#i had this thought bc i was like 'what if au where travis is an actual demon? what kind of demon tho...' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bigbrotherlouis · 3 years

Note

the bag of chips scene from 'i ate you up the day we first spoke' for the director's cut meme!

whoohoo i actually loved writing this scene and i’m so glad someone asked about it yeeee

(director’s cut meme)

everything eases back into normal. tk picks nolan up for practice, because nolan’s car is inexplicably always out of gas, (this is true, i read an article about it somewhere) and ties nolan’s ties for him on game days, and follows him into his living room to eat all the good snacks nolan hides on increasingly higher shelves.

“how did you even get those?” he asks when he comes out of the washroom and finds travis eating illegal all-dressed his mom had sent down in his last care package. he’s pretty sure they were hidden, like, on top of the cupboards this time. he literally had to throw them up there. (food, when you move countries, is a really big deal. i always want to keep the mutlicultural aspect of a lot of hockey players in mind, because i was a young multicutural person in the united states, and home foods is usually a good way to do it. all-dressed are pretty distinctly canadian, and my cousin gets her parents to send them to her in california, so i borrowed that from her. also i liked the image of TK climbing on the counters to try and get at a bag of chips.)

tk shrugs and crams a handful of chips into his mouth. “smart thinking.”

“those are mine.”

“i don’t see you eating them,” tk says smugly and nolan thinks about it for precisely point two seconds before he launches himself at the sofa. (no thoughts, head empty)

it’s a familiar ritual, this one. tk cackles, going limp so he can noodle off the cushions onto the floor, the bag still clamped in his hand. he scrabbles backwards until he’s out of reach of nolan’s admittedly long arms.

“sucks to suck, babe,” he gloats, except nolan is not emphatically giving up, those are his chips, and he’s not going to let his idiot of a best friend eat them all. tk grunts when nolan lands on his lower half, hard, and pins down his legs so he can’t escape. he sits on tk’s knees and ignores the yelling. (travis “has never shut up once in his life” konecny strikes again)

“mine,” he says savagely, snatching the bag out of his hands. tk huffs, shoving at his legs.

“it’s rude— not to— share— fuck, patty, what are you doing in the gym?”

“some of us don’t skip leg day.”

“yeah, well, some of us aren’t built like a fuckin’ ox,” tk complains, as if he’s not just as in shape as nolan is. “i can’t even fuckin’ pinch you because you’re wearing jeans.”

“now who’s the smart think— fuck!” (not you, pat. not tk either but still not you.) he shouts, flinching and rubbing at his side. that pinch is definitely going to bruise. tk uses it as a distraction to roll them, nolan’s shoulders thudding painfully against the floor, and straddles nolan’s stomach with his thighs. there’s another struggle but tk gets hold of nolan’s arms, pins them under his knees so nolan’s fists are at his sides. he’s effectively trapped. (too many nolans but what do you do when writing m/m. also this isn’t specific to this scene, but especially in hockey with all its nicknames, i like to write people’s internal narrative with whatever name they probably think of themselves as. that’s why nolan isn’t pat/patty here, and why tk is usually not travis)

“still me,” tk says, grinning at him with undisguised glee. he works the chips free and sits up, putting his weight just under nolan’s ribs so all the breath gets knocked out of him for a second.

“fucker,” nolan hisses, trying and failing to wriggle his way out. “what the fuck, teeks?”

“that’s what you get for not growing up with brothers, bro. gotta fight to survive. survival skills.”

“bud, you don’t even know. sisters have nails and they’re not fucking afraid to use them,” nolan says, his best murder glare in effect. he probably still has the scars in some places. (i know i do) tk snorts.

“sorry, i don’t see you scratching me here,” he says.

“let me go and i’ll scratch you up real good,” he threatens and then his brain catches up with his mouth, his face going red as he realises what he’s maybe implied. “uh.”

tk doesn’t take the obvious chirp, just raises an eyebrow. there’s a considering look on his face, one that makes nolan want to squirm more and it settles somewhere down deep in his stomach. (so i wrote this scene because i needed a turn for both of them, relationship-wise. iirc, there’s been a few places where tk’s interest might be noticeable, but nothing super concrete for pat or for the reader. meanwhile, on tk’s side, he needed clear signals that pat’s into him before he tries to tell him again.)

“uh,” he says again because his brain is just fucking offline and his arms are still locked under travis’ legs and travis burns hot because nolan can feel it against his skin, through his t-shirt, and this is all going to get incredibly, incredibly awkward in about three seconds. (unfortunately, i love a good run-on sentence to build tension) he’s pretty sure popping a boner because a teammate is sitting on you is, like, not something you can get away with by laughing.

tk shifts, sitting up the tiniest bit, and reaches out the hand that’s not currently occupied with the fuckin’ chips— probably all crushed to hell now, anyway (foreshadowing!! also strategic last mention here so we know that tk is still holding them, and then they aren’t mentioned until the shoe drops for optimal dramatic effect) — and brushes his fingers against nolan’s cheek. he traces the blush from his cheekbone carefully down his neck, pausing to thumb at his jaw, and then bumps his fingers against his collar, where it disappears down into his shirt. (i really liked building the tension here. also this is fully just projection bc i would love to touch patty’s blush once in my life)

“you’re glowing, pat,” he says, so soft, and it makes nolan go redder. he glowers at a spot by tk’s ear, unwilling to look him in the face and see whatever is written there. (would tk actually tell nolan he’s glowing? probably not, but fictionally it gives the reader a good picture of what nolan looks like to someone else. i didn’t want to overuse red-- which didn’t quite feel like a strong enough word-- or blush, so glowing it was.) tk hooks his index into the collar and there’s a moment when nolan thinks he’s going to pull it down, see if his blush goes all the way down his chest— it does, if he’s embarrassed enough. it’s fucking terrible— and he turns his head away, dragging in a breath through his nose. he’s, like, so incredibly fucked that he can’t even think about it without going dizzy. (you’ll probably see this a lot if you look for it in my writing, but i like to add in a “like” or something similarly bro-ish when things get particularly emotionally fraught, to keep it more realistic. also i think it’s funny. anyway, i like the contrast of tk not being able to take his eyes away from something he wanted and nolan not being able to look at it. characterisation, wahey!) it’s better to just not look.

of course, it’s the exact opposite of what tk wants.

“hey,” he says. “look at me.”

nolan refuses, a muscle ticking in his jaw. (this is hot to me idc) tk lets go of his collar to pull on his hair instead, just a little tug of a piece by his ear, and nolan can’t quite bite back the punched-out sound that he lets out. (also hot.)

“look at me,” tk says again, an edge to his voice, and nolan does. tk won’t stop until he does, he knows that well enough. (another look at their dynamic and how well they know each other) he lifts his chin, just a tiny bit, because he’s not going to do anything without a fight. tk’s hand tightens in his hair and it keeps him in place, nailed— ha— to the floor. (i write for the people whose brains make inappropriate jokes at the wrong moments) he couldn’t move if he wanted to, watches helplessly as tk leans down.

the hope in his chest is so thick, nolan thinks it might actually smother him, stop his heart. he’s breathing fast and shallow, almost on the verge of panting, and jesus fuck, isn’t that embarrassing. he’s so desperate, he could squirm with it and he briefly remembers travis months ago, writhing on his very rug and how much nolan wanted to help. he can smell snow again, sharp in the back of his nose. (this does the double work of calling back to an earlier scene-- ya girl loves a good callback-- and also building the anticipation some more. the snow reference reminds the reader that this is still a werewolf au, even in the midst of this. also, once when i was like fifteen, i read something about how to write kisses/romance and it talked about picking one or two aspects of the kiss to focus on-- breathing, hands, the feeling of someone’s mouth, etc. i still use that advice.)

tk shifts his weight and nolan has enough time to think holy fuck, is this happening? before travis fucking konecny upends the bag of all dressed-flavoured crumbs all over his face. (OKAY a lot going on here! it’s one of my favourite moments, really. first of all, here’s the resolution of all the chips talk! sure, i could’ve just abandoned them, but the subverting of expectations was a lot more fun and the story still wasn’t quite ready for them to kiss yet. second, this is tk chickening out. he had two choices and he chose violence. or, like, the buddies option, which is amusing to me because this is not buddies, boys. finally, the full name was necessary to convey nolan’s disappointment and anger, as was the full description of the chips. nolan is upset, and he’s going to notice these things, and that shows up in his internal narrative.)

