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warmaidensrevenge · 2 years

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Pairings: Eddie Munson x Plus size reader

A/N: Hey all. So I have this idea of writing a fanfic with a couple of characters in season 4 of stranger things. However a good chunk of this will be for character development. This story will include my version of season 5. Also, this will be a series. Please enjoy.

Warnings: abuse, body insecurities, angst, sexual implications, and language, slow burn. Not proof read . Let me know it there are any I missed.

Summary: Our reader doesn't want to have feelings for Eddie. He's her best friend.

Part 1: Acceptance

You were sitting at the Hell Fire table picking at your beef stroganoff. "Ugh again!?" you said out loud.

"Yep" sighed the curly headed kid sitting next to you, picking up a spoon full and letting it fall back on the tray.

"Gross!" Mike spit out.

You look up at the boys and shook your head.

" Hey Dustin? Have you seen Munson?" You question the curly haired boy. Looking at the cafeteria door waiting for his arrival.

He's never late to lunch. You thought. It's his favorite period.

" Oh yeah. He said he had to make a call " Dustin said while taking a sip of chocolate milk.

You stared back down at your tray and decided to just eat your peas. No way we're you gonna eat stroganoff 3 days in a row.

Then you heard him. Theatrical as always. He spoke out, loud enough for the whole cafeteria to hear. It, brought a smile to your face.

"THIS MEAL WILL BE THE DEATH OF US ALL. 3 DAYS IN A ROW?! NO THANK YOU!" Eddie exclaimed. Walking backwards and accidentally bumping into a couple of cheerleaders while speaking towards the lunch lady.

"My apologies." he said with his signature smirk across his face. He does a slight bow and moves his arms gesturing for them to pass. Not noticing the ugly looks he was getting from them and the majority of the other students.

You still could never understand why they dislike him so much. Why they call him a freak? He was anything but. He was amazing. Crazy charismatic, funny, and just a big old softy to those in need. Like yourself.

You moved to Hawkins with your dad a few years ago. Your mom had up a left you guys when you were 15. Your dad couldn't handle the divorce and picked up drinking. And you had felt abandoned, which caused a depression that lead you to eat.

You got bullied so bad at school for the extra pounds you put on that he moved you guys to Hawkins. But you knew that wasn't the only thing that made you guys leave. He couldn't handle living there anymore. Too many memories of mom.

Your first day in 10th grade had started off like shit. You didn't know where to sit at lunch. You looked around the cafeteria and found an empty spot at a table with a few kids you heard laughing. All wearing identical shirts. As you made your way to the spot you tripped face first to the ground. Your lunch squished under you.

You heard laughing. While you struggled to get up, you slipped on some mashed potatoes. Falling backwards on your bottom. Bouncing a little. Your face now flushed with embarrassment then tears started to form in your eyes. You tried to fight them back and told yourself.

'Don't cry, not here, not on your first day.'

"Hey you should really watch where you're going miss piggy. You scuffed my shoe!" This pretty brunette girl in a cheer outfit scoffed.

She was standing with a few others who were laughing and pointing at you.

You dropped your eyes to the ground trying to figure how to get up without falling again. Suddenly you felt a hand grab you under your arm to help you up.

"Hey you ok? He ask softly.

"Y-yeah." You whispered.

You looked at him. A thin tall boy with a buzz cut wearing a black and white baseball tee with a cool looking logo on it. With the words Hellfire club just above it.

Your face flushed and he could tell you were about to cry.

You then saw him giving the laughing kids this type of death stare. And the laughing c'est. You took a quick glance around the room and noticed a look of fright on your peers faces.

"Hey. come on." He said while leading you out of the cafeteria.

He walked with you to the ladies room to make sure you got there alright and so you could clean up.

You were quiet. The silence was so loud as you two walked down the hall. You wanted to introduce yourself but couldn't find the courage to do so.

" I'm Eddie, Eddie Munson." He spoke out akwardly.

You remained quiet and felt like an ass for it.

"You're really shy huh?" Eddie asked.

You bit your lower lip out of nervousness feeling his eyes on you. You lifted your hand and gestured 🤏.

He let out a playful laugh. Then silence again.

"I'm y/n l/n" you said softly. " Uh thanks for umm helping me."

He was shocked when you finally said something.

"Sure thing. Kids out here can be kinda vicious." A very apologetic Eddie continued. " Sorry Sara tripped you."

" It's not your fault." you said looking at the side of Eddie's face.

He's cute. You thought.

A few more moments of silence passed. He took a couple of quick steps ahead of you and turned around to be in front of you. Walking slowly backwards. You looked a little worried at him. Afraid he might trip and fall too.

"Still sorry though."

He smiled in a way that made the corners of your lips turn upwards. Forgetting your previous thoughts.

The two of you stopped at the ladies restroom door. And you thanked him.

He then reached for the handle and opened the door for you. Doing a slight bow. "M'lady"

You let out a giggle. "Good sir."

You stepped forward when he started talk again.

"A real chatty Cathy." You said to yourself.

He grinned. "Hey if you want to find me at lunch on Monday. I'll introduce you to the fellas. And if you're up to it maybe... I can teach you what our club is all about. We are kinda into D & D.'

"You play dungeons and dragons? " Your question surprised him.

"You know about D & D?"

Your smile got just a bit bigger. " Meera Lang level 3 human knight at your service." You gave a quick nod.

Eddie freaked out. A girl. A girl who played D & D.

"Yeah you're definitely joining hellfire." He said. Not knowing how much that would mean to you later on.

Eddie and the guys really got you out of your shell. But sometimes you would just stay quiet so you could enjoy the conversations they had. Everyone was so funny and different. Especially Eddie. He would go on tangents about government conspiracies and how no one knew what real music was. Honestly you could listen to him talk forever.

It was a few weeks after you made friends with all the Hellfire guys. Eddie had set a shirt in front of you when you sat in the chair on his right.

"Hear yee hear yee!" Eddie proclaimed. Getting everyone's attention at the table." I present to you heathens our newest member." He held out both of his arms like if he was showing off a prize.

You blushed at the attention. Eyes widen as you looked at your new Hellfire shirt. Noticing the slight difference from all the matching ones. The sleeves were a dark green. Your favorite color. Not black like the others. You didn't know how Eddie knew that but, you couldn't contain your smile.

You ran your eyes over everyone, seeing the looks of approval. And turn to Eddie. " Thanks Munson."

His big brown eyes creased from the smile plastered on his face. He nodded officially welcome you to the club.

While picking up the shirt you looked down at the size.

A large.

Seeing it made you sink down a little in your chair. Eddie noticed the smile had faded from your face. He sat down and moved his chair close to you.

Leaning in enough so that he was just inches away. " What's wrong y/n?"

You felt a wave of nervousness rush over you. And you bit your lip. It was just a second later you released it. " It's not gonna fit." You said so low making sure that only Eddie would hear you.

"Shit!" Eddie matching your tone. " Sorry I -I should have asked. What size should I get? I can remake it."

Embarrassment filled you. You felt your face turning red. You put your hands on your lap and looked down out them. Fidgeting with your fingers. Then you saw Eddie's hand on top of yours making a flutter in your tummy. You felt a slight calming sensation run through your body. The feeling gave you the courage to look up at him. He had sorrowful look across his face.

" 2x." You said, feeling the anxiousness coming back. But his smile keeping it at bay.

" I got you, I'm sorry y/n." He spoke softly. Giving your hand a gentle squeeze before grabbing the shirt and the rest of his belongings.

" Hey Ed's, where ya going? " Gareth asked.

You watched as Eddie ignored him and made his exit.

He found you after school at the bike rack unlocking your bike. He jogged up so that he could catch you before you left. He reached out to take off your headphones.

You jumped and was relieved that it was Eddie standing there instead of one of the popular kids getting ready to say something harsh.

You reached down to pause the music.

"Sorry didn't mean to scare you."

" Hey." you uttered. " Where did you go earlier?"

His grin sent you into a frenzy. He pulled a new Hellfire shirt from where he was hiding it behind him. " This should fit."

You took it thankfully and smiled. " You remade it so fast." You said as you put down your kickstand to hold up your bike.

He lifted his arm to rub the back of his neck." Yeah. I'm sorry. I should have asked you what size you needed."

As soon as he finished, you step in is personal space and embrace him in a hug. The top of your head just under his chin.

Eddie was taking back for just a moment but he returned the hug. Both not caring if there were others around watching you two.

You hug for a few seconds before you realized your stomach was touching his. You start to pull away from the shame but you felt hin squeeze you a bit harder.

For some reasons you felt like he knew you need someone to accept you for all of you. Not to judge you for what's on the outside. And the few more seconds that he held on to you. You knew. He didn't care about your size. He was your friend. He accepted you.

And Eddie did. From that moment, he knew you needed a real friend. Someone who has your back and would be there whenever you needed it.

The rest was history.

The sound of laughter pulled you from your recollection.

Eddie strode up to the table where his little sheep were sitting. Shoulder length curls bouncing as he walked. All eyes on him in awww.

"You bring your own lunch Munson." You said not looking up from your tray.

He took his place at the head of the table turning his chair around so the back of it was to his front. He brought up his beat up metal lunch box and set it in front of him, opening the lid and pulling out a box of animal crackers.

"So? It's ridiculous. You shouldn't have to eat that garbage." Eddie declared, leaning towards you.

You look up and he's holding up the box of crackers to you offering some. Clearly he noticed that you only ate the peas. You looked at it for a moment trying to decide if you should.

"Please tell me you're not on that stupid diet still?" Eddie lowered his voice to make it so only you could hear. "You look great."

You glanced up to see a slight worried look in his eyes. It made your stomach turn just a little. Hating it when he did that. It made you feel some type of way you really didn't want to feel.

You didn't say anything and plucked a cookie, popping it in your mouth. You looked back at he and did a slight smile while chewing. He grinned back.

Everyone at the table was excited. Tonight was campaign night. The chatter interrupted your stare off with Eddie.

"Hey Eddie, you sure you can't give us any clues for tonight?" Dustin asked with what sounding like a small plead in his voice.

"Patience is a virtue Henderson." Eddie responded with a smirk on his face. " You're all in for a surprise tonight!"

All but you were sighing out awws.

Tonight was Friday night. D & D night. You've been helping Eddie work on paint his figures all week long while he worked hard on the campaign. He really did pour his all into this one. Normally, he has multiple campaigns ready to go. But this Wednesday he up and decided to writing a whole new one.

You had admired him while his head was in the advance copy of D & D. The way he had his tongue sticking out to the side while he furiously wrote in a note book. It made you wonder what it was like to feel it in your mouth. You stopped to shake away the thought and continued to paint.

Snapping back to the present. You hear him speaking to the rest of the gang. Telling them to be prepared for tonight.

You sat in silence listening to everything that was going on. Then you felt eyes on you. Eddie was looking at you with what looked like he was gonna tell you something. But, he didn't. Instead, he offered you more cookies and you took another.

Fuck! How am I gonna tell her? Eddie thought

"You really shouldn't." You told yourself.

But, you were hungry and you didn't want to hear anymore from Eddie.

You've been on this diet for months. Well technically, it wasnt much of a diet. You were just limiting your food intake. Which was barely anything. You also went on walks for exercise. Sometimes Eddie would join you. Until he got bored.

You wanted to loose weight because you got tired of hating how you felt in your own skin. Tired of the pig noises the cheerleaders and jocks would make towards you any time you passed them. Tired of not having a guy look at you the way Eddie looks at some of the girls he likes.

"Thanks bud." You said. Giving him a small smile.

Instead of eating it you put it down on your tray.

"Hey, do you need help setting up the board for tonight? You asked him. " I can come early if you like?"

Eddie smiled. " All done. I set up last night." He said, popping a few crackers in his mouth.

" Oh?"

"Yeah. Had to do it early. Have a hot date after school." he looked away and faked a smile.

Another date? 2 in one week. You thought.

"Geez Eddie. Getting around aren't we?" Gareth joked.

You let out a small laugh with everyone else. Though it made you a little sad.

"Got to make hast while the sun is shining." Eddie replied with a grin.

"It's not serious. She won't be mad." He said to himself.

Someone else made a comment. Causing Eddie to shove his hair back and chuckle.

You glanced at him, enjoying the sight of his curls bounce. With the sun shining through the window behind him, making him look like some sort of Saint. You could have sworn he was going in slow motion.

He noticed you staring.

Eddie eyed. "You're quieter than usual y/n. What's up?"

You quickly look back down at your tray trying to play it off. "Oh nothing Munson. Just uhh lost in thought. I-i um." You cut off and stood up. Gathering your things.

" Crap. Crap. I gotta go. I completely forgot... I have to go write 2 songs for Cast Outs." You said before headed off to the library for your free period.

Eddie and the others watched as you hurried away.

He just shrugges at the others. Him knowing how you get when it comes to writing. Hoping beyond hope that you don't find out his little secret.

...

You completely sucked at singing. But, you were really great at writing songs and poetry. You wrote alot for the all girl rock band you met one night at the Hideout. You were approached by the lead singer.

She asking if you could write them a couple of songs. Apparently Eddie had been hyping you up after you had wrote one for Corroded Coffin a few months back. The ladies loved your song so much that they asked for you to help write some from then on. So most of your free time was either writing or baking. Both being your stress release.

But, If you were to be entirely honest you really didn't want to hear anymore about Eddie's future endeavors. It hurt just a little too much this time.

Why am I feeling this way?

...

Eddie was waiting for you in front of the doors to help you carry the snacks you brought. You always came bearing stuff to munch on during a campaign.

You two set up the snack table with pretzels, popcorn, chips, cookies and pop. You pulled out a small Tupperware with carrots and celery just for yourself.

Eddie looked at you with a frown. " Oh come on y/n. You're not gonna have any cookies?"

You shook your head. " I'm good bud." You gave him a small smile, lifting the container a little.

Eddie started to protest. But you pulled out a bigger Tupperware out and handed it to him. " Here you go Munson. Fresh from the oven."

Eddie grinned and opened the container, sniffing the snicker doodle cookies you always made for him on campaign Fridays. You looked down in another bag and pulled out a carton of milk for him.

You held it out for him. " Here bud."

He took it with a smile. " Aww... you're too good to me y/n. " He then placed the hand that had the milk over his heart.

He leaned in and place a quick peck on your cheek, then turned to head to his throne quickly so you couldn't smack him. You loved it so much when he did that.

The little voice in your head shouted at you. "Stop that!"

" Eww Munson! Keep your lips to yourself!" You half shouted at him and wiped your cheek. Hoping he didn't catch that small smile you had right after he kissed you.

Dustin came next to you and huffed with a lisp. "Dammit! Eddie took the cookies already!? Hey Eddie you know y/n makes those for everyone!"

You both look at Eddie who looked so majestic in his chair. He was sticking out his tongue at the curly headed boy. You let out a giggle and pulled out another container of cookies. Setting it down on the table.

" Sweet!" Dustin let out before grabbing a few.

It made you smile knowing your friends loved your cookies. Especially Eddie.

After everyone filled up their small plates you went to your seat next to Eddie.

Crunching down on a carrot. " You really out did yourself on this one Munson."

Eddie took a swig of milk in-between bites of his favorite cookies. " Yep, isn't she a beauty?"

He stood up and wiped his lips with his sleeve. " Alright ladies and gents. It's time." He side eyed you when saying ladies. Fully knowing you were the only female there.

Everyone else made there way to their seats.

Eddie brushed his hair back, revealing an ugly purple bruise on his neck.

Really a hickey?! GROSS!

A touch of jealousy washed over you for a second but you shook it off.

Nope nope.

You picked up your character sheet and prepared for the battle that you knew was soon to begin.

...

As the campaign wrapped up, the guys all began to hoot and cheer.

"Awesome!" Mike and Lucas said in unison.

"Yeah crazy good." you added.

Eddie smirked at their applause. Taking a bow. " Thank you...thank you."

"Truly one of the best ones yet!" Dustin said in amazement.

You guys cleaned up and everyone started to head out a little while later.

" Ready?" Eddie asked, handing you his empty cookie container.

You nodded stuffing it into a bag.

You both hopped in his van and Eddie started the ignition. Turning up the volume to his mixed tape you made for him a little while after you two became friends. You couldn't believe he still had it.

He started drumming his callused fingers on the steering wheel with one hand while popping a cigarette into his mouth with the other. He was about to light it but you cleared your throat. Reminding him why he couldn't.

You watch him put it back in his pack.

Eddie looked over to you. " Sorry. I forgot princess."

You rolled your eyes. " Seriously bud. I swear you have the memory of a nat. Also, what did I say about calling me that Munson?"

You narrowed your eyes at him and lightly smack his arm.

"Geez L/n! I'm driving. Are you trying to get us killed?" He chuckled.

You glared at him. " I barely touched you!"

He just smiled and laughed.

You shook your head. You couldn't even be mad at him. So you ended up laughing with him. After apologizing for him not being able to smoke around you.

You honestly didn't care that he smoked. Actually you didn't mind at all. But if you smelled like smoke when your dad was around, he would have your ass.

You check the time on the dash and it was hitting a little close to 1 am.

Shit! Dad's gonna be pissed.

Eddie pulled up to your house before you knew it. You didn't live too far from the school. Even though you wished you did. Just so you can spend a little more time with him.

Eddie shut the van off and hopped out to open your door. " M'lady"

He's such a gentleman.

" Good sir." you responded, stepping down and out the van with your arms full with bags of empty Tupperware. He closed the door behind you and headed to the back of the van to pull out your bike.

You guys slowly walk up your driveway while Eddie belted out the lyrics to Don't Fear The Reaper. You watched him with joy. However, you needed to get him to stop.

He did stop singing after you shush him.

" Munson please. You'll wake up the neighborhood."

" Well, they need some good music in their lives. Who am I to deny them such pleasure?" Eddie turning lifting his arm in the air.

So dramatic this one is.

You shook your head but couldn't help your lips from grinning.

Finally at the front door you put the bags down to look for your keys. Eddie went to set down your bike.

"Still heading to the Hideout tomorrow?

You looked up at him " Of course. Can't let my best friend perform with out his number 1 supporter." You paused for a second." Umm...pick me up at 7?"

" Yes ma'am!" He said raising his hand to salute you.

Your eyes caught the deep purple bruise on his neck again. You stood there in silence for a moment. Hanging your head.

Why does it hurt seeing that?

Eddie looked at you tilting his head to the side. " What's up?"

Your eyes shot up to meet his big brown ones.

" A hickey Munson? Seriously?"

His left arm moved to the back of his neck. The quick shine from the front porch light reflecting off his rings moved across your face.

He let out a sigh "Oh uh yeah. Things kinda got out of hand."

Shit! Shit! Shit! He thought. Please don't ask who...

" You don't say?" You replied sarcastically.

" Uhhh...You don't know y/n. Man. She was kissing on my neck and grinding on top of me. And- and she did this thing with her hips-"

You raised up you hand cutting him off. " Uh... Eww. That's enough."

Eddie chuckled. " Sorry."

Just then you heard your dad calling out.

Eddie sighed in relief to himself.

"Shit!" you said as you turned your head to the door. " He sounds drunk. Better head out of here bud. You know know how he gets when he's had a few."

You look back at him with pleading eyes. He nodded and gave you a quick hug and headed back to his van.

You picked up the bags and let yourself into the living room. Closing and locking the door behind you.

"Hey dad... I'm home." You placed your keys in the ceramic bowl you made for your dad when you were 10. As a father's day gift.

You walked to the kitchen and saw your father sitting at the table, refilling a glass with what looked like whiskey.

" Where have you been? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

" Yeah dad. I'm sorry. I- should have called. The campaign went on a little longer than planned. I'm sorry."

You set the bags down on the counter and turned to look at him.

He got up from his seat. Stumbling to stand up straight. With the drink in his hand, he made his way towards you.

" Don't lie to me. You were out being a filthy slut weren't you!?" His words slurred.

Your eyes widen from the shock of what he just said.

" DAD NO!" You shouted.

" Out being a whore! Just like your cunt of a mother!"

" DAD?!"

He swings back his drink and slams the empty glass on the counter next to the bags. After breaking the cup he grabs both of your arms.

"DAD PLEASE!" You begged trying to get out of his grasp.

He pulled back a little. " YOU WILL NOT BE LIKE THAT BITCH! DO YOU HEAR ME?"

He then position his arm to the side and the back of his hand strikes you across the face.

Your eyes swell with tears immediately from the pain. Your cheek was suddenly red hot from the hit. Your father released his grip on you and stepped back. Staring at you for a few moments.

You saw the instant regret in his eyes. He didn't say anything. He just turned around, stopped for a second and walked to the living room to plop himself on the couch. He was out before you could process what just happened.

He has never did that. He yelled. He always yelled. But, never in your 18 years has he ever lift a finger towards you.

You looked at the date on the fridge and sighed. It was his and mom's anniversary. As tears fell from your face you grabbed ice and wrapped it with a towel to pressed it against your cheek. You flinched from the pain. But held it there. You quickly cleaned up the glass and went upstairs to your room. You walk in and locked your door. While sitting on the bed you sobbed quietly.

A minute passed and you jumped at the sound of tapping on your window. You quickly wiped your tears away.

You look over and recognized your frizzy hair friend. You went to opened the window. " Munson what the hell are you doing here?"

You turned to hide the bruise that was forming on your cheek and hid the ice pack behind you.

" I wanted to check to see if you were ok." He said, climbing into your room. Closing the window after.

You move to your record player and turn it on. To muffle the sound of your voices. You didn't want to wake up your dad after what just happened. Then you hid the ice pack in your desk drawer. Hoping Eddie didn't see you do it.

He moved towards you. " y/n?"

You could feel his presence lingering just a few feet from you. You slump your shoulders and wrapped your arms around to hug yourself. Swallowing the lump that was building in your throat. Just so you can speak.

"I'm g-good Munson."

Even you weren't convinced as it came out of your mouth.

You felt Eddie's big hand on your shoulder.

Without taking a second to think. You turned and hugged him. Crying into his chest. Tears staining his his Hellfire shirt.

He wrapped his arms around you tightly. "Y/n what's wrong? Y/n Please. . . Please talk to me." The concern in his voice hurt your heart.

He pushed you back slightly and cupped your chin. Trying to get you to look at him. The cold from his rings sent a chill down your spine.

You resisted for a moment. But eventually gave in and looked up. Meeting his gaze.

Eddie dropped his hand to your shoulder and his eyes widen. Fury replaced the sadness that you just saw.

"HE HIT YOU! HE FUCKING HIT YOU?! THAT MOTHER FUCKER!"

The anger in his voice frighten you. You never heard him so angry.

"Shhhh please!" You begged. " You'll wake him."

"I DONT CARE! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM!?"

He moved away from you and head for the door. You grabbed his hand and squeeze it. Tugging him back.

" Eddie..." you paused. "please."

The sound of you voice made him stop in his tracks. You didn't used his nickname. It's always either bud or Munson. Even when you were mad at him, you would use his full legal name. Which is when he knew he fucked up. Never Eddie though.

" Please dont. You'll just make it worst." You whimpered.

He hung his head. "He shouldn't be hitting you y/n."

" He didn't mean to. It's just- it's his and mom's anniversary. He... He was just really drunk."

" That's NOT an excuse." He said way harsher than he meant to.

He turned to you and lifted his hand up to cup your cheek that wasn't hurt and furrowed his brow. "Y/n that's not okay...This isn't okay."

"I-I know." you sighed putting your hand on his. You dropped your gaze down to the floor. " He never did this before. You should've seen his face after. He- he didn't mean it." Fresh tears rolled down your face.

The words made Eddie pull you back into his arms. " What do you want me to do? What should I do?"

A few moments passed.

"Please stay with me." You said just above a whisper.

He place a soft kiss on the top of your head and agree.

You didn't bother putting on pajamas. Instead, you kicked off your shoes and climbed into bed. You then watched as Eddie took off his leather jacket and set it down on your desk chair. He sat at the edge of the bed and took off his Reeboks. He then climbed under the covers and pulled you into him. Allowing you to resting your head on his chest.

Tears ran over the bridge of your nose onto his shirt.

" It's ok y/n. I'm here. I got you." He said while rubbing your back and holding you a little tighter. " I'm here."

The words eased the sudden stab of insecurity you had of him touching your back rolls.

You loved your best friend. He always made you feel safe and made the pain in your heart hurt just a little less every moment you spent with him. His voice calmed your anxiety. His touch was like the magic cure for your nerves. His presence just made your life brighter.

As you laid wrapped in Eddie's strong arms, drifting into a deep slumber. His heart beat being the sweetest of lullaby's. It all became clear to you now. You wished it could just stop. All of the thoughts you shoved down or tried to shake off for so long. All the hugs you've shared. The nights you've stayed together. The laughs. After all this time...You knew you were in love with your best friend. You were in love with Eddie Munson...

Well shit!

@yappydoo

#joseph quinn x plus size reader #stranger things #fanfic #eddie munson #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x female original character #joseph quinn #joe quinn #eddie x reader #eddie my beloved #eddie munson x female character #eddie x fem!reader #eddie x y/n #eddie munson x plus size reader #plus size reader #eddie munson x reader

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mossy-rainfrog · 1 year

Photo

[ID: A digital logo based off of the iconic Starbucks Coffee logo. Instead of the mermaid, it depicts a man (Starbuck) with curly hair and a mustache wearing a suit and tie, and the Starbucks crown on his head. Both of his hands are raised, and in each one, he holds a whaling lance. The entire logo is shaped like a Sperm Whale’s tail, with striped, wave-like designs inside. In the first image, there is text that reads: “Welcome to Starbuck’s Starbucks” in all caps. The second image is textless. Both have a watermark with the artist’s signature. End ID.]

Welcome to Starbuck’s Starbucks, would you like to try the signature white whale????

I was trying to finish this in time for April Fool’s, but unfortunately I actually have a degree in graphic design, so, I spent a full day rendering it LMAO. This is based on the fact that the actual Starbucks chain is named after the character from Moby-Dick, so I thought it would be super funny to try and recreate their logo to better fit the theme of the book

anyways I am unreasonably happy with this lmfao so hopefully other people find it even partly as funny as I do

#starbucks #starbucks coffee #moby dick #mobydick #moby dick art #starbuck #graphic design #logo design #classic lit #Melville #herman melville #described #accessible art #mossy art #i went to college for this

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smolwritingchick · 4 months

Text

Forced To Believe Chapter 28- Is That You Being Serious?

Chapter Summary: Morgan tries her best to survive with her team for Survivor Series

Words: 10,000+

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'Smackdown, backstage'

Morgan was backstage in her Shield attire and a cap that had The Shield's logo on it. The cap was black and on her head backward with her hair out and curly at the end. She was with Kaitlyn, chucking at a joke she just told.

"So, what was up with Luke saving you on Raw?" Kaitlyn asked.

"I...honestly don't know," Morgan replied, trying to forget about the situation.

"Does Dean know?"

"I don't think so."

"You plan on telling him?"

"I don't think it's a big deal. Plus, you know how worked up he can get."

"Haha, you've been attracting some weird men lately. I saw Goldust creeping you out. That was funny."

"It's not funny..."

"Yes it is." Kaitlyn giggled.

Morgan rolled her eyes. "I think he's doing mind games to creep me out so I won't be on my toes to support my team at Survivor Series."

"You know, I've been watching the Wyatt family's matches with Cody and Goldust. Luke looks like he does a lot of damage to Goldust."

"He always does damage, doesn't he?"

"If I were you, I would be alert. We all know what the Wyatts are capable of. What happens if they kidnap you?"

"Can we stop talking about them? And I don't think that will happen-"

"And what happens if it does? Morgan, you can't always be that tough chick and think nothing is going to happen to you. One day, you are going to be alone, with no Shield, no Total Divas, no one. Your boyfriend isn't going to be your knight and shiny armor; your Total Divas aren't gonna be your backup. And you know what? I can imagine that. I can imagine that on...Survivor Series." She snapped as the crowd 'Oohs'

Morgan looks at her in disbelief and confusion. "I don't understand, where is this coming from?"

"First of all, you are a Total Diva. I'm a non Total Diva. Total Divas get to win the matches, they get to do everything and win everything, but you know what? At Survivor Series, you guys are gonna look stupid when the Non Total Divas get the win." Kaitlyn says with seriousness. She didn't look like she was joking at all. It was like she really wanted to tell Morgan this for a while now.

"I don't get everything..."

"As soon as you stopped being my manager, you've become a high rising star. Higher than me."

"Are you kidding me right now?"

"I'm trying to make a point."

"Well, your point is wrong. I believe I worked hard to get here,"

"It's only because you are related to Chyna, right? People expect you to be just like her. To bring some of the Attitude Era back to the PG WWE. Is that it?"

"No, I told you and everyone here that I don't want to follow in Chyna's footsteps. I want to be Morgan Lopez and that's what I'm doing. You know what? I see now. I guess AJ got into your head, huh?" Morgan comes to a sad conclusion. She knew AJ got inside her head. This was not the Kaitlyn she knew.

"Did your new hair dye screw your head up a little? Maybe you should go back to black and blond instead of being a brunette." Morgan added.

"Look, we may have to go against each other. The Shield aren't going to be there to help you, and I can almost guarantee that your little Total Divas are going to get eliminated faster than a spear. I'm just telling the truth. I don't think you can handle being alone during Survivor Series. Am I right or am I wrong?"

"I don't get how you can say that to a friend."

"Why are you avoiding the question? We have to put our friendship aside and do business. And to give you a little word of advice, I'm not going to go easy on you and the reason you won the Divas title at Money in the Bank was because I went easy on you. I regret that now and that won't happen again. Morgan, I just doubt you will survive at Survivor Series. But I want you to prove to me and all the doubters that you can do it. I can't sugarcoat things for you anymore. You've come a long way. Now show me how far you've come." She walked past her as Morgan watched her leave.

Doubt was shown on Morgan's face and also shock. She was at a loss for words and couldn't think of a comeback. In the background was Luke Harper, watching her with his head tilted to the side before the segment ended.

"Wow, talk about a reality check from Kaitlyn," Cole said.

"What was Luke doing there?" JBL asked.

'Later On'

The Shield takes on Rey and The Usos. Morgan got distracted easily because all she could think about was Kaitlyn's words. She was at ringside near the ramp, standing there, still pondering.

During the match, she didn't notice Seth and Dean outside the ring and The Usos hitting a double dive onto them. She was an inch away from getting hit, while she was standing there.

"What in the world is going on with Morgan? Did she not see The Usos? She almost got hit." JBL exclaimed.

Roman gets off the apron and makes his way towards her as the Usos go back in the ring.

He grabs her shoulders. "Are you blind?" He asked.

Morgan pushed him off of her. "Don't yell at me! Are you kidding me?" She snapped at him.

Dean and Seth quickly held Morgan back while Roman was taken aback by her outburst.

"What are you talking about? I didn't yell at you." Roman exclaimed. "What is your problem?"

