everyone SHUT UP and look at him. THE main character of all time. was your fav the god of the sun in a past life turned prince of destruction destined to destroy the world? i didn't think so. AND he's bisexual

Life Is Short So Make It Sweet

Chapter Ten: Pretty Girl Honey

Summary- 7.3k Curtis Everett x Plus!Sized Reader. Your and Curtis's relationship is growing each day as you both learn who you are to one another. Your past sometimes works its way into your mind and out into the open. Fortunately, Curtis is happy to help you work through it.

Warnings- Sexual content, thigh riding, use of pet names, feelings of doubt, past trauma surfacing.

A/N- Thank you all for reading, commenting, and sharing this series. The love shown to Curtis and Honey has completely stunned me, whenever I hear how simply relatable it is, I want to reach out and give you the biggest hug because you are not alone in those feelings. Thank you so much for being such an incredible and supportive community. Special shout out to @what-is-your-plan-today. Dividers made by @firefly-graphics.

Chapter Nine / Masterlist

You and Curtis fell into a comfortable routine over the next few weeks before Thanksgiving. Beginning of the week you two stayed at your own places, sharing texts throughout the day, and for now, you two managed to go out together at least once a week, which suited you just fine with how much you had going on with the after school drama club that you volunteered for.

So your Friday night you opted for the two of you to stay in to watch a movie, well more like so you could sew costumes while making an offer to have some movie playing in the background if Curtis wanted to watch something. Instead, he let you have the living room for your project without distractions. It was relieving for you, for once your boyfriend didn't need you to prioritize him over anything else, and didn’t make you feel guilty about your projects or grow angry that you chose something over him. 

Learning to be in a relationship with Curtis was a real eye-opening experience from your previous one.   

For most of the evening, Curtis let you do your thing after making sure the lighting in the living room was plenty for you to sew by, offered to make a quick dinner later, and then went to work on his Camaro in the garage to keep from distracting you. 

Later that evening Curtis made sure to pull you away to eat some dinner with him, which on this night he had made egg omelets and toast with a side of fruit salad and yogurt that you had brought with you for the weekend. 

During dinner, he was sure to ask about the play, as well as offer to help with the displays, because he could be pretty handy with some tools if you needed the help. The two of you also read over the play together. You found that Curtis had a knack for Shakespeare, including giving you a real show during dinner. Hand to his chest, his tone deepened as he recited. 

“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Creeps in this pretty pace from day to day, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools.” He sprang up, grabbing at your hand and pulling you up to a stand with him, pulling you in closer. “The way to dusty death. OUT! OUT, BRIEF CANDLE!” He paused, his brows coming together as he thought. “Shit I forgot the rest.” 

You started giggling while glancing at the script. “Life’s but a walking shadow…” 

“Oh right! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player. That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” He wrapped his arms around you, the two of you swaying slowly in the dimly lit kitchen. 

“If I knew you were gonna serenade Shakespeare to me, I would have chosen something not quite so dark. Maybe Romeo and Juliet?” 

Curtis snorted as he shook his head. “Not Romeo and Juliet, that play pisses me off.” 

“It is unsatisfying in the end, not that Macbeth is any better.” You chuckled softly while letting your hands slide along his chest. 

“How about you finish working on those costumes and I will clean up? But not too much longer tonight Honey, cause I will be dragging you to bed soon.” 

You couldn't help the rush that spiraled through you listening to him, giving a nod while going to tiptoes to press a kiss in thanks and you split away back to your sewing. 

You were muttering under your breath a while later while trying to put some thread through the needle when Curtis started making his way through the house after closing the garage down for the night. Turning off the house lights on his way through until he joined you in the living room. “Come on Y/N, let's call it a night?” 

“Just… this last…” Your tongue stuck out from the corner of your mouth as you just about went cross-eyed trying to get it to thread. “... one…” 

“Mmhm.” He strode in and collected your stuff off the couch into a neat pile for the coffee table. “Didn’t your mama ever tell you that your eyes will stay that way?” 

You huffed out in frustration and held your hands out, handing over the thread and needle for him to take and put with the rest of your messy sewing kit. “Would you still like me if I had crossed eyes forever?” He crashed on the couch next to you, his arm circling around you and pulling you to straddle his lap. ”Curtis!” You yelped out in surprise, still shocked once in a while whenever he chose to handle you like you weighed nothing. Something he seemed to take much enjoyment in because as often as you claimed you were too heavy for him to be doing that, he would brush it off and do it twice as much to prove a point. 

“Course I would Honey.” He winked at you and slid his hands along your waist, working his hands just under your sweater to find some bare skin. You shivered in delight at the feeling of calloused palms still slightly cool from being out in the garage earlier laying against your skin. “You just about finished those costumes?” 

You wriggled to get comfy in his lap, your legs folded in a kneel on each side of his thighs and your eyes started to drift now that you were relaxing for the evening. Your hands slid against his chest, fisting slightly in the fabric of his shirt. “I just got to finish the three witches and I’m done with that part of it. Got till mid-December to get this all pulled together.” 

“The kids must be excited?” His hands started to warm up as they started to rub against your back, letting you sink into him a bit more as your body loosened in his hold. 

“Very… Mmmh.” You leaned in closer, pulling up his shirt slightly. “Can we finish this in the bedroom Curtis?” 

“You don’t have to ask me twice.” He didn’t even give you a chance to move off of him, an arm slipped underneath you and with a push off the couch, he lifted the both of you. You wanted to scold him, tightening your hold around his neck and legs around his waist, but you hid your face in his neck, eyes screwed shut, afraid that the two of you might not make it up to the bedroom on the second floor.

“Don’t you drop me!” You muttered against his shoulder, still hiding your face and making him grunt in a slight laugh as he started up the old wooden stairs, all their old house creaks seeming louder to you. 

“Pretty Girl, I would never drop you.” 

It wasn’t till he lowered you on the bed, his hand coming up to ease your hold around his neck did you open your eyes and let yourself bounce onto the bed. “You really shouldn’t…” He didn't let you finish when he crawled over you and started to kiss you, muffling your words to turn into a needy hum as you started to pull his shirt off. When you got it mostly up his chest, he pulled up, this time looming over you as he yanked it off and tossed it over his shoulder to land someplace in the bedroom. Leaving his bare chest above you and making you squirm underneath him. 

“Not tonight Honey, I’m gonna do what I want, when I want.” He fell back over you, his hands pressed on either side of your head while he hovered in close to you, the only thing between the two of you now was his dangling chain that pooled against your chest and your own shirt that suddenly was too hot to keep on. 

Curtis loved seeing you get all shocked, the way your eyes would widen and you would clutch at him while those little protest noises turned into soft little gasps and moans. He kissed you till you quieted your mind in a haze, knowing now that if he let you sit with your thoughts for too long they would eat away at you till you worried yourself out of the mood. It had been a long week, he simply wanted to enjoy being with you as stress free as possible. 

You brushed your hand through the hair on his chest, your fingers tangling in the chain as you pulled him closer and let you take your own kiss, rolling underneath him while your thighs spread to let him settle in closer. Making out in heated kisses, he pushed up your shirt enough to see your bra, rubbing a palm against it and giving a firm squeeze so you would arch into him, that hunger he craved in you sparking. “Let me get this off you.” He tugged, having you lift enough for him to discard your shirt in the same manner he had done with his earlier.

How he got so fucking lucky, he really didn't know. You constantly brushed off praises like you didn't deserve them, although he could see that you craved it. When he had you mindless, just giving into that pleasure sensation inside of you, you would freely bask in his praises. With each touch he gave you he thought he had you there. Your eyes were glazed in lust, your body rolling up to press into him while your nails dug into his back, to ground yourself. His fingers danced across your back till he could twist your bra clasp apart and draw it away to release your breasts. 

Fuck he loved your tits. You were so sensitive there, every pull from his mouth or flick of tongue had you giving him those sweet noises. Huffs of impatience in wanting more as he sucked a nipple in his mouth, a hand sweeping over his buzzed head and grasping at the back of it to press him closer. A flush of kisses was followed by the scrape of his beard, and that always made you gasp. Every time. The rasp of his beard trailing anywhere on you always had you start begging, pleading for more. Curtis loved it, loved this needy mess in his bed he made you. 

Tonight he was sure to mimic it, his chin pressing through your cleavage and twisting to kiss the curve, his other hand cupping the other one while he muttered into your skin, “You have the most perfect tits Honey.” 

There was that puff of impatience from you, a glance up through his lashes saw you pushing your head back into the pillows, whining out. “Suck on them Curtis, bite them. I need it.” He sunk his teeth around one perfect nipple to tug, making you cry out and grab at the back of his head. “Yes, it makes me so horny when you play with them.” A light slap made you jolt, rubbing your hips to his for the friction. 

“You are so pretty like this Honey, my pretty girl.” He groaned out, his hands sweeping down to your waist to hold you still but it wasn’t needed. You went stiff under him, eerily quiet from the small moans and whines you were doing earlier. It made him lift his head in alarm, looking up at you to where you look closed off from him suddenly, wary. Something changed between the two of you and Curtis refused to continue when you closed off like this. “Y/N?” He lifted himself off you and you were tentatively wary, your touch just barely there on his chest. “Are you okay?” Curtis untangled himself from over you to lay at your side, concern on his face. “I didn't hurt you did I?” 

The room turned silent in those seconds he waited for you to answer him, his hand was heavy on the curve of your waist and your gaze went from him to his hand on you. Pretty Girl, you would be such a pretty girl if you didn't have all this weight on you. You could be a pretty girl someday maybe, then I would want you. It ate at you the way that voice was so strong in your mind after so long and of course it had to show up right now. It was your greatest shame and suddenly the small dim light on in the bedroom made you feel so self-conscious that you pulled your arms over your chest to hide from sight. Curtis’s tone was so worried that it made the pit in your stomach heavier as if someone had hit you. It was almost overwhelming how much that one word could knock you completely over. “Yeah I’m fine Curtis, just more tired than I thought I was.” You whispered in the dark. Maybe you could make yourself smaller, curling up slightly so you wouldn't take up so much space. “Sorry, I didn't mean to… Would you be mad if I just went to sleep? I can leave, I probably should go home. I’m sorry.” You could feel yourself starting to ramble, the panic that you messed up settled in your chest, and couldn’t stop yourself. 

You went to pull up to search for the few clothes you had gotten out of, but Curtis’s hand grasped your elbow, pulling you gently back to lay down. “We can just sleep Y/N, nothing has to happen. But I don’t want you to go.” He let you go, seemingly unsure of what you wanted, and tried to give you some space. “All your stuff is here for the costumes and you are packed for the weekend. Stay, please.” 

He was so genuine that you felt conflicted about what to do, but in the end, you gave a nod and a soft whisper. “Okay, I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be sorry, I’m tired too.” He tried assuring you while getting up out of the bed. Going into his dresser drawers, he pulled out one of his old shirts, knowing you liked how soft they were, a bit too stretched out after all the times they had been washed and handed it to you. You gratefully took it and slipped into it, stripping out of your pants under the blankets. Curtis just seemed to know that you wanted to be covered because he also found some sleep shorts for you. 

“Can you turn all the lights off Curtis?” You asked as you settled back onto the bed and pulled the blanket up. He flicked off the nightlight that he had in the bathroom, leaving the room in almost complete darkness. Having stripped down to boxers, Curtis eased his way back to the bed and stretched out under the blankets next to you. He felt a mile away from you even though you knew he was just inches. You couldn't bring yourself to reach out to touch him. Especially now that you pulled away.

 In the darkness of the room, you couldn't even tell if his eyes were open, you felt shielded, able to lick your wounds and push the fears back behind a locked door. “Good night Curtis.” You said so softly it was barely a whisper. He didn't hesitate though. Nothing about Curtis was a whisper. 

“Rest easy Y/N.” His hand was gentle as he closed the gap between you two and rubbed at your back soothing.

Curtis laid there most of the night going over what happened in those few moments, trying to recall where he touched you and what he said. He respected your aversion to him kissing anywhere below your breasts, knowing that it was because you were self-conscious, even though he assured you that he loved your softer body. One day he was sure you would be okay with it but he respected that it wasn’t something you were comfortable with for now. You had no problem with him touching you, so it certainly wasn't that. In the dark, he would glance over to see you curled on your side at the edge of the bed like you were trying not to take up any space, but he wanted you in his space, in all of it. His house for the first time felt warm and welcoming again like when his grandparents were here, it felt like home. 

Twisting to his side, his fingers traced along the curve of your cheek, still trying to figure it out. All he could remember was telling you how pretty you looked, which was true. In the light spilling from the en suite across the bed, your eyes were full of excitement and lust, your lips parted to give those soft little moans and sighs that turned Curtis hard while he pulled each one from you. Your chest arching into his mouth and hands, your nipples grazing against him for every nerve-ending jolt he could give you, it was like you were all his and he couldn’t get enough of you. In your sleep, you were far more accepting than earlier when you closed off. Muttering in your sleep, you turned into his touch and that made Curtis smile at the sweetness in the gesture. Dropping his arm to your waist, his hand flattened in the small of your back and eased you closer from the edge. You gave a sigh as if you were waking up, but then you turned into him, resettling with your head against his chest and your arm over his stomach like you were hanging on. 

Hours later Curtis eased out of bed, knowing that he wasn't going to sleep any longer. You would wake up soon, so far you had been pretty predictable. On Saturdays, you sleep in till about eight, then if you two don't mess around a bit and cuddle, you would go seek out coffee. Sometimes you even brought your coffee back to bed, not ready to leave the small happy bubble you two created in the blankets on the weekend. Curtis made your coffee just how he had seen you make it. A glance at the kitchen clock showed the hour arm nearing eight as he made his way back into the bedroom.

You were just starting to wake up when Curtis set the coffee mug down on the nightstand, seeing you peek out from under the blanket with a sleepy whimper. “Is that coffee?” 

“Mmhm, it's still hot so be careful.” He warned as he went around to the other side of the bed and settled in while you pushed up to a seat and wrapped your hands around the warm mug to sip cautiously at it. You rubbed at your face a bit to wake up more and after you set your mug back down, you slipped back down into the blankets, cushioning your head on your pillow. Curtis's hand dropped gently to brush your hair back a bit. “How did you sleep Honey?” 

“I always sleep well when I’m here.” You assured him while lifting yourself up a bit to brace against the headboard in a sit and reached for his hand to weave your fingers with his, a show of assurance that you were right where you wanted to be.

“Y/N, I wanted to talk about last night.” He bluntly said, never was one to shy away from what needed to be said. “What happened that made you get all up in your head and pull away?” 

You stared down at your joined hands, more so looking at the way Curtis’s seemed to swallow yours in the most supportive way. He gave a light squeeze in support and you could feel your face screw up a bit, your nose wrinkling up in that way it always does when you are feeling a lot at once. “I do have to apologize for that.” 

Curtis cleared his throat and a gentle grasp on your chin lifted your gaze up to his. “No, like I said last night, you don't owe me any kind of apology. It's really as simple as if you are not in the mood, then you are not in the mood. That's not at all what I’m concerned about.” He pulled your hand into his lap, trailing his thumb pad over your knuckles. “You looked so shut down and just not enjoying yourself, and I want to know how we can work through that so that doesn’t happen to you. You know that you can be open with me, I want you to be.” 

He could see you giving it some thought, working through the night before just as he had in those early morning hours when he couldn't sleep. Curtis kept the gentle caress over your knuckles, willing to wait as long as it took for you to answer. 

“It’s the word pretty.” You finally confessed with a sigh, almost like you were ashamed of yourself. Curtis stayed silent to let you further explain. “I-I heard you call me pretty girl and just… this time it just hit differently.” You squeezed at his hand, really trying to ground yourself. “You ever hear this shit in your mind, like telling you that you need to be better, do better.” 

Curtis nodded in understanding. “Sure, all of us have something we are just not confident in.” 

“Well mine sounds like shit my ex used to say to me.” You could have sworn you felt Curtis tense up a bit. “It was always… You would be so much prettier Y/N if you just lost some weight, tried a little harder on your appearance, and took some pride in yourself. You could be a pretty girl.” 

Curtis snorted in disgust. “That man is a fucking asshole.” 

You gave a sharp laugh and a slight nod. “That’s one way to put it. He was very stuck on appearances. Whenever we went out, he wanted us to look a certain way. Jake was always trying to help me lose weight. At first, I thought it was because he wanted me to be healthy, you know? Concerned for me, that made it a little easier to handle I guess. It’s nice to think that someone cares so much they want you to stay with them as long as possible.” You continued on and Curtis already hated this guy Jake for making you feel like this. “Then over a year ago it clicked that it was… all this…” Your free hand waved over yourself. “he had issues with.” 

“So you left?” Curtis filled it in and you nodded. 

“Yeah, I got offered the job at Mason, broke it off with him, and came here. And now you know. I’m still working through so much of it. I didn’t realize how… much he had changed the view I had of myself. Now that we are involved with one another, I'm recognizing more and more how toxic the last five years with him had been.” You looked a bit wary at him, almost like you were nervous about what he was going to say. “I should probably see a therapist.” 

“Okay, well first your ex was an asshole. You don’t treat someone you care about like shit which is what he did. Second I think you are sexy as fuck and your body is yours. Do whatever you want and I’m going to support you Y/N. If you want to see a therapist, you should, I’m going to support any decision you make for yourself.” 

Your expression started to ease as he continued. “And if saying Pretty Girl upsets you that much, I will do everything I can to not say it, although to me you are. The word for me feels like that sensation I can’t take my hands off you, I just want to love you all over and show you what that word feels like.” Wide-eyed you stared at him in surprise. 

“Wait, that's what you think of when you say that? I don’t want you to stop.” 

“Well, I don’t want you to freeze up like that Honey.” He countered, tilting his head a bit towards you. “But I have an idea if you want to try something out of your comfort zone.” 

“What's that?” You ask curiously and his palm pats his lap, showing you he wanted you to straddle him.

Sucking on your bottom lip while you considered what he was asking, you pulled yourself up to move to your knees, your fingers unweaving from his. “If you don’t like it, all you gotta do is say stop Y/N.” Your gaze lifted and met his, warmth spread through you at his heated glance and you felt the trust there. 

Your leg lifted over him to straddle his lap, his hold immediately rests on your wide hips and pulls you in close to him so that you could lean into his chest whenever you wanted to, leaving the space between you two entirely up to you. Your hand instinctively moved to touch him, you loved tracing his various tattoos scattered across his torso. “I’m going to show you, but you just tell me to stop, m’kay?” His hands rubbed up to your waist while you gave a nod.

“I will, promise.” You said, your tone wistful as you continued to explore his taunt muscles that flexed under your touch, down to the small roll of his belly that was covered in soft dark hairs. 

When your fingers curled in the band of his boxers, you glanced up at him but Curtis gave a light shake of his head. “Not this time Honey, hands up.” He instructed and it was instinctual that your hands shot up over your head and the tee you were wearing was tugged over your head. As soon as it was gone your hands dropped to cover yourself even though the curtains were pulled to keep the room dim in the early morning hours, still self conscious about him seeing you too closely without clothes on.

His hands were warm when they circled around your wrists, firm as he eased your hands off your body and pulled them to rest them on your thighs. “You can touch me, rub your hands on yourself, but no covering yourself up.” His brow raised at you and you nodded in a quick motion. His gaze fell to your breasts and a calloused yet gentle hand covered one, lifting slightly as he moved his thumb in gentle patterns along the underside curve. His other hand was still at your hip and pressed you against him, making you rock forward slightly. “You gotta straddle a thigh Y/N, pick one.” 

Another shift of your legs had you straddling his slightly raised right thigh, giving him the pressure he wanted on your pussy. “Start to move when you're ready.” He nipped back at your neck, dragging his beard against your skin and making your breath hitch, a hand shooting up to cup the side of his cheek, scratching lightly with curled fingers to feel the scratch against your palm. 

You could feel the words starting to bubble up, saying that you should be underneath him because you were too heavy. But they died in your chest, your heartbeat picking up with excitement as he worked his way to the top of your breasts. “What are you up to Curtis?” You take a chance on finding out but a deep chuckle answers you instead, brilliant blue eyes taking you in as his hand at your breast gives a slight squeeze while rocking your hip forward once again, dragging you against his muscled thigh, bare up until the boxers he was sporting bunched up from your movements. A shudder raced through you, feeling just how good the stimulating movements were. You felt a spiral of heat race through you causing you to whine out his name and try to hide your face, feeling momentarily doubtful in your actions. 

“Keep going Honey, feels s’good right?.” He told you while giving another firm squeeze of his hands. “You feel so fuckin’ good grinding on me. I can feel how wet you are getting.” A nip followed his words while you rocked against his thigh again. “Pressing that pretty little clit against me some more Honey, get yourself off.” 

Your hands shoot to his shoulders to steady yourself after your hips seemed to move on their own, giving little bucks when the sensation was too good to control your speed.  pressing a bit harder into his thigh this time, your body arching upwards to meet his hands wherever they roamed on you. “So good…” You muttered, his thumb now dragging against your nipple and pulling harshly to tease you. He wasn't lying the night before, he loved your breasts. Dragging his tongue across your nipple while sucking on it made you press faster, dragging your throbbing clit along his tense thigh. Your fingers dug into his shoulders, leveraging yourself higher, faster. Little surprised gasps escaped you while he lifted his mouth from your breasts to claim those noises as his own in a claiming aggressive kiss. You pushed back down to grind into his thick thigh, forgetting all your worries about being too much in his lap. It was all about chasing that feeling, grinding yourself against steady muscles and the slick noises your pussy was making. Your slick starting to build, friction burning you in just the right way. 

“Riding so good Honey.” A hand grasped your hip to slow you down a bit, really dragging your cunt along to make you whine out needily. “Just feel that sweet pussy make a mess on me.” He continued, squeezing your breast and bringing his mouth back to you, sucking in your nipple. 

“Yeah?” You spat out as you grabbed his head, holding him to your chest while your body took over to get that good feeling building in your stomach and fluttering in your pussy. 

“You’re taking this so well Honey.” He muttered against your breasts, tugging from one to the other side, still helping you rock into his thigh with enthusiasm the faster you started to chase that sensation. Your belly felt like it was going to snap, your thighs quivered and your fingers dug in sharply now, making Curtis groan at the pain you caused. “Fuck, that’s it Honey, look at you riding like you want something.” 

Your mind was clouded with all the most pleasurable sensations, daring you to chase after that feeling for as long as your legs could hold out. Tilting yourself to just drag your clit against him needing at that hard pressure he was sure to give you. “Curtis I want it.” You started to plead, your head falling back and putting more arch in your hips, his thigh now a mess from your dripping slick and your pussy clenching for more. It was a terrible tease that was tantalizing in the promise of an orgasmic blissed ending. 

Curtis lifted away from your bouncing breasts, dragging his thumb against your lips and you sucked onto the pad, whining against his finger with swirls of your tongue. Moving on instinct to chase your pleasure. 

Curtis was sure you were so close, the way you rubbed against his thigh, shaking from the exertion of muscles, you were getting sloppy, less controlled. Your body was screaming to release, pleading eyes kept falling to him and he grasped the back of your neck to drag you close, and kissed you hungrily, dragging out a pleading groan from you. When you two broke, Curtis huffed out in a quick demand. “Cum for me pretty girl, you are doing so good, give it to me.” 

