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96percentdone · 8 months

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Your ace attorney opinions are so valid and I wish they did aa5 and aa6 more justice? The characters are interesting and fun but when they play 52 pickup with each individual storyline it really shoots the collective narrative in the foot. From a gameplay standpoint, the stuff introduced in aa5 and 6 are fun and rly cool ways to expand upon the universe, and the Wright lie detection agency is fun, but it feels like. Idk. Like they didn’t trust their writers OR their fan base with their story. Idk if that makes sense? (I have similar beef with aitsf and aini though so,,,)

Yeah I honestly hold more contempt for AA5 and 6 than I do any other art I've experienced. Defenders of these games will posit the detractors are so fixated on AJ's plot they cannot see the merits of DD and SoJ, but I don't care about Kristoph's psyche locks, the untouched sibling reveal, or Apollo's 70000 backstories nearly as much as they suggest. Those things are annoying, but they are minor symptoms of the real issue: bad writing across the board. Most if not all culprits have store-bought motives that are thinly elucidated, if they're even elucidated at all, which impacts the writing of every case. If the cause of the suffering is a caricature, the victims end up similarly toothless. They are equally generic. AA has always struggled to write witnesses and culprits consistently well--there's a reason people talk about ace attorney middle cases like that for instance--but it's compounded by the frequency that it happens especially for the main characters.

The returning main cast are hollowed out versions of themselves. Trucy is just a quirky magician girl which they walk back a little in Spirit of Justice by giving her a focus case, and then she's back to being Quirky. Phoenix Wright is a generic mentor figure with goofy internal dialogue sometimes. Klavier is a rockstar prosecutor!!! That's it!!!! Miles Edgeworth is BACK, and because they worked on the investigations games you can kind of see why he's this big good figure, but Pearl and Maya are seemingly around just to be around cause they have nothing going on emotionally. Apollo is a stock dweeb except when he's stock Edgy as a result of one of his new poorly written backstories involving poorly written new characters who might not even be characters (looking at you, Clay Terran).

And the new main characters suffer just as much. Let's take Dual Destinies as a case study. Blackquill was convicted and imprisoned for a murder he did not do, something that changed him and shows in his scenes, in order to protect Athena, whose upbeat personality is only preserved because she is so traumatized by the events and her complicated relationship with her mother and hearing she cannot acknowledge it consciously. These are compelling emotional beats, it makes for well-rounded characters, but what's the payoff? Why did they suffer this way? Because some hired goon with no name and no face had a job at GYAXA to execute. In a better game, you could use Phantom's emptiness as commentary about how often the things that ruin your life don't have good explanations, but I will not be lending credit to that notion for this game, because void man is the origin point for "The Dark Age of the Law," which now also happened because it did, and it was a shallow idea from the jump.

"The Dark Age of the Law" is an simplified cartoon explanation for distrust in the legal system. Instead of people being flawed whether through selfishness (MvK, Kristoph) or trauma (Miles, Justine) lending itself to corruption, exploitation and injustice in systems meant to protect, leading to a myriad of reasons the public would be skeptical that the law serves them, they just feel that way because one lawyer got disbarred for evidence forging and one prosecutor was convicted for murder. Spirit of Justice largely takes place in a made up country with a tyrannical government that kills defense attorneys for assuring fair trials for guilty clients! Why does this happen? Idk, because Ga'ran sucks, and she has ultimate power and creates all the laws. The root of all evil in Khura'in is one woman who is a factory set trope surrounded by generic citizens, diluted returning leads, and new characters who must be dragged down by the garbage that surrounds them in order to take part in it.

You brought up AI. Since you're anonymous, I'm guessing you're one of the countless people who takes issue with Nirvana Initiative on the grounds it's a bad followup to AITSF, to which I first have to ask.... Are you new to my blog? This is a AINI defender account lmao. I think it's better than AITSF, fight me. I'm writing a whole essay about it; I'll win. That said, I get the comparison because it's one I've made before, even if I don't quite stand by it anymore. I'm not going to explain my AINI opinions here, wait for the essay if you're curious, but I think I can get at that difference to me just by using Ace Attorney alone.

My favorite Ace Attorney game is Investigations 2, a sequel to a spin-off that has two of the writers for the mainline games I hate. It's a game about legacy and family. Whether they were admirable and just like Gregory Edgeworth, or duplicitous abusers like Blaise Debeste, the cast of this game wrestles with who they are, how their parent (or parental figure) shaped them, and who they should be in the face that now. Maybe they have to learn what that person is actually like and separate from them, or maybe they find a new family among their friends to fill that absence, or maybe they make peace with that loss and accepting who they are now is someone worth being. Maybe they deny that memory as their own or significant until the end to preserve what they want to believe. It's also a game about systemic failure, and all the things that have to be done to make the law an institute that actually protects people. Specific bad actors may be out of the picture now, but there is still more work to be done.

And the funny thing is? I2 does all of this without actually talking all that much about the rest of the series. Most of the characters are new, even to Investigations, and the ones that return don't bring up most of the shit that happened like a week ago. Miles references the events of Turnabout Goodbyes, and "That Man", and Gregory Edgeworth is a key figure in this game, to the point where you play as him, and yet all of that is only alluded just enough to understand the magnitude of his image and his loss. The heart of AA has always been in its characters, who are zany and fun, but they face real tragedy and real abuses, at the hands of one another which are then reflected in the world of law because the justice system is created and run by people; in I2 it beats so strongly.

Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice may have the skin of Ace Attorney and the bones to prop them up, but underneath that familiar exterior, they're empty. They lack the the muscles and veins and blood to bring them to life, because the character writing and thematic conceits are shallow. The reason AA5 and 6 fail as followups is not because they don't engage with prior entries enough, but because they are poorly written on their own terms. They say nothing at all; they have removed their own heart.

#hope.txt #ace attorney #my meta #i wrote all this instead of my essay #man #oh well worth it #why is it every time i see this post the read more is lower????#What the fuck is going on???????????

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characteroulette · 6 months

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okay you know what. this has delayed me by an entire two days in writing the apolluke fic (should really come up with an acronym or something) so I have to outsource the question

riddle me this! I don’t know what detective to have on the case.

my first thought was ema! but, the fic’s in 2028 and I know that we’re retconning SoJ’s 2028 events but she’s 100% gotten her promotion to a forensic scientist by this point and I refuse to believe she hasnt. she DESERVES.

and I adore ema as a character but honest to god despite finishing my Apollo Justice playthrough recently could NOT get a grasp on her personality?? she’s just kinda very moody and as funny as it is, that isn’t very present on SoJ from what I’ve seen (don’t own a copy and still watching the game) but she is more likely, I just have no will to write her yet nor the confidence.

the thing is?? I don’t really have other options. because we’re post DD so no Fulbright and as much as I am the biggest Gumshoe fan to walk the earth iii think he isn’t gonna work here. I could always do an OC and that is my second option if I can’t figure out how the hell I’m gonna write Ema but I do have the OCs for this case worked out and there’s no space for the detective to be really case relative. a new detective would be so fun to write though and honest to god I already have plenty ocs that can do that legwork

sorry to yell here about this!! this was. um. super long and also ema Skye appreciation I adore her but I dont know if I can’t write her she’s delayed me by days already and I hope to have this up by Monday (my time) . On the other hand if I do plan to make more casefics/side fics for the Apolluke Penpal Cinematic Universe, a dedicated detective could be fun but would require introducing to the audience

Ooohh yeah I hear ya there. Figuring out a solid Detective for a case is a bit tricky, especially when it comes to Ema. She seems like a normal, easy character on the outset (how hard can it really be to write a jaded once bright-eyed lover of all things forensic sciences?? She's a nerd to boot, should be easy!), but lots of difficulties once you get into the weeds. (She's jaded, but in a similar way to Hobohodou. She hates Klavier Gavin with a passion. She's excited for her job but she's stuck with all these damn fussy boys!) (SoJ is pretty excellent for her character, love to see her though my poor dear goes through some of it ;w; ;;; ) I, too, love her, though, so no worries, I love hearing the take on her!! =w=

A new detective would be cool to see, tbh!! I'm all for Ace Attorney OCs (I have my own and all lol) (Prosecutor, his Mortician siblings, and their twin Detective buds) (duality is a theme I lean into a lot hahaha), so if it works better like that, then go for it! Could also like, make Kay the Detective if you prefer a familiar face, I know popular fanon is that she's Detective by the AJ era.

A wild chaotic third option, force Luke to fill the Detective role lmao-- (/I am removed for being too chaotic)

#Momo replies to things #Detective-piplup #Fascinating stuff!!#Good luck!!!#As a reminder I am always up for rambling about things hahaha #You are so right Ema is the best #Love that science gal #I added Lang to my werewolf fic for. Reasons.#Not even I know the reasons lol #Also no worries about taking a while lol #Take all the time you need!!#No rush!!#I take like months sometimes to figure shit out lol don't worry about it

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brainrattlers · 1 year

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Play It Cool - Tyson Jost (38/n)

Pairing: Tyson Jost x OFC (AJ)

Warnings: A little bit of language, some implied naked shenanigans, but honestly I think we're alright.

Word Count: 3525

Need Chapter 37? https://at.tumblr.com/brainrattlers/play-it-cool-tyson-jost-37n/njuzxoktjxn8

Start from the beginning at https://at.tumblr.com/brainrattlers/play-it-cool-tyson-jost-1n/p7no8u1hzuza

Author's Notes: I'm BACK! Decided to hit up a few of the closer Sabres games to me last week, catching both the Dallas and St. Louis games. I think I'm still trying to catch up on sleep... but it was so much fun. The Sabres fans I met at both games were a blast to cheer with. If you happened to see Waldo (of Where's Waldo fame) at the Buffalo/StL game, you found me ;) Thank you all for being patient while I took a little break from writing. And It's nearly 3am so I'm clearly back to my old self - any typos are mine and I'll probably fix them in the morning!

So where were we? Ahhh yes, Tyson and AJ found out the apartment they wanted was available... but he also has a roadie coming up. Will that throw a wrench in the plans to get moved out of the hotel and into a new home?

The next few days were a blur as Tyson was alternating between home and away games, while AJ was finalizing things for a potential move to the new apartment. She had taken the lead on getting things set up, wanting to make the transition as smooth as possible considering it was the middle of the season - moving anytime is stressful. AJ wasn’t connecting the dots though that this is the man that flies all over the continent to play hockey, waking up in different cities, different beds, wasn’t a huge deal. She was probably making it out to be more detrimental to him than it really was.

But more about the apartment, as soon as AJ took Tyson to see it, he knew that was the one. The property manager hadn’t even shown them past the first two rooms but the giddiness on AJ’s face was enough to tell him it was going to be home, at least for now. The master bedroom was huge, with an en suite bath, including both a shower and a bathtub.

(“No more waiting for you to get out of the tub so I can shower, yeah?”

“You’re just as guilty of soaking in a nice hot bath. Don’t think I didn’t notice the missing bath bomb from my basket.”

“Can’t prove it was me.”

“Your legs and torso were slightly shimmery and you smelled of lavender, Jost.”

Tyson sheepishly grinned.)

There was a guest room in case friends or family came into town. Another room that AJ could set up her computer gear, and also work on some art projects. The two figured that a sofa would be super comfy in there as well, one that could turn into a bed for even more guests if necessary. The kitchen was more than large enough for the two of them to dance while doing dishes.

AJ’s favorite part was how many windows lined the walls. She already could envision stands and shelves of plants flanking them, letting the leaves soak up the natural light that flooded the rooms through various hours of the day. To the west, Key Bank Arena and Lake Erie were visible in the distance.

Hearing of her plans, he couldn’t say no. On top of it making AJ happy, it was a short drive to both the practice rink and the arena. It was a trendy, renovated part of town that was busy with restaurants and things to see and do. They’d be up high enough on the twelfth floor to not be bothered with the street noise. It all just felt right.

Needless to say, they signed a lease that day, and would be able to move in within weeks. This posed a small issue for AJ, but she wasn’t going to make mention of it. At least this time around, Tyson insisted on hiring movers to bring all their stuff up, especially with it being on such a high floor. AJ would just have to direct traffic and then unpack boxes, with all the heavy stuff being put into place already. She wasn’t about to argue about that this time around.

With a loss at home against Florida, the team hit the road for Chicago, losing in OT to one of the league’s worst teams. The next two games were at home, against the Islanders and Ducks. The first game was a win, with Tyson netting himself an assist. The next day found Tyson at practice, and AJ helping the movers get furniture put into place, and boxes all loaded up into various rooms. The remaining items at the hotel were starting to dwindle as AJ moved most of their belongings over.

Coming back from practice, Tyson found the hotel room missing AJ as she was in the process of moving some stuff the few blocks over to the new building. He sighed, looking at the garland and lights that still lined the ceiling of their room. Gently he pulled the hooks from the walls, looping the lights and shiny garland neatly and placing it in one of the empty bins. He honestly was going to miss it at the new place, even though that very same new place was home.

Even when AJ came back to pick up more stuff, the lack of twinkling lights reflecting against the walls made the place feel empty.

With most everything moved over, the last few things in the room were just pillows, a few sets of clothes, and the last few items needed in the bathroom. AJ had made mention it was going to take a while to get some stuff unpacked, and with Tyson going on the road here in a few days, that maybe they could officially “move in” once he returned. Her outward intent was to get most everything unpacked while he was gone, but that was going to be a little difficult as she actually had some plans already in the works for something else.

The two slept hard that night in the hotel, after moving and unpacking a few boxes, as well as rearranging some furniture. The next morning, AJ was back at it, while Tyson had morning skate before the Anaheim game. Taking some time off, she snagged a ticket and made her way to the arena to cheer on the Sabres with a 6-3 victory. Tyson had a pretty good night, another assist and some pretty good numbers in the box score.

One final night together in the hotel… AJ had issues keeping Tyson focused on getting packed up for the four game roadie, which would send him to Dallas, St. Louis, Winnipeg, and ending in St. Paul. Tyson’s interests were more about some late night shenanigans to literally go out with a bang before officially moving into the new apartment. While getting his backpack filled and his suit laid out for the trip, AJ was trying to secretly pack her own backpack, giving the reason of “oh this is my last bag of stuff to go over.”

Little did Tyson know that, while technically true, that bag was going to be making some of the same stops on the roadie.

That Sunday morning, Tyson had morning practice before heading to the airport. In the same time frame, AJ go the last of their stuff moved from the hotel, and she herself headed to the airport, boarding a different plane. She felt awful for what she was about to do.

AJ: Hey babe, I’m pretty exhausted and am going to crash for a bit. Text me when you land?

She wasn’t lying. The motion sickness pills she downed as she got to the airport were kicking in and she likely was going to sleep on the plane. But all the same, AJ felt a little dirty about it.

Right before takeoff, AJ’s phone, which was supposed to be in airplane mode (seriously, who actually puts their phone in airplane mode when flying?), buzzed in her hand.

Tyson: Sleep well babe, only a few more sleeps until we’re both back in our bed. Heading to the airport here in a bit. Ily

A smile hit AJ’s face, thinking about having a space that was truly theirs, with their own things, and room to move around, and could set up everything the way they wanted. As the plane took off, she fidgeted with the engagement ring on her finger, focusing on it, rather than the upward movement of the plane that made her dizzy. Once at cruising altitude, AJ indeed fell asleep to one of Tyson’s house mixes. It took the passenger next to her tapping her on the shoulder to wake her up as they were landing at DFW - what felt like minutes later, but really was hours.

Collecting her bag and trekking through the airport, AJ found her way to the Orange Line, and took the train into Dallas. It was a quiet day on the train, considering it was not a weekday. Watching out the windows, she took in views she’d never seen before. Hopping off at Victory Station, which spit her out right by the arena, leaving the rest of the way to her hotel as about a half mile walk. Checking in, she made her way to the third floor and faceplanted on the bed.

Tyson: On the ground in Dallas. Miss you already. How’s unpacking?

AJ looked around and saw her bag sitting on the ottoman in her room.

AJ: Honestly haven’t really unpacked much. Kind of relaxing at the moment honestly.

Tyson: Understand completely, no big rush. I think we’re going out for dinner. Talk more later?

AJ: Of course. Have fun! (heart emoji)

Looking at her watch, AJ was trying to figure out what to do with her evening. She didn’t want to chance somehow bumping into Tyson going out for dinner, but at the same time, everything nearby was stupidly pricey in her eyes. In a last minute decision, she put in an order online for Shake Shack, and walked to Crescent Court to pick it up. Thankfully, unlike the last time AJ was at Crescent Court with Jess the year before, there were no team buses or players around. With food in tow, she arrived back at her hotel, sprawling out on the sofa to enjoy dinner and a movie.

It was driving her nuts though knowing Tyson was maybe a mile away, but she’d see him soon enough.

With a few texts, both insisted they were needing sleep, and that they’d talk more Monday.

Snagging breakfast at the hotel, AJ contemplated what to do before the game that evening. Checking out what was nearby, she walked to the Dallas Museum of Art, taking in a wide variety of pieces by famous artists. At the same time Tyson was a half mile away getting ready for morning skate, with a strange feeling. He couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but something definitely felt odd.

Tyson missed AJ, but it wasn’t the same as other roadies. He had butterflies in his stomach for some reason.

After finishing up at the museum, AJ got in a nap before getting cleaned up and heading to the arena. There were a surprising number of Sabres fans at American Airlines Center. Getting down to the glass on the Sabres’ warmup side, AJ knew where Tyson would be warming up. She had a tiny sign that would fit in her backpack she traveled with.

The fans congregated together, chatting about where everyone was from and who everyone’s favorite players were. While she agreed that Thompson and Dahlin were great players, AJ made mention that Tyson Jost was her favorite. The guy with the kid next to her looked at her weird, but another person piped up, commenting on what a great pickup he was for the Sabres. It made her heart happy.

Looking around the end of the ice, there were a number of other signs for players, including a couple more for Tyson. Impatiently waiting until the 16:00 mark was tough for AJ, but the team took to the ice tossing pucks at Anderson playing in his 700th game. Her eyes followed Tyson around, where they did their initial drills. Tyson went to the other side of the glass, reading a poster another fan had, offering a choice of candy, probably for a puck. He skated back to the bench with something and tossed it to the equipment manager before grabbing a puck and starting his own stickhandling drill.

Not even paying attention, he drilled the puck into the boards directly under AJ’s feet and caught the rebound on his stick. Looking up, he saw a small poster, and then looked up even further to see who was holding it. The smile on his face couldn’t be contained as he skated closer, mouthing “Hey you!” as AJ gave a tiny wave. Leaning down, he got a puck on his stick and sent it over the glass to the kid directly next to her, fist bumping him through the glass. The butterflies in Tyson’s stomach from earlier now made sense.

The guy who previously looked at AJ weird for saying Jost was her favorite tapped her on the shoulder.

“What was that?”

“We’ve known each other since he played for Colorado. Thought I’d surprise him at the game.” AJ chuckled.

With warmups complete, and in fact, Buffalo stayed on the ice longer than the warmup clock lasted just to get under the skin of the Stars, AJ found her seat behind the Sabres’ bench. Luckily it was filled with other Sabres fans and she made some new friends that night. The game started off not so great with the Stars scoring within the first two minutes, but the Sabres fired back later in the first. The game went silent in the 2nd, but in the third period, the Sabres scored early to have a 2-1 lead. Later in the period, the Stars tied it up. Throughout the game, Tyson glanced back finding AJ cheering for the team in white and blue.

The Sabres held on to take it to OT.

“I’m standing up,” Dan, AJ’s new friend sitting next to her, stated. “With our top lines out there 3-on-3, this isn’t going to last long. We’re standing up.”

Everyone stood up behind the bench, which pissed off the row behind them, but it was well worth it. Power scored fifty-six seconds into the overtime period, giving the Sabres the win. The Sabres fans cheered, while the Stars fans were left sulking as they walked the stairs to the concourse of the arena. The team piled into the dressing room, and headed for the airport as they were to play St. Louis the next day.

Tyson: EGGO you’re crazy for flying out here! I love you for it though, made my night.

AJ: Crazy about YOU! Fun game. Wish I were flying with you tonight.

Tyson: Me too. When do you fly out?

AJ had to word this very carefully.

AJ: My flight is at 11:15. Figured I could at least score some breakfast before I leave (lol emoji)

Tyson: Text me when you land? We’re taking off.

AJ: You know it babe. Safe travels, love you!

AJ was asleep when the next text hit her phone, of Tyson landing in St. Louis. He was glad she seemingly slept through it. As much as he still loved getting to say “text you when I land” and then doing so, he always felt a little pang of guilt if she’d text back at 3am wherever she was in comparison. At the same time he did enjoy some of her sleepy text typos, and imagining her bleary-eyed in bed texting him back.

What did wake AJ up was her alarm so she would make it downstairs to, yes, get breakfast, pack up, and take the train back to DFW. Not thinking fully about the weather when she packed, as soon as she took a few steps onto the sidewalk of Harry Hines Blvd, it started raining, and she did not pack her umbrella. Walking under overhangs as much as she could, which was tough around the arena because there aren’t any, AJ was becoming more and more soggy as she reached the train stop. Thankfully she made it just in time for the Orange line back, and sat back as it poured down rain the whole way to the airport. Once through security, she sat next to a window with a mint hot chocolate from Dunkin watching the rain.

A quick text was sent as she boarded the plane, and was finally in the air. A bit later, she was on the ground again. AJ’s Lyft driver was awesome, the two chatted the whole way from the airport to her destination. However, that text she said she’d send was a little delayed.

AJ: Hey, on the ground. How was your flight?

Tyson: It was alright, got in around 1am like you saw. Yours?

