Maxine.
“Yeah,” he sighed, crashing back into his leather sofa. 
“How’s Joyce handling it?”
“Same as every year. The whole family’s coming for dinner.”
“Well that’ll be nice. Wish I was there.”
“Wish you were too.” 
They’d had an unexpected, and somewhat tedious, relationship after Billy died. Max asked Will a lot of prying and personal questions, but he understood she just wanted to know what her brother had felt, how he couldn’t have been in control of his body when he carried all of those people to their deaths. Will could give her that feeling, explain what Billy was experiencing. 
They developed a friendship beyond that, discussing comic books. Max taught him how to skate board and ace arcade games. For a while into puberty, Will thought Max could be the one. She and Lucas had broken up for good, and Will knew he loved her, knew he got along with her better than almost everyone in the group. She knew what it felt like to be an outsider. She’d experienced trauma in ways the others would never understand.
They shared other fundamental qualities as well, they learned the closer they got, such as deadbeat dads and protective older brothers. Neil was a lot worse than Lonnie, and Max spent nights without Billy asking God why the Mind Flayer didn’t take Neil instead. Her prayers were answered the following year.
“Are you moping today or being productive?” Max asked, in the way Will was sure she’d ask her children on a bad day of classes. Were they in college now?
“A little of both,” he chuckled. “What about you?”
“You know me, always working. I’m on call actually, so I might have to go soon. But I wanted to make sure you were you know... not missing.”
“Appreciate it.”
“Tell Joyce and the family hi.”
“Will do.”
“Love you, Zombie Boy.”
“Love you, Max.”
The house fell silent once more.
At promptly six o’clock, a ring at the door signaled the first group of family members. Will turned the volume down on the Jonathan-centric playlist he chose and padded toward the door, socks catching slightly on the carpet in the entry way. He toyed with a few smiles before settling for the least-extreme and opened the door to greet his brother and sister-in-law.
“Hi, how are you?” Nancy asked, promptly kissing both cheeks before shoving past him to put her fruit salad in the fridge.
“Great,” he lied. “How are you guys?”
Teddy stood in front of Jonathan, staring at the device in his hand instead of greeting his uncle, and Will moved out of the way to let them in as well.
“We’re good, right Teddy?”
The ten-year-old harrumphed in agreement. Will glanced over his shoulder to see he was playing a game about the living dead, how apt. 
“What’ve you been up to today?” Jonathan asked, waltzing into the kitchen behind his wife to find a bottle of scotch. He always knew where Will hid his favorite stash. He pulled two, “three?” “I have to drive”, two glass tumblers from the cabinet and poured a glass for them each.
“Just working on this project for DarkHorse.” Will sighed, taking the beverage from his brother.
“That’s right, the anti-hero one, right?”
“Yeah. Nancy, can I offer you anything?”
She waved him off. “Teddy, want a coke?”
The kid made a noise that sounded like “uh” in agreement, and Nancy pulled two sodas from the fridge, popping the tabs.
“What should we toast to?” Jonathan grinned, holding his glass up to cheers. “To... finding you?”
Will made a face. “To mom?”
“I like that,” Jonathan smirked. “To our crazy ass mom.”
Will didn’t like the addition, but he clinked glasses anyway. Nancy threw her can in absentmindedly and the three of them took a long swig before Nancy flittered back to the living room. The whisky burned its way down to a warm pocket just below his rib cage. It sat there, ruminating. He wondered if he’d need more anxiety medication to survive the night. 
The doorbell rang again. Nancy opened it, and around the corner he heard the chirps and cries of greetings that signaled the arrival of mom and Hop and Mike and Eleven. He cursed under his breath.
“Oh, Bea’s running late, by the way. Nancy think she might have a boyfriend and that idea makes me want to die. So he might come too, hope that’s okay.” Jonathan threw in as an aside.
Will shrugged. “That’s fine, whatever. What about Mickey?”
“Oh, Mick’s at school. You’ll probably see him on Thanksgiving.”
“Right, okay.” Mickey was probably Will’s favorite nephew. He grew up fascinated about Will’s comics and was going to school to be a writer himself. They’d grown distance in the past couple of years, but Will held a fondness unmatched in the boy’s siblings, although he obviously loved them too.
“Will?” Joyce called from the living room. The chatter had grown tenfold in the other room, and Will figured there was no use trying to avoid it any longer. He took another full gulp of his drink before tip-toeing to greet his house guests.