One of your hands dragged over his shoulder and down his chest till you clutched at his chain, the metal tangling in your fingers and biting into your skin, leveraging yourself to chase that ending. You felt it, it was right there, a couple more grinding pushes against his thigh had you curling to his chest, gasping against his shoulder as the wave crashed through you while your body quivering in his hold, Curtis wrapped you into his arms, rubbing at your back and rocking you slightly. “So good Honey, relax… It's okay I got you.” 

You panted lightly and your muscles all burned from moving against his thigh in the manner that you did. You were slightly sweaty, still in a daze as Curtis brushed your hair back, and pressed his mouth to your temple, while whispering how good you were, his good girl. Tilting his head to look down at you, he waited till you pushed off his chest and eased off his thigh to balance back on his lap, catching the last of your breath. “How are you feeling?” 

“Good and used.” You giggled softly and blinked at him, your reaction made him smile. 

“Just what I was hoping for.” He hugged you and let you cuddle in close to him till you were ready to start the day. 

The rest of the week Curtis dropped pretty in different ways. Sometimes he would press the word into your skin like an invisible tattoo when he fucked you so good you would cry. “You look so pretty Honey with those tears.” His hands would rub at your still-shaking body, easing you to relax. 

Other times it might be when the two of you were doing your grocery shopping, trying to incorporate more meals together so you would have him pick out a couple of things you could make at your apartment instead of going out. You would be standing at the refrigerated display of vegetables, plucking up bell peppers trying to decide which color to get when he would slip up behind you, his chin tucked on your shoulder. “What's my pretty girl looking for?” Your thighs would tighten in response, recalling all the times he used that word making you orgasm. Your breath would stutter in surprise at the reaction of your body. If he noticed, he didn't mention it. 

You would send him a text with a snapshot of your outfit for school that day and his response would be a string of texts about how good you looked, just how pretty and stunning you were, leaving you floating on a cloud the rest of the day. 

A couple of days before Thanksgiving found you cutting up those bell peppers when Curtis came over for date night. He brought a bag in with him, which had several changes of clothes that you made room for in your dresser drawer so he could stay overnight, both of you agreeing that at this point instead of leaving at the end of Sunday, they could stay and spend the night, leaving Monday for work from each others house. The next step in the relationship. To be honest you were a little nervous and very excited to have reached this point with Curtis. 

“Where do you want these?” He pulled his boots off and shrugged off his jacket while you wiped your hands dry to go around your kitchen counter to greet him. 

“I left a drawer open for you to find.” 

“Good, I will put them in after.” He pulled you in for an affectionate kiss, making you giggle a bit at his affection. 

“After?” You questioned while hanging up his coat in the closet, stuffing his beanie in the pocket so he would find it tomorrow. 

“After I said hey to my best girl.” He winked and inhaled deeply. “What have you got cooking?” 

“Chicken fajitas. I need to finish them up. You know where the bedroom is.” You winked at him as you left him to take care of his stuff, which he was quick to do as it wasn't much, clothes in the dresser and some toiletries in the bathroom.

He was soon joining you as you started to pull it all together. “Anything I can do to help?” 

“Nah, relax. Have a beer. How was work?” You hummed out while working, sensing him brush a hand along your back in passing as he went to do just that. Sighing when he sank into a kitchen chair and cracked open a beer, the fizzy noise of the bottle muffled in his hand as he screwed off the cap. 

“Decent, kept on schedule and Gilliam is talking that we might be too busy for our January layoff. Although I was looking forward to the time off. “ 

“What do you even do when they lay you guys off for the season?” You asked as you slipped it into the oven and joined him. His arm was held out, enticing you to join him in his seat, and nervously you perched on his thigh before he tightened his hold. 

“Usually some project that old fixer-upper needs. This year I was going to redo the living room floor. Those old wide-beam floors could be stunning once more if properly stripped down. Course to do that I gotta take everything out of there and pack up the bookshelves so they don't get all dusty.” 

You reached for his bottle and sipped from it. “Paint too?” 

“Might as well do it all if I’m doing the floors.” 

“Well Mister, you are in luck because I am a master painter.I repainted this when I first moved in.” You waved your hand around your tiny apartment and Curtis smirked a bit. 

“Oh well fuck how did I get so lucky, how much do you charge?” he joked and you pondered what you wanted to ask for payment. 

“You are lucky, I’m cheap.” You swung back to the stove to stir the peppers and chicken before sliding them into the oven to keep warm. “I will do it for free.” 

“Free? No no… you must let me do something for your time.” He came up behind you, wrapping you into his arms while you stood at the counter, peeling apart the tortillas needed for the fajitas. “I could…” A kiss on your neck made you giggle when you felt the brush of his bristles against your sensitive neck. “... take you out?.” Another kiss just behind your ear had you sinking back into him. “They have an after-hours slot opening at the aquarium.” And that caused you to ease around, suddenly very interested in what he was saying and not just what he was doing. 

“Like one of those nights where you drink wine and enjoy walking around with just adults?” 

Curtis gave a nod, a bit of a shy twist of his mouth as his thumbs brushed lightly at the small of your back where your skin dimpled. “Exactly like that. Are you interested in going?” 

You nodded enthusiastically and wrapped your arms around his neck, going to your tiptoes to flutter kisses around, finally reaching his lips to really show your enthusiasm. “Absolutely! I would love to do something like that Curtis!” 

Clearly, he had picked correctly because your enthusiasm shined all over, even when he slid his hands down to your ass and grasped enough to lift you to perch on the edge of the kitchen counter, bringing the two of you closer to eye level. “I will secure our tickets. It’s happening right after Thanksgiving, so keep your calendar free.” 

“Of course, whatever day you pick will work for me, Curtis.” You wrap your legs around him to keep him close to you, running your hands up his chest while your smile grew wider. 

“I did good?” He smirked a bit while his fingers traced your sides and settled on the thickness of your hips, where he loved to squeeze just a bit, hold onto you cause you were his girl and he loved how comfortably he could settle in between your thighs. 

“Oh very good, I can’t wait to go.” You started to kiss along his jawline and his neck, able to find those little sweet spots of his that made him groan in appreciation. For now, you two were just making out, you would really show him tonight in bed when you rolled him to his back and crawled up between his thighs. You were taking delight in the way you felt him really giving into your direction, the little grunts and groans whenever your tongue pressed to his skin or your lips traced an intoxicating pattern against his neck. 

“You keep going like this and I’m going to forget the last thing I needed to ask you.” He confessed another firm squeeze to your hips to let you know that he needed to focus. One last playful bite to his earlobe had you moving back slightly, your fingers playing at the short hairs at the back of his buzzed head. 

“We can easily pick this back up later, how about we eat dinner and you can ask me?” You offered him, which Curtis glowered playfully at you, his thumb and forefinger catching your chin. 

“Yes but only because it is important, otherwise I would be taking you apart right on this kitchen counter.” 

“Kinky bastard.” You scoffed as you loosen your hold on him and pushed him back slightly to slip down and warm up the tortillas while Curtis grabbed plates from the dish drainer and some utensils. 

“Only for you.” He winked with a quick nip of a kiss to your cheek and moved to finish the task at hand. 

Once it was all set, you two were both making your fajitas the way you liked them and had gotten a few bites in, both of you far hungrier than was known, you wiped some salsa off the corner of your mouth. “So what was this other thing you wanted to ask me?” 

Curtis was thoroughly involved in his food, so his eyes sprang up in question at first but then he seemed to remember, going to take a swipe of his beer to cleanse his mouth. “Thanksgiving, did you have any plans?” 

“No, I don’t have enough saved up to fly home or the time to drive it. I will be headed back to the classroom to give it a good cleaning before the kids all return back from vacation. Why?” 

“Tanya invited us over for the holiday, along with Ella, Sophia, and Grey." He cleared his throat a bit, his voice dropping with less enthusiasm. “She did mention Edgar if we were okay with him coming.. She pulled me aside and demanded I bring you, but I told her I would discuss it with you first.” 

Filling another tortilla up with peppers and chicken, Curtis handed over the container of salsa automatically knowing what you would put on them. “If you want me to go, I would love to Curtis. I can call her later to see what I can make.”

He waited while you made yours before making another for himself. “And how do you feel about Edgar being there?” 

You picked at your fajita before taking a bite and chewing slowly, giving it some thought. “How do you feel about him being there Curtis? I made my peace with him the other night. I have no issue hanging out with Edgar and getting to know him better.” Of course, you turned it around and Curtis had to figure out how he felt about Edgar being around after Halloween. He hadn’t yet really talked with Edgar about it, things were tense between them at work. Edgar was doing his best to give Curtis space at the train yard. Was Curtis ready for forgiving? “It is up to you Curtis. It wasn’t just me he hurt on Halloween.” You reached across and let your hand rest against his arm. “Seems like Tanya feels the same way.” 

“I will talk to her about it, I’m still not sure how I feel.” He admitted and you nodded in understanding. 

“Whatever you decide Curtis, I can’t wait to spend Thanksgiving with everyone.” 

You could tell by the way his eyes softened and he smiled that it was important to him, that these people were basically his family, and getting to bring you into the mix meant a lot to Curtis. 

And you felt the warmth curl through you that you could give him that.

kenma kozume; head to head

PART TWO: SHES BEING INSANE

masterlist

warnings: swearing

summary: another insight into y/n and her roomies life, and hot man kenma's introduction :)

authors note: speech again but we move.

"Do you think he has a sugar baby?"

Suga stares at you, eyes wide. "Pardon?"

You blink twice, "Do you think he has a sugar baby?" you reiterate, looking at Koshi.

He frowns at you, utterly confused. One minute the two of you were watching some shitty romcom that was on the television, and the next you're talking about a sugar baby? What? "Does who have a sugar baby?" he asks, hoping to gather more information.

"Kenma Kozume of course." you say like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

The gray haired boy is once again staring at you, not in confusion, but in disbelief. "Bitch?! What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"You didn't answer my question,"

He scoffs, "because it's a dumbass question."

You shake your head at him, "Fine, I'll ask Ryu."

You get up from the sofa you and Koshi were splayed across, beginning your trek to Tanaka's room. It was the furthest room in the apartment, yours being the closest. When the four of you moved in together, (the four being you, Suga, Tanaka and Noya) Tanaka and Noya shot gunned the two biggest rooms, leaving you and Koshi the smallest rooms. However, what the two blithering idiots didn't realise, as that your's and Suga's rooms were en suites. Whereas, there's were not. Sucks to suck, you told them when they quite literally whined like babies.

"Tanaka!" you yell whilst banging on the door repeatedly. "Open up or I'll tell Noya you stole one of his porn mags!"

The door swung open almost instantly, him standing in the doorway. "How did you know I stole one of his porn magazines?"

"I didn't?" you raise an eyebrow at the boy, "but good to know, I guess. Anywho, back to the subject at hand."

Tanka brushes past you, making you swivel to follow behind him. "So, you know Mr. Kenma Kozume; the big, scary mafia man?" You say to him, shuffling through your shared apartment.

"Don't answer her, Tanaka!" Koshi shouts from his place on the couch. "She's being insane."

You roll your eyes, "You're just jealous. Hater. You're a Kenma Kozume hater. And by default that means I hate you."

Sugawara huffs in his seat, really regretting ever becoming friends with you in the first place. Maybe if he didn't let you sit with him that day then he wouldn't be in this situation right now. Oh, who was he kidding? All you had to do was bat your eyelashes at him and he would crumble instantly, you knew it and so did he. Hell, even Noya and Tanaka knew and they were fucking oblivious at the best of times.

"What's your question, Y/N?" Ryu speaks up, ignoring yours and Suga's previous interaction. "Must be important for you to forcefully bring me out of my room."

You make your way into the kitchen, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and pouring yourself a cup of water. "Do you think he has a sugar baby?"

You bring the glass to your lips and take a swig, relishing in the taste of the cold water. You always forgot how nice water actually tasted, especially when you quite live off Monster Energy's.

He didn't even have to ask you to clarify who 'he' was, he just knew -- which always seemed to be something he was able to do for some reason. "Hell yeah." Tanaka smirks. "And if he doesn't, I'll volunteer as tribute."

You widen your eyes at his answer before narrowing them, grabbing an oven mit and throwing it at his face. "Hey! What about me?"

Ryu scoffs, a smirk still etched onto his features. "What about you?" He asks condescendingly, "We both know he would choose me."

"He would choose me over you any day." You state, placing the glass of half filled water onto the kitchen table before crossing your arms one over another. "Right, Koshi?" You turn to Suga, trying to get him to agree with you.

"I'm not getting involved." The grey haired man raises his arms in surrender, his attention solely focused on the tv infront of him -- which was now playing some lame cooking show.

"Fine, whatever." You turn back to Tanaka, "But he would choose me. Not you."

"Kenma, you need to calm down." Kuroo says, trying to ease the extremely pissed off faux blond. "You need to think rationally."

"Rationally?!" He barks out, "How the fuck can I think rationally when one of our members was just killed?"

Kuroo couldn't agree more with his friend because he was pissed as hell aswell. But he also knew that acting on rage, and rage alone,  wouldn't get them results. It wouldn't get them any closer to finding out who was responsible for taking the life of one of their own.

"Listen," Testu starts, "we need to go over what we know and try and figure out what happened. He must have been killed for a reason, and we just need to find out what that reason was." He explains, taking out a packet of cigarettes and pulls one out of the box. He gestures with the packet towards Kenma, silently asking him if he wants one. Kenma shakes his head. "What do we know about the guy anyway? I've barely seen him before."

Kenma walks over to his desk and sits on the leather chair that resides behind it, "Kei trained him, although he doesn't know much about him either. According to Tsukishima, he barely talked and kept to himself most of the time." Kicking his legs up on the mahogany table, he opens the draw and picks up the litre bottle of whiskey, taking a massive swig from the bottle. "He could make a kill shot from one hell of a distance, though."

"Is that all we know about him?"

Kenma nods in agreement, sighing. "It's all over the fucking news aswell. They're claiming that it was me who killed him."

"For real?" Tetsuro asks.

"Mhm. It's annoying as fuck." He rubs his temple, squeezing his eyes shut simultaneously.

"You're only saying that because the kill was sloppy," He sends a pointed look to Kozume. To which he responds with a look of his own that could only be described as a death stare. "Okay dude, chill. I get you're stressed--"

"--more than stressed, Kuroo. Do you even know what this means?" Kenma's voice rose in volume, the whiskey sloshing around in the bottle. "We've been compromised. Remember what happened last time something like this happened?"

A look of realisation dawned on the black haired man's face, memories flooding back inside his mind. "Oh fuck..."

Finding My Happy

My dearest Max, happy birthday dude! I hope you have the best day ever and I hope you enjoy this! Thanks for letting me add the missing Judd/TK and missing Tarlos moments from the last episode. I truly hope you enjoy this.

Read on A03.

As always thanks @moviegeek03 for helping me iron out the finer details and the support. It means the world 💙

After their little talk that morning about the news TK received the night before, Judd knows something major is up when TK leaves his father's office with a simultaneously pissed off and kicked puppy look on his face. "TK," he calls out, but TK just brushes past all of them.

Judd sees the questioning looks from the others and just shakes his head at them. "I'll take him," he says heading in the direction TK went.

He finds TK outside pacing the front of the firehouse. "Hey. Take a breath," Judd says, laying a hand on TK's shoulder. TK tries to shrug him off, but Judd just gives his shoulder a squeeze and holds him still. "You wanna go out again? Talk?" He questions when TK won't say anything.

TK looks at him with those sad eyes and a nod, and Judd squeezes his shoulder in response knowing he'd do anything with TK giving him that look. "Gimme five and we'll go," Judd tells him as TK nods again wringing his hands. Just as they're loading up in the truck, questioning looks from the others still firmly in place, the alarm sounds and TK groans.

Judd gives him an apologetic look as TK jumps out to gear up and climb in the back. Once everyone is in, Judd takes off leading them to their call. Owen is giving out the information from dispatch, but TK is a little zoned out. The call is easy, routine, and TK was rather impressed that Pearce was able to save someone. He knows Owen can feel the attitude he's giving off, but he can't help it. His dad's comment hurt more than he wants to admit.

Once back at the station, he grabs a bite to eat before he and Judd try once more to have their conversation. "You gonna tell me what's up? Or am I gonna have to pull it out of ya?" Judd eventually asks as they sit in the firetruck and TK doesn't even attempt to start it. 

"It's just something dad said earlier. It just…." TK trails off, biting at his lip as he hangs his head. 

"TK you can tell me anything," Judd reminds him squeezing his shoulder. Judd hates the kicked puppy look TK seems to have perfected. It makes him hurt for his brother. 

"Dad had me sign papers earlier. Signed his power of attorney over to me. Said he's gonna have that cancer surgery in two weeks, the one I've been bugging him to do." 

"That's great bud. I know you've been on him about it," Judd says knowing that would be a relief for TK. 

"Yea…. Well," TK sighs running his hands through his hair tugging at it. "I asked him why he was finally going to do it. And you know what he said?" 

TK's eyes drop to his lap, his hands twitching and wringing with nervous energy. Before they can go any further, their radios crackle to life with a call. Luckily they're right near the firehouse, and after a quick switch of drivers they're back at the station. Judd so wants to know what Owen said to devastate TK like this, but it's gonna have to wait. TK grabs his gear from Paul, and jumps in the back with the others. He can see TK in the mirror zoning out again as Owen talks. He is determined to get to the bottom of this after this call. 

Upon arrival, the two captains converse with the Travis Co Sheriff's Officer on site as the team hangs back waiting for a game plan. TK can already feel the adrenaline starting to course through his body as Owen details out what they need. "You good?" Judd asks him and TK nods reassuringly even though he can tell Judd doesn't buy it. 

He can't help but overhear the conversation with the new guy as everyone else gathers what Owen requested and Judd keeps tabs on the bomb squad. TK hates that his dad is always putting himself in the most dangerous situations, but he knows he can't do anything about it either because Owen wouldn't listen to him. When he hears the new guy declining to go, he knows he needs to speak up and save two captains from being in danger. 

"I'll go," he says getting looks not only from his team, but also both captains. He can almost see the objections on his dad's tongue, so he continues before Owen can object. "I was a dual-function FD medic in New York. All my certifications are up to date. I can do this," he says almost daring his dad to contradict him. 

Owen just nods and tells him to suit up. Captain Vega prepares the bag he will need while Judd pulls TK to the side to help him suit up. "What the hell are you thinking?" He practically growls at TK. 

"That kid needs saving and it was better than both captains risking their lives," he says, stripping down to his undershirt. Judd straps his chest harness around him as TK puts on his helmet. "I'm fine. You're not gonna lose anyone else," TK says quietly to which Judd just grunts. TK knows he's worried, but TK honestly feels steady. 

Jumping through a minefield had his blood pumping and his adrenaline flowing. He almost forgot what Owen had said earlier as he zoned in on work. The call goes faster than TK expects even though his dad almost got blown up. TK felt steady, felt sure of what he was doing and keeping Wes alive. It felt good to get back to the medic side of calls. Once the bomb squad cleared a path for them, TK helped load the boys into the ambulance. 

Before TK could volunteer to ride along with them, Judd pushed him towards the firetruck. TK knew their conversation was far from over, but having a good call helped refocus him. Once back at the station, Judd pulls TK out to the side yard. "That was fool-headed and stupid," Judd starts, but he pulls TK into a tight hug. "And also badass as hell. You did good," he says, making TK shake him off with a nervous laugh. He's still not good at taking praise for just doing his job. 

"Thanks. It felt… it felt good," he says with a shoulder shrug and bashful smile. 

"We'll get back to this," Judd says as they sink into some chairs. "Wanna tell me what your dad said now?" 

TK sighs as he bites his lip, his eyes dropping. He knew Judd wouldn't forget, and he knew he needed to talk about it. He just wanted to ride the adrenaline high a little longer. "I asked him why he was finally doing the surgery. He said…." TK sighs and Judd can see he's fighting tears. "He said because he's going to be a father," TK gets out quietly not looking at Judd. 

Judd is stunned. He didn't think Owen could be so callous to TK. He has to bite back a growl of anger on TK's behalf. "I mean…. I know he's happy about a new baby, and it's their…. Their second chance to get it right and not screw this one up.... but I just… " 

"TK stop!" Judd says forcefully interrupting TK's self-degradation, reaching for TK's shoulder giving it a squeeze. "You are not a screw up, you hear me?" Judd searches his eyes trying to make sure TK hears him and believes him. "You're not. And I don't give a damn how happy he is about another kid. That doesn't give him the right to ignore and hurt the one he's already got. Just because you're an adult, doesn't make you any less his kid." 

"Thanks Judd," TK says quietly. "Dad's… dad's always just been dad," he shrugs. "He wasn't around much as a kid, and then mom worked, and I just... I figured things out on my own, made some bad decisions, some not so bad…. And I became a firefighter so I could be a part of his family finally." TK hates painting his dad in this bad light, but he's just trying to be honest with someone who's always honest with him. "He's always had a hero complex and when I need saving he's there. And then he finds someone or something else that needs saving, and that's that. I'm used to it, but I dunno. It just…. It hurt this morning ya know?" TK finishes, his eyes dropping back to his folded hands. 

"Of course it did. And you have every right to feel that way, and express how you feel TK." 

TK scoffs as he finally looks at Judd. "He wouldn't listen if I said something. He'd tell me I misheard him or something. Hell he didn't even notice anything after he said it, and I know I don't have that good of a poker face," TK says with a shrug. "But that last call, it felt good. It felt right. It made me forget what he’d said for minute.  I haven't done medical since New York for obvious reasons, but it just…. I don't know it felt really good." 

"TK you were a total badass out there today. If this is something you want you should go for it. I doubt Pearce is gonna last with Tommy. I'd say he's already out the door," Judd says looking back at the firehouse. 

"Yea but…" he trails off with a deep sigh. 

"But what? You've got the qualifications and the experience. You proved yourself today for sure. Tommy would be lucky to have you." 

"But what about us? The team? Dad?" He trails off quietly.

"TK we're still a team, a family. That's not gonna change just because you move over to medical. We're gonna support whatever you want to do because that's what family does. If this is something you want you should go for it." Judd’s quiet for a moment contemplating his next words. He reaches over, squeezing TK's shoulder, making him look at him. "You don't have to do everything exactly like your dad did. You have a family that loves you and supports you, and if he's too stupid to see that, that's on him. You have to do what makes you happy, bud. And if medical is what's gonna do it, then I say go for it." 

TK nods, taking in Judd's words. "Think you could sneak me an application just in case?" TK asks him with a sly grin. 

"Yea… yea of course. Think it over, but you've always got our support," Judd says squeezing TK's shoulder one more time before heading inside. And if he decides to detour by Owen's office to give him a piece of his mind, then TK doesn't have to know. TK sits there for another minute before going to find the rest of the team to see what their thoughts are on this development.

He finds the rest of them in the kitchen. He jumps up on the counter, grabbing some chips to snack on as they hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Pearce has his bag over his shoulder, and says his goodbyes. "And another one bites the dust. Man Vega's got them dropping like flies over there," Paul chuckles. 

"Must be tough," Mateo chimes in. 