AJ: Not bad. Hoped I’d get some sleep but didn’t. Oh damn it’s almost time for you to get ready to play, isn’t it? Kick some ass tonight, Jost. (heart emoji)

Tyson: Only because you said so. Going to miss you in the stands, last night spoiled me.

AJ: You’ll see me soon enough. I’ll be watching the game, cheering you on!

Tyson stared at the last message, getting that odd feeling he had in Dallas again.

“Surely she isn’t here… no… she went back home, right?”

A few of the guys in the dressing room noticed how antsy Tyson was to get out onto the ice for warmups. Kyle was giving him shit for the fact AJ was in Dallas to surprise him the night before, and how he was acting like his kids do when they are excited to be going out for ice cream. The feeling in Tyson’s stomach wasn’t subsiding. He was fidgeting with the tape on his stick waiting for the moment they could take the ice.

Keeping his normal focus was difficult as warmups began, and he started scanning the glass. There were a number of fans, both for the Sabres and Blues already lined up. With a deep breath he went back to doing drills, trying to push the butterflies down. Okie skated up along the boards and stopped, looking back and winking at the person behind him.

As the team drills wound down, Tyson went back toward the center line doing some stretches, when someone caught his eye. Squinting, suddenly his eyes went wide as he continued warming up his legs. Hopping up, he grabbed a puck to do his drills between the blue line and the faceoff circle.

Finishing up, he attempted to get the puck to hop onto his stick blade, but he missed not once, but twice. Looking up, his face was a little flushed as he smiled at AJ, still fumbling around. Reaching down, trying to just simply pick up the puck with his gloves, Tyson still was struggling. Finally with the puck in his hands, and his face now full on blushing, he got the puck over to the kids slapping the glass next to her. With a look back and wink at AJ, he felt like the luckiest man on Earth that his fiancee was at the game again, even if she weren’t behind the bench this time around.

There were definitely less Sabres fans at this game in St. Louis than in Dallas, but AJ made the best of it with her #LETSGOBUFFALO sign as she sat behind the Sabres Attack Twice goal. What made it even better was the 5-3 win over the Blues… especially with AJ’s history with games in St. Louis.

What made the night less stellar was that St. Louis was under a winter storm warning until noon the next day, and AJ’s flight was leaving the next morning at 5:40AM, with her Lyft coming at 3:10AM. She was terrified of one of three things happening:

She was going to oversleep, the original plan was actually to stay awake until her ride arrived.

Her ride was going to cancel and she would have no way to get to the airport on time.

The airport was going to shut down due to the weather.

Thankfully none of these happened, and she did in fact make it to the airport in time. After getting through security (being harassed by a rather rude TSA agent that thought she had something on her ankle, which, surprise, there was nothing but her ankle there), she made her way to Starbucks to snag a drink and prepare for the first of two flights. The snow was really starting to come down though and made her worried.

Just like Tyson’s gut was telling him something the previous few days, her’s was now talking to her.

Tyson and the team had flown out of St. Louis after the game thankfully, and he was safe on the ground in Winnipeg.

Knowing he was asleep, AJ just sent a quick note that she was at the airport, indeed going back to Buffalo, as much as she wanted to continue the roadie with him. She was nervous about the weather, hoping to make her connection as she was already delayed 40 minutes. The plus side, the flight wasn’t full and she ended up getting her own row on that flight.

On the ground in Dallas again, she was stressing hardcore about the connection, it was in a completely different terminal. But the flight deities smiled upon AJ that day and somehow getting out of the jetway and down the hallway, she found herself in Terminal B, right near her gate that had not yet started boarding.

AJ: Made my connection, heading home to Buffalo. (heart emoji)

Tyson looked sleepily at his phone screen with one eye, then put it back on the nightstand next to him. A warm feeling filled his chest upon seeing AJ call Buffalo “home.”

#Tyson Jost #Josty #Play It Cool #Tyson Jost x OFC #TysonTuesday #Buffalo Sabres #Colorado Avalanche

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the-most-golden-year · 1 year

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Entry No. 19

My mom and dad, bless their souls, I truly do love them, but they kinda gave the game away when it came to Santa Claus. They initially just went with it cause it was like cute or whatever. Wanted me to have the same childhood experience they had of believing this magical old guy with all the gifts that you wanted was real. And so every year up until I was like 6 or 7, I believe, my parents always designated one box that would say from Santa. It was clearly in my mother’s handwriting. I’m not saying I was the smartest kid by any means, but I knew something fishy was up already.

By that time when I was 6 or 7, my “Santa” gift was a bunch of LEGOs. Like literally a box of just LEGO bricks and my parents were just like “Hey, go nuts with it. Knock yourself out. Don’t eat them.” Like yeah, yeah, whatever, so I would build with those bricks like every day. Just sit out on the living room carpet, stacking one brick on top of the next, maybe making a big ol’ tower or a house, some kind of creature, a car model, whatever. I had the little LEGO figures too so I could put them on these cool little displays that I made. And one afternoon, as I’m doing so, my mom is just walking from one room to the next, minding her business. She quickly asks something along the lines of “Oh, how do you like those LEGOs we got you?”

Now, most kids would’ve been bawling their eyes out at the idea that this fat bastard that eats cookies and milk from your own fucking kitchen every year is suddenly not real. Me? I had been trying to catch her red-handed for the longest time. I didn’t believe any of this holiday hogwash. I remember fighting tooth and nail to get my mom to admit that the tooth fairy wasn’t real. What tooth fairy slips under the pillow and gives a kid ten bucks? What the fuck is a seven year old scrawny little kid like me supposed to do with ten bucks?

And in that same fight I fought with her about the Easter Bunny. Yeah right, some big ass rabbit hops around the house and lays plastic eggs everywhere. You realize how creepy all of this shit sounds now as adults? What was actually so cute about the idea of grown, mythical beasts storming into our houses in the middle of the night, just so they could leave what, a bicycle? A new pair of pants? A Playstation? And don’t even get me started with that reindeer food nonsense.

So yeah, soon as she said that, I whipped around with my pointer finger out like “Ha! Got you!” And my mom was fully red in the face, and not even trying to fight it, she said, “Yeah, I guess you did.”

-AJ

0 notes

survivor-north-sea · 1 year

Text

Episode Eight: "May the odds be with me or not" - Esteban

Champagne

Ooooffff that tribal yikes, I’m really upset Brandi left bc I loved her but Bethany is always gonna be my true alliance and I never wanted to vote against my majority alliance but at least I made a power move🤪

Jayjay

*gasping for air* 👀 👀 👀 👀

Tyler Frazier

We just merged and guess what…I’m in an awful position! But that’s nothing new I’ve been in the same spot the entire game. I’m not on the bottom of one alliance I am on the bottom of 2! Actually I’m in neither of the majority alliances so that’s great! Plus I burned Raffy at the last tribal so I would not be shocked if he comes for me at this upcoming vote 🥰

Jayjay

Well that was a WILD tribal council. I didn’t think that a tromoya would flip right before merge but I’m not completely surprised. All I’m trying to figure out now is if my gut keeps telling me I’m Right about Raffy then it was him although I want so badly to be able to trust him! And if it was Brandi I’m glad she is gone. However my gut is really not letting me just go with the obvious and I’m thinking Champ or Raffy flipped. So either Champ is lying to Hairie and I and playing us. OR Raffy is really great at putting on a whole show and making us believe him to cover up his tracks. Either way I’m wary of both and only trust Hairie at this point.! On the bright side…. I made it to merge!!!! 🙏🏻🥹 🎉

Trinica

I picked the merge tribe name, another Survivor bucket list item crossed off! Tromoya's tribal was WILD and idk if it's my ADHD ass but I can't make head nor tails of what exactly happened or who's on whose side, so I'm excited to get the rundown from Bethany tomorrow. It seems like Raffy's in his feelings about folks not voting for Bethany and claimed he would flip at merge if they want to rocks, which is giving emotional player, which always makes me nervous. I like predictability and logic! But it is fun to watch, at least. Raffy actually seems really cool, I'd love to work with him. I just don't know if I could trust him.

I reached out to Tyler because Raffy shut him down with the QUICKNESS at tribal with his "I wasn't talking to you." It's the most Tyler's talked to me all game lol. I'm shocked that he stuck with Bethany and didn't flip, I apologize for saying there was no way he didn't immediately flip.

I'm honestly just exhausted today, I'm getting sick and just don't have energy to have multiple conversations AND work on this damn immunity challenge. I think I've already lost it to Raffy but I'm going to try my hardest because I wouldn't be surprised if AJ or I got targeted.

Hairie

This one is gonna be a STORY.

We lost the challenge and headed to tribal. I honestly didn't want Bethany to go and told her if she can get votes for Tyler we can push it through.

Being in a different timezone and all I was scared to go to sleep because I didn't want to miss out on strategising while the rest are up since its daytime for them but me knocking out minutes after !!!

An hour before tribal, I found out that my name is going around and for that reason I didn't want to sleep but didn't want to waste any more time so I got to scrambling and immediately told Jay I'll be 50/50 playing the idol tonight.

Come tribal .. It was a 4 votes Bethany and 4 votes for me and at this point I was internally screaming that I should have played the idol. Trusting the people that I stuck out for and a pretty insane tribal at that, the votes stayed the same after revoting and calling out each other and drawing the alliance lines right there and then, it was rocks. There seems to be a plan to go to rocks and in my head at this time was yelling Brandi flipped internally ( I could be wrong) but that was my judgement then. Rocks came and Brandi went home and if she did flipped, the rocks went our way and I still get to keep my idol.

I don't know who or how or when my name is being thrown around about me having an idol. I didn't have it only until recently at the market and that was by chance because Raffy didn't want the sweater.

Also kinda shocked Esteban called me out about not wanting to get to know him but I'm pretty sure I did though but all is good on that because it could be just how we interpreted the messages.

First individual immunity challenge was ... A LOT again screaming internally. (Takes a sip of coconut juice).

I was actually pretty shocked I found the first page pretty quick like I did 200-400 and then 111-199 then 900-999 and finally decided to go in the middle with 600 ... 617 Kaboom if I didn't had to prepare for work I would probably have located it in under an hour.

I screamed so many times during this challenge "Winterbell" "agar.io" and "2048" but the most difficult for me was the jigsaw puzzle , took me nearly 2 hours and then around 1 hour++ I checked back the Tumblr post and notice the image was right there smack in my face all this time MY GOODNESS.

Challenge made me feel all sorts of things > laugh, cry, scream, angry, frustrated but glad that it was over.

Getting to know the remaining casts as well and I like Trinica. Been getting to know a lot about her and some truths about Hidra and past tribal councils. She even gifted me a 10% advantage when she bought bread at the market. I do believe in good gestures and we can work together to vote out our targets if they don't win immunity.

and that's the tea from Hairie ~

So much has happened recently, it's super insane. Got my first tribal shoutout, ayyyyy. Seems like for the most part Raffy and Hairie want to work with me though so I'm not too worried about that all things considered. It seems like I could actually win this individual immunity, trying not to get my hopes up too high, better confessional will be up soonTyler FrazierTbh winning just is not my vibe this game. Like it’s just really not gonna happen. But that is okay! Here for a good time not a long one ig

Arvin Bentonon

1 hour left and I didn't even started the challenge. Huhu

Trinica

ESTEBAN!!!!! YOU LITTLE SNAKE!!!!!!! Miss me with the apology tour bullshit if you're going to turn around and tell Toni you're only apologizing to get me as a number and pick me off later! I keep thinking maybe he's changing his tune. But nope. an apology call after each backstab is smart gameplay, but only the first time my friend.

I want him O U T. But I'm about to play his game lol because I do need his vote at least for this first tribal. Tromoya might just win this because Hidra cannibalizes itself.

Raffy

Welp its been a fun ride, but I'm going home soon. No point in fighting the inevitable at this point lol. There really is no chance for this cocky bitch to win lmao. Everyone has already decided who I am for me. Can't change their opinions now.

Arvin Bentonon

Now, I really need to step up my game. This will serve as a wake up call for me to not take for granted individual immunities. I'm gonna fight til the end.

Trinica

I hope nobody is paying too much attention to the touchy subjects results because...it could kind of blow up my game. Not me getting 2 votes for closest ally!! I'm assuming it's Jinx and Toni BUT it's awkward because I didn't put either of them, and nobody put Toni. I think I can convince Jinx I put her if necessary, but I worry Toni will start feeling insecure in the vecepia alliance.

I also got a vote for who has an idol and who will win if they're not voted out , I honestly feel like both of those came from AJ because I voted her for both categories as well. We're playing Rusdian Roulette with this alliance (is that the right metaphor?)

Thankfully, she has 5 other people who think she's playing too hard. I think that result is what will pull attention, hopefully. Using AJ as a shield has always been the game plan, but she's making herself TOO much of a target at the moment.

Tyler Frazier

Raffy and Hairie are running a smear campaign on Esteban and I currently and Bethany is trying to defend us. Hope she does good work like the girlboss she is. However for me it’s just a bit odd for Hairie and Raffy to try and come for Esteban and I because what’s their argument? We know about the non mens alliance from them? They didn’t do whatever we wanted? We quite literally saved someone in their alliance when Bethany could have been a easy vote and would have made the merge a lot less messy. I hope that the 4 of them can see that and side with us and when it comes time to talk game I’m gonna make that clear to them aswell.

Esteban

First of all, my sincerity apology for not being able to play the challenge. It has been a long day. I hope this will not happen again (fingers cross)

So, Tony called me and told me about Raffy calling out my name and Tyler’s name. And it was confirmed by Bethany that Raffy really started to pulling the girls on his side. (Which I respect). But we will not backdown on this battle. I started talking to the HIDRA girls with exception of Jinx yet (as she might not available or just don’t wanna talk to me yet) and come clear and accepted my fault of calling their alliance out. I hope that would help. And I voting with Bethany should be a testimony that i wanna still work with them again until near end.

I hope with the backing of Toni and bethany that I will survive yet another tribal. But if not then no regrets, i played with my best and satisfied. Period. :)

And oh yes. Raffy started the war. So the only thing to do is to end it. May the odds be with me or not. :)

Jinx

merge jinxcast 🫶🏽💕 “i know i’m playing like a villain but i have a hero’s heart” https://voca.ro/1hdoVXSHz6HJ

i talk about where i’ve been, where i’m going, what weighs heavy and what could be better than i could even imagine. who i’ll be at the end of this journey and what does it mean to truly want something for yourself?

Toni

Theme: Struggle life.

I’ve come to terms with the fact that this has been a relatively game for most of the returnees but the way my anxiety is set up. I’m anxious every tribal even though my name isn’t up.

I’m also currently on holiday with the family. So struggle life trying to participate.

Signing off struggling.

Trinica

It's possible I'm being blindsided but I really think I'm running this vote. Raffy seems to trust me, Hairie and Arvin put me into a chat together and seem to trust me, Esteban thinks I've bought his BS (unless Bethany told him otherwise). I told Raffy Esteban's saying his name, I told Esteban Raffy's saying he's spreading my name around. I suggested to both we vote for JayJay to flush out the idol that the other might have. It's just beautiful. Everything is working according to plan.

JayJay is a boring vote but one that will cement Hidra in the majority without me having to sacrifice these new alliances.

My only worry is Bethany, who I think at this point is much more aligned with Tyler and Esteban than she ever was with us. I don't trust her at all.

Raffy

The strategy this round has been kind of crazy. I’ve basically given myself over to AJ and Trinica. I have made it very clear and explicit to a few people that I want Esteban to be taken out of this game. I want him gone because I just don’t know if I can ever really trust him at this point. He’s a person who smiles to your face while they’re stabbing you in the back. I believe he never really had any intention in working with me. Also it’s interesting hearing AJ’s side of the story as it makes Esteban out to be the person who overplayed. Anyways, I want him gone. Trinica was very receptive at first, but idol paranoia is at an all time high. She wants to flush any idols Esteban may have so she suggested that we actually vote for JayJay so that he doesn’t see it coming. I feel bad because I know JayJay hasn’t been feeling well and I don’t want to seem like I’m betraying old Tromoya. However, Trinica also told me that JayJay told Bethany that I have an idol. That’s definitely suspicious. If whoever voted with Bethany last tribal wanted Tromoya never to work together or wanted us to take each other out because of paranoia, it worked. Because all last tribal managed to do was give Hidra numbers, Bethany power in this game, and Tromoya to not be unified coming into merge. Congrats to those people. So I’m very hesitant to trust that JayJay didn’t vote for Hairie. Especially considering that she was expressing extreme hesitance in voting for Bethany. I don’t who to trust anymore. I just want Esteban out of this game. I don’t know if I’ll use my idol because maybe I won’t even need it to succeed and will need it later. But, how can I trust anyone if they all just think im the biggest threat. This game is too hard. If only we could go back to the OG plan of voting Esteban

Tyler Frazier

I just felt like I should give a confessional but I honestly don’t know what to say because every plan I’ve been told makes absolutely no sense and nobody cares enough about me to actually ask and or consider how I think the vote should go. Tempted to take a nap and wake up before tribal and just ask who I’m supposed to vote.

Honestly I think this round alone makes survivor Gabon look like a master class in gameplay bc we are all just collectively as a cast not slaying gameplay wise. At least we aren’t a boring cast though!

Trinica

Jinx I am begging you.....I am BEGGING YOU............please stop throwing wrenches in the voting plan 3 hours before tribal. PLEASE

Bethany

okay honestly this round is the biggest hot mess i have ever seen in my entire life.

first off all - i fucking slayed that challenge so hard and for what??? i could have taken a nap in the middle of it and still won. literally slackers :yawn: can't wait to be targeted next round for being an immunity threat <33

second of all - WHY DO PEOPLE IN PINK VENOM STILL THINK THERE IS ANY SEMBLANCE OF SECRET ABOUT ITS EXISTENCE????????? it literally could not possibly be more exposed and it is so irritating trying to work around these random nonsense split vote plans

third of all - champ is such an annoying ally this game i seriously can't with her much longer. she is MIA 24/7, does not advocate for tyler and i in any way, has no clue what is going on, and overall is just not someone i want to work with at this point!! i think she would honestly be in a much better position if she had committed to flipping to us and not having all of us lie and pretend its BRANDI WHO LITERALLY SAID SHE DID NOT FLIP it is the most unbelievable story ever and irritating because like ..... what is the point???

at this point i want to be voted off before ftc because i can't even explain any of this. it is so messy for no reason. also not a fan of pink venom all being so buddy buddy with raffy all of a sudden! it's really pissing me off when the entire reason i was targeted was because god forbid i worked with them again come merge and now that is exactly what raffy is doing here! glad to know it's cool for him but not me! KASJDF;LKDJSFKDSAFJKLDSAJF i can't i can't i can't not a single soul is playing this round well except maybe arvin because that man has said not a peep and that's smart as fuck like you go little goat give us nothing!!! it's better than the rest of this!!

Champ acting like we can orchestrate an entire vote with only 3 of us 90 minutes before tribal <33 ma'am.

vibes of everyone this tribal:

AJ/Trinica - proposing crazy splits that don't add up mathematically, in denial about pink venom being a secret Toni - just vibes Arvin - who? Champ/Jayjay - clueless era Esteban - paranoid Hairie - no idea Jinx - in love with raffy Raffy - controlling everyone because they are sheep who believe anything they hear, king who needs to be taken out Tyler/I - lord help us

Tyler Frazier

I have had to take Tylenol two times today from the headaches I’ve gotten trying to figure out what’s happening tonight. Anyways I’ll be back when I know who I’m supposed to vote and I’ll probably still be confused and or annoyed

Bethany

not trinica calling an alliance with AJ in it the “non-chaotic” players

Tyler Frazier

I’m gonna vote for Hairie bc that’s what I was told but apparently that’s not the real plan. Or it is. Who knows? Not me Esteban or Bethany

Hairie

Sleeping and waking up to last minute scrambling again. Turns out it was me and wrong to trust Trinica and a few others. Going out with the cutest outfit ever and first member of the Jury. I'm rooting for Raffy Jayjay or Trinica to win.

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an-aura-about-you · 2 years

Text

September 1st, 1997

Crossing the Bridge

Somewhere Else Under the King

In today's entry, Ministry of Occultism personnel are reinstated and Jon and Martin make plans to grieve:

“Are you kidding me, Trilby?!” Jim says as he barges into the office.

Trilby looks up from his work. “What?”

“The idol’s here? ” he asks. “In artefact storage?”

Trilby winces and says, “Yes.”

Jim claps his hands together. “Okay. Cool. When are we destroying it?”

“Never.”

“’Scuse me?” Jim says. “I must’ve heard you wrong.”

Trilby waves for Jim to sit. “We’re not destroying the idol.”

Jim yanks a chair back and takes a seat, folding his arms over his chest. “Trilby. You know what that thing can do. We both know what that thing can do. You better have an incredibly good reason for that, and I deserve to know what it is.”

Trilby sighs and shuffles his work around until he has Jackson’s book in front of him. Jim’s right. Everyone here needs to know, but if anyone deserves to know, it’s him. “Destroying the idol could lead to letting something worse into the world.”

Jim pulls his head back slightly in disbelief and asks, “Worse than the Welder?”

“How about a pain god?” Trilby responds.

Jim sucks in a breath, letting that sink in. Once it does, he makes a few tiny nods and goes, “Yeah, yeah that would be worse than the Welder. But we can’t keep it here, can we?”

“Right now, I’d rather know where it is than not,” Trilby says. “At least until I figure out what to do with it.” He makes a small, helpless shrug. “Any ideas?”

Jim hums at that and goes, “Sounds like the sorta thing you’d have a better idea about. If you don’t want anyone to touch or destroy it, how do you keep it outta reach?”

“You mean, what? Pretend like I’m going to steal it and then make that impossible?” Trilby asks.

“It’s an idea.”

