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halstudandruz · 4 years

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Always Have, Always Will ~ Part 3

*Not my gif*

Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader

Requested: Yes

Prompt: Sequel to Part 1 & Part 2

Warnings: Swearing

It had been about a month since Will found out. He avoided you and Jay at all costs only talking to you when he absolutely had to at work and you still felt just as guilty as before. Which only caused you to get into your own head. Yeah, you loved Jay but was it just the old Jay you loved? You both were different people now and that scared the hell out of you.

“Jay, do you want olives?” You yelled from the kitchen pulling the jar out when he came walking.

“No, I hate olives.” He answered coming up to wrap his arms around your waist.

“What?” You asked after a few seconds of silence.

“I hate olives, and so do you. Why do you even have them?” He asked, but you went stiff in his grip.

“Cause you love them, what do you mean you hate olives? You used to eat a jar a day.” You explained grabbing a hold of his wrists to loosen his arms around you.

“I know, that probably wasn’t good for my blood pressure. They got a little old after eating them so much.” He chuckled.

“But..what about the olive theory?” You turned to face him and a confused look came over his face.

“Why do you look like you're about to have a meltdown over olives?” He looked at you concerned taking in your features. Your mind was running rapidly, your chest starting to tighten.

“Because I am!” You exclaimed causing Jay to take a step back to get a good look at you by putting space between the two of you.

“Babe-“ He started going to grab your shoulders but you shrugged him off.

“I just..I need a minute.” You shook your head slipping past him into your room to shut the door. Tears were crowding your eyes and you were starting to breathe harder pacing around the room when Jay quietly earned.

“Babe. [Y/N]. Hey, come here. Talk to me.” He reached for you, setting you down on the bed beside him as you stared down at your shaking hands, “what’s going on?” His hand ran through your hair.

“I’m just scared. Terrified actually.” You admitted glancing at him.

“Of what?” He questioned grabbing a hold of your hands, steadying them.

“It’s just...we’re such different people now. Ya know? I feel like I know nothing about you.” You explained.

“[Y/N]..” Jay sighed.

“No, I’m serious. You’ve gone through things I can’t even begin to fathom. I mean obviously that has to change you, right? We’re not these teenagers who were clueless about the real world anymore. What..what if the people we are today just don’t fit like we used to?” You looked down into your lap, and were surprised to hear a small laugh come from Jay.

“Look here,” he whispered tilting my chin up with a finger, “no, we aren’t the same people we used to be, and yes we have a lot to learn about each other again. A lot of stories to catch up on, but we’re only the people we are today because of those clueless 18 year olds. We may have been through some shit since then, but I know with my whole heart you are still that stubborn, smart, gorgeous girl I fell in love with and that is the part of you I know I’ll always have.” He smirked at you, palm against your cheek.

“What if I can’t save you from everything you’ve gone through?” You worried.

“Baby girl, I don’t expect you to save me from anything. I just need you here that’s it and I know everything will be okay as long as I have that.” He assured you.

“I love you Jay Halstead.” You bit your lip.

“Even if I don’t like olives anymore?” He joked making you giggle.

“Even if you don’t like olives anymore.” You nodded leaning into to kiss him deeply, breaking when his phone began to ring. Sighing moved to dig it out of his pocket,

“I swear I’m gonna get rid of these.” He complained before answering, “What? Yes. Okay see you soon.” You looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Ruzek said they’re on their way to Molly’s.” He explained kissing your forehead as you nodded both moving around to change before going to meet with his team.

It was the first time you were actually going to be around them so you were sufficiently nervous walking over to their table Jay’s hands clasped tightly with yours.

“Hey, wait I know you!” Mouse looked at you intently.

“What? You sleep with Greg too?” Erin asked eyes on you.

“I-I uhm no?” You choked out nervously under her intense gaze, only relaxing a little when a smile took over her face.

“I’m kidding, come on sit down.” She patted the seat beside her.

“You’re the girl from the picture.” Mouse continued his thought.

“What?” You asked, confused.

“Mouse.” Jay jumped in giving him a hard stare that seemed to be some kind of warning.

“But it’s her isn’t it?” He defended pointing at you.

“Mouse. Drop it.” Jay scolded. Causing Mouse to put his hands up defensively nodding his head. You knew better than to push with Jay sitting there so you dropped it as well falling into conversation with those around you. Well until Jay went to get drinks and the rest of the team dispersed to mingle, leaving you alone with Greg.

“So, spill.” You rested your head on your hands smirking at Mouse once it was just the two of you.

“Yeah, in case you haven’t noticed Jay could probably break me in two.” Mouse raised an eyebrow at you.

“Maybe, but then I’d yell at him so it wouldn’t really be worth it.” You shrugged sighing loudly Mouse looked over his shoulder to see Adam and Jay still standing at the bar.