"Everyone wants to lecture me. I didn't do anything. Just leave me alone!"

"What the hell is going on with you tonight?" Dean exclaimed.

"What is going on with Morgan?" Cole asked.

Later on in the match, while The Shield was distracting the ref in the ring, they were waiting for Morgan to do a sneak attack on Jimmy Uso who was in the ring but she was still standing, thinking about Kaitlyn's words.

"Morgan! You missed your cue!" Seth yelled.

His yelling made her look up. "What?" She asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

Seth face palms. "You've gotta be kiddin' me..." He sighed.

"This is a first. The Shield are pretty upset with Morgan tonight." Cole said.

During the end of The Shield's match against Rey and the Usos, Roman spears both of the Usos and takes his attention to Rey as he puts him into a powerbomb hold. He walks to the ropes but Rey manages to take him out of the ring. Rey trips Seth into the 619 position and runs to the ropes. Morgan manages to grab his legs and bring him down but the ref sees it.

"Morgan! You're out of here!" The ref yells as the crowd cheered

"What? I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything!" she exclaimed.

"I saw you! I saw you grab his legs!"

"Are you kidding me!?" Seth shouted at Morgan. "What the hell happened!?"

"I'm sorry!" She yelled.

"Morgan! You're out of here! Go!" The ref yelled.

She reluctantly starts walking back up the ramp but when she does, Rey hits the 619 on Dean to win the match. She looked disappointed that The Shield lost.

Moments later, The Shield meet up with her on the ramp.

"What the hell, Morgan?" Seth asked.

"Why is everyone blaming me?" She exclaimed

"Rey is back with a vengeance on Friday Night Smackdown," Cole said

"Welcome back Rey," JBL added.

'Backstage'

The Shield storm backstage. They were giving Morgan the cold shoulder as she tried to catch up with them.

"Guys, I'm sorry." She said but got ignored. The ignorance sparked her anger. "Okay, first of all, I'm trying to be nice here, so don't ignore me. It's like you guys are lecturing me."

"We're not. We just want to know what the hell happened." Seth declared.

"Look. I'm not thinking clearly right now." She said as she held her head. "I've been going through a lot of stuff lately."

"What stuff?" Dean asked.

"You better start thinking clearly. Survivor Series is this Sunday. You need to get your head in the game." Roman reminded.

"Why does everyone keep yelling at me?" Morgan exclaimed.

"Morgan, we're not yelling at you." Dean's voice got sterner. "What's going on with you?"

"All the things that Kaitlyn said, I just-"

"Are you kidding me? You are going to worry about 1 person during our match which we lost?" Seth asked.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to be the cause of you guys losing at Survivor Series." She grumbled.

"About that...Morgan, I'm having doubts about you managing us at Survivor Series." Dean rubbed the back of his neck.

"What?" She looked at him in shock as Seth and Roman agreed. It was a tough choice but they started to have doubts. "So, everyone is doubting me now huh? Right?"

"Just sleep it off, all right?" Dean lifted her chin gently before walking away with Seth and Roman.

Morgan scoffed softly. "Unbelievable..." She retorted as tears ran down her face.

She was frustrated and upset with herself. She sat on the black storage box and looked down, silently crying. Moments later, she heard chucking and started to look a little scared as the crowd cheered, knowing who it was.

"The Rose with thorns does not deserve this. She deserves to be comforted...cherished...we wouldn't do that to you Rose...We would treasure you." A chilling voice said.

She turned around but didn't see anyone. She turned back around the see The Wyatt family standing before her. She let out a loud 'Ahh!' out of surprise as she began breathing heavily out of shock and fear.

"Shh, my dear..." Bray wiped a tear from her face.

"Wha-what do you want from me?" She asked in a wary tone.

"We are not here to make you fear us...we are here because we understand you...we have watched you for the past week now and you have intrigued the family. Rose, we will be waiting for you. You'll know when the time is right, my rose." He said.

Bray left with Luke and Erick as Morgan watched them, confused.

The camera goes back to Cole and JBL.

"Gosh, what must Morgan be thinking right now? She's going through a lot now. Can she handle this?" Cole asked.

"We'll have to find out," JBL said

'Later'

Later on, AJ was in a handicap match against Cameron and Naomi while Tamina was at ringside. Cameron and Naomi push Tamina down at ringside and grab AJ, who was trying to escape the match, back to the ring. Naomi gets in the ring but when Cameron gets on the apron, Tamina grabs her down the apron as she hits the apron face first. She attacks Cameron while the ref is distracted and in the ring, Naomi takes control of AJ.

Morgan comes on the stage as the crowd cheers. "It's Morgan!" Cole exclaimed.

Tamina turns around and frowns.

"What do you want?" Tamina yelled. "You gonna do something?"

"Yeah, yeah I am," Morgan said before marching down the ring.

But then, Naomi hits AJ with a kick and pins her for a two count. Tamina gets on the apron but then Morgan runs down the ramp and grabs her by the ankle to bring her down. Tamina lands on her feet and tries to clothesline her but she ducks and connects with a spinning kick in the face.

"Oh! What a kick by Morgan!" Cole exclaimed.

"That's what you get!" Morgan yelled.

When Cameron gets on the apron, AJ knees her back to ringside. But when she turns around, she gets hit with the rearview and Naomi pins her for the win.

'Somebody call my momma' comes on as Cameron gets in the ring and gets her hand raised in victory with Naomi by the ref.

"Here are your winners! Cameron and Naomi!" Lilian announced. Morgan gets in the ring and celebrates with them.

"Huge win for Naomi, taking out the Diva's Champion," Cole said. Tamina decides to step up and attack the three divas from behind. "Oh no, Tamina is not happy."

"She's tired of the cheap shots by Morgan," JBL looked on.

Tamina throws Cameron and Naomi out of the ring and turns her attention to Morgan. She takes out her ponytail and glares at the Philly Diva, who is holding her head in pain.

Tamina grabs her by the hair. "You think you can beat me, Morgan? Huh?!" She yelled in her face before hitting the Samoan drop on her. She gets on the ropes and does the splash on her as the crowd 'Ohs'

"That was a sick splash. Just nasty." Cole exclaimed.

"This is gonna be you at Survivor Series. You will never beat me." Tamina trash talked. "Maybe you should watch your back this time."

"Did Morgan's attack against Tamina backfire?" Cole asked.

"She helped Cameron and Naomi win but Tamina got the last laugh in this one. What will happen with Morgan at Survivor Series?" JBL asked.

--------

'Sunday, hours before Survivor Series'

Melanie was shaking out of nervousness in the Diva's locker room.

"Why are you nervous?" Celeste asked, already in her wrestling attire.

"Creative wants me to show some moves that The Shield does," Melanie responded

"That's awesome that you get to act like The Shield. You'll do fine. How are you going to portray Roman Reigns?"

"That's the problem. I don't think I can."

"You should ask Joe."

"I should. Good idea." Melanie left the Locker Room and walked to find him. She sees him, already in his wrestling attire, stretching. "Joe! I need your guidance!"

"What's up, baby girl?" He smiled.

"I need help with trying to portray your character."

"Oh yeah, for your match right? I heard about that. Give me a roar."

"Um...roar!" Melanie exclaimed by saying the word roar.

He chuckled. "That was the fakest roar I've ever heard. Mel, make it realistic. At least do a battle cry. Be angry and vicious. Just remember what you did with the Wyatts on Raw with that segment."

Melanie started to remember her screaming and yelling. She then does a loud battle cry.

"There you go. Do it again." He advised. After 5 minutes of mimicking the character of Roman Reigns with Joe, she finally got it. "You got it."

"Thank you, so much!" She hugged him.

"No problem." He hugged her back.

'Backstage'

Morgan was walking while playing with her hands. She sees The Shield getting ready for their match and walks up to them.

"Hey." She softly greeted. "Look, I'm sorry, for all the crap I've said and done on Smackdown. And, I really want to support you guys in your match tonight. I slept it off, I'm not mad, or anything. None of Kaitlyn's words are getting to me, I'm ready to go."

The Shield look at each other before cracking a smile at her. "We forgive you grapes," Roman replied.

"Great. You guys are my boys and I'm The Shield's girl. We gotta stick together no matter what. So are we ready to serve some justice?"

"Hell yeah. Now let's serve some justice." Seth said as they all bump fists

'In The Ring'

Rey, The Usos, and The Rhodes Brothers were already in the ring, while The Real Americans were on the ramp, with Zeb doing a promo about twerking. Zeb tried to twerk but his hip started to bother him as the crowd was amused.

"Enough! Enough Zeb! None of these people paid to listen to you talk. And none of these people wanna see you twerk." Cody said before twerking a little bit.

'Sierra'

'Hotel'

'India'

'Echo'

'Lima'

'Delta'

'Shield.'

"Accompanied by Morgan and weighing in 707 pounds, the United States Champion Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns, The Shield!" Justin announced.

"You think Morgan can twerk?" JBL asked.

"Maybe we should ask her," King replied.

"What a way to kick off Survivor Series," Cole said as The Shield got over the barricade. Morgan bumps fists with The Shield and The Real Americans.

'Ding Ding Ding'

Cody Rhodes and Dean Ambrose start things off.

"What a night this is for The Shield. Tonight marks the one year anniversary of The Shield. Morgan, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns have all debuted at Survivor Series. Morgan started out as Kaitlyn's friend to help her against Eve while The Shield triple powerbombed Ryback. A lot has changed since then." Cole looked on.

"Remember when Morgan feuded with The Shield?" King asked.

"Brings back some awesome memories," JBL said

"Didn't she push Seth Rollins through a table with the help of Ryback at TLC?" King asked.

"Yeah, and she low blowed Reigns and gave Ambrose 15 chair shots. I guess The Shield likes to forgive and forget." Cole replied.

Dean and Cody start to have a back and forth match until Dean knees him to the stomach.

Seth laughed. "How's that feel?" He asked

Dean starts to stomp on Cody at the corner while the ref tries to push him off. Dean's temper got the best of him as he started arguing with the ref.

"Dean! Don't lose your cool!" Morgan exclaimed.

All of a sudden, Dean gets eliminated with a roll up by Cody. The crowd goes wild while Morgan's jaw drops.

"Cody Rhodes eliminated Ambrose," Cole exclaimed.

Dean was shocked as Justin announced that he just been eliminated.

He starts lashing out and he shoves Goldust's face before getting punched by Cody and goes out of the ring.

"I guess his second year isn't as good as his first year," JBL said

Roman and Seth get in the ring and throw Goldust and Cody out of the ring. The Usos kick The Shield out of the ring and kick the Real Americans out of the ring on the other side, near the announce table, as the crowd gets hyped. One Uso dives on The Shield while the other dives on The Real Americans.

"We got ourselves some flying Usos! Welcome to Survivor Series!" JBL announced.

The Rhodes Brothers were still out of the ring as Dean went backstage.

Morgan turns her attention to Cody. "You can't twerk! You can't twerk!" She yelled.

"You can do better?" Cody asked.

Goldust starts twerking with Cody in front of her as the crowd cheers. The crowd starts chanting 'Twerk' to Morgan as she looks at the crowd and then back at the Rhodes Brothers.

"Are you kidding me? You're doing it wrong!" She pointed out before twerking in front of them as the crowd cheered.

"She's twerking!" King said, screaming in a high pitched voice.

Goldust was backing up while holding his heart while Cody started laughing.

"That's how you do it." She spread her arms apart.

"Haha, I love it. A twerking battle between Morgan and The Rhodes brothers." JBL said.

She laughed and had a grin on her face while shaking her head. Cody heads back into the ring as one of the Usos throws Seth inside the ring.

"Cody's team has a 5 on 4 advantage now," Cole said.

Once Goldust gets tagged in by Cody, he takes control of Seth and Antonio before Jack takes control when he gets tagged in.

"Stay on him." Morgan supported the Real Americans.

She watched the Real American's teamwork against Goldust and was impressed. She could see them as tag champs one day.

As the match progresses, a fan tweets 'Haha, Morgan and The Rhodes Brothers are funny. #MorganTwerks'

Goldust tags in Rey and starts to do his signature moves on Jack. He tags in the Usos and they eliminate Jack with the splash.

"It is now 5 on 3!" Cole exclaimed.

"We still got this. Keep a cool head." Morgan said to The Shield as Antonio faced Jey Uso.

Antonio manages to do the big swing on Jey over 14 times and then does it to Jimmy who gets in the ring.

"Swing him all night!" JBL exclaimed.

Antonio was a little dizzy after swinging Jimmy while Jimmy managed to tag in Cody. Cody puts Cesaro in roll up pin to eliminate him. Morgan's eyes widen and she looks at Seth and Roman.

"Don't panic." She calmly said.

"It is now 5 on 2!" Cole exclaimed.

She gets on the apron to talk to The Shield. "Okay, there's five of them, two of you guys. Don't be intimidated by the numbers game just because it's not in your favor."

Roman and Seth nod and Roman proceeded to get in the ring.

"It's your time to shine!" Seth supported as Morgan got off the apron.

"Morgan seems to be at her best to try to motivate The Shield," Cole said.

"Indeed, especially after how she acted on Smackdown. She's keeping a cool head." JBL said.

Jey manages to throw Seth out of the ring and tag in Jimmy Uso to take on Roman.

"Come on Roman!" Morgan banged on the apron.

Roman manages to get Jimmy on top of the turnbuckle.

"Here we go, baby!" Roman yelled at the crowd as they cheered for him.

He was about to suplex him but Jimmy headbutts him off the turnbuckle. He goes for the splash but Roman brings his knees up. Roman recovers and does a loud roar before spearing him and eliminating him.

"Yes!" Morgan cheered.

Cody hits Roman with a missile dropkick before tagging in Seth. Cody starts to take control of Seth and catches him in the Cross Rhodes position but Seth manages to tag in Roman as he gets hit by Cody's finisher. Roman spears Cody and pins him to eliminate him.

But then Jey Uso throws Roman out of the ring and gives him a flying punch.

"Huh!? Huh!?" Jey taunted before throwing him into the barricade as Morgan started to look worried. "Usos!" Jey chants before punching Roman.

"Huh? Look at me! Look at me!" He throws Roman's head on the apron and throws him in the ring.

Jey gets on the turnbuckle, attempting to do a dive but Roman rolls out the way. He tags in Seth as he does the blackout on him to eliminate him.

"That was sick! Go Seth!" Morgan cheered.

"Now it's 2 on 2." Cole said.

Morgan high fived Roman at ringside while Seth starts to take control of Rey.

"Welcome back Rey!" Seth yelled before he fought back.

Roman gets tagged in and slides Rey out of the ring which makes a sick thud. Goldust goes to check on him as the ref starts counting. Rey gets back in the ring at the count of 9. Roman runs toward Rey who is at the turnbuckle but hits his shoulder on the steel post once Rey moves out of the way. Morgan puts her hands over her mouth in shock. She hoped Roman was okay.

Roman tags in Seth who runs and dropkicks Goldust off the apron, who was trying to make a tag to Rey.

"Smart move!" She cheered before going to Roman. "You all right, bro?"

Roman nodded as he kneeled on the apron. Meanwhile, Seth gets caught with a roll up by Rey as the crowd goes wild.

"Yes! He got it!" King said in a high voice.

"It is now 2 on 1!" Cole exclaimed.

Seth is shocked but then hits Rey with a cheap shot and starts stomping on him before he gets taken out. Roman gets in the ring and watches Seth walk away.

"Man..." Roman mumbled.

"Hey! Roman! Don't give up! Just because you are the only one left doesn't mean you'll lose! Don't doubt!" She yelled some sense into him.

"Morgan has been trying to motivate Roman in this match up." Cole observed.

Rey tags in Goldust and he quickly takes control of Roman and does some signature moves. Goldust gives Roman a powerslam and pins him for a two count.

"Come on!" she banged on the mat for Roman. "I believe in you, Roman!"

"You know, we haven't heard Morgan screaming in a while. You think she'll be yelling and screaming during her match with The Total Divas against the True Divas?" King asked.

"She can scream all she wants because I have my earplugs," Cole responded. Goldust is about to do a bulldog on Roman but he pushes him away and spears him. "Spear!" He exclaimed as Goldust was eliminated.

"You got this Roman! 1 more! Just 1! 1 more then you are the sole survivor!" She supported. Morgan sees Rey getting up on the turnbuckle. "Heads up!" She warned as Roman got up and turned around.

Roman catches Rey in a powerbomb hold as the crowd gets hyped but Rey starts punching him and throws Roman into the 619 position. As soon as Rey runs to the ropes, Roman gets up and spears him out of nowhere.

"Spear!" Cole yelled

"A spear!" JBL exclaimed.

"1!"

"2!"

"3!"

"Yes!" Morgan jumped up and down as The Shield's theme came on.

"The winner of this match, Roman Reigns," Justin announced.

Roman gets his hand raised and he gets on the turnbuckle to taunt the crowd.

"Roman has stepped into the spotlight. What a performance!" JBL looked on.

The Outspoken Diva gets in the ring and runs to hug him. She didn't care how sweaty he was, she was so proud of him and had to give him a big hug.

"You did it!" She cheered. As soon as she released him, he picked her up as she sat on his shoulders. She was a little surprised but grinned. "That's how you do it!" She pointed down at him.

Roman puts his fist up in the air while Morgan puts her fist in front of her, touching his fist. Roman set her down as the titantron showed the highlights of the match. Roman and Morgan get out of the ring and look at Rey, recovering from the spear.

She hugged Roman again as he chuckled. "You did awesome." She said.

When she released him, he did a short roar as the crowd cheered.

"Yeah, you did it big guy." King said.

Roman tweets 'Thanks for supporting me WWEMorgan101'

Morgan replies 'RomanReigns of course bro! You always have my back, now I'm returning the favor. So glad you won. You kicked butt tonight!'

'Later'

Morgan tweets 'Ladies...Put On Your War Paint #TotalDivas #TurnUp #TwinMagic #AllRedEverything #GirlBye #SurvivorSeries'

The Bellas reply 'Yes. It's Time for some twin magic :) WWEMorgan101'

Eva Marie replies 'Yep, all red everything. Don't forget that WWEMorgan101'

Jojo replies 'Can't wait :) WWEMorgan101'

Cameron replies 'Yeah gurl! WWEMorgan101'

Naomi replies 'Turn up WWEMorgan101!'

Nattie replies 'I'll lead us to victory WWEMorgan101'

Morgan sends out another tweet by saying 'Let bygones be bygones. No drama tonight. Kapish? #TeamWork'

The Bellas reply 'No drama :)'

Eva Marie replies 'Fine. But don't get mad if I stand out more. Lol, JK #AllRedEverything'

'Natalieevamarie Haha, you funny! #BrunetteMafia' Morgan replies to Eva.

'WWEMorgan101 Lol, Let's rock this match tonight' Eva replies.

Then the Bellas tweet 'You sure you have your head in the game WWEMorgan101?'

'nicoleandbri We'll see.' Morgan replies to the Bellas.

Morgan tweets 'Tonight, I will try to give it my all #MorganWillSurvive'

--------

'WWE Exclusive Video, Backstage'

Morgan is walking and stops when she sees Kaitlyn. "Hello, Kaitlyn."

"Hello, Morgan. I just wanted to wish you luck tonight. But, if only you can make it." She shrugged.

"AJ really screwed up with your head huh? I guess she turned you into a backstabbing jerk. That really sucks." She walked past her but got ambushed by Tamina and thrown against the wall.

Layla accompanies Tamina by stomping on Morgan. Tamina makes her stand up while Layla connects with a kick to the face.

"What is going on!?" Cole yelled.

"This is smart, take care of one of the strongest players early. I like their strategy." JBL looked on as the three divas drag Morgan into a janitor's closet and put a door on the knob to lock it.

"Guess you won't be joining the divas now, huh?" Layla asked.

"Are you kidding me!? Get me out of here! What the hell!" Morgan started banging on the door.

"You're alone Morgan. Let's see if you can do things alone." Kaitlyn said before she, Layla and Tamina walked away.

"Just wait till I get my hands on you three!" She yelled and tried to kick the door.

Bray Wyatt was watching the whole scene and walked over, leaning against the wall next to the door. Morgan stopped banging on the door when she heard him giggling.

"Freakishly weird, beard dude?" she called out

"What happened to the thorns, my rose? You need to unleash what's inside of you. Are you going to let them do this to you? Show them that you are not the one." Bray said in a haunting tone.

"Look, can you just help me and let me out? Please. I have no time for this, supernatural crap."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You can let yourself out. You have it in you." He replied.

Morgan ran her fingers through her hair and started looking around. She heard Lilian introducing the Total Divas.

"Unleash." He chuckled and walked away.

Morgan lets out a frustrated scream and kicks the door multiple times.

"Damn it!" She choked back a frustrated sob and slid down, burying her face in her hands. After a couple of moments, she heard AJ's theme from the arena and got back to her feet.

"No, no, no." She tries to burst the door down, bumping into it three times and breaking free. She grunted as she fell and scrambled back up to her feet.

Swiftly cleaning herself up, she dashed to the gorilla.

No one was going to sabotage this moment.

'In The Ring'

"Is Morgan okay?" King asked as the Total Divas were looking worried.

Natalya looks at AJ's team. Layla, AJ, Tamina, Alicia, Rosa, Aksana, Summer Rae, and Kaitlyn were getting set for their match against the Total Divas. She knew something wasn't right when she saw the smirks on the faces of Tamina and Layla.

"Have you seen Morgan?" Natalya asked as the Total Divas shook their heads.

"Maybe she's running late?" Jojo asked.

"She was here, all ready. Remember she showed us her new dyed hair?"

"Yeah, and then she told us she was going to get some grapes before the match started and she would meet us at the gorilla," Nikki said.

'To Morgan'

Morgan was running in black pants, black boots, and a shirt that stops in the middle of her stomach that says '1 Year Strong' with The Shield symbol and on the back it says 'Believe In That'. Once she arrives at the gorilla, she puts on her hat, wearing it backward instead and puts on her fingerless gloves. She fixed her newly dyed black hair to make sure it was neat. She decided to straighten her hair and dye her hair to support the color black for The Shield.

A producer cues her music.

"Great..." Tamina retorted and rolled her eyes in the ring as the Total Divas looked relieved.

"There she is!" King happily said. "I get to see her twirl!"

The crowd cheers when Morgan comes out. She walks out while doing her taunt and twirls around when she gets to the middle of the ramp. She tags some hands and runs in the ring Mickie James style and stands up to go on the turnbuckle.

"Let's go!" Morgan yelled. She takes her hat off and throws it in the crowd and jumps off the turnbuckle. She turns her attention to Layla, Tamina and Kaitlyn. "Don't think I'm done with you three." She pointed at them as they started trash talking her.

"You think you're so tough?" Layla yelled.

"Whoa, wait, what happened?" Nikki asked, holding Morgan back.

"As you can see, Morgan doesn't look so happy with Kaitlyn, Tamina and Layla. Let's find out why." Cole said as titantron showed Morgan being ambushed by the 3 divas. The Total Divas look on in shock as AJ smirks, happy that her plan is in motion even though Morgan is still going to be a part of the match.

"Are you serious?" Brie yelled at the Non Total Divas.

"That's not cool!" Naomi exclaimed

"It's fine. I'm here now." Morgan tried to calm them down.

"They are gonna get it." Natalya glared at her opponents.

"Big mistake being here little girl. You should have stayed out of this match. You should have gone back with The Shield." Tamina said. "You're gonna regret staying in this match."

"We'll see." Morgan retorted.

Arguing with Tamina wasn't going to solve anything. She'll let her fists and legs do the talking in the ring. The Philadelphian and the rest of the divas go on the apron while Naomi and Alicia start off the match. Morgan's anger decided not to get the best of her for the first time and she calmed herself down. She was patiently waiting to get her hands on 3 certain divas. Layla, who needs to check herself, Kaitlyn, who needs a reality check so she can snap out of AJ's mind game, and Tamina who is just begging for an ass whooping.

Alicia and Naomi lock up. She throws Naomi to the ropes and hits her with a backbreaker. She pins her for a 1 count.

"Come on Naomi!" Brie cheered as Alicia took control.

Alicia puts Naomi on the turnbuckle but Naomi elbows her off and does a moonsault to eliminate her.

"And that's the athletic ability of Naomi!" Cole exclaimed as her team cheered her on.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Morgan grinned.

Rosa gets in the ring but quickly backs away from Naomi's incoming rear view. Rosa runs into a forearm by Naomi as she tags in Cameron. They do a double suplex on Rosa and a double split. Cameron pins her for a two count. She throws Rosa to the turnbuckle and runs towards her but runs face first on the turnbuckle by Rosa. Rosa pins her to eliminate her.

Rosa starts cheering but then Nikki gets in the ring while she is dancing. Nikki puts her hands on her hips and waits for her to turn around. Once she does, Nikki connects with the facebuster finisher to eliminate her. Nikki tags in Morgan as Summer Rae gets in the ring.

"Here comes Morgan," Cole announced

Summer Rae starts doing some ballet dance moves in front of her as the crowd cheers.

"Look at these moves," King exclaimed.

Morgan glances at her and then at the crowd. Summer Rae does another dance move and starts to taunt her.

"Ha! You think you can top that?" Summer smiled smugly. Morgan remembered that Fandango hates the Gangnam Style dance and starts to do it as the crowd cheers. Summer Rae's jaw drops as she starts moving her hips. "What!? What!?" She exclaimed.

The Total Divas were cheering as the Non Total Divas started to protest.

"This is an amusing dance battle." JBL laughed. "Ha! Ha! I love it!"

"Yeah, girl!" Naomi cheered.

As soon as Morgan was done, she had her arms out and said "What!?"

"Oh, you better top that!" Layla yelled at Summer. "Top that!"

"Out dance her!" Aksana exclaimed.

"No way! I can do that too!" Summer Rae said and did an awkward version of the Gangnam Style as the crowd laughed.

"I guess the Gangnam Style isn't her thing," King said.

"That is not dancing! This is real dancing!" Summer exclaimed and started doing more ballroom dancing.

Nikki asks Morgan for a tag and Morgan tags her in. Summer Rae starts dancing more and Nikki decides to do the worm as the crowd cheers.

"Oh! Look at her! Scotty 2 hotty!" JBL exclaimed.

Summer does a spin and a split but Nikki runs to the ropes and dropkicks her to eliminate her. The Bella tags in Eva Marie as the crowd boos her. Kaitlyn gets in the ring and is hit with some elbows by the redhead. But as soon as Kaitlyn fights back, she quickly hits her with a gutbuster to eliminate her.

Morgan watches Kaitlyn. She didn't look like she was messing around. Naomi gets in the ring and starts to take control of Kaitlyn. Later on, Naomi slides onto the apron and kicks her. But once she got back in the ring and ran to the ropes, she got caught by Kaitlyn. The Hybrid Diva battle cries as she hits the gutbuster on her to eliminate her.

"Kaitlyn is just dominating!" Cole looked on, impressed.

Having enough, Morgan decides to get in the ring.

"Kaitlyn! I want her! Tag me in!" Layla has her hand out.

Kaitlyn glances at her and tags her in. Morgan really wanted to face Kaitlyn but Layla was on her target list, so she was satisfied. The two divas lock up and Morgan takes control. She tosses Layla to the ropes and connects with a dropkick. Layla rolls out the ring, holding her face but Morgan decides to run to the ropes and hit her with a suicide dive outside the ring.

"What a move!" King exclaimed. As soon as Morgan recovers, she turns around to get clotheslined, hard by Tamina. "Oh! Hard shot by Tamina!"

The remaining Total Divas start to protest at Tamina's actions but the ref backs them up as AJ looks on with delight. Layla throws Morgan back in the ring and pins her for a 2 count.

"That should have been 3!" She yelled.

She starts to have a fit but then decides to roundhouse kick Morgan as the Philly diva slowly falls back down the mat while the crowd 'Ohs' at the impact.

"Nighty night!" Tamina yelled as Layla pinned her.

Morgan kicks out at 2.

"Are you kidding me?" Layla retorted. She picks her up and hits her with a spinning facebuster and pins her again. After 2, Morgan kicks out, again. "You've gotta be kidding me!" The British Diva yelled and started unloading on her.

"Come on Morgan!" Jojo cheered. "You can do it!"

"Shut up!" Layla yelled at Jojo, turning her attention to her as she stood up. Morgan quickly got up and gave Layla a thesz press and started unloading on her with punches.

"Morgan will not stand for disrespect to Jojo." Cole reminded.

The crowd cheers for Morgan as she picks Layla up and throws her to the ropes to hit her with a bicycle super kick. She gets behind Layla and rests her hands on her knees, waiting for her to get up. Once she does, Morgan positions her for the sit out full Nelson facebuster. She lets out a loud battle cry while she slams Layla hard on the mat.

"And the yelling and screaming has begun," King said. "Woo hoo!"

"What a move by Morgan!" Cole exclaimed.

"1!"

"2!"

"3!" The crowd cheered.

"Layla has been eliminated," Lilian announced.

Morgan tags in Brie as Aksana gets in the ring. Brie takes control and runs to the ropes only to be kicked in the back by AJ. Brie tries to hit her but AJ gets off the apron. As soon as she turns around, she gets blasted with a spinebuster by Aksana and is eliminated. Aksana throws Brie out of the ring and starts trash talking.

Nikki gets in the ring and runs to attack her from behind. She then, does the torture rake on her to eliminate her.

"Uh oh. Here comes Tamina." JBL said as she got in the ring.

Tamina starts headbutting Nikki and hits Natalya and Morgan with a cheap shot off the apron. Meanwhile, in the ring, Nikki hits Tamina with a kick as Morgan gets back on the apron. Nikki backs up to the corner and sees Jojo, having her hand out for a tag. She reluctantly tags in Jojo as she slowly gets in the ring while the crowd cheers for her. Tamina stands up and looks at the 19 year old and takes out her ponytail.

"I don't know how wise this is," Cole said.

Tamina and Jojo lock up but Tamina throws her down and starts trash talking. The Samoan takes off her jacket and throws it at her before grabbing her hair and throwing her to the turnbuckle. She then runs to her but Jojo kicks her away.

"Wait a minute!" Cole called out

Jojo gets on the ropes but is caught by Tamina. She manages to roll underneath her for a roll up but Tamina kicks out at 2. When Jojo gets up, she is clotheslined by her. Tamina picks her up for the Samoan drop as Morgan looks worried.

"Morgan is seething on the apron..." King looked nervous as AJ was tagged in and began skipping around Jojo with a smirk on her face

"I'm gonna hurt you so bad when I get in this ring!" The Outspoken Diva yelled at her.

AJ was feeding off the yelling of Morgan and it made her laugh. AJ pins

Jojo to eliminate her. Nikki gets back in the ring as AJ tags in Tamina. Nikki runs to Tamina but is hit by a clothesline. Tamina's power was too much for Nikki as she got hit with the Samoan drop and big splash to get eliminated.