Before Trilby can answer, there’s a knock on the doorframe. He and Jim turn at the sound, their new company standing in the open doorway. He doesn’t know the woman, but seeing as she’s with Alexander Yarrow, he guesses she’s likewise with the Ministry of Occultism. Yarrow lets his knuckles linger by the doorframe, his smile muted but his eyes faintly gleaming as they often do when he’s eager to get to work.

“I’m not interrupting anything urgent, am I, Trilby? Mister Fowler?” Yarrow asks.

“Yarrow,” Trilby says in a somewhat professional greeting. “I take it you’ve been cleared?”

“Welcome back,” Jim says. He waves to the woman. “Hey, Lyds.”

She nods and says, “Hey, Jim.”

“Would the two of you come join us in my office?” Yarrow asks. “Miss Jarvis and I have something important to discuss with you.”

Trilby looks to Miss Jarvis, the name clicking together now. Lydia Jarvis. AJ’s sister. Another pulled in because of DeFoe Manor. He should tell her about the idol as well, just as he did for Jim. So he nods, takes Jackson’s book, and stands to follow.

“Excellent,” Yarrow says when Jim likewise gets to his feet. “If all of you would please follow me.”

No one sits in Yarrow’s office. Yarrow is buzzing around, pinning photos up on a corkboard. The other three stand on the other side of his desk, the tension winding tighter as they watch him. He turns to them and smiles wide.

“Before our temporary shutdown, we received some promising news: key artefacts from DeFoe Manor have been found in a compound owned by the Order of the Blessed Agonies,” Yarrow tells them. “Specifically, we believe they’re holding artefacts tied to the entity that has been named John DeFoe.”

The three all visibly flinch.

“I thought you three would be the most eager to take them out of their hands,” Yarrow says before giving Trilby a pointed look.

“And I thought I wasn’t supposed to do that kind of work anymore,” Trilby says. “Not to mention I’m still recovering from a serious injury.”

“Plus he’s got another assignment,” Jim adds. “One that’s kinda important.”

“You’ll understand what I mean shortly,” Yarrow responds to Trilby. “You have a reputation we can use, and our agents can help take full advantage of it.”

“It will require some of your tools and training,” Lydia says. “Mainly for my part of the job.”

Trilby holds back a sigh and goes, “Fine. But if you’re taking me away from my current assignment, I’d appreciate some input on it.” He places the book on Yarrow’s desk. “We have John DeFoe’s soul, and it needs to be contained out of reach without being destroyed. I’m open to suggestions.”

Yarrow places a hand on the book, taking in what he’s looking at, and opens it at random. He briefly glances at Trilby before looking at the book again. “This is an older edition. Where did you get this?”

“Loaned by Jackson Lovelace,” Trilby answers.

Yarrow grins so wide his mouth opens. “You have a connection with Lovelace? Do you know what kind of information he might have on the Order?”

Trilby frowns and gestures to the book. “I have what I need. Besides, I don’t think he’ll be a reliable source of current information. He says he’s cut ties with the Order.”

“Still, it could be valuable,” Yarrow says.

Trilby holds back any expression. There’s a reflexive, unpleasant twist to being useful, but it’s also job security.

Yarrow continues with, “But it will have its time. First things first, retrieving the rest of John DeFoe’s artefacts.”

From there, Yarrow outlines his plan to the three.

Jon is a person again.

Legally speaking. Humanity-wise, he’s more of a person now than he had been for a good couple of years at least. But now he can do things he’s supposed to do like get a job, ideally one he chooses and not one forced upon him by the Ministry of Occultism. So here he is, sitting at his table looking at job listings while Martin sits across from him working on his poetry. He has a new appreciation for everything Martin’s had to do to get a job before, even if it meant lying on his CV. Knowing that he’s going to have to craft a history here is building into a daunting task.

No Magnus Institute, so he has to build a recent job history. No record or proof of his schooling, though he could probably use his minor abilities as an esper to assist his bluff. And references…

No Sasha. No Tim. No Georgie, Melanie, Basira, hell, no Daisy, not even Rosie-

He puts the listings down, his heart heavy.

Martin looks up from his work. “Alright, Jon?”

Jon takes a breath and nods. “Yes, just… wondering how many times we’re going to feel what happened.”

Martin somberly nods back. “There are things we hadn’t finished feeling there.” He flips his pencil out of his hand, letting it clatter on the table. “That’s one hell of a funeral to plan.”

Jon’s heart tightens under its weight. He hates that Martin’s no stranger to that, hates that he was in a coma when it happened, hates that Martin probably expected to plan another funeral anyway. And now they both have an entire world to mourn.

“I guess the small mercy is there’s only so much we can take in at one time,” Jon murmurs. “A lot of little griefs are a bit different than trying to conceptualize the whole thing at once.”

“Maybe we should do something?” Martin suggests. “Though now that I’ve said that, not really sure what I’d wanna do for something like this. Not exactly in the mood for any big to-do for it.”

“You’ve got a point, though,” Jon says. “Maybe it’ll-” He rolls a hand in front of him. “-clear out some of the grief so not as much of it sneaks up on us later.”

Martin picks up his pencil again. “What do you do? When you’re grieving, I mean?”

“Me?” Jon asks.

He thinks back to every loss he’s had as an adult, losses he knew when he had a more complete idea of the concepts of death and grieving. Those spaces in between working and stalking and planning and dying when all he had were the thoughts he knew were his own. There is no miraculous answer waiting there, nothing remarkable, just the routine survival he came to know as everyday life. Sometimes it was slow as a dirge, but more often than not it was frantic and perfunctory and finished in the blink of an eye.

“I don’t know,” Jon answers Martin. “I think I’m overdue on it. Or maybe I just always was and I didn’t know it because it just folded into my life. Maybe some of it came out with everything that happened the night before? I knew, either way, it was going to be some kind of end.”

“That sounds familiar,” Martin replies. He taps his pencil a few times before sighing. “Y’know, we don’t need to make it complicated. We can pick a night, get some comfort food, maybe some drinks, and be sad about it for an hour or three. What’s gonna happen, we learn this world’s got funeral police or something to tell us we’re not doing our memorial properly? Honestly, if things worked out and anyone from our old world did a memorial for me, I hope they just met up in a pub or like a nice restaurant and said a couple of nice things about me before anyone got too drunk.”

Jon puts a hand on the table. “You know what? That sounds like an excellent idea.”

“Really?” Martin replies.

“Why not? Why make grieving more complicated than it already is?” Jon picks up the job listings again. “I should probably do something like that before I apply to any of these jobs. I wonder if Claire would be willing to help me find something if I don’t want a job with the Ministry or the STP.”

Martin stills the pencil in his hand. “About that.”

“Yes, Martin?”

Martin takes a deep breath, sets the pencil down, and folds his hands over his notebook. “Okay, so, this is kinda new territory because I’ve never had a relationship before this one that got serious enough to the point that we talked about money. And I never thought I’d ever be able to say this, but we’re good, Jon. On money.”

Jon lowers the job listings again. “I know you have a job, Martin, but I should still be doing something.”

But Martin shakes his head and goes, “I mean, I’m not saying you shouldn’t. I know you, you wouldn’t be happy just doing nothing all day. But it’s not exactly an immediate concern for us to get by. A-and might never be. So if you’re fine with that, you can look for something you actually want to do?”

Jon puts the job listings back on the table. “I didn’t know poetry was so lucrative.”

Martin exhales through his nose. “Okay. There’s not really a good way to say this, but it should probably be said: my boss has a crush on me.”

It possibly takes Jon longer than it should, mainly from the mild confusion of thinking of himself as ‘boss with a crush on Martin’ as a sort of default, but it does sink in with him making a startled, “Oh!”

“Yeah. He hasn’t acted on it outside of more or less just giving me money, but am I ever going to have a job where I don’t have to deal with an inappropriate boss/employee relationship?” Martin wonders aloud. “His ex ghosted him, so I’m chalking this up to him having a rebound crush on me.”

“Do you want to leave that job?” Jon asks.

“Maybe? We could afford it if I do at this point,” Martin answers. “Do you want me to leave the job?”

“I don’t know. Yes? If it makes you uncomfortable.” Jon presses his hands to the bridge of his nose. “Is it because of that projection I did?”

“No, he’s been like this since we met. Between that and the projection, I had been wondering if we somehow landed in a world where I’m actually considered handsome?”

“It’s not like I can answer that; how would I know the difference?” Jon asks.

Martin opens his mouth to answer when Jon’s words catch up to him. “Did you just do that?”

“What?”

Martin props his elbow on the table and leans his head against his hand. “Is this just how you flirt? I feel like we kind of skipped that stage.”

“Oh, was that- I said it wrong for that, then,” Jon says, dropping his hands. “It wasn’t, because flirting has intention.”

Martin shrugs and says, “I’ll accept my boyfriend just casually implying I’m handsome, then. Easier to accept than a lot of things.”

“I think you were right before: we’ll cross the bridge when we get to it,” Jon tells him.

Martin chuckles, dry. “Kinda regret using that phrase now that we know about the Book of the Bridge.”

Jon hums. “We never did finish that. But then, we know how it happened for us.”

Martin nods in agreement. He then gets up, places a hand on top of Jon’s, and leans in for a brief kiss. “Why don’t I get some tea on for us, love?”

“Good idea,” Jon answers.

Where We Meet

by M.K. Blackwood

We’ve let some space in Now we have to learn to cross it

I take a step, and I’m halfway there I take another step, and I’m a different halfway there Will you meet me there or will Zeno have a good laugh at our expense?

I see you take a step, and you’re halfway there but not my halfway there still out of reach but I see your arm straining out towards me

We keep moving closer smaller and smaller halfway theres until the space is in our hands the distance of atoms keeping us apart but still another halfway there

But I won’t stop until the space is gone I won’t stop until we reach the place where we meet and we’re holding each other again

#tma #chzo mythos #aura's fanfiction #on this day in aura's tma/chzo mythos fanfiction

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itsapeterthing · 3 years

Text

Cake || Bucky Barnes

pairing: bucky barnes x avenger!reader

summary: you and your boyfriend bucky barnes head down to the wilson residence for a barbecue. sam’s nephews adore the both of you and as you watch bucky play with the kids you’re ready to tell your boyfriend that you’re pregnant

a/n: gif credit- @davidsfincher ; i will never get over this scene. reblogs and/or replies are super appreciated!!

word count: 2.7k

warnings: pure fluff based on episode six, mentions of pregnancy

masterlist || request || taglist

“I say we get the vanilla one.”

Standing besides you in the supermarket aisle with his arms crossed, your boyfriend turned to look at you with disgust written all over his face.

“Vanilla?” Bucky said, shaking his head. “Are you kidding, Y/n? All kids like chocolate.”

As he was speaking, Bucky reached out to pull one of the chocolate cakes off of the shelf it was sitting on, but you swat his hand away.

“Oh yea?” You asked. “And what makes you the expert on what kids like?”

Uncrossing his arms, he waved his hand in your face.

“Metal arm.” He said. “Also don’t pretend like Sam’s nephews didn't love me last time we were there.”

You couldn't argue with that. The last time the two of you had been to the Wilson residence in between missions, Sam’s nephews absolutely adored the super soldier. They couldn't get enough of the one hundred and six year-old man with the vibranium arm and the fun they had messing with him.

You had just as much joy watching the interactions between the three of them. You couldn’t help but entertain the idea of starting a family of your own with Bucky.

The two of you had been dating for years- not including the five year blip the two of you had been snapped from existence in- and had often discussed the idea of getting married and having children in the future. You didn’t think you would be ready yet, but as you watched children be in absolute awe of your boyfriend, you felt as though the pieces began to fell into place.

And funnily enough- they did.

You had been feeling sick and exhausted for the past few weeks, but you figured it was on account of the missions you had been going on with Sam and Bucky. When the symptoms continued while you stayed at the Wilson’s home for the weekend while Bucky helped Sam fix the boat- you had taken pregnancy test.

It was positive.

Although you knew that you and Bucky could handle it, you were still in absolute shock realizing that you were going to be starting a family- you were going to be responsible for more than just making sure you and your friends didn’t get killed fighting bad guys- you were going to be a parent.

The only person who knew was Sam’s sister, Sarah. She was the only one inside the house when you had taken the test and when she had heard you pacing around the bathroom, hyperventilating, she opened the unlocked door and immediately saw the pregnancy test in your hands. You had sworn her to secrecy, making sure she didn’t tell your boyfriend or her brother, promising her that you would tell them when the time was right... but with the mission in New York City coming immediately after your stay, you hadn't found the right opportunity to tell Bucky yet.

However, you told yourself that you finally would tonight... after attending the barbecue.

“Yeah, yeah.” You rolled your eyes. “I can’t argue with that. They did love you, but that doesn’t mean you know anything about cake.”

Reaching his hand out for the chocolate cake again he scoffed. “I’m not taking advice from someone who wants to bring a vanilla cake to a party-”

You swat his hand again. “We’re not getting the chocolate.”

“Yes,” He insisted, inching his face closer to yours. “We are.”

“No. We’re not.”

“Can I help you guys with anything?” You heard a worker ask from behind you.

Backing away from your boyfriend you smiled, shaking your head.

“No, we’re fine. Thank you.”

As you watched the worker nod before walking down the aisle, you turned back to your boyfriend.

“Okay fine.” You said. “We’ll compromise. Ice cream cake?”

You watched as Bucky’s eyes widened. “Wait! There’s ice cream cake?”

Twenty minutes later you and Bucky had arrived at the barbecue, your boyfriend taking the cake out of your hands as he stepped out of the car.

As you made your way around the front of the vehicle you watched as Sam’s nephews bombarded Bucky, play fighting with him as he faked attacking them back, making sure to dodge their fists from knocking over the cake in his hands.

You couldn’t deny the way the sight made your heart fill so much you swore it could’ve exploded right in your chest.

As you watched the scene unfold, hearing the laughter erupting from the children around him while he faked getting hurt, you heard Sarah come up behind you.

“You know,” She said, crossing her arms and standing beside you. “You almost scared me to death watching you on the news.”

Glancing at her beside you, you shrugged. “I was fine.” You said. “That wasn’t the first fight I’ve been in.”

“I just can’t believe they let you go.” She said.

“What? What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” She laughed. “I can’t believe they would let you go do something so dangerous like that knowing you’re-”

Before she could finish her sentence you swat at her arm, rapidly shaking your head, checking around you to make sure no one was listening to your conversation or had heard what she had just said.

“I didn’t tell them yet.” You told her in a hushed voice.

“What?” She asked. “Why not?”

“I couldn’t tell them. If I did they would have never let me go- especially Bucky- but I couldn’t let them go in by themselves like that. You’ve seen the Flag Smashers, Sarah.”

“How long are you going to keep this a secret?” She asked.

“I was going to tell him today.” You told her. “We just needed to sort out the Flag Smashers before I could even think about telling him I’m pregnant-”

“You’re pregnant?”

At the sound of Sam’s voice, you and his sister immediately spun around to be met with Sam standing behind you, only a foot away.

You watched as his mouth dropped and his eyes grew wide and you felt your heart began to race in your chest, knowing that you had just exposed your secret to Sam- you and Bucky’s shared best friend.

“Sam...” You said.

“I-” He stumbled over his words, trying to piece the information together. “You’re pregnant?”

“Yes, but you can’t tell Bucky.” You pleaded, gripping his bicep. “I haven’t told him yet.”

“What?” He exclaimed looking between you and his sister. “How long have you known? Why haven’t you told him yet?”

Playing with one of the rings on your fingers, made anxious by the conversation, you focused your gaze on the water behind him, not able to meet his eyes.

“I found out last time I was here.” You said. “So I found out like a week ago. You can't blame me though, Sam, if I told him he would of never let me go help you guys in New York.”

“Yeah!” Sam nodded. “Neither would I. You could of died!”

“But I didn’t!” You said. “Just don’t tell him okay, Sam? I’m going to tell him tonight.”

Before anymore could be said, you heard the sound of your name being called by Sam’s nephews and spun around to find them running in your direction.

“Hey guys!” You laughed, a smile reaching your face once again.

Watching them run towards you, you knew what they wanted before they even had to ask. Stretching out your arms, you moved your hands in the direction of each of the boys, using your powers to lift them a maximum of three feet above the ground- not wanting to upset their mother. You smiled as you watched the boys laugh about how “awesome” it was in awe as they looked down at the ground three feet below them.

You felt Sam’s hand land on your shoulder.

“I’m happy for you, Y/n.” You heard Sam say, leaning in closer so no one outside of your current group could hear him. “You both are going to be great parents. Just tell him soon, okay?”

He pat your shoulder one last time before walking past you and his nephews you were still currently floating midair.

“How come when I ask you guys if you want to fly you say no?” Sam asked.

“She’s using magic!” Cass exclaimed.

“Yeah, Uncle Sam.” AJ agreed. “That’s way cooler.”

Sam threw his hands up in the air, walking in the opposite direction and as he did you lowered the boys to the ground, much to their disappoint. When they scurried off in the direction of their uncle, your eyes met Bucky’s staring at you, smiling from across the way of where you had just been levitating Sam’s nephews.

“Look at you!” He said, smiling, reaching out his arms for you.

“Me?” You laughed. “You just had a whole choreographed fight scene with the boys. You’re like their cool uncle.”

You watched as your boyfriend pulled off his sunglasses and smiled at you, resting his vibranium hand on your waist.

“Only if you’re their cool aunt.”

You smiled. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Afterwards the two of you went to eat and spent the remainder of the meal sharing a table with Sam, his sister and his nephews. Despite the dangerous mission the three of you had been dealing with the past week, the table was full of laughter and joy that you were happy to welcome in.

Even when the cake that you had brought was sliced, you and Bucky smiled at each other from across the table when the boys scoffed down their slice of ice cream cake that contained both vanilla and chocolate- your compromise having worked in the end for the better. At times you even used your abilities to pull the fork out of your boyfriend’s hand just as he was about to bite down on a slice of cake, hearing the boy’s laugh as they watched the super soldier roll his eyes at you.

“Ha ha.” Bucky would say. “Very funny... what is that? Three times now? Really, Y/n?”

But he knew you would continue to do it as long as you continued to hear the sounds of awes coming out of the boys’ mouths and he couldn’t fault you for that. Instead sneaking you a smile when you brought the fork back into his grasp.

At the end of the evening when everyone had began to make their way home, the sun setting over the horizon, you helped tidy up with the Wilson siblings. When the tables were all wiped clean, you brushed your hands off on your bottoms, watching as Bucky sat on the edge of the dock, the golden hue of the sunset setting on his features.

Glancing over your shoulder as Sarah ushered her children back home, you saw Sam throw you a thumbs up. When your eyes met his you smiled, mouthing a “thank you” before he turned in the direction of his sister, following her path back home.

Sighing to yourself you turned back to your boyfriend.

You were going to tell him. You were going to finally tell him you were pregnant.

You took one last deep breath, taking in the last moment before Bucky and your’s life changed forever.

Making your way towards your boyfriend you kneeled behind him, your chest meeting his back as you wrapped your arms around his chest.

“Hi.” You whispered.

“Hi doll.” He hummed, moving his hands to hold yours that were resting against his chest.

“Had a nice day?” You asked, leaning in to press a gentle kiss against his cheek.

You felt as his chest rumbled when he chuckled, staring out over the water while the sun continued to set, its reflection turning the water gold.

“Yeah.” He said. “I wish it could be like that every day, you know?”

You knew what he meant. You understood that he was talking about the peace, the joy, the laughter- the normalcy. You understood that he was talking about how your lives were so hectic and always would be due to the hand you had been dealt with super human abilities. You could never have a normal life, but you also understood that it was more than just never having to fight or go on a mission again- it was the feeling of family, of caring and of love.

“I know it can’t be like that every day.” You said. “But would you... would you settle for most days?”

You felt his hands squeeze yours a bit more, tilting his head back to get a better look at you.

“What are you talking about?”

“Would you settle for most days, Buck?” You asked again. “Would it all be worth it even if you still had to fight?”

He answered in a heartbeat.

“Of course it would.” Bucky said. “I’d fight for one day of this.”

You unwrapped your arms from around his chest, moving to kneel besides him on the dock so he could face you. Knowing what you were about to say, you took in the moment, breathing in the fresh air and memorizing the way his face looked in the golden hour.

“I’m pregnant.”

You watched as his face dropped and you were almost worried until a wide smile reached across his face.

“You’re pregnant?” He asked, so in disbelief he sounded as though the wind had been knocked right out of him.

You smiled, nodding your head and took his hand in yours. “I am. I found out a few days ago-”

“Wait.” He cut you off. “A few days ago? Did you know you were pregnant when we fought in New York City?”

Staring at his face now, confronting the issue, you were suddenly very interested in the frosting he had somehow gotten on the bottom of his shirt, tugging on the hem and scratching it off.

“Y/n?”

“Okay, yes. I knew.” You confessed.

Rather than the fed up, overprotective reaction you were expecting, you felt Bucky’s hands reach to cup your face, forcing you to look at him. Rather than anger in his eyes, all you saw was worry and you were wishing you had never gone and fought just so you could save yourself from seeing him like that.

“Promise me you won’t fight anymore.” He said. “At least until the baby’s here- God I can’t believe we’re having a baby- just promise me okay? If anything happened to either of you I wouldn’t know what to do with myself-”

“I promise, Buck.” You assured him, smiling and beginning to feel tears prickle in your eyes. “We’re gonna have a baby.”

You watched as he began to smile once again and the two of you couldn’t help but laugh- so consumed in complete and utter joy. You and Bucky had gone through so much- especially within the last few months- but as you both sat there, so happy you couldn’t help but laugh, you realized it was worth it and you would go through it all again if it meant that at the end of the day you two would come back to each other every single time.