“Okay, he just..he had this picture the entire time we were in the army. Never left it alone, always had it in his pocket. You know like most guys do. Have pictures of their family and girlfriends. Anyway he was so attached to it one night we thought it’d be funny to take it and hide it when he was showering. No big deal right? He can just get someone to send him another. But he freaked. Said he couldn’t get another, tore his bed apart. I’m his best friend and anytime I asked he just avoided the conversation. We just figured you died or something.” He explained shrugging.

“Alive and in the flesh.” You joked just as Jay arrived with your drinks,

“What were you talking about?” He questioned looking between you two suspiciously.

“Football.” You both answered at the same time giving each other a surprised look. You were going to like this kid.

An hour or so later you had come out of the bathroom just in time to bump right into Will, who was coming back the hall. Laughing bitterly he shook his head turning to go right back where he came from,

“Wait no! Will just..” You begged, grabbing a hold of his arm which was tense underneath your fingers. He turned to face you, jaw tight, body stiff. “Listen I know you’re mad and you have every right to be. Hate me all you want, but don’t hate Jay, please. He’s your brother.” You pleaded.

“That’s exactly the issue, [Y/N]. He’s my brother and he had no problem stabbing me in the back.” He shot back, anger clear in his tone.

”You know as well as I do that every morning he wakes up it might be his last. He’s really not all that careful.” You admitted blinking down at the floor, voice shaky. Sighing loudly Will ran a hand through his hair,

“I’m still so pissed. At both of you, but Jay’s right I played a part in this too. I should’ve been upfront and honest with both of you and I wasn’t. I knew in the back of my head something like this was going to happen. I’m not stupid [Y/N]. I could clearly see you never felt about me the way you did about him, and you were never going to. It wasn’t fair of me to expect you to, and it wasn’t fair of me to put you in that position that day at the hospital. It was petty of me.” Nodding you reached for his hand,

“I’m really sorry.” You apologized looking at his now relaxed face.

“Me too,” He gave you a small smile.

“You want to grab a drink with us? I’ll buy.” You bit your lip making him laugh,

“Yeah I’m not quite ready for that yet, give me another couple months.” He winked at you, squeezing your hand before turning to walk away. Swallowing hard you closed your eyes to run a hand down your face before feeling strong arms encircle you,

“If you wanted a quickie in the bathroom you could’ve just come and got me.” Jay whispered into your ear making you jump.

“Where’d you come from?” You asked, turning to face him.

“Well I came to find you and saw you talking to Will. So, I kinda avoided that one. Trying to explain black eyes aren’t as fun as it may seem.” He chuckled, “How’d it go?” He asked looking down at you.

“Pretty well actually.” You admitted, wrapping your arms around his neck.

“He still pissed?” Jay questioned

“Well yeah, but I think it’s gonna be okay.” You smiled up at him.

“How couldn’t it be when I have you in my arms?” He grinned tilting your chin up to place a soft kiss on your lips, “Ready to go?” Nodding you grabbed his hand letting him lead you out of the bar after saying goodbyes to his friends. Jay grabbing your hand over the center console as you headed to his place,

“So like Kim and Adam are totally boning right?” You started the conversation.

“What?” Jay looked at you confused.

“Are they not dating?” You questioned.

“They were engaged actually, but then they broke up.” He explained.

“So friends with benefits then?” You negotiated, they were definitely still sleeping with each other, there are few things better than your girl instinct and you very clearly saw the looks they shot each other all night.

“What? No, they’re broken up.” He reiterated.

“Honey, you may be one hell of a detective but you don’t always have the best intuition.” You joked as silence filled the car for a couple minutes before Jay broke it again,

“Oh my god, they’re totally still fucking.” Jay looked over at you wide eyed causing your laugh to fill the truck.

Crawling into bed with Jay that night you wrapped your body comfortably around his listening to his heart beat against your ear, and that’s when you decided to take the leap.

“Do you still have it?” You wondered.

“Have what?” Jay looked down at you skeptical look on his face.

“The picture.” You answered.

“I’m gonna kill him.” Jay sighed moving to grab his phone but you snatched it away from him giving him a look,

“Why didn’t you ever tell him about me?”

“I don’t know. It’s embarrassing.” He shrugged, and even in the dimly lit room you could see the pink tint on his cheeks.

“Loving me is embarrassing?” You replied.

“You know that’s not what I mean. It’s just..everyone carries around pictures of their wives and their kids and I just have one of my ex girlfriend. Then I’d have to be the one who admitted I broke up with you. Relive the biggest mistake of my life. Have to listen to all the guys make fun of me and call me an idiot, because I was. I don’t know it was just a conversation I didn’t want to have.” He confessed.

“Well..do you?” You asked again.

“Yes, of course I still have it.” He chuckled.

“Can I see it?” Beg coming out a little, huffing Jay unwrapped himself from your walking to his dresser to retrieve his wallet. Laying back down beside you he opened it pulling out numerous cards before the picture emerged behind them. Handing it to you.