“got ‘em,” he crows over nolan’s sputtering, letting himself get bucked off onto the floor. nolan wipes furiously at his face, all his feelings a confusing mix of horny and angry and confused, all with the thick overtone of humiliation.

“you’re a fucking dick,” he says and it’s flat, but tk is gloating too much to care. (he’s not, he’s trying to cover, but nolan’s too embarrassed to realise)

“you should’ve seen your face, pat.”

nolan glares daggers at the carpet, the chips spread out everywhere. it’s going to be a bitch to clean up. tk had better help. (makes sure the punch landed, and to give a final resolution.)

he leans against the sofa and waits for tk to tire himself out, listening to the laughter and trying not to get too angry or, like, cry. his neck feels hot, prickling uneasily. he rubs at it with his hand, startles when tk kicks him gently in the ankle. (in order for tk to not come out of this looking like an asshole, i needed him to make up his obliviousness by being observant in other times. and in order for tk to notice patty being mad, i needed to give patty actions that could be noticed, like not laughing along with the joke)

“sorry if i made you mad,” tk says quietly, all the giggles finally worked out of him. “you looked tense (no shit bud) and i thought it would make you laugh.”

it’s not tk’s fault nolan thought he was gonna, like, kiss him. (”like” again, to break up a too-honest moment) it was a dick move but tk doesn't have a cruel bone in his body, so: “it’s fine,” he mumbles and shrugs his shoulder. “it was funny.”

tk preens for a second. “i know.”

“you owe me a bag now.”

“i’ll buy you a family-sized pack. i’m sure they’ll ship it down here, amazon or ups or somethin’.” (patty’s attempting to be normal and tk is attempting to make amends.)

nolan nods and scratches at his face, tipping his head against the couch cushions. (little motions like him scratching his face aren’t super necessary for like plot or development, but it helps humanize characters and i like to add them in whenever i can, as long as it’s not overkill. they can also be helpful in pointing to emotional state without directly saying it.) it’s quiet for a few seconds, just the sound of them breathing heavier than usual, and it would be so normal. should be normal, by all counts, but nolan still kind of wants to crawl into a hole for while. wants to push tk out of the apartment and eat ice cream and google ‘how to stop a crush,’ like his sisters used to do when they were upset. he’s already googled it, a few days ago, and there was nothing but maybe someone’s offered good advice since then. (people make an impact on you, and family even more so, and i always like reminders of how close nolan seems to be with his sisters. also, it’s funny.)

tk flicks him on the wrist. (this is something that tk does consistently through the story, and even though it’s not super important to this scene, it establishes a behaviour in the larger story. that’s important too!)

“pat,” he says and it sounds it’s not the first time. nolan blinks.

“yeah?”

“i just asked you if you were hungry.”

“oh. uh. no, not really,” he answers truthfully. tk wrinkles his nose.

“do you, like, have anything in your fridge to eat?”

“mm, probably not.”

“typical,” tk mutters under his breath, as if he ever has anything regularly stocked besides protein powder and bacon. (protein rich foods that are easy to eat after a full moon, or after a workout) at least nolan has eggs pretty consistently. (also a protein rich food that’s less easy to eat after a full moon, but are easy to make when you aren’t a werewolf) “wanna go get sushi?”

nolan thinks about it. shoves his sweaty hair behind his ear and considers going out to their favourite place and pretending he’s not still fucking mortified. and, like, a little turned on. it makes him nauseous. (i get such physical reactions to emotional things that i write everyone into having them)

“no,” he says. he’s not facing tk but he can still see him deflate, his shoulders hunching over. “i don’t— no.”

“okay. that’s… okay.”

“i think i’m getting a migraine,” lies nolan. “think i’m just gonna lay down.”

“do you need me to stay with you? keep you company?”

nolan’s shaking his head before tk even finishes the thought. “no, trav. i’m fine, i promise.” (the trav here works as a signal that something isn’t right! it’s why tk looks at him for so long in the next line.)

tk studies him for a long minute, his eyes searching the side of patty’s face presented to him. nolan keeps his expression as blank as possible and stares hard at his feet.

“text me if you need anything,” he says finally, the words coming out slow and gentle. it’s a lot to handle. “i’ll come back.”

“i know. i will.” he won’t, but that’s not for tk to know. he doesn’t move when tk goes out the door, squeezes his eyes shut when the door doesn’t slam into its frame, (tk’s taking care of him, still!) and decides to leave the pile of crumbs to deal with later. (the climax of this scene happened a while ago so this is another little reminder of what happened, just so it’s solidified in the reader’s head after the longish comedown. i end scenes a LOT like this-- two actions, and then a callback-- because they’re simple and effective, and usually sound great!) /fin

ahh thank you so much for asking!! this was really fun to, like, process through and remember my logic for! i was actually really nervous writing this scene, because i knew the tension and the break had to be PERFECT for it to land right. but i do like how it turned out so at least there’s that. ily!!

#it took longer to write but i had fun!!#thank you caitlyn!!!!!!#fic talk #hockey rpf #hockey bros #my fic #hockey #tk/patty #idiots to lovers #cactusandfir #long post

8 notes · View notes

rosyredlipstick · 5 years

Note

Okay okay okay but I need you to consider Mitchell wearing leggings and doing yoga- you know to start his morning and feel energized-and Connor seeing him and just. Stopping short bc he dOES NOT KNOW how to hANDLE THIS and then they smash

i didnt know how to end this so i just kept writing and omg it really got away from me. this is before they get together! or maybe an AU where Hands Cupping Sparklers didn't happen who knows.

“He’s been like this for hours.”

Will tsked as he clicked his pen flashlight off and slipped it back into his shirt pocket. “And you have no clue to what could have happened?”

“None,” Travis crossed his arms, “Lydia and Ayna found him by the volleyball court just...standing there. He’s basically catatonic.”

Will hummed as he began taking the other boy’s blood pressure, “Well, all his vitals are fine so far. He’s blinking and responding to stimulus. A thought visibly occurred to him. He called for his sister.

“Hina,” The girl in question looked over, rolled her eyes, and went into the back closet like she already knew what to get. When she returned, she held out a small vial wrapped in plastic. Will took it, peeled off the layer, and uncapped it before holding it up to Connor’s face.

“Medical grade smelling salts,” Will winced as he explained, “it’d wake anyone up.”

Connor instantly leaned back and blinked a handful of times, his face screwing up comically. “What - what’s going on?”

“Who did this to you, brother?” Travis’s voice was deadly serious as he grabbed his brother’s shoulders. “What cabin do we need to get revenge on? Say the word and we’ll have an attack within minutes.”

“Now, I don’t think -”

“Hush, Will,” Hina began steering him out of the room, “let them have a moment to bond or whatever.”

“Oh my gods, you so just don’t want to have to do your chores tonight if a camp battle breaks out - “

Travis waved in their direction in frustration and, thankfully, they both drifted off to give the brothers a moment. “Who did this?”

“I….” A distant look came over Connor’s face.

“Was it a Hecate spell? The Athena cabin?” Travis’s face darkened, “Ares?”

“Aphrodite,” Connor breathed out, nearly in awe. “It was the Aphrodite cabin.”

Travis’s fists clenched. “What did they do?”

“They were…” Connor trailed off, “they were doing yoga.”

“And then?” Travis looked close to taking notes, like he needed to know exactly how far their revenge needed to extend.

“Then…” Connor shook his head, “Mitchell was wearing yoga pants.”

“Then they ...poisoned you?” Travis tried, dread coming over him. “Or subdued you? Attacked you with makeup? Made you sign over your first born to the Kardashian bloodline?”

“No,” Connor’s mind was still in a light, distant place. “That’s it. Mitchell was wearing yoga pants and now I’m fucking dead.”

“You…” Travis swallowed, “This is all because you saw Mitchell in yoga pants and your mind died?”

Connor nodded.

“I fucking hate you,” Travis ran a hand over his face, “Will, can you do a favor and fucking murder my brother for me? Thanks.”

“They were black with silver hearts,” Connor muttered, “do you understand? I would die and recycle my soul for the chance to be those pants.”

“I need you to shut up before I declare a Hermes cabin civil war.”

At that, a bit of Connor snapped back. “We can...do that?”

Travis shot a side look over to him, “I mean....yeah.”

