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luminoustarlight · 6 months

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As Fate Would Have It | Chapter Two

It's your first day of work at Skywalker Enterprises.

◂ chapter one ▸ chapter three

rating: mature | pairing: dilf!anakin skywalker x afab!reader | wc: 3.7k | read on ao3

warnings: swearing, age-gaps, sexual fantasies

The moms at St. Lucas Preparatory School are shameless. Single, divorced, and married women (and some men) alike can’t help but hold their breath when Anakin Skywalker steps onto campus. The dads are intimidated by him and the moms… well, let’s just say the moms have less than school appropriate thoughts about the billionaire.

Anakin detests the end of the year. He hates being involved at the school. He doesn’t want to spend 2 hours of his day off packing meals in a crowded gymnasium with other parents who also don’t want to be there.

He doesn’t want to make small talk or ask about Luke and Leia’s classmates because frankly, he doesn’t give a crap. The only children he likes are his own and he won’t pretend otherwise.

“Mr. Skywalker,” Leia’s teacher, Ms. Clark sighs, “you are the only parent in my class who has yet to sign up for a slot at this year's Cranberry Sauce.” Cranberry Sauce is just the name the school gives the Thanksgiving Drive to make it sound more “fun”.

Anakin gives his children a kiss on their foreheads and sends them through the school gates. Once they’re out of earshot, he addresses Leia’s teacher. “I already wrote a check to buy the damn food. Isn’t that sufficient?”

“Mr. Skywalker,” Ms. Clark repeats with annoyance. If it were up to her, she’d let Anakin donate all of the money he wants in order to keep him from volunteering at school events. She thinks he’s arrogant, stuck-up, and far too handsome for any man to be. So she decides to loathe him since she can’t fuck him. But Headmaster Franklin is adamant Anakin attends the event.

“I really insist that you participate for at least an hour at Cranberry Sauce next weekend. It is important for your children to see you involved at the school. At their school.”

Anakin’s tall and broad stature seems to grow even larger at this statement. How dare this woman insinuate anything about him as a father?

“You think I’m not involved in my childrens’ lives?” Anakin has just enough self-control not to completely raise his voice at his daughter’s fourth grade teacher. Especially since parents are continuing to drop off their kids. “You think I’m an absent father who gives the school money to compensate for my lack of paternal instincts?”

“I didn’t say that,” Ms. Clark answers cautiously. “There is no need to make a scene. I have no doubts you are an excellent father, Mr. Skywalker. I don’t think Leia would be the young lady she is if you weren’t. One hour. That's all we ask.”

Anakin raises an eyebrow. “We?”

“Oh, um, well-” Ms. Clark stammers. Busted. She sighs with defeat. “Headmaster Franklin would very much like to see you there.”

“I’m sure he would,” Anakin replies smugly. Headmaster Franklin wants him there for publicity. Anakin should be more pissed about that than being accused of not being a present parent, but he’s not. He likes his ego stroked every now and then. “One hour.”

“Thank you,” Ms. Clark smiles tightly. “Does 10-11 work for you?”

“Fine,” Anakin waves his hand dismissively as he gets a message on his phone.

Ben Kenobi

Your new secretary is here.

Shit. It’s Anakin’s first day without Dorothy. No wonder the morning has gone the way it has. Between Luke spilling orange juice on his shirt, Leia’s uncooperating French braids, and his conversation with Ms. Clark, Anakin can’t help but fear the change in routine with a new assistant. He types his response.

Anakin Skywalker

Assistant. Not secretary. I’ll be there in 20 minutes.

Ben Kenobi

If you say so.

Ben Kenobi is Anakin’s closest friend. Some might even call them brothers. Ben is fifteen years older than Anakin, married to the mayor, and enjoys fly fishing on the weekends. He’s also Luke and Leia’s godfather. Should anything happen to Anakin, there is no one else he’d trust to raise and watch over his children than Ben Kenobi.

And Ben knows better than anyone that Anakin doesn’t like change. He’s been dreading Dorothy’s last day since she told him she was retiring a year ago. How was he going to find someone as good as her? Someone who anticipates his needs before he does?

That’s why he tasked her with finding her own replacement. He’s just too busy to interview a replacement for Dorothy himself. He wouldn’t know what to look for, anyway. If he doesn’t know what he wants in a woman to date, how is he supposed to know what he wants in a new assistant?

“Mr. Skywalker is not in at the moment. Can I take a message?” You’ve uttered that exact sentence at least seven times since you arrived at the office at 8:00 a.m. Now, as it nears 9:00, you expect to see your new boss very soon.

Each time you hear the elevator ding, you look up with hopefulness at the arrival of the esteemed Anakin Skywalker. What will you say to him? How will you introduce yourself? Will he be nice and welcoming? God, you hope so. You’ve read just about every article, watched every interview, and listened to every podcast he’s done to prepare yourself for the job. The consensus is the same in all of them.

Anakin Skywalker is generous, he’s polite, and generally gets along with everyone— if you don’t get on his nerves. And, according to Dorothy, he’s a charmer.

“Yes, absolutely,” you say while taking notes of the message on a legal pad. Your head is down so you don’t notice Anakin walking out of the elevator. He stops 5 steps away from your desk. His ribs feel like they’re collapsing around his lungs because of that voice. Why does he know that voice?

“I will let Mr. Skywalker know you called as soon as he gets into the office.” You hang up the phone and as you look up, there he is in all of his gorgeous glory.

You actually have to tell yourself to take a breath because he’s even more handsome in person. Faint lines around his eyes represent years of life he lived before you were born. His dark blonde hair is combed back effortlessly and is it wrong that you want to run your hands through it? Yeah, probably. He’s your boss and over twenty years older than you.

“It’s-” Anakin can’t even say more than that because holy fuck. Is he dreaming? He squeezes his eyes and then opens them, only to see you now standing with your hand extended to him. “It’s… you.”

“Um, yes,” you say while awkwardly returning your arm to your side. “I’m Y/N. Your new assistant. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Skywalker.”

“I- um, yes,” Anakin clears his throat. Christ, that wasn’t even a sentence. “I need to take care of something,” he says on his way towards his office. “I am not to be disturbed until I come out. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes. Yes, sir,” you barely answer before Anakin’s office door is shut violently. Well, that certainly wasn’t the introduction you were expecting or hoping for. You’re starting to think not meeting him beforehand was a bad idea. It honestly should’ve been a red flag but Dorothy insisted it was fine.

It doesn’t seem fine.

And things definitely aren’t fine. For Anakin, that is. To say he’s freaking out is putting it lightly. He paces the length of his office, shoving his fingers through his hair and muttering to himself. “It can’t be. There’s no way it can be her.”

Maybe he’s hallucinating. Maybe he’s having an incredibly vivid dream where his favorite OnlyFans performer, who he has known as HoneySuckle for the last three years is his new assistant. What did you say your name is? Anakin couldn’t hear you over the erection that was forming in his pants because he knows your voice. He’s cum from your voice alone. He’s cum because of you so, so many times.

This can’t be happening.

He’s never seen your entire face but he knows it’s you. He’d recognize your lips in a police lineup. He hears your voice in his wet dreams. He just knows it’s you.

And the fact that he has a hard-on is a problem. A problem he wishes you could take care of but you can’t because now you work for him and he’s your boss. This is all so, so wrong.

Anakin doesn’t so much sit on his leather chair as he does collapse into it. This was never supposed to happen. Yes, he has dreamed about meeting you on more than one occasion. He’s thought about telling you who he is during your countless direct messages so many times. He’s thought about using his infinite resources to find out who you really are on more than one occasion.

But he always concluded that it would be so insanely wrong and borderline creepy if he did that. You were always supposed to remain a fantasy. Just a nameless woman on a screen who doesn’t live in the same country, state, or city as him.

Yet here you are— sitting outside of his office, taking his calls, calling him Mr. Skywalker and being even more beautiful than he could have imagined.

You are no longer the woman on his tablet spewing filthy words as you make yourself orgasm. You’re tangible. You have a name- although he can’t remember what it is. He replays the interaction over in his head. The feeling he felt when he saw you was reminiscent of seeing his wife walk down the aisle at their wedding. He was a blundering mess then, just as he is a blundering mess now.

He doesn’t even want to think about your first impression of him. He’s supposed to be Anakin Skywalker for crying out loud! The suave, handsome millionaire who has the ability to make men cower and women fall to their knees. The embarrassment he feels from that interaction is enough to subdue his hard-on. He pours himself a bit of Bourbon, shoots it back like it’s a normal thing to do at 9 in the morning, and prepares to reintroduce himself to you.

Anakin smooths his hands down his slacks before opening his door. As his eyes are magnetized to you, his heart starts beating irregularly. Get a fucking grip.

You stand attentively when you notice Anakin walking towards you. Worried you made a terrible impression on him, you wait to speak. But Anakin doesn’t say anything either and now he’s standing in front of your desk, all tall and lean and smelling like Cedar and Whiskey. He’s looking at you with an expression you can’t read. Did Dorothy tell him anything about you? Or did he go into this just as blind as you did?

His eyes seem to dance all over your body which makes you feel like he’s studying you. Or criticizing every single thing about your appearance. From your simple burgundy dress to the pearl studs you bought with some of Skyguy81’s most recent (and overly generous) tip.

Finally, because his gaze on you was becoming too much to bear, you are the one to talk first. “Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Skywalker?”

Yeah, you can remind him of your name for starters. “Do you have messages for me?” is what he asks instead.

“Yes,” you answer, picking up the pad you’ve been scribbling notes on for the last hour. “Rex sent over the final schematics for the 0525 project that needs your approval by 3 p.m. today in order to begin production. Mayor Kryze’s office called about the upcoming Gala in December and wanted to know if you would be in attendance. And if so, how many tickets should they reserve? Oh, and someone from St. Lucas Preparatory School called to let you know that your son ripped his pants and needs a new pair brought to school because they don’t have any new pants in his size.”

Anakin taps his index finger on your desk while he listens to you. He barely registers anything you say because it’s really hard to hear your voice without getting aroused. It’s hard even looking at you without automatically picturing you naked. There’s not an inch of your skin he’s never seen. Well, except for the top half of your face which now, of course, he has seen. And God, does he love what you have to offer.

You’re still relaying messages but suddenly you’re bent over your desk, gripping the edge of it with pale knuckles as Anakin slams into you over, and over, and over. He’s making you yelp his name so loudly the whole building can hear you.

“Mr. Skywalker?”

Anakin snaps back into reality where you’re still fully clothed and definitely not moaning his name. “What?” comes out a little harsher than he intended. And he immediately regrets it when he sees you visibly shrink right before him.

“What- what would you like me to tell the Mayor’s office?”

Anakin has gone as a bachelor to the last two Christmas Galas. Ben stays close to Satine the whole night and he really doesn’t see the point in asking a woman he has no interest in to be his date. Plus, going alone lets him leave the party with whomever he wants or to call it a night and go home early to watch ELF and drink peppermint cocoa with his kids.

“Have them put me down for 2.”

You nod whilst making another note on the pad. “And what about your son’s pants?”

“Did they say where he ripped them?”

“Right down the middle,” you answer.

Anakin shakes his head. “Oh, Luke,” he mutters to himself. “Alright, I’ll go home and get him a new pair.”

“Icandoit,” rushes out of your mouth.

“What?”

“Sorry, my mouth moved faster than my brain,” you reply, hoping Anakin will find it endearing instead of annoying. “I said I can do it. I don’t mind. It’s my job, isn’t it?”

Anakin opens his mouth but doesn’t say anything. Yes, technically it’s your job to do this sort of errand. But Anakin doesn’t want you going to his house alone, sifting through his son’s drawers, and bringing him new pants to his school.

Primarily because he’d much rather you be in his home under different circumstances.

“We’ll go together,” Anakin decides against his better judgment. “I’ll drive.”

So, Anakin definitely didn’t think things through when he said he’d drive.

In what world did he think sharing a close, confined space with you was a good idea? This whole morning has been a cluster-fuck. Honestly. He’s still struggling to wrap his head around who you are. When you announced Squirting for Sky was going to be your last video, he thought what a devastation it would be to not look forward to your videos every week. Who would’ve thought you’d be the one replacing his dear old assistant the very next week? The odds of it all are overwhelming.

But isn’t this what he’s always wanted? The opportunity to meet you? To know your name and know you personally? Every wish of his has been granted— except for the fact that he is your boss and you are technically his subordinate. He says technically because Dorothy always felt more like family than an employee.

You could be family.

You could be so much more than his assistant.

Oh, Jesus Christ, Anakin. Be reasonable. She’s your employee. She’s practically a kid.

Anakin looks over to you for the first time since getting in the car. You’re pressed against the side of the passenger door, knees angled away from him and arms crossed over your chest. “Are you cold?”

“Oh,” you say, looking at him with a tentative smile. “A little.”

“You should’ve said so,” Anakin turns on the heater and your seat warmer. “My kids call seat warmers butt toasters. Let me know if your butt gets too toasty.”

You have to bite your lip to keep from laughing.

There’s an awkward pause as Anakin realizes what he just said. He absolutely cannot think about your butt any longer than he has to because we all know how that will end.

(A hard cock, in case that wasn’t clear).

“I mean, uh- shit,” Anakin briefly closes his eyes to compose himself. Let me know if your butt gets too toasty?

“Just turn it off yourself if you get too warm.”

Do you make him nervous? No way. You decide to let it go. “Kids? Plural?”

“Yeah.” Anakin drapes his right arm over the center console and taps his fingers against the gear shift. Long, dexterous fingers at that. You have to look away before you start thinking about something completely inappropriate of your boss. “I have twins. A boy and a girl. Luke, he’s the silly one. Right now he’s big into archeology. He’s also pretty clumsy, hence the rip in his pants. And Leia, my daughter, she’s far too serious for any 9 year old to be. She says she wants to be a senator when she grows up.”

This is the longest you’ve been able to look at Anakin without feeling your cheeks burning. Now, they’re just hot because of the heater blasting in your face. “You light up when you talk about them,” you say. “You must love them a lot.”

“More than anything,” Anakin doesn’t hesitate. “Here we are.”

You should’ve been paying attention on how to get to his house from the office. Surely, you’ll be running these errands on your own if things go well with your employment. Oh, well. That’s what the Maps is for.

Anakin’s house is a stunning Eichler. It looks straight out of an Architectural Digest cover. The lawn outside is perfectly cropped and perfectly green but littered with a soccer ball, football, a baseball bat and whiffle balls. You wouldn’t have pegged Anakin for a mid-century modern kind of guy. You would’ve thought he’d opt for an insanely modern, sterile house.

As you walk through the atrium and into the main body of the house, it’s clear it is a family home. Anakin uses his foot to sweep his kids’ shoes out of the way so you don’t trip over them. “Sorry about the mess.”

“It’s okay,” you shrug. Anakin’s house isn’t even all that messy. It just looks like a home. There are so many pictures on the walls, it would be impossible to look at all of them in one go. One in particular, though, catches your eye. It’s the largest out of all of them and the only one in black and white. A significantly younger Anakin is at the bedside of who you presume to be his wife with two bundles of babies in their arms. They are both looking down and smiling. His wife was stunning. They definitely made an attractive couple.

It’s not lost on you that there are no other pictures of Anakin’s kids with their mom. He’s only spoken about his wife’s death in one interview, about a year after her passing. If you remember correctly, she died shortly after the twins were born.

You can’t imagine the kind of pain and heartache Anakin must have felt losing his wife. You don’t know what it feels like to experience that kind of grief. You want to tell Anakin you’re sorry for his loss, but what good will that do? Is there any consolation in that at all?

You’re still looking at the photo when Anakin returns from Luke’s room with a new pair of tan pants. You can feel his presence right beside you and the silence is louder than words.

He shouldn’t have brought you back here. It’s only your first day and you’ve already seen too much of his life.

“Let’s go,” Anakin orders. You nod without a word and follow him out to the car.

The tension in the air is palpable on your way to St. Lucas Prep. You feel like you’ve done something wrong by simply stepping foot in Anakin’s house. His whole demeanor shifted when he came back to the front room with Luke’s pants. Does he regret bringing you to the house? If so, why? Dorothy clearly laid out your responsibilities to you. Tending to personal matters at Anakin’s house is part of the job. You are not just a professional assistant, but a personal assistant, too.

You can’t stand not knowing why someone is upset with you. “Did I do something wrong?”

Anakin’s grip on the steering wheel tightens. “No.”

Wow, how reassuring. “Okay, then why do I feel like I did something to upset you?”

You’re really pressing your limit with him right now. You’ve only just met 2 hours ago. See, this is why meeting him should’ve been part of the hiring process. You’d be a lot more acquainted with each other than you are right now.

If only you knew how acquainted Anakin is with you…

“You didn’t,” is all he says. But with a twitch of his jaw, you still feel like he’s not telling you the truth.

“Look, Mr. Skywalker,” you begin. “I understand Dorothy meant a great deal to you, and her leaving is going to be an adjustment. But I promise you I am capable of this job. I’m never late, I’m up late all the time so if there was anything you needed, I’d be able to fulfill it. I love kids, I’m a hard worker and I would really appreciate it if you gave me a chance before making any decisions about me.”

“You’re right,” Anakin says. “I’ll give you a chance.” But he’s already made up his mind. He doesn’t have to ‘give you a chance’ to know that he wants you. He is crawling out of his skin with how badly he wants you. And he knows it’s wrong, probably immoral, but he really doesn’t care. Because now that you’ve been inside of his home, the boundary that should exist between him as your boss and you as his employee feels impossibly blurry.

◂ series masterlist ▸ chapter three

#anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker smut #anakin skywalker x you #anakin skywalker x female reader #anakin skywalker x f!reader #dilf!anakin skywalker #dilf!anakin #dilf anakin skywalker #modern!anakin skywalker #modern anakin skywalker #modern au #anakin skywalker fan fiction #anakin skywalker fanfiction #as fate would have it

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ahonice · 9 months

Text

not my boyfriend

luke hughes x fem reader

word count: 9.6k (the google doc was forty pages long idk what happened i got carried away)

warnings: jokes about dying/being killed, drinking, mentions of harassment (none actually happens though, just a topic discussed.) cursing, party games, lots of fighting that could’ve been avoided, VERY unrealistic scenarios and timelines lol, reader is stubborn for no reason and pisses me off (sorry)

note: this takes place during luke’s first full season as a devil. also idk how season tickets work with the devils so... hope y’all enjoy, leave feedback and lmk what you think, love y’all babes <3!!!

+++

growing up in newark meant you were a devils fan by default. which wasn’t a bad thing, your father was a season ticket holder and often took you to games with him as you were the only one of your siblings who was still living at home.

you were the youngest of five, all others being boys, and the university you attended was only a five minute drive from your house so instead of moving into the dorms you continued to live at home.

at each game you always wore unmarked jerseys, shirts, and hoodies. no number or last names on any of them, you weren’t a big enough fan to have a jersey that branded you so you stayed content with your blank ones.

+++

it was the home opener for the devils and your father dragged you, along with all your brothers, out to attend the game with him. he managed to get tickets right behind the devils bench this year, you didn’t even want to know how much money he had to spend to get them.

“dad isn’t this a bit much? the game is going to be the exact same if we were sitting in our normal seats, two levels above.” you asked him once everyone was situated and comfortable in their seats.

“oh shut up y/n, these seats are great and who knows maybe you’ll catch the eye of a cute hockey player and you can live out your trophy wife fantasies.” your brother, who was sitting two seats down from you, teased.

“shut up david.” you said reaching over your other brothers to hit him, which you did…three times.

“would you two cut it out, you’re attracting a crowd.” your father scolded.

he was right, not only were a few people sitting behind you watching, but so were a couple people on the bench in front of you.

you groaned in embarrassment and hid your face in your brother gavin’s shoulder.

“kill me gav, kill me.” your voice was muffled.

“number forty three is staring pretty hard right now y/n.” gavin wiggled his eyebrows at you.

you shot your head up and made, brief, eye contact with a boy who looked around your age before he quickly looked away. another player, who looked just a little older than you, laughed at him before giving you a wink.

“i’m serious gavin, shoot me right here.” you said, pointing between your eyes. “like i’m a horse that just broke it’s leg.”

+++

after the game you went to dinner with your family before you parted ways. you had picked up your coworkers shift because he had a family emergency and wasn’t able to come in. during the summer between your senior year of high school and your freshman year of college you attended bartending school. you thought that working in the night life industry, especially as a young attractive woman, that you would be getting a lot of money in tips.

and you were correct.

your grandparents were covering your tuition, and since you were living at home there were no room and board charges, but you did have a car to pay for, books and school supplies, as well as an addiction to shopping that you had to support. so the job really was great.

it was a nice cocktail, lounge, styled bar. lots of business meetings took place, and overall upper class patrons were the ones who would visit. it wasn’t rare that local celebrities would stop by, or new yorkers wanting a lower tax on their tequila sunrise. so when a few people on the new jersey devils roster walked in, nobody was surprised.

“y/n i’ll take bottle service for them tonight if you cover my side of the bar while i’m out? we can split their tip 70/30.” your coworker brian suggested after seeing them all make their way towards the private section, meaning they would not be ordering drinks themselves like all the other people in the establishment.

“60/40, it’s a saturday night brian.” he rolled his eyes before agreeing, making his way over to the group as you began writing down tickets.

with brian gone you were now the only one behind the bar, it being a busy saturday night you didn’t really have any time to yourself. constantly getting new orders, or people confused why you needed their card to open a tab, you weren’t really planning on taking a break anytime soon.

“what can i get you?” you asked whoever sat in the seat across from where you were currently fulfilling orders. you didn’t look up to properly acknowledge the customer, but you know they heard you because your question was quickly followed by a long “uhhhhh” before you placed the drinks you had been working on infront of their respective owners.

“while you uhhhh on that, i’m gonna go help customers that know what they want.” you didn’t really mean to be so rude, but you didn’t have time to provide good customer service.

“wait!” you had barely turned around before the customer stopped you. “i’m sorry, it’s just that i am not twenty one, so i don’t know what i can order here.”

“you’re not old enough to drink? how the hell did you get in? because if you used a fake i’m sorry but i’m gonna have to cut it.” you finally looked up from the glasses in front of you to see who exactly you were speaking with. he looked familiar, you couldn’t figure out where you knew him from. probably just a student you’ve seen around campus.