Natalya and Morgan look at each other.

"Two against three," Cole said as Kaitlyn, AJ and Tamina were representing the Non Total Divas.

Natalya decides to get in the ring. Tamina kicks Natalya hard in the gut and hits her with shoulder thrusts on the turnbuckle. She grabs Natalya by the hair and gives her a scoopslam.

"Come on Nattie!" Morgan cheered.

Tamina gets on the top rope and does a loud battle cry to do the splash but Natalya moves out the way. She puts Tamina in the sharpshooter but AJ distracts the ref. Natalya decides to release the hold and turn her attention to the crazy chick. She tries to attack her but AJ gets off the apron and laughs.

"Watch your back!" Morgan tried to warn but as soon as Natalya turned around, she got kicked hard in the face and picked up for a Samoan drop.

Tamina hits the splash and eliminates her as the crowd cheers.

"Morgan is alone," Cole said as she let out a breath and entered the ring. Tamina and Morgan circle each other in the ring. "We've been waiting for these two to go at it."

Nikki and Natalya were still at ringside, helping each other up.

"If Roman can do it...maybe I can." Morgan said to herself.

She locks up with Tamina lock up but Tamina pushes her to the turnbuckle as the ref breaks it up.

"Ah!" She yelled in pain as Tamina struck her with a big chop to the chest.

The Samoan grabs her hard by the hair and pushes her back to the turnbuckle.

"Does that hurt!? Huh!? Does that hurt!? Are you gonna cry!? Are you gonna cry, Morgan!?" Tamina yelled in her face before throwing her across the ring. Morgan could feel her body getting hot from anger and her neck slightly jerked.

"Did you see that?" Cole exclaimed.

"No, what I miss?" King asked.

"Morgan kind of reminded me of Dean for a second. She just twitched." JBL pointed out as Cole agreed.

Tamina grabs her and puts her in the chinlock.

"Give up!" Tamina yelled as Morgan tried to find a way out. She stands up but is quickly slammed back down the mat as she holds her head. Tamina starts pushing her head around. "You think you can beat me? You think you can win this match?" She taunted before picking her up and hurting her with a snap suplex.

She goes for the pin but stops once the ref counts to two.

"I don't think Tamina cares about winning right now, she really wants to hurt Morgan," King said.

Tamina picks her up and hits her with a pumphandle slam.

"Tamina is really taking it to Morgan. Morgan desperately needs to turn things around." Cole looked on as Tamina put her in a tight headlock. "Morgan's fading. This may be over."

"Come on Morgan!" Nattie cheered with Nikki. "You've come too far to quit now!"

"Hey! Ref! Make them go backstage! They've been eliminated!" AJ yelled.

Meanwhile, Morgan starts to get up and elbows Tamina in the stomach before hitting her with a quick enzuigiri. She gasps for air and turns to her corner, about to tag someone, but, realizes that she is the only one left.

"You're alone Morgan." JBL reminded.

The Philly diva turns her attention to the remaining divas and holds her head. She would have to deal with Tamina and Kaitlyn's power and AJ's speed and black widow. Morgan looked at the mat and saw strands of her black hair pulled out of her head by Tamina. Tamina really wanted to break something.

"Aw, are you gonna cry? The Shield can't save you and the Total Divas can't save you. You're alone." Tamina taunted.

She was really starting to push her buttons as Morgan's arm jerked slightly. The Philly Diva felt her blood starting to boil.

"There it is again. That jerk. What's going on with Morgan? It's like she's getting possessed." Cole pointed out.

Tamina decides to tag in Kaitlyn as she slowly gets in the ring. Morgan slowly gets back up to her feet and has a staredown with her former best friend.

"These two know each other so well. Morgan debuted at Survivor Series and was Kaitlyn's manager. She would be her guide in the WWE until Morgan could spread her wings. But ever since AJ kept getting into the Non Total Divas' heads about them not being chosen to be a Total Diva, Kaitlyn's attitude towards Morgan had changed." Cole said.

"You think their friendship is over?" King asked.

"Or maybe Morgan can snap Kaitlyn out of it? Beat the mind games out of her head?" JBL asked.

Morgan and Kaitlyn step up to each other but then Kaitlyn pushes her.

"You weren't a good friend to me at all." She pushes her again as Morgan looks away. "You never supported me!" The Hybrid Diva shoves her down to the mat as Morgan looks at her in shock.

"What the hell? Where did that come from? What did I do?" Morgan yelled but then started to get angry. She wasn't going to be pushed around like that. She gets up and slaps her. "First of all! I've been your friend since the beginning! Okay, so at Payback I told you to suck it up. You should have! I can't sugarcoat things for you! I keep it real!"

Kaitlyn slaps her back. "You've done more stuff in a year than I ever have! How is that fair? How is that fair?!"

Morgan returns the slap. "You've won the championship way before me and I was happy for you. I wasn't jealous of you at all! AJ is getting in your head!" She yelled.

This was not Kaitlyn. This was all AJ.

AJ looks on with a smirk.

Kaitlyn slaps her again. "You were too involved with your boyfriend to even have time for a friend!"

The Outspoken Diva slaps her once again. "Don't get him involved in this!"

"Do you see how red their faces are?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, and they are still going at it," King said.

Kaitlyn slaps her again. "It's true! You've been brainwashed by him ever since The Shield won at WrestleMania! He's a weirdo! I don't even support your relationship with him! He stalked you! He kidnapped you! How can you love someone like that!?"

Smacking her in the face, again, Morgan yelled, "What has gotten into you!? He's a good guy! Who are you to tell me who I should be with? Just because you don't have a guy doesn't mean you can torment me because I have one!"

Kaitlyn slaps her as Morgan's face is to the side. "He's an obsessive guy and he doesn't even love you. He's probably using you! Just like all street dogs do! You're his ring rat!"

Morgan jerks her head back as she stares her down. Kaitlyn was taken aback and stepped back as the Philly Diva began to glare at her.

"That was a wicked head turn," King said. She hits her with a lariat and starts unloading on her. "Is it me or is Morgan reminding me of someone eccentric?"

The ref grabs her off of her. Kaitlyn recovers as Morgan runs towards her but gets clotheslined. She grabs Morgan and throws her to the corner and strikes her with multiple head smashes onto the turnbuckle. She throws Morgan to the ropes and attacks her with a running shoulder block as Morgan holds her shoulder.

"What power by Kaitlyn," JBL said as she pinned Morgan for a 2 count.

"Come on! She's just one person! Finish her!" AJ yelled. "Remember what I told you, Kaitlyn! She thinks her boyfriend means more than you!"

That was a lie. Morgan puts her friends first. She'd never put her boyfriend in front of her friends no matter how much she loved him.

"You stupid psycho bitch, that's not true!" Morgan screamed at AJ and ran to her but AJ got off the apron and laughed.

While she is distracted, Morgan gets picked up by Kaitlyn and is hit with a backbreaker as she yells in pain.

"Did you feel that?" King asked as he winced.

Morgan holds her back and tries to recover as Kaitlyn watches her. She crawls to a corner and Kaitlyn decides to try to spear her but Morgan quickly moves out of the way while Kaitlyn hits the steel post. Both divas were down as the ref began to count for a double knockout. They get up at the count of 7 and Morgan gets on the turnbuckle to hit her with a missile dropkick.

They both get up and Kaitlyn kicks her in the stomach and runs to the ropes but Morgan follows her and gives her a knee to the gut as Kaitlyn yells in pain.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did that hurt?" Morgan asked while tilting her head to the side. "Poor darling..."

She removes her knee from her stomach and takes her out with the backfire. She pins her but Kaitlyn kicks out at 2.

"That was Morgan's best move, wasn't it?" Cole asked.

Morgan stares at her and then slowly gets up. She does a slow neck roll as she walks back to a corner and glares at her.

"What is going on with Morgan?" King asked as her arm was jerking repeatedly.

Kaitlyn held her head and was taken aback by Morgan's attitude. "Is that you...being serious?"

"It's like she glaring at her prey. Did you see that neck roll? Wicked." JBL said, thinking of Dean Ambrose.

"What is she about to do?" Cole asked as Morgan ran and hit Kaitlyn with a knee to the head. She then picked her up to hit her with a sitout belly-to-back facebuster on her. "What impact!"

Morgan rolls away from Kaitlyn and stares at her. She rolls her neck slowly and laughs while running her hands through her hair.

"Morgan has a few screws loose, folks," Cole commented as she goes back to the corner and starts banging on the mat repeatedly, waiting for Kaitlyn to get up. "Yep, she's Harley Quinn in disguise."

"I have to agree this time," JBL said. "But in a good way."

"I know Ambrose must be loving this," King said. Morgan does a loud battle cry as she hits Kaitlyn with a spear. The crowd 'Ohs' as Kaitlyn sold the spear pretty well, making the move look even more devastating. "Oh my God, did she just use a spear!?"

Morgan spins on one knee before stopping and staring at her opponent while standing on one knee. She smirks as she tilts her head to the side.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kaitlyn...did that hurt? Did that hurt you badly, sweetie? It'll all be over pretty soon."

"We gotta see that spear again," JBL said as the titantron showed Morgan spearing Kaitlyn 3 times from different angles and 1 in slow motion.

Morgan pins her to eliminate her as the crowd cheers.

"2 on 1!" Cole exclaimed.

Morgan stands up, watching Kaitlyn roll out the ring as she tilts her head to the side and smiles. Tamina gets in the ring and Morgan smoothly turns around like Dean as Tamina gives her a weird look.

"The hell is your problem?" Tamina retorted.

"Is it scaring you? Why so serious, Tamina? Lighten up."

She drops the act and goes back to her normal self as she and Tamina circle each other around the ring. They lock up but then, Tamina throws her to the ropes and gives her a big slap as Morgan holds her chest in pain.

"Did you hear that!?" Cole exclaimed.

"Morgan is or should I say, was the only Shield member who hasn't had big slaps to the chest. Now it's even." JBL said.

Tamina decides to rip off her Shield shirt. "1 Year strong huh?" She yelled, leaving Morgan in a black sports bra.

"Ah!" She yelled out in pain as Tamina gave her another hard slap to the chest.

The slap echoed around the arena as Morgan kneeled and held the ropes for support. AJ was looking in delight as Tamina grabbed Morgan by the hair and raised her up to give her another hard slap. Morgan's chest was red and she fell

"How's that feel Morgan? How's that feel?" Tamina taunted before grabbing her by the hair and raising her back up. "You want another? Huh?" She asked before giving her one last slap on the chest and it was the loudest one and echoed around the arena.

Tamina grabs her and finishes her off with a powerbomb before pinning her but Morgan kicks out at 2.

"What!? That was 3!" Tamina yelled in shock.

"What a near fall," Cole said.

Tamina waits for her to get up and once she does, she runs to the ropes and is about to connect with a big boot but Morgan grabs her leg. She pushes her down as Tamina falls on her back. She quickly rolls her over and gets her in the breakdown.

"She's screaming again," King said as Morgan leaned back and screamed.

"She's got that hold locked in! Will Tamina tap!?" Cole exclaimed as the crowd was getting hyped up.

But, Tamina found a way out by putting her legs on the ropes. Morgan waits for her to get up so she can hit her with a leaping clothesline. She gives her another, and then another. Then, she picks Tamina up and connects with a spinning bulldog.

"The shades of Roman Reigns are now in Morgan's system," Cole said as she went to a corner and waited for Tamina to get up.

Once she does, she runs and yells "Ha!" as she gives Tamina a leaping punch, similar to Roman's Superman punch. Morgan goes back to the corner and roars as she spears Tamina.

"Another spear!" Cole exclaimed as the crowd cheered.

Morgan spins on her knee and stops and stands on one knee while smirking at AJ.

"Did you hear that roar? Jeesh, did Roman teach her some moves?" King asked

"Roman must be so proud of her," JBL mentioned.

"This is going to be you," Morgan said to AJ before standing up.

Tamina gets up and grabs Morgan from behind when she was trash talking AJ. Morgan escapes the hold and knees her in the stomach. The Philly Diva hits her with the sit out full Nelson facebuster to eliminate her.

"1 against 1!" King exclaimed.

AJ smirks and gets in the ring. Morgan stands up and they circle around each other.

"Just one more..." The Outspoken Diva murmured to herself.

All of a sudden, Tamina gets on the apron and is about to attack her but Nikki and Natalya save her. Morgan was distracted by the fight and turned around to a kick by AJ. She quickly pins her but Morgan kicks out at 2.

AJ starts throwing a tantrum in the ring as she starts banging on the mat. She glares at her and waits for her to get up. Morgan ducks AJ's kick and tries to kick her but AJ evades her kick, too. AJ tries to kick her again but she grabs her leg and brings her leg down as AJ does a split. The Philly diva connects with a spinning kick in the face.

"Yikes!" King exclaimed.

Morgan gets on the apron as Natalya and Nikki are fighting Tamina outside the ring to keep her from getting in the ring. She hits AJ with a springboard clothesline.

"I'll bet you that Seth taught her some moves," JBL said

She pins AJ for a two count. She takes control of AJ in a headlock but then AJ reverses it and puts her in a headlock

"Have you told The Shield that you've been talking to the Wyatts? Or are you too scared that the Wyatts will hurt them? I saw you...I saw you talking to them...I wonder how The Shield will react if they find out about you and the Wyatts..." AJ said in her ear. "So you are actually going to join the Wyatt Family after all you and The Shield have been through? Oh Morgan, the situations you put yourself into. First, it was the WrestleMania match and you were forced to be in The Shield...now it's this situation. Poor, poor Morgan..." she grinned while Morgan tried to ignore her.

AJ's mind games will always help her in matches. But this time, AJ was wrong. Morgan wasn't planning on joining the Wyatts. She was planning to tell The Shield if the Wyatts started to really bother her. But for now, since they are leaving her alone, she has no problems.

Morgan tries to fight out of the hold as she stands up but AJ hits her with a swinging neckbreaker. She looks at Morgan while laughing before she pins her for a 2 count. As soon as Morgan stands on her knees, AJ connects with a shining wizard.

"That should be it." JBL said and AJ pinned her but Morgan kicked out at the last second.

"Another near fall." Cole looked on.

As soon as Morgan gets up again, AJ traps her in the black widow.

"Give up Morgan. Give up and it'll be all over. The Shield will not have two sole survivors in one night. I will not allow it!" AJ screamed.

Nikki gets on the apron as AJ gets distracted and breaks the hold.

"What is she still doing here!? She's been eliminated!" AJ yelled at the ref but then decided to dropkick Nikki, off the apron while Natalya was still fighting Tamina.

The refs finally came down to separate them from fighting outside the ring.

"Watch your back," Morgan muttered as AJ turned around.

She hits her with an enzuigiri and continues to take advantage by hitting AJ with a moonsault. She pins her for a 2 count.

"Another near fall! AJ kicked out!" King exclaimed as Morgan ran her gloved hands through her new black hair, trying to recover.

AJ rolls out the ring and Morgan gets between the ropes, about to grab her but AJ grabs her arm and bangs it on the steel post.

"Smart move by AJ." JBL said as Morgan screamed in agony, holding her arm while she was on the mat.

AJ gets back in the ring and laughs at her. She starts skipping around and then begins to wear the Philly Diva down with some arm submissions.

"As you can see, AJ is really targeting the arm. That is a good strategy because it won't allow Morgan to do the breakdown or her full Nelson facebuster." Cole added.

Morgan fights back and starts hitting AJ with one leg dropkicks. When AJ was on her hands and knees, she ran and stomped on her, like Seth's blackout finisher and pins her but AJ kicks out before the ref said 3.

The crowd chants 'Let's go Morgan! AJ Lee!'

"I know Rollins is happy." King said.

"These two really want to beat each other. Morgan wants to win to silence AJ and also do more history for The Shield by making them have 2 sole survivors in one night. There's a lot of expectations for Morgan. AJ wants to prove that the Total Divas can't beat the Non Total divas." Cole says.

Morgan's left arm was still bothering her as she held it. AJ had really outsmarted her. She would usually do damage with the right arm, so Morgan did extra stretching on her right arm instead of the left. She didn't know how much more she could take of this punishment. She needed to end this and end it now.

When AJ and Morgan stand up, AJ runs towards her. Morgan does a loud battle cry as she catches AJ and does a spinning side slam, similar to Jon Moxley's Moxicity finisher.

"That knocked the wind out of AJ!" King exclaimed as Morgan slammed her down hard.

"Move out of nowhere!" Cole exclaimed.

"Could this be it?" JBL asked.

"1!"

"2!"

"3!" The crowd cheered as Morgan's theme came on

Nikki and Natalya run into the ring and jump on Morgan for a hug as she falls on the mat and laughs.

"Here is your winner! The sole survivor of Team Total Divas, Morgan!" Lilian announced.

"History has been made. The Shield now has 2 sole survivors in one night. The Shield may be one of the best teams in the WWE." Cole said.

"We won!" Nikki grinned while Natalya raised Morgan's right hand in victory.

"Thanks, guys," the Philly Diva smiled and hugged them.

Natalya and Morgan get on the top rope and taunt the crowd as Nikki taunts the crowd in between them, on the mat.

"Let's friggin' go! The Philly diva grinned at the crowd. "One year strong! Believe in The Shield!"

Morgan tweets 'That...was...awesome! #TheShield1YearStrong #BelieveInThat #TotalDivasRule'

'WWE Exclusive Video'

"That's what I'm talking about! Woo!" Seth cheered for Roman. Morgan walked up to them, in her wrestling attire. "There she is. There's our girl!"

Morgan laughed as Seth and Roman bumped fists with her. Dean greeted her with a kiss and took his Shield jacket off to give it to her to wear. She put it on and shot him a thankful smile.

"You two dominated all night baby, all night!" Rollins continued to praise.

"For the past few weeks, there's been a lot of doubters. But the only thing that matters is, Rollins, you believe right?" Roman asked.

"Oh, I fully believe baby!" The two toned male happily replied.

"Ambrose, you believe right?" The Samoan turned his attention to him. Dean responded by doing a wave with his hand. "No doubt. And what about you, Grapes?"

"Totally." Morgan grinned.

"You were pretty badass out there," Roman mentioned, nodding in approval.

"Ain't that the truth? She nailed it out there." Seth praised. "One year later, and the story stays the same! We come in, we dominate, we win, and we leave, why? Because we're the best thing going, we said it since day 1! You better start believing, if you don't already."

"I tried to warn y'all, we tried to warn ya'll. You don't want us to release the big cat here. We tried to warn you what happens when you push Roman's buttons too hard and uh, and all those brothers found out. 1 spear, 2 spears, 3 spears, it's getting embarrassing now, 4 spears, how many spears?" Ambrose turned to Roman.

"Enough," Roman replied as Dean laughed in response.

"And that's what happens with you motivate The Thorn of Justice right here." Dean put his arm around his girlfriend. "You see when you give Morgan a cheap shot from behind, it motivates her to do more damage and more ass kicking. All those sisters found out. Backfire, spear, even doing some of our moves which she nailed, including that last move on AJ to win the match. We're going to Moxicity huh?" He joked as she chuckled and nodded.

"Morgan also did some high flying moves, springboard clotheslines, the breakdown, received hard slaps to the chest, and even that full Nelson bulldog. That was pretty wicked." Seth mentioned.

"It's getting pretty violent now, huh?" Dean asked.

"That blackout was sick, Morg." Rollins high fived her.

"Haha, thanks. I just really wanted to have some fun in the ring, to spice up the match." She replied.

"You made it more entertaining to watch, that's for sure," Roman replied.

Morgan looked at the camera. "People didn't believe in me when it was 3 on 1. I didn't believe in myself for a minute but after showing the power of Reigns, the speed of Rollins and the technical moves of Ambrose, it helped me out. So, you can sneak attack me, lock me into a closet, do anything you want but I will get back up and I will keep fighting. Nothing is going to stop me from doing justice."

"That's right," Seth commented while Roman and Dean nodded. "Quick question, how'd you nail our moves? We haven't even taught you, our moves."

"Eh...I guess it's my eyes? I've been pretty observant lately. Watching almost all of your matches, really helped me out in the match." Morgan chuckled at Seth.

"Fellas, I taught her well when she was doing my in ring attitude out there. You can be my Harley Quinn, anytime." Ambrose smirked.

"That was a wicked spear out there." Roman complimented. "You did good."

"Thanks." Morgan smiled.

Roman turned to the camera. "And there's plenty of more spears where that came from, believe! In The Shield."

Morgan tweets 'There have been some injustices from certain NXT Divas. It looks like justice needs to be served. #WatchYourBack'

-------

Favorite Hashtag?

#WatchYourBack

#BelieveInThat

#TotalDivasRule

#TheShield1YearStrong

Favorite Hashtag?

#MorganWillSurvive

#MorganTwerks

#TotalDivas

#TurnUp

#TwinMagic

#AllRedEverything

#GirlBye

#TeamWork

#BrunetteMafia

#dean ambrose x oc #the shield #wwe imagine #wwe scenarios #wwe fanfiction #dean ambrose fanfic #the shield 4th member #seth rollins #roman reigns #forced to believe #jon moxley x oc #jon moxley #wwe oc

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aemiron-main · 1 year

Text

JORDAN PETERSON and BEN SHAPIRO are sitting down and having a conversation on a new podcast, “SCHLONG SONG” (the logo is an obvious parody of Led Zeppelin’s “Swan Song” record logo, except in place of Icarus, there is, predictably, a penis). There’s maybe a hint of lust in their eyes, or maybe it’s just something in the air (the sound tech is hitting a cotton candy juul as we speak). The conversation has already been going on for about half an hour when the audience hears:

Jordan: “So. whatever happened to silly little guys? Whatever happened to guys being jokesters like real, proper men?”

Ben: “that’s exactly what I’ve been wondering. That’s exactly it. What’s happened to men? Why have we gone woke? What does the woke mob gain from the eradication of silly little guys? Why do they want everybody to be so serious? Why do serious?”

Jordan: “well that’s the thing though, Ben, that I think you might be missing, so let’s address it right now- it’s not about wanting everybody to be serious. Because being not serious and being silly are two distinct concepts. Anyone can be unserious. But being silly? That’s only achieved by the goofiest of funny jokesterboys. That’s something sacred, silliness is the bedrock of our society.“

Ben: “I see, I see. Okay, so, what do you think are the implications of the eradication of silliness? Of the eradication of silly little guys and funny jokesterboys? Why does the woke liberal mob want to do this? I thought they were all about diversity.”

Jordan: “It’s a plot by the leftist media mob to ruin traditional comedy norms. Silly little guys and funny jokesterboys aren’t meant to be with negative nancies and feeble, weak-minded seriousbeasts. It’s not natural, and it’s not ethical. And it really does make me emotional. It really does, because- because what’s a society without funny jokesterboys? Really? What do we, as a society, have left to offer if we do not have the funny jokesterboys and silly little guys? Nothing.”

JORDAN is weeping openly. BEN reaches his hand over to provide a tender, slightly homoerotic arm pat. The STUDIO AUDIENCE (three hired clowns that were told this would be a paid gig for a sick kid’s birthday party) HONKS AND WHOOPS SADLY (one of them is actually just an opportunistic juggalo).

Ben: “We can’t let them win. This is the sort of thing I’ve been warning people about.”

Jordan: “You’re right. We can’t let them win. We can’t, because silly little guys really are the apex predators, they really are the alphas of our society, and without them, what would we do? Nothing. We would do nothing. Humanity as we know it would cease to exist.”

Ben: “Yknow. Yknow, hypothetically, Jordan. If I was a silly little guy. And you were a funny jokesterboy. Do you think there’d still be a chance against the serious mob? I mean, just look at the statistical drop in curly shoes and silly pointy hats. These are dire times for us indeed.”

Jordan: “I think you’re right, Ben. The serious mob has us backed against the wall. I’ll be your funny jokesterboy if you’ll be my silly little guy. It’s been too long since I heard the jingle of a funny little cap, or saw a man click his heels and do a silly little jig like a real man should. Have you ever seen the ripples of a man’s calf muscles as he does a silly little jig? It’s really quite splendid, it’s really one of those things that makes you appreciate the world around you, that really goes back to tradition.”

Ben: “Absolutely. Absolutely it does. It’s what god intended for men. To watch the calves of another man ripple as he does a silly little jig? Frankly, it’s exquisite. And that’s really the core thing here.”

#shitposts

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lovestuckyhatemarvel · 8 months

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I probably shouldn’t but here we go season 2! Season 2 rewatch wooo! Season 2 episode 1 commentary about random things but especially things I forgot or didn’t notice.

1.) I forgot season 2 literally cold opens on Kali and her group evading the cops and we see her use her powers. We even get a confirmation right then and there that they’re illusion powers and we see her wipe away blood and that she’s 008

2.) And we’re introduced to Dustin’s new mom and Mews

3.) the Byers are republicans who love Reagan

4.) I forgot this arcade scene happens at night???

5.) oh hi Keith. I forgot you showed up to crush Dustin’s dreams and be a creep

6.) that arcade sign was still spinning and lit up in the upside down

7.) oh hi Murray

8.) ‘Russian spies!!’

9.) already Hop is way bitchier than last season. Like extremely so. Like if I didn’t know any better, I’d think it got all new writers

10.) Steve is not good at papers and kind of resigned to his gate working for his dad.

11.) look, it’s my favorite daughter and her waste of space stepbrother

12.) zombie boy being an insult via still so funny. Zombies are fun

13.) max I would also hate getting a dramatic intro

14.) bob is the cutest doomed man until Eddie Munson exists

15.) I love a good crow scare

16.) Nancy is the one who wanted to go to the Halloween party

17.) Steve is kind of hopelessly in love. He missed Nancy after an hour

18.) Max is 100000% too cool for the boys, especially with doing the note saying to stop spying on her lmao

19.) also mike really giving ‘I hate any girl that isn’t el’ energy

20.) owens works for an evil organization but has great bedside manners

21.) family video spotted because Dustin abd Lucas are stalkers

22.) that being said it’s kind of hilarious that lucas and dustin get crushes from how good max is at video games

23.) I forgot Mike has been acting out like crazy

24.) placing kfc advertising in the middle of a heartfelt conversation about two distraught parents looking for their only daughter is gauche. They literally could have had it be a home cooked version of the same meal. No one needs to be given a kfc reference since the place still exists internationally. The logo isn’t even different.

25.) another great scene between Jonathan and Will. They really are the cutest. Bob being adorable only adds to it

26.) the storm at least still looks good

27.) El with short curly hair is so cute and I love her little overalls so much

28.) should have mentioned it earlier but I forgot this season opens on October 30th

#stranger things #stranger things rewatch #season 2 #season 2 rewatch #s2e1

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swan-of-sunrise · 3 years

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The Winter Soldier (Chapter Eight)

Summary: The gang plans to take down both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. and (Y/N) begins to feel nervous about their impending mission, not only for herself but for the super-soldier she’d grown a soft spot for.

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Reader

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings/Disclaimers: Brief mention of a panic attack

A/N: Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Eight (Previous Chapter)

After cutting through the floor of the S.T.R.I.K.E. van with what (Y/N) excitedly thought was some sort of mini lightsaber, hurrying into a windowless van at the next stoplight and speeding along for what felt like an eternity, they stopped and the door finally opened to reveal a large stone structure similar to a water facility or dam. This certainly looks like a top secret hideout, (Y/N) thought as she watched Steve jump out of the van and turn to help Natasha out next, like something straight out of my novel.

Once they all clambered out of the van, the woman who’d introduced herself as Maria Hill led them into the stone building, where they were immediately met by a short man with curly-grey hair. “GSW, she’s lost at least a pint.”

“Maybe two!” Sam added, helping Steve support the weakening spy.

The man hurried up to them. “Let me take her.”

“She’ll want to see him first.” Maria led them down a darkened hallway to a lit room and pulled back a hanging plastic sheet to reveal a man with an eyepatch lying in a hospital bed. (Y/N) exchanged a confused look with Sam while Steve and Natasha gasped in recognition.

The man in the hospital bed smiled tiredly. “About damn time.”

“Nick?” Natasha breathed, her eyes struggling to remain open.

“Doc, you should take care of Romanoff. And Captain,” The man’s eye moved from Natasha and the doctor to (Y/N) and Sam, causing (Y/N) to feel slightly unnerved under his critical gaze. “Care to introduce me to your new friends?”

After their brief introductions, Director Fury had suggested that she and Sam go clean themselves up but (Y/N) sensed that the two of them didn’t have much of an option; they’re probably discussing whether or not to trust us, she thought as she washed her grimy face clean in a small bathroom, not that I blame them for being skeptical. It seemed that there were very few people that they could trust at the moment, so she wasn’t offended that they were possibly a little wary of her and Sam.

“How’re you holding up?”

(Y/N) turned to see Sam standing in the doorway of the bathroom, with his arms crossed over his chest and a concerned look on his face. “I’m doing okay. I think I pulled a muscle kicking that one Hydra thug, though, and my other leg hurts from when that other Hydra asshat kicked me, but-”

“That’s not what I meant.” She glanced away from him but he continued anyway. “(Y/N), you had a panic attack back there when you found out you’re an Insight target. There’s no way you’re just doing ‘okay’ after that.”

Turning back to him, she met his worried expression and gave him a smile. “I’m fine now, Sam, I promise. I’m still a little shaken up about all this, of course, but I’m okay. Steve and I had a good conversation on the roof earlier, and I-” She stopped talking and raised her brow when she caught sight of Sam’s signature smirk. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just nice to see you getting along so well with the guy. So, you two had a, ah, conversation, huh?” Sam hid his grin behind his hand before continuing with a muffled voice. “And it was a good one, you said?”

(Y/N) crossed her arms over her chest and gave him the dirtiest look she could muster as she tried and failed to cool her blushing cheeks. “Samuel Thomas Wilson, you’re damn lucky we’re in the middle of stopping a seventy-five-year-old terrorist organization from taking over the world or else I’d ram my foot right up your-”

“Hey, guys.” They turned around to see Steve standing in the doorway, a bemused smile playing on his lips while he glanced between the pair of them. “Nat’s shoulder’s patched up and Fury’s ready for us all to regroup now.”

“I’m guessing that’s really code for, ‘Congratulations, Fury decided that he could trust you.’” Sam quipped and gave (Y/N)’s shoulder a pat as he headed out of the room. “C’mon, Booksmart, no lagging behind for another ‘good conversation.’”

Steve walked alongside her as they followed Sam through the halls. “You sure you two weren’t separated at birth?”

“You know what’s funny? My actual brother and I get along perfectly fine, we always have. It’s almost like the universe is punishing me for growing up with a nice sibling by giving me Birdbrain over there. But Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be will be and all that.” Steve gave her a confused look. “Sorry, I forgot; that’s a Doris Day song from the ’50’s, and it was even in an Alfred Hitchcock film.” They walked in silence for a few moments before she summoned the courage to ask, “Are you okay, Steve?”

