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feverinfeveroutfic · 7 months

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The Red Flannel Dress | Kinktober 2023

title: the golden ratio

prompt: masturbation (courtesy of @flightlessangelwings)

pairing: alex/lilian + mark/abby (eerie inhabitants)

word count: 3071

masterlist | ao3 🍎

I would experience these moments whereby I believed that I was losing my drive, and no matter what I did for myself, I couldn’t seem to get myself off. Those afternoons back at the Iverson estate when the rain plowed into the Bay Area, and I had nothing better to do than to let my own mind wander. Ever since the vampires entered my life, I had this unmistakable feeling of being more and more in touch with myself, as I needed to scratch an itch or two; in that I had to extract some old feelings from inside of me.

I had a hunch they were old as I had felt them for as long as I could remember. I never believed myself to be nothing more than a girl with some desires but I never really had the chance to bring them forth.

But then I met the vampires, and I felt the rush of blood to my head at the way they carried themselves. All their thirst for blood of those who wronged them and the fact they knew how to let loose after a time. It was a life that I could coexist with, the live human I was. And still being humans, they withheld those proverbial itches as well.

There was one thing that I could not stop thinking about and that was the prospect of touching myself in front of someone, be that someone Alex or someone else.

I took it upon myself to lay in the safety of my bed with my hands down the inside of my underwear. It had been a while and I was admittedly a bit rusty on my finger work. But I knew for a fact that I could ease myself into it, just so long as I had a laser focus, and I kept the door closed as well.

I had taken off my underwear and put my feet up on the wall before me. I was faced away from the door so I could have my privacy, and with the protection of the top bunk bed right over me.

And then the door swung open.

“Whoa, jeez, Lil!”

I was about to put my finger onto the head of my clit when Abby’s voice caught me off guard. I jumped up and nearly smashed my head against the base of the bunk bed.

“What’re you doing?” she demanded.

“Having a moment,” I flatly told her, and I tugged my underwear back up.

“God, Lil, do you have to do that in here?” she scoffed. I had to be careful given I lay on the bed on my back: if I even so much as yanked too hard on my pants, I could fall right off the edge and onto my face.

“Abs, it’s my bedroom,” I grunted out, “—I can do whatever I want. Besides what’re you doing home so early? I thought you had a late class.”

“It got cancelled so we got let out early and I had nothing to do,” she informed me as she turned her head away from me. “Besides, this is my room, too. I don’t need to see that when I’m about to sit down and do homework.”

I finally swung my legs around and sat upright on the edge of the bed, and I tugged up my pants. I rolled my eyes at her looking away from me.

“Abs, can you not do that,” I griped. “That is so annoying.”

“I don’t want to look at you,” she chided.

“First off… I’m your sister,” I told her as I stood up and buttoned up my pants. “I have seen your naked ass so many times before. I have seen you in the buff, but it’s only because we’re sisters. Aside from that, I respect your privacy and I know for a fact that you respect mine, too. Second…” I fetched up a sigh. “Listen, no one says you have to look at me,” I told her with a wave of my hand; I used my free hand to cover up my hood. I made a mental note to scoot over towards the foot of the bed so my back was to her desk. “From now on, I’ll sit over here so you don’t have to actually see me.”

“You’re still gonna do it in front of me, though!” she insisted.

“Why is this a problem?” I asked her. Exasperated, she took her seat at her desk and fetched a notebook out of her backpack, and she plunked it open before her. She took a pencil off the top of her desk and she got to work on her Cornell notes.

“Abby, why is this a problem? I give you my privacy and you give me mine. I don’t understand why my exploring my body is such a big deal for you.”

She pursed her lips, and I could tell she was having trouble writing her notes. I stooped down to be face-to-face with her.

“You’ve never touched yourself, have you,” I started.

“What’re you talking about?” she stammered, and she never looked over at me.

“You’ve never… had some time to yourself and put your hand down your pants? Like when you get done with your studies and you’ve got nothing better to do?”

She nibbled on her bottom lip but she never said anything.

“Don’t insult me, Abby,” I continued. “I know what you’re up about. I know you. I’m sure you have done a little exploring every now and again. The thought of me with flesh wouldn’t traumatize you, especially after all the gory shit we’ve seen with the vampires.”

She still never said anything to me.

“If it makes you feel any better, I have lots of difficulty with it,” I told her. “I have to ease myself into it. It’s a whole situation just to get into the feeling with me. For a long time, it felt like a chore. In fact, it’s still hard. I have to actually tell myself that it’s a natural thing. If that’s what the issue is, I feel you. I feel you so much.” She never moved a muscle, and I knew that I had said too much. I stood back upright, and I kept my hand rested on the edge of the desk right next to her wrist.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she grumbled. I sighed through my nose. I knew for a fact that I had made her uncomfortable, but even with my own personal discomfort, I had to maintain my ground with her.

“Well. Take this from your older sister. You’re going to have to face your own flesh at some point, if not now then eventually in the future.” I knocked my knuckles on the side of the desk: I saw nothing more than the side of her face as I turned away.

“I’m wearing pants again, by the way,” I told her.

As I strode away from her, I had an idea. It was going to get me in trouble, but I knew that it would be worth it, especially when I remembered that Alex was going to be over at the house the next day.

The next morning, on the way to the bus stop alone given Abby started school an hour sooner than me, I spotted Mark parked there by the curb as if he awaited someone.

I leaned down to the passenger window for a glance inside.

“Hey,” I greeted him.

“Hey—where’s Abby?” he asked me.

“She starts class an hour before me, if you can believe that.”

“I’ll believe it. Would you like a ride?”

“Yeah, why not? The bus won’t be here for another thirty minutes and it’s cold out.” I climbed into the front seat next to him, and he waited for me to buckle in before we rolled away. It was right then I recalled my idea.

“This is… stupid,” I told him with a shake of my head. “And in fact, I kind of feel bad for saying this because it’s really none of my business. But… you know, my sister has never pleasured herself before.”

He raised his eyebrows at that. “Are you serious?” he demanded.

“Yeah. Yeah, it surprises me, too. I have my hang-ups with it, too, but at least I make an effort to rectify things.”

“I do, too,” he confessed. “You know, having feelings and not knowing what to do with them. She seriously has never done it before?”

“As far as I know, yeah. Even with as much as she likes to spend time with you and Rob and also Eric—one of the vampires. You would think that she does with all that.”

“So why are we talking about this?” he asked me.

“Yesterday, I was alone in our room. Laying on my back. In the privacy of my own bed. She came home early—and I didn’t know her schedule, either, she forgot to tell me—so she walked in on me and freaked out. I got this idea to get together with you and also Alex and the three of us could have a mutual round of jacking off—an orgy of sorts in our bedroom.”

He burst out laughing at that, such that he patted his hands on either side of the steering wheel.

“You want her to walk in on us?” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know for a fact she will,” I continued. “I told her it’s a natural thing and she didn’t believe me. I want her to see it for herself.”

Mark laughed again, but it was more of a hearty laugh, as if he was sincere.

“Take it or leave it, though,” I told him with a shrug. “Alex and I could just do it together, and she could still see it.”

“But one question about it: why my inclusion, though?” he asked me.

“Because you’re her best friend,” I explained. “If she sees her sister and her boyfriend, plus her best friend there together, it’ll ground it.”

“Oh, I see! Um… when were you planning on doing this?”

“Alex is coming over today when I come home from school. I’ll bring it up to him and see what happens after that.”

“I think I can come over, too,” he concluded with another little chuckle. “I’ll pick you up, too.”

“Sounds like a date,” I quipped, and that brought another laugh out of him. “I get out at two-thirty. Abby gets home exactly an hour later.”

I was eager to get down with it all by the time I saw his car parked at the curb again, and we drove back home to the Iverson estate together.

We were alone in the house for only five minutes when Alex snuck through the bedroom window, wrapped in a black shirt which he left open, and black trousers that seemed to hang off his hips. He eyed Mark as if he had no idea what to expect right then, and I did the honor of coming up to him with my hands on his chest.

“I have an idea,” I told him in a low voice. “It’s a little crazy, but… how would you like to join me in a little pleasure session? I touch myself and you do the same, but we do it in front of each other. We can have Mark here to spice things up a bit.”

He squinted his eyes at me.

“Sounds delicious… is there a catch?”

“We show Abby that we can be romantic with this sort of thing,” I told him, and I kissed him on the side of the face: the cold feeling of his skin sent a shiver down my spine, which was enough to get me going on its own. I unbuttoned my pants, and I gestured for the two of them to follow me down to the floor: I leaned back against the edge of my bed with my jeans down around my feet. Mark’s eyes gleamed at the sight of me while Alex sat right across from me with his shirt partially off his shoulder as if he was about to strip for me.

He ran his fingers through his black hair and leaned back against the chair before Abby’s desk: no way she could walk in and sit there at that point.

“Pants on or off?” he asked Mark.

“Thinking I’ll do pants on,” he quipped back.

“Whatever makes us comfortable,” I said with my hands clasped onto my breasts; through my shirt and my bra, I could feel my nipples forming those tight points. I liked the touches there, but I also wanted them to see me below the waist as well. Before I could move my hand down inside my panties, the door opened again, and we were met with a confused Abby: she saw Mark and her mouth fell agape.

“What the… what the hell is going on here,” she sputtered.

“Come in and close the door,” I commanded her. She held still there in the doorway, complete with a disgusted look on her face at me.

“Get inside of here and close the door or the deal between us is off,” Alex warned her. “Get in here or I’ll kill you.” He turned over to me. “Sorry.”

I shook my head at that. Abby shut the door behind her and rested her backpack right next to the chair, and then she stepped between me and Alex so she could be over by Mark. She huddled behind him as if something had spooked her.

“Abigail, listen to me, you’re going to have to undo the damage done from a lifetime of religion at some point or another,” I told her in a single breath. “You don’t have to join us, but it’s better you learn straight from your sister than Nana or your friends—aside from Mark.”

“Yeah, I mean, you kissed me,” Mark pointed out to her.

“It was a joke,” she insisted. Alex then glanced over at me with his fingers on the button of his jeans.

“I could jerk off in front of you, if you’d like,” he offered me.

“Please do, my prince,” I encouraged him.

“All four of us should jerk off in front of each other,” Mark cracked, and Abby rolled her eyes at that. “What? It’s a nice gesture. It could give us all a spice of life among other things. There��s no disease, no one getting knocked up…”

“Or too cold,” Alex added.

“Or too cold, yeah—unless that’s your thing, anyway.”

“But do you have to use ‘jerk off’?” she demanded in a low voice.

“What do you want me to call it?” he asked her with a raise of an eyebrow. “I could use the proper term of ‘masturbation’ if you want.” Abby wrinkled her nose, and then without another word, she took her seat with her back to him. I had no idea as to why she was in such a bad mood, especially when I knew how much she liked to be around Mark and Rob in particular.

“Abs, listen… we’re friends,” he insisted. “We can do this and still be friends.”

“She doesn’t look comfortable, though, Mark,” I pointed out, to which he sighed and nodded his head. “You can join me and Alex, though. We can have a little bit of fun.”

“I’ll sit with my back to you, if you’d like,” Mark offered her. Indeed, Abby set on the floor behind him with her back up against his own so she wouldn’t have to look at him, or me and Alex for that matter. But at least she was present there with us.

Whatever it took to make her comfortable.

I watched Mark reach down his pants with his left hand, and I could tell that it didn’t take him long, either, from his eyes closing and his mouth dropping open from the feeling. I followed suit with my legs open towards Alex so he could have a full view of me.

“Take them off,” Alex whispered to me.

“You want them off?” I whispered back.

“Please. I want to see.”

“I could probably do it better completely bare, anyway,” I told him in a singsong voice and with a little gyration of my head. I lifted my hips up off the floor so I could take them off for the both of us; Mark raised his eyebrows all the while, and I sat back down with them still around my ankles. With two fingers, I lightly rubbed my lips right in front of Alex. He showed me his tongue and he breathed harder.

Mark let out a low whistle and turned his head away from us.

“How’re you doing?” he asked with a glimpse back at Abby.

“I’m kind of intrigued,” I heard her say to him. I returned to Alex, who had pushed down his pants and revealed himself to me. He ran his fingers through his inky black curls and rested his free hand on the inside of his thigh. His pinky finger hung rather close to his head, and I thought that he would caress himself down with nothing more than the edge of his finger.

“Did you really think that I could get off on nothing more than a bet?” he asked me in that low husky voice he liked to use whenever he was in the mood.

“Well… not—personally speaking, anyway,” I began, and then I paused when I watched him slip his thumb right into the hole at his tip. Alex slithered his tongue out from his lips: he used his index finger to clamp down on the head, and all the while, he closed his eyes.

He relished the feeling of his own hand.

He parted his lips and treated me to a soft sigh.

A wave of warmth washed over me at the sight of him there before me. I leaned forward as if I was going to touch him, but I never did. I only wanted to watch him.

I couldn’t believe it. He was touching himself right in front of me.

With a quick glance at the left, I noticed that Mark was showing off to Abby, who blushed at the sight of him. As long as she was comfortable, we could spiral out from there.

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littlemountaintownrp · 2 years

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The guys all turn into apes around this bombshell!

Bebe has been accepted! Please send in your blog link ASAP!

Name/Alias: abby Pronouns: she/her Age: 18 Join Our Discord: yes please! Timezone: est Activity: around a 7 - i'm starting college in the fall Triggers: jaundice/liver disease Password: craigs gay Character that you’re applying for: bebe stevens Favourite ships for your character: bebe/clyde, possible bebe/henrietta?

in character info Full name: Barbara "Bebe" Stevens Birthday: August 13th Sexuality, gender, pronouns: bisexual cis female, she/her pronouns Age and grade: 18 Faceclaim: Kathryn Newton

Appearance: Bebe has long, honey-blonde curly hair. It reaches to her mid-back, and it's parted over her left side. She stands at 5'6" but often wears heels to appear taller. She's usually seen wearing heavy makeup. Bebe tends to use makeup to cover up her acne, but the amount of acne she has has gone down tremendously since middle school. She uses a heavy skin-care routine to try and limit her acne, but some stubborn pimples remain. Bebe has a pear body type, and a larger chest. She has a good amount of muscle as working out is part of her daily routine.

Her wardrobe consists of a lot of red as she believes it pairs well with her skin tone. She's typically seen wearing a sweater of some sort, but it's always designer brand. Bebe prides herself as being one of the more fashionable teens in South Park. That being said, she goes out of her way to buy designer clothes. She makes sure she's never caught dead in the same outfit. She owns more promiscuous clothes courtesy of her mother, but she always styles her outfits to her comfort.

At home, Bebe can be found without makeup, often in sweats and too-large t-shirts. During sleepovers, however, she wears a short pink nightgown with lace trim as to uphold her reputation.

Personality: Bebe can often come across as aggressive. She calls things for how they are, even if it hurts someone's feelings. She's the first to call someone out on their bad behavior, and she doesn't back down from a fight. All of this comes from a good place, however, as she would do anything for her friends. Bebe is the first friend you would go to after a breakup. She'll give you the tough love and comfort you need, and then she'll make a personal vendetta against the person who dumped you. She's loyal, and she's always there for her friends.

She also prides herself on her appearance, which can come off as her being self-centered. She tends to jump from trend to trend, doing anything to uphold her image as the pretty popular girl. She's flirty and uses the dumb blonde stereotype to her advantage. In reality, keeping up her reputation causes a lot of stress. She'd rather focus on her goals than boys or makeup. However, her reputation comes first.

Since she casually flirts, many see her as a heartbreaker. She doesn't seem to mind though, because if people can't pick up the hint that she's not interested, it's their loss.

History: Bebe's mother was a model. She wishes to live vicariously through her daughter. She wants Bebe to be pretty enough for her standards so that she can score a rich husband, much like she did herself. This means that she makes sure Bebe's looks are to her standards before she even leaves the house. Her mother got by as a pretty dumb blonde, but Bebe doesn't want that life. She wants to be valued for more than her looks, but she's not sure how to go about it.

Growing up, Bebe was spoiled. Her father's job garnered a lot of income. She always received the newest clothes and latest toys. While she's more down to Earth now, she still sometimes struggles with the concept of the class gap and things not going her way. Growing up spoiled leaves her heavily disappointed after minor setbacks. She also gets emotional easily when she can't get something right away.

Bebe used to have body issues when she was younger. Her body type didn't match the stick-figure of her model mother. However, she's grown past that for the most part and owns her body proudly. Still, the subject can be a bit of sore spot to her when mentioned. She does have some dysphoria concerning the size of her breasts but worries about surgery after the events of how the boys reacted in the fourth grade. For now, she decides she'll "fake it until she makes it" with her confidence surrounding her body, and maybe she'll inspire a few other girls too.

Since Bebe doesn't want to be like her mother when she grows up, she works hard in school. She makes the honor role year after year, but it's not enough to be even close to valedictorian (that title, she knows, will go to either Kyle or Wendy. Maybe Heidi, if she gives herself the chance). She's considering law school or some field of science after graduation. While she doesn't want to be like her mother, she still shares some similarities. She acts and presents very feminine, and sometimes she will use the dumb blonde stereotype to her advantage.

Freshman year, Bebe experimented with her sexuality and had flings with many students - girls and guys alike. Everyone reacted well to it for the most part. She's got an on-again off-again relationship with Clyde, but in her opinion, they work much better as best friends. When she's not ragging on Clyde, she can be seen with Wendy, Heidi, or any other girls in their group.

Sample paragraph: She slams her car door shut, struggling to buckle her seatbelt. She jams her key in the ignition, hardly giving it a second thought as she peels her way out of the driveway and down the street. She can't spend another minute in this stupid house. Her mother had kept droning on and on about how she has to look her best for senior pictures tomorrow. "Those pictures are forever, Bebe. Don't you want to look good at your prime?" If Bebe has to hear one more sentence about makeup, or boys, or hair, or clothes, she is going to scream.

It's not that she doesn't like dressing up every now and then - she just wants to look good on her own terms. Her mother is making it very difficult to be in the house tonight, so she left before the woman could even notice. She probably won't notice, anyways, already drunk on boxed wine and reminiscing about her glory days. Bebe grits her teeth, taking a sharp right turn. She doesn't really have a location in mind, just that she needs to leave and cool off a bit.