“Hey, mom-“ Immediately, he’d been crushed in a rib breaking embrace from his mother, who kissed at his cheek and commented on his appearance. “Okay, mom, okay. Missed you too.” Since last Saturday. He chuckled, gently pushing the woman away, and she stepped back to reveal Hopper’s uncomfortable stance.
“Son,” he held a hand out to shake and Will returned the awkward gesture. They’d been through so much together, he and his stepfather, but Hopper never quite fell into the fatherly role as he had with Eleven. He was protective sure, and caring. He was understanding and kind and strong, and he took amazing care of Joyce in their old age, but he was always a little distant. Will supposed Russia did that to him, and New York before that, and Vietnam before that, and hell, probably Hawkins before that.
“Where’d you get that whisky?” Hopper asked, a familiar twinkle in his eye, alleviating the tension between them.
“Jonathan’s in the kitchen,” Will laughed.
“Oh, Jonathan!” Mom called, leading her husband into the next room.
Before Will could process what was happening, a pair of slender arms had been thrown around his neck, and a soft bosom heated his chest. “Hi, brother,” Eleven sighed into his ear, sending shivers down his spine. With his free hand, he knelt into the embrace, squeezing her around the middle. He buried his face in chocolate curls and breathed her in. This wasn’t the greeting he was expecting from her, but he was glad it was the one she’d gone with.
She pulled away, holding him at arm’s length, and tears had sprung in her brown eyes. 
“Don’t do that,” he groaned, attempting a grimaced smile. “I’m fine, really.” 
“I know, I’m sorry,” she laughed, waving away tears. “I’ve just been thinking about you all day, and I love you is all.”
“I love you too, freak,” he smiled, kicking at her sneakered foot. “Shoes off at the door though.”
She swatted at him, but retreated to the door to pull off her shoes, trailing November soil and leaves with her. He made a mental note to vacuum once everyone had left. 
“Hey,” came a timid throat clear as Mike stepped forward from his spot watching Teddy play video games. 
“Hey,” Will responded. 
This was more of the greeting he had expected. He hadn’t spoken to Mike in months, and he was shocked he even agreed to show up. They’d had a fight during the latest issue release, when Mike read the manuscript and all of the details about Eleven’s past. El was sour too, a little overwhelmed, but Mike, who always had El’s well-being in mind, threw a fit. He threw words too, so many hurtful words, words that still stung as Will looked at him now.
He was the same Mike Wheeler he’d always been, too tall, gangly, freckled. Only now his unkempt hair was speckled with grey and glasses round his dark eyes turning his furrowed brow into the spitting image of ole Ted Wheeler, though he didn’t have kids of his own to ignore. 
“I’m going to get a drink,” Mike sighed, peeling off toward the bustling sounds of the kitchen.
“Michael!” Nancy hissed, sounding eerily like Karen scolding down the basement stairs.
Will closed his eyes and took a deep breath in and out. He definitely needed his pills.
El came over and linked her arm with his, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’ve missed you.”
“You too,” he smiled softly when she pulled his drink from his hand to take a swig.
“How are you?”
“Good.”
“How are you today though?”
He was getting frustrated of the question, wanting desperately for today to be like any other day. “I’m good.”
She cocked a knowing eyebrow behind his tipped glass. 
“I got a text from Dustin today. I guess Steve was in DC. Max called. It was a good day.”
El nodded, seemingly satisfied with his response, and sandwiched her palm into his. “Let’s join the party.” Despite his groan of protest, she tugged him toward the kitchen, leaving Teddy in the living room with his video game. Jonathan found the controls to crank the music.
Hopper’s prime rib was delicious, as usual, and the alcohol and food had the family in a near coma scattered around Will’s living room furniture. Hopper had moseyed off to his favorite armchair, pulling the lever to recline, snoring almost immediately. Joyce lovingly posted herself on the mantle at his feet, warming herself on the wood burning fire. 
Teddy’s eyes hadn’t left his phone the entire meal, much to Nancy’s chagrin, and after dinner, he somehow found his way back to the couch to continue his game. Bea stumbled in midway through the meal, brown hair a mess and neck wrapped dutifully in an oversized scarf to hide a hickey. Nancy and her had quite the fight in the entryway while everyone listened on with knowing smirks. After the meal, she found herself posted up next to Teddy, the two of them kicking ankles and making annoyed faces. They truly were the spitting image of Nancy and Mike.
“So, Bea, Jonathan tells me you’re taking the year off school?” El started, tucking herself into Mike on the opposing love seat. 