“I will be once we stop that launch.” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed him give her a fleeting glance. “What about you?

“Um, ditto.” Swallowing nervously, she opened her mouth to ask about the Winter Soldier but lost her nerve at the last second, so they walked together in silence until they came to a meeting room.

Director Fury sat beside Maria Hill, his arm in a sling and his gaze focused on the open file before him. Maria was resting her arm on a large black case and across from her sat Natasha, her shoulder freshly bandaged and her face stony. Once in the room, (Y/N) opted to stand beside Sam and watched with observant eyes as the director picked up a picture of a younger-looking Alexander Pierce from the file.

“This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, ‘Peace wasn’t an achievement, it was a responsibility.’” He tossed the photograph back down into the table with more force than necessary. “See, it’s stuff like this that gives me trust issues.”

Natasha spoke up, her face looking grim. “We have to stop the launch.”

At her words, the director shook his head. “I don’t think the Council’s accepting my calls anymore.” He pulled the black case closer to him and opened the lid, revealing three electronic chips.

“What’s that?”

Maria’s eyes glanced around the group as she explained, “Once the helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they’ll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized.”

“We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own.”

“One or two won’t cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational…a whole lot of people are gonna die.”

Director Fury nodded. “We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra. We need to get past them, insert the server blades and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what’s left-”

“We’re not salvaging anything.” (Y/N) looked over at Steve, who had the determined look of a soldier on his face. In that moment, (Y/N) saw the skinny young man from Brooklyn within his burning gaze as he addressed the director. “We’re not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we’re taking down S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with it.”

Steve clenched his jaw as he spoke, “You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s been compromised, you said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed.”

The director frowned. “Why do you think we’re meeting in this cave? I noticed.”

“And how many paid the price before you did?”

Signing wearily, Director Fury leaned back in his chair. “Look, I didn’t know about Barnes…”

“Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that too? S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra…? It all goes.”

Maria looked at Director Fury and nodded. “He’s right.”

The director turned to Natasha, who only nodded in agreement, then he focused his gaze on (Y/N). Feeling the eyes of everyone around the table on her, she stood straight and met the director’s questioning gaze. “I know that I’m new to all this stuff, but…” She looked beside her at Steve. “I’m with Cap on this one.” The corner of Steve’s mouth twitched upwards.

“Don’t look at me.” Sam crossed his arms over his chest as he glanced over at (Y/N) and Steve. “I do what he does, just slower.”

Director Fury’s expression was hesitant, but he gave a nod to the super-soldier and heaved a sigh. “Well…looks like you’re giving the orders now, Captain.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After going over their plan to stop Pierce and the helicarriers, Steve left to retrieve his old uniform from the Smithsonian and Natasha made her way to Reagen National Airport to intercept Councilwoman Hawley’s transport to the Triskellion, while everyone else was busy gearing up at Fury’s secret base of operations. Before hurrying off to prepare their communication devices for the mission, Maria had pulled (Y/N) aside and pressed a hastily-wrapped bundle into her hands.

“If you’re gonna go on this mission with us, (Y/L/N), then you’d better look the part.” She’d given her a curt nod before walking away.

Now, (Y/N) stood in the women’s bathroom and looked at her reflection in the smudged mirror. She was dressed in a dark blue form-fitting uniform similar to Maria’s, with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo embossed on the shoulder and sturdy combat boots laced tight.

“Never thought I’d be a part of something this crazy,” She smoothed out the wrinkles on the fabric and gave her reflection a tiny reassuring smile. On the inside, though, she was frightened of failure and what that failure would mean for the rest of the world. “But it’ll be interesting while it lasts…”

On her way to their rendezvous point outside the base, (Y/N) spotted Steve, dressed in his classic World War II Captain America uniform and with his shield strapped to his back. She debated with herself for a moment before jogging to catch up with the super-soldier, calling out, “Hey, wait up!”

Steve stopped and turned, waiting patiently with his hands resting in his belt buckle as she made her way over to him; he gave her an approving nod when she finally reached him, his azure eyes taking in her new outfit before meeting her gaze. “Nice uniform, it suits you.”

“And you pull off the vintage look very well…listen, Steve, um, about Bucky…” He opened his mouth to protest but she quickly cut him off. “I think you’re right to try and save him from Hydra. That’s why you stole your old uniform to wear on this mission, isn’t it? To try and jog his memory of you, of his old life.” He slowly nodded and she looked down, her eyes level with the star on his chest, before continuing. “If Hydra had taken Sam and done the same things to him, I don’t think I’d be able to stop myself from trying everything I could to save him. Just…” Her eyes flicked back up to meet his. “I saw what he did on that causeway, what he’s fully capable of. Promise you’ll be careful?”

Steve nodded again, and she could see the concerned look he was giving her under his helmet. “You be careful, too, (Y/N). Sam and I can take care of the Insight crew, but you’re our eyes and ears. Stick with Hill, remember the plan and with a whole lot of luck, we just might be able to pull this off.”

(Y/N) gave him a small salute and joking grin. “Sir, yes, sir. Now, in the immortal and iconic words of Freddie Mercury, ‘On with the show’!”

“...Who’s Freddie Mercury?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I’ve created a Spotify playlist inspired by this series, and I’ll be updating it every time I upload a new chapter. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4BenknAqQQnOWY8NmSa23V

Tagging: @mrs-obrien @lahoete @awkward117 @cminr @momc95 @awkwardnesshabitat @marinettepotterandplagg @khuang3 @supersouthy @benakenalove @brooke0297 @hufflepeople @becausewelie @outoftheregular @supreme-tantrum

Chapter Nine

“The Winter Soldier” Masterlist

#steve rogers x reader #captain america x reader #steve rogers #captain america #sam wilson #falcon #natasha romanoff #black widow #maria hill #nick fury #director fury #captain america fic #captain america the winter soldier

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ag-celestina-gorillaz · 3 years

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Daisies and Daffodolls Day 17: Book Series

Sorry I've been MIA a lot. I've been busy doing sewing stuff (next photo challenge I'll prepare a few weeks in advance). But anyways, I took a pic of Celestina in what would be her meet outfit. Celestina's story is different in many ways than other AG characters. For one thing, she's my Gorillaz OC as well, so her story involves some Gorillaz lore as well, and her story starts at age 11 in middle school in 2016 and goes to at least 2020 when she's 15. Basic outline, Celestina is a cheerful creative girl living in Orbitz Ohio. She was raised by her mom Sharon and her stepmom Mia, (they got married in 2015 when gay marriage became legal in the US), and her dad is Stuart "2-D" Pot, the lead singer of the British band Gorillaz. In her story, Celestina faces many changes, such as her Mom starting a new paramedic job, her dad returning to England to reunite with the rest of Gorillaz to record Humanz, as well as starting her first year in middle school. I'm actually planning to write a whole book, maybe more, about Celestina, and post the chapters here on tumblr. I think I'll go ahead and post the first chapter here as a preview, but I'll post the full story later, maybe with illustrations.

Summary - It's the year 2016, and Celestina is starting her first year of middle school. While she's excited for a fresh start of the new year, she's also nervous. School uniforms, more classes, more teachers, and new classmates. Unfortunately, the school year starts out on a sour note, she barely shares any classes with her best friend, and in homeroom class, she gets paired up with Lucy Phillips, a cold, aloof, yet mysterious, new girl from Britain. Meanwhile, things aren't easier at home either, her dad ends up returning to the UK to reunite with his fellow band members to record their next album, and her mom begins work at her new paramedic job. But when Celestina begins to get close with Lucy, the new girl's iciness starts to melt, and they both learn they have more in common than they thought.

Celestina's Family and Friends

Celestina Damon - An excitable 11 year old girl starting her first year of middle school in the year 2016.

Sharon Damon - Celestina's mother, a practical, but cheerful, lady. She starts working a new job as a paramedic.

Mia Lucci - Sharon's wife and Celestina's stepmother, a funny and kind woman, she's always there when Celestina needs advice. She runs and works at The Leaning Tower of Pizza pizzeria with her twin sister Gina.

Stuart "2-D" Pot - Celestina's father, and lead singer of the British band Gorillaz. He isn't quite wired like other people, but in his own 2-D way, he's very deep, and he's also got a big heart. Despite the troubles that come with being a long distance parent, he loves Celestina immensely and tries to be in her life as much as possible.

Kailey Green - Celestina's next door neighbor and best friend since childhood. A smart and sweet girl, if a little awkward. A self proclaimed theater nerd. Often gives Celestina the nickname "Lessie".

Lucy Phillips - A new girl in Celestina's homeroom, who's family arrived from Britain. She seems mysterious and comes off as cool and guarded, but in reality, she's a little shy, and becomes much kinder and sweeter once you get to know her.

Chapter 1

New Year, New School, New Hope

The alarm clock on the bedside table chirped on and on as Celestina Damon slept in, nestled in her soft, pastel colored, blankets. She was dreaming a wonderful dream; Celestina, rocking a sparkly, purple, galaxy print dress, was singing in front of a sold out crowd on her first performance. Fans in the crowd were holding handmade signs and cheering her name. Here she is posing for pictures with fans! There she is signing autographs! She finishes her last song of the show, wishing the audience a good night. The crowd erupted into a thunderous roar of applause, fans shouting her name "Celestina! Celestina! Celestina! -"

"CELESTINA!!! WAKE UP!!!"

That did it! At the sound of her mom's voice, the young girl jolted up from her bed with a start. "Gah!" she exclaimed. Her wavy blue hair was messy and needed brushing, and she was no longer clad in galaxy print, but rather, blue and white pajamas with panda bears printed all over. Celestina ground the sleep out of her eyes and smashed the "stop" button on her alarm.

"Okay, I'm awake Mom!" said Celestina, slightly irritated. Her mom chuckled.

"Hey, if I let you have your way, you'd be asleep until lunchtime." laughed Mom. "I told you not to stay up too late."

"I didn't stay up late!" Celestina protested, "I'm just, not used to waking up this early." She was kinda right. Today was the first day of the new school year, after three months of staying up and sleeping in later than usual, it can be hard to get back on a schedule.

"Fair enough," said Mom, "but I can't always be around to make you wake up, especially now, you understand?" Celestina nodded. What her mom had meant was that she just got hired to work as a paramedic at a new ambulance company, which meant that some days she had to go in early. Unfortunately, it also means that she would come home later after working many hours, some nights possibly after when Celestina was supposed to go to bed. Luckily, today was only her orientation, which wouldn't start for a few hours, so her Mom could drop her off on her first day of school, but she was still dressed in her work uniform, black boots, navy blue pants with lots of pockets, and a wine red shirt with the ambulance's logo embolized on the left breast, and her curly blonde hair was tied up in a long ponytail.

Speaking of uniforms. Not only was Celestina starting her first day of school, but it's the first day of a new school, specifically, middle school. Okay, so technically this school is a combo middle and high school, so not only does she have to deal with the 7th and 8th graders, but also all the high schoolers as well. And all the students have to wear uniforms. Actually, the uniform itself wasn't that bad, it was pretty cute, the top was a rich shade of purple with a white collar and ribbon, and a white pleated skirt that fell below the knees, had a "sailor suit" sorta look to it, kinda like what an anime character would wear. All the same, Celestina couldn't understand why she just couldn't just wear her regular clothes to school, you know, like everyone did in elementary school. Sigh, another change to have to get used to. Mom caught Celestina eyeing her uniform.

"Well get dressed, hon." said Mom, "And come downstairs for breakfast. I think Mia made some chocolate chip pancakes!" Mmm, just the thought of those pancakes made Celestina's mouth water.

"Okay, you win." laughed Celestina, giving her mom a hug. "I'll be down in a few." After Mom had left the room, Celestina got dressed, brushed and pulled her long wavy blue hair into a ponytail, using a hairband with two pink poofballs on it. Before she left to go downstairs, she looked toward the corner of her room, and saw Scratchy, her fluffy gray bunny, stirring around in her cage.

"Hey there Scratchy!" she cooed, giving the bunny little pats. She then slipped a little chew treat for her to play with. "Be good while I'm at school, okay?"

The young girl grabbed her backpack, filled to the brim with school supplies, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. The aroma of chocolate chip pancakes and maple syrup filled the room. Mom had seated herself at the kitchen table, eating her small stack of pancakes, and Mia, Celestina's stepmom, was busy flipping the pancakes at the stove. Her mother, Sharon, and Mia have only been married for less than a year, but Mia has lived with Celestina and her Mom her whole life. They probably would have married sooner had it been allowed before last year! Mia is a pretty lady, tall, tan skin, and shiny dark brown hair, and she's a great cook. Her and her sister Gina (Aunt Gina to Celestina), run a pizza place called Leaning Tower of Pizza.

"Pancakes, comin' up!" shouted Mia to Celestina. Mia still spoke with a New York accent, despite the fact that she's been living in Ohio for at least 15 years. She served the girl her pancakes before sliding her own onto a plate. Celestina took her breakfast to the table and poured on the sweet maple syrup. She cut a piece and took a bite, mmmm, was so good. Her smile fell slightly looking around the room. She couldn't get used to the empty space at the table.

"What's wrong?" asked Mia, noticing Celestina's frown, "Don't you like chocolate pancakes?"

"I LOVE them!" exclaimed Celestina. "I just wish Dad was here to have some." Mia and Susan exchanged a look of understanding.

"You miss him don't you." said Mia. Celestina nodded.

"Yup!" said Celestina. It was actually more than that. She paused a bit, trying to think of how to put it into words, "I mean, I dunno, I guess I'm also a bit worried, you know, about him leaving again." Celestina's eyes looked down at her pancakes. Talking about stuff like that always made her uneasy.

Celestina's dad, her whole family life in general really, was, well, unusual to say the least. For one thing, her parents weren't married when her mom had her, in fact, they split up shortly before Sharon found out she was pregnant. Whatever, no biggie, there are lots of kids whose parents are like that, people who have children before they got married, or had kids and didn't stay together. However, it was even more complicated in Celestina's case, because her mom is American and her dad is British, meaning it's harder for her to see her dad on a regular basis because he lives so far away. Also, her dad is famous. Celestina's father is none other than Stuart Pot, better known as 2-D, the lead singer of Gorillaz. Yes, that 2-D! It's been awhile since the band did any songs together though, the last album, Plastic Beach, was released when Celestina was 5, but a couple years before that, something else happened, and that's what worried Celestina. For a short while after Celestina was born, 2-D would often call the house to say hi, sometimes even visit. But after a visit that Dad made sometime when she was 3, he had gone on a trip somewhere, and suddenly vanished. Her mom tried to keep calm around her when she asked where Dad was, but even as a kid, Celestina could kinda tell that her Mom was worried about him. The sudden release of a new Gorillaz album didn't help either. At one point, her Mom told her stories that 2-D and Murdoc Niccals, the band's foul mouthed, green skinned, bassist, were taken by pirates and trapped on an island called Plastic Beach, an island in the middle of the ocean made of garbage and spray painted pink. Looking back, Celestina wasn't sure if this all really happened or if this was something Mom was making up, but she knew something happened that made her dad unable to contact her for awhile. Shortly before Celestina was 8, her dad had called her on the phone for the first time in years.

"Celestina, is that you?" said 2-D in his thick Londoner accent, "You sound so big! How old are you now?"

"I'm gonna be 8, Dad!" answered Celestina proudly, "I'm a big kid!"

"8!? Wow! You really grew up!" exclaimed 2-D, Celestina could hear the tears caught in his throat. "I've missed you so much!"

After a brief vacation, or "holiday" as her dad called it, in Guadalupe, he visited Celestina and the family for the first time in a while, right in time for her 8th birthday. And since then, he had been able to keep in better contact, and came to visit Celestina in person more often these last few years, as if to make up for missing out for those last 5 years. She even got to fly with him to England one time and met her grandparents, David and Rachel Pot, for the first time at the amusement park that Grandpop had owned. This year, 2-D stayed in the guest room for a few months, he was able to keep Celestina company during the summer while Sharon was taking paramedic classes, and Mia was working at Leaning Tower. 2-D had been helping Celestina with her budding interest in music, teaching her how to play her new blue Melodica, a small keyboard with a flute-like pipe in it. When they weren't practicing, the father daughter duo would watch scary zombie movies, or listen to some older Gorillaz songs on Celestina's old CD player. On June 23rd, the whole family, and a few of Celestina's friends from school, celebrated her 11th birthday with a bonfire cookout in the backyard. It was a wonderful summer.

But all this fun and excitement of summer had to come to an end. It was now time for school, and just as well, Dad left to go back to England, rather suddenly at that. Somehow, one of his old band mates, Noodle, the guitarist and the only girl in the band, (and Celestina's favorite band member, next to Dad of course), ended up getting back in contact with him. Apparently, the band was getting back together to make a new album called Humanz, which would be released sometime next year. Like always, Celestina was sad to see him leave, but she was also worried too, maybe because a part of her is scared he would go missing again.

Sharon put a comforting hand on Celestina's shoulder. "It'll be okay," she reassured her daughter, "He said he's gonna text us when he arrives to meet the others. Plus, he said you can visit him during spring break."

"I know," nodded Celestina. She finishes up her pancakes, thinking about everything going on. Mom's starting a new job, Dad's going back to England, I'm starting a new year in a new school, and we have to wear uniforms! So far so good, she thought sarcastically. She rinsed her dirty plate in the sink and slipped on her black flats to meet Mom out in the car.

"Are we taking Kailey today?" asked Mom. Kailey Green is Celestina's best friend and next door neighbor.

"No, Mrs. Green wanted to take her this morning," answered Celestina, "but she's picking both of us up after school."

"Okay, good," said Mom, "let's get going, you don't wanna be late," she checks her watch "and neither do I!" she laughed. Celestina gave Mia a hug goodbye.

"Have a good day at school, rockstar." said Mia lovingly. "I'm coming home from Leaning Tower about an hour after you get home from school, okay girlie."

"'Kay 'kay, I got it." smiled Celestina. She gives Mia a fist bump, complete with a little explosion sound effect.

"You have a good day at school," then she turns to Mom "And good luck with orientation Sharon." Mom gives Mia a loving kiss on the cheek.

"Bye honey," said Mom grabbing her keys. "I should be home by dinner tonight." Celestina and her mother wave goodbye to Mia before getting in the car. As Sharon drove on to the school, Celestina sat in her seat nervously, her breakfast doing flip flops in her stomach.

"Are you doing okay back there?" asked Sharon, looking at her daughter in the rearview mirror.

"I dunno," she answered. "Honestly, I'm pretty nervous. Middle school sounds kinda scary. All these classes, new teachers, ugh, no recess, school uniforms," she grimaced. She had so many thoughts, so many "what-if's", that they started coming out one after another. "What if I don't like my teachers? What if me and Kailey don't have any classes together? What if all the classes are too hard? What if I get bullied by the older kids? What if -"

"Celestina!" said Mom suddenly, "sweetie, sweetie, it's alright." She took a deep breath before continuing, "I know this isn't something you want to hear, but I kinda know how you feel. I was nervous starting middle school when I was your age. And, if I'll be fully honest, I can relate to how you're feeling right now. I'm a bit nervous starting this new job."

Celestina looked up in surprise, "You are?" she wondered. "But you said you were excited." Mom gave Celestina a loving smile.

"And I am," answered Sharon, "But I have so many mixed feelings. I'm worried I won't be good enough, I'm worried the boss could be a jerk, or that I won't like my co-workers. So many things can go wrong. But," she paused before continuing, "There are also good things I'm looking forward to as well. I'll be able to use the skills I worked hard learning in all these classes, I'll be able to help people, I'll be bringing home a little more money, which means we will be able to go out more often." she said with a smile. "It's normal to be scared and nervous, it's okay in fact. But you also have so many good things to look forward to. Yes you have more classes, but you get to have more classes you enjoy, like music and art. And even if you don't have any classes with Kailey, you'll always be able to see her because we're neighbors. If you're having a problem, whether it's classes, mean kids, or even a mean teacher, you can always come to me or Mia. I just want you to know, even if the bad things do happen, there are also a lot of good thing to come, I want you to remember that." Celestina thought over what her mom had said. She did have a few good points.

"I did hear that the music department puts on a school musical every year," said Celestina, feeling a bit more hopeful, "And there's all these fun clubs". Sharon's eyes lit up.

"See, there you go!" said Mom.

"It just seems like so many things are changing at the same time." Celestina admitted, "it just feels so fast, I feel like I can barely take a breath."

"I know, it sucks, it really does." said Sharon in an understanding tone. "The funny thing is, is that the only thing that never changes, is that everything changes."

"That's so confusing to think about!" said Celestina laughing.

"Ah, but that's the truth," said Sharon with a chuckle. "But you know what else will never change?"

"No what?" asked Celestina.

"I'll always love you," Mom answered warmly, "The same goes for Mia, and for your dad, we will never stop loving you. You are our child, and nothing will ever change that."

"Aw mom, I love you too!" she exclaimed. At that moment, Celestina's cell phone chirped with a new message. Oops, better silence it before class, she thought, making a mental note. But seeing who the message was from made her smile.

"Ooh I got a text from Dad!" shouted Celestina in excitement. The text read "i made it to studio 13 in london. about to start recording for the new album. I miss you already, but i'm happy to be home again. russ, noodle and murdoc say hi. say hi to your mum for me. love you little panda bear." Celestina smiled at the mention of the special nickname her dad gave her. Attached with the message was a picture. It was a group photo of the whole band in what looked like the inside of a recording studio. Celestina had yet to meet the other band members in person, but she knew who they were from the music videos and interview clips on YouTube, and from a few stories from her dad. There was Murdoc Niccals, the band's bassist, and probably the biggest troublemaker of the band. He has an odd scrunched up nose, and green skin and black hair, sorta made Celestina think of the Gangreen Gang from The PowerPuff Girls. Then there was Russel Hobbs, the drummer, a heavyset black man from New York, with bright white eyes lacking pupils, a result of being possessed by a demon when he was young. He seemed to be the voice of reason in the band, and when he speaks in interviews, he has a gentle voice. Then there was Noodle, the guitarist, and the only girl in the band. Celestina almost didn't recognize her at first, she's so used to seeing her in the music videos back when she was a kid or a young teen, and now she's a beautiful grown up woman! Noodle was not much older than Celestina is now when the band released their first album, and according to her dad, when they were first looking for a guitarist, Noodle traveled from Japan all the way to England, in a FedEx delivery crate, and gave such an epic explosive guitar solo, that the band ended up giving her the part on the spot. Celestina likes to imagine that if they were the same age, she and Noodle would be great friends. And in the middle of the pic was her dad, 2-D himself. He's tall and wiry, the tallest of all the band members in fact, he has spikey blue hair, and due to two separate car accidents (which were Murdoc's fault), he lost his front tooth, and his eyes were injured, they now look like blank black circles. Murdoc gave him the nickname 2-D because his black eyes made it look like he had "two dents'' in his head. Surprisingly, her dad liked that nickname, at this point, the only people who really call him Stu anymore would be Nana and Grandpop, as well as Sharon and Mia. People would often describe her dad as, well, not very bright, sometimes saying he's thick and calling him names like "space cadet", but Celestina doesn't like any comments like that. To Celestina, her dad has his own 2-D way of thinking, and his creativity with making music is where he shines the best, and he's got a kind heart. In the attached picture, all four band mates were smiling (even Murdoc), and that made Celestina happy, seeing her dad and his old friends all back together.

"That's great!" said Mom, "What does the message say?"

"Dad said he got to England safely, he's excited to work on songs again, and that he loves and misses me, plus he sent a pic of him and the rest of the band." said Celestina. "Oh yeah, Dad says hi, and so does Russ, Noodle, and Murdoc."

"Aw that's awesome!" replied Mom, "See, I figured he would make it there okay. How do the other three look?"

"Murdoc is as green as ever," Celestina replied with a laugh, "Russel pretty much looks the same, but Noodle looks so different! She's a grown up lady!"

"Yup, I believe it," said mom with a chuckle. "Oh man, I haven't seen her since you were a baby, she was still a teenager then. Grown up so fast, both of you." she said with a sigh. "It's good they seem to be doing well." She paused, thinking, "I got an idea. We're almost there, why don't we take a few back-to-school pictures of you when we get there, and you can text them back to your dad?"

"Ooh I'd love that!" said a delighted Celestina. She was quiet for a bit before continuing. "Hey, I know I was sad before with Dad leaving, but, well, it's also really cool that the whole band is back together and they'll make more songs again."

"I know, I can't wait to hear them," agreed Mom, "but like I said earlier, it's okay to feel sad about missing him. Just don't forget that there are also a lot of good things to look forward to."

"I understand," answered Celestina. Mom had just pulled up to the school. There it was, Orbitz Public School. Mom was lining up to park at the entrance where the middle school classes were. While Celestina had seen the school many times when going on errands with her mom's around town, today the building somehow seemed larger and more intimidating. Her breath slowed down and her hands grew sweaty the closer they got to the entrance. Mom had found a parking spot and Celestina nervously left the car, carrying her backpack.

"This place is way bigger than South Lincoln," remarked Celestina, referring to her elementary school. Sharon gave Celestina's hand a comforting squeeze.

"I know it's scary," said Mom. "But you got this." Even though Celestina was still nervous, she somehow felt a bit better with her Mom hyping her up.

"I got this!" repeated Celestina.

"You're the star of your own stage," encouraged Sharon, "You knock 'em dead!"

"I'll knock 'em dead!" repeated Celestina, feeling pumped. "Oh yeah, let's get that picture taken to send to Dad" she remembered. Celestina and Sharon walked around to find a spot with good lighting in the courtyard.

"Ooh, we can take one here," said Celestina, handing the phone to her mom. She struck an adorable Sailor Moon style peace sign pose in her new uniform with the school in view in the back. After the picture got taken, she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder.

"Huh," said Celestina, before turning around to see her best friend, "Oh hey there Kailey!"

"Hi Lessie!" greeted Kailey, using the nickname she used for Celestina since they were little. Kailey was wearing the same purple and white school uniform that Celestina was wearing. She kept her short brown hair in her natural curls, and her red square glasses framed her blue eyes. The giggly girls greeted each other with a hug, before realizing that both their moms were standing by with their phones.

"Smile you two," said Mrs. Green. Both girls smiled for the camera with their arms around each other.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Sharon before handing Celestina her phone back. Celestina then quickly sent both the pics to her dad with a special message.

"So glad you made it home safely Dad. Mom and Mia say hi back. Today is me and Kailey's first day of school. Can't wait to see you again, and maybe meet the rest of the band (even Murdoc lol). Have fun recording. Love you lots! We got this!"

Shortly after she sent it, her dad replied with another quick "I love you", and Kailey got Celestina's attention.

"C'mon Lessie," said Kailey, "We still need to get our schedules."

"Oh my, that's right!" exclaimed Celestina. "We gotta get going!"

The girls gave their Moms a quick hug and said goodbye, and headed into the school. Celestina still felt a bit nervous, but she felt a lot better than this morning. She headed inside the front doors of the school with Kailey, walking through the purple and white crowd of students, feeling determined to take on the day no matter what happens.

"Celestina, you're on!"

#american girl fan character #american girl oc #celestina damon #gorillaz #gorillaz oc #american girl #american girl doll #gorillaz fan character #daisies and daffodolls #long post

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irondad-not-ironsad · 3 years

Text

WandaVision Episode 1 Reaction

Spoilers below!!

I enjoy the music over the marvel logo

But also a 43 second logo feels kinda long for a 29 minute episode- is it just for the premier or is this gonna happen before each ep?

Also I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that there is a title sequence, which will probably be similar in length. Combine that with the lengthy credits people have been complaining about, it seems that the percentage of the thirty minutes that is actually the story is lower than it should be

not that I don’t love a good title sequence! But I’ll take a well fleshed out episode over fancy logos, title sequences and credits any day

now that I’ve got that of my chest, on to the actual show

I like how they have the frame shaped like that of an old timey tv, combined with the black and white it really adds to the old timey sit come vibe

I like these bells

Ok I know I complained about to much time being wasted with logos and such, but i LOVE how cheesy this theme song is and I love them showing vision and Wanda driving tp there house in wedding attire

“A regular husband and wife” 2 seconds late *vision disappears into a cloud of sparkles*.... 1 minute 8 seconds in and I love this

Even there acting is reminiscent of an old timey sit com this is amazing

feel like I should note he title sequence ends at the 1.36 mark approximately, which may not seem like a lot but again the show is less than thirty minutes so it adds up

Wanda talks with a fifties accent: I already love this show

Also I wish I had magic I could use to clean, I’m moving back into my dorm right now and Wanda’s powers would be SO helpful

Also I LOVE the laugh track

Also Wanda’s short curly hair is so cute

I love how neither of them knows what the heart means so they play it off by being like “yeah of course I know what it means, how could I forget? Do YOU remember what it means

Also Vision is literally part computer shouldn’t he have a photographic memory?

Also how old is Wanda? I could have sworn someone said she was 19 in civil war, which would make her like 21 here? I think?? Idk tho, as a 19 year old I don’t think she has ever looked 19 in the movies, even back in Ultron she looked at least in her mid twenties

The face Vision makes when he makes himself human is so funny

Also Vision blowing Wanda a kiss and her reaching back to grab it is the perfect amount of corny that makes it still cute

Also I wonder what vision’s job is

The backing music is so funny

I can already tell Agnes is going to be some great comic relief in a show that’s already hilarious

“I assure you, I’m married. To a man. A HUMAN one!” I know I’ve said before that I was never the biggest fan of Wanda or Vision but I love Wanda in this show

Obv there is something clearly off here, but I feel like I need to mention that it’s clear this is some warped reality. If I had never seen any of the MCU before, I may believe it was just witch and her robot husband living in the fifties, but the little details really make it clear to the audience (the majority of whom I am sure are familiar with the mcu) that something is off. This scene is one of those, where Wanda cannot seem to recall how long her and Vision have been together and plays it off by saying “It feels like we always have been together”

Is Agnes giving Wanda advice for the bedroom? is this really what I’m watching? Or have I wildly misinterpreted this?

Love the old timey lingo

Vision working a desk job is so funny

Love that vision doesn’t even know what they do at his job, I know it’s part of the false reality thing but also lowkey relatable

“you’re like a walking computer” “I most certainly am not! I’m a regular carbon-based employee made entirely of organic matter”

I started this like twenty minutes ago and have only gotten 7 minutes in because I keep stopping to type my reactions. I am going to try to shut up and watch, and stop screaming about every little detail for a bit 😂

Real quick though does Vision just go by Vision at work?

Ope apparently he does.

I wonder if Vision took Wanda’s last name

Or is he Vision Stark-Banner since it was Tony and Bruce who made him??

He probably isn’t called that but I think it would be funny if he was

Love that instead of writing “dinner with boss” or “Dinner w/ Harts” or even just “Harts” he drew a freaking heart like im dying

if my lack of emojis seems weird I’m typing this on a computer which I never normally do and I’m to lazy to pull up the emoji keyboard, so basically imagine there’s a cry laughing emoji after everything funny

“No skeletons in the closet?’ “I don’t have a skeleton sir.”