She huffs, blowing a blonde curl out of her face. It's bad enough that it's senior year. She doesn't need her mother adding onto her stress. This is her year.

Suddenly, her phone begins to vibrate from where she'd haphazardly thrown it in the passenger seat. If it broke? Oh well, her dad can buy a new one. The ringtone plays, a blurry picture of Nichole flashing across the screen. The voice of Swedish pop sensation ABBA rings throughout her car. "You can dance! You can jive! Having the time of your life-"

Bebe takes a deep breathe before answering the phone."Heyyyyy girl! What's up?"

Headcanons:

•bebe and clyde work much better as best friends than a couple - they hold sleepovers all the time •bebe is definitely an ABBA stan •she loves giving her friends makeovers and lets people borrow clothes all the time •she makes friendship bracelets for her closest friends •has a really loud, obnoxious, cackley laugh if you can get her going •knows all the gossip 24/7

Anything else: might end up drawing my version of bebe as well if i'm accepted :)

#application #bebe stevens

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heavenlyhischier · 5 months

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you guys know maddy so i can refer to her by name but i don’t feel comfy sharing names of people i know in my personal life on here so i refer to her as irl bestie ahaha

That is completely understandable and totally get it lol

hahaha thank you! i just feel weird about it so i give them nicknames

irl bestie, TD, class boy, brother abby (courtesy of kei), etc

#anon #⭃ abby answers asks

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bigmacdaddio · 2 years

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Corporal Punishment: SJMetuchenHS 1968-1972

Peter Hendricks <[email protected]>

To:John Kuhn,Jeff Reich

Cc:Ned Gentz,Al Szaroleta,Alan Cherepon,Albert Camisa,Ana Rocciand 121 more...

Thu, Sep 22 at 11:21 AM

Memories Good, bad and otherwise great relationships : Firstly I unfortunately will not be able to attend our 50th reunion. Memories (bad) I was punched in the stomach by Coach Chris Halpren in class; George Shamy & I were hit on the top of the head by Bennie Napolioni? Latin class (poor George I always dragged him into my foolish stuff); I was jacked up in the hallway by Ed Mautner (history teacher & member of the John Birch society); and thrown out of the library for playing loud music. I was foolish but not a wiseguy. I remember when (sorry about this Mack) Mayor Kevin McEvoy blurted out “ Yasdi did it” and Mautner had Yasdi take off his glasses and Mautner knocked him out of his desk –Mautner was such a nice person/teacher NOT!!! Thankfully he was terminated shortly thereafter. Lastly, on the bad, John Jake Farrell ( a determined Irishman) likewise was ripped out of his desk by either mautner or one of the brothers in class He got up dusted himself off and resumed class. I know how he became a harbormaster. On the good/great side I learned so much at St Joe’s about people,relationships, and I even capitalized to some degree on the awesome education opportunity offered by our school. To this day I have maintained in close contact with some of our classmates(to name a few) Jeff Venezia who I see a few times a week in the gym,Mike Mulqueen who had afanominal coaching career at Rutgers as their head track & field coach,when John Schierman was at Rutgers as i head swimming coach we would often meet at events,Mike Kenny & I have been friends for life,George Shamy and I as attroneys are as close as brothers,Carl Branciforte, Ed Zullo(marine & chiropractor), Pete Towns,Mike Healey & wife Trish(sister to Larry Fox) have all enriched my life one way or another.Also I have maintained a close relationship with Ms Anna Rocci over the years.She even served on our local Ethics committee as a citizen volunteer I truly love her.Everywhere I go if given the opportunity I mention St Joe’s and the responses are always positive and usually the discussions evolve into do you know so & so etc . I have been so blessed to have been given the opportunity to attend and graduate (man that was a challenge!!)our fine school. God bless, as if he hasn’t already blessed us all!!. Pete

Peter,

I suspect we all have a mix of memories. How can one not over four years?

The physical stuff was ugly at times in those benighted days before corporal punishment went out of fashion. Bro. James delivered a smack across my face one time simply because I had been out walking the grounds during lunch (he was red-faced at the time, either with rage or drink. I generally liked the guy, too, but his personal arc later proved tragic).

Shreck, who doesn’t deserve a “Mr.,” also required us to stand, salute the flag and pray before each American History class (this as Vietnam was raging, threatening us all). And the Bircher nonsense he spouted was the sort of pablum that one hears from Trump and his ilk these days (actually, it was instructive to learn about the roots of such political paranoia. I’ll never forget how Shreck dissed Elvis because Abbie Hoffman had written how “the revolution” began with Presley).

For me, however, the upsides far outnumbered such nonsense. Doc. Aubin’s English classes were mind-expanding. Project Seven was an intellectual cornucopia. Ecology Day observances and a sensitivity to environmental worries, courtesy of Mr. Murphy, was broadening. Going to a Traffic concert in NYC with him and another teacher was remarkable, as was a class trip to see “Woodstock.” Getting to perform in “Indians,” a provocative play that has resounded for me over the years, especially as I’ve come to learn more about Native Americans while teaching in Nebraska. And working as an editor on The Falcon News (at least before I ceded the paper to Bill Walczak) launched my career in journalism.

It was an extraordinary place for most of us, I think. And the sorts of work that so many went on to testifies to that, I suggest.

I much look forward to comparing notes, as I expect we all do.

Best, JW

Michael Lyons <[email protected]>

To:Peter Hendricks,John Kuhn,Jeff Reich

Cc:Ned Gentz,Al Szaroleta,Alan Cherepon,Albert Camisa,Ana Rocciand 120 more...

Thu, Sep 22 at 1:39 PM

Pete,

Completely agree with your assessment of Mautner. I recall vividly an incident with Donnie Pulaski, he was reading from the text and had temerity to say Kin Tut as opposed to King Tutankhamen. Mautner flew into a rage and using a full swing hit Donnie in the back of the head, knocking him out of his desk. Corporal punishment was legal in New Jersey at the time, but for an academic issue and not a behavioral reason was out of line. He should have been charged with assault, perhaps a few months in the Middlesex County lockup, would have been an object lesson for him! Never trust a man in a Khaki suit.

To a more suitable topic, I found a copy of Indians wedged into one of my book shelves. And a word of mention to John Kuhn's sister Jean, who had the only female part in the show. The book in in fragile shape, I could not open it as it would destroy the binder. See Attached:

Regards,

Mike

Some of our alums are having trouble with their computers, so I've been asked to send out some messages:

From Jake Farrell:

I must apologize for the rant at the end of my email. I was sincerely trying to rally the troops to get more of our classmates to attend. Sharing our life experiences , of course, is a large part of the event In hindsight I probably could have used better adjectives but the dog ate my Barrons Vocabulary.

From Jimbo Patten:

HANG A MOON JIMBO HANG A MOON <clap clap HANG A MOON JIMBO HANG A MOON <clap clap> HANG A MOON JIMBO HANG A MOON <clap clap> Did I succumb to peer pressure? Absolutely not! I would jump at the chance to make Barney Dolan, Ed Zullo, and my brand new friends from Carteret, Jake Farrell and Big Al Cherepon laugh. It was Al who saw the duffel bag under my desk in 101 with the word “Jimbo” scrawled on the side and he laughed and he thought it was the funniest thing. The name stuck to this day. We were coming back from a track meet on a school bus with the words “St. Joseph High School” in big letters on both sides. But being 14 years old, young, dumb and full of cum, never gave it a thought. Some prima donna followed the bus to the school and complained. First thing Monday morning. Brother Aldrich, the principal called me out into the hallway. Oh shit! Over the summer, there was a meeting with Brother James O’Grady, the Dean of Discipline and my father, who did not mess around. Although I do not remember what I had for breakfast 3 days ago, I remember VIVIDLY my father telling Brother James: “Brother, you have my permission to do WHATEVER you deem is necessary to ensure my son stays in line. While my father was speaking, Brother James was locked in with frozen, eye contact looking at me up and down and said. “I’m sure James and I will get along just fine”. So I was sweating bullets. “Where you on that bus?” “Yes Sister” force of habit no pun intended after 8 years of nuns. “I’m a brother not a sister! “ He could have added the word “asshole” but didn’t. “Were you the one hanging your cock your rock your dick and your balls out the window?” He emphasized each word with a hard kick to the shins. Ooooh. Ooooh I don’t remember anything after that. My real punishment has been working with crazy 14 year olds for the last 40 years as a licensed clinical social worker in a large suburban high school (still working off my purgatory) I also work in a juvenile detention center where all I see now are murderers and child rapists. The latter group is much more pleasant to deal with because of the lack of discipline in our high schools. From the looks of all your successes, no harm done. I never got into trouble after that. St. Joe’s saved my ass. I was a dead end kid who listened to Brother Richard and ran for 12 seasons. If all it took was a kick in shins, totally worth it for a kid like me. I have a great life. Love to all who need it Tempus Fugit Jimbo

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medullam · 3 years

Text

The infographic above (courtesy of Yalla! Let's Talk) was posted only six days ago and now Palestine is trending once again following Israel's new airstrike against the people of Gaza in the middle of the night.

Besides being a violation of the "ceasefire", which Palestinians themselves said would not resolve the core issue, this new wave of bombings is once again a reminder that a free Palestinian state cannot be achieved through lukewarm, inconsistent coverage and activism.

Here is a few resources, feel free to add more:

Build Palestine has provided a list of charitable organizations you can donate to, many of them are providing critical medical/ humanitarian aid to Gaza in particular.

The BDS Movement's Action Alerts, resource articles and images, and list of what to boycott and how to do it effectively.

A playlist of Abby Martin's Empire Files reports from Palestine

Working Class History's podcast on the history of Zionism, Settler Colonialism in Palestine, and Anti-Zionist Activism: Part 1 & Part 2

Article on how mainstream media and social media companies have targeted or marginalized support for the Palestinian cause

#gazaunderattack #free palestine #palestine #settler colonialism #apartheid #crisis #international politics #global politics #media #journalism #boycott #racism

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thebisexualdogdad · 3 years

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Can you write an Abby Littman x Male reader where Abby and the reader always insults each other and everyone thinks they hate each other, but when they’re at a party The friend group, looking for a room to hang out, stumble upon Abby and the reader making out

Abby Littman x GN!reader

"Hey that's my jello," Abby says from across the lunch table.

"What? You said red jello was better than blue jello so I'm helping you out by eating it so you don't have to," you say eating the blue jello that was on her tray.

"That doesn't mean I wasn't going to eat it!" She shouts, throwing her empty juice box at your chest.

"Well you should have said so," you shrug.

"You're such a pain in my ass."

"Right back at you," you sneer.

"Alright children settle down," Max tells you guys, "here Abby you can have the second jello that I stole from the cafeteria."

"You're why there were no red jellos left!" Abby states.

"Obviously it's the best flavor," Max replies, "but if it gets you to stop bickering I'll only have one today".

After lunch Abby and the girls are on their way to their next classes.

"When will you and Y/N just bang your sexual tension out already," Norah tells her.

"Y/N and I do not have sexual tension," Abby says rolling her eyes.

"Oh please you could cut it with a knife," Max snorts.

"I know I'm new here but it does seem like you guys have tension," Ginny says cautiously.

Abby waved a middle finger at her friends and they get a laugh as she headed her own way to class.

You and Abby continued your love hate relationship and when the Sophomore sleepover came around you even danced together.

"I don't think we've ever gone this long without arguing," you joke as you spin her around on the dance floor.

"Don't ruin a good moment," she says smacking your shoulder.

"When have you ever known me to do as I'm told," you grin.

Abby shakes her head and you guys keep dancing until your friends decide it's time to have fun with the contraband Jordan snuck in.

"Brodie and Press check the english room, Jordan and I will try the bio lab and Y/N and Abby will check the history room," Norah says as you all walk down the empty school hallways.

"I'm not going anywhere alone with Y/N," Abby retorts.

"Ouch," you say playfully.

"Would you rather go with Press?" Norah cracks.

"Y/N let's go," Abby sighs gives in.

"So is there a reason you wore jeans to a sleepover?" you ask Abby as you're scoping out the rooms for you guys to drink in.

"Because they make my ass look great," she quickly replies.

"You're not wrong," you smirk.

"Gross," Abby mutters.

"All I'm saying is your ass always looks great," you tell her.

"You're just as bad as Press."

"Oh come on Abby, tell me you don't have a thing for me," you say pinning her to the teachers desk.

"I don't," she says looking at your lips.

"You sure about that? 'Cause I have a thing for you and it seems to be mutual," you say running a hand up her thigh.

She lets out a deep breath and puts her hands on your neck, pulling you in to kiss her.

You push a stack of papers to the side before picking her up and setting her on the desk.

Your hands go to her waist as her hands tangle in your hair, the kiss getting more intense.

"Bio lab was a bust and so was- oh looks like we're interrupting," Jordan says as the group enters the room.

You and Abby pull apart, her smoothing her shirt as you pretend like nothing was happening.

"What's up guys, uh room's clear," you say casually.

"Sure is," Norah says making a face at Abby.

"Let's get drunk already," Abby says jumping off the desk making space for Jordan and his bag of airplane booze courtesy of his mom's leftovers work stash.

The next morning you're walking Abby to Jordan's car so he can drive the girls home, breakfast burritos in hand.

"So are we going to talk about what happened last night?" You ask taking a bite out of your burrito.

"Nope," she replies.

"So you wouldn't want me to ask you on a date then?" You say playfully.

"Nope," Abby smiles.

"You are such a pain in my ass," you laugh.

"Norah and I were supposed to go see a movie tomorrow but she bailed, you want to go with me instead?" She asks.

"I'll pick you up at 7," you smile.

You went to the movie theater with Abby but you definitely did not watch the movie.

#ginny and georgia imagine #abby littman imagine #abby littman x reader #fic

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detectivecarlosreyes · 3 years

Text

In Case of Emergency (Ch 10/10)

Ao3 | 2.9/21.4k | Buddie | Status: Complete

Prev. Chapter

Chapter 10: What’s Next: The Epilogue Eddie and Christopher have a plan to ask Buck to move in, Buck gets his closure and Chris goes to camp. Set in the end piece of 3x18: What's Next.

As with all the other micro steps they had taken in the relationship up until this point, each one had to be approved first by Chris, because Eddie never wanted to overstep his son’s comfort, and this was no different.

“Bud, would you be okay with me asking Buck to move in with us?”

“Isn’t he already living with us?”

“Kind of, I know he stays over a few nights a week at the moment, but this will be a little different. It’ll mean he won’t have his apartment anymore and will live with us all the time instead.”

With understanding now shining in his eyes, Christopher was on board with the idea immediately bouncing in his seat, “Ohhhhh, okay!”

“So that’s a yes? You’re okay with him moving in?”

“You asked me ages ago if it was okay if he could stay over sometimes. It will be better with him here all the time.” And then he added, as sassily as a 9-year-old could, “Besides, I like it when he’s here, Bucky is a better cook than you.”

“Oh, so we’re being cheeky now, are we?” Unable to let the slander stand he descended upon Chris with a grin and attacked him with tickles, leaving peals of laughter echoing throughout the house in its wake.

Eventually, when the giggles subsided, he told Chris his plan and left him with the important job to decorate the small cardboard box that he bought the other day that they would present Buck’s house key in and make it official.

Now he just had one more thing to do before everything was in place.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

In some ways, Buck had felt like he was still reeling from that moment he first saw Abby after all that time apart. Even now, it seemed as if after finally getting that long overdue sit down with her, that it didn’t seem like it was enough, maybe nothing they said ever would be.

Sure, he was glad to see her happy and had found herself again while she travelled, he could never begrudge her of that after the years she had with her mother. It just would have been nice to get some communication about where she was at wit the relationship. If she had been honest about it when she knew she wasn’t coming back anytime soon he would have been fine with it, because at least then he wouldn’t have felt so strung along, feeling like him waiting wasn’t enough, that he wasn’t worth coming back to.

The fact that though she was sorry for the way he found out about it all, she didn’t actually apologise for how their relationship ended; or more specifically by not actually explicitly giving him the courtesy of breaking up with him. Despite not wanting to harbour any grudges over it he knows it will probably always leave a bitterness to the relationship.

It wasn’t until after he walked away, leaving her on the park bench did he realise why the conversation left him lacking. His part in the relationship was never an important factor to her, not once in her explanation did she seem to consider what she did would affect anyone else but herself. And really, that was the crux of the relationship, it had revolved around her and her needs leaving the relationship unbalanced.

Eddie was right though. Seeing her again, getting that closure, it was something that he needed to finally tie up that frayed, loose end and allowed him to close the book on the chapter in his life once and for all, no longer questioning what went wrong.

It made him realise how lucky he was now. Having found himself in the best relationship he’s ever been in. One that left him and Eddie as equals borne out of mutual love and respect of one another that didn’t leave one more important than the other. They were partners in more ways than one, feeding off each other and becoming each other’s anchors.

As he walked away with Eddie on his mind as he left, he sent him a quick text saying he was going to stop at their favourite bakery and picking up their usual on his way home.

When he finally pulled into the driveway, Buck breathed a sigh of relief, happy to put the day behind him and just be with Chris and Eddie. Getting out of the car, with the bag of freshly baked goods in one hand and his keys in the other he makes his way to the door, fumbling to find the house key only to find it missing.

With a frown he knocked on the door, feeling silly not having his key on him. Eddie was quick to answer looking almost bemused by the circumstance and opened the door wide. Stepping inside, he touched a kiss to Eddie’s cheek as he passed.

“I think I lost my key? But I swear I had it yesterday, I-I can’t imagine how it could have fallen off the key ring.” He offered the explanation as to why he was knocking on the door, something he hadn’t done in some time.

“Don’t worry about it, we can just get another one cut,” Eddie responded lightly and Buck could hear Eddie’s footsteps following him after closing the door, trailing him to the kitchen.

“How did it go?” Eddie asked him gently, changing the subject as he placed his hand over his own still holding the bag of baked goods that he sat on the kitchen bench.

He sighed another relieved sigh before smiling at him, comforted by his tact, “You were right. It didn’t go exactly how I thought it would, but I’m glad I saw her, I needed the closure.”

“That’s good, I’m glad you got what you needed.”

Before he could elaborate more on what else he realised from his meeting with Abby, the clatter of crutches interrupted them and Chris all but crashed into his side, wrapping his arms around his hips.