“I completely forgot about this picture.” You admired it, torn edges, little tears along the side, color faded showing the wear it had been through.

“It’s always been my favorite.” He smiled lovingly.

“Why?”

“It’s not posed. It’s not fake. It’s just us and we look so happy. Like nothing in the world could ever stop us. Get in the way of us, but then...I let it.” Jay explained. You remembered the day it was taken very clearly. Seated on Jay’s lap in his backyard as he sang to you the song that was playing on their old radio, Jay’s mom sneaking up on you to capture the moment.

“Jay.” You sighed, grabbing a hold of his hand to entwine your fingers with his.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you and I’m sorry I pushed you away. I just was doing what I thought was best for you regardless of how much it might’ve hurt at the time, but then I never stopped. Every time I thought of you, it just...hurt the exact same as it did the day I left, and I swear god my life flashed before my eyes whenever I watched Will put his arm around you.” He shook his head, jealousy seeping into his voice.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was hoping if I faked it then it would somehow become real and I wouldn’t have to miss you anymore.” You admitted.

“I’m just glad you came back to me.” He said brushing a piece of hair beside your ear.

“Why do you still carry it around?” You wondered.

“Regardless if I’m over there or here it’s still the only thing that got me through.” He grinned leaving a gentle kiss on your lips.

“You know I could’ve been married. You could’ve been jacking off to a picture of some other guy's wife.” You teased.

“Haha, you’re so funny.” Jay said sarcastically, rolling his eyes before flipping you underneath him to cover your face and neck in kisses causing you to laugh loudly as the picture fell out of your hand onto the floor. He didn’t really need it anymore. He had the real thing in front of him again to help him through whatever he may face.

All Tag List:

@corebore123 @scarletsoldierrr @hehurst23 @beautiful-bunny89 @ingie @halsteadsway @malrunaway @smclelli

Jay Taglist:

@justadreamxx @life-treatments @weepingfestivalmentality @queen-of-arda @toomuchtv95

#jay halstead x reader #jay halstead imagine #jay halstead #chicago pd imagine #chicago pd x reader #chicago pd #Will halstead

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mind-of-a-hardstan · 4 years

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Apple Pie

Pairing: Hoseok x reader

Genre: angst, post-breakup au

Warnings: cursing

Summary: It’s been months since you broke up with Hoseok, and Jimin finally convinces you to go out with the gang again. It doesn’t turn out exactly as he said it would, though, and things go downhill rather quickly.

Word count: 1.8k

A/N: A little post Christmas angst. This is rather short, but I’m actually quite fond of this piece. Please let me know if you liked it, I live on attention :)

“My mom asks about you, you know.”

The words didn’t surprise you. Hoseok’s mother always liked you. Liked that you baked good apple pie, liked that you knew how to sew, liked that you genuinely loved her son.

So the words didn’t surprise you. What surprised you, however, was that Hoseok said those words to you in the first place.

You looked at him. His face was passive, but his lips were slightly pressed together. It almost made you smile. Not the hurt that was hidden there, but the fact that you could still pick up on it even months later.

It would have really made you smile if it didn’t hurt so damn much.

“Oh… I’m sorry,” was all you could say. What else was there to say? Nothing. There was nothing to say to make this any better. So you looked away instead and focused on the shitty food of the shitty restaurant that Jimin dragged you to.

And you cursed him for it. The conversation still rang in your head, clear as a bell.

“You need to come out with us again. We all miss you.”

“I know but… Hoseok will be there and I just – I don’t want to make things awkward, you know?”

“You won’t! We’ll just seat you two far away from each other and you know the conversation goes in fifty directions anyway. You don’t have to talk to him.”

“Jimin… I don’t know about this. I don’t want to see him. Not… it hasn’t been long enough.”

“It’s been two months –” you went to interrupt him, but he held up his hand to silence you “– and I know it’s been hard. But we’re your friends too, and we miss having you there.”

And then he pouted, and you’d already lost.

Obviously, as there was always chaos in this ungodly, perfect friend group, things didn’t work out as everyone planned, and you ended up sitting right next to Hoseok. And no one noticed until everyone was settled in, so you couldn’t move without making things awkward.

And now things were awkward. And things hurt. And you really hated Jimin. And you couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Hoseok’s mother misses you and that he brought it up in the smallest voice you’d ever heard him use.

And it fucking hurt.

“Why are you sorry?” Hoseok asked. There was kindness tucked into the words, a small smile came with it. But the small smile almost unsettled you because whenever he smiled, he smiled big and lit up the whole room like sunshine. It was never small and it was never sad. He wasn’t supposed to be sad. He didn’t deserve to be sad.

God it fucking hurt.

“Because,” you said and picked at your food, “your mom still asks about me. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to linger in your life like that.” Because you don’t deserve the hurt that lingers with me.