Yup I was right, Agnes is giving her sexy time advice

“you should stumble when you walk in a room so he can catch you. It’s romantic!” that is the only way I will be flirting from now on

Also I got to say, I'm guessing it’s a fifties thing but those pointy bras don’t look comfortable

So she answers the phone “Vision Residence” Is Vision also their last name now? Does he go by Vision Vision??

They make the best facial expressions

This phone conversation where Wanda think they’re having a date night whereas Vision is talking about his boss coming for dinner is comedy GOLD

also I love the fact that they’re giving us stereotypical sitcom drama while keeping it clear that there are bigger problems than dinner with the boss

Fake commercial break is at 9.56 (these time stamps are for myself I want to calculate how much of the episode is actually the story)

I do love the fake commercials tho! And I suppose in a way they ARE part of the show

They missed the chance to make it the toastmate three thousand and make every ironman fan cry

The beeping toaster sounds like a ticking bomb..... also the little red light is the only color we’ve seen this episode I think

Commercial ends at 10.46

Also love that it was an SI toaster, still wish they had made it 3000 instead of 2000

How did Wanda confuse Mr. Hart with her husband? Not that I’m complaining, her coming out in a robe and covering Vis’ Boss’ eyes is HILARIOUS

“This is the traditional Sokovian greeting? Didn’t I tell you my wife is from Europe?” “How exotic!” “We don’t break bread with Bolsheviks”

Visions pants are SO high waisted

“It’s our anniversary!” “Our anniversary of WHAT?” “WELL IF YOU DON”T KNOW I”M NOT GONNA TELL YOU”

Poor Vision is trying to figure out what kind of company he works for this is sooo funny

Agnes coming in clutch with a full meal

So Wanda needs the ingredients in order to magic a meal she can’t just make one appear

Vision breaking into song was amazing

How did one chicken turn into like 30 eggs

Vision is singing old McDonald with his bosses wife this is great

“Diane!” “That must be my wife summoning me!” “She calls you Diane?” “Yes... it’s her pet name for me” “I’m coming... Fred”

So many clichés in this show but it’s done in such a purposeful way that it’s still funny

Also we have only seen three rooms: the kitchen, the living room and Vision’s workplace

“Well I think tonight’s going SWIMMINGLY”

Mrs. Hart is SO NOSY

But I love that they don’t know the answers

Wanda looks SO disturbed when Mr. Hart is demanding her and visions story, you can tell her mind is fighting itself and it’s so sad

Mr. Hart is choking, is it bad that I think he deserves it?

Mrs. Hart keeps cheerily repeating stop it, and gone is the stereotypical sitcom camera angles and and the backing music is switched for something eery

This is lowkey scary, Mr. Hart Dying while his wife keeps cheerily saying Stop It and it just feels creepier the more she repeats

Wanda looks distressed and vision is just looking to her for what to do, her old timey accent is gone and she sounds nearly robotic as she tells Vision to help

Poor Wanda, she is so clearly going through it mentally right now

Laugh track is back, and just like that the Harts are leaving, despite only having one bite of food

And somehow Mr. Hart is impressed? Was Wanda rewriting reality to make them so?

I know that this is clearly some alternate reality and nothing is right, but wanda and vision deciding to choose that day as there anniversary and this little convo here is soooooo cute

Aw her making them rings and them both saying I do is soooo cute

And vision saying “and they lived happily ever after’ is so sweet but also so sad in context

What is that little remote vision is holding meant to be?

And love the hexagon closing in on them with the cute music playing to end the episode

Are the people in these credits real? Because it lists the start as Wanda Maximoff and Vision but are the rest actual people?

So there is some sketchy dude watching the maybe fake credits so there's something going on there

The actual credits start with 7.13 left and I’ve been told there's no mid or post credits scene. I’ll let them play while I finish this up anyways

8 minutes and 49 seconds of this show is the logo, title sequence and credits. Out of 29.36 total this means only 20 minutes and 47 seconds is the show, which I suppose is standard for a sitcom but I think I felt deceived by it showing as 29 minutes

Also 50 seconds of “commercial takes the show time down to 19.57 if anyone was wondering

I swear tho I’m not all that bothered by the length, just did the math in case anyone was curious like I am.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this going it, but it still really surpassed my expectations and I can’t wait for episode 2!

This is my raw reactions, but I’m sure that as I mull it over more I’ll be posting more about the show

This is somehow a perfect combo of lighthearted comedy and mild horror

I wanna let this episode stew for a while, so I prob won’t watch episode 2 for at least a day

Also what are your guys’ thoughts on this format of reaction? Did I write to much?

Also what did y’all think of this episode? Feel free to let me know what you think of my reaction, and whether you agree or disagree. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

#anna reacts to wandavision #anna reacts #wandavision #mcu #marvel #avengers #scarlet witch #vision #wanda maximoff #disney plus #wandavision spoilers #wv spoilers #mcu spoilers #marvel spoilers

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cozywritings · 4 years

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Coffee Cake

Moving to Canada, escaping your hometown, and opening your own bakery was a dream of yours since you were a teenager. Now, at 23 years old, you’re able to do exactly that. However, what’s to happen when you open up next to a coffee shop owned by the most handsome and sweetest person you’ve ever met?

-----

“Okay guys, thank you so much for putting up the flowers. I really appreciate it.” You smiled as the men left, taking their baked goods and waving goodbye. You’d finally closed on your little shop and were starting to decorate. Deciding to go with a floral look, you went with flowers that would cascade the building but also were low maintenance. As you looked over to the coffee shop next door you chucked, the difference in design was funny. Your little shop was white and colourful while this one was black and the interior was full of dark stained wood.

Walking into the door you hummed at the smell of coffee and spices, a tall man with dark curls smiled at you. “Oh hi, how may I help you on this lovely afternoon?” His voice was like velvet as you walked up to the counter.

You smiled at him, waving. “I just wanted to come say hi, I just bought the shop next door. It’s going to be my first real bakery and I just wanted to come meet my neighbors!” Your voice light and cheery as you bounced on your toes.

The curly haired man smiled and held his hand out. “Well I’m Raul. This is my little coffee shop, I hope you’re up for a little competition. James here is quite the pastry man.” He chuckled, pointing at a shorter man that looked like a frat boy.

You waved at each other and looked back to Raul, he was staring at you with a smile that could stop traffic. “Well I mainly do cakes and cupcakes, special orders, cookies and muffins.” At the mention of muffins, his eyes lit up.

“You do muffins?” Hes asked excitedly, you nodded, a proud smile on your face. They were your best seller back home.

“Everyone loves my double chocolate ones. And then of course the classic blueberry and banana nut. I’m working on some more recipes currently.” You told him, reminding yourself to finish up the pumpkin recipe soon for the fall.

Raul was now leaning against the counter, a serious look on his face. “When can I test the muffins?” His tone making you giggle before you pointed next door to your own shop.

“I have a couple right now. I’ve been using them to thank the guys helping me get all moved in. Some of them are accepting them as payment when they are really just a thank you.” You smiled, thankful for all the help and how nice everyone was during your set up.

Raul tossed his hand towel on the counter, turning back to the crew behind him. “Guys, I’m going next door for a taste test. Be back later!” There was a collective “okay” and a few asking if they could come too and you giggled at their eagerness.

Walking into the shop, he looked around at your little lobby, glass cases and an order book on the counter. “It still needs some work but I’m hoping to be open by the end of next week. I’m doing a few private orders for now.” He smiled at you as you spoke, looking through the book of cakes and cupcakes you’ve done throughout the past few years.

Suddenly he shut the book and crossed his arms. “What about a little deal?” He asked, an eyebrow cocked as you walked back into the room, muffins in hand.

“What kind of deal?” You asked as you placed the baked goods on the counter, digging into a double chocolate muffin with a fork.

“How do you feel about coffee?” He asked, before taking a bite of his own muffin and letting out a satisfied hum. His eyes closed for a second and you realized how truly beautiful this man was.

“Well, I’m not a huge coffee person honestly I’m more of a tea and hot cocoa girl, but I love the smell of coffee. Why?” You laughed as he tried to swallow his mouthful of muffin, seeing as he shoved the whole thing in his mouth.

He blushed at his struggle. “Sorry, that was just so good. Anyways. I would honestly love one of your baked goods every morning and in return you could maybe be my taste tester for new drinks? I’m exploring new flavours and the guys aren’t really into it. They like what they like and that’s it.” You thought about it for a moment. You didn’t mind giving away treats, and you got free drinks out of the deal. Plus, having a gorgeous man hand deliver your breakfast to you every day didn’t sound too bad.

“Deal.” You smiled, sticking out your hand to close the deal. He grabbed your hand and you noticed how large he was. His hand engulfed yours as he shook it, you also noticed what looked like a whole sleeve peeking out of the sleeve of his shirt.

“Alright m’lady. What will it be today?” His sweet smile melting you. You already knew this man would be the death of you.

“Well, let’s see. It’s 5 in the evening, so let’s go with a nice iced tea. I don’t really have a preference but it has to be sweet. None of that ‘no sugar’ garbage.” He nodded, taking a mental note of your order.

“Okay, I’ll go whip something up and be right back.” He saluted you, closing the door gently behind him. As soon as Raul left, you let out a squeal. You swear you couldn’t have picked a better location. You were just down the street from your apartment, and you were right next door to a cafe run by the sweetest, most attractive guy you’d ever known, and your mind was full of him. You couldn’t help but think about how cute he looked, mouth full of muffin, trying to talk. He was obviously already comfortable with you. Or maybe that was his nature, but you couldn’t stay in your thoughts long. The bell above the door rang and in he walked, a glass of reddish tea in his massive hand.

“Here you go! I pegged you as a hibiscus tea girl, so I decided on that. There’s a little lemonade in it as well, since it’s so hot out today.” You blushed, taking the glass from him and looking at the cup. It was a thick glass jar. The shops name etched into the side.

You ran your fingers over the logo, the unique woman’s eyes with coffee steam framing her face intriguing you. “This is a fancy glass you’ve got here.” You spoke, looking at him over the rim on the glass.

“Oh, we got those done last Christmas for the employees and we’ve become pretty popular in the area so we started selling them. We also have a few shirts and around Christmas we sell hot cocoa bundles with mugs.” You smiled as you watched him talk about his business, taking sips of tea and humming.

“This is amazing by the way. And you were right about me being a hibiscus girl. So, how long have you had the cafe?” You asked, using any excuse to keep him in your presence as long as possible.

He ran his hands through those soft looking curls. “I opened it 5 years ago when I was 18. It sounds kind of stupid, but I always wanted my own cafe. My mom is British and always had tea in the house and during snow days I’d be in charge of hot cocoa and one day I just decided that I was going to have my own shop. I even designed to logo, with my brother’s help. What about you?”

You placed the now empty glass on the counter before explaining that you had always had a thing for baking and when it came time to go to college you went into to culinary. “This is my first real shop. I used to just take orders online and do local things back home in the states.” You blushed, looking at your shoes.

“You’re from the states?” You nodded. “What made you want to move up here?” You just shrugged, wiping some dust off the glass case.

“I wanted something different I guess. And where I lived it was always ungodly hot and I hated it. So I moved up here to escape the heat. And before you say anything, I know the winters are harsher, but I’m okay with that. My apartment has a fireplace and I live in fuzzy socks. Besides, being hot sometimes makes me uncomfortable and anxious.”

The two of you talked for a few more hours while Raul helped you clean up a little bit since the rest of the equipment and the decor would be in tomorrow. “Well, I should let you go. Thank you so much for your help, and the tea. It was amazing.” You smiled over at him, handing him a box of cupcakes for the guys at the cafe.

“I’ll see you tomorrow with a new drink. It was nice meeting you, and I’m glad we’re going to be work neighbors.” And that was all he said before waving goodbye and walking back to his own store to lock up and clean for tomorrow.

You stayed back a little longer, packing up the rest of the goodies before making your way home. You were now even more excited to come into the shop tomorrow to get set up. Raul had offered his help in the heavy lifting and how could you say no to those eyes, or those muscles. So you settled into bed, eagerly awaiting the morning.

-----

The next few days were full of hard work. Between setting everything up and baking for the people helping you, you were exhausted every night. You were so grateful for Raul, as he would periodically come over, that same glass filled with a different cold beverage. He even got the cup personalized with your name on it.

Tomorrow was opening day. You were extremely excited, and equally nervous, but you were confident in your little shop. You’d worked so hard for this and you’d refuse to let this go bad. “Hey there sugar!” Raul shouted, the nickname making you blush as you walked up to the counter and asked for a raspberry lemonade. “Tomorrow is the big day. Are you nervous?” You nodded, chewing on your bottom lip. “Don’t worry, the guys and I will be there to support you. We’ll even wear your shirts.” he said and you blushed.

A few days ago you’d ordered a few shirts as a joke for the guys at the cafe. Pastel pink and blue with your logo on the front. The back had the saying “Have your cake and eat it too.” The thought of 5 men standing in public in those shirts made you laugh. “Thank you for all the support Raul. It means a lot to me.”

“Of course! I remember how nervous I was when I opened RM Coffee, and you’re doing this all by yourself? It’s impressive.” He placed a hand on your shoulder before handing you your cup. He was wearing a short sleeve today, and you could see almost all of his sleeve, it made you wonder what other tattoos he had.

You slid him a $5 bill and got up. “Okay guys, I’m gonna go get some rest before tomorrow. I’ll see you all in the morning!” You waved goodbye to the boys in the shop before walking home. You were half way down the street when you heard someone behind you, and whipped back around to find Raul.

He had his hand out, holding something. “You left your notebook!” He shouted, the book stretched out to you.

“Oh, thank you! That had all my new recipes in it. I’d die if I lost it.” You sighed, taking it from him. Your hands brushed and you didn’t miss the way way his breathing picked up at the contact.

“Also, I was uhh, I was wondering if after the grand opening tomorrow, you’d let me take you out to dinner? You know, after closing. Of course.” His cheeks were red as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Your face heated up, before nodding. “I’d really like that. Maybe you can show me the places to eat here.” He smiled, hands now shoved in his pockets.

“I’ll come by around 7 and we’ll go to dinner then. I-I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight and good luck.” You hugged him gently, he was warm and you didn’t want to let go of him.

“Goodnight Raul. Thank you for all your help.” And off you went, mind racing over tomorrow. Did the hot guy next door really just ask you out?

---

Curling your hair and adding the finishing touches to your makeup, you were ready for the day. You’d chosen a simple pink cotton dress and nude heels. Seeing as this was an important day, you decided to dress nicer than your jeans and a ‘Sugar Cakes’ shirt you would usually wear. Plus, you had a date tonight. You needed to look amazing, even if your date had already seen you sweating and in sweatpants.

As you made the short walk to the shop, you noticed a crowd of people around the bakery. They were all chattering and taking photos in front of the flowers cascading over the window, and a smile graced your features, being one for the perfect photo, you were glad people were taking advantage of the beautiful backdrop you’d created.

“Good morning Sugar.” Raul greeted, a chai tea in his hands with your name on it. “You ready for this? You’ve got quite a crowd, I’m impressed.” You nodded, taking the drink and looking at him, pastel pink shirt pulled tight across his chest.

“You look good in pink.” You giggled, before turning to look at the boys. Mike, Brian, Geoff, and Ian all wearing pink and blue shirts.

“James was going to be here too but he caught his girlfriends stomach bug.” He said, answering your unasked question, you shook your head, wishing him well before walking towards the front of your shop.

Taking your spot in front of the door with that gorgeous red ribbon across it, the nerves set in. “Good morning everyone. Thank you all so much for coming to the opening for Sugar Cakes, it means a lot to me. This is my first storefront and I’m so excited to share my creations with you! In light of today, I have mini cupcake samples inside waiting for you all!” They all clapped and cheered for you. “Also, a special thank you to the boys of RM Coffee for all the late night help and personal supply of caffeine while I prepared for today. And for the support, I mean come on. Don’t those men look fabulous in those pastel shirts!” You laughed, motioning to the group of baristas.

“So, who’s ready for cupcakes?” You shouted, scissors in hand. While everyone cheered, you snipped the ribbon, smiling as you watched it fall to the floor. “Sugar Cakes is officially open!” You smiled as Raul pulled you in for a hug and kissed your cheek.

“You’re gonna be quite busy today Sugar. I understand if you wanna call a rain check on tonight.” You shook your head, taking your tea from him

“Of course not. Maybe just something casual.” You suggested, there was no way you were cancelling your night with this man.

He smiled and nodded. “I know just the thing.” There was a smirk on his face as he placed a kiss to your temple before walking into his own shop.

The day went by fast. You’d sold 15 dozen cupcakes, had an order for a birthday cake, and an office asked if you’d provide muffins for their Monday morning meeting. You were so ecstatic all day you didn’t care that you hadn’t changed the heels that were now killing your feet.

There was a ding as someone entered the store before they spoke. “Excuse me, miss, do you have a moment to spare?” You looked up to see Raul, a bag in his hand.

“For you? Always.” You grinned, motioning him to come behind the counter with you.

He was quick to get to you. “I um, I noticed you looked uncomfortable in those shoes and I felt really bad you didn’t bring anything to change into. So I went to the shop down the street and got you some sneakers. They aren’t the most fashionable but at least your feel won’t hurt.” He blushed, handing you the plastic bag with a pair of white sneakers and half a sandwhich. “Figured you be hungry and since James isn’t here we had the extra half from lunch.”

You smiled at him, hugging his waist tightly “Oh my god you’re the best.” You sighed, slipping off your heels and putting on the shoes. “Oh my god that feels so much better. Thank you so much Raul.” He nodded, exchanging a few details about tonight before letting you get back to the customers.

The afternoon was a lot calmer than this morning, but you were still constantly busy. You had another order for macaroons to make and cupcakes for a baby’s first birthday. How you were going to do all of this alone, you weren’t sure, but you knew you’d get it done.

At exactly 7:00, Raul was outside, the pastel pink shirt was replaced with a nice navy button down and he looked amazing. “You ready for your night of no customers?” That smile he flashed you making you want to melt.

“What did you have in mind?” You asked as he opened the door to his own business

“Well, since you expressed to me that you have a deep, burning passion for hot chocolate, but you only know how to make the packaged kind. I thought,” he waved towards the counter “I could teach you how to make it from scratch.” You gasped at the assortment of chocolate and flavors to add and all the mugs to chose from, all laid out on the counter.

“That actually sounds amazing.” you sighed, leaning against his side, the day finally taking it’s toll on you.

You learned that you can do milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and even a white chocolate. And that milk is so much better than water. “I can’t believe that you’re a baker, yet you struggle with a simple drink.” Raul chucked, boping your nose and smearing whipped cream on it.

“Hey, don’t judge. I watched you shove a whole muffin in your mouth like you hadn’t eaten a real meal in days.” You pointed out, referring to that first day.

He threw his hands up in defense. “That wasn’t my fault. I’ve been living off of coffee and James danishes for weeks now.” You smiled, grabbing a chocolate cookie and pushing it into your mug. “Beautiful!” He shouted, throwing his hands into the air “Ladies and Gentlemen she has done it!” You bursted into a fit of giggles, holding your stomach as you laughed. “Now you’ve gotta drink it, while we watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” You let out a louder laugh at his choice.

“Why that? It’s not Christmas babe.” He smiled at the nickname you let slip, opening his laptop and turning off all the lights in the shop, pulling out a blanket. “Christmas in July was a few days ago. I figured it was fitting.” You shrugged, his reasoning making sense as you curled up under the blanket, mug of cocoa in your hand.

As the movie came to an end, you had your head on Raul’s shoulder, your body tired from the days excitement. “Hey, do you want me to drive you home honey? It’s too late to walk and you seem kinda tired.” You nodded, thanking him before folding up the fuzzy blue blanket and setting your now empty mug on the counter. “I’ll wash the muga in the morning. Let’s just get you home.” You smiled, grabbing your purse and making your way out the door and to the black BMW he had pointed out to you.

“You know, I may steal your hot cocoa recipe and name it after you.” He said as you pulled up to your apartment.

“That’s fine. As long as I can make the double chocolate muffin with extra chocolate chips the Raul Special” you retorted, looking at the side of his face. He was handsome from every angle.

“I’d love that idea. Makes me feel special.” He smiled, walking you to your door. The pristine white door had pastel pink numbers on it and he chuckled. It was very you to have already made the place your own.

“Thank you for tonight Raul. It was amazing and exactly what I needed.” Your hands were shaking now. This was the sacred doorstep moment. Would he kiss you? Go for the cheek? Maybe just walk away.

Your question was answered when he cupped your face, plump lips grazing yours before you reached up on your tiptoes, closing the gap. His lips tasted like mint and chocolate, and you couldn’t help but let out a soft moan. “Do you um, do you wanna go out again tomorrow?” He whispered against your lips, smiling as you nodded. “Good. Pick you up at 7. Dress nice. I’m gonna make up for missing dinner tonight.”

You leaned in for another kiss, and he wasn’t complaining. Pushing you up against the door and hands holding your waist. “I gotta go honey. I’ll see you tomorrow, and I’ll have something special for you.”

And with that, he left, eyes droopy as he watched you blush before touching your fingertips to your swollen lips before disappearing behind your door. You’d never felt so strongly about someone so quickly, but Raul seemed like that kind of person who drew you in and didn’t make you regret it.

So you crawled into bed, all too excited for tomorrow and your second date. The only worry you had was what he planned on giving you in the morning.

---

You woke up to someone pounding on your door at 5am. “Who the fuck could that be?” You groaned, wrapping up in your silk robe and walking to the front of your apartment. You looked through the peephole to find Raul. Hands behind his back.

Slowly, you opened the door, the sun barely brightening the sky. “Fuck, did I wake you,?” His smile dropping at your robe clad body and ruffled hair.

You shook your head, opening the door further. “It’s fine. Just an hour early. Come in, what are you hiding?” He blushed, stepping into the apartment and pulling a bouquet of roses from behind his back, a thermos in his other hand.

“I told you I’d have something special for you, I made a few adjustments to your hot chocolate and I’m ready to add it to the menu, after your approval.” His cheeks bright pink as he handed you the matte black thermos. You took a sip, closing your eyes and humming at the taste.

“It’s absolutely amazing. What did you do?” Taking another sip, you hopped onto the counter and looked at him. His hair was messy and his shirt was unbuttoned more than usual. He looked amazing for it being so early in the morning.

Raul smiled, setting the roses on the counter. “Well, I added a little more of the milk chocolate and that hazelnut flavor you liked. And a dash a cinnamon.” He smiled proudly as you took another large sip, cursing yourself for burning your tongue.

“I was thinking of calling it the “Hazelnut Sugar” in honour of the fact you made it after your love of Nutella” a blush creeped up your cheeks as he tucked your bed ruined curls behind your ears. “I’ll let you get ready for work, don’t forget we have a date tonight.” He placed a kiss to your lips before walking out the front door, leaving you sitting in your kitchen with a stupid smile on your face and the coffee cup in your hand.

------

It’s been a few weeks since your redo date with Raul. Over a month actually. He took you out to a wonderful dinner and then out for ice cream before taking you home. Leaving you with another heated front porch makout session. You were hesitant to jump into anything intimate. You’d already told him about your ex and he understood why you want to take things slow. But the two of you were already so loving.

Everyone now knew you were official, you both spent your mornings in the coffee shop and lunch in the bakery. Raul would drive you home after closing and stay until well into the night. Every greeting started with a kiss, no matter where you were.

You were now seated at one of the tables in the cafe, since it opened an hour before you so you usually brought Raul his muffins and sat with him while he ate. And you always had your special drink of the day. If he didn’t have anything new for you to try, he’d give you a favorite of yours. Today you were drinking your hibiscus tea with lemonade when the bell above the door rang and you turned. Your face turning white at the figure in front of you.

Walking through the doorway was your ex himself. His black hair slicked back and his sunshades clipped to the front of his shirt. “Oh, hey there doll face. What are you doing here?” His voice low as he sat next to you. You looked around for Raul or any of the guys, but they were all in the back laughing at something. “So sweetheart. You settled in nicely?? Don’t worry, I’m not here long. Just up to visit Scott for a few days and I’m headed back to New York.”

You stared at the side of Raul’s face through the window as Nate spoke “You should stay. In New York. No one wants you here.” He slung an arm over your shoulder, letting out a fake gasp “Oh baby, you want me to stay.” As he leaned in to kiss your cheek, your face green and scrunched up, you wondered how none of the other customers weren’t concerned. Raul walked back into the front, staring at you two. You looked at him, eyes begging for him to stop this, tears brimming your eyes in fear and embarrassment.

He had your thermos of hot cocoa in his hands, “Hey babygirl, you should get to work. I made you your favorite” He smiled, setting down the cup and leaning in, hands cupping your face before placing a deep and passionate kiss to your lips.

“Thank you.” You mumbled against his lips before he pulled away to look at Nate.

If looks could kill, Nate would be six feet under already. “Good morning sir. How may I help you today?” he asked, keeping him distracted while you made your way next door.

---

At lunch, Raul came in, a soft look on his face. “Hey, what happened this morning. You looked terrified and I’m so sorry I wasn’t out there.” You were glad you didn’t have any customers or special orders to make as you walked over to him, falling into his embrace and letting out a few tears.

“That was Nate. My ex. He, he said he was here for a few days and oh god. He knows I live near by.” Raul rubbed your back slowly, pressing his lips to your head as you swayed gently in the entryway.

“Hey, you’re okay baby. It’s okay. He doesn’t know where you live. I’m only 15 feet away from you almost all day. And uh, if you’d like. I’ll stay with you late tonight if it’ll make you feel safer.” You nodded quickly. Fear of the last time Nate wanted to find you, and ended up breaking down your door and searching your apartment for you, taking over. You were now having a panic attack in your small lobby.

“Shhh baby, it’s okay. You’re going to be safe. How about you close down the shop, and I’ll put Brian in charge for the rest of the day and we go to my apartment instead. You can sleep easy in my bed and I can sleep on the couch tonight.” You sniffled, nodding and reaching into your pocket to grab the keys to the shop.

“Thank you, babe. I just really need to lay down.” He nodded, pressing a kiss to your head before he left to go inform Brian. You felt bad pulling him away from his work, but he offered, and how could you say no to cuddling with Raul.

You got the bakery closed up, placing a handmade sign in the window reading “Closed due to personal illness”. Raul was waiting for you in his car to go pack a bag and head to his place. “You’re gonna be safe. Today was the last time you’ll ever have to see him okay? I won’t let him hurt you again.” You smiled as he placed a hand on your thigh, rubbing small circles to keep you calm.

“Welcome to my cozy home.” He announced, motioning to the inside of his house, causing you to let out a giggle.

“It’s very cozy looking.” You noted. Taking in the soft couch and blankets. It was surprisingly clean and smelled amazing, like the inside of his shop.

You heard him clear his throat behind you. “My uhh. My room is down the hall, you can put your stuff in there. Do you want anything to drink?” You shook your head, walking towards the door he’d pointed at.

The room was simple, a large wooden framed bed with a grey comforter, a matching dresser and bedside table and a tv. Nothing extravagant, but it was cozy. You set your bag on the end of the bed, looking for your pajamas when Raul came up behind you, arms around your waist. “Hey, I’m gonna go get something for dinner tonight. Do you want to take a shower? Wash off the morning and then when I get back you can teach me how to make those cute little macaroons you have at the bakery?”

You leaned your head back against his shoulder, biting your lip “Macaroons take a long time to make sweetie, how about we cheat and you get some ice cream instead?” He chuckled, nodding his head. “Or maybe, you could just call in a pizza later and you join me in the shower?” You smirked and his eyes widened.

“How about I run a bath? You’ve had a stressful week and it’ll be good for you.” You nodded, sighing and turning to face him.

There was a playful grin on your face as you spoke. “Will this relaxing bath include my boyfriend?” Raul leaned down, kissing you softly.

“If that’s what you want. Of course. But I promise I won’t try anything funny.” You let out a giggle, kissing his chest gently. What a fucking gentleman.

---

The warm water felt good on your skin as you leaned back against Raul’s chest. His chest that had a sparrow tattoo that he said matches his brothers and a very beautiful floral piece on his shoulder. His hands rested on your thighs, rubbing small circles. “So, what kind of pizza do you want? Or would you rather I order you a pasta?” his voice was low as he mumbled against your heated skin.

“Are you really asking me about dinner right now? You’ve got a naked girl in your lap and you’re asking about food??” you giggled, placing your hands on his forearms.

He kissed your shoulder gently, wrapping his arms around your waist tightly. “What would you rather talk about my love?” Shrugging, you leaned your head back for a kiss and he happily obliged. You reached back and tugged a little on those soft curls, earning a groan. “You’re supposed to be relaxing.” He warned, kissing along your shoulder.

“Right, right” You smiled, relaxing back against his chest and closing your eyes. “Raul? Will you sleep with me tonight? I just don’t feel safe and I’d feel a lot better if you were there with me.” He smiled, nodding and burying his nose in your hair.

“Of course. It’s whatever you want. I’m here to keep you safe.” He emphasized his point by squeezing you tightly, pulling you closer to him.

——

Now sat on the couch in one of Raul’s shirts and the shorts you brought, you heard the doorbell ring and Raul let out a groan. “Fuck I forgot it’s Wednesday. I always have dinner with my brothers on Wednesday here.” He looked over at you with an apologetic smile. “I can tell them to go home. You have already delt with enough today, you don’t need the stress of meeting my brothers for the first time.” You just shook your head and rubbed his thigh. “No it’s okay, I’d love to meet them. I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t order dinner yet.” He smiled at you, getting up to open the door for his siblings.

You heard them walk into the house and your nerves picked up. Here you were, meeting your boyfriend’s family for the first time and you were wearing his clothes and no makeup. “Oh shit, we didn’t know you had company Raul.” you looked up prepared for younger brothers, but instead saw two men that looked exactly like Raul. To an extent.

“Oh yeah, uh remember when I told you I was seeing someone?” they nodded, staring at you on the couch, in what was obviously their brother’s shirt. “This is my girlfriend, she uh, needed to stay here for the night because of some personal stuff. Be fucking nice.” He growled at them and you giggled.

The brother that noticed you first spoke, “Hi, I’m Shawn.” he smiled, holding his hand out for you to shake. He was almost as big as Raul, but his hair was slightly shorter and he had way less tattoos, but you saw the sparrow on his hand that matched Raul’s. “I’m sorry we barged in on you two, we always have dinner on Wednesday and we never think to call first.”

You shook your head, “Oh no, it’s perfectly fine, we were actually about to order some pizza, I think. I hope that’s okay with you guys.” He smiled, sitting on the smaller couch and looking at the third triplet who was talking to Raul about some new building coming up in town.