“Cool,” Connor said, “cool, cool, cool, cool. Cool.”

“Yeah,” Travis agreed, “cool.”

They both stared at each other for a long, long moment.

“I get Katie,” Connor said as he scrambled off the bed, not once turning away from his brother.

Travis made a considering noise as his hand went to his pocket. Connor was already wincing at whatever was kept there. “Fine,” He pulled a glass circle from his pocket, an orange smoke contained within. He winked at his brother, “But I get Aphrodite.” With his words, he threw the ball to the ground. The screaming could be heard from the other side of camp.

Mitchell, who had been innocently lounging around his cabin with a handful of siblings, started in surprise as a loud crack echoed through their cabin. From the bathroom, the sound of numerous aluminum cans and plastic bottles hitting the ground followed. Mitchell reached for the nearest weapon -- a knife duct-taped to the underside of Micah’s bed -- and held his breath as his siblings followed his guide.

The crashing finally stopped and the figure emerged. Mitchell tentatively lowered his blade.

Travis Stoll was leaning against their bathroom doorway -- how had he gotten in there without them seeing? -- and, as soon as he met Mitchell’s gaze, lit up and pointed at him.

“You,” Travis panted out, “are my secret weapon.”

“Um,” Mitchell quickly went through his plans for the day. “I mean, okay.”

#conchell #mitchell #connor stoll #my fic #my asks #anon #rosy answers #yea i dont know where this is going but #shrug emoji

89 notes · View notes

fearingtwd · 6 years

Text

What Honesty Gets You (Chris Manawa Imagine)

prompt: I NEED A CHRIS IMAGINE. I'm coping with his death by reading :,) could i have one where y/n is pregnant and it's his and they're on the boat

requested: by anonymous word count: 7,484 warnings: language, suggestive themes

a/n: this will probably have a part two eventually also its slightly au bc they left the boat after like 6 episodes in the show and honestly? im here for boat shenanigans. they coulda stayed on the abigail the rest of the show bickering and i woulda eaten it up also i went a lil overboard with this imagine no boat pun intended lets fcking gooo

masterlist

It was never silent on the boat, not even at night when everybody was below deck sleeping. You could hear the sound of waves smacking against the side of the ship. It took a while for you to be able to find that noise mixed with the hum from the engine relaxing enough to fall asleep. Now, you’d have no problem drifting off. All you needed was darkness and the reassurance that Alicia was in the room with you. After everything that’s happened, you were admittedly too frightened to sleep in a room alone. Or maybe you were just scared of being alone in general.

How you ended up with the Clarks with your family out of the picture was quite a long story and you tried not to relive it since you didn’t know their fate. But having no blood relatives on board did make you feel lonely. Even though Madison treated you like a daughter, you weren’t naive enough to believe that if God forbid something happened where she could only save you or Alicia, she would ever choose saving you over her biological daughter.

So maybe that’s why you felt you had to get close with somebody.

You first approached him after he practically tossed his deceased mother overboard. What better way to bond with someone than to talk about how shitty the universe was treating you both? He wasn’t amused and had no desire to talk to you. You respectfully gave him the space he needed, but hell if he thought that would be the last time you tried to talk to him.

It took him a while to open up to you, and you never pushed him to. Every time he did, it was because he was ready. Even with the world ending all around you, every time you sat down and talked with him, you felt a sense of safety - like, perhaps if the infected started falling from the sky, he might be the first one to pull you inside and save your life. It was a heartwarming thought.

He sought you out one night, surprisingly in the mood to talk. You were wide awake because Alicia was spending the night on deck. He sat in your bunk and while he spoke about his life before the outbreak, you were staring at his lips. Thankfully, there was little to no light in the room because your cheeks were undoubtedly flushed. And you were so lost in your own thoughts about how handsome he looked in the dimness, you didn’t even realize he had stopped talking and noticed where your glance had fallen.

“Y/N?”

The sound of your name is what brought you back to the moment. “What?”

You couldn’t tell for sure, but he seemed to be fighting back a smirk. “Are you okay? You looked, um, a little out of it for a minute.”

Your heart skipped a few beats when you realized he must have noticed you staring - so you attempted to play it cool. “Yeah, sorry. Sometimes my mind just, you know, kind of wanders off.”

He gave a nod. “So what were you thinking about?”

Oh, you know, just thinking about kissing you all over your face and telling you that I think I’m totally falling for you. The usual.

“Dogs,” you blurted out.

“You were thinking about dogs?” He raised an eyebrow.

It was random but you had to go along with it. “Yeah, ‘cause the world as we know it has fallen off the deep end and people are dying and coming back to life, but I hope there’s somebody back on land taking care of all the dogs.”

He stifled a laugh. “Alright, fair enough. Wanna tell me what you were really thinking now?”

You felt the air was punched right out of your lungs. There was no doubt in your mind that his question visibly caught you off guard. Lying to get out of it again would be a waste of time. The room was quiet, save for the humming of the engine and the ocean waves.

Biting your lip, you decided to just be frank about how talking to him made you feel lately. You admitted that you enjoyed his company, more than anyone else on board. You told him you found him undeniably attractive. And finally, you confessed that you were thinking about kissing him.

His response, after a brief moment of utter shock, was to press his mouth against yours. You almost gasped as your lips connected. It didn’t remain the tender kiss it started as. It turned into sloppy, hungry kisses filled with pure desire. And you were okay with that because you suddenly felt as close with a person as you could ever be.

When you woke up, the room was bright and you were alone. Alone and topless. You shuffled out of the bed to find your bra, clipping it on as Alicia walked into the room.

“Sorry, didn’t realize you were getting dressed,” she muttered.

If only she knew the half of it.

You half-expected things with Chris to be completely awkward following your night of romance, but they weren’t. Around everybody else, you both acted like nothing happened. But when you were alone, you were holding hands and still enjoying each other’s company.

To be honest, you were getting sick of living on The Abigail. So when Madison said they should make a trip to land soon just to stock up on supplies, you nearly jumped for joy. You would have really jumped if you weren’t nauseous. You had been feeling lousy the past couple days and with all the sudden nausea, you were sure it was your body telling you to get off the boat for a while.

The next morning as Strand was docking the Abigail, you awoke feeling sick to your stomach again. When you got on deck, you unexpectedly ran to the side of the ship and vomited. Everyone stopped and stared, and Chris was the first to approach you carefully.

“You okay?” he asked in a soft voice.

Before you could respond, Strand interrupted, “You better not have gotten your upchuck on the side of my boat.”

You glanced down. You did, a little bit. But you weren’t going to say anything. You leaned your forehead against the banister, feeling a bit dizzy. It’s not like you had much in your stomach to puke up.

“Maybe you caught a stomach bug or something,” Chris suggested. You weren’t sure, but it certainly wasn’t unlikely. With everyone cramped in such a tight space, somebody was bound to get sick.

When you felt okay enough to walk back inside, Madison glanced at you. “You’re not coming with us. You need to get some rest.”

“I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing,” you countered, wanting to contribute. The last time you went to land, you were gathering belongings from a plane crash and that didn’t end up working out very well. You knew things could go wrong and you wanted to be there to help out in case they did.

Ofelia stood up from the couch. “Don’t worry, Y/N. I’ll be on board too.” She was still nursing her shoulder though it had begun to heal nicely, all things considered. There was no use in fighting, so you just nodded.

Alicia grinned, “Hey, if we can find clothes, I’ll pick you up something nice.”

“Yes, but clothes is not at the top of our list,” Madison said. “Food, medicine-”

“Feminine napkins,” Alicia added. “We’re almost out.”

Were you guys running low? You didn’t even notice. It had been a while since you last ransacked the bathroom looking for some.

Everybody was ready to head off. Strand, Ofelia, and yourself stayed behind.

In all the chaos of everybody figuring out who was going to wander off in which direction in what groups, you pulled Chris aside. “Be careful, okay?” you whispered.

He nodded, “Of course.”

“And don’t wander off this time,” you lectured.

Rolling his eyes, he replied, “Got it.”

You weren’t trying to patronize him and you realized that’s how it probably came across. You genuinely just wanted him to be safe. Before he could walk away, you grabbed a hold of his arm. He seemed taken aback. “I mean it. I want you to come back in one piece, okay?”

“Okay.”

Travis’ voice calling out for Chris startled you both. He said goodbye and shuffled off. As soon as he was out of your line of sight along with Alicia, Travis, Nick, Madison and Daniel you walked down to your shared room with Alicia to relax.