“Buck! You’re back!” Gasped Chris before turning to his dad excitedly, “Can we give it to him now?”

Buck looked between Chris and Eddie quizzically and only became more confused upon seeing Eddi’s face light up, seemingly unable to deny his son’s request. “Alright, we can give it to him now. Why don’t you go get it.”

“Okay!” And then he was gone, moving as swiftly as his crutches would allow back in the direction of his room.

He turned back to Eddie, feeling very much out of the loop, “Eddie? Mind telling me what’s going on?”

Annoyingly all the response he got in return was Eddie’s smiling eyes and him saying that he would just have to wait and see. Buck rolled his eyes and shook his head in amusement at Eddie’s answer but held his tongue in favour of waiting for whatever he was told wait for.

He didn’t have to wait long, with Chris re-entering the room at a hurried pace carrying a small blue box. Buck watched as Chris slowed to a stop in front of Eddie to which Eddie, bent over and whispered something in his son’s ear.

He knelt down when Chris turned back to him, much like when Chris gave him that card at his welcome back party at Athena and Bobby’s all those months ago.

“What’s that you got there, bud?”

Chris just grinned his excitable goofy grin that Buck loves with all his heart and held out the box to him. Buck looked between Chris and the box outstretched in his grasp and took it delicately. Upon closer inspection of the box Chris had just handed him, Buck realised that it wasn’t just blue. It had been hand decorated with a blue marker around the sides, with the drawing of a house adorned on the lid.

With a sharp look between the two Diaz’s, he lifted the lid on the box to find a key resting on a pillow of white crepe paper that he knew was leftover from one of Chris’s class projects that he helped to construct. His key. The one that Chris insisted that they paint the thumb end of, so everyone knew whose key it was, was the same blue as the ring that he had attached to Eddie’s key to his own apartment.

“This is my key. I thought I lost it. What are you two up to?” He asked even though he was already putting the clues together, but he wanted a verbal confirmation of what this gift represented.

“Did you want to ask him Chris?” Eddie asked, moving to stand behind his son with his hands resting atop his shoulders, clearly as excited as Chris was about what was about to be asked.

“Bucky, will you move in with us? O-officially.”

Buck couldn’t stop the sting of happy tears prick at his eyes or keep the wide grin that threatened to split his face. “It would be my honour to move in with you.”

Opening his arms wide, he invited Chris for a hug who instantly fell into his chest wholeheartedly. Looking up over his head, Buck looked at Eddie’s glowing face and reached around Chris to take hold of his wrist to drag him down and make the hug and them complete.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

Waking up the next morning, Buck revelled in the domesticity of the moment, sharing the bed with the man that he loves; In the place that he could confidently call home without any further hesitation even though in his mind he’d been calling it that for some time. Everything was perfect and felt so, so right. He knew that nothing had really changed considering that he had been practically living in the Diaz household but it felt different, there was a permanence to it now.

He watched as Eddie slumbered, a much more peaceful and restful version of the man than what he used to be when they first started sleeping in the same bed, no longer on high alert on their days off. Now, Eddie woke sluggishly uninhibited by expectation, knowing that there was no hurry to awaken while Buck was present beside him.

At some point, they left the comforts of the bed and migrated to the kitchen, where Chris would join them from the living room have been watching tv while he waited for them to wake. In the kitchen, he would begin preparing them a cooked breakfast, a common occurrence for when they have the luxury of having a morning together while Eddie moved around him to make the coffee.

With May’s graduation party in the afternoon, they eventually got dressed, doing their best not to dress too similarly but still end up deciding on the same colour scheme. And then, as with the last few gatherings they had been to, the three of them arrived together at the Grant-Nash household in Eddie’s truck.

And with that happiness that came with the day before, Buck found him celebrating and being even more affectionate and open than usual, riding on the excitable energy of everyone around him. Through it all he did eventually find himself seeking out Bobby, remembering what he said on the train and didn’t get the chance to address it in his office after the fact.

With the din of the music at their backs, he joined Bobby on the deck, hands in his pockets, “Hey, um, I just wanted to apologise, f- for the train.”

Bobby just waved away the apology with a shake of his head, “Look it’s alright, we both got a little hot. You doing okay?”

A grin took over at his face as he turned to Bobby, thinking about the previous day, “Yeah, I think I am.”

“Good.”

With his thoughts on Eddie and Chris, he corrected himself, “Actually, you know what? I know I am. I’m moving in with Eddie and Chris, they just asked me yesterday.”

“That’s great news Buck,” with that, Bobby offered his hand in congratulations before pulling him in for a hug. Buck sunk into it finding a parental comfort in the embrace and feeling like everything in his life was finally falling into place.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

And so, with him now living with Diaz pair, it was time for him to start the process of ending the lease to his apartment. He had a month to pack his things and sell what furniture he would no longer need, which was most if not all of it.

Boxes were gradually transported between the two locations with Chris helping with the packing and unpacking of the small bits and pieces that he had which decorated the apartment. Chris became the deciding force of what he should keep, even if he didn’t think he needed to keep them and helped find a home for them in the house, wanting to make the space his as much as theirs.

They only had a couple of weeks with him though, before he set out for the long-awaited camp, leaving a card with the two of them as they saw him off, decorated in hearts and stating simply:

You are going to have a Great Time.

Love, Christopher.

Eventually, through their days off, they had the last of his clothes packed in a bag and the last box was sealed, with the last of the bigger items from the bedroom finally sold and ready to be picked up by the buyers in the following days.

“I can’t believe this is it,” Buck said, sitting on the floor of the now empty apartment, Eddie sitting across from him finishing sealing the box, having let himself into the apartment like always only a couple of hours ago with a new roll of packing tape.

With the box sealed, Eddie propped his elbow up on the box before him, resting his face in his hand with a soft smirk playing on his lips, “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts.”

“Absolutely not. Never in a million years.” He breathed, finding himself staring love-struck into Eddie’s eyes. They sit like that for longer than was necessary, faces only a couple inches apart and bodies separated by the box between them.

Eventually, he broke the silence huffing a chuckle to himself, reminded of something Eddie once said.

“What?” Eddie asked good naturedly, a laugh bubbling on the words as he spoke.

Buck propped his head upon his hand, mirroring Eddie, “Are my eyes twinkling like the stars, Eds? Cause yours right now are shining like the sun, they do that when you’re happy, did you know?”

“Oh my god!” Groaned Eddie, burying his face in his hands in embarrassment, “That was so long ago, Buck! I can’t believe I said that, and honestly, I had I hoped you wouldn’t remember.”

“How could I forget!” Buck quietly exclaimed, bemused by the flush creeping up Eddie’s neck and warming his face, “You were far too cute saying whatever you were thinking, Mr astronaut. I’m surprised that you remember though, you were still so far gone at that point.”

“Don’t remind me, that was still the weirdest hangover I’ve ever woken up to. Not to mention the fact that you not only took off my boots for me, but you also plugged in my phone, set an alarm and left a message explaining what happened.”

“I didn’t think you’d want to sleep the day away or wake up confused, let alone do it all while still wearing your boots in bed!”

“Even back then when I was just your friend from work, you cared that much,” Eddie mused, wonder in his eyes.

Buck shrugged bashfully, “I just did what anyone one would do.”

“The fact that you think that--” Eddie shook his head, “The way you care about people is just one of the things I love most about you.”

Eddie groaned as he stood up, stretching his legs before stepping around the box and reached down to him, “Now, come on, it’s time we finished up here and take these boxes home.”

With a soft smile on his lips, Buck placed his hands in Eddie’s and let him haul him to his feet. They took the last of the boxes home, leaving the apartment completely empty, and unpacked them, and 3 days later they were dropping their apartment keys off at the realtor, making it well and truly final.

It was strange to think that all that time ago when they first gave each other their key that they would end up here. Using them rarely for that intended reason of it being an emergency key before their use quickly evolved into something more intimate. That the key to their home was no longer used for emergencies but became an extension to their hearts instead.

And to think that Buck marked the day that the Diaz’s asked him to move in and mirrored it exactly a year later using a similar box that they presented the key in, having re-commissioned Christopher to reprise his role of decorating another one. except this time, it didn’t have a key but a very special ring instead.

Buck barely got the question out before Eddie was already saying yes.

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honeywithblueberries · 3 years

Text

Jumpstart Chapter 3

This is getting a lot of my attention. I really have no clue what started this Jack/Skye kick, but someone tell Kulkum we’re ready for another chapter of Savage Dark. I think that will cure my obsession :).

…………………………………..

The music was soft and lights dim, a romantic hue being cast over the reception hall. The Arctic todd clinked his scotch glass with his wife’s wine glass before turning back to the dance floor. The smile he had given his wife melted and became slightly sad and disappointed when he turned his blue eyes towards the dance floor. There, his little vixen was wrapped in the arms of the last mammal he would have chosen for her. And he had given it several shots throughout the years.

Daniel Frost remembered the day his nine year old daughter had brought her new friend over after school. At first he felt pride. His daughter had not only taken his words to heart but had gone out her way to unalienate the new kit in her class. He had called into work for the day to catch up on house repairs, and was finishing up repainting the kitchen when Skye came home from school with Jack. Standing at the sink, rinsing the paint roller, his ears perked at the sound of the door opening. A glance at the clock and he figured who it could be.

“Welcome home, sweetie! I’m in the kitchen!”

He set the roller aside to scrub his paws, only to pause at the sound of two sets of footsteps. Mixed with an unfamiliar male scent, his daddy instincts kicked in. Turning around, he was greeted by his Skye and an unfamiliar rabbit kit. The most ridiculous, little rabbit kit he had ever seen.

“Hi, Daddy!” greeted his little vixen happily. She put an arm around the small buck, who looked up at him with a shy smile, and gestured between the two males. “This is my friend Jack! He’s in my class. Jack, this is my dad.”

With eyes that took up most of his face and ears that were nearly as big as he was, the rabbit took a breath and stepped forward. Daniel blinked down at him and his tiny, outstretched paw. Combined with the dark stripes framing his face and running down his arms, it was a lot to take in. Fortunately, his astonishment lasted only a mere moment before he shook it off to accept the pawshake.

Such a formal, serious, weird little thing, he thought.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jack,” he said out loud, with a smile. Jack smiled back, his large teeth distracting him for a moment.

“Pleasure to meet you, too, Mr. Frost.”

Fantastic manners, though.

“Can Jack stay over for a while?” Skye asked, clasping her paws together in a pleading manner. “Please? I don’t have any activities today and Jack said he can help me with my math homework.”

“And I could really use Skye’s help with our vocabulary homework.”

Both kits looked up at him, Skye’s big blue eyes combined with Jack’s hitting him in a very unfair manner. Daniel looked from one to the other and saw no harm in saying:

“Sure! Go get started on your homework and I’ll get a snack ready for you two.”

Watching with bemusement as they grinned and darted to the living room, he thought about what an odd pair they made. Giving a final shake of his head, he chuckled, happy that his daughter had made a new friend. And knowing she was willing to risk her reputation to stick up for others made him proud as hell. The few times he had met that skunk had been less than pleasant, so he wouldn’t be sad if she was out of his daughter’s friend circle. But kids changed a lot as they grew up, so who knew how long a friendship with a bunny buck would last.

“I give it a month, tops,” he muttered with a smile.

Cutting up some veggies and making a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, he set everything onto plates just as the door opened again.

“Hi, Honey! Hi, Jenny Benny!”

His wife called back a greeting, followed by his youngest and echoed by Skye from the living room. Both plates were gathered up while his ears picked up sounds of his daughter introducing Jack to her mother and little sister. Daniel was secretly glad Marie was staying the night at her friend's house. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself from making snarky comments. He passed his wife on the way to the living room, the vixen giving him an odd look as she went by. It confused him for a moment until the reason became all too clear.

Skye and Jack were set up at the coffee table, workbooks, papers, and pencils spread out. Jack stood over Skye, who had remained seated, and explained the math problem to her, totally and completely in his daughter’s space. The young vixen was happily unbothered by it. She elbowed him, her own father, away on a regular basis due to her love of space. Jenny sat on the other side of the table with her own little workbooks (courtesy of the first grade), watching her sister and this new… friend with stunned curiosity. Daniel was immediately put off by how close the pair were but kept his mouth shut.

“Here you go, you two.” He set the plates down in front of them and received a pair of smiles and thank yous in return. Unease filled him when his daughter passed Jack half of one sandwich before taking the other.

Skye NEVER shares food!

“I’ll bring one out for you, too, Jenny Benny,” he assured his youngest, his eyes still on the odd pair, now working and munching.

“She can have this one, Daddy,” Skye offered, looking over at Jack, who smiled at the younger vixen and passed her the other plate. To Daniel’s astonishment, Jenny blushed and giggled, accepting it with a shy smile at the rabbit buck.

“Ooookay,” Daniel backed away slowly as the kits settled into their homework and snacks. He finally turned away when he reached the kitchen just as his wife Abigail was tying an apron on.

“Perfect timing,” she began with a smile, scooping up another and throwing it at him. “I need someone to peel the veggies.”

He caught it without a word, amazed at how undisturbed his wife was. All he could was gape as she started about the kitchen to make dinner. She paused, though, once she realized he was still staring at her in disbelief.

“What?” she asked with concern.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked. Glancing towards the living room, he got closer and lowered his voice. “What the hell is going on out there?”

Abby’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?” His paws gestured towards the room, approximately where Jack and Skye were working. She snorted in amusement. “Danny, come on. They’re kits. We raised a daughter who is so sweet and charming, she can put a bunny at ease. And let me tell you now, that kit looks like he needs some good friends.”

“And a hell of a personality,” Danny muttered under his breath. Abby snorted and gave him a light slap while chuckling.

“Just give it time,” his wife assured. “Kits outgrow friends all the time. Jack only recently transferred to this school and he just needs to break out of his shell. Skye’s great at helping others fit in! Once he finds his place in school, he and Skye will go their separate ways. Trust me! I’ll be very surprised if they’re still talking this time next year.”

4 YEARS LATER

“I can’t believe you’re not in ANY of my classes!” Skye stared down in disbelief at Jack’s school schedule. They sat in Skye’s family kitchen, tucked away in the bay window seat, the pair looking properly discouraged. Jack shook his head at Skye’s schedule in his paws.

“This is so unfair. Our first year of high school and they expect us to not be together? We even have different lunch hours! That’s sick!” Skye nodded in agreement before looking up when Jack snapped his fingers decisively. “I think I can get Trent to change it for me.” Skye beamed at him hopefully and Jack grinned at her. “He owes me a favor after I covered him on Mom’s birthday present. Mom would have killed him if she found out how much he spent on it!”

“She looked so good in that dress, though.” Skye scooted closer to him and put the schedules together. “I might be able to convince my parents to fix mine, too!” Her chin moved to rest on his shoulder as the pair debated and argued and negotiated on how things could be rearranged.

Daniel sat at the breakfast bar with a coffee in paw and a plate of fresh eggs and toast in front of him, his eyes glued on the duo. Jack was a frequent visitor in the mornings and afternoons, whereas Skye was usually found at his house on the weekends. Both felt Jack’s was too crowded to spend vast quantities of time at. Marie sat next to Danny, phone to her ear, jabbering away and oblivious to the resigned look her father had. Abby came to stand beside him, sipping from her own cup and gazing at the pair with her own brand of disbelief.

“She can’t possibly think we’re going to change her schedule to fit her friend in,” he whispered to her. He met her eyes, hers just as troubled as his. “Can she?”

They exchanged shrugs before looking over at them again.

“You both are in some serious denial,” came the voice of their youngest.

Jenny had entered the kitchen and bounced over to the stove to help herself to breakfast, Marie tuning in to briefly nod her head in agreement before jabbering away again. Everyone looked over to the pair when they started laughing with each other. Marie pulled the phone from her ear and pressed it to her chest to address her parents.

“Those two,” she pointed one perfectly manicured claw between Skye and Jack, who were grinning at each other, “are going to be together forever.”

“Get used to it,” confirmed Jenny as she sat on the remaining stool with her food.

Danny and Abby looked back at their daughter and her friend.

Skye had blossomed- as Danny knew she would- getting taller and more willowy like her mother, and just as beautiful. She had those sparkling eyes that could melt even the coldest heart and a smile that welcomed anyone and everyone. Jack, however, had remained small and out of proportion. His ears and front teeth were still comically too big, and he had barely grown at all.

Until that summer.

One moment, he was just the nerdy, little bunny that his daughter insisted on spending her time with. The next, he was only slightly shorter than Skye, his mouth growing around his teeth and ears growing into the rest of him. His face, once dominated by his eyes and stripes, now began to wear them as a compliment to the rest of his features. He still had the air of an awkward teen (his body had grown longer, leaving him lanky in the arms and legs, with no real muscle structure to compliment it, yet), but the todd knew it wouldn’t last forever.

It was only a small comfort that Skye hadn’t noticed yet.

4 YEARS LATER

Jack balanced a stack of boxes as he followed Danny down the hall. Young students of all species rushed past them, most with parents trailing behind. Around them, joy and anxiety circling the first year of college radiated. It was an emotional day for everyone. Especially parents who were going to be apart from their babies for the first time ever.

“In here, guys!” Skye’s voice called out.

Both males turned into the dorm room, greeted by Skye, who was setting up her side of the room with her mother. Abby smiled at them as she reached for the boxes her husband was carrying, though it became an eyeroll when her daughter ignored her father’s outstretched arms to approach Jack instead, relieving him of the boxes. The two teens smiled happily at each other while she set the stack on the floor next to them and embraced her friend. Jack closed his eyes and hugged her back fiercely.

“Thank you so much for helping, Jackie,” she muttered.

“I hate that name,” he protested with a sad smile. “And don’t thank me too much. You’re helping me move next weekend, remember.”

Skye loosened her grip and Danny smiled expectantly, re-raising his arms to accept a hug from her. But his face fell when she just held Jack at arms length and smiled at him sadly.

“But this is the first time we’re not going to have any classes together.” She sniffled and blinked away tears. “Or live next to each other!”

Jack’s eyes became misty as Danny and Abby rolled theirs.

“I know,” he choked out. “But if you start crying, then I’m going to cry, and if I start crying, you’re going to tell Josie and then I owe her thirty bucks and I don’t have that kind of money, Skye!”