“Hey, I’m Peter.” he finally said, noticing you and Shawn were done with introductions. “It’s really nice to meet you, Raul never has girls over.” he smirks and Raul smacks the back of Peter’s head. Opposite of Shawn, Peter’s hair was longer than Raul’s and from what you can see, other than the sparrow you can see peeking out from the cuff of his jeans, he doesn’t have any other tattoos.

All four of you sat in the living room and talked while you waited for the delivery driver to arrive, you learned that Shawn was a business owner as well. He owned a music shop and taught guitar to kids and performed at the coffee shop on occasion. Peter was an architect, hence why he was talking to Raul about a new building. You were already very comfortable with the guys and you were grateful for that.

The doorbell rang for the second time and you got up to get the food, letting the guys catch up. “Hey, I have an order for Mendes?” the guy said, looking at the receipt and you nodded when he looked over at you. “It was paid for online.” he blubbered, obviously nervous when you took the boxes and handed him some cash.

“I know, here. Thanks for coming out here.” you smiled at him and he blushed, he couldn’t have been older than seventeen. “Have a nice night.” you waved at him and closed the door. Turning to the kitchen you heard Raul talking to his brothers.

You couldn’t help but listen in. “I know but she was so stressed after he showed up, I couldn’t let her sit at home alone. She was scared enough in the shop. I’m taking it slow, I really like her and you guys know I’m not usually one to be affectionate, but there’s something about her.” You blushed, taking the paper plates and joining them in the living room again.

---

Crawling into bed, happy and full of takeout pasta and ice cream, you curled up next to Raul. He was wearing some fuzzy plaid pajama pants and his torso was bare. “Hey, he’ll be gone in a few days and you’ll be free of him. I’m going to take care of you sugar” You laughed and nudged his arm at the nickname.

“I know you will. Thank you, you’re the most amazing person.” You whispered against his skin before he placed a finger under your chin and brought your face to his, kissing you softly. His lips were soft and tasted like his mint toothpaste. His oversized shirt raised above your hips as you reached up to play with his hair.

He let out a hum at the feeling. “They like you, ya know. They think you’re good for me, good to me. And coming from them, that’s a compliment.” You hummed, pressing a lazy kiss to his jaw. There was something about Raul that made you feel comfortable, like you could do anything and he’d love it. You pulled your hand away to scratch your wrist and he let out a whine. “Play with my hair again?” he asked and nuzzledinto your neck.

How in the hell were you supposed to deny him when he looked so soft? So you threaded your fingers into his hair and kissed his forehead gently. Eventually he decided you needed to stop or he’d fall asleep, so you switched places, Raul playing with your hair until you finally fell asleep, curled into his side. Your head on his chest and thigh resting lazily over his hip. Pressing a kiss to your forehead, he whispered a soft goodnight to you before lowering the volume on the tv and shutting off the lamp.

----

When you woke up, Raul was gone, but you could smell something from the kitchen. As you sat up to follow the smell, you felt a piece of paper on the sheets. Picking it up you read

“Stay in bed. I’ll be back soon. Don’t go anywhere!”

You laughed at the note, he was excited about something and plus, he was just so damn cute. The something was revealed to you when he walked into the bedroom, a tray covered in breakfast food in his large hands. “Good morning gorgeous. Did you sleep okay?” You mumbled a yes as he crawled into bed next to you, handing you your plate of bacon and cheese covered eggs and cup of tea.

“So I was thinking. Maybe I should call the guys and have them run the shop today, and we can have our own day? Just resting and watching movies or something. I mean. You’ve already got the sign up at the shop.” he asked, looking at you like he was praying for you to say yes. You knew he was just worried about you.

You thought about it for a moment, taking a sip of your tea. “I guess one day out of the bakery couldn’t hurt. As long as there is cuddling involved.”

Raul smiled widely as he nuzzled his face into your neck. “Good. Because I already called the boys to cover.”

You gasped, gently hitting his shoulder. “You planned this!” He just chuckled, kissing along your neck before stealing a piece of your bacon. His curls tickling your cheek as he held you. “Okay, do you want to learn how to make my new pumpkin recipe for the fall?” he nodded quickly, always eager to try something new. He had become your personal taste tester for you new recipes.

---

Looking at all the ingredients on the counter, you smiled. This was the first time you’d be sharing a recipe with someone, and it was a new one.

“You know.” Raul said, settling against the counter next to you, “I was thinking, it’s about time you made a menu item for me.” That cheesy grin on his face.

“Raul. You already do have one. The double chocolate muffins with extra chocolate chips.” He pouted, pulling up his phone.

“But I’ve already started on another one for you. I was thinking a special blend of your hibiscus tea with that lemonade you like. I never put lemonades in my tea unless it’s a special order.” He stated, looking at his phone, very obviously taking photos of you.

Your cheeks now a soft pink. He wanted to add another special to the menu just for you. “I’ll think about it.” You giggled, kissing his chest.

You were currently making the brown sugar and cinnamon frosting, a bowl of fresh cinnamon sticks waiting on the counter. “Babe? Can I help with anything?” He asked, coming up behind you and wrapping his arms around your waist.

You shook your head, grating some cinnamon into the bowl. “Nope. You made my breakfast this morning. I’ll make your dessert tonight.”

“But I was thinking of a different treat for dessert this evening.” He smirked, watching as you took a taste of the frosting.

Your eyes widened at his statement and he bit his lip. “Hey, if you’re planning on doing that, you might wanna get to work on dinner. I usually have wine with mine.”

He raised his eyebrows. “A wine drinker?” He asked and you nodded.

“I have been since I was 18.” You informed him, placing the frosting into the fridge and checking the timer on the cupcakes.

He tilted his head at you. “Babe, the legal age in the states is 21.”

You put a finger over your lips. “Shhhhh. Mom was very easy going.” You laughed, picking up a kitchen rag and cleaning up the counters to start on the chicken you were planning on making for dinner.

“Those smell amazing by the way. I haven’t had real cooking in my kitchen in a long time. Like I said. I’ve kinda been living off of coffee and your muffins. Dinner usually consists of takeout or a sandwich.”

You smiled, finishing your cleaning and reaching for the glass of water. “Well, if you keep be around there will be real dinners.” You smirked, walking over to take the dirty utensils to the sink.

“I’ll wash the dishes. Why don’t you open that cabinet there and make a choice.” You looked at him, face twisted in confusion before opening the door to see a small room full of wine.

“Are you kidding me? I swear you’re perfect.” You sighed, searching to see if he had that sweet red you enjoyed so much. “Ah. Yes!” You squealed, pulling out the bottle and walking back into the kitchen.

Raul had already washed all the dishes, and grabbed two wine glasses and was now waiting for you in the living room. “You’ve made a good choice.” He commented as he saw the bottle in your hands.

“It’s my favorite. I always prefer a sweeter wine. Never was a fan of the dryer ones.” You shrugged, sitting next to him and popping the cork before pouring you both a good sized glass.

——

”Don’t go wasting your emotions. Lay all your love on me!” You shouted along with the song, Raul down on his knees as he serenades you from the floor, looking up at you standing on the coffee table and singing into your wine glass. You both were now 4 glasses and a whole bottle of wine in, doing impromptu karaoke in the living room. The idea of dinner was long forgotten after you ate the cupcakes. You were grateful Raul didn’t have neighbors so far out into the woods here.

As the song came to an end, Raul stood up, grabbing your waist and lifting you off the table. Ed Sheeran’s “Barcelona” blasting through the house. He began spinning you around, singing to you. You had to admit that he was an excellent singer, you assume he learned from Shawn. Maybe it ran in the family. He even got the Spanish correct. But the whole mood changed when Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling In Love” started playing.

You were now swaying drunkenly around the living room, Raul holding tightly to your waist and your arms resting on his shoulders. “Mmm move in with me.” He mumbled, burying his face in your neck.

“Babe, we’ve been dating for a little over a month.” you giggled, finding his offer funny.

He shook his head, laughing at his own words “Oh. Haha I guess so. Just seems so natural with you.” You weren’t sure if this was drunken talk or his sober thoughts finally coming out, so you kissed his chest and smiled as the intimate song ended and a more upbeat tune started.

In your wine drunken state, you spun around, pressing yourself against his groin and started grinding your hips to the beat. His hands instantly flying to your hips and pressing his semi against you. “Fuck. Babe you can’t do that. We are taking things slow.” You laughed, turning back around and pulling him towards the couch. He took a seat on the couch, expecting you to lay next to him, not straddle him and place a kiss to his neck.

“Just wanna have a drunk make out session with my boyfriend.” You breathed, cupping his face and kissing him. It was hungry and sloppy but it was perfect. His hands instantly gripping at your hips, grinding you down into him as he tugged on your bottom lip. “You should stay here again tonight. Can’t have you home alone and we aren’t in a state to drive. Plus, I like having you in my bed.” You nodded, now suddenly tired as the alcohol runs it’s usual course.

Raul laughed at your sudden change in mood, carrying you to bed. “You know, I really do like you. I might even love you.” You admitted as you crawled up to the pillow and stripped off the shirt that was now too hot. You didn’t care. He’d seen you naked in the tub the night before.

“I might love you too. Now get some sleep. We’ve got work in the morning.” He reminded you, pulling you into his chest and running his fingers along your back to ease you to sleep.

——-

You heard Raul’s phone ring twice before he answered. “Hello? Babe are you okay? Why are you calling me if you’re right next door.”

You laughed on your side of the phone “Raul can you come over please? I have something to show you.” You were all too excited to show him the new creation you’d made. It was a mocha flavoured cupcake with a white chocolate icing. You had made a whole dozen of them and they were waiting on the counter.

“What is it honey?” He asked as he walked in the door, the teenage girls at the table eating their cupcakes blushing at the gorgeous man in front of them.

“I made that second item you’d asked for.” You smiled, motioning to the cupcakes on the counter. “They’re mocha cupcakes.” You informed him as he picked one up.

He looked over at you, eyes bright and full of adoration. “Like my favorite drink flavour. But what ever shall we call this?” He asked in a mocking tone.

“Well, I was thinking of calling it the”Mendes Mocha” a wide smile on his face told you that was a good choice. “You’re so cute, oh my god I love you.” That was the first time he’d said that. However, you knew by the way his smile never faltered, that he meant it.

You giggled as you heard the two girls gasp. “I- I love you too.” And without saying anything else, Raul leaned across the counter for a kiss.

“I love you.” He mumbled again, brushing your hair behind your ear and stealing another kiss.

“You’re coming over tonight. No questions asked. I’m ready.” He pulled back, looking at you with a questioning face. “I am. Now get back to the shop. And take these cupcakes! I made them for you and the guys.” You handed him the plate and smiled as you watched him leave the bakery. Tonight would be perfect.

———

The sun was already low when Raul knocked on your door, takeout burgers in the bag he was holding. You let him in, smiling at the tattooed man and giving him a kiss. “Thought I’d bring you some of the best burgers in the area. It’s my favourite place to go for curly fries.”

You snatched the bag from his hands “Mendes if there are no curly fries in this bag, I’m sending you home and tonight will be cancelled.”

He let out a laugh, pressing a kiss to your head. “There’s extra curly fries in the bag. Special just for you.” You hummed in satisfaction as you popped a fry into your mouth.

They were Cajun seasoned, your favorite. “You may stay.” You stated, pulling out the food and taking a seat on the couch. “Are we gonna finish ‘Nailed It’ or do we wanna watch a movie?” You asked, clicking to Netflix as Raul sat next to you, pulling your feet into his lap.

You looked over at him, waiting for an answer. “I was thinking Dirty Dancing. You seem to really like that one.” You gave him a look, raising your eyebrows as if to ask “are you really gonna watch this movie?” He nodded, taking the remote from you and pressing play on it.

“This is my favorite part!” You squealed, as it cuts to the final scene. All the talent show acts singing on stage before Johnny comes back for the final dance. “You know. I know how to do that.” Raul blurted out, taking a sip of water.

Raising your eyebrows, you turned to face him. “Do what?” You looked down at his chest, his button down unbuttoned completely and just hanging on his shoulders.

He just shrugged, “The lift they are about to do. I can do that. The hockey team lost a bet in high school with the dance team, me and my brothers were on the team, and we had to learn this. We ended up being their partners for the spring show. If we had won, they were gonna learn to play hockey.”

You just stared at him. “Show me.” He nodded, standing up and walking in front of the couch.

You got up and stood on the opposite side of the living room, staring at him skeptically. “Come on baby. I’ll catch you.” You laughed, not sure if he was referencing the movie or really calling you the nickname, but still stood up. However, you didn’t doubt he would catch you.

You bit your lip nervously, you’d always wanted to do this. When you were younger you danced and always hoped you’d get to have that perfect lift but you quit before you made it that far. “You got this babe.” He cheered as it was time for the lift and you ran towards him, your toes pointing the second he lifted you off the wood flooring and held you above his head.

You new the form pretty well so you held it for a few seconds before he was sliding you down his body. Your legs wrapping around his waist, stopping you from going any further.

He looked at you, your body flush against his, gasping as you leaned down for a hungry kiss, lips crashing into his. “You sure you’re ready baby?” You nodded, tugging the open button down off his shoulders as he walked the two of you to your bedroom.

He stumbled a little over the towels on the floor, causing you to let out a giggle. “I should pick those up.” You mumbled into his mouth before pulling away to tug your shirt off your heated body, tossing it onto the floor next to the towels.

Laying you down carefully, he hooked his fingers into the band of your leggings . “Baby are you sure you want this? We can stop if you want.” You shook your head, lifting up your hips.

“I want this Raul. Please do something.” He didn’t need any more confirmation before he slowly slid the fabric down your thighs. His eyes widening at your half naked body, you bit your lip, his eyes making you self conscious.

“No no baby, you look amazing.” He reassured you before ridding you of your panties and tugging down his boxers, joining you in your naked state. “I- uh, I have a condom in my jeans. I’ve got to go get it.” You nodded your head, watching the way he opened the package. “I love you so much. I promise I’ll be gentle.” You smiled at now nervous he suddenly sounded, and ran a hand through his curls. “Hey, you okay Raul?” He nodded, kissing your lips softly.

“Just, it’s been a while and, god I just love you so much. Wanna make you feel so good.” Letting out a chuckle you mumbled an “I love you too.”

—

“Come here baby.” He said as he leaned back on the bed, arms open for you to curl into. And that’s exactly what you did. Your head on his chest, listening to his heart rate slow down as he held you tightly to him. “I love you Raul.” You hummed out before your eyes closed and sleep took over. “I love you too.”

Raul’s lips on your shoulder woke you up. “Wake up baby, gotta get ready for work.” You let out a groan before rolling over and pressing your lips against his gently. “Just a few more minutes. Wanna be with my boyfriend.”

He chucked against your lips. “You see me all day honey.” He reminded you, hand coming up to rest on your jaw. This thumb was pressing against your pulse point gently and your jaw went slack.

“S’ not the same though” you pouted as he sat up and put on his jeans.

“I’m taking my white shirt back for the day.” He announced as he took the shirt off the hanger to wear. You’d kept it after a date that ended up at your apartment in the bath. You just laid there and watched him get dressed, muscles contracting as he moved. “You’re staring.” He stated.

You blushed, having being caught and looked down at your rings. “You’re pretty.” You mumbled, looking back up at him and letting the sheets fall off your chest and settle at your hips.

He walked back over to you, kissing your nose softly. “Be at the cafe in 30 minutes?? I’ve got something new for you to try.” You nodded, crawling out of bed to get ready for the day as Raul let himself out.

Last night was better than you’d imagined. And you hoped there’d be more. Simply because Raul was so gentle with you, but you were still sore. So you settled for wearing a sundress today, as jeans wouldn’t help the situation. “He’s gonna be the death of me.” You mumbled as you made your way to the cafe.

——-

October

Working all alone in the bakery got really stressful around holidays. Lots of people wanted cupcakes and cakes made for Halloween back home and since you were still shipping, you had at least 10 orders to make. So here you were, hair in a messy bun, running around putting cupcake tins in the large ovens and setting other tins to cool in the blast chiller, while also trying to decorate the desserts correctly and exactly the same.

“Honey! I’m here for lunch!” Raul announced, holding a bag of paninis from the shop down the street and a lemonade for you.

You poked your head out of the kitchen, frosting on your forehead and he smiled at you. “I’ll be out in just a minute baby, I’ve gotta finish these cupcakes.” You rushed the words out before returning to the baked goods on the counters, picking up the bag of orange frosting and icing the jumbo cupcakes in front of you.

They were supposed to have orange frosting and a small fondant hat. You made this kind every year for a family that lived next to you back home. Along with a few other specific orders, like the coffin cake the Briggs’ wanted and the double bunt cake that was made to be a pumpkin.

Raul nodded, taking a seat on the counter behind you and licking the batter off of a bowl. “The dark chocolate batter is really good babe.” He mumbled over the finger in his mouth as he licked the batter off of it.

“Thanks, I revamped it with some chilli powder for a family back home. It’s a special order.” Finally setting down the frosting bag, you leaned in for a kiss and tasted the batter on his tongue.

You moaned into his mouth when his hand came up to your neck. “I got you that ham and cheese panini you love. With the spinach.” He smiled at you, handing you your sandwich.

“You’re the absolute best.” You praised over a mouth full of food. Raul laughed at you, taking a large bite of his own lunch before stealing a sip of your lemonade. “That’s mine Mendes.”

He flashed you a cheesy grin, handing you the cup. “I think you need to hire some help baby. You work in here all day by yourself and I know you’re really stressed right now.” The worry evident in his voice. “Yes, but if I do, I’ll lose the excuse for nightly back rubs and stress induced sex.” He let out a chuckle, arms open in a silent plea for you to stand between his parted legs.

He spun you around and placed a kiss to the back on your neck. “How about this.” He proposed, his thumbs digging into your shoulders. “You hire some help, and then you can close up shop earlier and we can have more dates and then wine induced sex.”

The offer was reasonable. And you were in need of some extra hands around the kitchen anyways. Holiday orders would soon be approaching and you’d definitely need help. “That works, I’ll start looking for some extra help.” He smiled against your neck before placing another gentle kiss to the skin.

“The boys have things handled at the cafe. Why don’t I help for the rest of the day?” His arms wrapping around your waist as you walked to the sink to wash your hands.

You giggled at his clinginess. For someone so large and tattooed and pierced, he was the softest person you’d ever met. “Hmmmm I could use some help. As long as I get periodic kisses. I’ve been so busy lately and I’ve missed my boyfriend.”

Turning around to dry your hands, Raul grabbed your face and planted a sloppy kiss to your lips. “I missed you too baby. How about you come over after work today and I’ll set up a bath for you. It’s been two weeks since I’ve had any time with you.”

You nodded, kissing him again softly before getting back to work. “Come on lover boy. I’m going to teach you how to properly frost a cupcake.”

——

A month later.

It all happened so fast, you aren’t exactly sure how it happened. One second you were opening the oven to get the cupcakes out, and the next you were on the floor screaming. Raul heard you from next door and came sprinting through the shop. “Baby? Baby what happened!” His voice frantic as you laid on the floor, clutching your arm before you passed out from the pain.

You’d been awake for 2 days straight, and in your exhausted state, your hand slipped and landed on the oven grate. Burns raising on your skin as Raul carried you to the car, he yelled at James to cover your shop and clean up the kitchen for you. “Fuck, baby it’s okay. I’m gonna take you to the hospital.”

You were now set up in a hospital bed. Your left arm burning as you tried to remember what happened to your arm. “Raul?” You croaked, and he shot up from the chair.

“Oh good you’re up. How’s your arm?” His fingers resting on your shoulder.

“Fucking hurts.” You chuckled, looking at the bandages running from your fingertips to your elbow. They were a pale pink color and you're sure he’d asked them for that color wrapping.

“You took a bit of a fall there babe. Third degree burns on your hand and forearm.” He told you, grabbing your hand and kissing your knuckles.

“Here’s the cream for the burns.” The doctor announced as he walked in the room. “Your paperwork has been done and you are good to go home. You’ve got to rest and relax for a few days and keep that arm away from the heat. I’ve got some topical cooling cream for you in a bag and you should apply it twice a day. It’ll draw out the heat and heal it quicker.” You nodded at the instructions before thanking him and being discharged.

However, the ride home was anything but relaxing. “I just can’t fucking understand why you don’t have extra help yet. You fucking burned up your arm baby! And all because you were too caught up in work to even fucking sleep. That’s it. You’re staying with me now. I’m making sure that you sleep. And that your arm is healed. Then I’m calling a few of the college students who sometimes help me during the holidays and they are going to take over. Because you’re not getting hurt again!”

The yelling was anticipated, Raul was always protective of you. But you weren’t prepared for him to be this angry. “Raul I didn’t do it on purpose! I was tired and I slipped. It could’ve happened to anyone.”

At that, his face softened at the next comment. “But it didn’t happen to anyone. It happened to you, and now you’re hurt badly. Please stay with me. Let me take care of you.”

“Raul are you suggesting I move in with you?” You asked, trying to lighten the situation and change the topic.

There was a brief moment of silence, aside from the radio before he spoke “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. Move in with me. Please?” There was another pause before he stopped at a stop light and you leaned over, gently grabbing his hand.

“I will. Of course I will.” He looked over at you wide eyed, speeding to your apartment.

The moving in started right away. Literally. Raul made that stop at your apartment where you both packed up all you possibly could. You were taking a while, only able to use one hand really, but you were able to pack an over night bag while He loaded up everything he could into the back of his car and the trunk . “You ready baby??” He asked as you made your way to him.

“I am!” You smiled, hopping into the front seat and resting your feet on the dashboard. “I’ve never lived with a boyfriend before.” You admitted as he pulled into his own driveway.

“I have never lived with a girlfriend before.” He told you, grabbing your things and letting you into the house. “I’ll unpack your stuff okay? You lay down and get some rest. I’m planning a movie date tonight.”

—-

You woke up about 11, the sun was long gone and the house was illuminated by a few lamps. “Good morning sleeping beauty.” Raul whispered as he looked at you in his lap, his fingers carding through your hair. “You sleep okay?” A small hum left your chest as you nuzzled into his side. “I’ve got some soup on the counter for you. Broccoli cheddar.”

You smiled up at him. “That’s my favourite kind.” You sighed, still groggy from sleep. Before you laid down, you took one of the sleep aids the doctor prescribed since you were sleep deprived.

He nodded, turning down the tv. “I know honey. You’ve told me. I just figured it’d be best. You sounded a little sick too. I think it’s the lack of sleep your getting. Making you sick sweetheart.”

You looked down at your left arm, frowning at the ugly bandages. “I’m going to stay with you for a few days okay? The boys have the cafe and I called a few of my holiday helpers to to cover the orders for you. They have very specific instructions, so they will make sure it’s done properly and all the orders go out.” You leaned up, pressing a lazy kiss to his chapped lips. “You’re amazing. Did you know that?” You asked, sitting up and straddling him to get a good look at his face. You noticed a small hole in the top of his ear and smiled. “You used to have an industrial?” You asked, reaching up to touch the hole.

He nodded, laughing. “Yeah, I took it out when I was seeing this one girl who said she thought it was stupid.” He looked at you, your face contorted in a weird expression. “What? You don’t like that I’ve seen other girls before you?”

You laughed and shook your head. “No, I just think it’s stupid you took it out. It would be so hot. I’ve actually been thinking of getting some modifications myself.” You stated proudly, looking at your lap. “When I was graduating college, all my friends got tattoos and nipple piercings and I was nervous but I still wanna do it.”

At the mention of nipple piercings, Raul let out a moan. “I can call Lex, of the the artists at the shop I go to if you really want to.” He suggested and you nodded.

—

The two of you watched Deadpool 2 as you ate. Raul feeding you because he claimed the bowl was too hot for you to hold. Protective Raul was always present and so was his cuddly side. The way he pulled you into his lap and nuzzled into your neck made you realize that you were head over heels in love with them man, and it had only been 4 months.

You’d never lived with someone before, and you were always convinced you’d be nervous as hell. But this felt comfortable. You practically lived with Raul anyways, so it only made sense. And if you were being honest with yourself, you could see yourself with him forever. But what you didn’t know. Is that he could see that too.

—-

December

The orders were all reds and whites and greens. Peppermint was everywhere. In the frosting, as decoration, in your hot cocoa Raul brought you during the day. There were orders for Santa hat cupcakes and cupcakes like wreaths. Red and green macaroons with white filling, and you couldn’t have been happier about it all. Eli, Conner, and Britt were all such a huge help in the kitchen.

“Sweetheart. I have your hot cocoa here. There’s also a gift for you.” You walked out of the kitchen to see Raul, his grey knit sweater hugging his biceps perfectly.

You looked down at the box on your counter “Baby Christmas isn’t for a few more days. What is this for?” He just shrugged, sliding the box towards you.

“Open it and see. I think you’ll love it.” His face now a bright red as the nerves set in.

You gently tore off the pretty blue paper, placing the bow on top of your steaming cup, before lifting off the top of the box and letting out a gasp. “Oh, Raul!” You sighed, holding up the soft red silk dress and a pair of black heels.

“I figured you could wear it to dinner tonight. You said you wanted to look nice for this evening and I wanted to get you the best.” He was beaming at your excitement.

The dress was dropped into the box as you hugged him tightly. “It’s amazing. Oh my god! I can’t wait to wear it and it’ll go amazing with the black purse I just got for my birthday!”

He smiled that cheesy grin you loved before placing a kiss to your lips. “I’ll come get you about 4 and we can go home to get ready. You’ve got this today, right guys?” He leaned back to look at the 18 year olds in the kitchen and got a collective “yeah!”

—-

“Oh fuck you look so good.” He breathed as you came out to the living room where he was waiting for you. He had already put on his black slacks, his button down was the same color as your dress and you smiled. You did a quick spin so he could see everything. “Compliments to my stylist.” You laughed, taking his hand before he led you to the car. Both of you wrapped in big coats to combat the cold air.

Finally arriving to the restaurant, Raul ran over to your door, opening it for you and helping you across the snow covered parking lot. “I’ve never seen this much snow before.” You commented, looking at the white streets glittering in the lights of the building. “It’s so beautiful I could just cry.”

He just looked at you and smiled, pressing a kiss to your head. “You’re just so perfect baby. I love you so much.” You hummed, looking up at him and asking for his that he happily gave you.

The restaurant was warm and there was a small tree in the foyer and some garland here and there. “It’s a special night for us. Why don’t you bring us a bottle of your best wine. Make sure it’s a sweet wine please. That’s my girl’s favourite.” Raul spoke to the waiter, a smile on his face the whole time.

“Ooh, what’s he special occasion?” The boy’s face lit up, glad he was involved in something special.

Raul sat up straighter, grabbing your hand and noticing you were wearing the bracelet he got you for your birthday. “Well. It’s my 6 month anniversary with this gorgeous angel. And she just recently decided to move in with me.”

The boy smiled, sending you a “congratulations” as he left to get the wine and stumbled over his feet a little. “I think someone has a little admirer.” he laughed, pressing a soft kiss to your hand. “You really do look amazing sugar. That color looks so good on you. I just knew it would.” A blush crept up your cheeks as you squeezed his hand.

“Well you don’t look too bad yourself. I’ve never seen you in a suit before.” You sat back to look at him. The black suit fitting him perfectly and that red button down making you have impure thoughts at the dinner table.

“Here you go guys, this one is on the house. Happy anniversary.” Archie, your waiter smiled as he placed a plate with a large brownie and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top in front of you. On the plate, written in chocolate sauce was “Happy Anniversary” with a little heart. You looked over at Raul and smiled, thanking Archie before grabbing and spoon and taking a bite, Raul doing the same.

Walking back to the car, you made a small snowball and threw it at Raul who was fishing for his keys in the pocket of his jacket, hitting him in the shoulder. “Oh you’re in for it now babygirl!” He laughed, throwing a snowball back at you and getting you in the back.

The two of you had a small snowball fight in the parking lot before the cold got to your fingers and you needed to go warm up.

—-

“Oh baby they’re freezing!” He scolded as he held your hands in front of the fireplace back at the house. You were both wrapped up in a blue blanket, clad in your pajamas and mugs of hot cocoa on the table

“I love you so much. And I’m so grateful that you decided to move up here and open up shop right next to me.” He mumbled against your fingers.

You noticed he was paying extra attention to your ring finger. “I am too. It’s like fate knew we’d be perfect for each other.” As you spoke, you leaned your head against his shoulder, your eyes drooping as your body went slack against Raul’s.

“Get some sleep, love. We can stay right here tonight. We don’t have work tomorrow.” He reminded you, rubbing your back gently as you grabbed a pillow from the couch and curled up in his lap.

“I love you, Raul.” Your body giving in to the sleep.

“I love you too.” He smiled, laying down next to you, his face nuzzled into your neck. His thoughts riddled of the memory of you tonight, and the ring, sitting in a black velvet box in the glove box of his car. Waiting for that soon approaching day

—-

You woke up on the floor, forgetting you’d fallen asleep in front of the fire the night before. Raul was pressed against your back, already awake. “Morning darling. You ready?” He asked, pressing a kiss to the back for your head.

“Ready for wh- oh fuck. I forgot. Yeah.” You chuckled nervously, remembering today was your appointment with Lex. For Christmas Raul decided he was gonna pay for your piercings and then if you wanted a tattoo.

“You don’t have to babe. I can always cancel it if you wanna back out.” You shook your head, determined to do this. “Alright, let's go then babe.” He swatted your butt and you got up to get dressed.

You decided on a bodysuit and a pair of jeans, just in case you decided on a tattoo as well. “Well sugar, you ready?” Raul asked as you walked into the shop. You were shaking in anticipation.

“Morning Raul!” A guy waved at you two from behind the counter. “You have an appointment?” He asked, looking at the schedule book on the counter.

“She does.” He smiled, nudging you and walking you to the guy at the counter. “She’s got a piercing and a possible tattoo with Lex.”

The man held out his hand and smiled at you. “Hey, I’m Will. You can follow me back here.” He said and waived you and Raul back to a room in the back for privacy.

“Morning gorgeous.” A lady, you assumed was Lex, smiled at you from her chair. “If you’re ready, you can pull the top down and settle into the chair.” She said, pulling on a pair of latex gloves.

You looked over at Raul, who was smiling at you, while Will put on a pair of gloves as well. He just grabbed your hand as you laid down and pulled the top below your chest. “Okay I’m ready.” You announced and dropped Raul’s hand tightly.

“Okay honey, close your eyes and take a deep breath.” Lex told you after she’d applied the clamp. You did as you were told, letting out a soft whimper as the needle pierced your flesh. “This one will hurt a little more. But you’re doing just fine. Will, you ready?” She asked looking at Will who was standing by Raul’s head. He nodded and at the same time she pierced your second side, Will pushed a needle through Raul’s closed up industrial.