Before TK thinks it through he opens his mouth, "She's tough. So is the job. It was… um.. it was pretty exciting though," he says with a grin and a shrug jumping off the counter. 

"You should get his paycheck for this week and yours," Marjan says as Mateo chimes in, "Yea you were a badass out there." 

TK chuckles as he shakes his head at Mateo's enthusiasm. "Thanks guy," he says bashfully. "I uh… I wanted to ask you all something." He notices three sets of eyes fall on him immediately, and he can't help but nervously chew on his bottom lip. "I uh… Judd and I were talking just a bit ago…. And I just… I wanted to see…" 

"Yes," Paul says before TK can even finish, making the other two look at him strange. He gives them a shrug and a smirk having already figured out where TK was going with this. "That's not fair," comes from Marjan, and "Let him finish," from Mateo making Paul and TK both chuckle. 

Paul's unwavering support gave TK the boost he needed to spit it out. "I wanted to see how you all would feel or what you all would think if I applied for Vega's open position. Judd seemed to think it was a good idea, but I don't want to… I don't want to mess this up," he says gesturing between the four of them. 

"Yes," Paul says again as the other two appear to be in shock. TK turns to them biting at his lip as Paul clears his throat and shoots them a look. 

"TK I think you would be amazing at it," Marjan says squeezing his arm. Mateo is the only one not to say anything until Marjan nudges him. "Yea.. You'd be great at it TK. I wasn't kidding when I said you were badass today." 

"Are you sure?" TK asks, getting three nods in return. "Aren't you worried about this changing things?" He asks them gesturing between them once more. 

"No," Paul and Marjan say at the same time. "We're all still a part of the same house. We're all still gonna hang out at Carlos's. We're still family TK. That will never change," Paul finishes getting agreement from the other two. 

"Thanks guys," he says with that bashful grin again. "I wanna talk to Carlos first, but I think I really want this." 

"Vega will be lucky to have you," Marjan says. They all three converge on him for a hug before Paul gets called away and shift ends. When TK grabs his bag, he sees the application Judd must have slipped in there and smiles. He tells his team bye, barely gets goodbye out to his dad, before he's heading towards home, to Carlos's. 

Carlos was just finishing up dinner when he hears the key in the door and his boyfriend walks in. "Hey babe," TK calls, dropping his duffle at the door and kicking his shoes off.

"Don't think you're out of the doghouse," Carlos says trying to be gruff, but he opens his arms to TK for a hug and a kiss. 

"You heard?" TK says cocking his head to the side and scrunching his nose adorably. 

"Did I hear that my boyfriend went jumping through a minefield?" Carlos asks with a contemplative look. "Yes… yes of course I did because the bomb squad couldn't quit talking about it." 

TK pouts and Carlos just finds it too adorable. He gives TK a soft kiss as he squeezes him gently. "Did I also hear that said boyfriend saved two kids' lives and was a total badass about it? Yea I heard that too," he smiles kissing TK's scrunched nose. 

"Who told you that part?" TK asks, adorably confused. 

"Judd sent me a text while they were watching y'all jump through the field. Then he let me know you were fine and had done a stellar job." 

TK gives him a bashful smile finally letting Carlos get back to plating their dinner. "Yea it was pretty cool," TK says, getting two glasses of tea as Carlos brings their food to the table. "I uh… I haven't felt that good on a call in a long time," TK says barely meeting Carlos's eyes. He has the support of his team, but he's still nervous about telling Carlos what he wants. 

"Yea? That had to make for a good day then right?" Carlos asks, picking up on TK's nerves but not pushing him. 

"Mmmm yea," TK says with a nod as he digs into the delicious as always food. "That part of the day was good. The rest…." He trails off with a shrug. 

"Wanna talk about it?" 

"Eh… dad just made some comment that hurt," TK says shrugging it off. 

"TK your feelings are valid no matter what he says, you know that right?" Carlos asks, laying his hand over TK's. He knows TK and Owen have their spells where Owen won't listen and makes TK feel unheard and insignificant. But he wants TK to know it's ok to feel what he feels and to voice those feelings. 

"Judd said the same thing," TK says, finally meeting his eyes. 

"Then maybe you should start believing it," Carlos smiles. 

"Yea… and then the call today. It just…. It got me thinking," TK says pushing his plate away and climbing into Carlos's lap straddling him. He wants the comfort of being close to his boyfriend. 

"Yea? Thinking about what?" Carlos asks, wrapping his arms around TK’s waist. 

"What I really wanna do. Today was so invigorating and I felt really good about it. I felt confident and sure of myself. Something I haven't felt on the job since New York. And I talked it over with Judd and the rest of the crew, and I think…" he trails off biting his lip. Carlos rubs his back and softly kisses his lips to get him to stop biting it. "I think I want to apply to Captain Vega's open paramedic position." 

Carlos gives him a soft smile and softly kisses his forehead. "I think with that big caring amazing heart of yours that you will make an amazing paramedic," Carlos murmurs.

"Yea?" 

"Yes baby. I think you would rock at it." 

TK lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as he lights up. "Would you maybe wanna help me type up this resume then?" TK grins toying with the buttons on Carlos's polo. "I mean I can do it, but I'd…" 

Carlos kisses him to interrupt him. "Yes. I will," he grins. 

They finish dinner, and Carlos clears the plates as TK gets his laptop. They type out TK's resume for the paramedic application, and Carlos is honestly impressed. He already knew TK had been on the job straight from high school, but he didn't realize what great scores TK had on his tests or how many commendations of Valor he had already racked up. "Baby this is impressive," Carlos says in awe. 

TK blushes and shrugs him off.  "Captain Vega is going to be lucky to have you," Carlos says kissing TK's forehead. "You said you talked to the team, so what did your dad say?" Carlos asks. He knows TK said Owen had made a hurtful comment and he's trying not to push TK, but he is curious. 

"I haven't told him," TK says with a shrug. Carlos wrinkles his forehead at that, setting the laptop on the coffee table and pulling TK into his lap. 

"I see. Do you wanna tell me what happened?" Carlos asks him softly. TK bites his lip before recounting the conversation with Owen earlier and what Judd told him. TK can feel Carlos's anger, and he runs his hands through Carlos's curls to try and calm him. Carlos takes a couple deep breaths knowing this is about TK, not him. 

"TK, I'm going to agree with Judd on this one. I know sometimes your dad speaks before he thinks, and I don't like how he makes you feel insignificant and unimportant. Because you are the most important person and you deserve to feel how you feel. I get why you don't want to tell him, but he's going to find out and you're gonna have to talk at some point." 

Carlos runs his hand up and down TK's back, "But no matter what, I'm going to support you, and I'm going to love you, and I'm always going to be here no matter what. This is your home too, and you’re my life. I never want you questioning where you belong ever again." 

He reaches up and wipes TK's tears. "I think you're going to make an amazing paramedic, and if you need help coming up with what to say to your dad, then I'm here. Whatever you need," Carlos says as TK dives in for a hard passion filled kiss. 

"I love you too Carlos, so much," TK murmurs as he snuggles his face into Carlos's neck. They eventually make it to bed with TK feeling confident in his choice to apply. He hopes Vega will accept it because now that he's set his mind to it, he really wants it. He knows he's going to have to talk to his dad at some point, but for now he falls asleep in his boyfriend's arms, happy and secure in his choice. 

Just watched the episode and I’m going to have a lot of thoughts for you, most of them probably bordering on incoherence (LOL) so this is your last chance to nope on out of this post because I’m going to go ahead and put everything else behind a cut to save the eyes that do not want to see any  spoilers at all.  Unlike mine, that very much wanted to see but in a lot of cases?  Could not see shit, but I digress.

Shae’s stream of consciousness coming at you in 3-2-1.  

First of all, can I saw how good it is to have my show back again?  Like, no.  I don’t quite have Season 5 levels of excitement about the new/last season, but it is definitely nice to have all these characters back.  

So all these thoughts of mine.  Okay.  Bear with me because there be a whole lot of them, lol.  

My immediate impression as the episode opened was WHOA.  Such a cool shot of Daryl with one light wing, one dark wing (representing the two sides to Daryl maybe--the man of honor versus the man he was raised to be, hmm?) looking out over some dark vista of something.  Seriously.  It’s dark.  My room is also dark at the moment and still I was squinting to see.  To make out what I’m “looking” at.  I really, really hope the rest of this season isn’t this hard to make out.  

Is that a tank?  Kinda sorta a callback to Rick’s first episode?  If so, cool.  If not, well.  Us fans have always put way more thought into things.  For real.  Change my mind.  

Holy intense eye contact, Batman!  Daryl Dixon has literally never looked at anyone--not BethusConLeah--in quite the same smoldering way as he looks at Carol.  It’s next level.  I don’t know why people be fooling themselves into thinking different.  

Let’s see.  I can make out--besides Daryl, Maggie, and that face mask dude I already forgot the name of--Kelly, Magna, Jerry (who’s that with him?), and Carol.  Sorry.  My world, like Daryl’s, inevitably narrows to Carol.  She’s loking fierce and fine AF per usual.  

Was that Rosita I noticed rewinding to relive Daryl eye-fucking Carol?  

I’m guessing this is the army base they talked about in 10C.  

That Walker perking up like “I smell food--pancakes and bacon and oohhhh” has me giggling inappropriately right off the bat.  WTF.  

Look at all my fabulous ladies tiptoeing through that Walker minefield.  And Carol spotting that gun that might be useful right away.  Listen, if you don’t think her mind ain’t always ten steps ahead of everybody else’s, you’d be wrong.  

So.  Are these Walkers just so old and feeble not even the call of fresh meat attracts them?  Because just tiptoeing through their midst without the knockoff Lady Gaga meatsuits or skin masks has never really worked before that I can remember.  

I just want to see most of this season.  Is that really too much to ask?  Don’t X-Files and Game of Thrones us, Angela.  Please and thank you very fucking much.  

Okay.  Is the one drop of blood thing making anybody else have 28 Days Later vibes?  Kinda?  Sorta?  No?  Just me?  Okay then.  Carry on.  

Wait a minute, though.  How they be explaining how Daryl keeeps acquiring all these new tats all the time?  Hmm?  It’s like they just quit giving a shit about continuity in these latter seasons.  

I mean.  Do Walkers sleep now?  LMAO.  What is this?  I guess they’re constantly evolving?  

There’s my baby Lydia.  Love my smol bean.  

Alright though.  I love to see the ladies of TWD kick some ass.  It’s very gratifying.  Gimps would never.  Thank you, Angela.  

Clever, resourceful, calm and collected, quick thinking Carol to the rescue!  Seriously.  Her haters must be withering away inside with absolute envy.  

Hey, ya’ll.  Remember when Carol was still mastering her sharpshooting skills at the Prison yard and shot at Rick’s feet?  Her little “sorry, sorry”?  LOL.  If Rick could only see her now.  Wait.  He already knew what so many of his stans refuse to acknowledge--Carol=ultimate survivor and true savior to the group many times over.  

Maggie’s got herself a gun, too.  Go my badass girls.  

Of course, Carol’s got everybody’s back.  Of fucking course, Daryl’s got hers even when everybody else seem frozen in some kind of awe or stupification or something.  Microcosm of the whole damn show right there.  

Carol’s like “here’s your knives, love of my life.”   

Eh.  Maybe that’s just me.  

Nah.  She’s totally thinking it, too.  

YAS!  YAS!  Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride with the top billing.  How very far my babies have come.  

Listen.  I miss all the characters we’ve lost.  Absolutely.  But I love the ones that are still with us, that have been with us for so very long so hard.  Whether I love their stories or decisions or not.  

Is that THE Alexandria sign?  That sign’s been through some shit.  

DOG!  Daryl kneeling to embrace our Grimes babies has me all up in my feels.  And how cute is Dog getting all excited and making sure he’s the first one there to welcome back, Daddy?  

Hershel is literally just as puppy dog cute as Glenn ever was.  Really some Grade A casting.  

What did Maggie call Mr. T?  Ducky?  Dougie?  Sometimes with Maggie?  I really cannot tell.  Anyway.  He’s Mr. T. for me until I find out differently, probably through rewatching with close captioning, lol.  

Maggie’s got more people.  So.  Some new redshirts to sacrifice for plot purposes.  I don’t know if I should bother learning their names or not. 

I seem to remember Meridian being mentioned in one of the episode synopses.  

Sophia’s hair tie around Carol’s neck will never fail to be an emotional throat punch.  My heart.  

“They come at night and by the time you see them, you’re already dead.”  Welp.  Guess that means we ain’t seeing shit for at least this first third of the season, lol.  Very horror-eque though.  

“You’re leaving to fight ghosts.”  Aaron, to Maggie.  So I see Aaron’s the type to get the hell outta Dodge when the Boogeyman comes calling, hahaha.  Least he was.  In the old world.  

Rosita’s pissed off expression at Gabe’s decision to volunteer for the so-called suicide mission gives me life.  

My baby Carol is tired AF of suicide missions.  You can tell.  Also?  Methinks she has something to prove to Daryl here.  Or at least feels like she does.  

Dog with his little tactical vest.  I love it.  

I guess I get why they had Carol and Rosita stay behind.  They had to more evenly split up the badassery to make things more fair and balanced, lol.  

Okay.  So Negan’s definitely earned everybody’s disdain.  But they’re being woefully short-sighted by not at least hearing the dude out.  Isn’t he at least native to the area?  

“That is God telling us to turn around.”  I’m actually on Negan’s side with this one, but Gabe answering him with “I’m pretty sure he would have run that past me first” has me howling with laughter.  Father Gabe has gone straight up savage in these last couple of seasons.  Rosita’s influence, perhaps?  

I see what Angela is doing.  Trying to make Negan the voice of reason.  In this particular case?  It’s kind of working.  I’m still ultimately on Maggie’s side with this though BECAUSE GLENN.  

Imagine showing up to work and unironically dressing like a storm trooper every day.  Excuse me while I LOL.  

Even in the ZA, there’s bullshit paperwork.  

“Pumpkin colored spacesuit.”  Good one, Ezekiel.  

LOL forever.  I love Princess.  

“Michonne.  Our Michonne shut people out of Alexandria for years.”  Timely reminder that choices aren’t always perfect.  Neither are people.  

WTF is reprocessing?  Sounds ominous.  LMAO at Eugene’s “Okay.  We gotta go.”  

What in the actual hell with all those bagged, squirming undead?  Creepy AF in that subway tunnel.  

Should I just go ahead and call that the Easter bunny?  We’ve had some version of it pop up since Season 1.  

Is it stubborn pride with Maggie or what?  Why go through with something when all signs point toward the wisdom of stopping?  You can argue that she’s acting similarly to Carol last season, but there’s a huge difference here folks.  Carol did her damndest to Lone Wolf that shit and minimize the danger to those she loved.  Maggie’s straight up enlisting those she “cares about” to carry out her mission of revenge or vengeance, what have you. Let’s see if she gets near the amount of hate for it.  Personally, I don’t blame her for her feelings one bit.  They are valid.  But her knowingly drawing the others into the game?  That’s my sticking point.  That’s how she and Carol differ, even if some people refuse to see or accept it.  Anyway.  Hopping right on off my soapbox.  

“Why don’t you get up on your little tippy toes and try?”  Omigosh, I’d dying.  When I tell you I about passed out with laughter, I do not exaggerate.  I should hate Negan forever and I do.  Really.  But I adore JDM and he frequently makes me LOL.  He’s made Negan entertaining if not completely redeemable since Angela took over and more layered so I say kudos.  

He has a point about Maggie playing dictator.  Damn you, show, for slanting the writing just that smidgen that makes Negan make sense over his victim.  I guess, though, it’s better this way.  Gives both characters more shades of gray.  

“He’s a dick but he makes sense.”  I feel like this is Angela calling us all out when we dare to harbor any lasting resentment toward Negan for what he did to Glenn.  

Speaking of--Negan.  You deserved Daryl’s punch to the mouth.  You just went a bridge too damn far.  

“Keep pushing me, Negan.  Please.”  Warning shots fired, Asshole.  You better watch yourself around the Widow Rhee.  

Have I mentioned how much I love Princess?  Her shipping the Commonwealth guards is killing me, lol.  I can’t wait ‘til she meets Carol and Daryl.  She’s going to have their number in two seconds flat.  

I like Ezekiel and Princess as a duo.  I’m not saying romantically necessarily.  I just like them in scenes together because they’re fun.  There’s sort of a protective indulgence Ezekiel seems to telegraph whenever they’re in scenes together.  Like he’s like don’t hurt this one.  I don’t know.  For all these words I’ve written, I can’t quite find the ones to adequately describe what I mean.  

The wall of the lost gives me such Battlestar Galactica feels.  What sad thoughts it inspires.  

Eugene in that Commonwealth gear.  Omigosh, lol.  So did they just sneak up and take Princess’s little Commonwealth ship’s gear when they were sneaking off on their own to have a quickie?  

Princess finding that note for Yumiko on the wall actually gave me chills.  Yeah.  I’m easy.  Just the suggestion of someone getting reunited with lost family gets me all up in my feels.  Yumiko saying “I have to stay”?  I felt that.  

Oh no.  Dog ran off!  Somebody protect my favorite fictional puppy.  Of course, Daryl goes after him.  He’s always been the sweet one.  Merle said it.  

Eh.  Negan taking Maggie’s hand at the end there would have smacked too much of Negan Sue and Maggie’s biggest plot of the season would have been prematurely dealt with so I get why they did what they did.  But c’mon.  It’s not really that big of a cliffhanger, is it?  

Okay, so Angela calls those sleeping beauty Walkers “Lurkers” and I get it.  Apparently they’re a bigger deal in the comics, but I really don’t remember seeing them all that much on the actual show.  Somebody jog my memory.  

Of fucking course, you can actually see what’s happening in the inside the episode clips.  I wish we could choose to view the episode with that lighting because some of us be blind.  And this time I mean in the more literal sense.  Not the figurative one.  

Anyway.  I’m going to stop trying to write a novel for ya’ll and move on to better things.  Like maybe a nap.  Maybe some early dinner.  I don’t know.  I’m tired AF and need a little recharge.    

Before I go, though?  Overall impression of the episode?  I liked it.  There were parts that I loved (all the ladies being badass, every second of Carol, Daryl reuniting with the Grimes babies and Dog, all things Princess, some of Negan’s one-liners about had me busting a gut, Rosita serving looks, Kelly and Lydia getting to be badass too) and parts I didn’t love (not being able to see a damn thing, Angela trying to tip the scales in Negan’s favor, not enough Carol or Aaron or Rosita, no reunion between Aunt Carol and the Grimes babies even though that picture floating around suggests it was at least shot, not being able to see a damn thing, all the Alexandria people playing follow the leader for Maggie when she’s been gone 6 years and Daryl’s right there--hell, even Father G deserves the honor over her because it’s obvious they’re not exactly on the same wavelength anymore).  

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m just glad to have our show back.    

Later, lovelies.  

The Colour of Our Voices [10]

Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 10.5 OR Chapter 11

➜ Words: 4.8k

➜ Genres: 98% Fluff, 2% Angst, Slice of Life, Broadway!AU

➜ Summary: He wasn’t supposed to hear. He wasn't supposed to know. But the instant Jimin came into your life and pulled the curtains back, you couldn't hide backstage anymore. You were no longer merely a phantom of the opera.

➜ Warning: Spoilers to the musical Les Mis.

cr.