She gave a small, watery laugh and hiccup as she tried to compose herself. “I would say, ‘I would never’, but you know me too well.”

He laughed, too, pulling her back in for another hug. It was a long one, one that the parents were going to interrupt before they finally broke apart and wiped away their tears.

“Okay,” began Jack, backing away with a sad smile. “Like a band-aid!” He gave her a wave and smile, before seeming to realize Danny and Abby were still there. His ears tinged pink but he still gave them a parting farewell. “Great seeing you two, Mr. and Mrs. Frost.” His eyes moved back to Skye. He held his paw up to his ear in a phone sign. “Call me later?”

“Definitely,” she assured with a nod. Jack grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up before turning to leave. He rushed out the door, past a pair of bunny does who gave him interested looks he didn’t notice. Skye did, however, and glowered at them unconsciously until they passed by; only then did she remember her parents were still there.

“Thank you, guys.” With tears still in her eyes, she moved to hug her mother and father.

“Of course, sweetheart,” her mother mumbled, burying her nose into her daughter’s head fur.

She still has that new baby smell, Abby thought sadly.

“Anything for you, princess,” Danny said gruffly. He squeezed a bit tighter and looked to where Jack had vanished. “And don’t forget-” Skye pulled away to look up at her father expectantly. “College is not just about grades and academics. It’s about meeting new mammals. Experiencing different cultures. Making new friends.” Skye blinked up at him. “Meeting new mammals.” He grinned down at her only to be gifted with a look of confusion from Skye and a small kick from Abby.

“Ooookay then…” his daughter said, backing away.

“Okay then!” Abby pulled away and clapped her paws together. She gave her daughter a final smile and hooked her arm through Danny’s. “We love you. Please be safe and call us if you need us.”

After Skye agreed, the Frosts gave her a final goodbye and left. The door closed behind them and they began the walk back to the car.

“This is the year, right?” asked Danny with a hint of worry.

Abby simply smiled and shook her head. “Nope.”

He looked down in alarm at her. “What makes you say that? It’s college! She’s bound to meet a TON of new mammals.”

“And she will,” Abby agreed. Her eyes looked up at Danny. “But Marie was right.” She sighed heavily. “Those two will be together forever.”

Danny groaned.

“That’s what I thought.”

5 YEARS LATER

“I think I claimed that apartment first,” Skye argued with a grin. Jack shook his head in disagreement. This was their latest ‘argument’.

“Considering I viewed the apartment first,” he countered, grinning at her eye roll and playful slap to his arm, “and have already signed the paperwork, I get first dibs.”

Skye leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Danny tried to not growl at their closeness, opting instead to drink deeply from the glass in his paw. Abby smiled at her husband and refilled his wine when he was done. The todd smiled his thanks before turning away from his middle child, towards his oldest in her wedding dress, greeting tables with her new husband. The handsome todd was positively radiating happiness, but the newlywed’s love for each other seemed to be dimmed by the pair next to him.

When Marie had sent out her wedding invites, the Frosts were eagerly hoping their middle daughter would find a proper date. But neither were surprised when Marie paw delivered Skye’s invite on a day Jack was joining them for breakfast and announced she expected both to show up. Skye was a bridesmaid and Jack a groomsmale, Sam (Marie’s fiance) having been a contractor who had worked with him at Jack’s lab. The bunny was the reason the couple had met. Neither Marie nor Sam had thought twice about including them on the same invite.

And Jack and Skye hadn’t thought twice about it either.

Danny had pretended to be resigned to the fact that his Skye and Jack were a permanent feature the day he dropped her off at college. But that was so it made it more natural to introduce her to any and every todd he met, any chance he got. A few times, she had even agreed to a meal with one or two, which made him optimistic. Only for the follow up to disappoint every time. Her relationship with the rabbit confused him, to say the least. They were always together, they carried each other’s scents, practically shared living spaces, yet had never announced their relationship to their families.

As far as Danny knew, Jack’s parents had not spoken to him about his perpetual bachelorhood. Nor about his relationship with his daughter. Danny got the impression they didn’t care one way or the other and the times they had gotten together with the Eairs-Savage clan, the rabbit couple only seemed to encourage it. As his fellow bunnies were settling down, Jack stayed by Skye’s side. Danny had heard he had a doe from time to time (which made the todd confusingly upset), but nothing that had been enough to derail his relationship with his daughter.

With every passing year, they’re relationship grew stronger.

And then, the day Daniel Frost had been fearing since Skye first brought him home at nine years old, when Skye showed up with Jack for dinner at their house. That was not an unusual occurrence. But his arm around her shoulders and her paw on his leg combined with the occasional nuzzle, elevated things to a whole new level.

After an enjoyable meal filled with the usual laughter and chatter, it was more than obvious they had finally transcended ‘just friends’. Daniel thought the news about Officers Hopps and Wilde getting married may have been the reason behind it. Which was a pity, because Danny remembered Nick Wilde from when he was in high school and had hoped to set Skye up, somehow. Marie, her husband, and their two kits had been visiting, and Jenny had come up from graduate school with her new partner to join them. As always, Jack charmed the vixens, bonded with Sam, and doted on the kits. But this time, Skye looked on with a naked look of love.

He could handle Jenny coming home with a vixen and declaring her love for her. His tongue was held when Marie had told him they were homeschooling their children and moving to the country for a more simple life. It was not his life they were living, after all. He even grinned and bared it when his wife decided to rent out their free rooms to travelers for extra cash.

But he was entirely unprepared for his daughter, his little genius and prodigy, to lean into the rabbit buck she had spent the last twenty five with and kiss him. She kissed his lips and he returned it with equal love and devotion. A small quiet fell over the dinner table. Considering this was the first time either had been intimately demonstrative of their relationship, it was understandable.

“I love you,” Skye told him, thumbing away a smudge of lip gloss from his bottom lip. Jack’s blue eyes drank in every detail of her face.

“I love you, too.” She beamed at him before realizing they had captured the family’s attention. Together, they blushed and laughed, the night carrying on after a moment.

Later, after the plates had been cleared and leftovers stored away, the females had branched away to visit with each other, leaving Daniel with Sam and Jack. The trio moved into the living room, Danny trying to drag out the boring conversation he was trapped in with Michael to avoid Jack’s questioning gaze in his direction. The buck sat at the piano and played a bit while waiting for an opening to jump in. It was to the older todd’s dismay that his son-in-law excused himself for the restroom, leaving him alone with the bunny for the first time since he was a child.

Jack continued to play the melody he had chosen, looking over to Danny with a grin.

“This is our favorite song to play together,” he explained. His finger’s moved across the keys with skill and grace. “Skye loves this part, right here,” he smiled and closed his eyes as the complicated notes echoed around them. The buck smiled, his eyes still closed. “I’ve been practicing for years and she can still play circles around me.” His eyes opened as the piece started to wind down. But the smile remained. “She’s way too good for me. But…” He played the final notes, pausing his fingers on the keys to let the sound play out. Once it faded, he lifted his paws and smiled again at the todd in his chair.

“I guess I’m a pretty lucky guy.”

Jack gulped and stood from his seat. He strode over to where Danny sat, the todd’s jaw set and eyes narrowed with suspicion. His blue eyes looked up at the handsome, successful buck in front of him, remembering the odd, almost ugly little kit he had once been, and braced himself.

“Mr.Frost,” Jack started after clearing his throat. “I love your daughter. I think I’ve loved her ever since the day I met her. She’s the most beautiful, wonderful, amazing, smartest mammal I have ever known. And I don’t want to spend another moment without her knowing I’m hers.” Jack shrugged. “For the rest of my life. I was hoping you would give me your blessing to ask her to marry me.”

Daniel Frost took a sip of his drink to gather his thoughts.

“No,” he said simply.

The way it was said, without hesitation or thought, had the buck blinking in response, obviously thrown by his answer. Jack opened his mouth to speak only to be cut off.

“My daughter can do better than you, Jack,” Daniel continued, his lips becoming more pursed with every sip of his drink. “And I’m happy to bide my time waiting for that day to come.” With a grin, he reached down to release the footstool on the recliner and gave a satisfied sigh when he reclined back and settled in. “I know tons of todds who would be a better match for her.” He gave the rabbit a smug look and shrugged. “It’s just a matter of time until she meets someone better.” A wink was tipped to Jack over the rim of his glass. “So, don’t get too comfortable, Stripes.”

The younger male gave him a look of disbelief before opening his mouth to argue.

“Asking you is just a formality.”

Both males jumped and looked over to the living room entryway. Skye stood, looking at her father with angry eyes. Behind her, Abby gave her husband a sympathetic look. Danny lowered the footrest and stood from his seat.

“Now, sweetheart,” he started, the paw not holding his drink out stretched, “I’m just looking out for you. You’re young, brilliant, and beautiful. Do you really want to waste your best years with a rabbit?” Her eyes widened at him but her father wasn’t done. “What about kits? Do you think you’d be able to start a family with him?” He saw Jack’s expression fall out of the corner of his eye and fought off the guilt. “I won’t let you throw your life away for someone who won’t be able to give you the life you deserve. And you deserve a husband who can provide for you and give you children and with whom you can grow old with.”

Skye’s eyes were filled with tears, but she nodded before turning her gaze to Jack. Jack’s own tears fell freely as his paws fiddled with the box in his paws. Daniel hadn’t noticed him pulling it from his pocket when he stood from the piano.

“If we gross you out so badly, Dad, you may want to look away.” Skye stepped closer to Jack and grinned, still teary eyed.

“Jack,” she got down on one knee and took his free paw, pulling her own ring box from her jean’s pocket, “I love you, so, so much. And the idea of not being yours for the rest of our lives sucks.” Both mammals laughed, Jack gripping her paw and bending to kiss it. “You’re my best friend, my confidant, my partner.” She gently tugged her paw free to open her ring box, Jack sob laughing at the sight of the silver ring hidden inside. It was removed and his left paw taken up for the ring to be slipped onto his finger. “ Jack Edmond Savage, love of my life. Will you marry me?”

Danny’s jaw dropped and his eyes went to his daughter on her knee, to his family watching with happy astonishment from the hall. Jack laughed through his tears of happiness and nodded, joining her on his own knees. His ring box was opened, Skye gifting him with a gasp of joy at the tasteful, vintage ring inside. He took her paw again and slipped it onto her finger with a smile.

“Yes, Skye Abigail Frost,” they exchanged looks of pure love, paws now clasped together, “I will marry you.”

There was no further discussion, Daniel realizing there was nothing he could do but sit with his mouth agape as his daughter embraced her new fiance. His wife, daughters, and their partners impatiently waited for the chance to congratulate the couple.

Which brought him to this moment.

The second moment he had been dreading since the day his little vixen brought that odd, awkward, unfortunate looking little rabbit kit home.

His daughter was marrying a rabbit.

He walked her down the aisle to the buck, whose eyes were alight with happiness at the sight of his bride. And Danny knew he was wrong. He wasn’t happy about it, but as he reluctantly released his daughter’s paw and stepped aside for Jack, he knew their lives were made for this moment. The disaster he had hoped for, never happened. They were together, for richer or poorer. In sickness and in health. It only made Skye and Jack’s bond stronger. Danny was used to it by Christmastime, when his wife opened the door to the happy couple. In his opinion, their relationship had desensitized himself from a lot of things life threw at him.

But not the positive pregnancy test the couple had gifted them for the holiday.

#zootopia #jacksavage #skyefrost #savagefrost

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love-a-little-less-archived · 3 years

Text

pause to ponder the miracles

a holiday secret santa gift for @hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis

“Is me not liking you a problem, Princess?”

Clarke shrugged. “It could be.”

“Why?”

“Because I was planning on inviting your sister to come up with me for Christmas, and thought maybe, if you weren’t an ass about it, I’d invite you, too." Bellamy opened his mouth to say something but Clarke barrelled on. "So are you going to continue to hate me or can we get along? Because I know O wouldn’t want to leave you here alone for Christmas.”

Bellamy pursed his lips. “Yeah. Okay. We can get along.”

Modern AU where Bellamy hasn’t truly celebrated Christmas in years, and with the help of his sister’s university roommate, maybe this year can be different.

Rated teen+ for language

[ read on ao3 ]

So!! I don’t think anyone else has posted their fics for this event yet but I figured I had it done, might as well be the first. So a little backstory on this fic: I had originally planned out something entirely different. I was trying to stay in canon-verse but honestly I was having enough trouble with the holiday theme anyway so I gave it up and moved it to modern-verse. And the first couple things I drafted up I tried to make more focused on the group rather than one person but that also didn't work very well so I decided Bellamy might be a good pick for you. And as much as I tried to not make it romantic I- kind of failed. As you’ll see.

Anyway!! I hope this is holiday-themed enough for you!! I’m actually considering maybe writing a second chapter to this because I did really enjoy typing this out, but that’s iffy.

Merry christmas, dear!! I hope you like it ♥

@johnmurphyisqueer

( I’ll post the whole thing below the cut, but formatting is probably better on ao3 )

“Christmas is like softly-falling snow that covers the world in a blanket of white so flawless and brilliant as to make us pause to ponder the miracle.”

― Richelle E. Goodrich, Being Bold

Bellamy had never had much of a Christmas.

Before Aurora had passed, they’d bake cookies and buy gifts and string lights on the walls, but after, it had mostly stopped. Bellamy was too focused on providing for himself and his sister to worry much about holidays. Sure, he’d buy Octavia a few small gifts, sometimes they’d go walk around neighborhoods and look at the fancy light shows some houses boasted, but it was never anything big for them.

This year was different.

It started like this: Octavia had just begun her first year at university, courtesy of years of saving up for it, and when November rolled around, Octavia came home to him for a few days. She brought a friend. Clarke Griffin, her roommate, who looked like she’d never struggled for a day in her life. Bellamy immediately disliked her. But for Octavia’s sake, he tried to mask it.

“So, Clarke,” he started, the three of them lounging in the living room, Octavia and Clarke with a bag of chips between them. “What brings you down here?”

She shrugged. “My hometown is more than a few hours drive from campus, didn’t feel like making the effort. Octavia invited me along when she figured out I wasn’t going anywhere.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t feel like going to see your family?”

“Nah. The only reason I’d want to go down would be to see my old friends, and not all of them would even be around. My mom and I don’t have the best relationship.” Clarke scrunched her nose. “ And I’d already told her I’d come see her for Christmas, so no reason to make the drive.”

Bellamy huffed. Clarke raised her eyebrows. “Something funny?”

Octavia was glaring at him, so he just settled back. “Nope. All good, Princess.”

Clarke didn’t seem to believe him. Octavia stood up, tugging Clarke with her. “Come on babe, why don’t we go hang out on our own?”

Clarke and Bellamy avoided each other for the rest of the day. And the day after that.

It didn’t last.

It was early, early enough that Bellamy expected to be gone for work by the time the girls got up. But then Clarke strode into the kitchen and rested her hands on the counter, hard eyes locked onto him. “Why do you hate me?”

And Bellamy, not at all prepared for that, just stared at her for a few moments. “What?”

“You heard me. What’s your problem with me?”

He turned around, taking a sip of his coffee. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She growled. He heard her shuffling around, and suddenly she was right in his face. Bellamy jerked back, almost spilling his coffee. So maybe he didn’t like her, but her glare was downright terrifying.

Bellamy clenched his jaw. “Is me not liking you a problem, Princess?”

She shrugged. “It could be.”

“Why?”

“Because I was planning on inviting your sister to come up with me for Christmas, and thought maybe, if you weren’t an ass about it, I’d invite you too.”

Bellamy’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What? Why?”

Clarke sighed. “Because I like your sister, and I know she’s never had much of a real Christmas. And because I’m nice, I was going to invite you so you could not be a sad person who spends Christmas alone.”

The only thing he could say to that was “oh.”

Clarke didn’t seem bothered by it. “So are you going to continue to hate me or can we get along? Because I know O wouldn’t want to leave you here alone for Christmas.”

Bellamy pursed his lips. “Yeah. Okay. We can get along.”

Clarke grinned. “Great! I’ll bring it up to Octavia later today. Now tell me if you have anything other than that straight black coffee you’re drinking-”

And despite himself, Bellamy could tell she was already growing on him.

︵‿︵‿୨✼୧‿︵‿︵

Though Bellamy offered to make the drive alone, Clarke insisted that she come and pick him up. Said it wasn’t too much of a detour. He knew it was easier to just agree. There was no arguing with Clarke.

And so that was how Bellamy found himself draped over the backseat of Clarke’s car, the two girls chatting enthusiastically in the front seats.

“Bell, are you excited?” Octavia asked, turning around. “We’re going to have a real Christmas! With a tree and presents and lights and cookies!”

Honestly, he was more nervous than excited. He wouldn’t know anyone there other than Octavia and Clarke, and the latter he still didn’t know very well. But he let Octavia’s joy seep into him, smiling back at her. “I am.” And because he was far too polite, he addressed Clarke too. “And thank you, Clarke, for inviting us.”

She waved him off. “Oh, it’s helping me too, don’t worry. Hopefully it’ll get my mom off my back about how I need to expand my social circle now that I’m in uni. She’s been bugging me about it forever.”

He hummed. “What year are you?”

“Sophomore. Majoring in creative arts, minoring in a couple medical classes. Mostly because of my mother.”

He raised an eyebrow, though she couldn’t see. “Sounds controlling.”

“Ugh. Very.” Clarke clenched the steering wheel tightly. “She was so angry when I said I was majoring in the arts. Said it wasn’t a career that would get me very far in life. She’s always wanted me to be a doctor like her.”

He chuckled. “You don’t strike me as very doctor-esque.”

“Oh, she’s better than you’d think,” Octavia butted in. “I got sick for a few days in the first weeks, and Clarkey here had it down. I barely even had to do anything.”

Clarke shrugged. “Not a bad skill to have.”

“I probably would have died without you.”

“It was a stomach bug, O.”

“Still!”

And suddenly he wasn’t as worried about the trip as he was before. Not if it was going to be like this.

︵‿︵‿୨✼୧‿︵‿︵

Abby Griffin was a very intense woman.

She and Clarke exchanged quick hellos, Abby going to hug her daughter, but even Bellamy could tell it was awkward. When she addressed him and Octavia, it was very stiff, professional, and Bellamy could see why she and Clarke didn’t get along. The two women were opposite personalities, sharing the same stubborn streak that likely played a big part in their strained relationship.