You let out a scream but stayed still as Lex screwed the barbell together. “Oh baby, that looks so sexy.” Raul said, looking over at you after Will had secured the stud. “Do you wanna do a tattoo too? Christmas gifts galore?”

Lex handed you a mirror so you could look for yourself and you let out an excited squeal. “Oh these are so cute!” You smiled, handing the mirror back, pulling your top back up and looking over at Raul to see his stud. “You look sexy too babe.” He smiled, pulling out his phone to take a photo of his ear to send to Shawn and Peter.

“Well, would you like to do a tattoo as well? Raul says he’s paying, so do whatever you’d like.” You bit your lip, remembering the floral piece your friend sent you that you wanted. You wanted to get it because it had your parents and yours favorite flowers. She’d done it after your parents passed away two years ago in a car accident.

You nodded your head, pulling up the photo, but not showing Raul. “Can we do that?” You asked Lex, nervous she’d be hesitant since it’s not her own work. “My best friend did it and it’s really personal. I have the rights to the piece.”

She nodded and smiled, waving the guys out of her room. “What does it mean?” She asked as she shut the door and started disinfecting everything for the tattoo.

“When I was 21, my parents got into a car crash. They didn’t make it. The roses were my dad’s favorite, well at least for every Valentine’s Day he gave me pink roses. My mom loved tropical flowers, hence the hibiscus, then my favorite is the peony.” You smiled at the memory of your parents.

She hugged you gently, careful of the new jewellery and pulled back to trace the photo that you sent her. “Where do we wanna put this masterpiece?” She asked, motioning to your body.

“I was thinking my thigh, so that way I can see it, but it’s covered for my wedding day.” You had made the choice a long time ago that no tattoos would be visible until after your wedding.

She looked over at you, eyes wide. “I didn’t know you and rail were getting married!” You laughed and shook your head.

“No no, it’s just a rule I have. No visible tattoos until I’m married. For photos.” She nodded in understanding and apologised for the assumption. “Oh you’re fine. I can see where the confusion came from.”

—-

A little over an hour later you were ready to go. The tattoo was bandaged and finished, and you thanked Lex profusely for the beautiful work. She even added a little color to it to make it special.

“You all ready my little rebel?” Raul asked as you met him in the lobby. He also had a bandage on his opposite bicep.

“Oh finally working on the blank arm?” You asked, looking at the cling wrap. It was covered by a black piece so you couldn’t see it. “Why can’t I see?” You pouted, looking up at him.

He smiled, pulling out his wallet and making his way to the counter to pay for your new additions. “It’s a surprise babe. I’ll show you later. Here.” He handed you the keys. “Go start the car okay? I’ll be there in a minute.” So you made your way to the car, careful of the seatbelt as you got settled in and scanned the radio.

Raul got in shortly after, smiling at you. “Merry Christmas my love.” He hummed, pulling out of the parking lot and making his way to the house. “So when are you gonna show me what you got?”

You looked down at your thigh and smiled. “When we get home. When can I see yours?” You quipped, tapping his arm and smiling.

“When we get home.” He smiled, holding his hand out for you to take. “I’m proud of you for today. And you look really hot. But you also looked really hot before.” He winked at you, pulling into the driveway. “Let’s go do our reveal.” He grinned, turning off the car.

Now sat on the bed, the sheets covering the masterpiece on your leg. “Now before you say anything, this is a really special tattoo. And I don’t want you to look at me all sad, I’m okay.” You warned, tossing the sheet off your body to show the bouquet.

“That’s beautiful, darling. What’s it for?” He asked, fingers brushing against your thigh before grabbing your hand.

You squeezed it gently. “Two years ago my parents died in a car crash. They were going to a bed and breakfast and there was an accident on the slippery roads. These are mine and my parents favorite flowers.” You looked down at them, leaning against his side.

“I’m sorry baby. I’m glad you could do something to memorialize them.” He kissed the top of your head. “Would you like to see what I did?” He asked, pulling the tape off his arm.

You nodded eagerly, eyes glued to the spot on his bicep. He pulled his covering away to reveal a small peony flower in the steam coming off of a cup of coffee. “It’s uh, it’s for you.” He blushed, watching as you years up at the gesture.

“Did you know that I love you, Raul Mendes?” You asked, launching yourself over and into his lap to cup his cheeks. He nodded, pressing his his against yours feverishly.

——————

New Year’s Eve

You were back in that red dress, a glass of champagne in your hand as you talked to Peter. You were all at a party on top of a building, and there was about 10 minutes until midnight. You were on your second glass of champagne, but you were still very aware of what was going on.

Raul had been nervous all day, almost forgetting his shoes before you left for the party, taking a wrong turn and making you 20 minutes late to the party.

He was in that black suit again, this time wearing a crisp white button down and a navy blue tie. He looked like an absolute dream, and while the party was black tie, he seemed very dressed up. “Baby your macarons and champagne cupcakes are a huge hit tonight!” He smiled, placing a kiss to your cheek.

“Well, they were in high demand this season so I figured they’d be the best option and James’s wife Avery was so excited to pick them up this afternoon.” You smiled, wiping some frosting off the corner of his lip.

As the clock ticked closer to midnight, the more nervous Raul looked. His face looked flushed and his hands were shaking. You figured he was nervous about driving home after the party or maybe he wasn’t so comfortable around this many people.

Raul’s hands wrapped around your waist as you watched the tick down the seconds. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” And you were spun around, Raul’s lips crashing against yours as he held you close to him.

“Partner with me.” He mumbled against your lips “break down the wall between our shops. I wanna see you all day every day.” You giggled at his proposal, nodding as confetti and glitter rained down on you.

“You will?” He asked, his pink cheeks making you smile.

“Of course I will!” And he kissed you again. His plan was falling perfectly into place.

——

8 months later

“Baby should we paint the walls grey or what?” You asked, looking at the swatches from the contractor. Raul popped his head in from around the corner and you giggled. “Maybe a nice grey. That way it’s still pretty for your cupcakes and still fits my coffee shop.” You nodded, picking out a neutral grey color and sending it to Ricky.

The painting was the last thing to do before you could reopen your shop, and you were so excited you couldn’t handle it. You’d been only doing orders, making them from home and you’d been itching to get back into your kitchen at the bakery. “Hey honey, I was thinking we could use these little metal chairs, since they are white it could mesh well.”

You looked over at his laptop at the new stuff for the floor, smiling at the cute little chairs and pressing your lips to his bicep against the healed tattoo. “You know. I think we’ve done enough for today. Why don’t we go back to the house and relax.” As you spoke, you kissed along his shoulder, your fingers slipping under his shirt and running over his abs. He couldn’t have moved fast enough, tugging you along behind him to the car and speeding the already short drive to the house.

Laying there, tangled up in the sheets, Raul drew little patterns on your back with the pads on his fingers. You swore you felt him write “marry me” across your shoulders, but thought you were imagining things. “You think we can open by the end of this month?” You asked, looking up at his peaceful face.

“We just had sex, and you’re wondering when we can open?” He chucked, running his fingers through your hair.

“I guess that isn’t the best pillow talk.” You yawned, nuzzling into his neck. You could lay there with him forever, nuzzled against his warm skin and breathing in that smell that you could only describe as Raul.

You laid in silence for a few minutes. “Baby, do you ever think about our future?” He finally spoke, but you were already sleeping peacefully on his chest. Your even breathing fanning across his bare chest slowly pulling him into dreamland with you.

——-

The shop was finally ready, all the chairs and tables set up, your display case clean and ready for you to fill it in the morning before the grand opening. Raul was wiping down the cappuccino machine as you went around making sure all the artwork on the walls were hanging straight and the flowers you'd placed accordingly were still perfect.

“I think it’s all ready for tomorrow honey. You ready to go home and have dinner? I’ll make that pasta you like in exchange for a shoulder massage.” He propositioned, throwing the towel over his shoulder and running a hand through his curls.

“I think that’s a fair deal.” You smiled, looking over at him. Sweaty and sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was a sight to be seen.

He nodded, tossing you the car keys. “Go start the car and I’ll lock up okay?” You smiled, tightening your ponytail and walking off to the parking lot out back to cool off the car.

Raul stayed back, making sure everything was perfect for tomorrow. It was a big day. Even bigger than you were ready for, and he’d be damned if anything went wrong.

——

When Raul came back from the gym, you were just waking up, his button down open and hanging off your body as you brushed your teeth. “Raul, darling you’re staring.” You laughed, rinsing out your mouth and starting the shower. “You gonna join me or am I gonna have to be in there all alone on this wonderful morning?” It was a wonderful morning indeed.

He was quick to strip out of his gym clothes, sliding in behind you under the stream of water. His hands instantly grabbing the shampoo bottle and squeezing it into his palm. You closed your eyes as he massaged the gel into your scalp, your arms wrapped around his waist and cheek pressed against his chest.

It was such an intimate moment and you wished it would never end, while he was praying for it to be over, so he could do what he’s been wanting to do since day one.

Now clean and dressed in a nice black dress, you were curling your hair. Raul stood behind you, watching you with so much love and adoration in his eyes you wanted to cry. “Haven’t you been told it's rude to stare, Mendes.” The way his last name slipped off your tongue so effortlessly, he almost dropped to his knees right there.

“Honey we’ve got to go, you look perfect. We are going to be late to our own opening.” He laughed, placing a large hand on your lower back as you walked out the door.

There were reporters everywhere. Photographers covering the opening of the new merged shop. And of course the boys who would now be working for the both of you. The customers, who were thrilled to see the shops open again and missed the goodies they’ve been missing since it was under renovation were all buzzing with excitement.

The two of you stood in front of the building, Raul had one hand in his pocket and you figured it was his nerves. But as the cameras started flashing and you both held a scissor handle, he let go. Dropping to his knee and pulling his hand out of his pocket finally, he spoke. Words shakey as he tried to keep himself together.

“When you opened up next to me a year ago, I never thought we’d become what we are. And now here we are, and as we join our two babies together. Why not join our lives as well. What do you say?” The tears were freely falling down your face as you nodded. Pulling him up to give him a kiss you sobbed out a “yes!” And the crowds of people cheered.

“Now that the hard part is over! Welcome to Coffee Cake cafe and bakery!” Raul cheered, slipping the ring on your finger and pulling you in for another kiss

—-

Somehow you managed to pull through the day. Many congratulations being thrown at the two of you when a familiar face walked in. It was Archie, your waiter from the night you went to dinner for your anniversary. “Hey guys! I just heard. I’m so excited for you guys!” He beamed, dropping a takeout bag on the counter before ordering a coffee and a blueberry muffin.

“This one is on us Achie.” You smiled, looking into the bag and seeing another brownie, this time with the words “congratulations” in chocolate. He waved a goodbye before leaving and you got back to work, But all day you wanted to be with Raul. Your fiancé.

You don’t know how he pulled it off, but he did it. The excitement radiated off of you in waves at the thought of spending the rest of your life with this man. And you couldn’t wait to see what else the world had in store for the two of you. “I love you sugar.” He whispered in your ear, kissing your neck now that the traffic had stopped and the shop was empty, seeing as it was almost closing time.

“I love you too Mendes.” Your smile was evident in your voice.

You felt him smile against your skin. “That’s gonna be your name soon.” His lips trailing down your neck as you gasped

“Hurry and close up baby. I wanna show you just how much I love you.” You mumbled, grabbing his hand and feeling his fingers brush your ring. And you swore you’d never seen him happier. Or move that fast.

#shawn mendes #shawn mendes au #shawn peter raul mendes #raul mendes #shawn au #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn writing #raul mendes writing #coffee cake #my fic

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poetunias · 3 years

Text

emily

happy flash fiction friday and shout-out to the wonderful people at @flashfictionfridayofficial for doing this every week! this is such a fascinating prompt.

words: 455

TW: brief mention of alcoholism

It’s funny, the way things work. One day, you’re making mudpies under the playground slide and the next you’re frothing milk and you spill it all over yourself because you’ve just seen her again.

You know it’s her because she has a name tag with a picture of herself and the logo of the hospital across the street. It says she’s a medical student. Good for her, you think, and you don’t know if you mean it. And she’s staring at you like maybe there’s something familiar about the spattering of freckles about your eyes.

It’s funny, the way things work. One day, your best friend since kindergarten says at lunch that she’s not coming back here anymore, and later you hear her mom, who bakes you warm cookies with perfectly round scoops of vanilla ice cream, saying to the teacher, “we just didn’t think this was the safest environment for Emily,” and then she glances at you. And you call their house when you get home, and your best friend, your former best friend, says something about not really being able to talk right now but apparently right now means forever. And you sit there with the phone in one hand until your mom comes in and yells about needing to use it and her breath smells bad like it always does nowadays so you put the phone down and leave and pretend to never think about Emily again.

You’re not fooling anyone.

You call her order and she comes by, staring at your eyes, and says, “you look like somebody I used to know.” And you deny it, because you’ve chosen to live with short-term memory. It’s how you survive. But then she points at your name tag and says something about school and you’re not really listening and you’re still holding her cinnamon latte with extra whipped cream from across the counter. And she says, “your eyes look so much like his,” which is a lie. They don’t, anymore.

It’s funny, the way things work. One day, a girl you haven’t seen for fifteen years shows up at your workplace with the same curly lock of hair falling over her forehead, and she asks if you knew each other years ago. And you finally nod because you’ve realized that you’re tired of saying no and she stays at the coffee shop until your shift is done and you talk until your manager shoos you from the place with a broom. And it’s like you’ve seen her at first sight again, and one day you bake cookies together instead of mudpies, and you let a chocolate chip one melt in your mouths.

And then you kiss her. She tastes like chocolate and warmth.

#my writing #writers on tumblr #flash fiction friday #flash fiction #creative writing #writeblr #writblr #tw: alcohol

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witchkings · 4 years

Text

The One Engagement Ring

An Angbang Modern AU drabble as prompted by the lovely @darklord <3

Three seconds. Barely any time at all. Negligible in the greater scheme of Mairon’s life, nothing to the ever-advancing flow of the universe, miniscule, dismissible, stupid. Three seconds was all it had taken to ruin Mairon’s picture book life. Melkor would kill him.

These were the facts as Mairon had them:

1. He’d slipped into the bathroom at the university library for a short piss and to get a minute of quiet in the constant chatter of his study group which was spiralling head-first into a discussion about the meaning of life. Even though they were anthropology graduate students with at least half the group minoring in either philosophy or sociology, this was never a good idea.

2. When he’d been in the stall, his engagement ring had still gleamed golden on his ring finger, a constant, warm reminder of the grand day to come. Mairon had planned an autumn wedding, complete with matching tuxes, a seven-course feast and was already training Draugluin to carry the wedding rings down the aisle with Thuringwethil as his reluctant guardian. Melkor, of course, would have preferred for them to pop into Vegas and have some drunken fat Elvis proclaim them married, or better yet, simply hand in the necessary paper work on his way to the office, but Mairon was having none of that. If for one day in his life he wanted to feel special, be marvelled at and fawned over, it was going to be this day, his accursed father be damned.

3. After completing his business, he’d slipped the ring off and into his pocket to wash his hands. He wouldn’t chance it being dulled by hard water or rough soap. Mairon always did it like this, only putting the piece of jewellery back on whenever his hands were dry and spotless, but when he’d made to retrieve it, his pocket had been empty.

4. There’d been two other people on the bathroom with him and he couldn’t remember whether they’d ever come near him at all, but their childish faces, curly heads, and mischievous giggles could only mean one thing: freshmen.

5. For three seconds between drying his hands and reaching for the ring, Mairon had leaned over the sink and inspected his own face. The stress of upcoming exams together with his thesis‘ due date drawing ever nearer gave him red spots along his jawline and he’d glared at them to will them away before Melkor picked him up.

Conclusion: As Mairon had been caught up in his own flaws, one or both of those bastards had sidled up to him and stolen the ring out of his pocket without him noticing. This implied many things, for example that the fatigue was getting to Mairon’s mental capacities or that those freshmen were unusually sneaky. Chiefest of all was this though: Melkor had paid half a fortune for that golden band. For Mairon to lose it, well. It would spell disaster.

Mairon glared at himself in the dirt-speckled mirror, bracing himself on the sink. Three seconds, oh he would show those impertinent, stupid, drunkard gnomes what he could do to a person in three seconds. Mairon took a deep breath and marched out of the bathroom, back to the round table his study group occupied. Eönwe and Tilion were at each other’s necks with arguments dissecting Descartes’ meditations while Osse and Uinen had their tongues down each other’s throats with disgusting slobbering noises. No studying to be done here, one of the sodden constants of Mairon’s life. He grabbed his notes and tablet and shoved them into his bagpack with more force than necessary which had Curumo look up from where he had hovered over his mess of tiny handwritten notes. He looked a little like a deer in head-lights, always lost was poor Curumo. Mairon rolled his eyes and tugged at his classmate’s sleeve.

“What?” Curumo whined, reluctant to forgo the last stretch of productivity he illusioned himself with, but he was already packing up.

“Come with me,” Mairon replied. “We’re going to hunt down some freshmen.”

After a quick text to Melkor to explain he needn’t be picked up today, Mairon dragged Curumo out of the library. The dismayed reply came seconds later, and Melkor wasn’t at all happy with the excuse of needing to tutor Curumo on their upcoming French test. Melkor and Curumo had never gotten along and if Mairon was honest with himself, he would have ditched Curumo after the first week of the first semester, but sometimes the guy proved useful. Especially because, in spite of his timid disposition, he somehow knew everyone on campus, ranging from the most introverted freshman all the way to the creepy maintenance guy who smelled like he lived in the sewers.

“What for?” Curumo asked. They crossed the student-littered yard, dodging peer-pong balls and caffeine-crazed grad students to the cafeteria where Mairon figured his best bet would be. Freshmen were always hungry, and he had a vague memory of four curly-haired heads positively camping in there at all times, claiming they needed seven meals a day to function.

“They stole something from me,” Mairon muttered, raking his hands through his hair. He’d neglected to trim it to its usual chest length and it was getting quite out of hand, tangling at the lightest breeze. Still better than what Curumo’s mother had done to him over the last holiday, short and ragged so that he looked like Jack Frost.

“What did they steal?”

“My engagement ring.”

“What?” Curumo spluttered, and almost ran into the door, but Mairon held it open in time. Under the pretence of having lunch – Mairon never had university lunch if he could help it, the stuff was vile and Melkor was a great cook if he wanted to be – they both got into line, eyes darting about for the thieves.

Mairon spotted the usual groups as he scanned the perimeter. The musical theatre kids led by a haughty grad student with a harp who had a gazillion brothers around. The nature-loving hippies who smoked too much weed for their own good and gave themselves funny names and pretended to be trees on weekends. The burly punk rockers who rode Harleys and had a kink for arson, Mairon had met their gang head Gothmog in a colloquium once, he wasn’t too bad. Even the naval engineering students who usually spent all their free time down by the beaches to test their self-crafted boats where in attendance, picking at salads and discussing hydraulics. Not a sign of those nasty burglars though.

The guy behind the counter handed him a tray, and Mairon took it, paying with his student ID chip card before turning back towards the room, just in time to see a pair of dark, curly heads disappear through the swinging doors of the cafeteria, chips trailing after them like crumbs. Mairon dropped his food and took off after them, spitting curses. Curumo, the good dog that he was, mirrored this. They tore out of the cafeteria and down the hallway together.

“Hey,” Mairon screamed. “Hey, stop!” The two freshmen threw hasty glances over their shoulders, hollering as they ran and dodged around students, but Mairon and Curumo were faster, knew these halls better and soon enough, they had the two cornered against a row of blue lockers.

“Now,” Mairon crooned and made to advance on them, but before he could, someone interrupted him. “Now you will repent.”

“Hey, what do you want with them,” he barked and two people stepped into Mairon’s and Curumo’s way, obscuring the goblins from view. They were both jocks, broad-shouldered and bearded, and towered a head over Curumo and Mairon. He knew the blond one, Eomer, an agriculture major, from a finance class they’d both taken as an elective, but he’d never seen the other man before. He was the one who’d spoken and wore a sports shirt of a team Mairon had never heard of. A white tree was their logo and their motto was written in a strange swirl of letters that looked almost Arabic.

“Just a friendly chat,” Mairon said through gritted teeth. “Not to worry.”

“That didn’t sound so friendly to me,” the guy growled and Eomer put a hand on his shoulder, nodding. His scowl deepened and his eyes burned, staring daggers into Mairon’s.

“Weren’t you that condescending guy at the back of Accounting 101 who called everyone peasants?” he asked and Mairon sighed inwardly. One bad day to haunt him. Or well, a whole semester of bad days, but who was counting anyway? Melkor had been abroad for that time and Mairon had suffered terribly.

“Why do you even care?” Mairon asked, and Curumo put a warning hand to his arm. It wasn’t unlikely that he’d seen these two beat someone up at some frat party before, but Mairon wasn’t intimidated by such mundane things as physical violence.

“Because they’re our friends,” the second jock growled, crossing his arms over his chest. It was hard not to laugh, these fully grown men proclaiming themselves friends of two troublemakers who weren’t even legally adults yet.

“Look, guys,” Curumo said quietly. “Merry and Pippin stole something very valuable from my friend here and he is rather upset about it.”

Eomer bared his teeth, but the other guy whirled around to stare at the two thieves in question who were huddled against the lockers, but silently giggling amongst themselves.

“Is this true?” he asked, and the tone of his voice implied he knew already. Helpless or not, they probably had a reputation for mischief-making.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” one of them said with a thick accent.

“You said it yourself,” the other added, “he is a condescending ass.”

“Boys.”

“Boromir.”

“Enough,” Mairon hissed and pushed through the two jocks and bore down on the freshmen, holding out his empty palm. “You give me back my ring or I will make your lives here a living nightmare. You can hire as many football players and wannabe wrestlers as you want, I am very good friends with the dean, I have more than enough money to bribe every professor in the state to bully you and my boyfriend will beat every last one of your bodyguards to a pulp. Is that clear?”

Merry and Pippin stared at him, their facial muscles contorting in a series of impossible expressions, torn between laughing and crying. They settled for blankness and, at last, Pippin handed over the ring. It was smudged with grease from his fingers and Mairon pulled out a linen handkerchief to polish it with.

“I’m sorry, they’re still not used to their actions having consequences,” Boromir sighed and Eomer nodded sternly.

“Whatever,” Mairon said with half a shrug and he stalked off the scene, leaving Curumo to deal with the polite formalities or whatever the situation demanded. He had his ring back, he could call Melkor to get him after all, he would get laid tonight while all these losers were busy with their parties and teenager friends and studying until their eyes bled. It was not ten minutes later that Mairon was comfortably tucked into Melkor’s Chevrolet, the heated seat warming his ass-cheeks.

“Have a nice day?” Melkor grumbled, not taking his eyes off the parking lot around them. Mairon leaned over and pressed a kiss to the corner of his beloved’s mouth.

“Nothing special,” he replied and leaned into the backrest. “Nothing special at all.” The ring glinted in the low-afternoon sun and everything was as it should be.

#tolkien #angbang #my writing #melkor #morgoth #mairon #sauron #modern animation #drabble #curumo #boromir #eomer #merry #pippin #lotr

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antivirus-mh-au · 3 years

Text

Antivirus - Chapter 4

First Chapter Previous Chapter Ao3 Link TW: None Note: I am completely exhausted and working on a laggy computer. I will add these links when I’m not a zombie trying to use a zombie laptop. Thank you for your patience.

Click the link. Let the page load, the old laptop whirring as it opened. A YouTube video, like so many others. Opening shot, an abandoned building in the middle of the night, muffled voices talking.

Shrieking, screaming. The camera lowered as the one holding it ducks for cover. Four voices yelling at once. Suddenly, laughter. Relieved laughter.

"Fucking bats!" A man called out. The camera raising, focusing on the dark shapes fluttering out the window.

"We need to be careful," a woman said, voice light-hearted. "Those things carry rabies."

Laughter breaking through the group again, a logo of a camera appearing on the screen.

He paused the video and glanced down at the title. "OUR GREATEST HITS, VOLUME ONE."

He sent a text to his friend.

Phoenix: who are these assholes?

The reply was immediate.

Skully: they're my assholes. College kids I made friends with on Twitter. Really cool. I don't remember being that cool when I was twenty.

He grunted aloud. Lucky him, remembering anything about his twenties. Not everyone was so fortunate.

Skully: They’re part of the MH fandom. They actually live in Alabama and were able to track down some of the locations in the videos.

He rolled his eyes.

Phoenix: Find any bodies?

Skully: Just blood.

He shuddered, pulling his hooded jacket closer to his body.

Phoenix: Cool. Morbid, but cool.

He was such a liar.

Skully: Anyway, not what I was sending them to you about. They just made a new video today and I think you might be interested in it

He grimaced.

Phoenix: This is about your crazy boyfriend, isn’t it?

Skully: He’s not my boyfriend!! I don’t know him!!!

Skully: And you know my partner doesn't share.

Phoenix: But it’s still about him. The prophet guy.

Skully: … Yeah. But you should still watch this! I think you’ll find it interesting

He leaned back against the wall and huffed.

Phoenix: Why?

Skully: … the kids talk about Tim, alright?

Skully: They talk about him a lot.

His fingers hesitated over the keys. He lingered, reading the words again and again. Tim…?

Phoenix: Fine.

Phoenix: Send me the video.

The video, almost thirty minutes long, took its sweet time to load. First thing on screen was the same logo as before, a camera with a generic full face mask behind it. The name of the channel followed, MH Unlocked. He shook his head.

The name faded out, replaced by three people on a couch. Two women, one man. A second man sat on top of an end table on the right side of the couch. The lamp that probably belonged in that spot sat on the floor at his dangling feet.

The woman on the left, a bushy haired brunette with deep tan skin, a high ponytail and golden brown eyes, gave the camera a grin.

"Hey investigators!" She waved. "We're back with another video."

"And this one's a doozy," the woman beside her said, raising her mug, which proudly bore a pride flag. If he had to guess, it was the lesbian one. Her hair was dyed orange, peachy skin flushed by makeup or a light sunburn, it was hard to tell.

"Before we start," the first woman said, "be sure to leave a like and give us your thoughts and theories in the comments! I promise, we read all of them."

"Eventually," said the man on the end table with a grin. He was the palest white guy ever, with curly black hair, glasses, and about a thousand freckles on his face. The man next to him gave him a shove, and the first man burst into laughter.

The other man, with skin several shades darker than the brunette and a suit far too good looking for this kind of environment, rolled his eyes. He waved a hand, with a silver ring on his index finger, at the camera.

"You already know us," he said. "I'm Mix."

"I'm Holly!" The brunette on the other end said.

"I'm Wren," the orange haired woman said.

"And I'm Steve!" The freckled man grinned wide, his green eyes practically glowing with excitement. "We've got a big story for you guys today."

"Oh, very big," Wren said, before taking a drink from her mug.

"Big like the worst headache you've ever had," Mix said with a smiling roll of his eyes. Wren smacked him on the shoulder without looking away from her drink.

"So." Holly reached up from the floor and pulled up a laptop. The brand logo was covered up with a pineapple sticker. Her eyes scanned the screen as she fiddled with the touchpad, Wren leaning over to see what she was doing.

"Last night," Holly said. "Something weird happened over on the Neophyte_Calling YouTube channel."

"Weirder than normal," Wren said.

"Yeah," Holly said. She glanced over towards Steve, who swiped at the screen of his phone. He looked up.

"We'd show the footage but people don’t seem to like when we do that," Steve said. "Something something spreading the sickness." He shrugged with a smile. "But we've all watched it and we can give you a play by play of what happened."

"It might not seem that dramatic," Wren said, "but the implications are pretty intense."

"I'll say," Mix said.

"Last night, at around ten pm," Holly started, "in the middle of his usual stream, the Neophyte went quiet. The way he does when whatever he's supposedly channeling is trying to talk through him. After about thirty seconds of silence, he started bleeding onto the table from his head, which remember, is mostly off screen. He said, "he's coming," and fell over as the screen glitched out. For another hour there was complete silence before the stream randomly ended."

"Weird shit," Steve said.

Holly nodded. "Very weird shit - but in character for him."

"Now, for those of you that don't know who the Neophyte is," Mix said, "he's the guy you see people calling 'the Prophet' in this fandom. Talks like a drug addict on a high, but many people believe there are secret messages in his words that can be decoded. They say those messages predict the future."

"Not everyone believes this," Holly said.

"I don't," Steve said, hunched over and watching his friends. "But there's definitely something funny-weird about the guy. Very… uncanny valley."

"Sometimes, unprompted, he'll stop talking and do this creepy voice." Holly cleared her throat, and when she spoke again, she lowered her voice, taking on an odd pitch to her words. "Grains of sand in the hourglass of time. Your existence is irrelevant." She shuddered, and let her voice go back to normal. "Something like that."

"That's an awful impression but it gets the job done," Mix said.

"You try doing one better," Holly said.

"The one thing all of these coherent messages have in common," Wren said, "is that they're all addressed to the same person. Someone called Tim."

Steve nodded. "And you can guess who most people think that 'Tim' is."

"It's been ten years since Marble Hornets ended," Mix said. "But it would make sense if it were Tim Wright the Neophyte was talking to. He was the only survivor, after all."

"But that would imply that Tim is watching the Neophyte streams," Wren said.

"And if he's watching the streams, he could be aware of us, too," Holly said.

The four went quiet. Mix looked at the floor. Steve traded a look of discomfort with Holly. Wren took a sip of her mug. She pulled it away from her lips with a sigh.

"If he does know about us," Wren said, "why not come forward and tell his side of the story? He could change the whole game by revealing himself."

"Probably because he's a fucking murderer," Steve said. Mix glared at him, but Steve only shrugged. "You know I'm right!"

"He did kill two people," Holly said, looking at her laptop. "Just because Kralie killed Jay doesn't make what Tim did right."

"But what other choice did he have?" Mix said. "Alex wouldn't have stopped trying to kill Tim. One of them needed to die."

"That doesn't matter to the legal system," Holly said.

"We're getting off topic," Wren said, raising a hand. "It doesn't matter if the Neophyte was talking about Tim from Marble Hornets or not. What matters is that someone is going somewhere and that's apparently good news for the Neophyte or whatever he's channeling."

"You can say the Operator, it's okay," Steve said.

Holly glared at him from over Wren's head.

"It does matter, though, if he's talking about Tim in particular," Mix said. "What if Tim is heading back to Alabama? Maybe he left after the end of the series."

"It's possible," Holly said, "but that's pure speculation. We don't know that."

"Isn't speculation all we do?" Steve said, swinging his legs gently. "Come on, let's give the audience something to chew on. What do you guys think the Neophyte was talking about? The crazier the theory, the better."

Mix frowned. "Well…"

With a shake of his head, the viewer closed the tab. He'd seen enough. Enough to make his eyes burn and hands shake. He took a deep breath, and shuddered, pulling his jacket around himself. It was a warm day beyond the safe confines of this abandoned house, but that didn't stop the chills shooting through him.