“Yeah,” Bea chewed on the inside of her cheek, anxiously eyeing her mother. “I just don’t know what I want to do yet, so why waste the money?”
“It’s not a waste-“ Nancy started, but Jonathan stopped her with a hand to the knee and a kiss on the cheek.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Will challenged, alcohol lighting the fire within him like a hot poker to his side. “I mean, I didn’t go to college and look at me now.” He gestured to the grand house around them, empty except for special holidays like this one, the anniversary of the time he was kidnapped by an inter dimensional creature. 
“Yeah, look at you now,” Mike spat from beside Eleven, his eyes narrowed behind thick glasses. 
“Mike, not now,” Eleven wrapped her arm around her husband’s wrist. 
“Yeah, Mike, not now,” Will spat. “I’m fragile today. Didn’t you hear? Dustin did, Max did. You’re all here for a reason!” He was standing now, he didn’t know when that happened. 
Mike stood too, pushing off from his seat. “Yeah, we get it, Will. You’ve been fragile for the last thirty years. Not too fragile to compromise the rest of us, but at least you’re doing fucking better.”
“Michael!” Eleven and Nancy chided in unison, but Hopper had beat them to it, fisting each of the boys on the back collar like they were thirteen again. 
“Alright you two, let’s take a walk.” 
“Whoa, what’s up with them?” Will heard Teddy pipe up, the first real word he’d said all night, as he and Mike were lead out of the room.
Hopper had surprising brute strength for a nearly 70-year-old, and maybe it was the alcohol lingering between the two younger men that had them stumbling into Will’s office. “Now, stay in here and talk about it like men, or don’t. I don’t give a shit. I just don’t need you upsetting your mother. Not today.” Hopper prodded at Will’s chest before backing out of the room and slamming the door.
Will ran a hand through a mop of hair, huffing out a breath of frustration. 
Mike paced the room slowly, carefully taking in the shelved walls, stopping at the family portrait above Will’s drawing desk. Beside it was an empty spot where Will’s portrait of “the Party” would have sat, the frame now tucked safely into the trunk in the corner. 
“I’m sorry, okay,” he started, slowly. “You’re right. You’ve always been right. I ‘compromised’ Eleven, or whatever you want to call it, and it’s shitty, and I’m sorry. My company wanted more storyline, more science fiction...”
“Shut up, man,” Mike scoffed. “It doesn’t matter. It’s done, it’s published. We’re fine. I Just wish you had... I don’t know, asked us first. Or drudged some more of your own trauma.”
“Oh believe me, that shit’s endless. My publishers wanted something more interesting than Will the Wise.” He rolled his eyes, staring into the blank space beside Mike’s arm. 
“What’s this?” Mike asked after a long silence, pointing to the nearly complete sketch on the table. He had one hand in his pocket, and Will knew it was clenching and unclenching into a fist around his car keys.
“It’s a comic I’m working on. It’s about this girl who is more of an antihero. She fights this vigilante guy kind of like Indiana Jones.”
“She looks pretty cool,” Mike mused softly.
“Thanks,” Will felt his cheeks warm at the unexpected compliment. He’d always struggled with drawing women, refusing to objectify them the way comics of their past had. He always saw woman as strong, mighty beings, like his mom. 
“Listen,” Mike turned to him finally, leaning his lanky frame against the drawing table. It tilted slightly, graphite pencil rolling to the ground. “I’m sorry I’ve been a dick. I know you didn’t mean harm. You never do. These past few years have just been... Getting old is bullshit.”
Will knew what he meant. It’d never been easy for them. In their late twenties, they struggled to conceive. In their thirties, they spent years in court trying to pass legislation to stop the funding of projects such as those she’d been apart of. In their forties, her hormones caused her powers to go haywire. She’d accidentally set their home aflame. They’d been through enough. 
“It really is,” Will sighed. 
“I should probably take her home. She gets emotional when she’s tired.” 
Will laughed dryly. “Yeah, I better say goodbye to mom and Hop.” 
“Should we go out holding hands?”
Will felt the familiar lump in his throat, and he blew out a sort of snort in protest. Mike slapped him on the back and exited the room first. He’d never told anyone but Max about his feelings for Mike, probably never would. They’d changed by now, melded into the brotherly love they shared in elementary school, but for a while, a long while, Will looked at him differently. 
He’d pushed the thoughts away, thwarted by constant name-calling from his dad and classmates. He thought he was in love with Princess Leia, thought he was in love with Max. It wasn’t until he tried to kiss Max, planted a big one on her that she corrected him, holding him at arms length to tell him the truth about himself. 