Another thing he noticed that was very opposite to Clarke was the house. From what he knew of Clarke, she was not a very organized person. Her car was a bit of a mess, a lot of her clothes were stained with paints, and she didn’t put much effort into her appearance. Abby’s house was huge and pristine, everything sparkling clean, the house itself matching Abby’s intenseness.

The woman sat them on the couch and went to get them drinks. Bellamy looked around the huge living room. “This where you grew up?”

Clarke shuddered. “God, no. My mom moved in after my dad… died. He never wanted anything big or fancy. I lived here for about two years before moving out. Though honestly I tried to spend as much time out of the house as I could. It’s almost too much.”

Octavia leaned closer, keeping her voice low. “You didn’t tell me your mom was rich!”

“She’s a world-class surgeon, I thought that was a given.”

“I didn’t expect this!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Clarke shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on spending much time here anyway. We’ll probably spend Christmas day here, but the real fun will be on Christmas Eve. One of my high school friends is a master at throwing parties. You’ll have the time of your life, trust me.”

Neither Blake could reply as Abby walked back in with drinks for each of them. Bellamy wasn’t sure what it was, but it tasted fancier than anything he’d ever had.

“So.” Abby sat down on one of the plush chairs across from the couch. “Why don’t you two tell me about yourselves? Clarke doesn’t talk much about school.”

Octavia spoke up first. “I’m her roommate. Majoring in video production.”

Abby nodded, not seeming very impressed. “And you?”

Bellamy shifted. “I’m Octavia’s brother. I’m not in uni.”

“Oh?” Abby’s face shifted a bit at that. “Did you graduate?”

“Never went.”

“I see.”

“Okay!” Clarke interrupted. “O, Bell, how about I get you two set up in your rooms and we can go out somewhere?”

Octavia jumped up, eager to get out of the room. Bellamy nodded, taking one last sip of his drink. “Sounds good, Princess.”

Abby’s scalding gaze fell onto him as the nickname fell from his mouth, but he couldn’t care less.

︵‿︵‿୨✼୧‿︵‿︵

“So where are we going?”

“To a local diner,” Clarke said. “I invited some friends, too. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Clarke, I have been dying to meet your friends after all the stories you’ve told me,” Octavia responded. “Which ones?”

“Raven, Murphy, and Emori.”

Octavia clapped her hands together. “I am so excited to meet Raven. She sounds like a badass.”

Clarke laughed. “Oh, she is. I have no doubt you two will get along like a house on fire.”

And after meeting her, Bellamy knew they would.

Raven was full of energy and possibly the most sarcastic person ever. She had a brace on her leg, but it didn’t stop her from bowling Clarke over with a hug when they met outside. “Clarke! It’s been so long!”

“Hey, Rae!” The blonde laughed. “It has! How’ve you been?”

“Fantastic. Who are they? Friends?”

Octavia was practically beaming. “I’m Octavia! Clarke’s my roommate. Heard a lot about you.”

Raven preened. “Of course you have, I’m awesome.” She leaned over to Clarke. “Why didn’t you tell me your roommate was this hot?”

Clarke chuckled. “Jealous, Rae?”

“Of you? Never.” Raven reached out and took Octavia’s arm. “Come on, hot stuff, let me buy you a drink.”

Bellamy was smiling widely at how happy his sister was. Clarke bumped his shoulder, making him look down at her. “Come on. Your sister will be fine with Raven for a while. Come and meet Murphy and Emori.”

He couldn’t help the surprise that shot through him. “You don’t want Octavia to come with us?”

Clarke rolled her eyes. “When will it get through your thick skull that I actually like you? Come on!”

Bellamy flushed at that, trailing after Clarke into the diner. She didn’t even have to look around, heading straight towards a table in the far corner. There were two people there, a man who looked like he wanted to murder everyone in sight and a woman with kind eyes and a tattoo covering half of her face.

The woman lit up as she saw them approaching. “Griffin! Damn, it’s good to see you!”

“You too, Emori,” Clarke said, leaning down to hug her. “You and Murphy doing well?”

Emori’s smile split her face. “We just bought an apartment together!”

“Oh, that’s great!”

“Girls, if you could stop being sappy for one minute,” the man, most likely Murphy, butted in. “Who’s this bitch?”

“Oh!” Clarke grabbed his elbow, pulling him to sit down beside her opposite of her friends. “This is Bellamy. I invited him along for Christmas.”

“Guess I’ll be stuck seeing you around then.” Murphy looked him up and down. “He your boyfriend or something?”

Bellamy blushed, and Clarke sputtered. “What? No! Honestly, I barely even know him that well- he’s just my roommate’s brother.”

And it shouldn’t mean anything, but Bellamy feels disappointed anyway. He’d hoped they were friends on their own now. He thought that was what Clarke had meant outside. Apparently not.

“Roommate’s brother, huh?” Murphy just nodded. “Kinda disappointed. Dude looks like he’d be great in bed.”

Emori smacked his head, both Bellamy and Clarke going red again. Murphy just cackled. “What? You gonna tell me that’s a lie?”

Emori huffed. “You need to learn decency.”

“If you expect decency from me then you don’t know me as well as I thought you did.”

“John.”

“Okay, okay,” Murphy raised his hands. “Have it your way.”

“Great,” Clarke interrupted, her cheeks still flushed pink. “How about we get some food and we can catch up?”

Emori elbowed Murphy before he could say anything. “That sounds wonderful, Clarke.”

︵‿︵‿୨✼୧‿︵‿︵

Bellamy had to admit, Clarke’s friends were growing on him.

“Bellamy, man, back me up here,” Murphy insisted. “Tell these two gremlins that their movie taste is shit.”

“Says the man who likes to watch slasher films in the middle of the night!”

“It’s better than the comedies you like to watch? In what way are those entertaining?”

“In what way is watching people get their brains ripped out entertaining?”

Beside him, Clarke giggled, nudging him with her elbow. “Whose side are you on?”

Bellamy just scoffed. “Neither. Both genres are mediocre at best.”

Murphy turned to him, slapping his hand down on the table. “Oh, and what do you watch? Fucking documentaries?”

...he did, yes, but he wasn’t going to admit that now. “Just saying, if you like horror, psychological is better. Slasher films are just blood and guts. No suspense.”

“Suspense is bullshit, who needs the creepy buildup? Just get right into the action!”

“Glad to see you boys are having fun.”

Raven slid into the bench beside Emori, Octavia dropping down beside Clarke, who gave her a smirk. Leaning over, Clarke said to her, loud enough that the whole table could hear: “have fun on your date?”

“Our date was definitely more enjoyable than whatever you idiots got up to,” Raven responded for her, wrapping an arm around Emori. “Bet you were wishing I was here.”

Clarke snorted. “Never any fun without you, Rae.”

“Of course not, I’m the life of the party.” She took a sip of Emori’s drink and crinkled her face. “You losers didn’t even get good drinks.”

“Just because Emori is boring doesn’t mean the rest of us are, Reyes,” Murphy said, earning another elbow to the ribs from his girlfriend. “And who are you to judge us? You drink pepsi.”

Bellamy watched as the two descended into arguing, as seemed to happen often with this group. And even if he was a bit excluded, he still found himself having more fun than he’d had in a while. It was nice, being a part of something again. Hanging out with friends. He had never had much time for that, between working and taking care of Octavia.

Maybe he could find that again.

︵‿︵‿୨✼୧‿︵‿︵

“So did you have fun?”

Bellamy looked up from his spot on the couch to see Clarke wandering over to him, dressed in pajamas, hair dark and damp. She looked adorable. Not that he’d tell her that.

“Yeah, I did. Your friends are an interesting group,” he said as Clarke sat down on the arm next to him. From the sound of running water, he guessed Octavia had hopped in the shower after Clarke. Abby was gone when they got back, most likely at the hospital, but nobody was complaining much. “You grew up with them?”

“Kind of. We all got stuck together in high school, and we just clicked. Before that, I’d only had one friend. His dad moved though, and I never found out where to.” She had thrown an arm over the back of the couch so she could lean back, and her arm pressed against his shoulder. He could smell the shampoo she’d used. Clarke didn’t seem to notice their proximity, but he was hyper-aware of it.

“You seem to work well with them. You’re all very rowdy. Very fun. You seem like you would’ve been a trouble-making group when you were teens.”

Clarke chuckled. “Oh, we were. The friends that’ll be hosting the party, Jasper and Monty, they were always sneaking drugs and alcohol for the rest of us, and we’d always get into trouble with them. Maybe it was that common factor that had us all getting along.”

Bellamy huffed. “Honestly? When I first met you I thought you’d be a goody-two-shoes.”

Clarke laughed. “God, no. Maybe when I was younger I was. But after my dad died, my mom started getting on my nerves, trying to control my life, and I wanted to be rebellious. So I did everything I could to piss her off. I still kind of do, to be honest, but I’m trying to get better about it. I don’t want to hate my mom for the rest of my life.”

Bellamy was silent for a moment. “You want to know another thing I thought when I first met you? When you said you had a bad relationship with your mom, my first thought was that at least you still had a mom.”

Clarke’s face fell. “Oh, Bell…”

He shrugged. “I hated you because you seemed like a privileged princess. And I guess in a way, you kind of are, but you’re more than that. You have your own problems too. It’s not your fault your mom is rich.”

Clarke offered a small smile. “I don’t blame you for thinking that. With how you grew up, you have every right to hate me for the way I live. For how lucky I am.”

He shook his head. “No. You didn’t choose your life any more than I chose mine. We didn’t choose the family we were born into, but we can choose what we do with our lives after that.”

Clarke moved her arm to wrap around his shoulder, pulling him to lean against her. She rested her cheek on top of his head. “I’m glad you don’t hate me. I’m starting to like you.”

He chuckled. “I’m starting to like you too, Princess.”

She sighed. “That’s sticking, isn’t it?”

“You bet it is.”

They laughed together, and Bellamy could feel something warm bubbling inside him. Maybe he was starting to like her a bit too much.

It was only a few more days, though. He could bear it.

︵‿︵‿୨✼୧‿︵‿︵

When they pulled up to the house, Bellamy could already tell he was in for a ride.

It was decked out in crappy Christmas decorations, blow up characters, window stickers, hell, there was even a garden flamingo with a santa hat on it sticking out of the snow by the mailbox. Octavia was out of the car barely a second after Clarke turned it off, and Bellamy laughed at her eagerness. Clarke smiled back at him, pushing open the car door.

“Look who it is!” Someone cheered when Clarke opened the door. A scrawny dude bounced up to them, wrapping Clarke up in his arms. “Missed you, Clarkey!”

“Missed you too, Jasper.” Another guy came up and hugged her, looking like possibly the sweetest person Bellamy has ever met. “Hey, Monty!”

“I’m so happy you’re back!” Monty beamed. “Oh my god have you heard the news?”

Clarke beamed back at him. “What news?” “Harper and I got engaged!”

“Holy shit, really?” Clarke hugged him again, squeezing hard. “I’m so happy for you! I’m invited to the wedding, right?”

“Of course you are!” A woman walked up to them, pulling Clarke away from Monty. “We’d never leave you out.”

“So who proposed to who?”

Monty blushed. Harper just laughed. “I proposed to him.”

Meanwhile, Jasper had made his way over to where he and Octavia were hanging by the door. “Clarke! You brought new people!”

Clarke perked up, moving back to grab both Bellamy and Octavia by their arms and drag them forward. “Yeah! Come on, I’ll introduce you to the group!”

The main room was already a bit of a mess, a poorly decorated Christmas tree tucked in the corner. Bellamy saw the familiar faces of Raven, Murphy, and Emori, who waved at them eagerly. Raven hopped up and sauntered over to Octavia, slinging an arm over her shoulder. Octavia grinned. “Hey, bitch.”

“Okay!” Clarke let go of Octavia as Raven pulled her over to sit beside her, instead wrapping both hands around Bellamy’s arm. “Guys, this is Bellamy, and that’s his sister Octavia. They’re friends from uni.”

There were a few choruses of ‘nice to meet you’ thrown out. One dude came up and extended a hand to him, which Bellamy took. “Hey, I’m Nathan Miller, but most people just call me Miller. It’s nice to see a new face around here.”

Bellamy shook his hand. “Happy to be here.”

“Kind of surprised Jasper hasn’t broke out the alcohol yet,” Clarke, still wrapped around his arm, commented. “He’s usually way too excited about it.”

Miller just chuckled. “Yeah, Maya’s been keeping him entertained. She’s his new girlfriend, by the way. A sweet girl. I’m not sure how she and Jasper work romantically, but they seem to have a good thing going.”

Clarke raised her eyebrows. “Really? Well, I’m happy for him. I haven’t seen him in any serious relationships since- ever, I think.”

“Well, he’s a bit intense, takes someone special to handle him.”

Bellamy snorted. “No offense, but everyone here is a bit intense.”

Clarke huffed out a laugh. “Think you can handle it, Bell?”

Bellamy made an unsure face. Miller slapped his arm. “Don’t worry, man, we aren’t that bad. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but you get used to it. If you can handle her, we can’t be much worse.”

Clarke snorted. “What are you implying, Miller?”

He raised his hands up in surrender. “Nothing bad.”

“If you say so…”

“You know what we should do?” Jasper stood up from the couch beside a timid-looking woman. “We should go outside!”

Raven wrinkled her face. “Jas, it’s like, supremely cold outside. There is snow on the ground.”

“Exactly! Come on, where’s your inner child? Don’t you want to go play in the snow?”

Raven grabbed her thigh, lifting her leg. “You see this brace? This thing gets insanely stiff in the cold. I’m not going.”

“Come oooooon,” Jasper whined. “Stop being such a party pooper! Where’s your sense of fun?”

Octavia grabbed Raven’s hand, pulling her onto her feet. “I think it’s a great idea!”

Raven made an incredulous sound. “This is betrayal!”

“You coming or not?”

Raven glared at her before sighing. “Fine.”

Jasper whooped. “Yes! Octavia, I love you already!”

The group laughed, all seeming to have been spurred on by Jasper and Octavia’s eagerness, and Clarke pulled Bellamy towards the door, neither having shed their coats or boots since coming inside. He stumbled along behind her, laughing, and though the chill was sharp, he was warm with happiness.

The rest of the group piled outside behind them, and Jasper and Octavia immediately set to work rolling a snowman. Bellamy and Clarke began to roll another section for the snowman when a snowball hit Clarke in the back.

They both looked back to see Raven cackling at them, a cocky smirk set upon her face. Clarke scooped up a wad of snow, throwing it back, but it went awry and Raven just held up a middle finger.

Bellamy crouched down to make his own snowball, and with Raven distracted by Clarke’s efforts to hit her, he threw. It hit Raven right in the shoulder, and she let out an indignant cry. Clarke cheered before Murphy came up behind her and shoved snow down the back of her coat.

And suddenly everybody had been sucked into the game.

Octavia hit Bellamy on the side, and when he went to retaliate she darted behind Emori, who Bellamy then hit in the stomach with a snowball. He got pelted with so many snowballs, but he threw at anyone who was in range, and Bellamy felt happier than he had in a long time. He and Octavia would do this sometimes when they were younger, and it reminded him of that. He couldn’t stop smiling the entire time.

Eventually, it died down, and though by now they were all thoroughly soaked, they still attempted to finish the snowman that had been started before Raven made the first attack. Even with so many people working on it, it wasn’t the best, especially not when no one had bothered to get supplies from inside, but they gathered some little rocks to use as the mouth, eyes, and nose, and it was good enough.

So after they all wandered back inside soaked and shivering and promptly collapsed in the main area. Bellamy fell onto the floor in front of the couch, leaning back onto Clarke’s legs. Emori plopped down next to him and flashed him a grin, eyes flickering between him and Clarke. Her implications were clear. Bellamy shook his head, and Emori rolled her eyes.

Jasper, still somehow bouncing with energy, declared they were going to have a Christmas movie night. “You came on a good year,” Emori said beside him. “Usually Christmas Eve is a lot more chaotic than this.”

He chuckled. “Miller said the same thing. He blamed it on the new girlfriend.”

Emori snorted. “Maya? It could be, yeah. I think Jasper’s trying to impress her.”

“I can’t imagine him being any worse than this.”

“Oh, god, this is probably him at his best.” Emori nodded to Monty. “Monty used to be the same way, until Harper. The girls keep them reined in most of the time. They probably would’ve accidentally blown themselves up by now without Harper.”

“That’s more Raven’s thing. They’d end up getting arrested for theft, probably.” Clarke leaned down behind him to enter the conversation, and he could feel her hair brushing the top of his head. “How many times has Jasper shoplifted?”

“Every time he goes to any store.”

Bellamy laughed with them, once again feeling intense gratitude to Clarke for inviting him.

“Okay okay shut up! We’re watching a movie!” Jasper yelled. “What’s a good Christmas movie?”

“Home Alone!”

“Fuck no!”

“What’s a Christmas movie that isn’t a comedy?”

“Literally none of them!”

“There are some!”

“Like what?”

“Oooookay, I’m deciding!” Jasper declared, picking up the remote. Everyone grumbled at that, but Bellamy was just amused. He felt something tap the side of his head and tilted his head back, seeing Clarke grinning down at him. He smiled back, face bright with happiness. This wasn’t like any Christmas he’d ever had, but it was his favorite already.

Jasper turned something on, Bellamy wasn’t really sure, and then he and Monty went into the kitchen to get everyone drinks. In true Christmas spirit, Harper yelled after them to make hot chocolate and not just grab some alcohol. Murphy huffed. “You really trust them with a stove?”

“They’re grown men, Murphy.”

“They don’t act like it.”

Maya trailed after the boys into the kitchen, and a little bit later they came back with cups of hot chocolate for everyone. Bellamy took a sip, the scalding liquid instantly warming him up. Someone turned the overhead lights off and the holiday lights on, illuminating the room in red and green. This was truly Christmas.

Bellamy wasn’t paying much attention to the movie, more to the quiet conversations that were constantly going on, whether it be Raven and Murphy arguing over something or Jasper making snide comments, but there was always the low buzz of talking, never silence. Not that he would have expected it from them.