You show up in sweats.   If you could, you’d take a swig of the rosette right about now. But you’ve long run out and decided not to buy more after the other day’s embarrassing stunt at Jimin’s doorstep.   You still cringe when you think about it.   So instead, you eat chocolate. You gnaw on the king sized bar like it’s Halloween and you’re indulging in the post-trick-or-treat spirit.    Your hair is also unwashed, a spectacular three day record now. It’s itchy at some parts and when you scratch, white fluff comes dusting from your scalp. You haven’t showered in general for a while. There’s no point, really. Not when you don’t have any arrangements, responsibilities, no job to go to.   The unemployed life isn’t actually a bad one — as long as you don’t think about the inevitable doom of your bank account and having to go into debt to pay off bills.   Your life sort of feels like that picture of that dog that’s sipping on coffee while thinking ‘this is fine’ and the room is on fire. But what can you do?   “Is she…”   “...yeah…”   “....it’s true then?”   There are whispers that you’re not unaccustomed to, stares behind your back that you can feel and sense in your peripheral vision. “...the ghost singer…”   You turn around to look and the girls immediately seal their lips, looking away. They pretend to be discussing other things, but still, you hear it all around you.   “So is she really the Phantom? How is that possible?”   “Don’t ask me.”   “Do you think she can really sing?”   “Probably not. She’s only here because it would bring in publicity. We all know that.”   Your efforts are fruitless. They’re right. You’re not going to get a role. You’re only here to satisfy people’s curiosity.    “L/N Y/N?” The girl reads off her list. “Is there a L/N Y/N here?”   Fuck it.   What do you have to lose? You’ve lost it all anyways.   “Here!”   You raise your hand, voice loud and clear. The murmuring of the girls cease once they confirm that it is you. But you pay them any mind, finishing the chocolate bar in the awkward silence. You chew your mouthful and smear your stained hand on your grey sweatpants, leaving a streak of brown on your thigh.   You toss the wrapper in the garbage.   “Uh...right this way,” the girl says as she gestures past the curtain.   Many auditions take place in closed off rooms, but it’s an open stage this time. A modest size with the pianist tucked in the corner. There are five people sitting before the front row, a panel of them — some producers, directors, writers — you don’t know and you don’t care much for their titles either.   It feels like you’re on some TV show, ready for their judgment.    Your nose runs with snot and you wipe it away with the back of your hand. “Hi.”   “You’re L/N Y/N?” There’s a shuffle of papers, people peering up at you past their glasses.   “Yes.” You swallow the last bit of chocolate in your mouth, clearing your throat. You hope your teeth aren’t stained. Well….if they are, it wouldn’t be the biggest deal.   “You worked at the Phantom of the Opera production?”   You should probably head to the supermarket after this and get some ice-cream. You’d definitely feel better with it, curled on your couch with a warm blanket and some television to drown out the silence of your apartment.   “Y/N?”   The call of your name has you focusing again. “Pardon?”   The woman is dressed cleanly in a blazer with her hair pulled back into a bun like yours. But hers is undoubtedly neater, probably holding a bunch of pins, maybe even hair-sprayed. Yours was bunched up carelessly with a stretched elastic you found on the floor of your closet.   “You worked at the Phantom production?” she repeats.   You give her a bland answer, but one that’s unfortunately the entire truth. “As an intern.”   One of them pipes up, “Can you tell us any details about your previous work at the Phantom production?”   “I did coffee runs.”   “Umm….” The younger female in the middle gestures with her hand. “Did you do anything else?”   “I swept the floor. I did a lot of paperwork and printed things out for the director there,” you list out and shrug. “I don’t know. Things like that.”   They exchange looks with one another, probably not expecting such a boring response. “Did you...contribute to the performance in any way?”   Your eyes dim. Of course — this is what they wanted to know all along. It’s the reason you’re here in the first place. But they shouldn’t have beaten around the bush. If they asked over the phone, you would’ve told them. They didn’t need to waste their time like this.   But unfortunately, the honest truth isn’t as glamorous as they think it is. “The actor couldn’t sing, so I did. Behind the curtain.”   “And how did that come about?” someone asks with a frown, and you can see the girls peeking out from the curtain to your left, listening in.   “They needed someone,” you deadpan. “I volunteered.”   “Well...alright then.” He clears his throat and the others shift uncomfortably in their seats. You wonder what it is that they wanted to hear from you, what kind of gossip they were anticipating. “What are you singing for us today?”   “Do you have a preference?”   “Uh…” They look at one another and some shake their heads. “No, not really.”   You approach the pianist with a sigh. You didn’t prepare, but after countless auditions, you know all the basic audition pieces inside out. Every lyric is embedded into your mind. Pathetically enough. But they’re all the same — they gave you the same outcome of failure.    “Do you have any sheet music?”   The pianist blinks at you and timidly points to the top of the upright piano. “You can look in the binder.”   You flip it open and grab for the first paper-clipped set, passing it to him. “Here.” Then you step up to the middle of the stage again, cueing the pianist with a lifeless hand and the notes start, light and optimistic much to your displeasure.    Usually, you’d begin to feel your palms become clammy. But instead, your fingertips are sticky from melted chocolate. “There’s been a change in me.” Your voice draws from your chest hastily without much care. “A kind of moving on.”   Typically, your heart would be pumping fast to the point where you could feel it all the way in your throat. Your mouth would go dry. A cold sweat would wash down your body. But you don’t feel any of these things.    “Though what I used to be, I still depend upon.”   Your knees don’t quake. You don’t need to hide any tremors in your hands.    It’s not a real audition after all. This is a joke.   And if anything, you feel pissed. No matter where you go, you’re strung along by people for their own entertainment.   “For now I realize. That good can come from bad.”   It’s supposed to be a touching song sung by Belle in Beauty and the Beast. It’s supposed to be gentle. Hopeful. But every word is filled with your aggression. It’s hostile and indignant. You’re exhausted at being humiliated and you wail out the lyrics in grief. It tears from your throat.    If they wanted to hear you sing, they were going to hear alright.   “That may not make me wise. But fuck,” you ad lib, “it makes me glad.”   “And I—” you belt the note in a kind of bitterness reserved for a resentful villain, and a kind of sadness bleeds into it. It’s not at all like a kind protagonist that’s meant to be a delicate princess. Your voice even warbles against your will, cracks at the top, but you don’t care. You embrace it. “I never thought I’d leave behind my childhood dreams. But I don’t mind.”   You look off to the top of the stairs in the small auditorium. You’re reminded of how you once sang on a stage like this, how a brunette boy appeared from thin air and began clapping for you.   “For now I love the world I see.” You shut your eyes to savour the memory. “No change of heart, a change in me.”   You stop. The piano slows and ends. It goes completely silent.   One of the men open their mouth and then closes it. “Um….”   You spare them from having to sugar coat it and tell you how awful you are. “Thanks for the opportunity.”   You step off the stage, grab your bag, and brush past the crowd of males and females preparing to audition. They all stare at you — but for reasons you’re wrong about. Though you don’t dwell long enough to find that their expressions aren’t of detest. You hop down the stairs and take the emergency exit out.   //   You don’t know where to begin with your belongings.   For one, you’re going to need cardboard boxes bigger than those containing your instant noodles. If you’re going to go home, you need to pack up your furniture somehow. But in the meantime, you haul out your dusty luggage from the back of your closet. You kick the busted wheel to roll it a few meters before hurling it on your bed with a sigh.   You’re not sure what clothes to leave behind and which to take with you.   The mattress dips underneath your added weight and you look over to the hanging dresses that you never go to wear, blazers and pencil skirts that are unwrinkled and were only pulled out for the occasional audition….   You stand on your feet after a prolonged moment, not yet feeling the urge to dump all the hangers onto your bed and fold up the clothes into neat squares. Instead, you put it off by heading to the kitchen for more ice-cream.   But as you grab for a spoon, you pass by that counter. The one with the abandoned ticket pushed to the side. It catches your eye and you’re suspended in your spot, feet rooted to the ground. You almost forgot — it’s tonight.   You hold the ticket up to the light. It’s a dark blue with a streak of red, a young girl on it facing the horizon. Les Misérables, a front mezzanine middle row seat.   It wouldn’t hurt to do one more thing before you begin packing to go home…   Right?   //   You’re startled when the bell at the top of the door jingles to signal your entrance.   “Welcome to the Bloom Room!” A female in a green apron turns around with a bouquet of flowers and shears in the other hand. All around her are fancy floral arrangements, from wreaths to overflowing vases. The fresh scent overwhelms your senses, vibrant hues that render you even more uncertain. “How may I help you?”   “Umm..”   She smiles softly at you. “What kind of flowers are you looking for? Anything specific at all?”   You glance at the surroundings, still unsure. Maybe you should get something that’ll convey how sorry you are, for showing up drunk at his doorstep, for saying all those mean things to him. Something that’ll make amends, to tell him you really miss him, his presence, friendship.   You should get something that’ll communicate how thankful you are for him — for always being there even when you pushed him away, for always supporting you, for being your backbone when you needed it.   “Just….something nice, please,” you end up telling her with a modest smile.   “Certainly.” She leads the way, through the shelves and cases of flowers and bouquets. The florist glances at you, sincere in her gaze. “What’s the special occasion?”   “Oh no, there’s not a special occasion.” You shake your head and your hands, and the volume of your voice quiets as you try to explain. “Well, not really. I’m just bringing it with me to a show tonight. Someone I know is performing for the first time on stage.”   “How exciting! What’s your relationship with this person?” She stops at a station that has jars filled with single flowers, an array of brown paper and ribbons on the side. “Friends? Family member? Boyfriend or girlfriend?”   “Umm…..” You don’t know why it’s taking you so long to think about it. “Friends…?”   And you certainly don’t know why there’s a hint of doubt in your voice either.   The florist’s pupils flicker up to you, a hint of a knowing smile gracing her features. “How about peonies? They’re very delicate and I think it’ll be perfect to bring with you to a show. Seven of them and some baby’s breath and lilacs.”   “That sounds nice.” You nod and she begins to choose them. But you wonder if it’s strange to bring flowers to him. You clear your throat. “Is it…” The woman turns to look at you. “Is it weird to give flowers to a guy?”   “Not at all,” she assures you. “Trust me, everyone loves to get flowers.”   “Do you…..think I should deliver it or give it to him?” You’re unsure of what protocol is. You’ve never bought flowers for anyone before.   “Oh, you should give it to him,” she tells you without a trace of doubt. “That’s just me, but I think it’s much more personal to hand-deliver.”   You nod and there’s a moment of quiet before you remember something. It flickers into your mind, a memory hitting you in the face. And your eyes light up.   “C-Can I get them in purple?”   //   The show starts at seven thirty, so you arrive twenty minutes beforehand.    Your ticket gets scanned and you shuffle into the auditorium. There are lots of people, a sea of glamour, couples going on dates to musical fanatics eager to watch their favourite theater performance to critics ready to analyze the show. You tug on your little black number that ends at your knees — it’s modest and simple, but one of the many dresses that you never got to wear. But there's not a lot of time to be self-conscious or to second guess yourself. The people are a tide that rushes in, and you’re overwhelmed, pushed forward by their force and unable to escape.   The theater is grand, brightly lit with the red curtains pulled down. You find your seat and hug the small bouquet of flowers in your lap.   When the show finally begins, the lights dim down completely and it’s glorious. Music begins to play, thundering through the auditorium, and men march onto the stage holding sledgehammers. “Look down, look down. Don't look 'em in the eye.”   Your eyes search for Jimin, but he’s not here.   If you remember the details of his role correctly, you have a feeling he won’t show up for a while. So you sit back and try to relax and watch. But the anticipation and excitement of seeing him keeps you on alert. Any time there are characters entering the stage, your eyes always scan across.   It’s not until an hour later that you finally see the familiar boy at the very corner of the scene, catching the edges of the spotlight. Immediately, a smile tugs into your cheeks.    Jimin’s singing with the others, wearing a long brown coat with disoriented hair. He plays the part of a young man from a rich family well. You can practically see the fire in his eyes.   “Look down and show some mercy if you can! Look down, look down, upon your fellow man!”    The song is similar to an anthem, riling up the crowd for a revolution. “It'll come, it'll come, it'll come... It'll come, it'll come, it'll come…”   Jimin doesn’t have a main role, but he’s still on the stage of Broadway, singing with many others. You’re happy to see him, elated that you know the boy that’s actually performing, and you have to hold back from giving a sudden standing ovation.    “Before the barricades arise?”   The crowd breaks up as the police enter the stage and just like that he disappears again. But ten minutes later, it’s his time to shine again. Jimin’s one of the nine men — the main character, Marius, and the supporting character, Enjolras, taking the limelight, but he’s one of the many students sitting around a table, at a supposed bar.   “Red!” one of them sings.   The male playing Marius faces the audience. “I feel my soul on fire!”    “Black!”   “My world if she's not there!” the main actor responds with vigor.   “Red!” Jimin belts with others.    “The colour of desire!”   “Black!” he sings again, and you can pick up his voice between the timbre of others.    “The colour of despair!”   Jimin sings with the actors and it echoes throughout the theater. While he never sings a line by himself, you can still hear his tone ever so slightly before it melts away. “The dark of ages past! Red — a world about to dawn! Black — the night that ends at last!”   His appearance is sweet albeit short. You see him one more time right before the intermission when the cast comes onto the stage and sings for the hope of the future in ‘One Day More’.    Afterwards, it’s a fifteen minute break. It’s an hour and a half through the show, but the intermission allows people to relieve themselves at the restrooms or grab a drink at the bar. In your case, you stick around, grasping the bouquet. The brown paper crinkles under your grip and you peer at the curtain as if hoping he’ll run out.   Instead, you catch Jimin coming out from the left door as the other people are spilling out of the auditorium.   But it’s bad timing.   He doesn’t come to where you are, but towards the orchestra section, right by one of the closest rows to the stage. An older woman and man stand, clapping and jumping. He runs into the woman’s arms and squeezes him.   It’s his parents, and you smile before turning around to walk away, not wanting to interrupt the intimate moment with your presence. His parents must be proud.   You’re happy for him.   //   The show continues afterwards. Jimin makes a few more cameos here and there without singing any lyrics, simply in the crowd at the barricades. Although, he does say a few lines.   “See! The people unite!” — “So what are we going to do with this snake in the grass?” — “You wear an army uniform.” And when Éponine dies, he comforts Marius. “She will not die in vain…”   But Jimin does sing one line by himself in the song ‘Drink With Me’. His eyes sweep across the audience floor as he steps forward, pretending to take a swig of the empty beer bottle. “Here’s to pretty girls who went to our heads!”    And you swear he looks right at you.   As if he had memorized where you would be seated.   But Jimin looks away right after, his eyes passing your spot. You release your held breath, realizing it was your imagination. There was no way he could actually see you.   The show lasts another forty minutes, filled with the spectacular performances of the leads, their beautiful voices that captivate your attention and everyone else’s. During the finale when the storyline has wrapped up, everyone comes onto the stage again. You see him one last time there.   Jimin is singing, smiling wide, looking out at the audience.    It could not be a better Broadway debut.   You muse that he truly belongs on the stage — there’s no place else he should be. Along with the rest of the audience, you give a standing ovation. The applause roars throughout the auditorium, actors and actresses bowing and waving goodbye.    When it dies down, the bright lights come on again. People begin trickling out and you’d leave as well, if not for the bouquet of flowers you’re still holding onto.   You look around. “U...Um excuse me…”   You stop someone who looks like a worker and they blink at you, confused. You swallow hard and hand over the flowers. “C-Can you give this to Park Jimin? He was an actor in the production.”   “Sorry.” The teenager awkwardly points to a family that’s gathering their belongings to show he’s with them and he offers a kind smile. “I don’t work here.”   “O-Oh. Sorry.” You bow your head and they say it’s no problem. But you’re still cringing from embarrassment, and now you don’t know what to do, how to give it to him without having to face him. You should’ve thought about this better.   But before you can contemplate any solution, you hear a sudden—   “Y/N?!”   Jimin’s sweaty. Like he sprinted here as fast as he could the second the curtains fell. His parents are nowhere in sight, probably in the lobby, but he's here with you. Still in costume. The nineteenth century french clothing — blue trench coat, puffy white shirt underneath, brown slacks.   His hair is riled up with what looks like soot pressed to his cheeks, makeup of some sort that makes him appear even more disoriented and soiled. But he doesn’t care. You don’t either.   His chest rises and falls as he tries to catch his breath. The two of you stare at each other, pupils locked into one another’s, holding the other’s attention. Captivated. Then after a beat, the biggest and goofiest grin spreads into his face. It’s enormous, causing his eyes to crinkle into half-moons.    “You came! You...actually came!”   “Y-Yeah…” You’re stunned and you tear your eyes away, the intensity becoming too much for you to handle. Your arm extends. “These are for you.”   “Flowers?!” He breathlessly giggles and takes them. Jimin doesn’t fail to notice that they’re all shades of purple, from lilac to violet. Because of you, purple has become his new favourite colour. “I love them. Thank you!”   “C-Congratulations on your debut, Jimin.”   He grins, so much that his rosy cheeks look like they’re about to burst. His teeth peek out, eyes crescent moons. “Thank you. I’m glad you could make it.”   “S-Same here…..” You don’t know why he’s gazing at you so intently at you. It makes it hard to keep eye contact. “You were really amazing.”   “I didn’t have that many lines,” the boy giggles, still giddy and hyperactive. It makes you smile.   “But you were still good.” There’s a lot of things you’ve been wanting to tell him, a million versions of an apology that you’ve practiced in the mirror. And now that he’s here and you’re no longer staring at a reflection of yourself, you gather your courage to face your regrets. “You deserve it, Jimin. I’m...sorry for everything that I said. I’m sorry for being resentful towards you. I’m sorry for being jealous. It wasn’t your fault. And all those things I said to you, I didn’t mean it. A-at the time I did, but now I don’t...I don’t know if that makes it any better but...yeah….I just…..you were great, you worked hard, so…”   It’s the shittiest apology. Worse than the first one you practiced. But you can’t get it out right.    You feel nervous for the first time in Jimin’s presence. A kind of anxiousness that doesn’t make you feel sick. Rather, you feel something else in your stomach — it’s fluttery. Something uncertain brewing there, stirring at its pits.   It feels similar in your chest. It isn’t a foreign sensation, but one you had ignored for a long time now.    Jimin suddenly laughs, noisy and hearty. It squeaks, a higher pitched giggle. It makes you look at him, eyes hesitantly lifting off the floor. And then you yelp.   Jimin picks you up right off the ground, arms locked around your waist. He spins you in a circle, squeezing ticklish laughter out of you. Your hands immediately come to grab his shoulders. The boy is unable to contain the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the overwhelming joy of you being here.   “Jimin!” you squeal.   He laughs. “God, I’m so happy that you’re here!”   “Did you think I’d miss it?” you quip and it feels like forever since you’ve been able to joke around like this. “Not for the world, Park!”   He sets you down to your feet again. His swelling smile might just break his face. He nuzzles into you, hair tickling your forehead. Jimin hugs you tight. He’s so happy, you can practically feel it radiate off of his skin. And your chest blooms with pride instead of envy. “Your Broadway debut was amazing. It only gets better from—”   “Can I please kiss you?”   Your heart stutters.   Jimin pulls himself apart from you. The sudden question has you blinking twice. But the temptation for Jimin has gotten too much. If there’s one thing that could make tonight even more perfect, it would be him kissing you…   You glance at his plush lips before your pupils flicker back to his eyes.   “You don’t need to ask.”   Just like that, he roughly tugs you in by the small of your back. The flowers lose a few petals from the harsh motion. But Jimin doesn’t care. He kisses you like he’s been waiting to do it for months now. He kisses you like he wants you. He’s hungry for it and savours your whimper that’s muffled between his soft lips. He’s been wanting to hear your voice like this.   Jimin’s half-lidded eyes soak up your pleasured expression before he gives in, shutting them to succumb to your scent. He breathes you in and you become helpless in his arms, the pad of your fingers pressing against the nape of his neck. You’re unsure if you want to part just to gasp for air, or if you want to push him even closer.   But your thoughts turn to mush as his hot tongue licks inside your mouth, eager. The pair of you don’t care that other people might be watching, that you’re placed in the middle of the auditorium, that you’ve stolen the spotlight.   When the both of you break apart, you stumble back from each other, mouths swollen. You wipe away his saliva that’s made your lips shiny with the back of your hand. The both of you are dazed and embarrassed, catching your breaths, his own cheeks reddened.    You divert your eyes from one another. But then infectious giggles spill over.    God, you might’ve been in love with Park Jimin for a long time now.

Director Lee sits at his desk with a sigh.   He shuffles his papers before sitting back in his swivel chair, unsure. Right at that moment, a blonde, lean man enters with a hot brewing cup of coffee. The assistant sets it on his desk.   “Are you sure you should be taking in caffeine this late at night?”   “Not like I’ll be able to sleep anyway.” He brings the cup up for a small sip. “I’m still deciding on the main cast.”   “Who do you have?”   “The casting director narrowed it down to these people.” He lays out the applicants of possible options and sighs. “Now I just have to decide who’s going to be part of this and who’s who. You should’ve been there today, Kim. If you weren’t late, you might be able to help me right now.”   “Sorry.” Taehyung sheepishly grins. “My alarm clock didn’t ring.”   The director is disgruntled, but still playful. “Same excuse every time, Kim.”   Taehyung laughs, but still tries his best to assist. He scans over the applications haphazardly, but then his breath hitches. He turns his body to get a better look and his eyes grow wide, recognizing you. “Oh. What about her?”   The director follows to where his assistant is pointing and hums a low note. “Oh. Her. We called her since we heard she was the ghost singer of Phantom.”   “Oh yeah.” The blonde nods. “I heard about that.”   “I was thinking about tossing her papers.”   “Why?” Taehyung looks at his mentor, genuinely curious.   “Well, her audition was….” He struggles to find the right words. “Impactful. It was really something. She stood out, that’s for sure.”   “Then….?”   “I just don’t know if we could find the right place for her.” He shrugs and taps his finger against the armrest of his chair. “She might outperform the other actors and actresses.”   Taehyung makes a noncommittal sound at the back of his throat. “I don’t know. But I think she should be considered for a role. That’s just me, but I have a good feeling about her. You said it was impactful, right? Isn’t that what we should be going for?”   Director Lee glances at his assistant, but Taehyung simply smiles and waltzes out the room.

Entry 14: Groans of Increasing Discomfort

Heading back to the castle, it seems I’ve accumulated a ton of new buildings to buy. I can buy a statue of Mozu which probably costed more than her entire village, a ballista and shuriken launcher to use in castle battles, a bunch of puppets to give me nightmares (they fight for you in castle battles too I guess), a shop to buy new units (both generics and clones of the soldiers I already have), and a hot spring. Because fanservice. You can run into other units in there, everyone is in their underwear and blushing, half of the decisions that were made in this game’s development were solely for the sake of horniness, yada yada yada. I actually tried to leave and the game stopped me, because Sakura was showing up and it’s necessary to get that bath time with the teenage girl. The hot springs does have a use, admittedly, but it won’t become apparent for a few chapters.

Support: Lady Corrin/Reina

C: Corrin sees Reina talking to an old man and asks her about it. Reina explains that he reminds her of her parents, who cut her out of their life when she became a soldier. And also, apparently, don’t give a shit about her being the personal retainer to the goddamn Queen. Actually, wait, hold on. Where the hell was Reina when Mikoto got blown up? You know what? Her parents should be ashamed of her, she’s a terrible bodyguard.

B: Corrin tells Reina she should visit her parents. Which makes sense; Corrin points out that she’s an orphan and wishes for any relationship with a parent, no matter how strained. Reina tells Corrin that she became a soldier because she really, really, really likes killing people. Corrin volunteers to find out how Reina’s parents are doing.

A: Corrin tells Reina that her parents are doing fine. Reina retcons the last conversation by revealing that she became a soldier to protect her family’s peasants. Nowadays, though, it’s all about that murder.

Review: This one was fine. Corrin wanting to help Reina is a nice bit of characterization, but there isn’t much more to say about this one.

Now, you may be wondering why I referred to Corrin as Lady Corrin in the last bit. Reina actually has completely different supports depending on Corrin’s sex. Most characters have identical supports with Corrin, or if not that just minor dialogue changes (For example, Camilla and Laslow, off the top of my head). But characters like Reina, who can only support Corrin, get two conversations. I suppose it’s for the best, considering those characters would otherwise be incredibly out of focus as opposed to merely extremely out of focus.

Support: Lord Corrin/Reina

C: Corrin sees Reina carrying an apron, which weirds him out, because of the whole murder hobo thing.

B: Reina reveals her sheltered noblewoman housewife in training turned soldier backstory and says that the apron was a gift from her parents before they cut her out.

A: Reina says that her parents cried when she became a knight and that she keeps the apron out of gratitude for them.

S: Corrin, off screen, goes back to Hoshido to talk to Reina’s parents. Apparently they’re proud of her. And he asked to marry her, which she accepts, because she cannot imagine life without him. Apparently.

Review: So, these are kinda the same support? I mean, the actual words are different, but they cover the same information. It’s weird that they were split into two conversations. Whatever. The second one is better, because it gives this really fun characterization of Reina being a friendly team mom when she isn’t stabbing people so she can hear them gasp their last breaths. Also, it resolves the plotline. On the other hand, the S-Rank is really mediocre. Reina saying she relies on Corrin daily is ridiculous, given what we’ve seen. Overall, the problem with Reina is that she just has these two conversations. And one with Kanna, I guess, but that one is recycled from other characters. If Reina was a more fleshed out character that interacted with other characters, she might work as a character. But, as it stands, all she has is her recruitment and two mediocre supports.

Support: Hinata/Takumi

C: Hinata kicks down the door to Takumi’s room so he can tell him that he’s going to start a fighting tournament so he can beat people up.

B: Hinata beats people up.

A: Hinata reveals that he’s beating people up to cheer up Takumi, because Takumi looks happy when he cheers him on. I feel like he could have, I don’t know, asked Takumi how to cheer him up in advance instead of just assuming and doing something he said he didn’t want, but whatever. The two bond over Hinata beating people up.

Review: I think this one helped me hone in on why a lot of Fire Emblem supports don’t work. Supports are, by their very nature, just dialogue. So, when you get a support like this, that relies heavily on something happening, it ends up as telling not showing. That’s why the best supports rely on dialogue rather than explain something that happened off screen.

Support: Kagero/Saizo

C: Kagero and Saizo get into an argument over how to train royal guards, with Kagero pointing out that Saizo’s hard as nails “be ready to die for the monarchy” speech just stressed people out. Saizo blames the new recruits for being inexperienced.

B: Saizo endangers the life of his men to succeed on a mission and Kagero calls him out on it. Saizo points out that victory requires sacrifice and war is unforgiving. The two of them point out that they’ve had this exact argument again and again, and it’s the reason they broke up when they were dating.

A: Kagero and Saizo win a big battle together and admit that they work well together.

S: Saizo points out that their relationship failed because they kept trying to change each other and forgot that they loved each other. The two of them decide to give it another shot.

