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#also me and my other coworker chatted for a bit and we talked ABOUT him at one point (2nd week in a row)

sxeraphfic · 21 days

Note

6 with Loki!! NSFW please (maybe smut? hhaha) he’s saying!!! thankss

DETECTIVE LOKI - JEALOUSY NSFW PROMPT

╰┈➤“It looked like he was trying to flirt with you”

Pairing: David Loki x reader

Word count: 2232

WARNINGS: p in v sex, creampie, slight grinding, possessive sex, biting, marking, swearing, average dirty talk, spanking, palming, semi-public, loki is a little bit of a grump at the start, not super ooc i hope, both of you are a little toxic lol, fingers in mouth. Let's assume birth control is in place here. Lol. Think that's it, there might be more.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

This is actually my first ever published nsfw fic, so please go easy on me <3 Enjoy my loves!

You and Loki had been coworkers for what felt like an eternity by now, he was a diligent person who took his occupation acutely seriously. Which is grounds for why he managed to not only get promoted up to being a sergeant of the sector you worked in, but also have exclusive access to his own private office and dictatorship over other workers' roles. Unmistakably, he is incredible as a detective and supervisor. That being said, he isn't perfect. He’s reckless, arrogant, stubborn, cocky, antisocial, a workaholic and breaking what would be considered a societal rule of workplaces. Don't mess around with your coworker!

You two had been in a secret situationship for around almost a year now, casual but also intense. No-one in your work suspected a thing either, Loki was just as good at hiding things as he was at figuring them out. The thing about casual yet intense secret situationships is that how concrete the “relationship” actually is, could be considered shaky. He’s never really explicitly made it clear to even you what you both are, despite spending almost every waking hour outside of work together whether that be romantic dates, cuddling, sex etc. Did this frustrate you? Yes. You wanted him to be emotionally available and ready for you, to not have to wonder to yourself whether he even considers you an actual partner or not. You'd bring up the question and he would act so stupidly nonchalant about it or say he just wants to “let it go with the flow.”

Does he even give a shit? You sighed to yourself staring at the timed out screen of your computer, leaning back and stretching your back and arms out.

Before you could go back to your daydreams, or work for that matter. You heard one of your coworkers call out your name from across the room.

“Hey! y/n! y/n! C'mere for a sec.” Your coworker Miles announced

Your cheeks widened, Miles was a relatively new guy around your age. He was kind of childish, bright, bubbly and overall just a nice guy. You were assigned to train him and since then he's more or less stuck by your side and been a great coworker for you to do cases and research with.

Making your way over to his desk you spotted a certain someone from the corner of your eye. Loki, walking towards another coworker's desk yet clearly distracted by whatever you were up to. He thinks he's good at having a poker face, and he is. Just not with you, that furrowed eyebrow and light frown said it all. It's mainly your fault he's on high alert right now though, a few nights ago you felt tired of feeling like you were just an undecided casual fling for him. And so you may have.. Accidentally made a point that if he doesn't make a decision on what you guys are, you'll find someone else to be the one for you.

It pissed him off, clearly. But you assumed that you were both over that silly little argument by now since things had been relatively normal, but guesses are that wasn't the case. You and Miles chatted for around ten minutes or so, maybe even less. You giggled a few times here and there and even absent mindedly placed your hand on his shoulder, in the back of your head you realised how this may look to Loki and internally shuddered.

He began to stutter, “oh..oh um.. By the way y/n”

“Yes Miles?”

“I was thinking..um.. Well if you want to at some point we would like.. Maybe hang outside of work? Go to a bar or something?” he continued on “i mean- it's fine if not but y’know.. You're so sweet and kind to me… and well, beautiful.”

You saw from the corner of your eye Loki making his way over, oh boy.

“We are doing work here right, the two of you?” he asked sternly. You rolled his eyes at him “Yes Loki, we are. It's just unlike you, some people have lives outside of work” Miles looked awkwardly between you and Loki, the tension in the air was insanely thick. “Yeah uh.. Sorry about that Loki. I guess I got kind of distracted since y/n is fun to talk to” he smiled before semi-flirtatiously winking at you. Loki didn't twitch a single muscle in his face, you gave Miles an awkward smile to alleviate the atmosphere. Before Loki scoffed and pointed towards your desk “y/n. Off back to your desk please. I have some paperwork I need you to fill.” and then proceeded to turn to miles ``Miles, i know you're new here but flirting and dating is strictly prohibited in the workplace. If I catch that again you will be in trouble.” You huffed and walked away, how hypocritical of him..

It was past 11 pm now, the station was practically empty besides maybe a few less than a dozen people working. Loki had so happened to ask you to stay back to “talk about documents,” but you were well aware of what the conversation was really about. You walked into his office, immediately crossing your arms together.

“Come closer.'' He directed, pointing you to stand next to him as he sat down in his chair finishing up some paperwork. “So, wanna explain what was happening earlier? I saw that. And heard it” he continued on “It looked like he was trying to flirt with you, or maybe you were trying to flirt with him too.”

You extended your hand to his back, slowly moving up to his shoulder and beginning to massage him gently to cool him off. “Well no i wasn't flirting with him, but i didn't realise we were exclusive like that David.” he scoffed, and you huffed in return. “last time i checked our thing was barely even a thing right? Hardly even a label on it,” you began to apply more pressure to his shoulders. “Thats fucking hilarious” he asserted with an unfriendly grin, “So you want us to be an official thing and yet you accept others flirting with you right infront of me, really?” he pushed your hands off him and in response you glared at him. He continued on, “After our little argument the other day you have to have some sort of understanding on why I might be fuckin’ concerned.”

“What? I hardly accepted it..and even so you expect me to just sit around here waiting for you to be ready to label our relationship??? How about you look at the reality here David. You refuse to make the claim on me. Maybe someone like Miles would actually be able to commit and I appreciate the idea of it.”

David looked at you with shame on his face, something strangely comforting considering the argument you were in right now and his usual stubborn self. “Look Y/N, I know.. That i'm not exactly good at this whole thing. I’m so used to being alone that the thought of giving myself fully to someone.. well.. scares me.” he placed face into his palm “I don't want to be uncommitted to you, i want you to be mine. And maybe this has made me realise that.” He wrapped his arm around your waist and guided you to sit on his lap, wheeling his chair back a little for space. “The thought of some little twerp like Miles flirting with you drives me crazy. I know it's selfish but I want you to myself without the fear of uh.. Well, abandonment.”

You stretched your arms around his shoulders and pressed your forehead against his “I'm not leaving you David.. You're all I want.” “So make me yours please, commit me to me..” you whispered to him softly. His breath hitched and he sighed, pressing his lips against yours before tugging at your bottom lip ever so slightly with his teeth. The pinch of it made you squeak, you reached up to his hair and tugged on it tenderly. He pushed you up against him so he could have proper access to your neck, Slowly biting and sucking it between different places to give you light bruises. You moaned, beginning to rock your hips against him to gain some pressure against your clothed pussy. The sound of him growling against your neck as he sucked on the skin vibrated right down to your core, “Fuck this feels good, David” you gasped. “God y/n i want to ravage you right now” he whispered against you before leaning into another deep kiss, you could feel his dick throbbing through his pants as you both swirled and pressed tongues together.

You began to palm him through his pants during your kiss, stroking and feeling up the growing length. “David.. What if we get caught?” you said in between breaths. He choked out a stammered laughed in response “Fuck i don't even know if i care y/n, i need you so badly i wouldn't mind if people found out.” You giggled slightly, staring deeply into his eyes. “That's just your dick talking, but it's pretty empty in the station.. I'm sure it'll be fine.” You used that to cue him to start pulling down your pencil skirt and panties, whilst you unbuttoned his shirt and undressed his lower region halfway down to his thighs. His dick was hard and leaking with precum, his face flushed red. “You look so needy right now dave.” he sighed in response and you snickered as you began to grind your exposed wet pussy against his cock. He began rubbing his sticky hot tip up against your clit for extra stimulation and you whined, settling your head against his shoulder weakly. He furrowed his brow and showed his toothy grin “Look at you. a complete mess in my office on my lap, what happened to me being needy?” Before you could get another rebuttal in, he moved his hands down your body to your hips and began to align your hole to his cock. As he steadily pushed into you he groaned into your neck. “Fuuuck y/n” he murmured as he began to thrust up and down, you moaned in response pulling against his hair. He swiftly spanked your ass with one hand and placed the other around the nape of your neck massaging it, enjoying the whimpers and mewls he’d pull from your lips.

Unexpectedly the two of you heard footsteps from outside his office, both of you froze in place unsure of what to do

“Detective Loki? Are you there? May I come in please?” a voice of one of your coworkers called from outside the door

You expected him to stop and pull you off, but he smirked coyly and inserted three fingers into your mouth and began to slowly thrust into you again. You arched your back in response, trying to contain your moans and noises of slurping from the drool beginning to fill your mouth and dribble down your chin.

“Uh.. yeah i'm in here, look i need some uh.. um.. space for the moment” he awkwardly yelled back out, even you could see in his eyes that his adrenaline was at a maximum right now. What on earth was he thinking?

“Oh.. i have some pretty important paperwork man i-” David interrupted him before he could finish, “Please just leave it at your desk and i'll..” he stared at the way you were grinding up and down onto his dick, before snapping back to reality, “...come pick it up when I'm ready.” David was struggling to contain himself. He gazed into your eyes as you swirled your tongue around his fingers pushing in and out of your mouth, simultaneously thrusting his cock slowly and deeply inside of you. The warmth and stickiness of your bodies pressed against each other made him melt back into his leather chair.

As soon as he heard the door from outside his office shut he briskly lifted you up and flipped you over onto your stomach against his desk, he leaned down pressing his chest against your back, the pressure of his weight crushing you was so intense yet felt so good. “God you're sexy y’know that?” he half whined half growled into your ear, his thrusts becoming more and more powerful. You cried out in pleasure, unable to move or escape from the position. He pulled your hair to gain access to your ear, gently nibbling on your lobe as he continued his deep and sharp thrusts. “You’re all fucking mine y/n” he groaned, “Oh god i feel like i'm gonna cum David. Please cum in me” You yelped out squirming beneath him, gripping onto the edge of his now mess of a desk. He didn't need to be told twice to do so, he buried his face into your neck before pressing a final thrust into you, loading thick streams of cum inside. You practically shrieked, it felt incredible.

Afterwards you both just sat there together on his chair, unsure of what to do with the mess you made. But content and loving in each other's arms with him stroking his fingers through your hair.

“Bet he couldn't make you feel that good ay?” he chuckled.

partially proof read, will come back to check on it when i wake up <3

#drabble #fandom #fanfic #fanfic ideas #fanfiction writer #jake gyllenhaal #x reader #david loki #detective loki #prisoners 2013 #donnie darko #smut #my hcs #oneshot #writing prompt #dialogue prompt #valenfics

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xhdream · 5 months

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ok last ask for a while bc I feel like I'm being annoying BUT I just had a really good thought.

what trope would you say each xdh member is? for example I'd say gunil is very fwb and maybe fwb to lovers. I hope this makes sense!