A hand wove into his hair, and Bellamy turned his head to look back up at Clarke. She had a blanket tucked up to her chin, her mug held tight in one hand, and her eyes shone. She looked so content and relaxed, snuggled up on the couch, a hand combing idly through his hair.

“You look happy,” she murmured. “Happier than I’ve ever seen you.”

He smiled. “I am happy. I’m glad you invited me, Clarke. This is amazing.”

“This is the best Christmas Eve I’ve had in a long time,” she sighed. “You should come next year, too.”

Bellamy blushed. “You want me to come back?”

“Of course. You’re fun, when you aren’t hating me.”

“I don’t hate you anymore.”

“Good. I didn’t like it when you hated me.”

Bellamy let himself indulge as he grabbed her hand from his hair, tangling their fingers and pressing a kiss to her cold skin. She giggled, and he looked back up at her, cheeks hurting from smiling so much.

He hoped he could come back next year. And maybe every year after that, too.

#hma 2020 secret santa #love.hma #love.hundred #love.mine #the 100 #the 100 fanfiction #bellarke #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #bellamy blake fanfiction #bellarke fanfiction #secret santa #fic exchange

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hopeless-nostalgiac · 4 years

Text

with all appliances and means to boot: ncis/tiva fic

for this challenge, @loudlooks requested Tiva + "I didn't know you could do that." thank you for the inspiration!! *hugs*

set summer between S3-4 w/ team dynamics & tiva (a LOT of tiva—they took over the fic, basically, and I’m not sorry about it)

also, this turned out like eight times longer than I expected & was the most fun and freeing thing I’ve worked on in years, so

enjoy:)

FFN

“I didn’t know you could do that!”

McGee’s voice filtered over news-chattering televisions, incessantly ringing phones, and chicken-clacking keyboards to reach Tony at his desk.

“There was no reason to mention it earlier. It is not exactly a useful skill, my friend.” Ziva’s full-throated chuckles were wind chimes amidst the office drudgery.

Tony shook off the eruption of gooseflesh on his arms. It was way too early for that. And McGee was babbling again.

“I’ve just never met someone in real life who could do it.”

“Really?!”

A boom of shared laughter enveloped them.

Glancing at the digital read-out on his monitor, Tony silently cheered. 9:07. Totally busted. Then he pretended to be busy with paperwork, so his attention was occupied ahead of time.

The agents’ conversation lowered until it faded completely, coinciding with their entrance into the squadroom.

Tony had that effect on them now. The tables, as the saying went, had turned. They were the class troublemakers to his super-strict teacher. They, the unruly cadets, and he, the veteran drill sergeant. They were Agents; he was Boss.

“Agent McGee. Officer David. You’re late.”

McGee froze while swinging around his desk. Ziva froze after dropping her gear. Tony continued to stare yet not see the file in front of him, but he didn’t need visual confirmation to know the teammates were exchanging glances, coordinating their plan of counterattack.

“Well, technically we were in the building on time.” The opening lob courtesy of McGee.

“Technically, that’s not good enough, McTardy.”

“It was when you were wearing our shoes.”

Tony fought an eye roll. “You can’t throw me off the scent with a well-timed idiom blunder, Officer David.”

“Can’t I, Tony?” Ziva’s voice was louder, closer to him.

Out of his peripheral vision, he spied her leaning on the divider between their workspaces. So close now, he caught a whiff of her lavender mint shampoo as she flicked at a cascade of curls that had fallen over her shoulder. If this was their strategy, well, it wasn’t the worst angle.

But Tony DiNozzo was better.

“No, you can’t,” he reiterated, finally gracing each of them in turn with his steady gaze. Calm, yet intense. Everything rumbling beneath the surface. “And it’s Agent DiNozzo. Or Boss.”

Ziva stared back, golden-brown eyes matching his intensity, but not the calm. She rattled off a string of heated Hebrew, ending with a sharp snap of her teeth before spinning around on her heel and dropping heavily into her desk chair.

Crazy chick.

“So, anyway. Just to be clear: If you’re here after me, you’re late. Period.” Tony slapped a case folder closed, causing his desk to tremble; he could emphasize his words, too. “For today, you can make amends by telling me whatever it is McGee didn’t know Ziva could do. I’m thinking it involves lots of stretching, but if there’s a video game reference, leave it out. Go!”

And like that, authority forfeited for curiosity.

McGee did roll his eyes and muttered something that suspiciously sounded like waste of time under his breath. Ziva scoffed, typing noisily at her computer and decidedly not looking in Tony’s direction.

“That’s an order.” Even he didn’t buy the command.

9:10. The day was shot.

. . .

If someone asked Tony how his first weeks as leader of MCRT were going, he’d say, “Good, considering the circumstances,” with a flash of white teeth. He didn’t like to lose face, sure, but he was pretty confident it was the truth, too.

Because when your boss quit and ran off to Mexico, leaving you in charge of a team that for years affectionately regarded you as The Class Clown, the circumstances weren’t on your side and ‘good’ was the most you could hope for.

. . .

“What did you do?”

Passing through the automatic doors, Tony came up short—as much due to the always assaulting antiseptic stench as the accusation. “Why do you assume I did something wrong? Can’t I come see my favorite Autopsy Gremlin with no ulterior motive?”

“Sure you can,” Palmer called from the freezer section, where he was sliding a corpse home. “But I already talked to Abby, who talked to McGee.”

Fantastic.

“So before, with the ‘what did you do?’...that was kind of redundant, huh?”

“Guess so.” A dorky chortle escaped the assistant. “I mean, seriously, they were only late by a couple minutes, Tony. Sorry, Agent DiNozzo.” Another hiccup of laughter.

Great. Just great.

“Gee, I was hoping I could escape some of the ridicule down here....” Tony pressed his palms against the cold steel of an autopsy table, shoulders hunched, depositing weight into the defeated stance. All his course-correcting tactics, including buying his team lunch, had done little to reverse the morning’s death blow. McGee and Ziva were ignoring him aside for a lone campfire, and then their interactions were clipped—aggressively so where the ex-assassin was concerned. Now the damage was spreading to the sub-basement, it seemed.

“Look on the bright side, you’re the team leader. It’s what you’ve always wanted, right?” Palmer mirrored Tony on the other end of the table, adjusting his glasses before adding, “This is a bump in the road, but no one ever achieved greatness without first overcoming resistance.”

“That’s wise, Palmer. For a man who talks to the dead. You wouldn’t happen to know—”

“What McGee didn’t know Ziva could do?”

Tony blinked. Maybe they’d been underestimating the Autopsy Gremlin all along. “Yeah. Know anything about it?”

“It’s not a big deal. We were at the bar last night and first the waitress got Abby’s drink order mixed up, but it was super busy, so I suggested that—”

“Sometime today, Palmer.”

“Well, it turns out Ziva can knot a cherry stem with her tongue, and then...”

Oh, it was more wondrous than he’d guessed (and that list was long).

Palmer’s rambling dissolved to the background of Tony’s thoughts. He couldn’t get to the audacity of everyone going out for drinks without him because the dexterity of Ziva’s tongue was front and center. As he was recently familiarized with that very tongue and the talented mouth it resided in, it was all too easy to lose himself in a sexy daydream of the alleged feat.

Until he remembered how pissed she was at him. Bubble, burst.

. . .

If someone asked Tony how his first weeks sleeping with Ziva, his former partner and current subordinate, were going, he’d say, “What? I’m not—we’re not—how dare—what?!”

Because when your boss quit and ran off to Mexico, some of his rules haunted you.

. . .

“Rough day?”

Tony looked up right away. It was best not to play games with the director, who emerged stealthily in the dim, empty squadroom. He’d dismissed McGee and Ziva at regular quitting time, unable to make eye contact with either of them—for different reasons—but stayed behind to catch up on last week’s case reports. Him, voluntarily completing paperwork.

Rough was an understatement.

“I see my shortcomings are making the rounds.”

Jenny’s smile was beautifitic, the one she wore during news interviews. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t seeking it out. I was speaking to Ducky on a separate matter, and he happened to mention talking with Mr. Palmer, who—”

“Got the scoop from Abby because McGee blabbed to her,” Tony finished, barely restrained. “Yeah, I’m well acquainted with the watercooler daisy chain.”

It didn’t slip his notice that Ziva was the missing link. The text he’d started writing to her the second she disappeared through the elevator doors was unfinished and unsent on his phone.

“Did you also hear they went for drinks after work without inviting me?” It came out as a whine.

Jenny didn’t mask her amusement. “Did you always invite Gibbs for drinks? No, because he was your boss and you were probably venting about him.”

Touché.

“I’m trying, ma’am.” This he intoned with every fiber of professionalism and sincerity he could summon in the moment. The problem was that this wasn’t his first mistake since taking over—wouldn’t be the last—but he was trying. He wanted that noted. Also, there was an insane learning curve, and yes, big shoes to fill. Could he be blamed for that?

The redhead stepped forward, switching her smile for an expression of...not quite pity. Understanding? “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, Agent DiNozzo.”

“Robin Hood: Men in Tights?”

“Shakespeare.” Jenny chuckled, her fair eyes sparkling in the light of his desk lamp. Tony could see why Gibbs was once head-over-heels for her, back when they were partners. He knew something of those complicated emotions, of which the text draft on his phone contained damning evidence.

“It’s the nature of being in charge,” she continued. “You’re going to have crappy days and plenty of nights when you can’t sleep. My advice, from experience? When you screw up, apologize and do better next time.”

“Isn’t that a sign of weakness?” It was a reflex, after so many years.

Jenny caught his eye and held it. “No. It’s a sign of respect.”

. . .

He was sober when he showed up on her doorstep. Stopping off for some liquid courage briefly flitted through his brain, but flitted out just as quickly. McGee, he could buy a NutterButter, eat some humble pie himself. All would be cool again. Ziva was a different story.

Namely, a story with a lot of sex in it, and it’d barely been a month yet. That he spent a large portion of the day envisioning her tongue doing erotic dances with a red cherry stem wasn’t helping. It also further convinced him of a brutal truth: Things were changing. Things had already changed.

Ziva, outlined by the glow from inside the apartment, crossed her arms over a baggy workout t-shirt. Curls piled in a messy bun. It was Tuesday, kickboxing night. “If you are here for a booty call, you will be sorely disappointed.” Each word was wrapped in her delicious Israeli accent, momentarily distracting him from their sum meaning.

He’d expected as much.

“See, when you want to get them right…” Tony’s attempted humor and roguish smile failed to earn him leniency.

“Goodnight, Boss.”

The door hurtled toward him, closing on his chance to repent—and more than that, his chance with her. His left hand flew up, catching the wood with a few inches to spare.

“Hey, whoa. Wait. I’m here to apologize, all right?” Breath whooshed in and out of him; sweat beaded instantly on his forehead.

Okay, so it wasn’t just about the sex. He was enamored with her, and it hadn’t been a full month yet.

Ziva yanked the door back, though the arrangement of her features maintained dubious feelings. She raised her eyebrows in a way that said, Yes, and?

“I was an idiot, Ziva.”

A corner of her delicate mouth pulsed. “Good start.”

The heaviness in his chest released. He dared another smile, softer-gentler this time, and the door stayed open. “I was too hard on you and McGee.”

“You will apologize to him as well, yes?”

“Yes. McSweetTooth will wet himself with glee, I’m sure of it.” Tony shuffled his feet, bringing him onto her brown doormat, never dropping her gaze. “But seriously, Ziva, I know I messed up, especially, you know...I mean, you should be able to call the guy you’re sleeping with by his first name, even if he’s your boss. That is,” he sheepishly tagged on, “if I’m still the guy you’re sleeping with, after today.”

For a bloated handful of seconds, Ziva froze, as she had that morning in the squadroom. Eyes like lasers, drilling through him. It lasted long enough for doubts to creep in. Then—

“Are you?”

So simple, but coupled with her head tilted to expose honeyed neck, her popped knee, and the slight part of her plumped lips, the challenge was clearly set for him.

This would be fun.

Tony launched over the doorway, literally sweeping Ziva off her feet as he plowed into the apartment. An honest-to-goodness squeal filled his ears, then that wind-chime laugh took over and his knees wobbled in their sockets—nevermind her 100-something pounds hanging on his torso.

It was the first time he’d carried her this way—any way—but her arms and legs wrapped around his body with an ease he would have analyzed if not for the supple give of her breasts against his chest, or her frizzy hair tickling his chin. Her mouth alternated between whispering the dirtiest promises in his ear and nibbling on his neck. Thoughts would have to wait.

How they shut the front door, how they maneuvered the hallway to her bedroom, how they undressed and (eventually) found the bed was a haze of details that didn’t matter. The shudder that coursed through her at his every touch, mattered. The inverted bridge her back made when his lips and tongue met her center, mattered. His name on a gasp, woven into a sigh, lifted to a shout...

In this area, Tony DiNozzo excelled. He was damn well going to prove it.

. . .

It took two rounds to sate her. The first go was part of the apology; the second was because he had a young, hot lover who could run eight miles at the crack of dawn, kickbox for an hour after work, and still have energetic sex with him—twice. Who wouldn’t take advantage of that?

“Guess I got that booty call after all.” He love-tapped her ass, which was bare to the air. He braced for retaliation.

None came.

Hair mussed and cheeks flushed, Ziva glanced over, fixing him in her line of sight. A smirk hiked up the side of her mouth not buried in the pillow. “As did I, Agent DiNozzo.”

“Never going to live that down, am I?”

“Give it a few months.” Her smirk widened as her eyelids drooped, each blink taking longer and longer to pull back up.

. . .

They dozed together in the dark of her bedroom. They weren’t cuddlers, per se. Their connections left them too sensitive, sticky and unspooled. They stayed close, though. Touching random pieces of her to him, him to her. His head resting on her bicep curled closest to the mattress. Her ankle molded to the arch of his foot. Sometimes as conventional as their hands laid one atop the other, fingers loose.

. . .

He began talking while they ate cereal in the kitchen at quarter to eleven. He was talking as she cleaned and put away their dishes and led him to the front room, his body going where she steered and nudged. What he voiced was nothing new to either of them. All the same issues that overwhelmed him on a cool May night, that propelled him to Ziva’s door in what would become a habit. He was drowning; she was refuge.

For that, and so many other reasons, he trusted her without question.

Ziva allowed him to talk now because that was how he worked out problems. They both knew that, too.

“I think it comes down to the fact that...I don’t know how to be a team leader that isn’t Gibbs.” The admission floated and settled on the sofa cushion between them. It wasn’t often they said his name anymore. The memory was sore to the touch.

“We have been over this, yes?” Ziva tossed a leg across his lap, the other tucked beneath her. He immediately claimed the tanned skin of her thigh, rolling it under his hands. “This is a chance to be your type of leader, make your own rules.”

“Every time I do that, it blows up in my face.”

“Not every time,” she corrected, her eyes darting to his lips and lingering.

His heart rate ticked up. Very true. They might not have happened if Gibbs hadn’t left. But… “We’re one thing, Ziva. The team is another.”

She turned his chin with her hand, locking his gaze with her steady and fervent stare. An imposing combination. “Tony, you either keep trying or you quit, just like Gibbs. What will it be?”

It was Tony’s turn to sneak a not-so-subtle glance at her lips. When she put it like that, the answer was undebatable. What he’d told Jenny wasn’t a lie. And giving up wasn’t an option.

Didn’t mean he’d hand her the win that easily.

“How about we make a deal?” While his eyebrows waggled, his hands roamed farther than her thigh. “I persevere with the team leader thing. In exchange, you show off your fancy cherry stem tying prowess for me.”

Her mouth gaped, eyes narrowing. “Who told you?”

“Palmer. The guy’s actually not a bad sounding board.” He’d have to remember that for future thorny cases.

Ziva deflected, “I do not have any cherries in the fridge.”

Tony returned, “That wouldn’t stop a true parlor trick magician like yourself.”

Her face reformed in an expression that always intrigued him. A cat devising the perfect trap for her prey. It didn’t surprise him when she stretched her leg out, straddling his lap properly. He circled her low back, drawing her hips over him and generating a spark of friction. There was extra verve in her fingers burrowing the short hairs at his nape, tipping his head upwards.

“You must really want me to—”

Ziva covered his lips with hers, swallowing his words as they melted to moans. Instead of continuing hot and heavy, everything slowed. Each kiss long and needy, a continuous caress. Her heady spice invaded his senses. The tip of her tongue slipped by his teeth, running the roof of his mouth before pushing in further.

Tony’s spine straightened at the sensation of tongue against tongue, the rough texture, the strokes and flicks. He gripped whatever part of her was in his reach, would likely leave marks. She didn’t flinch. She was all around him, practically tying him in a knot.

It was exactly how he imagined it, but also superior.

He was smiling when they broke apart, breath imperative for them both. “Your ingenuity is an inspiration, Ms. David.”

Ziva winked, leaning forward to kiss him again, a casual closed-lipped peck in the wake of such an intimate encounter. And he knew, no matter what came of leading the team, he wanted this—them—to survive.

“Now you must honor your part of the deal, Tony.”

“Whatever you say,” he agreed, flipping her onto the cushion and following her down for round three.

. . .

The next day, Tony waited at his car in the parking lot for his team to arrive. He walked into the building with them, and didn’t check the clock in the mornings ever again.

He apologized to McGee, which just freaked out the newly-appointed Senior Field Agent. As Tony predicted, the Nutter Butter made all the difference.

By the end of the week, he brought Special Agent Lee onto the team because there was symmetry in four and they needed a probie to act as a buffer. Plus, she was good at meeting case report deadlines and Tony wasn’t.

He doubled-up on campfires and went to Jenny for advice more often. Palmer, too.

The team went out for drinks, occasionally inviting him to join. Occasionally not.

A month later, he and Ziva started keeping their love in each other’s hearts along with spare clothes in one another’s dressers. Soon, there would be no sense hiding them anymore.

And when someone asked Tony how leading his own team was going, he said, “Our results speak for themselves,” and meant it.

Because when your boss quit and ran off to Mexico, leaving you in charge, you wore the crown and made it your own.

fin

#tiva fanfiction #ncis fanfiction #tat fic #and you don't have to catch up on eight chapters of WIP to read this one!!#tony dinozzo #ziva david

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thedistrictsleepsalonetonight · 3 years

Text

Better with you

This is the way of things:

Riley falls in love with Harper. Harper breaks her heart. Harper falls in love with Abby. Harper marries Abby. Abby has a friend. Riley falls in love.