For the first time in your life, you watched as tears of joy began to fill his eyes, almost as if they had begun to wash away the years of pain that he had suffered previously. Although he was sure he hadn’t fought his last fight... he was sure he was going to be okay. He was happy. He was going to share his life with you. He was going to be a dad.

“We’re gonna have a kid.” He repeated the words, almost as if to convince himself that they were true.

“You’re gonna be such a good dad, Buck.” You told him, laughing through the tears that had begun to fill your eyes. “If you’re half as good at being a dad as you are the ‘cool uncle’- our kid is in good hands.”

“You think so?” He asked.

“I know so, Buck.”

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes oneshot #Bucky Barnes drabble #bucky barnes blurb #bucky barnes fluff

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hangovercurse · 3 years

Text

Don’t Be Sorry

In which Y/N’s past catches up to her... and Colson

Reader x Colson Baker

Warnings: Abuse (Graphic), cursing, violence.

A/N: Seriously, it gets detailed. If you are uncomfortable with domestic abuse/ violence then this is not the fic for you. If you are a victim of abuse, there are resources available for you. The National Domestic Violence Support Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

Word Count: 2352

masterlist

“To good music and good friends” Colson shouted over the noise of the crowd. The group raised their glasses in a toast before downing the shot. “Now let’s fuckin party!”

It was your first time out in a while. You liked to pretend it was because you were too busy. I have a job outside of writing music with you, you would always remind the older boy. But truthfully, you weren’t as attached to the party scene as your friends and did whatever you could to avoid them.

But when Colson asked, well begged, you to go out with them to celebrate finishing Hotel Diablo you couldn’t say no. Colson’s face when you said yes almost made you excited. Almost.

But now on the crowded rooftop of a club you’d never been to in an outfit that was all too tight and all too short, you wished you’d made up an excuse to stay home. Luckily your friends made you forget your unease.

“Y/N, watch me drink both of these beers in 10 seconds!” Rook shouted, holding two bottles in his hands. You laughed, shaking your head slightly at his antics and pulling out your phone to time him.

“Ok, go.” You said as he brought the bottles up to his mouth, chugging both in an astounding 9.75 seconds. “Dude that’s insane.” You showed him the timer and he cheered, dragging you to the bar.

“I’m getting you a drink, whaddyu want?” Rook asked as he waved down the bartender. “Rum and coke?” He questioned, knowing your order by heart at this point.

“How’d you guess.” You asked with a smile on your face.

“It’s a talent.” Rook laughed, arms flailing as he bowed dramatically.

The pair of you got your drinks and returned to your group in the middle of the dance floor. When you got back Slim dramatically held out his hand for you to dance with him, and you guys jumped around to the music.

The drink in your veins made you a little more comfortable. it wasn’t enough to get you into any trouble, just enough to loosen you up for a good time. As the group laughed at AJ’s terrible dance moves, you felt a chill come over the room.

As the rest of your friends smiled and laughed, you looked around the dance floor, trying to find anything, or anyone, out of place. Unfortunately for you, you were much shorter than the men around you, so you couldn’t see much.

Colson noticed you weren’t really with the group, and he followed your gaze around the room, leaning in close to you. “Everything ok?” He asked.

“Yeah, I just have this weird feeling.”

He laughed, “drink too much?”

You gave him a pointed look and then chuckled to signify you were joking. “No, I just, I don’t know how to explain it. I just have a bad feeling about something.”

“Ok, well just don’t leave my side. I’ll keep you safe.” He winked at you and you rolled your eyes, but you appreciated the sincerity in his statement.

Colson and you had been friends for years, but after your last relationship ended... roughly (to put it nicely), he let you stay at his place for a while until you got back on your feet. Since then you’d gotten closer to the tattooed man and come to trust him implicitly.

You refocused on your friends, watching Pete and Baze racing pints of beers, with Baze winning (for obvious reasons). You laughed as Pete hung his head in shame. He scrunched his nose at you. “I don’t see you chugging anything.”

This only made you laugh harder, “I don’t think what you were doing is considered “chugging.”” You made air quotes as he put on a mock hurt expression.

“Y/N’s up next!” Slim shouted and your eyes went wide.

“Oh hell no, man. I leave that shit up to you guys.” You smiled as he shook his head profusely.

“Nope, you gotta do it. Rook’s already getting the beer.”

You hung your head, knowing there was no arguing with Slim. “Fine, but I’m gonna lose and then I’m gonna be mad. So if I’m mad, its your fault.” You shook your head as the boys howled.

Rook came back with two beers in his hand, handing you one. “I’ll give you a head start.” Slim smiled.

“Fuck no, man.” You said before bringing the beer to your lips, chugging the drink. Slim was taken off guard and ended up starting a few seconds after you, which was all the advantage you needed.

You raised your hands in victory as AJ picked you up in celebration, the boys cheering for you as Slim hung his head. Once you landed back on your feet, Rook threw his arm around your shoulders, “Y/N is the fuckin bomb.”

You loved this feeling, you loved being surrounded by your friends who loved you. You giggled as he leaned into you, making you stumble under his weight.

“Oh look, Y/Ns surrounded by all her little man-whores.” His voice sobered you up instantly and made every bone in your body tense up. You looked up to Colson for support, but he was already focused on the man behind you.

“Not even gonna look at me, damn. You’re really that much of a bitch, huh? Not even gonna say hi?” His voice was like poison in your veins. Every word he spoke reminded you of the last time you saw him. You subconsciously reached up to your neck, rubbing your throat.

“Get the fuck away from her dude.” Colson said shortly. You tried to catch his eye. You wanted to beg him not to make a scene, to just take your hand and leave. But it was too late for that.

“And who the fuck are you?” Jason, your ex-boyfriend, moved towards Colson and into your view. You flashed back to the night in his living room, his back facing you just like it was now, before he turned around and-

Luckily, Rook’s hand squeezing your shoulder pulled you from your thoughts. You turned to look at him, his head cocked and his eyes questioning. You simply shook your head at him. You looked back to Colson who was seething. You caught Pete’s eye behind him and mouthed, we need to leave.

Pete nodded, grabbing Colson’s arm lightly, but the blond only shook off his friends grasp.

“Hey, there’s this really cool music store down the street that’s still open, we should go check it out.” AJ said, his eyes trained on you. Thank god for AJ.

“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.” Pete said, “Colson let’s go check it out.”

You could see Jason’s face change when he figured out who the blond man was. “Yeah, Colson, why don’t you take your bitch and get out of here.”

“Don’t fucking call her that.” Colson moved closer to him and your eyes widened in fear.

“What? A bitch? That’s what she is, a slutty fucking bitch.” With every word, Jason moved closer to your friend until the two men were almost touching. Tears stung your eyes as you flashed back again.

“You stupid fucking whore. Who the fuck do you think you are? Fucking around with some asshole rapper! Did you forget you fucking belong to me?”

His words still rang in your mind. You could feel your body begin to shut down, your lungs gasping for breath just like they had that day.

You were brought back to reality by the screams of protest as Colson pushed your ex-boyfriend away from him, causing Jason’s fist to make contact with Colson’s jaw.

“You think you can get away with making me look like an idiot? I’m your fucking boyfriend, not him.”

Jason’s fist made contact with your left cheek and your knees failed to hold you up. The man caught you before you hit the ground, leaning forward to pin you against the wall behind you.

“Y/N, c’mon, let’s go.” Rook’s arm fell to the small of your back as he escorted you through the crowd, Slim following you. You made your way down the stairs, the two boys helping to support your weight.

“I’m gonna make you remember who you belong to.”

Jason pinned your arms above your head as he pressed you further into the wall. His free hand made its way up your chest to your throat. His soft grasp turned into a squeeze around your neck.

“Jason please-”

You tried to talk, but few words could come out. You struggled for air as his eyes grew darker and darker.

“You think you can go and fuck around with whoever you want, don’t you?”

You shook your head, but he continued.

“You’re a goddamn slut, and you need to learn your lesson.”

Your vision began to blur.

“Y/N, you okay?” You came back to reality to find yourself in the alley between the club and the neighboring building. Slim was standing in front of you, Rook to your side as you leaned against the wall behind you.

You shook your head in response and he let out a sigh. Suddenly the door slammed open and you flinched at the noise.

“I’m gonna fucking kill him.”

“I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

You kneed Jason as a last resort before you lost consciousness, and now you were running through the house. You ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind you and pulling your phone from your pocket, not even noticing the new crack in the screen. You searched for the first name you could think of.

“Colson?”

“Colson, take a breath, man!” AJ yelled as he followed the tall blond man outside.

Colson was pacing a few feet away from you as you tried to focus on breathing, your hand subconsciously reaching for your neck again, as if you were trying to pry his invisible hand off of you.

Pete moved in front of you, taking in your state of fear. Other than Colson, Pete was the only one who had any idea about your ex. He didn’t know the whole story, only that it ended violently.

“Hey, you okay?” He asked, keeping his distance as he leaned against the other wall across from you.

You sniffled and wiped your face, nodding quickly as you realized most of your friends- save for Baze and Colson- were watching you. “Sorry guys- he’s just an ex. He’s kind of an asshole.”

“Really kid? We couldn’t tell.” AJ tried to joke, and you cracked a small smile, trying to convince them you were ok.

Your breathing started to slow, and you felt yourself coming down from your panicked state, until you caught Colson’s fist making contact with the wall of the club.

“Open this fucking door bitch!”

Jason’s fists beat against the door- the only thing standing between you and him.

“He’s gonna kill me Cols. I’m so scared.”

Your sobs rang through the phone as the banging intensified.

“He can’t save you now, bitch! Not such a big man now, are ya? Colson!”

“Colson!” Baze berated the blond man, who recoiled in pain. “Get your shit together, bro.” He said, quieter.

Colson looked up at his friend and then past him to meet your eyes. His blue orbs softened at the tears in yours. “I’m so sorry, Y/N.” He whispered, walking over to you.

He leaned forward against the wall you already occupied, his arms above your head as his head drooped down to watch you. You looked up at him, your hand reaching up to touch his face where Jason had made contact.

He flinched when your skin met his, causing you to jerk your hand back, afraid he would yell at you for hurting him.

“It’s okay, I was just surprised is all.” He whispered before grabbing your hand and bringing it back up to his chin. You ran your fingers over the forming bruise lightly, another tear falling from your eyes.

“I’m so sorry.” You whispered. “I didn’t think he’d- I didn’t know...” You trailed off, looking down and dropping your hand from Colson’s face.

“Hey, hey, hey.” He moved one hand to gently tilt your face up, leaning down to be closer to you, “Look at me. This was not your fault. Okay? You don’t need to be sorry for anything, babe. You did nothing wrong.”

“I just- if I hadn’t called you that night-”

“You wouldn’t be here. Y/N if you hadn’t called me you could’ve been seriously hurt. He could’ve killed you.”

You took a shaky breath in, sniffling. Colson sniffled too. “Y/N, this is nothing, okay? I would take a thousand more punches like this if it means that douchebag never comes near you again. I mean it. Don’t blame yourself for this, okay?” You nod, reaching your arms up to wrap around his neck as you bury your head into his shoulder, your nose pressed against his neck.

His arms wrapped around you and you could hear his sniffles in your ear as his lips pressed against your hair. “Thank you.” You mumble into his neck, pressing your lips against the hot skin.

“Hey! Get the fuck out of here! This isn’t some fucking party you can photograph. Fuck off with your cameras!” Pete yelled, causing you to release Colson and look towards the commotion. You briefly see a figure in the distance before a white flash blinds you.

“Fuckin paps.” Colson whispered, his arms still wrapped around your waist.

“Let’s get outta here, guys.” Slim says, leading everyone back into the club to leave through the back door. Colson interlocked your hand with his as you stepped into the building, keeping you as close to him as possible as you squeezed your way through the crowd.

Once you loaded yourselves into the van, you leaned your head on Colson’s shoulder, your hands still interlocked. “Can I stay at yours tonight?” You asked in a whisper. Colson simply pressed a kiss to your forehead, his hand leaving yours to wrap around you and pull you closer to him.

#mgk #machine gun kelly #colson baker #mgk imagine #mgk angst #colson baker imagine #colson imagine #colson x reader #colson baker x reader #machine gun kelly imagine

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waitimcomingtoo · 4 years

Text

Cellophane

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Synopsis: Tom comes right unexpectedly right when you’re about to leave him

Inspired by Cellophane

Masterlist

You cleaned up the remainder of cups and plates from the night before with a heavy heart. Your suitcase was packed and stored away in the closet, ready to be taken at any moment. The rest of your things were already in your new apartment where you hoped you’d find some long awaited peace. The door opening startled you and the sight of Tom in the doorway startled you even more. There was no way he had come home when you were about to leave him.

“Darling?” He called out before he spotted you.

“Tom? You’re home?” You asked in disbelief.

“Don’t sound so surprised.” He chuckled as set his bags down. “I told you I’d be home today.”

“I know, you just,” you struggled with a nice way to put it, “you rarely come home when you say you will.”

“Oh.” He replied, a little surprised by what you had said. “Sorry.”

He pecked you briefly on the lips, an awkward dance neither of you really wanted to do but felt obligated to. You gave him a tight smile and squeezed his arm.

“It’s fine.” You said and a silence settled between you. “Um, how was your flight?”

“It was good, yeah.” He nodded and the silence returned.

“Cool, cool.” You spoke softly and let your eyes trail from his face to the garbage bag you had been putting cups and plates in.

“Were you cleaning?” He pipped up and you felt relieved that he kept the conversation going.

“Yeah, yeah. AJ’s party went pretty late and I didn’t feel like cleaning last night.”

“AJ? You’re throwing parties for other boys when I’m away?” Tom laughed awkwardly and folded his arms. “Who is he?”

“She is my best friend who’s moving to San Diego.” You corrected. “Her going away party was last night.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.” He replied and scratched the back of his neck.

“I told you last week.” You said, but not bitterly. You were too tired to be bitter about it.

“Must’ve slipped my mind.” He smiled weakly.

“Right.”

You both knew you’d told him about AJ before, the same way you both knew he hadn’t been listening. The energy of the room was incredible uncomfortable and Tom found himself feeling like he had just been left alone with a stranger rather than his girlfriend.

“Place looks great.” He said suddenly at the same time you said “You look tan.”

“Sorry. You first.” He gestured to you.

“No, go ahead.” You shook your head and let him continue.

“I was just saying that the place looks great. There’s no clutter or anything. I guess we know who makes the messes.” He tried to poke fun at himself but you didn’t even crack a smile. As he looked around, he noticed how unhappy empty the place was. He chalked it up to being away for a long time and tried to push it from his mind.

“Haha, yeah.” You faked a laugh and averted your eyes.

“It looks a little empty, actually.” He commented when he realized the things missing were the things only you used. “Where are all your things?”

You looked fearful for a moment and stopped collected cups. Tom looked at your curiously when he noticed your anxious expression.

“I need to talk to you about something.” You said quietly and set the garbage bag on the ground.

“Okay.” Tom nodded and gave you his full attention. You searched his face for a moment as you chewed your bottom lip, trying to figure out a way to phrase what you had to say.

“I want you to stop talking about our relationship to the media.” You admitted and Tom was taken aback.

“What?” He laughed in surprise. “Darling, I have to. They love it.”

“It’s just, some things are really special to me and I don’t like seeing them on the cover of a magazine next to a photo of us that I didn’t even know was being taken.” You confessed. “You know I like my privacy but now I have people following me around, trying to get a story on you. Or on us.”

“They just want to get to know you.” He dismissed your argument and went to get a glass of water.

“No they don’t. They don’t care about me. They care about us.” You followed him in the kitchen to continue the conversation. “They want to see us when we think we’re alone or how we act when we’re apart, it’s like we have no privacy anymore.”

“That’s just how it is, darling.” He tried to explain. “You’re a person of interest right now because we’re together.”

“But to them, I’m not even a person, Tom. They reduced me to an appendage of your career and you let them.” You expressed. “No one says my name. I’m your girlfriend. I am nothing but your girlfriend.”

“Darling, that’s not true.” He shook his head and took a sip of his water.

“I know it’s not. You’d come home to see me if I were your girlfriend. You’d make time for me and check up on me if I were your girlfriend. You’d be sleeping in our bed in our house and not some random hotel every night if I were your girlfriend.” You snapped, much to Toms surprise. “But I’m not, am I? I’m just a photo op.”

“I love you. You know that.” He protested and set his cup down now that he realized this was serious conversation.

“I hope that. I pray that. But I do not know that.” Your said tearfully. “You’re not around enough for me to know that.”

“This isn’t fair, Y/n. You know I have to travel and be away from home a lot. You knew that when you got into this. It’s my job.” He defended his position.

“And this is your relationship.” You stated firmly. “This is the place you come home to. This is your future wife. This is where your children are gonna grow up. Why is that second to your job?”

“It’s not.”

“Isn’t it?” You asked. “The only time I hear you say you love me is in interviews. You don’t tell me that you miss me, but you tell reporters? How come your fans and I have to hear it at the same time?”

“What do you want from me? Do you want me to quit my job?” He shrugged helplessly and looked at you for answers.

“I just want to feel you’re there.” You said quietly and rested your hands on his chest. He realized how much he missed your touch and put his hands over yours. “I want to know I have someone out there who loves me, and who misses me. I don’t feel that, Tom. I don’t feel your love.”

“Of course I love you. How can you say I don’t?” He asked painfully as he clutched yours hands against his heart.

“How can you say that you do?” You leaned closer to whisper. “I don’t want to have to share our love. I don’t want to live my life in a glass box so people can get a perfect image of Tom Holland’s girlfriends. And I definitely don’t want to be able to look up every detail of our relationship in some article. These moments mean something to me. They’re not headlines, they’re my life.” You took your hands off him and pointed to yourself. “But you put our feelings for each other out there, all wrapped in cellophane for everyone to see.”

“It’s not my fault that people want to know about my love life. The media wants to know about everyone’s love life.”

“But you don’t have to tell them. You never had to tell them.” You exclaimed, angry once again. “But you did. And now I have people watching my every move to see if I deserve you.”

“Am I not supposed to talk about my girlfriend? Would you prefer if I pretended you didn’t exist? How would that make you feel?” He raises his voice at you and stepped closer, making you back up.

“Don’t you dare try to blame me. You did this.” You shot back. “You made our relationship the public’s business and now they think they have a say in it. Every little thing we do, they hate me for it and praise you.”

“The media watches all celebrity couples.l he whined and rubbed his face. “It’s not personal, darling.”

“It is personal. They’re watching me, Tom.” Your voice wavered as you tried to hold your ground. “They’re waiting to see if I’m good enough for you. And they hope that I’m not. They’re praying that I fail. It is personal.”

“Why would they want that?” He asked sarcastically.

“So they can write the story when you break my heart.” You laughed humorlessly. Toms eyes softened when he realized you were right. He took your hands in his and rubbed his thumb gently on your knuckles as you cried.

“I would never do that, darling. I love you.” He promised as he looked into your eyes.

“Who says you haven’t already?” You whispered with tears falling down your face. T

“What?”

“I’m so lonely, Tom.” You whimpered. “When you’re gone, I have no one to talk to. My friends don’t want to be seen with me because they don’t want to get dragged into it. I try to stay above it and tell myself that you’re worth it, but I get overwhelmed.”

“Are you saying I’m not worth it?” He asked desperately, beginning to get a sick feeling in his tummy.

“I’m saying that I’m not worth it.” Your voice was steady now that you had made up your mind.

“What are you talking about?” He shook his head in confusion. You slipped out of his space and went over to the hall closet, taking a fully packed suitcase out and wheeling it back to the kitchen.

“You’d rather talk about missing me to a million reporters than come home to see me.” You said definitively. “What is it? Do you not want to see me?”

“Of course I do, but my job-“

“Comes first?” You cut him off. You weren’t saying it reproachfully, you were saying it like you had finally accepted it. Toms eyes were glued to your suitcase as white hot fear rose in his heart. He stayed silent, partially because he knew you were right and partially because he was too scared to say the wrong thing.

“Why don’t I do it for you?” You asked suddenly as a steady stream of tears fell from your eyes. “I used to. You used to come home whenever you could to see me. Even if it was just for a day.” You smiled sadly at the memory and looked down at your bag.

“I…I know.” He admitted with guilt laced in his voice. He used to be so good at this, at coming home to you and making you feel included. You never would’ve questioned his love at the beginning. He just didn’t know when that had stopped.

“Do you remember that time you took two flights and came home for four hours in between stops on your press tour?” You asked softly. “I told you it was ridiculous but you said you couldn’t wait to see me.“

“I remember. I didn’t sleep for two days to make that happen.” He smiled to himself, reminiscing in how happy you were.

“What happened to that?” You finally looked at him and saw that he was crying too. “I moved to LA for you, changed my job to have more time for you, left my friends and my family behind for you. And I didn’t hesitate to do it because loving you was more than enough for me. But I don’t think I’m enough for you Tom. I don’t do it for you.”

“I’m so sorry.” Was all he could say.

“I know you. You love the fame and attention. All the glory it’s what drives you, but not in a greedy way.” You said as you sized him up. “You just know how it feels to get on a stage and have thousands of people screaming your name.”

“It’s a great feeling.”

“I know it is. You give me that feeling every time you walk into a room. You’re all I need to feel special and loved.” You smiled softly and looked at him. “Am I all you need?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” He looked at you with red, tear ridden eyes that pleaded for your forgiveness. He had no excuse for his actions and you both knew it. You were purposefully asking a question he didn’t have an answer to.

“I want you to tell me when I stopped being enough.” You tilted your head and prayed for honesty from him.

“I don’t know. I didn’t realize it was happening.” He shook his head and walked over to you, putting a hand on the handle of your suitcase as if that would keep you from leaving.