-🦈

xdinary heroes as popular tropes

cw: none

a/n: THIS IS SO FUN your mind amazes me with your ideas every time!! this is such an interesting concept, anon, where’s your writing blog huh??? also, do not EVER think that you’re being annoying even for a second <3 i looked up different tropes and picked out the ones i think fit the members in my opinion

♡ gunil

friends with benefits to lovers

what you said is so true, putting this one right here!! i think he’d be good at it in a sense that he’s a man of his word, so he’d be open with you about everything from the start - if you set some lines/boundaries he’d never cross them. i can totally see him gradually becoming more concerned if you see/talk to other people

fwb gunil = jealous gunil 🤤

insta love

i mean not falling in love, but feeling strong attraction at first sight, so more like insta lust. he sees you and there’s immediate physical connection between you, that pulls him in

♡ jiseok/gaon

enemies to lovers

not gonna lie the only reason i put this one is because i think banter with jiseok would be soo entertaining. it would lead into such a nice & hot tension - the build up would be insane!!

it could be just some small misunderstanding that makes you have the wrong impression of him (or the other way) so you bicker every time you’re together in one room and everyone’s like they’re into each other

♡ hyeongjun/junhan

forced proximity

he’s a shy boy when it comes to strangers or big crowds, so i have a feeling that being stuck somewhere with him would give you a better chance to get to know his personality, than having to be around him within a group of people. by stuck i don’t mean getting locked in a room or something like that, just getting to spend some alone time together before people start coming around you

it’s gonna make him anticipate the next opportunity he gets to have some privacy with you

the bet

you all know how the members say he’s very competitive and he never gives up? junhan confirmed it’s true, saying he chases the win even when it’s literally starting to get unhealthy, soo this trope fits him really well

you’re good friends that occasionally hang out whenever his schedule is free, until one day you bet on something that leads to daily messages and calls, strengthening your friendship and gradually turning it into something more

♡ seungmin/o.de

coworkers to lovers

seeing each other every day, chatting during breaks, helping with your tasks, sliding in some more intimate questions during work calls - i can see seungmin in all of this. he would try repressing his feelings at first, trying to convince himself it’s nothing - you’re just hot that’s all, but oh no! he’s whipped

♡ jooyeon

friends to lovers

do we all agree on this one? i think jooyeon would fall for a friend. i think in general he’s the type of person that finds it important that his s/o is his friend first, lover next. sharing the same humour, the trust you’ve built with time, knowing you can always count on each other would definitely add to his attraction to you

that’s why i think best friend’s sibling fits him well too 🤭

age gap

i see the possibility of him being with someone few years older than him pretty high. i see him finding intelligence & maturity attractive traits that also make him feel secure in a way

♡ jungsu

secret identity

here i’m not saying that i think he will lie or pretend to be someone he’s not, just that i can see him avoiding the conversation that he’s in a band for a while when he meets someone for the first time; he would not straight up say it

if you meet one day and start chatting, because you both felt an attraction, he would spark your interest with how easy going, but also a bit flustered he is. when you get to the questions so what do you do? he’d mumble shyly uhmm i make music… yeah, i’m in this band… do you gets what i’m saying? >< especially as the group gets bigger with time. he wants you to get to know him a bit as a person firsthand before telling you what he does straight away, so he has a sense of what your intentions are

love triangle

why do i see him falling for someone that’s already taken? i’m not talking anything toxic here, maybe you’ve been friends for a while, but you get into relationship and he’s forced to watch you being happy with another person… ok i don’t wanna get angsty, but the thought crossed my mind and i decided to share ><

#💌: xhdream inbox #🦈 anon #xdinary heroes #xdinary heroes scenarios #xdinary heroes imagines #xdh gaon #xdh gunil #xdh jiseok #xdh junhan #xdh jungsu #xdh seungmin #xdh o.de #xdh jooyeon

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fumifooms · 5 months

Text

Marchil crumbs part 2

Part 1 here - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7

Unlike my other crumbs masterposts I'm gonna be doing the marchil one through different posts rather than reblogs because copy pasting my drafts would be hell. Are you surprised there are enough crumbs that this part got past 30 pics? Yeah me too ngl. Part 3 is already full too, ooh boy

Beginning vs end (chapter 23 vs chapter 96)~ Oh how far they have come

She sees him as dependable! For good reasons, despite him generally staying out of fights, but it's still nice to see her appreciating him.

More of him rushing to help her, and a bonus of the reverse:

Let's keep looking at early Chilchuck & Marcille for a bit. I'll likely repeat myself between parts of this masterpost but they really do stick together and are on the same wavelenght quite a fair bit.

I state my case once more: comrades in disgust. It's more than that too, though! Despite their differences, despite their relationship being strictly professional, despite him dreading her addition to the party at first, he truly does care about her and values her perspective on this.

Chilchuck above is straight up implying that Marcille is the moral compass of the party, and seemingly appreciates that about her.

In part 1, I mentioned how they do argue, but always talk it out and it never turns into resentment between them, but I didn't show examples. Now is the time! Let's see how they hash things out.

She's not offput by his brash demeanor and is very open to explaining. They don't typically tend to budge on the issues they debate, but they do have an earnest conversation with each other and the other doesn't fall in their esteem for it.

The biggest disagreements they've had is definitely Marcille using dark magic and the bicorn chapter, which was a both-way moment of tension between them. It was when she hassled him about a sensitive topic (his wife) and when he lied to her that he had cheated on his wife, because of that during the chapter Marcille is very cold towards him (but even then rushes to his aid and is worried for him when hurt etc etc), until he later opens up andthey have agoodlong good-natured chat about it, by the end they're both back to normal and laughing together. It's definitely the most Marcille & Chilchuck centric chapter out there, at this point give it a reread though we're running a tight ship here and it's 30 pics max.

Ok. Tangent over, back to how even though there are disagreements they don't fall in each other's esteem. Maybe it's more that they trust each other to have common sense really, which is running rare in these parts, but... When they were apprehended by Shuro’s party, Chilchuck isn’t worried about leaving Marcille by herself, unlike with Senshi and Laios. And this wasn’t a decision without weight either, because this is JUST after she has used dark magic, but her letting that information slip and landing them into trouble doesn’t even occur to him. For a good reason since Laios ends up being the one to do just that... It's as much as a confirmation as we can get that he thinks she has the most common sense and social skills out of the party

And speaking of putting stock in others: They strategize together and appreciate each other’s input very often! Part 1 already had some but here some more:

I do like how he gets to manhandle her after he gets manhandled himself so often lol. There’s also smth to be said about him having seen her as an halfling, since his type is blonde halfling women… Bonus of Marcille being the very contrary of enamored with Chilchuck's changeling form:

----

She is the best wingman. Has nothing but best of intentions. She wants to know her friends aka him better!! "I’ll invite you guys to meet my family" from Chilchuck means the world and more, they’re def not just coworkers anymore and man. MAN!!! Chil breaching that bridge for her. Him doing this because he knows she really wants that, AND blushing madly... If you wanna go the extra delulu mile it's kinda like he's opening his family up to her and fully letting her in, and may I add inviting her into his family perhaps even like something resembling a proposal after which she showers him in flowers and lover's gifts and-

Tfw you need to make sure your friend doesn’t get an inflated price/you make sure your girl gets only the best. This comic means they went shopping together btw, despite how he dislikes waiting after people ♡

Nothing to say about these they're just funny:

He do be keeping an eye and an ear out for her

Part 3 is here!

With juicy tidbits such as more of Chilchuck drooling over blond hair and them interacting across a table in the golden kingdom. Very fun very fun

#dungeon meshi #marcille donato #chilchuck tims #marchil #relationship analysis #sorry that my very soon was like a month but in my defense i was writing fics instead #marchil crumbs masterpost #shipping crumbs

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angelisgonnastartchangingurls · 20 days

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tell us everything about your day yesterday

oh, ok!

i woke up at 5:30am and went out for a run. it was pretty short, 3 miles, i was back in a half hour. i got really sick a few weeks ago and my lung capacity is still not 100%, i ran five miles a few days ago and i threw up on the sidewalk.

anyway, when i got back home i paced around in the backyard for ten minutes to cool down, and then i slipped back into the house to my bedroom and woke up jake by sucking his cock. we fucked (me on top, no real foreplay, the cocksucking only lasted a few seconds and we went straight to fucking) and we came at the same time, and then i laid in bed leaking while jake got up and showered as the kids woke up. at this point it was like 6:40. i got up and made oatmeal for my kids (with blueberries!) in a robe and jake was all dressed and ready before 7, so i left him to get the kids dressed and stuff and i answered a bunch of emails. i do this now in the mornings so i can get to the office after everyone but i already have them working on stuff. LOL.

the kids were playing for a bit before school, and margot woke up, so jake made breakfast for me and margot and himself, so i ended up out there with them having coffee and chatting until 8:10, and I was still in just a robe, so Jake walked the kids to school, which is usually my job.

i got dressed (no shower, LOL. white panties, no bra, jeans and a t-shirt - very professional) and margot was making a shopping list so i tried to remember everything i needed (i forgot most of it, i always do, so i have to go to target today). and then jake got home so i kissed him goodbye and left for work. i got to the office at 9:20. i had meetings with various little teams from 10-12 and by the end of the second meeting I was very bitchy and everyone was like, "OK stop giving angel new information" which i thought was a very insightful analysis of me as a coworker.

i had coffee and two cigarettes with jane, a fairly recent hire who is like a 40s goth punk chick who reminds me a lot of ivy if ivy had never gone corporate and had a dozen babies. i love jane, she's 15 years sober from heroin and she rocks. she also compliments my waist a lot, she (like many of you lol) can't believe i pushed two kids out of my pussy.

then i walked to my friend casey's work to meet her for lunch. i don't know if i ever talked about casey. i think so? she is like 27 years old and she has a baby and a much older husband and a stepdaughter who is 19. when i was in my lexi-obsessed phase she was adjusting to returning to work with a baby in her life so we didn't hang out much but now we see each other all the time.

we had lunch at a bagel place and i was back at work by 1:45, just in time for more meetings, but these were with clients and i was nicer. the t-shirt with no bra was a very good strategic decision, one of the bigger guys at the company stared at my tits the whole time, and agreed with everything i said. i wore my hair down too and played with it a lot, you know, alternating between ditzy hair twisting and sort of gathering it and arranging it behind my back like i was about to put it into a blowjob ponytail.

N.B. the ponytail blowjob is such a stereotype/meme but i never do that. i let my hair fall all over the place when i am sucking dick. men love my hair.

i had an hour in my office during which i accomplished literally nothing. i looked at my phone and deleted some emails. that's it. then i had a meeting with my boss, and we talked exclusively about sex with our respective partners. his wife is cumming really easily lately, which on the one hand he likes and on the other hand doesn't like because she's wrapping up sex really early. he said about half the time he doesn't get beyond eating her pussy; she cums and then sucks his cock and won't stop until she's swallowed every drop. but even when they get to fucking, he said she cums in like 40 seconds and hops off to suck his cock. i told him to start slapping her clit with his cock to stop her orgasms. he said she'd get so mad at him if he did that and i said, "i would beg for more." anyway, he told me i am doing a great job with the team lately so i flashed my tits at him.

alice called me at 4 and just clearly wanted to talk at me, but i let her, it's kind of like a podcast, and so she was in my ear for the end of my work day and my ride home.

when i got home, margot and the kids were in the park, so jake fucked me in the kitchen, quick and hard, panties and jeans down, bent over the kitchen island, his hand on my clit. he came inside me again and i pulled my jeans and panties up right over the mess and walked around like that all afternoon, making dinner and catching up with everyone. dinner, did a puzzle with my daughter, bathtime for the kids, storytime, bedtime, and i just took my jeans off and relaxed on the couch with jake and margot and we watched a movie. i fell asleep on jake's shoulder after the movie was over, and he moved me over on the couch, took margot to her room, fucked her and came on her tits, took a picture of it and sent it to me, which woke me up, LOL, but i was too tired to move so i let jake come in, naked, and carry me to bed. at some point in the night i took my panties off because they were full of dried cum, and this morning i woke up next to jake, he was naked and i was in just a t-shirt, so i pushed my ass against him until he woke up and fucked me from behind nice and slow. i came twice.

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blorbocedes · 2 years

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Okay I'm deep deep into the brocedes rabbit hole here and on ao3. But please do clarify one thing for me - I saw the AD16 press con and then I fell upon the Cannes 17 pictures of brocedes with Vivan? Where they did seem like they were getting on? How did it go from to now? Am I missing something in the timeline?

This took me 3 business days to answer cause I am deeply normal about them

alright sweet bestie anon... let's do a quick rundown of the post 2016 brocedes

january 2017, IWC gala nico had the post pregnancy (wc) glow, vivi had actual pregnancy glow, Lewis' questionable styling choices

We know around March, Nico was in london and literally gout out of his car to RUN after lewis who was on a jog and they chatted a bit

Then in May, they were at Cannes!

very happy go giggly

They even did a Mercedes event together where they were being reasonably charming, Lewis aired him on his German translations and Nico was in war crime denial ☺️

What I'm trying to state is even though fandom like to makes it out that they HATE each other -- they don't really? at the end, if you take lewis' final press con in 2016 he said he was proud of nico, all their childhood memories etc. nico has stated multiple times after 2016 he understood what lewis did in AD16 by slowing down and it was to win the race, so they didn't have any bad blood when nico retired. but the other thing to note is these were all professional events, work events even -- hanging around the millionaire gala events, and I'm pretty sure Vivian's presence (who has also known Lewis since she was 18) helped ease that. they were NOT like hanging out on their own, or being anything more than coworkers being pleasant at work events

now Nico followed Lewis on social media almost immediately after 2016, and has wished him for every WDC win

https://twitter.com/nicorosberg/status/1056670317957922816?s=21&t=HES4xJgj4Pzjkq64MhQAEQ

https://twitter.com/nicorosberg/status/1117461452707725313?s=21&t=HES4xJgj4Pzjkq64MhQAEQ

https://twitter.com/nicorosberg/status/1191094863099551745?s=21&t=HES4xJgj4Pzjkq64MhQAEQ

https://twitter.com/nicorosberg/status/1327945878238359552?s=21&t=HES4xJgj4Pzjkq64MhQAEQ

all of which went ignored, (this one kills me particularly, in light of 'we're not friends')

https://landoavocado.tumblr.com/post/635028012501450752/amgroscoe-baby-steps-fam-baby-steps which is the only one Nico didn't tag him in so he presumably found it on his own going through the lewis tag

There's a podcast with Prost where he sort of tells them to get the band back together like he managed to do with Senna, and Nico hesitates saying that someone needs to make the first step.