“Nah, it’s okay. Honestly! I’m sort of… letting you linger, if that makes sense? And my mom just wants you back because you never did give her that pie recipe.”

You softly giggled and picked at your food some more. You didn’t feel like eating. The pasta was too salty and the sauce was too runny and maybe it had something to do with the fact that you just didn’t want to be here.

“I might email it to you. But make sure to tell her that she better not do a better job than I did. That’s my spotlight,” you said, trying to lighten the conversation.

The others were talking merrily, oblivious to the fact that you wished you were that piece of spaghetti swimming in what was supposed to be a bolognaise sauce.

Jimin eyed you every now and then, but he was sat across the table so there wasn’t much he could do right now except for giving you a sorry pout. You kept your eyes away from him, avoiding that look at all cost, knowing that you’d fall for it and that you loved him too much to stay mad at him. But you wanted to stay mad. So you looked away and pointedly ignored him.

Hoseok chuckled and shook his head, looking down at his food also. “I don’t think she could, even – even if she tried.”

You swallowed heavily and looked down again, unable to face him. He always said that you made the best apple pie. You literally had to get creative in hiding it after you baked it to make sure he didn’t find and eat the damn thing in one sitting.

You learnt your lesson after the first time. You found him at two in the morning on the kitchen floor in his underwear with a fork hanging from his mouth and the wide, guilty eyes of a kid who got caught stealing cookies out of the cookie jar.

“Hoseok!”

“I’m sorry! I couldn’t help it, it was taunting me, I swear!”

You were livid that night, but he made it up to you and now memory made you smile.

“She’ll manage. The recipe is easy,” you said more to your pasta than to him.

“I know. But it wouldn’t be you who baked it,” he replied softly.

That shut you right up. Because yes, it wouldn’t taste the same because it wasn’t you who baked it. Just like how hot chocolate tastes watery now, no matter how much milk or cocoa or sugar you put in there. And just like how you can’t stand olives on pizza now, because even though you always disliked them, Hoseok used to eat them off for you. And just like how the bed sheets smell like nothing now, completely empty, even though they used to bear Hoseok’s musky scent.

So yes. Of course the fucking apple pie wouldn’t taste the same, because there’s no one to hide it from him, there’s no one to catch him eat it, there’s no one to dish him a double serving with more ice cream.

Did he cry over store bought apple pie like you cried over hot chocolate from the coffee shop?

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Hoseok said and snapped you out of your downward spiral. You would have bet anything that he knew exactly what was going on in your head. You smiled at him, as genuine as you could manage, and he mirrored it.

“No, not at all. Honestly. I like – I like talking to you.”

Not a lie, not the truth.

“Hey, Y/n, how’s the spaghetti?” Taehyung yelled from across the table – bless him – effectively grabbing your attention.

“Watery and salty, why?” you said back with a smile.

“Because I’m still hungry.”

“You just had a whole steak, Tae. With chips and onion rings. There’s no damn way you’re still hungry!” Seokjin said, wildly throwing his hands in the air.

“I’m a growing boy and I need my nutrition, damn it!”

“You stopped growing two years ago!” you laughed.

“You’re being a pig, Tae!” Jeongguk chimed in from next to you.

“Yah, I’m still older than you. Use your honorifics!” Taehyung scolded, waving a fork at the boy. You laughed when Jeongguk chucked a rib bone at Taehyung and Tae reached to grab something off of his own plate, only to find it empty.

The pout that formed on the boy’s lips made you throw your head back in laughter.

“I’ll get you back for that, brat.”

“Oh, yeah? And what are you gonna do about it?”

“God, I missed you.”

Hoseok.

Hoseok said that.

Hoseok said that to you.

“What?”

Those infernal words that you feel in your very fucking soul but refrained from saying because it’s supposed to be wrong. You’re not supposed to say them out loud because they hurt. And that hurt goes both ways.

But there was a smile on his lips. Not a small one, not a fake one. A real, genuine smile.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s a shitty time to say it. I know it’s probably shitty to say it to you either way. And I don’t mean anything by it. I’m not expecting anything because of it. I just – I did. I missed you. It’s just a truth that I’m telling you. I missed you. So goddamn much. Every goddamn day. And seeing you laugh just now made my heart all warm inside. And I want to see you more. And I understand that we can’t be in a relationship, no matter how much I want it. But maybe we can be friends? I just want to see you. I’m not ready to fully say goodbye to you and being friends with you is already more than enough. More than I deserve. I understand if you say no. Just… can we consider it?”

Everything inside of you froze. The world outside continued on. The boys created chaos, as they do. The restaurant was bustling. The street was crawling with people trying to get home as fast as possible. The world just kept on turning. And your heart stopped cold in your chest.