“Because you were in the other side of it. You were on the good side. You weren’t the one being let go of.” You told him and he proceeded to cry harder.

“I’m so sorry, darling. I don’t have an excuse.” His voice cracked as he was finally honest with you. “I promise, I can change. It’ll be so different. I’ll come home more, I’ll do anything you want. Just please don’t say goodbye to me.”

“I can’t keep holding on to this relationship, Tom.” You let out a shaky breath and his eyes widened in fear. “My knuckles are white from how hard Im hanging on. I’m grasping at cellophane here. But there’s nothing to grasp anymore.”

You went up on your tippy toes to kiss his cheek, one last time. You could feel his body crumbling as he wrapped his arms around you.

“Don’t leave. It’ll be so different from here on out. I’ll be home so much, you get sick of me.” He cried into your hair and he gripped your tightly.

“I don’t want to be sick. Is this what love is supposed to feel like?” You pulled away and looked at him. “Like pain?”

“No, it’s not. But-“

“You don’t get it. You haven’t been hurting like I have. I’ve been carrying the pain for the both of us. And I can’t do it anymore, Tom.” You exclaimed tearfully. “This isn’t something that can be fixed by you changing your schedule. I don’t trust you anymore. I don’t even know you. Do you know how it feels to be struggling to make small talk with someone I thought I was gonna marry?” You cried.

“We can get that back. We can still get married.” He followed you closely as you walked toward the door.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can.” You looked over your shoulder at him as you placed your hand on the door handle. “I feel like I failed, Tom. It feels like I’m a failure.”

“Don’t leave.” He begged, actually getting on his knees and holding your hand.

“Why would I stay?” You asked. “Theres nothing for me here.”

“Don’t do this.” He was dry heaving now. You looked at him one last time, taking in the man you loved for everything he was worth, and opened the door.

“You did this. I’m just finishing it.”

Tag list 🏷

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#tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland fluff #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland angst #tom holland x y/n #tom holland imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #iron man #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker imagine

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izzyfandoms · 4 years

Text

Like Lipstick Stains On His Skin

SHIPS: Remile

CHARACTERS: Emile Picani, Remy Sanders

WARNING: Anxiety, references to heartbreak

GENERAL TAGLIST: @quillfics42 @aj-draws @phantomofthesanderssides @phlying-squirrel @sly-is-my-name-loving-is-my-game @because-were-fam-ily @imtryingthisout @a-creepycookie @emo-disaster @littlestr @spooky-scary-virgil @fuyel @mimsidoodles @soupgremlin @aroaceagenderfluid @birdsbookshiddeninrealbirdsskin @quirkalurk @gingers-trashy-stuff @iinyxtello @justaqueercactus @melodiread @mrbubbajones @glassferns @pun-master-logan @gayturtlez @k1ngtok1

Masterpost

A Series Of Soulmate AUs Masterpost

Emile Picani had been in love with his best friend for as long as he could remember.

The moment he had first laid eyes on Remy Sanders, his initial thought had been that that was the most attractive person he’d ever seen. And, after getting to know him better, Emile’s thoughts only solidified; Remy was funny and sarcastic, smarter than anyone gave him credit for, and casually flirty in a way that made Emile’s heart stop and pound and ache all at once.

And Emile’s feelings had only strengthened as they grew up together.

From awkward teenagers still figuring out their sexualities to adults with their own homes and jobs and independent lives, Remy and Emile had stayed friends through it all, sticking together like glue since they’d first met in middle school. They knew almost everything about each other, and they were best friends.

But that was just it – they were friends. Nothing more.

And Emile was... fine with that. He was fine.

He loved Remy. Loved, loved, loved Remy.

And, sure, it hurt when he was with Remy, but not really with Remy, not in the way Emile always wanted to be. It hurt to be around him and know that it would only ever be platonic, that his best friend would never love him back in quite the same he loved him.

But time spent with Remy was better than time spent with anyone or anything else. And Emile knew that Remy cared deeply for him, too.

Emile could take the heartache if it meant he never lost his best friend.

When Emile heard the knock on his front door, he immediately recognised it as Remy’s. He jumped up – perhaps a little too enthusiastically and excitedly, but the only person that could see him right now was himself, so there was nobody around to judge. He rushed over to the door and pulled it open. Remy’s eyes lit up when he saw Emile, and he grinned.

Emile would never admit aloud to the tremble of his heart in his chest at the expression on his best friend’s face, but he did immediately squish down the traitorous hope that emerged every time Remy looked at him like that. Which happened almost every time they saw each other.

“Hey, Remy! You’re here early,” Emile said.

“Hope that’s chill, babe. I was not watching the time.”

(Emile did his best to ignore the feelings that the use of the nickname ‘babe’ stirred up.)

Remy’s sunglasses were propped up on his head, as they often were, and his warm brown eyes were on display. He was wearing his signature black leather jacket, too, as he usually was, with a white crop-top – with the word ‘bitch’ across the front in block capitals – underneath, exposing his midriff.

It took effort for Emile to keep his eyes from drifting downwards.

“It’s fine, Remy,” Emile smiled, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on his best friend’s face. “You’re always welcome here, you know that.”

Remy laughed. “If you keep saying that, I’ll end up showing up here at 4am when I’m drunk.”

“Well, I would rather you came here than go somewhere else and get yourself hurt.”

“Even if that means I wake you up from whatever candy-coloured, cartoon-filled dreams you’re having?”

“Mhm!”

“Damn, gurl, you really are sweeter than sugar, huh? How the hell did someone like you end up being besties with someone like me?”

“Aww, Remy, I think you give yourself too little credit.”

Remy laughed again. “Nah, babes, I love myself. I’m just kinda an asshole sometimes.”

“Isn’t everyone sometimes?” Emile said.

“Not you, apparently. Come on, you’re basically an angel, like, 24/7 and I have legit no idea how you do it. You’ve got the patience of a saint and a smile that literally gives me toothache just looking at it. You’re downright adorable.”

Elation bubbled up in Emile’s heart, and those bubbles filled his chest and spilled over in the forms of happy giggles. He covered his smile with his hand, and practically melted on the spot at the soft, fond look that crossed Remy’s face for just a moment – almost unnoticeable, but Emile paid enough attention that he saw it – before being replaced with Remy’s usual grin.

“Do you want to come in?” Emile asked, still smiling.

“Sure.”

Emile stepped to the side, and Remy’s arm brushed against his own as he walked past him. He hoped the stuttered breath at the contact wasn’t obvious.

“I like the new tie,” Remy commented as Emile shut the door and turned to face him.

Emile perked up. “Oh, you noticed!”

“Course I did,” Remy said. “I’ve seen every tie you’ve got like a million times. I could tell that one was new basically as soon as you opened the door.”

“Aww, Remy... you’re great. The best friend a guy could have!”

Emile’s smile was soft, fond, and so, so caring, and – for just a moment – he could have sworn that Remy looked flustered to be the recipient of it: wide-eyed and as still as a statue. But then, the moment passed, and Remy’s expression smoothed over and returned to normal, and Emile was sure that he’d only imagined it.

“It’s nothing, babe,” Remy said, waving his hand dismissively. “You noticed when I got that new skirt last week, even though it’s identical to my old one-”

“Your old one had a big hole in it! The new one didn’t.”

“Yeah, so I had to get a new one ‘cos it made my ass look great and I wasn’t ‘bout to give that shit up, you know? Ooh, and I especially love it paired with those heels that get everyone looking at my legs, ‘cos that combo makes me look fab AF.” Remy paused. “You know what, I think that’s kinda beside the point. Any-gay, you noticed ‘cos you’re cool like that, so me noticing your tie is, like, nothing.”

“Aww, Remy,” Emile reached forward, and poked Remy’s arm. “It’s not nothing, most people wouldn’t even be able to tell! You’re my best friend, and it makes me really, really happy that you notice these kinds of things.”

Remy’s expression softened. “Well, then I guess it makes it pretty special then, huh?”

Emile felt like screaming. Or kissing Remy. Or kissing Remy and then screaming.

(Though, really, if Emile ever got the chance to kiss Remy, he’d be too busy savouring it to even think of doing anything else. Too busy savouring the feeling of warm lips against his own, of Remy’s gentle hand against his cheek, of a chest pressed against his own, of being so close to the one person he wanted to be close to more than anything else in the world. But he never thought he’d ever get the chance.)

Emile stumbled over his words, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other as he fiddled with his hands. He had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that, and wasn’t sure if he even could without losing control of his mouth and accidentally confessing his undying love for his best friend.

“Um...” he trailed off.

Remy laughed awkwardly, running his fingers through his hair and glancing away.

“So, uh... what did- what did your patients think of your new tie?”

“Oh!” Emile perked up again, at once both disappointed and relieved by the return to the original topic of conversation. “Yeah, two of them complimented it. And someone said the red was a nice change from the usual pastels, so I think it was a big hit!”

He smiled, and Remy immediately smiled back.

“Nice.”

“I think the pink tie’s still my favourite, though.”

“Mine, too. It’s a classic Emile colour.”

Emile laughed. “There are classic Emile colours?”

“Sure, there are! You’ve got your baby pink, baby blue and, you know,” Remy reached out, tugging gently on Emile’s cardigan sleeve. “You’ve got your cardigan-colour. I’ve, like, barely ever seen you without this thing. How many of these do you have? Like, a hundred?”

Emile giggled again, covering his mouth with his hand. “I have two. And they’re both a little different!”

“Right, right,” Remy nodded. “One’s, like, a little bigger.”

“Mhm! And this one’s a bit softer.”

Remy nodded again, slowly and with an amused tint to his smile. “So, are we gonna, like, move, or are we gonna stand in your hallway forever?”

“Oh, right!” Emile said, like he’d only just remembered that they were still stood at his front door.

He moved past Remy, gesturing for his friend to follow as he went into the next room and sat down on the couch. Remy immediately flopped onto it beside him, getting comfortable on the soft, squishy cushions. He leant back lazily and stretched.

“Ooh,” Remy finally said, straightening up. “I bought a new lipstick yesterday!”

“Ooh, what colour?”

“It’s, like, pink. It matches the shoes I bought last week, and it makes me look killer. I’m gonna get all the guys’ eyes on me, so it sucks that I can’t wear it when I’m, like, actually looking to kiss strangers, you know?”

Emile ignored the pang of pain in his heart, and did his best to smile encouragingly.

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned,” he said. “I- I bet you look great in it. And it- it's a shame you can’t wear it when you want to.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda tempted to, you know, but, like, if I’m wearing lipstick, then I won’t know if any marks my lips make are ‘cos of my lipstick or ‘cos of soulmate shit, right?” Remy continued, gesturing vaguely with his hand. “And, like, what’s the pointing of making out with people if I can’t also know if they’re my soulmate?”

“Right.”

“So, I can only wear lipstick when I’m not looking for people to kiss. Sucks, but it’s gotta be done.”

Emile nodded slowly. Then, he paused, and his brow creased in thought.

“You don’t usually wear lipstick when you’re with me,” he said. “Even when we’re going out and it’s just us, no- no kissing strangers involved. How come?”

Remy froze in place.

“Uh...”

Emile blinked at him. He tilted his head questioningly. “Hmm?”

He could practically see the cogs turning in Remy’s head, while he searched for an answer that he obviously did not have or did not want to share. He looked... flustered, in a way that Emile had almost never seen him before – opening and closing his mouth a few times – and Emile just couldn’t seem to figure out why.

Remy and Emile just stared at each other, neither knowing quite what to say to the other. Emile was confused, not wanting to speak up at the risk of interrupting whatever Remy wanted to say. He also absolutely would not let his mind wander to the any possibilities that would fill him with hope.

A crushed hope was definitely not something Emile wanted to deal with, not right now.

Remy cleared his throat. He swallowed.

“Um- there’s...” he then huffed, looking down at his lap and running his fingers through his hair. He let out an awkward laugh, and then looked back up at Emile. “I... okay,” he sighed. “There’s something I think I should probs tell you.”

Emile stared at him, blinking. “What is it?” He asked.

“It, uh...” Remy sighed again. “I have no idea how you’d react to this. The thing I want to tell you... it could probs mess up our friendship.”

“Remy...” Emile said softly. “You’re my best friend. You can tell me anything, and I promise you this won’t mess anything up, okay?”

“You don’t even know what I’m about to say.”

“I don’t need to. I know you.” Emile leant forward slightly, giving Remy his best attempt at a soft, reassuring smile.

Remy stared at Emile for a second. Then he laughed again, a strange mix of awkwardness and nervousness and with a hint of slight joy, too – with a confusing, even a little alarming, effect. His eyes never left Emile’s smile.

“Jeez, babe. How are you making this so much harder but so much easier at, like, the same time?”

Emile blinked. “Um... is that good?”

“Dunno. But...” Remy took a deep breath. He clenched his hands into fists, looking up at the ceiling for a moment before he turned back to Emile. “Okay... wow, I’ve wanted to tell you this for forever, but, like, fuck, this is terrifying.”

Emile’s expression creased with concern. He reached forward, looking him over worriedly, and rested his hand on his best friend’s shoulder, squeezing reassuringly.

“Remy, are you okay? You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” he frowned slightly.

“No, I- I want to tell you. God, you have no idea how many times I’ve thought about telling you about my feelings.”

Feelings. Feelings, feelings, feelings.

Did that mean what Emile thought it meant?

The hope rose up, though he tried so hard to squash it down, but it was like trying to fit something large in a container too small and he could hardly keep it from filling up and overwhelming him. His breath stuttered, and he was sure he tensed up and froze in place for a moment, before he finally regained his composure and physically relaxed.

“Feelings?” He asked, in a voice slightly more strangled than before. “What feelings?”

Remy let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, that’s- that’s what I’ve gotta talk to you about. My- my feelings... for you.” He took another deep breath. “I... I love you, Em.”

“I love you, too,” Emile answered back immediately. “Haven’t we said this before?”

They had. The two best friends had been friends for so long: exchanging ‘I love you’s was practically part of their routine, by now.

But it had always been platonic, at least from Remy’s side.

Right?

“We- we have...” Remy said slowly. “But that’s not what I meant. I love you. Like, love love. Like the head over heels in love kind. The- the I can never stop thinking ‘bout you kind. The, fuck, you’re so gorgeous kind. The kind that means I’m, like, basically always thinking about you and about kissing you and about how, wow, you’re- you’re just amazing. I mean, damn, I know last week when I told you that you’re my favourite person, I kinda said it like a joke, but I meant it. I like really, really meant it.”

When Remy realised that he was rambling, he clamped his hand over his mouth, like it was the only way to get the words – the pretty, pretty words that had set Emile’s heart aflutter – to stop tumbling out.

Emile was frozen.

He stared, wide-eyed at his best friend.

“Oh,” was the only thing he could say, in a strangled voice.

He was sure that his face was already bright red.

“Great.” Remy sighed, removing his palm from his mouth and burying his face in his hands. “I’ve really fucked this up, haven’t I?” He mumbled just loud enough to be audible. “I- I know you don’t feel the same way, babe, and it’s fine. It’s totally, totally fine. I’m happy just being friends with you, ‘kay? You- you don’t have to return anything. It’s- it’s whatever. It’s chill.”

Emile’s brain had broken. He could hardly think anything other than the words ‘Remy’ and ‘love’ just over and over on repeat.

Instead of saying anything in response to that – as he wasn’t even sure if he could – he just suddenly burst into nervous, delighted laugher. Emile was sure he sounded like he was crazy, especially when Remy turned to him with a bewildered expression.

“Did- did you really mean that?” Emile asked when he could finally collect his thoughts enough to speak, which took slightly longer than he would have liked it to.

Remy blinked. Then, his expression softened.

“Of course, I did,” he said. “I’d never lie to you about something like this, Em.”

“So, you... you really mean it?” Emile asked hopefully.

“Yeah. Yeah, I did,” Remy said. He hesitated for a moment, before nervously adding: “Do you- I mean, is it-”

“I love you, too.”

There was a beat.

Remy stared back at him, wide-eyed. The moment of silence was somehow simultaneously nerve-racking and also soft and so, so exciting, because, oh my gosh, Remy loved him. Remy loved him, he loved him, he loved him!

Love! Love! Love!

And, oh, heavens above, Emile was about to start wiggling excitedly because, gosh, he really, really just had to kiss Remy, right now. And maybe – maybe, maybe, maybe – Remy would say yes if he asked.

Emile let out another giggle, covering his mouth with his hand.

“You... you do?” Remy asked, eyes wide and hopeful, and Emile was suddenly glad that the sunglasses were propped up on his head, as his expression was always much easier to read that way.

“Yeah,” Emile responded, equally soft. “I really, really do.”

“Wow. Just- just wow.”

Emile reached forward, impulsively cupping Remy’s cheek with his hand, and Remy froze. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

“Oh, gosh- sorry,” Emile apologised. “I should’ve asked-”

He moved to take his hand away, but was stopped by Remy covering Emile’s hand with his own.

“You’re good- you're- yes. Yes.”

And, well, that was exactly the answer that Emile had wanted to hear.

He leant forward, and finally – finally! – did the thing he’d most wanted to do for years. Years. Since the moment he’d first laid eyes on Remy, he’d thought about it.

He kissed Remy.

Softly. Carefully. Holding Remy’s face so delicately like he was holding something precious.

And the way Remy was kissing him back...

Emile had seen Remy kiss people before – strangers, friends – and he’d always kissed them like he was doing it for fun, not love. He’d never seen Remy kiss anyone as gently as Remy was kissing him, right now.

Bubbles of delight and fireworks of excitement were going off in Emile’s heart and his mind.

He sighed happily into the kiss, and he could suddenly feel Remy smile against his lips.

Emile broke the kiss with another delighted giggle and Remy couldn’t help but just start laughing with him, too. And, of course, that just made Emile’s giggles louder and more enthusiastic.

He was so focused on the laughing and the delighted feeling in his chest from the fact that he had just kissed Remy, that Emile didn’t immediately notice that Remy’s lips were suddenly pink – a light, pastel pink that certainly hadn’t been there before.

And, in fact, it was Remy who halted the laughter first, by freezing in place and staring – yet again wide-eyed – at Emile’s own lips.

Emile paused, and tilted his head in confusion.

“Remy?”

Remy opened and closed his mouth a few times, never taking his eyes off of Emile’s lips.

“Em... your- your lips.”

Emile blinked. He reached a hand up to his own lips, and swiped a finger across them. He then looked back down at his hand, and found nothing – no blood, no anything.

He paused, and then turned his head to look at the mirror that hung on an opposite wall.

His eyes landed on his reflection, and he finally noticed that there was a smear of shiny silver across his lips that definitely, definitely hadn’t been there before.

Emile sucked in a breath as Remy turned his head to look into the mirror, and he realised that Remy’s lips were now a lipstick-like pink, when he certainly hadn’t been wearing any just before the pair had kissed.

“We’re-” Remy started.

“Oh,” Emile breathed.

“Oh,” Remy echoed.

They turned their heads to stare at each other, equally wide-eyed and shocked and excited.

Soulmates.

They were soulmates.

And then Remy surged forward, and kissed Emile again.

#me #writing #remile #sanders shorts #cartoon therapy #emile picani #remy sanders #sleep sanders #fluff #human au #soulmate au #first kiss

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brainrattlers · 2 years

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Play It Cool - Tyson Jost (23/n)

Author's Notes: Tyson's struggling a little with the first round loss, and the love of his life being so far away, but AJ made the leap, she packed it up and made her way north. She didn't realize just how far north she'd be going this summer! Tyson had some plans that he had to clue AJ into, but she's doing her best to just go with what life throws at her right now.

Pacing on this chapter is a little weird. There is always so much build up when traveling to get somewhere you want to be, and then it seems to slow down once there. Or maybe I have that backward - it takes forever to get there, then things go fast? Either way... the journey to St. Paul was a long one. But don't think that's the only traveling this summer... oh no. The traveling has just started... I've always heard that if you want to make or break a relationship, you travel with your partner. Will Tyson and AJ survive this? (Duh, of course.)

Also I'm driving to St. Paul here in a few weeks, and... yeah I'm dreading that drive too. It isn't from Denver, but still a good 8-9 hour drive. I feel AJ's pain. Pairing: Tyson Jost x OFC (AJ)

Word Count: 4478

Warnings: Language. Tyson's a little handsy at the beach but... he's a guy and this is easily PG-13 if not less.

Chapter 22 is at: https://brainrattlers.tumblr.com/post/695900532270874624/play-it-cool-tyson-jost-22n

The last two days were rough on Tyson. He was still pretty upset about the Game 6 loss, which was understandable. But he waited, albeit impatiently, for the best thing he had going to arrive.

AJ had texted Tyson as she was getting ready to leave Denver, heart pounding and fingers fidgety as she was starting a new part of her life.

AJ: Packed up, in the car. Getting my last Dutch Bros. Be there in about 13 hours… ready to start writing this new chapter with you.

Tyson squinted with one eye looking at his phone screen, a grin lit up his face.

Tyson: Counting the MINUTES. Drive safe love.

Confined to his small room at the extended stay hotel, he flipped on the TV to find something to watch to pass the time. He ran downstairs and ate breakfast before they picked up the food for the morning, and did some running on the treadmill at the hotel gym as it was raining again. Tyson was just not good at sitting still when he was looking forward to something.

The plan was to actually meet up with AJ at the storage unit he snagged, since not all of both of their things were going to fit in that tiny space that they were now going to share. It wouldn’t be a long time, since they both started actually looking at listings and sharing them back and forth. But there was also a lot of random plans Tyson had for the summer, and was trying to figure out how to keep AJ incorporated in those plans. But until there was a more permanent residence, they both were going to have some things at multiple locations.

Checking in along the way, AJ posted various things to Instagram, and responded to comments on posts when stopping for gas for her car, or sent silly texts to Tyson.