You had about two minutes to yourself before Strand burst into your room, yelling about how you did get puke on the boat. You told him to clean it with his ego and then locked yourself in the bathroom.

You stared at yourself in the mirror. The bags under your eyes weren’t as awful or prominent as you thought they’d be. Your mind wandered back to Alicia’s comment about feminine napkins earlier. Pads. You and Alicia had been on the same cycle, presumably since you spent so much time together after being locked in the military safe zone at the start. It had been well over a month since you last got your period - if you calculated the days correctly, that is. You stood in confusion, even pulled your pants down to check if you got your period without realizing it. You didn’t.

And then a surge of panic ran through your veins. You exited the bathroom on a mission. Ofelia was sitting by the swimming deck. She smiled as you took a seat beside her.

“You feeling any better?” she asked sweetly.

Less nauseous? Yes. Better? No.

“A little bit. If I ask you something, can you promise to keep as neutral a reaction as possible to maybe keep me from freaking out?” you asked, toying with a loose thread at the hem of your shirt. You felt like your throat was closing.

“Sure,” she answered wearily.

“So, I was just wondering, like, out of the blue this totally just popped into my head and I got curious. Um, have you ever been pregnant?” you rambled.

She only raised an eyebrow in response and said, “No. Why?”

A gust of wind blew your hair to the side and you tossed it out of your face, trying to figure out what to say next. Your palms were growing clammy. So you took a deep breath and let it out slowly before softly telling her, “My period is late.”

“You’re probably just stressed, Y/N. I mean, you know what has to happen in order to get pregnant, right?”

You groaned, thinking back on your time in health class. Oh, you definitely knew what had to happen. “Um, just forget this entire conversation, okay?”

Before she could say anything, you were jogging back inside to the sleeping quarters to find your backpack.

“What are you doing?”

You let out a yelp and spun around. Ofelia was standing in the doorway. You didn’t even realize she followed you.

“You scared the shit out of me,” you said, putting a hand to your heart.

She crossed her arms, eyes narrowed. “Sorry. Y/N, what are you doing?”

“Nothing,” you said casually, tossing the backpack over your shoulder. “Just going for a walk.” Except she wouldn’t let you past. “Do you want to, like, move please?”

“Tell me what you’re doing,” she demanded. There was a part of you that was flattered she seemed to care, maybe she was even worried about you. But the other part of you needed her to get out of your way.

Tightening your grip on the backpack strap, you let out a frustrated huff of air. “Not to be rude or anything, but it’s none of your business.”

“I think you made it my business when you started asking me about being pregnant - which by the way, how old do you think I am?”

You bit the inside of your cheek, ignoring that you might have offended her. Besides, it wasn’t that uncommon for young unmarried women to have kids or at least pregnancy scares. It was fairly modern.

“Look, I... I have to... I’m feeling better and if I leave now I can catch up with Alicia and-”

“Y/N, please. Just tell me the truth.”

Telling the truth was what got you into this situation, wasn’t it? You told Chris how you felt about him and now were nauseous, lethargic, your period was late, and in all honesty your boobs seemed to have swelled and gotten a little bigger. The last point wasn’t entirely negative though. But, you were already in this situation. And maybe being truthful this time around wouldn’t bite you in the ass. You didn’t regret your night with Chris. It was a little clumsy and awkward, but sweet too, and it felt so good. However, you wished you took some precaution.

“The truth is I think I’m having a baby and I’m fucking terrified.” You didn’t even recognize your voice. It sounded so distant, and your eyes were welling up with tears, about to burst out.

Great. Add overemotional to the list too.

Ofelia only tilted her head in confusion. “I don’t understand. How could you be having a baby?”

“I got a visit from the stork,” you said bitterly, wiping away a stray tear.

She didn’t seem to appreciate your sarcasm and let out a loud breath. There was a brief silence and you watched her expression change from frustration to utter shock.

“What?” you asked softly.

“Is it Nick?”

“Is what Nick?”

“The baby, is it Nick’s? You know, if there is one...”

You would have laughed if you weren’t entirely hellbent on getting off to the boat. You just wanted to find a pharmacy. Surely there would still be some pregnancy tests left.

“If you move out of the way I’ll tell you,” you prompted.

She didn’t seem interested in your game. “What are you going out there for?”

You shrugged your shoulders. Might as well keep up some of the honesty thing you had going. “A pregnancy test.”

“Just wait for everybody to get back. We’ll just find one tomorrow.”

“Uh, if I’m knocked up I’d like confirmation of that as soon as possible,” you uttered.

Ofelia sighed. “You don’t care what I say, you’re still going today, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Well, I’m not letting you go alone. I’ll grab some water for the road. Meet me upstairs.”

Strand had no problem letting you both leave. He called it foolish, but he didn’t try to stop you. He also didn’t bother asking why.

It surprisingly didn’t take you very long to stumble across a pharmacy that was already broken into. Ofelia killed one infected that was inside and sauntered to the back of the store, kitchen knife and backpack in tow, while you rushed towards the aisle with the tests. The whole pharmacy was turned over top to bottom, but there was one box left with one pregnancy test inside. If you weren’t an anxious mess, you would have laughed at the coincidence.

You shoved it in your pack and turned to leave. A rotting corpse walking through the shattered doorway stopped you in your tracks. You weren’t sure you would ever get used to seeing dead people walking around. The whole store smelled like decomposing flesh already, but the stench from the infected galloping towards you made your stomach lurch. Ofelia quickly put down the infected and glanced over at you.

“You good?”

You were hunched over, trying to swallow the bile you felt rising in your throat. But you gave her a thumbs up anyway.

“We should really get going,” she urged.

You nodded and stood up properly and made slow strides to the door.

Your journey there was entirely silent. The walk back, on the other hand, was filled with Ofelia prying into your private life. She kept wanting to know if it was Nick’s baby and you’d be lying if you said you weren’t mildly offended that she didn’t even consider it could be Chris.

You made it back on board with a few hours of sunlight still left in the day. The others weren’t back yet, but you were sort of glad about that. You hoped they were okay, but you needed the time to yourself.

You locked yourself in the bathroom for the second time that day - except this time you had a pregnancy test on the counter. Since you didn’t have a timer, you sat on the floor and counted the seconds. And when you were done, you still stayed seated, too scared to even think about standing up.

A loud knocking on the door made you flinch.

“Y/N? Is everything, um, okay?”

It was Ofelia trying and failing to be discreet. You ignored her, pulling your legs close to your chest and lowering your head. You just wanted to go back in time and make sure that you wouldn’t end up in this situation. You were so scared. Being pregnant after the end of the world was basically a death sentence, wasn’t it?

She knocked again. “Come on, Y/N. Open up.”

Taking a deep breath, you got to your feet. Your hands were trembling. You had to force yourself to pick up the test and turn it over.

“Oh shit,” you whimpered as the red lines stared you right in the face.

You were indeed pregnant.

Your breath turned uneven and you couldn’t see anything through the waterfalls of tears that started running down your cheeks. This couldn’t be happening. This had to be a nightmare. There was no possible way you could carry a baby to full term and deliver it on a fucking boat with no doctor on board - never mind even raise it. You weren’t ready. Not even close. The thought of it being a false positive jumped into your mind, but you knew it wasn’t. You had all the symptoms. You couldn’t be that lucky.

Ofelia knocking on the bathroom door again brought you back into the moment. So you angrily threw the test into the trash and swung the door open, rushing past her before she could get a word out. You slammed your bedroom door and collapsed into your bed, letting yourself sob into the pillow. If that didn’t make it obvious enough to Ofelia what the results were, that would be her own fault.

You must have cried yourself dry and drifted into a light sleep because the sound of voices upstairs suddenly caught your attention. You could easily distinguish the voices. It was Madison, Alicia, and Nick.

For a few seconds as you sat up, you weren’t thinking about the fact that you were knocked up. You were just glad they made it back alive. And curiosity about what they found brought you to your feet. When you got to the top of the stairs, Alicia jogged over to you and pulled you into a tight hug, asking if you were feeling better. Then she was excited to show you the clothes she found while Madison was unpacking and storing away cans of food. You were happy their outing was successful. But in the back of your mind you were terrified because it was completely dark outside and Chris, Travis, and Daniel were still out there.