He wasn’t sure how she knew, when he himself didn’t even know, couldn’t be. She said Billy had been into guys, back in California, that he was the reason they had to move. He and Will had more in common than a name and a shit dad and a possession. She said she saw Billy with a boyfriend once, and it was the happiest he’d been. She said it was the same way Will looked at Mike.
Mike didn’t hug Will goodbye that night, but Eleven did, bleary eyed and warm. She pressed a kiss to his forehead on tip toe and told him to call her tomorrow. He probably wouldn’t. Jonathan was next, a tight hug and a firm slap on the back. Nancy kissed his cheeks again while ushering Teddy to the car. 
“Bye, Uncle Will, thanks for having us over,” Bea threw an arm around his neck. She smelled like Nancy in high school, gun powder and cigarettes. 
He grinned. “Anytime, Bea. Come over anytime you need to hide out from your parents.”
“Bea!” Nancy called from the driveway.
“Thanks,” Bea smiled, rushing out the door toward her own clunker of a car. 
Last was Mom and Hop. Hopper gave the awkward handshake again before bursting into the snow to start the car, heating it up for mom. She turned to Will with tears in her eyes that mirrored El’s, and Will felt the lump growing in his throat. 
“Mom,” he groaned.
“I know, honey, I know. I just love you, and I’m so proud of you.”
It was somehow harder to see an elderly woman tear up. She’d aged well, but remained the same perfect mom shape to hold. She wore the same things she wore in 1983, a flannel layered over a dark t-shirt, and her leather jacket smelled of Hop’s cigarettes even though the two of them quit smoking years ago. It was the same smell she had the morning he said goodbye to her before heading to the Wheeler’s for a campaign of D&D. It was the same smell he came home to in a panic, searching for his mom and Jonathan with that thing hot on his heels.
“I love you,” he whispered into her hair, taking one last breath of her before composing himself and holding her at arms length. “Better not keep Hop waiting. Call me tomorrow?”
“Always,” she kissed his cheek before carefully stepping across the drive to Hopper’s car. Will waved to her as she got in, seeing her blow a kiss from behind the passenger side window.
The house was quiet, too quiet, only the crackling of the fire keeping time with the song playing at low volumes. Will had poured himself a night cap, the last of the bottle, and was sunken into the brown leather of his sofa. 
The familiar guitar riffs of an old haunt chimed over the sound system, and despite the tickle at the back of his neck, he reached over to turn up the volume. The oversized house was suddenly drowned in the familiar British lyrics of The Clash. He nodded his head to the tune, shaggy hair covering his eyes, alcohol warming his face. 
No lights flickered, no monster chased him. His mom was safe at home, Jonathan probably snug in his bed with his beautiful wife. Will chased his whisky with music and the taste of childhood trauma. 
His eyelids felt heavy, chest heated with exhaustion, and he thought he might fall asleep there with his black t-shirt covering the scars on his chest and the scary things locked away in a trunk in his office. 
A buzz on his rib cage brought his attention to a new message, and he opened it with a fond smile. 
Lucas: Drove past the Quarry today, and your old house. They haven’t changed a bit.
Sounds like Hawkins.
Lucas: You’re not wrong. Hey, me and kids are coming to Chicago to visit Erica for Thanksgiving. Mind if we stop by?
Will smiled. He hadn’t seen Lucas in years.
Lucas: Up for a round of D&D?
Stop in whenever. My door’s always open.
Will set his phone on the couch-side table and closed his eyes, allowing himself to drift off. He had no demogorgons to fear, no razor sharp claws to cut him in the night, no army of the living dead knocking on his door, just a trunk full of memories and a family to check in on him at his time of need. 
[Author’s Notes: Hope you enjoyed my first little fanfiction for Stranger Things Day 2019! I’ve written plenty of ST fic before, but this is my first time posting any on this platform. Please let me know what you think! I’m excited to be posting more of my work here in the future. I basically just have all the feels and need someone to talk to about it. I ship all the ships and I love all the characters, I could go on about it for hours (and I do, and my husband thinks I need friends.) so come chat! xo]
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brynandchristopher · 4 years
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Island hopping round 2!
Hello! 
It’s been 2 weeks since we last updated and a lot has happened. Last we updated we had just finished our 2nd Great Walk and were heading down the southwest coast to Wellington on the North Island. 