“no it’s nothing like that. i’m here with some of my teammates.” he nodded his head towards the private section where you could see brian making them drinks.

you looked back at his face again before the realization hit you.

“you were the player staring at me earlier.”

“you were the girl that slapped her brother in front of everyone earlier.”

you blushed at his recollection of you, he blushed at yours as well.

“guilty.” you both said at the same time, causing some laughs to let out before the moment was interrupted by some people on the other side of the bar yelling that they wanted their drinks.

“i’ll be back in a little bit, sorry.” you apologized to the boy before turning to start making the drinks that the customers had ordered nearly five minutes ago, audibly groaning at the line that was forming all around the bar and the amount of people now entering.

+++

it ended up being nearly thirty minutes before the rush of orders you had gotten was cleared and you had time to go back to where that boy was sitting. you weren’t surprised that he was no longer there, but you were disappointed.

you decided to take the rare break to your advantage and poured yourself a glass of apple juice, savoring the taste before you brought your attention towards the group in the back. brian must’ve really been working for those tips because you had never seen a group so entertained in your life.

making eye contact with the boy, you smiled as he stood up from his seat, excusing himself from the group being met with a smirk from the guy he was sitting next to, who you recognized as the one who winked at you earlier.

“you know you guys are paying for bottle service, you don’t have to come up to the bar to order drinks. it’s kinda what it was made for.” you said once the boy had sat down in the seat he was in just an hour before.

“i know, but i don’t want the guys to make fun of me for ordering orange juice.”

“are you assuming that i wouldn’t make fun of you? because i would, and i will. i’m team apple juice.” you said, raising your glass filled with apple juice, into the air.

“can’t drink on the job?”

you laughed at how stupid of a question that was, just because you worked as a bartender doesn’t mean you have no decorum. “ couldn’t even if i wanted to, i’m nineteen.”

“oh so you’re my age, well a year younger.” he smiled to himself. “i’m twenty.”

you nodded at his words, too busy closing out a tab to respond.

“how can you work here though? if you’re nineteen. don’t you have to be twenty one?” he asked.

“no, you need to be eighteen to serve alcohol in the states.” you responded, not even looking up.

“got it.” he trailed off, it quickly became awkward as you were too busy to give him the attention he was obviously looking for. “i’m luke by the way, don’t think i told you my name yet.”

“i’m y/n, but i’m pretty busy right now so maybe you could go back to your table. i don’t mean to be rude, but i can’t spend my whole shift talking to you and not working.” you told him, noticing the long line that was beginning to form again.

“oh yea of course, sorry. umm i’ll see you around.” luke said, getting up.

you didn’t respond and just walked over to the other side of the bar where the people who had been waiting the longest were.

luke sighed before walking back over to his group.

“what’s the matter lukey? couldn’t impress the hot girl by ordering an orange juice.”

“shut up jack.”

+++

it was only five days later that your father was bringing you along to another devils game and once again you got dressed in your unnamed jersey and a pair of leggings. you had work right after, having taken the closing shift tonight so you would be able to enjoy the game for at least an hour and a half before you would have to go.

“dad please tell me we aren’t in those seats again. you don’t need to be wasting your money like that, our usual seats are just fine.” you spoke as you followed your dad through the arena.

“sweetie, it is my money to spend and i wanted this. i never miss a home game, all of the money spent is being spent for good use.” you father responded, making his way down towards the glass.

you had arrived after warm ups were finished so now you were just waiting for the game to actually start. playing a game on your phone, you were easily pulled into a trance and didn’t even realize that the players had made their way onto the ice until your father nudged you.

“y/n would you pay attention? the boy is looking at you again.” your head shot up at his words and you quickly made eye contact with the boy from last week, luke.

he waved at you before turning around before you even had the chance to wave back.

“that was weird.” you said, not to anyone in particular, but you weren’t aware of your volume because that same guy that winked at you began laughing and pushed luke who was visibly blushing.

+++

“can i get an orange juice? on the rocks.”

you turned around to see number forty three smiling at you, his hand behind his neck in an awkward stance.

“luke.”

“y/n.”

“is your group here today? we didn’t get any mentions of bottle service being needed tonight.”

“yeah, it was a last minute thing. i asked if we could come to this bar instead of the one we had planned on going to.”

“why? because the orange juice is that good?”

“without a doubt.”

you laughed at his words before looking over at your coworker.

“do you wanna do bottle service tonight? or should i?”

“i’ll do it. the general manager is here tonight and you know how she gets when it’s a group of men getting bottle service.”

“got it, thank you brian.”

you looked back to see luke staring at you confused.

“why doesn’t she like men getting bottle service?”

“it’s not that, there have just been a few too many cases of us having to kick people out because of their behavior towards female bartenders.”

“has that ever happened to you?” his voice suddenly angry, causing you to look at him funny.

“cool it casanova.” you laughed, ignoring his question because you have. that’s just what comes with a job in the night life industry though. “i have to get back to work, but i’ll see you around luke.”

dejected, luke made his way to where his teammates were sitting.

“did you fuck up again?”

“yes…? i honestly don’t know.”

+++

it had been two weeks since that night.

you hadn’t been able to make it to any of the devils games due to coming down with a bug, also causing you to miss school and work. it definitely wasn’t ideal considering it was nearly thanksgiving break, which meant it was nearly finals week. but you couldn’t complain, it was always nice to do nothing but binge watch investigation discovery and drink yellow gatorade all day.

“dad can i come with you to the game tonight? my fever is gone and i haven’t been sick in three days. i need to get out of the house badly.” you asked your father once he made it home from work.

“sure sweetie. i’m planning on leaving in half an hour, i want to make it to warm ups tonight.” he replied, shuffling through the mail.

“got it dad, i’ll go get ready.”

+++

you quickly got ready for the game. deciding that you wouldn’t wear any makeup tonight, your eyelash extensions were enough to carry the rest of the face. tying your hair into a braid, you got dressed in an unmarked devils hoodie and leggings before throwing your shoes on.

“dad i’m ready if you wanna leave a little earlier.” you called out from upstairs, spraying your perfume on.

“sounds good hun, i’ll meet you in the car.”

you were really excited for tonight's game, mainly because this was your first outing in civilization in nearly fourteen days, but a little part of you was excited to see luke again.

a little part of you was afraid he had forgotten who you were, as you had only interacted a handful of times.

a loud honk ripped you from your thoughts as you could hear your father yelling from outside.

“i’m about to leave without you y/n.”

+++

you sat in your seat playing on your phone as you anxiously waited for the game to start

“what’s got you so jittery?” your father asks, noticing your legs bouncing. “does it have anything to do with number forty three?”

your eyes widened at the second question that came from your father’s mouth.

“i have no idea what you’re talking about.” you spoke defensively.

“well i thought i might ask because he has been staring at you since he got onto the ice.”

you had been so caught up in your thoughts that you missed warmups beginning, and looking up you met luke’s eyes.

you gave him a smile and a small wave, which he returned before number eighty six rammed into his shoulders and luke went back to what he was supposed to be doing.

+++

after the game you decided to tackle the large load of school work that had been piling up from your sick days.

you managed to spend a good three hours uninterrupted before your phone began ringing. you picked it up to see your general manager's contact shown on the screen. groaning you answered the call, hoping she wasn’t going to call you in because there is nothing worse than a friday night shift.

“hey y/n, i’m sorry to bother you but this boy is currently asking about you at the bar and i need to know if you know him or if i need to ban him from the property.” she spoke.

your eyes widened, a little scared because this wouldn’t be the first time that you’ve had creepy men asking about you on your nights off.

“what is his name?” you ask, you doubted it but there was a chance you did know him.

“luke hughes.” you heard him yell in the background.

“yes darlene, i know him. he is harmless, please let him leave the jail cell.” you joked, knowing for a fact she had him held captive in the office.

“he wants your number.” she whispered.

“just give it to him, and seriously let him go. him and his teammates tip a lot.”

+++

from: *** *** ****

y/n?

from: *** *** ****

this is luke.

from: *** *** ****

i’m a little nervous that your boss gave me a fake number just so i would leave her alone, so if you could respond that would be greatly appreciated.

to: *** *** ****

i’m sorry, but you’ve reached the rejection hotline. the person who gave you this number is not interested.

from: *** *** ****

lovely.

to: *** *** ****

i’m totally kidding.

to: *** *** ****

this is y/n lmao.

from: luke hughes

that is not funny.

+++

over the course of the weekend you and luke texted a lot.

mainly just basic information. favorite food, tv shows, some random questions.

from: luke hughes

why do you wear blank jerseys?

from: luke hughes

and blank everything else? you never have a name or number on you at games.

to: luke hughes

that’s just not something i’m into.

to: luke hughes

there isn’t a hockey player i like enough to wear their name or number.

that wasn’t entirely true.

while you were a devils fan by default, you were a hurricanes fan and sebastian aho enthusiast by choice.

you had multiple jerseys and shirts with his name and number all over them, but the devils only played the hurricanes on home ice a limited time each season so you weren’t able to break out your collection all that often.

luckily for you, the hurricanes were playing the devils at the prudential center in five weeks and that was one of the only things you were truly looking forward to these days, as sad as that sounds.

+++

“the boy who keeps asking for you is here.” brian said to you as he entered the office.

“what do you mean keeps? darlene just told me about the one time.” you responded, turning your attention off of the roblox game you were playing and towards your coworker.

“because i’ve only ever gotten darlene involved once. he kept asking for your schedule that night and i nearly called the cops.do you know how scared i was? not for you of course, just of the amount of paperwork and witness reports i’d have to deal with. did i ever tell you about the time that one psycho came in here with a butter knife and threatened–”

“brian focus.”

“right sorry. he has come in asking for you at least ten times now. if you want me to kick him out i will, i’ve been working out.” brian finished his rant by flexing his muscles, that weren’t even there.

“you’re 5’7 brian. no amount of muscle will make up for that.” you started, picking your phone up. “i’ve got it don’t worry, but thanks.”

to: luke hughes

are you stalking me?

to: luke hughes

because i will get a restraining order against you.

to: luke hughes

i don’t care how attractive you are.

from: luke hughes

so you think i’m attractive?

to: luke hughes

is that seriously all you got from that??

to: luke hughes

STOP BOTHERING MY COWORKERS !!!

from: luke hughes

will do.

from: luke hughes

as long as you agree to go out with me this week.

to: luke hughes

fine.

to: luke hughes

but only because i would like to go one night without my coworkers asking if they need to place your image on the blacklisted board.

from: luke hughes

yeah totally “only because”…

+++

“so you expect me to believe that after the game tonight you are going out with luke hughes. the rookie player for the new jersey devils?” your father asks.

“yes dad.” you deadpanned.

you had told him of your plans for after the game tonight forty minutes ago and he does not believe you in the slightest.

“what did you take for your migraine earlier?” he asks, chuckling. “oh no, did you get into my medicine cabinet? i’m pretty sure i bought those painkillers back in ‘eighty-nine.”

“you’re hilarious. now can we leave please? warm ups are already almost over.” you said, unamused, while your father was bent over laughing at his stupid joke. “i’m going without you.”

“like hell you are.” he said, snapping up right and marching over to the front door. “if you are telling me the truth i have to meet this boy and talk to him…to ask him if you’re blackmailing him into this.”

he added that last part once he was already outside, you groaned as you heard him laughing from inside the car.

+++

to: luke hughes

i will be waiting in the car park after the game whenever you get out.

to: luke hughes

also my dad wants to meet you.

to: luke hughes

he says it’s because he needs to make sure i’m safe, but really he just thinks i’m lying to him about your existence in my life.

+++

“sweetie when is he coming? it is late and i’ve got work in the morning.” your father asks, for what feels like the hundredth time.

“dad, i’ve already told you that you can leave. i don’t need you here.” you replied, for what felt like the hundredth time.

“what if he kidnaps you? or kills you? he’s got money, he could cover it up in an instant.” he snaps his fingers when he said instant to emphasize his point.

“i would never do that sir.” a different voice cut in.

both you and your fathers heads whip around and you’re met with the sight of luke, looking very good in his suit.

“holy shit y/n you weren’t lying to me.” your dad says, walking up to where luke was standing to shake his hand. “let me tell you kid, i thought my daughter had lost her mind.”

“dad. please stop.” you stated, annoyed at his behavior, finding a spot to stand next to luke.

“right. sorry sweetie.” he said before turning his attention back towards luke. “have her home no later than midnight.”

“yes sir.” luke stated, before your dad turned around and walked towards his car.

“so where are we going?” you ask. “you’re dressed like we’re going to a five star restaurant and i’m dressed like we’re going to a drive thru.” you explained, pointing to the major differences in your attire.

“i’ll meet you halfway.”

+++

“is it too late to tell you that i prefer qdoba?” you told luke as he pulled into the parking lot of a chipotle.

“i think i should take you home.” luke joked, before running around the car to open your door for you, slightly tripping in the process.

“i should warn you though, i get queso and guac on my burritos.” you told him, knowing that he would be paying.

“what? that’s like an extra seven dollars.” he complains, holding the front door open for you to walk in.

“should’ve taken me to qdoba, it’s free there.”

+++

the night went very well.

you and luke talked about anything and everything.

it was fifteen minutes to midnight when luke pulled up in front of your house to say goodbye.

noticing that the lights were on, luke asked if your father really stayed up to see if he had brought you home on time.

“i can guarantee he is currently in his recliner and snoring.” you told luke before you both started walking up the porch steps.

“well i had lots of fun tonight. you should really send me a text whenever you’re bored at work, i can always use my celebrity status to get in while being underage.” luke said once you had made it to the front door.

“your C-list celebrity status?” you started.

“-oh come on, i’m a b-list at least.” he cut in.

“don’t you have better things to do than sit at a bar and drink orange juice?” you finished your thought.

“honestly no. i don’t have any friends in jersey that aren’t my teammates.”

“well if you ever want to go to a party or hang out with me and my friends you always can, just text me if you’re ever bored at home.”

you said your proper goodbyes and once you stepped into your house you saw your father asleep in his recliner.

to: luke hughes

*image*

i told you he would be asleep. he would never know if we actually stayed out past curfew.

from: luke hughes

did you catch him mid snore in that photo? that’s honestly a violation.

+++

from: luke hughes

i’m bored.

to: luke hughes

what am i supposed to do about that?

from: luke hughes

😑😑😑

to: luke hughes

I’M KIDDING

to: luke hughes

do you not have a game tonight? because i’m planning on attending a frat party tonight if you would like to tag along.

to: luke hughes

unless you are now above frat parties after finishing school.

from: luke hughes

i’d love to join you.

to: luke hughes

great! i was planning on getting there at 10:30. do you just want to drive to my house? my friends are taking me btw and we could always just double buckle.

from: luke hughes

yea sure. what should i wear?

to: luke hughes

oh nothing too fancy just a tuxedo.

to: luke hughes

bowtie included.

from: luke hughes

i hate you.

+++

“will you all please promise to be nice to him and be on your best behavior? i think i actually like this one and i don’t him to be scared away.” you warned your friends who were currently in your room pregaming.

“hey don’t look at me, i’ll be nice as hell to your new boy toy.” your best friend, trinity, spoke. you rolled your eyes at her before looking at the boys who crowded on your floor.

“cal, bass, and tyler.” you spoke firmly, attempting to intimidate them. “i swear to god if any of you make him uncomfortable, all of my images and videos from syllabus week are getting posted on the main.”

“sir yes sir!” the three shouted in unison, only causing your eyes to roll back further into your head.

“just please be welcoming. talk to him, get to know him, do not force him to play rage cage if he does not want to.” you emphasized that last point at kade.

“if he doesn’t willingly play rage cage he isn’t the one for you y/n.”

you were about to make a snarky comment but were cut off by your phone going off.

from: luke hughes

hey i’m outside. should i knock or wait out here?

to: luke hughes

just come inside, front door is unlocked.

to: luke hughes

we’re upstairs in my room, just follow the sound of shitty music. my friend bass has aux tonight.

you could feel the nerves bubbling up in your stomach. you hadn’t informed the group that your luke was luke hughes, they were all devils fans and were in the know about things so they definitely know who he is.

“he is coming upstairs right now, y’all i’m serious, best behavior.”

the sound of a knock made all five heads turn towards the door.

“no fucking way-”

“shut it!” you cut cal off. “hey luke, come in. there are shooters on my desk if you want something to pregame with. trinity is sober tonight so you don’t have to worry about driving.”

luke makes his way over to your dresser and grabs three shooters before making his way towards the spot next to you.

“everybody this is luke, luke this is everybody.” you motioned your hands back and forth. “tyler, cal, trinity, and bass.”

you pointed to your friends, who were looking at the two of you with shock and disbelief on their faces, as you named them.

“let’s go to the party, i wanna play rage cage.”

+++

“is bass your real name or is it just a nickname?”

after arriving at the party you and your group established where trinity would be all night everyone started asking luke questions, the majority of them were about hockey and the nhl before you texted the groupchat and told them to shut their fucking mouths about his career.

“nickname. my name is sebastian, but this one-” bass grabs onto your shoulders and pulls you in front of him. “-says there is only one sebastian in her life and i am, unfortunately, not him so she started calling me bass and everybody else just latched onto it.”

you glared at him before speaking. “i was being sarcastic when i told you that, and you came up with the fucking nickname.”

“yeah, it’s not y/n’s fault you share a name with the love of her life and future husband.” tyler said, giggling after you hit his stomach.

“okay let’s go play rage cage, y’all need to shut up.” you said making your way outside, trinity informed everyone that she would stay in her spot and to text her if it is urgent. “luke do you play rage cage?”

it was an important question.

sure most people favor cup pong or even flip up as a party game, but rage cage was what you and your friends dominated at every function.

“i have never played it before. haven’t even heard of it.” luke shrugged.

everyone’s movements paused for a second before hell froze over.

“WHAT?”

“you’ve never heard of it?”

“what fucking school did you go to?”

“y/n get him out of my face.”

you weren’t even sure who said what, but luke had a slightly scared look on his face.

“they’re joking luke, let me teach you how to play.”

+++

“so your future husband's name is sebastian? should i even continue pursuing you?” luke asked, jokingly, once you two were left alone in the backyard, tyler had drank one too many bitch cups and needed to be nursed back to health.

“i am most definitely not marrying him. he is six years older than me, lives hundreds of miles away, and also knows nothing of my existence.” you informed luke before finishing your drink. “you should definitely continue to pursue me.”

+++

from: luke hughes

are you coming to the game tonight?

from: luke hughes

i have a proposition for you, if you are.

to: luke hughes

i’m listening

from: luke hughes

you wear my jersey tonight, and in return i win the game.

from: luke hughes

it’s a win-win situation

to: luke hughes

yea for you. i get nothing out of it.

to: luke hughes

also i do not own a jersey with anyone’s name on it, let alone yours.

to: luke hughes

and you are NOT buying me one. if i want a jersey i will pay for it myself…or my father will.

from: luke hughes

fine.

from: luke hughes

but when you become my girlfriend you have to wear my jersey, no matter what.

to: luke hughes

okay, if i become your girlfriend i will wear your jersey.

from: luke hughes

not if, when.

to: luke hughes

i’ll see you tonight weirdo.

+++

“your boyfriend is waving at you.”

“david shut up he isn’t my boyfriend.” you responded to your brother, shoving him.

you waved back at luke before his smile dropped and he pointed towards the jersey david was wearing. how you didn’t see the name and number on the back before? you didn’t know.

“are you seriously wearing luke’s jersey right now?” you placed your head in your hands knowing the conversation that would come of this. “he asks me to wear it before every home game and i never do, and now my own brother is wearing his jersey and not me.”

“why won’t you wear his jersey?” your brother asks, finishing off his beer. “-and don’t give me that bullshit answer of you never wear anyone’s jersey. you wear aho’s.”

“that’s because sebastian aho is sebastian aho.” you deadpanned. “there has never been a player, besides aho, that i have liked enough to wear their number. i’m not a fan of anyone…besides aho.”

“yeah, but luke’s your boyfriend.”

“oh my god he isn’t my boyfriend, do you ever listen to me? idiot.”

+++

“so your brother wears my jersey, but you don’t?”

the sound of luke’s voice drew your attention away from the tab you were closing out at work. “i knew you were gonna show up tonight. remind me again why i decided to give you my schedule?”

“because i’m awesome.” luke answered, taking a seat in front of you. “-but of course not awesome enough for you to wear my jersey.”

“are we still on that?” you asked, handing luke a pop.

“yes we are.” he stated blankly. “seriously i don’t understand why you won’t just wear my jersey. you said you didn’t want to pay for one, and that i couldn’t pay for one. but now that i know your brother has one i would very much appreciate it if you would wear it, to at least one game.”

“i’ll think about it.”

+++

your answer was no. that was three weeks ago and you still had yet to wear a jersey with the number forty three on the back.

tonight you were excited.

the carolina hurricanes were playing the devils at the prudential center tonight and you and your friends all got seats behind the canes bench. none of them were canes fans, but this one the one game a year that you had the opportunity to sit near sebastian aho and you would be damned if you missed out on that opportunity.

from: luke hughes

you coming tonight?

to: luke hughes

yeah.

to: luke hughes

so are trinity, bass, tyler, and cal.

from: luke hughes

oh great, i haven’t seen them in a bit.

from: luke hughes

are you guys going out after the game? it’s a friday night.

to: luke hughes

yes we are. cal’s frat is hosting this sport night thing if you wanna come with.

to: luke hughes

just bring a jersey to change into after the game.

from: luke hughes

oh crap i don’t own any jerseys.

to: luke hughes

you’re hilarious bud.

to: luke hughes

but just so you know i’m not sitting in my usual spot tonight. my brothers are sitting with my dad tonight.

+++

“no fucking way.”

that was the first thing you heard as you got in bass’ car.

“what?” you asked, everyone looked at you in disbelief.

“you are wearing aho’s jersey.” tyler replied, speaking for everyone in the car. “and you’re dating luke hughes.”

“i am not dating luke, you guys know that.” you deadpanned, you were getting sick and tired of people mistaking you for luke’s girlfriend. almost as much as you were sick and tired of not being luke’s girlfriend. “-and you also know that i am a loyal sebastian aho supporter before anything else.” you added the end in a lighter tone of voice.