Review: This one has a much more solemn and reserved tone than most supports, which helps it stand out. It isn’t great, but it has a good tone and I actually don’t dislike Saizo and Kagero as a couple. Them being a flawed couple that broke up over their differences, then trying it again after maturing and becoming more rounded people is a lot more realistic than most relationships in this game.

Birthright Chapter 12: Dark Reunion

The gang arrives in Cyrkensia, a city in Nestra, a country that I forgot existed because this is the only part of the game where it is mentioned. Cyrkensia is a popular vacation spot with a big opera house that appeared in the intro.

A kitsune named Kaden goes up to the party and explains that he’s in town to repay a favor to someone. This introduction feels like when you introduce a new player halfway through a D&D campaign and they quickly explain their deal after walking up to the party.

Kaden introduces his friend Layla, who explains that she’s a singer at the opera house, but can’t perform tonight because her mother is dying. Also she’s singing for King Garon, the evil king who is on vacation a week after starting a brutal war. Azura volunteers to perform in Layla’s steed so the party can do some patricide. Now, you may be thinking, did the game do the stupid trope of having Azura and Layla look identical? Surprisingly, no, they didn’t. Everything else about this chapter is so cliche I assumed they would, but they actually remembered Zola has illusion magic that the party never uses. Also, because we helped the person Kaden has to help, he now owes us a favor, and will totally kill dozens of soldiers in a war he doesn’t give a shit about if we ask him to.

Kaden

Kaden is a Kitsune, this game’s equivalent of Laguz or Taguel from past games. He wields a special weapon called a Beast Stone that allows him to fight by turning into a big ass fox. His personal skill heals units who heal him. He’s a glass canon who does extra damage to cavalry, giving him an interesting niche. His human design is fine, but not remarkable. His fox design is cool, especially regarding the blue fire that floats around him; that said, the spikes on the legs are weird. Personality wise, he seems to be a go lucky idiot who stumbled into joining us.

When the party arrives at the opera house, Corrin notices Elise, who looks sad. Azura, who doesn’t look like Layla for the player, goes on stage. Azura sings the only song she knows, the magic one that breaks mind control, which makes Garon...groan in increasing discomfort, which makes me also feel discomforted. Also Azura does a bunch of crazy water magic, which is a bit extra.

Garon orders his troops to capture us, because Zola betrayed us. Gasp. Shocking. Zola does admittedly beg Garon to spare us. Garon kills him for even suggesting it, right in front of his young daughter, because Garon is a cartoon supervillain. Zola dies begging Corrin to forgive him and Garon calls Corrin weak for having sympathy. Takumi threatens to kill Garon, but Corrin points out that they need to leave if they want to live. Which is smart; Garon has ridiculously high stats.

This battle sees our units fighting on boats floating in the opera house, which is a cool setting for a battle. On turn three, some reinforcements arrive. Xander, who’s still pissed about the whole traitor thing. With him are Peri, a cavalier with cotton candy hair, and...is that Inigo? That’s Inigo, from Awakening. That’s fucking Inigo! What is Inigo doing here, and more importantly, why is he working for the very obviously evil bad guys?

There’s a Dragon Vein you can use to freeze all the water, which would make this level easier, if it wasn’t already a broken easy level. To beat this level, you need to get Corrin to a specific spot. Corrin can’t walk on water, so you need to fight through an onslaught of tough enemies. There’s just one problem: Hinoka or Subaki can carry Corrin directly to the end. I fought the enemies, because why not, but I didn’t have to.

I ignored Garon because he’s able to one shot literally every unit in my army, but I did decide to take on team Xander. Side note, I looked up Garon’s battle quote after the fact, and he says this to Corrin: “I may not be your father, but I will slap you down like a child.” I take back everything bad I ever said about Garon.

Peri, as it turns out, is a sadistic sociopath, because Nohr. Inigo...excuse me, Laslow, blushes when we stab him. And Xander steals Inigo’s famous crit quote from the Princess Bride.

Peri and Laslow went down easy, but Xander was almost as bad as Garon. Even with his bonus against cavalry, Kaden only did one point of damage per hit. I had to resort to the classic strategy of throwing disposable soldiers at him until he was weak enough for Corrin to Dragonstone.

This was a great map, with a creative setting, multiple ways to approach it, tough bosses, and an exploit that makes it completely skippable. Still, it’s the only Birthright chapter with a creative goal, so it deserves a little credit.

After escaping the opera house, Xander chases after us, despite being defeated ten seconds earlier. Elise gets in his way, telling him that if he’s going to fight someone, he should fight her. As Corrin runs, Xander warns that it is her destiny to fight him.

After escaping Xander again, Corrin finds Azura collapsed on the ground, exhausted. She’s going to die at the end of the game, isn’t she?

After All This Time

Summary: You’re Steve’s sister, who fought with him and Bucky during the war, but one day after Bucky’s death, you disappear. Steve believes it’s because your hidden feelings for Bucky. Almost 80 years later, both men see someone long lost from their pasts, and the welcome is not as warm as they both would like.

Warnings: angst, violence, swearing, did I mention angst?

Pairing: Bucky x Reader, Steve x platonic!sister!Reader

Word Count: 2403

A/N: So this is my first ever request, so be patient with me, please. The full length request is here: Bucky x reader. Where the avengers are sent to intrude destruction of hydra and shield bases and when they find out who has been doing it they are horrified to see that it is Steve’s little sister who they were forced to leave behind when they went to war. (Y/n went to hydra with the goal being to kill her brother and Bucky for abandoning her and forgetting her)

I changed the request a little, hope the nonnie who requested it is ok with that. I listened to this song while writing it, so here you go. Let me know what you guys think. I might have made a mistake with some of the history/geography things, so feel free to call me out. Love you all so so much.

Masterlist

Steve knew his mission. It was actually fairly easy, easier than the last few missions he had to endure. Buildings associated with both HYDRA and SHIELD were being blown up almost every day. Although neither of the organisations existed anymore, the person or the agency behind these attacks could have easily destroyed valuable material, crucial for Earth’s further development. Moreover, whoever was doing was being reckless and hurt a large number of people in the process.

It’s been going on for almost two weeks. When the first blew up, nobody really cared, thinking it was a coincidence. But by the end of week one, 5 facilities were destroyed. Nobody really cared about the buildings as such, even though they could still serve some purpose in the future, reconstructing them into inhabitable properties.

It was the fifth one in a row which cause the biggest fuss because it was precisely that one in which a few civilians were injured. None of them fatally, but that didn’t matter to the Avengers. Steve and Bucky decided that they could take whoever was doing it on their own, taking a few days away from the whole team to recharge and catch some assholes in the process.

Because they didn’t have any idea who could be behind something like that, destroying buildings of agencies working in direct opposition to each other, they had to calculate their next move. There have been two mishaps, once they thought the destroyers would come to Siberia, HYDRA base near Omsk, but they later found out the people actually blew up HYDRA’s another base, in Kazakhstan. Steve and Bucky knew that SHIELD was next because that has been the pattern for all of the attacks. One HYDRA. One SHIELD. And repeat. But they couldn’t catch them there either.

Their next best guess, based on the trajectory of the attacks, which were all situated in Eastern Europe now, that they wouldn’t want to stray too far from that. There was one particular hidden HYDRA base that Bucky liked for the attack. It wasn’t the best-known location, but the attackers proved that they knew a lot about hidden places. This one was in Georgia, in the Northwest region, because it was excellent political placement. It was extremely close to Russia, but the Georgian government has been more lenient ever since its independence. And because there were still two different sides of revolutionaries fighting against each other, giving HYDRA a perfect hiding place in the midst of it all.

Steve and Bucky were laying on a hilltop, hidden by a bunch of firs, and looking down at the base. It looked just like any bunker, but at a closer look, one realised that it must be massive, because of the door and the construction itself.

They felt like it was a dead-end after another half day, and were close to giving up and telling the rest of the team to come up with a different strategy. But then, from the corner of Bucky’s eye, he saw careful movement. The whole team thought that it must have been at least another team of people, being able to pull something as big as this mission.

But Bucky could see only one, slim person, and from the movement of them, he assumed it must have been a woman. Bucky nudged Steve lightly, and he immediately gave his full attention to the target. They both watched the woman nearing the bunker, but then, as if she could see them, she turned around, faced the hill and crossed her arms.

The men shared a confused look but stayed hidden. They weren’t sure if the girl could really see them or if she was waiting on somebody, just coincidentally turning in the direction of their hideout.

“You know, I can see you, boys. And I’m pretty sure the serums in your bodies are making you hear me. So what do you say, will you come down or should I go up to you?”

As soon as she spoke up, the blood froze in both Bucky’s and Steve’s bodies. They knew that voice, and they both knew it intimately. But it couldn’t have been. No. You were supposed to be dead a long time now. You were supposed to have a normal life and then died peacefully. This wasn’t possible. It was some kind of trick to lure them both out. And by the look on Steve’s face, it was working.

Bucky wanted to stop his friend, but he was in too much shock himself to be able to move. They told him you were dead, that they killed you because he misbehaved.

Steve was the first one down the hill, walking cautiously with his shield in front of him, but fast enough that had there been any mine, he would’ve blown up. But he didn’t care about any of it. If it was right, and he prayed to God every step he took closer to you, that it was, he would’ve been the happiest man on Earth. His little sister.

You were one of the few women admitted in the US Army, the lack of volunteers made the government take few skilled women as well. You always like to fight, being more a guy than Steve used to be pre-serum. You ran around with him and Bucky, always bugging them and tailing them, making your mother sick with worry. You used to be grounded so much that Steve actually thought that you’d never see anything else than the school.

It was a few days after Bucky fell off the wagon that you disappeared, and because Steve knew about your crush on his best friend, he never made too much of it. You were tired and heartbroken, losing who you called the love of your life, even if Bucky didn’t know anything about it. He assumer that you finally had enough left for good for Brooklyn, and you were safe. The whole war was so chaotic that he didn’t really have the time to look into it. And when he woke up, he just assumed you died alongside your husband, or whatever, and that you had a happy life.

But here you were, clear as day.

“What is it, big bro, you look as if you saw a ghost?” You smirked at him, and he took in your appearance entirely. Your hair was much longer than you used to keep it in the 40s, and the right side of your skull was hairless. At a closer look, he could see a shining metal covering where should have been your bone.

“Y/N, what, what are you doing here?” He stuttered, and he could hear someone coming behind him, realising that it’s Bucky, finally getting up and running down to meet you. The look on his face was no less cautious than Steve’s, but a great sorrow was displayed alongside it.

“What does it look like I’m doing, Stevie? I’m making the world a better place, without HYDRA and Shield,” you said, your face and voice completely void of emotions. Steve wanted to run to you and pull you into a bear hug, but the hand on your holster was telling him that it wouldn’t be the best idea he had.

“What happened to you? I thought you left the war and led a happy life. I went into the ice, knowing that you were taken care of.”

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. “You’ve always been the naive one, Stevie. The day I “left”, I was abducted by HYDRA. You were their target, the serum and all of that, but because they couldn’t get to you, they got me. And oh boy, did they have their fun with me. They trained the Winter Soldier and me here side by side, and we were created as a deadly duo, at first. Right, Soldier?” You turned your attention to Bucky this time, and so did Steve, and he could see the hurting all over Bucky’s face.

“Why, why didn’t you tell me when you woke up that my sister was still held captive, Bucky?” Steve asked with disbelief laced in his voice.

Bucky dropped his head between his shoulders, breathing heavily, trying to not let the situation get the better of him. He needed to stay calm and controlled.

“Because they told me she was dead,” Bucky whispered, and if the two people in front of him weren’t superhumans, they would have no chance catching what he said.

“Why are the two of you so trusting, huh? One trusts his instinct to the fault, and the other trusts the organisation making a monster out of him. Wow, you two are extremely stupid, I never realised this.”

Steve and Bucky stayed quiet, knowing that you were right. They automatically believed that you were either safe or dead and moved on, never looking into it.

“That Steve believed such a thing, I’m not surprised. Pissed, sure, but not surprised. But you Bucky? After all, we’ve been through together? How could you just forget all about me so easily?”

You wanted to stay strong, but your voice betrayed you. The little crack made both men look up to you. Bucky could see tears welling up in your eyes, despite you trying to keep your game face on.

“I never forgot, doll. I’ve been thinking about you every single day! They took you away from me, and I never forgave myself for it!” He was screaming now, tears streaming down his face. He always thought that your death was his fault. That he lost you because he was disobedient. Hydra came in after a failed mission, grabbing you by the neck and dragging you away from him. He was in his Winter Soldier mode, he couldn’t feel much, but he knew you were important to him. And when they came back without you, they told him that you were dead because of him. That his failing resulted in your death.

“They did things to me that I never dreamed off in my worst nightmares! And every night I hoped you would remember me and would come barging in the door, saving me. I wasn’t strong enough without you, and the second they realised it, I was just a test bunny for them. All of the things they needed for the new generations of Winter Soldiers, they tested on me.” You were now crying as well, letting your emotions run for the first time in a while.

Steve was so confused that his brows couldn’t furrow any more. He was looking between the two of you, both crying and shaking with all the bottled up emotions.

“They tried to breed us, you know, Stevie? They told us we would be the perfect specimen, so they had us out of the Winter Soldier mode for a while, letting us be humans and breed. But when it wouldn’t happen for months, they used some kind of chemicals to prevent us from ever running away and trying on our own.”

“And we fell in love during those time,” Bucky whispered sadly.

“Obviously not enough for you to fight for me,” you said bitterly and turned around from them, wiping your tears away.

“You were the two I could always count on, or at least I thought so, and when I realised that I was all alone, it broke me. I got free from Hydra and roamed the Earth, trying to do some good with the powers I acquired. But then I saw you in New York, Steve, fighting the alien ships, all glorious and famous. And then Germany happened, and I realised that both of you were alive and that neither of you ever looked for me.

So I made a straightforward plan, destroying both the agency that built me and the one that created you, Steve. I hope they would send both of you, so we could have some fun one last time.”

Bucky made a step towards you, but you quickly pulled out a little device, which looked like a detonator. Neither of you stood close enough to the bunker for the explosion to hurt you, but the boys still didn’t want to risk anything.

“I wanted to see you one last time. I thought I’d kill us all, but seeing the two of you,” you scoffed a little at your own emotions, “I can’t do that. I love you two too much, I might be a ruthless killer, but I can’t hurt my boys, however stupid they are.”

“What are you talking about, Y/N? Don’t talk about death when we just found you.” Steve pleaded with you, his face constricted in pain.

You smiled and took the few steps that were between you and hugged him tightly. “I’m in so much pain, Stevie, and no matter what, it will never go away. The things they did to me and the things that I did… I can’t move on. But I love you, even if I hated you for the longest time. Be brave and do good, big brother.” You whispered against his cheek and kissed him lightly.

You then stepped away and looked at Bucky, who looked like he might blow up from all the tension in his body.

“You. Forgive yourself for everything. You are a good guy in the core, I know that for a fact. I’ve always loved you even if I blamed you for a lot that happened to me. I’m sorry, James. You’ll be fine, you got that punk right here, and you two can tackle anything that will come your way.”

You kissed his lips, remembering the feeling of his plump lips against yours. You were meant to be, but the fate hated the two of you and didn’t want to let you be happy.

You smiled at them sadly, and before they could react, you sprinted towards the bunker and pushed the button in your hand, and for a split second, you finely felt free.

The scene left behind you was heartbreaking. Both men were crying hysterically on their knees, flames licking around them, but they didn’t see nor feel them. They just felt the anguish inside their souls, losing you once again. They both hoped that a new era was starting, the three of you together again, but it was ripped away from them again, and this time, there was no turning back.

Bucky Taglist

@this-kitten-is-smitten​ @sebbbystaaan​ @paradisiacalsparks​ @crazybutconfidentaf​ @owlyannah​ @lassini​ @s-trawberryv-eins​

Marvel Taglist

@voltage-my2dlove​ @kneel-begyourpardon​ @lumar014​ @ptrs-prkrs​

Forever Tag:

@eileenalone​ @sasbb23​ @p8tn0lish​ @coffeebooksandfandom​ @waiting4inspiration​ @caswinchester2000​ @mogaruke​

💥hewwo can I pwease get a romantic male matchup for bnha (darkbox bc I live for angst) (music box) when you have the time uwu

Levi he/him gay entp supposedly (also if it's not too much to ask please no characters under the age of 18 please)

I've been described as having a strong and loud personality, I'm extroverted and outspoken. I'm pretty eccentric too.

I value friendship, kindness and standing up for others.

Goal wise I'm pretty aimless. I dont have any goals, if I die well I guess that's it babey. In the meantime I'm just here to help animals and people who need it.

Positive traits: I always stick up for people in need, I'm good at reading people, I'm good with animals, I love to make people smile and laugh, cheerful, good at talking my way out of bad situations, uhm. Friendly!

Negative traits would be: hot headed, loud, stubborn, arrogant, comes across as intimidating:( good at getting into bad situations, gets into fights very often. Can be spiteful, I've been described as a pyromaniac so theres that. Can be sadistic

What pisses me off: my father. I can and will cause trouble for that man for as long as I live. And people who pick on the weak.

My hobbies and interests areeee: true crime babey! Crying over video games, baking, the occult, taking naps, dream interpretations and tarot readings

Likes: animals, cats specifically, stars, fire, sunsets, supposedly haunted places, storms, being dramatic for the hell of it, tormenting people in a good hearted way

Dislikes: uhhhh hot weather I guess.

Quirks: uh I have 5 cats! Ones my fathers but he never takes care of his cat so i pretty much count him as my own (plus he likes me more than my dad and it pisses my dad off hehe) I have weirdly accurate intuition, it makes reading people easy, knowing what they want to hear and what they dont.

Uhhh dates and relationship wise I'm honestly happy doing whatever my s/o wants to do. All I want is to see their face light up.

My love language is physical touch, I dont like touching people but if it's someone I feel strongly about youd have to pry me away from them.

I once got kicked out of a library for starting a fight in it, trashy I know but I wasnt going to stand there and do nothing while my friends were being bullied and pressured into getting involved with a really dodgy man. I scared the bullies off for good at least B) they never bothered my friend again babey

Oh I'm also known around the area I live in as someone who's good at finding homes of lost pets. Often times I come across a lost animal and befriend it in no time and use my connections to find its family.

Sorry if this was rly long and thank you for your time!! I hope you have a fantastic day uwu if anything's too difficult to come up with ideas for I'm more than happy for you to change anything to make it easier for you too!

♡︎ matchup for anon

heya! here i am with another late matchup but i hope you still see this. i'm sorry about the delay (╯_╰)

bnha: i match you with . . .

natsuo todoroki !!

• this was one of those "heureka!" moments for me. you both hate your dads and hot weather? it's a match made in heaven! okay jk, these are just nice add-ons.

• what really made me consider Natsuo were your values and personality. kindness and friendships are important to both of you. Natsuo's a medical student so i am convinced helping others is high on his priority list too. he loves your driven and passionate nature because he doesn't go sugarcoating bs either.

• you're definitely the more energetic one while Natsuo only gets hot-headed about the things that are the most important to him. i think it's a good compromise, you can help each other out :)

• he was a little taken aback and cautious of your explosiveness at first but warmed up to it quickly after learning what a kind person you really were. now he thinks your dramatic attitude is funny during your sillier moments ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

• speaking of, you lads met at an animal shelter. there had been a dog that was astray in the neighbourhood of his home, so Natsuo, being a responsible boyo, took it to the local shelter.

• then there you were, standing by the help desk with five kittens wrapped in your jacket in your arms. apparently someone had been trying to drown them so you'd taken care of the situation accordingly.

• Natsuo understood jumping into a lake to rescue the poor animals because he would have done the same, but you could have had just called the police?? it was extremely ridiculous but admirable at the same time to beat all those guys up.

• your chat turned into a pleasant conversation afterwards as you were waiting for the animals to finish their check-ups. Natsuo was a bit shy but you didn't mind and kept the chat going which he appreciated.

• later he volunteered to help you look for good homes for the animals you'd both found. during this project the two of you got to know each other quite well and ended up hanging out together afterwards!

• and from that point on, everything fell into place naturally. the growing spark between you was undeniable and you both knew it. Natsuo definitely liked you longer, he was just a lil dense about it . . .

• you're nothing short of a hero in his eyes but dear lord he worries for you. when he's attending lectures he sometimes can't help but wonder if you're all right and not getting involved in anything violent.

• attends to your possible injuries while nagging you not to be so quick to start a fight next time. in return, you playfully bully him for being such a mom.

• you join forces with Fuyumi to pick on him about your relationship. even though you're already together, soft Natsuo still blushes when his affection for you is brought up, it's entertaining for both you and Fuyumi.

• idk if you've heard but Natsuo's 181cm tall!! hugging someone has never been easier even if you happen to be taller than him. the only thing is his skin's naturally kind of chilly so he's lowkey worried if you dislike it but you always assure him he's perfect!

• one time he was stressed over exams so you baked him some blueberry muffins. he gave you the biggest hug and kiss because it's exactly all these little things you do that set his heart racing for you ♡︎

• "last night i saw a dream about being a frog and eating giant flies, it was gross."

• "oh, that just means your love life is about to become fun."

• "i'm not sure how those two are related."

• "just trust me. i'm a pro at this."

• he also likes giving you headpats as much as he likes receiving them! his hands are quite big so he often runs his fingers through your hair when you're cuddling or hugging. it's especially relaxing after a long period of studying. also him carring you on his broad back ԅ(￣ε￣ԅ)

• you enjoy the little things in life and complain about your fathers together. you've agreed to wait a while before even mentioning your relationship to them because, honestly, Natsuo doesn't want any more horrible influences in your life.

• you get him sucked into the world of video games. it's always fun to watch him struggle but he never gets salty about losing maybe a lil he adores your smile as you laugh at him for being so bad at them.

• your dates include: helping out at animal shelters and retirement homes, video game and movie nights (especially about true crime), arcades and astronomy tower explorstions. i feel like Natsuo's more into traditional, romantic and chill dates and that's your usual thing. though i see sometimes you going to get coffee and ending up solving a 50-year-old murder case instead (✧ω✧)

❦︎ ink box

— despite Natsuo's best efforts to distance himself from Endeavor, it wasn't quite as easy and everyone was very much aware of the Todoroki family. and now the son of the number 1 hero had a lover.

— it wasn't actually that troublesome at first. some newpaper paparazzi occasionally annoyed you but you didn't care for them. most of the time Natsuo and you had your peace during dates aside from a few casual fans.

— but of course there are all sorts of people out there, some out for revenge, some for money, and being desperate means using even the lowest of methods to get what you want.

— so one time it happened, and it was all that took. several bitter villains thought they'd get their revenge through you, silly as it may sound. they made a big show of kidnapping you and demanding Endeavor to 'make up' for his wrongdoing. but all got resolved thanks to heroes, the only casualty being Natsuo's heart from almost exploding from worry and his deepening hatred for his father.

— later on, it wasn't that Natsuo was worried about you not being able to handle yourself, he feared what might happen if more of powerful villains came after you.

— so, after some debate, you agreed not to meet up for a short while to let the fuse of the incident settle down. it would be safer once the media forgot about it. you still texted and chatter over phone though!