When we arrived in Wellington we were a bit surprised to find how developed and industrial it seemed. There were some low-key skyscrapers, a huge port harbor, and quite a bit of hustle and bustle. Outside of Auckland, New Zealand is very sleepy and quaint so it was a just a bit shocking to be back in a real city. Cities can be cool though! We walked along the seaside wharf and admired the harbor as well as visited the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum. The museum is argued to be the coolest in all of NZ, and being the only museum we’ve been to, we will have to agree. It was indeed super cool and we were enthralled to explore the nature exhibit that explained and demonstrated the unique wildlife and geophysical phenomena present along these volcanic islands isolated out in the ocean. We drove down to the southern most point of the north island to stay the night before our ferry ride the next day. Where we stayed happened to be a marine reserve that boasted an incredible amount of biodiversity. It also advertised marked snorkeling trails in the water - I have a snorkeling set with me from our time in Asia so the next morning before our ferry I decided to brave the water and dive in. I saw a couple of girls the day before snorkeling the route wearing wetsuits but I figured I would be fine without one. The water here is pretty cold but we take a quick dip most days. I was very wrong - it is very difficult to swim long distances in really cold water while breathing through a tube. Unfortunately I had to get out of the water real quick and all I really saw was some cool seaweed but, it was pretty funny for Bryn to watch me flounder.
Later that afternoon we were off to take our ferry to the south island. We got there early and after driving our car up into the giant Bluebridge Ferry we got a lovely window seat and began the 3.5 hour trip across the Cook Strait. The last hour of the trip was incredible. We climbed up to the top of the ferry to watch as our hulking hull glided through steep glacially carved fjords. We disembarked and drove an hour or so to a campground out in the woods where we regrouped and spent the night. 
The next day we drove down the coast and made our way to a town called Nelson. Our plan was to get to Nelson, pick up some more butane gas canisters for our stove and keep driving. We ended up staying for 2.5 days. Nelson was a really hip, fun town with lots of cool organic food shops, local artisan stores, 3 farmers market every week and a freedom-campers service hub with free hot showers! The service hub had just opened up and a a news reporter was taking videos and asked to interview us. We ended up on national news here in New Zealand! If only for a few seconds. (https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/nelson-charity-appalled-efforts-host-freedom-campers-instead-homeless) We did some shopping and our first night there we went to a movie at the local theatre, which also happened to be an Italian restaurant but that’s beside the point. We saw 1917 and it was thrilling. Going out to the movies is something we both enjoy a lot and reminds us of home so we had a great time, especially since we snuck in our own popcorn and candy to save some money. :) The next day we went to the local beach called Tahunanui and spent the day walking around and basking in the sun. We have a data plan for our phone(s) but it is somewhat limited so we can’t download a whole lot of stuff - however our provider has these free wifi-hubs where we can get some extra data and download movies to watch in the van. On the hub was a poster for a music festival that night in Tahunanui so instead of leaving we decided to stay another night and check it out. We made our dinner on the beach and found the very small outdoor stage. It was definitely a local family affair with lots of kids running around, local musicians and food vendors, and silly games like limbo and egg tosses between each act. The music was nothing to write home about but all in all It was really fun and we got some boysenberry ice cream.
We were going to try and do a short backpacking trip before our next Great Walk but the weather was amazing and we were feeling the beach, so we decided instead to head up and around the northeastern coast called Golden Bay and check out the highly acclaimed beaches. As we drove up the coast we stopped at the Te Waikoropupu Springs, the largest freshwater spring in the southern hemisphere! We walked 20 or so minutes out to a walkway over the springs where we were able to look down into the clearest water I have ever seen. It has an underwater visibility of nearly 200 feet! It is a sacred place to the local Maori tribe so we were unable to swim but it was still really amazing! And we found a place to swim a ways downriver that was allowed so it all worked out :) We spent one night part way up the bay and chilled on a small beach adjacent to a lot of rare and endangered bird species. We camped near to there and the next day drove all the way up to the northern tip of the south island. There is a famous beach there that we wanted to check out so we got up early and walked the mile or so out to the beach. Wharariki beach was definitely the coolest beach I have ever been to. We had to cross an expanse of massive sand dunes just to get out to the main beach which was probably around 2 miles end to end with huge hills, tons of caves, tidal pools littered with baby seals, and natural archways out in the water and up on the beach. We spent a while just chilling reading our books but the walked the length of the beach gawking at the seal pups and spelunking into the dark beach caves. There was a one that seemed particularly smelly and I had quite a fright as a nearly walked into a sleeping seal hiding in the shadows. We spent 8 or so hours out there and treated ourselves to an ice cream at the very remote and tiny cafe near the parking lot. We drove back down the bay and stayed in the woods outside the town of Motueka.
The next day we drove into Motueka and did some much needed laundry and shopped for our upcoming Great Walk. We mooched some wifi from the KFC parking lot and talked to our parents and then spent the night at the beach in Motueka. We have developed a bit of a tradition of what we eat before and after our Great Walks, and we made rice and dahl that night and went to bed early to rest up. We woke up early and drove to the town of Marahau where we dropped off our car and took a water taxi to the top of Abel Tasman National Park to begin our 3rd Great Walk - The Abel Tasman Coastal Track. 
We expected our water taxi to just be a a quick transport up the coast but we were happily surprised to find out it was bit more a tour. We were blessed by the tides and had the pleasure of exploring tidal lagoons and seeing some cool wildlife and beaches while our captain told us about the history of the park. We got dropped off in Totaranui where we started the trek. We planned the trip a bit differently that most people do the track and went north on an inland track up Gibbs Hill and then back towards the coast up and around to Mutton Cove. It was a very steep hill and we were feeling the burn after ~9 miles. This first day was by far the hardest elevation wise. We had a lovely campsite right on the beach and were nearly alone which was awesome. We had a dinner of instant rice and quinoa and then instant pasta which we used to much water to make - it was my first time having alfredo soup and it wasn’t all that bad! 
The next day we got up early and headed down the coast winding up and down small hills through the rainforest that hugs the beaches. We made it back to Totaranui and after a quick lunch of trail mix and granola bars, kept heading down the beach to our campsite at Waiharekeke beach. It was a short day of ~6 miles and so we got there in the early afternoon. This was by design so we could avail ourselves to the famous golden sand beaches of the park and bask in the hot sun. We read our books alone on the nearly mile long beach for hours, swimming in the crystal clear turquoise water frequently to cool down. Abel Tasman National Park is known for it color contrasts. The water has vibrant shades of blue, turquoise, and teal and all of the beaches are a rich golden color from the granite cliff-sides and every beach butts right up to the rainforest. We were loving our life in paradise. We had some couscous and lentils and played cards before heading to bed as the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs lulled us to sleep. 
The next day we slept in and there was a bit of an unexpected morning drizzle so we snuggled up in the tent and let it pass. We were in no rush this morning because shortly after our camp was the Awaroa Inlet, which had to be crossed 2 hours before or after low tide. Low-tide being 4:09 in the afternoon we had to wait quite a while to start the bulk of our walk. We took off our boots and rolled up our shorts and crossed through the knee/thigh deep tidal streams that were running out - there was a nice little station to rinse off feet and put our boots back on before heading out to hike 8 more miles at 3:30 in the afternoon. We trudged on quickly up and down some pretty big hills with some incredible views of the sea. We were a bit weary hiking later in the day but we listened to an audiobook as we walked and still had a nice time. We made it to Bark Bay at 7:30 and set up camp and jumped in the ocean to clean ourselves off. By the time we were cooking our dinner everyone else had gone to bed. We had some more rice and quinoa, and pasta mixed with instant peas, not so soupy this time. :) 
The next day we were quite tired. We only had around 7 miles to got but it seemed to drag on and both of us were getting a bit sore. We considered cutting the trip a night short and hiking out the final 6 miles that day but that would’ve sucked and I am very glad we didn’t. Around halfway we did a little side trip to Cleopatra’s Pool, a series of natural pools and waterfalls - it reminded us a bit of the rock slides along the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire. We had planned to swim but were dissuaded by the 50 or so day trippers already at the pool. Really cool natural places lose a bit of their luster when you have to fight for space in them. We shared a granola bar as we admired the falls and headed back to the track. After some moaning and groaning we finally reached the cutoff to our campsite and descended down a precipitous few hundred feet to Observation Beach where we spent our final night. This was our favorite campsite of the trip, it was a cool little cove looking out at Adele Island with a family of Oyster Catcher birds and chicks right nearby. There were a couple of families at the beach who lived nearby to the park and had taken their boats in. We were very envious of their variable array of potato chips and cookies, coolers full of wine and beer, and fresh fruits. We chatted them up a bit and got a little bit of trail magic - one of them ended up offering us a bottle of wine and a couple beers as the night went on and it was one of their kids birthdays and we got a slice of birthday cake. It was a perfect night to cap off our adventure and were super appreciative of the luxuries on the trail. 