“alright, but when luke gets upset with you tonight you cannot be angry when we tell you we told you so.”

the rest of the car ride only one thing, a question, was on your mind, would he really get upset with you?

+++

“oh my god!”

“how many times are you gonna say oh my god tonight y/n?” trinity asked.

she had a point. it was like the only thing that was coming out of your mouth.

“never.” you deadpanned. “sebastian aho is right in front of me. my future husband is right in front of me.” you got more giddy by the end of your statement.

“oh wow y/n, you’re blushing.” cal poked your side. “that’s pathetic.”

“lover boy, two o’clock. does not look happy.”

you looked over to your right and saw luke looking at you with an expression you couldn’t quite read, but bass was right, he did not look happy.

+++

“GOAL!” you screamed, shooting up from your seat. “SUCK IT DEVILS!”

“alright calm down y/n.” tyler said, laughing at you.

“NO! sebastian aho just scored his second goal of the night, if he gets one more i’m gonna lose it.” you replied, sitting back down.

“oh god you haven’t lost it yet?”

+++

to: luke hughes

hey! sorry about the game, you played great :)

to: luke hughes

if you do want to come to the party we’ll be at this is the address.

to: luke hughes

12345 house street

to: luke hughes

i hope to see you there.

“so is your boyfriend coming tonight?” cal asked.

“not my boyfriend.” you started. “and i don’t know. i just texted him the address for him to meet us there if he wants.”

“ok. real talk,” trinity started. “do you want him to be your boyfriend?”

“i do-”

you were cut off by the screaming of your four friends.

“shut it.” you snapped, effectively shutting them up. “i do want him to be my boyfriend, but i have no idea if he wants me to be his girlfriend. i mean we’ve known each other for three months and he has talked about us dating in the past but he hasn’t asked me out yet and i don’t know if he ever will.”

“y/n don’t be like that. i can tell by the way he looks at you and acts around you that he likes you, a lot, and also he looked jealous as hell when he saw whose jersey you were wearing tonight.” bass said, wrapping his arm around your shoulder.

“okay enough with the pity party, lets go to the party. i need a drink.”

+++

from: luke hughes

not really in the mood for a party tonight.

to: luke hughes

oh ok.

to: luke hughes

well i’ll see you soon, yeah?

“luke isn’t coming tonight.” you told the group, an upset look rested on your face.

“oh…well it’s probably nothing. i wouldn’t want to go out and celebrate a loss.” trinity said, giving you a reassuring smile.

“ok i seriously need a drink now.”

+++

it has been over a week since the game and luke hasn’t spoken to you once.

all texts have been left unanswered, he hasn’t come to visit you at work, and when you were at the game two days ago he didn’t look at you once.

you were working the closing shift tonight, and it was a monday so it was not very busy. in the past you would text luke and he would arrive as soon as he could, but you stopped attempting to communicate with luke two days ago, after the game. he made it clear he no longer wanted anything to do with you.

“y/n, someone is at the bar asking for you.” you looked up from the wall you were staring at in the office to see brian. “not the usual one though. did you and your boyfriend break up?”

you had a little bit of hope that it was luke for just a moment, before brian told you it wasn’t him. “he’s not my boyfriend. never was.”

you stepped out of the back room to see the other hughes brother sitting at your bar.

“hello jack. what do i owe the pleasure?” you ask, planting yourself across from him.

“we need to talk about you and luke.” he replied curtly.

“there is no me and luke, he has made it very clear that he is no longer interested in being my friend anymore.” you said, pouring a drink for no one, you just needed something to do.

“that’s the thing. he does want to be your friend, more than that. this past week he has not shut up about you and how you guys weren’t talking anymore. what happened?” jack asked, grabbing the now finished drink and bringing it to his lips.

“i don’t even know. we were planning on going to this party at my friends frat together and then after your guys’ game against the hurricanes he flaked out and hasn’t spoken to me since. i’ve reached out and haven’t gotten anything back, i was at the game on saturday and he didn’t even look at me, so if he is upset that we aren’t talking then he is just upset with himself.” you took a moment to catch your breath before looking at jack.

“whose jersey did you wear to our game against the hurricanes?”

“sebastian aho’s. why?”

jack let out a chuckle and shook his head. “makes sense. he was muttering stupid sebastian aho and fucking homewrecker the whole way home and bunkered himself in his room for days.”

“i always refused to wear his jersey to games, or his anything, and now i’m realizing i probably pissed him off by wearing someone else’s name and number when i’ve been telling him the whole time i’ve known him that the reason i won’t wear his stuff is because i don’t wear anyones.” you told jack, pouring another drink.

“i wouldn’t say he is pissed off. he is definitely upset though.” jack starts, standing up. “i think you should come to our game this thursday-”

“i always go to your games.” you cut him off. “well come to our game this thursday wearing his jersey. i think that is all he wants…well that and you being his girlfriend.” jack finished, not giving you a chance to respond before walking out the front doors.

+++

“david please, just let me borrow your jersey for one night.” you begged your brother over the phone.

“no can do little sis. just go buy your own, i mean it might be beneficial to own your own luke hughes jersey when luke hughes is your boyfriend.”

“david i’m not even gonna say it, but seriously? where am i gonna find a jersey on such short notice?” “at literally any store in newark. walk down mainstreet and you’ll probably find five in the front window of shops.” david answers, the sarcastic tone in his voice pissing you off further.

“goodbye. i’m gonna go walk around looking for a jersey in the freezing cold now.”

+++

to: luke hughes

hey. i know we haven’t talked in a little bit but i spoke with your brother the other day.

to: luke hughes

i’m going to the game tonight, if you would be willing to let me see you after i would really appreciate it.

to: luke hughes

i would like to talk to you.

+++

you weren’t able to find a jersey with luke’s number on it so you wore a blank jersey tonight, which kind of crushed your original plan for the evening, but you still had to try.

“are you sure sweetie? because i have no issue waiting until he shows up.”

“yes dad, i’m sure. i’ll be fine, please go.” you assured your dad, pushing him towards his car.

it wasn’t until forty minutes later that you heard footsteps approaching you. you turned your head around and frowned at the sight of jack hughes walking your way.

“sorry i’m not the brother you wanted to see, but luke left as soon as he could and ubered back to our apartment.”

you nodded in defeat. “thank you for telling me. i’ll just order myself an uber home then…tell luke i said good game and if he ever wants to talk he can message me.”

“why don’t you tell him yourself.”

+++

trinity would literally die if you told her whose car you were currently sitting shotgun in.

“luke made it pretty clear he doesn’t want to talk to me, or even see me. i don’t think this is a good idea jack.”

jack had convinced you that the best thing to do in this situation was to confront luke directly. not as much convinced you, but rather offered you a ride home and said he had to make a stop on the way, that stop being his and luke’s place.

“y/n luke is miserable not talking to you, and that is making me miserable.”

“well he wouldn’t be so miserable if he would just text me back, he is the one choosing to not speak to me. can we just get this over with? drive faster.”

+++

“luke’s room is down that hall, second door to the right.” jack informed you, you thanked him quietly before making your way to luke’s room.

you knocked gently and got no response so you knocked again, a little harder.

“jack i’m not in the mood right now. go away.”

you tried to speak up but nothing came out, so you just knocked again.

“jack i’m serious. this whole y/n situation is messing with my head, i played awful tonight and i just want to go to sleep.”

“well if it’s messing with you so much and making you as upset as jack says it is then maybe you should just text me back and we can figure out how to fix this.” you spoke, frustration clear in your tone.

you didn’t give him the chance to respond before you made your way out of their apartment and towards the stairwell, ordering an uber as you ran down the steps.

once outside you saw that your uber was about five minutes away so you were forced to just stand there and wait. from: luke hughes

i’m sorry.

from: luke hughes

please come back up.

to: luke hughes

no.

from: luke hughes

please. let's talk about this.

to: luke hughes

i’ve given you many chances in the past week for us to talk and you’ve ignored me each time.

to: luke hughes

it’s my turn to be upset now.

+++

that was two weeks ago and you haven’t seen or spoken to luke since.

you went to your mothers house is oregon for christmas and came back to new jersey today.

the second you ended your gift exchange with your father you went up to your room and opened your texts with luke.

from: luke hughes

y/n i’m sorry.

from: luke hughes

please talk to me.

from: luke hughes

merry christmas, i got you a gift. i asked your coworker brian where you’ve been, he said it that you were spending christmas at your moms this year so i’ll give it to you when you get back.

from: luke hughes

please text me when you get back.

from: luke hughes

i need to see you.

you spent a few moments contemplating whether to send a text or to continue ignoring him, even if the later was driving you crazy.

before you could stop yourself you sent a message, and got one back immediately.

to: luke hughes

i’m back in newark.

from: luke hughes

on my way

you slightly panicked when you realized that after nearly a month of silence between the two of you, luke was now going to be in front of you and in your presence again. you didn’t know what you were going to say, worry filled you thinking about the many outcomes that could happen.

“sweetie, luke is at the door for you.”

you timidly stood up and took a deep breath or two before making your way downstairs.

“hey luke, let’s go up to my room to talk.”

luke nodded before stepping inside, giving your father a proper greeting before heading up the stairs.

“ok, so can you start off by telling me why you ghosted me for a full week?” you asked him once he had sat down on your hammock chair, you across from him on your bed.

“you wore someone else’s jersey.” luke started, letting out a deep breath afterwards. “after you told me for months that you never wear anyone’s jersey, so you wouldn’t wear mine.”

the sound of your friends yelling “i told you so” played in your head, but you pushed it aside to focus on what was happening in front of you.

luke was now in your closet, where he would find your many, many, aho items.

“luke please get out of my closet.” you were angry, he had no reason to be searching your things.

“how many things do you own of him. jesus.” luke said once he finally walked back into your bedroom.

“luke i’m sorry that i lied to you about never wearing anyone else’s jersey, but is that seriously why you ignored me?” you were a little skeptical of his reasoning.

“why did you ignore me for multiple weeks?” luke ignored your question.

“because you were the one leaving me on read and skipping out on our plans, but then you went around telling people you were miserable not talking to me as if i was the one who failed to reach out and that made me angry. i gave you so many opportunities luke…and you didn’t take up any of them. so i got mad and i knew i was about to leave town for two weeks and i didn’t really wanna communicate with you during my vacation.”

“why did you lie to me?” luke asked, now taking a seat next to you on your bed.

“i honestly don’t know. i’ve only ever worn aho’s number, just feels weird wearing someone else’s. and i was being honest, other than aho, there has never been a player i like enough to wear their jersey until now.” you sat up from your spot and walked over to one of the gift boxes sitting on your floor, during your gift exchange with your dad you received a devils jersey with the number forty-three and hughes on the back as well as some shirts and hoodies with the same thing. “these were all gifted to me for christmas. i asked for them. i wanted to wear your jersey, i have for a while now, but i was just unsure of what it would mean. can you tell me why you got so angry?” you asked the question that had been on your mind for weeks.

“y/n i like you and i want you to be my girlfriend, i never asked you though because you wouldn’t even wear my fucking jersey no matter how much i begged you to so why would you say yes to being my girlfriend.”

“god luke again with the fucking jersey, i don’t get the big deal it’s just a piece of fabric.” you yelled, getting frustrated.

“it means something! ok y/n, it means something.” he starts. “there is a difference between wearing a jersey as a fan and wearing a jersey as a girlfriend, something personal and intimate, and you won’t even wear my jersey as a fucking fan.”

it felt like you were talking in circles and it was driving you crazy.

“that is what i’m saying luke. i didn’t ever wear your jersey because i didn’t know what it would mean. i didn’t know if we were friends or something more, and wearing your jersey could’ve given us both the wrong ideas.”

“what idea would it have given you?” luke asked, taking a step towards you.

“that i’m something more to you than a friend, and i didn’t want to think that because it isn’t true” you admitted the truth, it wasn’t that you didn’t want him getting the wrong idea, but rather yourself. “-and i don’t like to get my hopes up.”

luke didn’t respond, he just sat there in silence for what felt like an hour, but was probably closer to three minutes.

“luke if you want to leave, just go. i’m sorry i ruined our friendship, i wish you the best in the rest of your career and life-”

your words were cut off by lips touching yours, luke’s lips.

after a few moments you broke the kiss, not liking how fast it was progressing.

“luke what was that-”

“i like you, y/n. as more than a friend, that is why i wanted you to wear my jersey so badly. i wanted to feel special, because you have this rule about never wearing anybody’s jersey, but you wore mine and you wore mine because i mean something to you whether that be a friend or something more, i just wanted to feel like i meant something to you.” luke practically yelled, interrupting you.

“i feel like we are both making the same points, but just phrasing them differently each time.” you spoke, trying to choose your next words carefully. “what do we do now? how do we move past this?”

“well, you could agree to go on a date with me and wear my jersey to the next home game. that would be a start.” luke offered, grabbing both of your hands. “-you could also let me kiss you again, i’d really like that.”

“deal.”

+++

“sweetie are you almost ready? we’re gonna miss warmups.”

“coming dad.”

you quickly made your way downstairs, checking your appearance in the multiple mirrors you passed by on the way towards the car.

“wearing your boyfriend's jersey i see?” your father quipped once you got into the driver’s seat, he demanded you drive because you had just gotten a new car.

“not my boyfriend.” was all you said in response.

“still? that boy needs to grow a pair.”

from: luke hughes

are we still on for after the game?

to: luke hughes

yup! meet me in the car park when you’re done?

from: luke hughes

👍

+++

after the game you parted ways with your father, him taking an uber home and leaving you with your car to drive you and luke around tonight. which isn’t traditional, especially for a first date, but you loved betty, your new car, and you wanted to drive her.

“wow the new car is dope y/n.”

you turned around and saw jack and luke walking towards you, the older hughes speaking.

“-and nice jersey, next time wear an eighty six for me, yeah?”

“never gonna happen jack.” luke started, before turning his attention to you. “you ready to go?”

“yes i am, you can put your bag in the trunk.” i opened up the trunk with my keys before getting in the driver's seat. “where are we going?”

“i’ll give you directions as you drive.” luke said, plugging his phone into the aux.

+++

a few minutes later you pulled into a qdoba.

“wow you know me so well hughes.”

“i just didn’t feel like paying extra for your queso and guac.” luke deadpanned.

“yeah right, i know i’m turning you into a qdoba enjoyer.” you teased as you entered the restaurant.

after getting our food luke gave me an address of where to drive for our late night picnic. it was a lookout place that luke had found when he first moved here, you had been here multiple times as well and knew of a good place to sit.

“follow me” you hopped over the barbed wire fence and waited until luke made it over to start walking again.

“are you sure this is allowed?” luke whispered.

“i know for a fact that it is not, but it’s fine no one is here right now it’s after dark.” you said back at full volume, earning a loud shhhh from luke in the process.

you walked a little bit more before you made it to your favorite ledge, you could see all of newark from here and a little bit of new york, but when you looked up there was a perfect view of the stars.

“how did you find this place?” luke asked, digging into his food.

“i was hiding from the cops one night and me and tyler ended up here.” luke’s eyes widened at your story. “i’ll tell you more about that later, but ever since i’ve been coming here.”

we continued to eat and talk about random things until it was time to go.

“we should probably go, it’s nearly midnight.”

+++

once you finished the drive back to luke’s apartment you got out of the car to say your goodbyes.

“well i had a lot of fun tonight, we should do it-” luke cut you off by kissing you. “you have to stop doing that.” you teased.

“sorry, it’s just that you look really good in my jersey, like really good. i was struggling not to jump over the glass when i saw you during warmups.” luke admitted, going in for another kiss. “look y/n, i was wondering if you maybe wanted to be my girlfriend?” a blush crept up luke’s neck as he spoke.

“i would love that.” you replied, a blush spread across your cheeks.

we said our goodbyes and you drove home, not expecting your father to be awake on the couch.

“oh you’re awake?” you asked, taking your shoes off.

“yeah just wanted to make sure you were safe.” your dad replied. “how is your boyfriend?”

“he is great.” you replied smiling, not correcting him for once because now he really was your boyfriend.

+++

note: BOOOO HAPPINESS no but this literally took me a month to finish because i had absolutely no energy and no inspo to write anything. idk if i like this yet…but ANYWAYS hope y’all enjoyed, leave feedback, have a great day, love y’all babes.

#luke hughes #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes imagine #nhl imagine #new jersey devils #ahonice writes #ahonice

738 notes · View notes

to-thelakes · 3 months

Text

built to fall (4)

pairing; luke alvez x fem!reader

series summary; after having a rough month, the feelings that you had been harbouring for your co-worker finally come to the surface

series warnings; fluff, hurt/comfort, smut (later on), mutual pining, discussions of mental health, reader gets drunk, vomiting, suggestive themes, sexual tension, cases that the bau work are also mentioned so the usual warnings for the show apply

warnings for this part; MDNI (minors do not interact) sexual content, tooth-rotting fluff, domestic fluff, smut, oral (m receiving), reader sucks luke off while he's on the phone (idk what kink that is), slight praise kink, soft!dom reader but also not totally sub!luke

notes; right, this is my like second time ever writing a bj so uhm, i'm sorry if it's absolutely atrocious, this is also the last part i have fully written that i'm mostly happy with so this is the last of the updates for today (excuse the spam) but yes! i hope you enjoy the whore-ish fantasies, and there are more to come ;)

tags; @smurfenijsje12 @xoxomoonlightbabe

ao3 / masterlist

previous chapter

The drive to the dog sitter’s had been short but you were grinning the entire time. Being in the car with Luke, basking in his presence made you so smitten. Part of you knew that it was ridiculous to have fallen this hard but you wanted nothing more than to be with him.

Luke had offered that you headed into the house with him to pick Roxy up but you said that you would be fine to wait in the car. You didn’t want to stress Roxy out if she didn’t know who you were. Roxy was well-trained and Luke had tried to tell you that but you wanted to let her approach you if she wanted to.

And she did. The second that Luke had gotten out of the house, thanking the dog sitter profusely, Roxy began to tug on her leash to get to you.

“Oh hello, hello, gorgeous,” You fawned over Roxy as she bounded up to you. The dog frantically sniffed at your legs and hand when you offered it before she looked back at Luke. Then she went back to you and you knelt down to stroke her. Roxy loved the attention and she couldn’t help but nudge into your hands. It seemed that she liked you. Luke was glad.

You scritched around her ears and her tail wouldn’t stop wagging as you mumbled praises to her. Luke watched with an adoring smile, letting you give her all the attention Roxy wanted rather than splitting the two of you up.

“You happy that your dad is home, huh? I would be very happy, now he can give you all the attention that you need, yeah?” You continued to fawn. But then Roxy suddenly turned away from you and looked up at Luke. He chuckled and leant down, stroking Roxy.

“You’re happy to see me, aren’t you?” He said, his voice softened as he gave her all the attention that she had been deprived of while he was away. He then leant forward and pressed a kiss to her head before he stood up, “She’s gonna go in the back so just get in the front,” Luke explained and you nodded. You opened the passenger side and slid into the seat while Luke opened the car door. He coaxed Roxy in and she perched down on the backseat. Then he unclipped the leash and placed it in the footwell before he closed the door.

He then returned to the driver’s seat and glanced back at Roxy. She had settled nicely into the backseat but he noticed how you had moved your hand so that she could nuzzled her nose into it. It was a sweet gesture and Roxy seemed to appreciate the little bit of attention that she got even though she was being relegated to the backseat.

“She’s so cute,” You mumbled as you looked over at Luke. He grinned and started the car up.

“Oh, trust me, I know,” He said before he started to drive back towards his house. You couldn’t help the grin that overtook your face.

You squealed as Roxy practically knocked you over. The two of you had been playing tug of war with one of her toys and you had lost your balance, falling onto your ass in Luke’s living room. He was in the kitchen, making drinks for the both of you which meant Roxy had you all to herself.

The dog was on top of you now, still fighting with you for the toy while you giggled and tried to get up but you knew this was her way of asserting her win. You let out a defeated sigh and let go of the toy.

“I give in. You win,” You said to the dog. Roxy seemed happy with that and she clambered off you to go and chew on the toy happily in the corner. But you stayed lying on the floor, giggling to yourself as your arm rested over your eyes. After you had picked Roxy up, the three of you had gone on a walk around the neighbourhood before returning home for some lunch.

Roxy had been given some food and the two of you made rice bowls. The entire day had been so domestic and you felt like you were dreaming. Part of you thought that this would be all some cruel prank but when Luke returned with your glass of water and his coffee, you hoped that this wasn’t all a dream.

“Why are you on the floor?” Luke asked as he walked around the sofa to put the drinks on the coffee table.

“Roxy defeated me,” You said, moving your arm away from your eyes so you could look up at him. He chuckled softly at your words before glancing at the dog. Roxy was happily chewing on her toy in her dog bed. She looked very peaceful and not like the menace that he knew that she really was. He then glanced back at you.

“I think you gave up too easily,” He stated. You scoffed, placing your hand dramatically over your heart.

“I did not! She’s a very good fighter, thank you,” You stated as you pulled yourself to sit up. He nodded, clearly exaggerating the gesture as a way to mock you. You narrowed your eyes and then got to your feet, “If you’re gonna be mean, I’ll leave,” You teased. Luke crossed his arms over his chest, stepping up to the challenge.

“Yeah?” He asked. You nodded. He then grabbed your hips and pulled you into his chest, “You’re all talk, carina,” He said as you looked up at him. You moved your lips to be inches from him.

“Maybe I am but it’s worth it,” You responded. He chuckled and then connected your lips in a soft kiss. Your arms wrapped around his neck, tugging him down so you could kiss him a little better. But before either of you could escalate it too far, he pulled away.

You pouted but then he asked if you wanted to cuddle and watch shows and you couldn’t deny that that sounded amazing right now. You were honestly still a little tired from the previous night so when he lay down against the couch and gestured for you to drape yourself on top of him, you didn’t waste a second.

In the end, Luke decided that he wanted to show you one of his favourite shows and you enjoyed it for the first few episodes but you were slowly beginning to fall asleep. It wasn’t because of the show but simply because you were exhausted. Luke could see that and he found himself stroking your hair as you began to slip into sleep.

It would only make you more likely to sleep but you needed it more than most people he knew. He wanted that comfort for you.