But you looked at him, locked eyes with him, and saw the shitstorm brewing in his own head. And you smiled. Not the smile that you’ve been plastering over your lips for the past few minutes. A real smile, but not the smile he gave you. You smiled a bitter smile that displayed hurt so openly that Hoseok visibly flinched.

“I missed you too.” There. The words burnt your throat like acid, but they were out. “But I don’t think we could ever be friends, Seokie. I love you too much for that.”

Hoseok’s face didn’t fall. The words didn’t make him flinch. He already knew that, you realised. He wasn’t surprised, because he already knew that it was true, he just needed to hear it to be sure. He needed you to say those words so he could stop hoping.

“I’m sorry, I need to go. I can’t… I need to go.”

You didn’t say goodbye to Jimin on your way out.

Two days later.

22:46 You: flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, butter, 8 apples, lemon juice, nutmeg.

22:54 Seokie: Where’s the rest of the recipe?

22:56 You: You don’t need it. Just have those ready for me on Saturday at your place.

22:56 Seokie: What happened to ‘we can’t be friends’?

22:57 You: I don’t intend on being your friend. We can talk about it over apple pie and hot chocolate on Saturday? You: If I’m not too late?

22:58 Seokie: Yes. God yes. You’re not too late. Seokie: Saturday at 9am?

22:58 You: See you then, Seokie. Good night.

22:59 Seokie: Good night, Y/n Seokie: I can’t wait.

23:00 You: Neither can I.

#bangtanhq #jhope #jhope angst #hoseok #jung hoseok #hoseok angst #jhope fanfic #hoseok fanfic #jhope fanfiction #hoseok fanfiction #bts #bts fanfiction #bts fanfic #bts fiction #bangtan

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breeeliss · 7 years

Note

Nath/Nino + 'the fire alarm went off at 3 am and now the cute guy from the flat next door is standing next to me in his underwear’ AU ?

i’m…..suddenly so into this that i got carried away lol

words: 1409

Nino didn’t know what kind of an idiot could manage to trip off the fire alarm at three in the goddamn morning, but he was going to assume it was a special brand of idiot that he was thirty seconds away from chewing out. He needed to wake up in four hours to get to work on time. He didn’t deserve this.

He was about to grab his noise canceling headphones and listen to music until he fell asleep, but then Nino heard frantic knocking on his front door and cursed loudly in his empty room. God, that was probably the landlord trying to figure out which apartment the alarm was coming from. Nino grabbed a tank top and put on his glasses, hoping that this was just some moron leaving their gas burners on by accident so that Nino could just crawl back into bed.

So when he opened the door, the last thing he expected to see was a cute guy standing in the hallway in his underwear, bouncing on his toes and looking like he was two seconds away from having a panic attack.

“Hey!” he piped up a little too loudly. “Horrible hour. I know. Quick question. Are you good at putting out fires?”

Nino blinked. “Putting out fires? Is there a fire in your apartment?”

“Um, maybe?” his neighbor winced, speaking almost too quickly for Nino to understand him. “Kitchen, technically, but uh, yeah. I kinda panicked and knocked on the first door I saw.”

“Oh my God, you left your apartment burning!?” Nino exclaimed, propping his door open with a shoe. “Where do you live?”

The two of them jogged down the hallway to the next apartment over and Nino almost slipped on this stranger’s welcome mat as he booked it inside, following the grey smoke that was billowing out of the kitchen and making the fire alarm screech. Nino covered his mouth with the crook of his elbow and was able to see a small saucepan on the stovetop that was currently holding a small fire and burning whatever contents were inside. Nino put the cold water in the sink on full blast, snatched up a kitchen towel, and threw the pot into the sink to extinguish the fire.

Luckily, a fire extinguisher wasn’t necessary and the charred food – Jesus, what the hell was this dude trying to cook? – was immediately put out leaving nothing but an apartment full of smoke.

“Open your windows,” Nino coughed, pointing to the nameless neighbor that was wisely deciding his presence in the kitchen wasn’t about to make anything better. “I’ll try and shut this stupid thing off.”

It took four open windows and three fans to finally get all the smoke out, but eventually the air in the apartment was clear and Nino had managed to disable the fire alarm. All was well, he guessed. Way too much excitement for this late at night though.

His neighbor brushed his dark red bangs out of his eyes and awkwardly held out a hand. “Uh. Thanks for saving my ass. And sorry for walking you up. I’m Nathanael.”

Nino snorted and shook it. “Name’s Nino, a.k.a the dude that would love to know how the fuck you managed all this.”

Nathanael bit his lip and scratched the back of his head. “I just came back late from my studio and I was gonna make pasta real quick. The sauce was in the fridge so I thought putting it on for half an hour would be fine? But then it wasn’t fine and there was like, literal fire, and I’m sort of hopped on caffeine right now because my showcase is coming up soon and my brain just went. Boom! Panic! So I ran…to get…help. I’m not making myself sound too cool, am I?”