Another part of you was worried Ofelia would spill the beans to everybody. You weren’t sure when you would feel okay enough to tell anybody else, especially Chris. So you hoped she would keep her mouth shut for now.

The boat was still docked and you were sitting by the swimming deck, fighting to keep your eyes open. From the corner of your eye you saw Ofelia walking over to you, wrapping her sweater tighter around her body as a breeze flew by. She quietly took a seat next to you.

“What are you doing out here?” she questioned.

“Waiting for them to get back.”

“You worried?”

“Aren’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s why I couldn’t sleep.”

A semi-comfortable silence filled the air. You wished she hadn’t broken it.

“So, you really are pregnant? It was positive?”

You glanced at her with pure panic in your eyes. All you could do was nod.

She frowned. “You have to tell them, Y/N. You can’t keep this to yourself.”

“I don’t have to tell anyone,” you countered. “I can do whatever I want.”

You could tell she was frustrated with your attitude, but she remained calm. “If other people know, we can all help you. Everybody here cares about you. And don’t you think that Nick deserves to know-”

“Oh my god. Ofelia, it’s not-” You stopped yourself and thought about what exactly to say. “Look, I’m beyond tired right now. There’s literally a thing growing inside of me, like an actual human being forming. And I really don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it.”

“Because you’re scared?”

You swallowed the lump in your throat and your eyes glossed over with tears. “What if it dies inside me? What if it, like, rips me apart?”

“That won’t happen,” she whispered.

“You don’t know that,” you choked out, wiping your nose with your sleeve.

She took a deep breath. “When we were at the pharmacy today... I had a feeling that you would take the test and it would be positive. So, I thought ahead. I brought back prenatal vitamins for you, Y/N. It will help keep the baby healthy, okay?”

Before you could respond, a flash light beaming in the distance caught the attention from both of you. Ofelia got up, swiftly approaching the side of the yacht.

“Is it them?” you asked, trying to subdue your tears and worries for now.

She didn’t answer until the light went off and they were close enough for her to squint and see. She smiled, “It’s them. They’re back.”

When all three of them boarded, you stood in horror. They all looked distraught and Chris was covered in blood.

Ofelia covered in mouth in disbelief. “What happened?” she inquired, taking a few steps closer to her father.

Daniel shook his head and motioned towards Chris. “Why don’t you ask the boy?”

You gulped as you turned to Chris, raising an eyebrow. “What happened out there? Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine,” he muttered, rushing inside. He threw his backpack down on the coffee table and was headed for the stairs when Travis called his name in quite possibly the most stern voice you had ever heard from him. Chris stopped short.

“We have to talk about this,” Travis demanded in pure anger. Your heart was pounding. What the fuck happened?

He spun around and stood his ground. “I already told you there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Chris, you could have gotten yourself killed,” Travis reprimanded.

“It was a chance I was willing to take! We got the meds. Now no one on this boat has to get sick ever again.”

And with that he stormed down the steps as Madison was coming up. She gave Travis a curious look and you decided to go after Chris. As you rushed down the stairs you saw the door to the sleeping quarters slam. He was on edge, no doubt, and you didn’t want to make it worse. But you also considered yourself as the only person on board who would ever take the time to actually listen and understand him - and you knew he knew that. So you started with a gentle knock.

Silence.

You knocked again putting a little more strength into it.

Silence.

You let out a frustrated breath and added, “Chris, it’s me.”

The door opened not a second later. You immediately noted that he discarded his blood-drenched sweatshirt and shirt. He moved aside to let you in and promptly shut the door behind you.

There was another moment of silence, so you decided to be the first to speak, keeping your voice steady and filled with concern. “What happened out there?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “There was a room with a bunch of medication in it, antibiotics, vitamins, and like a dozen of the infected. It was like someone herded them all in there so no one would try to get to the meds. And my dad said it wasn’t worth the risk, but I knew it was. All we had to do was take out the infected and it would be a gold mine,” he explained. “Even Daniel said it wasn’t worth it so they started moving on, but I knew I had to do it with or without their help.”

“You know I told you not to wander off again,” you said, half-heartedly.

He pursed his lips. “I know. But I did it for you, Y/N. You’ve been feeling sick lately and I just needed to help.”

You felt lightheaded at the gesture, but also panicked at the realization that he really had no idea what was really going on with you. You weren’t sick, you were pregnant. When you were going to tell him was beyond you. All you knew for sure was that he put himself in immense danger to make you feel better and your stomach had butterflies and you were so glad he was okay.

You could feel your pulse racing through your veins as you stepped forward and lightly cupped his cheeks, your skin brushing against the smudged splatters of blood that were beginning to dry. You couldn’t think of anything to say, so you leaned closer to him, gently pressing your lips against his. His hands wandered to your lower back where his thumbs traced circles over the fabric of your sweater.

This was the first time you two had kissed since that night. You pulled back and whispered, “You should probably take a shower.”

“What, do I smell?” he joked.

You scrunched your nose and smiled. “Sorta. You’re also covered in blood.”

“Fair enough.” He quickly pecked your lips once more before reaching for some clean clothes.

You were sure you were blushing as you watched him stroll down the hallway to the bathroom. Once he was out of sight, you walked into your shared room with Alicia. She was sitting on her bunk. Her hair was wet; you assumed she had just cleaned up as well.

“Hey,” you greeted.

She slowly looked over at you. “There’s a pregnancy test in the bathroom trash,” she spoke softly. Your heart sunk and the boat engine started up.

“Oh. Uh, whose do you think it is?” You hoped you sounded convincing.

She sighed. “My mom, most likely. I don’t think she and Travis ever talked about having kids, it can’t be planned. Now isn’t exactly the best time to expand the family tree.”

You nodded in agreement.

The sound of the shower turning on reminded you that the test was still in the trash. You hoped Chris hadn’t seen it, but if he hadn’t then he might see it on his way out.

You were exhausted and petrified, but the adrenaline that shot through your body in that moment made you feel truly alert. “I’ll be right back,” you told Alicia before leaving the room as casually as possible.

The hallway was empty, so you rushed to the bathroom door. You slowly turned the knob, grateful that it was unlocked. You sifted through the trash for a moment and saw it. God, it was so obvious, it was practically right on top. You could only assume he didn’t see it. You weren’t even sure he knew you were in the room. The mirror that you had been staring in that same morning was steaming up, and it brought you back to how normal everything used to be. A soft moan to your side caught your attention. You leaned a little closer. It wasn’t like how the infected sound. In fact, it reminded you of the sounds from that night. And that’s when you realized what he was doing.

Your jaw nearly dropped and you rushed out of there. You took your time closing the door so it didn’t make a loud clicking noise.

“What are you doing?”

You jumped and spun around to see Nick standing in front of you. You hid the pregnancy test, clear as day in your right hand, behind your back and leaned against the wall. “Oh, I was just... I had to take some Tylenol, I have a headache.”

You were lying through your teeth.

He looked skeptical and tilted his head to the side. “Okay. I hope it kicks in soon. You should get some sleep.”

“Thanks.” You speed-walked to your room, quickly rushing over to your bag of clothes, slyly putting the pregnancy test at the bottom. When you stood up, Alicia was curiously watching you. You were holding some sweatpants to change into for the night. Thankfully, she thought nothing of your mildly frantic behavior and she rolled over and faced the wall.

You don’t remember falling asleep, but you think it must have happened as soon as your head touched the pillow. You awoke to light filling the room and your body screaming that it still hadn’t had enough rest. You could take a hint, so you closed your eyes and drifted off again.

The water was seeping into the raft. It would be minutes until it could no longer float. A hand on your knee felt reassuring until you looked down and noticed your basket ball sized stomach. You couldn’t help but start panicking. It was Chris by your side, but you didn’t feel safe anymore. He told you to start pushing. Suddenly Alicia was on your other side, she looked like she had seen a ghost. Keep pushing, Chris was telling you. Nothing was happening. And then you were screaming as you noticed your abdomen being ripped open from the inside. Chris was crying now and Alicia was gone. Maybe she fell into the water? You were sure you only blinked, but now Chris was cradling the baby in his arms. You watched him holding it with such love in his eyes as you drifted in the middle of the sea with a deflating raft. You would have started crying too until you noticed your baby start to decompose as if time was sped up somehow. Chris seemed unbothered as he handed the baby to you. The moment you touched it, it opened it’s eyes. They were yellow. Almost like a glowing yellow. It opened it’s mouth as if it scream and you saw razor sharp teeth right in front of your face-

You woke up in a cold sweat. Whatever your subconscious was trying to tell you, it needed to be quiet. You slowly sat up, wiping beads off sweat of your forehead. That was when the nausea slowly crept up on you. Taking a few deep breaths to relax yourself, you noticed that Alicia wasn’t in her bed so you wondered what time it was.