In retrospect it both annoys and amazes her how Harper conditions so much of her life. If she imagined her life in the form of roads as complex, as confused and as diverging as the lines on her palm, there are probably multiple signboards that have Harper’s face on them, with some strange quote written beside them along the lines of “Hey! Been a while since you thought of me, the girl who ruined most of your life hasn’t it?”.

Riley hates it.

Okay, so in all honesty, she hates it until she crashes into Maya.

*****

Here’s the thing about Riley: She’s stupid around the people she loves.

How else does one explain all her major life decisions? She stays quiet when Austin Thomas spray-paints “Dike” all over her locker (even through the shaking, and the trembling and the huddling in a bathroom cubicle in the morning, what has her more concerned is what it’s probably doing to Harper. Well, that, and the fact that dyke is hilariously misspelled). She watches Harper from across the corridor, biting her lip, holding onto her left arm with her right hand, and hates that she still wants her so badly that she can’t breathe. She hates herself for loving Harper, hates her heart for betraying her in this very fundamental way, hates it for not being able to think rationally enough.

(The thought makes her laugh. What brand of love was ever rational?)

Even after she’s adequately moved on, has fallen in love a second time, the third, the fourth, she can never really bring herself to do that. The thought of Harper will evoke all forms of insufferable feelings ranging from sorrow to nostalgia. Not fury, though. Never fury.

She walks out of high school with excellent grades, graduates med school top of her class, gets into the one of the best residency programs in her state, all in a misguided attempt to compensate for this huge cosmic failing she’s somehow been saddled with. If life handed out academic report cards, chits of paper with affirmations engraved on them, then the ones she would give her parents would read Your child is doing great; She’s sorry she’s gay. Your child is trying her very best. A tiny PS at the bottom right corner would say – Love her. Please.

And she comes back, every year, to those stupid White Elephant parties, combats side-glances with polite smiles, off-hand comments about how her peers are heterosexually married to their heterosexual partners with grimaces. Brevity helps, and so does a glass of wine on her at all times.

And then Harper brings Abby, one Christmas.

*****

She’s not going to deny that she has a little bit of a crush on Abby.

Come on. It’s Abby. She’s a lesbian dreamboat with some serious hair-game and the gayest sense of dressing she’s ever seen on anyone. How is a girl supposed to not like that earnest smile and deep, soulful eyes?

(But Abby’s earnest smile unfurls like a ribbon when it falls on Harper, and her eyes tell stories that seem to end at Harper, and Riley knows that in some rudimentary way, Abby has always, and will be always belong to her girlfriend.)

“Dude, we have to stay in touch,” Abby says, the morning after the party, when they run into each other. “I’m gonna need support at the White Christmas party next year. So, I don’t accidentally use the wrong fork and then embarrass myself.”

She laughs, enters her number into Abby’s phone. “I can’t promise I’ll be able to text all the time, because, well — hospital hours. But I will try.”

Harper, standing beside Abby, shoots her a tiny, strained smile. Things will never be great between them; there’s too much spilled blood, and angry tears that lie in this chasm, but this is maybe a tiny start to bring matters back to the way they were when it all started. Polite. Nice.

Abby texts her — “I can’t believe I survived the Caldwells” five days later, and Riley has no idea at the time, but good things are on their way.

*****

“Please, please, please, please, pleeeeease,” Abby begs her over the phone. Riley is pretty sure she’s actually holding her hand out in supplication.

“Can’t you just give her flowers and chocolate like a normal person?”

A dog barks on the other end, and Riley imagines her walking dogs on the streets. “But I know this is something she really, really wants!”

“An obsolete book that’s only found in a bookstore in New York?”

“Yes!” Abby replies. “Wait, hang on. John, tell her how important it is.”

Some muffled noises, then John’s clear, deadpan voice is audible. “Hey Riley,” he says, sounding disinterested as always, “How are — wait, lemme at least ask her how she’s been, how life in New York has been, if there are any cute guys in her hospital—”

Riley stifles a laugh.

“—yeah, yeah, okay. Fine. Riley, this woman really wants it, God knows why. So I’ll be in New York this weekend. I’ll come with you to that store and then bring that book back.”

“So why do I have to come?”

“Because,” Abby sighs, like it should be obvious, “I don’t trust John.”

Weekend. Sleeping in. Riley closes her eyes, whispers a Rest in peace to a previously perfect weekend.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

*****

The woman nearly scares her out of her wits.

She’s split up with a still-woozy-from-his-flight John as he’s set off to find the book, and thumbing through the random paperbacks on the Fiction shelf, when a voice interrupts her musing.

“I wouldn’t recommend that one,” Riley hears, and whirls around, wide-eyed.

A woman steps out of the dark corner, hands held up as if in warning, an apologetic smile on her face. “I’m sorry,” she says, awkwardly, “that I — I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Riley shakes her head, waves a hand to tell her it’s alright. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Oh, you know, the usual. Pretentious. Definitely sat with a thesaurus. Too many men.”

The tiny detective that sits at the back of head, the one that registers women, and says “It’s elementary, Watson” every time it sees behavior that might be not-heterosexual, goes off with a ding.

“Too many men is a problem,” she admits, wryly, broadcasting her own message in case there was a willing audience. I’m gay I’m gay I’m gay. “What would you suggest?”

The woman steps into the light, slow enough so Riley knows she’s going to enter her personal space. She picks out a book from the top shelf easily, holds it out in front of her.

This close, Riley can’t help but stare. She’s taller, with dark hair that falls just past her shoulders. She’s wearing thick glasses, and behind that, her eyes are tiny and smiling. Riley smiles back, a little awkwardly. Looks at the book, then laughs.

“Sorry,” the woman chuckles, pointing to the copy of Midnight Sun that she’s just handed over, “Little joke.”

They’re still smiling at each other, when John ruins it all by exclaiming “Maya!” from behind her. And that’s when Riley discovers how easy it is to manufacture meet-cutes. And that she really, really hates Abby Holland.

*****

“How dare you?”

Abby sighs on the other end. “Is that a rhetorical question?”

John, who is currently scarfing down a hotdog, mumbles his apologies into the speaker.

“I tried.”

“You didn’t even try,” Abby retorts. “What was the one thing I told you? Don’t let her on to the fact that you know Maya. And what did you do?”

“My best.”

Riley snatches it from him. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird of you to be setting up your girlfriend’s ex-girlfriend with your friend?”

(Just saying the whole thing aloud makes her head hurt)

“Harper doesn’t mind,” Harper’s reserved yet slightly amused voice comes, a little muffled. “Because Harper thinks it’s hilarious.”

There had been three rules, three rules that she had laid out for Abby at the very beginning, when their friendship was still in its tentative stages. One, no weird conversations about Harper. Two, no weird medical questions about fingers. And three, no setting Riley up on blind dates.

Riley had dodged Abby’s attempts to break rule number three about five times already.

(Who knew one could have so many single, willing and Sapphic friends in New York city? Part of Riley was annoyed; the other part was impressed)

“It’s not going to happen, you hear me?” she enunciates. “Absolutely not.”

*****

Riley doesn’t know why she’s back at the bookstore.

Well, she does. Officially, that is. As she had told John already, she hated the idea of things being so awkward, and that Maya must’ve felt that she was rude for clamming up after the whole story came to light, and that she definitely ought to go clear things up with her, let her know very politely that it wasn’t in the cards. John had uh-huh-ed and mm-hmm-ed and nodded until she got annoyed at herself for overexplaining. It was simply a courtesy call, that’s all. Nothing more, nothing else.

(If part of the reason she wants to go back is because, after a long, long time, she went to sleep with someone’s face in the back of her mind that night, kept replaying that certain someone’s voice over and over, it is none of John’s business. Or Abby’s, for that matter.)

It was crazy. Crazy. They’d had one conversation, and part of it had been after Riley had found out she was supposed to be set up, and thus had been filled with Maya trying to ease things over. There was no reason she needed to be thinking this much about someone.

(Not that she was. Thinking that much. About a woman. Just a regular amount)

“So wait, let me get this straight,” Maya looks right at her, “You came all this way to tell me that you don’t want to go on a date with me?”

Well now Riley just feels stupid. “Yes.”

Maya tilts her head a little. “Okay,” she says, “Just out of curiosity, what’s your problem with being set up with people?”

Oh, this she can answer. “One, the general awkwardness with your friends if it doesn’t work out,” she ticks off on her fingers. “Two, too much pressure to make it work. Three, I’m not—”

“—yes?”

Lovable. Bearable. Worth it.

“—looking to date?”

“What qualifies as a date to you, though?”

“A meal shared with romantic intent. Holding doors open, pulling chairs out. You know, the drill.”

Maya seems to be mulling it over. “Alright,” she says, nodding slowly. “What if.... what if two people were to spend time together with no food, no holding doors open or pulling chairs out? Technically that wouldn’t be a date, would it?”

Riley has to bite at the inside of her cheek to smother the smile that’s threatening to set up home on her lips.

“No,” she replies, “It wouldn’t.”

*****

This is what not-dating Maya is like.

It’s tired half-hour phone conversations at odd hours of the day. Riley doesn’t have a lot of time free, but she doesn’t go to sleep without talking to her at least once. She falls asleep to Maya nerding out about the books she’s read, about how she wants to own a gay café, about how she saw the ugliest shirt on a discount store window, bought it, and couldn’t wait to put it on. Wakes up to texts that read “Okay I know you fell asleep but I can’t, so I’m just gonna rant about random shit you can read about when you’re up, okay?” followed by some inane discussion on whether her pillow would be a salad or a sandwich if it could be eaten. It’s stumbling on the streets, half-carrying a drunk Maya as she navigates the confusing maze of New York avenues, and insists on having pizza wherever she goes. It’s bright smiles shot across coffee shops, tired rants before bed. It’s easy.

It’s so easy that Riley has no idea what to do.

“Can you keep a secret?” she asks John on the phone, right before she tells him what’s been happening the past month.

To his credit, he listens to the whole thing before he says something monumentally stupid.

“A whole month and you haven’t had sex? I thought you had game.”

“Oh, fuck off. It’s not like that.”

“You don’t want to have sex with her?”

She’s blushing. “I — I do,” she says, feeling hot all over at the very thought. “I just — it’s not — not what’s important.”

“No, I mean, seriously” he says. “What do you guys even do? Stare at each other’s faces all day?”

“I wish I could stare at her face all day,” she says, before she’s even thinking about it. “Her face is all.... nice. Pretty. Oh God.”

“Oh God is right, darling,” he sounds amused. “You got it bad.”

“I do not — got it bad.”

“You do.”

“I do not — ugh fine.”

“Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you do got it,” he proposes. “What are you going to do about it?”

Riley takes a deep breath, lets it out. She has no answer to that.

*****

The next day, Maya says, sheepishly — “I guess you finally told Abby, huh?”

“Wait, what?” she’s confused. “Told her what?”

Maya blinks, awkwardly, waves a hand between them. Realization dawns.

“I told John!” Riley tells her, furiously. “That asshole must have told her.”

Maya shrugs a shrug that seems to convey how stupid it was to trust John with keeping secrets from Abby of all people.

“But also,” Riley frowns, “I thought you must have told her already.”

“Nah, I hadn’t.”

“Why not?”

Maya shrugs again, hands in her pockets. “I didn’t know if you wanted her to know.”

And see, it’s this consideration that leaves her lacking for words. Maya is effortlessly considerate, to the point where she wouldn’t say something even if it was bothering her. She’s constantly putting Riley’s needs in front of her own, constantly worried about how she feels and Riley is just. She’s just—

(The word grateful, smitten pops into her head. Refuses to exit)

“You’re nice,” she says, because other adjectives would be too revealing. You’re amazing. You’re beautiful. You’re probably the light of my life.

“I’m only nice to you, Riley,” Maya admits, very frankly. Riley kind of wants to ask her why that is. She’s kind of scared to ask her why that is.

*****

“Just ask her out, already, jeez.”

“I — I can’t,” she tells Abby, sitting at the park, phone in her hand.

“You like her,” Abby states. “She likes you. I don’t see what the problem is.”

“She likes me?” Riley asks, knowing that she’s probably giving away all her hope in her voice.

(Okay, in some weird, convoluted way, she knows Maya likes her already. She’s not completely useless, contrary to popular lesbian stereotype. Just an—

“-Idiot,” she hears, a deadpan chastisement that she rolls her eyes at, “What are you even waiting for?”

“I — I’m not — I don’t know, okay? I’m not—”

The ghosts of her ex-girlfriends in the background, go — Good at being emotionally available. Good at being committed. Good at loving people. Good.

Abby stays quiet.

“I don’t think I can make her happy,” Riley says, finally.

There’s the sound of a sigh on the other end. “What if you already do?”

*****

“Again,” she says, as she’s walking backwards, “I am so, so sorry.”

Maya, who has been waiting for her to get done with her surgeries since two hours now, and will probably have to wait another couple of them, waves her phone in the air, laughs. “I’ll read a book until you get back, okay? Go do your thing.”

She’s on an ob-gyn rotation, but thankfully, the delivery goes smoothly. And a good thing it is, because her head is all over the place. Two warring factions are on a rampage — one that’s raring to go tell the girl of Riley’s dreams that she is, in fact, that girl of Riley’s dreams, and the other equally strong battalion that is standing there with flags raised, flags that read – But what if it goes wrong?

Here’s the second thing about Riley: Love barely ever goes right around her.

Oh, she’s dated people before. Loved them, adored them. And yet, things always start falling apart after a while, start shattering into pieces. Honestly, she doesn’t even blame them. Who wants someone who barely has time to talk for an hour because she’s almost always busy, who is ridiculously tired most days, and barely has the time or energy to grow a relationship?

(So it will happen when it happens, but also, when it happens, Riley has a tendency of scrambling for cover)

She walks into the main hall with the paperwork, and stands at the nurses’ station, lets out a deep breath.

“Your girl tuckered out an hour ago,” Shaqueel tells her, leaning against the table, casually interested. She can see the rest of the nurses leaning in for better quality audio.

“Not my girl,” she tells him, fighting to keep a straight face.

“Really?” Julie asks, face resting on her elbow, an expression Riley can only describe as sappy on her face. “Because she would like to be, that’s for sure.”

Riley turns to Danny. “I told you to make sure none of these,” she waves a hand towards all of them, “busybodies talk to her!”

He shrugs. “What can I say? They were determined.”

“Useless,” she says, already walking away. There’s so much damage control to be done.

Danny texts her a “She’s a keeper”, as she’s walking, and even though she’s mad at all of them, part of her is inclined to agree.

*****

Maya is sleeping.

Riley knows the tone in which she’s thinking this is certainly not the one two strictly platonic buddies would take while referring to each other and yet the tenderness seeps in, anyways. She looks at the hair falling over her askew glasses and wants to brush it off; looks at her dozing with her mouth open and the sight is such a perfect mixture to utterly absurd and adorable that she wants to wake up to it in the morning. Every day.

She takes a deep breath, presses at all of her wants and urges until they’re packed, once again, in the already filled box related to all things Maya in her head. Kneels so she’s almost at her level, and gently taps Maya on the shoulder.

(Waking up comes as beautifully to Maya as do all things, and Riley is most definitely an idiot in love)

“I’m sorry I fell asleep,” she says, softly, her eyes still squinty from the last remnants of her nap.

“Don’t apologize,” Riley replies, equally as soft. “I fall asleep all the time on the phone.”

“Eh, you save babies. It’s alright.”

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting so long.”

“Riley,” Maya tells her, very seriously. “I would wait a lot longer for you.”

(And because being stupid is a fundamental quality of Riley being in love, there’s absolutely no way she isn’t swooning at that, inside)

She’s sleepy and tired and stupid right now, so it’s probably coloring her judgement, but she’s done caring. Riley Johnson is not letting this one get away.

“Would you,” she starts, slowly, “consider waiting two more days so you can take me out to a fancy restaurant on Saturday?”

There’s a light in Maya’s eyes that she can only classify as hope. “Depends. Would you open the door for me and pull my chair out?”

Riley’s smiling so wide her cheeks hurt. “Absolutely.”

“Well, then,” Maya says, leaning in, “It’s about fucking time.”

#happiest season #fanfiction #riley owns my heart #okay so this comes out of my intense need to give riley her own happy ending because the woman was a freaking angel #and its kinda all over the place so there #also im convinced john and riley would be the best of friends #and maya just looks like elizabeth olsen to me idky

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alecmagnuslwb · 4 years

Text

Young Fools

Writer’s Month 2020 Day Twenty-Nine

Read on AO3

“And lastly with the Salem witch trials, Zatara and Constantine,” the teacher says just before the bell rings. John startles from where he’d definitely been napping through most of class.

Oh fuck, he thinks first, because group projects are absolutely not his thing. And double oh fuck, he thinks when he realizes who his partner is.

John Constantine is unaffected. He walks through the halls of school head held high, beat up trench coat with a bi pride flag pin on it not giving a fuck. Ever since his mother moved them to the states to get away from his father the English transfer has made a name for himself as the school’s resident bad boy. Late to classes, always getting caught smoking and telling off anyone who looked at him sideways.

He’s perfectly content with everyone thinking he doesn’t give a damn about them and that he’s an asshole.

Except her.

Zatanna Zatara is the genius goth princess of his dreams and the only thing that’s left him truly feeling something other than annoyance or anger since they moved.

He darts out of the classroom as soon as he can though, just because he likes the girl doesn’t mean he’s going to happily do a group project or worse yet make a fool of himself in front of her.

“Hey Constantine wait up!” she shouts running after him in the hall. He doesn’t know how she manages it in the chunky boots she’s wearing, but she catches up to him in seconds. She trips a little when she reaches him grabbing his arm for stability. It’s in that moment he realizes this is the closest they’ve been in the year they’ve been attending school together and this is most definitely the first time they’ve touched.

John looks at her the uninterested demeanor he’s maintained on full display.

“Hi,” she says smiling at him and John feels his steely demeanor slipping away already. “You ran off on me there, partner.” Her arm drops and John misses the contact immediately.

“Uh, yeah,” he says scratching at the back of his neck. “Sorry, ‘bout that. I’m just not the best at teamwork.”

Zatanna nods her lips twisting up in thought.

“Well I can work around that,” she says with a confident pat to his arm. “Meet me after school in the parking lot, you’re coming over and we’re working on this project.”

She walks away leaving him no room for argument strutting off to catch up with her friends. John watches her go in interest and in confusion. No one, save for Boston who forced his friendship upon John and who he’s fairly certain just talks so much he misses all social cues, has ever ignored his standoffish behavior before. No one’s ever really fought back against it before until now.

There’s no way he’s getting out of this project without breaking his don’t give a fuck attitude around her and he just knows it.

For some reason even though he could very easily just skip the rest of his classes and not show up in the parking lot, he sticks around until the final bell rings, attending all of his classes and everything.

Zatanna walks out with her little pack of friends she’s often with and smiles when she spots him. She turns to them throwing a wave and then makes her way over to John.

“Hey,” she says once she gets to him. “Not gonna lie I thought the chances of you not showing were 80 to 20 not in my favor.”

John huffs a laugh. “More like 70/40.”

Zatanna laughs at that a genuine thing that lights up her dark blue eyes even more.

“Come on, my cars this way,” she says tugging on his sleeve. Across the lot a series of wolf whistles sound from Zatanna’s friends as they all pile into another car. Zatanna stops and rolls her eyes.

“Ignore triple a,” she says gesturing to the end of the lot.

“Triple a?”

“Abby, Alec and Andrew. They’re my best friends and it’s just easier to call them that than list them off,” she shrugs then nods at a black vehicle once they’re in front of it. “This is me.”

John looks at the car that previously he could only see the front end of and realizes starkly that it’s a hearse.

“Um, do you drive a hearse?” he asks walking to the passenger side.

They both get in and Zatanna chuckles.

“Yup,” she says starting the engine. “My family’s in the funeral business.”

“I thought your dad was a magician?” John says recalling some conversation he overheard when a couple of jocks were mocking her for her style. They’d ended up with live fireworks in their lockers the next day courtesy of him, not that she or they know that.

“He is on the side, funeral directing is the main source of income though,” she explains a little hesitantly. It’s clear some people have judged her families work. John is the son of a full time alcoholic and a grocery clerk so he’s not about to be one to judge.

“Creepy, and kinda cool,” he says with a smirk. She tilts her head to look at him briefly biting her lip holding in a smile. The rest of the ride is spent mostly talking about their project and John finds himself actively caring about something from school for the first time ever.

“You sure know a lot about witches being burned at the stake for a seventeen-year-old,” he says after they park in the driveway outside of her house which also serves as funeral home.

She chuckles opening the large double doors.

“Grow up around dead bodies and you find yourself into all sorts of spooky stuff,” she says gesturing for him to follow her upstairs. They walk past two large halls where he assumes funerals are held and a casket display room. John wonders how inappropriate it would be to ask her if they can go down to the mortuary before he leaves.

She comes to a stop at the top of the stairs pulling John into the first door on the right and just like that he finds himself in her bedroom. In the past year they’ve said maybe a three dozen words to one another, John always just noticing her from afar, and now he’s alone with her in her bedroom.

She pulls a wheelie chair from her desk gesturing for him to sit down as she crosses her legs and sits on her bed.

She dives right in basically planning out their entire project on her own, but asking for his input anyways. He listens closely while she talks, but surveys her room as well. The room is at least seventy percent books ranging from classics like Frankenstein to specific movie themed cookbooks. Her wall space that isn’t bookshelves is scattered with an array of indie band posters and photos of her with her friends. The thing that catches John’s attention most is the top hat and wand sitting on the desk on top of an old book he can’t read the title of. He wonders if maybe there’s a little more to her love of witches and her father’s side gig.

It doesn’t take long before they have a game plan, that shockingly he plans to actually follow if for no other reason than to not let her down, and John learns that she may or may not already own painted mini figurines of Salem witches for their diorama. They migrate downstairs after that both seemingly prolonging their time together with conversation swerving away from school.

Draped across a row of fancy folding chairs with an empty casket at the front of the room John finds himself telling Zatanna little bits and pieces of himself he hasn’t told anyone since coming to the states. In turn she tells him about her family and incredibly specific music tastes.

“Thank for not being weird about all this,” she says gesturing to the room at large after a while. “Or asking to see a dead body.”

John coughs at that bit glad he refrained from asking earlier.

“Most people don’t get it or think it’s too creepy,” she goes on picking at her fishnets lightly. He’s constantly in awe that she gets away with wearing them at school surprised he’s never seen her in detention for dress code violations with him.

John just shrugs. “So you live in a funeral home, I live in a shitty trailer park where my kitchen, living room and bathroom are basically all one room. Everybody’s got different lives, no point in judging someone else’s.”

She stops picking at her fishnets and looks up at him from under her choppy bangs with a smile. Her eyes catch on the clock behind him.

“Oh, shit you should go before my dad gets back. He’ll absolutely kill us both if he finds out I was alone unattended with a boy who willingly wears a trench coat,” she says after seeing the time. It’s already almost eight and John has no idea where the time has gone.

He turns down her offer of a ride, even though he’d kill for a few more minutes alone, opting to walk home instead. She walks with him to the front door pausing and tugging on his coat once he’s stepped outside.

“We should have lunch tomorrow, John,” she says leaning against the doorframe and calling him by his first name for the first time.

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose. You and your friends got your thing,” he says. Part of him would also admittedly feel a little bad abandoning Boston, would he just sit there and talk to himself for forty-five minutes if John wasn’t there?

“Well you and your talkative friend can absolutely join us sometime if you’d like, but I was thinking more just you and me tomorrow,” she says reaching out and fixing the lapel of his jacket quickly. “I bring my lunch most days since I’m a vegetarian and I’m sure you know all the good spots where a teacher can’t find a couple students for a whole period.”

He smiles at her shoving his hands in his pockets so he doesn’t do something stupid like reach out and kiss her, especially if he’s reading this wrong.

“So we can work on the project?” he asks wanting to be certain.

Zatanna purses her lips in thought for a second and then morphs into a smile.

“Nope.”

John chuckles, “Well in that case I know all the secret spots.”

Her smile just gets brighter at that. She pushes off the doorframe and leans in to kiss him on the cheek lightly.

“Great,” she says pulling back and slowly closing the door. “See you tomorrow.”

And then all because of a kiss on the cheek resident bad boy John Constantine can’t stop smiling the entire walk home.

#my fic #writersmonth2020 #johnzee #john constantine #zatanna zatara

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omnivorousshipper · 4 years

Note

Good morning and happy Friday Omni! It’s pretty early but I’m super hyped for today! Here’s my request: what were the Shaw siblings’ reaction to their first kiss?

Happy Friday friend! And oh gosh, this is actually a tough one for me 😅 especially since I've never had the experience myself 😬

Deckard

Shivering, Deckard pulled his jacket closer to himself as the cold London wind whipped into him.

"You ok, Deckard?" His date, Mark, asked

They were walking through a park, and while it wasn't quite dark out yet, the temperature was quickly dropping

"Just cold," Deckard explained and sent Mark a small smile.

They had met at one of the part time jobs Deckard had picked up. Mark had been one of the nicer guys and after some talking, he and Deckard had hit it off.

But, because of Deckard's work schedule and looking after his siblings, he almost never had time to hang out with Mark. It was a miracle that he was able to that night

"Here, let me warm you up." Mark said, and wrapped an arm around Deckard and stopping their walk

Looking up at him, Deckard could see the soft light of the sunset shining in Mark's eyes

They stood there, simply staring at each other and enjoying the peace and quiet.

But, before Deckard could register what Mark was doing, the other man had leaned forward and placed his lips on Deckard's

Oh.

Deckard blinked.

Huh. This was odd.

Still stiff and confused, Deckard felt Mark move his lips against his. Finally snapping into the moment, Deckard tried to copy Mark's movements, but he wasn't sure if he did it right

At long last, Mark pulled back and sent Deckard a smile

"Like that?"

Deckard stared up at him.

He honestly had no idea if he had or not, so he just gave Mark a small nod

~~~

Owen

Letting himself be pulled by the peppy blond, Owen himself was almost vibrating with excitement. He had been sending Abby looks for weeks, and now, it seemed like she finally saw him

They were skipping their last class of the day and were now sneaking into one of the unused classrooms. Still being led by the hand, Owen was surprised by the way Abby shoved him into the door once it was shut

"Now that we're alone," she whispered. "What do you want to do?"

Owen smirked

"This."

Leaning down, Owen placed his lips on her's. Owen might not know what exactly what he was doing, but it didn't take a genius to figure out how to kiss

Right?

But, as their lips connected, Abby let out a moan and shoved her lips hard against Owen's. Flinching, Owen tried to pull away, but Abby had her hand in his hair and tugged painfully on it

And suddenly, Owen felt a tongue against his lips. Eyes widening, Owen shoved at Abby

"What the bloody fuck?" She yelped and glared at him

Wiping at his mouth, Owen glared back

Maybe it didn't take a genius to figure out how to kiss, but maybe it did take one to enjoy it.

Without another word, Owen left and headed back to class

~~~

Hattie

Biting her lip, Hattie nervously waited for Justine to show up. It was Valentines Day and Hattie had been waiting months for it

Because this was the day she was going to tell Justine that she liked her

Holding homemade chocolates (courtesy of Deckard) to her chest, Hattie didn't know how much longer she had to wait

After a few more minutes, Hattie heard her name being called. Looking up, she saw Justine running towards her

Waving shyly, Hattie felt her nerves jump. This was it.

"Hey, Hattie." Justine greeted her, slightly out of breath. "What's up?"

Taking a deep breath, Hattie shoved the chocolates towards Justine

"Happy Valentines Day." She stuttered

Justine looked down at the chocolates and slowly took them

"Did you get these for me?" She asked quietly, and looked at Hattie with wide eyes

"Yeah." Hattie looked down at her hands. "I've wanted to tell you..."

"Tell me what?"

Finally looking back up at Justine, Hattie swallowed

"That I like you."

Justine stared at her in shock for several seconds, making Hattie's heart to nearly stop

But, suddenly, a smile spread over Justine's face

"I like you, too."

Matching her smile, Hattie took a step forward

"Would it be ok if I kissed you?" She asked quietly

"Go for it."

Leaning forward, Hattie pressed her lips against Justine's and it felt as if fireworks had gone off. Gasping, Hattie pulled away and saw the same excitement and wonder on Justine's face

"Do that again?" Justine asked shyly

Smirking, Hattie did just that

I hope you enjoyed friend!

#deckard shaw #owen shaw #hattie shaw #hobbs and shaw #asks #first kiss #omni answers #omni writes

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mccarricks · 4 years

Photo

( brittany o’grady / demi woman ) WESLEY McCARRICK is 23 years old and is a SENIOR at thales university. SHE is majoring in FILM and is known for being THE MAVERICK as THEY can be HUMOROUS and OPEN-MINDED as well as DITZY and IMPULSIVE. every time i see HER/THEM, THEY remind me of PURPLE SKY IN THE DESERT, SKATING AS FAST AS YOU CAN TO FEEL THE WIND ON YOU, A JOKE TOLD WITH A TOOTHY GRIN.

hero’s back w character no. 2 and yet......

full name: wesley ‘wes’ elaine mccarrick

birthdate: february 2, 1997

age: 23

gender: demi woman

pronouns: she/her/they/them

zodiac: aquarius

nationality: american

ethnicity: black (louisiana creole) and white (irish)

hometown: santa fe, nm

languages: english, intermediate spanish

family:

theodore mccarrick, father

elaine barlow, mother

ruby mccarrick, older brother

delphine mccarrick, older sister

sherri barlow, maternal grandmother

many cousins

orientation: bisexual biromantic, pref. towards women/nb people but will date men

religion: agnostic

height: 5 ft 4 in

distinguishing features: eyebrows, hair, lips

character inspo: ilana wexler (broad city), harley quinn (dc comics), phoebe buffay (friends), prob more

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃

TRIGGERS: divorce, mentions of crime, drug and alcohol use

the youngest child of ted and elaine mccarrick, wes was a kid who is full of life. she’s the kind of kid who did things to make you smile, and it usually worked. she was warm and inviting, a little naive, but she had a strong support system.

her parents divorce when she’s six, she doesn’t quite understand it but her dad moves out, and her grandma and multiple cousins move in. it’s a lively household, between her mom, who works as a nurse, and her siblings, and her cousins, it was never really quiet and there was never a lot of room.

despite the split, her parents maintain that their children have a relationship with both of them, and truthfully, wes is a daddy’s girl. she and her dad were cut from the same cloth, happy go lucky, fun loving, a bit silly, he’s the one who introduces her to movies. it’s their thing, watching and critiquing them together, and it’s not whatever is in theatres either. they went for all times of filmmaking, new wave, surrealist, and more.

it really stuck with wes, who herself had begun making movies, mostly horror/fantasy/scifi stuff with her friends-- she writes and directs and occasionally, she’ll don a costume and star in them. they’re silly little things, but her family always sat down for her “premieres.”

her formative years are marked with plenty of things, sports, deaths of distant family members, a cousin or two who gets caught in the wrong crowd and ends up in jail, and throughout this, wes remains a rock for her family.

she’s in high school, and she gets into the eclectic crowd, the outcasts, the weirdos, the ones who smoked under the bridge, and partied out in an abandoned trailer near the desert. these freaks were her freaks. they accepted her with open arms, as she them.

she chooses thales because she always wants to see the east coast, and frankly, as much as she loves her family, she wants to be free of them. and they have a fantastic film program. so!

she meets steven in their first film class together, and they’re fast friends, despite her usual weariness of YET another film bro, steven proves to be a good egg. so she thinks. she finds out through him talking that he might not be the most faithful to his girlfriend, and as much as she doesn’t like meddling, she thinks it’s only right to let clarissa, who she doesn’t really know well, know. however, before there’s a chance, everything happens-- now she’s stuck wondering if she should reveal the truth, or let sleeping dogs lie.

nana is different, nana and her dated her sophomore year, nana’s freshman year. it wasn’t serious. but they were fond of each other. they eventually break up, but they stay friendly, waving to each other in the halls, chatting at parties.

both the disappearance and the murder is weird for wes, who by all accounts, isn’t great at dealing with bad shit. she prefers to laugh about things. laugh about everything. because if she doesn’t laugh, she’ll cry.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

wes is a mess, a free-spirit, a walking contradiction. she’s very independent minded, the kind of person who does things without thinking so much about the consequences, this leads her into trouble sometimes. like nicking something from a convenience store, or stealing a stop sign as a prank. she’s definitely the kind to goof off and not exactly dedicate her full attention to something. and while she’s in genuinely good spirits on most occasions, she has a staunch ‘no asshole’ policy. the type to defend the underdogs, and go after bullies. she’ll punch you with a smile on her face, and yet it ends up being more unnerving than you realize. she’s a bit of a ditz, as well, never the best at school, but can talk your ear off about the going ons of the world. she’s a lovable dumbass, for sure, and loyal to a tee once you get her as a friend.

𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐒

horror movie fan! her favorites are some of the oldies, like dracula and the bride of frankenstein! and some new ones! big fan of jordan peele’s work, as well as ari aster’s! but mostly really advocates for women directors and directors of color!

also does roller derby! she picked this up her first year at thales and fell in love with it, i can’t think of a name for her yet, but she’s a blocker, won’t hesitate to elbow some dick at the bar

kinda a tomboy? she’s always been! she’s rough and tumble and not afraid to get down and dirty with someone, i.e. will join those football games on the quad or crawl through the mud for a scene to shoot

doesn’t know if she wants to be a director/writer or a cinematographer honestly.... she loves the technical aspects of film as much as the making the stories

definition of a bruh girl, says it a whole lot, but also just if you tell her you love her, she’ll just roll her eyes and be like you’re an idiot (which means she loves you too) she’ll be affectionate if she’s close to you

kinda a wh*re oops....... texts multiple girls at a time and doesn’t want to hurt any of their feelings she doesn’t know how she keeps ending up in these situations... also a bisexual disaster

a stoner as well..... always has a massive jar of weed

unclear whether she lives on campus or off campus but if she does live off campus she has a pet turtle named elsa lanchester after the bride of frankenstein actress

a drummer! she’s in a band (name tbd) she started drumming at a young age and found it was a good way to manage her aggression

doesn’t really do well with emotions, so she’ll either be like there, there, or try to make jokes.... she really said kids can you lighten up

walking meme... such a walking meme... doesn’t know so many things she’s like a cute puppy with no thoughts head empty but she’s so fun to be around

life of the party.... nana she came fr ur spot and she took it and she’s not sorry but she does miss u a lot

doesn’t rly feel like she’s allowed to be upset anyways bc some people have it...... way worse.... can u say Imposter syndrome

kind of an enabler...... will be that person to push u to try things but not in a peer pressurey way, more like if u are unsure abt sending a text she says do it

wears fun earrings and socks! think lollipops or gummy bears or found objects like she collects that shit it’s her lifeline

boxes! she’s been boxing since she was abt 12, courtesy of her older brother (who is now a doctor thx ruby) and it’s a good way to exercise and release stress

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

best friend -- two of a feather, cut from the same cloth, or complete opposites it doesnt matter to her (the abbi to her ilana)

roller derby friends -- she’s p close to the team, margs on her

makeup artist pal -- i think it would be neat fr someone to try and teach her makeup whether its normal or sfx bc she wants to look like a monster or smthn

she’s gullible, u take advantage of that -- u just tell her lies p much and she’s like yeah ok that sounds right

party friends

classmates

fwbs (f/m/nb) -- tbh she might have one or two of these but they literally are the def of pals who bone sometimes... like v good abt being like you good? u dont want more? cool me too

exes (f/m/nb) -- mostly dated women or nb people but def cld have had a guy

she smokes you out -- p much the only reason u hang out w her is bc she has good weed

someone she’s fought -- like fully decked in the face, prob said something that rubbed her the wrong way and it just devolved from there

people who dislike her -- she could definitely be seen as annoying bc shes loud and dorky and funny so ??

breaks someone out of their shell -- p self explanatory, pushes them to have fun, w everything happening shes rly like lifes too short to not take the opportunities around u

cousins! probably on her dad’s side! i figure she has some east coast fam

anything? truly?

#pyrrhic.intro #intro.#divorce tw #crime mention #drug use tw #alcohol use tw #i pulled this out of my ass

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