Nino burst into laughter and shook his head. This kid was a rambler. A little panicky too. A shit cook, too. But adorable. Very adorable. The kind of adorable that made it literally impossible to be pissed off at this guy. “Pro tip: sauce never needs to heat up for that long. Especially if it’s out a jar.”

“Yeah,” Nathanael sighed, and Nino had only just noticed that the ends of his hair were covered in black and purple paint. “Definitely have to write that one down.”

“Gonna guess you don’t cook often?”

Nathanael chuckled. “I usually just order take out. But I’m in between jobs at the moment and I gotta save the money for paints, you know?”

“Artist?”

“Sort of. Or hopefully.”

“What does that mean?”

Nathanael gestured to the seven or so easels that were propped up against the walls of his apartment. “Well, I’ve got a showcase next week that I’m hoping will get people talking. It’s in a bar and a total of twelve people have RSVP’ed on Facebook, but you’ve gotta start somewhere.”

“Ah, don’t worry so much,” Nino assured. “When I started out as a DJ I think maybe three people showed up to my first gig. It was in my garage.”

Nathanael snorted, his eyes hidden slightly by his bangs but his smile doing the work of lighting up his entire face anyway. “Humble beginnings.”

“Tell me about it.” Nino jutted his chin towards the fridge. “May I?”

“I-I mean. I guess. But just. Don’t judge.”

Nino stared over the door of the fridge. “You have a pack of tortilla bread, olives, and mayonnaise in here.”

“Huh. Weird. I don’t even like olives.”

“Dude.”

“I told you! I don’t cook!”

“Okay, Picasso,” Nino announced. “No offense, but I can’t be waking up to fire alarms at three in the morning anymore. You free tomorrow night?”

Nathanael furrowed his brows. “F-Free? Like…like free free?”

“Is there another definition of the word?”

“No just, uh….I guess. Yeah,” he finally said. “Yeah I’m free.”

“Cool. I’m bringing over pasta and sauce and we’re going to work up from the basics. My mom basically raised me with a wooden spoon in my hands. There’s no way I’m going to leave someone like you alone without any instruction after you burned pre-made sauce.”

“Oh!” Nathanael exclaimed. “You mean….free to come cook. Right….yeah, right. Of course.”

Nino bit his lip and smirked. “Did you think I meant something else?”

“Nope!” Nathanael laughed, crossing his arms and messing with the magnets on his fridge. “Forget it. I’m….caffeine. Like I said. Just. Crazy amounts of caffeine. I’m saying dumb stuff.”

“I mean….we can be fancy about it and I’ll bring over some wine,” Nino offered.

“Oh….oh cool! I’ll uh. I guess I’ll put on a shirt?”

Nino dipped his head and felt laugher bubbling from his chest again. “You’re a funny guy, Nath.” He pulled out his phone from his pocket and handed it to Nathanael. “So dinner tomorrow? I’ll bring wine. Shirts required.”

Nathanael looked down at Nino’s phone for a moment like he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with it, but his mind caught up to his limbs and he carefully took the phone to under in his number. “Y-Yeah, sounds awesome. I could use some lessons.”

“I’m a chill teacher, don’t worry. Besides, I won’t be able to live with myself if I knew you were subsisting off of take out. It’s the mom friend in me.”

“Well, I just moved in here a couple of days ago, so I could definitely use a friend. Mom friend or not.” Nathanael threw his phone back at him. “Text me when you’re coming over so I know when to clean up. There’s usually brushes and sketches around here more often than not.”

“No problem,” Nino shrugged. “Although, don’t be surprised if I text you before that.”

Nathanael smiled so hard the apples of his cheeks made his eyes squint in a way that was absolutely fucking precious. Nino was started to think he was becoming a goner. “Looking forward to it.”

“Uh, yeah,” Nino said, drumming his hands against his sweatpants. “This has been fun, but I’ve gotta get a few hours in before work tomorrow. See you around?”

“Yeah,” Nathanael said. “See you around, neighbor.”

By the time Nino had shut the door behind him and started walking back to his own apartment, he knew that there was no way he was going to fall back asleep anytime soon. Not with the shit eating grin that was still on his face.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #nathnino #ninath #nino lahiffe #nathanael kurtzberg #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #nathnino fanfiction #my writing #request #help-i-cant-adult #tumblr fic

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benjamingarden · 4 years

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Weekending

We have snow! Again! It really is beautiful. We had just about lost all of our previous snow because of the higher than normal temps we've experienced melting it, which left us with mud. I much prefer the snow. We woke up Thursday morning to about 3 inches of fresh snow and then we were the recipients of another 5-6 inches on Saturday.

my typical salad

I spent a good portion of Saturday doing some meal prep. I usually get a bunch of veggies chopped and/or steamed for my salads throughout the week. I then make up 2 days of full salads and store the rest of the veggies in jars so I can easily make the salads the remainder of the week. **You can possibly see that I add cold water to the chopped celery and grated carrot. This helps keep them crunchy and fresh. ** I also always prep what we'll be eating and drinking on Sunday. I make cold brew for Jay plus his coffee syrup (organic sugar and water) as well as prep what we'll have for breakfast, make our lunches, and prep Sunday's dinner. This way, we can easily get ourselves out the door for the farmer's market and then dinner is easy once we're home. Our Sunday market ended up being cancelled due to the snow today so we are well prepped for a day at home!