When you woke again, it was a few hours later. Luke had switched and put on a new movie and was dozing off against the sofa. Roxy had taken her place beside the two of you and she seemed sleepy too. You pressed a soft kiss against Luke’s clothed chest before you snuggled back into him. He let out a mumble of your name and you let the smile spread across your face.

“Hi,” You mumbled as you moved your fingers to trace circles on his chest, “Sorry I fell asleep,” You muttered. Luke mumbled incoherently but you could gather from his tone that he didn’t seem to mind that you had fallen asleep, “I should probably head to my apartment,” You said after a moment. The evening had already begun to draw in and as much as you didn’t want to go back to your own apartment, you were worried about overstaying your welcome.

“Why?” He asked. His words were quiet and as he opened his eyes to look down at you. You tilted your head to the side.

“This is your place,” You responded. He let out a sleepy scoff before he shook his head, tugging you closer to him even though that wasn’t physically possible.

“Our place now, stay another night,” He mumbled. The words were a little clearer than his previous had been and they caught you completely off guard. It slightly terrified you that he had accepted you as part of his life so quickly but you tried not to think about it.

“Are you sure?” You asked softly. He nodded, looking at you properly. He then gently tugged you up his chest, pressing a peck to your lips.

“Stay the night,” He insisted. You didn’t bother to argue with that so simply nodded your head. You definitely weren’t going to deny him.

“Okay,” You muttered. Your eyes fell closed against and you settled back against his chest. It was soothing.

Sunday passed much like Saturday had. The two of you woke up, kissed while Luke was cooking breakfast, took Roxy on a walk, played with her before eventually settling down to watch movies or read a book or play video games. It was a soothing routine and it meant that the two of you felt refreshed for the next week of work.

But spending so much time with him, admiring her, showering together, walking around in his shirt, it meant that the more salacious thoughts began to creep back in. You couldn’t deny that you had been thinking about him like that for weeks but you tried not to push it now that you were getting closer. You didn’t want to push Luke into anything that he didn’t want and you also didn’t want to scare him away.

However, as the two of you ate dinner, the conversation became increasingly more suggestive. You weren’t sure entirely what had happened but you had tried your best to ignore the wetness that began to pool between your legs as you spoke.

And you had done a pretty good job at ignoring it as you cleaned up and put your plates in the dishwasher but as you sat on the sofa with him, it quickly became harder to ignore. His arm was wrapped around you, fingers slipping under your shirt to caress the skin of your hip. Everything he did was maddening.

The longer the two of you sat there, the more you squirmed. Your thighs pressed together in hopes of relief that never came. It was getting harder and harder to ignore the feeling growing between your legs. It was overpowering and you decided that you need to take a break to hopefully calm yourself down.

So, you mumbled to Luke that you were going to the bathroom and you walked over to it. Once the door was pulled closed, you turned to stare at yourself in the mirror, willing yourself to hold it together but it was hard. It was hard when he was right there and you could still remember the sound of his moan when you tugged on his hair yesterday.

You desperately wanted to hear it again. You needed to. That desperate little whimper had been playing on your mind and you needed to get your mouth on him, make him feel good. Every part of you was on fire for him and you didn’t have a clue what to do about it.

But in your best attempt to calm yourself down, you splashed water onto your face and took a deep breath. You used the towel to wipe the water away before you looked at yourself in the mirror again. You could do this. If you just made it through this night, you could go home after work tomorrow and satisfy that aching feeling between your legs. It would be fine.

With one more deep breath, you exited the bathroom but something had changed. As you walked into the living room, you noticed that Roxy had vanished. Luke was still lounging back but his legs had spread a little wider. You could so easily slot yourself between them and do what you had been desperate to do for weeks but you stopped yourself.

No. He was just relaxing. You couldn’t take it like that.

You walked back over to the couch and dropped down beside him, letting your head rest against his shoulder.

“Everything alright?” He asked. You nodded your head and then you felt his hand slide onto your inner thigh, squeezing it softly, “Good,” He muttered. It was hard to ignore that warm presence and it was making you ache even more. He had to know what he was doing but his eyes were fixed on the TV. He was driving you mad and he must have known it.

Rather than focusing on the feeling of his hand on your leg, you tried to focus on the show that Luke had put on. But then his hand shifted and you really couldn’t ignore it this time. He was inches away from your clothed cunt and it was driving you mad. He was driving you insane. If he just shifted his hand a little further, he would feel the wet spot that he had caused you.

But you didn’t want him to touch you just yet. You wanted him moaning for you.

“Luke,” You mumbled softly. He let out a hum of acknowledgement but was acting like his hand wasn’t almost exactly where you needed him, “Did you send Roxy upstairs?” You asked after a beat.

“Yeah,” He responded. The roughness to his voice had you internally begging for him. Your eyebrows furrowed and you stared down at where his hand rested and it slowly started to click. This was all on purpose. Of course, it was. He was Luke.

He must have noticed how you were squirming. Was that his goal all along? There’s no way he could have known but you weren’t gonna let him take control of the situation that easily. You had been wanting to get his cock in your mouth for weeks and you knew that if you didn’t make the first move, you weren’t gonna get that wish.

So, you placed your hand over his and gently lifted it away. His eyebrows furrowed and he turned his head to look down at you but when he saw the devious look in your eyes, he knew that he was in for it. You placed his hand against his own thigh before slipping off the couch and onto the floor. You slotted between his legs, looking up at him/

“What are you doing, carina?” He asked. You moved your hands to rest against his thighs, fiddling with the fabric of his jeans.

“I’m finally giving you what I told you you’d get,” You smirked before you let your hands trail up to the zip of his jeans, “If that’s what you want?” You asked, looking up at him through your lashes. He nodded. You grinned and then focused on his jeans, unbuttoning them before pulling the zipper down. You then gently tugged on them and he helped you push them down his legs.

His thighs were built. Thick muscles running beneath the skin and you let your fingers trail across them. Luke let out a breathy noise as you admired him, fingers running up to his crotch. You palmed at his erection and he let out a choked whimper.

“You’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?” You asked. He let out another groan as you palmed him through his boxers again. If you kept it up, he wasn’t sure you were going to get to do what you clearly so desperately wanted, “Lift up,” You said as you tugged on his boxers. He lifted his hips up and you pulled the boxers off, taking him in.

He was already half-hard, cock rested against his stomach. He was bigger than you had expected and as you moved your hand to gently take a hold of him, you noticed that the tip was already red and weeping for you. A smirk spread across your face and you spat into the palm of your hand before you wrapped your hand around him and moved it up and down.

He was quickly fully hard against you and you moved your cheek to rest against his thigh. He was so sensitive and as you moved your hand up and down slowly, he was already groaning. His eyes were locked onto the way your hand moved up and down, your thumb running over his tip before you returned back to your slow, lazy movements.

“Do you know how many times I’ve thought about this?” You asked as you leant forward to gently lick the tip of him. He groaned at the sensation, eyes briefly squeezing shut before he looked down at you. You lifted your gaze to meet his, “I’ve been dreaming about this for weeks,” You admitted before you refocused back on his cock.

Starting from the bottom, you slowly licked up the side before you licked up the beads of pre-cum that were dripping from him. His eyes had fallen closed again as you got your first real taste of him. His cum was salty and tangy but it didn’t bother you as much as it used to. You dipped your head back down again and let the tip of him slip between your plush lips.

The loud groan that escaped his lips had you getting wetter by the second. The noises he was making were driving you crazy and you had only just begun. You wanted to hear every little noise he made, you wanted him to be at your mercy.

You pulled back again after a moment, teasing him a little with kitten licks before you pressed a few kisses to the tip of his dick. He was groaning, head thrown back as his fingers dug into the couch cushions, desperate to keep himself under control. Part of him wanted to grab your hair and fuck your face but he wanted you to control this. At least, for now.

“You’re so pretty,” You commented as you wrapped your hand around the base of his cock. You lifted your head up from his thigh and used your grip on him to direct him to your mouth. Then you used your tongue to lick the underside of him, feeling every vein as he practically whimpered at the movement. You smirked, watching his face as you repeated the motion. You were teasing him at this point. It was cruel but you wanted to savor him, “Baby,” You whispered softly and his eyes reopened. His cock was rested against your chin as you moved your hand to grab his. You then gently moved it into your hair, “I don’t mind if it hurts,” You reassured him before you took him into your mouth again. It wasn’t just the tip this time. Instead, you worked on getting every inch of him into you, taking him to the hilt before you hollowed out your cheeks, lifting your head up.

The movement broke him. He let out a loud moan as he threw his head back against the couch, his fingers tightening in your hair. You continued to bob your head up and down, taking a slow and gentle rhythm but making sure to take every inch of him every single time. You wanted to savor this. Savor the feeling of him in your mouth and what it felt like to have him completely under your control because you doubted this was gonna happen very often.

Your hands rested against his thighs as you continued your movements, lifting up every few seconds to pay special attention to his tip. Your tongue flicked across it, flattening out before you took all of him in again.

He moaned your name as he gripped your hair, tugging at the roots which made you groan against him. His self-restraint was hanging by a thread and when he felt your groan vibrate along his cock, it snapped. He quickly found himself bucking up into your mouth. The first time he did it, you nearly choked on him, eyes filling with tears but you started to move with him. His hand in your hair guiding you.

He was losing it, the pleasure taking over and you loved it. Curses, whimpers of your name and pleas fell from his lips as he continued to thrust up into you, taking complete control of it. He was using you however he wanted and you felt the slick soaking your panties. His thrusts became harsher, cock hitting the back of your throat as you forced yourself to breathe through your nose. His fingers were gripping your hair and you were getting wetter by the second.

Well, that was until you heard a phone ringing. Luke groaned.

“Fuck,” He whimpered as your hand quickly rested over his. He loosened his grip, deriving himself of the release he so desperately craved so you could lift off to work out whose phone was ringing. You looked a mess, your hair was mussed, spit at the corners of your mouth, eyes teary. You looked destroyed and Luke found himself somehow more attracted to you.

But he was distracted from your beautifully messy appearance when you grabbed his ringing phone from the coffee table. When you turned it over, you saw that Garcia was calling.

“Garcia,” You explained as you handed the phone over. Both of you knew that this meant a case otherwise you would have ignored it. Luke’s eyes were blown-wide with lust. He looked so pretty for you and so wrecked after he had used you. You wanted to take him again but you refrained as he averted his gaze. Then he answered the call.

“Hey, Garcia. What’s up?” He asked. You heard her beginning to talk on the other end and you rested your head back against his thigh. You bit your lip, taking in the sight of his swollen tip. He looked so delectable and you knew that he had been deprived of his release. Maybe, you could still help him get that.

A devious smirk spread across your face as you shifted your hand to move up to his dick. You swept your thumb over the slit and Luke had to bit his tongue to stop a groan from escaping. He glanced down at you but you didn’t pay him much attention.

“Does Emily want all of us in?” He asked as you slowly began to take him into your mouth. His words faltered when he felt the heat of your mouth around him but he was managing to keep up appearances, somewhat. Penelope was talking again and you pushed your head down, taking him all the way to the hilt again. His head fell back against the sofa and he let out a soft groan. You heard Garcia on the other end say that she understood it was annoying but duty calls. Little did she know that he was groaning for a very different reason.

You began to bob your head again and Luke’s face contorted into one of pleasure. The soft, slow movements were completely different to the rough control he had on you a moment ago. His eyes scrunched shut as his hand fisted in your hair again. He easily could have pulled you to stop but it seemed that this turned him on as much as it did you.

“Don’t bother calling her. She’s,” Luke faltered, biting his lips to prevent a groan escaping before he continued, “She’s in the kitchen. I’ll tell her- tell her.” He was becoming breathless as he tried to keep his composure the best he could over the phone but you were making it incredibly difficult. The warmth of your tongue against him, the slow movements that dragged out every tendril of pleasure. It was like torture.

You kept bobbing your head up and down, tongue licking at the prominent veins and every few bobs, you sucked and kissed at the tip of his dick. He could feel his edge getting closer as he began to buck up into you again.

“It’s not- not like that,” He stammered out but you had tuned Garcia out now. Instead, focused on moving with Luke’s shallow thrusts and getting him closer and closer to the edge that you knew he was teetering towards, “I’ll talk to you soon, alright.” He said abruptly. You smirked up at him, briefly meeting his gaze before speeding up again.

The moan he let out only a second after he hung up the call was obscene. His head threw back and he gripped on your hair, helping move you up and down.

“That’s it, baby,” He praised as he squeezed his eyes shut, “Fuck, I can’t believe- Fuck- can’t believe you did that.” He moaned out curses as you continued to move up and down. You could tell he was close. His thighs were quivering, his grip was tightening and you wanted to take him over the edge. So, you kept moving, running your tongue on the underside of his cock before he suddenly shoved your head down all the way to the hilt.

Your eyes watered, nearly choking on him as he held you in place. He then thrusted up into your mouth, two, three shallow thrusts before he was spilling into you. You forced yourself to breathe through your nose, swallowing down everything he was giving you as he worked himself through the orgasm.

But once he was done, he let go of your hair and you slowly pulled off him. You gave his tip a gentle kiss which caused him to shiver, completely overstimulated by you. You watched as his cock softened before you fell back on your knees.

Luke’s eyes were still closed, his entire body relaxed as his hands rested at his sides. He looked completely fucking destroyed and you could get used to the sight of him like this. A smirk spread across your face as you watched him breathe.

Then, his eyes blinked open and he looked down at you. You were grinning, clearly very pleased with yourself which just made Luke roll his eyes before he sunk further into the couch.

In his blissed out state, he didn’t even notice as you crawled into his lap and curled up against him. Your head rested against his chest, listening to the thrumming of his heart before he wrapped his arms around you. His skin was sweaty and warm but you loved knowing that you were responsible for it. He had cum down your throat. You felt victorious.

“We’ve got a case,” He muttered.

“I know,” You said before you leant forward, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He was still panting, trying to get his breathe back as you settled back into him,

“ Next time, this is gonna be about you,” He said lowly. His tone made you shiver and the wetness in your panties just seemed to get worse. He rested his forehead against your shoulder, letting his fingers slip down your front and underneath your sweatpants. He slipped his fingers into your underwear and before he even reached your slit, he could tell that you were wet.

“We need to go,” You reminded him softly before he could get distracted. He nodded and slowly removed his hand from your slit.

“I’ll deal with it later.”

next chapter

#luke alvez x reader #luke alvez x you #luke alvez #criminal minds #luke alvez fluff #luke alvez fic #luke alvez smut #criminal minds fic #criminal minds x reader #reader-insert #built to fall

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malakia215 · 7 months

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Dinluke Halloween Week.

So I won't be able to write anything cause I just don't have time (among other things). But I would love to share my thoughts! I will def write these stories out but will post them next year for Halloween. If you want to know those stories and don't mind spoilers, you can continue under 'read more/keep reading'.

This will be for story 1 (out of two). Will post about story 2 later.

Modern AU. Urban fantasy.

Din and Grogu live in a haunted house in the middle of the woods. Din is what is termed as a 'null,' someone who isn't affected by magic at all or isn't affected by certain magic types. Grogu is a creature of some kind (Din isn't sure of what) but looks human (i.e. curly white hair, pointed ears, but skin color is like Din's but with a tinge of green). Din saved Grogu after finding him being held captive. They had a rough road until they stopped Gideon and then settled down in an old, abandoned house that Din stumbled upon by accident in the woods one day.

After rebuilding the home and modernizing it, Din began feeling like he wasn't alone in the house. There was an area not far away from his property- a cave- that had a small abandoned, destroyed alter which only adds to his nerves that it is something evil. But then he discovers Luke- the spirit of the house/land. Luke appears as a normal human but Din knows he is a powerful spirit.

Din is also in love and in a relationship with LukeThey can only meet in dreams but Din can feel Luke's presence around the house even though he can't see his love when awake- only Grogu can.

Din can't tell anyone he is in a relationship with Luke. His friends would worry since past stories always ended poorly. But Din loves Luke and Luke loves Din. Even though Luke says things like they will be together one day. Din doesn't plan on dying anytime soon, however.

One day, Din rushes home when he discovers bounty hunters in the nearby town- not with the people Gideon words for but it isn't uncommon for creatures/special humans to be captured and sold in the black market. These guys got passed the percautions the town has to protect them from that (Or something like that). He basically gets home with Grogu and puts everything on lockdown.

When it gets dark, the hunters come and Din is ready. But the attackers never stumble into the area where his house is. In fact, they act like it isn't there and seem compelled to stay away from the area.

Din is confused but isn't about to go out and leave Grogu alone. Then he starts hearing screams.

He knows it is from the people but it is so dark that he can't really see what is happening. At one point he sees someone running but then the next moment it looks like a shadow swallows them.

Din doesn't know what is going on and that even puts him more on edge. Almost to the point he leaves to investigate. But then- suddenly- the screams stop.

Still taking cover, Din watches the forest around his home. And then freezes when something materializes just at the property border.

Coming out of the shadows it is a creature of both light and dark. A heavy hood up to obscure their upper face but strands of light- like hair- can be seen. Body wrapped in black robes but its arms, hands, and lower face can be seen and they look like galaxies. the fingers of the creature are light as it holds an orb that looks like the sun. From the end of where the robe ends- feet hidden behind them- light tentacles emerge from the fabric. Contrasts greatly against black wings that have a twinkle and shine to them like the milky way. Above the creature's head, two green elongated eyes hover that look around randomly. Between them is a third orb of fire, held up by a second pair of arms that seem to come from its back.

When the creature enters the land it pushes back its hood. There isn't a face- just a continuation of space. But there are six distinct 'stars' that run parallel with each other seem to blink as a human would. They are two different colors- 4 are pure white and last two (the ones between the white ones) are a startling blue.

Slowly the creature walks toward Din and its size begins to shrink, the shadow and light fade away, until there- standing before Din- is Luke.

They stare at one another. Din speechless having moved out from hiding and Luke with a sheepish smile. Luke breaks the silence with a soft hello.

Din rushes toward Luke, unable to believe he is here. And Luke eagerly reaches out to him. They hug and Din feels like he is going to cry even though he has so many questions.

After sharing a few words, the two move inside and draw Grogu out from his safety place.

Over food, Luke explains he is actually an eldritch being that has been here for many years. He had a whole cult at one point before he decided that he was tired of being used by his followers and having to take sacrifices. He was forgotten- even made his dwelling invisible to others to make sure. But since Din is a null and grogu is also an eldritch being (which explains a lot of things to Din), they weren't affected by Luke's magic. Luke wanted to come back after spending time with Din and Grogu- explaining Din and him are bonded by soul magic, a rare type of magic that even some nulls can be affected by. (it is super rare to find a full null or a sink- someone that makes every type of magic useless around them)- because of their love of the land that developed into a love for one another. But in order to do that it would require an enormous sacrifice that Luke didn't want to do- a living sacrifice. Luke had no qualms of using the hunters though as sacrifices to make it happen in order to protect Din, Grogu, and their home. (He doesn't need those sacrifices anymore though- maintaining the body is easier than manifesting it).

When questioned about if Luke will still have his power- Luke grins and explains that with their soul bond that it acts like an act of worship. Meaning he will still have all of his abilities as long as Din keeps loving him. And BOY Din isn't going to stop that any time soon.

The ending would be Din and Luke sharing a kiss for the first time in the physical realm and Din couldn't be happier.

There is a second chapter which is nothing but tentacle porn LMAO. Din gets fucked by his love for the first time in the physical world~

I DID write the opening for this story that I am really proud of but I don't want to post it on AO3 like a chapter. If you made it this far, let me know if you want to read it here on Tumblr.

Thanks for reading!

#star wars #Dinluke Halloween Week 2023 #dinluke #lukedin #skydalorian #my fanfics #mala rambles #Eldritch Luke Skywalker

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siena-sevenwits · 3 months

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My January Reads

The Silver Chair by CS Lewis (classic children's fantasy, reread) ***** - It was so lovely to return to my favourite of all the Chronicles - maybe a tie with Dawn Treader. I love it more than ever.

Reflections on the Psalms by CS Lewis (non-fiction, scriptural) ****1/2 - I was particularly intrigued by Lewis's thoughts on the "cursing psalms," and on the subject of longing for judgment rather than fearing it. My brother and I had a good conversation on whether Lewis's analyses made sense given the fact that all the other senses of Scripture must be ultimately grounded in the presumed intended sense.

Over a Hot Stove by Flo Wadlow (memoir) *** Jolly little reminiscences of a Norfolk girl who was in service at great English houses in the 20's and 30's, and rose to become cook at the tender age of twenty-three. Pleasant reading, not especially informative, but a nice little view into her life.

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien (classic fantasy, reread) ***** - I had experienced Dragash's narration in little bits before, but I didn't really see his true excellence until I committed to the long haul. Remarkably, he holds a magnifying glass up to Tolkien, not himself, in spite of his manifest talent. And oh, Tolkien, how good, how good it is to read Fellowship through again. I really needed it. I'll be continuing with Two Towers after a little break.

God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson (non-fiction, history) **** - A very interesting attempt to piece together all the information we have about the process of the translation, the men involved, and the theological, political and literary climate of Jacobean England that influenced it.

Too True to Be Good by George Bernard Shaw (classic satirical play) **, or maybe **** as a historical piece. This play was absolutely nuts, especially compared with Shaw's usual style. The um... microbe with measles whom Shaw recommends be played by a transparent blob, sitting next to the bed? The plot is straight up farce, but gets lost quickly in the discussions of relativism, post-war disillusionment, positivity vs. negativity, um, health? etc. I would 100% use this as a reading were I teaching a college course on 20th century history and wanted to give the students a view into the uncertainty of the culture of the 30's, but feel Shaw dropped the ball with what he was trying to do as a play.

January's Scriptures: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts

Read-Alouds in Progress: Plutarch's Lives, The Robe, The Wingfeather Saga, The Way of Kings

Books still in progress: Summers at Castle Auburn, Beowulf, Breaking Free from Body Shame, On Stories and Other Essays

#recovering reader #coreander's old books

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bookgeekgrrl · 4 months

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My media this week (24-30 Dec 2023)

*delighted* this show went straight to full musical episode in only the second season. amazing.