You decided to take a shower, still feeling a bit sluggish even as you got out and dressed yourself for the day. You assumed everyone was on deck so that’s where you went.

Madison was in the kitchen, holding a glass of water. Ofelia and Alicia were on the couch playing a card game, Nick was watching them.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” Madison said to you. “Nice of you to join us.”

You saw Chris sitting outside with his dad. Your cheeks burned as you remembered kissing him last night and hearing him in the shower.

“You want to play?” Ofelia asked.

You reluctantly agreed, hoping your stomach would settle down.

Strand stopped the boat and Daniel and Nick were fishing off the side, hoping for dinner. Chris had gone downstairs while Madison joined Travis outside. You wanted to follow Chris, but you also didn’t want to be obvious so you stayed where you were.

“Y/N, are you feeling any better today?” Alicia questioned without warning.

Feeling Ofelia staring at you, you gave a quick shrug. “A little, I guess.”

“That’s good.” You noticed Alicia glance outside at her mom and Travis. “Do you think he knows?”

“What?”

“Do you think he knows she’s pregnant?”

Ofelia sat up straighter and you tried to keep your eyes from bugging out of your head.

“What do you mean?” Ofelia asked.

Alicia lowered her voice, even though nobody was around. “I found a pregnancy test in the bathroom last night and I think it’s positive.”

“That’s- You think your mom took it?”

“Yeah. Makes the most sense.”

Ofelia glanced over to see your expression. Luckily you had perfected your poker face.

“I’m going to ask her about it tonight. I’ll probably mention it to Nick before, too,” Alicia started explaining.

There was no way this wouldn’t end in everybody learning the truth, but you were not ready. Not even close.

She continued, “I really can’t believe they would be so reckless. Seriously, how dumb do you have to be to let yourself get knocked up while the world is turning to absolute shit?”

Ouch. That made your eyes start to water a bit.

Ofelia chewed on her bottom lip as if she was in deep thought. She finally spoke, “Hey, maybe you should go ask them about it right now. I mean, the cat’s already halfway out of the bag, right?”

“No,” you quickly interjected. “You should let them talk about it when they’re ready.”

Alicia narrowed her eyes, and you wondered if she could see the pure panic happening inside your mind. “Are you okay?” she asked. Maybe your eyes were watering too much.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” You tried to laugh it off and turned everyone’s attention back to the game. After Alicia won, she went downstairs for a bathroom break. You took the time to clear things up with Ofelia. “Oh my god, she thinks it’s her mom. What the hell do I do?”

“Tell her the truth.”

“No, what do I do besides that?”

“Y/N, that’s all there is to do,” Ofelia said. “The prenatal vitamins are in my room by the way if you ever decide to start taking them which I think you should.”

It took all you had to not burst into tears in that moment. You saw her point. Telling the truth to everybody would be best thing to do. You wouldn’t have to live with the secret anymore and perhaps the adults will be furious and Chris will be taken aback, but maybe it was best if they just knew already.

You took a slow breath. “How do I tell them? How do I tell them without having everyone disappointed in me?”

She grabbed your hand for support. “You just tell them the truth, alright? Everybody here cares for you and they will have no choice but to come to terms with it, okay? And you have me on your side to start.”

“Thank you,” you whispered.

The setting sun cast a pink hue over the skyline and everybody was outside admiring it - except for Travis, who was finishing cleaning up dinner, and Strand, who was in the wheelhouse. You were planning on taking Ofelia’s advice and simply telling everyone, but you needed to tell Chris first.

You stood next to Chris, asking to talk to him in private, and swiftly grabbed his hand and led him past his father and down the steps. Travis watched the two of you disappear downstairs, not knowing what to think. You supposed it didn’t matter if you weren’t being subtle anymore because everyone was going to know what was going on soon enough.

You entered your room and shut the door behind him.

“Okay, what’s going on?” he asked.

Your heart was pounding against your chest as you reached to the bottom of your bag and pulled out the pregnancy test. You gripped it tightly in your hands, feeling like you were going to pass out as you turned around to face him. The fear on your face was unmistakable. You were holding the test close to your chest, almost cradling it.

Chris glanced at your hands. “What’s that?”

You inhaled sharply before finding your voice. “Pregnancy test.”

He shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “What?”

“It’s a pregnancy test,” you said, a little louder with as much confidence as you could muster.

“Why do you have that?” he asked wearily.

Your mouth went dry and your tongue suddenly felt like sandpaper. “Because I took it.”

He didn’t say anything. He just stared at you, eyes growing wider by the seconds.

“It’s positive,” you told him, your nausea feeling worse than before. You looked down at the test in your hands, wanting nothing more than to run upstairs and throw it overboard. You began rambling, “It’s positive, so I-I guess I’m gonna have a baby unless it turns and eats me apart from inside or I die giving birth because that happens sometimes you know. I don’t want it to happen, but it could. It might.”

When you finally looked up at him, he was cautiously taking a few steps toward you. He looked completely panicked. “Uh, I.... Um-”

“I’m sorry,” you uttered before he could get the words out. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I guess you deserve to know and you were going to find out eventually. Please say something.”

“You’re- Can I see that?” he asked softly.

You nodded and showed him the test.

“How do you know it’s positive?”

“’Cause it has the two lines.”

“Holy shit,” he breathed out in absolute shock.

“That’s exactly what I said,” you half-smiled at him, hoping to lighten the mood and break the extreme tension in the room.

After a short silence, he pursed his lips and lowered his voice. “So, this isn’t like a joke? This is real?”

“It’s real, Chris. I wish it wasn’t, but it is.”

He gulped in response.

“You don’t hate me now, do you?”

Out of everything he’s learned in the past minute, that question seemed to take him by the biggest surprise. He quickly shook his head. “No. How could you even ask that, Y/N? I could never hate you. And this is my fault anyway.”

And that was all it took for you to burst into tears. You had a sudden tidal wave of emotions rush through your body and you couldn’t hold it together. He didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around you in a tight embrace.

“I’m scared,” you sobbed into his shoulder.

“Me too,” he whispered.

“Dad, Y/N is pregnant. Dad, I got Y/N pregnant. I’m sorry, Dad, I didn’t realize that pulling out was an option.” Chris let out a scoff, “I can’t do this.”

“The first one sounded fine. And you’re not doing it alone, okay? I’ll be there too,” you explained. “I can even be the one to say it.”

He was pacing the room, trying to figure out how to tell his father. You were laying down on your bed, exhausted. You were always tired lately. Probably because your body was overworking itself forming a human.

Sitting down at the edge of the bed, he gently rested his hand on your leg. “Look, you don’t have to be there if you don’t want to. He’s going to be mad.”

“It will be easier if we just tell him together, Chris,” you said.

“But we don’t have to tell him today,” he countered.

“You’re right, we don’t.”

He smiled.

You quickly added, “But we should.”

His smile disappeared. He licked his lips, thinking what to say next. “Once he knows... once everyone knows, everything will be different.”

“Everything is already different,” you whispered.

He looked frightened, but you noticed him try to relax himself. He leaned forward. “I’m sorry,” he said softly before kissing your forehead.

You quickly sat up. “Don’t apologize. Do I want to have a baby? No, not really. But I am. We are. And... we both... It was both of us.”

He let out a slow breath, about to say something. A knock on the door interrupted him and startled you both. “Y/N? Chris?”

It was Travis. Surely he had gotten suspicious of you and Chris running off hand in hand and decided to check in.

You both shared a nervous glance. “It’s open,” you decided to call out. Neither of you bothered to move as the door opened and Travis peeked his head inside.

“Hey,” he greeted. “Everything alright?”

Chris nodded. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“Well, everybody is upstairs and I just couldn’t help but notice that you were both in a rush to get down here,” he pointed out, stepping further into the room.

“Uh, yeah. Actually, there’s something we need to tell you,” you stammered.

This caught his attention. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged, “Okay.”

“I feel like you should sit down,” you advised.

A nervous chuckle escaped his lips. “You’re scaring me a little.”