I usually also clean all of the eggs on Saturday too. Thankfully I hadn't started that task before I was told the market would likely be cancelled. I can find room in the refrigerator for 8-10 dozen eggs for a day, but having them in there all week would have been a real pain. So, we'll have a lot of eggs to clean next Saturday! A quick note, in case you're wondering, once you clean the eggs it removed their natural bloom (protectant) so they must then be refrigerated. They are fine at room temp if that hasn't been removed.

Oliver sleeping soundly, finally!

Grateful - that things are improving with Oliver and Jerkson Jackson. As noted in the last Weekend post, Oliver is very upset and I still have no idea what happened to push him over the edge, but I believe Jack must have got into Oliver's bed one night and terrorized him. I'm using (affiliate link) Bach's Rescue Remedy on Jack to try and calm him from constantly targeting Oliver. (it's ALL THE TIME..... he is either trying to intimidate him by glaring and getting in his face or he's attacking him) It does help, particularly if I remember to give it to him every 4-5 hours, although it's an uphill battle if I'm being honest. It's just his personality and who he is. He LOVES to pick-pick-pick. Always has. He's hilarious (when he's not picking), handsome, and a really good cat. It would be incredibly helpful if he would settle down a bit. Oliver is temporarily on a bit of prescription medication to help him relax. It got really bad, and the natural alternatives were taking too long to kick in so I reached out to his vet in desperation. He was just such a mess and wasn't sleeping (or letting me sleep) for longer than an hour at a time. He couldn't sit still, constantly jumping/jittery, and was just downright uncomfortable and upset. And when Jack entered the room, oh boy, he would lose it, clinging to my side and crawling up my leg trying to get picked up (not normal for him at all). But when we would take him out of the house he was fine - his normal self. So we knew it had to do with Jack..... He's always been very anxious and high-strung, so unfortunately it's not completely new, just much worse. But, he is now doing well and we have even had 3 nights of 8 hours sleep!!!

Loving - cloth alternatives to paper towels. I have no idea what took me so long to realize that I needed to put a stack of cloth towels in the kitchen. Mind you, we don't use a lot of paper towels, however, they were still an easy go-to because I didn't keep a stack of cloths in the kitchen so it wasn't so convenient. At the end of summer last year I finally stuck a stack in the kitchen and my-oh-my, we use hardly any paper towels at all! One thing I did to stop myself from (out of habit) reaching for paper towels was to put the paper towels in the cupboard or across the kitchen, keeping the cloth towels in my main working area. This way, they were right where I would normally reach to clean up a spill, wash veggies or fruit, etc. Whether you make your own from scraps or buy towels, the key is in making sure you have a small stack so you don't run out before you've done laundry.

Cooking - last night I made 5-Spice Bourbon Chicken for Jay along with rice and cauliflower with cheese sauce. For me it was a grain bowl. Tonight it's Shephard's Pie. The ground beef version for Jay (Cottage Pie, I believe?) and the Vegan (mushroom/corn/carrot/lentil) version for moi. We will have greens & homemade, super easy, no-knead artisan bread on the side (recipe coming this week). Lunches were salad (me), grilled cheese sandwich (Jay) and a side of homemade roasted tomato soup (both).

Enjoying - so remember how I shared my favorite teas in a previous weekending post? Well....I've found a NEW ONE! I believe I've also shared that I stopped drinking coffee a few months ago. Once I stopped with coffee I found, when trying to drink it again, that I seem to have some sensitivities to caffeine. So, I've been drinking decaf from time-to-time. But, that has changed now. Celestial Seasonings Tea makes 2 delicious caffeine-free coffee alternatives. I'm linking to them (affiliate) on Amazon so you can see, but purchase them at your grocery store, they are likely much cheaper. At Hannaford I was able to purchase them for $2.79/box (they were around $3.30-3.40/box at Whole Foods and the local health food stores). The Roastaroma is here (features a light cinnamon/allspice combo) and the Almond Sunset is here (features almond flavoring). Both are a combination of chicory root, carob, and barley. It gives the taste and mouthfeel of coffee and I really am loving them with just a hint of oat milk. Working On - being consistent with one new blog post every Thursday. I'll try to also write these "weekending" posts every other Sunday. If I have additional posts or recipes to share, I plan to share those on Tuesdays. As we come up with and incorporate newer, healthier, recipes into our life I'll try to get them up. Quite a few of you have emailed requesting more information on a couple of things: starting our business (a more in-depth look instead of the overview here) and an outline of how we paid off our debt (all but the mortgage) with meal planning. I am working on both of these plus an add-on to the debt payoff post - a focus on reducing your grocery bill. I'm thinking about trying to include a month's worth of low cost meal plan ideas/recipes. Reading - I'm finishing up (affiliate links) The Simple Living Guide and have Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less next up in que. Have you read either? I would love to hear your thoughts! I'm hoping you've had a lovely weekend as well!