— but then a week turned into two weeks, then into a month. you were wondering what was taking Natsuo to say the coast was clear and did a straight-up inquiry through a video chat.

— you could see he was restless the entire time. he said you should wait longer just to be sure everything was calm before meeting up. you became irritated because he was obviously lying and not being his normal, brutally honest self.

— why was he giving you this crap straight to your face?

— truthfully, Natsuo hadn't been sleeping all right recently. ever since that day he had reoccurring nightmares about something awful happening to you. they were just dreams, he knew. yet considering his ruffled up past and the frequency of those horrible visions, it would have been lie to say he was unaffected.

— paranoia just wouldn't leave him alone, and no matter how much he wanted to hold you in his arms again and hated making up stupid excuses, the voice at the back of his mind whispered this was for the best.

— after a month and a half had passed you've had just about enough, however. whatever reason he was keeping you in the dark for did no longer stop you from crashing into his house and demanding the truth.

— Natsuo knew you and expected this to eventually happen. after you made such a powerful entrance though he also knew there was no getting around it this time. really, it was comforting knowing you cared so deeply.

— he told you exactly what had been happening and you resisted the urge to punch him in the arm for having such a mindset. but the look in his beautiful grey eyes was so heartbreaking you threw yourself to embrace him instead. your touch was everything Natsuo had craved for for all this time.

— you skillfully assured him for the next couple of hours while keeping the talk light-hearted (he had obviously been overthinking way too much already). soon enough the issue was resolved and you had a sleepover right there to make uo for the lost time (Shoto and Fuyumi kept eavesdropping on you because y'all were being way too loud in a cute way).

— "i love you, Natsu, but if you ever keep something like this a secret from me again, i can't guarantee the safety of your arm or your front door."

♫︎ music box

— If I Had An Airplane by SayWeCanFly

— This December by Rick Montgomery

— Round & Laundry from Carole and Tuesday

— Haven't Had Enough by Marianas Trench

— Bowie On The Radio by Ryan McMullan

♡︎ runner up: Dabi / Touya Todoroki

thank you for requesting, hopefully you enjoyed this! i'm really pleased about matching you with Natsuo, it's just so perfect. have a lovely day and remember to take care of yourself ♡︎

12 days of Christmas→day.5 T.H

Summary→when tom plans on proposing to you Christmas day and comes back 12 days before, what happens when untold feelings come back up

Warnings→ jealousy, fluff

A/n→i might not be super active next week but i will take my time with this series along with happiness is a butterfly

When Harrison walked into the new flat that he shared with Harry, he let out a  sigh of relief one that made his head hurt. He didn’t like how he was acting strange around tom, lying to him. he didn’t like how he was gonna try and kiss you before Tom got home. He felt guilty, so guilty for doing that to the both of you.

Can’t make it today, sorry!

Harrison sent the message to prevent any more awkwardness from happening. You were going to be Tom’s wife, he remembered. He tried to keep that in his head so it wouldn’t get ahead of him.

“Hey harry?” He called out and he walked out of his room with his computer in one hand and mug in the other.

“Yeah what’s up?” He sat his computer down and walked over to the coffee pot to get more coffee.

“If you had a girlfriend and another guy had a crush on her, what would you do?” He took a seat at the counter and Harry shrugged.

“Not quite sure, I mean...if he was making a move on her then I’d be a little pissed but If he just thought she was pretty? Wouldn’t find it that intimidating.” He shrugs as he adds milk into the coffee to give it more flavor. Harrison let’s out a sigh knowing truly what he did was wrong. “Why? Is it something with Amanda?” He asked and Harrison just shook his head.

“No, it’s nothing.” He reaches for his phone as just a distraction. He just stares blankly at his home screen and Harry comes back over to his computer.

“Wait…” he takes a sip and then sets the mug down. “This isn’t about (y/n), is it?” He asked and Harrison froze. “Haz, Toms gonna—“ he starts and Harrison rubs his temples.

“I know, I know.” He groans and Harry turns his full attention to him.

“So what happened? You were like completely over her for what? Two years? What happened now?” He asked and Harrison thinks of all the things that went so good but so wrong. Maybe it was the first day tom left. That day in October you were so emotional and held onto Harrison for comfort.

“I love you.” You mumbled into Toms sweatshirt as him and Harry were getting onto a plane to Chicago to do comic con and then taking another one to Ohio and would be gone until December. No break, no coming home for a weekend. Nothing. You’d be spending two months away and you two weren’t exactly use to super long distance. Even when he did Spider-Man he’d take you along and come home as much as he can. You would be able to come vist too, that was always a plus.

“I love you more.” He kisses your cheek and you melt into he kiss. You’re already dressed in his clothes to remember him when he’s gone. You wear his maroon hoodie and some old sweats that he couldn’t fit into anymore when he got big for Spider-Man. You wore those clothes like they were the best damn outfit anyone could give you.

“Promise to call me every night? Remember to take care of yourself okay? Brush your teeth, drink plenty of water, eat enough carbs and calories, remember to stretch—“ now you were just talking to hold onto him for a little longer.

“Babe, I know. You don’t have to tell me. I’ll call you every night and I promise I’ll do all of those things.” He rubs your shoulder and you feel your eyes water up again.

“I know, I know.” You kiss his jaw and play with his hoodie. “I’ll just miss you ‘tis all.” You try and smile and he nods.

“I’ll miss you too, so much.” He pulls you in for a soft kiss. “Lemme go say bye to Haz.” He softly smiles and goes over to his best mate.

The two hug each other and give a pat on the back. Harrison looks over and sees you giving a hug to Harry before he leaves. Harry was just like a brother to you, always. But Harrison, you could tell him anything without feeling judged.

“Take care of her mate.” Tom whispered into his ear and Harrison nodded.

“Of course.” He nods and tom gives him a smile before going back to you. He watches as you and Tom have a bond like no other, one he’s never seen before. One he wishes and hopes he has one day. Maybe with you or maybe with someone of his own.

He walks over to take you as he hears the sound of Toms flight being boarded. You calm yourself as you go into Harrison’s side. Tom never felt jealous of Harrison and you, he never felt the need to.

“I miss him already.” You wrap your arms around Harrison. You don’t even notice his heart speeding up and how he stiffened at your touch.

That was possibly the first time, for no reason at all, his feelings for you started coming back.

“Tom being gone happened I guess. It was just her and I and maybe I did get a little jealous that tom had her. She’s perfect and she’s beautiful. Maybe it felt good to feel like I was in a relationship with her for a little bit. Even if she didn’t feel anything back.” Harrison shrugged and Harry nodded.

“So her personality got the best of you?” Harry asked and haz nodded.

“Yeah, I guess. We’d be like cuddling and she’d just miss him and I was there. It’d feel so good, so perfect and then Tom would call and she’d jump up and smile and giggle with him.” He says in an almost disappointed voice.

“This is my favorite part.” You laid on Harrison’s chest as you two watched a movie. A Christmas movie in November. It was a perfect night for you. Popcorn, Christmas movie, curling up with some blankets and a friend.

“Yeah?” Harrison looked down and saw your excitement. Your eyes lit up and you stared at the screen.

“Yeah.” You spoke softly as you focused. The sound of your phone going off made you hop up, distracting yourself from the scene and going to see who it is.

“Tom...!” Haz would hear your excitement as you held the phone back from your face so you can see. You give Harrison your signature “I’ll be back” look and mouthing before leaving the room to talk to your boyfriend.

It was a simple thing that made Harrison snap back into the reality of you not being his. You were not his but you were toms. And you and tom were perfect for each other.

“Look, I know she’s perfect in a lot of ways and tom choose good. But her and Tom...they’re perfect for each other. You’ll find a girl just like her I promise.” Harry rubbed his shoulders and Harrison nodded. It was true, he would find someone like you. No, that girl wasn’t Amanda, it wasn’t some past hook up he had, he just had to be gentle and patient. And that’s what he had to be, patient because you were perfect for Tom and soon next year he’d be the best man at your wedding and give a speech of how wonderful you all truly are. He wouldn’t lie in that speech either, it’d be the most genuine speech he’s ever told and anyone would be lucky to have you. Anyone.

Tom was very lucky and he knew that but it was just sometimes Harrison wished it was him who went out last minute two days before Christmas to get the white elephant gift for the party and ran into you. It was selfish and maybe he wouldn’t run into you because that wasn’t his faith but Tom did and he’d never forget that night he came home bragging about you.

“I’m back!” Tom shouts as he tries to hold presents in his hands. Yes he had the people at the mall wrap them, he sucked at wrapping no matter how many people tried to teach him.

“What gifts you buy?” Harry looked up as he too was living with the both of you at the time.

“Sam and his girlfriend a gift, mum a gift from all of us because we forgot that, the gift for the white elephant party and oh a new ps4 controller for us.” He sets them all down and pulls the controller out of the bag for it to be taken by Harry. “And I think I just met the love of my life.” Tom places his hands on his hips. As he catches his breath.

“Yeah right, you said that two weeks ago at the club. She just wanted you to buy her a drink!” Harry reminded him and haz took the presents and organized them.

“Oh yeah?” He asked and tom nodded.

“Yeah.” He goes for his water and takes a sip before smiling a little.

“We were both rushing around the store and I ran into her completely by accident. She dropped her coffee can you believe this? it’s like a movie! Anyways she told me it was fine and I said no let me get you a new one so we went over to the coffee bean and I got her a new coffee and she told me she forgot presents for her sister and a party and I was like ‘no way me too!’ And then she told me how Christmas break this year was hard because she just got done helping to write a script for a movie and so I was like “I’m an actor” and she said she noticed me but didn’t want to say anything to make it akward but she liked my movies and then I told her how pretty she was and gave her my number and she gave me hers and then she paid for my gifts when we were in Macy’s and so I told her let me pay her back and now I’m taking her to dinner after Christmas.” Tom proudly states and the boys look at him in shock. Tom scrambles to pull out his phone and pull up your Instagram that you gave him. The winter theme ended up matching your personality.

“A film student. Graduates this year. You sure she’ll have time for you mate.” Haz teases but you were really pretty. You ice skating, you setting up a tree, you making cookies, you volunteered at the animal shelter, you were almost made up. Simply like some guys fantasy that came to life. So gorgeous and so perfect.

“Shut up. She’s pretty isn’t she?” He put his phone away and the boys nodded.

“Yeah, she is. So I don’t know what she’s doing wasting her time with you.” Harry teased and tom tackled the boy on the couch and that caused Harrison to join and pull them off.

That night was the spark to something life changing for Tom and Harrison knew that. He knew that he’ll find someone but not you.

12 days of Christmas Taglist: @bibby-baby​ @spideylovin​ @wonderland-londonboy​ @peter-man-parker​ @sleepingthestral​ @spiderbibby​ @thevelvetseries​ @simplylia​ @sighbastian​

Permanent Taglist: @angelsparkers​ @dahliaspidey​ @parkersvibes​ @itssss-a-bean @ppkrtingle​ @myfinalwords​ @bocaul @tinyplanet-explorers @sincerlyfan @softbaby-tom @awesomeblackcottontail @rosebeegraham @stormyholland @unicorn-princess-1999 @spideyyypeter​ @marshyrebelcloud​ @oh-epiphany @yeahimcrying @highlydisfunctional1 @disgustangg​ @pterstingle @quacksonhq @starlightparker @reblogsfics @tomsrebeleyebrow​ @dreamyyholland

Choices (Linked Universe) pt 1

Characters derived from the Linked Universe AU by @jojo56830​ (@linkeduniverse)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The sounds of the forest seemed to swell in the late afternoon. Light filtered through the canopy, glittering off the damp leaves and illuminating the swirl of sea mist blowing in from the sea. The Hero of the Winds could smell the ocean. He forgot his exhaustion from the long day of walking and dashed ahead of the other eight heroes, shouting into the wind. The Hero of the Wild and the Hero of Hyrule both perked up. Hyrule called after the boy, running forward to join him as his blonde head bobbed away through the leaves. Wild hopped up the nearest tree, climbing to the highest branch.

“We’re almost there!” he shouted down, grinning. The Hero of Legend breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief and threw down his pack.

“Finally. I’ll light a fire.” He kicked away at some leaves to clear a spot. Wild jumped down in front of him.

“Almost,” he insisted. Legend groaned. The Hero of Time clapped his shoulder as he passed, eye sparkling mirthfully. These were his kind of woods – deep but bright, and teeming with hidden life.

Epona grumbled restlessly, swaying her head. The Hero of Twilight stroked her absently. He looked to the sky through the canopy. Golden mist swirled overhead, glowing brightly in the afternoon light against a backdrop of bruised clouds.

The Hero of the Four Sword appeared at his side.

“Looks like a storm,” he mused, fiddling with his tunic. “Maybe we should be looking for shelter.”

A whoop echoed through the trees.

“I saw it first!” Hyrule crowed.

“Well, I’m going to touch it first!” Wind proclaimed, setting off at a sprint. The Hero of Warriors sighed, jogging ahead.

“Hold on, sailor!” he shouted. “Nobody’s running off anywhere until we’ve set up camp.” Wind scrambled to a halt, glancing back sheepishly. Hyrule laughed nervously, tugging at his hair.

The Chosen Hero stumbled over a root. “Psshh,” he chuckled.

“You right there?” Legend smirked. Sky nodded.

“Yeah. Wasn’t watching my feet. Look at the sky,” he said, distracted.

The group wandered out of the forest into a rolling field of shimmering grass. The world opened before them. Legend sucked in a breath.

It was amazing. The sun rested low in the sky before them, a glowing peach coloured orb nestled over dark purple clouds. Gilded wisps rolled in from the horizon. Beyond the slope of the field, a flicker of the ocean could be seen, winking back the sunlight in bright bursts. The group paused, taking in the sight.

“Look at the colour of those clouds.” Sky seemed enamoured. Lightning flickered, almost too far away to see. Wild popped out of the field, humming and fiddling with the slate he kept on his belt.

“It’ll rain soon,” he confirmed. “And storm in the night. There’s a cave down this hill. It’s pretty deep.”

“Is it cleared?” Twilight asked. Wild laughed nervously, his hand floating to his hilt.

“It is now?” 

Twilight rolled his eyes at his protégé. Four smacked his forehead so hard it hurt.

Legend scowled. “And you didn’t invite us.”

“Here I thought you were tired,” Time chuckled.

The walk to the cave took longer than expected, and was more uphill than it was down. By the time they reached the mouth, the sky was lilac, and a soft rain had started to fall. Wild looked to the horizon, stretching his arms. Sky cringed as his joints cracked.

“You know, you’ve got a habit of underestimating travel time,” Four moaned. Hyrule took off his tunic, threw it down and collapsed onto it. “Someone else make a fire.” He mumbled into the ground.

Wind hesitated outside. There was still light in the sky, and the sea was so close. He turned to the group. “I want to head down to the water.” The others threw him pained looks.

“I’ll come,” Wild volunteered, impossibly energetic. “We can fish.” Wind’s face lit up. He turned and sprinted down the hill without hesitation. Wild bounded behind, cloak billowing behind him and hair whirling in the sea breeze.

“Come back before the storm hits, alright?” Sky called after them. Wild turned and yelled something inaudible before tripping over a rock. A vein twitched in Twilight’s forehead.

“How have they still got energy?” Warrior tutted. Time smiled knowingly.

“They’ll sleep very well tonight.”

-

The water was further away than it had appeared. Wind and Wild had to slow down as the field steepened, the slope becoming slipperier with every falling drop. Trees seemed to claw out of the earth, their trunks almost horizontal and their branches bursting out like fingers pointed to the sky. Wind chattered about how the trees grew shorter because the earth had more sand in it. Suddenly he lost his footing, slipping on some loose sand and skidding down the slope. The young hero dug in his feet and dropped onto his back, cringing. A small avalanche of earth and sand proceeded to roll down the hill from his feet.

“It’s a bit steep, but we’re really not far off.” He insisted.

“I know,” Wild said, following him gingerly down the slope. Wind watched as water trickled down the sand, ferrying along tiny pieces of earth.

“It’s too wet to keep going, isn’t it.” Wind looked morose. Wild looked around. The hill to the water had fallen away steeply, ending in a sharp cliff. They could climb down further, but the trek back would be perilous. He sighed.

“It might be dry tomorrow,” he said kindly, shuffling onto the sand next to wind. He leaned back on his forearms and looked to the sky. “In the meantime, this isn’t the worst place to watch the stars rise.” Wind smiled tiredly.

The stars had only been out for a few minutes before clouds swept them away. Wind had dozed off. Wild was just beginning to drift off when a fat raindrop fell directly into his ear. He sat up spluttering and shaking his head. Wind stirred, looking at him groggily. His eyes bugged out.

“WATCH OUT!” he gasped. Wild looked up just in time to see the Stalmoblin’s club rushing towards his head. He dropped backwards onto the sand, feeling the club catch his hair as it swept over. Wind scrambled to his feet, drawing his Phantom sword with a growl. Wild rolled to his feet, staggering away from another swipe. He drew his sword. The moment it left the sheath, it fell apart in his hands. Damn it!

The Stalmoblin roared, swiping clumsily. Wild darted to the side, drawing his bow. He glanced behind him. No room for a downhill retreat, not without ending up in the sea. The Stalmoblin lunged forward again. Wind let out a battlecry and rushed the monster, jumping from a rock and bringing the full weight of his swing down across its spine. The monster howled and split, its head bouncing down the slope and right arm tumbling to the side. Wild aimed for the head, loosing an arrow through its skull. The creature crumbled to the ground, arm still clawing at nothing.

The world fell silent. The heroes looked at each other. “You alright?” Wind demanded. Wild nodded. “Thank you,” he said breathlessly. They stood awkwardly for a moment.

“Did we fall asleep?” Wind said incredulously. Wild snickered.

“The others are going to be pissed.” Wild broke into laughter. Wind giggled hysterically.

“I’m too young to die,” he laughed.

An arrow slammed into Wind’s back. His hand floated to his chest, lips parted in surprise.

Wild dragged him to the ground, standing between the boy and the enemy. Three Stalmoblins had risen silently behind them, their bows drawn. Wild let out a feral roar as he drew his bow, firing off arrow after arrow. He ducked an arrow and caught another with his forearm just inches from his face. He didn’t feel any pain. He got two headshots in before the third Stalmoblin reached him. He lunged for the severed arm of the first creature to attack and wielded it like a greatsword, spinning it wildly. The skeletal arm burst against the Stalmoblin, detaching its head. The blowback sent Wild rolling down the slope, the rocks slick beneath him. He felt open air and scrambled wildly for purchase. He ground to a halt, hands and feet like claws against the cliff edge, his jaw rattling as his chin hit rock.The sea roared somewhere in the darkness below.

The headless Stalmoblin clawed at the air above Wind. The boy was struggling on the sand, reaching for his sword. Wild forced himself climb, leaping up the rocks only to lose traction and skid down, so far that he could no longer see his friend. His body screamed as he pushed past his limits. There was a tree, with a branch just out of his reach – if he could just grab it -  he had to. He had to make it!

He heard a shout and a crack, and screamed into the rocks. He was out of energy. He’d failed.

There was silence, then the sound of approaching feet. Wild felt the weight of his bow on his back. Once the monster crested the cliff, he could jump back and shoot it. Maybe he’d use his paraglider to try and fly to the bay.

Maybe he’d just fall.

“Wild?!” His head snapped up. Wind stood silhouetted against the sky, sword in hand, his shield punctured by a single arrow. His shield. Of course. Shame and relief flooded through Wild’s veins.

“Are you ok?” Wild shouted.

“Are YOU ok?” Wind yelled back. “You’re bleeding!”

“I’m-” Wild laughed so hard he shook. “I’m not going to last on this cliff. I’m out of… I can’t hold on much longer. This is so stupid.” Wind gasped and started frantically sorting through his things.

“Here! My hookshot! It goes on your hand. You can use it to grab onto this.” He slapped the protruding tree trunk. Wild nodded slowly. He’d seen a clawshot in action before, Sky rappelling down from high places with ease. The hookshot must work in a similar way to go up.

A flash of lightning tore through the clouds, illuminating the world for a brief moment. Like something out of a nightmare, the silhouette of the Stalmoblin appeared behind Wind. The boy spotted the shadow, and spun to see the monster loose an arrow. He thought fast, jumping backwards off the cliff and shooting his hookshot into the tree. The arrow flew over his head and into the darkness, falling to the sea. Wind crashed into the cliff feet first, screaming as jarring impact dislocated his arm. He braced himself with his other arm, shuddering.

“I thought I’d got it,” he gasped. “I broke right through the ribcage. It cracked apart!”

“Did you take out the head?” Wild grunted. He felt his left foot slip an inch. Wind cursed.

The Stalmoblin took its time, looking at them carefully. It nocked an arrow and drew its bow slowly, aiming straight for Wind’s heart. Wild made his choice.

He kicked off the cliff and snatched his bow off his back. Time seemed to slow. He loosed three arrows. One burst through the Moblin’s hand, knocking the bow into the sea. One tore through its neck. The final arrow went clean through its skull.

The wind screamed in Wild’s ears as he fell. He reached for his paraglider, but his arms couldn’t take it. He was done.

He barely felt himself hit the water.

-

The party in the cave was restless. They had arrived exhausted, and had rested gladly in the evening, snacking on campfire fruit. When night fell and their comrades hadn’t returned, a few of them had suggested looking for them, but the rain had worsened before they’d made their move.

“They’ll be back before the storm hits.” Sky repeated. “They agreed.”

“I thought that was just Wild tripping over.” Legend mused. “Maybe they didn’t hear you?”

Twilight sat with Time, watching the darkness. The younger hero shifted uncomfortably.

“I can’t track them well in this rain,” he said quietly. Time nodded.

“I don’t like this either.”

“He’s not armed,” Four said suddenly. The others turned sharply to him. “Wild, I mean. That sword at his belt,” he explained quickly. “- I think it was damaged. I assumed that’s why he was being shifty.”

“I thought it was because he got into a fight without inviting us,” Hyrule said.

Warrior stood, drawing his sword. “We’re going to look for them,” he said firmly.

A clap of thunder rang out, light illuminating the world. Epona made a distressed sound, shifting around in the small space. Twilight soothed her, trying to ignore his pounding heart.

“Put that away,” Legend demanded. “No metal weapons. There’s too much lightning.”

The heroes went through their packs, arguing about which weapons could safely be taken outside, removing metal armour and preparing to bear the rain. Four watched as Twilight slipped outside. He exchanged a glance with Time. The old man nodded. Four palmed his boomerang and stepped into the storm.

A wolf emerged from the darkness. Four wasted no time in following. The pair were quickly saturated, following the signs of their friends down the hills towards the sea. Wolfie stopped suddenly, growling.

For a moment, there was nothing but darkness, the howling of wind and the roar of thunder. Four grounded his feet, drawing his boomerang and staring into the darkness, wishing he could see what Wolfie sees.

The wolf whined suddenly, rushing forward. Lightning burst through the clouds, revealing the staggering form of Wind, right hand bracing his left arm. He yelped in surprise, stumbling to his knees. Four rushed forward and caught him by his good shoulder. Wind was gasping for air.

“He’s dead!” Wind gasped. Wolfie let out a vicious growl and disappeared into the darkness at a run. Wind lent into Four’s chest. Four tried to clear the shouts in his head. He’s hyperventilating. Deal with that first.

“Just breathe.” Four said soothingly.

“I can’t!” Wind sobbed. Four ran a hand through the boy’s hair, drawing him close.

“You can. Breathe with me. In… two… three… four… Out… two… three… four…” Wind’s rapid breathing began to slow. He slumped forward.

The flicker of torchlight alerted Four to an audience.

“What’s happening?” Time demanded. Four looked to Wind.

“Explain kid, quick as you can.”

Wind shuddered.

“He fell into the sea. There were… we were attacked. He – Wild fell into the sea. I couldn’t see him.” Wind’s voice turned bitter. “I thought I saved him. I thought we were safe.”

A wolf howled in the darkness. The heroes exchanged looks and began to run to the noise. Time grabbed Hyrule’s arm.

“Take him back to the cave. He needs healing.” Rule nodded vigorously.

“I’ll defend them,” Four promised. Time’s eye met his. He nodded.

“Be careful.” The old man said softly. He disappeared into the darkness.

---

chapter 2 of don’t read the last page is here!

[kristanna / m / multichap / modern au with actress!anna and vetstudent!kristoff]

3

Anna sat back far sooner than she wanted to; she could have gone on kissing him like this for hours, but that was a capital B capital I Bad Idea. And so she pulled regretfully away with the dainty little laugh she'd perfected in undergrad, not in acting classes but backstage when the guys playing opposite her sometimes got the wrong idea.

"But it feels so real when I'm up there with you," they'd plead, and she'd do the little laugh and say "God, I should hope so, considering how expensive tuition is here. Good to hear my investment is paying off.”

Kristoff didn't seem as thrown off by the laugh as the others had been; he just leaned back a little and raised his eyebrows. She'd forgotten how he had a funny way of looking at a person that made you want to just open right up and spill it all out.

But she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to spill right now, and so she went the opposite direction, closing off even further. "Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can stop wondering about the past and focus on the here and now. Specifically, whether you want that last spring roll or not."

There was a wounded look in the depths of his dark eyes. Good; better now than later. He gave her a familiar crooked smile anyway. "You already ate the other two."

"So you're saying you want it?"

"I'm saying I always liked egg rolls better, but I knew these used to be your favorite, so that's why I got them."

For a moment she wavered, caught between what she wanted and what she knew she should do, but his eyes stayed steady on hers all the same, still that faint hurt hiding in them. It would be awfully easy to fall in love with those eyes.

She moved away, scooting to sit beside him again where he leaned up against the couch. “So,” she said, reaching for the last spring roll and taking a messy bite, “still up to help me run lines?”

Kristoff nodded. “‘Course. Can’t say I’ll be up to par, though, I haven’t acted since our American Lit days.”

“Oh my god, I forgot you were John Proctor! ‘You’re tearing down heaven and raising up a whore’-- and everyone freaked out because they thought Mr. Martin would be pissed you didn’t leave out the cuss word but he was just like…”

She waved her hands emphatically, trying to come up with the right word. “Like...you know. You remember. He thought it was awesome, is what I mean.”

“Honestly, I don’t. I was so embarrassed I was just trying not to pass out.”

She remembered that, the way he’d turned scarlet all the way to the tips of his ears, and she wanted to kiss him again, at least on the cheek to see if she could make him blush like that again, but instead she popped the rest of the spring roll into her mouth and wiped her hands on her jeans and said around a mouthful of cabbage, “Okay, let me get this script.”

Her bag was kicked halfway under the table; she yanked it out, sending loose papers and pens rolling everywhere. “Ah-- shit, sorry.”

He scooped up the pens and handed them to her in a neat bundle while she shuffled through the papers. “God, you’d think they’d do me a favor one of these days and staple these things...anyway, okay, here’s the right order.”

Anna patted the edges neatly into place and presented the script to him. “Don’t let me peek at it, even if I beg. Oh-- and don’t tell anyone about it, either, because I don’t remember or not if I had to sign an NDA or not this time around, and I’d rather not risk it.”

He took the stack of papers with a raised eyebrow. “Okay. So who am I playing?”

“I’m a princess of some country they made up in Europe, and you’re the American journalist trying to kickstart his career assigned to cover me at the start of my...debutante something or other. Basically, I’m supposed to get married off to a prince or something, but then you come along and run into me by mistake outside the palace, and you’re super funny and down-to-earth and it’s this forbidden romance and blah blah blah, at the end I pick you but because for some reason it’s a Christmas movie I still keep the crown, too, and then you kiss me under the mistletoe and voila, roll credits. Oh, and you’re supposed to be from Georgia, so try and do that accent if you can.”

He screwed up his face, trying to-- well, honestly she didn’t know what he was doing. “Y’all--”

“Oh, god, please stop,” she said, putting a hand over his mouth with a dramatic shudder. His breath was warm against her palm as he chuckled. He was making it really hard to do the right thing, which was especially disconcerting considering he wasn’t even trying. 

She fought the urge to stroke her thumb gently against his jaw and instead pulled her hand away. “Just read it like your normal self.”

“Do you want me to try and like...act?”

“Um...if you want to, yeah. Mainly I’m worried about memorizing this. But that’d probably help, so...go for it. Unless it’s weird, in which case--”

“You don’t look like you’re from around here,” he said, and it took her a beat to realize he was reading.

She cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders, slipping into the posh British accent they always wanted you to do for these parts even when the movie was set somewhere vaguely north of Switzerland. “Neither do you.”

“What gave it away? The accent or the cowboy boots?”

Kristoff glanced up from the script, looking vaguely nauseated. “Are people really going to watch this?”

“Tragically, yes, because it’s another Netflix thing, and it’ll get all hyped up whether it really deserves it or not.”

“Jesus,” he muttered. “This is why I stick to my DVD player.”

“You do not.”

He just raised an eyebrow, and she gasped. “Kristoff Bjorgman. You are not seriously telling me that in two thousand nineteen you still don’t have a Netflix subscription.”

“I think my roommate does.”

“Well, that basically counts as yours, then.”

“Why?”

“Well, you know, all the password-sharing and--”

She trailed off. By the look in his eyes, he actually didn’t know. “Well-- never mind. Say your line again so I can do mine.”

“What gave it away? The accent or the cowboy boots?”

“Neither.”

“Then what was it?”

She held the silence for a beat, staring deeply into his eyes, practicing her best you-mean-you-really-don’t-recognize-me face? He returned the gaze with an astonishingly good what-is-this-girl-up-to-and-why-am-I-already-into-her face, and either he’d gotten much better at acting in the last few years, or she really shouldn’t have kissed him even that one time, because there was no way that for either of them it would mean--

“Nothing,” she breathed, the line suddenly jolting its way out of her mouth. “I’m just good at reading people.”

They went back and forth through the script, and to her surprise, he didn’t give in even once when she begged him to let her peek at the lines, even when she tried to bribe him with the last dumpling. “No, Anna, you know this,” he’d said calmly, and then suddenly she had, and they’d gone right along. 

The dialogue was still edging dangerously close to falling straight off a cliff into too-cringy-for-Hallmark territory, but somehow when she was reading it with him, it seemed almost-- almost-- plausible.

Except for that bit about the cowboy boots. That was unforgivable. 

She took a sip of Pepsi and flopped back against the sofa, glad she didn’t have to keep looking at him anymore. Not that there was a problem with the view; it was a nice one, if she was being honest, maybe even a very nice one, but that little bit of sadness still hadn’t melted entirely away, and she knew she wouldn’t forgive herself for putting it there for a long time. 

It’s for the best, she reminded herself fiercely. You know you’re a mess. Don’t need to drag him into it just for old times’ sake. 

Beside her, Kristoff let out a yawn. “Oh, shit, sorry--” she said, suddenly scrambling upright, “didn’t mean to keep you up late or--”

“No, no, you’re good, it‘s only eight. I just was working a double today, got up earlier than normal.”

She bit her lip. He hadn’t made mention of that when he’d volunteered to let her come over and read lines. “I-- well. Thanks, Kristoff, so much. For your help and for letting me hang out here for a while. Let me help you clean up and then I’ll head out.”

She hopped to her feet, already collecting discarded chopsticks and napkins, trying to ignore the frown on Kristoff’s face. “Seriously, Kris, you’re a lifesaver. The audition is tomorrow, and I did my best to prepare but honestly, I just had to do a stupid radio interview about the tampon commercial so I could get an easy paycheck because I owe my sister way too much money right now so that’s what I was worried about yesterday and then before that, I was looking at other auditions online too because I feel like my agent just has to be hiding some from me but then hey it was today and the audition’s tomorrow and so I was screwed if I didn’t get help and--”

“Anna.”

She froze.

He got to his feet slowly; she let her eyes trail up his broad frame, taking in every inch of him. Had he hit another growth spurt in college? 

He held out his hand, and for an absurd moment she thought he meant for her to take it, but then he plucked some of the garbage out of her grasp and led her towards the kitchen, pressing the garbage can open with his foot. “I know it’s been a while,” he said, his voice soft but somehow insistent, “but we’re still friends. I’m happy to help you however I can.”

Anna swallowed hard and forced herself to look away at the decidedly less attractive sight of a half-eaten fortune cookie tumbling into the garbage. “Well-- thanks.”

He nodded, and now that her hands were empty it was so tempting to just grab him by the collar and pull him down into another kiss, reality be damned. So she was a complete mess and he had his life together and she was terrible at relationships and he was probably, like, amazing-- what could it hurt, one more kiss?

But she’d only just run into him again, and she shouldn’t have lost contact with him in the first place, and she really didn’t want to lose him again. You only get so many friends willing to share their apple slices with you every day even though apples are their favorite and you take more than your fair share of the peanut butter, she thought morosely. Can’t just waste someone like that.

She brushed past him and swept the script into her bag, tugging it back on over her shoulders and turning to him with a practiced smile. He hadn’t moved; just let his gaze follow her. “Well, guess I’d better be getting home, then.”

“Need a ride?”

Shit-- she’d forgotten he’d driven her over here right after he’d gotten off work, and the metro line she needed had no stops near here, so it’d be at least an hour getting home, and she didn’t really have money for a taxi but if she got in a car with him again, there would definitely be more kissing, and she just really, really couldn’t do that to him.

“I’m good, thanks! I’ll just get an Uber or something.”

He nodded. “Night, then. Good catching up with you.”

“You, too. Thanks again.”

Her heart was pounding as she slipped out the door. She found herself waiting for some idiotic reason to hear the deadbolt click shut and his footsteps walk away until they faded into silence. God, this was pathetic, even for her. She’d always been awful about jumping into things head first, especially when it came to men, and that had never once actually worked out for her. Which was how she’d ended up majoring in theatre and not even doing any education classes alongside it, and moving into her sister’s place just because it was in LA even though she couldn’t afford her share of the rent, and dating a string of guys who were too into pop-up shops or vaping or Soundcloud rap or whatever the big thing was at the moment, and now, apparently, kissing her high school best friend who definitely deserved better than whatever she was right now.

She made her way down the stairs, dialing her sister’s number already. She picked up on the second ring, just like always.

“Anna? Hey, what is it?”

“Can you pick me up?”

“What’s wrong?”

That was what did her in. She found a bush by the sidewalk and crouched down behind it, feeling the tears already start to stream down her face. “Can you-- can you just come pick me up, please?”

One of the perks of having a big sister who actually had her shit together was free pickup and dropoff service all around the city, though unlike an Uber, the rides didn’t come with no questions asked.

“What are you doing all the way over here?” Elsa asked as Anna clambered into the car, still sniffling pitifully. “I thought you were just going to go study your lines at that coffee shop and then go to the grocery.”

“I was, but then I, um…I ran into Kristoff.”

Elsa frowned. “Should I know who that-- oh my god, Kristoff from high school? The one that you had a crush on for like…”

“Years, I know,” Anna said balefully. “God, I probably still have notebooks in storage full of Mrs. Bjorgman signatures.”

“What’s he doing here?”

“He’s a barista.”

“Isn’t everyone?”

She laughed a little at that, and some of the tension went out of Elsa’s shoulders. “Okay, fair. But he’s in vet school, too.”

“Oh, wow, impressive.”

“I know. Just imagine me trying to go back home for a visit now, they’ll all ask questions about you two and I’ll be like ‘oh, Elsa’s this super successful SLP and Kristoff’s gonna be a vet’ and then they’ll ask what I’m up to and I’ll have to say ‘doing cartwheels in a commercial where they taped some string to my shorts so it looks like my tampon’s hanging out because that’s supposed to be cute and quirky’ and then they’ll say ‘oh my god I think I saw a GIF of that’ and then I’ll have to go dig myself a hole and die in it.”

Elsa just rolled her eyes. She was used to these dramatic tirades. “Anna, you’re twenty-four. You’re not supposed to have your shit together yet.”

“You did.”

“I let you think I did,” her sister said in that infuriating older-and-wiser voice she’d perfected way back in middle school. “I’m serious, you’ll be okay. And whatever happened with Kristoff--”

“God, don’t say his name, please, or I’ll just get all worked up again, and I’ve already gotten mascara everywhere.”

Elsa sighed. “Okay, fine, we’ll save that part of this discussion for when we’re home with pints of Ben and Jerry’s. But just...I want you to know that you’re okay, Anna. More than okay. And you’re going to knock it out of the park with this audition tomorrow. I mean it.”

Anna looked away, rolling down the window and sticking her hand out so she could feel the wind smacking against it, turning her wrist so it could hiss between her fingers. Movies made it seem so much easier to have these moments with someone, to open up and cry it out and get an easy resolution. But this was her life, whether she liked it or not, and she had to put up with it anyhow. “Thanks.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

One Starry Christmas (2014)

(Spoilers)

Though you could probably figure out what was going to happen...

I had some notes put aside & completely forgot about this. I watched this movie in December and I just have to say...

This movie drives me batshit!

The acting was fine. Some actors were better than others of course.

Sarah Carter is actually a really good actress. She shows a lot of range on past work like Smallville & White Collar. In this movie her lines are silly & the script is boring but she did a great job at portraying a Stepford-wife type. Grinning like an idiot all the time at the cowboy. That’s purely the director telling her to look like a Prozac chugging imbecile though. Not her doing, she’s just doing her job.

Paul Popowich is probably the best performance wise in this movie. He’s also a really good actor. I loved him in Twice in a Lifetime & Cracked. Even in this boring movie he showed a lot of subtle glances & his body language shifted as if he were actually really uncomfortable with the girlfriend eyeing the cowboy.

Kudos to both of them for doing their jobs well.

This movie is predictable in a lot of ways of course but the description was a little different so I got sucked in.

This is basically what happened:

Girlfriend & boyfriend seem happy & he just finds out he’s been requested to work on a big case/deal for work but the client is demanding his time at Christmas. He knows she can’t stand flying so they agree to celebrate Christmas when he gets back from New York. She already misses him so she buys a bus ticket to surprise him in NYC (her parents coincidentally live there).

During the ride the bus breaks down & she talks to this cowboy. She calls boyfriend but he’s half asleep & doesn’t think he could pick her up & get back in time for his early morning meeting. She’s not thrilled...this part has me go ‘what’ for the first time because she wanted her boyfriend to drive a few hours out of New York then a few hours back.

Why???

The bus company would have gotten a replacement bus or set them up somewhere to stay for the night. And driving sleepy is really bad...So yeah I get why he didn’t volunteer for that. And if I were him I’d be really anxious about the important job & end up sick to my stomach so I guess I related to him there & his hesitation.

Anyways girlfriend & cowboy share a car to drive the last few hours to New York.

Immediately the parents start dropping hints that cowboy is super hot (I don’t see it). They suggest having dinner with them the next day.

Dinner comes. Boyfriend eager to see girlfriend & greets the parents nicely while they drool over the cowboy. Boyfriend is confused & a little self conscious because of the cowboy . But he lets it go. There’s some tension when his girlfriend grins like a loon at the cowboy but that’s it.

Parents tell cowboy he & his brother could go there for Christmas dinner the next day. Boyfriend looks uncomfortable but anything he says (which isn’t much) is ignored.

Girlfriend is disappointed her boyfriend can’t take the day off work (he’s there on a business trip!!!) to do Christmas shopping with her. She’s clearly an idiot. So cowboy agrees to go with her the next day (aka Christmas Eve day).

Next morning- girlfriend & cowboy are in Central Park riding horses, skating, & frolicking like a couple of lobotomized bunnies...& I must have blinked because I didn’t notice any shopping going on...

Christmas dinner- boyfriend shows up before the others. Gives hugs & nice greetings to parents. The dad is fine but the mother gives a bitchy ‘how dare you not be the super hot cowboy’ look.

Boyfriend is starting to feel uncomfortable with girlfriends relationship with the cowboy. Understandably.

Cowboy’s brother sings some annoying country song (I don’t mind country but I found this song really boring). Boyfriend is clearly the only one with taste as he seems as uncomfortable as I was.

Afterwards Boyfriend reminds girlfriend about the work party he told her about. She apparently agreed to go. But he said he swung 2 more invites so her parents could go so they could continue celebrating Christmas all together the rest of the night. (I thought that was really cool of him).

Father throws his back out & the mom brings cowboy as her date. Boyfriend isn’t thrilled but he goes along with it.

At party the boyfriend is relieved to have closed the deal but because he’s Type A he clearly isn’t as comfortable there as other people - particularly the cowboy who is now bffs with boyfriend/lawyer’s client...and every woman there.

But wait, the cowboy only has eyes for the girlfriend! It’s like star crossed lovers ! Destiny! Cue the twinkle music! 😞

Yes, she’s there with her boyfriend of 3 years in which they had talked about marriage & making a life together...she dances with the cowboy & looks about ready to jump him right there & hump him on the dance floor. Grinning like a lunatic.

Boyfriend comes back with a couple drinks for them & looks shocked & sad. He realizes he’s losing her so he makes a desperate move & proposes right there. When they leave he seems satisfied that he gave her what she wanted. And since she never once (presumably) had any issues or problems with their relationship in three years, he assumes everything is okay.

But as soon as they get out of the car she breaks up with him....on Christmas Eve! And she acts like he shouldn’t be surprised! Like it’s somehow his fault! HE was happy so why do people assume they’re going to magically know their partner isn’t? Seriously if you are happy one minute then miserable the next - and NEVER talk about your problems obviously he’s gonna be confused!!!

At this point I was like what the actual fuck?!

She had a few moments with the cowboy though the movie where they talked but nothing remotely was interesting...but you guessed it she’s in love with the cowboy.

Now I obviously saw it coming but I was hoping for a different twist or a different message.

Why? Because the way everyone talked the boyfriend was supposed to be the jerk..really?

He boasted about his promotion a couple times & one time he mentioned the money he’d make. Not exactly classy but he was uncomfortable with cowboy there & mentioned it in a short lived pissing contest type of way.

But really if you do a million years of school (probably working several crap jobs to get there) & work 70 hrs a week as many lawyers do you earned every right to brag about why you love your job. But he literally said it once in the movie. Big whoop.

I know people that bragged about finding a job that pays $20/hr here because there aren’t that many here anymore. (And considering the cost of living is so high that’s not that much.) Never once did I shun them though, I went ‘good for you! You deserve it!’

What gets me is that the boyfriend actually is a good guy. He pays attention to what she likes. He doesn’t fully understand her passion for the place she works at (I don’t either tbh) - he figures she’d be happy at any observatory. Is that so wrong?

She’s an astronomer & scientists are often Type A personalities too so you’d think they’d be a good match.

Scientists also tend to try to work where they can do their jobs the best. Sure this lady was attached to her work (in Chicago) but New York would have as many opportunities, maybe more. ...and do you really think she’d be living her best career life on some ranch? No because there aren’t many observatories in the middle of nowhere. Except SETI but she’s too boring to go there...however if they had introduced the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence maybe the movie would be more interesting. 🤷‍♀️

Boyfriend is really nice to the parents & seems to be grateful to have them around.

He includes her in his work...sharing it with her. He’s excited about it.

He’s not afraid to commit but he wants to do things in a certain way. Type A personality remember.

Even without a ring he seems determined to be with her & be committed.

I may have missed it but I’m fairly certain the boyfriend didn’t have any other person to spend Christmas with. I can see that he probably spent his whole life getting to that point so he didn’t worry about staying in touch with friends...or maybe his friends are on the other end if the country. 🤷‍♀️

It made me wonder if he literally has no one else. No parents? No siblings?

If that’s true this lady (emotionally) cheated on her boyfriend, made him look like a fool in front of his coworkers, then dumped him...who has no one to help him through it. Ouch.

The woman leaves her good life for a guy we know practically nothing about. What if he collects bags of toenail clippings or dyes his pubes pink?!

The ‘fantasy’ of a cowboy (which admittedly I just don’t get) is that- a fantasy. In a few years that girl will realize she has had enough of the cowboy...he’s boring & not much of an intellectual conversationalist. She’ll be on mat leave with 2 kids running around & the cowboy will be sitting on his ass while he waits for another rodeo to open somewhere across country...which he’ll have to leave to attend. It won’t be so charming when your kids are starving & have nothing to eat.

Or maybe cowboy will be taking care of a ranch & the woman will just drink all day.

The parents in this - especially the mother- are terrible. They encourage their to cheat & to break up with her boyfriend of 3 years (usually that means one really likes the person) for some random dude with a cowboy hat on.

This movie drives me crazy because at most, what the boyfriend did required a conversation or argument. Not a full on dumping. He’s allowed to make mistakes & have flaws he’s human! The woman acts like a horny teenage ditz in the movie & emotionally cheats on him. She strings him a long when she clearly knows she’s done with him. And she basically humiliated him in at the party - well maybe that’s too strong a word but it didn’t look good.

So to be honest I don’t understand why everyone treated the boyfriend like he was repulsive. He acted better than the parents & the girlfriend. And the cowboy should have backed off. That’s the decent thing to do when you realize someone is married. He just met her so back off & move along.

I’m curious though does anyone like this movie?

To be honest I found everyone in the movie vile except the boyfriend who basically started out super excited for his life with girlfriend & his job then he had his bubble burst & was all alone. Why? Because he was satisfied in his career & life? He was punished for that... great message to be sending. 🙄

To restate, she dumps boyfriend of three years to immediately pounce on the cowboy with zero regard for any emotions involved on Christmas Eve!

Merry flippin’ Christmas to you too!

I know this is a Hallmark movie & it’s hardly Shakespeare but come on, have some standards!

I’m just glad at least Popowich was in this because it gave me some eye candy to focus on while I felt my soul dying.

anyone ask for a jimmy jab 2.0 hc? not really, but here it is anyway 

(also this is crazy long i’m so sorry i was out of control)

 okay so, the squad hasn’t really had the opportunity to play the jimmy jab games since that time jake let amy win and that was years ago. they were still a bit wary after the whole fiasco with holt finding out, but it’s been so long that when holt and terry announce they have an all-day meeting at one police plaza, everyone was EXCITED bc they were all stuck at the precinct digitalizing files. 

the captain left amy in charge of the precinct bc you know, she’s a sergeant (already eyeing a lieutenant position, mind you) and also she’s Amy Santiago, c'mon.

amy vetos anything to do with jimmy jab the second the two of them walk out the door, giving a whole speech about how she’s their boss now and needs to be responsible.  

rosa immediately starts throwing some shade saying that “amy was too lame to play with them anyway” and that “she had just become more stuck-up, but “it’s not like she could win anyway so it didn’t even matter”.

amy looks at rosa dead in the eye for 15 seconds and then finally says   “okay, so this is how it’s going down.” everyone cheers and starts chanting “JIMMY JAB! JIMMY JAB!”

under amy’s command, everyone gets jobs assigned to them and the whole thing is set up in less than an hour.

for the traditional opening ceremony, everything is ready, the donuts arrived, the trashcan is in place and scully’s got his costume on. that’s when they realize they are missing something. something kind of important. the person who always sets the donut on fire and declares that the games have begun is not there. it’s jake’s day off.

everyone is a little bit embarrassed that they forgot about jake, i mean, he’s the life and soul of the game (or of anything fun that happens in the precinct, really). but charles….charles is absolutely devastated.

he immediately calls jake, saying how he is not worthy of being his best friend and that he is the single most horrible person to walk on earth. he’s crying so much, jake doesn’t understand what’s going on. rosa grabs the phone from charles, explains what’s up and tells him to get to the precinct asap.

he yells WHAAAAAAAAT for 3 straight minutes.

jake arrives in a hurry, still out of breath from running up the stairs. he stares at all of them in disbelief and goes “how could you? this is treason. TREASON. i’m so disappointed in all of you, and you amy, what the hell? how could you forget your own husband?”

she’s about to apologize but jake keeps talking “doesn’t matter anyway, YOU’RE ALL GOING DOWN, especially you, wife”. he literally makes air quotes while saying “wife”.  

now amy is pissed and she’s got a threatening look on her face as she says “well, husband (she also uses air quotes), it was pointless to call you anyway, you being here is not going to make any difference since you’re about to lose. AGAIN.” jake yells back “YOU ARE SO ON”.

after the opening ceremony, they are on position for the first game. gina explains that, since the fridge was mysteriously cleaned the day before and all the disgusting food was thrown away, “The Mouthaton” will be replaced by “The Catfish”. rules are simple. the competitors must create a fake profile on a dating website and start talking to people. first person to get an unsolicited dick picture wins, the last is eliminated. you can’t flirt, you can’t ask for the picture and you can’t reveal your real identity.

hitchcock gets it first. everyone looks at him questioningly and he’s just like “what? i know exactly what those guys are looking for, if you know what i mean.” they are all disgusted. then he just gets up and goes…somewhere else. no one questions that.

scully is the second one to get it. no one buys it at first and asks him to prove it, so scully says “it’s serious, guys. look, hitchcock  went to the bathroom and sent me a picture of his…” he didn’t get to finish his sentence bc everyone is yelling “EWWWWWWW” and “NOOOOOOOOO” and running in the opposite direction of the phone he’s holding.  

amy’s next, immediately followed by jake and charles. everyone looks at rosa, who is still typing away on her phone. turns out she started talking to a girl and is actually getting into it. 

she’s the first one out.

game number two starts, it’s the traditional “Bulky Bulky Run Run” better known as the bomb suit foot race.

amy and jake keep pushing and grabbing on each other’s suit to get the other out of the away so charles manages to take the lead.

just like every single year, hitchcock falls down the stairs. scully tries to grab him by his legs but hitchcock’s weight manages to pull scully down with him. they’re both out and in need of medical attention.

(it was briefly discussed whether or not to eliminate scully after the first game, but no one volunteered to check the picture he got so they just let him keep playing)

 third game is the infamous “Keep Your Cover”. as usual, the contestants have to craft an undercover persona and talk to as many police officers as they can without being found out.

amy goes first. she’s dressed like an old lady and she rocks it. her strategy is to start talking to people about how millennials are the worst and how kids these days are ruining the world because they are glued to their phones. people try to get away from her as fast as they can’t without making eye contact. she manages to get through nine people

(she blows it when she starts talking about her love for latin and how it should be a requirement at public schools  – everyone and their mothers know that could only be amy).

jake’s up next. he is dressed like an italian mob boss who’s a complete douchebag. when he’s talking to his third officer about “hot chicks”, the guy tells him about a sexy latina sergeant who’s super bossy, claiming that “it could be kinda hot in bed”.

jake dramatically takes off his sunglasses (which he was wearing indoors, to add to the character), and yells “THAT’S MY WIFE”. (yes, you’re absolutely supposed to read that in john mulaney’s voice).

he realizes he blew his cover and storms off, whispering to himself that it’s not “kind of hot”, it’s super hot.  he’s almost sure he lost, but charles comes to save the day.  

charles dresses as buddy valastro. yes. the cake boss. he literally doesn’t make it past one person.

and once again, it’s jake versus amy in the final game which consists of the obstacle course.  

first they gotta make it past the barricade hurdles in the corridor and, as usual, amy gets a head start, but jake is not too far behind.

next up they have to get a snack from the vending machine using a bean bag gun.

amy gets a snack first, but unfortunately it’s a bag of doritos. she takes forever to eat them and jake’s lucky because he got a granola bar and even though he makes a gagging sound the whole time, he manages to swallow the whole thing. 

jake runs to the stairs to go the floor below and get a pamphlet about cyberbullying and amy finally catches up.

they go back upstairs together, trying to bump on the other the whole time.

LASTLY, they’ve got to print a selfie captain holt accidentally took and also accidentally sent to everyone in his contact list using the worst notebooks of the precinct.

amy’s request goes through first, but when she goes to the printer, there’s nothing there. that’s when gina yells: “SURPRISE TWIST: THE COMPUTERS ARE CONNECTED TO THAT OLD ASS PRINTER IN THE STORAGE ROOM DOWNSTAIRS”

jake immediately gets up from his chair, knocking down both the chair and the table, and sprints to the elevator. amy gets in two seconds after him.

while they are waiting, amy starts teasing: “so, are you ready to lose like last time?” jake laughs. “amy, darling, i had to let you win last time. that’s not happening today.” that throws amy off and she takes one second too long to notice the doors opened and jake is already running.

jake gets to the storage room first, locates the printer and runs to grab the freshly printed picture laying on the tray.  

when amy comes in, jake is grinning, waving around the paper in his hands and imitating amy’s victory dance. “who’s the loser now, wifey? huh? no come backs?”

amy’s panting a bit and she’s got her hands on her knees but she manages to answer: “yeah, babe. did you get a good look at that picture you’re holding?”

jake freezes and his face falls. he slowly moves his eyes to the paper and his first thought when captain holt’s face is not what he’s seeing is “oh, fuck”. he’s about to rip it into pieces and throw it away when something catches his eye. no, it was definitely not holt’s face on that piece of paper. it was his wife’s. for a second, he thinks it’s just amy’s way of making fun of him while she gets the right photo but then he notices something else. she’s holding a sign. a sign that says: “Congrats, Daddy. You win” in perfect calligraphy.

it takes a couple of minutes until jake tears his eyes away from the picture and looks up at amy. his hands are shaking so badly and he opens and closes his mouth several times, but nothing comes out.

amy’s just looking at him smiling and her eyes are already watering. she can read on his face that he’s begging her for something to confirm what he’s thinking, to tell him that yes, it’s happening and it’s real. she nods slightly. and he starts crying.

she goes to him and hugs him and he holds onto her so tightly, amy can feel him all around her. after a few minutes, when jake’s breath has calmed down a bit, he pulls back and grabs her face with both of his hands while hers rest on his chest. “you’re pregnant?”, she can see he’s still in disbelief so amy just presses her forehead against his and whispers “yes, jake. you’re going to be a father”.  

he opens the widest smile she’s ever seen and says “oh, my god. i love you so so so much” before pulling amy close again, about to kiss the hell out of her, but amy stops him.

“wait a second. that thing you said in the elevator, about letting me win last time. that’s not true, right?” 

jake just rolls his eyes and goes for the kiss again.

You don’t care

Summary: You won’t let anyone get in the way of a perfect grade, not even Steve Harrington.

Requested by: Anonymous ; What about one where the reader and Steve meet on the first day of college, maybe Steve gets really smitten and tries to use his 'method' (like what he tells dustin) but the reader just won't have it

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Word Count: 1.7k

Tags (PLEASE message me if you want to be added to the permanent tag list for any fic, especially if you already asked and I forgot!): @thegirlwhoisintoomanyfandoms @la-fille-en-aiguilles @jj-writes-shit @thebitterbookeater @with-a-hint-of-pesto-aioli @richletozler @royalwolfhard @just-smile-darling @w-ingardiumleviosa @buckysmaingir l@magic-and-timetravel  @jupiter-leo @ttrraasshh @somekryptonitewriting @dudee-what @tmalchow @hedabucky @wallacetdog @twelvedacrewoods @mikeygc3000 @stressedoutkylo  @istanuriss @anevenstrangerblog @scintillllating @dylanowhyyien @daniimiss @xguardiangel  @me-a-hopeless-romantic @negroneon @sweetheartmendes @goimaginethiss @madhatterweasley @cupcaitlyn96 @onlyalittleteenwolfobsessed @poets-are-sinners @harringtonhuddle @kingkenzieo @ssweet-empowerment @blackhawklove @harringtonwife @lola-winston-harrington @im-disgustingly-vain @alwaysmebeforeyou @kinghairington 

You two had been paired up to be partners in history class. The professor had walked in with a smirk, announcing loudly that the person to your right was going to become your “best friend” during the duration of the semester. And if for whatever reason you two hated each other and wanted to rip each other’s hair out strand by strand, he politely asked that you held back while sitting in his class. Too much paperwork for him to fill out, apparently.

You weren’t going to have that problem, though! Steve Harrington was incredibly sweet. You two exchanged an awkward smile on that first day but when he had asked to borrow an extra pen (you had five pens on you that day), the awkwardness slipped away. He handed back the pen after class but you insisted that he kept it for the rest of his day and he thanked you with a grin.

You two made pleasant conversation before the second class. It was wonderful! Your history class was right before lunchtime and you two even made plans to get a quick bite to eat afterward. You learned a bit about his hometown, he learned a bit about yours and you two shared some jokes!

About two weeks went by and you had fallen into this routine with Steve. Greet each other in class, make jokes during class, and get lunch after class to discuss the recent homework assignment and what would be the possible history project. You felt comfortable knowing you had made a friend in college. It made you feel even better that this particular friend was cute and charming.

Then it all went to shit.

Steve stopped asking you for pens and would lean over to Jessica Groves so he could ask her instead. When you would ask him if he wanted to go grab some lunch he would shrug his shoulders and say, “I guess we can go.” That continued for an additional week before his answer went to being an outright ‘no’.

Steve would not look at you. Steve would not talk to you. Why, though? What had you done that was so horrible? Maybe you pressed him too much to learn about his life back home. Sometimes people wanted to leave that in the past. Maybe you had said something unintentionally and pissed him off. People didn’t take well to that.

Or maybe you hadn’t done anything at all and Steve Harrington was not so sweet at all. Maybe Steve Harrington was just another asshole, like all the boys you had left back home. Yes, Steve Harrington was an asshole and you had no time for that. 

Midterms rolled around and you could not believe you were halfway through your first semester of college. Before handing out the graded midterm exams, your history teacher handed out a thick packet on the final history project, which accounted for 25% of your final grade. That was a whole quarter! After the class had ended you turned to speak to Steve but he was already halfway out of the door. You scrambled to grab your things and ran after him, shouting, “Hey! Harrington!”

He turned around after you had chased him down the halls for three minutes and you stopped, waving the packet in his face.

“Yeah? What about it?” he asked.

“We need to meet up and get this started,” you dropped the packet to your side, staring up at him. “Are you available now? We can go get something to eat then head over to the library.”

Steve shook his head, “Nah, sorry. No can do. But I’ll catch up with you and we can start it up!”

Before you could argue, he turned and continued walking down the hall. You sighed and shook your head while muttering underneath your breath, “Why do I even bother?”

Steve hummed to himself as he walked away, his books tucked underneath his arm. “You don’t care, Steve. You don’t care.”

The project was due in three weeks. You had done all that you could on your own but that was very little. You needed help and that stupid boy in that stupid Member’s Only jacket would have to help.

You knew that he had Biology last on Friday so you waited outside of the science building. It was freezing out but this was your only opportunity at catching Steve off guard. 

Soon enough, you saw him push the doors open and step out of the building. He was laughing with someone else but you stepped forward, saying his name sharply, “Harrington!”

He looked up at you then turned to his friend to mutter, “I’ll talk to you later, man.” He stepped over to you, nodding his head as he greeted you. “What’s up, Y/N?”

“What’s up? Our project,” your voice was clipped and you made no effort in holding back your attitude.

“Yeah, I know. It’s due soon,” he nodded his head.

“Yeah! And we’ve made no progress on it whatsoever! We’re meeting at the library tomorrow morning, eight AM sharp, and we’re not leaving until I say so,” you began to shout.

“Eight in the morning on a Saturday? What are you, insane? I was going to sleep in!”

“Fuck your sleeping schedule!” you cried out. “Look, you were really cool when this class first began. I felt like I had a friend or something but you turned out to be just another douche who’s obsessed with nothing but his looks and girls.”

He took a deep breath and stepped closed to you, keeping his voice low, “You’re wrong, Y/N.”

“No, I’m not,” you shook your head quickly. “I’m not wrong. I don’t care if you want to treat me like shit. That’s fine. This project is worth twenty-five percent of my grade, though, and I am not going to accept anything but an A so you better be in that library tomorrow or I’ll...” You weren’t sure what you would do, so you took a deep breath and stormed off suddenly. You had said what you needed to say. The ball was in his court.

Steve watched you walk away and he ran his hand through his hair, sighing out of frustration. “This not caring thing isn’t working out,” he whispered.

You looked down at the watch around your wrist. It was 8:03 AM. You looked up at the books you had gathered that could help with your project. Steve was nowhere in sight. You sighed and pulled over one of the books, flipping it open. You would work on the project completely by yourself and would try your best.

Ten minutes later, a small cup of coffee was placed in front of you. You looked at it before picking your head up slowly.

“Who knew that coffee joint would have such a long line this early on a Saturday morning?” Steve grinned down at you as he sipped on his own cup.

You took a deep breath and then looked back down at the notes you had been jotting down. “I thought you wouldn’t show,” you said shortly.

“Yeah, about that...” Steve sighed as he pulled out the chair next to you. You didn’t look up at him until he cleared his throat and said, “I’m not the person you think I am and I need to make that clear.”

“Oh really?” you finally looked up at him, arching your eyebrow. 

“Yeah,” he said softly. “That’s how I was in high school. And I stopped that shit because I didn’t like who I was becoming. So I apologize for acting like that.”

“It’s fine. I just want to work on this project and get it over with. Then I’ll stop bothering you,” you cleared your throat a bit, shrugging your shoulders as you looked back down. 

Steve reached out to touch your wrist softly and you looked up at him. “You’re not a bother, Y/N,” he whispered.

You pulled your wrist away after a while. The tension fled from your body and you pushed a book over to him, starting to explain what you had done so far. He listened carefully and started to work immediately after you finished talking. While he leaned over one of the books, you sipped on your coffee slowly to hide the smile that had crossed your face.

You held your breath as you stood outside of the classroom. Steve had volunteered to get the graded final project from the Professor’s desk after class had ended and you were waiting impatiently.

Steve walked out slowly, his eyes down at the paper in his hand. 

“Well?” you asked him. “What did we get?”

“Y/N...” Steve shook his head slowly, looking up at you. 

Your face fell and you felt like you were ready to throw up.

“We got an A,” Steve smirked and held the project up to you.

“An A?” you snatched the paper and stared down at it with wide eyes. “We got an A!?”

“We got an A! I told you we would pass!” Steve started to laugh.

You shouted out loud with excitement and threw your arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Steve exhaled and wrapped his arms around your waist, spinning you in a circle.

“I can sleep in peace!” you sighed when Steve put you back on your own two feet.

“You can sleep after dinner,” he chuckled. “Let’s go out tonight.”

You looked up at him and felt your breath catch in your throat. You pushed the stray piece of hair out of your face as you asked him, “Tonight? Dinner?”

“Yeah,” he nodded his head. He took a deep breath, kicking at the ground a little bit with the tip of his shoe. “As a celebratory date. Or just dinner if you don’t want it to be a date.”

“A celebratory date,” you whispered to him. You nodded your head quickly, “I want it to be a celebratory date.”

Steve looked up at you and grinned a little, “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you laughed a little and backed up slowly. “Eight o’ clock sharp? Don’t be late this time!”

“Eight o’ clock sharp. I won’t be late,” Steve smiled over at you.

You continued to back up before turning around, disappearing into the crowded hallway. Steve remained standing outside of the classroom and sighed happily, saying to himself, “You care, Steve. You care a lot.”

hi! can i uhh request maybe fluff where like the s/o teaches them their native language idk thank u tho 🌸✨

I just realized I forgot pidge sob

[Shiro:]

•didn’t hear you first speak it until the coalition reached more suburban alien places•turns out, a predominant amount of people spoke your language, some words were a bit different from each other, but you understood each other, and even volunteered to be more involved with their group—shiro had walked in on you teaching a small group of children, parents and guardians included, the words that were different compared to theirs–––he thought that it was so cool and when you walked out he stopped you and just——“that was so goddamn cool” breathlessly

•eventually realized that you enjoy spending time with the people, and when you had even taken breaks from the team just to visit and speak with them he grew plenty interested —you might as well be a teacher there, you’re teaching them English as well and it’s proving to be quite helpful, as it’s now plenty easier to communicate with them—–considering they could be used at any moment in battle, you’ve also created armor for them.

•whenever you came back you’d talk with Shiro until he passed out beside you. You’d tell him what it’s like there and how the people are, just until he’s made up his mind that he likes it as much as you do—eventually asks you to teach him and you tear up and hug him

•lets just say he barely really learns anything from you because he keeps getting distracted by how nice and attractive you are and he just thinks you’re so wonderful and pretty and he just……wants to marry you pls get married pls—eventually with time he learns just enough of the language to communicate with the people almost as well as you do

[Keith:]•Team Voltron decided on a break in a nice city that looked like a futuristic version of NYC, you all went to a small restaurant and were greeted by both staff and guests alike. —there was one guest though, one that struggled to communicate with the waiters there, but you somehow understood them perfectly.—–the whole team was amazed at how quickly you sprung into action, a beautifully spun web of words flowing past your lips. Switching between English and the other in order to communicate with both staff and customer.

•keith was shocked honestly, he didn’t know that fact about you and it made him very happy. his crush on you just grew tenfold, but he was very confused, how come he never knew? Perhaps it’s because he didnt hang out with you a lot, or maybe he never asked, he had not been around your family before either.—as soon as you sit back down and answer the questions asked by the rest of the team, keith taps your shoulder—–He was quiet, his head tilted down and his eyes remaining on his food as he played with it a bit with his silver fork. “Do you..do you think you could teach me some of that?” He had no explanation as to why he wanted to know.

•you immediately nodded and rubbed his forearm in affection, eyes closing as you grinned with honor. Of course you’d teach him! —it made you happy to share things about yourself, especially something so dear as a language

•you taught the basics first- colors, objects, numbers, areas. Then you taught phrases, like please and thank you, or sorry.—he decided maybe he should confess to you with his knowledge of the language so far, but he had no idea how to ask you what “I love you” meant. he asked Lance to ask, who only teased him, Pidge basically growled at him as soon as he uttered the word ‘favor’. Allura and Coran would be busy, along with Hunk, and Shiro would try and make him do it on his own. –—so, He was stuck doing it on his own, asking you while pouring sweat and about to piss himself, he asked, got his answer, and then waited a week to confess

•you both had known each other since you were young and Keith only realized he was in love with you the day he had almost lost you, it was a simple car accident and it killed him to know that he wasn’t there for you until you had almost completely recovered. the smile you gave him despite him abandoning you was what made him really understand.—you probably had asked him to make a sentence or two out of what he’s learned so far, and as soon as he said it and it was a little bit stumbly, you laughed loudly with tears of happiness and hugged him /i>

•this was so much different than I thought it would be I got so carried away I’m so sorry

[Hunk]

•you had taught him the language before Voltron, having invited him over once to your house he heard you and your mother communicating. And he no doubt knew it was about him with the way your mom chuckled, pointed and eyed him. You grew embarrassed and told her to stop repeatedly—EXTREMELY curious after that and practically forced you to teach him it

•you were afraid to, of course, but as long as he stayed away from your mother then it would all be good—hunks a quick learner, and even a little independent, so if you were ever unable to teach him, he’d text you asking what you would’ve taught him that day, and then look it upon himself and made some flash cards–—it made your heart flutter at how determined he was to know——but you kind of felt neglected in a way, thinking he would only hang with you to learn the language but not learn much more about you anymore

•you realized how dedicated he really was when he understood you completely one day, about 8 months since he started.—you had just been stood up by a boy, something that you believed happen a bit too often to be accidental. You were a mess, crying in the booth of some Italian restaurant in the back. –—you had texted your mother to pick you up, but your mother had called Hunk instead, sending him straight to you. You’d been giving him the silent treatment for a while now so as soon as u saw him you grabbed your things and angrily left.

•He was confused…very very confused. He still didn’t know why you were ignoring him.—he went after you and tried to grab your arm but you only yelled at him, the foreign language coming past your lips and practically smacking him in the face. —you ran to his car and slammed the door and he followed. answering you and saying that he wasn’t purposely trying to neglect you, he was only interested in your language because it was apart of you and your life. and because he wanted to know what your mother would murmur to you whenever he came by, that would make you blush.

•you chuckled like WILD tbh and just told him everything and then you went back inside and ordered some food and now your mom won’t shut up because she had kept telling to just marry him already —I got carried away again LFMDMM also this is so cliche and dramatic in some way IDK OK

[Lance:]

•personally I don’t think he’d really be the one to just find out, he’d probably ask you because he realized you had an accent—was the first person in the Garrison to actually notice and ask, you were a new student too, so it made you happy to know someone was curious–—you could tell exactly how curious he was, and for some reason, every time he spoke with you he’d be insanely serious——people would be confused, and then asked you your ‘secret’ on getting lance to actually act mature for once, you’d be confused, you’d never really seen him act immature. They thought that was weird and would ask you if he ever flirted, you’d say no, and they’d stare at you like you had 6 heads

•you’d bring it up to him and he’d probably get nervous, he wanted someone to like him and he knew that immature side of him would probably annoy you. —he’d chuckle and change the topic of the conversation, delving back into the makeshift quiz you had given him to learn the colors.

•you bring it up again a few months later since it was bothering you and then he finally explains what he’s like in his other classes, and not the study he’s in with you, and not the times he’s with you out of classes.—you’re not that shocked really, but it makes you feel sad that he was so scared to show a side of himself, something that made him who he was–—you explained that to him and he grabbed your face and smacked his lips on your forehead making the both of you chuckle

•you end up going to his house a couple times over the summer to really reach him, and even let his siblings and nieces/nephews watch—don’t be surprised though when you fall asleep on each other and wake up to family members taking pictures—–eventually he confesses one day, right after a cousin of his was flirting with you and making you uncomfortable, and him jealous——you confess back in your language and are glad to see that he understood it