BUT

At the same time, at Niki Lauda's funeral weekend when the Monaco GP was happening and everyone was somber -- Lewis won... and remember Niki was hugely important for the current Merc success, as well as a mentor to both Lewis and Nico

and here's Lewis in 2019 spraying champers DIRECTLY at Nico Blobsberg https://inlovewithmullez.tumblr.com/post/185156306232/lewis-nico-and-champagne

I wish I could explain this event. i can't.

Look at nico RUNNING to save his cream coloured suit https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx7w3TnALZf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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And then the besties took a selfie at Niki Lauda's funeral. none of this I can explain but it happened and we have to bear witness

In 2019, when Lewis won his 6th title at the US GP, Nico came to his car and they talked about it (have a whole post dedicated to it here)

Here's Anthony talking about Nico and Lewis being teammates and keeping a picture of them unicycling as kids

Lewis has a thing where he won't publicly mention or acknowledge Nico but then at 2021?? they were at the same yacht in Monaco with Toto, Susie and others???

which sort of makes sense they still hang around the same rich people circles and Monaco is TINY esp for millionaire circles

They can even have a nice little chat about pitwalls without murdering each other -- granted it's not a sky interview (is that better??? worse???)

In AD 2021, Lewis also admitted he's a better teammate now, completely unprompted, when the question had been if he's a better driver now and that's the first time he admitted he might've been not great to nico too. And Nico was WATCHING and basically stopped functioning, with jenson live slug reacting. It's a Treat

In 2022 was Lewis saying how Nico's family had been the first place he'd stayed in Monaco (where he still lives now. same building as blobsberg)

And Nico saying how things are neutral, they share a lift sometimes where Nico takes his daughters to the pool and Lewis goes to the race track and how he'd never given Nico a present that he can remember but he did give his daughters! something!!! while Natalie Pinkham tries to play marriage counselor, and the definitive final word is "neutral"

https://bibibitch1308.tumblr.com/post/685806605859700736/ill-just-leave-this-here

Nico does commentary for Sky, where he's asked about Lewis a lot and despite what you may think about his bitchiness, most of it is very complimentary and clearly respects Lewis as a driver.

In 2023, Spain, Lewis name dropped Nico and how karting was some of his best years, and a year later he would be teammates with Nico (!!!)

And 2023 Spain, Nico interviewed Lewis who was p2!!! And they were both stuttering and giggly about it!!!!!!

This list is by no means comprehensive but it paints a more accurate picture than the fanon idea they wanted to murder each other post 2016 (which is why seeing the 2017 pix can be bizarre)

Tldr; they're not friends, but they're also not enemies (not how it was at the peak of their rivalry) and they're still neighbours 😭

#the post 2016 brocedes primer #brocedes #nico rosberg #lewis hamilton #I am so normal...... scientists hate her?#critical brocedes lore #imagine if I used my brain for literally anything else #f1 lore #happy clicking thru the links and reblog if you made it up to here so future brocedes historians have somewhere to fall back on

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deceasedream69 · 1 year

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Maeve or...

Summary: Spencer is forced to choose between two girls in a very dangerous way.

Warnings: mentions of drugs, kidnapping and cursing.

A/n: I've seen this episode once, and I'm too lazy to watch it again, so I'm making everything up lol. And also, this one is LONG, so enjoy <3

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

Spencer's pov

- "Blake, can I talk to you?

She seemed very confused, but she was always helpful, that's why I didn't doubt a second to ask for her help.

- "sure", she said following me to a more private place. "tell me what's the problem, any problem choosing between a stranger you barely know and a cute fellow coworker who you're always staring at?"

- "no, what? no", I didn't stare at her, she just was my best friend, but I wasn't so sure about requesting her help about this. "I keep calling Maeve, but she won't answer"

- "Oh, Reid, you can't make a girl answer you phone calls"

- "rejection doesn't bother me", I stared at the floor and then looked at Blake again. "She had a stalker, and it's not like she stopped answering me over a fight or anything like that, she just... stopped. So I'm... worried"

- "do you have any evidence about her actually being in danger?"

I just shook my head. Maybe I should let y/n know about the situation too. She already knew about Maeve and I, didn't seem so excited when I told her, who wouldn't be worried when their bestfriend falls in love with a girl who has a stalker.

- "If you don't have any evidence, we can't drag the team into this one"

I ran my hand through my hair, I didn't even know what to do at this point. I couldn't go to her house because I didn't have her address, and she wasn't answering the phone at all.

- "hey, pretty boy. Have you seen y/n?"

I shook my head, I didn't noticed her absence throughout the day.

- "That's weird, I'll go ask García"

It was really weird, she'd text me if she was sick or there was any problem. I grabbed my phone annd called her, but also, no answer.

I already lost my two bestfriends... one for now, and I didn't even noticed when. My mind started to drown in the thoughts of what could've happened to both, specially to Maeve, considering she had a stalker and y/n didn't.

- "Meeting in five", Hotch said while he passed through our desks to the meeting office. I sighed, finished what I was doing in my computer and went to the office.

Sitting down right in front of the screen, I grabbed my phone while the rest of the team arrived.

*in the chat*

- hey, are you okay?

I noticed you didn't come to work but you also didn't tell me anything about not coming.

I just want to make sure you're okay.

*off the chat*

I turned my phone off and put it in my pocket. I have a bad feeling about y/n not coming to work without a word.

- "Ok, so, today we don't have a pretty case", García started the metting, her eyes and nose were red so that couldn't be a good sign. "yesterday, around 10 pm someone broke into the house of the agent y/n y/l/n. It's clear because the apartment was a mess"

- "she put up a fight", Derek said worried.

- "is there any trace of blood?", Rossi asked.

- "no, thankfully not"

- "that's good, any cameras around her building?", JJ opened her file.

- "they were covered, whoever took y/n is a pro but I know we're going to find her", García covered her mouth. Y/n and García were inseparable, always going out together and messing around with each other. It was normal she was so worried for her, and so was I.

- "this happened almost 10 hours ago, we need to act quickly, we don't have much time", Hotch stood up and left.

Our job was know to connect every bit of evidence we had to make everything make sense in order to catch the Unsub.

We were sitting around the table, a few boards filled with evidence in front of us.

- "there was a fight but no blood, not even from the attacker?", Rossi started.

- "maybe she was trying to just get away from him, not actually hurt him", Emily replied.

I couldn't even think of something to say, it's like my mind was empty.

- "any thoughts, Reid?"

I checked the file in front of me and then the board.

- "The attacker didn't take anything valueble like money, jewelry or stuff like that"

- "he wanted her", Blake manteined eye contact with me, which send shivers down my spine. I cleared my thoat and continued.

- "But this wasn't an attack against the whole team, just her. There are no messages, no trying to get to us from any personal things or memories, he just wanted her..."

I was wrong, and I noticed that after I finished my statement. Checking at the scene pictures, right on her nightstand was an earring, and just one. The problem is, that earring didn't belong to y/n, I gave those earrings as a gift... to Maeve.

They were porpusedly placed there, the whole apartment was trash but the nightstand was neat, with only that earring on it.

I gulped and continued to look for any more evidence like that one. Doubting in my head if I should tell the team about Maeve.

- "did you notice anything strange?", JJ asked me.

- "um.. not really, just... If you look at the whole apartment, it's a mess, right, but look at the nightstand beside her bed"

- "there's an earring"

- "yeah, but it's just one, maybe she was taking them off when the Unsub attacked"

- "no, she wasn't, those earrings don't belong to her"

The whole team was looking at me, now there was no turning back, I had to explain what was on my mind.

- "how do you know that?", Derek furrowed his eyebrows.

- "Maeve Donovan"

The whole team looked even more confused, even García who insisted on being on call the whole time to not miss anything from the investigation was probably confused on the other side of the line.

- "she... she is a friend of mine, and I know I said it looked like the Insub's intentios wasn't to link y/n's kidnapping with us, but that earring that's on her nightstand it's not hers, I gave them to Maeve Donovan as a present on her birthday"

- "tell us everything we need to know", Hotch appeared at the door.

After I explained everything the team was determined to interrogate every bit of information about the stalker they could.

- "I already told you, I don't know. Maeve and I just to hang out in our own houses to avoid the stalker's presence"

- "anything unusual you noticed when the doors were open. Anyone who looked like he was staring at you, someone who appeared to always be there?"

I shook my head, I tried to remember everything I could, but I never really noticed that.

- "Sir", García entered the room. "You need to see this"

There was an address sent to García from an unknown e-mail.

- "how do we know if this is related with y/n and..."

- "Maeve"

- "I wasn't sure either, but after I closed the address there was this link so I clicked on it and... you need to see"

García clicked on the link again. There was a person in a black hoodie with a black mask. The person was covering the entire frame with their face. But after a few seconds the moved and right behind the we could see y/n and Maeve tied to chairs, one next to the other.

- "no, please, just let us go"

- "what a stupid ass request" Y/n looked right at the camera. "you're recording? get my best angle, please", she said throwing her head back.

- "how can you be so calmed?!"

- "we're going to either die or be saved, he's not going to let us go just because you cry about it. Take it like a champ"

The person then re appeared on the video holding a sign that read: "hope I can give her the full experience". Then they dropped that one, showing another one that read: "you have 1 hour to arrive at the address".

The Unsub proceeded to walk back, near the girls. Holding a needle in their hand.

- "what's that, darling?", y/n asked worried.

The first and only time the Unsub spoke during the whole video.

- "dialudid".

I opened my eyes even more, in fear. The Unsub was a girl, it was obvious from her voice and the fact that y/n called her "darling". But also, dialudid, how did she know about that?

- "what if it's a trap?"

- "We can't take any chances of not going and that it being too late", Hotch left the room.

We all got ready with our guns and vests.

We entered quietly, holding our guns on our hands, ready for anything bad. Inside there was another door, which had a note on it.

"only doctor reid, no guns"

- "you can't go there all alone, kid, specially unarmed"

- "if we don't follow the rules, they might die", Emily told Derek. We all turned to look at Hotch.

- "Go in, if you're not out in 4 minutes, we're coming in"

I nodded and entered the room after giving my gun to Hotch. The door closing itself behind me.

- "it's nice meeting you again, Doctor Spencer Reid", the girl in the hoodie started.

- "Again? I don't know you"

Offended, she took her hoodie off, revealing her face, and as I said, I didn't know her.

I shook my head. Which upset her.

- "You don't remember me?! I was your top student. Always trying to shine so precious little professor Reid would notice me. My classmates called me crazy when I told them that we were going to get married, in a beautiful beach, just us because our families wouldn't approve"

- "you're doing this because me, as a teacher, wasn't interested in you, a student? that's not something I can do..."

- "you were supposed to break the rules for me! you would break them for her", she said pointing her knife at y/n. She seemed so out of it, probably still under the influence of the dialudid. "or her", she said pointing at Maeve.

- "how would I break the rules for Maeve?"

- "she was one of your students! you didn't even notice?"

I actually didn't. I knew her face looked familiar, but she didn't really attend my class.

- "now you can't make any excuses, Doctor"

Everytime she called me doctor something cold ran through my spine.

- "So, here are the rules. IF you really love them, which one do you love the most?"

- "what?"

- "your student, who you say you can't date, or your coworker who you can't date either but would make an exception for, I know you would!"

- "Kill me instead"

- "what?"

- "if you actually want to kill someone, kill me"

- "I'm not killing you, you're too pretty to die. Look, it's either her with a slash through her neck or..." She walked towards y/n, pointing at a button that she could press with her foot. "I give her a massive dose of dialudid, a mortal one... choose wisely, Doctor Reid"

- "I'm not going to choose. I care about them both, so I'm not playing your little game"

-"I can kill both in a matter of seconds, Doctor, then you'll have nobody, just me. You know what, that sounds better"

- "NO!"

With her foot she pressed the button on the floor. Putting her knife on Maeve's throat, a gunshot behind me.

The Unsub fell to the ground, the knife away from her hand now, Maeve safe.

- "No! y/n", I take the needle of her arm before the whole dose will get to her. "hey, look at me, hey, y/n?"

I could notice her difficulty to breath and even stay sitted. I untied her while calling for help.

- "what happened?"

- "she received a big dose of drugs"

- "the paramedics are coming up"

I was relieved knowing the paramedics were already in the builing and that I got to stop the needle from giving her a big dose. I held her in my arms while we waited.

- "be happy with her", Maeve said before leaving. I was completely confused, she was the one who needed more help now, that's why-

- "sir, we need you to give us access to help her?"

- "sure". I placed her head softly on the floor, the paramedics quickly surrounding her.

A/n: Should I make a part 2?

#spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #dr spencer reid #spencer reid #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer x y/n #criminal minds fic #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds #criminal minds fandom #criminal minds fanfiction #the bau

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gojoest · 7 months

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ok i am finally home and it’s STORYTIME WITH THE WAITER !! *rubs hands together* long post btw my thoughts are very hectic i am sleep deprived and hungover so excuse me t-t

so last night we went to this place with 2 of my coworkers (that are also close friends of mine) — it’s a club restaurant actually, the music is chill and not so loud until about 10-10:30pm so you can eat and chat with friends and then after that it’s showtime (hot men put on a show, they dance and strip, the latter is not that hardcore btw). turns out they organize different shows every night so it’s not always that. ANYWAY, we had a waitress assigned to our table but the place was so full and she was busy running around catering to everyone so instead of waiting i asked the waiter in question for the menu :3 so he brought us 3 and was like “sorry my coworker is very busy, if she can’t handle all her tables i will gladly take care of you tonight”. guys he is super cute i tell you, he’s got that big smile on his face all the time and a super positive energy flowing from him + he jokes around with ease and just seems to be so easygoing and friendly and i find that so attractive NOT TO MENTION he is very handsome and has a beard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sadly though he didn’t end up taking our table bc the waitress made it work somehow, she was super lovely btw <3 he was constantly passing by our table though and we both shamelessly stared at each other every time lmao

anyway as the night went on and we downed 4 bottles of wine and started dancing my mischievous coworkers invited him to our table for a bit and he did not decline even though he was working, he just casually sat down with us and behaved like we’ve always known each other ajksdskas. so we poured him a glass of wine, said cheers and then danced a bit AND THEN t-t my coworker took an empty water bottle and spun it on the floor (do you see where i am going) and it ended up pointing towards me and the waiter t-t and that same coworker was like “you have to kiss her now, these are the rules” and i was like :0 just standing there like :0 what :0 what :0 he then came to me and looked me in the eyes and put his hands on my cheeks but didn’t kiss me immediately, i think he was waiting for my reaction like i’m going give you 3 secs to push me away if you don’t want to but ofc I DID WANT TO KISS HIM so we in fact kissed.

after we were done kissing my coworker literally placed the bottle between us again, didn’t spin it this time just put it there between us like ok round 2 now, keep going KSJHDKSJSAA and he looked at me and was like “how about you kiss me this time” with a smug smile. part of me wanted to slap him but a bigger part of me wanted to keep kissing him so that’s that sigh we kissed again. HE IS SUCH A GOOD KISSER it’s not my fault :/

later we had some time to chat and exchange numbers etc.. and im glad we did bc i wanted to apologize to him for what my friends pulled with that orchestrated spin the bottle. and he was like “i am very content things turned out that way actually and i hope you don’t mind it either, and also — i hope you are single too” <- he looked so cute saying this that i ended up kissing him again help. then we talked some more and kissed some more. around 3:30am we had to leave bc we had work in like a few hours so i called a taxi and he waited with me outside even though he was still at work (i hope he did not get in trouble for that + spending a lot of time with us t-t) and then opened the car door for me and told me to text him when i get home t-t but i forgot bc i was a bit drunk and all i wanted to do was sleep right away so i just passed out. BUT HE CALLED ME and was like you home safe? and i was like yep yepp !! then i saw that he texted me a few times to check on me and maybe got worried that i did not reply so he called t-t

today he kept texting me all day casually updating me on how his day is going + asking questions about my day and etc. he sent me a selfie in the morning and was like “ok since you’re not drunk anymore can you please look at me and confirm that you still like me” LMAO he is so !! doki doki !! makes me laugh a lot but also i want to punch him sometimes bc he’s so smug but then again i can’t bc he’s also very cute and pretty t-t anyway i shall keep you updated on mr waiter v_v WAIT actually he’s also an engineer but works as a waiter too + he’s a foreigner but has been living here for a long time, knows the language fluently and has the cutest tiny accent when saying certain words IT’S SO CUTE anyway i need to take a shower now i am so tired t-t

#— ai rambles #he seems to good to be true like #i am thinking to myself WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM THERE MUST BE SOMETHING t-t right?#also i love how he decided that we must absolutely see each other and was like im sorry work is rly busy but i am available today and on #sunday but today maybe you might want to rest after last night so i'll leave it up to you #t-t he's also considerate WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM #t-t

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snowblossomreads · 1 month

Text

Exhibit 6: Pinky Swears And Theatre Scares

Previous Chapter: Full Up

Summary: Amiee starts her new job and ends up on a movie 'date' with Sinclair.

“Lovely chat Arthur, I’ll send over the numbers to you later today when I get back alright?” There was a long pause as Sinclair half listened to the person on the other side finish talking. “Okay great! Buh bye!”

A relieved groan escaped his lips the moment he hung the phone up, and was finally free from the meeting that had run over by a good 30 minutes. Ever since he had gotten in that morning, it had been nonstop meetings upon meetings.

All of it was bullshit though he thought. Just people trying to cover for themselves to make it seem like they were busy. He already had enough on his plate without trying to look busy, as he glanced at the papers and folders sprawled on his desk.

Financial ones, memos from coworkers, and buried underneath those, were probably some things from his solicitor that he needed to take a look at. Yet, with all of that waiting for him, he couldn’t be bothered with i,t as it was not only lunchtime, one of his favorite times, it was also Friday. And unlike most of his Fridays this past year or so, he had plans for that evening.

Well, maybe.

He would first have to ask if she was free tonight, and hopefully, she would be. But first things first, lunch.

Picking up the phone again, he dialed a number and it rang twice before the click of it being answered sounded.

“Hello?”

When the sound of her voice, which was unusually breathy met his ears, he couldn’t stop the grin that erupted on his lips.

“Amiee! Are you free right now? I’m about to head to lunch and wanted to know if you cared to join? I was thinking Italian! There's a new restaurant that opened a few weeks back and it’s magnificent!”

There was a beat of silence after his question before laughter erupted on the other end of the line and he titled his head, confused at what was so amusing.

“H-hiya Sinclair, yeah sure I’ll tag along! My stomach did start grumbling a bit ago so perfect timing. Do you want me to meet you somewhere or…?”

“No that’s alright I’ll come and pick you up, be right there!”

“Okay see you in a sec, bye!”

“Buh bye!”

Hanging up the phone, he took one last glance at all the papers waiting for him to deal with, before promptly ignoring them in favor of grabbing lunch. He be more efficient once he had something in his stomach, other than the nerves that were currently bouncing about in it.

A quick walk out of his office to the one that was only a few feet away from his, he knocked on the semi-closed door and didn’t wait for an answer before popping in.

“Here I am ready for-. What are you doing!”

Enthusiasm turned into confusion, and then concern, as his eyes landed on Amiee’s back, while she stood trepidatiously on the sofa that was pushed against the wall. In her hands, was a rather large picture frame that she was attempting, and failing to hang.

Turning her head just enough so that he knew she heard him, she spoke.

“Oh hiya! I was-.” She turned back around and blindly tried to hang the frame once more before she let out a frustrated sound when she missed the nail again. “Aiya! Fucking shite! Just putting this picture up before we went out. It’s been sitting around and I’ve finally gotten the energy to actually do it.”

“Amiee! Call a janitor or someone to help do it for you!” Panic set in as he practically ran across the room with his hands already outstretched to take the painting from her, only to have her move away from him. “Here put it down you’re going to hurt yourself!”

“No Sinclair I got it I’m up here already!” She protested, as she tried once more to put the thing up only, letting out another whine when she missed the nail a third time.

If she didn’t do it now, it was going to stay leaned up against her shelf for the next month, because she would either forget to ask for help or, just not want to deal with it. With another huff, she got on her tiptoes to try and reach the nail one more time even as Sinclair protested behind her.

Going to try and make sure she didn’t take a tumble off the sofa in case things went tits up, he froze when she reached up to hang the picture once more. Whether she realized it or not, her tiptoeing caused her skirt to ride up her legs, giving him a delicious view of the back of her thighs, which were soft and shapely.

It had been six years, yet the sight of them had his fingers twitching, memories of being able to touch, and caress the delicate skin immediately began to to plague his mind. And if he wasn’t careful, something else would be plaguing him that was very much not appropriate for a work setting.

Though his eyes lingered on her as he wondered if she was still as soft as he remembered. Biting his bottom lips and willing the sudden burst of arousal that was trying to spread like fire, he was snapped out of his trance when a sudden exclamation of triumph rang through the air.

“Aha!”

Turning around, she gave him a pretty grin as she clapped her hands, pleased that she had gotten the picture up on the fourth try.

“There see, told you I didn’t need any help!” Her tone was one of triumph, as she pointed to the picture that was hung against the wall, before she plopped down on the sofa.

Slipping on her kitten heels, she stood and went to continue about her victory against the picture frame that had been haunting her. That was, until she noticed the concerned expression etched on Sinclair’s face. His brows were furrowed in worry, and his cheeks were also awfully red which gave her some pause. He didn’t even let her get her witty comment out before he was letting out a waterfall of concerns.

“Amiee you could have fallen and broken something! What would have happened if I didn’t come and you had lost your balance!”

“Sinclair I-.”

“You could have ended up in hospital or worse!” He fretted, cutting her off once more as he wrung his together hands anxiously. “You have to be more careful please I don’t-!”

There was a pause as his amber eyes searched her brown ones, his own filled with agitation as he fidgeted even more from the confused look that Amiee was sending him. This wasn’t him, he didn’t act like this, he was in control of himself always, even if his own energy got ahead of him at times. But lately, he felt as if he wasn’t, especially when it came to his emotions.

Whether it be because of his divorce, or the fact that the person who he hoped would have been his wife was suddenly back in his life. He wasn’t sure, but all of it just felt so big and he didn’t know how to handle it. His mind began to wander for a moment about whether to reach out to a therapist or just purchase a self help book, but he was coaxed out of it when he felt a tender squeeze on his forearms.

“Clair, what’s wrong? You don’t what?” The sound of her voice questioning him brought him back down and there was a look of wonder in her eyes as she waited for him.

His mind was a scrambled mess with all the feelings that were swirling around, but she patiently waited for him. Even as the silence bordered uncomfortable, she waited, not rushing him for an answer that he normally would already have. Her warm eyes felt like safety as she gazed at him, and the feeling of her hand on his arm seemed to calm him enough so that he could say something to break the quietness of the moment.

“We’ve just…” He trailed off again, looking for the right words for the moment as he bit his lower lip.

God he had read so many books, and he knew four languages fluently yet he couldn’t find the right words. What a mess he was.

“I just…I don’t want anything to happen to you. You’ve already had to spend a lot of time in hospital. Not for you of course I know that,” he added quickly to clarify what he meant. “And plus.” Lowering his eyes to the ground, a bashful look came across Sinclair’s features.

It was a bit unusual coming from Sinclair. Someone so confident that he lit up the whole room when he walked in. But now, he stood with his hands behind his back and his eyes not meeting her own, just like a little puppy who was scared and had its tail between its legs.

“I think six years of not seeing each other is more than enough; I don’t want us to have to keep adding on to that.”

His words sat in the air for a moment as he was hesitant to look up. A feeling of vulnerability that he hadn’t felt since finding out that Natalie had been cheating on him washed over him. But this was a different type of vulnerability, not a constricting one filled with confusion and hurt and anger, but a strange comforting type.

The type you can only be with someone you know wouldn’t judge you for the flaws you possessed, but love you in spite of them. With Natalie, he couldn’t remember if he felt that positive type of vulnerability, yet it seemed Amiee could pull it right out of him without even trying.

“Six years is a long time,” she agreed quietly, drawing Sinclair out of his thoughts only to find her gazing wistfully out the window.

Sensing he was looking at her, she gave her his attention, a small endearing smile on her face. It made her look so soft.

“I’m sorry Clair, but you know it’s just how I am. Always doing something silly so I don’t have to be a bother,” she explained, yet there was a moment where her smile dropped as if she remembered something unpleasant before it returned. “What do they say, something about doing it yourself if you want it right?”

“If you want something right do it yourself!” He corrected brightly causing her to grin knowing it would have that effect on him. “ They say that and it’s one of my favorite things about you! You’re always doing things on your own, never asking for help and being brilliant at it. But you can always ask for my help you know that, right? You’ve never been a bother!”

The way he said it almost made her heart break along with the grin he showed her. Full of warm sincerity and earnestness that she could never not believe him. Matter of fact, she had always believed that he would do anything he could for her. She just wished she thought she was deserving of it.

‘Oh enough of that Amiee!’

“Okay. I promise from now on, that if I do anything that may cause injury or death, I’ll phone you before doing it,” she said jokingly causing him to grin ear to ear. “Here look I’ll even pinky swear with you.”

Holding out her pinky, because she was very much serious about it, Sinclair couldn’t stop the loud guffawing laughter that left his lips at the sight. This was so very silly, yet it didn’t stop him from coming closer to her offering up his pinky and his own promise.