Madison appeared in the doorway behind Travis. Telling them both at the same time would be killing two birds with one stone, but you decided you wanted to tell Alicia at the same time too. So you got to your feet. “We should all go upstairs.”

You could sense the tension as you motioned for Travis and Madison to take a seat on the couch. Chris was simply watching you take control as you walked outside to get Alicia. In doing so, you grabbed the attention of everyone else. And suddenly everybody was sitting inside, even Strand who joined out of curiosity.

He poured a glass of whisky. “Let’s make this quick,” he urged.

You swallowed, squeezed your eyes shut, and took a deep breath to calm your heart rate.

“Okay, um, I’m... I’m pregnant,” you admitted.

Alicia’s eyes widened. She looked... betrayed? You couldn’t tell. And you suddenly felt like crying.

Travis stood up slowly. “Chris?”

“Yeah?” His throat felt dry.

“Is this... A-Are.... Did you... I-”

“It’s mine,” he confirmed.

Nick leaned against the couch and snorted, “Maybe we should look for condoms the next time we go to shore.”

“It’s a little late for that,” you contended.

“How long have you known?” Madison asked. She seemed oddly calm.

“Since yesterday,” you answered.

“You were never sick. You were pregnant,” she realized.

You nodded.

Travis started shaking his head. “No, this has to be a mistake. How can you know?”

“I took a pregnancy test-”

“Where the hell did you get a pregnancy test? I can’t imagine Strand had one lying around on the boat.”

“After everybody left, I went to shore too and found one.”

Chris, who didn’t know that, narrowed his eyes. “You went out there alone?”

“No, I wasn’t alone. Ofelia went with me.”

Daniel looked at his daughter with disapproval and you felt a little bad for ratting her out, but there was no use in lying about it.

“Okay, so you took one test. That doesn’t mean it’s accurate,” Travis exclaimed.

Madison let out a loud, disappointed sigh. “No, she has all the symptoms. I can tell.”

“She’s just a little sick. It’s not-”

“She’s been feeling nauseous, she puked, and she’s always tired.”

Nick absentmindedly chimed in again. “And her boobs are bigger.”

Everybody gave him a glare and he hunched over, presumably understanding that he should stay quiet for now.

“Travis, I’ve been through it. I know,” Madison told him.

“And you’re okay with this?” he nearly shouted.

That was when Madison angrily stood up. “No, I’m not okay with this. Not at all. But there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Dad, I’m sorry,” Chris mumbled.

“Hey, I don’t want to hear it right now, Chris. Do you even realize what you’ve done?”

You stepped closer to Chris defensively, clinging onto his arm. “Don’t be mad at him.”

“He got you pregnant, Y/N.”

“You’re really going to make me say it? It takes two to tango,” you replied angrily.

“I, um.... I just need to think.” Travis sighed and walked outside dramatically.

“So, are we going to have to listen to a screaming baby on board?” Strand wondered, prompting another sip of his drink.

You felt defeated. You truly expected Travis to handle it better. He always seemed like the reasonable and rational one. But, perhaps finding out he’s going to be a grandfather was enough for him to not be able to remain stable.

You frowned and made awkward eye contact with Alicia for a moment, who quickly got to her feet and rushed down the stairs.

“I imagined this going better,” you whispered to Chris. He simply placed a kiss on your temple to comfort you.

#lowkey i went off #fear the walking dead #fear twd imagine #ftwd imagine #ftwd imagines #chris manawa #chris manawa imagine #chris manawa x reader #reader insert #ftwd x reader #ftwd #imagines

68 notes · View notes

notesofarichlycolorednight · 6 years

Note

Hey, can you do 9. ‘We might die tomorrow’ kiss and 10. ‘You nearly died’ kiss for Luke/Tori please? (when you have time)

sorry this took so long fam. i actually had an idea a week ago, but i also had to go back to grad school. so i mean good news: i’ve been able to really think abt these prompts. bad news: it took a bit to get to them. but here they are! (i may post them later to ao3 and ff, so look out for this updated post with links!)

for those of you just tuning in :D tori is my oc, and i’ve written two stories abt her so far in the pjo-verse: it’s the perfect story & i need another story, just for some context

9 and 10 are both under the cut. it just looks like 9 rn bc of organizational stuff

ps: to the anon who sent in #20 for this meme with tori, i will get to that prompt next (but it may be another week before i post it, for that i apologize). also i got your other ask abt tori and the canon other universe and will also get to that soon

Kiss Meme Prompt #9: “We might die tomorrow” kiss

Luke and I kept each other’s gaze once Percy had given our cabins their assignment, only breaking away from each other once when Thalia and the Hunters of Artemis came and offered to hold the Lincoln Tunnel. Obviously, he’d want to greet his old friend. I wouldn’t say I was friends with Thalia, but we exchanged a brief glance, nod of the head, and a small smile. Which was fine by me.

Luke and I stayed quiet when Percy raised his sword and shouted, “FOR OLYMPUS!” which the kids around us echoed. Everyone started off in the direction on the place they’d been assigned to, but as I turned to follow my siblings, I felt a calloused hand grab my arm and pull me back.

“You’re not actually leaving without saying goodbye, are you?” Luke murmured in my ear. I rolled my eyes but smiled and turned to face him, Luke’s hand resting on my waist. Around us, the patter of footsteps leaving died down and I could feel eyes on my back. We were in the middle of the war, and they still found room for gossip. How human of us.

“Of course not,” I replied, resting the palms of my hands on his chest. Luke waited, when I didn’t move or say anything else he glared at me ruefully, a smile playing at his lips.

“Do I get a kiss? I could die you know,” he said.

“No, but I’ll do you one better,” I told him. Luke raised an eyebrow. “Don’t die. That’s not a request, it’s an order.”

“Is it now?” Luke asked, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me flush against him. His eyes glinted with mischief and a challenge.

“Yeah, and you’d better follow that order,” I responded, wrapping my arms around his neck, pressing myself even closer to him. “Soldier.” I closed the distance between us, not caring that basically the entire camp, minus the Ares cabin, were watching our public display of affection.

The kiss started gentle and playful, but the joking soon evaporated, replaced by a desperation and overwhelming anxiety. Luke’s fingertips dug into the small of my back, riding my shirt up slightly. My arms tightened around his neck like a vice and I stood up on the tips of my toes—I couldn’t press myself close enough to him even though I could feel his heartbeat against mine.

When we pulled away, I was so breathless I couldn’t speak for at least 30 seconds. Luke looked like he didn’t want to let go of me. Even so, I stepped away, my eyes burning with a flood of tears.

“That’s an order, remember,” I managed, despite my closing throat, my unshed tears. I pressed hand against his chest, as if to punctuate my point. Luke smiled tenderly and took my hand on his chest, bringing it up to his lips and kissing my palm before resting it against his cheek.

“I love you,” he said, meeting my eyes with such a gentle look, my heart did a summersault, reminding me why I fell in love with him in the first place.

“I love you, too,” I managed, more tears flooding my eyes.

A second passed before I began to pull my hand away, but Luke kept his hand in mine until both our arms were completely outstretched, until just our fingers were touching, then our fingertips, and then—

I spun around, taking a deep breath, trying to blink away my tears as I passed my waiting siblings. I could feel Luke’s eyes on my back, but I knew if I turned around, I wouldn’t want to go to the Williamsburg Bridge.

what

a happy au, in my writing?

the idea of luke being part of the percy’s regime is based off of a fanfic of my fanfic called djinn dreams by lucifersfavoritechild over on ao3.

summary without spoiler: it’s kinda an au where tori convinces luke to go back to camp, but someone else becomes kronos’s host so things play out p similarly as they did in the pjo books, just with luke and tori on percy’s side

Kiss Meme Prompt #10: “You nearly died” kiss

so this is almost a direct continuation from the last ask

Travis met me at the elevator to the top floors of the Plaza.

“Where is he?” I asked stepping out of the elevator, my voice hoarse from crying and terse from worry.

“This way.” Travis’ voice was quiet. He turned without another word and started making his way through the floor. I started to follow, but paused and looked back at the rest of my siblings (Will and Kayla gone—called ahead to the Plaza), all eyes rimmed with red from crying.

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Austin tried for a small smile. “We’ll be okay. We’ve got work to do.” His voice broke and he looked away.

“We’ll be fine,” Cressida reaffirmed.