Was he afraid? Or was he angry?

With a growl he thrust the laptop away from him and reached for his sketchbook. The pen he'd been using before still rested inside. Forcing his thoughts away from the video, he focused everything in his mind onto his art.

He wasn't a great artist, but his memory was good, and with nothing else to do most days, his skill was getting better. With proper art tools, he could've even gotten great at it. But there was no need for greatness right now. Art was supposed to be healing, and that more than anything was what he needed.

In his mind he captured the image, something he'd seen so many times before. Grinding his teeth, he let the image flow onto the page once more. His favorite thing to draw, the one thing that really made him smile.

Losing track of time was part of the appeal. With the light from his laptop, he could see the whole page, or at least enough of it to work. The ink bled into the paper, the lines assembling into a rough image that soon became a face. He could see it so well in his mind's eye. As if the man he pictured was right in front of him. But he wasn't. And if the man knew what was good for him, he'd stay that way.

The sound of a new message on Discord got his attention. He glanced at the time instead. An hour, flown by, his mind lost in an ink-based daydream. Exhaling hard, he looked back at the art on the page. It wasn't finished. It would probably never be finished. But as it was… it was perfect.

Tim Wright made a very good model, unaware of that as he was.

Running his hand over the page, feeling the indents where his pen dug deep into the paper, he shook his head, and smiled.

"Better not be coming back, Tim," the man, the Maniac, said. "If you do… I'll have to kill you.”

#marble hornets #mh antivirus au #mh fanfiction #marble hornets fanfiction #marble hornets au

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harringrovetrashrat · 4 years

Text

(Oh y’all wanted some more Billy and Barb??)

The mall was overwhelmingly full, groups of teens loitering around the food court, parents pulling screaming children around for Easter clothes, and even more teens just wandering window shopping. Barb looked uncomfortable with the crowds, and while Billy wasn’t particularly thrilled, he easily made their way through.

“Now,” Billy said as they approached the first store, “I promised myself I’d never be seen inside a GAP, so know what I’m sacrificing for you.”

“Gee thanks,” Barb droned, rolling her eyes. “I’m not sure your reputation will ever recover.”

“My reputation was shot the minute I started hanging out with you, Harrington, Wheeler, and Byers. I only have the power I do because of my fighting ability, my drinking ability, and my ass.” Barb let out a giggle and Billy smiled, switching to a grimace as they crossed into the GAP. “This is about being able to live with myself.”

“You’re so dramatic,” Barb said, rolling her eyes.

“Yes,” Billy replied, giving a light scoff. “Duh.” He led her to the shirts, flipping through them with a frown. “Do you want to stay with the same style or go for something totally new?”

“Probably the same for now at least,” she said, feeling the fabric of a yellow t-shirt. “Maybe something a little more cool?”

“Okay but preppy cool, athletic cool, metal cool--”

“I don’t know! Maybe preppy cool, I guess?” Billy groaned in response. “It’s what I know!”

“How about this,” Billy proposed. “We get some preppy clothes, but you get Nancy to take you to get better underwear, because that’s a bit out of my range.” Barb let out a squeak and Billy raised a brow at her.

“No! Not-- No!” She was bright red and Billy had a small epiphany.

“Oh no,” he said, face going soft, eyes sad. “Not Wheeler.” Barb ignored him and focused really hard on the buttons of a blouse. Billy watched her sadly, not sure what to say. So he did what he did best, and ignored the problem. “You wear a lot of blues and pinks, but what would you say to some purples and greens?” Barb visibly relaxed and shrugged.

“I’m open to them, I guess?” Billy ran his hand down his face, realizing today was going to be like pulling teeth.

Billy once again swallowed his pride and helped Barb carry the bags. Even with the GAP logo stark against the side. They went to the food court, all on Mrs. Holland’s dime (she didn’t need to know it wasn’t a date), and while they ate, Billy spotted someone that made him choke on his hot dog.

“Are you okay?” Barb asked, leaning over with a concerned frown as Billy coughed. He nodded, trying not to attract attention, but it was too late.

“Billy?” Steve Harrington approached, the curly haired kid following behind him. “And, uh, Barb?” He sounded surprised, and Billy was turning red, not just from coughing. Barb’s eyes darted between the two, unsure about the awkward vibe between them.

“Yeah,” Barb replied, smiling at Steve. “Billy was just helping me pick out some new clothes--” Billy hissed quietly and she gave him a weird look. Steve, however, seemed to relax.

“Oh, cool!” He smiled a little awkwardly and there was a pointed cough from behind him. “Oh, yeah! Sorry, Dustin.” He looked back at Billy, who wiped his hands on his pants and rested his chin on his fist, bicep flexed. “We’re here to grab some specific nerd stuff, I forget--”

“They have the player’s handbooks here and it’s cheaper than ordering them--” Dustin argued.

“Only because I’m driving!” Steve replied, but it lacked heat. Billy switched tactics, and leaned back, acting casual. The only problem was there wasn’t a chair next to him anymore, silently removed by another group, and his elbow went to rest on thin air. He fell, catching himself on the table at the last moment. Barb’s eyebrows shot up as he turned red. Dustin and Steve missed it, having a silent argument with their eyes. Barb stared at Billy before making a small ‘o’ with her mouth and pointing at Steve incredulously. Billy looked away, putting his hand over his mouth.

“What?” Dustin asked, zoning back in. “Why are you pointing at Steve?”

“Making fun of him for babysitting,” Billy replied. Barb gave him a judgmental stare, but he ignored her. Dustin scoffed and crossed his arms.

“Whatever,” he said, glaring at Billy. “C’Mon Steve,” he pulled on the older teens arm, “We gotta be back at my mom’s for dinner.” Steve flushed.

“It’s babysitting payment,” he said to Billy and Barb, like they had asked. Billy just smiled, lazy and alluring.

“Sure,” he replied, sounding like he didn’t believe that at all. “Have a good dinner, Stevie. See you Monday.”

“Yeah, see ya,” Steve replied, a little breathless, eyes never leaving Billy. He took a few steps then stopped. “Oh, bye Barb!” And with that, he ushered Dustin away quickly. Billy watched him go, the way his jeans hugged his ass just right--

“Seriously?” Barb asked once they were out of earshot. “You’re crushing on Steve?”

“Shut up,” Billy replied with a hiss.

“I mean, he’s definitely less of an ass than before,” she said. Then she paused, coming to a small realization. “Though you’re an ass, so you’d have been a pair anyway.” Billy put his face in his hands and groaned. “And I guess he’s cute if you’re into that sort of thing.”

“I don’t tease you about your straight crush,” he snapped. He regretted it immediately, and he opened his mouth to apologize.

“He’s definitely not straight,” Barb said, cutting him off gently, instead of chewing him out like he had expected. When he looked up, her smile was small and genuine, slightly shocked. “I mean, he was obviously happy we weren’t on a date, and I assure you it wasn’t because he was interested in me.” Billy scoffed and looked away before pursing his lips. His foot tapped quickly and he shot her a hopeful look.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she replied earnestly. “He didn’t even say bye to me at first because he was so busy looking at you. Plus he was into your, frankly, abysmal flirting,” he flushed again, “So I think you’ve got a good shot.”

“Abysmal?” Billy snapped.

“Oh come on,” Barb replied. “You can flirt till the cows come home if it doesn’t matter, but the minute you saw him you choked on your hot dog.” Her eyes widened and she giggled hysterically. “Oh my god! That’s--” Billy cut her off with a groan putting his head in his hands once more.

“Don’t say it.” He kept his head in his hands, his shoulders hunched up to his ears as he sunk lower in the chair. Barb munched on her fries, feeling kind of bad, but mostly not. Because it was too funny to see Billy Hargrove failing at flirting.

“You’re so lucky he didn’t see you fumble like that,” she said, nudging his foot when he sunk lower. “Honestly, he probably would have found it cute. Steve’s like that.” Billy pulled his face out from behind his hands. “You know, Nancy told me some of the details of them dating,” she said conversationally, dipping her fries in some mayo. “Things like how Steve loves being read poetry.” She popped the fries in her mouth and pretended not to be pleased by Billy sitting up straighter.

“Oh yeah? What kind?” He tried to sound judgmental, but came across more desperate. Barb ignored it.

“Romantic stuff, usually. He’s a lover at heart, was always whisking Nancy away for date weekends, leaving notes in her locker, being all lovey dovey--” She stopped when she saw Billy frowning. “Listen, if you want to read him poetry,” Billy scoffed but blushed and didn’t meet her eye, “Just choose something you like, and he’ll love it.” She popped a few more fries in her mouth. “Steve would listen to Nancy read textbooks with heart eyes, okay? Whatever you pick, you’re fine.” Billy bit his bottom lip, bouncing his knee anxiously.

“Cool. Cool.” Barb rolled her eyes, but nudged his foot with hers again until he looked at her.

“Do you think he has a leather harness under his preppy clothes?” Billy choked on air and went red, while Barb laughed until she cried.

#barbara holland #billy hargrove #steve harrington #dustin henderson #pre-harringrove #BnB #ficlet #fluff

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nerdzzone · 4 years

Text

Light After Dark: Chapter Five

Summary: Brooke Harris was trying her best to be grateful. As the world tackled the COVID-19 pandemic, she was healthy and safe and so was the rest of her family, but her dreams had very quickly been crushed by the economic fallout. Trapped on the quaint island of Jersey with nothing, but free time to wallow in her mistakes, Brooke’s mental health was taking a hit, but when she collides with a handsome stranger she starts to realize that the future might not be so bleak and there might still be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Pairing: Henry Cavill x OFC

A/N: Any names or info about Henry’s family is completely made up and all the gifs I found on google (feel free to contact me for credit if they’re yours!). I would love to hear any feedback on the story so far! :)

______________

May. 5. 2020

"Mum!" I shouted from the kitchen as I admired my creation on the counter. "Where exactly do the Cavills live?"

I heard brief footsteps before my mother's head popped into the kitchen.

"Oh, wow, Brookie," She gasped. "That looks incredible!"

I grinned proudly at the beautiful cake on the counter. It was three tiered and designed to look like Superman. The top being his head, the middle being his torso and the bottom being his bottom half. Complete with cape, curl on his forehead and Superman logo all made out of fondant icing.

"Thank you. Do you think I could walk it over or would I need to take the car?"

"Hm, walking might be safest," She mused as she grabbed her phone off the counter to take a picture. "It's not far and I can come with you if you don't mind. I wouldn't mind saying hello to Marianne."

"That would be great. I'd feel better having someone else to help support it."

"Perfect!" She nodded. "Honestly, darling, this is magnificent. The detail is amazing."

"Thanks," I smiled. "I just need to change quickly and we can go."

She didn't answer as she was so wrapped up in photographing my work so I scurried off up to my room, buzzing with excitement.

****

May was always a tricky time for choosing how to dress. It wasn't overly warm, only about fifteen degrees, but the cool weather we'd had the week before made it seem a lot warmer than it actually was. Carrying the cake would be tricky and I didn't want to show up to Henry's house all sweaty and gross, but I also didn't want to show up dressed for the middle of summer and have him think I was insane.

I groaned as I tossed another shirt disapprovingly onto my bed and heard a giggle from the door.

"Are you struggling?" Cassie teased as she moved into the room and sat on the bed. "It looks like a hurricane has been through here."

"I don't know what to wear," I whined. "I've not seen him in person since we've started talking, I want to make a good impression."

"You're just dropping off a cake, Brooke, you're not even going on a date."

Her statement was intended to calm me down and take the pressure off a bit, but it did the opposite. My cheeks heated up and I suddenly felt incredibly silly.

"I know," I bit my lip as nervous anxiety bubbled in my chest. "I'm blowing it out of proportion, aren't I?"

"A little bit," She nodded. "It's nothing to stress about, hun."

"Was I stupid for making the cake at all?" I asked, "Is it too much?"

"What?" Cassie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why on earth would it be too much? That wasn't what I meant at all. I just meant that you don't need to get yourself all worked up over something silly like what to wear."

"It's just weird," I groaned, dragging myself away from my closet to sit on the bed next to her. "We've been talking for almost a month now, but it's hard to figure out where we stand when we can't actually see each other in person. I don't want to overstep if maybe I've read the signals wrong."

"Okay, well, first of all, he asked you to make him a cake so even if he only asked you because he knows you're a baker and he wants a really nice birthday cake then you're still not overstepping," She reminded me. "And second of all, I've seen your conversations. He likes you. He'll be just as excited to see you again as you are to see him."

"Do you think so? I mean, I think we're flirting, but I'm notoriously bad at reading the signs and he's fucking Superman for god's sake, why would he want to flirt with me?"

"Because you, my darling sister, are hot," Cassie smirked. "And you're funny and sweet and thoughtful. You're a total catch and even if he is Superman, he's the lucky one in this equation."

I couldn't help, but smile at her kind words, knowing she meant every one of them.

"Thanks Cass," I said softly, feeling some of the nerves in my stomach dissipate slightly. "I just don't want to get ahead of myself. It's fun talking to him, but it's hard when you can't actually meet face to face."

"Well, from all the giggling that comes out of this room when you're talking to him on the phone, I would say that you have nothing to worry about," She assured me before standing from my bed and heading to my closet. "Now, let's find you something to wear."

By the time Cassie was done styling me I was wearing a long black sleeve shirt under short style overalls. It was a good mix of warm, but cool for a sunny spring day.

"Are you sure I don't look like I'm dressed up as a farm girl?"

Cassie giggled at my question, but shook her head.

"No, you look adorable," She insisted. "And it shows off your legs. You have great legs."

I looked down at them in the mirror and thought they looked pretty average, but I took her word for it, thanked her and headed back downstairs to meet my mum.

"I thought you said 'quickly'," She scoffed as I walked back into the room. "You've been gone almost half an hour."

"That is quick when you're getting ready to see the man you've fallen in love with."

I spun around to scowl at my dad who'd appeared by the kitchen door.

"I'm not in love with him," I argued. "We're just friends."

"Quite the extravagant cake to make for a friend," He teased. "You've never made me anything like this."

"I make things for you all the time," I mumbled, letting my hair fall in front of my face to hide my red cheeks. "Just because I'm living at home again doesn't mean you need to tease me like I'm fifteen."

"You just make it too easy, Sweetheart," He grinned. "But I'm sure your boyfriend will love his cake."

I groaned as my mom smiled and scolded her husband on my behalf.

"Alright, we should get going," She told me. "If we leave it much longer we'll catch them in the middle of their supper."

She was being dramatic, it hadn't taken me that long to get changed, but I nodded and slipped my phone into my back pocket before gently lifting the cake off the counter.

****

The walk over was slow going. It should have only taken maybe ten minutes to get to the Cavill's house, but I was so terrified of dropping the cake that it took almost twice as long. Focusing on that was a good distraction though and by the time I was placing the cake stand on their doormat I felt less nervous and more excited for him to see it.

Once it was safely placed on the ground, I knocked loudly on the door and scurried back to where my mom was waiting on the other side of the porch, six feet away.

"I hope he's the one who answers the door," I thought, voicing it out loud to my mother. "Or someone might end up very confused."

She laughed quietly beside me as the door swung open and Henry was standing there only a few feet away. They say that you tend to build things up in your mind when you go without it for a while so there was part of me that had thought there was no way Henry was as handsome in person as I remembered. But he was.

My breath caught in my throat for a minute as he glanced down at the cake and then up at me with an ear to ear grin on his face.

"Happy birthday!"

"Wow, thank you so much," He chuckled. "I didn't think you'd actually make me a cake."

I dropped my jaw in an exaggerated way before rolling my eyes.

"You absolutely did," I insisted. "I was worried if we didn't get it here soon you'd come looking for it. You've mentioned it almost every day."

"Alright, I did," Henry admitted with a smirk as he picked up the cake. "But, wow, this is next level. It's amazing!"

All the commotion had drawn a crowd to the door that came into view as Henry moved the cake to a little table on the porch and set it down.

"Sue! Hello!" A woman called as she made her way outside. She was around my mother's age so I assumed she was Henry's mum. "How lovely to see you!"

"Oh, it's lovely to see you too!" My mum smiled. "Brooke said she could use some help carrying this cake over so I jumped at the chance. Isn't it awful being cooped up at home all the time?"

"Gosh, it's just terrible."

"Mum," Henry called, interrupting the little reunion as he lifted up the dome I'd used to protect the cake. "Look how amazing this is."

There was a chorus of 'wows', impressed gasps and various other praise and I felt my cheeks go red from the attention.

"Did you make this all from scratch?" Henry asked as a curly mass of brown hair flew through the door and over to the table. "Whoa, careful Alfie, don't knock it down."

Henry grabbed the boy, who looked to be about eight, gently by the shoulders to stop him from getting too close as he stared at it wide-eyed.

"That's so cool," He whispered in awe. "It looks like Superman!"

"It looks like Uncle Henry!" Another, slightly younger, boy shouted as he scurried over as well. "When Uncle Henry's in the movies!"

"I'm glad you think so! I tried my best to make it look like him," I smiled, drawing their attention away from the cake and towards me. "And yes, I did make it all from scratch. But I did wear a mask and gloves the whole time and I thoroughly sanitized the kitchen before I started so it's completely germ free. Not that I have any germs to pass on, I promise."

"What a strange time we're living in that you have to provide such a disclaimer when giving your friend a cake."

That observation came from an amused woman standing in the doorway and, as if he read my mind, Henry spoke up.

"Sorry, I should do some introductions," He realized. "Brooke, this is my mother and Father. My brother, Simon, and his wife, Louise, and their three kids, Alfie, George, and Amelia. Everyone, this is Brooke and her mother."

My mother spoke up before I did, informing him that she'd met them all before at one time or another, but once she was done I offered an awkward wave.

"Hello, everyone! It's nice to meet you all."

"I can't believe that after my brother almost broke your ankle, you made him a birthday cake," Simon smirked as he balanced his daughter on his hip. "It's not poisoned, is it?”

I giggled as Henry rolled his eyes.

"It was just as much my fault as his," I insisted. "It's just unfortunate for me that he's as solid as a brick wall."

"Sometimes those muscles do more harm than good," His mum smiled fondly, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Now, who wants cake? You'll stay for some, won't you?"

My mother leapt in before I could answer.

"Oh, that would be wonderful!”

There was a flurry of commotion as Marianne rushed off to get plates and the kids immediately started arguing over which piece of cake they wanted. I heard Henry softly clear his throat and, when he caught my eye, he nodded his head to the side. He didn't wait for me before sneaking off quietly down the stairs and I followed, but not before catching the knowing look my mother was throwing at me.

"Be careful," She warned quietly. "We're still in a pandemic and you're still vulnerable."

"I know," I assured her, biting back the urge to remind her that I wasn't a child and could look after myself. "I won't be long."

I rushed off after Henry before she could give me anymore advice or we caught anymore attention.

****

I found Henry just around the side of the house standing in quite a spectacular garden.

"Happy Birthday," I repeated with a smile, alerting him to my presence as I walked closer until I was the appropriate distance away. "Are you having a nice day?"

"I am, thank you," Henry returned my smile. "It's been as relaxing as can be expected in a house full of children, but it's been nice seeing them all try to make my day special. Until you came and upstaged everyone."

He playfully shook his head at me and I felt the nervousness fade away. He may be drop dead gorgeous, but he was the same Henry I'd been messaging.

"I didn't mean to," I insisted with a laugh. "You wouldn't shut up about the cake so I had to make it something special!"

Henry chuckled at that.

"Seriously though, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much," He grinned at me, making my cheeks heat up at his praise. "It must have taken you hours."

"It took all morning," I nodded with a smile, not admitting that I got up at just after six am to make sure I had enough time. "But it was really enjoyable actually. I haven't felt much motivation to bake fun things so it was nice having an excuse to get back into it."

"Oh, well then you're welcome."

His words were said with a smirk that made me roll my eyes, shaking my head, but just as I was about to tell him to be quiet a massive black and white ball of fur came bounding around the corner from the back of the house.

"Oh my gosh," I gasped. "Is this Cow?!"

Henry barked a laugh at that as the big dog ran around both of us in circles, his tail wagging at top speed.

"It's Kal," Henry corrected. "But yes, this is my dog. He's probably incredibly thrilled that he's getting to meet a new person for the first time in months."

I smiled and squatted down to wrap my arms around his neck.

"Awe, well, I know we're supposed to keep our distance from people's pets now too, but how could I resist you?" I cooed to the dog who danced in place while licking my face. "My goodness, you're the sweetest thing I've ever seen!"

"He is pretty great," Henry agreed, a hint of pride in his voice, but after a few more moments of me fussing over his companion he spoke again. "You know, I've always liked how Kal stole the attention away from me, but I think this might be the first time it's actually making me a tad bit jealous."

My head snapped up in his direction, worrying for just a moment that I'd actually upset him, but the soft smile on his face put me at ease. Nevertheless, I stood up, much to Kal's dismay.

"Wow, Henry, that's pretty self-centered," I teased. "I know it's your birthday, but that doesn't mean the attention needs to be on you every minute of the day."

"It doesn't? I was under the impression that was exactly what it meant."

"Nope," I shook my head. "It just means that you're one step closer to those senior discounts."

"Oh, please," Henry rolled his eyes. "Thirty-seven is really not that old."

"I was debating getting you a walking stick to go with the cake," I teased. "You know, because you might need it any day now."

Henry glared at me for a moment, but it quickly melted into a laugh.

"If I'm days away from needing a walking stick with these muscles," He paused briefly to flex his biceps which, despite making my breath catch in my throat at their size, earned an amused shake of my head. "You must already be a cripple with those weak ankles of yours."

"Oh my god, I can't believe you just did that," I laughed. "Trying to impress me again, are you?"

"I don't have to try," Henry smirked. "I can tell you're impressed."

I opened my mouth to protest, but resigned myself to a simple shrug as I crossed my arms.

"Well, yeah, okay, of course I'm impressed," I admitted with a smile. "You're sculpted like a Greek god."

"It really is mostly for practical reasons," He informed me, his usual humble side returning as he scratched Kal's head. "You can't wave swords around for hours without hurting yourself if you're not strong."

I cocked my head to the side suspiciously.

"I don't remember Superman using a sword."

"He didn't, but there was a lot of dangerous stunt work and did you see the suit they made me squeeze into? I had to be in top shape or it wouldn't have fit."

"Alright, that's fair," I nodded before a realization hit me. "Oh my gosh, do you even eat cake?"

Henry stared at me blankly for a moment before laughing.

"On my birthday? Of course I do!" He nodded. "I do try to keep a pretty healthy diet, but on holidays or special occasions I don't restrict myself too much."

"Thank goodness," I breathed a sigh of relief. "For a moment there I was panicking that I should have made you some kind of healthy protein cake creation instead."

He pulled a face at that suggestion, making me giggle at his over the top look of horror.

"If you're going to do cake, you have to do it right!"

"I'm glad you think so," I smiled. "Because there is a lot of sugar in that icing. It's probably about a thousand calories a slice."

I was being a bit dramatic, but it earned a full body laugh from Henry and I felt a warming in my chest at the sight. He was such a lovely person to be around. Lovely might seem like a boring description, but it fit him perfectly. He was genuine, funny, easy to tease and quick to tease back. He was constantly impressing me with how down to earth he was and he had a very calming presence that made all my anxiety melt away. He made me feel lighter.

He asked a few questions about how often I made such fancy cakes, about the different techniques involved and how I'd come up with the idea and for the first time in a few months it actually felt good to talk about my baking. I'd been really crushed by my failed attempt at opening a bakery. Sure, it wasn't really a sign of my skill or business management abilities, but opening a bakery just for it to be permanently closed a few months later was pretty defeating. It had left a bad taste in mouth in regards to baking anything that wasn't practical food.

We got lost in our conversation only pausing when a deep 'boof' came from the dog that had been circling us. He was staring in the direction of the gate so we followed his gaze and saw Henry's tiny little niece toddling towards us. A grin burst onto Henry's face, making my heart melt just a little bit.

"Hi, sweetheart," He cooed as she came over before lifting her arms to be picked up. Henry did so happily, resting her on his hip. "Did you enjoy the cake? It sure looks like you did!"

I laughed as he wiped some of the icing off of her cheek. It was all over her face as she smiled up at him and nodded. She shyly told him that it was yummy, eyeing me suspiciously the whole time.

"This is my friend, Brooke," Henry told her. "She made that cake for me. Can you say thank you?"

"Thank you..."

She still seemed wary, but I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring manner.

"You're very welcome!" I told her. "Now, I can't remember what your Uncle Henry said your name was, can you remind me?"

"Amelia."

"It's lovely to meet you, Amelia!"

As I spoke, her mother appeared at the gate, relaxing in obvious relief when she saw Amelia in Henry's arms. She shouted over asking if we were okay with her, but Henry waved her off before turning his attention back to the child.

"Can you tell Brooke how old you are?"

She held up two chubby little fingers and I held back an 'awwe' at the sight.

"Two? Wow. Uncle Henry must seem pretty old to you then," I teased him earning a roll of his eyes when she wasn't looking. "He's thirty-seven!"

"Well, she is almost three," Henry clarified. "So she's almost as old as me really."

"No!" Amelia protested, disgust written all over her face. "I'm little!"

"You're little?" Henry gasped in mock shock. "Weren't you just telling me the other day that you're a big girl now?"

She shook her head insistently and I laughed at the pair of them.

"Don't worry, Amelia. He keeps trying to say that I'm as old as him too and I'm six whole years younger."

She giggled at that and looked up at Henry before scrunching her nose.

"You're old."

"Thanks for that," Henry laughed, shaking his head in my direction. "I'm not old, Amelia. Don't listen to her."

He tickled her tummy making her squirm and giggle in his arms. It would have been almost impossible not to laugh along with her, but once she got herself under control her face got very serious as she leaned in to whisper something in her uncle's ear.

"Oh, I'm not sure that will be possible," Henry chuckled earning a very over the top, but heart-wrenching pout from his niece. "Your birthday is a long way off, we might not all be here together by then."

From what he said, I had a rough idea of her request, but I gave Henry a questioning look, prompting him to elaborate.

"She wants to know if you would make her a birthday cake on her birthday."

"Oh, honey, I would love to make you a cake if you're still here on your birthday," I smiled. "When is it?"

She mumbled something incoherent as she rested her head on Henry's shoulder so I turned to him again for clarification.

"July twenty-ninth."

"My birthday is on August fourth," I told her. "That's pretty close together, hey? Maybe I can make a giant cake for both of us!"

Her eyes lit up at that suggestion.

"A fairy princess one?"

"Is that what you would like?" I asked as she nodded frantically. "Then it's a deal. If we're still here on you birthday, I’ll make us a giant fairy princess cake to share."

She grinned at that information and wiggled to be put down before running off through the gate under Henry's watchful eye, presumably to tell her parents the exciting news.

"What a sweetheart," I smiled. "She's adorable."

"She is and she knows it," Henry chuckled. "But she's quite quiet and calm so she tends to get overshadowed by her brothers who have an endless amount of energy. It's been hard for them having to stay home so much so they end up with most of the attention because if they're left to their own devices someone usually gets hurt."

"It must be hard not being able to go to the park and burn off all that energy."

"Exactly," Henry nodded. "But luckily the garden is fairly big so there's a lot of football and playing chase with Kal, anything that lets them blow off some steam, but Amelia doesn't like those things so I've been trying to spend some time with her too. She loves reading so we've been doing a lot of that while the boys wreck havoc."

"That's very sweet," I smiled as my heart fluttered at the thought of the giant, muscled man in front of me sitting with his tiny niece curled up in his lap as he read to her. "She must love that."

"She does and really, I do too," Henry admitted. "Don't get me wrong, I love running around with the boys, but it's nice to have those quiet moments too. It's one positive thing that's come out of this whole mess, getting to really bond with them all."

"I've felt the same with my niece," I nodded. "She's probably about the same age as Alfie and I always made an effort to see her as much as possible, but it's nice to have an excuse to be around all the time and really get to know her little personality."

"It is and honestly, I can't wait to have a family of my own," He confessed with a sheepish smile. "So it's nice to get some practice in."

A smirk slid onto my face.

"Well, after seeing you with Amelia, I'm sure you'll be a super dad."

Henry shook his head at me and sighed dramatically, but despite his incredible acting skills, he couldn't help, but laugh.

"You're hilarious," He told me, his words dripping with sarcasm as I grinned proudly at my joke. "Always have a pun ready to go, don't you?"

"They just come to me," I giggled. "It's a gift."

"If you weren't such a good baker, I'd suggest you do stand up comedy."

His words were once again laced with sarcasm, but I just smirked.

"Maybe I'll do both," I shrugged. "Maybe that was part of my downfall, there wasn't enough comedy to go along with the pastries. I should have set up an open mic."

"Ah, yes, because it's well-known that the British just love the awkwardness of amateur comedians."

"True, that might be a bit too cringey," I admitted with a wrinkle of my nose. "But I could have at least come up with some clever, play-on-word names for everything. What a missed opportunity."

"It was, especially for someone as clearly multi-talented as you."

I couldn't help, but laugh at his flat delivery, but quickly forced it into a glare.

"Alright, that's enough sarcasm out of you," I playfully scolded him. "We both know that I'm at least funnier than you and really, that's all that counts."

"I think we both actually know that it's the other way around," Henry raised an eyebrow. "Or was that another one of your jokes?"

I shook my head at his teasing, but before I could argue, Henry's brother shouted over to us.

"Henry! Brooke! If you want some cake, come get it now before George eats it all!"

A tiny voice shouted his protests at being blamed as Henry and I laughed.

"Well, it sounds like we should get back before I don't even get to try my own cake," Henry chuckled. "But thank you, Brooke. All jokes aside, I really appreciate that you put so much effort in to making me that cake."

"Don't worry about it," I assured him, feeling my stomach flutter at the genuine kindness in his eyes. "Just because we're all in lockdown, doesn't mean that you can't have a nice day. I'm glad I got to help make that happen."

Henry smiled and nodded understandingly before walking past me towards the gate. We'd stayed pretty much six feet apart the whole time we'd been talking, but he broke the rule as he walked by, brushing his hand just briefly against mine. It was subtle and fleeting, but his pinky wrapped around mine and squeezed gently.

He didn't even stop walking so as fast as it happened, it was over. Perhaps I was just feeling rather touch starved from not being near anyone but my family since our last meeting, but the brief connection left me buzzing. I'd always assumed the novels and movies that describe the electric sensation when two people touch were being dramatic, but it suddenly seemed very real. My skin felt like it was on fire and it was suddenly like my mind had gone completely blank of anything that wasn't how soft his skin felt.

Kal broke me out of my trance with a lick to my hand and I took a deep breath to get myself back down to earth. I thought to myself how embarrassing it would have been for Henry to see what an effect his simple action had on me, but when I looked up and saw him standing by the gate with a smirk on his face I was pretty sure that he was very much aware.

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