“Yes yes! And I promise I’ll come running to you no matter what! To either stop you or help you!”

Their digits entwined, his larger finger wrapped around her smaller one causing her to giggle as they gave each other bright grins before they ‘shook’ on their promise.

“Excellent! Now that I’ve taken off a few years of your life, do you still fancy letting me tag along to lunch? Or do you need to recuperate?”

“Never! I mean I could never tire of you,” he corrected, as they dropped their hands from one another, even though there was a yearning to hold it again. “But yes lunch let’s go. I think I’ve worked up even more of an appetite than normal after that scare.”

“Well, that just means double the appetizers!” Amiee pointed out.

“And maybe entrees!"

“Oh my god Sinclair can we please come back to this place,” Amiee groaned as she slid halfway down her seat.

Food coma was already starting to sit in as the waiter cleared the table of their entrees, and she didn’t know how she was going to put down the dessert they had ordered. It would get done one way or another, and if she got a stomach ache afterwards well so be it. She wasn’t going to let any of it go to waste.

“It’s delicious isn’t it!” Sinclair praised with far more energy than she had, which was unsurprising. However, she suspected he would be napping after lunch because he would always close his door afterwards. Could it be him taking meetings, yes, but she had an inkling it was a meeting with his sofa.

“I’ve been here five times already since they opened and I think it’s my favorite in the area. Oh, you have to try the linguine frutti di mare when we come back. The seafood is so fresh you’ll love it, it’s divine!’

“Don’t tell me that Sinclair or I’ll end up coming for dinner tonight! Plus I have food at home waiting for me and I don’t want it going bad.”

Unknowingly she had set up a perfect moment for him to ask the question that had been burning in his mind since the start of the day. This was his moment!

“So! You can just eat that for a late night snack if you get peckish during the night. I try not to do that because it gives me heartburn, but I can’t go to bed with an empty stomach it’s impossible!” He happily chattered before remembering what he was going to say.

“Plus I was going to ask if you wanted to come to the cinema with me tonight?” He proposed happily, “A business partner of ours gave me tickets for an early showing of this new film, I think it’s called Candyman? It’s coming out in the autumn and I thought ‘oh, Amiee would like this!’”

Whether it was the offer of going to watch a film with him, or the genre of the film itself, Amiee’s eyes widened slightly, a bit taken aback by the invitation. Being asked to watch a film with him was not something she thought would be asked today but, she wasn’t going to say no! Especially, if she got to spend more time with him outside of work.

“Sinclair, you know that’s a horror film right? And last time I checked you hated those,” she pointed out as she took a sip of her water before continuing, “all of the trailers I’ve seen have been pretty suspenseful and a bit well erm horror-esque, which I love don’t get me wrong! But uhm are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure! Plus I don’t hate them! I just think they should be a little more logical. Like, tell me why do people always split up in those movies? It’s always their downfall!”

Sitting back up as she tried to recover from all the food in her, Amiee laughed at his example. He was right; she never understood the whole ‘let’s split up’ thing in the movies. Did no one ever learn the phrase there’s strength in numbers? Apparently not.

“Or you know when there’s a trail of blood and they follow it?” She added, as she rested her elbows on the table and placed her chin on top of the back of her hands as she smiled up at him. “Especially when they’re defenseless! Like what is your plan if the murderer is still there?”

That seemed to rile him up some more, and she couldn’t hide the amusement she was getting from it. He so hated when things weren’t logical and horror movies to him were far from logical.

“Exactly! I just don’t get it! That’s why I don’t like them, they don’t make sense at all.”

His tirade finished just as the waiter returned with their desserts. A piece of tiramisu for her, and for him, a slice of cheesecake topped with strawberries along with a bowl of fluffy chocolate mousse.

As soon as they thanked the waiter, Sinclair was digging into his dessert, all but groaning at how creamy the cheesecake filling was. Being so engrossed with his food, he wasn’t expecting to see Amiee staring at him when he went to ask how her dessert was.

Though he did note the twinkle in her eyes, and the way her lips quirked and formed a tiny mischief smirk. It was a familiar expression he had seen before, and he wondered what she was up to.

“Mmp-what?” He asked before another piece of cheesecake was in his mouth. “Thisisdelicious.”

“So let me get this right, you don’t like horror because most of them are illogical yes?” She questioned, picking up her spoon and digging into her dessert.

A tiny groan left her lips, as the taste of coffee, and mascarpone combined with cocoa powder, and lady fingers, created a nice and creamy dessert that wasn’t too sweet and had different flavor notes.

“This is good, not too sweet, can really taste the coffee and cream!” She praised enjoying that her teeth didn’t hurt the moment she bit into it like it would some desserts.

“Isn’t it! I would say it’s my favorite but I like all of them,” he admitted freely as he scooped some mousse up and ate it. A happy groan left his lips at the taste as he remembered he had been asked a question. “But yes you could say that.”

“Mhmm, so what you’re saying is all those times you ended up halfway on my lap when we watched them was not because of the jump scares, but because they bored you out of your mind because of how illogical they are?”

Clearly, there was a teasing lilt in her voice, which matched her playful demeanor. Yet, it still caused Sinclair to pause in his eating, as the cutest pout appeared on his thin lips, and all she could think about was kissing them. His brows were furrowed as he narrowed his eyes and he let out a low whine of her name.

“I can’t believe you’re bringing that up here,” he whined, much like a dejected puppy while his gaze turned down and poked at his food.

“Aw I’m sorry love, only trying to take the piss out of you, ” she tittered.

Leaning over the table, she reached over to stroke the hand that was resting on the table with her thumb in hopes of giving him a bit of comfort. There was a slight zing again as her fingers touched his hand, yet it was much less intense than how she felt when he hugged her in his office when they met again. Finally, she was getting used to being able to touch him again and it was more than she could have ever hoped for honestly.

“You know I never minded. Just like how you never minded having to lug me into bed whenever you found me asleep in some random place, which,” she added playfully as she leaned back and settled into her chair. “Is what you’ll have to do if we come back tonight for dinner because I’m liable to fall asleep in the car.”

The insinuation of her agreeing to come to the cinema with him seemed to perk him right up. That and getting to come back to the restaurant later tonight. But mostly getting to spend more time with her had him cheering up. It was something they hadn’t had too much time to do, as they had both been busy the past few weeks so this was perfect.

“That’s okay! I did that when we were in Manchester and it’ll be like you said, just like old times.”

A bashful smile flitted across Amiee’s face as she looked down at her hands, her face warming as she remembered waking up next to him those mornings. Curled up and feeling safe even if her world was trying to fall apart.

She would be lying if she said she didn’t think about those moments every day she woke up. What it would be like to wake up beside him again. God, she missed it. But maybe with this unofficial date, they were one step closer? She really hoped so.

“Well, then Clair, it sounds like we have ourselves a… date?”

There was a bit of trepidation in her voice as she asked him. But there was also thinly veiled hope in it that she almost wanted him to hear.

It seemed though that he had heard or at least caught on to what she was saying as there was a sudden burst of warmth that bloomed in his stomach. Before he knew it, that warmth was radiating from his stomach, to the full smile on his face that had grown without him noticing it.

“Yes! It’s a date!”

Neither of them knew how they survived the rest of the work day after they returned from lunch, solely because their minds were focused on their evening outing. Sinclair, who was normally very much dedicated to his work, was very much the opposite, as his brain bounced from thing to thing.

He had the hardest time focusing on any of the papers that were piled up, only thinking about why time wasn’t moving quicker as he was eager to hang out with Amiee.

Amiee was the same way of course. While not as busy as Sinclair was at the moment, she could hardly focus on the training manuals that she needed to look over. Her brain was buzzing with anticipation, and she found herself pacing around the office more than once. Stopping from time to time, to stare out the window as her mind wandered to everything that wasn’t work.

When the clock finally struck five, Sinclair was the first out of his seat as he quickly and haphazardly packed some documents in his briefcase. He would take a look at them in his home office tomorrow, he had more exciting things to look forward to tonight. Rushing out of the office, he was met with a startled look from Sarah who had only started packing her bags.

“Leaving already Sinclair,” she asked, pausing her packing as she watched him fiddle with the keys to his office.

“Yes!” His tone was more enthusiastic than normal, and a sheepish smile appeared on his lips as he turned to look at her. “Yes,” he repeated more calmly, yet still radiating that bright energy of his. “I have some things to do at home tonight and I wanted to get back early. I know! Very peculiar for me to be leaving so early but it’s been brewing in the back of my mind for days. Don’t let the other know you’ve seen me leaving okay?”

“O-Oh okay, no problem I guess.” It wasn’t like she was going to tell anyone anyway. “Well have a good weekend!”

“You too, buh bye!” He answered, waving back at her and briskly walking away, leaving a very confused secretary who just shrugged and went back to her packing.

When they arrived at the venue, Amiee briefly wondered if they had turned up in the wrong place because this was not your average cinema. Expecting to see the normal brick building and maybe some glass here or there. She was surprised to see them pulling up to a building that was basically like an art school of some sort.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” She asked dumbfoundedly as Sinclair helped her out of the car.

“Yep! They usually do the private screenings of the new films here or sometimes at one of the galleries near Kensington.” He explained as they walked up the steps of the building.

For a Friday night, it wasn’t too busy, but granted, it was a private event, so she shouldn’t have expected a whole lot of people from the public meandering around.

“Wow, never thought I be at a rich person’s cinema,” she mused out loud before she immediately felt the need to lower her voice as they entered the place. “Must be nice to not hear all the talking and carrying on in the public ones. Though I don’t see a concessions booth, and I’m not sure if I appreciate that or not. Do we get like seat side service?”

“I don’t know, I quite like being in the cinema with others, it makes for a good ambience. Some of the ones in the area have gotten upgrades with their furniture and sound as well! But also yes to your point there isn’t usually food here,” he sighed as if it was the worst crime that the place had committed. “I don’t come often because of that, I think the last time I was here it was last summer with Natalie-.”

There was a sudden pause in his speech, and Amiee looked up to catch a forlorn look that crossed his features.

Natalie? Was that the name of his wife? Or soon to be ex-wife? There was this incessant urge to pry a bit more into what had happened because she still wasn’t aware of what had gone on. Call her nosy, but she was just curious about what had happened that caused Sinclair to clam up anytime anything about this mysterious ex was brought up.

But that was maybe for another day, because she didn’t want to ruin a night of fun with questions about the woman. Plus, it couldn’t have been at all good, which only made Amiee dislike her even if they hadn’t ever met. She hoped it stayed that way.

“No food?” Her tone was incredulous as Sinclair handed a man standing by another door the entry tickets. After he gave the passes a quick check, he let them through to the main screening portion of the theatre. “I would have shoved some crisps or something in my purse if you had told me that beforehand,” she continued, steering the conversation away from the unpleasant subject as they searched for an empty pair of seats. “When I was in uni, one of my friends brought a whole meal into the theatre. Snuck it right in with her purse and no one even knew.”

His expression relaxed as she told her story, and he couldn’t help the warm chuckle that left him as he led them to an empty spot.

“That was a brilliant idea from you friend though, how put off would you be if I asked you to shove some sandwiches in your bag next time we do this?”

“Well, as long as you share I’ll do it, but if we get caught I’m going to act like I don’t know you.”

Sinclair feigned a hurt expression, his brows drawn, and a little pout on lips that made Amiee want to laugh, but she held it in, a smirk being the sign of amusement on her face.

“Of course I would share with you! But now that you're threatening to leave me to fend for myself, I’m not sure if I want to!”

“I’m teasing Clair, I'm teasing. I would never rat you out to the theatre authorities. You know that’s not my style. We’re just gonna have to make a run for it if they catch up.”

“We can throw a sandwich on the floor and make them slip just like if it was a banana peel,” Sinclair added, but quickly retracted it at the thought of food waste. “Wait no we can’t sacrifice the food- Oh look the movie’s starting I think!” He whispered enthusiastically as the lights in the room began to dim and the screen began to brighten.

Giving each other one more grin, the two of them settled in to watch the film.

The movie was terrific. Well to Amiee that is. It was a good thing that the place didn’t provide popcorn, though to be honest it was pretty cheap of them not to. So fancy yet no snacks, she was surprised Sinclair wasn’t bothered by that.

Granted if they did have popcorn, most of it would have been on the floor if he had been in charge of it. He had jumped over five times during the first half of the movie. And honestly, him getting startled did more to scare Amiee than the actual movie.

“Oh my god, why are there bees in his mouth? What is he about to do,” Sinclair stuttered out as he watched the Candyman grab the main character, Helen, before kissing her.

Sinclair made a gagging sound as one hand went to cover his eyes, so he could avoid watching the bees swarm down the poor woman's throat. His fingers were gripping the armrest so hard that Amiee was sure it was going to leave a permanent dent when they were done.