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Hither, Page (Page & Summers #1) (Cat Sebastian, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - reread; christmas-set post WW2 cozy mystery (vibes are basically 'agatha christie but queer')

🥰 The Missing Page (Page & Summers #2) (Cat Sebastian, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - reread; the further adventures of Leo & James

😍 We Could Be So Good (Cat Sebastian, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - reread; this was one of my fave books of the year tbh; loved the setting and the characters and the vibe

😍 Bells Are Ringing (A We Could Be So Good Holiday epilogue) (Cat Sebastian) - so grateful that Cat S gifts us a holiday epilogue every year!

🥰 The Things We Hide (ThePirateStorm) - 109K, stucky no powers omegaverse/accidental mpreg with fantastic amounts of pining and a great cast of fully realized supporting characters; I fucked up my sleep schedule to finish reading this and had zero regrets.

🥰 I'd Swing With You for the Fences (nontoxic) - 86K, Schitt's Creek AU with MLB player Patrick and David (who's still mostly canon David) - very warm and sweet and absolutely DELIGHTFUL

🥰 Third Eye (Felicia Day, author; full voice cast) - comedy fantasy audio drama about Laurel, who 15 yrs ago was the Chosen One and who…failed. Now her life is sad but she gets a 2nd chance when a terrible teen (who may also be the Chosen One) cannonballs into her life. Had a lot of fun listening to this, great voice cast featuring FD, Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, London Hughes

💖💖 +186K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

[PODFIC] A Nativity of Oranges (Tanouska) - MCU: stucky, 9K - great podfic, reread, great Stucky holiday fic

How The Elf-King Stole Khuzmus (DeHeerKonijn, PointlesslyPoetic) - LOTR: 1.3K - a The Hobbit/Dr. Seuss mashup, very clever, great art

[Podfic of] Spaceships & Laserswords (blackglass, klb, luvtheheaven (VioletEmerald), reena_jenkins, Shmaylor, silverandblue, wordsaremyfaith) - Star Wars: finnpoe, 4K - great podfic of a short but hilarious & very sweet fic - modern AU where weirdo hermit Luke joins the (college-age) 'kids' D&D game & volunteers his sister to DM

[Podfic] Mission Impossible (quietnight) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 20K - hilarious shrunkyclunks fic, great podfic version of it

flow through (rainbow_nerds) - Stranger Things: steddie, 6K - a gift for me! I requested @rainbow-nerdss continue in the universe created by sharp temporary walls and it was everything I could have wanted!!!! 💜

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2023

The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20

D20: Fantasy High: Sophomore Year - s4, e21-22

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - s1, e7-10; s2, e1-10

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road (2023 special #4)

Midsomer Murders - s24, e1-2

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

⭐ Hit Parade - Second-Chance Hits Edition

Vibe Check - 2023, Don’t Let The Door Hit You…

Ologies with Alie Ward - Alieology (YOUR HOST): an Ask-Me-Anything Goofy Hang

It's Been a Minute - Why grief sometimes looks like a hyphy party

One Year - The Making of One Year: 1990

⭐ Code Switch - The Fallout of a Callout

Hit Parade - The Posthumous Hits Edition, Live from Seattle

Pop Culture Happy Hour - 2024 Pop Culture Predictions

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Fun Christmas Oldies

my Dolly Parton Christmas playlist

Swingin' Christmas

Presenting Lindsey Stirling

Power Ballads Forever

#sunday reading recap #bookgeekgrrl's reading habits #bookgeekgrrl's soundtracks #i just decided to sink into cat sebastian's warm '(almost) no plot only vibes' stuff for this holiday season #i am having zero regrets #dropout tv #dimension 20 #star trek: strange new worlds #midsomer murders #christmas music #lindsey stirling #hit parade podcast #vibe check podcast #npr's code switch podcast #npr's pop culture happy hour podcast #one year podcast #it's been a minute podcast #ologies podcast

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wishfulstargazer · 10 months

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After the Orpheum: Trevor Speaks

Fandom: Julie and the Phantoms

Rating: T

Words: 674

“I swear, my dead friends are haunting me. I see them on my daughter’s laptop. They leave me notes on my bathroom mirror. They played at the Orpheum last night! It’s impossible but I know it’s true.”

“Trevor, we’ve talked about the difference between reality and fantasy before,” Dr. Crystal said soothingly. She handed him a cup of steaming hot tea.

“Bobby,” he corrected, inhaling the herbal steam. He closed his eyes in delight. “Lemon Zinger?”

“Yes, with a sprinkling of rose hips,” she said. “Am I to understand you don’t wish to go by Trevor any more?”

Bobby waved his hands around dramatically. “THEY call me Bobby, dammit, that’s how they know me…that’s who they leave the notes for “Hello Bobby!” in the mirror. I still see that every time I shut my eyes.”

“Well, what would you prefer me to call you?” Dr. Crystal asked, wearing her calmest expression. “Trevor Wilson? Bobby Shaw? Which feels right to you.”

“I’ve been Trevor for longer than I ever was Bobby,” he said, running his fingers through his long black hair. “But if they could live again…”

Dr. Crystal took off her glasses. “You’d go back to being Bobby, then?”

“I never wanted to be Trevor Wilson,” the middle aged man said. “But if I wanted to play music…I couldn’t be known as the fourth member of the band that died. And Bobby…Bobby was their friend. Bobby was their bandmate. Bobby was the guy that should have been with them when they died instead of trying to pick up a pretty girl.”

Dr. Crystal nodded. She had repeatedly tried to point out that flirting with an attractive woman was absolutely normal and certainly no crime for a seventeen year old boy, but her patient had never been able to release the guilt.

“I let Luke sleep in my garage when he ran away from home,” Bobby/Trevor continued. “I hid him from his parents, from my parents. He stopped going to school because his parents would find him. All we did was rehearse and play. When we were in school Luke would play in parks or at the pier for cash. We all stole food for him. But what I didn’t think about until after he died is that if I hadn’t helped him he would have had to go home! His parents were gong to make him quit the band. If we hadn’t been scheduled to play the Orpheum that night, they would never have eaten those damn hot dogs and he’d still be alive today! If Bobby–” he spoke his old name as if it belonged to someone vile–”hadn’t hidden him..maybe all three of them would still be alive.”

“This wasn’t your fault, Bobby,’ Dr Crystal said. “We’ve talked about this before. No matter how much you try to make it your responsibility, the fault was in the hot dog company that sold the tainted meat. The fault was perhaps with the vendor, who should have sampled his own product before feeding it to customers. The fault was with the adults, not with a seventeen year old boy who was just trying to help his friend.”

“Helped his friend? Helped him by stealing all of his music! How did that help him?”

“Again, Bobby, we’ve been over this. You made some mistakes when you were still grieving your best friends. That draconian contract you signed should never have been permitted. You were a kid. You didn’t have representation. You didn’t really know what you were getting yourself into. Again, the adults were to blame.”

“Tell that to Luke, Reggie, and Alex,” the aging rock legend Trevor Wilson said wearily. “They clearly blame me for it all. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be haunting me.”

Dr. Crystal opened her mouth as if to say something else.

“No, Doctor,” he interrupted. “You can’t dispute that. They blame me. I blame me. And you know what? They’re RIGHT to blame me.”

And rock legend Trevor Wilson curled up on his psychiatrist’s couch, and began to weep.

#julie and the phantoms #trevor wilson #light angst #jatp fanfic #bobby shaw #sunset curve #head canon #canon compliant

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smolwritingchick · 4 months

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Forced To Believe Chapter 44- I Lost Her

Chapter Summary: Having enough, Morgan ends things with Ambrose and suddenly goes MIA while The Wyatts continue to taunt The Shield. Melanie visits Celeste

Words: 6,000+

-------

'RAW'

Morgan was at ringside while The Shield were in a 6 man tag team match against Big E, Rey and Kofi. Morgan was feeling like herself and had no worries for tonight but she was deep in thought about the situation with Dean. She wanted a break from him and was trying to figure out how to bring up the conversation with him in private.

"You think Morgan is okay? She blacked out twice. You think a third one will happen?" King asked as the camera panned to Morgan. Her eye makeup looked even darker, this time with dark faint vines appearing down her eyes, like in the vampire diaries.

"Those blackouts are really making me curious as to what's going on. We've been told she's been getting some bad headaches lately." Cole said. "I am interested to know what the cause of these headaches is. And do you see how off she looks? What is going on with her eyes?"

"I truly think The Wyatts are up to something."

Near the end of the match, Roman walks over to his corner and roars as he sets up for the spear. All of a sudden, Dean tags himself in while Roman looks surprised.

"Whoa, what the heck?" Morgan asked as Dean delivered the headlock driver on Big E and pinned him for the win.

Roman slowly gets in the ring, unamused.

"I don't think Reigns is happy," Cole said as he stepped up to Dean.

"What was that?" He asked as Seth separated them

"We won! That's all that matters! We won." Seth said as Roman began to grin.

All of a sudden, the Wyatt Family tune comes on and all 4 members stand in the ring to watch the titantron.

"Shield...come out, come out, wherever you are..." Bray chuckled. "I understand y'all. More than you can possibly comprehend. I got cha...a blueprint...stamped in my brain. And I know what you are...you're pawns...pawns..you move forward, never backwards, you spend all of your useless days, clawing with your aching hands forward just to that beautiful moment! That moment where you sacrifice yourself. In the name of your king. I will build my empire next to the sea, and I will smile from my throne. As I watch, my enemies drown." He laughed.

"Is it worth it? What you three men, fail to realize, is that the rose...has always been the one." Luke grinned and began to whistle while Morgan narrowed her eyes.

"No way." She shook her head.

While Luke continued to whistle, Erick showed his mask at the screen and exhaled. "Run."

------

Later, in the ring, Bray had just pinned Dolph and began to taunt the crowd while Luke and Erick were in the ring.

"Follow The Buzzards!" He yelled but all of a sudden, the titantron showed Dean.

"Ooh~" Ambrose said in a spooky tone and moved his fingers around, trying to be scary. "We're so scared of you, Bray Wyatt. Listen up bonehead, we don't live in your little fantasy world with monsters and evil spirits and lamb masks and haunted rocking chairs...so take that crap somewhere else!"

"Bray...real good spewing up little analogies for what you think, is going on," Seth spoke. "But man, you are so delusional, you are a figment of your own imagination. The grandest illusion you've ever come up with is that you think you and your little family can hang with The Shield."

"Take a look around Wyatts. You're standing in The Shield's yard now. And we don't play games. Come Elimination Chamber, play times over." Roman said as Dean began to pound his fist.

"Yeah. Playtime is over. No more games." The Outspoken Diva spoke up as the camera pointed to her. "You want to play a game called evil spirits? Okay then, but know this...You guys are going down. And at Elimination Chamber, The Shield is going to win..." She began to put up her fingers. "1...2...3...you're done. Believe in that."

"And believe in The Shield," Roman said, putting his fist out with his teammates.

The camera went down to their fists as Bray laughed. "I welcome this war! Bring it to me! I welcome this war!"

------

Later, Morgan was mentally drained and finally found Ambrose to break the news to him. She couldn't do this anymore. She wanted a break. Take some time apart. Figure out if their relationship is even worth it. And with The Wyatts on the loose and dealing with Sister Abigail, she already had enough on her plate.

"Did something happen between you and Rosa?" she demanded.

Ambrose let out a breath. "I wish you'd stop asking me about this."

"Why can't you just answer the question?"

"Because why is that relevant?"

She started to run her hands through her hair. "I've given you one too many chances to be honest with me. I can't do this...I can't do this anymore."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I literally saw you!"

"What?"

"You kissed her. I saw you kiss, Rosa!" She turned around and began walking away while his face began to go pale.

"It was a mistake!" He shouted as she stopped walking.

She started to feel something. All that anger and frustration ever since the Royal Rumble finally boiled down to her right hand. She began to seethe and turned around to walk back up to him.

"And so were we." She spat before punching him in the face, making him fall on his butt to much of his shock.

Watching her storm off, he began to rush after her to try to explain.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted but got her hand grabbed.

"Just calm down-"

"Screw you!" she shoved him away and went inside an empty locker room as he followed her.

"Fine, I'll talk!"

"Oh, now you want to talk. Okay, go ahead. Enlighten me." She crossed her arms.

"Look...I just...I was upset...Rosa isn't the one I want. You are. You're on my mind, 24/7...I want to wake up every morning with you. I want to hold you and never let you go-"

"Cut the crap..." She retorted. "I smell BS a mile away...that's not what I want to hear. Grow some balls and tell me the truth."

"Morgan-"

"You know what? Forget it. I wish you could have been honest with me. Even if I saw the kiss, I expected you to tell me. You lied to me. Straight to my face,"

"I'm sorry..."

"Not good enough. I want the truth. Right now."

Dean sighed and ran his right hand through his hair. "Look, we've been talking. For a while now. Before the Royal Rumble. She started giving me a massage...and told me things I wanted to hear...and we got lost in each other's eyes...I think you know what happened next."

"So...she told you things you wanted to hear. You let her get on your lap...you listened to every single word that came out of her mouth...and you didn't stop her?"

"...No."

"I can't believe this...She outsmarted me...she did it...she got me vulnerable and made me crumble and fall just like she said she would...I underestimated her...she kept getting in my head about Roman that I failed to notice that she was gunning for you. I've been so stupid..." She exhaled. "Why? Why would you do this to me?"

Dean started to get annoyed. "I'm getting a little sick of you ganging up on me when you're not as innocent either with that you did with Roman-"

"And I'm getting a little sick of you lying to me!"

"You drew me to her!"

"Excuse me? No, you chose to be with her. I didn't do anything to you. Is this about Roman? I told you everything that happened and was honest with you. You couldn't do the same. He and I are just friends. I told you that. Do you want to be with her? Do you want to be with Rosa? I knew something was wrong when you started pushing me away and being distant from me. I knew it! I didn't want to believe it...so I ignored it. But you just couldn't resist her. I don't even know you anymore. You are not the man I'm in love with. I love you. And if you love me too, you would let me go. I can't do this...I need time...I need time alone...from everybody. You. The Shield, everyone. I need a break,"

"Morgan..."

"Maybe Harley doesn't need Joker after all..."

"Morgan I-"

"Please...don't make this harder for me than it is. I'm done, Dean. This is over. I need you to let me go,"

He looked defeated and rubbed the back of his neck. "I keep hurting the people I care about...I don't think I can forgive myself for this...if you hate me...I understand...You need time? Take as much time as you need..."

She nodded and quickly left the locker room. Dean clenched his jaw and looked down at the floor, processing everything that just happened.

Morgan tweets 'Ladies, it's official. Dean and I are not together anymore. #RejoyceFanGirls #YouCanHaveHim'

"Did I make a mistake or did I make the right choice?" She asked herself after she found a place to sit on the floor alone to collect her thoughts.

She wanted this to be a nightmare but this was real. She couldn't take this anymore. She had to get out of that relationship to get her thoughts straight. She needed time to figure out what her next step was.

"Okay...okay...it's okay...everything will be fine..." She exhaled. "I hope..."

Back with Ambrose, he went back to Seth and Roman, looking somber.

"You look horrible, man. What happened?" Seth asked.

"Where's Morgan?" Roman looked around.

"Yeah, where is she?"

"Ambrose?"

Realization hit Seth and Roman as they looked at each other.

Ambrose let out a breath. "...I lost her..."

--------

As days went by, just like Morgan predicted, some divas started to line up for Dean's attention. Dean was sitting on a crate, getting mobbed Aksana, Alicia, and Eva. Surprisingly, Rosa was nowhere to be seen. Morgan had a bad feeling about Rosa's sudden disappearance after she was the cause of her breakup. Normally, she would be in her face, taunting her.

While she stretched, she glanced at Dean's way and saw his disinterest with the divas. She was a little taken aback at the sight.

'Maybe he really does want to change' She thought.

She thought about the fun times, they had. As much as she hated to admit it, she was still in love with him. But she needed space. She remembered him saying 'Take as much time as you need.' so maybe that's a sign of hope in their relationship. Maybe it is worth saving.

"Looks like Ambrose isn't over her..." Nikki mumbled to Brie.

Nikki saw the looks, Dean was giving Morgan, and the glances that Morgan was giving him.

"Gosh...these two need to screw. They need to get all that frustration out of their systems. Can we lock them in a closet? A locker room? Something?" she pondered

"Nikki, they can't just get back together that easily. They need time apart," Brie replied.

"Yeah...I know."

Dean glanced at Morgan as he saw her stretch. He screwed up and it took a break up to realize what he had. He had no interest in the other divas. Not even Rosa. He just wanted her. He needed her. He wanted to wrap his arms around her waist from behind and tell her how important she was to him. But it was too late. He should have done that before. Moments later, he began to narrow his eyes once he saw Zack Ryder walking towards her.

"Yo, Morgan." Zack grinned.

She stopped stretching and turned around to give him a warm smile. "Hey, dude."

"How are you?"

"I'm doing okay. How are you?"

"I'm awesome. I heard 'bout your break up. Valentine's Day is right around the corner. If you need a shoulder to cry on or if you wanna snuggle, I'm here for you." He grinned, unaware of Ambrose glaring at him with hatred.

Dean was clenching his fists so hard, it made his knuckles white. He wanted to throw Zack into a wall and tell him to back off but Morgan wasn't his anymore.

She wasn't his Harley or Shield Girl.

"Haha. You're really sweet but I'm okay. I'd like this time to just be by myself," she replied.

"Okay. I'm available if you change your mind. Call me." Zack winked and walked off while the Outspoken Diva looked amused.

------------

On a Thursday night in her shared hotel suite with Jon, Melanie had on gray sweatpants and a dark gray hoodie. Under it, she wore a white tank. She put her hair in a messy bun and walked out of the bathroom, seeing Jon watching TV.

"Hey, I thought you left. Not going out?" She asked. "I thought some of the roster were going to check out that new bar. I didn't feel like going. I just want to relax. Were you planning on going?"

"Nah. I didn't want to go." He turned the TV off and gave her his full attention as he stood up.

"Why not?" She asked as he walked up to her.

"Because I want to be with you. I want to spend some time with you. Want to go stargazing?"

"Sounds like fun. The weather should be okay for some stargazing. It's been a while. We should bring a snack." She walked to the kitchen. "What do you want to munch on?"

Jon began to ruffle his hair, which made her smile. She loved it when he did that. "Ah...you pick."

"Really?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"How about s'mores?"

"I like it."

"Great!" She grinned and began to take out Graham crackers and Hershey chocolate bars. "I'll be back, I'm gonna go get a blanket."

After she walked away, Jon started to eyeball the Hershey chocolate bars and decided to steal a few pieces and eat them. Melanie came back with the blanket and looked at him, suspiciously. "Did you just eat a piece of chocolate?"

"No." He said with his mouth full.

"What's in your mouth?"

"Nothing." He finished chewing the chocolate

"Jon!"

He laughed. "What? I wanted something sweet."

"Well, these should relieve your sweet tooth." She chuckled and began to make the s'mores. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and started to nibble her neck. "I thought you wanted something, sweet."

"You're sweet." He mumbled against her neck as he smelled her fruity perfume. "Hm..I think Moxley wants to play for a while..." He growled in her ear.

"Y-you're bluffing." She managed to say.

She was surprised. She wasn't expecting 'him' anytime soon because Jon would always procrastinate. She wasn't prepared right now.

"Am I now? Do you know what I want to do to you?"

"D-dirty thoughts, huh?"

"You don't even know half the things, I want to do to you right now..."

She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the shiver of pleasure, she felt around her body. She was in a dangerous position and had to control herself. He touched the zipper of her hoodie and began to slowly unzip it. His hands started to roam around her body before he turned her around. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him into a heated kiss, which made him smirk into the kiss.

She soon felt herself get lifted up and placed on the counter as they pulled away to catch their breath.

"Game over, Mel. You're putty in my hands, admit it."

Luckily for Melanie, her cell phone rang.

"You are so lucky." He grinned and released her while she began to look relieved.

'Thank goodness for Brie.' She thought as she answered her phone. She would have given in if she didn't call. "Hey, Brie, what's up?"

"Are you coming out?" Brie asked.

"Nah, Jon and I are going to be spending time together before I leave."

"Okay, have fun!"

"Thanks, you do the same." They hang up. "Okay, let me check out these s'mores. And no more funny business or we'll never get out of the room."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? I just gave you a little taste of what Mox is capable of. Next time, I won't be so merciful."

They decided to head to a nearby park, while it was close to 11:00 PM. Melanie laid the blanket down on the grass and sat down with the plate of s'mores. Jon sat down next to her. His dirty blond hair was messy, and he wore jeans and his Shield hoodie.

He ruffled his hair again and he caught her watching him.

"What?" he asked

She giggled. "You look so cute when you do that."

She straddled him and wrapped her arms around his neck while he put his hands on her hips. She then began to gently run her fingers through his hair.

"Messing with my hair again, huh?"

"I like it when you have your hair messy. It's adorable." She said and decided to feed him a s'more. He licked her fingers as she giggled.

"You know, I love the way you play with my hair and blush when I compliment you. It's cute. I also love making you feel good." He whispered in her ear and started to slowly kiss her neck as she shivered in pleasure.

"We shouldn't be doing all this in public."

"We got dark clothing on." He laid her down on the blanket and he hovered over her.

"Jonny!" She laughed with him as he got up.

"Couldn't resist."

She decided to sit in between his legs while her back was to his chest. He held her by the waist while they looked at the stars.

"So peaceful..." She mumbled.

"Lanie..." Jon whispered as she smiled at the new nickname. She turned her head to look at him. "I love you." He leaned down to kiss her sweetly.

"I love you too. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For spending some alone time with me, tonight."

"I love spending time with you."

"Me too."

"Now...if only I can win that bet..." he said while she chuckled.

"You're not gonna win."

"Really? When Mox came out, you were all hot and bothered. I don't think you're ready for him."

"You suck."

"Oh really? You won't be saying that once Moxley arrives in the bedroom to make you his Mox Girl."

Melanie playfully rolled her eyes while he chuckled. They continued to cuddle while they watched the stars.

The next morning, Melanie stirred in her sleep. She felt warm and comfortable. She didn't want to get out of bed, but she had to get ready for her flight. She opened her eyes and saw Jon smirking down at her. One of her arms was wrapped around his neck and one of her hands was in his hair.

"You were quite the snuggle bug last night. Getting frisky?"

"N-no." She was about to pull back but he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back to him.