We woke up for sunrise on our final day and were treated to a beaut. We made our fourth and final breakfast of oatmeal mixed with dried apricots and trail mix, had our tea and set off before 8 o’clock. This was the easiest section of the entire trail and we did the ~6 miles in just over 2 hours, hustling ready to be done. We made it back to Sweetie and were very glad to see her. We had stashed some reward treats in the van and dug-in. We drove back to Motueka for the weekend farmers market and restocked on vegetables and at the recommendation of our booze/cake friends, got a loaf of sourdough bread from Rodrigo’s bread stand. We drove back down the coast and back to Nelson for the free hot shower to scrub the sweat and dirt off of ourselves. After our shower we got the other half of our Great Walk food tradition, post-walk pizza. We got a small veggie and a small cheese and were a bit bloated after eating them both in about 5 minutes flat. We went to the grocery store for some needed staple items and drove a few hours south down the coast to Westport where we stayed the night on the beach. It’s always a pleasure to sleep in our comfy van bed after the sleeping mats for days on end and we slept in. We spent the morning today unpacking our bags and organizing the van, as well as doing some much needed cleaning of our kitchen. We are hanging out in the Westport library and are going to head farther south here in a little while. Not really sure what we are going to do the next few days but totally cool with that, we will figure it out as we go.
Hoping you are all enjoying yourselves. We love and miss you all. <3
Our very best,
Christopher and Bryn
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mohini-musing · 5 years
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Lost in the Noise
Chasing Ghosts universe
The backpack is stocked with all the necessities for navigating the crowds in summer heat – water bottles, sunscreen, lip balm, and a bottle of CBD oil because Steve thinks it’s a good substitute for Tasha’s usual calming options. James humors him. Mostly because if he hears one more statistic on the benefits of natural remedies over chemical compounds, his brain is going to dissolve and run out his ears. You would think they were heading out with a pack of children rather than three fully, well, fine semi-functional adult shaped humans. Particularly when Steve tosses a handful of fruit gummies and chewy granola bars in the mix. James refrains from pointing out that none of them are going to want the sugary treats in 95+ degrees of too damn hot.
Taking Tasha to events like this is something akin to trying to keep up with a herd of cats after they’ve bathed in catnip and consumed a half dozen Red Bulls. She turns in dizzying circles from giggly and happy as a little kid to terrified because someone brushes against her. There’s no predicting what it will be, and James would be very happy to hole up in the house and swear off these family adventures altogether.
He can’t though, because Pride is a thing. A crowded, drunken, overwhelming thing that Steve feels very strongly is an obligation to attend. James is just grateful that he doesn’t feel the same way about the upcoming 4th of July downtown debacle.
Tasha emerges from her room in what might be the most reasonable attire he’s ever seen her in or the most outlandish. Tiny denim shorts and a tshirt that reads: I am the one your parents warned you about. James cocks an eyebrow in question and she grins back at him.
“Accurate, right?” she giggles.
Fantastic, James thinks. She’s already blitzed. He’d like to point out she’s being an idiot. Instead, he smiles and agrees with her. Sometimes it’s just easier that way. He looks up to see Steve lifting an eyebrow in question as he cocks his head toward Tasha. James shrugs. Surely this doesn’t come as a shock anymore. His kid sister is trouble in a very pretty package. Steve shakes his head and rummages in the cabinet for a package of what look suspiciously like baby wipes to add to the mix in the backpack.
They pile into the car and make the short trek to the festival, parking in an overpriced lot near a church. There’s some really special irony in that one, James muses as he stands in line to pay the automated lot kiosk. The walk to the festival area is a quick enough one, but keeping track of Tasha is definitely going to be an adventure. She’s hopping around and balancing on raised edges of sidewalk like a little kid. Her pupils are wide despite the glaring sun and James spots the telltale twitch at her jaw as she begins grinding her teeth. She’s rolling. Lovely. It’s 400 degrees outside, and she picked a drug bound to make her dehydrated.
“Oooh! Shiny!” Tasha squeals and bolts to a tent filled with rainbow flags and gemstone necklaces. She’s petting a necklace within seconds, picking out a set of earrings to go with, and heading for the vendor to claim her prize. A quick swipe of a credit card later and they’re off again, James gripping Tasha by the hand in hopes of keeping her from getting away.
That turns out to be the least of his worries.
Free Mom Hugs the sign reads, and James knows they mean well. It’s such a kind gesture, really. There are people wearing shirts emblazoned with everything from Free Mom Hugs to Free Fist Bumps and all sorts of options in between. He spots Free Pastor Hugs on a tall and powerfully built man in clerical collar and Free Bro Hugs on a kid with hemp cargo shorts and dreadlocked hair.
James vaguely remembers seeing this movement on social media. It’s pretty amazing, really. The idea that people are going out to Pride and offering some love to someone who needs to be told they’re a valid human. It’s not really his thing, hugging a stranger, but from the looks on some of the people holding tight to the free huggers, it’s a thing bringing serious joy to people whose thing it is.
“Jamie! Hugs!” Tasha squawks, and she’s off and launching herself at the pastor before James can pull her away.
James braces for the hugfest to go seriously south, but Tasha returns to them after cuddling nearly everyone within reach grinning like a maniac. Steve looks like he’s trying to decide what kind of alternate reality they’ve wandered into. The kind where miracles actually happen, James decides when Tasha bounds back to them happy as can be. She hops into his arms and he picks her up like a kid while she wraps her legs around his waist and hold on. Her breath is warm against his neck but it’s the tremble in her core that concerns him. She’s smiling, but she’s also vibrating. Happy, but much, much too high.
When she returns her feet to the ground, it’s to lead them into the main festival area, a crowded knot of booths and grassy pathways. Everything from the local clerical organizations to bars seems to be handing out rainbow swag, and before long the backpack is filled to brimming with all manner of goodies. James doesn’t want to think about the flavored lube Tasha collects in every color of the rainbow, nor the tube of ”no, seriously, it’s sunscreen” Steve gathered from the health department.
It’s when Tasha comes to a sudden stop that it all goes to hell. The foster agency they were both placed with has a booth. It’s filled with photos of smiling kids and bright posters about making a difference for youth. James grabs her and steers her the other direction as quickly as he can, hoping he’s intervened before her good mood can go careening off into the land of so much not good.
She blinks at him and mutters that she wants a drink now. He’d argue, but he wouldn’t turn one down himself. Steve’s fast to take charge, tugging them both toward the alcohol vendors. He all but shoves them into chairs at the first table they pass and calls back that he has drinks handled. He’s a keeper, James thinks when he returns with two beers in his pockets and a pair of very fruity scented vodka laden travesties for Tasha. She downs round one in seconds, and Steve puts a second in front of her with a murmured encouragement to maybe breathe a little.
Drink number two does the job and they resume festival exploration with Tasha’s good mood intact. They don’t go back toward the information tents, veering instead into the area with the music stages. There’s a drag show running full tilt at one and something that looks dangerously like karaoke at another. They wander into a couple more vendors and spend far too much on CBD oil lip balm, various lotions, and a good number of items Tasha declares to be shiny and fun.
It’s unspeakably hot, and even though James has spent more than his share of time in 120+ degrees, he’s completely done with this thing within a couple hours. Tasha is, too, if her increasingly unsteady steps are anything to go by. He squeezes her shoulder and leans down to ask if she’s ready to head home. She nods, and he notes that her face is somehow both red with heat and pale beneath flushed cheeks.
The car is boiling, and Steve turns it on and blasts the AC before he lets anyone get in. James has the good sense to put Tasha in the front, but her steadily wilting demeanor doesn’t give him much confidence that it’s going to help their fate. They’re barely in the driveway when she hiccups, a hand pulling sluggishly toward her lips.
“Dammit, not in the car, Tasha!” Steve grunts, reaching across her and shoving the door open with one hand while James grabs her shoulders and shifts her toward to open space. They manage it before sour vodka cocktail erupts from her lips.
“Gross,” she whines when she’s finished.
“No arguments there,” James replies, tugging her to her feet and guiding her around the puddle of sick.
Steve’s bounding along in front of them to get the door, which he holds open while James all but carries Tasha over the threshold.
“Don’t feel good,” she tells him.
“Thanks for that enlightening tidbit,” he shoots back. He wants to lecture her for being an idiot, but instead he guides her into the little hall bathroom. The floor is bare, but she doesn’t seem to notice the cold linoleum on her knobby knees as she curls up hugging the seat of the toilet. Her breathing is ragged and pitiful.
James pats her between her shoulder blades, telling her he’s there and it will pass. He doesn’t tell her it’s going to be okay. It won’t, probably never will, because this is where Tasha goes every time she hurts, or spooks, or get angry, or is uncomfortable in any way she’d rather not feel. A part of him knows she’s not so much a recreational user as a functional sort of addict, but it’s a truth he doesn’t want to acknowledge today. Maybe not any day. He’ll keep cleaning her up until she’s ready to do it on her terms.
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