“Okay but what would happen if she was allergic to bees? Wouldn’t that mess up his whole plan if she died right then from shock?” Amiee whispered to Sinclair who was trying to block out the whole thing. She was serious though! Why this man was trying to ruin his own plan?

“And if not, what if she chokes on them? Come on he’s dead he should know these things!” She continued unfazed by what was being shown as she had been the entire time.

Well, that was just slightly untrue as both of them had let out pitiful sounds at the fate of a side character’s dog.

“No not the puppy.”

They had both whimpered as they watched the scene that could have been left out for all they cared. Poor Sinclair seemed to be affected by it the worst out of them both. Of course, he would be, he was part puppy and seeing anything happen to his family was upsetting.

The moment had him laying his head on her shoulder as he looked away from the screen. His face buried as if trying to hide away, and instinctively Amiee’s hand went to stroke his head as the scene played out. Sinclair stayed like that until Amiee gave him the all clear, but of course, he stayed on edge the entire time.

Their hands stayed tucked together the rest of the movie and up until Sinclair got Amiee into the car before they drove back to the Wharf for dinner.

“I admit the plot and lore was fascinating. But I’ll never be able to look at bees again in the same way,” Sinclair blanched as the waiter took their menus away after they finished their orders. “And then the poor puppy! Amiee, they didn’t have to hurt it,” he whined, still upset about that part of the movie. “I think I may have nightmares tonight.”

“If it makes you feel any better I bet the pup got a lot of treats that day during shooting,” Amiee offered in hopes of cheering him up seeing as he was mainly upset about the dog. “I bet they used jam or something for the effects and had to keep it from licking it all up. It was probably a fun day for it!”

“Now that you mention it! I know one of the tricks they use to get dogs to lick someone is to put flavored grease on the person,” Sinclair pointed out happily. “ I read it in a movie magazine before and thought that’s brilliant of them. I’d be enticed by the smell of bacon grease too, and I’m not even a dog!”

‘Well not a four-legged one but there are definitely some puppy genes in there.’

Amiee thought to herself as she tried to avoid laughing to herself.

“Yeah! It was probably the same as this movie. Maybe we should see if they can add some bloopers in the credits where we get to see the dog rolling around,” she joked swirling the lemon in her water before taking a sip. “Plus, we don’t need you staying up all night when you have an early morning tomorrow.”

The statement garnered a puzzled look from Sinclair who didn’t understand what she meant. He didn’t think he had anything he had to do in the morning. Unless he was missing something, which he didn’t think he was.

“I do?” He asked, along with an adorable tilt of his head to the side that had her ‘awwing’ internally.

“Yes! I mean…Well actually now that you’re asking me I don’t know!” She laughed. “Don’t you go into the office on Saturday mornings, you’d always used to,” she pointed out, before giving him a cheeky smile. “Unless you’re telling me that you’ve finally fallen out of love with work.”

She always thought it was a bit strange that he went to work on Saturday mornings. Wasn’t forty hours a week and occasionally fifty enough? When she asked him about it one day, he simply just said he liked it, and it helped him keep up with all the work he had.

Secretly though, she always thought it was to catch up on work he hadn’t done due to his time management. Or lack thereof. Even as perfect as he was, he needed a flaw. Hiding her laughter she listened to him.

“Oh well no, I erm,” he paused for a moment thinking of a way to explain the situation while carding his hand through his hair. He thought and thought and yet there wasn’t any other way but to directly say it.

“Well you see…oh god this is such a weird place to be talking about this,” he chuckled nervously, even though there was no humor in his voice and his hand had dropped to fidget with his fingers.

“Then we don’t have to,” she replied swiftly, not meaning to bring up anything heavy. “Sorry didn’t mean to rain on the parade, I just always thought it was funny that you went in on Saturdays. You couldn’t pry me from my bed if I didn’t have to be anywhere,” she grinned.

“You’re such a sleepyhead,” he teased, causing Amiee to give him a proud look before a thoughtful look crossed his features. “But no, please don’t apologize, it's not like you would have known. It’s just, well…” He trailed off with a shake of his head before answering truthfully.

“I stopped going in because, during marriage counseling, the therapist asked me to. They believed it would help mend the issues that had caused us to have to go in the first place.” He explained to her. “It didn’t, hence the divorce, but I did find out I do actually enjoy a nice lie in during the weekend.”

Listening intently up to the end, she couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Sinclair. He did what he was asked to do, and she assumed that he did try but it didn’t work. Though he did gain something at the end which had her ears perking up.

“Sinclair?”

“Hmm?”

Taking a breath, she spoke.

“This is going to make me sound like a right arse but.” There was a pause as she looked at him, a waiting expression on his face before she finished with, “I’m pretty sure I told you that before!”

By the way his eyebrows raised, he hadn’t been expecting that statement to come from her. Even more confused than before he blurted out, “you did?”

“About the lie in thing? Yes!” Her voice was higher than normal as she tried to keep herself from falling over with laughter. She didn’t know why it was so funny but it was, especially paired with the surprised look on his face. “You slept like an absolute log on Saturday mornings when I would stay over. I don’t know why’d you ever torture yourself going in like that.”

“See but that was easy! Do you know how cozy it is to sleep with you-?”

There was a sudden pause, and he could feel his cheeks becoming warm at his terrible word choice. Brown eyes that had widened at his statement stared at him, and he could see a pale red blush begin to spread across her face.

‘Damnit don’t embarrass her!’

The voice in his head chided him even though in reality Amiee wasn’t embarrassed at all. More flattered than anything.

“No sorry I-I mean!” Spluttering and tripping over his words, he fumbled for a moment more before carefully stringing the words he found together. “It was nice to have someone that didn’t mind being held or you know, have someone who liked to hang off your back like a kola…it’s very cute, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”

What? Did his ex not cuddle with him often? She needed to meet this woman and find out her problem because who wouldn’t want to cuddle with Sinclair? You know what, never mind, maybe it was for the best that they didn’t meet.

“Well, then I’ll have you know that I for one am glad that you are taking the advice and staying home now on Saturdays,” she chirped truthfully. “You work too hard. It's admirable, but also don’t go working yourself to death! I need someone to spot me when I’m being dangerous.”

He grinned warmly at her statement and all she could do was sigh internally. How was one person so handsome, sweet and playful? It was truly easy for her to forget about her problems with him.

“I will try not to! But also please don’t, it would scar me,” he half joked as it probably would do that.“Anyways, enough about me! What do you have planned? I hope that flat hunting is in the cards because I still don’t like where you’re living. It’s not safe.”

Of course he didn’t.

“Sinclair it’s perfectly safe where I live. I’ve been there for almost two years and the only danger to me is my flat itself,” she joked even though it didn’t seem funny to him.

He just pouted at her and she resisted the urge to playfully roll her eyes at him. She knew he meant well, but she was also used to living in places that were a bit rough around the edges.

That didn’t mean he was wrong though, she did need to find a new place. Not only because she wanted to be closer to the office as the hour commute both ways was draining, but also because she needed an extra room for when Angie came to stay with her.

“If it pleases the court to know,” she informed, sarcasm dripping from her voice, “I’ll probably be moving in autumn after I save a bit.” And it did seem to put him at ease as he let out a pleased ‘good’ while she could only shake her head humorously at him.

“But for tomorrow I’m actually going home! Angie’s getting out of hospital and I was gonna spend a few days with my parents and her. Make sure she’s alright.”

This was the first time Sinclair had heard about this, and his face absolutely brightened at the good news. He knew she had gone back one more time since the initial visit but that was about it.

“Amiee that’s wonderful!” He exclaimed warmly, his eyes shining while Amiee’s cheeks hurt more than usual at how much she had been smiling. “I’m so glad to hear she’s alright. Do you need my help or anything? Since I’ll be at home I can take you if you want? I quite liked the visit last time oh- no that’s not what I meant. I mean you know it had been a while since I went there, not that the situation was any good.”

“I know what you mean Clair,” she said, saving him as she shook her head with a chuckle. “But no, it’s fine. I’ll probably go sometime in the afternoon since I’m going to stay till maybe Wednesday. But it’s great. I’m just super, super happy I don’t have to see her with that tube again. It’s just…ugh.”

Just the thought of her sister in hospital made her stomach churn and she tried to push the thoughts as far away as possible. All that mattered now was that she was better, and they could figure it all out after she was home and on the mend.

“Do you know if she’s going to be alright? I mean you know…I’ve read that with things like that it only takes a few minutes to impact the brain and it can damage-.” Stopping his spiel abruptly, Sinclair looked down for a moment as if a thought crossed his mind before he returned his attention to Amiee who patiently waited. “Oh actually, I shouldn't bring something like that up. I’ve been trying to keep in mind that it’s not appropriate when it comes to stuff like that, sorry.”

What he said was a little off putting as she hadn’t at all found it inappropriate. He liked to share information, and it was always accurate when it came to whatever subject they talked about so she didn’t mind.

Plus, it just meant he cared about what he was talking about and wanted others to know. She wondered briefly if his therapist also told him that. Granted she was getting the idea that it may also have been influenced by someone else. She grimaced at the thought.

“No, no it’s okay! It’s the truth and something the docs were looking out for as well,” she explained. “But thankfully, when I talked to her the other day, even though she sounded a bit croaky, which fair I would be too if I had a tube shoved down my throat. It seems like her motor functions will be fine, and they just want her to do a few months in physical therapy.”

“Thank goodness! That’s scary stuff and I’m glad she’s okay,” he sighed in relief. “Will you tell her I said hello when you see her? Maybe I can send some flowers with you to take to her as well?”

“Clair no you don’t have to! I’ll tell her you said hello though, she’s going to flip out probably knowing that we work together again.”

This piqued his curiosity, as did most things in life, but this really interested him.

“Really how come?”

It was Amiee’s turn to look down and away from him, hiding her face as she tried to figure out how to tell him her sister was a raging romantic, and would probably go crazy knowing they were ‘together’ again.

“Oh god, erm how do I explain,” she laughed nervously as she tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear.“Just know Angie used to consider you as one of my ‘bad’ decisions. But in a good way.”

“I don’t follow, a bad decision? In a good way?” Again an adorable head tilt followed his confusion. “Those can’t exist, they’re the complete opposite of each other?”

“Well okay, how about I put it like this, from the last I read, London’s a city of almost 7 million right?”

“Yes, that's what the BBC showed a few months back. We’re growing at a steady rate.”

“Right, So I don’t think it’s a stretch to say, it’s a bloody miracle that I applied to where you work, and that Arthur happened to not come in, leading you to be the one I had to talk to.”

There was a thoughtful expression on Sinclair’s features as he pondered what that had anything to do with why her sister would freak out. But slowly, he started to get the image and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. To say he was merely happy was an understatement.

“Rubbish!” He exclaimed, startling her before grinning at her reaction. “Is what I would have said, because where’s the logic in that? But, when you put it that way, statistically a lot of things had to go right for us to run into each other again.”

“Exactly! I’m glad you agree,” she nodded. “And I don’t know about you but I’m proper chuffed that things somehow turned out this way.”

“Me too! I’m happy you’re here Amiee and I hope you don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. If you do, I’ll be sure to follow. There are billions of people in the world, and I don’t want you to get lost among them.”

Because he would be damned if he lost her again.

A warmth bloomed in her tightening chest at his words. His amber eyes were bright, and warm, just like a crackling fireplace on a cool autumn day. The smile he wore radiated that same feeling, as he declared how happy he was, even though just from how he looked, at her one could properly tell how he felt. It caused feelings that swirled in her to push at her, wanting her to get up from her seat and hug him. To never leave again and to stay put with him.

But, she did her best not to succumb to them as her mind constantly reminded her it was too early. That even if her heart, still entangled with his wanted more, she should wait because things had changed and they needed to tread carefully. At least she could promise him she wouldn’t leave again, because truthfully, she didn’t think she could survive that heartbreak a second time.

So with a shake of her head, she smiled at him, a gentle smile that was illuminated by the warm orange lights of the restaurant. A smile that made him forget that there were other people around as everything became background noise. It was just her and him as she spoke.

“No, not this time. Promise.”

By the time they had finished eating, and Sinclair had gotten them back to her flat, it was almost midnight, and they were both absolutely knackered. Helping her get out of the car, Sinclair led her up the stairs to her flat. Her hand comfortably resting in his as they chatted and laughed up until they made it to her door.

“Well this is me,” she yawned, her body alerting her once more that it was past her bedtime after the fun evening. “Thanks for the film and dinner. And I’m going to pay you back one day I swear.” The last part added on as she had been unsuccessful again at paying for their meal.

“You’re welcome and I absolutely won’t accept it unless! You being around is payment enough!”

“Well if you put it like that how can I say no?” She beamed, causing him to reciprocate her gesture with a grin of his own before they laughed. “But really, thank you for tonight Clair, I had such a good time. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve laughed till my face started hurting!”