AJ: Things I think about while driving… are zebras white with black stripes? OR are they black with white stripes? Speaking about white stripes, I’m listening to The White Stripes right now. I’m somewhere in Nebraska. See you soon babe.

AJ: Des Moines was originally named Fort Raccoon. It then became Fort Des Moines, and finally, in 1857, was shortened to Des Moines. Little less than 4 hours, can’t wait to kiss you.

Tyson: I can’t wait to kiss you either. Speed a little more? Just don’t get caught. I’ve heard stories from the guys about the cops out here

AJ: I’m in your state!

Tyson: You’re in OUR state! (smile emoji)

It hit different that AJ was indeed almost to her new home. Although now it would really be that home is a feeling and not a physical place, necessarily.

Tyson had planned on traveling up to see his family, bringing AJ with him so she could finally meet Grandpa Jim and Grandma Emily. It’d been months since he’d seen Kacey. He was also going to train with some specialist coaches and work on what he felt were weak points in his game. Seeing friends, maybe hit the lakes a bit. It was going to be a summer of whatever Tyson wanted to do… as long as AJ was okay with it as well.

He hadn’t exactly ASKED if she were okay with these ideas, but, he certainly hoped she’d be okay with traveling a bit. Tyson wasn’t joking when he said he wanted to spoil her more. What good was money if he couldn’t spend it within reason?

As AJ approached St. Paul, the last few texts to Jess were sent, letting her know of the arrival.

AJ: I can’t believe we won’t get to watch the games together, with pre-game margs and tacos. This sucks.

Jess: I know, right? Is it too soon to ask when you’re coming back to visit?

AJ: Probably a little. We’ll figure it out though, okay? I'm not ditching you for a boy. I mean I kind of am. A really hot one. But I promise he will not get in the way (evil imp face)

AJ: On that note… I’m in traffic and am almost to the storage unit to drop off a few things. I’ll text you later. Miss you already!

With a few turns onto some side streets, AJ saw Tyson’s Grand Cherokee parked near the entrance to the storage unit facility, with him leaning up against the vehicle, face engulfed in a smile as bright as the sun that afternoon. Unlocking the door, Tyson opened the front seat, but then realized that Maple was in the way, and was stuck cramming himself into a tiny corner of the backseat, getting AJ and the trailer to the correct unit. Thankfully it was just the trailer getting unloaded, the things in her car were coming with - you know, clothes, computer equipment, toiletries, pillows…

Working as a team, the couple unloaded and stacked things into the small storage unit, trying not to crush Tyson’s sofa and a few things he already had in there. With the trailer empty, AJ had to take it to a drop-off location, and Tyson said he’d wait for her at the hotel - he had to get things set up so that she could park and have in/out privileges like he did, and wouldn’t have the hassle of waiting for the valet. He saw her car on Grand, so he hopped outside really quick to show her where to park.

“Hey babe, should I be jealous that someone is getting out of the passenger side of your vehicle? Should I text Jess asking what I should do?” Tyson started giggling as AJ shot him a glare as she unbuckled and pulled Maple the Bear from the front seat.

“Zip it, Jost.” AJ rolled her eyes but joined in the giggles.

Everything had been brought upstairs within two trips, and AJ collapsed next to Maple on the chaise lounge section of the sofa. It was 1000% an emotionally draining day, not to mention driving thirteen hours. Tyson was on the complete other end of the spectrum, with energy to burn. However, the way this duo worked is that they compliment each other, they balance each other out. Tyson took a hint and laid across the sofa with his head in AJ’s lap, her fingers aimlessly playing with his curls, waking up slightly. On the other hand, Tyson simmered down, cozying the back of his head into AJ’s thighs, smiling up at her.

“Welcome home, Eggo.”

AJ smiled softly. “It’s good to be home, Maple Syrup Man. So… what’s the plan? Other than I think I’m crashing early tonight, no offense. This week has been a blur, especially the last two days.”

She didn’t mean to cause it, but Tyson felt an emotional stab to his heart. HE was the reason she was so tired, because he was so needy, in his own mind. He closed his eyes, trying to push back those thoughts. AJ immediately picked up on it, and softly slid her finger along his forehead, and down the bridge of his nose, and back up again, soothing the creases in-between his eyes. A tiny sigh from Tyson happened, as AJ felt his neck loosen up more leaving his head to press more against her legs. Leaning over, a small smile formed on AJ’s lips as she looked at the far more relaxed Tyson.

Opening his eyes, and looking up into her light blue ones, Tyson made AJ an offer she couldn’t turn down.

“So, I hope this doesn’t come off as too forward, I think you’re pretty cute. Would you wanna have dinner at my place tonight? Maybe… spaghetti and meatballs?”

“Gee, I don’t know, is it far from my place? I’m new in town and am not familiar with the area.”

Tyson lifted his head up as AJ leaned down for a quick kiss before he hopped up off the sofa and took a few steps to find himself in the kitchen grabbing a few utensils and kettles. AJ was going to join him to help out in the kitchen, but it truly was small. Granted it was still bigger than the one they danced in the last time she stayed at the hotel, but still, slow dancing and cooking are two very different choreographies that require different amounts of space.

Plus, sensing how tired AJ was, he insisted he cook dinner tonight so that she could recover a bit. She found herself sitting at the tiny kitchen/dining room table for two, her chin propped up in her hand watching the festivities. Something caught her eye though, and she squinted.

Attached to the side of the refrigerator were tons of post-it notes with familiar handwriting.

Tyson caught AJ staring at the collage of notes. “Yep. I’ve kept every single one I’ve found. I’m still finding some. You really went all out on those, but that’s what kept me sane while you were still in Denver. When I felt alone, I read every single one over again. It was like you were right here with me.”

A boiling pot of water was salted slightly, and a box of pasta splashed into it. Meatballs were tossed in a bowl, and put into the microwave as the room didn’t have an oven this time around, as opposed to his old place in Denver. (“I’m sorry they won’t be as good this time.” “What do you mean? This is the first time I’ve had dinner with you, handsome man that invited me to his place for dinner…”) Sauce was poured into a small kettle to be heated up on the second burner on the tiny stove.

While everything boiled, simmered, or was zapped in the microwave, Tyson was grabbing bowls and silverware from the cabinet and drawer. Hands shoved into oven mitts, the pasta was drained masterfully, and divided between the two bowls. Sauce was ladled onto the steaming noodles, and finally the meatballs were placed on top. Tyson placed the two bowls on the table and sat down.

“You know I could get used to you being all domestic and hot.”

“Wait until you see me do the dishes,” Tyson wiggled his eyebrows.

Maybe it was the fact that AJ was enjoying hot food that wasn’t takeout (it’d been a few days considering she was emptying out the old place), maybe it was that she wasn’t in her car. It might have even been the company in AJ’s presence. It took a moment, but a huge sigh slipped from AJ’s lips, fighting a yawn. It wasn’t even a yawn because she was tired physically - it was more of an emotional release. The stress of being on the road was gone. The frustration that they were only going to be able to facetime tonight was gone. Things were all lining up the way they should. The tiny space may not be ideal, but it didn’t matter. Things were going to change up in the next few weeks, months, years… none of it mattered as long as Tyson was right there with her.

And the feeling was apparently subconsciously mutual, as Tyson watched AJ figure out whatever was going on inside her head, and agreed by tapping his foot on hers under the table. Realizing she was staring at her pasta, AJ looked up, and found Tyson’s eyes crinkled as his lips curled up, seeing her sitting in front of him.

Dinner was pretty much eaten in silence, other than the occasional smile and giggle at each other. The two fell right back in sync. For these two, quiet wasn’t uncomfortable. They could communicate with body language , no words spoken. Just knowing the other person was there was enough. One of the things that AJ missed the most during the last couple months was lazy afternoons spent on the sofa, Tyson strumming on his uke, AJ playing a game or reading a book, and literally her foot was on his thigh. They could be doing completely unrelated things in each other’s physical presence, but it was the simple fact they occupied the same space that made everything feel right in the world.

With the last noodles slurped and bowl scraped, it was AJ that hopped up and grabbed Tyson’s utensils and headed for the sink.

“Babe, I told you that I’d get this, you’ve had a long day.”

“Hey, if we’re living together, I can’t not do my part. You cooked, I’ll clean up. It’s only fair.” AJ was honestly NOT wanting to do the dishes, she really just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep about twenty hours. But in her heart, she knew this was right.

Thankfully the amount of dishes was minimal. AJ started scrubbing the dishes, and Tyson waited patiently for a couple to hit the rack so he could dry them and put them away. There might have been a small delay as he wrapped his arms around her from behind, and let his lips barely brush above AJ’s collar on the back of her neck. Dropping the sponge in the sink, she was able to turn around and use the dish towel slung over Tyson’s neck in two ways - first to dry her hands, and then second to use as a way to pull his face closer to hers. This really was the first time the couple stopped and really kissed since AJ arrived earlier that afternoon.

Just like everything else that evening, it was soft. The biggest difference though was that it was much lengthier and involved arms and hands slowly wrapping around the other as lips stayed connected. Once the kiss had run its course, they stayed wrapped up in each other for a few more moments, AJ had buried her face into the crook of Tyson’s neck, slowly brushing the tip of her nose along his collarbone. Needing a little more connection still, Tyson’s lips found AJ’s forehead, grazing with featherweight pressure against her skin. The silence was barely broken by the sounds of the two breathing each other in and out.

AJ opened her eyes and slowly tilted her head upward.

“As much as I wish this moment could last forever, because it feels so perfect, I’m fading fast. Some of us have been up since 3am Denver time…”

“Yeah yeah, you make it out that you drove 13 hours today,” Tyson smirked, “Let’s get these dishes done and get some sleep.”

Drying the silverware and putting it in the drawer, Tyson watched AJ grab her suitcase and pull out a tee and boxers to slip into before ducking into the bathroom to take out her contacts and brush her teeth. It occurred to him that they were going to need to find a bigger place soon – not that he minded the closeness - it was just more that they were combining two living spaces into a tiny one and inevitably they’d probably snap at each other at some point for being in each other’s space TOO much.

AJ emerged from the bathroom, and flopped onto the bed face-first. Turning her head though, she noticed that her pillows were on the other side of the bed from where they normally are when the two would crash with each other. Rolling onto her back, she admired the view in the bathroom as Tyson was brushing his teeth. The very edge of his boxer brief-clad butt was in view in the doorway. AJ shifted just a bit to see Tyson shaking his behind to an imaginary song in his head, toothbrush moving to the same beat.

His ears must have been burning, feeling AJ’s observing eyes upon him. Leaning back a bit, he caught AJ staring. He shook his hips with more exaggeration, and went back to brushing his teeth.

A few more minutes were spent in the bathroom, flossing his teeth and washing his face. He leaned back again while drying his face to check on AJ, only to find her already asleep, diagonally across the bed. Sneaking out quietly, he didn’t want to wake her up, but was finding he was going to likely have to - she was on mostly his side of the bed.

“Eggo…” Tyson whispered softly near AJ’s ear, “can you scootch over a bit? You’re on my pillows.”

AJ was pretty asleep already, and there was no response. He tried again, touching her arm lightly, not wanting to startle her.

“Baby girl…”

The words roused AJ just a bit, because usually that was something she got called when Tyson was trying to get her riled up. The tone was not deep though, so she wasn’t triggered too much.

“Mmm?” AJ questioned, still half asleep.

“Babe, I need you to scoot just a bit, you’re on my side of the bed.”

“Hmm mmmm.” AJ gripped Tyson’s pillow harder and nodded back off.

At a loss of what to do, Tyson tried to pry the pillow from AJ’s extreme grip, and roll her over to more of her side of the bed. He got her a quarter of the way there when she started murmuring and was seemingly grumpy about the situation. (I mean, if you’d driven 13 hours and had just fallen asleep, you’d be grumpy too, right?) With enough room to at least get onto a portion of his side of the bed, Tyson slid under the duvet and wedged himself under AJ enough to slide her a bit more over. She finally let go of her deathgrip on the pillow.

“Finally!” Tyson thought to himself, as he slid his pillow away to put under his own head.

But instead, AJ grabbed onto whatever was closest to her to hug tight. It happened to be Tyson himself. The two of them are in this giant king-size bed, and are taking up a third of it, pushing Tyson close to the edge.

Making the best of it, Tyson cradled AJ in his arms, trying to keep from losing circulation in them. And a bit later, he finally drifted to sleep. The two woke up as the sun started streaming through the sheer curtains, very much still crammed to one side of the bed. Definitely confused, AJ looked around and realized where she was, and also that she was not even close to her side of the bed. She rolled back over, and Tyson stretched, wincing slightly as his arms went over his head.

“May have to call you Koala Bear instead of Eggo the way you were clinging to me last night.”

AJ’s eyes went wide. “Oh no, I am so sorry. I don’t even remember falling asleep. I remember watching you dance while brushing your teeth and… then I really don’t remember. I feel awful about taking up the whole bed. Our first real night together and I’m an absolute jerk. I wasn’t actually that curled up with you, was I? Oh no…”

Tyson sheepishly grinned. “Yeah babe, you… kinda were. It was cute though.”

A lazy morning was had, the two snagged breakfast before it shut down in the lobby. Tyson was a little fidgety though, and AJ wasn’t sure why. She finally questioned it, noting that he was tapping his foot inadvertently against AJ’s.

“Something bothering you? You’ve seemed to be a little off this morning. Was it me stealing the bed last night?”

Tyson looked down, trying to figure out how to say what he was needing to.

“I know you just got here, but… I’m thinking about heading home for a bit. Nothing too long, but I was thinking maybe late next week or so. I’m looking to do some training with Dynamic, and want to see family.” He paused, then looked AJ in the eye. “I was kind of hoping you might want to come with? You know Grandpa and Grandma want to meet you. Kace and Mom will be around too.”

AJ nodded, adding, “Okay, it’s not like I really have plans or anything, babe. I’m just going with the flow right now. How long would we be gone?”

The two discussed plans, and it would be a couple weeks, and Tyson even insisted if she wanted to come back to St. Paul, she could. He didn’t want to hold AJ captive in a country that wasn’t her own if she didn’t want to be there the whole time. AJ saw it as a chance to connect with Tyson’s family more… her at some point soon in-laws.

Over the next few days, AJ and Tyson had time to themselves, and it honestly was spent just roaming around the Twin Cities area. That date that kept getting put off in Denver of visiting the zoo finally happened, albeit much further north. AJ brought Tyson to Electric Fetus to find out what was new in the music world. A day was spent at Lake Minnetonka with some of Tyson’s teammates, past (college) and present.

In fact, Lake Day was probably Tyson’s favorite day since AJ permanently arrived, as water is definitely his element. Skating on frozen water, and doing tricks on the wakeboard - it all makes sense with Tyson being a Pisces. Oddly enough, AJ is a fire sign as a Leo, but she’ll also claim she was born a month early (truth) and would have been a Virgo, another water sign. Sure, Tyson enjoyed seeing friends new and old, and playing in the water (and was happy to see AJ wasn’t worried about getting her hair wet and dove right into the water), but his favorite part of it was a bit more… handsy.

You see, AJ is a pale, pasty gal of Western European ancestry. A large chunk Irish, German, Italian, and Polish - and that is just her mom’s side. Regardless, she burns within minutes of being in the sun. Tyson took this into consideration and was consistently asking if she needed more sunscreen. Sure, he didn’t want her getting sunburned, but the ulterior motive was clear:

Putting sunscreen on someone is one of the few times that it is 100% acceptable to get handsy in public.

Tyson was more than willing to rub the lotion onto AJ’s exposed skin. Shoulders? Check. Neck? Got it. Back? Happy to oblige. He was even trying to get a bit cheeky (no pun intended) by smoothing it up AJ’s calves, knees, and thighs. She literally had to tell him to stop before he got any ideas further up (too late, of course).

Otherwise, even though AJ had no experience with wakeboarding, he was so excited to see her try, fail, try, fail, try… and finally actually stand up for a few moments. Even Tyson’s friends were cheering her on as she was doing better than a few of them were. With a little practice she’d probably get much better, but for what she accomplished that day, AJ was even proud of herself. It wasn’t the actual standing on the board that made her feel good - it was the fact she was doing something new in front of people she didn’t know, and did not care. Incredible wipeout? She was the first to start laughing when she found the water’s surface, exclaiming “Tell me that looked as epic fail as I felt like it did! LET’S GO AGAIN!”

Tyson couldn’t understand that AJ ever felt like she was out of place, she always seemed to mesh well with everyone she talked to. Just like in Colorado, everyone in Minnesota was understanding why AJ was so different in the best possible way.

With that, AJ noticed that the anxiety and worry that seemed to be lurking just under the surface of Tyson had receded over the last few days. And with the anticipation of heading back home, it was the most relaxed she’d seen him be in… months really. Tyson couldn’t wait to show AJ where he grew up and experience all that Edmonton had to offer.

After just a couple more days in St. Paul, AJ kept her promise to Tyson she made weeks prior, showing just how good at packing luggage she was. A small carry-on and her backpack had a week and a half’s worth of clothes, toiletries, and all the electronics she’d need to survive. Tyson had a full size suitcase and was still worried about not fitting all of his things. She helped him re-pack and found that he had a lot more space if he’d fold things differently.

The two got up early and snagged an Uber to the airport, and went through security. AJ downed a handful of Dramamine with a bottle of water. She fidgeted with the label on the bottle, tearing it into little pieces.

“You good?” Tyson’s voice was laced with concern.

“Y'know how I get motion sickness? I mean I haven’t in a while because I’m used to your driving, or I am the chauffeur… but me being a little tired to start with at the lake? Dramamine.” AJ paused.

Tyson nodded for her to continue.

“I’m a terrible airplane passenger. They won’t let me fly the plane, so… Dramamine.”

The joke caught Tyson off-guard causing laughter to erupt from him. Once the chuckle was under control though, he knew just how anxious she could get, especially if she started feeling the dizziness and nausea that plagued her.

“Aww, Eggo, you know I’ve got you.” Tyson wove his fingers into AJ’s.

Those fingers stayed intertwined until the plane had taken off, despite AJ trying to break Tyson’s hand while squeezing it as the plane leaned back to gain altitude. Finally the Dramamine really did it’s thing, and AJ fell asleep against Tyson’s shoulder.

“Hey, hey babe?” Tyson squeezed AJ’s hand, “Wake up, we’re in Calgary.”

AJ groggily looked around and rubbed her eyes, contacts dry from sleep. After a turbulent landing (and potentially bruised hand for Tyson as AJ squeezed it really hard again… he asked her to try to loosen her grip slightly for the next flight as he was going to need those hands for practice the next few days), they had a quick layover, snagging some brunch and doing some people-watching until their next flight into Edmonton.

Calgary to Edmonton, thankfully, was pretty uneventful. AJ stayed awake and watched out the window nearly the whole flight, sans takeoff and landing. Those were some of the things that set off her vertigo for sure. But she did her best to simply loosely hold onto Tyson’s hand, this time succeeding. Once on the ground, with carry-on items in hand, the two exited the plane and made it to the baggage claim, finding Tyson’s suitcase.

Just outside of security, Tyson’s face lit up. In front of them, just down the corridor, the whole Jost clan (including Grandpa Jim and Grandma Emily) stood with their own sign.

“Welcome Home, Tyson! Welcome to Canada, AJ!” Ready for Part 24? https://brainrattlers.tumblr.com/post/697160469821194240/play-it-cool-tyson-jost-24n

#Tyson Jost #TysonTuesday #Play It Cool #Josty #Tyson Jost x OFC #MNWild

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zkfanworkweek · 4 years

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ZFAW Fan Content Creator Interviews: HayleyNFoster

Hey everyone! We hope you’re all excited for ZFAW, and to honor (ha!) ZFAW’s commitment to supporting and celebrating fan content creators in the Zutara fandom, we’re going to be rolling out a series of interviews with well-known and widely-beloved content creators over the next few weeks. We’ve got artists and fanfiction authors, some names you recognize as well as a few phenomenal up-and-coming talents, and we can’t wait for you to meet them all!

For the second interview in this cycle, we have our best propaganda creator and this fandom’s hottest new artist/undisputed queen of the animatic, @hayleynfoster!

1. Tell us about how you came to ship Zutara. What does this ship mean to you?

When I was around 14 or 15 and caught Avatar: The Last Airbender on television, I was drawn in by the art style, the humor, and the wonderful characters. I caught the episodes out of order, and the first one I saw and wasn’t prepared to be sucked in by was The Waterbending Scroll. It intrigued me at that age, and the line “I’ll save you from the pirates” combined with the tension between Katara and Zuko in that whole scene was electrifying. I remember my teenage self thinking these two have so much chemistry! And when I saw a commercial on Nickelodeon that featured fanart submitted by fellow Avatar fans, I realized that I could do that to! So I set about making Zutara fanart for myself. I stumbled onto Youtube, practically in its infancy, and discovered that people set clips of Zuko and Katara set to music (And this was still in season 1 days… so people who made these amvs were the real mvps because they were able to make compelling narratives in their amvs with like practically nothing to work with!). The AMVs really spurred my interest in this couple, I remember distinctly one Zutara AMV using the Dido song White Flag utterly capturing my imagination. I found fandom shortly after, getting into deviantart and forums. But the ship really began to mean something to me when, as I was working on my drawings in the computer lab at school, a buoyant presence hovered over my shoulder noticing my Zutara art on the computer screen. The girl was someone I had never really talked to and had only seen from afar but she immediately started excitedly saying she shipped Zuko and Katara too! In this simple shared obsession, I made one of the best friends I’ve ever had and we’re still friends to this day. We would theorize and fangirl over Avatar like it was nobody’s business; we poured over bootleg San Diego Comic Con footage that showed spoilers for season 2 before it aired; we lost our freaking minds when we finally saw The Crossroads of Destiny. We had watch parties every week as Season 3 of A:TLA aired, and comforted each other when the show ended as it did (much ranting was shared). Those are some of my happiest memories from high school… all because this one pairing from this wonderful show. Even though Zutara didn’t happen, we still chat every now and then about it. Zutara will probably be a lifelong obsession, always bubbling under the surface. And without it, I would have never realized that animation was a viable career path. It really did inspire everything including the work I’m doing to this day in the animation industry. I owe a lot to this ship and to Avatar: the Last Airbender.