Weekending was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

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combackrunner-blog · 7 years

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Day in the life of Colleen Quigley (picked this up off Running on Veggeis)

COLLEEN QUIGLEY OLYMPIAN WORKOUT WEDNESDAY

October 25, 2017 by runonveg

7:30am My alarm goes off and I roll over to drink water. I usually get up right away because I have to go to pee!

I almost always have oatmeal for breakfast. Now before you keep scrolling because you “hate oatmeal” listen up. This is the way you gotta do oats so that they aren’t gross and actually keep you full all morning.

I have a bunch of jars that I keep filled with nuts and seeds both for oatmeal and for making granola.

While the oats are cooking, scoop a couple tablespoons of any of the following into your bowl:almonds, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, pecans, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, or any other nuts/seeds you like!

Then add a scoop of protein powder (any brand of whey protein without added sugars is great).By the time I get done putting my toppings together and making my coffee, my oats are done cooking and I add them to the bowl and stir it all up.8:00 Coffee and Oats. While I ate breakfast I checked my emails, read some news (love the Skimm updates every morning), and got my plans for the day set.

10/10:30 After my run I took a few minutes to stretch/roll out and I grabbed two homemade date balls from my locker for recovery fuel.

11:00 After my swim I grabbed 2 more date balls before hitting the shower and driving home.

12:00 I was pretty hungry by the time I got home (date balls are just enough to get me home, but not enough to fill me up.) I made what I call a “power quinoa bowl” for lunch, but this requires some prep ahead of time if I’m going to eat right away. For example, the quinoa is cooked ahead of time, so is the chicken, and I roast my vegetables the day before too. When I got home I pulled everything ready to go out of the fridge and tossed it together in a wide, shallow bowl and topped it with Shalane’s lemon miso dressing from her cookbook, Run Fast Eat Slow. Shalane and her coauthor Elyse showed me how incredibly easy it is to make your own salad dressings and avoid the added sugars and other bad-for-you stuff you find in the supermarket ones. The power quinoa bowl is different every time, but the guidelines are on my website.

Today’s power bowl: mixed baby greens, quinoa, roasted beets, onions, and butternut squash (the day before I had chopped, mixed, and covered in olive oil, salt, and pepper then roasted all the veggies together in a pan), black beans, cilantro, parmesan cheese, Shalane’s lemon miso dressing

2:00-3:00 Met up with the BTC babes and our weights coach, Pascal Dobert, for what we call “core.” We don’t sit around doing crunches for an hour though, we just call it core because in every exercise that we do we want to always be engaging our core muscles. On my website I have videos of some of the exercises we do and will be sending out more in my newsletter this fall (sign up here). Pascal separates core out between men and women now that we have such a robust women’s group and we can’t all fit in the gym at the same time! Such a great problem to have 🙂

4:00 Steeple Squigs Granola time! I make homemade granola about once a week. My favorite way to eat it is with plain greek yogurt and some berries. I have this for breakfast, a post-run snack, or even dessert.

5:30-6:30 Time to make some dinner! My boyfriend, Kevin, and I are craving a big juicy burger. We like planning the menu together, and this is what we came up with: burgers made of ground turkey with quinoa (leftover from the power bowl at lunch), an egg, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper served on a whole wheat bun with melted gouda cheese, avocado slices and baby greens; sweet potato fries with salt and pepper (and bbq sauce for dipping); side salad with baby greens, tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette.

For dessert, I pull out the “Peanut Buster Parfait Bars” from the freezer. This recipe uses no processed sugar, the sweetener comes from dates (one of my all-time favorite foods). It takes a little bit of prep work ahead of time and has to be frozen, but then keeps in the fridge and you can pull it out a serving at a time.

After dessert, we clean up my mess in the kitchen then flip on some TV (some favorites are New Girl, Modern Family, and Master of None) and I slid into my Normatch recovery sleeves. These bad boys help my legs feel better the next day by improving circulation and flushing the junk of out my muscles.

10:00- Crawled into bed with the book I’m currently reading, The Wolf of Wall Street, and read about a chapter before my eyelids are too heavy and it’s lights out.

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benjamingarden · 4 years

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Weekending

my typical salad

Oliver sleeping soundly, finally!

Weekending was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

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