“Me too! Hopefully…we can do something like this again soon?” He asked hesitantly, not wanting to make it seem as if he was pushing her to do anything.

“I would love that! Maybe we can talk about it some when I get back to town? How’s that sound?”

“That’s absolutely perfect!”

His little shout of happiness was accompanied by him squeezing her hand, reminding her that they were indeed holding hands once more. His larger one engulfed her smaller one and she couldn’t help but enjoy the comfort it brought as she squeezed his back.

“Well, it’s getting late and while you’re lucky to get to snooze in, I have a train to catch tomorrow,” Amiee pointed out as she stroked his hand with her thumb absentmindedly. “Drive safe and please call me when you get home okay?”

“I will! And…will you do the same when you have time tomorrow? When you get settled of course!” He added not wanting to seem overbearing, but just wanting to make sure she was safe.

“Of course,” she nodded before they stood in silence.

It wasn’t uncomfortable, but there was a feeling of underlying energy as they watched one another. Waiting to see who would move first to do anything. If one of her neighbours came out at that moment, they would think they had interrupted a pair of lovers with how close the two were.

“Night night Clair,” Amiee whispered to break the stillness as she looked up at him. Even in the dim light, his eyes shone bright as they stayed trained on her.

“Good night Amiee,” he responded in a murmur as he watched her carefully, admiring how she added beauty to any setting they were in. Even in the hallway of her building.

They stood for a moment, hands intertwined for a little longer before they let go of one another. Lingering for a bit to just say goodbye one more time, Sinclair waved before he made his way down the hallway. Amiee watched until he disappeared around a corner before she let herself into her flat which was illuminated by the hallway light.

Kicking her shoes off and relocking the door, she stood there quietly, her back facing the entrance as her mind raced with thoughts. A loud exhale left her lips before she found her back against the door, and she couldn’t stop the smile that brightened her expression as she wrapped her arms around herself.

Similarly, as Sinclair sat in his car, the radio turned low to provide background noise, he looked in the direction of her flat’s building. Resting against his seat and thinking of all the emotions he had felt that day, he noted that most, if not all of them, were feelings of fondness. It felt good as it had been a while since he had felt that way and it was all because of her.

Still staring in the direction of her flat, he noticed a light illuminating from her window that was not on earlier. A sense of comfort washed over him knowing she was inside safe and he knew it was okay for him to leave. So giving the building one last glance, he whispered a tender,

“Good night darling.”

A/N: Ekkk i had so much fun with this chapter! I hope it makes up for how angsty the past chapters have been. These two deserve some fluff haha. I'll probably be a while in updating again (as if i'm ever quick) as I think I want to finish more chapters before posting but we will see.

#sinclair bryant #sinclair bryant x oc #amiee x sinclair #alan rickman #the art of entangled hearts #blossom writes

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annieqattheperipheral · 1 year

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Kyle. Hi. Wow. Ok. I'm sad. Wow gonna miss u hard.

Ok so the Brendan Shanahan media availability just ended. Wow, he revealed a fair bit and didn't hide that letting Kyle go was his decision and revealed when he changed his mind from fully working on extending his contract, to ok thank you but bye.

The timeline:

Off-season 2022: shanny tells dubas they're going to wait and see how the 22-23 season goes and then decide on whether or not to extend him. Kyle all cool beans super profesh

Season: goes well normal ups n downs. Owners & board & shanny are happy

Trade deadline 2023: shanny is very pleased and now there's not much else for GMs to do rn so tells dubas we want to extend you. Kyle all cool beans i want that too here's my agent's deets y'all figure it out keep me out of it while i focus on the end of season & playoffs

Friday May 12: Leafs nation crashes and burns out of the playoffs in round 2

Saturday day off

Sunday they all come in for team pictures and shanny & dubas chat and he tells dubas you did well this doesn't change anything we still want to extend you. also everyone will be talking to media tmr you don't have to i won't be. Kyle all cool beans but I'm gonna bc the players & coach have to and i should support them

Monday May 15 - Kyle Dubas speaks to media -> he did not confirm yes/no on whether he wanted to stay as GM, answers with this season was v hard on my family and i have to speak w them before i answer in any way at all

Shanny's brain goes all WTF. Yes we've talked extensively at every conversation about how hard this season has been on your family. But like did not expect that response to the media. So then shanny's all driving home that night thinking ok i have to think about the possibility of next season having a different GM

Tuesday - they don't chat

Wednesday - shanny goes to see dubas. They talk about his Monday media availability cuz shanny got questions cuz like wtf. They talk about pressure on family in this industry both as player and management. Kyle says his agent will contact him tmr and shanny all uhh ok but I'm like still so confused girl

Thursday - dubas agent sends shanny a new contract w different financial package expectations. Kyle emails shanny that night i wanna be ur GM boo🫶 but shanny already got the ick factor going and is so not into it anymore

Friday May 19/today - shanny drove to dubas office at ford performance centre and told him we will not be extending ur contract 😭😭😭

Brendan Shanahan speaks to media

If you've got the urge and u really love kyle highly encourage you watch/listen to both of their press conferences. Shanahan speaks highly of Dubas keeps it profesh there is none of the bad blood we heard about

Kyle is so awesome, open, emotional and possibly its the last time we'll hear from him for awhile since he's no longer with MLSE nor any other org. He said in his media that if he were to not be GM with leafs, in no way would we be seeing him signing with another team like next week. His answer didn't have anything to do w having other job offers.

My overall conclusion:

shanny no longer saw the 100% passion and want for the job anymore from dubas during his Monday press conference. And it's ok if that is how kyle is feeling bc he clearly needs to focus on family for a bit now after just a rollicking season & stressful as shit playoffs. Yes Kyle was in a vulnerable state so soon after playoffs elimination and probably shouldn't have been judged for his contract extension based off of that. But workplaces and jobs are like relationships where if the want to work isn't fully there anymore it is going to turn off your coworkers and boss, and his lack of confirmation of wanting to be GM to the press really drove home that he was still on the fence and iffy about going all in on the job despite the horrible 2nd round loss.

Wherever you go kyle, I'm following you, even if you go to one of my hated teams bc i know you'll fix the org & locker room culture like you did at the leafs💙💙💙

#the complete timeline of WHAT HAPPENED WHO QUIT WHO FIRED WHO #kyle dubas #my leafies #toronto maple leafs #brendan shanahan #maple leafs #leafs #tml #annieQ hockey thoughts

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pipermca · 10 months

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Very Quick TFCon 2023 Recap!

This past weekend I attended TCCon 2023 in Toronto! This is the first convention I've attended since the start of the pandemic (aside from a couple of very local ones) and it was so good. I love being among my people, the geeks. :) Spouse also attended with me; he is only a TF fan by osmosis (seeing how enthusiastic I am about stuff makes him happy about it too), but he enjoys the vibe of sci-fi and adjacent cons. He also claims to have had a good time.

Before we left, I was concerned about a few things: catching Covid again, boarding the cat, dealing with the disaster that flying in Canada has become lately, etc. We masked up anytime we were in con space, and I remain hopeful that our recent infections acted like a booster against catching it again. If we make it to this Sunday without coming down with it, I'll consider it a success.

Before I have to go to work tomorrow, I wanted to get my thoughts down about how the con went: the amazing, the good, and the disappointing.

The Amazing

Friends. Being able to catch up with (and in some cases meet!) other TF fans who I've chatted with online over the years is always amazing. I honestly don't want to start naming names because then I'll forget someone and feel bad. There is something special about being able to put a face to an online name.

If you were there and I missed you, I am so sorry. I tried, I honestly did. But I am an incredibly awkwardly shy potato in person, and I could only shove myself out of my introvert shell so much to message people and say "LET'S MEET NOW." Sometimes I depend on other people to say "PIPER! LET'S MEET NOW" because otherwise I dither and dither until the weekend is over and the chance is gone. :(

Thank you to everyone who put up with me; I love you guys. <3

The Pros. I steeled myself and went to the three pros who I wanted to talk to: Alex Milne, James Roberts, and Jack Lawrence. Alex was selling copies of Hot Motor Oil (omg book number two is INSANE and I cackled over it repeatedly), so while he was sketching in my copy I was able to thank him for the commission he did for me a while back. He said some very nice things about my choice! but it's important for me to thank people in person for the commissions they do for me. :3 Same thing with Jack; I got a commission from him just a little while ago, and I LOVE it. He was also very nice, even though I was only at his table to thank him and not buy anything. >.> (Next time I need to bring larger print protectors; his prints were GORGEOUS but there was no way I'd be able to get them home safely.)

And I bought some scripts from James; I've been dying to read the annotated ones because I am interested in writing my own scripts, and I wanted to see how he put his together and the thoughts behind them. I was able to tell him about how it was fanfic that led me to MTMTE which led me back into the TF fandom after a 25+ year absence, and he was really happy to hear that. (And commented about how the message that fanfic can bring in new fans needs to get back to the IP holders...)

The Costumes. Briefly, AMAZING costumes this year. I got some good pictures of some of them, but the creativity out there is fantastic.

The Good.

The Loot. I got a decent amount of stuff this year, and thanks to Spouse tagging along I was able to bring back a bit more than usual. And some of the stuff was for him, so he got something out of it too. :3

Non-TF Meetups. By happenstance, a coworker of mine lives in the area, as does some WoW guildies that Spouse knows. We'd never met any of these people in person, so we made time for that and I'm happy we did. Also, not having to go downtown? Priceless. XD

Cat Boarding. We boarded our new cat while we were away, and it went well! She is very adaptable, and I'm glad that they liked her. This was sort of a test run for longer vacations, and now I feel comfortable leaving her there for longer periods of time.

The Disappointing

The Pros I Didn't Meet. See: awkward potato. I did want to say hello Frank Todaro (he has a very good moustache by the way) and tell him in person how much I enjoyed his work on WFC (as Starscream and Rattrap - but Starscream specifically was great), but there was always someone at his table when I went by, and I'm an awkward potato, and I (?) didn't really want an autograph but felt bad just going and talking to him without buying something like I did to Jack, so I didn't talk to him. And David Kaye ALWAYS had a huge lineup so that was totally out.

No Toyhax? I was hoping that Toyhax would be there so I could buy some decals for the car (ones I ALMOST bought in 2019 but didn't, and I've regretted it ever since.) But they were not at the con. (I also kind of wanted some other sticker sets.) I've checked their website and I think the car decals in 2019 were being sold by someone just sharing their table but I can't remember who, so - blah. Too bad.

Travel Shenanigans. It all worked out in the end, but our trip to Toronto was a little... interesting thanks to some computer glitches with the airline. It added stress to me that I didn't need.

Writing. Hahhahahaaa! No writing was done over the weekend. Zero words written. I was either too busy, or too tired. :/

Health Issues. I won't get into it much here, but attending the convention made me realize that I am still suffering some effects from the Covid infection I had at the end of May. I have a doctor's appointment in a few weeks so I can let her know about it, but we'll see if there's anything they can actually do. -.-;

And that was TFCon 2023! I hope I can attend again next year; this really was a great experience.

#tfcon 2023 #con report #maccadam #transformers

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karofsky · 1 year

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Yesterday I found out a friend of mine passed, which was very sudden. He was battling cancer late last year, and was on the mend, and I guess something just happened so fast, and then he was gone.

I'm okay; regrettably, if you've known me since I've been around for a bit, I'm no stranger to losing friends, and especially regarding cancer. It's a shitty fucking thing that tends to plague those I care about, and I hope to at least live on to see at least some regression of diseases in the world. It's all I can hope for.

It's just... a weird feeling now. He and I were not as close these last few years, due to my moving and just some general friend group shuffling and collapsing. I regret not talking to him more, but I kept up on him and his wife (another friend), and in this day and age, that's pretty good for me.

But he was also the first friend I made as an adult. Not from school, not a friend of a friend, not a coworker, not someone I knew from online. I met him at a con, alone. I was lost looking for a friend, and he was dressed to the fandom I was in at the time (DA). I loved his cosplay, so I stopped him for a picture, and we talked for a few minutes before I mentioned my friend was also cosplaying DA, and they weren't answering my texts. He ended up already knowing them, and, being lost at my first con, I asked him if he could text me if he ran into them, and quickly shoved my contact into his phone. As far as I know, I was still "[Robin], Lost" in it, because that's what I entered, and he always told me he never changed it.

He was an older brother to me, after that. Genuinely one of the kindest people I'd ever met, and he introduced me to a lot of people I later called friends. He had no issue taking detours to pick me up at my house or from the train station, and in fact, was the first to offer every time. I went to the con with him where he met his wife. A few months later, he brought her to a cosplay gathering for the first time, and as he was driving me home after an event he thanked me for making her feel welcome. We had a long chat about his life and his relationships, and how much he really cared for his then-girlfriend. They were inseparable after that. I think I can count one time when I hung out with either of them alone post that car ride. Really just a wonderful pair, and I couldn't imagine it being any other way.