2. What inspires you to create zutara fanworks?

The resurgence of Avatar: The Last Airbender this year really helped sort of spark that dormant love I had for Zutara. The show’s ending still disappointed me on the rewatch, but Zuko and Katara’s relationship arc was as captivating as ever, so I turned to some fanfiction and looking at people’s pretty Zutara art and AMVs to just revel in fanon instead of getting to hung up on the actual ending of the show. But then I realized, with quarantine and my work load being pretty light, I had time to actually make all new Zutara art for myself, art I was never fully capable of making as a kid, but now could do with my 7 years of industry experience and just… life experience. And I was inspired to do some corrective animatics to satisfy my own desire for a different ending. I just really like exploring these two characters, doing different and interesting things with them, and frankly I’m inspired to make cute, fluffy, romantic art simply by virtue of living in a really sad and depressing world. Things are so crazy right now, creating art about two characters I love being in love, is comforting. And it helps to have inspiring music and amazing Zutara amvs to just sort of stir up my emotions and imagery in my head to make into animatics and art.

3. Be selfish - if you could request one fanwork based on your own art/fanfic, what would it be? What would you absolutely love to see someone create?

Ohhhh… Well, It’s always nice to have people write fanfiction that puts words to my animatics. I am not that great at coming up with dialog myself, so I’ve just chosen to indulge in visuals and emotions for my boards. But when I read things like RideBoldlyRide’s take on my Reunion Animatic, it makes me pretty giddy. (They finally have voices!) :) And this is the MOST selfish thing I could request, but I’m not shy about saying how much I love well done amvs, so I will literally kill for someone to make Zutara AMVs to songs I like… Like, most of AURORA’s songs but especially Exist for Love, Sunseeker by The Naked and Famous, Promises or Take Me by Aly & AJ, Adore You by Harry Styles, Human Enough by ONR, Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine, and/or Almost (Sweet Music) by Hozier just… I can see the AMVs so clearly to any of these songs in my head, but I don’t have the tools or skill set at my disposal to make a compelling fan video. When I was in high school, I originally thought I wanted to go into video editing simply because I loved making very crappy AMVs (they were so bad you guys), but I figured out being a storyboard artist was more in my wheelhouse. haha

4. Any words for people who are new to the fandom and/or nervous about sharing their work for the first time?

If you’re new to the Zutara fandom, just have a good time! Don’t waste too much time arguing with people over your shipping preferences. I wasted so much of my teen years having pointless shipping wars with people on DeviantArt, and I’m just so much happier nowadays because I’m just making Zutara art in my little corner of the internet, and honestly, in the politest of ways, I don’t give a shit if people don’t like my art or Zutara. haha I think that’s sort of a key thing for people thinking of posting creative works here in the fandom, just make art for yourself, satisfy your own desires for the pairing, get your creative sparks flying, and create just for the joy of creating. It’s always nice to get comments and such, but simply making the art should be what spurs you on, not the external validation. And have a good time, don’t worry too much - I say as someone who worries about EVERYTHING. But honestly, making art for A:TLA is some of the most relaxed I’ve been because I make it just for me. I’m lucky others seem to like it too!

5. What’s an idea for a fanwork that you have but haven't gotten around to making?

I have an idea for a second generation storyline with my Zutara kids that involves Kya (the eldest firebending daughter) falling in love with an airbender boy (tentatively named Gora in my headcanon who’s a bit of a rabble rouser and one of Aang’s kids he had with a Kyoshi Warrior), and then they start a socialist revolution in the Fire Nation in order to dismantle all of the hierarchical societies across the Avatar world… Together Kya and Gora Fan the Flames of revolution… ehhhhh... Get it?? Oh! Oh, and then Katara, who had put in legit liberal reforms in her time as Fire Lady listens to her daughter after resisting in the first part of the story, but then realizes she can actually play a part in the dissolution of the royalty and is also active in the revolution realizing that moderate liberal reforms are no substitute for a society free of serving royalty (which she had always been uncomfortable with but had rationalized with herself that she was doing good in her capacity as Fire Lady.) I just feel like there’s a lot of cool potential for discussing these ideas and also having some aspirational change in the Avatar world. lol For aesthetics and just happy fluffy times, I can indulge in Fire Lady and Fire Lord Zuko stuff, but really at the end of the day, I take issue with the structures in a society that have to exist for monarchies to exist. Soooo, I kind of want to do my own corrective story for that… if I ever have the time or guts. On a less ambitious note, I would love to do a Zutara sparring animatic to practice doing action, but I need a good story; I am not good at doing fights just for fighting’s sake. Those are just some things I have rattling around in my head.

6. Are you participating in ZFAW? If so want to give us a hint as to your plans?

Yes! The most I can say is I have one animatic almost finished and one that’s still being thumbnailed. The rest are probably going to be comics or emotive single pieces based on the fanfics I really like right now. :)

#interviews #zutara fanworks appreciation week #zfaw #hayleynfoster #zutara

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 3 years

Text

[against all odds, your hand is in mine] [1/4]

Seasons change, and with each comes a different story. In a world where the dead roam around, romantic companionship seems unlikely. Yet Ericson stands, and within it are four couples who are proof that it's possible.

Spring: Briolet | flowers, picnics, blueberries, running river

Read on AO3

Notes: Sometimes I get the urge to write four oneshots over the course of two days. This is the first of those oneshots. It’s briolet in spring, but be careful: there is so much hand holding and some smooches. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

[screenshot used is from the lovely @pi-creates]

---

Brody pricks her finger again. It's easy to avoid that, but she doesn't have a thimble, and her hands refuse to stop trembling.

No blood, and really, it didn’t even hurt. It more startled her, a bit of panic sparking in her gut at the idea of staining the martial and ruining her project. She stops her work to rest her hands and the fabric in her lap, closes her eyes, and sucks in a deep breath. It does little to calm her nerves or her impatience.

“Don’t rush,” she mumbles to herself, readjusting her position on the bed. She crosses her legs and notices a long strand of thick, pale blue thread stuck to her pants. Great, she needed that color an hour ago to finish one of the flowers.

Doesn’t matter now, the floral design is complete and all she has left is to sew the pieces together. If she can finish soon, there’ll be more than enough time to clean up, gather the basket she made up the night before, and head down to the greenhouse. Violet should still be there.

Brody smiles, setting down her needle and holding the handmade eyepatch in her hands. She rubs a thumb over one of the little white flowers. She embroidered them just this morning, a final touch to the overall design. That feeling strikes her gut again, exciting her nerves.

The idea came to her one night after Violet found her in the common room. It was late at night, and the two shared a blanket on the couch and drank tea. Violet's ruined eye was covered with bandages despite being healed over. No one was able to find her an actual eye patch. The best they found was a plastic one used for a children’s pirate costume, so she kept it bandaged.

Violet never complains about it. She considers the bandages her patch, even though they're not the most comfortable to wear every day.

Brody decided at that moment that she would make her one. She tore through her closet the next morning, sorting through old shirts until she found one she never wore. Taupe in color, a thicker material, something she could easily work with.

Though she had no idea how eyepatches were made, figuring those things out came easy to Brody. She made several patterns, testing each one out on scraps until one worked. From there, it was all about creating a design should could see Violet wearing. It wasn't difficult- sewing and embroidery work came easy to her.

A family thing that stuck, she assumes.

Her grams used to do embroidery and cross-stitching work. She made a living off sewing intricate designs, all more beautiful than any painting. If Brody closes her eyes, she can still see the doorway into her gram’s cabin. The framed design of a flowery cottage with a stone path, rural trees and a cloudless sky hung up on the wall. Her gram’s final masterpiece. She worked on it for months, pouring every ounce of love she had into each stitch. It was something Brody admired every time she walked through that doorway.

She learned to hunt and skin animals from her dad and uncles, and sewing from her grams. Best of both worlds, she supposes. Two skills that became handier than she would’ve ever thought at the time.

Though her flowers weren’t as flawless as her gram’s once were, she still put her heart into each stitch just as she did. She hopes that when Violet sees it, she’ll feel the unspoken words Brody threaded through the fabric.

Purple, white, and blue flowers of all sizes, each with a yellow french knot in the center, standing bright against the muted taupe. She sewed a thicker piece beneath it, used a tiny bit of stuffing from an old, ripped pillow to give it some comfortable cushion. A piece of a silky shirt lines the inside so Violet’s skin won’t get agitated while wearing it.

After weeks of work, all she has left to sew is the straps she made. She had no way to measure the fit for Violet’s head since she wanted this to be a surprise, so she figured she could make them extra long enough to tie comfortably while wearing. If she needed to adjust anything, she could do that later.

Brody picks her needle back up.

It doesn’t take long to finish, even with her forcing herself to take her time.

With triumph, Brody sticks her needle back into its rightful container and hops off her bed, singing, “Ta-daah~ !”

Her mind is all over the place. Wrap up the patch-- does she have a box or even a bag?-- and hide it at the bottom of the woven basket she found in the basement, stuff the blanket in as much as she can so the two cups don’t clank together, and start boiling water for tea-- where the hell did she put the jar of blueberries?

She flicks a match to light the heater she borrowed from Clementine, letting the water come to a slow boil as she searches around for the mason jar. It’s right under her nose, of course, sitting in plain sight on her shelf.

With the greenhouse running smoothly and the trading they’ve done with the traveling caravan that comes around, they're able to plant seeds for several different fruits and vegetables. This week, they finally got their first bunch of blueberries in. She managed to pick a bunch and seal them away in a jar yesterday without Violet noticing. She thought they’d make for a refreshing picnic snack to pair with tea.

Brody’s been planning this picnic for a while now, all while she was working and spring came to chase the cold away. Her favorite time of year where it’s finally warm, but cool enough to not overheat everything. Grass grows greener, flowers bloom all over the place, the river flows, and the sun shines bright in the sky most days. Other days, like yesterday, it rains. She was worried it would rain today as well, but there isn’t a cloud in the sky today.

She lets the tea steep in a large mug and squeezes what she can from an old container of mostly crystallized honey. When it’s cooled down enough, she pours it slow and steady into an empty water bottle. Sure, they can’t have iced tea given they have no way to actually make ice once winter ends, but lukewarm tea would be just as good.

Basket in hand, Brody looks out her window one last time before leaving the dorms. With every step she takes, she grows closer to the greenhouse and her heart thumps gaily against her ribs.

Outside, everyone is out and about, enjoying the warm weather. AJ and Tenn color together at the table while Mitch works on sharpening his favorite knife. Willy sulks on the couch beside him with Ruby attending to his bleeding knee. She's going on about him needing to be more careful.

Clementine and Louis sit on the steps leading into the admin building. She sits a step lower, leaning back into his chest as the two talk. Brody waves at them as she passes, and Louis gives her a knowing grin when he eyes the basket.

It’s not a long walk to the greenhouse from there. She stops when she notices the wildflowers growing by the fence of the rabbit coop. Bees buzz around the white flowers, landing in their yellow centers. She hates to disturb them, but these flowers were part of her inspiration when designing Violet’s eyepatch. They're too perfect not to pick. She shoos away a fat bumblebee with pollen sticking to its little black legs, and gathers eight of the flowers, leaving plenty for the rest.

A simple bouquet, if she could even call it that, but it works.

Once inside, the fresh scent of wet soil and leafy greens hits her. Not as refreshing as the sweet air outside, but still, it fills her lungs with warmth. Or perhaps that sensation is from seeing Violet standing beside Omar, watering what Brody believes are the potatoes.

Most of her hair pulls back into a hair tie, apart from the bangs that fall over her forehead and bandages. She hasn’t had a haircut in a while, letting it grow long enough past her shoulders. A surprise, actually. Violet hasn’t had long hair since they were kids.

Not that Brody was complaining- she likes it very much.

Violet breaks her attention from the potatoes to meet her gaze. She grins, and yes, that warmth is definitely from her. Omar continues on about some sort of new stew he wants to try making, only stopping when he notices he’s lost Violet’s attention.

“Everything doin’ okay in here?” Brody asks.

Violet gives a shrug. She sticks her hand out to run along the wooden planter to steady herself. She meets Brody halfway, replying with, “Eh, nothing too exciting. Willy biffed it while watering the rabbits this morning, but other than that...”

“He about crushed one of the babies,” Omar adds with a shake of his head. “More upset about that than he was about his skinned knee.”

“Aw, poor little guy,” Brody laughs. “That why he looked so miserable when I passed him?”

“Probably. He tried to catch it to apologize, but it was too quick even for him, and Ruby didn’t want him getting a bunch of muck all over him with an open wound, so…”

Apologizing to a baby bunny that they’re eventually going to eat? Sounds like Willy, Brody thinks. But never mind that, she has more important things than rabbits.

She reaches out to grab Violet’s free hand, her lips involuntarily curling into a bright smile as she asks, “Are you almost finished ?”

“Yeah,” Violet says, raising a questioning brow. “Why?”

“We’re going on a picnic!”

Violet pauses, only now noticing the basket in Brody’s grasp.

“We are?”

“We are!”

“That’s news to me.”

Brody lets go of her hand to present her with the flowers. Violet stares at them for a moment as her skin flushes, starting at her neck and blooming along her cheeks. If Omar weren’t standing over there, Brody would lean over and kiss that lovely blush.

“And where exactly would we have a picnic?”

“By the river. Already got a spot in mind.”

Violet holds the flowers close to her chest and clears her throat. She glances back at Omar, and says, “Uh, I don’t-”

“Go ahead,” he interrupts with a wave of his hand. “I can take care of the rest. Go have your picnic, be careful. And Brody,” he points to her, putting on a stern voice, “have her home by eight, and don’t have too much fun.”

Brody laughs.

“Yes, sir!”

Violet shakes her head, but her smile betrays her amusement.

“Well, okay, I guess we’re going on a picnic. There better be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in there... that's what people eat on picnics, right?”

“Yeah, but no. Close, though.”

Locking their hands together once more, Brody leads Violet out of the greenhouse and through the gates. Soon, they’re outside the walls of Ericson. Heading down the path, she makes sure to keep watch out for any obstacles to warn Violet about.

Brody knows that Violet’s other eye works perfectly well, but given that her depth perception isn’t what it used to be, she can’t help but be extra careful. She used that excuse to hold Violet’s hand before they were together, both still recovering from their respective injuries. Better safe than sorry, use the buddy system, and that system requires hand-holding. Brody didn’t make the rules.

“Never been on a picnic before,” Violet breaks the silence.

“No? Not even before?”

“No.”

“We used to go out on picnics to eat and play games all the time. Me, my grandma, my daddy and uncles, cousins- if it was warm out, we were out.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Most times it was,” Brody says, giving Violet’s hand a squeeze. “ Just because those days are gone doesn’t mean we can’t do that kinda stuff now, y’know?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Though there are more walkers around than there were back then.”

“True, but that shouldn’t be a big issue today,” Brody smiles. “I asked James to check the area and he collected the walkers he found. The river should be clear.”

Even without looking at her, she can sense her surprise. Violet’s quiet for a moment, turning her head to peer around them before saying, “You planned this.”

It’s not a question, but more of a realization.

“I thought this was a spur of the moment thing,” Violet admits. “I, uh…”

When she doesn’t continue, Brody says, “ Not many opportunities to take you out on a date,” the word makes Violet blush and repress a smile, “and when one does arise, you bet your bottom dollar I’m gonna take it .”

Violet says nothing more, but her grip on Brody’s hand tightens.

They make it to the river without spotting a single walker. She kept her knife handy in case, but James was thorough, it seems. Brody makes a note to thank him again for helping her out.

The running water is soothing and the grass colors with golden dandelions. It’s nice to be down here without the intention of working up a sweat while fishing, she thinks. They find a flat piece of grass, kicking rocks, sticks, and pinecones out of the way to lay the blanket down. Together they sit side by side with the basket between them.

Rubbing her hands together, Brody digs in to pull everything out. Except for the eyepatch. It remains, wrapped in a pillowcase she found. Hopefully Louis won’t notice she snuck it from his horde of pillows.

“Alright, we got tea and blueberries,” Brody says, handing one mug to Violet and opening the mason jar of berries. Their sweet scent escapes into the air, making her mouth water.

“How’d you manage to sneak these past Omar?” Violet asks, popping a blueberry into her mouth. Her face twists at the taste, and for a moment Brody worries they might be sour, but Violet shakes her head. “They’re good, just not used to that.”

By now the tea is completely cooled, and while not cold, still delightful to sip on.

“Open wide,” Violet says, holding up a blueberry. It misses Brody’s mouth, bouncing off her chin. Violet laughs. “Pfft, c’mon.”

“Okay, okay, I’m ready, try again.”

Another miss.

“Aww, nope!”

“Well, let's see you try!”

Brody throws up a berry, and Violet misses it completely.

“Damn depth perception,” she grins, grabbing the berry and tossing it up herself. It hits her cheek, lost to the grass. “Damn it!”

Violet’s laugh, while rare, is as bewitching as it is infectious. It’s been so long since Brody heard her laugh like this, and to know that they’re here together, comfortable together…

Emotion builds in her throat, and she has to eat berries to suppress it. She aims the blueberry just right, and Violet catches it this time. As she chews, they both let out victorious giggles.

Once the laughter dies down, Violet brings her knees to her chest as she watches the river.

“Think we’re missing out on a fish haul?” she asks.

“Nah,” Brody pulls the basket closer to look inside, biting her lip as she runs her fingers over the covered patch. “And if we are, I’m sure the traps’ll make up for it.”

Should she do it now? They did just get here, did she want to surprise her early, or…?

Brody grabs a flower instead, bringing it up to her nose to inhale the soft scent. An idea occurs to her as she admires the girl before. Scooping up the flowers, Brody breaks off most of the stems. The flower slips in through Violet’s hair, right where the hair tie is.

Violet jerks her head around to look back, but Brody says, “Don’t move.”

“What are you-?”

She doesn’t need to answer the question, she merely secures a few more flowers within the light strands of hair before leaning back to admire her work. She even tucks one behind her own ear so they match.

Violet remains quiet, but lays her hand on Brody's. A silent, content thank you.

Brody doesn’t know how long they sat there watching the river, sipping tea, and listening to the birds chirp from the trees . A small butterfly flutters by them, and for a moment, Brody forgets the world around them. Forgets the walkers, forgets Ericson, too swept up in the way the warm air blew against her skin, in how Violet’s hand felt in hers, and the strange sense of wonder, a desire to kick off her shoes and run through the river.

It took Violet kissing the back of her hand to break her out of it.

Violet grew sheepish, glancing away as if she needed to come up with an explanation for the kiss, and that was it.

“Vi,” she started, pulling her around to face her. “I have- I made ya somethin’.”

The nervous pounding in her chest thumps in her ears as she reached back into the basket, pulling out the pillowcase.

“Aw, from Lou’s stash,” Violet grins, amused. “You shouldn’t have.”

“No, no, not the pillowcase,” Brody fidgets with it until she finds what she’s looking for. Her thumb brushes over the flowers beneath the thin material. With a deep breath, she goes for it. “Listen, I’ve been thinkin’ a lot about you. Us... just everything, and- Remember that night we stayed up in the common room talkin’? I thought… well, I wanted to do this for you.”

Brody hands her the pillowcase. Not once does she take her eyes off Violet’s face, noting the curiosity and confusion playing in her features as she accepts the gift.

The eyepatch is finally brought out into the sunlight, laying in Violet’s palm.

Neither of them speaks. Violet’s lips part, eye widening.

Brody lets the air out of her lungs slow, and then the words spill from her lips before she can stop them.

“We couldn’t find you anything to wear other than that stupid costume patch, and I know you said you didn’t mind the bandages but then I got to thinkin’ ‘bout how bandages might not always be the comfiest-”

“Brody…” Violet’s voice is quiet, trembling as it breaks.

“-and I want you to be comfortable in somethin’ that you like, so I made this for you- the whole thing, hand sewed it myself. I- but y’know, if it’s maybe too much- I wasn’t sure if it might bring too much attention and you wouldn’t like that-”

She’s cut off when Violet practically throws herself at her, burying her face in the crook of Brody’s neck and holding her tight. Brody doesn’t hesitate. She embraces her back, pressing a hand to cradle her head.

“I… don’t know what to say,” Violet's voice quivers.

“You like it?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s enough.”

Violet pulls back, and without warning, her hands cup Brody’s face. She presses their lips together in a way that’s anything but gentle. It’s firm, purposeful, and loving. All tension from her body melts away, and Brody truly believes she could kiss her all day and that tingle? The one that coursed through her veins, the butterflies that fluttered in her belly? It would never go away. It wouldn't even lessen.

They break apart, and Violet’s staring down at the eyepatch in her hands.

“Holy shit. It’s… I don’t-” she tries again. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“I wanted to,” Brody assures her, brushing the bangs that fell over her face.

“No one’s ever made me anything like this before. I mean, not a patch, just … you know.”

“Want to try it on?”

Violet nods, and Brody’s undoing the bandages with ease. Her eye's healed from the damage the raiders inflicted, leaving only angry scars. The patch is a perfect size, covering everything.

“Does it feel okay?”

“Yeah, it’s… nice. Soft.”

“Does this feel tight enough? Like it won’t fall off, but not too tight?”

“Yeah, it feels good.”

“Couldn’t figure out a good way to clasp it together, so it ties. If ya want me to change it or anything, I can make adjustments... There!”

Violet turns back around, avoiding her gaze. Brody studies her face, the way the colors of the embroidered flowers make the green in her other eye vibrant, how the taupe of the fabric flatters her.

“Beautiful.”

Violet scoffs, ducking her head to hide the flustered smile that betrays her lips. This gives Brody the perfect excuse to place a quick kiss on her forehead.

“You’re so mushy,” Violet says, embarrassed but trying to force a playful tone. “Y’know that?”

Well, to be fair, Brody could be mushier, so she replies with an over-the-top, sweet, “Only with you.”

Violet groans and they laugh once more.

They know their little picnic will wrap up soon, so together they sit close and enjoy the comfort of nature for a few minutes longer.

“Thank you, Brody… really.”

Brody responds with another kiss.

Yeah, she thinks. She could kiss Violet all day.

#[against all odds your hand in is mine]#twdg briolet #twdg violet #twdg brody #briolet #violet twdg #brody twdg #spring: briolet #thank you for reading #it's always super appreciated :D #twdg fanfics #twdg fanfiction

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strawberrycamel · 3 years

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Fic Writer Review

tagged by: @aj-itated <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 30!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 46,254 words

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? based on my Ao3 and my old ff.net account: 3 - Fairy Tail, BNHA, DP (though I haven't written for Fairy Tail or bnha in years)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? in order, that would be How to Take Out a Ghost by TooFineFoley, Bad Luck Tuck: The Sequel, ignorance is your new best friend, What Could Have Been, and, surprisingly, A Connoisseur of Fine Art (all DP or DP crossover fics)

5. Which of your fic do you want more attention for? both they're siblings, your honor and Big Boy Tucker. i can't choose, they both need love

6. Do you respond to comments, why or why not? i used to respond to them as often as I could at the start, but i kinda slacked off sometime around the beginning of summer classes. I used to respond to them because they made me really happy and i wanted to let the commenters know I did actually read it and am very grateful for their comments, but after a while it became... idk, draining? I felt bad about leaving the same response to each commenter and got caught up in my own head so I just kinda,, stopped all together. I wanna start responding again at some point, but uh, probably not anytime soon.

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oh definitely One More Time; I think that's the only fic I've written without some kind of happy ending (anything in the Not Your Son series doesn't count since it's not finished yet :3) and I can't tell you how much it pained me not to make it happy. Don't get me wrong, I loved writing that for going angst week but hole-y shit did it fuck me up

8. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you’ve written? I do write crossovers! The craziest, I think, is my Strange vs. Work: Wife Swap AU, it's not done because I'm seriously stumped for it right now, but it's essentially a DP Marvel crossover where Clockwork and Dr. Strange are forced by a TV host ghost to switch bodies and mentor the other person's 'apprentice'. Peter and Danny have to help them get adjusted to their new environments/bodies and they all have to figure out how to turn things back to normal. This whole series is meant to be based off the show 'Wife Swap'. I have fun making Stephen suffer >:)

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic? not that i can remember? like i think it was more grammar and dialogue punctuation nitpicking on my old ff.net fics, never hate

10. Do you write smut? if so what kind? not really, but i have a singular wip that im working on that's definitely spicy

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? nope

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? no? (i was working on something a while ago but we havent finished so, I'm going with no)

13. What’s your all time favorite ship? i don't think I really have one. Usually I just read whichever fics have cool summaries or tags and just dive right in, ships be damned. Lately I've been reading a few TimKon fics and I've been thinking about Dark Ages, UFS, and Gray Ghost stuff a lot over the summer

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? oh, oh god. I'm going to say it and I'm going to feel real shitty about it because it's such a good fucking concept, but I can't bring myself to write anything more than what I already have written and all the notes I just randomly add onto it every once in a while. It even has a title: "Ectoplasmic Pudding".

It's a DP DC crossover fic wip and the plot is about Danny being called by Batman to help with a kidnapping case he suspects to involve ghosts; he needs Danny's expertise and help to capture the ghost. Danny agrees and he meets Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson) on the roof of the police station (after dropping face first onto it because he got blinded by the bat signal). They go by Batmobile and arrive at the scene of the crime where Danny confirms a ghost is involved. A bunch of different scenes of Danny and Robin having a blast while Batman's trying his best to stay on task and then, eventually, they find a warehouse where the box ghost is interrogating a bored looking Mr. Trand, the victim, about some fancy box commissioned by Vlad.

Danny figures out this guy is Bertrand in disguise and since Bertrand's essentially on vacation, they both agree to lie about how they know each other. And then I got stuck around here, but I imagine it just ends up being a series of dumb events where Batman, Robin, and Danny have to 'protect' Bertrand until they catch Boxy and throw him back into the Ghost Zone while the disguised ghost tries to make the most of the rest of his vacation.

Batman and Robin definitely don't believe whatever lie Danny came up with to explain how he knows Mr. Trand, but they go along with it until it's revealed in probably the worst way possible and leads to both of them trying to take the former kidnapping victim to the GIW while also trying to keep Danny from stopping them and barely listening to a word he says (maybe they think he's being threatened somehow or being controlled or smth, idk). Absolutely no clue how that whole fight goes, but in the end Danny kicks Box Ghost into the Zone and Bertrand is told very explicitly never to bring Spectra to Gotham.

15. What are your writing strengths? evoking emotion in my writing? yeah i'm going with that

16. What are your writing weaknesses? planning out plot ahead of time. I can write outlines and write a bunch of notes about what i want to include, that's not the problem. My problem is that all my motivation to write just drains away the moment I have a somewhat concrete plot planned out for a fic- this applies to one-shots and longfics exactly the same. And past that, sometimes I'll make one change to the planned plot and feel like tossing the whole thing out the window and going freehand without the 'constraints' of an outline or anything ..........

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? try not to offend anybody? like, look at good examples of how others have done it and do a lot of research and stuff. Also, be aware that not everything will translate perfectly from the original language you wrote the fic in and whatever language you're translating it to.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Fairy Tail

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Hellbent. A few others come close, but I seriously cannot express the joy i felt writing that first chapter (and when I'm done my minibang fic, I literally cannot wait to get back to it)

20. What fic are you most proud of? that's a tough one, there are a bunch i fucking adore but i think it's tied between The Big Dipper and ignorance is your new best friend

Tagging: @guardianrex, @shinygoldstar, @cleanlenins, @princessfanonanona, and @ghost-pasta!

#tag game #fic writer review #thanks for the tag aj <3

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keanureevesisbae · 3 years

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eunoia - chapter 1

Summary: Quinn is back in Delacroix, Louisiana

Sam Wilson x Quinn (Asian ofc)

Warnings: Some spoilers for Civil War, Inifinity War, Endgame and TFATWS

Wordcount: 3.2k

Masterlist // eunoia masterlist // Previous chapter

I watched AJ and Cass grow up into the boys they are now. It might be obvious to some, but I came to the realization that every step of their development is crucial. Teaching them boundaries, new skills and their abilities when it comes to social interaction.

Noticing that importance, made me wonder even more about the things that had happened in my past. What significant events happened for me to become who I am today. I don’t feel like anyone, like I have no personality, no history.

Fragments of memories are the only things I have left of my past. I remember laughing with people, though they remain faceless till this day. I remember warm weather, cold weather, but the hugs are the same. They are loving, caring. But there is also a lot of pain and exhaustion. There is confusion when I saw Bucky for the first time being contained in a small cell.

But those fragments are not equal to an entire memory.

Everything I started to experience is from the moment Zemo let me out of that cell back in Munich. Fighting alongside the Avengers, though never actually being one of them, meeting people during my solo trips through the country and sleeping in abandoned buildings by myself, since I had no money.

Delacroix, Louisiana, however, is the only place I dare to call home. I know there is a place somewhere that used to be home, but since I haven’t found that yet, I’ll rely on the place that feels most secure.

Of course I was aware that going here could mean bumping into Sam. It’s a risk I’m willing to take, because I missed spending time with the Wilson’s, especially AJ and Cass. I wonder though, what Sam might think. Me spending time with his family in the years he couldn’t.

I grew so close to the three of them, whilst we only had one thing in common.

Knowing Sam.

Since Tony’s funeral and Steve handing the shield to Sam, I have been wandering around the different states, even making slight detours to Canada, hoping to find something. I have been so desperately wanting to know something for so long. Anything that could be something that should be a treasured memory of mine.

Much to my dismay, I am still left in the dark. I have no idea who I am, where my roots started and who is out there missing me.

Are there even people missing me?

After I scolded the boys for growing, I hold up my hand to the older guy who has been appreciating my arrival from the moment I got here a little over five years ago. ‘Hi Carlos,’ I say to him.

‘Miss Quinn!’ he exclaims, rushing over to me in the fastest pace he can and hugs me tightly when I’m within arms reach. ‘Oh, do I love it when you join us.’

‘I love to be back.’

‘You’re gonna help me out, right?’ Carlos asks. ‘Things go much slower without you here. No one has come even close to your strength.’

‘I figured,’ I say with a smile. ‘I’ll help you out, okay?’

He blows me a kiss, before AJ, Cass and I walk towards Sarah and Sam. I shouldn’t be nervous, but I am. While Sam was contemplating whether or not to take the shield from Steve, I sneaked out. Ran off hating Steve. Hating the fact that he got older. Being able to go back in time, to not only place back the Stones and what not, but also to grow older with Peggy.

The love of his life.

He got to live his happily ever after with someone from his past, something that I would probably never experience. It took me months to realize that I wasn’t mad at him.

I was simply jealous.

Sarah opens her arms for me and I don’t waste a single second before letting myself being engulfed in her warm embrace. How I longed to feel a hug from her. ‘I missed you,’ she says to me.

‘I missed you too,’ I admit softly.

‘Don’t you dare leave me alone for too long.’ She holds onto my upper arms and glares at me. ‘The kids missed you too much.’

‘We did,’ they confirm in unison

I can’t help but laugh. ‘I missed them and you too much as well, hence the reason I came back.’

‘Oh, so you didn’t came back for my brother?’ She cocks an eyebrow. ‘He too just arrived.’

Sam scoffs and I pretend to roll my eyes, but I cannot miss the tone in her voice. She always pestered me about her brother, saying that if he were still here, we’d probably be all over each other.

Yeah right…

I remember first arriving here and staying in the guest room, one where Sam used to sleep if he crashed here in Delacroix. She caught me looking at pictures of Sam and slightly bullied me because of it. Maybe it seemed like I liked him, but the truth is: I realized how much I missed him.

Back when I helped out the Avengers, he was the only one I truly trusted. Because I cared so much about him, I went out of my way to go to his DC apartment in the midst of all chaos, to grab some personal belongings of his and make my way to his family.

Sam promised me he would always have my back and I don’t blame him for not keeping his promise. It’s just that now that he is back and I’m about the face him, it hits me how much his five year absence killed me deep down.

I’m too afraid to meet his eyes, but I know I have to eventually. ‘Solely for the kids,’ I say to Sarah, because that is the main reason I came back. The kids and Sarah.

Sarah squeezes my upper arms, almost as some encouragement and I look up to Sam. ‘Hi Quinn,’ he says to me, his voice warm, welcoming and trusting.

I missed him. I missed him looking at me. All of his attention directed to the person he’s talking to. It’s good to be on the receiving end of it.

‘Hi Sam.’

‘How are you?’

I have no idea actually. ‘I’m okay,’ I answer. ‘You look good.’

He seems a bit surprised, but a slightly cocky smirk appears on his lips. ‘As do you.’

Sarah frowns, as she looks from me to Sam back to me again. ‘How about you two catch up?’ She opens a cool box and grabs two beers. ‘I’ve got your favorite, Quinn. You must be tired from your trip. You deserve it.’

‘You’re the best, Sarah, thank you.’

Both AJ and Cass stand next to me and give me a tight hug. ‘You’re already taking her away, uncle Sam?’ AJ asks. ‘That’s so unfair. We want to know how the battle against Thanos went.’

‘I’ll be back before you know it,’ I say to them, slightly touched because they don’t want me to go.

‘Is this Superhero talk?’ AJ asks, looking at his uncle.

‘Boys, I told you,’ I say, ‘I’m no superhero.’

‘But you’re really strong,’ Cass says. ‘I think you are a superhero.’

‘She totally is,’ Sam says. ‘You should’ve seen her in the battlefield.’

I don’t do blushing, but I do this other thing: my ears turn in this fiery red color. It’s horrible, I hate it and of course today of all days I’m wearing my hair up in a ponytail, for everyone to see how the tips of my ears turn red.

‘Uncle Sam, to be fair, we like her more than we like you.’

Sam cocks an eyebrow. ‘Is that so?’ he asks. ‘That means I need to work extra hard to be number one again.’

‘If you get me one of those flying suits, you two are even.’

‘AJ,’ Sarah says, ‘we spoke about this. I’m not gonna let you fly around. Sorry Sam, you’re in third place.’

‘Third place?’ Sam asks, pretending to be offended. ‘Why third?’

‘Because mom is number one, auntie Quinn is number two and you are number three,’ Cass says. ‘Duh.’

Sam and I sit on the dock, both staring at the old boat. Paul & Darlene. A nearly nostalgic smile appears on my lips. ‘Sarah and I tried to fix it up,’ I say, flicking the cap off the beer bottle, doing the same for Sam. ‘Emphasis on tried. We didn’t have a lot of money, we had tons of other stuff to do and I have no idea on how to fix up a boat.’

Sam nods, grabbing the beer from me as I hand it to him. ‘Figured, think the two of you broke something in the process,’ he chuckles.

‘That would’ve been me, I’m sorry.’ I take a sip of the beer and think about the next thing I’m gonna say. ‘So,’ I start, ‘you gave up the shield.’

‘Not in the way you might think,’ he says, almost in a bit of a defensive tone. ‘I didn’t give it up. I gave it to the museum where it belongs. It’s a piece of history, not mine to use.’

I frown, as I fear that he might not know what I know. ‘You think it’s gonna stay in a museum?’ I ask.

Now he looks up. ‘Of course, what do you think?’

‘Well,’ I say, ‘it’s not gonna be part of the exhibition. There is… Someone who will receive the shield soon.’

It pains me to see his expression. The hurt, the betrayal. Poor Sam, he obviously wasn’t told about that. ‘I had no idea.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I whisper.

‘How do you know?’

I shrug. ‘I went to one of my hackers,’ I say, ‘to see if he could help me with carefully running my picture through any database. We stumbled upon some governmental documents and it read that once they had the shield, they would give it to some guy who is training for it. I believe his name was John Walker.’

‘That could be anyone,’ Sam notes with a scoff.

‘Exactly,’ I agree, ‘but it shouldn’t be anyone. Steve gave that shield to you, not this John Walker guy. I’m not saying that giving the shield for an exhibition was wrong, but… I do know this is not what both you or Steve had in mind when you gave the shield to the Smithsonian.’

Sam shakes his head and from the looks of it, he is beating himself up over this. ‘They should’ve told me.’

‘Had they told you, would you kept the shield?’

He nods. ‘It’s Steve shield, not mine, not this John guy.’

I have no idea what I should say to him. I want to say about myself that I know how to comfort someone, but that someone is not a grown man. The only ones I can remotely comfort, are AJ and Cass and when necessary, I can sort of calm Sarah down (though I have gone wrong there maybe once or twice).

‘Is this John Walker gonna go public any time soon?’ Sam asks.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Why do you think Steve gave me that shield?’

I was not expecting that question at all, but it’s an easy one to answer. ‘You’re the only one worthy of the shield, of that legacy. You are more than Captain America’s friend, Sam. You are the only one that can live up to the expectation.’

‘I don’t know, Quinn.’

‘Listen, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have hesitations. It only shows that you are humble and I think that is exactly the type of man Steve wanted for the shield.’

From the looks of it, Sam grows more and more uncomfortable. To redirect the conversation, he clears his throat and says: ‘Bucky isn’t gonna like this.’

Oh boy, I hadn’t even thought of that. ‘Have you spoken to him?’

He shakes his head. ‘Nah, he ignores my texts.’

I can’t stop my smile. ‘Mine too.’

‘Oh, you’ve been texting him?’ Sam asks. eyebrow cocked.

‘Sometimes,’ I say, ‘it’s just that I figured we had something in common. He just went totally AWOL after his pardoning and I have no idea what he is doing. I bet he doesn’t even wanna be found. If there is something going on, he’ll show up.’

‘Well, good thing Bucky doesn’t even know where I live,’ he says, ‘think you and I are safe for a while.’

I chuckle, looking at my beer bottle. ‘Yeah, bet you’re right.

That night, I walk into the room I always sleep in when I stay over at the Wilson’s, only to discover a shirtless Sam, in nothing else but boxers near the bed. That looks abnormally good, I think to myself, before I realize that it’s considered rude to just walk into a room like that. ‘Oh,’ I say, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I pull down the sleeping shirt, hoping it covers up my legs more.

‘No, I am,’ he says. ‘I could’ve known you would sleep here. Let me grab some blankets and I’ll take the couch.’

‘You’re taking the couch?’ I ask.

‘Yeah.’

I’ve slept on that thing and if it was uncomfortable for me, who is the size of a kid, it must be even worse for him.‘The bed is large enough,’ I say. ‘Pick a side.’

‘I don’t want to cross any line, Quinn.’

‘You won’t,’ I say. ‘Believe me, I shared sleeping spaces with people, most of which were… different than you, in the negative sense.’

‘Right,’ he says. ‘I want the right side, closer to the door.’ I watch Sam stepping in that part of the bed and slide underneath the covers and I walk around the bed, stepping in as well. We stare at the ceiling and the only thing we can hear is the breathing of one another.

I missed being in the Wilson’s residence. I missed the talks we would have, the food we would eat and the way the boys would talk. They’ve gone a long way and I sound like an old grandma, but I am so proud of them. Growing up during the blip, watching their mom work hard, that must’ve been tough, but they pulled through.

They grew up to be fine young men, who are strong, who are kind and mostly, who still know how to be kids.

But what’s different now is the presence of Sam and it’s not an unpleasant one. He obviously loves his sister and nephews and even after coming back from a rough mission, he gives them his time and attention.

Everything he has to offer.

Even if that means annoying his sister about the family boat. Sarah told me all about that dragon of a money sucker. It costs a lot and she doesn’t have time nor the money to renovate.

‘Where have you been?’ he asks.

‘When?’

‘Those five years and those months after the shield.’

I let out a sigh. ‘I have been wandering around the country after the blip, hoping to find out more about me. To no luck, I came in empty handed. After the shield, I continued wandering. Just realized I needed family. I needed Sarah.’

‘Thanks for helping her out.’

‘Oh, she didn’t need helping out,’ I say. ‘Besides, I wasn’t much of a help.’

‘I bet you were,’ Sam says with a smile. ‘You’re tired, go have some sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow.’

That night, I yet again have a dreamless dream. I never dream. Maybe I did, but I don’t remember. I barely remember everything. There are three major things in life that are the foundation of my life.

I hate cold weather, the person who has been playing a major role in my life is Bucky, who I haven’t spoken to for months and I have enhanced powers, but I have no idea where they are coming from.

Things in my life never made sense.

I remember when Zemo freed me, only for me to roam through the city of Münich and be caught by the team of Everett Ross. How Bucky has been a part of my life, has always been a mystery, because Bucky can only tell me he would see me back in his cell, before Hydra wiped him.

But what have I got to do with Hydra?

The next morning my eyes flutter open. I take a deep breath and lift up my head, only to realize I was resting it on Sam’s strong chest. ‘Morning,’ he says, his voice deep and it almost sounds like liquid gold.

Shit, I’m too close. ‘Good morning,’ I say, pushing myself up. ‘I am sorry.’

‘Don’t be.’

‘Sure? You feared you were overstepping, but now I am the one. How long have I been… resting like this.’

‘The second you drifted off to sleep. You’re a wild one. Think I’ve got at least a few bruises and broken ribs with that super strength of yours.’

‘Sorry,’ I chuckle. ‘I hope you’re okay.’

‘I’ll live.’ He sits up straighter and rubs his eyes.

‘How did you sleep?’ I ask.

‘Alright,’ he says. ‘It always takes a bit of getting used to when I get back here.’

‘I see.’

The door barges open, only to see Sarah. ‘There you two are,’ she says, tying up her robe she wears over her pajamas. ‘You should see the news. They are announcing the new Captain America.’

My heart stops beating for a moment and I look over my shoulder to see Sam. He gets up, puts on some clothes, while I grab some sweats. We all walk into the living room, only to see the boys already sitting in front of the screen.

‘Every day Americans feel it,’ the man on the television says. ‘While we love heroes who put their lives on the line to defend Earth, we also need a hero to defend this country. We need a real person who embodies America’s greatest values.’

I watch Sam staring at the screen, as he talks place on the couch. I carefully sit next to him, hoping he is not spooked by my presence.

He isn’t.

‘We need someone to inspire us again, someone who can be a symbol for all of us. So, on behalf of the Department of Defense and our Commander-in-Chief, it is with great honor that we announce here today that the United States of America has a new hero.’

I don’t know whether Sam is disappointed in himself for believing the shield was gonna be exhibited in the Smithsonian or in the government who betrayed him.

Either way, watching this must be awful.

‘Join me in welcoming your new Captain America.’

The new Captain America. It’s like a punch in the gut. The cheering, the waving of the generic John Walker holding a shield that isn’t his.

I place my hand on his knee and for a split second I fear he is going to swat it away.

But then I feel the warmth of his palm on my hand and he looks to the side. He doesn’t say anything, but his eyes say enough.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say.

He nods. ‘Yeah, me too, Quinn. Me too.’

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