I nodded, not believing it, but promising to check up on them as soon as I was able. I turned and followed Travis, who’d waited for me. We weaved through the other campers and Hunters grabbing something eat or drink, resting, or bandaging wounds.

I smelled it before I got there—the smell of blood and something…rancid. I tried not to gag, but my eyes watered and I couldn’t help the involuntary cough that welled up in my chest and forced its way out of my throat. The rest of the Hermes cabin was there, but parted when Travis and I came into view. My heart dropped and I felt all the air expel from my lungs. My feet froze.

Kayla was kneeling next to—what were they called?—a fainting couch, where Luke lay. Both of them looked sickly, but Luke looked worse. Kayla was pale from healing, her forehead sweaty. Luke looked…ashen grey. His eyes were closed, and from where I stood, I couldn’t tell if he was even breathing.

If he was even breathing…

“Is he—” I gasped, my body finally unfreezing and went forward to the edge of the couch. My nose had gone numb from the smell that was coming from a trash can filled with a mix of blood and some weird, dark green slimy substance. Tears filled my eyes and it wasn’t from the stench. “Kayla,” I whimpered, my knees buckling.

“He’s still alive,” she whispered. “He needs more healing, but I’ve stabilized him for right now.” She paused. “Though it may not look it.”

I was about to ask her what’d happened, but my sister’s eyes fluttered and I just barely managed to catch her. I looked up to the Hermes cabin. “Can someone help her to a bed?”

Travis came forward and I helped stand her up so Travis could sling one of her arms over his shoulders.

“Thank you,” I told him. Travis nodded and started off, his siblings parting to make a path for him. I turned back to Luke, kneeling next to the couch again, taking Kayla’s place. More tears flooded my eyes and I reached up with a shaking hand to gently brush the bangs from his forehead. Now that I was closer, I could see he was still breathing, but it was shallow and thready.

I took one of his hands in mine, holding it to my forehead as some tears slipped from my eyes.

You can’t leave me, I thought. You promised.

“He took a poisoned arrow for me.” Travis’ voice startled me from my thoughts and I pulled back. Travis was the only one here now, standing on my left. He’d pulled up a chair. I looked up at him through watery eyes. His eyes flickered to his brother. “I don’t know how, but it found a chink in his armor, I guess.” Travis shook his head, frowning. “I should’ve been paying more attention.”

I stood up, letting go of Luke’s hand and pulled Travis into a hug. It was a bit awkward because there was a chair between us, but I guess I was feeling particularly sentimental.

“This is not your fault,” I told him firmly. I pulled away and, of all things, smiled, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Besides, he’ll be fine. He’s on strict orders not to die, remember?”

Travis rolled his tear-filled eyes, but smiled. “Thanks.”

I squeezed his shoulder and pulled away. “You should get some rest.”

Travis nodded, his shoulders slumping. “Oh, and I brought this chair over for you, by the way. And, one more thing, he might need to throw-up more of that…stuff, so just grab the trashcan if he lurches or jerks awake. His body is still purging the poison.”

I nodded, every word like daggers flung into my body. I may have joked about it just now, but I was deathly afraid of losing him, worried he might not last the next few hours. Just the very thought of life without made my heart squeeze painfully in my chest.

Travis shuffled off and I moved to the chair as close as possible to the edge of the couch before sitting down and taking Luke’s hand back into mine. I was exhausted, and as soon as I sat down, it hit me like a freight train. But I didn’t want to go to sleep, or close my eyes. I wanted to keep them on Luke, make sure he was still breathing.

None of the color had returned to his skin, and his breathing was still shallow and irregular. To be fair, it’s only been like 20 minutes, but I thought if Kayla had stabilized him, it’d show. Even a little bit.

Just as I was about to doze off into sleep, Luke’s jerked and coughed. My heart shot into my throat and I had to let go of his hand to grab the trashcan and hold it up to him just in time for Luke to roll onto his side and retch more of the poison. The stench hit my nose again, fresh and strong, but I swallowed hard, forcing back my gag reflex. I was slightly relieved to see that he was no longer vomiting blood with the poison, however.

Once he was done retching, Luke fell back against the couch, his breathing labored. His eyes fluttered closed and he was out again, his breathing slowing to its shallow and ragged pace again.

More tears flooded my eyes. My hands were shaking again as I took one of his hands into both of mine and kissed his knuckles.

That’s an order, remember, I thought, closing my eyes.

I don’t know when or how it happened, but at some point, I ended falling asleep half on Luke, and half in the chair. My head rested on his chest, while from my waist down rested in the seat of the chair. (I would be told this by my siblings later.)

A soothing sensation, like something was massaging my scalp, roused me from sleep. At first, I was confused because I was having trouble orienting myself because of where I was laying. When I realized where I was and remembered what’d happened, I shot up with a gasp. But because of the position I was in, I ended up sliding out of the chair and taking a tumble to the floor with a squeak.

I pushed myself into a sitting position just in time to see Luke start to sit up, what color had returned to his face, draining from the effort.

I glared at him. “Don’t you dare.” Swallowing hard, Luke laid back down. I was close enough to tell even that little movement had caused him to start wheezing. Worry shot through me like an arrow.

I carefully picked myself up off the floor and pushed the chair away so I could sit on the edge of the couch, facing Luke. I moved my hair from my face and over one shoulder.

“You undid my braid,” I complained. Luke smiled—and, oh, was it so good to see those blue eyes twinkle again—and reached up to run his fingers through my hair.

“Your hair is soft,” he murmured. “I like running my fingers through it.”

I frowned. “How long have you been awake?”

Luke shrugged, pulling his hand away from my hair, but cupping my cheek. “Just a few minutes.” I leaned into his caress, and closed my eyes for a moment. I brought my hand up to cover his and opened my eyes again, smiling. My heart did a little gymnastics routine at his returning smile.

Slowly, I leaned forward, bracing my left lower forearm against the couch, next to Luke’s head. I hovered over him for a long moment, allowing myself to get lost in his eyes, allowing myself a moment to breathe, to feel cautious relief that he was going to survive.

Then Luke cupped my face and brought my lips down to his. I giggled and returned his affections.

Impatient as ever.

I don’t know what happened. One moment it was a sweet, but still swallow-you-whole kind of kiss, the next I felt hot tears streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks. I could taste the salt on my tongue when they hit my lips.

Luke pulled away. “Tori.” He started to shift, to sit up most likely, but I stayed where I was.

“Don’t.” I kept close, close enough our lips brushed. I could feel sobs building in my chest, and my breathing started to stutter as more tears flooded my eyes and reality settled in. I could sense Luke’s restlessness, but there was no amount of comfort he could offer me right now that would make me feel any better.

Finally, when I felt I’d gotten my breathing and tears a little under control, I pulled back so I could look at him. His blue eyes glittered with worry, and he instantly reached up to wipe away the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs.

“I almost lost you,” I sobbed quietly, looking down at him, still pretty pale. But not ashen anymore.

“I’m right here,” Luke assured, trailing his fingertips down my left arm before taking my hand into his. His other hand stayed, caressing my face. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.” His lips pulled into a crooked smile. “I’m under strict orders, remember.”

I snorted weakly, a small smile pulling at my lips, regardless.

“I love you.” Luke’s expression morphed into something I couldn’t quite read, but it was almost like…he was afraid I wouldn’t say it back. I wasn’t sure what had brought that on, but I quickly remedied it.

“I love you, too,” I replied, reaching up with my free hand to cover his that was still caressing my cheek before lacing my fingers through his.

Luke smiled, his blue eyes lighting up. I had to bit my lip on a silly, school-girl grin that was currently threatening to stretch across my face. My heart thumped strangely in my chest, blood flooding my cheeks, making me feel like a teen who’d just fallen in love all over again.

if you’ve read the books (i mean by this point, i hope you have…) this is right after the first night, and michael dying so that’s why all the red-rimmed eyes and somber mood. and i mean, luke was wounded p badly too so. also they are kinda in the middle of a war, so i mean there’s that too

this was so fun to write! thanks for sending them in ^_^ i know the second one is p long, but i wanted these to be as emotionally charged as they could be (bc i mean the prompts are p charged) but also subtle

i hope i accomplished that!

send me kisses

#asked and answered #pjo fanfic #oc: tori williams #luke castellan #my fanfic #my writing #writing ask #lucifers-favorite-child

3 notes · View notes