She unwrapped her arm around his neck and placed it on his bicep. Man did he have some nice muscles. Women would melt if they were in her position right now, but she could not lose this bet. And who would want to pass up the opportunity to get a lap dance from Jon?

He hovered over her. "You know...we could do a little bit of...morning cardio." He said in a husky voice as she felt warm breath on her neck.

"Okay. Take me." She whispered.

"Good answer." His hand roamed around her body as he started to kiss her.

Before things got heated, she pushed him off the bed as he grunted.

She laughed and sat up as she looked down at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you expecting something?" She grinned and got out of bed. "You're not gonna win the bet that easily."

"You are so going to pay for that." He sat up.

"Really? How? Is Mox gonna punish me? I'd doubt it, 'cause he probably doesn't have the balls to show me what he got."

Jon grinned. "That mouth is going to get you in trouble."

"I don't think so."

"I know so."

------------

Melanie finally reached Celeste's place with her small suitcase and knocked on her door.

"Knock Knock!" Melanie grinned. Celeste opened the door wearing sweatpants and a sports bra. "What up, Hybrid Diva?"

"Oh my gosh!" She yelled and pulled her in for a hug. "Melanie!"

She laughed and hugged her back. "Hey!"

"How long are you here?"

"I got tonight, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning!"

"Awesome! We have gotta do a lot of stuff! Let's catch up, grapes." She invited her in and they went to her bedroom. "PJ won't be here for a while so we get to have some girl time!"

Celeste took a goofy photo with her and posted on Twitter 'Look what the cat dragged in! Surprise visit from my Grape Monster, WWEMorgan101!'

"Smackdown should be on. I wanna see what kind of drama, you're in now." Celeste said and turned the TV on.

They were just in time. Celeste made popcorn while they sat on her bed.

The Total Divas were backstage.

"Hey, have you seen Morgan? I haven't heard from her since Wednesday, and I'm getting worried." Brie said.

"She hasn't been answering my calls," Natalya replied.

"Or text messages." Cameron looked at her phone.

"I hope she's okay." Nikki began to look worried.

The camera shifted to Dean who was listening as he started to look a little worried before walking away.

Later on in the show, the camera was back in the ring.

"Reigns and Ambrose of The Shield are set to take on Kofi and Dolph. And we have the third member of The Shield, Seth Rollins, the architect of the group, joining us here at ringside." Cole said. Dean starts off the match with Kofi and begins to take control. "This is the first time, Ambrose and Reigns have teamed together. Is there a reason for this? Do these two not get along behind the scenes?"

"Michael, the important thing about Monday is that we won that match and that's exactly what's gonna happen again tonight," Seth replied.

"Seth, no disrespect but you're avoiding my question. Is there problems behind the scenes between Ambrose and Reigns?"

"I was in the process of answering your question, Micheal, don't cut me off. There are no problems between Ambrose and Reigns."

"Okay, what about Morgan?"

Seth tensed at her name while JBL started to get annoyed.

"Uh oh, I guess you're a taboo subject tonight." Celeste looked on.

"We haven't heard or seen Morgan since Main Event. Do you know if she's okay? I mean, she left The Shield, and now she's a no show on Smackdown. What's going on?" Cole asked.

"I honestly don't know what happened to Morgan and I'm getting pretty worried," Seth admitted. "Even if she did leave The Shield, we still care about her. She's like a sister to me. But I think she just needs her space and hopefully, she'll come back to the Hounds of Justice."

Ziggler knocks down Dean and starts to give him ten elbows to the chest.

"Dean looks like he's not really focused tonight. Is it about Morgan? They did go through a nasty breakup."

"Would you stop talking about their break up?" JBL retorted. "Do not give up on Ambrose and Morgan. They will find a way back to each other. I know it."

"Yeah but, maybe Morgan was right. Maybe she is the glue of The Shield. Now that she's gone, it kind of looks like The Shield are having more problems."

"The Shield are going to be fine," Seth reassured.

"Okay, but what's been going on with Morgan?" Cole questioned.

"Ha! Cole is so persistent!" Celeste laughed.

"She's been blacking out and having headaches, what's going on about that?" Cole asked.

"That's the golden question that is going to make me stay in the middle of this feud with The Shield and Wyatts," Melanie announced.

"Why do you keep badgering me?" Seth asked.

"He does this all the time. Stop it, Michael." JBL scolded.

Kofi gets tagged in. He takes Dean down and dropkicks Roman off the apron. When Kofi leaps up, Dean catches him and throws him on the ropes as he hits his neck. Dean rolls away and tags in Roman. Roman gets off the apron and dropkicks Kofi as the crowd gets hyped.

"Jeez! Celeste exclaimed.

"I know right? I love that move! It's awesome. He gotta teach me that." Melanie mentioned.

"How impressive is that?" Cole asked.

"You wish you had somebody like that, on your side, Michael." Seth bragged.

"How's that bet coming along?"

Melanie sighed loudly. "I'm giving up."

"What?!"

"This man...Does he not know how much I want him to fuck me?" She exclaimed while Celeste busted out laughing.

"Hahaha! That's friggin' funny. How long has it been since you two done it?"

"I lost count after 30 days went by."

"Over a month? Wow, and Valentine's Day is right around the corner. That's like, the day everyone loves to get intimate. Trust me, he's suffering just as much as you are."

"He knows damn well I want him to go to his full Mox mode, but he keeps teasing. Why can't he just give in?"

"Haha, I see. Mel, he knows what you want. He's waiting for you to beg. He wants you to beg him to take you. You need to make him beg."

"How? I'm out of ideas."

"You need to come at him strong. Does he have a fantasy about you?"

"He wants me in a schoolgirl outfit."

"Perfect! We'll go shopping for one. If you wear that, that'll provoke him. Trust me."

"I like the way you think. It's worth a shot."

Dean continues to take control of Kofi and knees him in the stomach.

"I'm always amazed by Jon's character," Celeste said. "And I can't wait for The Shield going up against The Wyatts. That match is going to be awesome."

"I know right? I can't wait either." Melanie replied with a smile.

Dolph and Roman get tagged in and Dolph picks up the pace by giving him a running crossbody.

"Nic is so underrated," Melanie praised.

"I agree,"

Roman counters Ziggler's finisher. He goes to his corner and sets up for the superman punch. Dean gets on the apron and tries to go for a tag but Roman distances himself away from him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, guys, common." Seth called out, not liking the tension.

"Looks like Ambrose was tryna tag himself in," Cole said.

All of a sudden, Kofi grabs Dean off the apron.

"Oh common, man!" Seth exclaimed. Roman turns around, only to get hit with a DDT. "No no no no no! No no no!" He complained when Dolph pins him.

Roman kicks out at two. Seth tries to hit Kofi with a sneak attack but he catches him and tries to go for the Trouble in Paradise but he moves out of the way. Dean grabs Kofi from behind and hits him off the barricade.

"You all right?" Seth asked as Dean recovered.

Roman hits Ziggler with the Superman punch and runs to hit him with a spear. Dean gets on the apron and Roman tags him in.

"Go ahead, man." Roman motioned him to get in the ring.

"Haha, I love it." JBL chuckled.

"I'm loving the tension between them." Celeste laughed.

Dean gets in and pins Dolph for the win. The ref raises their hands while Seth tries to calm them both down. All of a sudden, the Wyatt family's tune comes on.

"Yes!" Celeste cheered while Melanie giggled.

"Uh oh!" Cole looked on.

Luke Harper started whistling.

Bray laughed. "Look at y'all...bickering like children...consumed with pride...beating your chest at one another, trying to see who in The Shield...has the sharpest teeth. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk...fools...they believe me, to be a joke." He chuckled and took off his hat.

"If you can only see the monster that lives behind my eyes...then you'll realize how real I am." Bray went on in a serious tone before putting his hat back on.

"Freaky," Celeste commented.

Dean started mouthing off to his partners about what a joke Bray was and how he was still living in a fantasy.

"And you know what else? We've found your weakness..." Bray smirked and started to laugh. "The Rose...The Rose with thorns..."

That caught Dean's attention as he shut his mouth and began to narrow his eyes at the titantron.

"Do you want to know why she's been blacking out...? Getting those ruthless headaches...? You see my sister...she felt pity for the woman...Sister Abigail yearned to help this woman and I helped her...She's in the rose's head now and has been speaking to her..." Bray explained. "The rose...the rose with thorns...She has been...disrespected...outsmarted...betrayed...that will not happen again...She needed me and she came to me with open arms...she is with a real family now and she shall be treated right...with respect...love...and care..."

Luke looked at the camera. "The rose is safe...safe where she belongs..the rose is home...the rose will be unleashed...She's ready for us...Those that deny us...you will be the first ones to burn..."

"Follow the Buzzards," Bray said.

'Later'

Bray just got done with his match against Goldust while Erick and Luke stand before him. All of a sudden, Dean is shown on the titantron.

"Wyatts!" Dean yelled while the Wyatts turned their attention to the titantron. "Bickering children? That's cute that you think you can say that to us...but watch it...cause you're talking to the Hounds, Wyatt Family, and you think we're too full of our own pride...you're right...we are...we have a lot of pride...So...you want to talk about Morgan? You say she's ready for you? If you lay a finger on her, I'm going to have your heads on a plate!"

Dean started doing his trademark movements and began doing a little dance.

"I love it when he does that!" Celeste praised.

"I know right!? He's so fun to watch."

"Why? Because we are the best unit in this industry and when we get you in the ring, at Elimination Chamber...we own you." Dean said with a lethal tone.

"And we don't care if you are monsters or if you are men," Seth added. "We are not afraid of you."

"And if I find out you did something to Morgan...I'm gonna scrape the beards off your faces with the bottom of my boot! Another reason is because you cost us the opportunity to be in the Elimination Chamber."

"But you just don't seem to understand...one of us would have become WWE World Heavyweight Champion," Roman said. "So, you want to target The Shield's Girl? I guess you don't understand that she's off limits. And fortunately for us, we know a few methods, for making people understand."

"So now it's time for some justice, boys. Believe in The Shield." Ambrose said as The Shield put their fists out.

"I miss being with them already." Melanie looked on.

The screen showed The Wyatt Family as Bray laughed loudly. "You had your chance! She is safe! Safe with us! Her real family!"

"You are in some hot water." Celeste giggled.

"Yeah, the writer loves to put me in crazy situations."

"I still can't believe you broke up with Dean."

"I know...I mean, some fans don't like it, and I know they probably want to slap the writer so the writer can come to their senses and bring Dean and Morgan back together..."

"They'll get back together one day. Just gotta believe."

-----------

On Saturday, Melanie woke up to Celeste jumping on the bed.

"Common, wake up!" Celeste laughed and jumped off the bed.

"Five more minutes." She mumbled and put a pillow over her head.

Celeste decided to drag her off the bed.

"Celeste!"

"We gotta hang out while we can! Let's go!"

"You're right." Melanie got up and stretched.

"Let's go out and eat some breakfast."

"Sounds like fun."

They headed to a local restaurant. Celeste ordered a healthy breakfast while Melanie eyed the red velvet pancakes on the menu.

"Craving sweets?" The Hybrid Diva giggled.

"It's been so long since I had red velvet pancakes. I gotta get this. I'll do a cheat day."

"You and your sweet tooth."

"These won't hurt." The Philly diva ordered the red velvet pancakes.

"So how's the prank war with Colby coming along?"

"We're taking a little break right now since things are getting a little serious in the WWE. Y'know, the storyline with the Wyatts."

Celeste nodded and before they knew it, their food was here.

"Oh my gosh, this looks so good! I need to take a photo of this." She said as Celeste laughed.

Melanie takes a photo of the plate with Red Velvet pancakes with cream cheese glaze and tweets '#CheatDay! I have been craving this for months now. #SweetTooth'

Colby tweets 'WWEMorgan101 Couldn't resist huh? Shame on you.'

Melanie replies 'WWERollins Hey! I earned this!'

"That does look pretty good," Celeste said as she took a bite out of her food. "So what's up with the Wyatts storyline?"

"Well, Morgan is 'Missing' from the WWE and it's causing a lot of chaos in The Shield. You see, what happened was, Morgan started getting headaches and she kept blacking out whenever she saw Bray Wyatt."

"Oh, so that's why he grabbed your head and gave you sister Abigail's kiss?"

"Bingo." She grinned. "So she's starting hearing voices, getting possessed by Sister Abigail, so the Wyatts can convince her to follow the buzzards. It's really friggin' creepy."

"Interesting. Are you gonna act possessed, again, really soon?"

"Yes."

"Ooh! I cannot wait to see that! I wonder what's gonna happen when Morgan returns."

"Chaos. I'm going to be causing a lot of drama."

"Haha. Do you like being in the middle of situations?"

"Sometimes. It can be fun, but also it can be kind of hectic. But at least I'm entertaining the fans. That's all that matters."

"I like your confidence, grapes. So, what's the deal with Morgan and Dean? Any hope?"

"Maybe. We don't know yet."

"Yikes, and Valentine's Day is on Smackdown. I wonder what's gonna happen between them."

"I wonder what's gonna happen too. I did a Valentine's Day photoshoot with some of the divas. I wore skinny jeans, black boots and a white shirt that was cut up on the shoulders that said 'Believe In Us'. It was cool."

"Aw. I bet you looked awesome."

"They published it on the WWE website." Melanie showed her the photos.

"Nice!"

"Oh, I have to wear a dress for Smackdown's Valentine's Day episode."

"Haha. You don't look happy."

"I'm happy but I just don't want to wear high heels. I can't handle wearing high heels. I'm afraid I'll break my ankles. It's crazy what women do when they wear high heels. Did you know some cut one of their toes so they can wear their favorite heels?"

"I read about that! It's insane!"

"I don't get it." Melanie shrugged as she finished her pancakes.

"It sucks that Morgan and Dean broke up. You should see all the tweets the fans said. And you know #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan is trending, right?"

"No way," she said and checked her phone. "Whoa, you're right."

Fans tweet:

'Why!? I hate Creative right now! Why break up one of the coolest couples in WWE History!? WWE fix this! #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'Dean and Morgan can overcome the cheating! Why'd you make Morgan break up with him WWE?!'

'Cried myself to sleep last night because my favorite couple broke up. Damn you WWE. You better do something! #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'Ambrose and Morgan's break up was #PainfulToWatch'

'We need a petition for Dean and Morgan to get back together! #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'Dean and Morgan were one of the most entertaining and interesting couples to watch. Why ruin that!? #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'I swear, if Dean gets a girlfriend that is not WWEMorgan101, I am never watching WWE again. #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'Looks like WWE doesn't like listening to the fans since they want to break up one of the most popular couples in WWE history. #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'I've seen WWE Couples break up onscreen, but Dean and Morgan's breakup would have to be the first one that brought me to tears. #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'I swear...if Morgan and Dean end up having a new lover in the WWE, I am breaking my TV! They belong together! They are so awesome! #BelieveInDeanAndMorgan'

'If Morgan and Dean don't get back together, the WWE Universe is going to #Riot'

"Yikes. A lot of angry fans and sad fans. I didn't think we were that popular." The Philly Diva looked at the tweets in awe.

"Are you kidding? The fans want to see more of you two and they hate how WWE doesn't show you two more like they do with Brie and Daniel Bryan. WWE Creative better fix this because there are a lot of unhappy fans on the outcome of Dean and Morgan." Celeste stated

"I know WWE probably knows that because they are getting a lot of heat on Twitter."

"Oh yeah. All right. Since it's hot as heck today, how about we go swimming?

"Yes! Let's go!"

Once they made it to a local pool, Celeste wore brown sunglasses and a red bikini while Melanie wore a dark blue bikini.

"You look jacked." Melanie complimented.

"Aw, thanks. You look hot!"

"Why thank you! All right, it's been so long since I went swimming, so..." Melanie put her bag down and took her ponytail out. "Woo!" She yelled and performed a cannonball in the pool which got Celeste wet.

"Melanie!" Celeste exclaimed.

Melanie swam up to the surface and saw Celeste soaked as she laughed.

"My bad."

"You are so gonna pay for that." She put her stuff down and prepared to jump in the pool.

The Outspoken Diva shrieked when she jumped in the pool, near her. After they swam around for a while, they decided to play volleyball. Once Celeste won 2 games, they finally got out and lounged on chairs. Celeste put her shades on while Melanie put on a hat to block the sun.

"Let's take another photo," Melanie said.

"Yay, more photos."

Melanie and Celeste grin for the photo and Melanie tweets 'Chilling with CelesteBonin at the pool. #WarmWeatherRules'

Fans tweet:

'Lucky! Have fun in the sun! WWEMorgan101 CelesteBonin'

'That hat and sunglasses though...awesome! WWEMorgan101 CelesteBonin'

'You guys look awesome!'

'Are you still together with Dean off screen? WWEMorgan101'

"How's the wedding planning?"

"It's pretty hard. Harder than I expected."

"Have you tried out a wedding dress, yet?"

"Yep, I posted a photo on Instagram." Celeste went through her phone and showed her a photo of herself wearing a wedding dress.

"Awesome! You look beautiful! Have you picked one out yet?"

"Thanks. Not yet but I will."

"Send me a photo when you do. You're gonna look awesome."

-------

The next day, Celeste and Melanie go shopping at a local mall.

"You sure that'll work?" Melanie asked as looked at the white bag with the schoolgirl outfit, that she just bought to help her in her bet with Jon.

"Yep." Celeste grinned. "Trust me."

"All righty. Hey, let's check out some shoes." Melanie and Celeste head for the shoe store. "I need to buy a couple of pairs of these Nikes." Melanie looks at the Cartoon themed Nikes with amazement.

"I wonder if they have any Simpsons Nikes."

"Yep." Melanie showed her The Simpsons themed Nikes.

"Omg!" Celeste grinned and checked them out.

"They got Spongebob too. I'm liking this."

She took a photo of herself behind a stack of cartoon themed Nikes. They had Hello Kitty, Batman, Dragon Ball Z, Super Mario, and others.

She tweets 'Yep, I'm liking these Cartoon themed Nikes.'

Fans tweet:

'Awesome!'

'I want them all!'

'OMG! I love those shoes!'

'When are you coming back to the ring!?'

'Get the Hello Kitty ones!'

'Batman! Do they have Joker or Harley Quinn themed ones?'

'Are those Angry Birds Nikes? Get them!'

Colby tweets 'WWEMorgan101 I know you're enjoying yourself down there with CelesteBonin'

Melanie replies 'Haha! You bet! WWERollins'

After they finished shopping in the afternoon, they headed back to Celeste's place and watched DVDs of The Simpsons.

"Hey, how's Celestial Bodiez coming along?" Melanie asked.

"Awesome! I got a prototype for one of the pants." Celeste took out one of the prototypes in her closet.

"That looks awesome!"

"Yep, it's all about the fit of the pants. Here's a photo of me wearing them." she showed the photo on her phone.

"Haha, nice booty."

"Haha. Thanks. Your butt will look nice in these pants too."

"I believe it."

She sighed. "I wish you could be my maid of honor or a bridesmaid. But I know you're busy since you're still with WWE."

"Yeah..." Melanie gave her a sad smile. "But hey, at least I'm coming to the wedding, so that's good right?"

"Of course!"

#the shield #dean ambrose x oc #dean ambrose #seth rollins #roman reigns #wwe #wwe imagine #wwe scenarios #wwe oc #wwe fanfiction #the shield 4th member #the shield fanfic

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rainiishowers · 2 years

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Our Destiny | Obey Me Series |

A/N: The cringe is still alive!! Do note that I don’t by any means know many music terms Credits: Video: kreanime English Lyrics: Maon_ObeyMe ---

The break ended and everyone met back up in the living area of the castle. Solomon was next, and by the glares given to him by some brothers, the Avatars of Sins weren’t too happy about it. MC saw these glares as a Little D hands Solomon a mic. “Oh stop that, you guys had your turns.” They chastise, causing the sorcerer to chuckle.

The music was soon to start, and as always, it was fitting of the person singing the song. Before the song started however, Solomon led MC into a more sloppy and spur of the moment dance. “Keep up with this reckless dance” MC chuckles at this. “It doesn’t matter where we are” “With a blushing face, you are still indecisive” “Oh shut up” MC huffs, causing him to laugh. “Don’t worry, I’ll guide you smartly” Solomon led MC into a dance more on beat with the music. “Our destiny, you don’t have to doubt it” “Like a fantasy” Sol pulls MC close, smiling “Come, stay by my side” Just like in Lucifer’s song, poor Luke sees Satan and Levi emitting jealousy and wrath, but now some more brothers joined them in this feeling.. “Are you ready?” “Hey!” That seemed to come from another voice, and it seems Sol used some magic for extra effects. “Leave everything to me” “Hey!” “Fall into this rhythmical night” The music continued, and so did the two humans dancing. “Is it too late to dump Solomon into a pot of acid?” Belphie asks Satan. ”What?” Simeon looks over “Why do you guys want to kill him so much?!” Luke asks. Belphie gestures vaguely to the two dancing. “I don’t like this..” Beel murmurs. Mammon huffs and flops back on his chair. “Me neither! Why did we hafta do him first? It could’ve been Fido!” “He would’ve done it regardless of who went first” Barbatos reminds him “Still! This is unfair!” “Demons bewitch me” “I certainly don’t!” Belphie hisses, loud enough for them to hear. That earned a glare from MC. “And I bewitch you” “The concert for the first time in 150 years, let’s go listen together!” MC is reminded of when Sol took them to the concert, and smiles fondly at the memory. “After that, I’ll serve you with my cooking!” Oh no.. Even if he was joking, it scared everyone.. “U-Uh..” MC gulps. “Yes you’re right, it’s made especially for you.” “Sweet and spicy!” “That’s one way to describe it..” Simeon mutters, shivering at the thought of the food. “Always tangled together” “Make it happen!” “Hey!” “It makes perfect sense.” “Hey!” “Fall into this technical love.” Solomon pulls MC close with a smile. “No matter what kind of disruption breaks in, even if the path we’re going is blocked” Solomon spun MC around, classy son of a bitch.. “I won’t bother at all, my magic will lead our way” “Sometimes I have a feeling Solomon relies on his magic too much..” Barbatos says, getting a few agreements from the other onlookers. “A sensibility too pure, a splendid perfection” “Seems like from a different dimension, I’ll show you such a new world” Suddenly, Solomon opens a rift of sorts, showing MC the castle he had built.. Or really his demons built.. “The sound I heard, the voice I heard..” Solomon closes the rift, getting MC’s attention back on him as he continues singing, spinning the fellow human around. “Our destiny, you don’t have to doubt it” “Like a fantasy” “Come, stay by my side” “Are you ready?” “Hey!” “Leave everything to me”

“Hey!”

“Fall into this rhythmical night”

“Yes you’re right, it’s made especially for you.”

“Sweet and spicy!”

MC sees Solomon give a genuine smile, not his teasing one he’s been putting on.

“Always tangled together”

“Make it happen!”

“Hey!”

“It makes perfect sense.”

“Hey!”

“Fall into this technical love.”

MC listens to him vocalizing as the music fades out.

The music stops at last, but before Solomon or MC could comment on anything, Mammon huffs and stands up.

“Okay! That’s over with! Fido, it’s your turn!”

“My name is not Fido!”

Solomon gave MC a cheeky smile before going over to give the mic to the small angel.

#obey me shall we date #om! solomon #om! mc #obey me series #our destiny

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thegapbetweenmoments · 1 year

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Hello Everyone!

So I’m in a very high fantasy mood. Usually I don’t go this route with my very urban fantasy oriented account but I’ve got some new AU versions of everyone rolling around in my head. Shoot me a message or like this post if any of these versions of my characters seem appealing, or if you have an idea you want to try out: Martin: Former soldier and current member of a well known mercenary guild. Far more interested in coin and living to see another day than serving a more noble cause, Martin’s expert use of earth magic has made him a valuable, and therefore expensive, member of any party.

Luke: The product of a duke’s affair with a demoness, Luke has been kept as a servant in the Duke’s house since he was a young man. The circumstances of his birth and the flashes of demonic presence he shows in moments of intense emotion have kept him apart from many people in the castle, but Luke’s own warmth and kindness always seem to draw people back eventually.

Tom: Having spent years studying advanced rune magic, Tom became interested in some of the more dangerous forms of magic. Against the warnings of his teachers, he began dabbling in the magical essence of life itself, and while he was banished from the wizards’ college for it, he has managed to continue his studies, producing wild and sometimes unpredictable results.

Diana: As a young woman of some status, Diana had a number of different options for how to live out her life. She eventually came to choose the life of a mage, and learned what she could about different types of healing and sealing magic. She now travels from town to town, doing what she can to help the people in the countryside.

Belle: Having grown up the second daughter of a poor family in the capital city, Belle was raised to earn money for the household. She was never expected to do any of the social climbing of a first child, and she knew that her parents would never have the money for her to advance anyway, so she dove headfirst into the profession of her mother and grandmother: weaving. As she became better at her craft, she began to notice that without meaning to, she had begun to infuse her works with spells that could imbue people with small charm effects, like luck or confidence.

Alicia: Having lived for a few hundred years, Alicia could confidently say that this place of hers, running a small tavern in a town along a major road, was the best thing she had ever chosen to do in her life since becoming a vampire. Most of her neighbors didn’t have much to say about her eternally young face, and as long as she made enough money from business, she could afford to slaughter a few pigs for blood. The craving for human blood was still there, but she knew that holding on to what she’d built was more important.

#Wanted Plots #High Fantasy AU #open to anyone

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celepom · 2 years

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The thing about censorship of fiction, is Who Draws the Line when it comes to what is acceptable. Even today queer artists and writers struggle with major corporations to have more representation in media, and it has been MUCH worse for decades prior. You currently have an ongoing movement in the USA where people want to remove all books that seemingly even mention race from schools because it makes them uncomfortable/upset. Books are constantly banned pretty much everywhere because someone with power doesn’t like what they have to say. In the past, entire libraries and histories have been burned because those in power wanted to erase them. I never want to fear for my life for having read a book.

Do you want to return to a time where you shipped, for example, Han Solo x Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, and the only ‘fandom’ you had was a strictly curated mailing list to send fic and art between. Because the alternative was being doxxed, harassed, chased out of common fandom spaces?

Wait, that still happens nowadays. Except out in the open.

Self-publishing has always been available to those with the means. And people can publish the most repulsive things imaginable and they either don’t sell, or have a very niche audience. Mainstream books can also contain things that can upset or disgust you and those actually come with less forewarning than what we have these days on AO3.

For example, when I was a teenager, I picked up a book that I thought was about vampires. It was a young adult book, so it was considered age-appropriate. The “twist ending/reveal” of this book was that the entire thing was a fantasy created by the protagonist who was coping with being continuously raped and abused by her uncle.

If that had been on AO3 there would have been either TAGS to warn me or they would be tagged as the author having not chosen to tag, which is it’s own warning.

Censorship just makes curating what you want to read worse. And no author deserves to be harassed for their fictional work. You can critique, review, disengage, advise friends who share similar taste that they may not enjoy it for XYZ reason, but a real person doesn’t deserve to have their lives torn apart because of fictional people.

#Personal #Needed to get these thoughts off of my chest #censorship #fiction

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valenhell · 3 years

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From the studio that brought you “I can’t find good Byler fics in the ao3 tag”, comes:

"The Definitive Byler fic rec list"

Literally no one asked for this but because I spent the majority of last year (...and 2019, and 2018...) reading byler fics and coping with life, I thought I’d make a list of some of my absolute favorites.

The other day I was basically starving for some byler fics and the angel @magicalfairy provided me with some of her faves so I thought I’d do the same, because I love reading, and I love all of these fics and I appreciate their writers💗 And fic writers in general, come on!

- This is a mix of long works and one-shots/short stories. - Everything is mostly fluff with a tad of angst and a lot of internalized homophobia conflict. - Every fic is completed, except for the ones I mention that they are not. - I try my best to lay out the stories in a way that I won’t spoil you the plot but also warning you of some stuff you might don’t like. Either way, all of these fics are correctly tagged by their respective authors/owners, so read at your own risk. For better understanding, in between brackets I denote Rating, Words and quantity of Chapters. - I feel like I should clarify, none of these are narrated in the singular first person. None of that “And I told him...”, no.

Long fics

a dream always the same (T, 99k, 35 chapters) What happened in those few weeks between the Battle of Starcourt and the Byers leaving Hawkins. Literally a satisfying and very needed fill in of season three, with a good dose of Mike’s thoughts and conflict. Mike’s characterization is specially amazing in this one. The writing style is amazing and I know the author put everything into making it historically accurate, and it was really sweet. You probably read it, it’s by the amazing sevensided here on Tumblr🧡

Spring Break (T, 120k, 14/15 chapters) The slowburn of my dreams. Lots of internalized conflict and conflict with each other. Conflict within the Party (uhh kind of), conflict with Mike and Will. Byers family has moved and the kids are visiting! Chaos. Characterization is on point. Yeah, I know it’s unfinished, but the fourteenth chapter actually serves as a pretty nice ending.

This is where it starts (M, 148.8k, 24 chapters) Aged up characters. The Party is in college and Will disappears again, but now it’s different. Mike knows he didn’t vanish from thin air, and the discovery he and the Party end up making is pretty insane. Mystery solving/fantasy/third dimension, throw in a bit of D&D and Mike realizing some shit, and you get this marvelous fic. It’s a breath of fresh air. The world building is definitely one of the elements that stands out the most, because it’s very nicely described, it sounds like a dream and it’s completely immersive. Absolute gem of a fic.

there’s a Starman waiting in the sky (M, 30.6k, 8 chapters) Do I need to say anything? Will is out there living his best life and Mike realizes that wow, umm, maybe his best friend looks a bit too nice with that costume... and wait, is he getting horny? It’s actually really fun and sexy.

The Evening Speaks (T, 23k, 7 chapters) In where Mike is a late-night college radio host and Will is the art student that stays up till late to catch up with Wheeler on the Mic. They flirt through songs y’all, this one is really sweet.

heads or tails? (E, 24k, 3 chapters) Aged up characters. I know most people don’t enjoy sex in fics and with specific characters but this one is insanely well written. It’s a slowburn that commits to the tension and with every word you are grasping and anticipating their next move. I think you can find the author here on Tumblr as yousaidyes🧡

The Man of Average (M, 56.7k, 5/? chapters) Aged up characters. No but you don’t understand, the writing here is absolute gourmet. The story is exciting as well, it’s super interesting. Weirdly enough, for being very aged up characters, they are well characterized but they don’t feel like teenagers. They are naturally Mike and Will. The author really captured Mike and Will’s essence. I know, it’s unfinished and it’s updated very rarely, but this is the typical fic you can’t believe someone just posted on the internet for free. I will say though, I think it’s definitely not for everyone. Read at your own risk.

Heartstrings (E, 82.8k, 24/? chapters) Aged up characters. By the same author of The Man of Average. A collection of memories, the road to Mike and Will’s happy ever after. And fucking hell!!!!! You’ll cry and get angry, you’ll cheer for them, then you’ll want to crash their faces together because god dammit you love each other!!! But yeah, same thing here. The writing and the way the story is laid out as a nonlinear narrative is brilliant. And I also think this is one of the best Will versions I’ve read. The author might as well be the og creator of this two characters tbh. You can find the author here as mylesimeblr🧡

Sinners behind the walls (T, 1.5k, 1/1) And because I can’t stop recommending this author, a little thing of Mike tormenting himself but also being too deeply committed to Will.

The Red Envelope series (T/E, 167K, two completed works) Something happens that Will thought was impossible and from there, pure drama and romance. Anything by this author has the potential to become your absolute favorite fic, but this series in particular is amazing. I doubt that any of you haven’t read this, but it doesn’t hurt to put it in this list. I’m pretty sure the author is serendipitous-magic on Tumblr🧡

A New Fight series (T, 91k, two completed works, one WIP) And finally the Star Wars AU that we all needed. But this isn’t your typical “Mike is Han”, “Will is Leia” and “El is Luke”, it’s way more interesting than that, and the author has appropriated the Star Wars world like no other. I’ll admit I’m not a 100% fluent in SW lore but this is amazing to me either way. This author is also on Tumblr, tea-for-one-please🧡

- Yes, most of these are (if not all), in a way, canon compliant/canonverse/canon continuation into fanon. (In a way)

One-shots and short stories

Sundae for Two, Please (G, 4.8k) Steve being the supportive friend and older brother these kids collectively need. (not Jonathan erasure, we love him). Steve is very sweet himself, and this little cute thing through his POV is gorgeous. Yes, it’s byler.

Backstage (T, 10k, 2/2) Jonathan, you forgot to mention to Will how hot your new band’s guitarist is, dude. Now he’s hyperventilating and weirdly flirting with him in the corner. Background Stonathan because why not.

102 Peach Street (G, 3.8k) Established relationship, but not only that, they are married :’’))) PURE fluff. Extreme fluffiness. Diabetes.

sweatshirts and bottled up feelings (T, 3.2k) Or, Mike thinks that the sweatshirt Will wears looks insanely good on him. And kitchens are for lovers.

kiss it better (T, 16.3k) Basically one of the best character studies of a few precise moments of Mike and Will’s relationship and feelings.

will wonders ever cease (T, 11.3k) #i ship will and happiness. Omfg what a beautiful piece of fanfic. Will centric, this kid really deserves all the good in the world.

The Calm After the Storm (T, 1.6k) Tooth rotting fluff, boyfriends in love. Boyfriends being lazy, cuddling, love words, kisses. Boys loving each other’s company... Basically, Mike and Will in their element. What more can you ask for?

neither of us ready to let go (T, 4.8k) That scene from season three, but a bit of a fix it.

Still in love (G, 1k) Domestic, married life au fluff. Y’all, I’m a sucker for established Byler, even if I can’t find many fics with it. But this is very sweet. It takes place in 2020, but I don’t think there are any mentions of the COVID-19 crisis that I remember.

I Nver Find Out ‘Til I’m Head Over Heels (G, 12.5K) Classic 5+1 fic. If you haven’t read it, where have you been? This is your moment. In where Mike keeps inviting Will to the school dances and Will thinks it’s just a joke until he realizes it’s not.

Before You’re Gone (T, 5.9k) Will is leaving Hawkins and Mike thinks this is a great moment for a confession. This one I discovered last friday, thank you friend @magicalfairy 💗

You’re weird Wheeler (M, 4.5k) Mike unintentionally starts a tradition of going to each other to talk about their sexual encounters just after they finish. Will keeps getting more explicit with the details he shares, and he makes his best friend interested. This one is really fun y’all.

Out-Of-Town Friends (N/R, 4.6K) It’s not rated. I haven’t re- read it but I’d say it would probably fall in a T rating. So cute!! Will has new friends and sneaks off every friday and the Party doesn’t know where he is going, so Mike decides to follow him and is surprised.

Snowed Under (G, 1.3k) By the same author of The New Fight series. Mike is spending christmas by himself in college because a snowstorm hits Chicago and Nancy can’t drive to see him, but then he has a surprise visitor. Ahhh just a lil sweet holiday fic. Super cute.

you love me anyway series (T, 7.1k, three completed works) Literally just the cutest thing ever. Established Byler. Will loves to take pictures and he loves taking pictures of Mike. It’s adorable.

you wanna be friends forever (i can think of something better) (T, 9k) This one is so amazing. So. Amazing. From Will’s POV, my kid deserves the world and he gets it.

okay not to be okay (T, 4.9k) Mike is a bit sad but then everything is okay.

can’t hold out forever (G, 18.4k) Y’all!!!!! 5+1 sweetness. Mike has been falling in love since kindergarten. And it’s long af, you’ll enjoy it.

even if it takes forever (G, 1.3k) College short AU, they miss each other, they love each other, they promise all to each other. It is sappy y’all.

clear as day (N/R, 18.4K, 4 chapters) It’s not rated, but I’d say it falls in the T category. Strangers to friends to lovers. And also, everyone is pretty gay; we have our dynamic trio Mike, Max and El as disaster lesbians (and gay). Will works at the library and he is also gay. Lucas and Dustin and Will are the best friends we needed. It’s very sweet and the Party is kind of formed here!

I went overboard with the one-shots, so you must have realized how much I love long one-shots and I favor them over long works lmao but they are all amazing!!! If it’s on this list, I probably read it at 2 am, sobbing in my bed. So. Hope you enjoy it☺️🧡

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jayjuno · 2 years

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Bifauxnen - Just One of the Guys, a short autoethnography

It was Kindergarten when I learned that I was female. I had assumed that I was the same as my brothers, as my father. I probably assumed this because I wasn’t like my mom. She liked wearing makeup, fixing up her hair, being pretty- I did not. My brothers loved Spider-man, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, reading comics, playing video games, collecting action figures- I loved them too. With Spider-man, I could relate to his poverty and worry over Aunt May. With Luke Skywalker, I could relate to him as an orphan and with his journey for his identity. It was in Kindergarten that I noticed I was different from my brothers, my father, from these characters I loved.

I. was. different.

Tomboy.

Is that what they’re called?

But don’t tomboys wear ponytails?

Ponytail. Plays sports. Rough. Athletic. Soccer.

I play soccer- so maybe?

I continued to admire men. I did wonder if I was ever going to see female characters that reminded me of myself. Fortunately for me, female characters who dress or live as men is an infamous trope that’s been used in Japanese animation and comics for decades. These characters are sometimes known as Bifauxnen, a trope within Japanese animation and comics (Hakkila). They are female characters that resemble androgynous men, but I feel the label is more complicated and diverse than that.

I think the earliest Bifauxnen character I was introduced to was Sailor Uranus, or Haruka, from Sailor Moon (Takeuchi). Most of the female characters in Sailor Moon behave and present themselves in ways that most societies would expect from women- they enjoy wearing dresses and skirts, making and eating sweet treats, wearing makeup, flirting with cute boys, and so on. Not Sailor Uranus- the only time she resembles the other Sailor Scouts is after she transforms to don the same sailor skirted outfit they do. I can’t help but feel that she reluctantly transforms to put on that frilly outfit, and that she would prefer to wear pants. When she’s not being a superhero, she’s wearing men’s clothing sans makeup and basically behaves like any decent boyfriend towards her partner, Sailor Neptune. Some anime fans might bring up Sailor Jupiter as a masculine-leaning female character, but to me, she’s a tomboy- and a tomboy is nothing like a Bifauxnen. Sailor Uranus wasn’t just a woman who liked to play sports. Here was a character who I felt could understand me in a way that Spider-man or Luke Skywalker never could. Here was a character living the life she wanted despite her female sex, and she didn’t have the decency to be ashamed about it or have a moment where she discovered the joys of being pretty.

Awesome.

Sailor Moon just gave me a taste. Sailor Uranus wasn’t the main protagonist, and so I didn’t get to see her nearly as much as I needed to. And when she transformed into her Sailor Scout outfit, she regressed back into a more socially acceptable representation of the female sex- wearing a skirt, earrings, and even a hint of makeup. So I was still hungry for a female character presenting themselves as male, but who never voluntarily wore what was considered to be female dress. Later in Sailor Moon, they introduced the Sailor Starlights who “disguise themselves as males and pose as the Three Lights, a boy band adored by fans the world over” (Bailey).

But they always transform into pretty girls. They always go back to being pretty girls in the end. Why can’t they stay pretty guys? Why can’t they go on being one of the guys? Why go back to being a pretty girl instead of a handsome woman?

A series called Ouran High School Host Club was released later on. To my joy, the protagonist was a female character who dressed as a man. The premise was simple- Haruhi Fujioka breaks something valuable and is enlisted into the high school’s all-male host club so she can pay off the debt. Because of her plain appearance, the male members of the host club just assumed she was male and could therefore work for the host club (a club where men serve as hosts to female guests). They are shocked to learn Haruhi is actually a girl and bewildered why she didn’t correct them. Instead of calling off their deal, they allow her to remain a new member of their all-male club and work to conceal her true sex from everyone at the school so she can live as a male student. It’s a comedy that pokes fun at the stereotypes in many Japanese comics and cartoons aimed at young women (Bridges).

Shoujo is for girls. Shounen is for boys.

But I like both. Is that allowed?

Drag King.

Maybe that’s the right word?

There’s a scene early in the series where a group of boys surround another female character and it’s implied that they intend to assault her. Haruhi sees this and intervenes, putting herself in-between the boys and this girl. The boys aren’t aware that Haruhi is really a girl and they get ready to beat her up, viewing her smaller size as something they could easily dominate- but the guys from the host club come to her rescue and drive off the jerks. The boys question her- “Why didn’t you scream for help?” and admonish her for thinking she could take on men. It was at this point that Haruhi understood that even though she looked male, she did not have the strength of a male’s body.

They’re stronger than me.

They can easily beat me up.

I hate being so small.

To me, this was an important message because I grew up wanting to believe men and women were equal in everything- that if I saw a woman being bothered by a man, then I could step in and stop him myself.

And I have done exactly that, and been hit by men.

The fact is that no matter how I dress or look, most men are stronger than me- it’s not safe for me to try to defend myself or another woman against a man. Acknowledging this power difference didn’t make Haruhi want to stop living as a male. It just made her aware of the limitations of changing her appearance- that looking male isn’t the same as being a real man, particularly when it comes to raw physical strength. This difference was made even clearer to me when I was assaulted by a transwoman in Denver. Despite our gender identities, me a transman, they a transwoman, this person easily overpowered me with their larger, stronger body- and they beat me up.

I want to stop bleeding.

I guess it doesn’t make sense for an American like me to look for role models in another country’s cartoons. Japan is a modern place, but it’s sexist too. It surprised me to learn of a series called Princess Knight that was released way back in the 1950–60s which featured a woman that lived as a man. It’s called Princess Knight, but the protagonist, Sapphire, lived as a prince. She spends the whole series disguising her true sex so she can assume the throne and prevent a bad guy from taking over. Of course she ends up going back to being a princess and wearing dresses in the end, but for the 60s it was pretty revolutionary.

A lifeline.

Princess Knight became the catalyst for later shows that featured an androgynous woman, like The Rose of Versailles released in the 1970s. It was pretty cool- a reimagining of France in the years preceding the French Revolution. The protagonist, Lady Oscar, is raised as a man to become a soldier mostly because her father has no sons and is desperate to have someone inherit his legacy. To get around the sexist society that prevents him from allowing any of his daughters to carry on in his place, he chooses to name his youngest daughter “Oscar” and raise her like a son.

What’s unique in Rose of Versailles is that even though Lady Oscar presents and lives as a man, everyone is aware that her biological sex is female. Her biological sex is almost never an obstacle for her like it is for other women in the series. Her crossdressing and lifestyle doesn’t prevent her from initiating a romantic relationship with a male character. Now that I think about it, the female protagonist in Princess Knight also ended up in a romantic relationship with a man in the end…

The characters of Sapphire and Lady Oscar gave me hope that just because I dressed and lived as a man, that doesn’t mean that I was doomed to live the rest of my life in ignorance of a man’s loving embrace. It also meant that just because I looked butch did not mean I just had to be a lesbian. As pointed out by the Asian Theatre Journal, “Perhaps the popularity of The Rose of Versailles depends less on a lesbian aesthetic than on the subversive pleasure Lady Oscar gives female audience members as they witness a woman getting away with a male performance of power and freedom” (Abbitt 252).

Some men have tried to brainwash me into accepting that I am gay. Men have explained to me that straight guys aren’t into women who look like me- so I either needed to be a lesbian, take hormones and cosmetic surgeries to look like a “proper transman”, or feminize my appearance so as to appeal to men’s tastes. I was told to either admit being a lesbian (even though I’m not), get a sex change, or start wearing high heels and makeup so that heterosexual men will find me attractive.

How about no?

How about I just dress and live as a man- in the way I see fit- and hope for romantic relationships with men who don’t mind me wearing a suit and tie? And why don’t I just tell every man who has a problem with this to kindly kiss my ass?

I want to stop bleeding.

I want my freedom.

This is not to say I am not moved by female characters that fit closer to the gender stereotypes assigned to the female sex by patriarchal cultures like Japan and America. I love Wonder Woman, but Wonder Woman enjoys presenting in a way that most would deem feminine. She’s pretty, and though I admire her, I do not relate to her- not in the way that I relate to female characters like Lady Oscar or Haruhi.

I wonder if somehow we can change the meaning of “butch” so that it can be applied to masculine heterosexual women and not immediately imply a certain sexual orientation? Or maybe we can come up with another word to describe straight masculine/androgynous women?

I don’t want to be pretty.

Or maybe we don’t need another word at all, and we need to stop overcomplicating everything with new words?

Either way, I will continue to relish these bifauxnen characters and all female characters who live as men. They reflect my own transgender identity without ignoring the realities that come with my biological sex. These characters have shown me that gender identity doesn’t have to erase my biological sex.

I’m a trans man-

I am also a woman.

-Jay Juno

----------------------

Works Cited

Abbitt, Erica Stevens. “Androgyny and Otherness: Exploring the West Through the Japanese Performative Body.” Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 18, no. 2, University of Hawai’i Press, 2001, pp. 249–56, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124155.

Bailey, Catherine E. “Prince Charming by Day, Superheroine by Night?: Subversive Sexualities and Gender Fluidity in ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ and ‘Sailor Moon.’” 2012. Colloquy, no. 24, Monash University, 2012, pp. 207–222, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.588807596575706. Bridges, Roses. “The Secret Revolution of Ouran High School Host Club”. Anime News Network. September 2, 2015. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2015-09-02/the-secret-revolution-of-ouran-high-school-host-club/.92432

Bifauxnen. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Bifauxnen Heikkilä, Sohvi. “Japani-harrastajien slangi.” Pro gradu–tutkielma: Oulun yliopisto (2016). http://jultika.oulu.fi/files/nbnfioulu-201612013145.pdf Princess Knight, written by Osamu Tezuka. Shōjo Club. 1953. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Knight

Ouran High School Host Club, written by Bisco Hatori, LaLa. 2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouran_High_School_Host_Club The Rose of Versailles, Riyoko Ikeda. Margaret. 1972. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rose_of_Versailles

Takeuchi, Naoko (1994). Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Original Picture Collection vol. I (1st ed.). Japan: Kodansha. ISBN 4063245071.

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cayenne-twilight · 3 years

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Professor Layton Iceberg Explanation

As I said in the tags of the original, the iceberg I made was a meme consisting of both real theories and satire/parodies/fandom memes. If anyone is interested, I can work on an unironic version that only has real theories.

Buckle in because this post is LONG and heavily saturated with lore and information.

Actual theories

Parallel universe 1960s where the world wars didn’t happen. There’s an unused file in Curious Village that shows the year as 1960 and the time machine from UF is set to 1973, ten years into the future. The series canonically takes place in an undefined time period (hence the technological inaccuracies and fantasy elements), but it’s based off the 60s. There’s more evidence but we don’t have time to go over every little thing. I linked my “no wars” theory below but TL;DR the outdated airplanes and underdeveloped medicine in the Layton series imply that the world wars may never have happened. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632205992162099200/outofcontextdiscord-timegearremix-zonosils-war

The real meaning behind the statue in Future London. In UF, the purpose of the statue is to spark Layton and Luke’s conversation about their friendship. Luke is stressing out about moving overseas and sees himself and the professor in the story behind the statue, but in the bigger picture, Clive must have been the one to commission it. Some theorize that the little boy is Clive and the man is either his father or the professor. One idea I’ve seen is that Clive wishes he could be Luke for real, while another is that he wishes he died ten years ago, and another is that he’s literally terminally ill explaining why he doesn’t care about consequence. Personally, I think “the boy succumbed to his illness” refers to his mental illness seeing as he wanted the professor to save him from his madness as he saved him all those years ago.

True location of Monte D’Or. there are no deserts on the British isles to my knowledge, so it makes the most sense for Monte D’Or to be in Southwest USA where English is the default language, they have a desert, and there exists a city famous for flashy hotels, casinos, and entertainment. What makes it odd is that nobody ever mentions overseas travel, and all the major characters are from England.

Loosha’s origins are not explicitly explained if I remember correctly, but the implication was that her prehistoric (supposedly) species was sealed away along with the garden, allowing them to survive all the way to the time of LS until Loosha was the only one left. The garden provided a good habitat and protection from predators, and it’s logical that they’d slowly die out anyways, but there’s no explanation of any specific factors that led to Loosha being the last.

Beasley is not a bee I wrote a post about this one as well, but TL;DR Beasly lacks several defining bee traits whilst having several human ones. He is not human, yet, by definition, not a bee. It’s possible that he is the result of Dimitri’s testing, but whatever his untold story is, he remains an enigma of nature. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632381715250282496/theory-beasly-isnt-a-bee

Subject 2’s identity is currently unknown. There is a subject one (parrot) and subject 3 (rabbit) so there has to be a second. For a long time, people suspected Beasly to be him seeing as he’s a bit of an amalgamation and definitely not a regular bee (see above). After the release of LMJ, though, people began to suspect Sherl, the intelligent hound who could speak to certain people but not others. That being said, it’s possible for one to be subject 4. Sherl’s memory of a bright flash matches up with subject 3’s memory of being electrocuted. They never explain why the animals were being experimented on, but it was probably Dimitri making sure the conditions of his machine were safe for humans before reliving the incident from ten years ago.

Lady Violet died from the plague from DB. There’s no evidence for this or anything, it’s just an idea. People say she died from the flu but I don’t remember them saying that in the game, at least the US version. Extending off my “no war” theory: it’s theorized that the Spanish Flu was spread by the travlelling soldiers, so if that’s true, it’s possible for the epidemic to have been averted for some decades. Maybe the Spanish Flu reached England later than in real life. The hole in this is that DB’s plague must’ve been close in time to 1918 while Violet’s death was much later, so it would’ve had to stick around.

Bill Hawks is working with Targent and Arthur Cantabella. There was a force in the shadows buying the time machine technology from Bill. Someone with a ton of money who helped him cover up a freak accident and get away with it completely, a feat that involved shady means like violence by hired thugs. Some theorize that it was Targent, seeking power over time in exchange for a little mafia magic. The Labarynthia project was sponsored by the UK government, so as the PM, Bill must’ve known about it. He probably supported dubiously ethical, high stakes (witch pun) psychological experiments like Cantabella’s and helped him stay in the shadows.

All the NPCs in St. Mystere and Folsense are dead. I make fun of this type of theory later, but they’re admittedly captivating. I’m pretty sure the canon in CV is that the villagers are Bruno and Augustus’s OCs that they made robots of and built a town around, but it’s more interesting to think that the village was there before, and the townspeople died of a plague and were replaced like Lady Violet. In Folsense, there really was a plague and they never explain the NPCs there. They’re either real people who appear way younger than they are due to hallucinations (even the ones who already look old ?), or they don’t exist at all, which is pretty spooky. This part of the story is a gaping plot hole. In a similar vein to CV, the edgy yet plausible theory is that they used to live in Folsense but died of the plague and now live on as hallucinations.

Hershel seeing everything as a puzzle is a coping mechanism for all his trauma. This was a joke but I thought about it for more than five seconds and it makes way too much sense.

Plot holes and unexplained questions that we like to overthink because it’s fun

The downfall of the Azran was vaguely explained in canon by people being so greedy that it lead to the civilization collapsing. It’s not a stretch to imagine that happening, but it would’ve been more interesting with a little more detail.

Layton and Luke are programmed to routinely forget how to walk. I didn’t know whether to list this in the joke section or not, but it’s odd that the characters actively participate in the walking tutorial (as opposed to showing a little memo to the player) as if they didn’t know how to before, especially when they go through this several times a year.

The truth behind Pavel. He’s simply a joke character who teleports, is a polyglot (sort of, at least he wants us to think he is) and is mega confused all the time. He’s a fun character to make crack theories about because of his cryptic nature that even he doesn’t seem to understand.

Miracle Mask deleted scenes. The first trailer for MM featured animations that were not in the final game. One was the Randall falling scene, except in a slightly different style than the one we know. Others were completely foreign, like Layton and Luke pacing across a theatre stage as if Layton’s about to expose someone with a dramatic point. Cut content and “could’ve beens” are always curious to think about.

Evan Barde: secret mastermind. Arianna and Tony’s dad is a mysterious character who died under mysterious circumstances. I think the canon is that his death was a genuine accident, but concept art of him making a creepy evil face suggests that maybe he originally had a larger role in the first drafts of LS than the finished game.

The secret to how Paul and Des pull off their disguises is unclear and will remain unclear. There is no plausible explanation for their shape shifting. Unless Paul is just a little dude wearing a human suit like that one Wizard of Oz species and Des is the best quick-changer ever and hides his naturally feminine legs under his cloak.

Alfendi’s mom. When LBMR came out people scrambled to piece together who Hershel had a kid with, but there’s no way alfendi is his biological son. This happened with Kat as well and her biological parents turned out to be brand new characters, so I’m sure Al will get an adoption backstory if his arc continues, be his parents old major characters or nameless, faceless NPCs.

Granny Riddleton and Stachenscarfen are omnipotent deities. Idk which section this fits best under, but these two characters have some serious power. At first introduction, they’re implied to be robots, but they appear everywhere in later games. They follow the Professor wherever he goes and assist him on his adventures, GR collecting puzzles and housing them by some odd magic, and Stachen teaches you how to walk. They both introduce and supervise the gameplay. By extension, I guess this idea could apply to Albus as well in the prequels. GR and Stachen even had the power to appear in LMJ, something no major character could do. I consider them akin to the velvet room attendants from the Persona games.

Clive’s kill count is a vague subject in the game for the sake of keeping it PG. I don’t know if anyone’s ever mathematically estimated the damage he caused, and I sure don’t want to try, but the game appears to push the idea that he didn’t kill anyone at all, saying they stopped him in the nick of time and things like that, even though we watch him raze the city. If they ever want to bring him back post-time skip, I can see them twisting it so that the mobile fortress cutscene wasn’t a linear sequence of events, but instead a compilation of scenes over the course of hours so that London neighborhoods around him could be evacuated and have it make sense. Knowing Level-5, it’s more likely that they wouldn’t think this deep and do something more lazy, though.

Memes and references

Post-time skip Flora is real references the famous L is real theory from Super Mario 64. Like Luigi in SM64, Flora was also a highly anticipated character who didn’t appear in a new game, in this case LMJ or LMDA. In the end, Luigi did become real in the DS port so hopefully Flora is real will be realized as well.

Hershel can’t read is a veteran fandom meme referring to how in the first few games, especially Curious Village, Layton asks Luke to read every document out loud for him. Perhaps this was an exercise to improve Luke’s reading skills and independent thinking, or perhaps he was just too lazy or preoccupied to do it himself, but this grew into the joke that our genius Professor was actually illiterate this whole time.

Layton’s smash invitation is hidden in PLvsAA. It’s no secret that the fandom would kill a man to get the Professor into the smash brothers franchise. In PLvsAA one of the puzzle artworks features a goat eating a familiar white envelope with a red stamp, sparking the joke that either Layton or Wright got the invitation their respective fans desired, but it got lost along the way.

The science board is the mysteriously vague organization Don Paolo got kicked out of for the crime of being evil. It’s the epitome of liberal arts majors and art school graduates trying to bs their way around not knowing any science and failing miserably. “He was very good at all the sciences, but then the CEO of science told him to stop because he was using the power of science for evil science”. They do this again when “Dr. Stahngun” describes his time machine what with the soolha coils and whatnot.

Hoogland is death cult initiation is a parody of “Mario 64 is Freemason initiation” which is ridiculous, just like the creepy human sacrifice subplot of AL.

You can see the reflection of someone watching you in Aurora’s eye references the famous, creepy Talking Angela theory. In retrospect it would’ve been funnier if I said Angela instead of Aurora.

Every copy of Professor Layton is personalized references the famous “every copy of Super Mario 64 is personalized”

Clive’s fat ass in HD is a meme that originated from the announcement of UFHD, saying that half of the excited fans wanted to cry again while the other half were simply attracted to Clive. If we want to enter real bottom-section-of-the-iceberg-chart territory then let’s say Clive’s character has some sort of psychological siren properties that draw people to him like a magnet and/or Harry Styles.

Things I pulled out of my ass for shits and giggles

Infinite hint coin hack: I’m sure a tech savvy cheater could hack the game for infinite hint coins, but there’s no easy or interesting way. I don’t know why someone would do that though, considering a lot of the hints suck and there are puzzle guides on the internet.

Cringy, unused Randall villain monologue. This joke is derived from the actual scrapped MM content as well as deleted content being a popular element of iceberg charts, but it’s sadly not real. Would’ve been hilarious, though.

Last Specter Puzzle 031: Light Height tracks and records children’s intelligence level. It doesn’t, but it’s always fun to make fun of arguably THE most ridiculously difficult puzzle in the franchise. (Seriously, do they expect 7+ year olds to know trigonometry???)

Hershel struggles with tea addiction. Hershel from the games drinks tea in moderation, but the manga begs to differ. He has a tea set in the Laytonmobile, and an attempt at teatime while driving causes him to crash.

Folsense is a metaphor for Alzheimer’s. This is inspired by those edgy kids’ show theories where everyone’s in hell or something, but nobody has ever said this.

London Life is reality and the plot of the games is all in Luke’s head. That’s one way to fill every plot hole. How funny would it be if Luke made up crazy characters and stories based off his fellow townspeople Sharkboy and Lavagirl style. “This dude who lives in a castle and asks people to give him all their money for nothing in return is a vampire from 50 years ago involved in a tragic love story”.

Secret ending encoded into Tago’s Head Gymnastics. It’d be crazy if there was, and Dimitri would hound Tago for the secret to time travel. If you didn’t know, the Layton games started as an adaption of Akira Tago’s puzzle series, except they decided to add a story to make it more interesting and marketable.

Daily puzzles datamine your DS. I’m bad with technology but is it even possible to datamine a DS??? Idk, but I think my DS lite from 2008 is safe.

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geshertzarmeod · 3 years

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In Other Lands Character Arcs

(Spoilers Abound)

I’m thinking about how the character arcs of all three main characters from In Other Lands center largely on moving away from what their families expected of them, even as each of them doesn’t necessarily think moving away from that is possible. And how it’s their relationships with each other that help them move in the directions they actually want to move in, and believe in their abilities to forge their own paths and lead fulfilling lives. Even if it’s not what their parents or home communities think a fulfilling life entails. This culminates in their refusal (along with Golden) at the end of the book, to let anyone else influence them when it comes to deciding where to be stationed. They’re ready to choose their own paths, together.

There’s something deeply appealing to me about this as a queer person, even as queerness (as defined by orientation or gender) is not actually a central factor in the shifting of each character’s relationship with their families. Actually, the character who comes closest to that is Serene, who is presumedly straight, but whose pushback against the rigid gendered expectations of her society so challenge her community that she and Golden are essentially banished at least for a time. This is only tangentially queer, I’d say, because she does this not for herself, as she seems to proudly fit & identify with elven womanhood, but recognizes the false limiting of manhood within her society and fights fiercely for Luke, Elliot, and eventually Golden, who I’d say is GNC for sure. For Luke, it’s not his being gay but his being monogamous and waiting longer than they expected (though he’s like, still 17!!! that’s still young!!!) to become sexually or romantically active that is off-putting to his family. For Elliot, his father is shocked not to see him with a man, but to see him happy (cue my tears).

I was just thinking this after reading Girl, Serpent, Thorn especially, but I really love when queer books parallel queer narratives of shame and struggle and difference and growing pains, with queer characters, but about issues unrelated to their being queer (especially when they’re about magical/fantasy elements). Then we get to relate to queer characters and see them process a lot of the feelings we have experienced, but also get to see them be loved and value and supported unconditionally in their queerness. Anyway, for an individual analysis:

Luke Sunborn

First, because I know a lot of people might not have read it, I’m going to quote Luke’s perspective from Wings In The Morning:

There were reasons Luke hadn’t kissed anybody. The Sunborns, as a family, loved life and loved love, and treated it as a game. It was fine for them: it worked for them.

Luke had always known that a riot of brightness and different loves and leaving someone laughing was beyond him. He wanted kindness and steadiness: he did not want someone who would leave. He wanted love that would last. (location 2527 in my kindle book, I can’t tell what page)

Luke, the Sunborn champion, expected to excel in battle, and love (read: have sex) freely and easily and non-monogamously, becoming an avid reader because of Elliot - something his father is shocked by and a little ashamed of. Learning Elvish because of both of them. Breaking border camp rules, threatening superior officers, to protect Elliot, and to support Serene, even as he continually complains about it and, on paper, would always argue that those choices are Not Okay and Very Bad. Luke, whose bashful shyness around his crushes, whose concern over his first kiss, whose choice of Elliot as a partner, is incomprehensible to his family, snapping, “I don’t want anyone else,” at the elves. He’s chosen Elliot, even as Elliot still doesn’t at all believe it at that point, and he’s happy with that decision. Elliot’s his choice, and only Elliot. Notorious Sunborn sexual voracity be damned.

Luke’s journey is also largely about him working through his external, and later internalized, biases against magical creatures. It’s pretty clearly an analog to xenophobia, and Luke expresses more disgust, disdain, or fear, the more different a culture is from the one he grew up in. This obviously becomes internalized against himself, when he realizes he is half-harpy. He literally represses his wings from coming out, he sees harpies as monsters and includes himself within this. It’s awful, and it’s sad, and it’s a mixture of Elliot’s meticulous research and adamant arguments that harpies are people, and that Luke isn’t a monster at all (and neither are harpies and other non-human creatures), and Serene’s calm acceptance of him, that helps him move through this.

This xenophobia, although clearly ingrained since childhood, don’t seem to be coming primarily from his family (certainly not from his mother) but from the culture of the borderguard in general. To me, it is implied that his father might at least casually buy into a lot of this, although he would never extend it to his son. It also is an interesting dynamic as related to the other two’s relationships with family, because Luke coming to love and accept himself, and to open his mind about non-human creatures, is actually him coming closer to his mother, rather than moving away. In my view, a part of why he bought in so clearly to this prejudice coming from the general bordercamp culture is because he was pushing away from his parents in the first place - he saw his parents being so wild and free in a way he knew he could never be that he pushed himself into the opposite side, into “reason” and restraint and conservatism. What he needed to learn was how to hold his more “traditional” wants and needs (although like, he’s kind of wrong about that. Elliott Schafer is not the traditional kind quiet love he’s imagining, and he didn’t want that anyway) while still celebrating all of the different approaches and cultures and loves out there, and that’s what he’s learning alongside Elliot and Serene. And he does this partially because Elliot’s love for him as a half-harpy is, according to his previous beliefs, just as wild and out there as his mother’s affair with his biological father, or all of Elliot’s flirting with various magical creatures. And as he accepts Elliot’s love, he accepts that too.

Serene-Heart-In-The-Chaos-of-Battle

From the first moment we meet Serene we know she ran away from home to join the border camp. She’s chosen to join the humans, to fight alongside men, to learn about the borderlands from a human perspective and use that to create an alliance and to create peace. She enters a world where she is looked down on, where she is sexualized and punished for trying to swim shirtless, and has to fight hard to take the classes she wants and have the opportunity to prove herself as she wishes. Instead of deciding her parents and community were right and going back to the elves, she digs her heels in and with Elliot and Luke’s help, fights back, fights to excel at the border camp and make things different and better, and prove her detractors wrong.

Not only that, but she learns to respect men in a way she was not raised to do, learns to treat men as equals and partners, always defending both Elliot and Luke when her community disrespects them. This prepares her for her relationship with Golden (although Elliot still helps her along a lot, especially with their written correspondence) and ends in her and Golden essentially eloping after Golden ran away to fight alongside her. It’s also important that she accepts Golden fighting alongside her. That was not at all a given, especially as even towards the middle of the book, she seems to be thinking of human men as capable of fighting and strength and other “womanly” qualities, but not necessarily believing the same of elven men. She’s chosen a nontraditional path and a GNC partner in Golden, and for the time being, her closest family is not her blood but her beautiful boyfriend, her swordsister, and her loved and loving best friend Elliot.

Elliot Schafer

Last but the opposite of least is Elliot. What Elliot learned from his family is that he will come to nothing, that he will be forgotten, and that he will not be loved. I am so angry on this child’s behalf, for the ways he was neglected not only by his parents but by everyone before Serene. The ways his father had no interest in him because all he wanted was Elliot’s mother back (and I love Elliot’s observation that even if his mother did come back, his father wouldn’t know what to do, and would not be happy). The way his teacher literally accepted a small bribe to just...... leave him at the entrance to the borderlands, and none of the students cared. The way his mother not only left when he was a child but knew who he was the second she saw or even heard about him at the bordercamp, and never bothered to tell him, or show any interest in him whatsoever.Elliot has been taught, over and over again, that he is unwanted and uncared for. That he has to go it alone, and fill his own needs.

Elliot learns to respect Commander Woodsinger and to know that while she doesn’t necessarily love him, she knows him, and appreciates who and what he is, and sees value and strength in it. She, unlike his previous teachers and school professionals, understands him, and likes him, and values him. She’s not warm, but she’s a positive presence in his life, and part of him learning to believe he has value just as he is, and not just because he spitefully decided it to go against what everyone else has told him, but because it’s actually true.

He didn’t want his parents and his peers and the adults who have let him down to be right about this, so he does dream of being loved back. But he shows himself fully prepared to be the one who loves more in relationships, especially with Serene. He’s ready, at first, to take all she’ll give him, and revel in each part of it, even if it doesn’t match up to his love for her. It’s not until the moment he turns down Serene’s final advance (when she’s clearly settling for him) that he realizes how much he wants to be chosen first. And he believes that’s possible, and worth waiting for (and that in the meantime, he will help Serene up and help her find what she truly wants too).

Elliot knows Serene loves him. She shows him he deserves love, and in his devotion to her, Elliot begins to excel and challenge himself and learn to see his brand of obnoxiousness as something that might not be everyone’s taste but isn’t inherently bad. He trusts Serene to love him, at least as a friend, but he doesn’t trust that Luke will, because Luke reminds him of all of the kids who hurt him in the past.

And that’s why the slowest arc of this whole book is probably Elliot realizing that Luke.... actually likes him. Actually wants to be around him, and enjoys his presence, and even like-likes him - loves him even. It just can’t compute for him. And so we get basically an unreliable narration for most of the book regarding Luke. Elliot’s “aha” moment about Luke rewrites years of his life, shifting his understanding of so much of their lives together. And it solidifies Elliot’s discovery that he can be loved exactly as he is, obnoxious and annoying and all. He’s found people who love him for it, and they’ve chosen him, and they’re going to stick around.

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