He was always the first person to hug me goodbye when our friend group all hung out. I wish I could remember what he said to me one time that got me teary-eyed, but I'm sure he'd just make fun of me for having a shitty memory, and then realize he couldn't remember it either, and I'd roast him right back.

Death is weird. I'm not... sad about it anymore. Not with all of the death that's touched my life. It's all a bit melancholy now, and in the end, I really just think about how fortunate I am to have years or months or days or hours or minutes behind me. I wish I had more with him, and I wish things had been different, but ultimately I'm happy I had him in my life, and that I can keep carrying him on. He'd hate it if we were all just a mess anyway, so I guess I'll hold down that fort on his behalf, lol.

Here's my favourite pictures of him I've taken, where for whatever reason, both of us were just being toddlers in the middle of an Islands. I don't remember the context outside of that.

Rest easy. Don't haunt me.

#personal #tw: death

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pagerspages · 4 months

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Gender Update 1

Gender update 1

Since I started using they/them pronouns again things have been a little bit better. I wouldn’t consider myself in a gender crisis right now. For some reason just removing the ‘he’ from my pronouns even if it’s just when I’m thinking about myself has helped more than I thought I would. I’ve only told 3-4 people. One coworker, but I think she forgot because she kept saying he/him today and I told a few friends.

Speaking of friends, I think I need some new ones. I have one of my best friends from high school whom I talk to most days and they’re really chill and I have a couple of friends who are married and they’re super chill even if we barely talk but like my other friends just don’t talk to me? I have one of my oldest friends and we have an almost 1000 day snapchat streak but we don’t talk most days, we just send each other random pictures. I’m in a group chat with her and a couple of other friends who I used to be super close to but I feel like the odd person out these days. They’re all growing up and in adult relationships, have adult jobs and I’m over here just trying to survive and working retail. If you want to be friends let me know.

Work friends are great though. My closest coworker is also queer and honestly if I was stuck still working with a bunch of straight cis guys I probably wouldn’t survive. I feel like it’s easier for afab people to make friends than it is for amab people. I caught a very small glimpse of what it was like to just hang out with your girlfriends today and I will forever mourn that I didn’t get to experience that as an adolescent.

Being an amab nonbinary person on dating apps is also super different. I’m seriously considering just deleting all my accounts and starting fresh. Most people in my area (Granted I live in a small farming community in a very religious red state) that say they’d date nonbinary people only mean nonbinary people that look, act, and sound like a cis woman. I understand that people get to have preferences, I have preferences too but those people just want a woman not a nonbinary person.

I was originally going to write about how much I miss my ex again tonight but writing about this helped. Maybe I’ll post more #genderupdates as they come along. Only thing I will say about my ex is that I’m giving away one of the paintings they made me tomorrow. Not sure how to feel about it.

#trans #nonbinary #amab nonbinary #lgbt #gay #personal #life #rant

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radfemie · 1 year

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I’ve been desperate to talk to someone about this, but everyone in my life says I’m being crazy about it. I just discovered the radfem community on tumblr and I honestly thought I was alone in how much I hated men. You can totally just delete this if you want. I’m just desperate to talk to someone who might understand my feelings right now.

I got an office job 2 years ago. My office is mostly conservative boomers, but there are two “far-left, communist” men on my team. They are best friends. They started being friendly with me pretty quickly, and I welcomed it at first since there’s no one else my age to talk to.

They constantly talk about feminism, respecting women, hating “other men” and how they treat women, etc. It was a bit white-knighty, a bit incel, but I figured it was miles better than them sexually harassing me like my coworkers at other jobs have.

We started talking daily, and it became more and more obvious how disgusting they are. They talk down to me all the time, infantilizing me, acting like I’m not a real adult… I’m 25 and they are 27.

One of them is engaged, and I realized he has only ever told me negative stories about his fiance, stuff that annoyed him about her. He also told me a lot of stories about the other coworker’s relationship problems, telling me he had a lot of crazy exs and that he had commitment issues. This coworker got a girlfriend for a few weeks last spring, and the only thing they could tell me about her was that she wore a corset to the party he met her at and that she “wasn’t like other girls” because she listened to the same medieval music they like. Literally they could tell me nothing about her personality except that basically, he asked her out because he saw her tits.

then three weeks later he told me they broke up. why? the girl got too “clingy”… because she thought he wanted a romantic relationship because he asked her on more than one date, and brought up the topic to him. he broke up with her immediately because of his “commitment issues,” and because she didn’t wear the corset 24/7, i’m assuming. but guess what? she’s now on the crazy ex list too! they told me her name was banned in their group chat.

I also get treated like shit at the office because i’m a woman, and when i complain about how our bosses treat me on a daily basis, they just change the subject. but when they got treated like me ONCE, they threw temper tantrums in our group chat and wouldn’t shut up about it for days, talking about how they were going to burn the system down and guillotine the CEO. except they can’t even manage to use their privilege to speak up and defend me once at work. it’s well known at our office that white men do not get fired. they can do literally no work, and they still won’t get fired, but the women will get abused for not picking up their slack. i found out recently that I do the exact same work as them but get paid $20K less, too.

i’m not even at the really fun thing yet. one of them is super super vocal about being an anarchist and a communist. talking proudly about how he sits down for the national anthem and shit like he actually did something. always preaching about how you shouldn’t take shit from your boss. we had a company wide anniversary party this year where the CEO spent an hour on stage making women in the kitchen jokes and talking about the accomplishments of all the white men VPs, which pretty amounted to “the women did the work, but the men had to order them around, so who really did the hard work here? am i right fellas??” at one point, they had a 10 minute bit about how one VP is known widely for being physically abusive to employees, throwing garbage cans at people’s heads and punching through walls.

the CEO brought in photos of this. and we were all supposed to laugh, except i had an abusive childhood, and was in an abusive relationship, and it was genuinely triggering for me. but i was so in utter shock at the absurdity of it all, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how many women were in the crowd, and statistically how many of us had been raped and physically abused, and now were forced to attend a mandatory party to celebrate this disgusting violent male behavior. i couldn’t keep my mouth shut. i said something along the lines of “wow so funny, it’s so funny to terrorize your employees! fucking assholes” loud enough that my coworker could hear, thinking he would at least agree with that.

nope. he shot me a dirty look. like a “shut up, the bosses are here” kind of look. the same dude who said he wanted to guillotine the boss became they asked him to file a couple papers. turns out he had quietly been promoted to a manager! and the only way to be a manager here is to enforce their mad men culture to a T. you have to be totally on the side of the CEOs.

you know that post about “leftist woke sex-positive communist dudes” being one of the worst types of men? it’s this same guy. this man enjoys discussing big tiddy goth girlfriends in front of women a bit too much. is a little too supportive of women exploring their sexualities, and if they want to have a threesome with him to explore, that’s more than ok! :))) is a little TOO into lesbians.

i stopped talking to them completely. I couldn’t listen to it anymore, and then listen to them tell me how feminist they are and talk over me when I try to call them out on their bull shit.

now our bosses are talking about making manager boy my new manager. and it’s giving me so much stress, because I will have to quit on the spot. I’ll literally kill him. He’s so fucking annoying, and i already can’t take orders from men in general, but in men my age i can’t handle it at all.

anyway. sorry about this. thank you for listening.

Those men only care when it's affecting them, not you or other women.

I apologize for not getting to this sooner, but I have read it!! It just pisses me off how these men dgaf about anything but themselves & maybe their male buddies.

#lesbian #radfem #radfems please touch #radfem safe #radfems please interact #radical feminism #radical feminst #feminsim #terfs welcome #feminist

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prof-crushing · 9 months

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8/21/23

*BUSTS THROUGH THE TCC DOOR*

HEY R TEXTED ME TONIGHT!!!

Holy shit!

He finally came across that gift bag I gave him during that last month of the semester. I had messaged him on instagram after the semester ended to see if he got it and he said he’s take a look and I never heard back and I didn’t want to keep bothering him about it and I tried to just forget about it and focus on work and other stuff.

And now out of the blue, a few days before the semester starts, R texts me thanking me for the gift! And we chatted for a little bit. I was scared to keep asking him and tried to read if it seemed like I’m getting to be too much or anything and it’s kinda late (for him more so). It was mostly me saying no worries and glad he got it and asking how the move was and asking about his new commute now that he’s pretty far away. I wanted to ask him a lot more but also noticed that he wasn’t really asking me anything either (which I was kind of bummed about) so I didn’t want to drag the conversation on more that it needed to be too much.

It’s still crazy to know he’s no longer in my same city.

Sorry I haven’t been posting much or anything lately. I was tempted to post about this nearly half an hour call I had with one of my supervisors (C) that I’m close to while he was home sick for the week. He had asked me to locate some merchandise that we were having some issues with that I needed to take pictures of and send to him. It would’ve been a bit easier to to end the call and send him the pictures after he helped me locate their weirdly placed barcodes but whatever 😅 he’s always a nice break to talk to when I was getting frustrated with one of my newer coworkers. I don’t remember what we talked about exactly but it was more than just what he wanted me to look for and checking in on each other. I was getting concerned with his coughing asked if he wanted to end the call and I can keep taking pictures and send them to him or put a pause on this search since he also said it’s not super pressing and he said no reassured me that he wanted to keep going. So yeah that was nice and helped me that day.

#teacher crush #teacher crush community #r #tcc #professor crush #tc community #prof crush #professor crush community #teacher cc #personal #c

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mannatea · 11 months

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Break Open the Sky, a Tales of Symphonia ‘fic (Chapter 11)

Current Word Count: 88,519 Summary: What kind of “Hero” of Regeneration would she be to leave an infant to fend for itself? Someone had to have left it here for a reason. The question was, of course, why? But as she lifted the little thing carefully into her arms, the motion reminding her of nights so far in the past, now, the why seemed almost tragically clear: this baby was of mixed blood. Chapter Summary: Raine and Regal both try to navigate whatever weird relationship they have going on...and Sheena comes to town! Pairing/Characters: Raine, Original Characters, will also feature Genis, Regal, and Sheena. Endgame is Regal/Raine. Extra Info: This is technically an Accidental Baby Acquisition story, but I liken it more to “Doorstep Baby” literature because it sure ain’t cute. Rating: Mature, for themes. Genre: Eventual romance, gen, family, character study.

The title is the link to Ao3 for Chapter 11! Please enjoy the second longest chapter in the story! 🤍

Notes are under the cut!

The opening scene to this chapter, with Raine saying Regal sounds terrible but low-key thinkin’ it’s hot, is pulled hilariously enough from one of the funniest experiences I’ve ever had at my current job, where a male coworker was talking close to my desk and the person who sat across from me thought it was someone new/she hadn’t met yet and messaged me on the in-office chat app and asked who the deep and sexy voice belonged to. I had to sadly inform her it was our accountant, whose voice had gone down like four octaves with his illness and was completely unrecognizable.

“I would like to love you better, but you have to let me.” I’m proud of this line, actually. I feel like this pretty much encompasses everything these two characters have been wrestling with for the last two and a half years.

He wants to know her so that he can love her better. And she’s a bit afraid of that, because years ago she was a waste of someone’s time and she doesn’t want to be that for him.

Also, we finally get to the core of Raine’s issues on a more general level: she always feels she loves people incorrectly. It’s either too little or too much. It’s out of her control, and she hates not being in control. It makes her feel powerless and bad.

“Those We Meet in Heaven” is a spoof on “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and the dance scene Regal references is a scene in the actual book. The novel is exactly what it says it is in the title: it’s about a man who dies and the 5 people he meets in heaven. These five guide him through…almost like an orientation, and many of them are people he doesn’t expect. They all are there to teach him some kind of lesson that “makes all the difference.” The fourth person the main character meets is his wife who died at 47 of cancer. Her heaven is being able to attend different weddings day in and out, and when it’s time for him to receive his lesson from her, they are dancing at their own wedding.

This is the dance scene Regal mentions in his letter.

In it, the main character finally asks his wife why she looks like she did the day he married her, and she tells him “Because I thought you’d like it that way.”

He asks her to change it so that she looks like she did in “the end” and she does. They smile at each other and dance together tenderly. He wanted her to look the way she did in the end because that is the last time he saw her alive & the version of her he loves wholly and completely.

As Regal states in his letter, the novel itself is more about the choices people make and how small things can affect others, sometimes to startling and unknowing degrees. It’s meant to kind of harken back to the things the characters have done to change the world, and in a more meta sense, it works to call back to the previous chapter’s discussion about how no relationship is a waste of time.

Also: it took me FOREVER to get to this bookshelf he's been saving for her, it seems. Regal thought about it briefly in the chapter where he shows her the library.

Lila’s dream reveals everything we really need to know about some things people have been wondering about for a while…

And Raine is learning how to be a little more open with her feelings!

Windermere is here: